Spook Show 3 Wrap-Up and Vending Event Announcement

My husband took this picture of a crazy guy running around in a full Barlow  (Salem's Lot) costume in 90+ degree weather.  That guy had to literally be undead to survive the day in that outfit.

Hey All!  It appears that 2015 will be the year of bi-monthly blog posts as I'm obviously off to a bumpy start posting stuff this year.  So, let's get this show on the road!!

Spook Show 3 happened back on the 7th of this month (March 2015, if you read this in the future) and just like all things, it had it's ups and downs.  Overall it was a fabulous experience, again, and I look forward to next year!

Here's the play by play of events:

As good as the booth could get.  The new pop up canopy has removable walls, so it looks fancier than normal.

My normal booth 'babe' Natasha couldn't make it to this year's event so my husband had to help.  He did a really great job, and I say that because at all my past events he usually just runs around the whole day having fun and buying cool stuff from the other vendors.  But this time he had to actually work.  He was super nervous but realized it was no big deal after a couple of hours.  I decided to invest in my own pop-up vendor canopy and decided to be rebel and get a purple one.  It was pretty sweet and made me feel so much more professional having not to borrow from friends.

I unfortunately woke up late so I couldn't get breakfast or a caffeinated beverage, so the first couple hours were the most stressful of the day because 1) I'm sooo not a morning person, 2) as I get older the angrier I get if I don't eat regular meals, and 3) if I don't get a Pepsi first thing in the morning to help me wake up, all hell breaks loose.  BUT, even though I didn't eat until noon, I was still able to get us to La Mirada in time for set up by 8:30am and we were rearing to go at 12 when the first attendee's arrived!

My husband took photos of one of the Hearses at the Hearse Show all lit up after dark with Purple lights.

I sold out of nearly all the cosmetic bags and coin purses and would have sold out of the three pillows I made, but I didn't find out until the end of the day that the one pillow I had placed on reserve for a client could be released to the public and they would buy one at a later date.  (GREAT NEWS:  There is one Candy Corn Pillow for sale in the Crypt of DOOM!! if anyone would like to snag it for themselves before I do a restock.)  I'll be receiving a restock of the cosmetic and coin purses very soon as I'm starting to prep for the events I'll be mentioning at the end of this blog post.

Candy Corn throw pillows!!  6 more on their way soon.

Also in the great news category, the pillows had a very positive response from people online and at the event, so I've decided I'll be making a couple more pillows for future events!  Check out my Instagram and Facebook for working progress images or announcements as to when new product will be dropping.

Janice, the crazy happy owner of the Sushi Gremlins painting.

As for the Sushi Gremlins, we orchestrated a 'Extreme Makeover' type surprise for the recipient of the Sushi Gremlin original painting.  As I may have said in previous posts, I don't do commissions.  I'm just too busy and stretched too thin to add all the worry that is involved with custom work to my plate, but the Sushi Gremlins piece was an exception to the rule.  A very dear family friend asked me to 'do my thing' and paint his wife and two daughters as monsters eating sushi, the result was the Sushi Gremlins.  He told me their favorite colors, told me a little bit about their personality types, and most importantly he related to me stories of when they go out to eat together and what happens at the table.  Oh, and since they love Hawaii he asked if I could somehow make it look like they were eating sushi in Hawaii.

Anyway, our dear friend decided that he was going to bring his wife over that day, knowing that the painting was finished and that I had chosen to put it on display at the event.  She literally gravitated strait to it like it had a tractor beam engaged.  She just kept staring at it and smiling and commenting on all the little details.  My husband was as excited as I was to have it delivered and being admired by the person who it was secretly painted for, that he was like "Oh, so you like that painting huh?  How much do you like that painting?"  When she said she loved it we told her it was her's and that her husband had secretly commissioned it for her nearly two years ago.  She was overcome with surprise and joy.  It was the perfect ending and I couldn't have asked for things to go any better.  I just hope that their daughters like it as much as they do.

Got to see my old Neopets pal Irene!  Thanks for coming by Irene!  Oh yeah, that's me and my husband.

That pretty much wraps up Spook Show 3.  I got a chance to visit with followers, which always brings me great joy, visit with good friends like Irene, Alan, Tom and Nicole, and meet other vendors whom I only see at these kinds of events but are equally sweet and fun to be around.

