Not Much Madam X This Week, Sorry...

The topic for this week's Illustration Friday is "feet". I have two.

I would have had three but I couldn't set up the picture in time or get anyone to take it for me. Although, if I had had someone it would still have hard to take if it wasn't set up.

If you want to see some great drawn feet check out Colleen Coover's work.
Colleen Coover

And here are the inks for last weeks I.F. The topic was "Tattoo". If you want to see the pencils just scroll down. I didn't have the chance to post it over at the I.F. Web Site. I got it done late last Thursday but couldn't get the Blogger site to post my entry. Does any other Blogger/Blogspot-er have this problem?

I used a portrait I took of Candice for reference. She doesn't have any tattoos in real life but I turned her into a painted lady. These ink drawings for I.F. were both fun and challenging. And a nice change from the paintings from previous weeks.

Here are some very silly photos of St Patricks Day.











Sorry, not much for this blog this week. I don't have much to show or report for Madam X but I will be back with more.

So, have fun everyone!
Love and Rayguns,
-mo

A little Late

Ick, so my week has been very busy. I have not had time to do as much art as I would like.

So, my Illustration Friday illo is late and unfinished. Here is the sketch for "Tattoo":

Remember it is just a sketch. Points to the person who can tell me who's portrait I referenced.
Hopefully, I will finish it for next weeks blog.

And now on to the BIG NEWS!!
The winner and the subject of the first Madam X and Crew T-Shirt is BLACK OCTO 2!!!

But it will probably look more like this:

Thanks so much to Jay and Margaret for all their help, support and ideas!
I'll have more details about the shirt and everything next week.

Madam X and I got mentioned in one of the best blogs here in cyber-inter-web land! Check it out here:

From The Pear

Everyone should be reading this! It is amazingly funny and smart.

Alright everyone, more Madam goodness next week.
Go read From The Pear!
Love and Rayguns,
-mo

Some Say Pins, I Say Buttons!

Week Seven is also a big week. Strangely, I thought I had nothing to talk about today. I was wrong.

I think I will always start with Illustration Friday (http://illustrationfriday.com/) so that when people come from that site they will see it right away. If they choose to stick around for the rest of the blog, they're welcome. But this way they don't have to.
This weeks topic was INSECT. I had planned on doing an actual insect, a Praying Mantis. (I'll tell you a story about it later)
But I decided to stick with what I do best:


That's right, pretty girls!
So here is the Mantis story. When I started thinking about insects I thought to do a real insect. Something tiny, something unnoticed. I thought to do a small bug at the bottom of the composition, with New York towering over him. But I didn't know what kind of bug to draw. Then I was talking to Candice and (Cat and Crane cover artist) Stan, and remembered that once I saw a Mantis by my subway station. It was a hot summer day and I was on my way to work at 6:30am. It was sitting, swaying on the steps. I have always found those bugs quite disturbing and ominous and the light was so early and weird. I found the whole experience spooky and strange. I think it will be one of those things I will always remember. (Even though it did take me a little while to think of it.)



MADAM X HAS BUTTONS!! CAT HAS BUTTONS!! Oh my, I can't believe it. I have wanted to do buttons from the very beginning of Madam X. I actually made some huge ones once. They were made with some scraps from the comic and they weren't very good. Plus they were gigantic. I know that some of you people floating around still have them out there. And that is awful sweet. Did I mention they were huge?
Well these beautiful buttons are new, wonderful, and of a manageable size. I ordered them from Busy Beaver Buttons (http://www.busybeaver.net/index.html). And aren't they great great super great? I will use them all the time when I need buttons. They were easy to order from and quick to get the order done and sent out. They use USPS, which I always prefer. I'm not home enough to use UPS or Fedex. Eeek! It makes me want to get buttons all the time I want to get more buttons right now!!
But, in order to get more buttons, I have to sell some of these buttons (1$ each. Contact me for purchasing information). I have been giving them away, mostly. I feel that there are people, Madam X supporters, who deserve them.



