Monster Girl Challenge Week 2

It's been around a week since my first round of monster girl post. Here's what I've been up to this week.

#8 Allie the Alien loves laser tag.

 

#9 Petunia the Centaur likes to pick apples.

#10 Slimy the slime girl. She likes to be pampered at the spa. 

Mud baths are her favorite!

#11 DJ Roba the Robot . She loves techno music.

#12 Naga the half snake girl. Snake charmers beware, 

she'll charm you with her belly dancing.

#13 Chacha the canine girl. She loves long runs in the park.

#14 Cynda the Cyclops. She loves 3D movies.

#15 Octavia the octomaid. She enjoys bring in the 

Grand Supreme Queen title at every pageant she enters.

#16 Grayce the gargoyle. She can hold a pose 

better than any other model on the runway.

#17 Yeti, she loves to snowboard.

 

#18 Nessie. She likes go tubing on the 

river when she goes on vacation.

#19 Dullahan the headless horsewoman. 

Her ponies always get pampered.

 #20 Selkie the seal who sheds its skin to become human. 

Selkie loves to surf, and why wouldn't she with her natural wetsuit.

#21 Eshne the dragon girl. She loved to LARP

 and always plays a knight.

 

#22 Minnie the Minotaur . She loves mazes.

#23 Frannie aka the bride of Frankenstein. 

She's celebrating her upcoming wedding.

Enjoy!

 

Dia De Los Muertos Coloring Sheet

I've been busy prepping for upcoming shows and I haven't had a chance to do much blogging. Dia de los Muertos is coming up, so I decided to share a coloring page for the kiddos (adults too.) Feel free to print and color. Please share your creations with us on Facebook. www.facebook.com/longoriagirls Enjoy!



*This coloring sheet is for personal use only. The image is not to be resold or used on any products that are for resale. Thank you.

I Love Comic Books!

I know it's probably something you don't hear girls say very often, but it's true. When I was younger my dad would buy me comic books. I'd look through them amazed with the illustrations, truthfully I didn't always read them , I just LOVED the illustrations. I'm a fan of both DC and Marvel comics but Superman has always had my heart. When I was in high school I would practice my drawing skills by drawing the images from my comic books.
This summer I took my kids to the comic book shop for the first time. I think I enjoyed it more than they did. I'm actually looking forward to them going back to school so I can head over there and really look around. I didn't purchase any comics, I went on a mission to find a Munny figure, which I did.
Back on track, comic books, I love them. I MADE ONE! Two actually. My mom had been telling me that I should write a book about my Cucuy characters. I had a few customers mention how cool a comic about my characters would be. I finally sat down and started drawing. At first I was going for a children's book, building off the story line my mom had in mind. I just wasn't feeling the story book format. That's when I decided I had to turn the story into a comic book.

It's not a full size comic book, but a cute little mini comic book. I've decided I'm going to make it a monthly series. I have two completed as of this week. Issue #1 has been for sale in my shop for a few weeks. Issue #2 will be for sale September 1st.

I'm growing addicted to creating them. I have the story line for Issue #3 in my head. I hope to have a chance to draw it out this weekend. I also have a few other series in my head, I think  Luchamals (masked wrestling animals) will be next.

Keepin' Busy

 I know it's been a while since I've posted but I've been keeping pretty busy. It's summer and the kids are home, on top of that I start my summer teaching job next week. I'm really excited to get the opportunity to teach kids how to draw. I remember growing up I would draw all the time. My parents fostered my love for art in many ways, my dad and I would sit together with a stack of paper and the newspaper funny pages. He would challenge me to try and draw the comic strips as close to the originals as possible. Mom always had craft projects that she would let me work on. All week I've been drawing with my boys. It's been fun and exciting to see their creations. All this drawing got me back to the computer. I've decided to turn some of the digital drawings that I've drawn for my dolls and pillows, into prints. I've been working on back grounds, settings and all kinds of details to bring my characters to life on paper. I still have to find the right paper and ink to print them, but I love the way they are coming out. I hope you like them too :)

 

Steps 3 & 4

Yesterday I shared the digital drawing stage of my design process. Today I jump ahead to share the prototype stage. The prototype stage is actually stage 4. Step 3 is printing the designs onto heat transfers and pressing them to white cotton fabric. Step 4 is taking the fabric, sewing and stuffing the plushies. From here I decided what needs to be changed or improved on. I also use this step to decided whether to send the design to be printed on fabric by the yard. For those wondering who I use for my fabric printing, I use Spoonflower.com , I've been very happy with their work. Pricing may seem high, but when you think about having your very own designs that no one else can buy it's worth it.
Here's a peak at some prototypes. 

 

I couldn't resist taking a picture on the beautiful new plates my parents bought us for Christmas.

 

Taco

 

Avocados

Hope I didn't leave you too hungry :)

Step 2

Yesterday I shared my sketches for my new Yummy collection of plushies. Today I'd like to share step 2 of my design process. I take my sketches into Illustrator and redraw them. During this step I can resize the drawings to make my plushies as big or small as I'd like them.

This is my step 2:

Hopefully tomorrow I can share some pictures of my prototype plushies.

Yummy New Collection

The beginning of the year is usually a slow time for craft shows and festivals. I've decided to take this time and work on a new collection of softies. I'm only in the drawing stage, these are only concepts, but hopefully in the next week or so I will get them onto the computer, redraw them in illustrator and start printing and sewing some prototypes. Here's a peak at what I've been working on.

 

Taco

 

Raspa (snow cone)

 

Chili & Jalapeno 

 

Empanada (My favorite pastry!)

 

Avocados 

(Please excuse the poor photos I took them with my phone.)

Fresh Sketch Friday

A peak at my sketch of the limited edition plush for April's Artes Alley. The theme is Urban Art.