Artists lie, cheat, and steal.

Rise Up

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 04:12:20 GMT

Last Fall I participated in Marvel Trumps Hate for the first time and SquadOfCats bid and won my auction! They requested a portrait featuring Steve Rogers/Captain America that felt political. When I initially got the prompt it was just before the 2024 election and I was beginning my inspiration research when the election results came in. I ended up taking a break to recenter myself and refocus how I wanted to portray Steve. At first I was thinking about something a bit more subdued but some time went by and I thought it best to show Steve's defiance and his ability to "do this all day." I switched gears to a reference that shows him looking ahead, ready for what's to come. I intentionally chose to portray him in his stealth suit and left his shield unpainted.

Portrait drawn, I was now stuck on the background. At first I toyed with an Art Nouveau inspiration, maybe stylized flowers, or just a plain gradient with metal leaf. Then I remembered the time period Steve Rogers grew up in. If an artistic kid was growing up in the 20s and 30s, they would have seen and been inspired by the incorporation of the new modern style in everything, this style would later be named Art Deco. I ended up taking out a few books from the library to look at murals, architecture, and art from this time. Immediately I was drawn to the use of sunbursts. Usually Art Deco decorations are symmetrical, but I liked the handful of examples they were more random. I thought it extremely appropriate to have a few sun beams radiating out of the round shield. Dawn of a new day. Also the pointed rays give a structural vibe, which is a nod to NYC skyscrapers.

Next thing I noticed in artworks of this era was the use of color and gilded elements. I'm a sucker for both, so I incorporated them into my piece and I think they work quite well. Biggest inspirational references were Lobby of the Ohio Bell Building , Empire State Building lobby decoration, Fortissimo/Pianissimo, and Hildreth Meière’s “Red Room”. If you have a chance, look up more of Meière's work. She really is a forgotten icon.

Despite the initial struggle to start this project, followed by my indecision on the direction for the portrait and background, then taking another break over the summer to sew renaissance bodices, once I made up my mind on everything it really came together quite nicely! I wrapped this piece up in time to sign up for MTH 2025!

Mediums: Watercolor and synthetic silver leaf on 11.69" x 16.53"Arches rough press watercolor paper.

dA
Also on Ao3

comments

Protection Web

Thu, 16 May 2024 01:38:14 GMT

Signed up for the 2024 Stucky Reverse Big Bang. This was my offered art during claims, well just the line art at the time, and I managed to snag 2 wonderful writers to write stories inspired by it!

"A Game for Two" by dontcallmebree and by luxuryvelvetstudebaker.

I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to draw when going into making this, but I was looking at Thomas Blackshear II's work and saw this beautiful portrait, Airman's Inspiration. I'm like, oh that reminds me of Captain America's helmet. Then while looking for pose references I saw a great photo of 2 guys together, with one particularly protective, and I'm like yes that's Bucky. Nothing deeper than that! XD
Had fun using such rich colors for the background and working with metal foil. This piece sure shines in the light. Though getting all those little lines down was tedious af. I totally ruined a brush that wore down brushing off excess foil!

Mediums: Watercolor, a touch of colored pencil, and synthetic gold and silver leaf on 11.69" x 16.53"Arches rough press watercolor paper.

dA
Also on Ao3

( Photo version showing off how reflective the metal leaf is. )

comments

Gold Thorki

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 23:29:31 GMT

Created for the 2022 Thorki Bang. I selected Kimchi's story, Bluebird, cause I'm a sucker for Jotun Loki, and it's always fun painting someone blue. It was a pleasure working with them!

I suck at full body illustrations, so a portrait of the boys with pretty hair it was. I also hate backgrounds, so why not try using gold leaf for the first time ever? I think it came out pretty well! I love how shiny it is in person, and I love all the shadows that were captured in the scan due to the buckled watercolor paper.

