Business Card

My fully-digital business card, a la Manga Studio 5.

Pet Portraits

My friend recently got married, and so for a gift I put together these stately portraits of her and her husband's pets as a gift. I decided to print them all as a 16" x 20" poster and it turned out perfectly! This one was sketched in pencil, then the rest was done completely digitally. I used Lobster as the font, which is available here.

Animation

Just a quick update of stuff I've been working on. I've been learning Unity for a project I'm currently doing and it's going well (I think!) So well, in fact, that I also learned how to make a .gif out of screen shots to show around my extremely threatening oyster.

Collaboration

I don't normally draw too much fanart, but I just had to join in on a tribute collaboration for Secret of Mana. It's run by Ryan Jampole and all the detail can be found in this Google Document. I chose Watts for my character and used this as an opportunity to become more familiar with digital drawing/inking. This is the first piece I've done entirely digitally and been really proud of! I don't know if this is the piece I'll submit, but I'm still quite happy with it. Maybe I should draw late at night more often.

And since I'm on the subject of fanart:

Heeerrrrrmione! This was the first entirely digital drawing I did EVER and it's from last month after listening to The Sorcerer's Stone on audio book. I figure I might as well post it now and get all the tribute feelings out together. I was still finding my feet with this one, and trying to figure out Manga Studio 5, which I've been using to draw. Can I just say, it is so much easier than in Photoshop (sorry, Photoshop)! Anyway, let me sign out before I get too wordy. Until next time!

Game Wizards Project

So I recently got involved with a volunteer group in Baltimore called the Game Wizards, and these are some sprites I'm working on in my first project with them. I'm super excited, but the information and art I'll be sharing is going to be limited for now. As you can see, these don't have their clothing designs finished yet and I'm still testing out different skin tones. 

With the holidays approaching, I'd like to post and oldie but a goody that never made its way onto here. An illustrated recipe of my grandmother's macaroni and cheese casserole I made a while back for the blog, They Draw and Cook.

And the link to the page:

http://www.theydrawandcook.com/recipes/nannys-mac-cheese-supreme-by-marie-condenzio

They Draw and Cook is a great recipe blog, with the bonus of featuring lots of talented artists. Plus, you can buy prints of the recipes and the artists receive a commission from it.

On another, less thrilling note: my website is down, and has been for a while. I've been going back and forth between my hosting service and domain service but have yet to resolve the issue. So for now, at least, the site is down. Hopefully I will be able to fix whatever the problem is soon, and when I do I will post here.

Just a quick update here with an ink portrait. This was done with a size 0 and size 3 brush.

Inktober

All my Inktober work, #s 3 through 6 on one page for your viewing pleasure. Yes, that is Leslie Knope you see up there. I've been watching lots of Parks and  Rec.

Here's a painting (acrylic) from a couple of months ago that I realized I hadn't posted here. I think I have too many blogs... Clearly the solution is to have more blogs, right? In any case, I'll be posting some more recent work up here. Now that I no longer have a day job, I'll be focusing a lot more on, you know, my actual career. As opposed to working 60 - 70 hours a week, eating, and sleeping.

Art for Hope: Japan

Want to give to relief efforts for Japan? Bid on one of these beautiful works of art here:

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=art_for_hope

Magical

So the magical girl, along with a bunch of other lovely artwork, will be going on auction Sunday, April 17th (tentatively). It will be an ebay non-profit auction, with each artist deciding their particular percentage toward relief funds for Japan. The magical girl here will be 100 percent to charity, with free shipping! Once again, I'll update later with more info (link to the auction, etc.) In the meantime, spread the word!

New and Improved!

http://mariecondenzio.com


Finally finished up with my new website design! I think, anyway... I'm sure I'll go back and add some polish in the upcoming months, but in the meantime, all I can feel right now is relief. And excitement!

Finish to Start

Finished up a concept illustration for the Maiz project!

