Rick And Morty x Doctor Who Crossover

New art done during my usual stream times on Twitch! Crossover of my two favorite old skinny men with deep seeded emotional issues who travel through time and space.
Done in about 2.5 Hours!
Enjoy!

New Speedpaint up!

New speedpaint up! Featuring everyone's favorite purple mom from Steven Universe! enjoy!

Whirlwind news and updates

Hello all!
I hope everyone has had a lovely time since we last met here, I have a whole lot of changes and exciting news to share with you!

I was recently in California visiting family when I got the news I'd be singing in a show in June for the band Kaioken! A little backstory, I originally auditioned for these guys back in early 2012, before I met with my old band Skies To Conquer- and they ended up passing on me as a singer, but look who's back! The show will be on the 21st of June, and is in Hollywood! Which means I had to repurchase tickets back out to California only weeks after visiting. Gotta leave the state to get gigs in it, go figure. I'm super excited though and have been learning all the songs off of their EP.

But California isn't the only travel I have planned! I also have tickets booked for Vancouver in October! CANADA! This will be my first time traveling to a country I've never been to on my own so I'm SUPER excited. But why am I randomly traveling to Canada? No its not my hankering for some real poutine, though I admit that is a huge factor. I finally was able to book in with a tattoo artist I've been dying to have stab me with her machines. Apologies in advance to disapproving family members, but I've been wanting this for a long time and It'll make me love my body more so lets do this.

Ive got other plans of travel between June and October as well, but for a year that was meant to be quiet- I'm getting a lot done! Excited for so many things and hopefully will be vlogging/blogging all of my experiences.

<3 A

April recap

Hello all!
Sorry it's been a bit quiet on my end here, and the reason being is I've been really busy trying to focus on art things!
As you all probably know I have my patreon, and basically I'm trying to hit a goal of at least two fully finished images per month (hopefully more once I reach higher milestones) to release as rewards!
Along with those I also do my work on Last Nerds, chuck in Twitch streaming, and commissions, I've been a busy lady!
But, I did want to share with you some of the work I've done this moth as I'm very proud with how my craft is developing and coming along.

Commission work for a long time client, and probably one of the most detailed pieces I've done to date!

Patreon commission, the prompt was Princess Zelda! So i did my own punk-ish take on her. I've always been a huge fan of the Legend of Zelda series and still really want a game where she has to save Link for once, who's with me? 

Sawsbuck girl! My take on a humanized pokemon after getting a 'fawn girl' prompt. After I started working on this I got commissioned to do a fawn girl, which I will be working on very soon. 

Redraw! did this in about an hour, just wanted to do a quick redraw of an old drawing I posted about 6 years ago. Sometimes it's nice to try your hand on something you've already drawn to see how far you've come!

And that's why I've been a bit quiet! Not much going on for Thrifty 2015 as I'm trying to save a bit of money to hopefully get a tattoo this summer.

I hope you're all doing fantastic and that you have had a wonderful April! 

<3 A

Disney Inspired Doctor Who

I've been a little busy with art things lately, so I haven't had much time to blog- but I wanted to share my speed drawing process of my Disney Doctor Who piece! It was posted early for Patreons a few days ago!

How a nail in my tire changed my day

So yesterday I wanted to take care of a few errands and hopefully get back home to sew a new top so I could blog about it! Turns out the top was an absolute disaster and once I actually figure out how to fix it I'll share my journey with you.
BUT, today I want to share a little bit of insight of what happened yesterday.
Normally my tire low light is a common signal that it's cold out, and my tires probably need a bit of bumping up to keep them happy and satisfy the light.
I pulled into the local Valero station and noticed there was some out of order paper over the part of the air machine that takes money. Now this could either mean that the machine itself was broken, or just the quarter part- as the machine itself looked just fine. I was hoping it was the later because I totally didn't have any coins with me. Why do we even use coins still? Its so dumb! Why do we still have the penny? I digress.
 I decided before pulling away that I would double check with the cashier and maybe they'd run the machine for me so I could go about my day.
This is when I met the rudest woman in the world.
"Hi there, I was wondering, is the air machine out of order completely, or is it just the bit that takes the quarters?"
Now here she could have responded with a "Oh, it's out completely. Sorry about that." or even a "Yeah its broken. Sorry!"
but instead she replied with a question of her own.
"Does it have paper on it?"
"Yeah- but its just on the quarter-"
"Then its out of order."
"Great. Super. Thank you SO much."

