Website update!!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ladies and gentlemen my website has finally been updated; and it's glitch free!!! I had a little problem with the server and loading it; BUT thanks to my aunt that has been solved!

So without further ado:

http://www.samantharomage.com/

Illustration Updates

Halloween Dragon

Blizzard Print Ad Contest

My steampunk illustration for my brother for Christmas.

My illustration for my Christmas Card this year!

Good dog again--- this time shirts

The yeti

The Yeti (abominable snowman)... my idea for a shirt design for Coors... this is the full frontal design with "Coors Light... got cold?" and the back would have a warning disclaimer "warning: your chances of an abominable snowman sighting will not increase with drinking Coors Light. If you see a hairy homosapien while drinking this icy beverage in nature, do not cause him or her harm. It may be an unfortunately hairy relative."

Cheesy... of course; but a lot of beer shirts are. The point is I made a yeti. I painted him in Photoshop.

"Dark" the sneak peek!!! (contains a spoiler)

These are just a random few of the finished pages of my current project. For people who don't know I'm illustrating a children's book that a friend, Victoria Chang, wrote about a girl who's afraid of the dark and what she does to protect herself from the monsters in the Dark. Each page was first drawn out on paper, photographed (scanner wasn't big enough hahaha), and edited and painted digitally. Monsta (the little orange monster) is her guardian that she creates to basically be her knight (***spoiler allert***... I'm awful :P). Tory designed him to be orange and purple so I chose to base the rest of the color scheme around yellows and purples to emphasize the light from the... well dark.

This is the cover (above).

and so we begin... (no order and there are more finished... but again it's a sneak peek).

Summer Lalee Girl

My mother and I share an etsy online store called Draconos's Wonders (I'm Draco and she's LaLee). We have personas so that our customers can know who makes what and I'm working on characters for Lalee. Since Lalee sounds like lolli (lollipop) it's going to be based around kids or babies with lollipops (she makes things for babies and children... crocheted blankets, sweaters, etc).

Good Dog Hotdogs and National Hotdog Day

As people know... my day job is as a graphic designer at a promotional merchandiser. We have two major clients (Millercoors and Crown) but we do local business as well. One of my co-workers family members became a recent client for "local business" and she wanted buttons to celebrate Nation Hotdog Day which is this Friday. She didn't have a logo already so I got to go all out. Hehehe! So I made this guy lol. She was so happy with it that she is making him the permanent logo for Good Dog. I'm not a hotdog eater but I think he 's cute so I posted him.

Steampunk shirt design!

"Dark"

This has been a project of a friend and mine. She write the story and I'm illustrating it. I scanned them in, reworked some areas I wasn't happy with, and now will digitally paint them.

It's about a girl that is afraid of the dark so she draws a guardian that will protect her from the bumps in the night.

Business cards for "Mulata"

One of my co-workers is starting her own business of selling handmade jewelry from Colombia called "Mulata" so she asked me to design the business cards. The pink version was for the opening... but after going and getting to see the jewelry, I thought a more neutral and modern color scheme would suit it better.

Springtime flowers

Experimenting... as time goes on traditional painting is being phased out. So I'm trying to get my digital paintings to look more handmade and like my paintings. It will take a bit of time to perfect but at least I'm keeping it in mind and trying to move forward.

Baby Commission for an Etsy Shop owner

Latest commission was for an Etsy shop owner for baby t-shirts. She wanted a design that was a claddagh with a skull in place of the heart with skeleton hands.

March like

Lastly I made a doodle called necking... I was trying to amuse myself and I like drawing balloon animals. "Necking" also means kissing... so I thought I'd play with necks... lol.

Also my friend's birthday was last week so I make him an illustration. It's a Sam well if sam was an animal. It's a wolf spider monkey hybrid. We've had a long standing joke that I'm a different species other than human (because I don't behave like a human). So I'm sort of his second pet (other than Babby). Well a sam is an omnivore... they LOVE meats and fruit (because I'm a human fruit bat and have a habit of eating raw beef).

Draw for Life volunteering side project

Next came a side project I've been trying to develop over the year. It has NO RUSH but it is something I would like to see happen some day. It's a volunteer group called Draw for Life. It's a group for illustrators, graphic designers, and animators to volunteer their time to design ads for good causes or organizations. Most of us don't have money to donate since we are just surviving ourselves; and while I was on the internet I stumbled across the website for a Haitian Charity and one that was a portfolio site for the country. Unfortunately it was REALLY understated and bland. I thought that perhaps if they had design help they would get more attention and financial aid; so I came up with this group. Artists can ask local organizations to world organizations if they need help with designing ads (from pet shelters to country wide poverty). This is the logo I designed for the group. I'm really satisfied with it and surprisingly it was on my first go.

First off for political view I'm a Progressive... so in the honor of the late Teddy Kennedy who represented the working class and the less fortunate... I figured we needed a brave look since we are trying to make brave and bold statements ourselves. Also I wanted to bring a touch of nature in because really it's meant to be a group that helps EVERYONE. So the tail of the lion and the mane is suppose to look like a palm leaf. Lastly I wanted it to look finished and polished but organic and less ridged so it has somewhat of a "heart" shape to it but an oblong heart.

Blizzard Fan Art Calendar Contest

Also around the same time was Blizzard's Holiday Fan Art Calendar Contest. So I made sketches for Winterveil but ended up doing Noblegarden. I figured it would be less competitive though probably if I had more time and could do it over it would look different or I might have just tested my luck with Winterveil. Either way I love my winterveil sketches so I may make one of them my Winder Holiday Card for this year (most likely the gnome making cookies... she's ADORABLE).

Montserrat Zombie Show Prepping

Next comes January and the zombie theme show for Montserrat Students and Alumni. I had a week off for Christmas from work so I worked on Zealots. Zombies in the natural world. It was going to be a series that would come together as a musical band... but I figured it was a little to far out of the box. So since I hate zombies ANYWAYS. I decided to take the least gross approach. The traditional legend of zombies is a Haitian and African witchcraft basically. Since I'm half haitian I thought it would be neat to look into half of my culture. I also wanted to test working in brighter colors with acrylics.

Christmas presents and commissions

December was gift making time... I painted this for a my friend who loves World of Warcraft. With the next expansion they are adding worgen to the mix of races. Unfortunately they aren't making worgen shaman which would be his ultimate worgen which we talked about on the ride up to his grandparents' house at thanksgiving; so I made him one. I also made the lioness to try and get some commissions on FA. Rosie the Riveter... lol

Pandora

Also in November sometime I found the site patchtogether.com... so I submitted this:

It's a portrait of my friends beloved babby (yes babby and not baby... I don't know why but that's her nickname). Her name is Pandora and she's a feisty little trickster. I was submitting it as a figurine with a banana chip base.

Oooo I've gotten behind

WHHHHHOOOOOAAAAA. So my lack of blogging has been brought to my attention. Hmmmmm I've been reading other blogs though *blushes*. I guess I've just been jumping from project to project and chores etc. So I shall fill you in.

Since last October, a friend of mine has moved in. He broke up with his girlfriend and I had a spare couch. Other than that... I've just been working, drawing, playing video games, and crafting.

In November I made this for a friend of mine at Emerson. They have a theater group directed towards kids called Gumbo Yaya and they needed a shirt design.