So, yeah... I know I'm never on my da account anymore and here's why~

I'm taking a break from coloring.

I've been coloring full time for Marvel for over 7 years now and I just sort of realized that it's time for me to take a step back and try out some new stuff.  I have a few personal things I'm working on, and I'm not fully quitting coloring, but I'm really essentially planning on going back to school starting next spring.

3D, man. I'm going back to Gnomon and getting back into 3D. I seriously look at the future of commercial art in general and I really feel like it's something I need to dive into now rather than later. I've been thinking about doing it for a few years now and finally I'm going to quit talking and start doing.

I love comics, I really do, I doubt anything will be as beautiful to me as a finished trade or graphic novel, but the truth is that I really don't know what more else I can do.  SURE, I can hone my craft, get better, there's always more to learn, etc., but the point is that I feel like that I've sort of done almost everything I've set out to do in comics. I'm proud of my babies (Runaways especially, you'll always be my first love) but I'm missing that sort of THIRST for knowledge I had when I first started coloring and I feel like that means it's time for me to go level up another skill set.

And let's face it, Maya and other 3D programs are the Photoshop of the future. Right now, kindergarten children all use Photoshop so I expect that 5 years from now, annoying ass 14 year olds are ALL going to be playing around in Maya and DA'll be full of nothing but amazing renders of complex character models and I want to know how to do that before those bastards.

So yeah, next year, I'm turning 30, and sort of starting all over. I can't even BEGIN to tell you how EXCITED I am about it. HUUZZAAAAAH!

:* Love you guys!

HEY KIDS? Do you like Adrian Alphona? Well if you do, and if you time it correctly, you can catch him sitting with me at SDCC in the artist alley (EE-20). But seriously, it's all about timing, when he's hungry or he needs money for something to buy, he MAY or MAY NOT be doing sketches to pay for food and or board on my hotel room floor.

SO! Stop by and see if there's a cute Filipino dude hiding behind me and check and see if he's hungry~~~ You may be able to rope him into a quick sketch for you.

Trust me, it's worth seeking us out... Adrian's like a pretty pretty and very elusive Unicorn, it's RARE AS HELL that he ever leaves the safe confines of that magical forest called, "Toronto."

How is it that anytime I get a DD, I'm on vacation and have no idea?

Although, I guess I haven't been around in over a month so there's that too... XD

So, two things,

1. I would like to thank and for the DD and my partner in crime for making the piece even possible. XD
2. Sorry for being so absent.  I've got a lot of things going on in my personal life (nothing terrible, just time consuming) as well as professional and I just kind of shy away from the internet activity sometimes. I get a little overloaded on peoples thoughts on comics/politics/life sometimes and it makes me not want to add my asshole opinions/rants to the clutter so I do a little disappearing and decompress.

Over the next few months I may be a bit absent as I have so many things I'm taking care of and tying up right now, but I'll try to drop in every once and a while to dump some terrible art on you guys and see how everyone's doing.

Anyway, again, thanks everyone for the uber kind words and the DD I appreciate it greatly.

...AND HOW TERRIBLE THE ENDING WAS?

FUNNER TOPIC!

Iron Man 2? I loved it! Sad reviewers didn't.

So... I was reading through some journals today and found an interesting response to that journal by some random person on da.

"saying a painter is not better then a colorist is a joke.. a colorist is little more then a cellshader.. and sometimes is a cellshader!

u can't compare paintings to what colorist do, which is just for speed.

thats like comparing a mathematician to an elementary school math teacher... the level of knowledge for successful painting required.. is way more then what a colorist does!

end rant"

You may have read it, you may not have, and I'm not going to say who's journal it was or who it was that responded with this, (cause I don't want people pouncing on this dude) but I'd like to make a comment.

Be very careful what you say online because you never ever know who's going to read it.

Now, while it stings me a little, cause I am a colorist, honestly, I don't really care if he feels that way cause it's his opinion and he's entitled to it. To top it off, I'm never going to work with the guy, so whatever, I'll forget this person and what they said in a few days and life will go on.

