This year, particularly these last few months, has been nothing short of exciting for me.

There were a lot of downs. Granted, I am used to experiencing the bad times with the good, but I had far more downs this year than I’ve experienced within the past 5 years.  These downers really put me to the test, and oftentimes I wondered if I was at my breaking point.  I’m not going to lie, it was very challenging and oftentimes really sucked.

However, through it all, I always had two constants: a great support system from my friends and family, and art.  I could always count on my friends and family to listen to whatever I was going through, and I could always turn to art to more tangibly express whatever I was feeling.  It’s thanks to these two constants that I was able to turn this year around.  I am definitely very grateful to have these things in my life.  I thank my lucky stars every day, and I never take them for granted.

I’m not through with the year yet. Although my past few months have really been on the upswing, these past two weeks have really taken me on an emotional rollercoaster. It’s difficult to say when it will be over. (To make this a bit less cryptic, I am just hoping my aunt can fight through her current situation in the hospital.  It’s always tough seeing someone you care about, lying there in the hospital bed, while you yourself can’t actually do much to help.)

Still, I am doing my best to remain positive and hope for the best. That’s what life is about, isn’t it?

(This post drawn/composed while listening to “Smile“, Charlie Chaplin version, as sung by the cast from the Glee TV show.)

It’s time for our annual community event, the Holiday Anime Faire!

We have a slightly new addition this year.  We’re sponsoring a Bay Area-wide art contest, complete with fabulous prizes donated by Animation on Display, Dark Horse, Manga.About.Com, Sakura of America, and many more.

You get a FREE entry to the event if you participate in the art contest as an added bonus! For more information on the contests, please check out the Official Rules.

Hope to see you at the Holiday Anime Faire!

When I first joined Facebook, I was really enjoying drawing stuff in Graffiti.  It was just something quick, fun and easy to do.

I haven’t looked at my gallery in a while, and decided to do so this morning.  There’s some fun content that I’ll be able to show here on this blog for the future.

Without further ado, let’s start with Fighting Bear

I’ve been really wimpy this past week.  It’s really not THAT cold here in the Bay Area, but I’m complaining about it. Yesterday I was working in my studio, and never warmed up…it was probably 70 degrees outside.  Inside the studio it’s probably a few degrees cooler.  Still, I thought about pulling out the space heater.  (I already have the extra blanket back on the bed.)

Despite my wimpiness with the weather, it has been inspiring me to put my characters in fall scenes.  Yesterday, I couldn’t concentrate on doing a regular Unemployed Pandas update, so did a Fall Ninja Panda picture instead.

Wherever there’s Ninja Panda, Samurai Panda is not far after, so here he is:

Personally, I really like the simplicity of this drawing.  As I sketched it, I didn’t want to add any more colors or render it more thoroughly. In fact, my current artistic exploration is to create things that look simple but say so much more.  (Not a new concept, I know, but it’s what I’m diggin’ right now.)

Also, I think everyone can see my strong influence from Stan Sakai. Samurai Panda is not exactly like Usagi Yojimbo per say, but they definitely do share their similarities. In my mind, Samurai Panda is not as skilled as Usagi, but still pretty skilled.  Psychologically I guess I put Usagi on a pedestal, similar to the way I put Stan Sakai on a pedestal ^_^;

I’d like to turn this into a t-shirt design, but I have so much on my plate right now that we’ll just have to wait and see.  We are trying to update the t-shirt store by Friday…will post when that’s done

Hope everyone’s enjoying Fall, wherever you are.

Sorry it’s been a while.  Just been busy over here at P.M.B.Q. Studios!

Here’s a sneak peak at an upcoming concept for Halloween shirts on Pandaline:

I’ve had the Vampire Panda character since the early 2000’s. He appears throughout many of my sketchbooks (which the general public often doesn’t see). I figured with the re-launch of my t-shirt store, it’s time to finally make a design with him.  I’ll be working with this image in Illustrator over the next week or so.

Also wanted to share a fanart that I started back in March. I finally finished it about a month ago. This is Crimson Viper, from Capcom’s Street Fighter 4.

Here’s a look at the evolution of the piece:

I started this when my friend Jimmy Tran posted some fanart of the same character. I thought her design was a little bit ridiculous, so I figured I’d draw something to make a little fun of that ridiculousness.

