a.m.sartor illustration

drawin' nakid people

2012-01-27T11:51:00.000-08:00

But mostly just their heads. I've been really into portraits lately.

Granny's got a gun

2012-01-08T17:40:00.000-08:00

Bad wall paper can make you crazy

2011-11-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

As evidenced by The Yellow Wallpaper

Posting stuff

2011-09-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

Hello. I know I'm a very baaad blogger. Sorry. Anywhooo, I've moved, so if you need my new address shoot me an email. Web site update soon. Some new art, some old art, some crappy art, it's a smorgasbord of art. Here are some previews. Now I'm off to Spain, where I will avoid the sun as best I can.

No news is ???

2010-12-06T12:43:00.000-08:00

For any imaginary people still paying attention, posts will continue to be thin and uninformative. Here are some minis I did a while ago as gifts. They are in pre-made frames from Aaron Brothers.

critique

2010-07-15T16:09:00.000-07:00

I've put up my proposed portfolio on my still-not-finished site. Take a look and tell me if there is anything that needs to be reworked or just cut altogether. The illustration section is the portfolio, ignore the rest.

http://www.seelie.com/new/index.html?page=gallery&gallery=illustration

The Nerdening

2010-07-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

The Evernerdening has ended. Because I'm tired of working on it.

No Sleep till San Diego

2010-07-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

Trying to work up some stuff so I don't show up to comic-con empty handed.

Art for Aminals

2010-06-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

There are a couple of good art programs going on to benefit animal rescue. Here are the links;

http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/

http://www.gallerynucleus.com/pin

Leave a comment if you know of any more.

Slither

2010-06-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

I finished this sketch, which I started a while ago, for Illustration Friday

ink blot doodle

2010-03-03T20:02:00.000-08:00

Eerie Swedish Lullaby

2010-02-19T16:07:00.001-08:00

funny

2010-02-19T10:14:00.000-08:00

How to Lose a Client

"• Don't attend workshops, classes, conventions, and any other public event that might allow folks to see your work, associate your face with your work, or have some way to talk to you about your work (or the opportunity to do some work)."

Heh heh, hmmmmmmm...

The Nerding Goes Ever On

2010-02-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

So, I mocked up a fake book cover for my RPG campaign. Which I will probably finish in about a million years. I am a pitiful individual.

Going Senile, and extreme Nerding

2010-02-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

I completely forgot to go to TAG last night. I didn't even make excuses to myself like I usually do, I just completely spaced it out. Sorry!

And R.I.P. Mahlia, you were the best ass-kicking barbarian shifter a nerd could ever wish for.

Cards for FFG

2009-11-18T13:57:00.001-08:00

I seem to have this background-middle ground-figure theme going. Need to get some action shots!

This does not apply to you. Just everyone else.

2009-06-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

Calibrated!

2009-05-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

After almost a year of freelancing and getting freaked out by what my stuff looked like in print, I finally invested in a calibration device for my monitor. Despite all the warnings that it might turn everything pink, I got the Huey Pro, because it was cheap and looks neat. So far I've calibrated my laptop and my PC without any major catastrophe, and a noticeable (positive) difference in contrast and color. Hopefully this will make my life a little easier.

oops, I doodled

2009-05-12T16:27:00.000-07:00

Not much inspiration lately, I think I need some kind of pallet cleanser. What do you do to manufacture inspirado?

One post a month

2009-04-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yup, sorry. I'm working on stuff that isn't going to be published for a while, so it might be a bit thin.

If you want to keep up to date on the whirl wind of posts that will eventually ensue, please use the "follow me!" tool on the right, that way I can go look at all your awesome stuff too. And it will be a daisy chain of awesomeness. Or something.

This painting is taking me too long

2009-03-24T14:31:00.001-07:00

Still working on this one

Schrödinger's art

2009-03-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

I keep swearing off art annuals and competitions because it's so crushing (not to mention costly) when you don't get in. Also, if nobody ever sees it, you don't know if it sucks or not. :P

Dead people are androgynous and have lots of hair

2009-03-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

quick sketch for the "Natives of a lifeless forest" challenge on cghub.com

Escape

2009-01-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

CGHUB

2009-01-02T12:39:00.000-08:00

I've been using this networking site for a couple of days now, and I'm pretty impressed with it. It's very casual and easy to use, and seems fairly unpretentious. If you decide to open an account there and you know me, add AMSartor as a contact.

Happy Whatever!

2008-12-23T14:15:00.000-08:00

rackhamesque

2008-12-03T13:35:00.000-08:00

I've been stuck in fin de siecle mode for far too long. This is yet another failed attempt to get it out of my system.

Bart sketch

2008-11-03T13:03:00.001-08:00

Sorry Marion, everything I've drawn lately looks like poo. I hate slumps.

Haaaaaapppy!

2008-10-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

chimera thingy

2008-10-15T15:51:00.000-07:00

I still have to clean it up a bit. I forgot about proper water positioning and ended up with a lot random drips. But that's that beauty of illustration board, I can scrub that stuff off with a stiff brush. I also decided I did not like the braid and painted it out with gouache, I'll have to go over it one more time.

