Paigey!
Comics, Commissions and Camaradarie!
Posts
May 18, 01:50 PM
| Tight Pencils! Drawing over top of my lightened roughs, I start cleaning up all those stray lines and start refining the figures. |
| More inking!! I love drawing men's leg hair. It's a weird drawing fetish. |
This was super fun to do, and I got to expand a little on my own make-believe rendition of the X-Men universe. What's funny is in my version of the X-Men, Dazzler is probably one of the tougher, more in-shape characters on the team, which in regular continuity is quite the opposite.
May 03, 01:35 AM
I think I kinda started a trend with myself a couple weeks ago with my Things I Love Thursday Special Edition entry for Sleep No More, which a lot of people seemed to enjoy (myself included). So I'm gonna talk about something else I love at length this go-around, being my 2nd favorite movie in the whole wide world, The Phantom of the Paradise!
With added reason for this 'TILT' entry, being that the Phantom himself, actor William Finley sadly passed away a few weeks ago, which inspired me to draw a portrait of the titular tragic hero he portrayed.
Here's the schlocky, grindhouse-esque trailer!
Though Phantom, like all my favorite movies, is a bit of an acquired taste and not for everyone (my parents turned it off before Swan's big reveal), if you're a fan of crazy cult movies I highly suggest checking it out. I first saw Phantom in high school and then subsequently went on to buy it on VHS, then DVD and have been slowly collecting the few various bits of merch that they have had available. I own a replica of the Phantom helmet that I sat on a waiting list for 3 years to be able to purchase. Even though I no longer cosplay, I reserve a very strong desire to construct a femme version of the Phantom's costume for a *dream* photoshoot. Ugh, those would be the coolest publicity shots ever. What a way to truly capture my nerdy insanity. Haha... One day... I also have the ultra-rare Medicom Real Action Heroes figure of the Phantom as well, which I purchased 5 years ago ago at Toy Tokyo in NYC when I first moved here for $150, which compared to current eBay listings is a steal. My husband also drew me Phantom fanart for my first birthday we spent together as a couple.
My coworker made a quick little video of me when
I *finally* got the helmet in the mail at work.
What I love about the music in Phantom is how the same songs are played over and over in different genres and by different musicians and it all sounds awesome. They really push that idea in the movie, about the importance of the music, not necessarily who sings/performs it. I really wish there was a full version of the random country guy singing 'Faust' and Beef's over-the-top version of 'Old Souls'. Also, Beef is AMAZING. Though he's only onscreen for the second act, everything he says/does is comedy gold. He's usually everyone's favorite, he's such a great character.
| By my husband, Ballsy See more of his work here! |
There's been heresay that the Phantom's costume inspired the look of Darth Vader, what with the gnarly yet awesome voicebox and imposing black leather getup. No word whether this is true, but it's an interesting connection. Phantom is actually the favorite movie of one of my most favorite directors, being Edgar Wright of Shawn of the Dead/Scott Pilgrim fame, which is super cool and makes me love his work even more. Edgar Wright has a very touching tribute to William Finley on his blog, that you can see here. The parallels of Swan to Scott Pilgrim's Gideon Graves are such a sweet Phantom phanservice (see what I did there?) that I couldn't help but nerd out when I saw it. There was also talk of them remaking it back in the day (about 10-12 years ago) with Marilyn Manson as The Phantom, but that fell through. While I think this movie is perfect the way it is- such a product of it's time, I gotta admit seeing Manson dressed as the Phantom during his Mechanical Animals heyday would be kinda awesome. Though I'd hate to see a remake, it'd have been pretty sweet if they had done an homage to it for a video or something. Manson has the perfect face to go under the Phantom helmet.
If you haven't seen Phantom yet I hope you give it a chance. It's a strange yet beautiful gem of a movie full of great music, iconic characters and some hilarious scenes.
April 14, 10:57 PM
So I'm going a bit crazy with some sketching the last few nights, and figured I'd share some of what I've been working on!
I've simultaneously got both colors and the background sketch going on with my Derby Dazzler vs. Hellfire Club commission. (See earlier progress shots here!) The guy who got it has been super-cool with letting me do what I want at my own pace. Commissions for portraits, which I usually do, are fun and rewarding but they're usually for a specific deadline (birthday/wedding) and some people can get very touchy over likenesses. And revisions, revisions, revisions. Oye. But yeah, people seem to really dig my versions of comic characters, now if only *someone* would give me a job doing that.
::POINTED SIGH::
| This is the kinda stuff I want to do more of. <3 |
| MOAR X-Men Redesigns: |
| More X-Men redesigns. This is alt.model Psylocke in her British body, I'll be drawing her Japanese body as well. |
| Another X-Redesign: DJ Nightcrawler. |
I'm also in 10-week crunch time for my most favorite/important comic convention of the year: beloved Heroescon in Charlotte, NC! YAY!! Last year was my first time and I had an absolute BLAST! Now I'm coming back and I'll have Little Asian Sweatshop and Maria Danalakis in tow as we vend from our BIG AWESOME GIANT BOOTH! Woot!!
I'm hoping by the time Heroes rolls around the Sweatshop and I will have a prototype of the *DRESSES* we plan to start making together that will feature fabric designed by me! I'm figuring out how to make an omnidirectional fabric swatch to get printed now- and drawing little pinup girls and accompanying elements. My first fabric is going to be luchadora (Mexican wrestlers) themed. I know- random! But it's definitely fun to draw! Hopefully even more fun to wear! So excited about this!
| A fierce little luchadora. |
| More luchadoras and some ideas for elements, like a bell. |
April 09, 10:22 PM
(I know! I haven't done a TILT entry in awhile- I apologize. But this is definitely something I couldn't *NOT* do an entry for.)
Sleep No More is this off-Broadway play/haunted house/experience in New York City that is described as 'immersive theater', which sounds totally artsy-fartsy but is actually awesome. The actual 'play' you are seeing is a mash-up of MacBeth and Alfred Hitchcock, but instead of the actors speaking lines there's interpretive dancing and acrobatics and screaming and grunting. It's a lot cooler than it sounds, trust me. What it really reminds me of is stuff like Dark City and Disney's The Haunted Mansion, which are two things I adoooore. As an audience member you have free reign (sorta...) of this giant 'Hotel' that is composed of 6 floors and like over a 100 rooms or something. But you have to wear this Plague Doctor-y mask (very Eyes Wide Shut) and are not permitted to talk within the hotel. Except for in the Manderley Bar, which is like if SNM were Pac-Man and the audience members were ghosts, the Manderley would be that little box in the middle. So you wander the halls of this giant expanse of a hotel, and there's sections of rooms that look like the creepy inside of a house, a Londony street, a graveyard, an abandoned looney bin, and you look for actors to follow or dig around in drawers or just wander and take in the amazing production value. The lighting, the sound and the set designs are all top notch. I would absolutely love to see the control room of that show, like the people who run SNM should get ahold of one of those techie cable shows and have a Behind the Scenes special or something. God that'd be cool. But yeah, there's lots of gleaming reviews of the show and it's running til June now and you should try and check it out if you can. Fortunately I'm local to NYC and can see it kinda-sorta whenever I want (it's expensive tho!) and have gotten to see it 3 times now- the more you see it and know what instances to look for the better your experience. You can book tickets here at the site. But there's this whole cult following of it- message boards, tumblrs, long meandering blog threads. Just start Googling around, you'll find all sorts of neat shit.
Don't you love how if you wanna talk about a Sleep No More experience you've gotta send 20 minutes setting it up for the people who've never heard of it? Haha, the other SNM addicts get me.
Ok, but what I *really* want to talk about is my 1:1 bait-and-switch experience with Hecate the Red Witch and burlesque superstar Dita Von Teese. That's what's really cool about SNM, everyone's story is different. Mine is kinda extra-awesome though. Just sayin'.
