Updates!

Whew! So, 2013 is off to a rocking start here in my little kitchen studio. I looked up and suddenly it was almost April!

So, what have I been keeping so busy with, you ask? Well, aside from storyboarding, I've had some exciting projects going on! For starters, working with Visual Storyline, I illustrated some pop art posters that were on display at Paypal's booth at SXSW this year! You can check out some of the final images in Paypal's video from the event.

I also had the good fortune to connect with writer Robert Jeschonek, who found my work online and hired me on to do some artwork for an upcoming Kickstarter to launch his graphic novel, "Hell's Treasure". I'll be giving some sneak peeks here on the blog of some of the finished pages I did for the Kickstarter, but for now, here's the cover illustration!

Under the Milky Way

You Look So Fine...

...I want to break your heart and give you mine.

My Etsy Store is NOW OPEN!

Bom dia!

A quick post this morning to let everyone on this blog know that some of the drawings you've admired over the last few months can now be purchased from my Etsy store! For sale right now are several original drawings that debuted on this blog. If you had a favorite piece (Zou Bisou Bisou, anyone?), here's your chance to own it for yourself at Megan Levens Art.

I'll be constantly adding to the shop with prints, paintings, and possibly comic pages as well. I'm also available for commission work, so if I haven't yet drawn your favorite character...just ask and you shall receive.

Beijos!

Cosmic Love

Random sketchbook doodle today...it's a little bit classic Star Trek, a little bit classic sad Megan girl. 

SDCC

Comic-Con! My Twitter feed and Facebook page have been lit up with news, events, and photos from San Diego already this week. This is actually the first year since I moved to California that I haven't gone to SDCC.

There's a lot to love about a gathering of like-minded geeks and talented artists in one space. I always somehow talked myself into going year after year because I knew I would see friends there that I almost never see otherwise. Comic-Con, for me, was a big reunion, and for that, it was worth the crowds, the smells, the angry pen-wielding Harry Potter fans, and spending a year's vacation budget on a hotel room only to sleep on the floor.

This year, it just got too big, and all of those people I went every year to see decided not to go. So this was the year that I stayed home too. Especially after the extreme drama of last year's event, I'm relieved to be at home and in my normal routine.

But, in the spirit of Comic-Con, here are some of my sketchbook entries from last year's tumultuous SDCC weekend. :-)

Burguesinha

Finished the colors up. This is a little more muted and flat than my coloring tends to be, but I kind of like it. What do you think?

Happiness Hit Her Like A Bullet In The Back

Sometimes, a wonderful thing can actually just end up nearly killing you.

You Can Stand Under My Umbrella-ella-ella...

This has been a backburner piece for a while, but I finally finished up the colors for my "Only Happy When It Rains" illustration.

Home

I just got back from a few days visiting my parents back home in Missouri. It was my dad's birthday, and I needed a change of scenery before LA made me crazy. (OK, crazier.) I never do much drawing when I'm home, but I managed a few sketches of some of the wildlife during this last visit.

WIP: Copacabana

Finished inks on a piece I've been sneak-peeking on Twitter and Facebook. In what passes for my free time, I'm revisiting my story "Somewhere In Between", and this image is intended to be the cover. Brazilian readers, or anyone who has been to Rio, will recognize this as the sidewalk pattern along Avenida Atlântica in Copacabana. (My friends will recognize it as that crazy wave design that Megan draws whenever she's feeling homesick for Rio.)

Color coming soon!

The Artist

Tonight's wind-down sketch is one of my favorite images from the movie "The Artist". You never realize how few neutral tone markers you have until you try to do a scene from a black and white film...

Lost

Another birthday drawing for a friend. These two might be the worst pirates ever. I think I've drawn them in various stages of searching for treasure for about three years.

Inanimate Objects

After a busy week and a half, today's workload has lightened just enough to let me scan a few sketchbook doodles from various café sessions this month. Time permitting I may have some fun drawings after this weekend to share. :-)

Birthday Presents

For some reason, it seems the majority of my family and friends' birthdays are in June, and there's an usual concentration of them between the 16th and the 23rd. As a fun sketch after a long day doing storyboards yesterday, I scribbled this one of Joan from Mad Men for one such friend's birthday today. 

Samba e Amor

So, Tuesday (June 12) was Brazil's version of Valentine's Day, Dia Dos Namorados. As a little nod, I collected a bunch of sketches and art of the two main characters from my webcomic "Somewhere In Between"...hopeless romantic gringa Molly and her Brazilian love interest, Marcelo. Then I got a call that afternoon to do some storyboarding work which kept me busy for the past two days, and is going to stretch into today as well.

This is normally the part where I make some joke about this post being late in classic Brazilian fashion, but seeing as how one of my carioca friends managed to get a birthday gift to me before anyone else (including my own mom), I think it's more accurate to say this post is late in classic Los Angeles fashion...meaning, it started out early to arrive ridiculously late. Blame the traffic. 

Zou Bisou Bisou

Today's warm-up sketch. With apologies for getting that song stuck in everyone's head now. 

Uncanny

A little bit of a slack day today after a long weekend of working. I had so much fun drawing Wolverine yesterday that I decided to unwind tonight doing a few quick marker sketches of some of my other favorite X-Men characters.

I can't wait for my brand new scanner to arrive, and I hope it picks up colors at least a little better than this obnoxious thing. 

Someone Like You

After finishing the day's work on page layouts and character designs, and inking two pages of another project, I settled in with the last pages of my sketchbook to watch some TV and scribble. This is what happens when I'm stuck between the end of a special on Adele and the beginning of "Mad Men", and all that's on is "X-Men Origins: Wolverine".

Gato

Very very infrequently, my cat takes a break from shredding my tracing paper, knocking my ink bottles onto the floor, and attacking my ankles to let me draw him.

Yes, my cat is actually named Frodo.

Yes, his nickname actually is "Fucking Frodo".