ZOMBIE HORSE OH SHIT

so here's a whole slew of sketchbook things again, of varying quality, as per usual. first, a forties-era cover. nothing's really forties-ish about it except her dress, but shhhhh. and, the book had a lot of blue in it? rough week, this one was.
the next two are in that same book, perpetuating the "a lot of blue" thing. i rather like the first one, a "parody" of a weird-shaped thing abstract thing that i decided was a big angry pile of laundry trying to scare the little boy in the dark.

next up, "glorification" of "ZOMBIE HORSE OH SHIT!" there's a crown? yeah. this does not do the original justice, but i never was one for drawing zombie horses very well at all. and then a sad man trying to sprout something out of what turned out to look like a mound of tar. not so promising.

finally, a nice cheat-y week: "in addition to" the cut paper puppy? A GIRL HUGGING HIM. god i'm predictable. then a little boy in footie pajamas escaping out his window into the night. i'm okay-ish with this one.and break!

it comes to my attention that professionals probably shy away from pig latin.

flashback with me to uh, a bunch of weeks ago, when i actually made this wrapping paper design. i was designated the "christmas" market, which is great, since, while i love both red and green a whole lot, i find them maybe disgusting in almost any combination with one another. also, i'm coming from a household in which our christmas tree had yearly rotating decoration themes (think remarkably invested, like 'romantic victorian', 'royal jewel-toned', and 'spring poinsettia') complete with matching stockings, tree skirts, ribbons, and paper that were so pervasive that we actually hid the non-coordinated presents from extended family in the back to avoid disrupting the aesthetic. so, there is a lot of baggage with alissandra and christmas decorations.

the moral of the story is that i didn't want to do something lame. or that would send my mother into christmas-time convulsions, since really, aren't the holidays just swell enough without epileptic-esque seizures for everyone? below is the first palette for my wrap, twelve days of christmas-themed! initially thought to be maybe not quite christmas-y enough (damn you unconventional childhood christmas palettes!) i doctored it minimally to produce a second palette, with the cranberry instead of the indigo. also created for both palettes were a series of three gift tags to accompany the paper, shown here with abysmal color balance, but that are cute and square and 3"x3".
hopefully this wrap wouldn't get stuffed behind the pretty presents with the hideous little drummer boy paper or the sweaters that were wrapped haphazardly without first being placed in boxes, or even absentmindedly shoved in an uncoordinated gift bag. did i mention i love the holidays?

in other news, this piece pretty much nailed down how much i don't like strictly digital coloring. ix-nay on the ool-cay, lick-say ook-lay.

what is your childhood trauma?

um, i so fail at the consistent blogging thing this time around. like a lot. i could go on with the "blah, blah, lots of work, blah, blah, not enough sleep", but really, it's the same story for everyone, so i won't make excuses. me=the suck, i'm aware. but here's words on wheels. !!

words on wheels is an "illustrate a selected middle-schooler's poem and have it juried to be maybe printed for public transit in maryland" project. my poem is (as you can deduce, i imagine) about a little girl being told she's bad at art. how could i not illustrate a poem for a little girl who's sad because she's told she's bad at art? there were a lot of troublesome restrictions to the assignment like particular font size, color, placement, orientation, etc., etc., but overall it was a surprisingly enjoyable experience. also, i found out mine will for real be printed to go on buses and light rails and other public-type vehicles, so that makes it all the more agreeable. other peculiar trivia associated with this project: the poem i was originally given was plagiarized from a pretty terrible internet chain letter. by a sixth grader. how many different sorts of depressing is that?

i would close with the optimistic implication that i would post more later, but that would likely be a vicious lie. there are things to be shown, i promise, i just have to get around to actually, you know, showing them. don't judge. also, i have hit the "all my projects are independent" part of the semester, so things are less exciting to display anyway.