First, some mood music:
Ok, so I went to Sleep No More with my friend Paul who came up from Baltimore to come see the show with me on a Saturday a little over a month ago. His first time, my third. My first time I had no 1:1, the second time I got the 1:1 with the Nurse in the hedge maze. I'm a huge, HUGE fan of the show. Paul, being a typical first timer, stuck to me like glue the first 45 minutes and I walked him around showing him the coolest rooms to come back to and eventually shook him while one of the actors went tearing down the street scene. Cuz all the cool shit happens when you're by yourself. We were one of the last groups in on the final Saturday show of the night, so it was pretty packed. Stairways got clogged, people got pushed, I was starting to get pissy because alot of the crowd was very douchey. So I went to Hecate's bar/lair since it's one of the places that's always pretty cool and Hecate is always fun to watch. I go in and she's just finishing her lip-synch to 'Is That All There Is?' to about 20 people and starts laughing and hanging off some of the audience members, then stops at me and this other girl and the very end of the crowd closest to the door to the alley. It's become obvious she's looking for a 1:1 now and her and I lock eyes. The other girl got visibly uncomfortable with her being so close and kind of shrunk away. Hecate looks me over and smiles and grabs my hand and we continue holding each others gaze as she starts leading me to the alley door she'll frequently disappear into. My hearts in my throat. Everyone starts following us out into the alley. She leads me to the door and whispers in my ear 'Wait here...' all sexy and throaty, then disappears into the door, which is bathed in this red light. The other girl who didn't get picked is next to me again, impatiently tries to turn the knob and gets stopped by a Black Mask. No one else heard Hecate say 'Wait here', so eventually people start filing out of the alley, leaving me alone with the Black Mask outside Hecate's door for like 45 seconds. So the door opens again, but it's this dark blue light and a woman that's not Hecate whose face I can't see (guess whoooo???) holds her perfectly manicured hand out to mine and I take it. This woman, with her back to me, leads me into what looks like an old-timey dressing room. I can't see her face, I already notice her hair is black and perfectly vintage styled and the hand she's leading me with has this amazingly sparkly bracelet I'm transfixed by. Also, I'm rather tall, like 5'8" and I was wearing flats, and she came up to my nose. So, she leads me into the room, slowly turns around and it is revealed: DITA VON TEESE and I are going to have a 1:1. HOLY SHIT. Like, my eyes must have been GIGANTIC. So she smiles and reaches up and takes my mask off and says "It's you." And me, all sweat-faced and shiny from running and wide-eyed whisper back "Holy crap, it's *you*." She smiles knowingly at me and leads me over to a couch, coffee table and stool, and motions for me to sit on the stool as she sits on the couch right next to me. Like, knee-to-knee. Alone in this room. With Dita. Who I am a big fan of. Yeah, so I'm silently flipping out. My mind's going a mile a minute. I'm like hitting the 'record' button on my brain to try and take everything in. And OMG, she is SO PRETTY. Photos actually do not do her justice. Plus I mean I'm seeing her under perfect sepia lighting and slight fog and fucking Hitchcock music, so it's like the ultimate Dita viewing conditions.
| She's even PRETTIER in real life. |
(And this is where everything crazy happens and I might have some memory fail. It was A LOT to process, so bear with me.)
Dita pours a cup of tea from the elaborate tea set on the coffee table, puts the cup and saucer in my hands, then holds my hands holding the cup. She then starts to tell me a story about 7 ships that were sent out to sea, but one was lost. She reaches over to the table and pulls out a tiny folded paper ship and sets it on top of the tea in the teacup. Meanwhile, in amazing SNM fashion, the lighting is slowly, slowly changing from sepia to bluish grey and the music is fading out to the sounds of the ocean and ship bows bending. (I swear if SNM doesn't get any awards I'll be so mad.) Dita places her hands back on mine and says that the ship that was lost fell upon a storm, and starts moving our hands so that the tea in the teacup bobs the tiny boat up and down. The storm noises become louder. Thunder cracks. I'm not sure to look at Dita or look at the tea. It's so damn tense. She says something about how the ship sinks, and pushes the boat down into the tea with her finger. She then sets the cup and saucer back down on the table, takes out the wet paper ship and mashes it into my palm, all the while looking me directly in the eye and says gravely 'All has changed and will never be the same.' (I think. I'm freaking out by now. That's what I heard, at least.)
| Hecate scared the SHIT outta me. |
MEEEANWHILE, Hecate had at some point slipped in the room unbeknownst to me, and comes around from behind me sliding her hand down my arm with this giant psychotic smile, scaring the ever loving shit out of me. Like, I HAD to of jumped. My face must have been priceless. I think Hecate put her finger to my lips to go 'Shhhhh…' then holds out her hand to me and loudly says 'All has changed and will never be the same.', because the storm/thunder/ship noises are really loud now. There might have even been wind. They start repeating 'All has changed and will never be the same.' over and over, and Hecate motions me her hand and I take it. She leads me into a pitch black closet and she comes in with me, hanging off me and cackling and spinning me around and someone sprayed me with water like it was the ocean and there were some strobes like lightning and I honestly thought 'This must be what going insane is like.' and even I started laughing with Hecate and going 'Holy fuck I'm gonna die!'. Then, everything stopped. Black silence. Hecate immediately backed up off me, I felt my mask hurriedly get put back on my face and I was pushed out a secret door at the back of the closet into Hecate's other room where she keeps all the flowers and herbs. I broke the silence rule to breathlessly exclaim 'WHAT THE FUCK.' And leaned against the back wall for a little bit the process everything. I realized I lost my fascinator on my mask and kinda shrugged it off as a sacrifice to the 'Story Gods'. Fortunately it was homemade and is easy to recreate. Maybe Hecate has it? But yeah, I saw Dita two other times that night- sitting with Hecate at the Blood Orgy where I dragged Paul once I saw him again not 5 minutes after my 1:1, and then after the show at the Manderley Bar when she was out of character with friends at a table. I was way too shy to talk to her, so I totally just watched her in awe like a weirdo. In hindsight I probably should have said *something* to her cuz her being a fan of the show herself I'm sure she'd love to hear the amazing job she did. Cuz holy crap, they GOT me GOOD.Honestly, I would love to see the script for this scene I had. Or see it from the outside. That's the crazy thing about this immersive theater shit, it's not like you can rewind it and watch it again. That experience was for what? 4 people that night? Out of however many people go to SNM. I consider myself SUPER lucky to have gotten to see this super rare scene.
| Hecate's Apothecary- where I ended up after my 1:1. Alone. |
What's also super funny is that the day I was headed to Sleep No More I had posted about it on my Facebook, and one of my friends mentioned how Dita Von Teese has tweetd that day about the show and that maybe I'd see her there. And I remember literally going 'Psssht. Yeah right!!'. But hey- goes to show you that you never know!
| What I wore for the show! |
PS: As much as I love SNM though it is not for everyone. You will have to work up your imagination and suspend some disbelief to get the most out of the show. As annoyed as I was with all the people pushing and clogging up stairways I still was able to save the entire night by landing that 1:1, which was one of the most surreal and amazing moments in my life, and I was extremely lucky to get the opportunity to experience it. Some people want a 1:1 so badly that the desperation puts the actors off. The actors are amazingly perceptive. They pay attention to what you wear and various visual and gestural queues that will tell them if you are an unappreciative douchebag demanding to be entertained. I’ve seen people during an obvious choosing of 1:1’s thrust their open hand right out in front of an actor who obviously wants someone else. You gotta play it cool, daddio. They’re looking for people who are into the show. I wore a retro cocktail gown (that was stretchy so I could run if needed) and clipped a feather fascinator to my mask so I would actually stand out amongst a sea of otherwise anonymous audience members. You gotta respect and love the show, it may love you back in amazing ways.
April 02, 02:04 AM
| Summer 2007 My first summer as a New Yorker |
| YAY!!! |
Haha, but yeah sorry I got all sentimental and TL;DR on you. You probably just wanna see some art, huh?
I'm also working on a private commission featuring an action shot of my Dazzler redesign. It was too fun not to pass up. Right now I'm just finishing up inks, but you can check out some progress shots I took of the piece so far. I'm having her skate against a team of Hellfire club Goons- much like her first appearance!
March 17, 02:08 PM
Last weekend Fenny of Little Asian Sweatshop and I officially started our 2012 Season of selling with our first vending event of the year: The Charm City Roller Girls Double Header Bout in my hometown of Baltimore! It was a rousing success and it was great to see some of my Maryland friends at the show! This was also another show where we were able to accept credit cards via our Square readers- it makes a HUGE difference in sales. People are more likely to buy higher ticketed/multiple items if they don't have to part with their cash. Especially at stuff like this where there's other businesses like food stands that prefer cash.
