After Rocky passed away, I took down his cage and moved in some furniture from my childhood bedroom. I found a drawer containing some cherished art from when I was in middle school!
Yikes! These were one of my first experiments with alcohol markers (specifically, Prismacolor Markers). And as you can see, Baby Amanda hit a few road bumps. I wasn't using appropriate paper. I didn't use appropriate liners. Just overall, I had no idea what the heck I was doing. I made three attempts and was pretty dissatisfied with all of them at the time. I just couldn't get the markers to do what I wanted.
But now, many years have passed and I know exactly what I was doing wrong: Everything. I used a water-based liner so that it wouldn't bleed with the alcohol-based markers. I used cardstock that could handle the job. I didn't want to change the design this time around (maybe in the future I will), so I just kind of did a quick mash-up of the three reference images and here's the result:
If you'd like to watch me work on this, be sure to check out Redraw with Me: Middle School OC Edition:
I'm going to be upfront. My hand was in the way for most of the video. Oops? I'll be more careful next time.
Pretty Nurse Penicillin (PNP) is a magical girl RPG project of mine that I've been working on/off on for a few years. It started out as a concept for a comic, but I feel like it works much better as a game. I purchased and larned how to use RPG Maker just to make this game! But it's quite a project and will take a long time to complete. Anyway, meet the main character: Penicillin! I featured her on one of the ATC I posted last time.
One of her more recent outfit revamps. I've since changed her shoes a little and added a new cap
Original concept art
Early demo title screen
Penicillin is a reluctant magical nurse girl. She's recruited by Cotton, a sentient puffball, to lead a team of magical nurses in a fight against evil. She has a foul mouth and thinks that this whole magical girl thing is nonsense. That's all for now!
Spike there is the first one that I did. So you can blame him for the inundation of ATCs.
I really like Chibiusa. I think she's probably the cutest senshi, and I think that's kind of funny now. I totally hated her as a kid!
Ruze is an OC of mine. More on her later.
The
finished copies all have a number and my signature on them, but I
scanned these ones before I got around to that. The next batch of
scanned cards will all have that visible.
They'll be at Otakon next week, P-11 in the Artist Alley!
My latest obsession is Artist Trading Cards (ATCs). OK, OK, I'm a little behind the trend. These little buggers started to gain popularity a few years ago. I'd heard of them but never made any of my own. I picked up my first one at Baltimore Comic Con last year, it was a Sailor Moon one by an artist named Emily R. Gillis. I liked that it's an easy way to pick up often one-of-a-kind artworks without breaking the bank.
Just this week, almost a year after purchasing my first, I decided, hey, why not make some of my own? I was about to buy some pre-cut cards when my sister pointed out that she gets high-quality scrap papers from her job at a print shop. So I got them cut down for FREE! Thanks, Maria! Today I finished my 20th ATC.
#3 "Emmie" - Probably my favorite one so far.
I'm on fire man, somebody stop me! Some of them will be available at Otakon 2015 next week. Table P-11! (Thanks again, Maria!) Stay tuned for more.
