Christmas card 2011

Merry Holidays to everyone, and a happy New Year!
...I think I already said that before.

Here's this year's Christmas card. As every year, my wonderful husband Marc Rueda did the drawing and ink, and I took care of the colors.

I couldn't upload this sooner 'cause, you know, some people didn't get their printed cards until now... ;)

And now, everybody sing! "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer..." =D

...Oh by the way, if you like this card and would like to commission us for making one like it for you (be it for Christmas, birthday, wedding or anything else), feel free to send us an email! :)

Lani

This is the main character for a comic project I'm working on and hope to present to editors during the next year. Oh, I've still got a long way to go, I'm still pitching the story for the book and defining the characters. But I'll get there.

Anyway, this is Lani. Some of you might remember her with the name "Hisui", because she's a recurring character in my drawings and I decided to finally turn her into a story. I didn't want to use japanese names since it won't have anything to to with Japan. Lani suits her well.
This is just a sketch for her design, I'll obviously do a better, cleaner design drawing.

I won't tell you much more about her character, you'll just have to wait and hope I find a publisher for this! ;)

Merry Christmas!

A really old piece, back from 2008. But anyway, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, so I wanted to wish you all some very happy Holidays!

Soldier of Silence

Ah, Sailor Saturn. I've been meaning to draw her for a long time now, but I was never able to portray her just the way I wanted to. This one's not quite it either, but it's close. I liked her expression in the sketch better, though. And her skirt should sit lower on her hips, it looks weird.

Sailor Saturn always has, and always will be, my favourite of the Sailor Senshi.
The sickly young girl, barely starting to become a woman, raised by her tortured single father, so fragile and shy. And yet, she awakens to become the most powerful of all the Senshi (with exception of Sailor Moon, who surpasses her after SuperS), able to destroy a whole world with one blow of her Silence Glaive if she wishes to do so.

It's a shame she doesn't appear much in the show.

I've never been too fond of her Super costume, it doesn't really suit her. So here's her original form.

2011 Art Summary

What's this? Another update the same day? I'm sorry, I don't mean to spam. ;)

Anyway, I wanted to join the fun of the art summary memes on DeviantArt for this year! :D

So, as you see, all those months I hardly upload anything here (or anywhere else for that matter) don't mean I'm not drawing! In fact, I was working almost the whole year on my latest graphic novel: "I Date Dead People".

January I had only started doing the rough layouts, february I started with the pencils, and from march onward the inking (and shading) fun started, too.
July it was time to do the cover for the book, and from that month on all through most of september the deadlines crawled up on me and I got some help with the ink from my wonderful husband and fellow artist Marc Rueda.

We finished the book on time (even ahead of it! That's 124 pages in 9 months.) by the end of september, and then october... I didn't even want to hold a pencil. XD Nah, we also went to Germany for some weeks and bought a house, so no energy left for drawing. :P

Then came november and creativity kicked in again, which is really nice. Got to use my watercolors again. I ♥ my watercolors, and when I'm working on a comic I don't usually ever get a chance to use them. ^^"

I even got my first "Daily Deviation" ever! And I'm really grateful to everyone who supported me and continues to do so.
Thanks, y'all!

Aaaand that's that. There are still a few days left of december, so let's see what I can come up with in that time. ^^


...Oh yeah, you can get the blank meme here.

"I Date Dead People" random panel (2)

Mushroom Fairy (Collaboration w/ Jenny Ackermann, part 2)

Phew, I fiiiinally finished the colors for the second part of Jenny Ackermann's and my collaboration. For this one, she provided the outlines and I colored it.

It took a long time, as you might know I'm not really used to complicated digital coloring, so this was quite a challenge and a great practice. I wanted to see how far I can push it.
May I say I'm very proud of her knees? Her left one, to be precise. I love how it turned out. Knees are just something I don't quite understand, so. XD

You can see her cute original outlines here. ^^

Princess Kidagakash (Colors by Jenny Ackermann)

Yay, Jenny finished the colors for our collaboration! =D
I really like how it turned out, she did a great job on it. The glowing crystal turned out beautifully.

