Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Hands down, my favorite scrape with death!


I went to a wedding recently. The bride had asked me in advance to use my "artistic skill" to decorate the guest seating chart. I felt enthused. Ever since drawing cats all over my husband's hospital room window, I've had sort of a thing for dry erase markers. This wedding, I guessed, would be a lot more fun than pumping antibiotics through a PICC line; I'd get bunch of free markers, free publicity, free honey-slathered pork loin... oh, and to see people I enjoy, um, being happy. That too.

Being a native west coaster, rather than a midwesterner, it was kind of surreal when the wedding party had to be moved downstairs due to an imminent tornado. As an artist, however, it merely meant a few fun Wizard Of Oz tributes and, well, extra time before the ceremony to do the job right.

I really just kind of went with my gut, which seems to be a really important part of the artistic process. The more I just wildly attack my medium without a smidgen of awareness, the better the actual art is. Whiteboards included.

And in case you didn't know, candicenorcross.net finally got a much-needed revamp. Check it out!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Spunky future chick.

I am planning a storyline set far in the future from my others. On a totally different continent. With totally different cultures. And by "planning" I mean "I have a vague idea of what's going on". It's not nearly to the same grueling extent of R&D I've done for Tab'rin, Mae'houn and the like.

So, I bring you spunky future chick.

This is a borderline Final Fantasy character design, I realize.

Something I am really trying to do is take different skin, facial, hair, and other cultural features and put them in a blender for the races on my planet. I think part of this is because I grew up with a very racist parental figure and resent a lot of the stuff that's been drilled into my head. Why not give people with white skin nappy hair? Why not give people with dark skin big Roman noses? It's fun. And hopefully not too politically incorrect? I am not sure; I've never really talked about this before. Anyway, like I said, it's fun - especially breaking out of common racial archetypes. (Yes, the heroine CAN have dark skin without it being A Thing.)

Friday, June 10, 2011

Fast friends.

Customer service.

I interact with a lot of very interesting folks. The other day, a customer instructed me to pick out a specific quantity of cherries - but only "the good ones" - and said she would come back later to check on my progress.

As you're standing there, alone, putting cherries on a scale one at a time, you can't help but feel like an ass.