The Community-themed Six Seasons and a Movie art show is this weekend in LA!  I can't make it down for the opening, unfortunately, but you should check it out if you can- there are an obscene number of talented artists contributing to the project.  Here are the details, for those of you who're interested:

Six Seasons and a Movie Art Show
curated by Pixel Drip

June 23 - 24
Monk Space gallery
4414 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Hours
Saturday | 11am - 6pm (invite only opening reception 7pm-12am)
Sunday | 11am - 6pm

I'm not in the documentary trailer for the show, but the lovely Sakari Singh mentions me and my piece, A Stacked Deck:



I'll have a framed print of the piece in the show, along with sets of six individual postcard prints for sale in the print shop.  Pretty rad.

-C

Light Grey Art Lab updated their site with prints from the Pokémon Battle Royale art show, so you can head over to their online shop if you want to pick up a Seaking print of your very own: [link]

Cheers,
-C

Norwescon 35 | Seatac, WA | April 5-8, 2012

Just a reminder that I'm going to be at Norwescon 35 in Seattle, WA this weekend!  I'll have prints in the Art Show, and I'm on a frightening number of panels:

• How to Sell Yourself | Friday 9 am | Cascade 11 
  An artist needs more than talent to be successful. One must learn how to create a polished and professional image as well. You may have intelligence and creativity; but that isn’t enough! Learn how to not only create a portfolio, but how to put your own personal best foot forward when presenting yourself and your work to shops, galleries, and publishers.
  Kate Merriwether Lynch (M), Claire Hummel, Tara Theoharis 
   

• 3D - Yes or No? |  Friday 3 pm | Cascade 6 
  Movie companies and TV manufacturers are heavily invested in 3D. Is it still just a gimmick or are we witnessing the next "silent to talkies" or "black and white to color" transformation?
  Chris Nilsson (M), The Reverend En Fuego, Steven Perry, Claire Hummel, Brooks Peck 
  
  

• Steampunk Art | Friday 9 pm | Cascade 12
  From gadgets to weapons to jewelry, we’ve all seen fabulous steampunk paraphernalia. But is steampunk only for costumes and cool devices? No, we say! Come meet artists who create both 2D and 3D pieces to see how they imagine, design, and create these beautiful steampunk works of art!
  Claire Hummel (M), Tammy Mickelson 
  
  

• Steampunk Culture | Saturday 11 am | Cascade 3&4 
  Growing? Stagnating? What are the hot trends? Does the availability of “Steampunk” costume accessories at Value Village devalue the movement?
  Anina Bennett (M), Paul Guinan, Claire Hummel, Diana Vick 
   

• Women in Gaming |  Saturday 2 pm | Evergreen 1&2 
  Our all-female panel discusses gaming concepts that attract girls, what girl gamers are looking for in games, and how to get more girls into games. They will also discuss the growing presence / awareness of women playing and designing games, and their struggles with working in the industry. If you are a woman interested in working in this industry, our panelists want to encourage you!
  Julie Haehn (M), Jessica "GiGi" Blair, Jennifer Brozek, Claire Hummel 
  
  

• Video Game Art |  Saturday 5 pm | Cascade 12
  As technology continues to advance, more and more artists are moving into the realm of video games. Come and learn what goes into the creation of art for these games, what programs are used, what the challenges are, and what the future of the business holds.
  Joshua Howard (M), Douglas Herring, Claire Hummel, Leigh Kellogg 
  
  

• Becoming an Industry Professional Artist |  Sunday 2 pm | Cascade 12 
  What kind of careers are out there (book covers, illustrators, video games, film, hobbies, games), and what do I need to break into those fields? What do art directors look for in your portfolio? Come to this panel to learn about what you need in order to break into the professional world of media arts.
  Joshua Howard (M), John Picacio, Paul Guinan, Claire Hummel, Leigh Kellogg

Hope to see some of you there, definitely swing by and say hi if you can.
-C

Steamcon® IV - October 26-28 - Seattle, WA

Yup, it's that time of year again- Steamcon® is going into its third year of Artists' Alley, a place for Steampunk craftspersons to promote their hand-crafted and Steampunk-relevant wares!  We know that it can be difficult for smaller-scale artisans to afford or procure a full-blown vendor's table at conventions, so this is a chance for the less mass-produced artists to get their work out there.

