The Doctor

I've spent the last month on my studio room floor, printing t-shirts the hard way.

So far, I have designed two Doctor themed shirts- both concepts came from Bob Hoskins of Stormwatch Comics, so a big thanks to him for giving me the initial ideas and then encouraging me to actually make them. The first one is pretty simple, and can be seen below.

I've just started producing shirts with the second design, which features Mr. Tom Baker himself! These are much easier to make, so I ought to have a decent number to bring with me to the next comic book show.

A design featuring K-9 will be available soon.

Those of you who follow my blog religiously will remember the Felicia Day incident, and since then I've become cautious with what I post on the internet. However, the interest I've received from the local Whovian population has been really encouraging, so I've decided to start offering them for sale on my Etsy account.

I can also do special orders and door-to-door delivery if you're in the South Jersey area, just let me know the size and color you need. I already have versions of the designs printed on black & white t-shirts, so if you want a particular color, it'll cost a little more.

Honestly, as long as you're willing to throw in a few extra dollars for the trouble, I'll print on any type of shirt you'd like. Long sleeved, short sleeved, colored, you name it.

If you or someone you know is interested in placing a shirt order,

email me at LauraGuzzoArt@gmail.com

Happy Halloween!

Guess who!

Cloak and Dagger

Just finished the Cloak & Dagger piece I was working on and I'm pleasantly surprised at how it turned out.

Rich Harrington, a fellow illustrator and former teacher of mine, used to say that "Everything looks like the worst thing you've ever done, halfway through" and that's certainly been the case for this image.

I captured Dagger pretty well within the first few minutes, but Cloak continued to look terrible until about halfway through.

Take a look at the animation to see what I mean.

Belated Egg Post

I just realized that I had finished some painted eggs over a week ago and I forgot to show them off. It was forgotten in the excitement of my first Bluewater job.

There is a Chinese Dragon egg and a Phoenix egg. The Phoenix was painted on wood, instead of a real eggshell, since I figured I ought to have a non-breakable example that customers could pick up and examine when I'm at shows.

When I finally get around to selling them, I'm probably going to poke holes in the top and offer them as Christmas ornaments. That way, even if customers didn't want to hang them on a tree, there'd be a much easier way to display them than trying to locate a decorative egg holding contraption.

My studio turns into a total disaster zone whenever I get caught up in a frenzied bout of egg-painting. All of the painted eggs I've completed are now available to view on my website. Look for them in the Sculpture gallery.

Yes, I know they're not really sculpture, but they are 3D art!

In my continued quest to stay busy while I'm waiting to hear from Bluewater, I've been working on more comic character art. You've already seen Ms. Marvel, but there's a Cloak & Dagger image on the way! Stay tuned for more details!

Ms. Marvel

I can't start on the interior art for Bluewater until I receive the script and I've found that if I don't keep myself busy, I go stir crazy. So, to keep me from gnawing my elbows off in anxious excitement, I spent a good part of yesterday finishing up the Ms. Marvel sketch from last week's sketch practice.

I'm quite pleased! I'm definitely adding her to my box of superheroine pin-ups! Here's the step-by-step transformation from last week's sketch to this week's finished product.

Bluewater Update

So, I just got an email from my contact at Bluewater Productions and unbeknownst to him, the Political Power: Richard Nixon job had already been given away to someone who they know can work extremely fast- which they need, because they're under an extremely tight deadline for that book.

This is actually good news for me.

It means that instead of the Nixon book, I'll be working on the interior art for the same comic where my artwork is set to appear on the cover! AND I'll have a little bit more time to finish it (assuming that he can send me the script in the next week or two). I didn't really want my first experience with interior art to be a rush job, so I'm extremely thankful for the extended deadline.

I'm also glad I found out before I spent the day drawing Richard Nixon's face from different angles. Without a project to utilize those images, I've no idea what I'd do with The Many Moods of Nixon.

