Disney Vaca sketches

my best friend came out to visit me, and treated us to a 3 Day Disneyland "Magical Chaos Adventure". She had never been to D*land (D* World yes, but not D*land), and I was so happy she wanted to share that first D*land experience with me!
Didn't bring a camera this time (she brought one and took some awesome pics), but decided to make this a sketch trip - since I hadn't been drawing for myself much with the freelance job I had. You can definitely tell the difference between the first few pages and the last. It felt so good to be sketching again!

Magical Chaos Sketch Chronicles:

started off with a brush pen...

…but wasn't really feeling it. Moved on to a Pigma Pen 05 - definitely enjoyed it more. We actually rode Pirates and Mansion first, but the lines were so short there was no time to sketch. Star Tours on the other hand…oh! and it was the first time she rode the new version. Someday, I WILL be the Rebel Spy! 

Then of course Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters after that… and then an attempt to draw the Mark Twain, which ended up looking like a birthday cake (or maybe a Merry Merry Unbirthday Cake)

how in the world can that be comfortable, kid?! And I liked that gal's skirt. 

Went to CA about mid-day for Grizzly River Rapids and I'll give you three guesses as to who got soaked, and the first two don't count...

and then back to D*land for our dinner reservation at Cafe Orleans because I told her about the Monte Cristo (which I had only just learned about and tried myself - heard the Halleluja Chorus, not even lying) and sketched while waiting for our reservation time. Wished I had had my watercolors with me. Those twins were adorable, one in red and the other in yellow. Then it was Monte Cristo time! 

We also got fast-passes for World of Color.

The next day we started off on Space Mountain…and ended up back at Star Tours! lol

Then, made our way back over to CA to ride the Tower of Terror (I made the mistake of sitting in the center. baaaaaad idea for me).

And everything had around an hour long (or more) wait time for their lines, so we went over to Soarin' Over California, and got some good people sketching done while in line.

And back over to D*land! Gave our feet a break and rode the train.

 Had lunch at Carnation Cafe…

IT'S A TRAP!!! oh wait, no, just Star Tours again :D

My bestie had never seen the Enchanted Tikki Room! This had to be remedied!!  

We headed back over to CA to play Midway Mania - it had been down but the line was still long. Twas time for more people sketching!

And back over to D*land to ride another staple: Jungle Cruise

…which had problems when we were about halfway through the line.

...but we stuck it out, and got to eventually see, THE BACKSIDE OF WATER!!

More Train sketching...

And more Star Tours! To be fair, we rode Pirates, Mansion, and Tower of Terror just as many times. And then went ahead and tried for Monsters Inc. (this was the only one I was really annoyed with, line-wise, since the wait was much much MUCH longer than what was posted, and soured my mood for the ride.)

 Last day with bestie, and we head [back] over to the House of Blues.

And then beignets, and one last sketch of another tired Disney-guest. (loved her shoes!)

Sawdust Festival is almost HERE!

and I was asked to do this Summer's coloring pages for the kids! Super humbled about this. And I got the okay from my manager to share them, so here we go!

(didn't add my sig, because I don't recall seeing any signatures on the previous years coloring pages)

The festival has these available online to print and color for the kids (BONUS: it get's you a free kid's admission to the Sawdust Art Festival). You can print them here and they've got some other great promotions for certain days on that page too.

I can ALMOST share everything I've been working on...

but not quite ;)

Still can't show the character (or where you'll be seeing him) just yet, but the backgrounds for the different main pieces are a different story, you've seen some peppered here an there, but here they are all together! (they'll be in order from first "ordered" to last):

(the shadows are a bit dodgy in the chuck-wagon one, due to character placement and not wanting it any more "busy" behind him to be distracting)

So there we are! I honestly can't wait to show you guys everything and let you know where/what it's for (hopefully I'll be able to hop on the next project here within the next week and get that done soon too!)

thanks for dropping by! :D

Short Commissions are OPEN!!

Hey everybody!

I've got a 2 month window between [W2 type] jobs, and figured it's the perfect time to work on personal projects, and supplement my income with… COMMISSIONS!!

I'm opening up smaller $20-$25 commissions to try and not over-extend myself just before the Sawdust Festival. Here's the info :

These'll really help me out guys, but if you can't order any, please signal boost the info to help an artist out with rent, gas, and food money.

take care everyone! :)

Getting close to that Deadline!

my deadline is the 15th and I'm gonna make it (come hell or high-water, I'm going to make it!)

Two of the last three BG's are done (besides the signage and color adjustments once I put in the character):

and the other is getting there (I should be finished it by tonight):

So my lack of updates here was due to me posting my WIP progress on Fb rather than here (whoops)

I will probably be starting up commissions here soon, so there's that too...

Summer is almost here guys (in the Northern Hemisphere)! And I'm hoping to get a good head-start on some personal projects that were set on the "back burner" before the Sawdust Festival starts again, and then it's back to teaching! :D

Take care everyone, and thanks for dropping by

"redraw it!"

you know those "redraw it" memes?
I'm applying that to some old animated projects
one is my 30 second scene, and the other is my first dialogue scene.
here's an example:

the one on the left being the older version (frame #17)

and the right being the re-work

I'd like to get this done before the semester ends, but we'll see - I've still got other projects that take precedence, but I just wanted to give an update on my little side-projects :)

take care, everybody! and thanks for dropping by :D

My hand works again, therefore I can work again

I seriously did not know what to do with myself yesterday when I couldn't work. And I was starting to feel incredibly down.
But thanks to some wonderfully kind words on another piece I had done, as well as my hand no longer being in pain, I am back to work with gusto today!

have I mentioned how much I adore the Blob Brush in Illustrator? Because I do! and the Eraser Brush along with it. They allow me to 'sketch' a rough silhouette and then go back and adjust later :3

of course, drawing a desert scene makes me incredibly homesick…

I may not have it quite as graphically styles, but Maurice Noble is my touchstone for this BG in progress (which I think is fitting since the character I designed is heavily Chuck Jones/Looney Tunes inspired - but I can't show him till the entire project is revealed :/ )

keep moving forward guys, even in your 'deserts' you can find some life! :)