"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

A really unlikely Hero

        On my last post I showed a sketch of a hunchback character from my sketchbook: click here.

I didn't plan on doing more with it, but something about his face just called to me and I just had to give this poor guy a little more life.  

         o what about this guy is so special compared to all the other heroes and monsters I’ve been posting lately? It has to do with how sad his story is compared to others. As the creator of that story I felt obligated to go further with his image then others, and also to give him a happy ending! 


        No-Names life was off to a bad start from birth. He was born to poor farmers who hated poor No Name for his physical abnormalities. Their disdain for the deformed child grew as they found that he wasn’t able to help around the farm because of his deformities. They hated their son so they refused to give their own son a name.

         When he hit his teen years luck was on his parent’s side as a traveling freak show came to the town, they sold him at the first offer and was done with him. The show named him Newt, for they said he had the ugly face of the lizard. 

         What No Name had first thought would be a new start to life, that he’d be greeted open arms of acceptance, quickly turned out to be a worse situation than he was in before. No Name preferred the silent neglectful hate of his parents to the loud violent insults of hundreds of circus goers throwing garbage in his face. 

         That was the routine of his life for many years until one day he overheard that Ringleader talking about pulling No Names act. The cruel man has decided to kill No Name before the circus got to the next town. This diabolical plan was never carried out though, as a mysterious fire swept the circus grounds. Everyone there either died or became missing, everyone except one truly nameless freak. It was unknown if he caused the fire or not, but everyone assumed he did and he quickly became the target of a manhunt. 

         Unable to hide or run very far he was caught almost immediately. The towns people carried him to the hangman’s noose where he was set to be hung from his fat slimy neck till dead. 

         The once named Newt, was now a nameless criminal. They walked him onto the platform and the noose placed around his big slimy neck, then his face was covered with a bag to hide his hideousness. When the floor dropped out the crowed listened intently to hear his gasps of the sound of bones cracking. Instead they heard nothing, due to his strong and thick neck nothing happened. They left him there for days in hopes that he would eventually starve to death. One night, as he swung himself to sleep he began to here footstep approaching him. He was scared, for who would approach him unless to do him harm. Suddenly he heard the unsheathing of a blade and boom! He was dropped to the ground. He had be saved! But by who? His rescuers pulled the bag from his head. He saw his savors in the form of the other circus freaks!

         They told him that it was them who started the fire in a plan to escape. They have started a militia that had just taken over the town and wanted him to join.

        Dawning his new warrior attire he would help defend the newly concord town with his fellow deformed brothers, and to alls surprise they would have nothing but victories, until one day when they’d be finally left alone.. They had finally won, they were free from the mocking eyes of others, free to just live in the town they conquered, and years later the nameless freak finally was given a name from his town, Champion.

Edited by : Mia Rose Cammisa

Ouch ! my face ...

    

   I haven't done a post in a while, but there is a reason for that, other than laziness.  I recently had some important dental work done which put me out.  I had a very deep cavity that needed to be drilled and a "bad" tooth that needed to be pulled. The latter I've kept in a little bag.

      Picture below for all to see :

here is a lovely photo of the after math.

     However, I didn't post this just to complain  and not show you anything of value.  So here is a work in progress! Because I love monsters.

Sketch for piece : Monsters on the Go

    I had this concept for a while and it went through a couple of different versions before picking this one.  When I'm done working on it I'll give more of a back story for you readers out there. 

                                                                                     

Wizard's Brew, a bit more progress.

Work in progress.

   A small while back in one of my updates I showed this image as a small sketch, it is a piece I can't wait to finish and add to my portfolio.

   I just finished inking it and scanned it in to start working on this in photoshop. Now here for you is the piece so far.

Notebook, Sketches and More!!!

    Been getting work done and have a nice amount to report.

    Quick thing to get out of the way, I am still new to blogger and am still setting up the overall look and I think it is going along nice.

new banner on site as of now.

    on the work side :

    I have been trying to break mainly in children's books and I am enjoying my first job in that field now. At the same time I am preparing my images and cover letter and getting ready to send it off to a whole list of book publishers, so that has taken a nice chunk of my time going through all my images and picking out a few and getting set on some new ones. 

A wizard piece that is in the sketch stage for a new portfolio piece.

   I have always been a huge fan of the whole realm of fantasy, yet noticed I somehow ignored it in a lot of my work, which is something I hope to change. This piece is my first of many in this field. I will be very happy to add this piece to my portfolio as it is much more suited for books.

It shows a character at the same time telling a story and is at the same time a simple layout with a lot going on in it at the same time. 

    I will post updates on this piece as it comes.

   a sketch I want to talk about for no reason :

A very messy work station.

    I was visiting my little sister where she lives, and while sitting waiting for her I started sketching this computer station she has. I just for some silly reason got really into it and how sloppy and broken the area is. The main drawer is of its hinge and to the pile of books off to the side, it just called for me to do a normal sketch of it and I wanted to share it with you.

   ideas for the future : 

   While working on projects I took a little time to rush out a quick sketch, see below.

Burgers.... eat one before it EATS YOU !!!

   It was quick to do and still pretty funny, and got me to thinking of doing something more with doing some quick comic like or quick humor images, this is still an idea but just prepare to see more things of this nature in the future.

Personal Updates 1/22/12

The Waiting is the Hardest Part...

     For the last couple of months I have been busy working on my first big freelance job illustrating a children's book for Capstone Press. The job is great and all is going fine, working on this project makes me feel I was right in wanting to work in children's books.

    The only problem is the area of time where I send off my files and the time I get feedback. Sometimes a whole week can go by before I hear back from them, which isn't a issue on there part, but more of an issue I have. 

     I, like most artist, am very self-conscious about my work and at times can become really negative and over critical about it. So during the time I'm waiting to hear back from the designer I start thinking of every single flew my work and my mind wanders.  I think:

        "what if they hate it and and want to go to someone else, what if my style isn't suited for this."  

       It really is a problem I and other artist have it seems. The answer is to use these worries as fuel to motivate and push use further. And of course the has never been a problem with my work, every time I hear back from them the response is always positive and the things that need to be fixed are all small and easily done, but the problem is always there.
       I wish there was more of a point to this and I had more advise on the matter, other then "well just work through it", but this issue isn't that easily solved and will always exist in me, as well as many other artist.      

keep on sketching   

But even with that all said, illustration is what I want to do and and the fact people like my art at all makes it all worth it. 

First Post

we all scream

This is my first post in on my new blog account! I am pretty excited and hope to make the best of this and hopefully get a lot out of it.