Character sketches!

Sponge Alien

Rabbler Alien

Muska Alien

Littlest Ghost Alien

The Bubble Demon

Here are the sketches for my series of aliens that I'm painting for the show. They I just wanted to do something fun, and I started drawing these on the trainride back from Worcester, when I was freshly inspired by Andy and Veronica's awesome work. :) I wanted to do something for the show that I thought was unique to my style, and making smaller paintings is very relaxing to me. I could make a million of them (and maybe I will). The last one of 6 will be my bomb clown, Mr. Grin-Grin.

They'll be painted in gouache on 6" x 8" panels. ...maybe bigger if I decide to buy more board... I'm so confusing! I can't commit to anything, hahaha.


Less than two weeks until the show, and I have 6 small paintings and 3 big ones to make. If those guys can do it, I can do it too. :)




Also! A special thank you to Alison Cowell who is lovely and bought one of my paintings and a couple of prints from my etsy. She's pretty awesome for someone with only one "L" in their name. <3

Paintings and adventures and thanks!

Herro! My computer is all set, no viruses, and running faster than ever. HUGE relief. Special thanks to Jared for being my tech support and diffusing my computer-not-working rage. <3 style="text-align: center;">(Basil kitty!)

AAAAANNDD one more GIGANTIC Thank You to Andy and Veronica for taking care of me and feeding me pancakes and burritos while I helped them with Space 242 stuff yesterday and today. I'm so impressed with everything they both have made for the show, and in general. I know it's all going to look fantastic! I had a lot of fun staring at all of their interesting toys and playing with their kittykitty and swooning over their beautiful artwork. I didn't even bring my sketchbook! Ugh! It made me very antsy not working on something while they both worked so diligently.

Their work motivated me to come home, buy 4 new boards, make 3 new drawings, and create a painting based off of a previous piece I had made for the show. I'm super pumped to get the rest of my work done! Here's the final line-up:

4 Ku*Chi*Ku paintings, gouache, not digital anymore (from 11" x 14" - 16" x 20")
4 Clown pieces (shown here previously) (from 9" x 12" - 12" x 20"
4 small clown pieces (6" x 6")
and 6 small character/alien pieces (5" x 7"


AND last but not least, a small painting of Rainbow Brite that's going up on my etsy! Give her a nice home! She loves you!

First Space 242 piece

(Me and my roommate Sarah at graduation!)

Hello, I'm alive! And all graduated! I had the best weekend of my life, and I am amped to start my life as a professional.

I've been trying to keep in the habit of drawings, though I admit all the excitement of school ending/my family coming up from New York/my grad party/boyfriend meeting my family have been quite distracting. But some distractions are wonderful. <3

So here's my first piece for the show. I stayed up basically all night doing it, and there are plenty of things I'm not happy with, but it's a good practice for the other pieces. This one is the most unstimulating, composition-wise, but at least now I can take the good from this one and apply it to the next 7 pieces. Similarly, I'll know what I don't want to do in the rest of the series. (I may actually redo this one if I find I have a better feel with the rest of the pieces.)

Also, just for the heck of it, an ad I made for Andy Fish's Harker/Dracula comic strip that runs EVERY DAY. Go check it out! It's too good to miss!

First Night of Spring

And it's still really cold outside. :( But it's going to warm up really soon!

I haven't posted in AGES (5 days) so I'm here to update you on my art-doings.

First off, I've decided on what my promo keychains are going to look like. They're inspired by my new severe obsession with eyeballs with wings/hats/legs. I'm going to draw a million of them and color them and post them here. Hooray!

Second off, I had to make a comic for Andy Fish's comic class at Emerson. We had an hour to illustrate a girl playing basketball and getting shot by a vengeful deer. This is my translation. Yay for graphic violence!
Third off, this is the beginning to my new NEW promo postcard. It's just in the inked stage, but it'll be really cool when it's done! I promise!

Look out for new stuff soon! I finished my fourth degree project piece as well and will have that posted up very soon.

Toodle-loo!

Something I'm working on.

Freelance work for NEAFA.
Here's my lighting comp. (WARNING HUGE FILE)

(This is the piece where the human's shadow is facing the wrong direction. I'm also going to change the hand to be dropping a treat in the bucket instead of just an amputated hand shoving a treat at the puppa.)