THEN I WENT TO THEIR PAGE.

Now, the whole reason I went to their page was they made a really rude comment to someone else about how they were going to disregard the other person's comment cause they thought they were the better artist so OF COURSE I HAD to go see their art.

That was when I discovered that they liked comics and I don't know what their aspirations in life are, but if you say you love Chris Bachalo and do a web comic, there's a CHANCE you'll want to work in comics and this is where my point comes into play~ If this person ever gets to work at Marvel, and I hear their name, the first thing I'm going to say in response is this, "I remember that douchebag talking smack about colorists..."

God forbid they HAVE to work with a colorist, and it be a friend of mine, is all I'm sayin. XD

Edit: Sorry, guys, something came up.

Hey, guys, so I'm live streaming for a little, feel free to pop in, dunno that I'll be talkative, but see ya there.

btw, I'm muting my music, cause I feel like keeping it to MYSELF.

LIVESTREAM WITH ME

Something that set Dragons apart from every other movie I've seen recently is that it gave me this giddy feeling I haven't felt since watching Disney movies as a kid.  I totally forgot how much of a rush it is to leave a movie and feel like you're as pumped up as the kids who just watched the same movie.

Like I was just telling a friend, Ratatouille was an AMAZING movie, and I love it with every fiber of my being, but when I think about it, it just makes me think about how amazing the textures in the movie were and how charming it was and I really appreciated it from an adult stand point.  And I think I feel that way about all of the Pixar movies I love, I love it as an adult watching a kid's movie.

I think about Dragons and just think, "I WANT A TOOTHLESS!!!!"

And btw, I am TOTALLY dancing to Jonsi's Sticks and Stone right now. What a great ending credits song!!! O_O!

I just want to give a shout out to two colorists who I think are just... amazing. I wish I were half as cool as them and man what I would give to have their color sensibilities!

John Rauch is a colorist I've loved for a while
Matt Wilson is a colorist who I've fallen in love with more recently

BOTH of these bastards are MAGNIFICENT!

Hey, guys! I think I got someone, thanks to all those who responded!

I'm looking for a flatter who's flatted for colorists before and is a FULL TIME FLATTER.  I say this cause I need someone who will be able to take pages from me and turn them around pretty quickly as that happens to me ALL THE TIME. XD So I want someone who knows the ropes and knows what to expect.

Also, I will WANT DETAIL. I am a detail whore, so I want a flatter who flats delicately and is into fine detail.

Send me samples and let me know who you've worked for plus lemme know what your schedule is like.

Thanks!

And heads up, one of the books I'm looking for a flatter for is SHIELD so take a look at the pages, it might change your mind. XD

I rarely pimp the books I'm working on (outside Runaways) cause I get embarrassed about being like, "this is awesome" when I'm referring to something I work on... but this book is awesome.

Dustin Weaver and I met two SDCC's ago, we just happened to be sitting next to each other and I've been a fan of his since then. I can't express how happy I am to have the opportunity to work with him on this book, the art's INCREDIBLE.  If anything, part of the serious stress about this book was making sure I didn't completely fuck it up with my colors. In the end, I'm praying to god that people like it cause I tried REALLY REALLY HARD and I like what we came up with in the end.

CBR has some preview pages and a write up about it: [link] You can click on some of the art for larger views of it and I'll post some of it on my dA when I have some more time.

I'm really proud of this book, and I hope you all love it like we all do.

APRIL 7TH 2010

Over the last year I've been on a lot of panels about breaking into comics or being a woman in comics, etc., etc. and you know what it all boils down to?

If you wanna work in comics, WORK ON COMICS. Either work your ass off on samples or actually even just DO a comic.

I mean, seriously, I don't wanna hear about how down on your life you are or how hard it is for you to be blah blah blah... EVERYONE HAS A SOB STORY. JUST DO IT.