Mediums: Watercolor, colored pencil, and synthetic gold leaf on 11.69" x 16.53"Arches rough press watercolor paper.

dA
Also on Ao3

( A little fun behind the scenes look at the gold leaf application. The skewings added a nice effect, like leaves or petals blowing in the wind. Also, so shiny!! )

comments

G.O.A.T.

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 03:14:01 GMT

One of two pieces created for the 2021 Thorki Bang.

I was partnered with the wonderful ravenbringslight. She was very patient with me when I was slow to start, was a wonderful cheerleader once I got started, and was so kind to let me finish after the artist deadline. Fortunately, I was able to finish before our posting date, which happens to be the first day of posting for the Bang!! Anyway, really enjoyed creating the portraits of Loki and Thor for her story, "You Fall I Fall".

Going to be honest, the main reason why I picked raven's story was that she included Thor's goats as one of the selling points during artist match ups. Because of this, I was determined to include the goats in the art. I went through a couple of thumbnails to try and pin down the composition. At first I tried a full body composition, but I knew I wouldn't be able to do it justice since my paper was small. Settled on this trio composition after trying various iterations of Thor and 2 goat heads. I looked at so many goat pictures for reference to find the right angle!! Well worth the time to find the right references.

Mediums: Watercolor, colored pencil, and gel pen on 10" x 14"Arches cold press watercolor paper. Frame digitally added.

dA
Also on Ao3

Loki

comments

Loki

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 03:10:56 GMT

Two of two pieces created for the 2021 Thorki Bang.

The composition for this piece was based on the study Head of Saint John the Evangelist by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. When I started painting the piece, I realized some of his features weren't correctly laid out. Then I realized when I blocked the features on his face, I used the Ingres study as my roadmap. Ah well, still came out really well and has enough of Hiddleston's features to sell the illusion.

Mediums: Watercolor, colored pencil, and gel pen on 10" x 14"Arches cold press watercolor paper. Frame digitally added.

dA
Also on Ao3

G.O.A.T.

comments

Spock A Moiré

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 05:10:21 GMT

"Spock A Moiré" was created for the Star Trek zine Ex Astris, Scientia. "A charity Star Trek zine, focused on celebrating both the Original and Alternate Original Series (TOS and AOS)."

Sadly, this zine fell through when the finance mod went and disappeared. Major bummer since the money to actually print the zine went with them too.

I submitted my application on a whim a couple days before submissions were to close. I had literally just posted my T'hy'la pieces and used those along with some much older paintings as samples of my work. When I found out I was accepted into the project, I was excited since I had never been in a zine before, but also unprepared because I didn't think I'd get in! I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to draw (a TOS piece). After thinking about it, I decided I wanted to draw Spock, since he is hands down the most iconic character from the franchise and I love the character. I threw out this description to the mods in hopes they'd approve it. "TOS era Spock watercolor portrait. A half portrait with the IDIC symbol in the background. I'm thinking of including a spider moiré pattern somewhere in there as a nod to his position as Chief Science Officer." It was approved!

After drawing a thumbnail to work out the composition, I managed to create an image that matched my text description. Satisfied with the thumbnail, I moved onto the good paper. Ended up having a lot of fun working on this portrait (minus some procrastination and throbbing tooth problems that led to 2 root canals. Though I finished well before the deadline). I love the overlapping moiré pattern on the IDIC symbol. It came out so well, and it added an extra dynamic I didn't think about during the initial idea. To me, the tension and movement from the moiré is also a visualization of the conflict Spock feels as a half Vulcan/Human.

Anyway, I finished this on 9/6/20. Even though the project fell through, so happy to finally share this piece publicly. The wait has been agonizing since I'm really proud of this portrait!!

Mediums: Watercolor with a touch of black colored pencil, drawn in graphite on an 11.69" X 16.53" sheet of Arches Rough Watercolor paper.

dA
Also on AO3

comments

Spock and His Captain

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 18:17:54 GMT

This piece was made for This Simple Feeling zine and was completed in June 2021. The theme for this year's edition was fan favorites, so basically anything. One of my favorite things about K/S is the subtle looks they do in public that lead to fans thinking about what ifs off screen. The whole are they or aren't they thing. :) Also, I wanted an excuse to recreate Portrait of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his Wife except with Spock and Kirk. I think it's a perfect mash up!

