Here’s a smattering of digital paintings that I’ve either completed or been working on. I feel like digital painting isn’t as frustrating as it used to be, but I’m still not great at it. I’ve started attending a digital painting workshop this semester at school to continue refining my skills!

>>Another mastercopy.

>>An unfinished quick study for some chocolate-chip cupcakes.

>>Finished concept piece for class.

>>Another finished concept piece for class.

>>A still life I got about halfway through at the workshop the other day. I worked on it for about three hours.

The Korgi and the Kibble is a new children’s book I’m working on that is a canine adaptation of The Princess and the Pea. The main character, Prince Bartleby, is looking for his Corgi Princess, and is having no luck. One night a mysterious visitor claims to be a real Corgi Princess, and she’s put to the test by sleeping on a piece of kibble underneath twenty mattresses. Amusement ensues.

Currently, pages 6 and 7 are completed, as shown to the left (click the image to see the whole double page spread). Bartleby is searching the world over for his real Corgi Princess, and some of the mismatches for him are shown. This piece has been added to the Children’s Book portfolio, accessible by the navigation menu above. The character sheet for Prince Bartleby, Princess Rylee, and the King and Queen Corgwyn can be seen below, and is also featured the Concept Art portfolio. Stay tuned for more pages, storyboards, and concept art for this book!

Well, I have made major changes to the website in the last week. After getting some great feedback, I decided to seriously clean up around here. Things are not 100% finished, and I’ve still got quite a lot of tinkering to do with the code, but the basic idea is here.

What’s new:

A clean, new streamlined design with less distractions.

Entirely new color scheme.

Brand new “logo” for re-branding on all my business cards and promotional materials.

Landing page is no longer the blog, but my portfolio selection page.

Three portfolios instead of one.

Major culling of portfolios to present only my best work!

What still needs to be fixed:

Color tweaking on things, especially in the comments.

Adding the rest of the new pieces to my portfolio.

Small layout bugs here and there.

Re-categorization of old pieces of artwork so visitors can find additional artwork here on my blog.

I’m really happy with the new layout so far. I feel it looks a lot more professional and is more effective than my last layout. If you notice anything not working, please leave a comment and let me know!

So my other class this summer is Children’s Book–

*record scratch*

Wait.

Can I take a moment and just say: two studio classes during summer semester? What WAS I thinking?! This is the most stressed and overworked I have been in my entire life, and that is saying a lot. I’m the sort of person who forever overfills her plate and is moving at 100 mph. When *I* say something is too much, it’s gotta REALLY be too much. I’ve literally been physically tapping out with how much I can do in one day, and it still isn’t enough. This isn’t productive stress; it’s just too much!

Anyway, back to what I was saying.

My other class this summer semester is Children’s Book, and I have absolutely fallen in love with this method of storytelling. Our first assignment was called “The Big, Round Red” and was basically a prompt assignment (the prompt being the phrase “big, round red”). I really enjoyed it. I came up with the concept of the “big, round red” being the hot African sun. My two main characters are meerkats, and they are sweltering and need to find shade! Above are the final panels I came up with for the short.

Here is some of the concept art that I did initially while playing around with the idea. It features a few characters that didn’t show up in the final short, but are still part of the big story.

My original set of thumbnails showing the story, but based on feedback I decided it was trying to cram too much story into just five panels. I ended up cutting the five panel story down to just the elephant and the tree.

The old “final” panel 4, which had been decided was too like the others, and thus why it was redone as seen above. I don’t particularly like the new version either, but at least it was different. I need to revisit it again. I do like the story though, so perhaps I’ll eventually develop it into a full blown book featuring a whole host of characters.

I’ve finally bit the bullet: I’m learning how to digitally paint! I have both Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop, and am learning as much as I can through an online course this summer semester at school. How’s it going? Well, learning a new medium is always tough. But that’s a physical medium. Learning with paints that aren’t real is a whole ‘nother world, and makes Joie rather cranky.

>>Egg Still Life — This school sure loves their eggs. Done in Corel Painter.

Turns out trying to digitally paint makes me forget everything I’ve learned about traditional painting, and it’s like I’m fresh out of undergraduate school again. It’s something about those pixels on the screen. They reach out of the monitor and suck all my practice and talent right out of my eyeballs in a screaming inferno of evil.

>>Copy of a Still from a Movie — I don’t know what movie. Anyone that identifies it gets a virtual cookie. Done in Adobe Photoshop.

I won’t even bother posting the ones that I turned in before critique. They were rather ghastly. But look at how much better I’m getting as we continue on! I like to think a quick study. Well, it’d be faster if parts of my soul weren’t be removed by those evil pixels.

A Color Comp — Planning for my first “big” painting! Done in Adobe Photoshop.