Steamcon® will receive Artists’ Alley applications for review until June 1st, at which point we will begin evaluating & accepting exhibitors until the Artists’ Alley is full. All applicants will be juried, and consideration will be based on applicability of wares, date of receipt and diversity of merchandise available in the Artists’ Alley.

• It's worth noting, for example, that we see a lot of jewelry artisans who work with assembled gears and clock parts.  If you'd like to stand out from the crowd of other applicants, your best bet would be to make something that is uniquely yours.


• Also note that participation in previous Artists' Alleys does not guarantee that you will be afforded a space this year. We receive a lot of applications at once, and we want to make sure that the Alley is juried for quality and relevance.

If you wish to participate, please read and fill out the application HERE, and send us photos of your wares by either posting them to the Steamcon Flickr group, or e-mailing them to us at artistsalley@steamcon.org.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to shoot me a note at artists_alley@steamcon.org.  We hope to see you in October!

Claire Hummel
Steamcon® IV Artists' Alley coordinator

Final reminder, as I make all of my final arrangements and set up my booth.

 
Emerald City Comicon | Seattle, WA | March 30 - April 1, 2012

Booth LL-04, in the Gaming area on TCC LOWER LEVEL (map)

• Just to reiterate, I'm not in the general exhibitors area/artists' alley!  ECCC has a whole gaming component this year, so I'm sequestered off with the rest of my game industry kin.

• I’m going to have a bunch of stuff for sale!  Prints, a few remaining Tiny Horuses, Leage of Steam posters, Phenomenauts comic books...  Possibly an hastily thrown together art book, if time permits?

I’ve got some conventions coming up in the next few weeks, so I figured I should probably mention them ahead of time so I can get on everyone's radar:

 
Emerald City Comicon | Seattle, WA | March 30 - April 1, 2012

Booth LL-04, in the Gaming area on TCC LOWER LEVEL (map)

• Just to reiterate, I'm not in the general exhibitors area/artists' alley!  ECCC has a whole gaming component this year, so I'm sequestered off with the rest of my game industry kin.

• I’m going to have a bunch of stuff for sale!  Prints, a few remaining Tiny Horuses, Leage of Steam posters, Phenomenauts comic books...  Possibly an hastily thrown together art book, if time permits?

Norwescon 35 | Seatac, WA | April 5-8, 2012

Art & prints in the Art Show, and I'm on a frightening number of panels.  I am only just now realizing how many panels I'm on.  Good lord look at them all:

• How to Sell Yourself | Friday 9 am | Cascade 11 
  An artist needs more than talent to be successful. One must learn how to create a polished and professional image as well. You may have intelligence and creativity; but that isn’t enough! Learn how to not only create a portfolio, but how to put your own personal best foot forward when presenting yourself and your work to shops, galleries, and publishers.
  Kate Merriwether Lynch (M), Claire Hummel, Tara Theoharis 
   

• 3D - Yes or No? |  Friday 3 pm | Cascade 6 
  Movie companies and TV manufacturers are heavily invested in 3D. Is it still just a gimmick or are we witnessing the next "silent to talkies" or "black and white to color" transformation?
  Chris Nilsson (M), The Reverend En Fuego, Steven Perry, Claire Hummel, Brooks Peck 
  
  

• Steampunk Art | Friday 9 pm | Cascade 12
  From gadgets to weapons to jewelry, we’ve all seen fabulous steampunk paraphernalia. But is steampunk only for costumes and cool devices? No, we say! Come meet artists who create both 2D and 3D pieces to see how they imagine, design, and create these beautiful steampunk works of art!
  Claire Hummel (M), Tammy Mickelson 
  
  

• Steampunk Culture | Saturday 11 am | Cascade 3&4 
  Growing? Stagnating? What are the hot trends? Does the availability of “Steampunk” costume accessories at Value Village devalue the movement?
  Anina Bennett (M), Paul Guinan, Claire Hummel, Diana Vick 
   

