New Print Shop Coming Soon!

It's time for a much needed update! I will be launching a Facebook art gallery and print shop and I'm super excited about it! In other news, I will be graduating and getting my Bachelor's degree in Illustration and Drawing this summer!

This will definitely be a good and productive year, all around! Please stay tuned as I update you with all the details and convention appearances!

New Commissions and Classes!

With school right around the corner, so too are our new classes at Artistic Designs Gallery! I work as a student teacher there and for this month of August I will be teaching Character Design! So be sure to check out this link for more information and sign up!



Also, I wanted to share some recent commissions I drew for Pop Con! Enjoy and have a great rest of your summer.

Full Body Elf in Graphite Pencil

Full Body Monk in Pencil and Digital Painting

Brillig, Full Color in Ink and Tombow Marker

Sketch Card Full Body in Ink and Colored Pencil

Free Comic Book Day!

It's time to grab your free comic book! I'll be at Hero House Comics in Fountain Square today from 2-5 so stop on by and get a sketch card of your favorite comic book character! :)

Comic Con Indy

Indy's second Comic Con has been a blast but it's not over yet!

You can stop by and say "Hi!" at my booth A13 and check out some of my newest art and merchandise! I will be teaching a manga/comic character creation class at Artistic Designs Gallery for 12 - 16 year age range in April or May! Keep up to date by checking our website:  http://www.artisticdesignsgallery.net/ 

January Manga and Comic Class!

Hello! I'm so excited to start a New Year and say that I will be teaching a manga and comic class this January at Artistic Designs Gallery! Anyone between (or close to) the ages of 12 - 16 interested in learning how the wonderful process of making comics is done, this is the place to sign up.

Students will learn that comics are a unique mixture of writing and drawing, and while both art forms communicate ideas in very different ways on their own, comics can achieve new ways of delivering ideas. Students will use their own original characters and learn how to create a one-page script to draw from. The class will then draw a sequential narrative learning the elements of composition and clear visual storytelling. We will be using pencil and ink, focusing on creating a black and white manga or comic page. In our gallery we carry many art supplies, all that you will need to get started on your own comic project! Be sure to ask us about our manga and comic kits.

 For more info, visit our gallery's website: http://artisticdesignsgallery.net/art-classes/comic-and-manga-class

Concept Art & Pop Con!

I've been looking forward to Pop Con for many months now, and the excitement is nearly tangible with it here this Friday! I hope to meet a ton of awesome people and promote Mandelyn Studios, after all, I can't do this without your amazing support! So if you're in the Indianapolis area, come and stop by and say "Hallo!". I'll have exclusive art on display that you just won't find anywhere else. ;)

To finish up my Concepting Class' work, I have the rest of the designs for Brazil. I still need to watch this movie!

Comic Con Indy!

It's hard to believe that almost a week ago thousands of people gathered downtown Indianapolis for this state's very first Comic Con.I was lucky to have an art booth there for Mandelyn Studios.There were so many talented and wonderful people I had the chance to meet and I wanted to thank everyone who stopped by my booth. Here is some very well deserved spotlight for the talent that I had the chance to meet.

Jackie Crofts was my neighboring artist buddy. You can see her newly published comic Nutmeg here, give it a read! http://www.nutmegcomic.com

Here is a sketch card of her characters Poppy and Cassia from Nutmeg that I drew.

Rebekah Cromer is a local artist and friend who has illustrated and designed a PC game called Welcome to Odd Town. You can find her beautiful works here!

http://exiledchaos.deviantart.com/

I am currently working on a list of commissions from the con, here is a sneak peek so far... :)

Thanks again everyone, I hope to see everyone again next year! :)

Screenplays!

 Hello again everyone! Did you miss me? :) I've been so busy with art classes and personal projects it's been hard to keep things updated! But I will do my best to keep the blogs flowing from here on. ;)

I am so glad I took a concepting class! Honestly, I wasn't sure what all the details were other than probably drawing concept and character art. But, to my surprise, it's a sampler of all the stages of early art production for movies and games.

So where do we start with concepting?

For this class, we choose a movie from a list the professor gave us and had to pick one that we haven't seen. From there we work from that movie's script for the entire class as we move through the art production line.

So I picked the movie Brazil! It's an 1985 sci-fi/fantasy about an oppressed world controlled by the government in the future...which sounds like most movies out there, but in 1985 this movie was pretty unique! But that wasn't the reason I picked this film.

What I loved about the story was visual overlay of the main character's dream sequences and the parallels it represented of the real world. Normally I wouldn't pick a big brother dystopian movie but the dreams really were just that interesting to me.

Here was the first assignment- a storyboard of a selected scene from our movie! This is the one of the main character's dream sequences...

