Kabuki Katze Blog

ACEO Preview -- Sugar Water

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:45:00 +0000

A woman in the moon is singing to the earth . . .

One of the prizes I'm putting together for the winners of the Traditional-Sailors reboot contest on dA.

I've never done a close-up crop of one of my ACEOs before . . . I'm pleasantly surprised that Princess Serenity holds up at this size.

Preview: Crystal Sailor Asteroid

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:40:00 +0000

Heavy metal, asteroids, steel-toed boots, could Nickyflamingo's Crystal Sailor Asteroid get any cooler?

Of course she can. She plays bass too.

My New Neighbors

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:35:00 +0000

It has been a while since I whipped out the old needle and thread for something other than a mending job, but I couldn't resist the idea of making a family of Totoros for the Mr. for Christmas. I came up with the patterns myself and sewed each one by hand. I thought that machine-sewing wouldn't have fit the feel of the designs.

Of course, now the Mr. takes the wee-est of the wee chibi-Totoros to all his gigs and sets him up with his pedals.

I had such a good time with these fellas that I made an extra set for a friend of mine to celebrate her new house. Last I heard, they were keeping a stern eye on some home remodel work.

I think they cheer up the place, don't you?

More Monsters!

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:06:00 +0000

Yep, more mini monsters from my doodle pad. I'm still playing with a new set of Copics, heh.

My thanks to Chris Elam and Sean Moore for the creature suggestions!

Got a monster or demon you like? Drop me a comment with its name and maybe I'll draw it!

Reverse Graffiti

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:24:00 +0000

You guys already know that I'm a fan of graffiti from previous posts here and on Wandering Kotka, so you can imagine my glee at finding a new type of graffiti.

Reverse graffiti, as it's called, is interesting in that it's done not by adding to a surface, but by taking away. Taking away dirt and dust, namely.

Never did I think I'd find an artform that satisfied my graffiti-loving brain bits and my "clean all the things" brain bits at the same time.

(Source: Environmental Graffiti. Works by Moose.)

More Red Ogres!

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:12:00 +0000

Onis, apparently, are my new favorite thing. This particular one is headed to the proud new owner of my recent Kishimojin ACEO!

I'll let the buyer in question decide whether or not he wants to proudly announce his ownership. ;)

The Goddess of Love!

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:04:00 +0000

This story was sent to me by Jen, who bought a copy of Divine Dames for herself and her granddaughter . . .

"We read the book when she came over last night and she kept saying how beautiful the goddesses all were and how she couldn't decide which was her favorite and she made me promise to read it again when she took a bath!

Then about 30 minutes later she started to get really, really sick and her fever shot up to 102. She was not a happy camper and reverted to lots of crying and whining . . . nonstop! Anyway . . . after a few hours of her constantly feeling sorry for herself, I asked her what did she think any of the goddesses would do when they were sick? I asked her if she thought they would cry or if they would be brave and take their medicine 'cause they knew it was good for them? Of course, then I asked her if she wanted to be a goddess. (Yes, yes, yes, she wants to be the goddess of love!) So I said, if you want to BE a goddess . . . you need to act like one. Being brave, even when you're sick is a goddess trait. It got her to thinking seriously. While she didn't stop feeling sorry for herself - she was processing it and kept asking questions about independence and are goddesses independent.

Sooooooooooooo . . . this morning she wakes up fresh as a daisy and feeling better (goddesses drink Pedialyte don't you know!) and gave me a big hug and got a piece of paper and started to draw a pic of her on it. She told me to write: "Jeannie - the goddess of love" on it! Then at breakfast she made me read her the book again. Only this time, I kid you not, I had to read every word of the bibliography! She even suspected that I was skipping over some words so she started to underline each word with her finger to make sure I didn't skip any! She made me read every single word cover to cover! I'd say you've had quite an impact on her! I can't tell you how thrilled I am that she's being exposed to different cultures and showing such an interest! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Best. Book review. Ever. Of course the adorable drawing of Jeannie, the goddess of love, makes it even better! At that age, all I was drawing was Ninja Turtles. Jeannie's already lightyears ahead of younger me when it comes to drawing ladies.