Ran out of work

2008-09-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I was managing to keep myself busy, but now I've got some free time. As in I'm painting and not making any money for it. Heh heh hmmmmm. Oh well, more pretty landscapes.

even more nerd art

2008-08-24T10:47:00.001-07:00

adjusted the angle to add TENSION :P

A note on Deviant Art

2008-08-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

I have never had an active account on DA. But there is an "amanda sartor" on DA who has been banned for posting my art without my permission. To the untrained eye, this may appear as though I have been banned from DA, an honor that indicates that I must have done something HORRIBLE. There has been some back and forth with the DA administrators, and they have agreed to let me take over the account, but I have yet to see any real action. So if you're looking for who I am or what I do, please don't look there :P

Still Life stuff

2008-08-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

I took a week long workshop in grisaille and limited pallet still life painting. It's been about ten years since I painted in oil, they tend to be too stinky for me, so I use the less toxic stuff. I forgot how buttery and rich they are, and spent a lot of time just futzing around with them on my pallet. Here are some shots of the under painting, I'm still not finished with the final :(

back from comic-con

2008-07-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm back. I'm sleepy. My feet hurt. But that was awesome! I met so many creative and interesting people, and everybody is so amiable! Ok, I'll admit, by day three I was pretty cranky, but if it were any less awesome I would have been ten times as cranky. The place was pretty much exploding with all sorts of art work. Now I just have to do the hard part and paint stuff. And follow up. I hear that's pretty important :P

More nerd art

2008-07-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Doing some gritty portraits for a role playing campaign. Yup, more nerd art. I'm trying to be more painterly and realistic, like some of the awesome concept artists who's blogs I have listed on the side. I like how this one turned out.

Apparently I don't want to go to the desert

2008-07-18T10:27:00.001-07:00

because this one was really hard and I don't like the way it looks

pretty awesome

2008-07-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

totoroforestproject

Imaginary places I would like to go

2008-07-11T09:28:00.001-07:00

Yes, I've given in to total escapism.

oodles of doodles

2008-06-27T08:27:00.001-07:00

Another unfinished crap post. Plenty of ideas, just no time to finish them. Meh.

Crunch!

2008-06-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

the random poles you see in the background is the lack-of-fence. The plants seem to be happier without it, but it'll go back up soon.

And gardening. That's where my time has gone. I can post some pictures of my garden?

Oooooh, and I got an awesome freelance job. Yay! Painting instead of vertex pushing!

Making my studio messy

2008-05-17T18:09:00.001-07:00

Trying to paint some watercolors. It's very hot up here though... Stupid crazy weather.

My studio

2008-04-19T16:40:00.000-07:00

It's very nearly almost finished, I just have to strip the window seat. And, well, you know, paint stuff.

horse and robot

2008-03-13T08:52:00.001-07:00

Another sketch for weekly practice. I'm having trouble with the horse, somebody could give me some helpful feedback (you know who you are). The horse and rider are actually from a painting I had a dream about, that I didn't paint in my dream. There was another horse and rider in the opposite position, kind of yin and yang. Weird. Hopefully my subconscious isn't ripping somebody else off.

filler

2008-03-07T16:29:00.001-08:00

Pchew, pchew, Booom, neeeeeeer!

2008-02-29T09:41:00.000-08:00

That was my thought process for this picture. Done for weekly concept art practice.

Fantasy art is not so good

2008-01-30T19:36:00.000-08:00

But it sure is fun!

I think it needs something at her feet still, but I'm going to stop messing with it for now.

More squishy painting

2007-11-28T09:19:00.001-08:00

Using the squishy brushes in painter. I'm used to watercolors, so squishy painting doesn't come naturally to me. The most opaque I usually go is watered down gouache. Photoshop is more like painting with gouache. Or maybe acrylics that dry instantly.

Yummy Jelly

2007-11-16T09:50:00.000-08:00

I don't know why it's yummy. It might be ironically named.

Steampunkery

2007-10-29T16:35:00.001-07:00

Trying to do some more industrial settings, using many odd-shaped brushes and painter. Still looks pretty messy, but it's getting there.

more art, less bitching

2007-10-10T11:09:00.001-07:00

Pirate. I didn't say it would be good art, now did I?

wasting time

2007-10-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

Look what I built! These things are cool. Except I think I'm allergic to balsa or something, I kept sneezing and knocking bits off.

Eating beautiful things

2007-08-29T16:40:00.001-07:00

I have no idea what this thing is, but I think by eating it my math skills will improve.

Pimping myself out

2007-08-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

Huh, there are many people looking at this blog, which is... weird.
Well, since all you imaginary people are paying attention, the big news is I quit my job. It's all very sad, but it was time to move on. After two weeks of sleeping lots, I'm looking for agents and freelance work. If another game industry job that sounds awesome pops up I'll probably take it, but right now I'd like to work on some illustration stuff until I'm sick of that. The good news is I can post more stuff, no NDA! Yay! I don't have the rights to my old stuff, though. Poo.

Art with Ovaries

2007-08-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

I read on somebody else's blog that their art director wanted "art with balls". I've decided I'm going to start using the phrase "art with ovaries" in my critiques just to really confuse people and sound as misandrist as possible.