THIS JUST IN!!!

I just got an offer from Bluewater Productions to do the interior art for Political Power: Richard Nixon and, if all goes well, after that I'll be illustrating the interiors of the comic that I did the cover for a few weeks ago.

Exciting and scary!

Exciting, because it'd be absolutely amazing to hold up a comic book and say that I'm responsible for 100% of the artwork in it.

Scary, because I've never done anything like this before. I think I have the resources to make it work, though. I can probably get some advice from Steve at Rough Sketch Studios about how to layout the page properly.

After that, it's just a matter of getting everything done on time, which will be no small feat. It's due by December and I'm going to have to do the penciling, inking, and coloring myself. YIKES! Guess I need to buy that Wacom tablet sooner than I thought I would!

I'm supposed to get the script by the end of this week, so wish me luck!!!

Show Aftermath and Sketch Practice

The Barrington Harvest Festival was WAY bigger than I'd imagined! We got a ton of foot traffic and enough sales to convince me to sign up for next year's show! I've got my work cut out for me this week- a bunch of t-shirt orders to fill and several potential portraiture jobs to follow up on.

This show was also the maiden voyage of my tent- which is a real pain to transport, but which doubles my display space. So even though it now takes two cars to carry all my stuff, once we were there, the new setup worked splendidly!

I want to get better at drawing quickly, with little to no reference, so that I can do sketches at Stormwatch events and comic conventions without feeling nervous. So I set aside some time to practice drawing comic characters on the spot.

This afternoon's exercise resulted in an odd image of Dazzler (30 minutes)

and a Ms. Marvel pin-up (40 minutes). I've decided to take my time on this one, so that I can add her to my ever-growing stack of superheroine pin-ups.

Both of the images above were made with the assistance of stock photography from Marcus Ranum. His work is FANTASTIC and extremely helpful to all you illustrators out there. Seriously, check out his official website and the DeviantArt account he uses for his stock photos.

Living Corpse Pin-up, Pt.2

Digital coloring it is!

This is the first piece I've finished in true comic book style- i.e. pencils, then inked, then colored digitally. I finished the color in 6 hours, which is pretty good considering I was going it all with a laptop touch pad.

I've been hesitating to buy myself a drawing tablet since they're so expensive... but they really are worth the money. If I do any more projects that involve digital coloring, I'm going to need to get a Wacom, 'cause this trackpad nonsense just doesn't cut it.

I can't decide if I like it better with or without the background.

If anyone besides me is reading this, leave a comment with your opinion.

But, yeah, really excited about this piece! It feels really great to bang out a good image in a few days, not because I need to, but because I'm so engrossed in the project that I can't turn away!

UPCOMING ART SHOWS!:

The Barrington Harvest Festival is tomorrow! My table and tent will be set up from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and it'll be packed with goodies- prints, original artwork, t-shirts, painted eggs, you name it! So, come on by if you're in the area!

Living Corpse Pin-up, Pt.1

I spent the day working on a pin-up for The Living Corpse- a delightfully entertaining horror comic illustrated by Ken Haeser. If you haven't heard of it or haven't read it, I highly recommend it! It's fun and campy and surprisingly sweet.

Anyway, there's a goth chick named Lilith who is infatuated with our rotting hero and I wanted to show them interacting with each other. I'm extremely happy with how the piece came together- especially from a stylistic standpoint, since I was concerned about matching my style to Haeser's characters.

I can't wait to show him!

I haven't decided if I'm going to color this with colored pencils or try my hand at digital coloring. Either way, I'll be posting the results as soon as they're finished.

Below you'll find photographic evidence of my mother's sainthood.

(She looks annoyed for the sake of the reference shot.

She was actually an extremely patient and responsive model.)

UPCOMING ART SHOWS:

I will be selling my wares (including eggs for the first time!) at the Barrington Harvest Festival on Saturday, October 9th from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. If you're in the area, come say hey!