Speaking of which- I also hadn't been to a CCRG bout in about 3 years- and as someone who went to their inaugural bout back in 2005(?) I'm super proud to see how far they've come! No more roller rink bouts! It was at night in an arena! And there were FOOD stands! With PIT BEEF AND BRATS!! :d YUM! And beer! And a guy selling gourmet marshmallows! Crazy! So I'm super proud of my home league of roller girls! And what an awesome bout to watch as well!
| Fenny and our table (with sparkle table cloth upgrade)! Right in the main foyer as you walked in- we could even watch the whole bout from our seats! |
| Me! Yay! |
| The spread! I forgot my display fixtures so I couldn't put out as many necklaces as I would have liked. We still had a great-looking table regardless. |
We also did specially-designed Little Asian Sweatshop flowers for the four CCRG teams:
| Night Terrors flower! Royal blue & black! |
| Mobtown Mod's target flower! |
| Speed Regime camo! |
| Junkyard Dolls hot pink zebra print! |
Also! I dunno if you saw my last entry (see below), but I've started drawing for myself a little bit to allow some no-pressure 'practice time' between commissions ands major assignments so my skills stay sharp. So I've been drawing these X-Men redesigns of basically what the team members would look like if I was handed the title and told to go to town and remake the comic with my own little spin on the characters. Which if we TRULY want to indulge in the fantasy of for a second- I would co-write with one of my favorite comic writers ever, the awesome, awesome Adam Warren. ::wistful sigh:: GOD THAT WOULD BE AWESOME.
I already drew Rogue and Dazzler, who had one of my favorite rivalries in the 80's over who would end up 'dating' Longshot. (The Wolvie/Cyclops over Jean drama is pretty damn played, IMHO.) But anyways! Here's the designs for both Jean Grey and Gambit.
I'm going to open up a gallery on the top menu of the blog here soon for all of these redesigns so you can see them together. I've been getting some nice little bits of exposure for these on Tumblr and the like thanks to blogs like Fashion Tips From Comic Strips, which focuses on the fashion found in the comic world. One of my faves, always cool stuff on there! Highly suggest it!
February 28, 02:34 PM
Hey hey hey! So my insanely awesome year of the Paigey Roadshow is starting to gear up! Got lots of new merch cooked up and I'm excited to be vending at some all-new, all-different venues, including some roller derby bouts and concerts in my home state of Maryland alongside my BFF's store Little Asian Sweatshop. The first up in my adventures is in two weeks- Charm City Roller Girls Home Season Double Header on Saturday March 10 from 5:30-10:00 at Du Burns Arena in Baltimore. If you're in the area, I suggest you check it out! CCRG helped me get my first exposure in the art world when I did derby portraits and bout posters for them back when they first started up.
Speaking of all-new, all-different- I'm taking a little art time to myself for the next couple weeks and doing some redesigns of the characters that got me into comics in the first place, being the Uncanny X-Men. These versions of the characters have been running in my head for awhile so why not draw them? Trying to have a callback to the X-Men of the late 80's when everyone had different looks and everyone had their own unique presence in the team. And lots and lots of COLORS!
***Disclaimer: I'm not selling these in any form. These are just for fun, and if people like them they can print them off my blog for free. If anything this is just a semi-clever ploy to get more traffic to my blog.
February 07, 01:43 AM
This past week I finished two big commissions and I'm sketching out a third and I did a whole bunch of marketing/promo for Little Asian Sweatshop! So yeah! Keeping busy!!
| Portrait commission for tattoo artist Cyn Rudzis, in trade for my Wonder Woman tattoo |
| Roller derby portrait commission for Kansas City Banked Beauties member Ms Kara Whiplash |
In other news I've been submitting tips and singing praises of my best friend Fenny's company Little Asian Sweatshop to various nerdy/geeky fashion websites and gotten some nice returns!! So far we've gotten press from So Geek Chic, Boing Boing, and Fashionably Geek!
| We're also going to have this ad in the program for the upcoming games for Chesapeake Roller Derby. |
February 04, 08:04 PM
So Threadless has a Pinup design contest right now, which I couldn't *not* enter. Even though I've never entered anything on Threadless before. It's running from Jan 30th- Feb 20th and my piece is up for voting until this coming Friday February 10th. So please vote for me and give me as high a score as you see fit (*cough* 4-5 *cough*).
If I win I get a nice little amount of money that I can use to pay my COBRA and some ghastly credit card debt. And my art will be on a shirt that you can buy, which is exciting and has never happened before. I may even submit more art to Threadless, as people have been asking me when I'm going to put my art on tshirts. May as well get paid for it, instead of paying for it.
Also please vote for me because right now I'm losing out to a Photoshop brush that's actually of another dude's painting which this entrant is trying to pass off as his own work, which is SO NOT COOL. I dont mind losing if it's to a worthy opponent, but so far pretty much all of the other entrants are swiping, tracing photographs of models (like Bettie Page), using 3D programs like Poser, using licensed characters or brands, using clip art or it's just... well... BAD. Anatomically, compositionally, like not even student work. Like NO ONE would want a shirt with that on it and Threadless would be fools to think it would sell (or in some cases- not get sued). Being someone who worked professionally on tshirts for over 4 years I reluctantly have learned a few things about designing tshirts, and now that I'm not in that hectic, stressful environment where I am no longer designing with a gun to my head I can sit back and let the last few years worth of knowledge that was crammed into my skull properly marinate. Anywho, if all works out and I win I hope to try and get a few more shirts done thru Threadless in the future and hopefully help bring it up to the higher standard of cool shirts that it was when I was too intimidated to enter. Cuz there is a lot of riff-raff on that site right now.
If I win I get a nice little amount of money that I can use to pay my COBRA and some ghastly credit card debt. And my art will be on a shirt that you can buy, which is exciting and has never happened before. I may even submit more art to Threadless, as people have been asking me when I'm going to put my art on tshirts. May as well get paid for it, instead of paying for it.
Also please vote for me because right now I'm losing out to a Photoshop brush that's actually of another dude's painting which this entrant is trying to pass off as his own work, which is SO NOT COOL. I dont mind losing if it's to a worthy opponent, but so far pretty much all of the other entrants are swiping, tracing photographs of models (like Bettie Page), using 3D programs like Poser, using licensed characters or brands, using clip art or it's just... well... BAD. Anatomically, compositionally, like not even student work. Like NO ONE would want a shirt with that on it and Threadless would be fools to think it would sell (or in some cases- not get sued). Being someone who worked professionally on tshirts for over 4 years I reluctantly have learned a few things about designing tshirts, and now that I'm not in that hectic, stressful environment where I am no longer designing with a gun to my head I can sit back and let the last few years worth of knowledge that was crammed into my skull properly marinate. Anywho, if all works out and I win I hope to try and get a few more shirts done thru Threadless in the future and hopefully help bring it up to the higher standard of cool shirts that it was when I was too intimidated to enter. Cuz there is a lot of riff-raff on that site right now.
VOTE HERE:
Thank you!!
January 28, 04:38 PM
Hi everybody! Not too much to report. I've had 2 weeks in between finishing the lettering of Airgear #24 and starting Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex #3 to focus on some personal projects and long overdue commissions. Here's a couple peeks into what I've been up to:
| Gotta love the roller derby commissions! |
| Inking a portrait for tattoo artist Cyn Rudzis, who did my Wonder Woman tattoo. |
My Christmas present from beloved husband Ballsy also came in- a new iMac since my old one of 6+ years was starting to choke up on me. So nowww I have BOTH of them hooked up and ready to go- and it's looking to be a pretty sweet little set-up. My old iMac (on the right, below) will be used for internets, music and movies; while my new silver iMac will do all of my graphics work, including Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Beloved husband even got this cool app called Teleport, which allows you to control both computers with one mouse and keyboard. It even makes a cool 'fwoosh!' noise when you go in between screens.
| Ground control to Major Pum... |
I'm also getting heavily back into my merch and crafting game. Now living the freelance lifestyle my social calendar is at the mercy of an irregular ebb and flow of fundage so I am looking to make as much money as possible at the events I'm planning to attend this year. (Side note: I have now added a calendar of what events I'm actually attending this year to the side bar of the blog.) Plus I just *love* making things. It relaxes me and fills me with a sense of pride. ^__^ So yeah, the first event of the year I'll be selling at is the March 10th bout for Charm City Roller Girls at DuBurns Arena in Baltimore. I'm totally catering my merch to the audience and trying to come up with ideas for stuff that will tie in with the themes for the event. Yay sales. When it's stuff I actually CARE about and can stand behind, I love being a salesperson.
| Making magnets of the CCRG 'mascots' Ballsy designed for his bout poster a few years back |
| Versatile red bandana flower! Great for bikers, rockabillies or gangstas! (See? VERSATILE!) |
| For all you Anglophiles out there: The Union Jack flower! |
And the 'crown jewel' of LAS-
(at least for now...)
| Fenny and I have broken NEW GROUND in hair flower technology! For all you Portal fans, the glowing GLaDOS personality core flower! |
January 12, 12:09 PM
2011 is done! Holy crap, what a year! I frequently used the word 'tumultuous' to describe my goings-on. So many personal milestones and the stressed out times leading up to them- my wedding, a new job, a new lifestyle as a professional freelancer working from home to boot! The new vocation of freelance letterer for manga imprint Kodansha Comics is starting to hit it's stride, I already have my first published lettering work out- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex book 2: Testation and I'm currently juggling Ghost in the Shell's third book as well as the 24th volume of Air Gear. So so beyond happy to be involved in comics as part of my now dayjob, and to spend all day with my beloved husband Ballsy who works freelance from home as well. And we don't even get on each other's nerves or anything, which is impressive when we sit back-to-back with each other in our home office for hours at a time. Nope, we just blast through season after season of tv shows on Netflix and listen to Bachelor Pad radio all day. We are truly living the dream.
