Tag: art

Caricature Portraits Are Fun!

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Animate yourself or immortalize your favorite character!


Get a full color caricature portrait for just $15! 

See the samples below:

Details: A full color bust or profile with a fun background and caption
Dimensions: 1000 x 1000 pixels
Accepted Payment Method: Paypal – Payments are accepted upfront.

I can take up to five commissions at a time. Email me at [email protected] with the following information:

Subject: Summer Commission

Who: Who do you want me to draw?
Description: Tell me a little bit about the character and where they’re from.
Details: What do you want him/her to wear? What color scheme and caption do you want?  List any additional specifics here!

Please attach one or two reference photos of the character or the person you want me to draw.

*Please note that the only building available at this time is the White House (I drew it to use in other images, sort of like my own stock picture). 

Want something else? Send your request via email, and I’ll give you a quote.

Please give me at least one week to complete your commission.

Are You Ready for Feedback?

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Watch out! You are about to discover the reason why I decided to post this short series on the creative process.
Part four of my series on the creative process! 
Missed the previous posts? Here they are: Intro | Part One | Part Two | Part Three

I experienced a cold, harsh awakening last month. I might as well have shoved a knife into an electric socket. Ouch.

What happened? What moved me enough to devote several blog posts to it?

¯_(ツ)_/¯

I posted a first draft of a graphic design piece and asked for feedback. I was damned proud of what I made. I thought it was frakkin’ awesome. Shoot, it was the next best thing since the bacon cheeseburger! I spent hours on it. I loved the picture so much that I skipped the three Ps and dropped that thing into a forum. I asked for feedback in hopes of making it even more awesome.

Let’s just say that I left that place with my tail tucked between my legs and my ego stripped bare.

Lesson very much learned.

So what happened? Where did I go wrong?

1. As I said, I posted a FIRST DRAFT of something and asked for feedback. I should have bitten back my excitement and let it sit for 24 hours. I have a standard 24 hour rule when it comes to my art and graphic designs: put it away for at least 24 hours and come back to it.

2. I skipped the three Ps and So Very Edits. I should have planned it out after creating that first image. I should have played around with it and made a few variations.

3. I’m not a frequent poster in that community. If I was, I’d have gotten a warmer response—there were a few individuals who did offer some great advice, and they have my thanks. It’s easier to tear a stranger apart than it is a friend, especially from your keyboard.

Are you ready for feedback?

Screencap from Hetalia

Asking for a critique is opening yourself up to things you might not want to hear. Let’s face it, no one likes to be told that their hard work is terrible. It’s a fact of life. Requesting feedback is a brave step. It takes a lot of courage to throw yourself out there on a line like that. You have no idea if you’ll get something constructive or if you’ll be ripped apart. It takes guts. Are you ready for it?

If you don’t think you are ready, that’s okay. Like I said, it takes a lot of courage. Even taking in constructive criticism can be rough the first time around. It’s hard hearing that your favorite character is one dimensional. We’re all human. We all have feelings. This is natural.

If you are ready, fantastic! This next section is for you!

Where to go to get honest, yet tactful feedback

A trusted friend – This doesn’t mean show it off to Mom and Dad. They’ll always say it’s amazing. Pick a good friend who will be straight forward without cutting your heart out. You know your friends better than anyone else. You know who will be honest and who will give you that motherly coddle.

The Internet – Post it on a site that you are active on. Do you know the community? Do you post several times a week? If so, go for it. Don’t do what I did. Lurking doesn’t build relationships. If the members know you, they will be less inclined to troll or tell you things like “Just start over” or “That looks like it was just slapped together” without offering any suggestions to improve it.*

Work/Clubs/Extracurricular Activities – If you’re like me and prefer to take the backseat, utilize the real world. Don’t pester your coworkers or club friends when they’re busy. Take advantage of a slow period. A simple, “Hey, what do you think of this?” as you show them a photo on your phone works wonders.

My first three suggestions are great for art, graphics, covers, crafts, and short excerpts (500 words or less). Writing is a tough animal because people are busy and don’t have the time to read a 10+ page work of fiction. So where do you go for works of fiction?

Hire a Beta Reader – There are a lot of professional beta readers who will read your story for a fee and provide unbiased advice. They are paid to help you make the best story possible. You can find them on sites Blogger and WordPress. First things first: do your homework. Research the person. What is their fee? What kind of blog do they have? If they post things like “I’m Queen Snark, shredder of the slush pile,” don’t go for it. Find someone who is friendly and warm. Check out their reviews. Do they offer unbiased feedback in a relatively short amount of time? Do they sit on a project for months? Are they a smartass? Are they tactful? If the person is a good beta reader, he/she will respond quickly to your emails.

* Not direct quotes. I paraphrased things I’ve seen said to others and to myself during my 10+ years of writing. 

The Three Ps of Making Something Awesome

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Plan, Practice, and Patience!

Plan 

Something amazing is buzzing through your head, and you are compelled to create it. This is the part where you jot your awesome idea down. Here are a few suggestions that have always worked for me in the past:

Art/Crafts – make a few quick sketches
Writing – make an outline of the basic premise
Graphic Design –  piece together a diagram.

