Important artprize Update!

Sorry about the lack of posts to the one or two people who actually check my blog! Anyways, I wanted to take a minute to inform you about artprize and how I fit into it.
Artprize is basically this huge art contest where the public votes on who should win. It's based solely in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the artists display their works at different businesses, local parks, or buildings that paid to become official artprize venues. Thousands of artists are taking part, and I am one of them.
My venue is the Independent Bank at Monroe Center. The address there is 86 Monroe Center, Suite 101, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503. I was lucky to find a venue at all, and the only reason I secured the bank is because I work there. (At a different branch) My completed Tarot card deck will be on display as my artprize submission. (The cards are all printed into decks and I will take some pictures soon.)
Artprize begins September 23 and runs until October 10. The first week, the public has to register to vote at one of many registration booths, and after that they can vote for as many artists as they like. (Only once per artist, however.) You can either vote online at artprize.org or via text messaging. Voting works like this:
"To vote online, an attendee can search your name or the name of your work and vote right on your profile.

To vote by text message, each artist will have a 5 digit code that attendees can type into the body of a text message to either vote up or vote down your work (read more about voting up and down below).

Attendees will send all votes to 878787

Your voting codes to include in the message:

vote32111 (vote up)
vote32110 (vote down)"

I really hope you can all make it out to the bank to see my artwork. I would really appreciate your votes!
Here are some helpful links:
map to Independent Bank Monroe Center
locations of voter registration booths
voting information

I'm done!

Yes! I finished my Tarot card set this week! The work isn't over, however; I have to get them printed (and based on my first quote, it will be quite costly) into decks. I also have to find someone on the artprize venue list who is willing to host me. :( I'm getting depressed thinking that all of this work will be for naught ...
Anyways, I won't bore you with the sad details of my life. I'll save that for a later date, hehe. Firstly, here's a "Christmas face" shot of Ona as she got her birthday present, a light up, music playing shopping cart for her to walk around with.
And here's the last of the major arcana cards. Next week I'll post the Aces, then the Twos, etc. If you really want to see them all in their colorful glory, however, click here.

So where did I leave off ...?

Oh yes, Tarot cards, of course! I'll get to the images in a second. Firstly, some news. I've only got FOUR MORE CARDS TO GO! That means I'm all the way to the Kings, and rolling right along ahead of schedule. Now, to pay the 50 bucks to enter artprize and find myself a venue ...
After the cards are done, I've got come commissions on deck to get started. There's one more pencil illustration to be finished for Heroes of the Jade Oath, and then I'm working with Chris Field once again for Black Tokyo II. No rest for the wicked, eh? It's fine by me. Because of all of this commission stuff, I haven't fallen into my yearly art funk. That's cause for celebration.
On a different note, my equally creative (only in the film field) husband Rory is hard at work on his latest movie, T.A.R.D.S. I've read through the script and it is hilarious. I know as soon as he's all finished, he'll be posting it in segments on Youtube. (Currently the script is 45 pages long, which equals about a 45 minute movie.) You can check out his progress at the T.A.R.D.S website here. (The site is also a work in progress so check back often for updates!)
Now, back to the Tarot-carding!

Grumpy

The title says it all. I'm having a Monday for sure. I'll post some more tarot cards to make up for my lack of posts last week. I'm getting a little burnt out, but I only have 7 more cards to go! Full speed ahead, I say. Lots of personal stuff has been making me sad, thus the crankiness. Needless to say, the last three weeks have been dragging on and on.
But, to help cheer me up, I'm gonna post a more current picture of my beautiful daughter Fiona. She'll be a year old July 19! I can't believe it!

Heroes of the Jade Oath

I'd like to take a little break from the Tarot cards to showcase a set of commissions I've recently worked on for Rite Publishing's Heroes of the Jade Oath. It's a Chinese fantasy setting that I was asked to illustrate in pencil, which is a slight deviation from my normal, stark black and white inking. I haven't done pencil shading since college, so it was an interesting step to take as far as remembering my skills. "White Hair of the Deadly Lotus." "Shenxue Adventurers"
"Monks of the Jade Oath""Sutra"
I have one more illustration from this batch, so look forward to seeing that in the next few weeks!

more more more ...

Been a sorta crappy past few weeks for me. Family stuff any what not ... I'll just say the next four months are going to be the longest in my life. :(
Anyways, to keep my mind off of things, I've been diligently scribbling away at my cards. I've only got 23 more to finish!! Here's a few that have been done for awhile, the next batch of three that come in line with what I've already posted here.Korgith and Astraea have one of those sappy, sorta dramatic love stories, so they fit well in the card "The Lovers."
What's more badass than a half-demonic man wielding a scythe? Nothing, as far as I'm concerned. Zane is featured on "The Chariot."Here we have Rayne, the saucy piratess, gazing off into the distance on the "Strength" card of the series.

All of the finished cards can be seen, as usual, here: http://www.mandapandarawks.com/current.html

fixed!

I'm such an idiot.