Now, onto announcements!!!

Bats Day in the Fun Park WEEKEND!!!  May 29th thru the 31st, 2015

Yes, I'll be back at the Bats Day Black Market this year!  2015's Black Market will take place on May 30th at the really fancy Sheraton in Anaheim.  It's always fun and I'm planning on making two new pillows for this event!  I'll be turning the Haunted Mansion/Star Wars mash up painting that I call "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope" into a throw pillow as well as the "Kissing Bats" that you can see in my shop on cosmetic bags and a button.  I'm also planning on expanding the Disneyland Tourist Monster Sticker line up by adding two new stickers.  2015 will be bringing Sheldon (Frankenstein's Monster) and ONE of the following: either Prudence, Gillian (Creature), or Booger (as in Boogervampire).  I still haven't decided, but stay tuned in and you'll find out!

My 3rd year doing this event!  Past paintings were "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope" and "Little Leota's Fortune Telling Kit for Beginners"

Speaking of Bats Day, I'll also be participating in this year's Gallery999 Haunted Mansion Tribute Art Show again this year.  This will probably be my last year doing it, and I'm in a bit of a funk with the piece (if you've been following a while, you know I signed a contract that prevents me from showing any of it until it has debuted at the show on May 30th) but I'm hoping to get over that this coming weekend.

One of my two favorite Conventions!  This and Monsterpalooza are the only two I actually BRAVE crowds to go to on purpose.  It's that good!!  If an introvert with a fear of crowds won't miss it, you shouldn't either!

Lastly, I'll also be vending again this year at ScareLA!!  We sincerely had SUCH A GOOD TIME last year, that we couldn't WAIT to go back this year.  What's more exciting is that they've moved it from Downtown LA to the Pasadena Convention Center!!  It's a much larger place, and the lazy little turd that I am can't deny having it closer to home is AWESOME!!  You can get tickets now to the Event by visiting the official ScareLA website.

That's it for this month!  Hopefully I'll have stuff I can post soon that's new or in progress, but until then, head over to the Crypt of DOOM!! before I get to busy at work and have to close it again.  Going to try leaving it open for another week.  Fingers crossed things at work stay calm enough that I can handle both with out pulling all my hair out!  LATER ALL!

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld Props and Backgrounds

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld ©DC Comics and Warner Bros Television Animation

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld ©DC Comics and Warner Bros Television Animation

Well, since the shorts have aired twice now on DC Nation, and I've gotten permission from the director, I decided to post some of the stuff I enjoyed drawing the most from the Amethyst Princess of Gemworld shorts.  I did most of the props and a couple bg's when the BG person needed a hand.   

You'll no doubt notice the original models posted next to all the props.  They were designed and drawn by the director Brianne Drouhard (potatofarmgirl).  Once the prop had been approved and cleaned up I would duplicate the item and place a scaled down version next to one of the characters that way when the prop was sent to the studio the animators would know approximately how large the prop was in relation to the character.

Which were the most fun?  Props or backgrounds?  Both were fun.  Fortunately my training on South Park made me more of a jack of all trades, but if I had to pick three. . . Topaz's battle axe, the potion bottle that looks like a baby bottle and the Game Coding for Noob's book.  It may be outdated, but any time I can put noob on something it makes me laugh.  Which was the least fun?  Believe it or not I had to repurpose an old prop of a notepad and pencil but the notepad needed to have game coding notes on it.  At first it was real coding but legal was concerned that the code might be copy written.  So I went back and threw some basic HTML coding in with the game coding and legal was STILL concerned!  It went back and forth between the Director and myself and the Legal department over 5 times.  In the end, the coding looks like nothing but gibberish, which is kinda sad, because we were trying to do a little easter egg for game designers by hiding stuff.  Oh, and did I mention that also, in the end, it was only on the page for 0.5 seconds and so tiny that you couldn't see ANY of the writing?  But I sincerely don't mind because it's not every day you get to work on a magical, butt-kicking princess show, with weapons, a talking skeleton and a flying unicorn.  I totally did it for the Skeleton. ;)

Enjoy!