Capture Creatures

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:31:00 +0000

My long-standing love of the little, pixellated beasties of the Pokemon world has been proudly displayed in these here parts. My love of cute, retro-style art too. So you can imagine my utter glee at Becky Dreistadt's new project: Capture Creatures. If you recognize the name, it might be because Becky has been tearing up the internet with her beautiful work on Tiny Kitten Teeth.

Capture Creatures posts a new, hand-painted critter every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, complete with a story about the species and its abilities. So far, they are all heart-meltingly adorable.

I really, really hope that there will be a book at the end of this in addition to the gallery tour because I would eat up an artbook of these little fellas.

Shown: 002 Tabbypole, by Becky Dreistadt. Source.

Ao-oni and Aka-oni

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:17:00 +0000

One of my gifts this holiday was a brand new set of Copic sketch markers in "fashion" colors. I realized a couple of days ago that I hadn't tried them out yet, so I whipped out some scrap paper and got to it! I've been having a "monster" craving ever since I did that art trade with Sean Moore, so some feisty oni were the order of the day. I love their little tiger loincloths.

Of course, when you're on the subject of Japanese nasties, you really can't neglect mentioning the awesome Obakemono project or the beautiful art from Muramasa: the Demon Blade.

WIP: Booted Babe . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:01:00 +0000

What's this? A new face from Chris Elam's Major City universe? And she brings the kung-fu? Be still my beating heart!

The curious-minded could do a little digging over on Owari, keeping an eye out for the names "Jinx" and "Tex."

Site Update!

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:35:00 +0000

'bout time, right?

A bit of a site update with six (!!) new gallery items and brand spanking-new shop links! I also did a little cleaning out of the gallery.

Check it out!

. . . I'm on Scribd?

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:35:00 +0000

I don't know who you are, Rubinfan, but thanks for uploading my PDF preview of Divine Dames to Scribd and spreading the goddess love!

If you're a Scribd user, you can read and +collect the PDF here.

2011 in Art

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:19:00 +0000

Month by month:

January: Giftart for Nickyflamingo of her character, NOVA. I love the minimal colors and lines. I should do pared-down things like this more, actually.
February: Chris Elam's Shelly Ericson. Notable for the fact that there is an honest-to-god background. This turns out to be a running theme this year . . .
March: Lewis Smith's gorgeous Aesma Daeva. Love the hair, love the pose, love how darn sexy the whole thing is.
April: SilverVulpine's lovely Aissa. Love the outfit, love the little details. I like that this year I took a lot of care in fleshing out "looks" for characters. Adding accessories, even going so far as to "window shop" for fashions.
May: More exotic babes from Lewis Smith, this time it's Equinox. Unusual-looking babes turn out to be another running theme this year. Who knew?
June: What? MARKERS? Hey, I was as surprised as you were. For the first time in, uh, ever, I take real money for my traditional art.
July: The markers continue! As does a sudden fascination with the Dune novels . . .
August: Pokegals return, finally! Giaru cements my move toward interpreting the designs more as wearable fashions "inspired" by the creatures rather than gals in costumes.
September: Dune 2: Electric Boogaloo! Not only do I come back with a vengeance with more Dune-inspired fanart, but with help from Chris Elam, I get it into my first honest-to-goodness art show.
October: Hawkgirl? Is that you? A bit of unexpected fanart, instigated by Chris Elam, shows off my work toward improving anatomy and lighting. (At least I like to think so!)
November: Another book? Yep! My second book, Divine Dames, is wrapped up and sent to print in November. It's notable for being adult-oriented and having a lot more text and research involved than my previous outing, Girls of the World.
December: In the midst of unexpected end-of-the-year freelance projects and some hefty commissions, I find time to experiment with an evolution of my paper-cut style, inspired by Kirby's Epic Yarn. Where will this lead?

