Merry Christmas!

A POD for Christmas

www.bodymindchange.ca

I tried to make my own POD

If you've been following me on Twitter, you'll know that I've signed up with Body/Mind/Change to get a POD (Personal On-Demand).  It's complicated to explain so I'll leave up to you to explore the link if you're interested.  Which you should be.  The future is NOW, people!

Recently BMC revealed that my main man, Andrew, now has a Premier POD and it is a beautiful shade of RED.  I couldn't be happier for him!

This news got me very excited to get my hands on my own POD and being the impatient person that I am I thought I would make my own POD to tide me over until I got my official one.  Now after meeting Mr. David Cronenberg at a book signing at the TIFF this past weekend, I feel like I have to share what I've done.

Knowing nothing about biology or nanotechnology, I took what little reference I had (learned at Udemy.com, it's free!) and a few photos from the Body/Mind/Change Facebook page then combined them with what I do know: poorly executed DIY crafts!

So I present to you, my Plush Pod!

I may have gotten the scale slightly off.

Ok.  I admit.  It looks like an 8 year old girl's sugar rush nightmare.  But it lights up!  I have to turn it on myself and it uses 4 AA batteries, but still...LIGHTS!

It's got headphones so I can hear the recommendations it has for me and a USB plug for interfacing.  I yelled at it all night about how I trust my mailman, how warm Coca Cola disgusts me and how losing a sock when I've for sure checked everywhere makes me so ANGRY, but I don't think it's worked yet.  It's not suggesting anything to me, except for maybe I should put it in a shoebox and hide it in a closet somewhere.

So looks like I'll have to wait for Jan. 19 to get my official, honest to goodness, for real POD from BMC in person.

#PODLOVESYOU

Come to Nikki

How can I have Max without Nikki?

Try something more...spidery.

Pod Loves Me

After learning Simulation 2 will be available next week, I can’t help but sit and daydream about my POD.

www.bodymindchange.ca

Happy Halloween!

They're coming for you, Barbara...

That's Night of the Living Dead, in case you didn't know.

Happy Halloween month, everybody!  Time to watch horror movies for 31 days.  Like that's any different from any other month.

Gremlins

How about some Gremlins on a Tuesday morning?

I can't believe I haven't done anything for Gremlins yet.  So why not on a hot day in September?  I'm so happy I finally got to use some blur on a foreground element.  I've seen others use it and it looks so amazing but I could never think of something for myself.  Until now!  Yay!

Gremlins is part of our Christmas routine of movies.  Gremlins, Home Alone, Scrooged, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Die Hard, A Christmas Story.  Can you tell I grew up and had my formative years during the 1980s?

I saw Gremlins in the theatre when it came out with a  friend and her family.  I distinctly remember sitting WAY over on the far right of the theatre about three rows away from the screen.  The bit with the gremlin in the blender scared the poop out of me.

New Prints on Etsy

The Fan Expo weekend has come and gone and I have prints left over.  They're now on my Etsy shop along with a few older prints.

Thanks for coming by and saying Hello and/or buying something from me.  It was much appreciated and helped make the weekend very enjoyable.

Fan Expo 2013

I'll be there at table A70 with Andrew Barr and his giant black sign with a bright pink and green skull monster on it.  It's hard to miss, trust me.  A70 is just about in line with the Lego booth if that helps at all.  The map of the vendors floor looks incredibly packed, even more so this year than others, so getting around will probably be a challenge, even with the celebs moved to another building.

I've done a clean out of my prints and am not brining as much this year.  Some of the prints are from (quite a few) years ago and my style and quality has changed a lot (for the good?).  I have some new prints (Nerds, Gamer Girl and a version of my Amelia Earhart image) plus my Killer Fangirls, my black and white 1950s caricatures, sugar skull and a few others still for sale.  Plus my art book and the last of my haul of buttons.  Buttons are 25¢ each, cheapest on the floor!

I'll be tweeting and hopefully posting from the table as our weekend chugs along.

Apparently I have some homework to do while I'm there, meaning work I should be doing at home but will try and get a head start on while I'm there, so if my head is down over my sketchbook just clear your throat loudly or throw as useless penny at my head to say "Hi".

1950s Gamer

I was wracking my brain trying to think of a least one new pinup for the Fan Expo this month and as much as I love the 1950s ladies (the hair, the clothes, the expressions), I felt that I couldn't do another one looking pleased at her cooked roast dinner or confused at her coffee.  So I thought I'd mix two things that I like and made her a gamer.

