Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas card 2011


Merry Holidays to everyone, and a happy New Year!
...I think I already said that before.

Here's this year's Christmas card. As every year, my wonderful husband Marc Rueda did the drawing and ink, and I took care of the colors.

I couldn't upload this sooner 'cause, you know, some people didn't get their printed cards until now... ;)

And now, everybody sing! "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer..." =D



...Oh by the way, if you like this card and would like to commission us for making one like it for you (be it for Christmas, birthday, wedding or anything else), feel free to send us an email! :)

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Lani

This is the main character for a comic project I'm working on and hope to present to editors during the next year. Oh, I've still got a long way to go, I'm still pitching the story for the book and defining the characters. But I'll get there.

Anyway, this is Lani. Some of you might remember her with the name "Hisui", because she's a recurring character in my drawings and I decided to finally turn her into a story. I didn't want to use japanese names since it won't have anything to to with Japan. Lani suits her well.
This is just a sketch for her design, I'll obviously do a better, cleaner design drawing.

I won't tell you much more about her character, you'll just have to wait and hope I find a publisher for this! ;)

Friday, December 23, 2011

Merry Christmas!


A really old piece, back from 2008. But anyway, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, so I wanted to wish you all some very happy Holidays!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Soldier of Silence


Ah, Sailor Saturn. I've been meaning to draw her for a long time now, but I was never able to portray her just the way I wanted to. This one's not quite it either, but it's close. I liked her expression in the sketch better, though. And her skirt should sit lower on her hips, it looks weird.


Sailor Saturn always has, and always will be, my favourite of the Sailor Senshi.
The sickly young girl, barely starting to become a woman, raised by her tortured single father, so fragile and shy. And yet, she awakens to become the most powerful of all the Senshi (with exception of Sailor Moon, who surpasses her after SuperS), able to destroy a whole world with one blow of her Silence Glaive if she wishes to do so.

It's a shame she doesn't appear much in the show.

I've never been too fond of her Super costume, it doesn't really suit her. So here's her original form.

Friday, December 16, 2011

2011 Art Summary


What's this? Another update the same day? I'm sorry, I don't mean to spam. ;)

Anyway, I wanted to join the fun of the art summary memes on DeviantArt for this year! :D

So, as you see, all those months I hardly upload anything here (or anywhere else for that matter) don't mean I'm not drawing! In fact, I was working almost the whole year on my latest graphic novel: "I Date Dead People".

January I had only started doing the rough layouts, february I started with the pencils, and from march onward the inking (and shading) fun started, too.
July it was time to do the cover for the book, and from that month on all through most of september the deadlines crawled up on me and I got some help with the ink from my wonderful husband and fellow artist Marc Rueda.

We finished the book on time (even ahead of it! That's 124 pages in 9 months.) by the end of september, and then october... I didn't even want to hold a pencil. XD Nah, we also went to Germany for some weeks and bought a house, so no energy left for drawing. :P

Then came november and creativity kicked in again, which is really nice. Got to use my watercolors again. I my watercolors, and when I'm working on a comic I don't usually ever get a chance to use them. ^^"

I even got my first "Daily Deviation" ever! And I'm really grateful to everyone who supported me and continues to do so.
Thanks, y'all!

Aaaand that's that. There are still a few days left of december, so let's see what I can come up with in that time. ^^


...Oh yeah, you can get the blank meme here.

"I Date Dead People" random panel (2)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Mushroom Fairy (Collaboration w/ Jenny Ackermann, part 2)


Phew, I fiiiinally finished the colors for the second part of Jenny Ackermann's and my collaboration. For this one, she provided the outlines and I colored it.

It took a long time, as you might know I'm not really used to complicated digital coloring, so this was quite a challenge and a great practice. I wanted to see how far I can push it.
May I say I'm very proud of her knees? Her left one, to be precise. I love how it turned out. Knees are just something I don't quite understand, so. XD

You can see her cute original outlines here. ^^

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Princess Kidagakash (Colors by Jenny Ackermann)

Yay, Jenny finished the colors for our collaboration! =D
I really like how it turned out, she did a great job on it. The glowing crystal turned out beautifully.