After dealing with employee of the month at Valero, I checked the air pump at another station down the road- also busted! At this point I just wanted to get on with my day so in times of usual car annoyances I dialed my dad ( on hands free bluetooth mind you, I'm not a maniac) and shared with him my low tire light woes. He suggested I visit a tire shop, where they would usually check the pressure and fill for free, but I wouldn't have to worry too much about driving on them while they were low- as long as I got it sorted soon.

So I set out to do my grocery run and tried to avert my eyes from the ever persistent yellow exclamation mark telling me something was wrong. Yes I know. Please chill out. Let me drive!

On my way home I was able to pull into a Firestone and they were able to get to my car right away. Fantastic. I'd be out of here in no time.

Nope.

The mechanic asked for me to pull my car forward a bit after checking the pressure, but surprisingly not adding any air to my tires, which had me raising my very well groomed eyebrows.

"Yeah you've got a nail in your tire."

"Well gosh golly darn."*

*may or may not have been what I actually said at that exact moment.

Thankfully they were able to take my car in as it was only me and a broken down jeep filling their bays.

I filled out the paper work and was suggested to sit down and wait. Either it would be a repair and not cost too much, or if it was too fair gone I'd have to get my tire replaced. I went to pour myself a cup of coffee (which I had been craving as I had left before my normal pre-breakfast cup of life) only to find that the machine had long since been shut off, and the coffee inside was indeed cold.

As I begrudgingly grabbed a water bottle out of the mini fridge next to the betrayal machine I realized I wasn't how I normally would be in this situation. I was weirdly calm. Happy even. Sure, this was a pain in the ass- but really, what could I do about it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Anyone who knows me knows I worry like an old woman. I can count the number of times I've done something against my usual worries that hold me back from doing so, and half of the time they've turned out alright. One of those times I ended up concussed after flying off a mountian bike down a steep trail in New Zealand, and the other I had a blast riding on top of an oil rig while it was running.
I don't suggest doing either of those activities, though the oil rig rodeo did give me a bit of street cred among my delinquent friend group at the time.

I had a clear mind yesterday, and none of it was stress or worry about what would happen to my car. It was liberating and relaxing at the same time. I couldn't even be mad about the lack of coffee.

So I sat, and waited, and after about an hour my tire was repaired and I was on the road.

So thanks to a nail getting stuck in my tire I now want to practice in times of stress or anxiety, just taking a moment to clear my head and not worry. Or at least try to not worry. Or maybe worry a little less than normally. Baby steps.

Why you should work every day at your chosen craft

I have a folder on my desktop named "Redraws". In this folder I happen to have a few somewhat now-embarrassing pieces of my old work that, as you may have guessed, I want to redraw. 

Thanks to the support of my patrons, I finally had the time and the means to get around to the one I wanted to do most.

This is a redraw of an old ‘cover’ for a comic I never got around to of my old characters, “Ava” and “Skunk” who have had many name changes, and really don’t have anything final yet. I hope to do more with them in the future, but I think they deserved a redraw after eight years.

Here it is side by side with the original.

Eight years ago I thought that the image on the left was the best thing I had ever drawn.

 
Don’t stop drawing. Don’t get discouraged. Just keep at it. Some days you’ll hate your work, and some days you’ll love it. Hopefully more of the latter. 

But just keep going. You’re constantly improving even if you can’t see it yourself. Keep at it.

<3 A

90's Skirt And Top - Thrify 2015

Hey all! I'm back with a Thrifty 2015 post! While I was away in Northern California for a week I found some fantastic thrift finds that I had to shove into my very small carry on bag to take home with me. Having to sit on my suitcase while I zipped it up was well worth it for these awesome items.

Today I'm gonna share with you what I managed to do with one of them. My computer was having a fit all day long and I figured I'd take it as a huge sign to just work on something that's non-digital for the day.

Cue the 90's Skirt and Top!

Ok, so it's just a skirt here. BUT IT HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL! Or at least that's what I thought when I saw it in the second hand store my dad had taken us to. The print is super 90s, and it's LONG, which means I could cut it up and make it into something wearable. And the best part? It was 50% off so I snagged this for $3.00.

Oh yeah.

So I got to work!

I measured out the length of one of my favorite skater skirts and it came out to around 16 inches. I'm planning on wearing the new skirt at the same spot on my waist, and 16 inches left me with plenty of left over fabric.

 I used pins to mark the 16'' so i could cut along the line. I think I went a wee bit longer cause I was assuming I'd hem the bottom of this. Assuming the better of myself, like a damn fool.

All cut! Huge improvement already!

All folded out this is how much fabric I had to work with, and I had a pre-hemmed bottom! Yaaass!

                                     

I laid down a crop top that had a similar boxy style to what I wanted and pinned it to the fabric to cut along the lines.

 I repeated the same steps for the front of the shirt as well. Had JUST enough fabric!

at this point I decided against sleeves and cut the shirt a bit more. This is a risky move as it can come out uneven, but hey, my left boob is bigger than my right, so really it matches the shirt even better now.

I pinned it all down and got to sewing!

Ended up finishing the top with just a straight serge stitch instead of attempting a hem. 1. you don't actually notice it as much with this print, so it kinda works, and 2. I really suck a hemming so why ruin a good thing.

So the skirt ended up with a normal stitch on it as well. 

And boom! A 90's print top and skirt is BORN.

I'm super excited about this and write today off as a success even in light of my frustrating computer issues. And I've got some pretty fun things planned for the next projects! Here's a little sneak peek at some of the projects I have planned.

Till next time!

<3

February! Lets do this.

It's officially Feb 1st, nearly the 2nd as I write this.
I'm excited for this month. I feel happy and refreshed as most of the stresses of moving and stresses of getting back into the groove of things is settling down. Im starting this month by hopping on a plane in nine or so hours and heading back to California to see my Dad's new place and visit friends. My friend Alex is with me, as its now the last week of her nearly 3 month stay in the states. It's be absolutely fantastic having one of my best friends here, and I'm gonna be really sad to see her go. BUT! It'll be my turn to visit and hopefully I can make my way back down to kiwi-land soon.

Speaking of Kiwi-land, I got my New Zealand tattoo updated!

I wrote a blurb about this to my instagram followers, but I'll share what I said here:

"Before and after. Its almost all healed but the skins a bit wibbly. Kinda a huge upgrade tho. This was my first tattoo i got at 18 and im really happy to revamp it. New Zealand is home to me, even if I’m not a native. As soon as I can see the islands out of the plane window I’m suddenly chill and giddy. Its the one place that’s felt like home to me after my many travels. I first went when I was 11, and traveled back and forth a lot either for visits or for living and study. I taught myself to surf there, ive gone to high school, ive done my entire university studies there, Ive made life long friends, heartbreak, and got to meet the love of my life in the Dunedin airport after only two weeks of us talking. New Zealand is really, really special to me and I hope to move there full time eventually. Till then ill cut the homesickness by visits and having my favorites come visit me. Kiwifornian for life."
I now officially love all the tattoos I have on my body, and look forward to the future ones I have planned.

New things!
I'm really looking forward to diving head first back into vlogs, thrifty 2015 updates, and art! It's been a while since I've been so inspired and excited and I think I have our new surroundings to blame. I've always enjoyed time on my own, and even though I love social events, I tend to get burnt out on social activities very quickly. I like to refer to myself as a social introvert. I really enjoy engaging and talking with others, but I need to have long periods of time to myself to work, draw, sing, write, sleep- to recharge. Having only two friends my age here in Austin (outside of Matt whom I obviously live with) the social solitude is only more motivation to really spend this year digging into the things I want to do, and that to me is very, very exciting. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to make new friends in this city- but I also can't wait to write new music, film videos, create art, finally learn guitar- all of it!

So stay tuned, because I have many things planned for this blog. There are lots of things I want to share with you- and as soon as I get home next weekend I'm diving into it full force.

Till then, remember that you're great.

-A

2015 "Resolution" video!

My video for my 2015 "resolutions" is up! 

OOTD- Bones, frill, and checks

Today was a dreary day, but that wasn't going to stop me from putting together an outfit, slapping on some makeup, and then awkwardly shooting myself in my own office.

Thrify 2015 is all about having good finds and making outfits work. When I combine my thrifted items with my existing wardrobe, great things happen.

Today's outfit is Bones, Frill, and Checks.

Ellie is mad creepin

UNIF bone moto jacket paired with a thrifted Lauren Conrad top (3.99)

"Mom what are you doing."

Men's check shirt, thrifted for about $5.99

I had been craving some heeled angle boots for winter and these boots are the best mix of 90's/early 2000's and comfort. And for anyone who claims leggings are not pants? Whatever. They're hella comfortable. Wear what you like, not what you think you have to like.

Boots 6.99 from Goodwill. leggings from Cotton On. 

Good start to thrifty 2015 I must say! Im excited for more awkward photoshoots, and hopefully when the weather gets better I can move some outside. Who else is doing thrifty 2015?

<3 A

Speedpaint Study Video 1/3/15

Working on my lighting and portrait studies, and recording them!

And the final,

Thanks for watching! I'm hoping to do more of these, and hopefully improve my knowledge of lighting and portraiture.

Creative 2015

Happy New Years!

I hope everyone had a wonderful start to 2015!

One of my goals this year is to be more creative, and focus my attention onto improving my artwork.

I was lucky to be gifted a new tablet, and I've been glued to it since it arrived.

So far I've only done a couple pieces with it, but I wanted to share two of them. Both of which happen to be Smite related artwork, (a video game I play often) so enjoy.

And since I'm in the habit of posting some artwork, here's a portrait of my Night Elf druid I did a few months ago. I'm still very happy with this one.

2015 will be pushing myelf into doing things I don't normally do, but want to do more of. Digital painting is the highest on the list, and I'm happy I've already gotten a good start on it. Feels good man, feels good.

I look forward to sharing more art, and rebuilding my portfolio with my new and improved artwork and style.

Here's to a great 2015!

-Bonus addition!
Finished this one tonight too.

Colourpop Cosmetics - Mini Haul

* I paid for all the products below with my own money, and am not being paid for this review or haul

HOLE-LEE-CRAP.

So let me back up here a bit.
I got tipped off onto Colourpop by Samantha of Batalash who was doing a wee review of her favorite Colourpop shades. I figured, hell, It's my birthday and Christmas- lets try this brand out.
And I am so glad I did.

First of all, the packaging is crazy cute.

*not pictured was the brilliant way it was packed for safety. I took out all the bubbles and foam for this shot- but this was packed bomb proof! (Which is great!)

I'm already excited while unwrapping this. For such a low price, this is some quality packaging.

(Of course you gotta have one blurry photo. Reminder to charge my camera so it's ready next time.)

Everything is well marked, and the containers themselves are fantastic, sleek, and sturdy.

I can't tell you how many times I've ordered indie makeup and it's come in a crap container, or was put in an impossible clam shell.

But then I swatched.

EYESHADOWS! Sweet creamy goodness eyeshadows! And with no primer!
(featuring a bad burn I got on my thumb for my birthday. Let leg wax cool before taking it out of a microwave folks!)

Lipsticks! Oooh man those colors. And boy do they LAST.

So overall, I rate this brand crazy high. All the shadows are $5 too, and you get a ton of product. It's a fantastic value and totally awesome. I know that I will be spending a wee bit of my Christmas gift money on more shades. I'm addicted. I'm entranced. I have a huge ladyboner for this brand.

Too crude? You will be too once you try out these products.

<3 A.

Thrifty 2015

Could you go an entire year without buying any clothes from a 'regular' store?

I'm going to find out with my challenge,

So it occurred to me while I was pulling together piles of clothes to keep, and piles to donate, that I spent far too much money on clothing I rarely wore. I wanted to streamline the moving process and bring as little as possible with me. Now for anyone who knows me, I pretty much would split my spending evenly between Cotton On, Forever 21, and Blackmilk. The latter unfortunately rarely has sales. But it wasn't a shock to drop $50 on a couple pieces of 'disposable clothing' from Forever 21 (i.e. break/rip/shrink after a few wears) and not blink an eye. That's crazy! $50 is nearly a whole week of groceries for me alone, and I'm spending it on a tank top that has a stolen image of a cat printed on it? Ugh! What was I thinking.

I also began sewing more in 2014, and realized I have quite a passion for it. I originally started sewing so i could make myself some tops to go with my Blackmilk, but then I realized I could easily make my own leggings, dresses, skirts, etc- and not only get a sense of accomplishment from creating something, but also save a lot of cash in the process.

So then it donned on me. What if I broke the habit of impulse buying worthless clothing, and combined it with focusing more on creating my own clothing? Not only would I think a lot more about what I actually NEEDED, but I would be saving money, and widening my creative skills.

Here is the birth of 'Thrifty 2015", AKA a whole year I spend either buying my clothes at thrift stores, or if I want something really specific, I make it!

So for 2015 there is no more shopping at regular clothing stores. Thankfully Austin has some pretty fantastic thrift shops, and I've already been getting some great things! (I need to practice, ok?)

I'll be updating with my thrifty finds, outfits, creations, and whatever other knowledge I gain along the way.

Will it be tough? Yes. Will it be fun? Yes. Will it teach me a good lesson on consumerism in this country and teach me not to be a blind spending machine following along with every 'must-have' trend? Hopefully.

So wish me luck for 2015. I gotta stock up on some underwear before the year is over- because lets be real, that's one thing that you don't wanna buy secondhand.

Are you interested in joining thrifty 2015? Let me know! I'll be documenting on social media with #Thrifty2015, so if you'd like to join me in this challenge I'd love to see your thrifty finds!