Of course, these are only the highlights of 2011. There are plenty of other cool things that I left off this list, like drawing the cover to L.E. Simmons' How to Raise your Teenage Dragon and to Chris Elam's Captain Satellite: Number Zero. Then there was that piece that's in Pipe Dreams . . . And of course, all that web-design work I started doing . . .

I can only hope that 2012 is as crazy and busy and wonderful as 2011 was!

More Ponies?

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:26:00 +0000

More PONIES.

I have the sinking feeling that this is going to be a series. Equestria's Epic Yarn, anyone? I can't guarantee anything on that, mind you. I just move the hands; the crazy art-gremlins in my head call the shots*.

*Crazy art-gremlins are my personal explanation for how I get ideas. Muses are too dignified. However, an unruly gathering of gremlins perching on my occipital lobe sounds about right.

WIP: Precious Metals

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:17:00 +0000

A little something in the works for Gunmetalblack, AKA Lewis Smith, of two of his beautiful sci-fi gals. Who are they? Well, you'll just have to wait and see. But if you're industrious, I bet you could find the answers on his dA and site . . .

WIP: Party at Snap's Place!

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:34:00 +0000

As a last hurrah of the holidays, I'm hard at work on a multicharacter pic for Messr. L.E. Simmons of the cast and crew of his Teenage Dragon novels.

And on that note, I want to wish everyone a happy new year! I hope that you keep the ones you love close in the new year and find a suitable barrier (a window perhaps) to put between yourself and your enemies.

The end of the journey!

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:15:00 +0000

Yep, with the last of the books off and shipped to their intended recipients this marks the end of my whirlwind first go at preorders. All told, it was a good experience. Had some great response and feedback and learned quite a bit about pricing my goods.

I want to take this chance to once again thank everyone who took part in the "goddess project" from the guessing games here on the blog, to previews on dA, to preordering the tome, to picking it up on Lulu. You guys and gals were a great help and inspiration throughout this whole thing! I don't know if I would have stuck with it without ya.

. . . now I just need to decide on my next project! Ah well, I have until New Year's for that.

(Oh! I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Divine Dames will be up for order on Lulu.com for the foreseeable future and that I'm working on a simple storefront for picking up the PDF edition through yours truly. Plus, there are pins and cards featuring the goddesses up on the ol' Zazzle shop!)

Preview: Shelly's Story

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:26:00 +0000

A young Shelly Ericson gets ready to set off on her first big-city adventure. We know she's ready for Major City . . . but is Major City ready for her?

(As always, check out the excellent Chris Elam's site for more stories and art featuring the cast and crew of his Captain Satellite adventures!)

Preview: I can has diamond?

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:20:00 +0000

Santa may or may not have left a copy of Pokemon Black under the tree, along with a Game Boy to play it on. (They're not called Game Boys anymore, but I don't care.) So, of course, I had to bust out some Pokegal-flavored goodness.

Any guesses as to the identity of this Gen 5 filching feline?

Happy Holidays!

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:58:00 +0000

Whatever holiday you choose to celebrate (or if you choose to celebrate none of 'em), here's hoping you're spending the next couple of days surrounded by friends, family, and good food.

You are all amazing folks and you make making art more fun than I ever thought it could be. You're all awesome and I can't wait to see what the next year brings us!

Holiday Doodles, Round 7

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:55:00 +0000

Last, but not least, is the all-around fabulous NickyFlamingo's Crystal Sailor Mercury.

Holiday Doodles, Round 6

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:51:00 +0000

For the mad and brilliant Lewis Smith, a chibi, sexy take on his mind-blowingly gorgeous Equinox!

Holiday Doodles, Round 5

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:50:00 +0000

For the gentleman and scholar, SilverVulpine, his adorable co-ed, Philomena!

Holiday Doodles, Round 4

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 01:48:00 +0000

For my favorite derby dame, Danielle, the damage-dealing sorceress, Lina Inverse!

Holiday Doodles, Round 3

noreply@blogger.com (Kabuki Katze) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:46:00 +0000

For my buddy Alicia, a wee, annoyed Link!