Nerd art

2007-07-25T01:03:00.000-07:00

Stick a fork in it!

2007-07-13T00:15:00.001-07:00

this again

2007-05-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

I added a dragon. Because dragons are cool and shit.

yes, I know, why don't I try finishing something. Too much sugar, maybe.

My new house

2007-05-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

DIBS!

Perty pictures

2007-04-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

Here's our trip to Spain. My husband wrote the comments. Started some sketches while I was there, but ran out of time. I'll probably try to finish them from photographs.

game blogs

2007-03-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, so if you pay attention to game blogs like Kotaku you know (or maybe you don't?) that there has been a big backlash about a certain article claiming certain things about women gamers/bloggers. So here's me jumping on the backlash bandwagon, and pretending there are people who read this blog. If you haven't looked at Jade Reporting yet you should, because there are in fact so many women who blog about gaming it's hard to keep track of, and it's a handy filter. Also if you want to go right to the horses mouth here's a list of some of the blogs out there. Have fun!

Curly shiney waves

2006-11-09T18:18:00.001-08:00

worked on siren a bit more, just doing the background first and then I'll put in the figure. I know that's weird, but if I'm working digital might as well take advantage of layers.

Unfinished crap

2006-08-02T12:29:00.000-07:00

Someday I'll start a painting and finish it. And then the sea will boil and the sky will rain blood.
My new mantra is "don't paint for other people, paint for yourself" so don't expect too much. Then again, the fact that I'm even posting these publicly kind of debunks that idea. So I guess it's "don't paint for other people, paint for yourself and be extremely frustrated with other people when they don't get it".

web page saga

2006-07-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

Here's the simple web page design.

*update*

and here's the web site! Yay!

http://theseeliecourt.com/

If anybody sees any obvious errors, or has any ideas about the layout, feel free to comment. Thanks!

*update*

My page is not working. It would be really nice if it was, but it doesn't. I can't do anything about it because I'm not the one programming it. If anybody knows of a really simple on-line portfolio hosting service please leave a url. Thanks.

*update*

Ok, it's working again. The thingy-majig had to be reset to the wing-dang-doodle. I'm a very technical person. Still getting some weird bugs, but it seems to be much more stable.

more gong head

2006-06-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

I worked some more on gong head, still not done. I put in more texture and detail. Next I'm going to work on the umbrella, but at the rate I'm progressing that might be a while. Any constructive criticisms are welcome and encouraged.

Mooooo!

2006-06-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

mmm, stem cell-licious...

web page pipe dreams

2006-05-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

here's the first design i've come up with for my web page. I'm trying to keep it simple, with art going to my portfolio, home will be my cover letter and resume, and wip will link to my blog. The navigation of my portfolio will consist of small clips of a painting that link to a larger image in a seperate window with a quick back and forth on the seperate window.

*update*

Because I want my web page up now instead of later, I'm going with a less ruby-intensive, more java-scripty designy thing. Not so many graffics, just boxes, lines and words. My husband is still learning Ruby, so the fancy web page is going to have to wait. But look, I have my domain set up! And it's soooo exciting.

Back from E3

2006-05-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

E3 was crazy, and Nintendo is mean. They made me wait in line for two hours, and then made me wait in line again for Zelda. I tried to play metroid but the line nazis were getting belligerent so I decided to take my ogling elsewhere.
Okami was my favorite, Heavenly Sword looked cool, S.U.N. looked pretty (especially the armor) but didn't seem to have much too it, Zelda was fun (duh), and there were quite a few RPGs coming out for the DS and the PSP. The rest is a blur. The Red Octane booth at Kentia hall was awesome, they had one of the bands playing (leather clad and everything). Didn't see any super offensive booth babes, but there sure were some tacky ones. All I ask for is a little taste and creativity. Is that really so hard?
It looks like, the internet gods willing, I'll be getting a web page soon. I'll post some design ideas here.

sketches

2006-05-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

Creepy Lady

2006-04-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm a nerd. I do nerdy things like draw character portraits for RPG campaigns. This is for an Alchemical Exalted. If you don't know what that is, be grateful because it means you might have a life.

Pouting

2006-04-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

I don't like the cat. I need to draw more cats.

Fat baby steps on snake

2006-04-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

Well, it's actually s'posed to be The Bird Catcher and the Asp. Entered it for Spectrum and didn't get in. Poooooooo. Now new and improved with WIP.

Gong Head and Bald Lady

2005-08-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

These were the paintings done for CA's thunderdome. I went with Gong Head because the other one was angsty and I didn't feel like painting something angsty. Neither are done, I kind of got sick of it and didn't add many details I was planning on adding. I need a vacation. The date on this post is wrong. It's like April or something.

Temporary site

2005-08-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

This is a temporary site for my artwork, as I have lost my hosting and am having trouble finding a host that supports the odd language my boyfriend programmed my site in. The Seelie Court is the name of the original domain that I still own, and when it is up and running, this site will be used to document works in progress, ideas, sketches, things that I don't want in my professional portfolio.