Concept Art: Clockwork Knight

Some digital sketch art, as I work my way toward planning out my OK State Fair entry...

Finished Trade Piece and Oklahoma State Fair

The WIP from the last post is now a completed color piece.


TF - IDW Perceptor by ~straya on deviantART

That leaves me with one trade still in the queue, though that one will be a traditionally colored piece with Prisma colored pencils on toned paper.

Looking up information on the upcoming Oklahoma State Fair, I have until August 16th to register any artwork or photos I will be entering this year for free. I can hold off until September 1st if need be, but I'm not too keen on paying the late fee of $10. Doesn't sound like much, but hey... Ten bucks is ten bucks!

Photo-wise, I'll probably be submitting a few of the ones I took while on a trip to Portland, Oregon in March to visit with family. Art-wise, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to enter this year. Last year ended up being a total bust in terms of getting anything done... This year won't be a repeat.

I've dug up a fifteen year old childrens novel manuscript from a box of my old writing for inspiration. It's a story that will never be published and the original art that inspired it was stolen from me back in high school. I've thought time and time again over the years of redoing that old, lost image in my current style with my much improved skills. I think this year...will be the year to make that happen. And I'll submit that finished piece to the OK State Fair for their art competition.

WIP: Trade in Progress

Just a quick post to show off a partial WIP. It's actually further along than this, now, and I hope to get it done this weekend... But here you go.

Perceptor from the IDW Transformers comics.

Shifting into gear and getting started here on Blogger.

First post and I've just spent a long night messing with art uploads, html and old files. How coherent can I possibly be at 9am after being up all night? I suppose we'll find out.

After much mucking about on the site and installing a translation script, I am up and running over at Pixiv, which is a Japanese art site akin to Deviant Art. I originally registered there about a month ago with the sole intention of browsing the work of other artists. However, after a while I got tempted and decided to try uploading a little of my own work. People there do not seem to comment nearly as often as on Deviant Art as a general rule. Some might consider this a bad thing, but for me it works as a sort of shield against the language barrier. Unfortunately, I do not understand Japanese at all, so any comments I would leave anyone would have to be in English. It is my first language and the only one I am fluent in, though after three years of Spanish in high school and having a mother who taught the subject to middle school aged children for thirty-some-odd years of her life, I've retained enough to manage a basic understanding so long as I'm not wading through a lot of slang. And so long as it's not being spoken to me too quickly. Japanese, however? Aside from a few words I have learned from anime, I don't know any. Such is life. Though thus far, artists on Pixiv have been pretty accepting. I am grateful for this, particularly to one artist in particular by the handle of Nekomushi who has put up with my English only compliments. :)

I will be opening up online sketch commissions shortly via my Deviant Art account in order to help pay for supplies at this year's Izumicon. In the meantime, I am working to finish up a couple of very belated trades I owe a couple of people. Aside from that, I have the task of planning, working on and completing at least one original art piece for this year's Oklahoma State Fair amateur art contest. Hopefully my addled brain will come up with a few good ideas before the month is over so I can get started. The Fair is in September, after all.