A tumblr!?

I have decided to start a tumblr to see how it goes!
thejessymonster.tumblr.com

Monster Tea Party revisited.

So lately I've been putting most of my time into a piece that I started quite a while ago, and then set aside for... oh, life, and all that grown-up stuff. It's coming along nicely, but I don't quite have a finished piece to post just yet, so instead I thought I would show a little of my process work.

It started with a little doodle in one of my sketchbooks (it was so long ago that I have no idea which one it is, so at this point, I won't be posting it) that I enlarged, topped with some tracing paper, and tightened up. Then I scanned it, dropped it in Photoshop, did some minor editing, came up with a couple of color studies, and picked the one I liked best.

The last time I posted about this piece (back in January.... yipes), I had just barely begun to lay down the color layers that would (will) become the finished work. It is much, much further along now and its neat for me to see the progress that I've made on it so far. The image I posted in January was this one:

But now, after picking the project back up and working on it off and on for the past couple of weeks, it looks like this:

It's almost there.

I stare at the sky a lot.

I made a star map of Ursa Major and some of the surrounding constellations for fun.  This is relatively accurate and applies to what those of us in the Northern Hemisphere will see this August.

Speaking of which...

Seriously, nothing calms me down like being outside and looking up at the stars.

How I feel today.

How I feel today:

On the bright side though... I just managed to post this from my phone. Pardon the weird coloration... I took the picture with my phone, too. In a dark room. With obviously poor lighting. Is that an artist foul or something?

Being a grown up is tough.

So... I haven't used my art supplies in so long that they were covered in dust.

Works in progress...

So it's a new year, and my resolution should probably be to keep up with the artistic side of my life more, and it is... somewhat.  I'm currently working two jobs and attempting to maintain a fairly decent social life, but I will continue to mash in as much art stuff as I can.  I've got a couple of projects that are in progress (they may or may not have been in this state for a while...) but I figured I would post some of them to prove that I still do artwork, despite my currently very busy state.

I started this one traditional, just as a silly doodle.  But then something happened and I decided I rather liked it and wanted to push it a bit further.  I wasn't satisfied with how the traditional one was turning out, so I decided to start a digital version as well and let it turn into whatever it would turn into.  I might try to re-do the traditional one, too.

This next project is one that I'm pretty excited about, actually, but being that it's still in just a rather fancy color study state, it's got a while to go before I'm going to call this one complete.

Speaking of cupcakes...

So lately I've been doing this thing where I do multiple versions of the same idea.  It's actually kind of fun, and it relieves the pressure of doing things perfect the first time around... so I like it, heh.

These are posted in the order that I made them.... and I rather prefer the way it came out the second time around.  It's a little more time consuming, but I'm kinda like this multiple versions things.  :)

The time has come to talk of many things, of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax, of undersea monkeys and glittery things.

Oh boy… this post is long overdue.  Life has been a bit… overwhelming as of late.  But so it goes… and, at long last, another update!  And it's more birthday presents (really, really late ones…) this time, for my littlest sister (she's 6 now).  I like to call her a Sea Monkey.  I'm not quite sure where that one came from, but then again, I'm not quite sure where most of the things that pop into my head come from.

Anyway, I fashioned a brand new monster in her honor: ZeeZee the Sea Monkey Monster (it kind of has a ring to it… right? right???).  She is the princess of alllll the Sea Monkey Monsters (there are quite a few of them, if you didn't know).

I also decided to use this as a reason to embark on one of my many new adventures: learning how to sew felt plushies.  Overall, I think she came out pretty successfully.  My seams definitely need some work, but I'm attempting to transfer my loose, slightly messy line work into my sewing… I'll get there eventually.

And one last thing… another new monster is in the works!

This monster is super awesome.

Hello! Meet Tristan. All you really need to know about him is that he is super awesome.

(Also, he was drawn on an iPad using an app called Brushes).

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2!

This drawing pretty much sums up my night last night... seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at midnight.  (By the way, this was the first time, despite all my efforts, that I've gotten to see a Harry Potter movie at midnight on the release date... I'm kinda stoked).  Also, thanks goes to my dear roomie, Jess, who made the evening a fun little adventure (Jess is to the left, I am to the right).  <3

Have I mentioned that Instagram is kinda fun?

Cause it is.

Octo-monster in-progress sculpture!

So I started sculpting a little octo-monster today out of Sculpy... its got a little ways to go before I'll say its good to go though.  Also, I've just discovered that Instagram is kinda cool.

Birthdays!

I really like making my friends things for their birthdays (well... also, just in general...), instead of just buying them something, because I feel like its more personal and hopefully it means something a little more to them (did I mention hopefully?).  Anyway, here are some of my more recent birthday creations...

A TigerKittyMonster (that's right, its a plushie!) for my dear roomie, Jess:

And a FancyMonster for Terran (who recently had a very fancy wine, cheese, and chocolate party in celebration!):

While I'm at it...

Here's the monster card I made for my dad this past Father's Day.  Uninteresting fact: this photo was taken with my iPhone waiting outside an airplane terminal.

Stage designs and things.

So, the past few weeks of my life have been absolutely non-stop... things are finally slowing down though and I can actually pause to breath and catch up on things.

The play was a few weeks ago, and it was really well put together.  My feelings on how the set turned out, though, can more or less be summed up with one word... "meh".  I would like to defend my dignity though by whining that I only had a small amount of time and very limited materials to work with...

...And yes, that is the Tokyo clock on the floor there.  Whoops.

Yay!!

So my dear friend and roommate, whose name also happens to be Jess (her parents named her well, I must say), recently ran a 5K and was the first girl to cross the finish line (I am so proud of my roomie!).  Annnd because of this... I made her a monster :)

 

 

Set Designs!

So I was recently asked to help design the set for an upcoming performance at our local theatre (I like spelling it "theatre" as opposed to "theater" so much better because it makes more sense in my head... also, it just feels so much more proper). The set is a Greek hotel and the show will showcase all the local dance classes/groups with a storyline to thread all the dance performances together.  Here are my sketches!

 

The last sketch (the one on the bottom) is the design that was chosen.  It's certainly going to take some work but I'm excited to see how this whole things turns out.  I've never taken on a project of this sort which means that I'm excited to be working on it.  The show opens up in two-ish weeks, so it's going to be go-go-go...  Anyway!  The stage so far:

 

As you can see, it still has quite a ways to go :)  (The photo was taken with my phone, so its not the best...).

If I had a Unicorn...

If I had a Unicorn, I'd imagine that this is more or less how things would be. Also, Unicorn riders are more or less required to have super fancy dresses and crowns and other pretty things... thus the poofy dress and such. Random fact: I almost always have pink hair in my imagination. One day I'll make this a reality.

Pika~

So I recently bought myself a stylus for the iPad. This is me breaking it in and realizing how awesome an iPad equipped with FTP abilities is... :D  I think I've gots a ways to go before I'm used to it, but so it goes.

Also, more pokemon. It's probably because I play Pokemon White before bed and therefore fall asleep missing the old school pokemon...  Also, I got distracted before I got around to finishing this... :)

Dragonite

I've been wanting to do a Pokemon painting for a while now... but this is pretty much as far as I've gotten XD  <3 Dragonite/Dragonair/Dratini <3  I'll come back and finish this one one of these days...