Get it? Support? Yuckety yuck. ;D
2012 is laid out before me with more opportunities than ever to share my creations with you and I'm already setting up events well into the year alongside my BFF Fenny's company Little Asian Sweatshop, to deliver a one-two punch of awesome artwork, accesories and hopefully later in the year... *apparel*! Ooooohhh! So far on tap we are going to be vending the March 10th bout for the Charm City Roller girls at DuBurns Arena. I haven't been to a CCRG bout in a couple years so I'm super excited to attend. We also have solidified plans to have a *MASSIVE* corner booth at Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina in late June that we will be sharing along with a few friends. We also plan on attending the NYC Psychobilly Luau again with a vengeance, hopefully this year it won't be during an awful heat wave. Then in September I'm hitting Baltimore with a double-whammy of a release party for my second artbook, titled 'Thanks For Your Support!' at The Ottobar and yet another booth this time at Baltimore Comic Con. I'll send out reminders as these events get closer. There will hopefully be plenty more events that I be involved in, we're always looking out for vending opportunities. Here's to an awesome 2012!
December 07, 03:12 AM
Ok, ok- one more wedding entry and I PROMISE I'll post more artwork!!
I just *have* to share the AMAZING movie GEBBS Wedding Films
shot of Phil and I's wedding day.
(be sure to FULL SCREEN this baby!)
December 07, 03:11 AM
Now that all the wedding craziness is over I can get back to focusing on my artwork and working fulltime freelance from home! For practice I did two new pinups!
This cute lil' sailor girl, titled 'First Mate' I did as an exploration of different coloring techniques, including a limited palette (there's only 7 colors which is VERY limited for me!) and halftone shading. I might try and see about getting her printed as a tshirt somewhere, since now that I am liberated from my old dayjob of designing tshirts I can actually explore techniques I learned there at my own pace and on my own artwork.
This next piece I did is a portrait of one of my favorite characters from all time, Angel from Rock & Rule. This actually started out as a doodle in a sketchbook from about 2 years ago that I came across last week and decided to breathe new life into. For me coming up with the bare concept of a piece is the hardest part, which I why I so rarely just sketch. I have to have some sort of idea already in my head. But yeah, I lucked out with this little piece where I was able to fix it up and take it to finishes. Which is quite a feat for me with any Rock & Rule fanart as that movie's art style is what I ultimately want my own art to be like and the challenge was to draw the characters without the piece being derivative. I think I did pretty ok, it's like a weird marriage of both my and R&R's styles.
In non-drawing creativity I've been flexing my design muscles as the unofficial Art Director and VP of Marketing for my BFF's DIY company Little Asian Sweatshop, designing flowers and pimping her etsy store out to the masses. My husband Phil is also revamping her whole logo/branding scheme and it looks frigging adorable.
Some of the new hair flower designs I've made are ON SALE NOW!
Click the links to be taken to the etsy listing!
Black and White Mod Rose Hair Flower Fascinator
Burgundy Ombre Damask Pattern Rose Hair Flower Fascinator
And my personal favorite:
Baltimore Maryland Crab Mini Hair Flower Fascinator
(which is also available as a boutonnière!)
I have lots more flower designs in the works for Little Asian Sweatshop, some pretty high concept! Be sure to bookmark the store and check back on the regular!
I have lots more flower designs in the works for Little Asian Sweatshop, some pretty high concept! Be sure to bookmark the store and check back on the regular!
December 05, 04:23 PM
Woo! Holy cow!! What an amazing week in Las Vegas!!
In case you missed the big news- my boyfriend of 6 years and dearest friend and fellow Kubert School Alum for 12, Phil 'Ballsy' Balsman and I tied the knot on Dia de los Muertos- Wednesday Nov 2nd, 2011 at 4:30pm by Elvis at the Viva Las Vegas Chapel in Las Vegas, NV.
Check out the full ceremony!
We were joined by family and friends for an amazing week of merriment and debauchery, including my BFF Fenny (of Little Asian Sweatshop) as Matron of Honor and Phil's BFF Ben Dale (of Ben Dale Done That/Little Knight) as Best Man.
Our wedding was a mixture of everything we love: Rockabilly music, retro lounge culture, Dia de los Muertos imagery, fancy cocktails, Elvis, all under the lights and spectacle of Las Vegas. We had a total of 44 guests, which is a sizable crowd for a destination wedding who all dressed in the theme I had suggested of 'retro spooky cocktail' or 'what you'd wear to Vincent Price's funeral'. The ceremony (as you can see above) was quick, fun, sweet and never took itself too seriously. The Elvis was fantastic and everyone working at the chapel was so excited to see such a turnout. The ceremony was followed by a lovely reception dinner at Nob Hill Tavern at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. Everyone had a great time.
Phil's suit was pieced together with basic separates from JC Penneys, but then dressed up with a black skinny tie, black and white creepers from TUK Shoes and a vintage red brocade Palm Beach dinner jacket we borrowed from our friend Stacey of Atomic Cheesecake Studios, who also took our fantastic engagement photos. His boutonnière was made by Little Asian Sweatshop out of Red Dead Redemption playing cards.
My dress was the Ivory Duchess halter silk sundress purchased from Vivienne of Holloway, with a skeleton cameo corset in white by Louise Black, from Project Runway over top of the bodice. I added more black lace to the dress hem and neckline to give the illusion that it was all one unified piece and hand applied over 350 black diamond Swarovski rhinestone crystals to the dress and corset myself to give it extra dazzle. I also rhinestoned my Little Asian Sweatshop hairflower and bouquet, which like Phil's boutonnière was also made from Red Dead Redemption playing cards. I also wore black John Fluevog mini-heeled maryjanes with black fishnets, black lace gloves and a black chiffon petticoat.
Our cake topper was a set of Dia de los Muertos skeleton bride and groom figurines (from MexicanSugarSkull.com) I had given to my grandmother after we had gotten engaged. She let me borrow them and my mom painted them to resemble our wedding ensembles. The cake was vanilla ganache with chocolate cake inside. Super yum! Fenny and I had prepared the favors ourselves and my mom meticulously packaged them- for the female guests I had made resin brooches with skeleton artwork that I hand rhinestoned and Fenny had made her infamous poker card hair flowers, but with an added twist of them having skull beads in the middle to be on-theme. They were a definite hit. For the fellas we gave Elvis sunglasses and a Jose Pulido Elvis Calavera sticker.
Phil's big splurge for the wedding was the hiring of videographer Michael Gebben of Gebbs Wedding Films to film the whole day for us and edit it down into a 5-10 minute sweeping, hi-def, widescreen, emotionally manipulative movie. He basically ninja'd around us all day with his fancy camera and got lots of cool shots of us. The movie hasn't been finished yet- but from what little I saw of the shots it looks gorgeous. Here's a quickie behind-the-scenes shot of us after the reception at New York, New York.
Seriously can't wait to see it.
Our Best Man Ben was saying how after it's done
we should record a DVD commentary track for it.
