My Art Archives - Page 48 of 52

January 27, 2015

Superhero Ladies eBook: Coming Soon

There’s no review today (I’ll have a new review for Review Day Tuesday next week).

Instead, I wanted to give you an update on my Superhero Ladies series of sketches.

I already wrote post after post about them, even one featuring Malarkey Maddie, a superheroine sketched for the series.

Well the good news is, there are now 31 sketches done, which is more than enough for the eBook!

I still have to spot check quite a few of them, but I can show you some of the finished ladies in the series.

And here are some snapshots from my camera of some of the looser, sketchier ones.

superhero ladies sketch series by kelci crawford — This one was actually named by one of my Twitter peeps. Thanks, @JN_Monk!

That last one is a trans girl because I realized towards the tail end of this project, “Crap! I could have incorporated more trans girls in this line up!” I’ll see if I can muster up at least one or two more, because I want this collection of characters to be diverse and inclusive, just like ladies IRL.

Although that reminds me of how I was going to add at least a few magical girls in this line up, as well, but in the end I really only got one. Oops.

I have to give a HUGE shout-out to the Random Superpower Generator and the Superpower Origin Generator, because without either of them I would have been so stuck on this project.

The next step with this series is to make a sketch or two more, touch them all up, and then format them into an eBook so y’all can get a copy of this awesome collection for yourself!

I’ll announce when the book is ready.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

January 26, 2015January 27, 2015

Johnson & Sir’s First Book: An Update

Johnson & Sir are getting their first book soon!

How soon?

Well, I originally said they would be printed and ready by January 31st. I’ve been talking to the folks who will print the book (who are the same folks that printed the book edition of Validation), and I have pretty much everything together.

However, I’m fixing some formatting errors before I send the book off to print. I want this book to look its best, darnit!

But that means the book won’t be available on January 31st.

The latest the book will hit the market is February 13th (and yes, that IS a Friday the 13th. No, I’m not superstitious about it).

You can still pre-order a copy, so I can reserve a book JUST FOR YOU from the printer (because I like you, reader, and you are awesome). It’s $10, and that price includes shipping.

I’ll be taking pre-orders up until February 13th. After that, the print run is going to be small, like less than 25 books, for conventions and online orders.Completely tangential, I remember working with an old editor and he threw out the suggestion of having me print 1000 copies of a book, because depending on the printers, printing large quantities like that actually makes the per-issue cost cheaper.

But I said to him, “What the frick am I going to do with 1000 copies of a book?!”

Because you don’t realize how large of a number 1000 is until you actually see it. I saw what 1000 books looked like (thanks to my time as a former librarian), and…I am still not ready for that kind of commitment.

Hence, why I’m keeping the print run small. Small quantities are much more manageable, and then I’m not overwhelmed by books.

Plus, it makes owning the books for you much more special, knowing that you have one book out of 25, rather than one book out of 1000. It’s a lot more personal.

And I like personal.

Ok, tangent over. Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ll support Johnson & Sir! I’ll see you tomorrow.

January 21, 2015January 21, 2015

The Absurd List Exercise

A few years ago, back when I lived closer to Columbus, my big sis wrote this, in permanent marker, on a dry erase board.

We have never been able to wash this off, so nearly ten years later, we still have this list tacked to the refrigerator, and it makes us laugh.

Seeing this inspires me to try a new idea as a warm-up writing exercise.

The exercise?

Make an absurd list.

It doesn’t have to have a theme like “What to Do When I Grow Up,” but if it helps you get your silly gears going, then go for it.

So I just did my free-writing list of “What to Do When I Grow Up,” and this is what I came up with:

Learn to Cook a Unicorn
Speak Cat
Shave my eyebrows
Lint-roll the dog
Make a sweater for the Eiffel Tower
High five Adolf Hitler in the face
Fly with the owls
Stretch my toes into Nickelodeon slime
host a Dalek tea party
Put sunglasses on Shakespeare’s dead body
arm wrestle the sun

The fun thing about the Absurd List is that it gets your creative muscles moving, and that means you’ll be more receptive to ideas and suggestions, whcih is always a good thing in creative work.

Share some of your absurd lists in the comments below!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

January 19, 2015January 18, 2015

Malarkey Maddie

As I wrote before, for the month of January, I’m drawing one new superhero lady every day. Once the month is up, I’ll be compiling the sketches into an eBook.

Today I want to show you one of my favorite ones I’ve done so far.

Her name is Malarkey Maddie.

superhero lady sketch malarkey maddie original character by kelci crawford — Malarkey Maddie!

I loosely based her on a fan I met at Phoenix Comicon, who wore a shirt saying something like “Crush the Patriarchy!” My response was, “Down with the Patriarchy! Up with the Malarkey!”

Malarkey stayed floating around in my head for a while until this sketch series happened. Then I thought back on that fan and that phrase, and went, “What if a superhero lady incorporated that into their superhero name?”

And Malarkey Maddie became a superhero.

She may not fight against the Patriarchy, since it’s an abstract concept and not a person. So she has yet to get an arch nemesis.

She IS, however, super strong and has the ability to fly.

She doesn’t have a story yet, but she’ll be mentioned in other stories I’m working on. Maybe she’s the favorite superhero of Charlie from Charlie & Clow? Or Tracy’s favorite comic book hero?

Who knows what the future will hold for Malarkey Maddie?

If you have any ideas, I would love to read them in comments.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

January 14, 2015

Updates on Superhero Ladies and Women Warriors

jen cho nagatana superheroine original character art — Jen Cho, aka Nagatana (click to enlarge)

The Superhero Ladies project is coming along nicely! I have 17 ladies already drawn and the month of January isn’t even over yet. Hopefully I can keep up the good work and have lots of awesome superheroines by the end of the month.

There’s a few characters in the project that I’m thinking of branching off into their own stories, or maybe even comics. So who knows?

Another project I’m working on is one I’m reviving from hiatus.

The Women Warriors Project.

I put it on hiatus for a few reasons.

At the time, there was a lot of freelance work going on and I couldn’t update it consistently.
It was hitting an artistic wall, where I felt like every piece I made for the series was getting worse.
I wanted to experiment more with tools like watercolors and acrylics, and I didn’t have the resources or time to do it at the time.

But I’m bringing it back! With a few changes.

Firstly, there will be a new finished painting every month. Acrylic, watercolor, doesn’t matter. It’ll be a painting.

As progress is made on the paintings, I’ll be posting them on the Women Warriors Project blog. The intention is to make a chronological series of posts, showing a painting from initial sketch to finished piece. Tonight I made a sketch to develop an idea for the first painting, so expect to see it on the blog soon!

Know any cool historical women warriors? Leave their names in the comments below!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.