I'll be selling this print at the Toronto Fan Expo this month (table A70).  Look for the scary giant ANDREW BARR banner and I'll be tucked away in the corner of his table.

NERDS! NERDS! NERDS! in colour

I finally bought Revenge of the Nerds in a DVD combo pack with it's 3 sequels.  They're not all as good as the first, obviously, but each had a few laughs.

I think, think, it's out of my system now.

I'll be selling this as a print this August at the Toronto Fan Expo (table A70).

Nerds just don't chant as much as they did in the 1980s.  We should bring that back.

The Aquabats!

Playing with The Aquabats and some coloured ink.

So close!

I was contacted by one of the writers of The Thrilling Adventure Hour to create a poster for them for the San Diego Comic Con happening this year (this weekend if you're reading this, um, right now) but they decided to go with more general show posters instead of for individual stories.  Oh well!  They might be used later in the year at their Largo shows.

I'm super happy with how Amelia Earhart turned out.

NERDS!

I'm haunted by the movie Revenge of the Nerds.  I've seen it a few times since I was a kid.  It was the first movie I saw in 2011, January 1st to be exact.  Since then I've seen it at least 5 more times, either in full or in parts.  If it's on I'll watch it from any point.  Now the soundtrack keeps popping up on the internet radio station I listen to.  I couldn't even find this song on iTunes (I know right!?) so I had to record it from youtube for myself.



Plus a few other references to it here and there.  And now it's part of the TOGA festival at the TIFF.  I think it's becoming one of my favourite movies and I just can't put my finger on WHY.  Also, there's a lot more nudity in it than I ever remembered since I always watched it on regular tv, so there's that.

A Posh Deep One

Inspired by Andrew's monsters I tried my hand at Deep One.  He turned out kind of fancy.

More Women & Hats

Sketch Cards

I thought I'd post some sketch cards I've done.  I've sent a few of these out with things people have bought from Etsy.  Which is good because that's what I said I would do.

Professor Carstairs, I presume?

I've found a new podcast I've become slightly obsessed with called Illusionoid.  It's Canadian (like me, eh) and it's improvised sci-fi in an old-timey kind of radio show way.  I had to try my hand at Prof. Brambleberry and Prof. Carstairs from The Lucifer Device episode.

Then I tried Prof. Carstairs on his own.  I seem to have a thing with drawing huge heads and hands.  I can adjust that when I colour things in vectors but no such luck when inking by hand!  Ha!  Big heads.

Women & Hats

Since I can't seem to find a book that has those amazing black and white photos of people from the 1950s posing for what has to be advertising, I bought myself a book called Women & Hats to draw from.  I bought myself a nice little sketchbook with cream coloured paper, some sepia colour ink and a new brush to go with it too.

These two ladies are the first I've managed to capture.  Trust me when I say the women don't look this shocked and confused in the book.  Bored, maybe.  These two just turned out like deer in the headlights.  Maybe that's telling of my state of mind when I drew them?

Stuff for Sale!

I finally found time and energy (meaning I felt like it) to add a lot of my prints to Etsy.  I'm trying to clear out some older prints to make room for new ones.  I hope.  Clearing my head and clearing my storage bin kinda go hand in hand.

The Glow Cloud

Looks like the local Glow Cloud wants in on this one's photo.

I think I kind of effed up the glow cloud.  But ink has no Command Z feature to undo the last 50 moves I made so what's done is done.  On to the next!

And note to self: less outline, more ink wash on the next idea, eh?

They brought their moon.

Another Night Vale student.  Looks like he, uh, she?  Um, they brought their home made moon with them.

What am I talking about?  Listen: Welcome to Night Vale

Night Vale Student #2

Here's another student from Night Vale, maybe.  Looks like he's evilly, happily hiding something.

It's School Picture Day

Listening to the Welcome to Night Vale podcast I was inspired (finally!).  Thinking of the Night Vale Public school and what picture day might be like with those students.  I'm assuming some of them wouldn't be quite human at first glance.

Actual Ink on Paper!

Sitting at a one day con this past sunday I had some time to start a new little sketchbook I bought.  Of course, I default immediately to some girls

This one I drew in another sketchbook with the intention of inking it with some colour.  My brain is so trained to work in vectors that doing something freeform like working with flowing ink is damned hard.   I'm still thinking with hard edges.  My goal for this summer is to get out of that habit so I can produce some art that's not on the computer.  Just draw, ink (maybe) and forget it.  Then move onto the next one.

 This dude was inspired by the Brutal Legend video game art book.  He's not nearly as creative as some of the designs in that game but it's a start for me because HE'S NOT A GIRL!