Our biggest concerns with the wedding were mostly that we had to plan alot of things sight unseen, since we live in NYC and the wedding was in Vegas. Fortunately my brother had been married 3 years prior in Las Vegas at the same chapel by Elvis but on April Fools Day (yeah my family is awesome). I had gone to FIVE WEDDINGS that year and his was by far the most fun, also I cried like a baby. My mother had even pulled Phil and I aside after the ceremony and told us that if we wanted to have a wedding like that she was all about it. So we at least had SOME idea of what we were going to do for the wedding. Also from a logistical standpoint Vegas made the most sense. My family is from Maryland and Phil's family is from Missouri, yet we both live in New York City. Rather than have the organizational and financial nightmare of having family and friends come to NYC, we figured we'd make it fair to everyone and have our wedding in Las Vegas, therefore not giving any preferential treatment to anyone and it being a sort of vacation for everyone. One of the big things about Vegas however, is how much each casino does NOT want you to leave it's enclosed gambling geosphere. Which is crazy considering how frigging GORGEOUS it was out in the desert in early November (especially when NYC had seen the seasons first slush hit the day before we left). Something else that really drove me nuts in Vegas was the sheer lack of any sense of urgency the cab drivers had taking you from point A to point B. You could get a cab pretty easy in front of a hotel, but GOD HELP YOU if you were off-Strip and had to get a car called. You'd stand there waiting for about 30 minutes before one would roll up, which if you're a bride on a tight timetable made for a VERY STRESSFUL time. Especially being a New Yorker- is this what they mean when they say us East Coasters are all hi-strung? I also had an AMAZING itinerary of stuff planned that was also located off-Strip (or just further down Strip towards Fremont Street) which I never got to do, including eating at The Peppermill, drinking at Frankie's Tiki Room and going to the Atomic Testing Mueseum and Pinball Hall of Fame. Herding 40+ people in cabs to places I've never been and not entirely sure everyone would like would probably take 2 hours just to get everyone there, then to get back to the hotel room would probably take another 2 hours. I eventually realized into the 2nd day of being there that there were plenty of bars and gathering places within the confines of the MGM itself, and that truly important thing about the week wasn't where we were going to be (as long as it was comfy with a well-stocked bar) but that everyone was there having a good time and hanging out.
It may be a cop-out but my favorite moment of the wedding day started once the wedding party all got into the limo and headed to the chapel and lasted til the end of the night. It was the first time in a year I no longer had to worry about wedding preparation and finally just went with the moment. It was here and went off without a hitch. I even got genuinely choked up was when we rolled up to the chapel and I saw so many of my friends and family all hanging out front, dressed in their retro spooky cocktail best with giant smiles all waiting for Phil and I.
The funniest moment had to be during the ceremony while Phil and I were having our awkward slowdance. Elvis was singing 'Love Me Tender', Phil and I are remarking on how utterly awkward and queer it was to be slow dancing under hot spotlights (especially since we have never danced together, nor have I ever slow danced with anyone before) and over behind my shoulder in the first row of pews, my giant 6'3" 350 pound dad is visibly sobbing in his Elvis sunglasses. It was just such an amazing scene.
The only thing totally a mystery to us was how the Nob Hill Tavern was going to handle our reception. I knew the restaurant was still going to have other patrons in the dining room and I was so worried it would be a disaster. Which would be further from the truth, Nob Hill really went above and beyond to make sure we had everything we needed. Dinner was delicious, the staff was friendly and the space was much more intimate than I had imagined and there was plenty room for people to walk around and socialize with the other guests.
The most important lesson I learned from our wedding was that even if you have a 'low key' wedding, you'll still have alot of work to do to make it come together. If anything it being a low-key, DIY wedding means I had to take on alot of tasks myself. The way I am, I personally cannot let myself do something half-assed. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I accept that not everyone shares the ridiculously high standards I have for things and this tends to muddle my ability to delegate tasks. I've always felt that in the time it takes to explain how to do something to someone else, I could have just done it myself. I did accept help from my best friend Fenny and my mother, who are two people who know how particular I am with things and share my OCD-riddled worldview. Fortunately my ideas for the wedding were all realistic and not impossible to do, they just required time and creativity.
Wedding dress: Vivienne of Holloway (dress), Louise Black (corset)
Hair: Sam at Shag Me Salon (style), Nicole at David Alexander (color/cut)
Accessories: John Fluevog (shoes), Little Asian Sweatshop (hair flower/bouquet)
On Ballsy:
Suit: JC Penneys (shirt/pants), SkinnyTies.com (tie), Palm Beach Vintage (jacket), TUK (shoes)
Ceremony:
Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel
Reception:
Nob Hill Tavern at The MGM Grand
Videographer:
GEBBS Wedding Films
Photographer:
Glitter Lens Photography at the Neon Boneyard Museum
Soundtrack:
Phil's big splurge for the wedding was the hiring of videographer Michael Gebben of Gebbs Wedding Films to film the whole day for us and edit it down into a 5-10 minute sweeping, hi-def, widescreen, emotionally manipulative movie. He basically ninja'd around us all day with his fancy camera and got lots of cool shots of us. The movie hasn't been finished yet- but from what little I saw of the shots it looks gorgeous. Here's a quickie behind-the-scenes shot of us after the reception at New York, New York.
Seriously can't wait to see it.
Our Best Man Ben was saying how after it's done
we should record a DVD commentary track for it.
Our biggest concerns with the wedding were mostly that we had to plan alot of things sight unseen, since we live in NYC and the wedding was in Vegas. Fortunately my brother had been married 3 years prior in Las Vegas at the same chapel by Elvis but on April Fools Day (yeah my family is awesome). I had gone to FIVE WEDDINGS that year and his was by far the most fun, also I cried like a baby. My mother had even pulled Phil and I aside after the ceremony and told us that if we wanted to have a wedding like that she was all about it. So we at least had SOME idea of what we were going to do for the wedding. Also from a logistical standpoint Vegas made the most sense. My family is from Maryland and Phil's family is from Missouri, yet we both live in New York City. Rather than have the organizational and financial nightmare of having family and friends come to NYC, we figured we'd make it fair to everyone and have our wedding in Las Vegas, therefore not giving any preferential treatment to anyone and it being a sort of vacation for everyone. One of the big things about Vegas however, is how much each casino does NOT want you to leave it's enclosed gambling geosphere. Which is crazy considering how frigging GORGEOUS it was out in the desert in early November (especially when NYC had seen the seasons first slush hit the day before we left). Something else that really drove me nuts in Vegas was the sheer lack of any sense of urgency the cab drivers had taking you from point A to point B. You could get a cab pretty easy in front of a hotel, but GOD HELP YOU if you were off-Strip and had to get a car called. You'd stand there waiting for about 30 minutes before one would roll up, which if you're a bride on a tight timetable made for a VERY STRESSFUL time. Especially being a New Yorker- is this what they mean when they say us East Coasters are all hi-strung? I also had an AMAZING itinerary of stuff planned that was also located off-Strip (or just further down Strip towards Fremont Street) which I never got to do, including eating at The Peppermill, drinking at Frankie's Tiki Room and going to the Atomic Testing Mueseum and Pinball Hall of Fame. Herding 40+ people in cabs to places I've never been and not entirely sure everyone would like would probably take 2 hours just to get everyone there, then to get back to the hotel room would probably take another 2 hours. I eventually realized into the 2nd day of being there that there were plenty of bars and gathering places within the confines of the MGM itself, and that truly important thing about the week wasn't where we were going to be (as long as it was comfy with a well-stocked bar) but that everyone was there having a good time and hanging out.
It may be a cop-out but my favorite moment of the wedding day started once the wedding party all got into the limo and headed to the chapel and lasted til the end of the night. It was the first time in a year I no longer had to worry about wedding preparation and finally just went with the moment. It was here and went off without a hitch. I even got genuinely choked up was when we rolled up to the chapel and I saw so many of my friends and family all hanging out front, dressed in their retro spooky cocktail best with giant smiles all waiting for Phil and I.
The funniest moment had to be during the ceremony while Phil and I were having our awkward slowdance. Elvis was singing 'Love Me Tender', Phil and I are remarking on how utterly awkward and queer it was to be slow dancing under hot spotlights (especially since we have never danced together, nor have I ever slow danced with anyone before) and over behind my shoulder in the first row of pews, my giant 6'3" 350 pound dad is visibly sobbing in his Elvis sunglasses. It was just such an amazing scene.
The only thing totally a mystery to us was how the Nob Hill Tavern was going to handle our reception. I knew the restaurant was still going to have other patrons in the dining room and I was so worried it would be a disaster. Which would be further from the truth, Nob Hill really went above and beyond to make sure we had everything we needed. Dinner was delicious, the staff was friendly and the space was much more intimate than I had imagined and there was plenty room for people to walk around and socialize with the other guests.
The most important lesson I learned from our wedding was that even if you have a 'low key' wedding, you'll still have alot of work to do to make it come together. If anything it being a low-key, DIY wedding means I had to take on alot of tasks myself. The way I am, I personally cannot let myself do something half-assed. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I accept that not everyone shares the ridiculously high standards I have for things and this tends to muddle my ability to delegate tasks. I've always felt that in the time it takes to explain how to do something to someone else, I could have just done it myself. I did accept help from my best friend Fenny and my mother, who are two people who know how particular I am with things and share my OCD-riddled worldview. Fortunately my ideas for the wedding were all realistic and not impossible to do, they just required time and creativity.