And because I'm addicted to showing process, here are the stages in reverse order: flat colors, linework, and pencils.

Let's Get Some Color Up In Herrr

Thought I'd do that thing where I compare the sketch version to the finished version of some artwork... So here it is with a commission I did a few months ago.


The request was for a watercolor painting, and this was the sketch with some quick PS color thrown on...

And here's how it turned out! MAGIC. This ladybug and her pet aphid are now presumably hanging on the wall of a baby's room. Sweet.

New Website

So I'm working on a new website layout, and I'm nearly finished. And I have a brand new front page graphic, too.

Well, that's just the sketch. I'll post the finished product once I get the website up and running. Until then... Stay classy.

It's 2010

So it's 2010! I hope everyone had a great New Year's. I'll be turning 23 in just a few short days (on the 7th to be precise), and I'm very excited, as this means sauerbraten for dinner. My resolution for this new year: move out to an apartment of any sort by March 1st, regardless of financial means. Let's see if I can do it!

This was a gift for a group of my BFFs-- we call ourselves the Juicers, which is extremely geeky and a long story. The illustration is by me, and then my juicy friend Cristina (the one on the bottom right, with the edamame) screen printed the design onto some t-shirts. The final product looked like this:

At least, this is what it looks like in my dimly lit home. The "Stay Juicy" phrase was chosen because of the oft used "Stay Golden" phrase used in relation to the Golden Girls. That's also partly why we chose golden t-shirts.

Well, that's it for my supreme dorkiness... For now.

'Twas the night before Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve! I'm Italian (in case you missed the "zio" at the end of my name), so Christmas Eve is a big deal in my family-- as much so as Christmas day is. We all get together and eat seafood, and then exchange gifts! This year I made chocolate peppermint cookies for everyone. This is also the first year I made my own cards:

I was stumped for the longest time on what to do, and then one day I watched the Rankin Bass classic "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," and I decided to draw a little tribute to the movie as my card. It's always been one of my favorites, along with "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus." Anyway, here's wishing everyone a happy holiday!

Where the sketches are

So, I decided that it was too troublesome to have my sketches on an entirely different blog, even with the link... So they're officially going up here instead. Hooray! Also, I did a "Where the Wild Things Are" piece, seeing as it's all the rage now.

I did this with watercolor pencils, since I couldn't find my Koi watercolors... I hadn't used watercolor pencils in a couple of years, so that was fun. I also used those Ph Martin's watercolors, gotta love those super saturated colors. And the lines are with india ink, of course. I just wanted to do a fun fall piece-- and who doesn't love jumping in a pile of leaves?

The Yard Sale to end all yard sales

So anyone need some useless junk? Come on down to long island! Anyway, this is what happens when an illustrator and a print media expert get together to make yard sale posters:

As you can probably tell, the theme is "juice." Anyway, I'm hoping to get back in the habit of posting here soon. Sorry for all the floundering about on my part.

Back (Unfortunately not with a Shaq Attack)

Sincere apologizes for the month-long hiatus. I will make no excuses for such hair-brained behavior. I will, however, present you with a new blog I am contributing to with a fellow illustrator, Kathryn Veilluex, a.k.a. StudioRyn:

Speed of Flight

It's for world-building in-progress. I proposed the idea of making a comic together to Kathryn, and she agreed. However, we had no idea what our collaboration would be about. Hence, this blog. She suggested we simply start drawing, and develop the world and plot line as we drew characters and environments. Since we currently live about 400 miles apart, the quickest way to show each other ideas and progress is through a blog that you can enjoy as well!

I'll also take this opportunity to plug a blog that some friends of mine have been working on:

Good Technique: Improve Your Swagger

From the About section: "Techniques are elusive and need to be documented. I can only imagine how many concepts, retorts, and situational practices have been lost simply because they were never recorded. This blog was created as a way to preserve this art."

Well, I'm slowly but surely getting my groove back, so I will be "seeing" you shortly with more regular updates.