Zoo on Wheels

Working on my children's book portfolio.

And just for fun, here's the pencil of just the animals:

-Anna

Red Planet

 Colored a drawing I did the other day. Sci fi makes me happy.

And this is a recent commission I just finished up.

And I colored the Breaking Bad caricatures from before.

-Anna

Stuff 1.27.13

One of my favorite things to do is look at the improvement I've made over the years. I get so many people on deviantART going "Wow, you've improved so much!", which is fun (my dA gallery goes back over 8 years). The two drawings below show how much my work has changed in a few years. The bottom one is one of the first drawings I did after I got my first Wacom tablet in the summer of 2009. I'm thinking I should start doing a comic/graphic novel that actually has this character in it, but comics are so intimidating. My goal in the next few weeks is to suck it up and start it, even though I feel like I'm not ready/good enough yet.

 2013
(In which a red-headed girl looks like she's been offended by a wire.)

2009 
(In which a red-headed girl smiles like an idiot.)

The past few weeks I've been watching some Saturday morning cartoons, just to get kind of familiar with what's going on right now in the industry and who's working on what. There's some good stuff out there! I was impressed by the The Clone Wars series (the visuals/lighting are insanely good for a tv series) and the storytelling of the Green Lantern animated series, which made the bold decision to kill off a main character in yesterday's episode.  I'm still waiting for an animated series that can match Avatar, though... hopefully someday.

-Anna

Phony

The internet was out for a few hours today and I couldn't look at the reference photos I need for a commission I'm working on. So I drew Holden Caulfield, because why not.

-Anna

Sketchbook 1.19.13

Some sketches from the past week... I drew some tv show characters, because it makes me happy. Carson and Mary from Downton Abbey, and Badger, Mike, Skinny Pete, and Gus from Breaking Bad. I thought it was a strange combination of shows until I saw this clip from Colbert... genius.

And Jesse from Breaking Bad, with some random characters of my own.

-Anna

Stuff 1.18.13

Just some stuff because I haven't updated in a little while. Hands...

And a black and white study for something I doodled today. I haven't done a traditional hand-drawn illustration in a while and thought it would be fun. I kind of have an obsession with space.

-Anna

Breaking Bad

How did it take me so long to start watching this show? It's so flawless and addictive, just like Heisenberg's blue meth.

-Anna

Beast It

So happy that Beasts of the Southern Wild got some Oscar nods. I saw the movie a few months ago and was blown away by it. Quevenzhane Wallis is awesome.

 "Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her daddy in The Bathtub."

-Anna

Figures 1.9.13 and YA Mag updates

Here are the most recent illustrations for YA Magazine. I'm really enjoying the family series... I get to draw all sorts of families. This month features a family with two dads!

I did some more figures for a warm up this morning. I'm much less comfortable drawing male bodies. I think there are two reasons for that. One is the simple fact that in school we almost never had male models (I don't think there were very many available), and #2, whenever I draw on my own I draw female bodies because they're just more fun! I know I need to get more comfortable drawing the male figure, so I will probably keep doing more of these..

-Anna

Figures 1.6.13

I've been dying to do some dynamic figure drawing, and I recently stumbled across a tumblr that had some great reference. This was so much fun, and I think I'd like to do a few of these every day. For some reason I wasn't comfortable drawing figures digitally when I tried it in the summer, but they were no problem today (I think because I've improved!).

And random, I just found this on my computer and realized I never posted it. It's a sketchbook drawing from a while ago. I've drawn this girl before. She has a story (in my head). Maybe someday I'll actually tell it...

-Anna

Django

Today I sat down at the Cintiq and forced myself to draw (because I've been really sick the past few days and haven't drawn) and this is what happened. I saw Django Unchained a little while ago, and it was ridiculous. I really tried to push the perspective on this one... would've been more successful with good reference, but I couldn't find anything decent from that angle. Good experiment, anyway!

"The D is silent."

-Anna

Hello 2013

I hope everyone had a good New Year! 2012 was a pretty big year for me. Before 2012, I hadn't really had any substantial freelance work, but since last January I've had freelance work constantly, thanks in large part to the TV characters illustration I did for a class. I got a DD on deviantart for it, which is something my 12-year old self would never have believed. I illustrated my first children's book, and had a variety of other projects for lots of different clients. I've opened a print shop on Society6 which has been far more successful than I ever imagined it would be. And I graduated from college, which is kind of huge! My art has been improving exponentially over the past few years, and I'm so excited to see where I'll be a year from now. I owe so much to all of the people who follow my art here on my blog, and on tumblr, deviantart, and Facebook... thanks everyone for your support, it means everything!

Anyway, I've been pretty busy over the past week or so, with Christmas and such. I also went down to NYC to play with my college marching band at the Pinstripe Bowl in Yankee Stadium, which was amazing, especially considering I don't actually attend SU anymore (alumni perks, woo)!

I drew this right after watching the Doctor Who Christmas episode, but didn't have a chance to color it until today. I haven't drawn much in the past week (being on the road/in the city and all), which feels horrible... back to work!

-Anna