I'm still working on the colors for her lineart (sorry it's taking so long!), but when I finish it I'll upload it here, too. :)

For those who missed it, here's the link to my inked version.
Yes, I know it's directly beneath this post, but it's for those who open this one "out of context".

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Princess Kidagakash

These are the inks I made for a collaboration with Jenny Ackermann - she did some outlines for me to color, I did some for her.
Let's see what she makes of it!

I felt like drawing the always-forgotten-Disney-princess Kida (from Disney's "Atlantis: The Lost Empire"). Her character is just really cool and I feel kind of sorry for her since she hardly gets any attention at all.

Obviously, Kida belongs to Disney, not to me. ;)

[ Update: Here's the link to Jenny's colored version! ]

Friday, December 9, 2011

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

No hugz!




Here's a little piece I did just for fun.

You should not bother a Tasmanian Devil - he could rip your arm off. Even if you're a demon.
Still, Tazzies are just terribly cute.


Related posts:

Monday, December 5, 2011

Parasol


Another old piece I never posted. It might not be very fitting for this time of the year, but anyway.
It was an illustration I made for Audrey Diallo, as a gift for the years we worked together and as a thank you for letting me stay at her place when I went to the Japan Expo.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

COMMISSIONS

Hi everyone!

So, I was wondering, would anyone be interested in commissions?
I've never done any like this before, but right now I've no full-time project to work on, so I have time for that sort of things. ^^

Just send me an email if you're interested.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMISSIONS:

Clean pencil drawing:

Din A5: 30 €
Din A4: 40 €
+ 10 € for every
additional character


Inked art:

Din A5: 40 €
Din A4: 50 €
+ 15 € for every
additional character


Colored art (watercolors):

Din A5: 70 €
Din A4: 90 €
+ 35 € for every
additional character


I will usually draw the characters from the waist / hips up or bust and with a simple background. If you would like a full body illustration, I might have to charge a little more because the time and effort invested would be higher. I hope you can understand - but don't hesitate to send me a mail if you do want a full body shot!

In any case, I'd like you to know that I try to do my very, very best in every single commission I make.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SAMPLE ART:

Please note that none of these examples were actual commissions (since I'm new to this), so they're actually just samples so you can see my skill level. In terms of composition, the watercolor illustrations would be closest to what I have in mind.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PAYMENT:


Payment via PayPal Only.

I will send you a High-Res TIFF file (300 dpi) of your illustration.

I suggest you pay me the first half of the price after I send you the sketch of the drawing, and then the second half after the piece is finished.

If you would like me to send you the original art, please tell me and we can figure out how to do that. Of course I'd have to charge an extra shipping fee for that.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To prevent anyone's time to be wasted, I'd ask anyone who wants to commission me to accept the following rules:


RULES:


1) I will not do any of the following:

Anything offensive.
Anything with violent content.
Anything explicitly sexual.*
Any highly detailed backgrounds (unless I choose so myself).
Machines. Cause I'm terribly bad at 'em.


2)
No major changes once I've started working on your commission.

I won't start over a piece just because you changed your mind, or change a complete pose, or whatever. (This is just in case, I know most people are very considerate. =) )
Minor changes (e.g. "That character's belt should look a little different" or "the right arm does seem a little too long") are okay in the sketching stage only. Past that (in the cleanup, ink, or color stage) I won't make any changes anymore.


3) The commissions are
for personal use only! You may not use them for commercial aims.
If you want a commission for commercial use, please contact me so we can talk about the conditions.


*Breasts are okay with me, so are nudes if the genitalia are hidden somehow, but that's as far as it goes.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Now I just hope somebody actually wants me to draw something for him/her... I'll definetely do my best! =D


Completed commissions:



Wednesday, November 30, 2011

When I had white wings...

So, as you might see, I needed a new blog header!

That's why I made this illustration. It is easily the piece that has taken me longest to finish - ever. It took over a week from start to finish. So I'm quite proud of it, even though not everything turned out the way I imagined it.

