What If...

 

I am super excited to be participating in this year's Micro Gallery Show--titled "What If...?"--at Nucleus. Tons of amazing artists will be exhibiting delightfully tiny art, and you should definitely check out the opening on Saturday! It also opens the same night as the Jim Henson Tribute Gallery, so that's double the arty fun!

I did two pieces for the show. It was actually surprisingly hard to think of a good "what if..?" idea, and in the end I just went with "what if everyone could get along?" which of course equals a salmon tea party. They're both in watercolor, which scans notoriously poorly so sorry for the cruddy image/color quality!

My roommate Megan and I spent a couple of late nights painting, check out her awesome pieces!

Also I finally added a 'recent blogs' list so I can stop snooping on other people's lists :I

Daaa-lek

Ever since Rad and I started watching Dr. Who, I've constantly gotten the Daleks' Favorite Catchphrase--"Exterminate! Exterminaaaate!"--stuck in my head. We started thinking that maybe they could expand their vocabulary a little, and try saying some other things. Rad thought up most of these :)

You have to imagine these in that charming mechanical Dalek sound, it works better that way!

 

Celebraaate! Celebraaaaaaaate!!

 

Percolaaate

 

Caffeinate...Caffeinaaaaaaate

 

Furminaate! Fuuuurrminaaate!!

Morning Pup

 

 

quick little update...I did this for a friend's birthday. I need to catch up on my gift art backlog. The next few weeks will be super busy at work but hopefully I can get a few more done.

PS It was really great seeing everyone at CTN! I got to say hi to a lot of old friends and meet twice as many new ones. I also spent way too much money haha :(

CTN-X & giveaway!!!

So... the CTN-Expo in Burbank is coming up really quickly, and lately all I've seen are expo posts on all the blogs. There also seem to be a lot of people doing some very cool CTN-X giveaways...which inspired me to do a giveaway of my own!

Now obviously this is very last minute so it's not going to be nearly as neat as some of the other awesome giveaways out there...but here goes.

To celebrate the arrival of CTN-X, I'll be giving away ONE HUG.  That's right, ONE HUG. Here's a preview:

 

You can enter to win by leaving a comment on this post.

If you win you can get your hug at the CTN expo! I've provided a map in case you have trouble finding me:

 

 The red dots mark where I am! I could (possibly) be at any of the locations at any given time.  

(By the way, does 'Opportunity Alley' sound kind of sketchy to anyone else...?)

Now, I know that a hug doesn't sound like much...so to boost the credibility of my giveaway I offer some testimonials:

"OMG it was amazing!...I almost cried" -- Tiffany

 

"The special-effects were awesome!" -- Chester

 

"Wait.....What...?" -- Kevin

"MrrrrroooowwRRRRRrrrrr" -- Chaos

 There you have it! Don't wait, you still have three days to enter and WIN!

(Forgot to add: If you win the hug and cannot make it to CTN-X, you can absolutely raincheck the hug. However, the hug is not redeemable in cash (pft, like I have a million dollars just lying around. Hahaha!....I'm just kidding.)
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Seriously, though...I'd love to meet people at the expo! Are you going to be there? If the answer is yes then let's find each other and say hi! :)

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And the hug winner is....Aminder!!!  I will deliver your hug when I next see you! I like everyone, though, so I will be giving consolation hugs to all the people who didn't win (if they care to receive them, that is...). But I'll make them way tinier than the Winner Hug in order to validate this contest. It's only fair.

Pretty Girl

...for Rad.
I asked Rad what my first drawing on my new cintiq should be. I ended up NOT using my cintiq for this, but here it is anyway.

I guess it's the princess and the frog, before she met the frog. That's for another drawing!

Chaos

I realize I'm dangerously close to joining the Crazy Cat-Lady Club with this, but bah, I say...bah!

This is Chaos. He is chubby and adorable, and he likes lying on his side and showing off his moobs.

I never realized how truly nice it is to have a cat around the house, until he came to stay with us. Now I think all houses should have cats (except birdhouses)!

He likes galloping up and down the hall for no particular reason, which is puzzling (though Megan and I have speculated that he is celebrating how light he feels after he visits the litterbox).

He also likes being slapped on the butt repeatedly. I think he's a fan of the tough love.

I wanted to try out bloggers new interface (I know I'm way late, WHATEVER), but I didn't have anything to post...until I remembered that I had some old lifedrawings scanned. And since everyone is posting their lifedrawz, I might as well, too!  So here you go, my really old art!:

 

I'll have something new soon, really.

And yeah, his fake gun was that tiny.

Cats are awesome

oh no! I told Rad I would update my blog by this weekend if he updated his (and he proceeded to update right away with some awesome gestures, the bugger). I got caught up with stuff and totally forgot my end of the deal, so now this is late and a doodle that is pretty much not in any state of done-ness... :(



but a promise is a promise, and yes, cats rock.

08 Shark week! -- Great hammerhead

Huzzah! It's shark week!! So...every year when this blessed event happens, artists unite to draw these magnificent creatures all week. First up is the Great Hammerhead!

I tried doing some watercolor sharks first, but they turned out so awfully that I gave up and did the rest in photoshop. The paper just didn't agree with me, but I put them up anyway.




If you want to be part of the shark-drawing party, check out the shark of the day at:
http://sharkweeksketchjam.deviantart.com/
Share your sharks! :)

Other Shark Bloggies! (if you did a shark, let me know so I link your beautiful art):

Megan Nicole Dong
Mike Nassar
Eric Wu
Nate Villanueva
Tiffany Ford
Ian Abando
Alejandra

07 How to Choose Your Watermelon

(took a break for comic con, will keep at the daily sketches in a bit :D)



I always love watching people pick watermelons. They gently bounce the fruit, pat it, look very intensely at it....It seems like everyone has their own method or secret for picking the very best one.

My dad was generally the one in our family who chose the watermelons, and I remember almost all of them being delicious. My sister and I came to think of him as some kind of...Watermelon Whisperer. I, too, wanted the magic touch! So recently one night (after eating some of yet another perfectly tasty watermelon), I asked him:

"How do you pick your watermelons, Dad?"



A good watermelon?


to pick a good watermelon you need to look for three things


"A good sound when you pat it!"




If you listen closely to that sound you can tell how juicy and thick the watermelon will be.


"The scars! The scratches! If a watermelon has some of these it will taste better"


Huh? Why?


Well, you see....


Animals can tell when a watermelon has a lot of sugar in it, so they're always clawing and trying to get into the sweetest melons. That leaves the scratches and scars.


Really?!?!


HAhahaha


No.







"You see those little black dots in the scars? Those are beads of sugar that have oozed out of the melon! You can tell that it will be sweet."



Now, the last thing you need to look for is the bu--...button...buh--...


...buh...


"The butt, Dad?"


Yes, the butt of the watermelon.


You see, right here?


The butt.


"When you push on the butt of the watermelon, you should feel some tension and it should bounce back a little. It will tell you how firm and juicy the watermelon is" heh heh

So:


"The butt!"


....Aaaand that's how I learned the three, completely unscientific secrets of good watermelon-picking. I haven't tested them myself, so I have yet to confirm their accuracy....but I'll be sure to let you know if I do!