Herp derp. The illustration.

Still practicing drawing and colorin' in photoshop. Its helped me to be marginally faster! Huzzah.

Hello my poor little blog. I'm sorry I've gone rouge and've neglected you so. I swear, this whole time I've being doing stupid things to update you with. some are still in progress, others i need to take photos of or scan. 

I'm currently in Vancouver having just attended the Interlink Conference. It was amazing! Seriously if you work as a front web designer/developer you shoulda been there man. All the speakers were fantastic and I can't tell you how stoked I was to get to meet Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks and THE Jessica Hische of "Don't Fear the Internet" and other awesome things. I also got to meet a bunch of other really cool designers, developers, etc. And I'll hopefully make another post later about how much I love Vancouver and why its fantastic. But yeah it was super fun stuff and I hope to attend the next one for sure.

Anyhoo, between being inspired by all that and finally having a quiet moment here, I've complied and am presenting one of my lame attempts at showing my painting process as I try to keep in shape by practicing random portraits. This is Martin Freeman. Better known as Watson from Sherlock, Tim from the office, soon to be a hobbit. I don't think its very good and because it was always to be a practice thing and not a finished piece, it isn't. I think I may try this again in Photoshop as i'm experimenting with that again for efficiencies sake. Don't forget to click on the image to see in a larger size. More Nerd shit coming soon. MONIQUE OUT!

Arts and Bows!

Gah Talk about an extended holiday break. Continuing on with my arts and crafts kick during these past winter months, I was heavily inspired by this awesome hair bow DIY tutorial over at My Girl Thursday. And then I saw these Beautiful "statement" Bow over at the Red Velvet shop I decided to draw and make my own bows! Eeee. Why yes, I'm a big fan of head accoutrement

Elise of Red Velvet and A Beautiful Mess. She's freaking gorgeous.

Eventually, I'll probably have a bow in every size and color.

Random: I received this adorable Japanese pea pop puppy for Christmas from my beloved. I adore it.

So then I tried my hand at making my own version of the Red Velvet bow in a warmer, Christmas red and stiffer fabric. It turned out ehh, ok. Not sure when or where I'll be able to pull this off. And until I get a new camera, I had to compensate with my crappy HTC phone camera with filters to actually make me look *less* washed out. Sigh.

His name was Rocko

I was on a roll with being better with more frequent updates but then you know, life happened. Also I really need to stop being lame and get a better camera and then not be lame about taking photos with the better camera. Maybe a New Years resolution? Anyway, one of the things that tied me up was this guy. A painting commission of a dearly beloved pet. I really hope I did him justice. I drawn tons of dogs an animals but haven't really painted them before. At least a finished one anyway. And that background.. yeah. Sigh. Not 100% thrilled but it needed to be done with in time for Christmas.

And here's the really rough initial sketch.

Coming up next time, a peak into my new crazy crafting life, and more sketches of pretty ladies. Or something Adventure Time related.

Internet Ladies I adore

I decided I should keep my skills sharp by doing quick, rough practice portraits on some ladies I admire. I started off with the hilarious and talented Kate Beaton of "Hark A Vagrant" It's been a minute and I started off feeling a little rusty and I hope that if Kate ever saw it, she wouldn't mind how this turned out (I was working from a blurry youtube video :/) Anyway "Hark A Vagrant" is a fantastic, funny comic I highly recommend. Especially if you're a big history and literature nerd. And you'll learn a thing or two about Canada! (It's Neat!)

Ok the second lady I decided to draw was Katie of the blog "Skunkboy Creatures". She's also talented, crafty, quirky and adorable! I love her DIY and outfit posts. So if you're into girly crafty things, I also recommend her blog.

Los Meurtos and their Antiques

Last week was Dia De Los Muertos. I did mine and the fellas face paint. Trying to get over feeling dumb for posting so many photos of myself for, you know, "the world" lately. Then we went to one of my favorite local antique stores (I love living within walking distance to several antique and consignment shops). I scored a super sweet paint by numbers piece, Mr. Man got a vintage Darth Vader and his TIE Fighter and then I decided to document some "artifacts" of hilariously awful Italian stereotypes. What the hell man..

A day late and a tunic short

Hooray for Halloween! I simultaneously love an am annoyed with this holiday. I love dressing up and going out but I hate stressing out over my cobbled together costumes (not of the bagged variety) and what to do that weekend/day. I promise I'll get back to posting sketches and paintings soon now that things should be getting less hectic *fingers crossed*. My costume for this year was a Star Wars Imperial Officer. Not quit 501st quality (as I can't sew, and I would need to buy better boots, belt, etc) but I think it turned out well for Halloween. I was inspired by my friend Joanna and this post she linked to with details of construction: Naval Imperial Officer Costume

Also this weekend was the 2nd Annual Bad Dads Art Show (a tribute to the films of Wes Anderson). I missed last years and I really wanted to go. Also I found out that if you went in costume as a Wes Anderson character you would get a free mini print of the show poster. So of course I pulled out my costume from last year (Which really isn't that much different from how I dress normally, just with blonde hair and thicker eyeliner). Sadly I didn't get any photos while we were there (it was packed) but some people took photos of me so maybe they'll surface somewhere. The fellow and I bought two prints inspired by "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" . I wish I could be asked to be a part of fun shows like this. I really need to get off my ass and research shows that accept submissions, be more prolific, and somehow find the "right person to know". Ugh. I hate networking.

Ok that was fun here's a few more Halloweeny photos!