• Women in Gaming |  Saturday 2 pm | Evergreen 1&2 
  Our all-female panel discusses gaming concepts that attract girls, what girl gamers are looking for in games, and how to get more girls into games. They will also discuss the growing presence / awareness of women playing and designing games, and their struggles with working in the industry. If you are a woman interested in working in this industry, our panelists want to encourage you!
  Julie Haehn (M), Jessica "GiGi" Blair, Jennifer Brozek, Claire Hummel 
  
  

• Video Game Art |  Saturday 5 pm | Cascade 12
  As technology continues to advance, more and more artists are moving into the realm of video games. Come and learn what goes into the creation of art for these games, what programs are used, what the challenges are, and what the future of the business holds.
  Joshua Howard (M), Douglas Herring, Claire Hummel, Leigh Kellogg 
  
  

• Becoming an Industry Professional Artist |  Sunday 2 pm | Cascade 12 
  What kind of careers are out there (book covers, illustrators, video games, film, hobbies, games), and what do I need to break into those fields? What do art directors look for in your portfolio? Come to this panel to learn about what you need in order to break into the professional world of media arts.
  Joshua Howard (M), John Picacio, Paul Guinan, Claire Hummel, Leigh Kellogg

...Aaaaaanyway.  Swing by and say hi!  I would love to meet all of you lovely people.  I'll keep updating this over the next few weeks with any pertinent or EXCITING info,

-C

HEY DUDES

I’ve been getting more and more questions lately about all sorts of things- the games industry, my job, my process, inspiration- and I've had less and less free time to actually answer them.  Between my job and eating my way through my apocalypse-ready stores of Girl Scout cookies, I am a busy lady.

Anyway, rather than giving people half-assed answers scrawled into an e-mail, I thought I'd put out a request for questions so I could set up a little Q&A of the most common ones- and the most interesting ones, whatever they may be.

Sooooo if you've got a question you've wanted to ask me, reply to this journal entry or shoot me a note!  However you want to bombard me with inquiries, please do so and I'll post an FAQ once I have enough fodder.

-C

Amending this to remind people that I already have a Historical Disney Princess FAQ, for most of those specific inquiries: [link]

Oh good lord no more joke questions please.

...As I get this question a lot.

What specific references were you looking at while designing Jasmine's costume?
Racinet's plates were a primary source of inspiration: [link] , along with paging through sites about Persian miniature painting and middle eastern clothing terminology.  Searching for this sort of information becomes a lot easier when you have some vague idea of what you're looking for.

Check out the interview HERE: [link]

The lovely Sara Katz-Scher hit me up for an interview a few weeks back and, after some editing on my part so I don't come across as a complete doofus via Skype, the article's finally up for your perusal over at OfficialCosplay.com.  Definitely check it out if you're interested in me rambling on about, quite predictably, cosplay and my historical Disney princesses.

-C

Hey guys, I finally had time to design some fabric for one of the Spoonflower weekly contests!  EXCITING.  Who am I to resist drawing an obscene number of baby sea turtles, honestly.  You should head over to the site and vote because I will love you forever, oooor just because you like the fabric.  There's a ton of other cute stuff in the contest this week, so it's definitely worth checking out the lineup.

Whether or not I actually place in the contest, I'll make sure to post once the fabric's up for sale.  Definitely going to try to do more of this kind of thing, especially when it comes to doing replica versions of all the historical Disney princess fabrics.
-C

I love you guys, but there is absolutely no rhyme or reason as to why Meg's eyes are open, and no she is not the first, and omigod so many questions about the eyes

Just keeping you guys informed and whatnot:

• Historical Disney Princesses - COMPLETE PRINT SET
  I've finally finished ordering the 4 x 6" postcards for the remaining princesses, so you can now purchase the entire set of Historical Disney Princess prints with one easy click.  I've also added a 15% discount when you buy them as a set, since it's waaaay easier for me to pack and ship them that way.

• Tiny Horuses
  I have four (4) Tiny Horus statues left, so I should be posting those up in the store in the next few days once I figure out a fair price.  Stay tuned!