Either way, problems aside, I thought it was a pretty sophisticated go at a lighting comp. I usually do them in pencil, but it was SO MUCH FASTER in photoshop. I need to do more digital work. And I did a full background! Even though I normally despise them. I'm usually just very character-obsessed, though, so it's good for my to do backgrounds.


I had my first comic book class at Emerson tonight with Andy Fish. It was very good! Lots of in-class working time, which I'm not used to with such loooooong critiques at MassArt. It was good to see some work from people whose lives don't revolve around art the way mine does. It's nice to see things from a different, sometimes simpler perspective every once in a while.

Better update soon, promise.

I Mean Business

AND BY BUSINESS I MEAN BUSINESS CARDS!


New design for my business cards, featuring future new website address!!! *www.bamcatart.com* I bought the new web domain today.

Andy and Ken mentioned that I should go for something a little less cutesy for my business cards/promotional material. I agree. As much as I'd LOVE rainbow cards, people wouldn't take me as seriously as I'd want them too. I'm not just a cartoonist - I'm very versatile, I think. I just love cartoons.

So here's new business cards featuring Bookie the Black Dog! I hope you like them. :)

Detour! *bing!*

The long-awaited Detour 12 is finally almost here! Featuring my cover!

I'm too exhausted right now to really function, but buy one! Here!


Thanks for all the support from Andy, Lindsay, and Veronica during the Detour contest.

In other news, I'm now doing a freelance job for a Rug company off of Newbury St. I'll be designing/painting a window advertisement for them - not my most favorite thing to do, but I do it well, and quick. Also, it's money, in a time where I have very little. So I'll be doing that Tuesday (when I should be doing my other homework, which I'll finish, somehow).

But yes! Detour! Buy it! It has comics from AMAZING artists such as Andy Fish, Derek Ring, Veronica Hebard, Jamie Buckmaster, Jim Riel, and lots of other super-talented people. I'm really excited!

Comic Crazy

As Lindsay put, it's "Allison and Lindsay's Adorably Retarded Adventures."

Featuring Andy Fish and Alycia.
Enjoi.

More comic stuff.

Top half of the first panel of my comic. Once I have a more legible storyboard, I'll post it up. As for now, I'm happy with this image. I'm planning on doing this in black and white, but I may or may not change it to color for the summer issue of Detour.

Gonna have a meeting with Andy Fish for some direction (and to fill out paperwork that is do VERY SOON!!!). I have the first few pages planned out. Now I just have to.. create them.

While I was in Portland this weekend, I picked up an issue of Tank Girl (half-tones *drooool*) and another graphic novel called Muzz. I like it so far. It has weird creatures and delicious linework. Casablanca Comics in Portland has been alerted of the arrival of the new Detour with help from Jared, so hopefully we'll see them on the shelf there soon. If not, heads will roll.


I put my hair back today. A lot of people noticed and said they liked it. <3
I hope it doesn't snow on Wednesday.

Detour Illustration sketch

Here's a sketch I started for one of the pages of DETOUR 12 coming out in February, which will be featuring my work on the cover. The book is an anthology of comics created by the Undercover Fish team, with AMAZING artists that I'm amazed by, so it's worth picking up. DO IT OR I'LL MAKE YOU.

Either way, I had tried to start comics, but I'm having a lot of trouble writing something funny and then illustrating it with characters. I only recently started drawing the same characters from different angles, so comics are something I'm not quite at yet. But I will be! One day!

Other than that, just waiting for final reviews to happen on Friday. I have to write a 2-page analysis on a poem by then and finish creating the rest of my labels. Otherwise, as of yesterday, all work = done, printed, cropped, finished. I stayed in my studio for a lot of late nights, only to come home to do more work, just so I'd be able to relax starting this week. I refuse to be running around like a chicken with my head cut off. After all, after reviews, it doesn't mean I don't have more work to get done, so I may as well not build myself up for this big vacation when I'll be working through it. The work doesn't bother me - with every piece I do, I improve, and that's what's most important to me.

