Pre-con Madness Begins!

Happy Monday!  This is Katie on 2 hours of sleep, 3 cups of coffee in.  My body can't decide if it's hot or cold, I have to consciously think about blinking, and the impending to-do list of these precious few days before my trip to Animazement this weekend is screaming in my brain, aka, the hollow space between my ears that has manifested due to slipping into an alternate reality called "Lack-of-Sleep."

Most of you know I've had a problem with sleep for the past year or so.  I've tried just about everything, trust me.  Fortunately, this means I can do a lot of art over a weekend.  I had intended to make a blog happen at some point on Friday.  I'm not sure how all this works.  How often do people blog?  How often do you guys actually want to hear from me?  Questions, questions.

Anyway, me and Joon are venturing to North Carolina this weekend for Animazement, my most favorite convention.  The staff is always so friendly, and the new Raleigh Convention Center is a perfect new home for this convention that has gone from like, 50 forty-year olds (and me, ohhhhh noooooo) to over 4,000 people!  ALSO, ALSO, it is like reunion times for me and my repeat customers, my artist friends, my friends I met when I was sort of in the j-rock industry, and just friends.  Animazement is a pile of friends!  WHAT COULD BE BETTER, I ASK!?!?

So, here's some art I popped out over the weekend.  More to come, even!

 ADVENTURE TIME!!!!

SOMETHING ABOUT BELIEVING IN THE ME THAT IS BELIEVING IN YOU OR SOMETHING.

 OH HO HO, WHAT IS BETTER THAN ONE GAGA?  TWO GAGAS.

That's all for today!  I'm gonna go sneak a nap.

Ah mah gah, burstdaaayyyyy!!!

Today is a good day, everybody!  Take the day off, take a long lunch, have an extra bloody mary, TODAY IS MAH DAY OF BIRTH.

Just kidding, I'm rly not that important, but if you need an excuse, HERE I AM TO DELIVER.

Saturday was my birthday partaaaay which, thankfully, this year was more contained and not as out of control as last year.  I shall talk today a bit about the perils of Facebook, as in, how it allows people to lie to you.

Last year's celebration, I made an event on Facebook (already a pain) and 10 confirmed guests said that they would attend.  As I am always surprised that I have friends, THIS WAS MOST EXCELLENT NEWS.  I informed the fine people at the Brewhouse in L5P that I would have a dozen people in attendance and we got a table ala the Last Supper for everybody to sit down and nom chicken wings and drink some beers.

AND THEN 65 PEOPLE SHOWED UP.

Albeit, this is flattering (I think I drunkenly blabbed "WHO WAS THAT!?!?" a few times, not even gonna lie), it got out of control pretty quickly--the waitstaff was crazy, there were mixed up orders, I think my old roommate Jenn had to pay a $210 tab that WAS NOT HERS, I was very overwhelmed.  And when I'm overwhelmed I get, as they say, TOTES INAPPROPS.

So, this year, there was less AGHH!!! and more YAY!!! and as the night wore on (and I may or may not have had a 20 minutes party time with a different party sorrrryyyy strangers) I have made a chart of how my time was spent in-between being irresponsible because HELLO IT IS MY BIRTHDAY I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT THAT IS THE POINT OF BIRTHDAYS.

And so ends my 1 out of 3 days a year I get to go out and be an excusable hot mess. 

So, today is my actual birthday, and I'm about to go eat some birthday lunch with my fine co-worker pals.  I'm preparing some new things for Animazement at the end of the month, as well as a couple of SUPER SEKRIT PROJEKTS.  Hooray, I am twenty--*coughCOUGHcough* years old!

Changes, changes!

There is a lot happening over here in Katie-land  I can't talk about a lot of it right now, but my life is going to be very different beginning next month.  I'm looking forward to all the changes and challenges in store for me.

I'm opening commissions again, $10 for some digital art.  Also, I'll take some commissions at my normal rate for paintings or large-scale digital pieces.  If you're interested, you can e-mail me at katie@seekatiedraw.com, and we'll have a conversation! 

Right now, have some Gaga.  Because I have to remind myself that it'll be okay.  Doo doo-doo doo.  Just dance.

Drawing Marathon Day!

Holy crap, I did so much drawing today!  Some were gifts, some were the $10 commissions I called out for over the weekend, and I'm still chugging away!  I thought I'd update with my progress thus far!

Oh man!  And tonight, I'm hoping to get a couple more done.  THAT IS, AFTER I SEE IRONMAN 2, YES, YES.  I'm going with my old roommate and fellow fan-dork, Jenn, tonight, and there will be some knee-grabbing on my part, I assure you!

Also!  San recently posted a blog with a Princess Bubblegum (of Adventure Time fame) crown tutorial, and today at work, I made myself and some co-workers crowns.  It was fun!  YOU CAN TELL BECAUSE WE ARE SMILING LIKE NERDFACES.  HOORAY CARTOONS!

