More Teahouse Renders

Portrait Practice 2

More portrait practice from photos. I like the way this one turned out a lot better--trying to stay away from opacity and round brushes on this one (as advised by my art director). So I used an oval brush and only a tiny bit of opacity. :P I'll try a rectangular brush with a little bit of tooth to it, tonight.

I actually found a forum of girls squealing over male models, and... being a girl who likes pretty men, I did a lot of 'right click/save as'... for REFERENCE. Yeah. All in the name of art, etc.

Taking a page out of my husband Xavier's book, last night I started painting portraits digitally from reference. Its mindless and fun, I plan on doing at least one a day--its a good way for me to get painting practice with faces/people, since I don't have access to a proper figure painting class any longer.

Silhouettes

I am not good at drawing non-effeminate men (I love them, but not everyone enjoys a JRPG aesthetic...), so I am determined to draw a tough guy this go around, or at least someone who isn't 'pretty'.

I had a lot of fun with these--the ones above are the best of the bunch. Going to paint over them in photoshop and see which strike my fancy.

Monster Hunter Tri Weapon Contest Entry

I don't typically draw weapons, but this was a lot of fun to come up with. :)

Dragon girl revisited

Kind of turning her into more of a sci-fi character than a fantasy character, but that's ok! Been working on adding bits and bobs to her outfit all weekend, extensive physical modeling of clothing is new for me.

WIP: Muramasa Piece

Starting to rework this a bit... Momohime is next.

Special Announcement! Squid Plush Pre-Orders!

After months of working behind-the-scenes, I am very, very excited to announce the opening of pre-orders for my Ika squid plush toy!

He will arrive in January 2010 regardless, but if you snag a preorder now, he is $16 (yes, that includes shipping in the continental US) to your door, versus $20.

Ika is 6.5" tall and 5.5" wide across his eyes. He is soft, cuddly and shiny, with embroidered eyes and painted details. There will only be 250 of this colorway, so he is VERY limited!

I hope this will be the first plush toy of many. :)

Preorder Ika here!

Soul Harvester model WIP

Just chugging away on the texture for this sucker. :) I hope to get to a 90% done point with it tonight, so I can start on the alpha and refining details tomorrow.

Too cute not to share!

Weapon Designs

A first rough pass at some giant honkin' sword designs.

Which do you favor more, A, B or C?

Treehouse

Waterfall WIP 3

After a hiatus on this piece (I just didn't know where to go with it!), I've discovered that cropping is my new BFF. Now to refine details in the character/background and add some real foliage instead of just... moss. :P

Also, ignore her creepy, creepy face please! It was literally the last thing I painted before deciding to call it a night, and spent all of 15 seconds on it, heh.

Rawr, rawr, woof!

A couple of cute sketches drawn during a meeting.

Waterfall WIP 2

Base colors are in... need to figure out where the characters will be, and then start refining things.

Japanese waterfall WIP

Trying to get better at this background thing... :|

WIP: Beach

Good at titles, I am not. :X Just a work-in-progress image of the painting I started this evening!

Soulharvester

Colored! Now onto modeling it. :)

A new concept piece

I imagine that this undead thing wanders around a vast, dry desert at night, collecting souls of those unfortunates claimed by the day's heat. Kind of like a baleen whale. :)

I know, I know... I haven't written about SDCC at all! I still need to download the photos from our camera/my iphone, even. But I will say one thing--it was pretty amazing, as far as conventions go. :)

SDCC 2009

photo from www.cvent.com

My husband and I are leaving for San Diego tomorrow morning, the flight leaves bright and early at 8:30am.

Very excited!

Fan Art: Yoko from Gurren Lagann

Linework for my version of Yoko Ritona, from the strange, epic and hilarious anime, Gurren Lagann. The final piece (which I plan on finishing with watercolors, markers and colored pencils) will be for sale at the Otakon art show.

Pixar vs Dreamworks

My husband shared this with me... too funny!

Craft Lake City!

I received a phonecall yesterday that I was accepted into Craft Lake City! It is the first year for the event, and it is in the same vein as Renegade Craft Fair and Bizarre Bazaar.

I'm pretty excited! Gotta start workin' on some new stuff--August 8th will be here before I know it!

Tweet!

Those of you who visit my blog instead of watching through a reader, may have noticed that I finally caved and got myself a twitter account!

Let's follow each other, guys~

Landscape WIP

Say "Hello!" to the Chublubbins!

A huge thunderstorm knocked out our internet RIGHT at 9pm, jinxing me totally - the internet didn't come back on til a few minutes ago. Sigh!

Nevertheless, say "Hello!" to the Chublubbins!

Chublubbins are happy miniature monsters that love to explore. It would make them so happy to be able to come home with you!

They are hand-cast in resin and hand-painted with love. Due to the nature of the hand-casting & painting process, each figure is slightly different.

Limited to four of each colorway, and are $25 each.

More information at store.shellyrodriguez.com!

Almost here...

Check my store out @ 9pm MT this evening for a special delievery... :)

Sketchbook Cover

This is the image that I will be using for the front cover of my upcoming sketchbook. It will be a collection of sketches & finished pieces that I have completed between 2008 & 2009, 28 pages in full color.

If you catch me at a convention this year, they will run you a cool $10. :) Otherwise they'll be $12.50, which includes first-class shipping anywhere in the world.

I plan on sending this to the printer by week's end!

