Hatching a Yoshi

        In my last post I talked about a zombie image I made that was meant to be used for a T-shirt design.    Check out that post > CLICK HERE

        Well that design is not the only image I made for a T-shirt design.  Though not made for a job I did make a Yoshi shirt design image just as a fun project for myself.  Now everyone knows Yoshi, but just in case you've never played a video game here is a brief description of what Yoshi is.  Yoshi is the cute big eyed green dinosaur in the Mario game series.

Yoshi art from 1990 by Nintendo.

      I remember being a young kid playing SNES and spending hours upon hours playing Super Mario World (which happens to be Yoshi's very first game appearance) and man when ever I hit that block with the Yoshi egg my face would just light up. I knew when I hit that egg I was in for a fun time.  Riding my Yoshi, running through the Mushroom Kingdom and eating up goomba's and koopa's, and spitting them out at enemies. (Oh and unlike a lot of others I would never sacrifice my Yoshi for that extra Jump boost, you know who you are).  In short Yoshi is one of my very favorite power ups in video games, cause its not only a power up its also a partner and I think that's just the coolest.


     But one thing I didn't realize as a kid that Yoshi was an actual Dinosaur I mean look and him!!!

Another Yoshi image by Nintendo.

Does that look like a Dinosaur, no not at all when I think Dinosaur I think more...

Image from Jurassic park.

       Oh god, yea that thing, now that is a dinosaur, which finally brings me to my Yoshi image, and my attempt to connect him back to his prehistoric roots.

Now how do you ride that?

      Now that is a Dinosaur and I think a pretty cool T-shirt design.  also a fun detail about the design is like the Yoshi and there many colors, the design is made so that whatever color shirt you pick is the color Yoshi that is hatched, pretty cool right?

Green shirt Yoshi!

Blue shirt Yoshi!

      So that is my tribute to one of my favorite early childhood characters from some of my first experiences playing video games.

Prepare The Holiday Sweaters...

      Well its December, and you all know what that means?  Thats right, Christmas! Trees, gifts, snow, bright decorations, good dinners, egg nog, friends, families, holiday films, and christmas carols.  There really isn't anything not to like about this holiday season, or is there?

     Thats right some traditions aren't as classic or loved like fruit cake.  The one not so treasured tradition that stands out the most to me is the "UGLY SWEATER".  

My image of  a "man?" in an ugly sweater

      Man I love the ugly sweater. I go out of my way to find them when I go to any store. I even get a kick out of all the ugly sweater contest you find on TV. In fact I saw a contest one on the news the other day, THE NEWS.  Apparently bad clothing is important information.  The reason I love this so much is the complete self awareness and embrace of how silly the holidays can get us. People donning this  gay apparel are now just trying to out Ugly each other.

     God the sweaters, its just all wrong the colors, the patterns or even how scenes, and some even play music or light up and even all of the above. Its just all wrong and in the best ways. 

     Well anyway the point of this is just to celebrate not only the good of christmas but show how we can even embrace and love the really bad things that it brings out in us.

!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!

Until Next Time !

Edited By : MIA ROSE CAMMISA

Monster Me Portrait

      Hey there everyone! Sorry there was no post around Thanks Giving, I was spending time with my family and I hope you all had fun with yours.  For those of you who remember, I posted some sketches of work I had started and neglected to finished . One of those pieces was this, 

sketchy sketch sketcherson

      It's a self-portrait I started a while ago and I feel like sharing it with you all, cause if there is one thing people want to see Its a big grinning monster portrait of me.

Green Monster Me

        Not much more to say its a big picture of me as a monster, so....

Until Next Time !

Edited By : Mia Rose Cammisa

"The Mermaid's Treasure" silly title, good image

        A while back I watched a HORRIBLE special on mermaids.  The "documentary" (and I use that word very loosely) tried to prove the existence of mermaids, it's about as silly as ancient aliens specials.  The special was so offensive to anything scientific that I won't even show you a link to it or even give you its name.

        As bad of a special that was it did get me thinking about the history of Mermaids in different mythologies and in pop culture. It also got me interested in making a mermaid image of my own.