And since it's always cool to see when others do it, I'll post the rough sketch, clean pencil and final watercolor piece for you to see. ^^

[Edit: Oh, I got a Daily Deviation for this piece on Deviantart on December 5th, 2011! So proud of that! ^_________^  ]




Kairi Volume 3 Cover

And the last of the covers for Kairi.
After volume 3, the series was cancelled due to financial problems of the publisher. Almost all "Shogun" series got cancelled, actually, so Kairi was no exception.

The story remains unfinished, I myself have no clue as to how it ends.


Saturday, November 26, 2011

Wedding Menus


I hadn't posted this yet. This was what out menus looked like at our wedding! We had guests from 2 countries, so I came up with this to solve the issue of having bilingual menus. :)

I'm not that fond of how chibi "me" turned out, but I do like chibi Marc a lot! =D

Friday, November 25, 2011

"I Love Him to Pieces" Review: The Bulletin (July / August 2011)


The following review appeared in the July/August issue of The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books:

Storrie, Paul D. Made for Each Other; illus. by Eldon Cowgur. Graphic Universe, 2011 126p (My Boyfriend Is a Monster) Library ed. ISBN 978-0-7613-5601-1 $29.27 Paper ed. ISBN 978-0-7613-7077-2 $9.95 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-7613-7186-1 $21.95   R Gr. 6-8

Tsang, Evonne I Love Him to Pieces; illus. by Janina Görrissen. Graphic Universe, 2011 124p (My Boyfriend Is a Monster) Library ed. ISBN 978-0-7613-6004-9 $29.27 Paper ed. ISBN 978-0-7613-7079-6 $9.95 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-7613-7185-4 $21.95   R Gr. 6-8

"In these two opening titles in a graphic-novel series featuring unlikely romances between ordinary girls and their various monster loves, one girl falls hard for a boy who has mere hours before turning into a zombie that will then want to eat her, and another finds that her perfect new boyfriend is made up of reanimated corpse parts lovingly stitched together by his dad. Of course, true love is rarely smooth, and in this case, the heroines face not only the usual misunderstandings, insecurities, and intense feelings, but also flesh-eating zombies and jealous (and murderous) “siblings” cobbled together from dead bodies.

While neither book pushes the boundaries of graphic novels (both stick to fairly structured panels, black-and-white illustrations that mirror the text, and predictable comic-book-style exclamations and plot structuring), the mixing of romance and the supernatural, an obvious nod to Twilight and its ilk, may draw in readers new to the format. The gross factor (these are, after all, monsters) is present but downplayed in favor of the progression of the romances, with love more important than, say, the desire to eat your girlfriend’s brains. This series, with the flashy titles (each extended with a sequence of several funny subtitles), eye-catching covers, and popular themes, will easily attract readers; happily, they will be rewarded with sturdy plots and clever takes on human/monster love." AS

Thursday, November 24, 2011

"I Love Him to Pieces" Review: Publisher's Weekly (April 4)


The following review appears in the April 4 issue of Publishers Weekly:

My Boyfriend Is a Monster, #1: I Love Him to Pieces

Evonne Tsang and Janina Görrissen. Lerner/Graphic Universe, $9.95 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-0-7613-7079-6

"Though it starts out feeling like a lighthearted realistic fiction story, this graphic novel turns into a zombie story partway through. Nerdy Jack Chen and athletic Dicey Bell become more than friends when their high school gives them a parenting assignment to watch over an egg as if it's their baby. The two continue to draw closer, despite their differences. While on a date, word comes through that an infection is causing people to more or less turn into zombies, and the area is supposed to be evacuated. Jack gets bitten by one of the zombies and is fed a special pill in hopes it can stop the infection from overtaking him. But he isn't actually a zombie, which makes the title somewhat misleading. The zombie story comes in abruptly after the cute first half of the book, and it almost feels as if this consists of two different stories only linked together because it has the same characters. The ending also happens too quickly. Görrissen's artwork is slick and attractive, and she clearly has a skill for facial expressions. Ages 11–up." (Apr.)

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

"I Love Him to Pieces" Review: Booklist (March 15)


The following review appears in the March 15 issue of Booklist:

Booklist – March 15, 2011

I Love Him to Pieces.