Got a cute haircut too! It was my biggest Christmas present, and now my hair is short and cute and a pretty chocolatey brown color. I LOVE IT. I'm never dying my hair blue again. Or red, for that matter *shakes fist*.

But life is good. I'm grinning ear to ear these days. Money's incredibly tight this year for my family (as I'm assuming it is for every other family - ugh), so it's handmade gifts for everybody this year. ;D Yeah, I'm cheap. So sue me.

AND AND AND I might be considered for a job as one of my FAVORITE artist's assistant after I graduate, which would make me a very happy Bamcat, and it would mean that I could stay in Boston instead of moving away. So yay! Wish me luck!

Half rant/half not

GOOD:

-Got invited to be in Veronica's Pop Euphoria show in Worcester this weekend. I'm so excited! I picked my mime piece about Hamlet. And I'm gonna try to bring toys for the childrens, as Toys For Tots is gonna be there. Try to make it if you can! It's gonna be a blast. :) Gotta mount my piece somehow tomorrow, even though it's 12" x 12 3/4". Haha.

-Got another piece done for Black and White today, along with a final sketch that I just have to convert into a scratchboard masterpiece. I want to make Dan Blakeslee proud.

-I had thought a piece for my fashion history class was due next week, but turns out it was due today, so I had to be a Tricky Vicky and draw it in class, ink it in class, print it out on the break (with help from Amanda with the rolly scanny things), color it in LESS than two minutes (very tastefully, I might add) and mount it onto foamboard. It looks awesome. I don't like doing work at the last minute, but at least it's done. Yay!

-My mom is OFFICIALLY cancer-free. Hooray! *HUGE sigh of relief* Yay Mummy!

-Jared has been very, very wonderful to me lately. He's been a really big support while I've been shoving push pins in my eyes through finals, and I'm excited to go see him! But first: FINISH WORK.

-New shoes came in the mail! I love them! And business cards tomorrow! Yay!

BAD:

-I'm really tired lately, and my acid reflux has been kicking in something fierce. It's from all the caffeine, sleep deprivation, unhealthy eating habits (or non-eating habits for that matter), constant stress, and just working as hard as I possibly can. It's all gonna be worth it though.

-Money really, really isn't doing so great these days. My rent was due a few days ago, as were the bills, and I've just been on the edge of my seat waiting for payday so I can kiss that money goodbye. I bought a new box of Cheez-its. Woo.

-I had to cancel my CAT scan (for my blinding migraines) for Monday because of the stupid Degree Project show. Everything for that is completely unorganized, especially the part where they want ALL the classes to be there but not critiquing kids from their own class but not having the artist present but not keeping all the work in one room and also trying to fit 40 students' process work onto maybe 8 tables in a very small room (914). That room has terrible lighting, too. They didn't even account for the fact that many students have class early on Mondays and wouldn't be able to bring it in at 11 unless they used their break from class. Blarfgkhjg.

-I REALLY need to dye my hair. The red needs to be gone. Now. Like, right now.


Ok, I'm done complaining now! Yay school! Yay everything! Yay Jared! <3
Time to go lay down. <3

Fuck. Yeah.

Pretty much foaming at the mouth right now I'm so excited.

We had our BIG DETOUR PROJECT JUDGEMENT DAY OF DOOM today. (See post two below this one for my entry.) The judges liked it, I got good feedback and a sense of validation I've been really needing lately. My piece is a finalist of ten for a chance to be on the cover. I was really excited to see all the editors again (I walked into Andy Fish's office and told Jamie Buckmaster to not mind how sweaty I was - why would I say that to someone? Whatever). Veronica's feedback meant a lot to me, as I feel that her comment on my piece when I was doing the colors differently REALLY turned the whole thing around. I still got the weird and slightly eerie feeling from my piece without going overboard, and without her suggestion I don't think I would have been pleased with how it came out.

All of the other entries were fantastic (save one or two), and I'm really impressed with how much work some people put into theirs. It reassures me that I'm working with soon-to-be professionals and that I'm in the right setting for becoming a professional myself. I don't care so much about winning (though I feel my chances are good) as much as I care about getting feedback from people who are doing what I want to be doing. I want to know I'm at least heading in the right direction and/or how I can get better. I know if I'm going to be doing this that I have to do all of the work myself, so any guidance whatsoever is priceless.

