Pardon the Spoiler for '9'...

I live! I haven't forgotten about this blog, but not a lot of folks look at it, so I sort of stopped updating it. Also, I just haven't had much time to draw, scan, or upload art. However, I saw 9 the other day and whipped this completely digital piece of fan art up last night. I love 5 and 9! They're easily my favorite characters, though they were all pretty much awesome. Anyway, here's the art. It's kind of spoilery for those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, but I won't go into more detail than that.

Aren't they just precious? <3

I've also been drawing a lot of LARP-related art, and some D&D stuff, so once I get around to scanning everything in, I'll post a load of stuff here and on DeviantArt.

Ciao!

-Maria

Snow Redesigned

This is just an expression sheet for my Werewolf LARP character, Snow. Since I play him, and I have a new haircut, Snow has a new haircut, too. I also got some new costuming pieces for him, so I figured I'd just draw him as he looks now for future reference.

Added pink so it wouldn't be so boring.


Enjoy!

-Maria

For Gina

LARP-related, but a little more general than some of the stuff I've been posting. This is Gina's character Diana and her baby daughter Lauriet, who was named after a raven shifter character of mine that died several months back. It's really sweet, because Lauriet was the one who predicted that Diana would have a baby and so on. Anyway, here's the pic:
Enjoy.

-Maria

Yet more LARP art!

From my Werewolf Apocalypse LARP again.

From left to right:

Mark as Eric "Scars of Regret" Homid, Ahroun, Fianna
Brennan as Rowan "Speaks Through Fire" Homid, Galliard, Fianna
Myself as Snow "Dances in the Streets" Metis, Galliard, Bone Gnawer
Anthony as Hugh "Actions Louder Than Words" Metis, Galliard, Glass Walker

This is our new pack in my Werewolf: The Apocalypse Live Action Role-Play. We're called Tempered Steel, under the totem of Buzzard.

For all you folks that understood NONE of the above, suffice to say that these are werewolf characters, and I inked this by hand. Thank goodness for Photoshop to clean up the smudges, though. :P

Also, these are ALL MALE CHARACTERS, FYI. Just, one of the players (me) happens to be female. ;)

There may be a colored version in the future.

Also, Rowan and Snow are very good friends. ;)



Ciao,

-Maria

Inspiration in Babysitting

Haven't uploaded anything lately, since most of my recent work is commissions and freelance stuff that I can't post online, but I have been trying to draw more lately. I owe a LOT of people artwork. o_o Still, I've been squeezing in some time to draw for myself, so here's something to tide you over.

I'm babysitting for a 4-year-old girl named Arianna, and her 2-year-old brother, Rowen. I've known their mother since high school, and it's just strange to know that so many people my age already have kids. I still haven't grown up myself! Anyway, they're pretty cute when they aren't driving me insane, and after watching "The Last Unicorn," Ari wanted me to draw her and Rowen riding a unicorn. So I did.



Then, I got this spiffy rainbow colored pencil from The Source Comics and Games (it was an impulse buy for a dollar), and decided to try my hand at portraiture. I'm more of a cartoon/caricature person myself, but I think it turned out all right. Stuck both portraits together, added text, and adjusted contrast in Photoshop, but otherwise that color is exactly what is on the paper.



It's too bad I have to spend so much time chasing after these kids. If they would just sit quietly more often, I'd have a couple of great drawing models!

That's all for now,

-Maria

More LARP Art

Here's Snow in crinos (big hairy scary werewolf) form, and "Breakneck", another character from my werewolf LARP. Breakneck has the merit 'huge size', so even in human form he's a big, tall guy. Seven feet tall, to be exact. Snow, having the negative physical trait 'puny', is only about seven and a half feet tall in his largest form, crinos. This is what Snow thinks about THAT.

They are floating in whitespace, because I am lazy.

-Maria

RPG Sketch Dump!

I've mostly been doing commission art lately, so nothing I can post online as of yet. In the meantime, however, I have been sketching and doodling during role-playing game sessions. The following are some of the better doodles. Click on any of them for a bigger image.

The first three, with the grungy-looking tan paper (this is not something I added-- the sketchpad paper is that color), are from Deadlands. You can see the group photo I drew of the characters a few posts down. First we have Lola and Emily trying to fly some sort of airship. Adam's commentary as Emily was just hilarious, and I tried to capture some of that in the scene.