"The Mermaid's Treasure"

       Mermaids themselves don't particularly interest me but making a mermaid image would be a nice chance to play around making an undersea landscape.  The process of this image was pretty fun and it changed a lot from the original to finish.

Segment from original ink work

          Shortly after finishing and scanning the original ink work a big glaring problem popped up, and if you looked at the finish you probably already see what it is.  The face, the face was terrible, how did I not see it?  It was an issue that needed to be fixed and lucky the fix was simple.

a quick before and after

        The fix ended up being very simple.  Turned out I just over inked, or detailed, her face up. A simple use of the erase tool and poof 20 years younger.

     I hoped you enjoyed hearing a little about the process of this image and it gives it a little more life.

Until Next Time!

Edited by : Mia Rose Cammisa

Dinner Time

     If you are the type of person to spend a lot of time on the internet you know the term
"Om Nom Nom."  It brings images of cute little creatures adorably eating their num nums. Cute creatures kind of like these guys.

Look at their cute little faces

    There is just something about watching these sweet little fellows eating, but what if these darling creatures were the ones on the menu!?

      This is an image I did a while back. It wasn't a big project at the time as I originally drew it up quickly with the idea of using it as a test piece for changing up line colors.  Usually I keep the line work in my images constant; dark blues and blacks, so I thought it was time to change it up. Basically this was only used as a device for teaching myself how to separate the line work and in that I think I did a good job.

my layers for this image

     But afterward, manly cause of the color pallet, I wasn't very interested in going further with the image and it stayed that way for a while. I finally decided to give it a new coat of paint ( digital paint that is ) and post it up.  So here it is the new finished product.

!! Look at all them colors !!

        Like I said earlier in this post, this image was only a test next post, I will show you the piece that came from this little work on lines.

Until Next Time !

Edited By : Mia Rose Cammisa

Character Design : Grimmie Grimes

     With Halloween on its way, here is a quick pic of one of its most treasured icons...

!! DEATH !!

    Here is the image in color.

 

     Until Next Time!

Edited By : Mia Rose Cammisa

Character Design : Gum Robo

      One small step for gum, one giant leap for .... "gumkind"?

    Until Next Time !

Edited By : Mia Rose Cammisa

Space Ranger Mia

        Some of you out there have probably noticed that at the end of my blogs I put a byline that reads

"Edited by : Mia Rose Cammisa." I'm sure you all have wondered "Hey, who is that?" Well, IM GOING TO TELL YOU!  So sit back, grab your favorite carbonated beverage and prepare for a tale of wonder and excitement. 

        I've always had issues with reading and writing. I enlisted Mia to help with my blogs by translating them into "real" english for you all to enjoy, but she is much more than that.

      

        Mia is a writer and crafter. She writes about her crafts on her blog, Tiny Hands Crafts, and we even collaborate on projects time to time.  She also runs a small little web store on Etsy called Theda Vintage, where she sells vintage clothing.   So yes Mia is a good writer, artist, business women, martial artist, and all around great person, but did you also know that she is also a...

!!! SPACE RANGER !!! 

Mia riding an Anthonos on a strange planet surface.

       Thats right, Mia has traveled the suns and stars many times in her journey to discover the unknown and boldly go where nobody has gone before.  While we sit and celebrate about the "Mars Rover" Mia was riding Anthonos on the surfaces of strange planets.  While we where debating on wether or not to fund NASA's space programs Mia was fighting off lord Xenu for control of the planet.

      Yes Mia is a women of wonder and she is all mine.

Until Next Time !

and of course this blog is edited by : Mia Rose Cammisa

Character Design : The Fruit Bearer

       The Best fruit in life is the fruit you grew yourself.

     Until next time !

Edited by : Mia Rose Cammisa

Dealing with Demons

          A while back I showed an image in a post called "Making a deal with a Demon". You can view that post here > Click here.

          A lot went into that piece and I wanted to talk about the process that went into the final image.

Original sketch

           The original was drawn in my tiny mole skin sketch book that I use for drawing on the go. The idea was to make a lurking figure, crouched over and staring over its "victim."  The creature was always meant to be a demon but instead of a the classic demon with two horns and a tail, I this one to exhibit how other cultures have shown demons, and devils through ritual masks.

