Manga Doodles for Halloween

If you were unaware, I teach a manga class for children every Wednesday night in Medford, MA. Last week we were creating some characters for Halloween, and while the kids were concentrating on their task, I whipped up these little doodles. They seem to like it when I draw with them, and are always interested to see what I am up do.

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A Successful Open House.

I want to say thank you to everyone who came out to the open house this past weekend at the Western Avenue Studios. I had a great weekend and made a lot of new contacts. I practically ran out of business cards and promo bookmarks, and I am very grateful for the interest in my work. There will be four more big open house days in December, the 1st, 2nd, 8th, & 9th. If you didn’t get a chance to come to the studios this month, but are still interested, those are your days. The open studios are a great opportunity to get some Christmas shopping done, and a chance to find some absolutely one of a kind gifts.

Most people were stunned to find out affordable most of my items were, and my items under $5 were flying off the shelf. I tend to have things for sale for every budget. I’ve always got a lot of great stocking stuffers for under $10, and a whole range of unique jewelry and prints for under $25. Larger original craft items and leather accessories go for under $50, and then for those of you with more expensive taste, I have original, beautifully framed paintings ranging in the hundreds of dollars.

Anything that I didn’t sell at the open house this past weekend will be going up on my Etsy store within the next few days. Some great Halloween items are already listed, so go take a look!

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HUGE Update in the Crafts Gallery.

I just added a boat-load of new pictures to the crafts gallery at Shaunart.net.  In preparation for the fourth quarter (the holiday season, crafting season, and an artist’s most profitable time of the year), I have completed a big round of crafting, making fall accessories from vegetable tanned leather. There are some really cute Halloween items in there, as well as general fall and harvest themed designs.

Though most of my designs are small, I have started getting into some larger leather cuffs, bracers, and masks. These items will be available for sale at my Open Studio event, happening today and tomorrow from 11-5pm. Anything left over after the open house will be listed on Etsy. However, if an item that suites your fancy does sell, I would be happy to make you another. No two handmade leather products are exactly alike, but I can make it as close as humanly possible! So let me know if you would like to commission a custom item.

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Leather Crafts

The craft gallery at Shaunart.net has been updated with ten new leather pieces. All medium to large jewelry and accessories, each item was made from vegetable tanned leather: hand-cut, carved, and painted by me. You can find all of my leather items currently for sale in my Etsy shop, but my best work will always be featured in my crafts portfolio whether or not the item has already sold.

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Featured Etsy Item: Fall Maple Leaf Necklace

I like how this necklace came out so much that I am going to write a feature on it. You can view the listing for this one-of-a-kind item here.

This is the first of what I am sure will be many maple leaf leather pendants. I cut this leaf from a pattern that I drafted myself, out of vegetable tanned leather from the butt of a cow (which is said to be the finest cut of leather, btw). I wet-formed the pendant by hand and curled the edges slightly into a soft bowl shape that feels great to touch.

I then painted the pendant with liquid acrylics using a sponge to get soft transitions and textures throughout. I then strung the necklace on a voile chain. As I said before, I am very happy with this product and if it doesn’t sell, I know that I would be happy to wear it myself!

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Costume Design & Wig Commissions Accepted

I am now accepting commissions on wig styling, costume design, & costume construction, and I have added a special new page to my website with details and rates. I have been cosplaying for nine years, and always make my own costumes, wigs, and props. Now that I am out of school, I have time to accept commissions from others to help them achieve the costumes of their dreams.

Costume Concept for Connectic Dance Ballet Company

I recently took my costume design work to the next professional level while working with the Connectic Ballet Company to do costume concept art for their summer show, A Steampunk Midsummer Night’s Dream. Costume concept art is one of the cheapest and fastest costume design services that I offer. I always start with concept art before beginning a costume, even when I am interpreting someone else’s character. Drawing the costume myself from every angle helps me get to know its structure and weight before selecting fabric and patterns. With me, the costume designs are always flowing freely and it only takes a few minutes for me to come up with most of my sketch ideas. But some people do not have as easy a time drawing or imaging new costume ideas, which is why I offer to them my skills as a thinker and draftsman in the illustration of their soon-to-be-realized costume vision.

Wig styling services is the second service that I offer as a costumer, and is also affordable and can be done in a timely manner. I taught myself how to cut and style wigs several years ago, and have been practicing ever since. I also took a stage craft course while in college that went over wig styling and ventilating; so if your wig requires some really intensive detail work in the hairline, I’ve got you covered.