Good looks to everybody who worked their asses off on this project, and congratulations to the other finalists as well.


OH OH OH!! Tak from the Dig sent Andy Fish two big copies of my Dig cover from a couple weeks ago - AND HE GAVE ME ONE!!! It's big and beautiful and it has all my lovely pastel-y texture on it and it's officially my most prized possession.


Today is really working out for me. I MUST GO DO ART NOW.

Detour = Finished.

Hand-done linework, digital color. Approximately 11 hours (not including my bazillion other attempts).

I'm not touching this anymore. I love it, I'm happy with it, and I can't wait to see it printed on pretty paper and displayed in my portfolio. I still captured the eerie feeling I was looking for but still kept it upbeat with the help of every person and teacher and even people I don't know.

I'm happy it's done. I hope I make Andy Fish and Veronica proud the most, because Andy's my favorite and Veronica's my idol. So I guess we'll see on Tuesday.

I've been staring at a screen for about 5 straight hours now, so I'm gonna go home and take a shower and sleep. 11 hours in the studio is good enough on a Sunday.

I have lots of sketches to post which I'll hopefully get around to soon. Wish me good luck on Tusday when they judge my piece!!! :D

I'm like a fiery pigeon with a fucked-up wrist.

Before I ship off to Rockland for some wholesome surgery goodness:



I'm working on a stipple portrait of my Mum for Black and White. The assignment was to illustrate someone important to us, incorporating 3 elements of their lives in a black and white stipple piece. I chose my Mum because of her role in my life. When I was little, I remember her coming to pick me up at school at 6:30 every night, in a power suit and big black sunglasses, strutting across the playground as the strongest woman I knew. She recently beat breast cancer this year, a disease that her mother went through that I most likely will also go through. But because of her strength, I'm not afraid, and I'll kick the shit out of cancer if I even hear about it.
Her support since I was 8 about going to art school (we went to art classes together in matching turtlenecks, aww!) and her support now that I'm a big girl has been one of the few things keeping me sane. So here's my mum's portrait in sketch form. I'll post the finish when I'm done.
The rabbit symbolizes the children's book I've been working on with the rabbit characters, as we raised dozens of rabbits when I was a child and my very first stuffed animal is a big pink bunny named Bunny Bun-Bun. I had also written a poem about my sister when she was going through a lot of emotional problems about being a rabbit trapped in a cage when we lived in a California, only to be released and nervous and scared when we moved to Mass. I don't know - it's this really big thing in my life that's hard to explain. "Bamford" is more than just a word to me.

Speaking of Bamfords, I'm doing a commission for my sister Jessica of a coat of arms of the o'mighty Bamford name.

Bamford is an Irish name, as far as I know. I'm about 90% Irish, and me great grampy McQuinn was my grampy's daddy. So I WOULD have been a McQuinn if someone didn't have a random stint in England to change my last name to Bamford. But whatever.
My aunty Susan still lives in California, and she's probably my favorite relative. She does photo restoration in her spare time along with documenting the roots of the Bamford clan. She has books and binders and enormous amounts of information on my family history, hopefully something one of of younger kids will continue when she's too old to do so. She really truly understands me as human, so recreating this important element in our family history (probably in a more graphic, contemporary way) will be my part in continuing our name for future generations. It's always good to know where you came from, and maybe one day my great grandkids will think I was a good artist. They better respect me, or they'll be gettin' a whippin'.


I'm pretty much rambling at this point, so I may as well continue as a meditative thing for myself. Andy Fish gave me a ride to work today, which was really really really nice of him, because I totally could have walked, but there are creepy people in the Fens and I've already been nearly assaulted by enough homeless men this week. But he asked me if I was a nervous person, and I kind of puffed up like a threatened bird. No one's ever told me I seem nervous, or if I look uneasy. I'm usually the person who talks too much, or is too confident, or is overbearing. So it ruffled my feathers (to continue the bird analogy). I guess I'll just have to be more show-offy and overbearing from now on as to not embarass myself. (All I thought of in the car was, "Allison, don't swear as much as you normally do. He's your teacher." haha.)

/rant


I need to finish my homework. Away I go!!