Yay, I can talk about it now! :D

Littlest Pet Shop: Friends was finally announced at a conference in Paris, on Tuesday. This is what I've been working on for the past year or so! It looks to be TONS more fun than the last game, I can't wait to talk about it more.

It comes out in October I believe. :) As usual, I'll update here as soon as new stuff is released!

Red Panda Mini Munny - Hello!

Red Panda Mini Munny - Hello!, originally uploaded by shellyrodriguezart.

Made with a 4" Mini Munny, sculpy, acrylics, faux fur and love.

Her face & fur are detailed with a soft gold color.

She currently has no home! More info @ store.shellyrodriguez.com

New Tee Shirt Designs!

These are both available at my redbubble profile, for $24 each. They are printed DTG (direct-to-garment), which results in soft, colorful prints - on American Apparel tees. :)

More info, here: http://www.redbubble.com/people/shellyrodriguez

Soon, my lovlies, soon...

Soon, my lovlies, soon..., originally uploaded by shellyrodriguezart.

Teaser time!

Pirate Skullypus

See more of him on my flickr photostream!

I made this for the Skully Show taking place at Chuckwa in mid-May. My first urban vinyl custom, and my first show, whee!

That being said, this was a BLAST to work on - I have a munny blank that I've had for months, that I was too scared to experiment with. :P Now I know exactly what I want to do with it... started on it this morning, in fact! Stay tuned. :)

Sad Octi Tees ON SALE

My Sad Octi Tees are on sale for $20!



Check it out! :D

shellyrodriguez.bigcartel.com/

Amazing Handmade Toys by Take-G

Check out these amazing wooden robot sculptures by artist Takeji Nakagawa...

Unfortunately for us he only produces these one by one for shows, and thus there isn't a way to custom order one for your own collection. They are so endearing, its a shame its so hard to get your hands on one!

...I suppose if they WERE mass-produced they wouldn't have nearly as much charm, hmm?

Whew! Just chugging along on this...

So its been slow going on this, but between work and Japanese classes there has been little time for it during the week! I have worked on it every night... and I had made a LOT of progress over the weekend (though of course, not as much as I'd have liked...), so hopefully this upcoming weekend I can knock it out of the park.

I scrapped the idea of making her a 'dragon princess' like in my old concept months ago, and am instead focusing on making her part of my Dominance War set of artwork. I am officially participating in the 2D contest (the 3D contest is insanely hi-poly), but I figured this was a good way to push myself to create final illustrations - gotta know what her outfit & colors are before I can texture her. :)

Gonna tweak her chest and face up a bit more tonight, and get started on her outfit and hair, finally. :)

Happy Anniversary!

A year ago today my husband and I exchanged vows... and today, we ate cake. :) Under all the layers of foil and saran wrap, it looked just as good as it did when we wrapped it up last year. Just as yummy, too. :)

Dominance War IV Stuff

More character/silhouette exploration stuff for Dominance War VI

Dragon girl

Revisiting this character concept. Been a while since I messed around with this character, and I spent almost 6 hours after work yesterday messing with it. At work I only model environment stuff, so its nice to do something completely different.

Gonna attempt the hands and legs/feet today, as well as taking a stab at her outfit. :) Tomorrow will be for texturing!

World Of Warcraft Commission

Custom Mini Skully Show

Is anyone else participating in this? :) I'm really excited!

I already have some cute, cute plans for my little guy - my blank shipped from Chuckwa today, so hopefully I'll receive it early next week.

Happy Birthday...

cupcake faces photo from fanpop.com

..to ME! I turn 25 today. :)

I wish these cupcakes were mine! If they were, I think I'd feel bad about eating them... at least for a few minutes. ;)

*paintpaintpaint*

Chugging along on this....

More Dominance War

Some more dominance war stuff... trying to figure out her facial structure.

100th Post! Plus BIRTHDAY SALE!

Oh hey! Its my birthday soon! I've decided to celebrate with you all by offering discounts and FREE first class USPS shipping on most items, between March 24-April 1, in celebration of my Birthday, March 31st!

See more at store.shellyrodriguez.com!

shipping offer extends to the contenental US only, excludes sculpture

Happy Monday!

It was a glorious 64F on Saturday, but unfortunately today it is snowing! At least the first day of Spring itself was lovely.

Have a good week everyone! I hope the weather is a little more kind where you are. :)

San Diego Comic-Con 2009

Ahhh, the nerd mecca of the US, if not the world. ;) I am planning on attending this year, for the First Time Ever, and I'm really excited!

There seems to be a little bit of pre-planning 'drama' around this convention, as the hotels in the area cannot accommodate the massive influx of fans (and each year it attracts more), as well as the limit that the con places on attendee passes, so that the convention center isn't TOO stuffed. In fact, the 4-day passes sold out a little over a week before hotel registration even opened!

Fortunately for me, I qualify for a professional pass, although those are extremely limited as well. I sent my paperwork off the day after pro-reg opened up, so here's to hoping that it gets there in time.

My friends and I also booked hotel rooms ahead of time, and at a really good rate. Which is lucky, because when we tried to book closer rooms, the system was so slow that by the time I got through, everything we'd wanted was gone... which is sort of amazing.

I have never been to San Diego before... any recommendations for restaurants, or stuff to do/see in the downtown area? After the exhibition hall closes in the evening, I can't imagine there's too much to do at the convention itself...