I mean, seriously. I work for Marvel and you know what I do in my spare time? I do a webcomic with my friends and color pieces to sell at cons. I color cause I LOVE IT and I got my job coloring cause I just colored my ass off till I found my way in.

So just shut up and make comics. That is all, I'm going back to coloring now.

Man, Emerald City was an AMAZING convention. I am DEFINITELY going back next year! I liked the size and friendliness of it and I'm sorry I didn't bring enough prints. I didn't mean to under estimate the BEAST that is ECCC.

Just wanna say thanks to everyone who stopped by the table or our panel and say that I had a GREAT time.  Thank you Seattle!

OH, and I LOVE Taphouse Grill! Go there everytime I go to Seattle and I'm so glad we were able to hit it up this year! Good times!!!

HOLY BALLS this book is AMAZING! Listening to the audio book while deadlining, I'm super excited for the HBO show now!!

So this is the morning I catch up stuff I've been meaning to do so here we go.

MY CON SCHEDULE:

Emerald City Comic Con (seattle) - March 13-14
Sakura Con (seattle) - April 1-3
Calgary Entertainment Expo (calgary) - April 23-24
Anime Expo (los angeles) - July 1-4 (yes I will be doing 3 photoshop workshops again, this may be my last year doing it)
San Diego Comic Con (san diego) - July 22-25
New York Comic Con (new york city) - October 8-10

I was going to go to C2E2 cause I love chicago so much but as I'm doing sakura and Calgary that month, I can't do c2e2 and stay sane. Plus we were thinking about going to Japan in April but it's look more and more like it'll be in may just to keep me from freaking out about all the work I have to do.

Signed up for figure drawing class too with a friend. I miss school and while I'm not going to Gnomon this time, I'm excited to see how the LA Academy of Figurative art will treat me.

In other news the books I'm currently working on are Thor, S.H.I.E.D, and Pixie. I have another book lined up but I guess I'll talk about that one later. Sounds exciting though.

And other than that, I'm totally getting sick today. huzzah.  My throat is killing me and I'm dizzy. Should color something trippy today to compensate.

I LOVE his designs! My sister woke me up this morning with a text telling me he died! Worst way to wake up!!! ;_;

Watching Supernatural season 1 right now cause I'm on hardcore deadline.

Worst romances ever. XD I particularly enjoyed how girlfriend went up in flames and Sam's like, "well, that sucked." *cocks shotgun* The writing is pretty spectacular in how bad it is. YAY CW!

I do like the dumb brother though, he entertains me.

I hear it gets better after season 1?

BACK TO WORK.

WHY is it that PHOTOSHOP LOVES CRASHING ON ME!? Seriously. Once a day AT LEAST.  Here I am deadlining and it crashes and I lose half an hour of metal rendering.

Let me explain something. I hate rendering metal. Iron Man would be my NIGHTMARE book. I love metal JEWELRY but helmets and swords and shit like that, DO NOT CARE FOR.

So thanks, LEGITIMATE COPY OF PHOTOSHOP for once again CRASHING and STEALING 30 minutes of my LIFE FROM ME.

Excuse me while I cry for a bit.

Auuugh, I have another hour to go on this cover.  WHY do I love coloring JEWELRY so much!!!

Who else is up?

Ok, for the small handful of you who're really into these pieces...




...that Emily and I have done, we started up a new DA account for the webcomic we're doing.

Just so you know though, it is a yaoi comic.  It's not PURELY yaoi, but there are gay couplings so if it's not your sort of thing, then you might wanna skip it.

<- teahousecomic (our comic)

I'm going to be keeping that entirely separate from this da account so I will no longer be posting any of those pieces on this da account, it'll all go on the teahousecomic da account. Emily will probably post on both her da account and the teahouse one but I want to keep this account mostly my professional work.

So yeah, if you're interested, go ahead and watch our Teahouse account for our comic we plan on launching in March.

Thanks!