Princess Leia

These are for this week's Drawergeeks submission. I couldn't pass up such a fun subject!

hiking!

haven't posted in a while...between work and comics and house-closing stuff we've been pretty busy. but we DID find time this weekend to take an awesome hike up at cape lookout. it was a gorgeous 50 degree day and the waves coming into the coast were amazing. i won the prize at the end of the day for the muddiest....it had rained a lot the night before and the trail was pretty muddy. i slipped and fell within the first mile. but then, i'm a big klutz.

color version...

Here's the color concept of the girl...gonna keep it simple. i'm a little panicked about having to do a whole comic in a month, even if it's only going to be about 6-8 pages. especially since we just bought our first house and are going to be moving soon. so i've been coming home and drawing madly every night! sooooo....tired....

Parable!

i'm going to have a short comic published in the upcoming anthology "Parable", provided that i can actually finish it by may first! i'm very excited about this, as there are a ton of incredibly talented people contributing to it.....and to be counted as good enough to even submit work with them is a huge honor! here are some sketches i did for the main characters this morning. a little girl living on the streets and her friend, a little sparrow.

lonely elf

more elf drawings...

sandman in color!

had a little bit of time to color him tonight!

Sandman

The next drawergeeks subject. Getting ready for the new Spiderman movie! I sketched this early...let's see if I actually find time to color it.

weekend in Seattle

spent last weekend in Seattle, where strange men toss fish at each other and yell silly things!

we went up to visit a bunch of friends that we used to work with in Texas, and it was a blast! we went downtown to the market and saw the fish-tossers, had a BBQ at the Burke's place, and finished off Saturday night with a drunken karaoke contest. i will only get up and sing in front of people if I've had a few drinks...or if my sister asks me to do it for her wedding. those are the only times. here's a sketch of me making a fool of myself.

i think there's some incriminating video of me singing out there somewhere too. shameful what wine can do to a person.

Robo friends

a couple of quick, silly sketches i did today for drawergeeks. robots are fun! i think the square guy used to be a refridgerator or a dishwasher or something.

Snow again

it's snowing again in Portland! but not much of it is really staying on the ground. i guess that's good for driving anyway.

Lots of new things....

lots of new stuff going on. i'm being transferred off of the project i'm currently on and going to be going to work on Laika's stop-motion feature currently in production, Coraline. It's based off of the very popular book and from everything i've heard of it, it's going to make a fantastic movie.

the bad thing about this move is that they're already in a full production swing and working 50 hours a week, plus i'll have a longer commute. the good news is that it'll be something new for me, since i've never worked in a stop-motion environment. (even tho all the work i'll be doing is still in the computer) and i'll be working with director Henry Selick, who directed one of my favorite movies of all time, 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. so i think that's pretty exciting!

Rainbow!

When you live somewhere where it sporadically rains a lot, you get a lot of really pretty rainbows! Here's the one that we saw yesterday. This picture was taken right off of our front porch. you can see the delicious Sweet Ambrosia bakery to your left. They make really good scones.

sugar rush!

know what the best part about the day after valentine's day is? all the candy is on sale!

Valentine's smalentine's!

here's a little guinea pig to wish you a happy v-day....inspiration taken from www.cuteoverload.com - if you've never been to that page and don't want to get addicted to the cuteness, for heaven's sake don't click on the link!!!!

Joe and i really don't "do" valentine's day. i have a problem with a day that tells us that we have to buy things for people or we don't love them. or that if you don't have a date on this particular day of the year (which is usually a really bad night to go out) you should feel bad. i rebelled 10 years ago today and threw my first ever "i hate valentine's day" party! yes, the tradition is now 10 years running. it consists of beer, scary movies and good friends. now, i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, "but michelle, 10 years ago you were only 19. how did you get beer?" my response to that is, "YOU SHUT UP! I KNOW YOU HAD BEER AT 19 TOO! CANADIANS CAN DRINK AT 19!!!"

but i digress.

i find as i get older i really don't hate valentine's day as much anymore. i still don't want to go out or anything or buy/receive presents, but i don't know if i'll continue rebelling against it as much as i've been the last few years. i do like a day where you usually get a ton of candy for no reason....

Awww...but the brainwashing is so cute!

I was looking at Keith Lango's website the other day and he had this post about how the North Koreans make cartoons that inspire “warm patriotism and towering hatred for the enemy,” for the little kiddies. Super cute characters and some decent animation...but they're all in the army and carrying around guns! The poor little chipmunk looking things! I drew my own version of what they looked like cause they were really cute.

For a look at the original article, go here: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/3524

Blossoms already?

I went for a walk around Portland tonight and saw that some of the trees are starting to get blossoms already! Silly blossom fairies, it's only February!

70's chick in color!

in all her polyester glory!

Shazam / Captain Marvel

for drawergeeks! i colored this one on my tablet laptop...the colors look a little more washed out now that i see it on this screen. but the tablet has such a nice feel for quick, messy paintings such as this.

You are the dancing queen...

i wish i was tall and pretty and looked good with an afro.

oh, and i also wish that i lived when disco was popular. so's i could make FUN of it. (and then dance to it behind closed doors.)

Da Bears

ah, Chicago. land of toll roads and windy winters. i wasn't a big fan of either team in the Superbowl yesterday, but since i lived in the great city of Chicago for about 2 years i figured i would root for the bears. so, after an incredible start...they lost. oh well!

know what i miss most about Chicago tho? the incredible fattening foods that you can find there! oh, the deliciousness that is Giordano's Chicago stuffed pizzas!


...and the Vienna Beef Chicago style loaded hot dogs! it's probably best for my health that i moved away from there.

but seriously, Chicago is a great city. if you're looking for a great weekend getaway with a ton of stuff to do, visit the windy city! just....not in the winter. you don't wanna be walking around town in that icy weather, trust me.