My huge Asian face, guh.
More updates later, after I go get my mind blown by Robert Downey Jr.

Announcement! Commissions! Thank yous!

I did this fish for someone at work who likes goldfish.  It doesn't really have to do TOO much with this post, but it adds to the list of doodles that happen because of some severe procrastination.

Because of my sleeping problems (right now, I'm blogging at 5AM, urrghhh), I've been exhausted all the time and in kind of a crummy sort of mood.  I'm hoping that this changes, starting this week!  To help me get out of this rut, I'm doing one of my favorite thing to do, which is to draw things for other people!  I haven't opened for commissions in awhile, so maybe now is a good time to do so.

SO!  If there's anything you'd like to get drawn by me, I'm opening five slots for $10 commissions.  Because of the cheap cheap price, these will all be digital commissions, like the fish over here, no background, full-color, one character / object of interest (or two, if a little simpler).  Please e-mail me ( katie@seekatiedraw.com ), and I'll put you on the list!

Slots taken:
1. GL (Owls)
2. MM (Glee characters)
3. EO (her puppy)
4. ND (dwaggin)
5. JS (turtle)

**Edit: Holy crap, that filled up fast!  Hopefully, I'll get through these quick and then I'll open up more slots!  Thanks, everybody!**

To see samples of my work, you can always go to my mainpage or my new facebook fan page!
Speaking of, wowowowowowwow, guys!  I think I reached almost 120 fans in the first day!  Thank you so much for all your support.  The times ahead are sure to be a challenge--my heart gets all mushy-gushy when I think about how I could never get up and keep trying without your encouragement. 

ALLRIGHT MUSHY STUFF IS OVER.  ARTIST MACHINE ENGAGE.  TIME TO KICK ASS AND TAKE NAMES.

Sunshine bug!

Work is in-between projects for me lately, and I've been art-directed by one of my designer-ly co-workers (lots of hypens, guys!) to draw something, the first of which is a "sunshine bug," the nickname she has for her 3 1/2 year old daughter.

Two versions--going to do some printing / pattern experiments with these! Which one do you like better?

My emotions have been everywhere lately!  One minute I'm sobbing, the next I'm cynical, the next I'm carefree and happy.  I think the lack of sleep has been affecting my emotional filters.  So, this week, I'm experimenting with lots of different sleep remedies.  If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to let me know!

I'm going to attempt to try:

• chamomile tea or warm milk before bed
• not eating anything after 7pm
• only 1 cup of coffee in the morning (THIS IS THE HARDEST)
• not taking any naps (and sticking to it!  the amount of accidental naps I take is unreal)
• exercising in the morningtime

I'll let you know the results!

Late by about four weeks.

About four week ago (urrrrrrgghh), C. Lijewski suggested a "Devilman Day," where we get out the old comics and draw that bastard.  I completed a sketch on the actual day, but haven't completed the illustration until now.

Mostly watercolor and acrylic, some photoshop color retouching.

Glee tonight!  It'll get my artist mojo going again, I believe!

When I did everything and nothing in one weekend

I had made grandiose plans for a weekend of productivity, mainly:

a) finding materials for my show in July
b) cleaning my apartment because it's gross
c) grocery shopping
d) finishing some more Glee characters.
e) writing some

And what ended up happening was
f) none of the above

However!  The weekend ended up being action-packed and subsequently exhausting with headshots and photoshoots and meetings with San Smith and art shows with Gary in Madison and crashing Karen Strelecki's house to peruse her work and work-functions at the Atlanta Zoo and drawing every animal ever and oh lawdy a heated wind blew up mah skirt and I am tuckered out!  I feel like a zombie at work today.

Not much going on today, so I finally got around to working on my friend Ryan's tattoo.  He wanted me to magic up something in the spirit of these two images below:

And I came up with something a-like-a-this:

Just waiting to hear back.  I expect lots of revisions since, you know.  This is going to be on his body.  Forever.  He has every right to tweak and tweak and tweak until satisfied, in my opinion!

Glee Art!

I watch like, 2 TV shows ever, guys.
ONE OF THEM IS GLEE.

SO, HAVE SOME GLEE ART.
I'm working on the cast, because I love them all a whole, whole lot. <3

April / May Desktop Wallpaper

Hey everybody!

Work was not too demanding today, and I still have my desktop wallpaper up from March from San Smith up to confuse the hell out of me when I need to figure out my dates.  So!  For my own intents and purposes, and to kill a little time and have some fun, I made a desktop wallpaper today for both April and May.  Nothing too fancy, but wanted to share and hopefully it'll help someone else out, too!

Just go ahead and click on that sucker for a 1024x768 wallpaper.  Hope everybody's week is going well!  I hope to have more goodies available for everybody in the future.

This week, I'm beginning to look for materials for my gallery show in July, as well as finishing up some lingering paintings that I've been meaning to get to for over three weeks now.  D:  Time flies!