Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sketchblog Edition 123: life is WONDERFUL, you are LOVED.

Well, I certainly have kept you waiting for a while, haven't I?

But I have some wonderful things to show you!

Life has been busy and amazingly awesome,
and I'm loving every minute of it!
I've learned a lot over the past month and a half and have grown stronger than I thought I could ever be,
and it was all through sheer force of will.
I changed my own life through the power of positive thinking,
and things are certainly looking brighter than they have before.

A couple of good bits of news to share:
First of all, I am now a keyholder at work!
There's not much of a difference between what I was doing before and what I'm doing now,
except I have more hours and more responsibilities.
...Okay I guess that's a big difference.

But!
Because of that, I realized I only had so much time left to work on my thesis.
The quarter ends on March 13th and I want to finish before then.
So I hunkered down last weekend and wrote 19 pages of my paper and sent the draft off to my committee,
then penciled two pages (minus tones and word balloons) this week, along with some thumbnails!
Here's a sneak peek:

TAoCKF Chapter 1: An Unexpected Engagement,
page 7 base pencils

TAoCKF Chapter 1: An Unexpected Engagement,
page 8 base pencils
  
TAoCKF Chapter 1: An Unexpected Engagement,
thumbnails for pages 11-12





Well I hope that at least whets your appetite for TAoCKF!

Other projects I've taken on recently include my very first screenprinting experience:
handmade Valentines!
I made almost 200 of them and handed them out in the park today,
and I still have some left over!
I also screenprinted three t-shirts and a hoodie for myself, and will be wearing them tomorrow and Valentine's Day.
I am so excite.
Here are some photos of the Valentines as they were being printed on some fabulous Utrecht watercolor paper, which is currently on sale (*cough*you should get some because it's seriously awesome*cough*):




And here's the wallpaper version of the Valentine,
which will soon be made available for download on my website soon (so keep an eye out!):
800x600


I also decided that my Cintiq pen needed a better home than its old crummy decaying plastic container that it came in,
so I made one!
It was such a success, I think I'll start selling them on commission for anyone who is tired of trying to figure out how to carry their Cintiq/tablet pen like me!
Starting price is $5, but if you provide me with your own fabric or old piece of clothing to make it out of, it'll only be $3 (or $5 for two)!
Oh hey, there's an in-progress TAoCKF page 8! :D

I recently started revisiting a very old piece of art of mine that was done way back when I was in college.
Some of you may remember my story Tsubasa No Negai
(which roughly translates to Wish for Wings, or Wish for Tsubasa,
depending on how you want to view it,
since the main character's name was Tsubasa).
It wasn't a horrible story, and the piece I made for it wasn't bad,
but I've since improved many of my skills and honed my own style,
and decided that it was time to scrap the story and start from scratch,
rewriting it as well as redesigning all the characters.
So I wanted to do a redux of the piece to get myself motivated again.
Here are some progress shots:
sketch version

foreground figure linework- made adjustments to the pose and design


foreground figure linework without sketch

working out the sword design

refining the design with some references

laying the sword sketch into the composition

foreground figure and final sword design with colored linework

flat colors on the foreground figure/sword

designing the middleground figure

costume design for middleground figure

"weapon" (Shofar) design for middleground figure

altered costume design for middleground figure


I'm really enjoying reworking this project and can't wait to get back into it. :)


I honestly haven't been doing a whole lot of sketching in my sketchbook lately, but here's what I do have:

Some button/sticker designs for my good friends Jordan Hess and Jennifer Cram, who are both currently working on their films, Puppy Love and Falls, respectively.

Redesign sketches for "Tsubasa," whose name is most likely going to change to Tsipporah, or "Zip."

Drawin' coworkers at our "holiday" party at Moon River!
Going from left to right, top to bottom: Neva, Justin, Kyah, Chris, Caleb, Ilene

And here we have Rita and Ash

Finally, as a special thank you to my number one commissioner, and supporter for donating to my blog(s):
Although... he got a haircut apparently, so this sketch is no longer valid. 8[
Thanks anyway, Brady!




That is all I have to show you for now!
Thanks so much for continuing to read and enjoy my sketches!

Love you all,
and have a goodnight!

<3,
Emily J Sampson


p.s. If you are in the Savannah area, you should totally hit up Utrecht on Valentine's Day.
Just sayin'.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Not-Sketchblog 17: Profit!

Hello there, my most valued readers!
It's been a month since I started engaging myself in the art of being positive,
and let me tell you it is quite a success!
I'm feeling better about myself, my life, and the world around me.
I couldn't have done it without the support of all my loyal friends, of course.

A couple things I'd like to address really quickly:
1.  The absence/infrequency of posts here lately.
I know, and I'm sorry.
I've been quite the busy bee, working at Utrecht part time and also hammering away at my thesis (as much as I can).
I've been sketching and working on side projects in my spare time,
and I hope to post those for you soon,
but until March, this blog will be a little sparse as far as updates go.
I apologize for that.

2.  You may have noticed a "Donate" button in the upper right hand corner there.
That's not a glitch.
As much as I hate stooping to asking for handouts, I simply can't keep this blog and its sister BananaBlog going without financial help.
I'm not asking for much, but if you enjoy what you see here and want to see more,
it would help greatly to have backers supporting me.
As incentive, if you donate, no matter how much or how little,
I will draw you a personalized digital derp sketch!

That all being said, please understand that you don't have to donate to get my love. :)

As always, I appreciate your continued readership,
and I wish you a very happy and love-filled day!

Be looking forward to a huge post very soon!

<3,
Emily J Sampson