Then we have Lola and her new coydog (coyote/dog hybrid), Lucky. Lucky is her familiar, and as such has a higher intelligence score than most of the other human characters-- including our 'clueless leader', Mr. Vahn.
This scene is probably my favorite. Our party stops at a nice inn and takes advantage of the hot baths. Except for Little Crow, who thinks the white savages are all insane, and will have nothing to do with their evil hot water and soaps. Lola and Emily let their hair down and play the Chinese drinking game from Shanghai Noon, supposedly taught to them by Honeybee (who is in the picture with a towel on her head). We wind up giggling more than actually getting anything done in this game, as you might be able to tell.


Moving on from Deadlands, here's a group sketch of our 4th Edition D&D characters. From left we have Saraneth the tiefling warlock (played by Virginia); a human rogue (played by John-- forgot his name-- will add later); Reynard the Reluctant, a human paladin (played by me); a human fighter (Darcey's character-- forgot her name, too); the female dwarven ranger, Ruada, and her boar, Mottle (played by Hayden); and Sif the surly, drunken, dwarven cleric (played by my boyfriend, Chris).
That's all for now.

-Maria

LARP art

This is my Werewolf Live Action Role-Play (LARP) character, Snow "Dances in the Streets" Takayama. He's a Metis, which is the breed of werewolf you get when two werewolves mate, meaning he's sterile and has a genetic deformity. In Snow's case, he's albino. He also has a tail, but he can shift into human form without it when he concentrates, and he tends to be sexually ambiguous (mostly because I'm a girl, so when I'm playing him people forget the gender of the character and call Snow "she" a lot)-- thus the little Fu Manchu beard. I've drawn him in Glabro form, which is the near-human form, but he gets tufty ears in this form and a bit more wolfy looking, not to mention a little taller and more muscular (he's kind of a shrimp in human form).

I had a little too much fun with my bubble brushes for the background. <_<

Pencil, Photoshop Elements, Wacom tablet.

New Plug-in: DreamySuite

Got another new plug-in for Elements called DreamySuite. It gives your image a glowy, soft, dreamy look to it. I used my ZOTC fanart (as seen in previous post) as the guinea pig pics to try it out. Here are the results:


Kinda neat. I'll have to play with various tint effects and such later.

Fan Art, La La La...

I have recently rediscovered my love for the anime series "The Slayers", and have watched the entire first season with my boyfriend again. We'll be getting the rest of the series soon, as he enjoyed the first season. Anyway, this sent me on a major trip down memory lane, and I hunted up one of my favorite Slayers fan fics, Zelgadis on the Couch by the lovely Queen of Swords. I looked back on the old fan art I'd drawn for her wonderful fic, and decided to do some new stuff to show how much I've progressed. Oddly enough, as soon as I started drawing Slayers and trying to color the resulting doodles, I reverted to my high school self and got all sloppy. XD Oh well. Here are the first two results of my fan arting (f'arting, as I like to call it). I have a couple more in the non-photo blue pencil stages that I'll finish up eventually.

First one is of her original kitsune characters, Sylph and Jaz/Jessica. The second is from a scene where Xellos (obviously) kisses Lina, and Lina is none too pleased.

So, there we have it. It's sad how little I've progressed when it comes to Slayers-style art, really. It's like I just picked up right where I left off ten years ago. XD

-Maria

More fun with Deadlands

Downloaded some fun plug-ins for Photoshop Elements today, and decided to try a few on my Deadlands picture to make it look more old-timey. First I sepia-toned it, and added a paper texture, then I used a Frame plug-in to give it this awesome grungy, torn-edged look. Check it out!

They had a bloody grunge texture, too. I think it'd look awesome for a zombie picture. :D

Deadlands Art

On Fridays I play a Deadlands RPG game with some friends. A couple games ago, I sketched this in my sketchpad, and finally got around to scanning it and tossing a bit of color on it. Pencil and Photoshop Elements, plus using the color setting for the brush over the lines to give it that extra "pop" of color, like the last thing I submitted.

From Left to Right:

Honeybee= played by Darcey
Lola Gillespie= played by me
Jayne Vahn= played by my boyfriend Chris
Miss Emily Perfect= played by Adam
Little Crow and Badger= played by Virginia

FIRST ART POST FTW

Just to show that I'm not completely dead, here's some gift art I did for a friend of her novel characters.

Did something different this time; used a brush set to "color" over the pencil lines in Photoshop Elements. I like the results.

-Maria

The Maiden Voyage... or Post, whatever...

Welcome to my new art blog. This is not where I'm going to whine about how crappy my life is, or gush about my various fangirl obsessions. For that, check out my LJ at http://psycocatgirl.livejournal.com

This is where I will be posting my art. This includes my ongoing comics/illustrated novels projects, any arts&crafts like knitting or plushie-making, and any other sketches or doodles I feel like sharing.

And now that I have given the driest description possible, I leave you to the blog.

~
Gypsy-Maria