I'm still working on the colors for her lineart (sorry it's taking so long!), but when I finish it I'll upload it here, too. :)

For those who missed it, here's the link to my inked version.
Yes, I know it's directly beneath this post, but it's for those who open this one "out of context".

Princess Kidagakash

These are the inks I made for a collaboration with Jenny Ackermann - she did some outlines for me to color, I did some for her.
Let's see what she makes of it!

I felt like drawing the always-forgotten-Disney-princess Kida (from Disney's "Atlantis: The Lost Empire"). Her character is just really cool and I feel kind of sorry for her since she hardly gets any attention at all.

Obviously, Kida belongs to Disney, not to me. ;)

[ Update: Here's the link to Jenny's colored version! ]

"I Date Dead People" random panel (1)

Whenever I have nothing else to post, I'll just put up a random panel from my last comic. :)

No hugz!

Here's a little piece I did just for fun.

You should not bother a Tasmanian Devil - he could rip your arm off. Even if you're a demon.
Still, Tazzies are just terribly cute.


Related posts:

Parasol

Another old piece I never posted. It might not be very fitting for this time of the year, but anyway.
It was an illustration I made for Audrey Diallo, as a gift for the years we worked together and as a thank you for letting me stay at her place when I went to the Japan Expo.

COMMISSIONS

Hi everyone!

So, I was wondering, would anyone be interested in commissions?
I've never done any like this before, but right now I've no full-time project to work on, so I have time for that sort of things. ^^

Just send me an email if you're interested.

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COMMISSIONS:

Clean pencil drawing:

Din A5: 30 €
Din A4: 40 €
+ 10 € for every
additional character


Inked art:

Din A5: 40 €
Din A4: 50 €
+ 15 € for every
additional character


Colored art (watercolors):

Din A5: 70 €
Din A4: 90 €
+ 35 € for every
additional character


I will usually draw the characters from the waist / hips up or bust and with a simple background. If you would like a full body illustration, I might have to charge a little more because the time and effort invested would be higher. I hope you can understand - but don't hesitate to send me a mail if you do want a full body shot!

In any case, I'd like you to know that I try to do my very, very best in every single commission I make.

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SAMPLE ART:

Please note that none of these examples were actual commissions (since I'm new to this), so they're actually just samples so you can see my skill level. In terms of composition, the watercolor illustrations would be closest to what I have in mind.

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PAYMENT:

Payment via .

I will send you a High-Res TIFF file (300 dpi) of your illustration.

I suggest you pay me the first half of the price after I send you the sketch of the drawing, and then the second half after the piece is finished.

If you would like me to send you the original art, please tell me and we can figure out how to do that. Of course I'd have to charge an extra shipping fee for that.

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To prevent anyone's time to be wasted, I'd ask anyone who wants to commission me to accept the following rules:

RULES:

1) I will not do any of the following:

Anything offensive.
Anything with violent content.
Anything explicitly sexual.*
Any highly detailed backgrounds (unless I choose so myself).
Machines. Cause I'm terribly bad at 'em.


2) No major changes once I've started working on your commission.

I won't start over a piece just because you changed your mind, or change a complete pose, or whatever. (This is just in case, I know most people are very considerate. =) )
Minor changes (e.g. "That character's belt should look a little different" or "the right arm does seem a little too long") are okay in the sketching stage only. Past that (in the cleanup, ink, or color stage) I won't make any changes anymore.


3) The commissions are for personal use only! You may not use them for commercial aims.
If you want a commission for commercial use, please contact me so we can talk about the conditions.


*Breasts are okay with me, so are nudes if the genitalia are hidden somehow, but that's as far as it goes.

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Now I just hope somebody actually wants me to draw something for him/her... I'll definetely do my best! =D


Completed commissions: