Tattoo Lady Sketch

Original sketch.

Inked.

Not sure if I'll color this. Just wanted to post it.

Tea Infused Vodka

So I recently got the idea from browsing reddit.com's r/tea and r/vodka to make some fancy, delicious tea infused vodka. This is not a new idea and I am certainly not the first to try it, but here is my attempt at it.

I started off with a medium/low quality vodka (Svedka, because it was cheap), something not too high shelf to ruin a good vodka, but something a little better than burning fire water. I'd probably use a slightly better vodka if I were going to drink it straight, but I will most likely just use it for tea inspired cocktails. I split the 750 ml bottle of vodka into three mason jars, so I could try three different types of infusions. Then I found the three teas that I would use to infuse the vodka: Higher Living's Hibiscus Bliss, Argo Tea's Strawberry Green Tea blend, and Harney and Son's Hot Cinnamon Sunset.

I used 4 teabags of Hibiscus Bliss and infused for 24 hours.

I used 3 tablespoons of Strawberry Green Tea and 4 strawberries cut up. I infused for 4 hours, strained the tea out, cut up 6 more strawberries and infused for 20 more hours. 

I used 2 teabags of the Hot Cinnamon Sunset and infused for 24 hours.

After 24 hours I used a fine mesh strainer to filter any tea or fruit particles out of the vodka. Now the vodka is delicious and ready to drink.

Super fine mesh strainer.

Final vodkas: Hot Cinnamon Sunset, Strawberry Green Tea and Hibiscus Bliss.

 After they were finished I test tasted each one. The tea doesn't mask the taste of the vodka, but gives it a fresh tea flavor perfect for tea inspired cocktails! My favorite after the original test is probably the Hot Cinnamon Sunset, but all of them are quite tasty. I'm still trying to come up with some good ideas for cocktails. I will be sure to update when I do. Enjoy!

Bonus!

For those who come to see my drawrings, here's a bonus post of the original sketch and final line drawing for my husband's birthday card I made this past week. Happy 26 baby!

Tea and Star Trek

Comics, Rock and Roll and More Comics!

So I had a busy last couple days. I think I had more social interaction in the past three days than I normally have all month. That's kinda sad. Anyways, after the NYC Comics Jam and the Drink and Draw Like a Lady on Friday, I went to MoCCA Fest bright and early on Saturday. I was able to pick up some really cool stuff, but unfortunately I didn't have as much money to spend as last year, So I wasn't able to buy everything I wanted.

The cool stuff I bought. Comics, art books, prints and cool batman and Sherlock Holmes stickers!

Some cool postcards and business cards I picked up. I spent a long time going through all these plus many more that aren't pictured and visiting the artist's websites and subscribing to some of their blogs and Tumblrs.

Sunday night I went to check out The Breathing Light, a band featuring guitars and vocals from an old buddy of mine from high school. I had an awesome time and got to hear some other cool bands as well.

Some blurry pics from the show.

Also, while wandering around Greenpoint I stumbled upon a box of free books on the curb. I decided to dig through it to see if there was anything good. I found this interesting looking comic by Kevin Huizenga.

That book I just mentioned!

BONUS! Since we are on the topic of comics, I decided to post some never before posted journal comics from last year. This is actually the first time I've gone back and looked at them since I inked them. Some of them are actually kind of funny, so look forward to seeing a couple more of these in the upcoming weeks. Enjoy!

(Warning cartoon booby)

(Unfortunately this comic is no longer relevant as it is no longer the drunkest I've ever been.)

Two snakebites and three solo cups of white wine later...

Not going to lie, still a little tipsy.

Eating: one egg over easy and a half of avocado.
Drinking: Tea: French Vervain from Alice's Tea Cup.

I'm currently running off about 2 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours. After little sleep and a long days work I decided to go out to two events I was really looking forward to: NYC Comic jam and Drink and Draw Like a Lady.

While at the NYC comics Jam I had a couple drinks, chatted with the regulars and drew a couple panels.

 The first panel belongs to Cheese! I drew the second panel.

After about two hours I decided to walk over to the Drink and Draw Like a Lady event. Since I got there late I felt a little uncomfortable. I didn't know anyone there and I tend to be a little socially defective. I sat around and drank and scribbled some pathetic comics before I was drunk enough to talk to people on my own.

Luckily I did, cause I got to meet this awesome person: CalypsoTea. Turns out we have a lot in common and got to talk for a little bit about comics and tea.

Drawing by CalypsoTea: I think she insisted this wasn't actually a drawing of me, but I think she captured my level of drunkenness perfectly.

 MoCCA Fest tomorrow! The end. Good night.

Lobster Girl

Enjoy!

 Rough Original Sketches

Final Sketch

Final Inked

Final Painted (with touch ups in Photoshop)

Toilet Humor

Just posting a little journal comic I threw together. Enjoy!

Rough sketch

Pencils

 Final!

Holiday Card 2012

So, now that everyone I sent cards to has actually gotten their card, I figured I'd post some pics of the process and the final card for the rest of the world to see. 

I decided that I wanted to do an ice skating picture, a cute little winter scene. John and I used to go ice skating quite a bit in the early years of our relationship before I acquired an allergy to the cold. Anyways, this picture isn't depicting any time in particular, but is sort of representational of our individual abilities as ice skaters (just don't ask John about that). I posted two of the original rough sketches from my sketchbook in a previous post: here. 

Rough sketch once I figured out the composition of the piece.

Inked version.

Just about done with the colored inks.

Final version after a couple edits in Photoshop.

Bonus: A quick little sketch of me with my morning tea. Enjoy!

You can see last year's card here.

The Last of the Snapshots

Below are the last of the Snapshots, single panel comics I made as part of my daily routine last year. As you may know, I no longer draw a daily comic, but I have about 3-4 months worth (2-6 panels each) from last year that I never posted. Hopefully I'll get around to scanning those eventually. At least before another year passes. Anyways, enjoy.

Also, here is a link to the House of Twelve Comics Collective Tumblr site. They posted a couple pictures from the comics jam I attended last week. I'm the one with the puffy hair.

2 1/2 Months Later And 3 Beers In....

So... It's been a while hasn't it. What have I been doing the past two months you may ask? Well, the animation project I was working on has been postponed temporarily. I should be able to get back to work on that pending the filming of the last couple scenes for this music video. So while that is on hiatus, I have been splitting my time between work, doing tutorials on Lynda.com, doodling in my sketchbook, drinking tea, watching Star Trek TNG and playing Black Ops 2. I'm certainly not proud of some of the decisions I've made over the past two months, but I'm hoping the shame of the hours logged in on XBox Live are behind me. I intend to spend more time at my desk or in my sketchbook, rather than on the couch or on Reddit. 

So that brings me to the whole reason for this post! This week marks the first solid productive drawing week in two months. I started the week off right by attending Draw Mania! I've mentioned Draw Mania! a couple times before on my blog. It's basically a loose figure drawing workshop in the backroom of a tiki bar in East Village. Then I capped the week with an awesome new drawing experience, NYC Comic Jam. NYC Comic Jam is a cool little event where comics artists of all levels get together and create comics together feeding off each other's creativity. I had a lot of fun and got the chance to meet and hang out with some really cool people. The spirit of the event is collaborative and each month seems to build off the previous month and so on. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of my own drawings from the event, but you can check out this cool little sketch one of the other artists drew of the whole group on the group creator's twitter account. I'm the one in the back with the curly hair.

Well, I'm betting everyone has stopped reading by now. So without further ado, here are a couple sketches, the reason anyone ever looks at this blog to begin with.

A couple figure sketches from Draw Mania!

Below is a little preview of my Holiday Card for 2012 for those who haven't seen it yet. I'll be posting the final version soon, once I finally mail my sister's Christmas present... sorry Erica :/

Rough sketches of John and I for the holiday card.