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld ©DC Comics and Warner Bros Television Animation

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld ©DC Comics and Warner Bros Television Animation

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld ©DC Comics and Warner Bros Television Animation

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld ©DC Comics and Warner Bros Television Animation

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld ©DC Comics and Warner Bros Television Animation

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld ©DC Comics and Warner Bros Television Animation

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld ©DC Comics and Warner Bros Television Animation

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld ©DC Comics and Warner Bros Television Animation

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld ©DC Comics and Warner Bros Television Animation

Sharks

Had the opportunity to draw some sharks this last week.  It took longer than I would have liked to get the ideas flowing, but I loved getting the opportunity to draw a shark.

I think the shark on the top right is my fave, but the bottom right one runs a close second.  The top guy kinda looks like he was chewing on rocks or something.

Crypt of Doom Update

Hey Y'all.

As I've said in the past, when I'm in the middle of a run over at work, I neglect everything. Including family. :(

This last Wednesday was my first day off that I've been able to do absolutely nothing, so I spend the day immersing myself in pretty pictures. In the process I realized that even though I recently put an older painting in a gallery show, it was one I'd never put up on my blog. . . so here it is all framed and pretty.



It's title is simple, just "Bobby and the Banshee". I put it in the Gala Benefit show over at Monkeyhouse Toys in Silverlake, CA. So if you missed it and you'd like to take it home with you *wink, wink* you can head on over to the Crypt of Doom at Etsy.

I also posted my "Green Eggs and Ham" tribute piece over there as well as unleashing "Ferocious Fruitcake" just in time for the holidays. :D

I was feeling so productive that I also finally got up off my dead butt and started the pattern making process for the baby squid apron I posted a design for a year ago. Keep checking back through the next month for updates on that. I'm also going to be posting a third, slightly different version of my spider apron up in my Etsy Shop, a.k.a. the Crypt of Doom before the holidays. In case anyone is interested.

La La Land

Well, I'm officially in the middle of another run here at work. The first episode of the second half of season 13 airs tomorrow night (Wednesday, October 7th, 2009). We've been pretty busy getting something nice and offensively funny ready for people.

We've been sketching a lot at work lately. We expanded something we started last run called "Kreative KY: Lubrication for Our Funny Bones", so now we doodle for 20 minutes every morning. We've been posting them every week over on the website Issuu. I'm in charge of making sure everyone's stuff is up and pretty looking.

Below is a quick image I made for the cover. I wanted to do one of those flat owls everyone LOVES so much. So here's my weird owly-bird thingy. I would call him "Owlor", but I decided that this is Owlor's little brother Cletus.



On the 24th I'll be participating in another Art Show over at Monkeyhouse Toys. It's superhero themed, and since I'm workin' like a mad lady, I'll be showing the Wonder Woman piece from the "Golden Age of Heroes" show again.

Movin' Along

Ahhh, FREEDOM!! Summer hiatus has arrived and I'm beyond excited for it!

First off, some drawings! I went rooting through the supply cupboard at work and found some prismacolor markers and decided to draw some monkeys from a flickr photosstream. Turned out nicer than I had anticpated since I haven't drawn monkeys or with markers in a LONG ASS TIME.


Second, these didn't get used at work, but thought they were slightly amusing if not highly offensive. They were vis-dev sketches from one of Cartman's flashback sequences in the "Fishsticks" episode. Don't know if I can get into trouble for posting stuff from my personal sketchbook or not, so I put copyright info at the bottom just to try to save my butt a little. Also below is the South Park equivalent of 100 push ups. . . if you suck at thumbnailing.


And, finally, I'm super happy to say that both my aprons sold on ETSY!!! I was so excited that I had to package them ultra super special for their trips to their new homes. Carlos said that the mail lady looked at him funny when he took them into the post office. That's my goal, freaking out one postal service attendant at a time. ;)

It's Over ALREADY?!?!

NOOOOOOO!! It can't be time to go back to work already. BOOOOO.

Well, my summer, as you can probably see by lack of posts, has been far more busy than I would have liked it to have been. When I started my break, I had this HUGE list of things I wanted to do with my freetime. I figured 4 months would be more than enough time to: make a short film; pratice my storyboarding; finish my 3 old paintings that I've been dinking around with for over a year now; make a million really cute aprons; do a painting for my brother's fiance in celebration of her graduating; make a couple t-shirts for my brother; do a couple of paintings for Nicole's house of her monster children; take the transportation design class at Art Center; go to life drawing; and finally, do 400 freelance items for the website I work at on the side. . . Oh, and go out of town and spend time sleeping and recooperating for another crazy run.

Needless to say, um, I only got about a 16th of that list done. Got two old paintings done, as I posted; took the car class; and did my freelance which wound up taking the entire 4 months thanks to the car class assigning more homework than I had my entire 4 years at CalArts. . .

Anyway. Enough bitching. Last week I was FINALLY able to start working on my aprons. I've gotten one almost complete. Unfortunately I discovered that a very importan part I need for my sewing machine is missing, and being the dinosaur of a human being I am, my machine is a little on the old side. . .


. . . like the 50 year old side. So finding the part is probably going to take me until my next break 11 weeks from now. So until I get my part. . . here's my apron's progress.


I went for a half apron instead of a full apron, as in the drawing I did at the beginning of the summer. I'm thinking it was a far better choice, as half aprons are super cute. And once I teach my self how to applique and find my missing fashion disc part, the spider pocket will be the perfect finishing touch.

Now for some people, who are close to me, they got very, VERY tired of me mentioning my freelance. Most people didn't know what it was, as I don't talk about it very much (other than to say, it drives me nuts and counting down the days until it's completion), but now that the site is doing well, I guess I'll mention it for anyone who is curious.

I've spent time off and on for the last year doing clothing items for a webgame sponsored by Lifetime TV called DressUpChallenge.com. It's essentially a virtual paper doll website. Sadly it's very addicting for women, so much so that in the 9 months since it re-launched, it went from 10,000 users to over 400,000 users. It's pretty crazy. The users all hate the daily 'prizes' I make, as it forces them to use their imaginations (OMG, a dress from the 1920's?! How preposterous!!). Anyway, it's been fun working with the people over at Burner Studios on this project with them, and I wanted to say thanks for the opportunity, just in case they stop by.


For fun one day, I tweeked one of the dresses I made (I DID NOT draw the figure, only the hair and dress, the avi was created by the artist before me). I had to do a Marie Antoinette dress, wig, and fan. The dress was a lot of fun. It took me over 11 hours to complete. As my boss would say, I got lost in the pretty, but I didn't care. It was so much fun!!

Anyway, here is. The version that will show up in the game is completely different and is actually a skirt and a top. I wonder if the users will hate it as much as they hated the wig? :)

Back From The Dead

Well, I made it. Made it through my very first run over at South Park, and now I'm on my very first hiatus EVER!!! I feel like I'm back in school on Summer Vacation again, only instead of finding a job for the summer, I'm resting and going to school.

I'm really excited because I've been given the opportunity to go take a class up at Art Center. I've heard it's very structured and very different from CalArts so I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Oh, and just to get it out of my system, it was SO COOL to see my name in the credits of something on TV for the first time! Some people may take it for granted, but seriously, it's a moment I'm going to remember for the rest of my life.

Now, if you read these things, and you've made it this far, you may be asking yourself, what's with an Easter painting almost 2 months late? Well technically, this painting is more like one year and 2 months late. I actually posted it up around April of last year as a work in progress, but time got away from me and I never went back to it. Until today that is. See I made myself a list of New Years Resolutions, and one of them was to finish all my old paintings before I could allow myself to start a new one. Unfortunately I had to break it when the Power In Numbers 3 came along, but now I'm back to the promises I've made for myself. I've only got two more to finish before I can have fun with some new ideas, and I can't wait to get them done.

Angler Fishy

Well, things are just starting to get busy at work.

Had a day off today and used it to finish my painting for "Power in Numbers 3" over at Gallery Nucleus. This year proceeds go to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. As usual with the "Power In Numbers" show(s), there's no theme, just a size restriction, so "Angler Fishy" is 7"x5" and painted in Gouache.

Oh, and here's the flyer for "Power In Numbers 3". Since I probably won't have another post for a couple of months, the show is April 15th, and all pieces are $100 and all proceeds go, as I said before, to the Make a Wish Foundation. There's some really AMAZING artists in this show, and with all pieces of art work going for a $100 bucks a pop (and the money going to a great cause), it's a show not to miss.

