Mermaid and the Pirate

In late 2012, I was approached by a local comic company to draw a comic based on the 1975 anime movie "Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid", obviously based on the fairytale of the same name. It was meant to be for their manga anthology, so I was asked to draw in a traditional manga style similar to the movie.

The story was meant to be a sort of unofficial continuation of the movie and I was intended to draw 6 pages an issue.
I was asked to also ink and possibly add some screentones as you would normally see in manga to give it that authentic feel. Although they were only 6 pages, it took me about a good year to finish due to other projects I had been working on around the same time along with a full-time job.

A good lesson to be learned from this is: to not take too many projects at once, for it will take a toll on your productivity.

However, once everything was finished, the company ended up not publishing the pages for they felt the art and designs looked too similar to the movie.

Another lesson to be learned: make sure you have a good understanding of what you're getting yourself into before you waste a lot of time on it.

Despite not being published, I had fun working on this. It just felt good to draw comics again.
The inks and screentones were done in Manga Studio, which was the first time I've used the program.

New job!

A quick update of what's been happening the past few months.

For one, I got a new full-time job!
I've been hired as a Technical Artist for High 5 Games.
So far it's been great. I'm surrounded by a whole team of fun, creative and talented people.
But unfortunately since this is a 9-5 job, it's been tough to squeeze in some drawing time.

Our art crew throws a life drawing session once a week, so I've been utilizing the time to practice my figure drawing, something I haven't done in awhile.

Each took about 2 hours.

Skullgirls Weekly Tee

The good folks at Eighty Sixed Clothing chose my design for their weekly Skullgirls tee!

A little bit of context: Skullgirls is an indie fighting game that I'm a big fan of. To support further development of the game, the clothing company Eighty Sixed releases a new fan-made tee every week for purchase. "Squigly" is a upcoming DLC character that's currently in development, and will be released soon, so I wanted my design to be based on her.

I feel so incredibly honored and cannot thank them enough for this. If you like my art, or just want to support the amazing development behind this game, you can purchase a tee here:

http://www.eightysixedclothing.com/skullgirls-weekly-tee-squigly-wit-it/
It’s only available for one week so get it before it’s gone!

Once again, thanks so much to Eighty Sixed and Lab Zero for this amazing honor!

Quick update on what's been happenin'

I really should start updating this thing again. Problem is, I just got a tumblr so I've been updating there recently. You can check it out at lyssaspex.tumblr.com.

Other than that, I'm currently working on some freelance projects, but I've been told to be pretty hush-hush about them. I've also just started attending college classes this semester to continue my education so I've been trying to find time to squeeze in some personal art, but lately the only thing I managed to work on these past few months was entering in a couple of t-shirt design contests at welovefine.com.

Didn't win the Bravest Warriors contest, but Cartoon Hangover reblogged my design which was pretty neat. The Power Rangers one is still unknown.

Also in the works, is a small comic project I've working on. I'm planning on making a series of gag comics based on my experiences growing up on Staten Island. The only problem standing in my way is figuring out a title and a place where to host it. Here's a peek at what's to come:

So all in all, hopefully things will turn around soon. And maybe I can finally get a table at some conventions this year!

In the meantime, look out for any updates on my tumblr or deviantART.

Character designs

Been putting together a concept art/visual development portfolio.
Here's a few design sheets for some characters of mine.

 

 

Official website up!

Okay so I know I haven't updated this thing in a while, but if anyone is still watching this blog, I'd like to announce that alyssaspector.com is finally up!

It still may need a few tweaks here and there, but for the most part, I think it's ready to be open for the public.

Peace!

Poison Ivy final

Annnd done!