The concept of the drawing was to show the character getting ready to kick some @$$, as Street Fighters are known to do on a regular basis.  My visual idea was to really highlight her “assets.” I thought her little tie that was tucked within her “assets” was especially ridiculous, so I set out to emphasize that idea as well.  You can see that as I progressed, I changed my mind (I guess it was just too ridiculous for me, and it just didn’t gel that well with me).  I also wanted to practice my painting skills a little bit, and was hoping to go all-out on the rendering.

Months went by, and I lost a little bit of steam.  Finally, I just settled on the final version that you see initially.  Not quite how I imagined it, but realistically I knew I was not motivated to go any further on it.

I have to say I do enjoy telling the story behind the art!

While recently putting together a portfolio, I came across some old work I did back in 1998:

His name is Meddie, and he’s a character I created for my first job out of college.  He was to be a website host and “helper” mascot for a medical book website.  (Think of the Microsoft “Paper Clip” guy; that’s what we were going for.)

Even though we loved Meddie in-house, the focus groups found him too cute for their tastes and couldn’t take him seriously. As a result, he never got his public debut, but he did have many adventures in the internal company newsletter.

I’m glad that he can be back with P.M.B.Q. Studios, where he belongs.  We might find another use for him yet.

A few weeks ago, I saw a SuperPunch blog on the New Batgirl costume (aka Stephanie Brown, formerly the Spoiler).

It reminded me of the “Batgirl Meme” that went around LiveJournal a few years back.  I had wanted to contribute, but at the time I wasn’t really inspired to do so.  The latest costume finally made me think of how I might design a Batgirl costume, so here goes:

I’m taking some cues of how I’ve been drawing my characters, Ninja Panda and Kunoichi Panda…hence the organic-like “cape/scarf” and general ninja approach.  Like most people, I’m not a huge fan of the “garter pack” on the new costume, and instead opted to ditch the utility belt and replace it with utility arm bands.

Granted, my choice of bright yellow thigh-high tabi-boots (i.e. ninja toe boots) may not be terribly practical in terms of stealth, but it’s more of a stylistic choice. I tried to keep it functional by making them tabi-style so that it does make a little bit of sense.  Another detail to note is that in my concept, the red hair is a wig, so that any appropriate hero could take on the mantle (and spirit) of Batgirl.

Overall, I wanted to acknowledge the iconic concept of the original Batgirl, but just put my own spin on it.

I’m heavily considering drawing a new webcomic inspired by life.  My husband is an avid Age of Conan player.

I’m sure many people can relate to this situation.  I have sooooo many stories that I could share.  I know quite a bit about his guild simply by association as well.  There have actually been many times when I’ve considered doing some illos for his guild, but I really should be focusing on my own work/art.

Actually, this is a big reason why I don’t play MMORPGs or games in general myself…although I totally love gaming, I feel that I should be using that time to either work on my art/design, working out, etc.  There are just not enough hours in the day where I can allow myself the indulgence of gaming.

(In reality it’s nice that my husband has hobbies. We all like to do our own thing in our household…even the dog.)

Been doing a little freelance lately that involves these two.  Sadly, I am not the artist, just a colorist.  Still, the project has been good for me, as it has helped me brush up on my Photoshop coloring skills.  It’s also giving me a chance to help a very good friend/mentor.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Kitty Pride and Wolverine. With Kitty, I guess she kind of falls into “Robin Syndrome” in that she represents the character that kids/teens can better identify with in the superhero world. (Come on, wouldn’t you want to be the teenager on a superhero team? That’s like, the unspoken American Dream!)  As a kid, I loved her origins that involved her travels with Wolverine, as well as her Demon Ninja training.  (I have no idea what her origins are these days, everything keeps getting reinvented with each new franchise.)

As for Wolverine, Hugh Jackman just makes him So Appealing.  I mean, I always liked Wolverine for his gruff honesty, samurai skills, and general bad-ass-ness, but now I Really Like Wolverine thanks to Hugh Jackman

Now that I look at this, I am not too fond of how I drew Kitty clasping her hands. I just tried to fix it, but it turns out it would take a bit of time, as well as a re-draw. I’ll leave it up here for posterity so you guys can see my imperfections Makes life interesting, no?