Ultrasupermega Nerd

So,the job has been an intense learning experience so far. Things are going well, at least I think they are. :) (I'm not fired yet, so that's GREAT sign.)

Anyway, after 16 hours of drawing circles (I wish I could say I'm kidding, but I'm not) I think I've achieved a higher level of being in the universe. It was kinda like drawing meditation and water drop torture at the same time. Either way I've come out of it a changed person. :D

After my circle drills, I was finally able to move onto developing a shorthand version of the characters for storyboards. I know, you're probably thinking, but it's "SOUTH PARK!! There's nothing to it!! Lets just say I'm retarded and leave it at that. On many levels. (Especially the level in which I felt an undying need to POST my retarded shorthand characters.) In time, I'll be able to draw them with my eye's closed just like the rest of the guys!

Goin' on Down to South Park

Well, this year has started out with quite a shock. An unexpected one at that.

Back in September, when Carlos and I were thinking of moving to Washington (as the cost of living was becoming a challenge for us here in LA) my friend Valerie recommended me to some people over on the TV show South Park. I went in, met with the director, took a test and turned in. Having done a couple tests in the past, I waited about a month, and when I didn't hear anything back from them, I just kinda forgot about it.

Two and a half weeks ago, they called and offered me a position. It's been crazy leaving Neopets so quickly and diving into work over at South Park, but really fun and exciting.

Above is a duplicate of the South Park Avatar my boyfriend made of me a few months back. When he originally made it, it had a funny bathroom behind it. At the time it pissed me off cause he always draws me pissed off. . . but then I realized it's true. I am always pissed off. :) (Naw, not really.)

Happy Holidays!

As usual, things are busy, busy, busy, so I've had to reach into the good ol work grab bag for a holiday themed goodie.


Happy Holidays everyone, and happy New Year as well!

That Time of Year Again

Okay, so once a year, usually around Halloween (I personally blame all the neighbors decorating, and Target's awesome Halloween Decorations) I start getting this inexplicable urge to redo my website. It becomes a TOTAL obsession that completely takes me over.

Anyway, after last year's super simplified website that was far TOO slick for my comfort, and not quite cluttered enough to represent the real me, I've decided to create the virtal victorian haunted mansion of my dreams. . . including an actual vampire for once. . .

Here's a couple of screen grabs of what's hopefully to come around the New Year.





There is still a long way to go, and I'm trying to learn more about layouts and coding. . . it's always a fun challenge. ;)

(P.S. Top image is from work. I was super lucky enough to be given an assignment to draw one of the new cash shop shopkeepers. It's only up for the month of October, but it made me so excited to see something "lasting" up on the site. Copyrite Neopets 2007, of course.)

Total Dork

Okay, so I admit it. Sometimes I'm proud of my work, from work, and this is one of um. I actually got to animate a week or so ago and was all excited because they let me animate some bats. It's sooo cool too because not only did I animate the little grey guy, a few months ago they let me design him too!! So for once this is ALL ME!!

Work A.D.D.

Again.

Mary -- [noun]: A poltergeist sent back in time to change the course of history forever

My friend Nicole sent me a link to that quiz the other day and when I typed in my name that's what came up. I thought it was toooooo funny, but I didn't wanna put it up on myspace cause my page all cluttered with crap to begin with, so I thought I'd post it here.

I'm so getting tired of work A.D.D. I think I need to make a better effort at completeing my portfolio cause the boredom associated with this job is getting to be too much. That and on average I usually only stay employed somewhere for 2 years before I get antsy and have to see what else is goin' on in the world, and I'm almost at a year and a half.

Just a little random retarded drawing for today. I was talkin' to my homie Lisence and tellin' her how it's been bad lately cause there's halloween candy out everywhere and all I wanna do is eat it. I made some sort of comment about how I've eaten so much I feel like I can feel the little sugary monsters eating my teeth. Well of course, since I DO have work A.D.D. I had to go off and draw a little bugger to send her way. Obviously that's not to scale. :)

REJECTED!!!

This adorable little bundle of CUTENESS, has been REJECTED by the evil overlords of Neopia.

Naw, just kiddin', he has been rejected but his little batty brother will be making his debut in Neopia around Halloween.

Keep and eye out for him, this guy's little bro that is. Hopefully they'll let me name him Flipflap.