By Evonne Tsang. Illus. by Janina Görrissen.

April 2011. 128p. Graphic Universe, paper, $9.95 (9780761370796); lib. ed., $29.27 (9780761360049). 741.5. Gr. 7-10.

"What happens when a baseball player and a goth nerd fall in love? The zombie apocalypse, of course. But jock Dicey is determined that she and Jack will survive—and maybe she’ll even finally get a kiss from him! Tsang and Görrissen’s entry in the new My Boyfriend Is a Monster graphic-novel series cashes in on the current zombie craze, but it does so with style and humor. Dicey and Jack are extremely likable characters—as are the bit players—and their young romance is crafted slowly enough to get readers invested in it. The middle section of the book gets rushed a bit when the zombies start appearing, but the final act, when the two teens try to fight their way out of embattled St. Petersburg, Florida, is scary and gory and exciting but not too bloody for a middle-school audience. Görrissen’s refreshing, black-and-white art gives the story a crisp, modern fell, with clearly individuated characters and realistic body types. A great beginning to a fun new series." –Francesca Goldsmith

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

2012 Texas Maverick Graphic Novels Reading List: "I Love Him to Pieces"


"I Love Him to Pieces has been named to the Texas Library Association’s 2012 Texas Maverick Graphic Novels Reading List!

The complete list can be found here:
http://www.txla.org/groups/Maverick."
Thanks, guys! And I'll forgive you for not getting my last name right (hardly anyone ever does).

"I Love Him to Pieces" Review: Kirkus Reviews (March 15)

Yeah, so it's already been 8 months since "I Love Him to Pieces" came out, and it never ocurred to me before to post the reviews I've been getting about it on this blog. Better late than never, right? I'll be posting them seperately, or it will be confusing.

The following review appears in the March 15 issue of Kirkus Reviews:
I LOVE HIM TO PIECES
Author: Tsang, Evonne
Illustrator: Görrissen, Janina

Review Date: March 15, 2011
Publisher:Graphic Universe
Pages: 128
Price ( Hardcover ): $29.27
Price ( Paperback ): $9.95
Price ( e-book ): $21.95
Publication Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-0-7613-6004-9
ISBN ( Paperback ): 978-0-7613-7079-6
ISBN ( e-book ): 978-0-7613-7185-4
Category: Fiction
Series: My Boyfriend is a Monster
Volume: 1

"Two teenagers fall for each other as a zombifying fungus stalks St. Petersburg, Fla., in this tongue-in-cheek romance. Paired up in school as an egg’s assigned “parents,” shy übernerd Jack Chen and irrepressible baseball star Dicey Bell feel a mutual draw—which is why they’re together, cutting class one day, when a sudden outbreak of mutant fungus turns nearly everyone into mindless, half-decayed killers. Though Dicey’s skill with a bat comes in handy for cranking up the body count, escape becomes an urgent priority when Jack is bitten. His scientist parents have a possible cure—but can they and the young fugitives hook up in time? Though so slow to get off the mark that the zombie action doesn’t even start until halfway through, the plot accelerates nicely thereafter, culminating in a wild drive in a tinkling ice-cream truck through crowds of slavering attackers. So vivacious are Jack and Dicey in Görrissen’s black-and-white art that readers will forgive the indistinct depictions of violence and the untidy way dialogue balloons spill over into adjacent panels. Simultaneously published with volume two, a tale with a different cast and setting titled Made for Each Other, written by Paul D. Storrie and illustrated by Eldon Cowgur. A hoot from opening salvo (“JACK CHEN, YOU’RE THE FATHER OF MY BABY!”) to closing clinch." (Graphic novel. 11-13)

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Kairi Volume 1 Cover

Somehow I never posted the cover illustrations for Kairi, at least not in a decent size or by themselves, so I'll be adding them now, despite the fact that I did them years ago. I still like them, anyway. They're from 2008.

So here are the front and back illustrations for volume 1.


Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Aikido Inu



Just a little Illustrator practice. First thing I've ever completely rendered in that program.

This image is available for sale in my ToonPool Shop as a license-free download (for professional use) and on t-shirt!


Related illustrations: