Princess Frog Commission

The Frog Prince is probably one of the most recognizable fairy tales. One of the most familiar version is from the written stories from the Brothers Grimm.
It is a classic that has been told and retold in so many different ways but what could be the original is the German folk tale which translates as "The Iron Heinrich" or "The Frog King".
There have been numerous modern media adaptations throughout the history of film and theatre, most notable of which are "The Tale of the Frog Prince",the first story presented by Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre in 1982, The Frog Prince ,a 1986 film starring John Paragon and Aileen Quinn, and The Princess and the Frog, a 2009 Disney animated film, loosely based on the 2002 novel The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker.

The version I was commission to draw is a storybook-type comic where the enchanted Frog does not turn into a king or prince after getting a kiss from the beautiful maiden but instead casts a spell that turns the kisser into a frog-like creature.
This is one of the first book art commission that I did line work completely on Paint Tool SAI and started getting used to using it instead of Photoshop for sketching and inking.
I did colors for the cover but got help from my good friend and former student Edwin Domingo for colors on interior art.

The Batfleck

Hey, world! I've actually been posting my digital portrait practices on my personal Facebook page a lot more than on this blog lately. Have I been too busy to post on my blog? Probably. Does anybody care? Probably not.
Heck, I don't know if anyone ever sees this anyway because I don't know if I have any followers here, haha.
Anyway, because I'm such a closet lesbian and adore the female beauty so much that all I ever draw are gorgeous girls, I got a private message from someone who asked if I can actually draw guys.
This is for that person.
Incidentally, as a comic book fan with no specific preference to either DC or Marvel and a fan of the recent influx of comic book related movies and television series I am extremely excited for the Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice movie. I saw and had fun at the Deadpool movie last month and can't wait to see BvS when Easter comes this month. It feels so long ago when they announced this follow-up to Man of Steel which would be another step into the larger, interconnected DC movie-verse or DCEU and I've been ready to see this in ages. I'm about the only one among my friends who didn't go "NOOOOO....!!!" when they announced Ben Affleck in the Batman/Bruce Wayne role and with the last trailer showing him Arkham Knighting the heck out of a bunch of goons like a huge brutal beast the way he's supposed to, I was all "I told y'all he's gonna kill it!"
I honestly don't get all the pre-release hate this movie has been getting from critics and fans alike because as a movie and comic fan myself I think if this does really well, we all win whether you're a DC or Marvel fanboy. As I see it, even if Marvel has been ruling the box office a successful rival pushes it to still do better, after all not all the Marvel films are even good movies despite the remarkable amount of money they've made. Honestly, Avengers Age of Ultron was the first Josh Whedon movie that not only disappointed me, it made me want to stop shelling money out in the theatres for any more Disney-produced Marvel films.

Speedlite

Wow. It took quite a while for me to post any updates here.
2015 proved to be quite a challenging year for me, one that
made me rethink some life choices and made me wonder if I
still wanted or enjoyed some things that I have been doing for
the longest time.
Anyway, new years are opportunities for new beginnings and
for an artist / geek like me there's a lot to look forward to in this
2016.
For this post I'd like to show off a little art commission done over
one of my Fiverr gigs. This one is of a concept design in color
of a character called "Speedlite", who was described by the client
as "something of a cross between Flash and Green Lantern".
The color blue and the hood he's wearing in the drawing was also
part of the request, so the decision to add that in wasn't part of my
personal design styles but I do try my best to make what the client
wants to work out.
If you would like me for to draw your own original character concept/s
please do check out my Fiverr by clicking here.
 

Captain Crossfit

One of the most challenging things I've done as a freelance artist and a comic book creator wannabe is creating characters based on a real person. It's particularly tough when you're having to do it by request or service for a complete stranger, especially when in my case, meeting the client in person has literally between very little to absolutely no chance of happening.

Since every person is unique and not a lot of his/her actual personality or distinct nuances can be derived straight from a photo, it's easy to get complaints and other negative reactions when your designs don't quite get certain traits the client is looking for. A lot of the time, though, problems like these can be solved or better yet, avoided by proper communication. You can't fault a client for sending photos of himself/herself that may look good for them but don't really help much as drawing references. Expect that they expect you to be the artist and that you know what to do with them. Asking the right questions is key and knowing the specifics that I need to get a design correctly makes it easy and sometimes it's clients who ask the right questions or have a clear, definite picture of the character design in mind.

I've been very fortunate that most of the clients I've met through fiverr have a clear enough idea of the characters they need help creating and communicate them very well and yet are very open to suggestions for improvement.
Creating Captain Crossfit for my client, Mike, was a breeze because not only have all the
details for the character like costume theme and colors been specifically laid out but a personality profile and references for background objects were all provided right away.

I'm also glad that despite a timer to get a gig done starts immediately when it is ordered, most clients aren't in a big rush to get the art done no matter how excited they are about the rough drafts that I send them for review. Thankfully, it's also these types of clients who gladly hand you a 5-star rating.

Titanore: Another 5-Star Fiverr Rating

On May 11th of this year (2015), I got an order for a concept art sketch for "an old Titan that has been living at the earth's core for centuries". The rest of the description goes :
very powerful, has blackened fire and lightning resistant half-plate armor and sword from iron-nickel alloy from the core.

So here's my rendition of it:

I had fun with this gig and I'm really grateful for the 5-star rating.

My First Fiverr Gig

Earlier this year I stumbled upon a website which describes itself as "the marketplace for
creative and professional services."
I browsed around and saw that services like creative writing, animation, programming, voice-overs were offered and neatly catalogued. I also saw that graphics and illustration
services were offered, although I was a little concerned that the base price for all the services on the site is $5. As a freelance artist myself who pitches my services on other
artist portfolio sites like deviantart.com who had found increasingly tough competition getting clients from younger artists who put their talents out for very low pay rates, I
thought $5 was really going so low.
I did learn though, by looking over some of the seller profiles that most services still go
beyond the basic price and can go up to around $40 per gig and some extras on top of the
basic gig can get you to up $150 per order.
I decided then to give it a try. I decided this site is mostly for buyers who didn't have the kind of resources that big companies have but have projects that they were willing to shell out what they can and figured out what type of service as an illustrator I was willing to give for 5 bucks and signed up and posted a gig.
It took about a week before I got my first order from a buyer under the username "kingsley8888". I honestly was excited to see how it goes and was happy that it was for a simple job - a two-angle modelsheet/ turnaround for use in 3D modeling. I usually get more for the kind of service the customer ordered, but as I have struggled for several months and was literally completely broke during the entire previous holiday season, this was like manna from the gods for me, and afterall, no costume design was required.

The gig required clean digital lines and I'm glad that I have Retas Stylos, an animation app installed because other than that, I only use Adobe Photoshop for my art and it would take a lot longer for me, at least to get this done. This was a 10-dollar job, 5 for each pose, so taking longer would not have been as cost efficient or productive.
It may not look like much, but I'm glad the client was happy and quickly ordered a second project which was another two-pose turnaround described as a Christiano Ronaldo body type model.

I'm really grateful for this site and I'm equally grateful for my first client who gave me a five-star review because I'm pretty sure it helped a lot in getting me my next clients and also for keeping me with a means to earn a living and also the opportunity to meet and help people out with original creations they would otherwise not be able to afford to realize.
Check out my fiverr profile and gigs from this link:
https://www.fiverr.com/iphibbz