Here are two photos I was playing with in photoshop. The first is Deb on her birthday. Or at her party anyway. She had a crown on and it's her pretty pretty princess shot. I messed with it to pink it up. I like the way that the crown kinda shines. One day I want to figure out how to isolate items with in the picture and mess only with them. PS is still alien to me. I'm just starting to muck about with it in any way. I think that the originals of both these photos are better.
The Bippi pic, I also pinked up. I tried to get the contrast up so that the pic would be pink and greenish. She is just so cute. I think it might be a good idea just to get better at taking the actual photo taking. I really need to learn to use all the modes on my camera. One day I may even read the owners manual. Shocking, I know.


Okay, I have more stuff that I could/should put up her (nobody say octo!). But I think I want to wait until next week. I don't want to over load you guys. A little at a time is usually best. My ink stained fingers can attest that there may be some more Madam coming next week and maybe other things. I did not say anything about any octo, I don't know what you are talking about!
See you later,
-mo

Thursday For Week Six

To make up for last week, I'm starting early and thinking BIG!

First off, here is my first Illustration Friday submission. The theme was "tea".
This was one of the Busy Owl series of paintings. It's acrylic on bristol.


Here is the sign I made for Balthrop, Alabama. We just had our first show last night. It was really great. Unfortunately, this sign was the only set that made it to the show. Our fences are still quarantined in Castle Anthrax. The back drop is coming along. It will be ready for the next show. I just hope that the show will be ready for the sets. The show also gave me tons of ideas for later. It's all terribly exciting!

http://www.balthropalabama.com/
http://www.pascal.com/


I put together Cat and Crane: Up On The Roof #4 last week. (It's on sale now! Cover by Stan Yukinaga!) The process goes like this;
Step 1: First I come up with the idea for the issue and draw it.
Step 2: Then I ink it.
Step 3: Now it's time to copy, cut, paste, copy again. Then make 40 or 50 more copies.
Here are some pictures.

Step 4: Next I get together all the stuff I need to start assembling Issue 4. I usually set up on the livingroom floor and pop a DVD on. I always work with background noise. Mostly it's Douglas Adams, on cassette or ipod, but often (as it was this time) it's FireFly. My paper cutter is on the left. The fancy fancy long stapler is up top. And all the copies are on the right.

Step 5: Then I measure and cut each page. I cut the pages 5 or 6 at a time. Then I group them together in four different piles. I try to lay them out in the way it will be easiest to assemble later. You know, like putting them all turned the same way, first page first and so on. Because...




Step 6: ...is to put all the pages together. I pick one from pile 1, one from pile 2, one from pile 3, and one from pile 4. Then fold them all together. I use a herd surface placed on the rug to help make a clean fold. This time I used the new Paul Pope Batman Year 100 comic. What a good comic, by the way! I <3 Paul Pope! And thanks to Bob for turning me on the him. There is no reason why I used this comic. It was just lying around the livingroom.

Step 7: Next I take the collected and folded comics and staple them. The stapler is so awesome! It has a ruler and a marker bar. The bar can be adjusted to the measurement of the middle of the comic. This way each comic is stapled perfectly (yeah, right). Here is another picture of me stapling. Because it is just so fucking exciting!









Step 8: Then they're done! Look at all the comics I have! Mwahahahahahaha!

So, that is the story of Issue 4 of Cat and Crane: Up On The Roof. Which is on sale now (did I say that already?). Email me to sign up for the Madam X Newsletter to find out where to buy #4 or any of the other comics. My email is madamxandcrew@gmail.com. Easy to remember, right? The Newsletter tells you other useful things, too. Like which of my t shirts designs are winning, which shirt will be made first, um.. and other stuff.

I think this qualifies as the longest and most image intense blog so far. I think it's time to say "goodbye" until next week.
love and rayguns,
-mo