Medium: Watercolor, drawn in graphite on an 11.69" X 16.53" sheet of Arches Rough Watercolor paper

dA
Also on AO3

comments

On The Bridge

Sun, 05 Sep 2021 00:31:05 GMT

Created for the Trek Tribute zine. This zine is a tribute to K/S zines of old, so everything is in black and white or grayscale, and the idea was that the whole zine could theoretically be "xeroxed".

When I applied to create art for this zine, I really liked that they wanted to do things old school, so I offered to do a linocut. Relief printing seemed liked the perfect medium for this. What's more old school than printmaking? While it has been 7 years since I properly did any printmaking, I had most of the supplies on hand. I ended up experimenting with some new water soluble printing ink and different paper. While I was mostly satisfied with the results, I wanted to get my hands on some more Mulberry paper since my roll had run out early on in this project. Personally, it's the best paper for relief printing without a press. So I ended up contacting my professor from college to give me the name of the place where she buys her paper! I'm now super ready the next time I want to make a linocut.

Anyway, to fulfill the K/S part of the assignment, I drew a screenshot from the episode "Bread and Circuses". The only major change I made was have them stand 6" closer than in the reference image! XD

This piece was completed in February/March 2021, and all contributors finally got the OK to share our pieces publicly on 9/4/21.

Medium: 8" x 10" linocut on Awagami Masa paper with Charbonnel aquawash carbon black ink.

dA
Also on AO3

comments

T'hy'la

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 22:14:02 GMT

This is my submission for this year's T'hy'la Big Bang. If you're a K/S fan, be sure to check out this year's collection!!

During claims, I snagged myself quite the writer! I paired up with the amazing LadyMerlin, who wrote a timey whimy fic called "I have loved the stars too fondly". Really good stuff, please read her story!
The artist requirement in the Big Bang was 2 pieces, one fully rendered image and one sketch ... so I did two fully rendered portraits and made them a diptych. Two separate pieces that can become one.
These pieces were heavily influenced by the story's overall theme, and I tried to include symbolism and references from the fic. My personal favorite is the implied TOS Captain braids I was able to sneak in.

The paintings are on Arches 10"x14" 120lbs cold press paper, and the mediums are watercolor, graphite, colored pencil, white gel pen, white acrylic, Polyester film, and a Decocolor gold leafing pen. After I scanned everything onto my computer, I touched things up in GIMP and created a digital black mat.

dA
I also posted the solo portraits of Kirk and Spock.
Also on AO3

For anyone curious, here's the thumbnail I sketched out before tackling these bad boys.

comments

Big Bang Art Supplies Miracle

Sun, 28 Jun 2020 05:36:29 GMT

A Big Bang miracle has occurred. The art supplies I needed were delivered on Friday!! HUZZAH!!
I ended up spending all day Saturday scanning and editing the art. I'm uploading the art to dA, and after I get some sleep, I'll put together an AO3 post and an art entry here.
I'm quite proud of the work I did. :)

comments

Jadeite and The Dragon

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 04:00:35 GMT

Created for the Senshi and Shitennou Mini Reverse Bang 2019

The theme for this years bang was 'The Sea'.

My partner is the lovely FadesInTheSun. She took my random pencil sketch of Jadeite and a dragon finding a senshi tiara in the surf, and created an amazing fic to go with a strange idea!! Fades worked her butt off, please make sure to check out the story she made for this art!

Mediums: watercolor, colored pencil, and graphite.

dA
Also on AO3

( For fun, here's the original sketch I submitted for selections. )

comments

Practice Makes Perfect

Sun, 15 Sep 2019 21:54:53 GMT

One of Ashling's requests was 'fights', so I went with a training fight between King Peter and King Edmund. Also, in their letter, Ashing mentioned Peter is a fav, that's why he's more of the focus in this piece. Though Edmund gets two swords, cause he's my fav, and a weapons badass.

