Little Lina’s Lovelies Home

I’ll be an artist at GeekOUT 2012 in Asheville, NC, this weekend May 11-12, brought to you buy multiverseavl.com. Originally Asheville brought geeks from all around Fanaticon but it has been cancelled and Multiverseavl.com has flexed their superhero muscles and created GeekOUT 2012.

“GeekOut is a celebration of comics, gaming, art, costuming, film, and animation, nestled in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains- home of The Hunger Games! The show is free to the public!” – from geekoutavl.org.

It will be an interesting time, I’m sure!

I’m working on a new series, my first series actually. This concept had been floating around in my head for 6 months now. Every once in a while it would enter my consciousness and whisper, “don’t forget me”. Now I know I should be working on something new for my next convention or show, but I don’t feel like I should put this off anymore. Not sure why, but should an artist question The Muses? I think not.

So here’s a sneak peek at the prep work. It’s graphite on wood right now, all ready for paint.

Isn’t she lovely?

Hopefully I can get this finished by next Wednesday to show you, check back!!
xoxo

I was accepted to Gencon 2012 which is a gaming convention in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 16 – 19.
Honestly I never imagined I’d go to Indiana, but I’m SUPER excited to check out this convention.

See you there Indiana!

“Pretty Dangerous”
It’s 8×10, acrylic and oil on gesso panel.

Out of this World: Rockets, Robots and Rayguns is the next show at the Zapow Gallery in Asheville, March 30th 2012.

I had a lot of fun conceptualizing this one. I couldn’t see myself doing the typical vintage space girl, so I turned her steampunk with some cute aliens that were actually vicious little buggers.

I’ll try to get you guys a picture of it on the wall during the show.
Cheers!

Announcing the next convention my “con buddy” Erika Taguchi-Newton and I will be attending – HeroesCon 2012! This convention will be in Charlotte, NC, June 22-24th at the Charlotte Convention Center. It’s the first time we’ll check this convention out, and we are very excited to actually be a part of their 30th Anniversary.

For more information about HeroesCon 2012, click here.

And check back on my lil blog here for updates on new pieces I’ll be creating for future conventions and gallery shows.

xo

ps Happy Feb 29th!

Are you tired of hearing about Megacon from me yet?

I had a GREAT time. Met new, amazing people, got to hang out with my “con buddy” Erika Taguchi-Newton, and saw many great costumes. Megacon is definitely three days of fun in Orlando.

I didn’t take many pictures, and what I did take didn’t come out so well, for this I apologize. I thought you’d like to see the picts anyway.

First up is a pict of a steampunk girl who I saw and was inspired by, so I snapped that pict. And what’s a Megacon post without a cute chick pict? Anyway, I’m not cool enough to know what costume the other girl is sporting…anyone know?

Second pict is my booth. I shared with my friend so we each got 4′ and the part of the grid wall we set up behind us. This definitely showed us that after Heroescon in June we need to get our own tables. So, my lil area here is small but friendly I think!

Lastly, this is a so-so shot of a commission I did for a very cool chick from Seattle. I was flattered and SUPER HAPPY when she asked me to finish Dark Phoenix for her from my sketchbook. She made my weekend

I just want to take the time to thank everyone who stopped by my booth and chatted – you know who you are!! Thank you INVI, I love the trade we did! And to thank Paul for his artist afterparty, and Stan for always stopping by to say hi, two talented and nice guys who always have a smile ready for you. Also thanks to everyone who support us artists, we love what we do but you guys make it worth while.

xo

I love zombies.

I’ve been know to be one for halloween. I’ll treat myself to a zombie movie marathon from time to time. If I ever have time to read I read zombie books like Zombie Survival Guide, and if I am dreaming about them I HATE to wake up, I think zombie nightmares are just plain fun.

So when the gallery I am in, Zapow, decided to have a February “Zombies & Lusty Ladies” show, I knew I had to do a painting!

And ladies & gents, this is how Little Lina does Zombies

Here’s the sketch

I am so in love with it on my table I actually hated to drop it off at the gallery. BUT I will have prints made and they will be at Zapow and at Megacon, yay!

*sniff*

Anyway, if you are in the Asheville, NC area on February 11th, dressed as a zombie or not…with nothing to do…come on down to Zapow! The party starts at 7 and there is a costume contest, best zombie lady and best gruesome zombie. Or just stop in to see everyone’s cool costumes – I will!!!

Click HERE to get all the info.

xoxo

Internet or no internet, this blogger is gettin’ things done!

Flickr, where I post my pictures then embed the html code here, asked me today if I wanted to participate in the national online protest by blacking out my images. Although I am not afraid of a little protesting here and there, I didn’t take the time to shoot photos today to show you for it to just be a black box!

So here ya go,

I finished painting this piece, temporarily named Magdalena, and set her safely aside so she can dry for a full month before I varnish her. At which time I’ll have fresh new picts showing her off with that shiny, yummy varnish that really makes the red pop and the black nice and dark.

Also I have recently sent in my two submissions to Spectrum 19. Yes it’s that time again already! Artists get your butt in gear as you only have until January 27th to have it in front of these guys.

It’s been a long standing dream of mine to someday be in this publication. This is the first year I’m submitting and I find myself trembling with excitement while handing it over to my friendly post office girl. I know it’s a l o n g s h o t , but I have always said, “a girl can dream!”. And I believe every step you take as an artist is one step worth taking, in one way or another.

Anyway, back to semi protesting, think I’ll duct tape my computer monitor – who’s with me!
Jk

Unlike most artists I do 1 full sketch per piece. I’ll draw the entire pose, not a series of rough sketches. So my sketchbook is page after page of these girls/characters drawn with much detail.

I had thought to sell these pages at Megacon as original sketches, signed by me. But I found myself pretty attached to them which is probably not the best thing for an artist who is trying to “get out there”.

Also I honestly didn’t give much thought to anyone else appreciating them as much as I do until I visited a friend who thoughtfully made me realize sketches are valuable as a step in the artist’s process. If someone sees value in you as an artist they might appreciate a sketch.

So, since today is so dreary, it literally looks like the set from Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, I am printing out sketches from my sketchbook onto nice, thick paper. It is brightening my day to see these, it’s great to see them in their packaging, with my new labels, after I’ve signed each of them.

Hope you’re all having a lovely day too!
xo

This year is definitely presenting challenges already. Looking foward it will be an interesting year of trying to balance finances with growing my business as an artist.

I used to think, I’ll do some paintings, try to get into a gallery, voila. I’m finding a LOT more goes into “being an artist” such as figuring out how you’ll reproduce your paintings. If you do prints, you must get them printed = $, get packaging and create labels = $, find a place to put these or ways to sell them, thus creating a new set of to-do’s = $$$.

Now I am not complaining, I am merely hoping to educate another budding artist. This is what I’ve chosen to blog about this coming year. All the things I go through to do what I do. Because honestly I wish someone had told me.

On with pretty pictures!

This is one way I’ve chosen to reproduce my work. Since I do wood cut outs there is no background. If I printed the wood cut out onto paper it’s just a white background, it’s not very interesting. So I’ve had a fantastic little company called Night Owl Paper Goods print my pieces onto balsa wood. And this is what they look like…

I feel like it’s a perfect solution, hope you like them as well! I have them posted on my etsy page for sale. This is one easy solution for selling your work as opposed to in a store or gallery. You just need a logo and a header, some nice pictures and a description with good keywords for etsy. Then of course good social media skills to promote your etsy page…I’m workin on that.

I’d love to hear thoughts or questions.
xo