Alive & Kickin’

What a great couple of months this has been!  I have been caught up in a rush of school activities for my kids, and my classes have picked up speed as well.  I finished out the rest of my Drawing class last semester, just in time to prepare for family and friends visiting over Christmas.  Then, my Winter and Spring session courses added to my already frenzied days!  Currently I am enrolled in three courses:  Writing for Children, Designing and Illustrating Children’s Books and Graphic Design!  And I am LOVIN’ it!  From the outset, it seems highly unlikely that I could ever keep up this pace.  Yet in the midst of each project, I find this new reserve of energy and passion that drives me to finish line.  This is definitely what I was born to do!

A self portrait appropriation based on the amazing original artwork of Marjorie Liu and Daniel Acuna (Marvel Comics, July 2010).

Last week, I put together the mock up of a Picture Book dummy which I am hoping to get critiqued by an editor at an upcoming conference in May.  I initially thought that I would have 3 months to work on this, however I learned during registration that a sample had to be postmarked within 3 days.  Needless to say, I was launched into high gear!  And just to keep things interesting, my first Graphic Design project due date was around the corner.  The assignment required that we submit an appropriation of a favorite character out of a graphic novel.  I chose the Black Widow character from Marvel Comics after recently watching Scarlett Johansson’s awesome portrayal of Natasha Romanoff in “Iron Man 2” and “The Avengers” – now THAT’s what I’m talking about ~ Excellent choreography in her fight scenes!  This style of illustration is not what I typically generate, and we were expected to re-invent ourselves as this character.  After multiple searches for an action packed illustration, I finally found the cover, “The Name of the Rose” (Issue #2) created by Marjorie Liu and Daniel Acuna for Marvel Comics.  By using their fantastic work as a template, I was able to explore this style with my own pen and ink self portrait and ultimately render the finished product through Adobe Illustrator – it was a ton of fun!  I added my own facial features and hair, and my holster carries paintbrushes and pencils, ready to produce extreme graphics at a moment’s notice.  Now I have something to hang in my studio to keep me motivated… Speaking of which, it’s time to get back to work!  Glad to be back in the blogosphere!