Created for the Narnia Fic Exchange where I, an artist, crashed a fic event. The mods were generous enough to accept me into the fold.

Mediums: graphite, watercolor, and colored pencil.

dA
Also on AO3

comments

King Edmund and Bacchus

Sun, 15 Sep 2019 21:51:42 GMT

Honestly, this is probably one of the further reaching fanon pairings in Narnia, but I really dig it.

King Edmund the Just and Bacchus. May their revelry extend through all worlds.

Many thanks to aurilly for including this pairing in her 'likes' cause I like it too.

Created for the Narnia Fic Exchange where I, an artist, crashed a fic event. The mods were generous enough to accept me into the fold.

Mediums: graphite, watercolor, colored pencil, and some gel pen.

dA
Also on AO3

comments

NFE 2019

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 21:14:17 GMT

The Narnia Exchange is open!!

comments

DW mobile

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 03:33:07 GMT

Huh, I just discovered there’s a Dreamwidth mobile site. Super basic, but it seems to get the job done.

comments

Reasearch time

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 01:32:13 GMT

Dug this out. Time for research!!

comments

Angel

Thu, 17 Jan 2019 01:40:05 GMT

Medium: graphite pencil

Also on dA!

comments

Angel IP

Thu, 03 Jan 2019 03:44:11 GMT

I'm trying my best to draw again.
It's a start.

comments

HNY 2019

Wed, 02 Jan 2019 02:50:57 GMT

Happy New Year!!

My resolution is to be more creative this year. See if I can get back into arting again.

comments

Crystal Gems

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 23:55:25 GMT

This piece is actually 3 individual pieces, but I like the triptych they made.
Steven Universe Space Moms somewhat inspired by the pilot designs, but turned into a merge of that, the actual show, and my style.

Click image for full size and links to solo pieces!

comments

Cleanup

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 05:27:25 GMT

I just spent the majority of the night cleaning up my DW and fixing videos links (if the video still exist).
Also, finding a blocked Youtube video due to copyright claims is a bitch.

comments

Follow

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 02:08:00 GMT

Went back in time and played in some nostalgia. There was a Senshi/Shitennou minibang and I decided to give it a go. Been quite a while since I did a collaboration event, but it was fun! :)

Click image for full size on dA. There's also another illustration, Kiss, that I made for the fest.

Mediums: watercolor, colored pencil, gel pen, and a touch of Sharpie pen.

comments

Ride Em' Rosie

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 02:52:16 GMT

Made in honor of the Metropolitan Riveters playing the Buffalo Beauts. Finished it in time to bring to the 2018 Isobel Cup Final!
The Riveters won!!

Also, in honor of the victory, please consider purchasing a 2018 championship scarf!
Yours truly stayed up very, very late several nights refining the design!

(Click image for larger view on dA)

Mediums: Acrylic and gel pen.

comments

Whockey community!

Thu, 25 May 2017 22:47:11 GMT

Many moons ago I joined Imzy. While I didn't really use it much, I found a really awesome whockey community.
Sadly Imzy is shutting down, but I found out today that the community will be migrating to DW!
Anyone interested in whockey, or just curious, please join!! You can find them at womenshockey
Its a little empty now but will start filling up soon!

comments

Goodbye LJ

Sun, 09 Apr 2017 16:42:54 GMT

In light of the recent TOS, I don't feel comfortable posting there anymore. I may stop crossposting. We shall see.
Please follow me on DW, my username is einahpets.

**EDIT**

Ironically this won't cross post because I didn't accept the TOS.
Ah well!! No one will ever know what happened to reni_m on LiveJournal!

**EDIT 2**

Gave in to let people know what I'm doing.
I may delete my LJ in the future. Depends on what other questionable decisions LJ does.

comments