Detour progress

More progress. I'm kind of doing a color comp, just to figure out the rest of the characters and how the values will all work together. I like the girl, the catspider, the fat maskguy, and the layout for the sunflower monster/tv dog. Other than that, everything is in the works. The rest of the characters will be much darker, and I'm thinking of adding a second crazy lightsource coming from the left to give the back cover a little pizazz since the characters will be darker.

Either way, I'm digging it. I rarely work on the same project for more than a few weeks without hating it, and I'm still really liking this one.

Keeping the good vibes up. Soundgarden is one of the more predominant bands I listen to when I draw. So here's a Soundgarden song I listen to constantly. 4th of July. I listen to this song almost every day.



My Degree Project class went well today, for once. I stood up for myself and my ideas and kind of half reassured my teacher that everything was going to turn out awesome. So here's to more good classes.

Also: surgery on Thursday. Pretty psyched. For those who don't know, I have an inflamed cyst on my left wrist (due to a massive woodcarving I did last year) that puts me in unbearable pain a lot of the time, so I'm getting that sucker OUT. I got it drained once and it came back 2 weeks later, so I decided surgery is the best route to go. I'll be coherent within an hour of the surgery, but I won't be able to do much with it for a couple of days, so I'm gonna take it easy at my parents' house for a bit. I'll be online, and I'm gonna bring my tablet, so if you need me, contact me.

Lots of love!
-Cherry Bomb Bamcat

Finally, an art update.

A little one, anyways.

Today was the last time in my 4-year career at MassArt that I had to register for classes. And I decided, today, that I REFUSED to be at the back of the line as usual, getting shit classes that screwed up my schedule. So I was early. And in my earliness there was greatness. I couldn't get poster design for my last credit, so I asked Andy Fish (I copied Sylvia) if I could take an independent study with him next semester. And he said yes!!! I'm so excited! I get to take Andy Fish twice next semester, during my most crucial semester at MssArt. It's gonna be great. As long as he doesn't get sick of me. Haha.

On to art! I'm currently working on my stipple project for Mark Reusch's black and white class, and, to be honest, I haven't worked on it much lately because I've been so sick. I still feel like I'm choking all the time, but my acid reflux has calmed down some. I'm drawing my mum for the stipple project, because she always takes care of me and buys me groceries when I'm broke as a joke and lets me fall asleep on the couch at 7pm and not wake me up until 11am. Mums are the best thing in the world, so don't ever take your Mum for granted.

I'm also working on my detour project for Illustration 4. Spent some time today thinking of a coloring style to work in. This was the first attempt, which took about an hour and a half:

I mean, I didn't hate working this way, but I was doing it all on one layer (for some unknown reason), and her expression ended up not looking the way I had wanted. It's also super dark! Why so dark? I want it to be just as, if not more, whimsical than creepy. Like a weird adventure or something. Like she had to go on a DETOUR to pick up so many strange creatures!!! I'm SO clever.

But here's the style I decided on. (It's hi-res, and so is the other file.)


Her expression is jaded without looking like she's angry, which is what I was going for. Also, I really liked the lineart I had done by hand, but it was too stark, so I'm enjoying going over it and keeping the same flow with my wonderful pastel brushes in photoshop. I love textured brushes. <3 I also like drawing/coloring fabric, so I feel like I'm having more fun with this one. Lots more colors and reflections are going to be worked in once I get the general palette down for each character. I'm also trying to work in a way that isn't just light color + darker version of same color = shading. I'm trying to work in more colors, the way I would with paint.

So yay for that!

On a final note, I finally bought a book today I've wanted for quite a while.
I would KILL to be good enough to have my work featured in an anthology. I can honestly say there's not one artist in this book I dislike, and the ones I DO like I'm CRAZY for. I was lied to once and told I'd be helping out with a show for Alex Pardee, and I cried when I found out it wasn't true. And James Jean is my hero. The use of linework and soft shapes and faces and organic matter in his work is amazing to me. It's a good coffee table book to have, even though I don't own a coffee table.


More work updates soon! It's time to start cranking out some of these projects I have hanging around.

Hello Children.