Well Demon sketch sheet

         The Well Demon was the main element for me, if I could make it work then the rest of the image would come together around it.  My first thought was to sketch out a demon mask without a connection to another culture but it started to look a little to bland and without much personality. So, I tried to mix elements of other tribal masks to create something unique and still familiar.

  For a while I considered a number of poses for the Well Demon,but in the end I liked the one I started out with. He is much more menacing crouched over his well and so the piece took on a haunted look. d

       At this point I had it all sketched out, the Demon, the setting and the composition. I knew I wanted to have a female figure as the person that came to make the deal with the demon.  There was only a small issue...

Early sketch of female figure, notice the difference in hair style.

       I hate admitting this, but I have always had trobule drawing "attractive" female characters.  My style tends to go more into cute or grotesque so unless I make the female overly cute I have always had issues in depicting female characters. This was a good chance to improve that skill.  I wanted to go for a slightly older women, so you can infer why she would make such a dangerous deal, perhaps to get back a lost loved one.

Early color for Well Demon.

       I always think of color as I draw so just filling them in is no problem, however I always make small changes as I go.

Final image.

I hope you liked seeing a little behind the scenes and looking at the evolution of this idea.

Until next time ! 

Edited by : Mia Rose Cammisa

Sandy Beaches and Sandy Art

      Last week I went on vacation to Ocean City with my gal and some of her family.  Because of this I neglected posting on my blog for over a week.  It was an amazing time, walking on the board walk, eating junk food, playing in the arcades and winning some prizes for my special little lady, and going to the beach and swimming in the ocean for hours.

     Before I went on the trip I told my self I would do work everyday, but I was having so much fun I never really got the chance. However art is found in all forms and I do got a little something to show.
One day while on the beach, the day I got sunburn, I decided that instead of spending all my time getting hit in the face with waves I would try my head at sand sculpting.

crazy sand face, and yes that is me in the photo !

       I never really worked in sand, and at first I thought it would be impossible, but like every medium you just have to learn how it works. Sometimes you need to work around it and not try to force it to work around you. After a little I was getting the image I wanted from it and was working pretty fast. I was originally going to leave the image was  just a head.... but the I was INSPIRED !

     While looking over my great creation I was told a story about ancient guardian statues created to ward off spirits and I thought I want to make one of my own. So I started on the great mermaid of the ocean that wards off sea spirits.  The finished would come in at well over 10 feet long and about 6 feet wide.

me shoveling out tons of sand to build in some depth to my creation.

look at his amazing pectoral muscle

       Sadly I was unable to finish my giant creation.  Spending hours working on him left me a bit burnt you and fatigued. I decided to take about an hour break and when I returned my poor guardian was trampled all over and behind recognition.

Last image before destruction. 

     Even though he was destroyed I am happy I got these images. I always knew it was a temporary image, I'm just happy it was such a great experience.  Hope you enjoyed it and hope to get a chance to do it again.

Glad to be back, Until next time !

Edited by girlfriend and fellow blogger : Mia Rose Cammisa

P.S. check out this post to see all the shells we collected  >  click here

Character Design : Jimmy the Hammer

      Jimmy the Hammer was once known as Jimmy shorts or Jimmy brows, until he "convinced" those people otherwise.

Until next time !

Edited by: Mia Rose Cammisa

Pixel Werewolf, finished

A while back I did a blog about pixel art work : see it here 

     In that post I talked about my increasing interest in pixel work, I also showed an in progress attempt at pixel art of my own.  The my first attempt was of a polar werewolf and was still very early on.  It had an extremely thick line around the entire piece, and was very plan in color.

The in progress image from old post

Finish image

      I added a lot more depth in the color and made the outline much more minimal.  I still feel like I have a lot of space for improvement with pixel art, but I  find this image to be a very successful endeavor!     


Until next time !



Edited by : Mia Rose Cammisa

Character Design : Slug Golem

       What's better then a big giant hulk like slug?  The answer, nothing. 

Until Next Time !

Edited by: Mia Rose Cammisa 

Character Design : Knight of the Demon Watch

      I've been wanting to show more images of just character designs, so why not start out with a classic knight image?

Until next time !

Edited by: Mia Rose Cammisa