And...that's a storyboard in a nutshell, only the script isn't between the panels, the screenplay artist presents it verbally to the production team. Notably, screenplays aren't this clean and polished either. I'm just a stickler for detail and clean lines. ;) The main purpose of a screenplay is to communicate the visuals and direction of the camera from shot to shot. The character designs often change from the screenplay as well, because who can really draw an entire movie storyboard every button and embroidered detail in every scene? (I have to keep telling myself this...lol)

The next stage of the class is to draw a scene sketch. A scene sketch is made quickly, but depicts the world accurately. Color is an important key element in this process, as it invokes the mood and atmosphere of the environment. Here is the first of my scene sketches, the monolithic city in Sam's dream-turned-nightmare world...

While the script described this place as being 'dead', I wanted to introduce a menacing and dangerous atmosphere. Initially the buildings were under-lit with a cold blue, but I was told it looked exactly like the movie so I wanted to move away from that. Reds agitate the viewer, so I stuck with this version because I liked the heightened feeling of danger. (Poor Sam!)


I will post again soon with the next scene sketch and after that- prop designs! :)

Back From Gen Con!

I think we all had an awesome time this year. Check out this great Magi cosplay group!

And several commissions...

Thanks to everyone who came to visit my table! I hope that we can do it all over again next year!

Gen Con Ahoy!

I'll be there at the Westin Anime Artist Alley along with more ACEO goodies from August 15-18th.

I'm alive! Promise.

But the good news is that I'm doing so much art my eyeballs could fall out! :D

Well, maybe not. But I have been an art machine for this entire summer. Which is good. But I can't show you anything yet. Or better yet, you could see me all of my art if you happen to attend the Indianapolis Gencon this August! I'll be in the Anime Alley at the Westin Hotel.

Come see me. :)

Omg! It's a Zoo Out There

To start things I'm going to share a self portrait drawn with the focus of the expression 'surprise'! We studied the muscles responsible for the expressions we chose and explained which muscles were responsible.

 

During the last day of spring break I managed a trip to the zoo and I have pictures! (I am not afraid to admit I am still a seven year old on the inside) 

You may have the same expression as I did. This is possibly the creepiest picture I've ever taken. But don't hate the rays, they were really cool and swam up to the glass to check everyone out. See the tiny one on top? He's the baby, the first one to be born at our zoo!

 DRAMATIC SNAKE IS DRAMATIC.

Red pandas. So cute!

It's good to be at the top of the food chain.

If Robots had Muscles...

As a helpful exercise in remembering the main muscles of the face, I drew them as circuitry for a robotic face! :D It was hard- but I pulled through in getting down the names of each muscle and the direction of the fibers for the test.

Oh, and apologies for the unexpected hiatus. It's hard work, anatomy. =)

Anatomy of a Smile

In our Anatomy class we paired up and drew portraits of our partner smiling (through ten minute turns) and while it was hard to do for ten minutes straight, I can share with you what we learned!

Here is an overlapped diagram of my partner's facial features as she's smiling. Notice how the cheeks push upward and make her lower eyelid rise. Believe it or not the upper lip does not go up much during a smile. Most of the features are moved out and up. 

And here is a diagram we drew of the facial muscles. Doesn't he look a little sad?

And Back to Art School

I'm still alive and well! Only my art homework has stolen my time (and a portion of my soul) so I'll have to shift my focus to getting the projects done. So the bad news is Pose of the Week will be have to be postponed, but the good news is I'm taking a fine art anatomy class!

I'll post my assignments here so you too can learn. :)

Here is a work in progress for my Drawing class, the theme is 'things in shadow'. It's only a sixth of the actual piece... Enjoy!

Pose of the Week!

 

Once again we dive back into Pose of the Week!  (sorry, I couldn't resist...)

This pose is just after she dives into the water, with her body starting to straighten out as she moves forward. I'm ordering a male mannequin this week so that we'll be able to get some guy poses in here as well, to make things balanced. :)

Have a great Holiday Season everyone!!

Back from Anime Crossroads!

I return from two days at my first anime convention! It was fun!

Having decked out the table in ruby red ribbons and golden table cloth, my friend and I felt ready for festive fun and convention craziness. We debated on stringing up some Christmas lights around the table...for maybe half a second.The gold table cloth was certainly BRIGHT enough. Thank you buddy, for sticking through it and helping out this crazy artist! =)

These are some commissions I took there during the artist alley hours. Actually, all three of these are from the same nice lady, who liked my art very much. =)

Sinfully Delicious

My first cheesecake! And yes, it's chocolate...

This was my big Thanksgiving contribution. And it is just as good as it looks. :D I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Right now I'm considering getting a Livestream account. I really enjoy watching artists draw and since I've been sharing art here, why not let everyone see me in action? Hmm...we shall have to see. ;)