Recent Steampunk Original Costume Creation

Full or partial costume construction, is the third service that I am offering as a costume-maker, and it is the most time consuming and costly because of the labor involved in hand-making one of a kind articles of clothing. You can take a look at my costuming gallery on my website to get an idea of the sorts of things I have made in the past. I am familiar with all sorts of fabrics, materials, and techniques that allow me to tackle just about any costume out there.

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Portraiture

Part of my senior thesis project was to do a series of three. I chose to do a series of three portraits, of three women, in three different modes of costume, interacting with three different classifications of animals.

The first portrait is of a woman in a tradition costume. A garment invented in the distant past, worn today for celebrations or special occasions. All three paintings started with photo reference; each model dawned the appropriate clothing, and was photographed either outside or in a studio setting with adequate lighting. The next step was to do a final sketch, transfer to illustration board, and finally, begin painting.

Each painting consists of a liquid acrylic under painting, watercolor, and colored pencil. The second panting is of a a woman in a contemporary, normative mode of costume, or as most people know it–street clothes.

The third and final painting in the series also happens to be a self portrait, to fill another requirement of my senior thesis project. Here I am wearing an obscure, decorative form of costume, or the sort of stuff that most people think of when they hear the term costume.

One of my favor animals since childhood has been the Komodo dragon, but I can’t fit one of those on my arms, so I settled for the Australian monitor lizard instead. It is closely related to the Komodo dragon, and is just as smart, but a lot smaller.

You can view this and other brand new illustrations in my color illustration portfolio.

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Costume Consultant for Connetic Dance!

Hey! You know what’s cool and exciting? I am helping to design the costumes for CONNetic Dance’s upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream! CONNetic Dance is a ballet company based in Hartford, CT and their show this June is a steampunk rendition of the Shakespearean classic. The set designer for the show located my work over the internet, and the director asked for my assistance in designing costumes for the dancers! I have an extensive background in costume design and in steampunk, as you all know, so this task couldn’t be more up my alley.

Because of my upcoming senior exhibition I won’t be able to physically construct all of the costumes myself, but I am able to provide suggestions for practical adaptations of steampunk style dress in sketch form, as well as provide a wealth of knowledge on victorian era dress and the steampunk movement. The challenge in designing these costumes is that they need to be conducive to dance! Steampunk is traditionally done in heavy suiting materials and is composed of structured garments like jackets and corsets. Nothing restrictive can be used here or the dancers won’t be able to do their thing. That’s why I am keeping all of my bodices soft, providing stage-ready alternatives to heavy fabrics, and taking lots of inspiration from the saloon and circus wear of the era.

In this post are my first three costume designs: Helena, Hermia, and Lysander. Three of the four “lovers.” They come from the orderly and lawful city of Athens, and so I wanted to make their costumes to appear structured and civilized. This is steampunk however, and CONNectic Dance likes their performances to have a little spice, so I did add a few dramatic details in the color and trimmings to punk-up the victorian mechanics.

For more on CONNetic dance, you can check out their website here: http://www.conneticdance.com/

and their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/CONNetic-Dance/38283164384

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Video Interview by Nerd Caliber of Anime Boston 2011 Howl’s Moving Castle Cosplay Group

Our newly formed cosplay group, Meta Cosplay, had a wonderful time being interviewed by Nerd Caliber . Watch the video below or follow the link to their site.

To see more on my Sophie costume, visit the page!

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Alter-ego: The Snake Charmer

Here is the first assignment from my oil painting class. Our task was to define an alter-ego for ourselves, and to paint our likeness on this fantasy identity.

I decided that my alter-ego would be an exotic snake charmer, hiding from the dessert sun in her lavish arabian, or maybe Egyptian palace. My alter-ego would be a very mysterious and even dangerous person, hence she keeps the company of snakes. There are nineteen snakes in this painting. My birth year is represented by the snake in the Chinese zodiac, and I’ve always really liked to draw reptiles..so why not be a snake charmer? I don’t like the hot sun, or the sand but my alter-ego embraces a slightly sandy lifestyle than me. But even the pretend me would spend her time in the shade.

Taking reference for this photo was really fun. I already owned most of the costume, and I wrapped a towel around my shoulder for the python. This piece was very meticulous to paint, but I enjoyed myself. I think that the way I envisioned the painting rendered lent itself well to oils. I learned a lot from this piece, and even though oils may not be my medium of choice going forward, I am happy to have learned how to use them and to learn what sets them apart visual and technically from water based mediums.

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