Come and say "hi" on my new Facebook page! :D

I recently mentioned on my FB profile as well as on TSB's page that I've created a new Facebook page for myself as an artist.  I did this because I'd begun to be a tiny bit overwhelmed by friend requests from people I don't really know (mainly from TSB fans! Lol!) who are interested in following me mostly for my artwork.

Until recently I was approving all of these friend requests (I do love to make new friends!) but I found that often it took me a long time to get to them, and other times I'd refrain from posting a status update meant only for my friends and family because my Facebook was becoming more of a networking thing rather than a "friends and family" thing.

Because this new page is a page rather than a profile, all you need to do if you want to keep up with me and my art is click "like" at the top of the page, and you'll get updates from my blog, deviantART and Livestream (where you can watch me work on new illustrations LIVE! Ooooh) without having to wait for me to approve your request. You can visit the new page here.

I've decided that videos, sketches of works in progress (even TSB ones) and the like will only be posted to that page, and not The Stamping Bazaar page. So if you don't want to miss that kind of stuff, be sure to follow me there!

As an aside, I need more "likes" on my Artist page so I can set up a username for it... I need at least 25 likes before I can do this. So your help is very much appreciated. :)

Click HERE to visit and "like" my new FB page!

From time to time, I may even give an occasional digi to someone chosen at random from those who like my new page. So what are you waiting for? Drop by, say hi with a comment and be sure to click "like" before you go! ;D

-Marina

After a long time, finally an update!

Hey everyone, how have you all been?

I haven't updated this blog for a while. The beginning of the year sure was rocky for me, and very busy, what with my beloved kitty Stimpy dying on me right before Christmas, then getting a new kitten in early January (I didn't want to wait, since loving a new kitten helped distract me from it all) and dealing with the many health issues this new kitten brought along. He had to take many medicines for over a month, but is now a very healthy (and naughty!) little devil. His name is Sweeney and here is a photo of him:

Doesn't he look crazy? That's because he is!!

That aside, I've been working on tons of stuff. I'm illustrating two books at the moment, and have a deadline for them, which is also why you haven't seen much of me in recent weeks.

The book series is called Gumpchy the Little Baha'i Bear. Here are some of the characters from these books:

Gumpchy the Little Baha'i Bear by =marinaneira on deviantART


Weily the Rabbit by =marinaneira on deviantART


Sam the Kookaburra by =marinaneira on deviantART

I hope you enjoy looking at them. Remember that you can see more in this folder of my deviantART gallery.

I leave you with a little .GIF of my sweet ol' Stimpy begging for treats:

This was one of the cutest things he ever did. Sometimes, if there was a little lizard or gecko walking on the ceiling, he would do this too, looking at the ceiling, as if asking the gecko to come down from there and allow himself to be eaten!

We loved him SO much. I am glad that he was mine and miss him like you can't imagine. :'(

Talk to you all soon,

-Marina

If this were a rubber stamp/digi, would you use it?

I drew this little guy months ago when I first began experimenting with drawing children, and colored him recently:

"Sunday Best"

View on deviantART

What do you think of him?

-Marina

What I've been up to.

Hello, boys and girls! I've been a busy bee this past month, working on four very big, relatively detailed illustrations for a client as well as drawing a lot of new designs for The Stamping Bazaar's first Christmas release. So many "firsts" for TSB this year, huh? And of course, we're having a Blog-Hop and it's going to be even more epic than our Halloween one!

But I digress. My main reason for this post is to show off those four illustrations. They were great fun to work on for the most part, and the most color work I've done for a client in a long time; the first color work I do for a client on the Cintiq 12WX, and the best digital color work I've ever done for a client period (though I have done colored illustrations for myself that look better to me than these, but only because my favored style didn't match the one the client requested for these illustrations.)

This client intends to use the illustrations on desk mats for schoolchildren. I've been told I will receive samples of each desk mat when they are manufactured in a few month's time and I am REALLY excited about that!

This one, of a little bear teacher, was the easiest one, and the first one I completed:

The one below took over a week of sketches, some research for reference, and a full day plus all-nighter to color (I went to bed at 6:30am that day.) It is my favorite of the four and was the most fun to do:

This next one is my least favorite because it doesn't have animals, except for the dog, and there are just too many "hard" lines for my liking. Still, the client was happy and people I've shown it to liked it as well. But it is my aim to better my drawing of buildings and people in 2011:

Now this last one was the most work of all, for some reason. Coloring it was HELL. I don't mean it wasn't fun, it just took SO long and was SO exhausting:

And now, here is a little something that you may just find interesting if you've ever wondered about how this is all done:

And finally, a little of the coloring process, this time of the Fairy Concert illustration:

I am laying down all the flat or "base" colors here. This is the most time consuming part of the process.

After a full day and a half's worth of work, all the base colors have been added. It's beginning to look alright, but still looks pretty flat:

Below is the finished illustration with all the lights, shadows and added textures and little details:

I've been wanting to share this with you for some time, so I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to reading your comments. =)

This weekend I am going to a "Tree Trimming Party" at the house of a friend in West Palm Beach. I am excited about relaxing a little, as I should be able to do since I am spending the weekend there. I am of course taking my beloved MacBook Pro with me to send any digi orders that may come in while I'm there, but most of all to work on my manuscript. I've been writing quite a bit lately and making steady progress on the rewrite of my book's first draft! =D

Have a great weekend, everyone!

-Marina