---Vendor links---
On Paigey:Wedding dress: Vivienne of Holloway (dress), Louise Black (corset)
Hair: Sam at Shag Me Salon (style), Nicole at David Alexander (color/cut)
Accessories: John Fluevog (shoes), Little Asian Sweatshop (hair flower/bouquet)
On Ballsy:
Suit: JC Penneys (shirt/pants), SkinnyTies.com (tie), Palm Beach Vintage (jacket), TUK (shoes)
Ceremony:
Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel
Reception:
Nob Hill Tavern at The MGM Grand
Videographer:
GEBBS Wedding Films
Photographer:
Glitter Lens Photography at the Neon Boneyard Museum
Soundtrack:
More Pictures:
More pics to come soon!!
October 25, 11:28 PM
In exactly one week I will be in Las Vegas celebrating my final night of being Miss Paigey and my reemergence as Mrs. Ballsy*!
This being a largely DIY wedding, I along with my BFF Fenny (of Little Asian Sweatshop) and the enlistment of friends and family including Ballsy and my mom, have been working around the clock these past few months making favors, giftbags, the invitations, my bouquet, custom alterations to my dress. Pretty much everything in preparation for the big day on Dia de los Muertos, Nov 2nd. We're already planning a giant blog entry to submit to Etsy/Offbeat Bride/whoever will take us that will be chock full of shameless self-promotion, hotlinks and PR for us and our friends. Phil (aka Ballsy, aka futurehusband) also went above and beyond the call of awesomeness with wedding contributions and surprised me with news that we'll be having our wedding day recorded by GEBBS Wedding Films who also did his sister Holly Moran's amazing wedding video last year! OMGOMGOMG! (You can see Holly's on the Gebbs website front page) We won't be doing a same day edit as our wedding isn't exactly structured in a way where it would be feasible but we should have an amazing video to watch and cherish forevs after the wedding and an amazing opportunity to share and relive our special day for the rest of our lives.
Somehow I'm imagining this:
This week in Vegas just keeps getting crazier and crazier!!
Phil designed the retro-inspired invitation postcard along with Atomic Cheesecake's photos of us.
The Louise Black ribcage corset I'm wearing overtop of my wedding dress. I'm adding black diamond rhinestones to the lace piping along the bones to get a little extra glimmer on me for the big day.
Fenny and my mom collaborated on the bouquet, Fenny created the form, made the poker card flowers out of Red Dead Redemption cards and braided the 'stems', while my mom filled out the rest with silk flowers, beads and dice. I added in rhinestones to the silk flowers for an extra bit of glimmer. My mom had so much fun helping with this she wants to join up with Fenny's Sweatshop and start making more bouquets.
Fenny also made a hairflower for me out of the Red Dead cards- the skeletal face cards work perfectly with the theme of the wedding. I added rhinestones for extra sparkle. I've been going a bit rhinestone crazy- it looks AWESOME in the sun. Like a disco ball!
I'm giving Fenny's poker card hairflowers away to the female attendees as favors. We had a super fun day putting them all together.
I'm also making skeletal resin brooches with rhinestones for all the ladies. I really like the way these turned out, I want to sell these in my own etsy store and at my vending tables at shows once I get back into my crafting groove.
I'm giving the male attendees Elvis sunglasses and these adorable calavera Elvis stickers by Jose Pulido from his Etsy store.
Also if you would like to see the wedding LIVE on webcam- the Viva Las Vegas chapel will have it streaming as it's going on. The wedding itself will be at 4:30pm on Nov 2nd Las Vegas time. East coast time will be 7:30pm. It's a quick ceremony- only 10 minutes long so don't be late! The link for it is here and it will be in the main chapel. Make sure to download the realplayer and familiarize yourself with the site. You can also view the main chapel on earthcam Las Vegas camera #2!
(*Not that I'm actually changing my name or anything about myself! While this is an important milestone in my life, it is not the end-all, be-all of my existence! If anything I'm looking forward to life post-wedding just so shit can get back to normal and I can get back to work without this giant looming party I'm planning stressing me the hell out.)
September 16, 02:08 PM
As you may or may not know, I am due to be getting hitched to my longtime boyfriend Phil 'Ballsy' Balsman in Las Vegas by an Elvis impersonator on Dia de los Muertos, which is November 2nd. Less than two months away. @__@;;
I've started calling it: WEDD-AGEDDON.
And as is tradition, the couple has to take some professionally shot engagement pictures together to use for the wedding announcements and the like and to give an idea of what kind of couple they are to the family and friends and shit. So Phil came up with the awesome idea of using my friend Stacey Barich, of Atomic Cheesecake Studios in my hometown of Baltimore, Md. I've done pinup shoots with Stacey before and it's always a treat to get shot by her. I've even brought groups of girlfriends from NYC down to get their cheeky shots taken and after seeing the amazing and hilarious engagement shoot she did for my friend Kevin and Ida Slaughter we *knew* Stacey was the perfect fit.
Once we knew we wanted Stacey to take our pictures, I figured out the what kinds of themes would best work with us as a couple. I knew I wanted 3 different shoots, one a bright and sunny picnic type scene that would be appropriate for the family and subsequent 'Thank You' cards after our engagement parties, one that was swank with Phil wearing a fez and incorporating Stacey's giant awesome pimp chair for the actual wedding invitation and the final being completely selfish and goofy of us as Frankenstein's monster and his Bride.
But then it started slipping into the gutter as I started salaciously mustarding Phil's hotdog.
We couldn't help ourselves. We're just filthy-minded individuals.
Classy. We used this one for our actual wedding invitations.
I really like my smile in this one, it's super genuine. Also: Phil's EPIC FEZ!!! (Which is actually Stacey's awesome husband Frank's fez. As is the super cool cocktail jacket that we're actually gonna borrow for the wedding!)
I ADORE Phil's face here. You can really see the love and the 'OMG I'm actually marrying this crazy broad!' Or it might be him thinking 'Please don't break the nice lady's chair, honey.'
With the crazy makeup involved, we did these last. Frank did Phil's makeup and it looks AMAZING.
This was also the shoot Phil was the most into. He got to really cut loose and be himself.
My face in this pic is also one of my most favorite pictures of myself ever. I look like I drew me.
So yeah! If you're in the Maryland area and you wanna have an awesome time getting your pictures done, you should schedule an appointment with Stacey!!
September 05, 09:18 PM
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! XD
SO IT'S OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: As of Friday, September 2nd 2011- I have put my two weeks in at Freeze (aka the Tshirt Mines, aka Art Jail, aka my hellish tshirt design job I've been at for 4 1/2 years that was going nowhere), because I will be officially working for Kodansha manga as a freelance letterer! That's right, all- I can *finally* say it.
I *OFFICIALLY* work in comics! XD
This is a HUGE step in the right direction. It will also give me the opportunity to do more stuff for myself once my schedule regulates- more commissions, more projects. I'm hoping to actually start getting my comic together actually DOING the damn thing down the road. What's the old saying? Freelancers work 16 hours a day for themselves instead of 8 hours a day for someone else? But this is sooo much more satisfying of work. Plus I get to have my name on my work and I've got way more control over my incoming money. More work equals more pay! What a concept!
So EXCITED to no longer work in the fashion industry, even if I was in the lower rungs. The entire industry is rotten from the top and full of the worst people. No trends, no buyers, no style guides, no whims, no 'I don't liiiike purple!', no 'that isn't funny enough', no verbage, no Walmart, no cubicles, no snotty fashion bitches in the elevators, no $12 Midtown lunches....
It's just me and the letters.
I'm not supposed to disclose exactly what I'm working on yet, but it's pretty high profile. My mom actually knows what it is, if that says anything. As of tonight I've finished 40 pages of a 276 paged book that's due at the end of September. Slowly building up my sound effect library. Only 1 approved sound effect font for this particular comic so I've gotta stretch and squash it a bajillion different ways. Once I'm done my final two weeks at Freeze and I'm free to work my full freelance schedule getting the pages done will be a snap. Plus I get to work alongside my most favorite person in the world, my future husband Ballsy. Speaking of which, these next two months leading up to the wedding are gonna be crazy!! And afterwards? Things are gonna be awesome. ^__^
September 05, 08:02 PM
Zoinks! What a weekend!! Baltimore Comic Con 2011 marks my *4th* year of going 'pro-ish'. Having a table and hustling my wares at the Artist Alley as opposed to attending shows as a fan and schlepping my portfolio around to anyone who would give it a moments notice and an ounce of wisdom or advice. With a table you have a home base, a guaranteed chair, your work out on display and an opportunity to make money as opposed to spending it. Which once you start working a convention, it's really hard to go back. I sure as hell don't plan on it.