-C

Hey guys-

for my own sanity I'm setting this Saturday, DECEMBER 10, as the cutoff date for ordering prints from my Big Cartel store before the holidays.  I'm going to spend this weekend packing everything up, and should have everything shipped out Monday morning.

• I ship everything using USPS Priority Mail, so domestic orders will ship in 2-3 days and international with ship in 6-10.  If you need something faster, just send me a note and I can et you a quote for expedited shipping (usually around $15-30 domestic, $30-35 international).


• If you don't receive tracking information by Tuesday, December 13th, please feel free to send me a note and I'll make sure that your package went out.  I have a ton of orders coming in right now, so it can be tough to keep track of everything.


• You're more than welcome to place orders after tomorrow, just know that I probably won't get around to them until after the new year.


• I will continue to fulfill desktop background orders during the holidays, since that's relatively easy.  Woo!

In other store news, I should have full sets of the Disney princesses available in the store come January!  I'm still waiting on my order of postcard prints, so I don't want to set up that product until I have the supplies to back it up.

Thanks you guys,
-C

I am SLOW but I finally added the Rapunzel desktops to the wallpaper set!  If you've already purchased the set, you should be able to revisit the link and download them as you so please.

-C

Edited and uploaded!  Lots of redrawing in this one: [link]

Enjoy,
-C

Added Rapunzel to my BigCartel store: [link]

And I'll try to add her to the wallpaper set asap.
-C

A lot of people have asked me about cosplaying my princess dresses, but Chibirinoa is the first person to actually send me photos! AGHHGHJdfgd so pretty.

-C

While I'm at it, any of you guys (especially you artist-folk) have suggestions for conventions I should be selling art at?  I have a few on my radar, but it's hard to gauge which ones would be worth it.  So far people have suggested to me:

• New York Comic-Con


• Emerald City Comic-Con


• CTN Expo


• Stumptown Comics Fest

...And I'm always thinking about SDCC, but that's a big investment and probably a year or two off.

-C

I've been getting a lot of inquiries about selling more merch as of late (and am pretty keen on the idea myself), so I put together a quick and painless survey to test the waters and see what people would be interested in purchasing:

Merch Surveyyyyy woo

If you have a spare second to fill it out, that would be awesome- any advice or input is greatly appreciated, even if it's just in the comments.  I'd love to start selling more than prints (and the odd Tiny Horus figure), it's just hard to figure out where people's interests lie.

-C

So for once I'm going to post about a con before I am actually at said con.  BRILLIANT.  I'm going to be at Steamcon III this weekend in Seattle- I'm coordinating Artists' Alley, have a bunch of art/prints in the art show, and am going to be moderating/on several panels:

Sat, 11AM - Steampunking your Fandom, Grand B
There have been a lot of recent attempts to filter existing franchises through a Steampunk lens- Steampunk Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Doctor Who, and more.  But how do you do this well without slapping a few gears on a Storm trooper helmet? Join us for a discussion and an illustrated how-to on breaking down a character's design, personality, & role, and building them back up within the context of a Steampunk universe.

Sat, 1PM - Steampunk Video Game Art, Regency B
As technology continues to advance, more and more steampunk artists are moving into the realm of video games. Learn what goes on behind the creation of these games: programs and techniques the artists use, the challenges of this new medium, and what the future of the business holds.

Sun, 11AM - Digital Daguerreotyping, Regency C
We’re always trying to age our costume photos and illustrations to make them look like they’re straight out of the 1880’s, but there’s a lot more to it than a well-placed sepia filter.  Join us for a brief history of the various photographic and printing techniques of the Victorian era, followed by examples and a live demo showing you how to mimic those same processes digitally.  No wet plates or letterpresses involved, we swear.

Sun, 12PM - Steampunk Art, Regency C
Come meet some artists who represent steampunk to see how they imagine, design, and create beautiful works of art!

...So yes!  If you're going to be at the con, please feel welcome to track me down and say hi.  I'll probably be in my khaki getup or that awesome Hussar jacket most of the weekend (seeing how life has allowed me next to no time to make anything new this year) if you need to spot me from afar.

-Claire, who is trying not to have a pre-con meltdown