Felt like crap for part of today. I think it was mostly from being gone for the weekend and not having to do work and then having much too much caffeine this afternoon. I was very restless in class and couldn't commit to my artwork. And I was raving like a lunatic in Andy Fish's office trying to make sense of my non-wanting-to-do-artness.

But now I've had time to think about my work, and I even finished an assignment in the process! Yay! Gouache, about an hour and a half.

For my global warming project:



Other than that, I have two more things to show you that I've done today. So here's a drawing I did last year that I really dug that I decided to finally scan in and add the color scheme I had been thinking of. Just a little something to keep my mind thinking about art without shortcircuiting. Took about 30 minutes.



And alas, the last piece of the night. Well, I actually did this one before that last piece BUT whatever.

This is for one of my Illustration 4 assignments with my favorite teacher Andy Fish. It's an assignment for the entire senior class, and we're all competing to have our artwork on the cover of Undercover Fish's latest anthology. The only catch is that we don't actually know what the anthology is about, and that we have no idea who's actually going to be in it yet. The winner gets to have their work printed on the cover and have the book sold throughout the world/internets, and you get a cash prize too, which is pretty cool.

I'm trying to keep my cool about all this, as I'm used to disappointment by this time, and I know I can only try my absolute hardest, so I shouldn't even be worried about the winner/loser aspect. It would be nice to be published, and by nice I mean it would be AWESOME, but again, I've gotten my hopes up before about this stuff, and I've decided it's not worth it to worry about all that. I just want to make an awesome, professional-quality piece of art that I can at least make a cover dummy with for my portfolio.

Anyways, enough rambling, onto my sketch. Took about 2 hours just for the sketch, switching thing and reworking things until I liked the combination of characters. It makes me happy. It makes me feel good about my artwork and my abilities. I've regained the self esteem I lost earlier today.

Okay, so.

This glob REALLY needs some artwork in it. Why should I tell people to come here if there's NOTHING TO SEE?

Because I said so, that's why.

But anyways, let me share with you some works you may or may not have seen, old or new.

THIS is my most favorite piece of artwork ever. Whenever I look at this piece, I feel like a good artist. It's painted in gouache (which of course my spellchecker doesn't think is a word), and I did it last spring. I have a thing for clowns. I don't know why. I had written on the back of it, "Anywhere is better than here." I must have been a Moody Trudy that day.






These are the first few pages of a children's book I've been writing. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer this January, and, thankfully, she beat it by the end of the summer. During that time, I was pretty much a wreck, knowing that her mum had had breast cancer as well, but I wanted to show her my support, so I started this book in Narrative Illustration last semester. Linda Bourke has always been a sort of a backbone for me while I've been at MassArt, telling me straight when I was irresponsible and being a shoulder to lean on, knowing she's been through so much. She had a seizure right around the same time my mum went in for surgery, and I was so worried about the both of them. But now that they're doing better, I'm so relieved. And when Linda comes back, I might have an independent study with her.

Oh! And when I went on the cancer walk on Thursday, I painted a little pink ribbon on my hat! (See profile picture.)

Also, these were done on toned paper with brown higgins ink, a pitt brush pen, and pink/ivory gouache.



And, last but not least, this is a piece I've completed for my Illustration 4 class with my other backbone at MassArt, Andy Fish. The assignment was that, if we were hired to our dream job, what would it be? And I picked being on the cover of Juxtapoz (sorry about the fuzzy quality - damn you fluorescent lighting!). Now, being that I worked on a wonky sheet of paper, I think the cover's out. But I could still do a spread and write an article about myself or something. I think that would be cool.

Either way, I really pushed the crap out of myself with this piece, which, inevitably made me fall behind for a class. But now that it's done, I'm incredibly proud of it. I'm surprised at the way I solved some of my problems - some didn't take much effort at all. It was just very time-consuming, something that doesn't bother me, but would definitely bother a client with a deadline. I'm getting better with acryla gouache, my most favorite medium of all time, and I want to see how I can push it. I usually use it very precisely, as with the top two pictures, but in this piece I added a lot of mess and dry brush effects, so I'm very pleased overall.



Thus concludes my little art journey for the day. Once again, I've never put these pieces up before, so I'm happy to present some art that means a lot to me. Here's to me finishing stuff on time in the future! Yay!