Baltimore Con this year was busier than I've ever seen it before. I'm sure Stan Lee being there was part of it. It also being a two-day convention, that starts at 10AM both days (ouch), so you either have to get there ass early in the morning or you get there after the doors open to set up. Which when a con opens on a Saturday, it's basically the convention equivalent of being air-dropped in the middle of Panang. Especially since my last convention was Heroes Con 2 months earlier, which was a 3 day convention, starting on a Friday, which eases you into it. But yeah, not this time at Baltimore, plus my table was in a much less desirable spot than it had been last year (smack in the middle of Artist Alley, in the tightest packed row because some jerks behind us decided it'd be cool to turn their 2 tables into a makeshift booth and eat up a ton of space behind the tables), and again, it was CRAZY. So set up was pretty hectic. Pretty sure I had at least 2 panic attacks. @__@;;
Fortunately I had my BFF Fenny there to help with table hosting duties in exchange for some table space to sell her Little Asian Sweatshop hair flowers that had been such a hit at Psychobilly Luau. Which is always awesome because Fenny has an amazing infallible energy and she can schmooze and hustle with the best of them. I also hosted some items from my NYC BFF Christy's etsy store, including her famous Cupcake Eating Batman/Batgirl jewelry. Over all the table was very successful! It's a pity that the signal for the wifi was so bad in the Baltimore Convention Center, because we could have made a *killing* if we were able to use our Square credit card reader. The table was a good success though. Fenny's flowers were a hit, and we became referred to as the 'Wives and Girlfriends Table', which is definitely a niche that few have been able to fill at comic cons. Fenny was able to sell to several unsuspecting fellas while playing the angle of how either they should bring something home from the con to their girl, or if they were actually at the show, they should get them a little somethin'-somethin' for being such a good sport.
The show as a whole was good, though the added crowds were stressful and Artist Alley seems to be getting tighter. Fenny and I were discussing next year possibly getting a full-sized booth to sell our stuff at, especially with the bigger projects and collaborations we're planning on doing next year. We've got a lot of ideas for the future of Paigey and Little Asian Sweatshop and to supplement the cost of the full-sized booth we'll probably 'rent' out space to a select few of our friends as well who would like the exposure.
August 12, 04:09 PM
My fourth year in Artist Alley!!
Table 130 in Artist Alley!!
To celebrate my 4th year of going 'pro-ish' I'm having a SALE!
ALL WEEKEND! Buy 3 items get the FOURTH ITEM FREE * **!
(* free item will be the lowest priced item)
(**only Paigey items, I'll have friend's stuff for sale at my table that will not be included in the sale)
Convention memories!!
Here's me at my first table ever at Baltimore Comic Con 2008!
August 07, 11:51 PM
Holeeeey crap. What a crazy, fun, unexpectedly successful weekend!!
I vended the 5th Annual Psychobilly Luau this past weekend, which is the largest psychobilly get-together on the east coast.
With awesome giant banner action!
What is psychobilly, you ask? From Wikipedia:
"Psychobilly is a fusion genre of rock music that mixes elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and other genres. It is one of several subgenres of rockabilly which also include thrashabilly, trashabilly, punkabilly, surfabilly and gothabilly. Psychobilly is often characterized by lyrical references to science fiction, horror and exploitation films, violence, lurid sexuality, and other topics generally considered taboo, though often presented in a comedic or tongue-in-cheek fashion. It is often played with an upright double bass instead of the electric bass more common in modern rock music. Psychobilly gained underground popularity in Europe beginning in the early 1980s, but remained largely unknown in the United States until the late 1990s. Since then the advent of several notable psychobilly bands has led to its mainstream popularity and attracted international attention to the genre."
I attended both Friday July 22nd and Saturday July 23rd of the event, at Public Assembly and The Bell House, both in Brooklyn respectively. I never did an even like this, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. I had had a bad run of vending at street fairs and flea markets and really wanted to to expand my fan base but wasn't sure exactly what types of events would welcome work such as mine. Then my friend Laura Rebel-Angel get ahold of me about vending the Psychobilly Luau this year, which I had seen posters for in previous years but never had a chance to get out to. I'm always bad at going to shows like these just as a spectator. I don't get out much and when I do and it's a scene I admire but am greatly intimidated by and don't have much personal exposure to I often find myself awkwardly hanging out on the sidelines with friends who have no idea what's going on that I drag with me. So at least having a table set up people can come to me, see what I'm all about and I get this illusion of being involved even though I'm actually a dorky shut-in. Plus it gives me the opportunity to make a little extra scratch on the side. ;)
So along with Meredith, my longtime pal from Maryland up for the weekend as my trusty helper I set up shop Friday evening at Public Assembly in Williamsburg to an overwhelmingly awesome crowd of folks who were super in to what I had to offer. My best friend Fenny even sent up some of the custom-made paper hair flowers she creates for her Little Asian Sweatshop store on etsy to sell for her. Her most popular being roses she crafts from playing cards, like the one pictured below, which were a HIT! Out of the 20 she sent me I have 2 left! Craziness! If you wanna get one for yourself head on over to her etsy store and check out all her goodies!
check them out in her etsy store
I also had my iPhone Square card reader for the show, which I still had yet to properly use (as most convention centers are lacking in phone signals). I must say the ability to read credit cards really put my vending success at the Luau on par with some of my best comic convention table experiences! I really hope I'm able to get some wifi at Baltimore Comic Con coming up, because getting that extra business would be beyond awesome, as people are apt to spend more with a credit card as we've been somewhat conditioned to think of it as not 'real' money.
in the works!
I have been playing around with 'fancier' renditions of my jewelry, as I am fascinated with all things sparkly- especially rhinestones. I blame burlesque. So I got these super cute cameo frames that I put my artwork in, but I felt they needed a bit of extra oomph and working my dayjob in the Fashion District I'm constantly passing all these stores with excellent rhinestones and beadwork. So I eventually learned that one way to attach them to pieces is by these fun little things called headpins, and thus A NEW SUB-OBSESSION IS BORN. So now I'm concocting a separate 'line' of Paigey jewelry that's gonna be all fancy-schmancy with sparkles n' stuff. I'll be adding these new pieces to my etsy store in the coming month and you can also see them up close and personal once Baltimore Comic Con rolls around at my Artist Alley table .
Now if they could only get that AC working...
and to go up on my etsy store soon!!
I'm definitely going to be back next year to vend for the show, it was a whopping success and I'm already talking to Fenny about her coming up to vend as well with MORE hairflowers and even more goodies that's she and I will be creating between now and then.
Wanna see more pics of the event?
Papermag has a great photo essay right here and Sailor Jerry (one of the sponsors) has some great coverage of Saturday on their Facebook page!
July 26, 02:34 PM
I just recently came across this very candid video interview I did at MoCCA Fest this year, by Alrick Collins, aka REDesign Qreative. I go on about Baltimore, Tex Avery, Ernesto Cabral and anatomy.
Which if you peep the viddy at :39, you can get a pretty good gander at some my own anatomy as well. ::hurr hurr hurr::
What I love is you can totally over-hear my table mate Jared telling his friend next to us about how a large percentage of people coming by to see my table are either bright-eyed girls or dirty old men.
You can see my full con report for MoCCA Fest 2011 here!
July 19, 09:50 AM
Yay! San Diego Comic Con is right around the corner! Not only will all my nerd blogs that I follow and social media outlets be exploding with news of upcoming pop cultural phenomena but I can also officially post my Tron Bonne a la Big Daddy Roth that will be in Udon's Mega man Tribute book that is being released as well!! Yay!!
Official info:
MEGA MAN TRIBUTE LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER
-the book is premiering at the San Diego Comic-con at the UDON booth (#5037), July 20-24
-for fans not attending the show, you can preorder the book at UDONstore.com
MEGA MAN TRIBUTE SOFTCOVER
-The standard softcover edition is also available for preorder on amazon.com
July 11, 01:38 PM
Back in May '10 I was interviewed over Memorial Day weekend by my good friend Tameeka Ballance, who is a videographer and runs a blog called Tameeka Time that features art videos (including graffiti by my former dayjob boss man Cortes) and Jersey Shore recaps (if you're into that sort of thing).
Give my girl some love and go on over to her site to check out more videos!