Now is the time to figure out what your idea’s purpose is. This is the most important stage because everything that comes after it builds up to your project’s meaning. How will the story end? What feeling do you want your painting to evoke? What message is your graphic design ad/cover/logo getting across? Asking those basic questions opens your mind to a huge flow of new ideas.

Let them come. They will improve upon your initial idea. Sure, there’ll be some doozies that fall flat, but they will only help you sharpen and forge your idea.

Practice 

This stage is straightforward and doesn’t need much explanation. Remember that annoying phrase, “Practice makes perfect?” Draw multiple sketches to hone your design in. Incorporate some of those fresh ideas from the planning stage and see what works best.

Write a few quick scenes to get a feel for your characters (they don’t have to be a part of the final story, just write them to get the creative juices flowing). Revise that outline. Play with different colors, fonts, shapes, and themes for your graphic design piece.

Keep doing this until your sketches and scenes begin to look and/or feel refined.

Patience

Now that you’ve figured out your end game and have a few sketches, scenes, or [insert your brand of genius here] under your belt, you’re ready to sit down and build your creation. Don’t rush it. Create another draft if you have to. You want this thing to pop.

Once you finish it, resist the urge to declare that it is done. Resist the urge to post, publish, or send it in. Patience is a virtue that is hard to tame. Set it away for a day, two days, or even a week. When you come back to it, you’ll feel as though you have a fresh set of eyes. I’ll go into more detail about this in my next post, So Edits, Many Drafts, Such Work.

Plan Your Genius

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Stop and look both ways before crossing the street!

You’ve got this great idea. It might be the most awesome thing since instant coffee, and you want to rush your fabulous thing so that the world can see it! We’re talking ASAP. You scramble faster than a NASCAR driver at the Daytona 500 and zoom through that final lap. You post it on the Internet.

…Aaaaannnnnd you wait for the likes. The Internet is dead silent. You ask yourself, “Why?” Your thing has all the fabulousness of Thranduil, King of Mirkwood riding his beautiful elk into battle, right?

This is a pitfall everyone has fallen into at one point or another, myself included. You’re giddy, and you feel young again! You have all the excitement of a 10 year old kid who just finished stringing a macaroni necklace. The teacher loved it. You show it off to your parents. DAD LOOK WHAT I MADE! LOOK HOW AWESOME! You got that instant thumbs up back then. It was a sure deal.

Posting your stuff on the internet is much the same. You just finished something amazing, and you crave those digital thumbs ups, recognition for your hard work. You want to be patted on the back—it is only human to desire validation and praise, so don’t feel bad for craving it.

Look at this sketch for example. I was excited after finishing it, I mean John Smith as a Romulan Commander!? Heck Yeah! It’s an okay first attempt; I’ll give it that, but I know it can be so much more than what it is. Was I tempted to blast it on every channel of the Internetz as soon as I finished it? You bet I was!

Back to your awesome thing you just posted. Where did you go wrong?

Every good product comes with planning, practice, and patience. That thing you posted was awesome, but what if it was only the first draft of something even more amazing?

Look at John Smith now. I listened to that tiny, inner voice of mine and decided to draw another sketch and to perfect his face. Sure, I could have colored in the first attempt, but I don’t think it would even compare to this one. I took the first sketch and decided to do another one, this time using many reference pictures of the actor instead of just one.

The bottom line is this: don’t rush. Take that awesome thing and wrap it in bacon, and by bacon, I mean your genius because your genius is one of the few things more awesome than bacon.

I will discuss ways and provide tips on how you can mold your first attempts into amazing works of art, prose, or [ insert your hobby here] in my next post, The Three Ps of Making Something Awesome.

Vote Grizzly Slick Paw 2016!

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What’s in a blog post? Not politics. Okay, maybe there will be a dash of politics this one time only. Everywhere I turn I either see crazy, unintelligible rants in all caps or Internet warriors sitting on their high horses explaining how their opinion makes them a better person than [ insert candidate here ]’s voters.

You can find the original image of the bear on Wikimedia Commons

It happens every presidential election. I normally just grind my teeth and refrain from pulling someone off of their golden throne in the comment section. Agree or disagree with them, I want to steal their keyboards and toss them out. Nothing irritates me more than Internet warriors on high horses. As for the army of angry (and idiotic) DE’RE TAKN R STUFFZ! mumble jumble, I just cringe and scroll past it. It all just feels like a bunch of bears thumping their chests in the night as they scream at nothing.

You can find the original image of the bear on Wikimedia Commons

This election is proving to be different. I don’t need to explain. I mean, it’s all over the news, Internet, and is the talk of the town. There are aspects of it that terrify me. I’m not going to thump my chest and tell you to vote for Captain Grizzly Slick Paw or anything. Just remember your history books, folks. Tread carefully.

I will do my part. I registered (as unaffiliated) and will be voting this November.

That’s enough of that!
In other news, I finally updated my art portfolio. I can’t believe I haven’t added anything to it since 2014! There are a few pictures in there I painted using my easel.

I’m working on a new story. The one I finished is something special, so you probably won’t see it for a long time (I hope within a few months, but I don’t want to give a date yet). The one I’m working on right now will be posted much sooner than that. I hope you like alternate universes, villains from history, cryogenic sleep chambers, enraged weirdos, and adventure!