Tag: art

State of the Empire 2016

What your Writer and Chief has been up to lately

State of the Empire 2016!
Real life has claimed more and more of my awesome propaganda machine—it’s eaten way more than it’s fair share of my time lately. I’m hoping that it will settle back to normal levels in the next few months. I swear, it’s hungrier than Tubbs right now!

Figure 1: Real Life Has a Colossal Case of the Munchies
Figure 1 is 100% accurate.

Beneath the Red Lamp

…My current baby. Actually, it’s been my baby for about six months now. I’m revising what is finally going to be the final draft of a short story sequel to The Year is Now. Elly is back!

The story will be included in a special hard cover edition of the book. I do not have a release date yet. Once things settle down, I’ll be able to pinpoint a timeline. I’ve already got a special cover in the works. I’ve been planning the project itself for a long time now. It’s just…Tubbs. Tubbs the cat. Refer back to Figure 1. Tubbs doesn’t make me any less excited though! 
Art
Here’s a peak at the random things I’ve been sketching lately:

Glory Pride and The Maiden Vain

I still have the outline. I haven’t forgotten about it!

A Very Glittertastic Commission Sale

It’s a sale!

I’m offering 10% off on all commissions for the entire month of August!

Head on over to Commission Corner for a sample of my digital work!

I am throwing in the option to choose a pencil and ink drawing for a flat rate of $10.*

If you want the picture shipped to you, please let me know when you place the order (you will have to pay S&H). I tend to fill my sheets of paper to the brim!

*Includes one character inked and shaded with or without a basic background

How to claim your glittertastic discount:
Shoot me an email at thecommanddeck[at]outlook[dot]com with glittertastic10 as the subject header.

* replace [at] with @ and [dot] with .
* I accept Paypal!
*Note: I work a full time job, so depending on the complicity of the commission, it can take anywhere from a few days to 2 weeks. 

Pencil and Ink Drawing Samples:

Weekly Roundup: Klingon Squirrels and Forgotten Treasures

~ Your number one source of Empire News!

This Week in Awesome

It doesn’t get more awesome than winning a Warrior Woman CD! I entered the G & T Show’s Martok Squirrel contest.

This just in: a police sketch of the elusive Martok Squirrel. Authorities report that he was last seen on Fallen Acorn 9 and is headed for HiddenNutia Prime.

It is reported that he is hoarding several crates of acorns. If you happen to see or have any information on General Martok Squirrel, please contact your nearest Federation security outpost!

The cover of the CD itself is badass. There is no other way to put it.

About the G & T Show:
“The G & T Show is an irreverent podcast dedicated to quality storytelling, interesting characters, and the latest news emerging in and around the Star Trek Universe. However, we are so much more than just another Star Trek podcast. We discuss films, television shows, books, comics, games, fan productions, conventions, cosplay, and so much more. The G & T Show is the premiere podcast for the modern Geek “


Forgotten Treasures

You’d be amazed at the things you forgot you saved to a flash drive, the one that’s been shoved into the darkest corner of that drawer you never open….

I found a 32 page novella I wrote during my last year of college. I remembered it as soon as I saw the file name. I also remembered how much I slaved over that thing with revisions…so I read it. It is a polished story that is almost ready to go! I couldn’t believe my luck at finding this forgotten gem.

A preview of the cover (it may or may not change)
The Outlanders
I think I may have to change my game plan because I want to make sure that I complete the comic. The amount of time I spend per page on the thing is astronomical–no joke! You would not believe the hours creating a single scene takes. I just can’t keep up, and I feel bad!
I am much faster at drawing things by hand. As much as I adore digital art, it takes me a looooooooong time to finish a single picture. Comics have a variety of things going on in a single page. Spending five hours on one page is finishing it in record time for me (just to give you an idea). Why am I rambling on and on about this? I decided that I’m going to do a test run with black & white pencil/ink pages. 

Weekly roundup: 2014 edition!

~A quick recap of things around Empire Earth over the past week. 2014.
Yes, folks, this is an annual “let’s recap last year” post!

Okay, so I had to do one of these of Elly and Major Pierson after that Elrond and Thranduil one. I just have a soft sport for making party glasses and sparkle gifs!

2014 in…

Personal Art Goals
If you are an artist, you will understand me when I say that there were certain things that bugged me about my drawings. I was determined to improve my characters’ eyes and facial expressions. Trying to draw realistic eyes on a cartoon face can turn into a massive case of FAIL. I felt that my characters had “dead eyes” a lot of the time, so I set out to fix that!

January’s beauty has a case of dead eyes, but you can see improvements as the months progressed!


My favorite drawing of 2014

Writing

Anyone who follows this blog knows the huge news of my debut novel, The Year is Now! I’ll keep this section brief. I had been working on that thing since 2010, so when I held that first copy in my hands, I was filled with a great sense of accomplishment and excitement.

Want an autogrpahed copy? Head on over to Contact Me! Want to check out the first chapter? Read it here: The Year is Now – Read the First Chapter!

2014 favorites
Things that came out in 2014 or things I read/watched/saw/experienced in 2014

Movie
I am horrible with keeping up with current movies. I saw two movies in theatres last year (just to give you an idea). Out of those two, my favorite was The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (technically it came out in 2013, but I saw it in 2014).

Book
Hands down, The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. Yes, it beats out George R.R. Martin’s hefty (but awesome) tomes. I devoured that book and was obsessed within the first few pages. Needless to say, I now own it!

Show
Attack on Titan. I discovered it on Netflix at the beginning of last year. If you like anime and don’t mind reading subtitles, go watch it! I liked it so much that I got myself a Survey Corps jacket and cloak.

Travel Destination
Washington DC. I still have one of the pictures I took of the White House as my wallpaper on my computer. I want to visit that place again. Hoping on a train and going to Union Station was by far the most awesome experience I had in 2014. You can read my post about it and see some pictures here: Star Spangled City.

What were your favorite movies, books, shows, and experiences of 2014?
 Post your favorites on The Command Deck’s facebook page!

Video of the Week
When I see a title like “Kim Jong Un is flying a plane,” I have to click on it. I can’t understand the announcer, but she is very excited about this.

Let us not neglect “Putin flies with rare cranes in an ultralight.” Sadly, there are no excited announcers or cheerful music for this one.

I scoured YouTube for fitting Barack Obama videos. This is what I found >.<  Mr. President, you have until 2016 to learn to fly a badass fighter jet and post it on YouTube!

Mission Complete

Day 18 of my post-a-day challenge! I finished the drawing I mentioned in Animate Me and My September Sunday. When I set myself to something, I tend be obsessive about completing it.

I am pleased with the results. I did a slight animated version and a normal version. Whether or not it can be passed for a screenshot or part of some sort of anime is up to the viewer!

Elly from The Year is Now
This scene is not in the book or anything. I just liked the idea of her holding some kind of magical (or super sci-fi sphere that glowed).
The animated version! It’s only sparkles, but I thought it looked neat.