Check out the full Paigey coverage over at Tameeka Time here!!
July 03, 02:28 PM
Including stuff like my 'Greatest Hits' bracelet, with 8 of my favorite pinup girls on it! It's like a wearable Paigey portfolio!
If you're a fan but live too far away to come see me at events like comic cons and burlesque shows my etsy store is the *perfect* place to pick up some awesome Paigey merch! I always throw in extra goodies like buttons and stickers with every order!
June 28, 09:28 PM
Wow- so Heroes Con (June 3-5 in Charlotte, NC) was an absolute BLAST! I can see why it's one of the darlings of the comic convention circuit- super artist friendly, well managed, an amazing guest list with lots to do both outside and within the con. I'm definitely coming back next year and hope to be a Heroes regular! (Maybe even be cool enough to get on the guest list myself one day... ::siggghhhh::)
There were a couple hiccups, but mostly because it being a unfamiliar con I didn't know exactly what to expect. First and foremost, next year we are SO flying. We took the bus from NYC to my parent's house in Maryland after work Wednesday night, which was running an hour late and is, of course the bus, which is never fun. Then Thursday morning we packed up my mom's VW Beetle and took the 7 hour drive from Maryland to NC. Which is WAY more fun at 21 with no responsibilities and you actually believe there's adventure (or drugs) around every corner, versus at 30 when you're pissed that it's taking so long and you're missing work and thusly losing money. Money which could have paid for the hour and a half flight from NYC to NC.
Side note: if you're in Charlotte check out Irish joint Ri Ra for dinner.
Potato cakes are off the HOOOOOK. ;d
Also, with Heroes Con being so artist friendly, sketches were a very big deal there. Which is something I've never been big on. I actually turned down requests which I felt kinda bad about. I just have this whole thing about focusing my attention on sales and customer service when I'm working my convention table. Standing and being able to present myself alongside my work and address potential customers in the eyes. While wearing a corset and feather headdress. And posing for pictures. It's very hard to split my attention between sales and producing artwork. I'm gonna try next year for Heroes tho, I've already been looking into standing-height roll around laptop desks so I can have my supplies set up to draw while talking and selling. That and I need to convince Fenny to come down with me next year and talk when I can't. Not getting dressed up for conventions however, is out of the question. That's just part of who I am. Plus shoot, it def helps out with getting folks attention, amirite? ;)
FOR YOU.
Also, with it being a 3 day convention that was away from my usual NYC/Baltimore territory Phil and I stayed at the Westin Charlotte, which is right across the street from the convention center. It is also the official hotel of the con, which forced me to have post-convention socialization for the first time in ohhh 7-8 years? And my first post convention socialization since I went 'pro'. Which was an equal mix of terrifying PTSD from when I used to socialize at conventions alongside mostly a rather unsavory crowd who would regularly embarrass me in front of my heroes/potential collaborators and exhilarating as people are starting to recognize me and my work and I'm starting to become welcomed as a peer into a profession that I've always wanted to to be a part of. Finding a place to hang out at the hotel bar however still has that 'new kid finding a seat in the cafeteria' feeling though. See usually I just go home, tear off whatever crazy getup I'm wearing, order Thai food and watch tv in my pj's. On a rare occasion I've gone out to dinner afterwards with friends, but for the most part I'm so exhausted from standing, talking, smiling, posing and selling I just wanna boogie on home and collapse. But fortunately I had friends at the convention, notably my "twin sister from another mister" Steph Buscema and her hubby Rob Harrigan, who are some of the awesomest, realest, most no bullshit people I know. And talented as hell to boot. Through them I also had the utmost pleasure of meeting kindred spirit and functioning psychopath Marsha Cooke, part of the team who's created/writing Teenage Satan, an insanely cool app/comic/game that Steph is doing the art for. It looks way cool and super fun. Can't wait to play with it!
Check out Teenage Satan's preview:
Something else I was concerned with that ended up working somewhat to my favor was my table placement. All the way in the back of aisle 100, facing the wall it wasn't the most ideal spot for customers and crowd flow. Buuut-- I was also directly across from the only men's room on the convention floor, so coming out of the bathroom the first thing you see is ME! ;D And everyone's gotta hit the can on a long show day eventually. Which resulted in some small talk with some of my fave creators, some I knew from online and other conventions, some I met fresh this weekend. Next year I'd ideally like a more centralized location, but I did make the best of an otherwise crappy spot. One of the folks I ran into was my online art buddy Jared Moriatis of Beast Wreck Studios, who makes crazy colorful, badass tshirts. His Grrrrilla shirt was actually was the one purchase I allowed myself all weekend, which I get always compliments on!
Both Friday and Saturday had me a little worried money-wise, as the earnings from my table by Saturday night were disconcerting at best. Lots of talking but no one was really buying anything. People seemed more interested in superhero related merch and interpretations of already existing franchises versus original characters. Also I was outside of my NYC/MD 'territory', I've been working to get myself out there on a local level up north, but down here I'm an unknown. I heard about the Saturday night art auction before coming to the con, with it being a big deal and stuff goes for crazy amounts and it helps Heroes be the awesome convention it is, plus it's awesome PR and gets the people who run the show to notice your work. (And maybe invite you back as a guest. Nudge. Nudge.) So in a random fit of karmic desperation, I put my Kitty Pryde marker piece that I did like 7 years ago in the auction for a paltry $45. The same piece that has been in my print book on my table for the past two years that anyone could have bought at any time from me, but at the actual art auction, which I was too tired to make it to myself, ended up selling for over $200! Haha, alright! Can I get the rest of my stuff sold thru them and keep the money? Shoot. Wish I had made the auction, it sounded like a good time.
Sunday I had my 'Sunday Sale-On Sailor! Sale', where I dressed like a sailor and all items at my table were buy one get one half off (of the lowest priced item). The interest generated in my work from the auction plus the return of people who spent most of Saturday just talking to me to my table on Sunday to buy made me earn back well over my table costs. Which was an awesomely pleasant surprise. We were also invited to the 'Dead Dog Party' after the show at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find, the comic shop that puts it all on. It's mostly for all the pros and people who work the show as a big 'thank you' and an opportunity to mix and mingle alongside fellow creators. And eat some awesome southern BBQ! After awhile we figured we'd head back to the hotel bar for a nightcap with a few friends and actually ended up closing down the bar with Marsha Cooke and her husband, legendary artist/creator Darwyn Cooke (pardon my fangirl moment: ::squeeeeeeeeeee!::) and new friends writer/artist/smartass Andy Belanger and awesome supercouple Jeni and Ben DeFeo. I even helped Marsha discover one of her new favorite drinks, Stoli Blueberry vodka and Sprite, which she has dubbed the Blueberry Pop. 'It's freakin' effervescent, man!' And yeah, totally delish. I get them all the time. ^_^ Try one for yourself next time you're at the bar!
Overall, I can see why HeroesCon is so beloved by professionals and fans alike. I wish more conventions were like Heroes, with being so out for the fans and pros alike and all for the love of comics. No giant pavilions. No multi-media assaults to the senses. No giant movie props or platoons of booth babes. ::cough cough:: Like NYCC... ::cough cough::
***Thank you to Tony Hicks and Joe Hicks for the awesome pics from the show! You two are sweethearts!**
Updates
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@Nicest_Girl_Evr Yeah, light jacket weather at night. Weather was great that time of year. So excited for you!4 hours ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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::Squee:: Confirmed for my first interview via podcast next month. I am excite!!14 hours ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@Nicest_Girl_Evr If you have any q's please don't hesitate to ask. This is the place where we got hitched- http://t.co/APBhDF3q14 hours ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@Nicest_Girl_Evr Oh my goodness how did I miss the big news?? Just backtracked all your tweets!! CONGRATS!!! <3 <3 <330 hours ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@joweldon DAT ASS.2 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Finally making some headway on my 2nd art book- using InDesign, with a foreword and an index with commentary! It's like a REAL book! :D2 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@EricDrumm My thoughts exactly.2 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@MyNameIsAcacia Oh super cool!! I'm always down for grabbing a pint!2 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@chrislamb Haha, now I can't help but see that too.2 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@jungle_goddess Gaaaaaawwwwwww.... X32 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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New art! 'The Derbytauntes' http://t.co/bZRYPryy3 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who pays way too much attention to this. http://t.co/oQt7LUuE #DoctorWho3 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@jungle_goddess No kiddin'!3 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Rainy days and Mondays always get me down...3 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@joweldon Holy crap. Does it come with a winged Valkyrie helmet?? Cuz it should.5 days ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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