Mele Kalikimaka

Christmas card for this year.

High In The Firmament

Well this was quite the learning experience! I completely forgot to check my working size - more like since changing computers I forgot to set my defaults. So this is the actual size of it. Poo. This was done in Photoshop and was my attempt at breaking completely free of my comfort box. Didn't work quite as well as I would have hoped, but I learned and that's important too. :)

This is fanart for Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) for those who don't recognize it. This movie, as well as most of Studio Ghibli's work, had a massive impact on my life, and so I really enjoyed doing fanart for it.


Factoid: "High In The Firmament" is actually the title for a short comic I'm working on. :C

Little Secrets

Some cutsey fanart as I try to ease myself back into digital art. I think I put up some sort of subconscious wall after my senior project ended in regards to working digitally, because it's been so hard for me to do it lately. Oh well, that's why I practice!

(For future reference, slapping some textures on top of a drawing is not actually quality.)

Work from the what?

While I was going through my files to pick out some stuff I'd sell for MCAD's annual art sale, I found some old stuff! Just a few things that I don't think ever got any attention, but I'm really fond of. For some strange reason. :)


I don't think this ever got any attention, but it's one of four pieces I did for a final two years ago.

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This was an exercise in one of my notebooks for class. I really have no idea what's happening here, but I'm pretty sure that's Sirius Black chewing on Taichi Kamiya's arm. His hair's not big enough to be Tai, though. Oh well. This is also from two years ago.

On another note, I'm finally going to make some prints of Colonal J. Fox's Map from The Cercyon. Email me (katy.a.farina@gmail.com) if you're interested.

Spirit of Autumn

I might end up turning this into a series. Either way it'll be on my portfolio soon. :)

Finally, some art!

Okay, well, there's really no excuse for not having scanned these sooner. They've been sitting in my sketchbook for more then a month. They're character studies for a few of the main characters from my up and coming webcomic, Into The Orchard (or just Orchard).

Forgive the quick-fix colouring effect. The colours used are each character's "colour schemes", coordinating mostly to their personalities.


This is Tabby, the Main Character (as of now he has no last name). In short Tabby is, to coin a term a good friend of mine used, "mono-polar". Basically what that means is he lacks the capacity to be anything other then upbeat, even when he's upset. That's not to say he's unjustly optimistic; he's pretty realistic (if not often childishly so) and has a serious side that makes him a good leader.

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Salvador (Sal) Moralez, sort of a resident loner. He doesn't have too much a memory for his time before living with Tabby and Burman (Tabby's father), and treasures his home life immensely. Though he's mute (for now) that's never really been a big disability. He has no problem speaking his mind or getting his point across. Sal is exceedingly expressive and probably the most honest of the characters in this story Despite him looking uncharacteristically sad here, he's not a sad person at all.

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This girl, whose name I haven't decided on (somewhere between Emily and Alexis), is probably my favourite character right now. She takes herself very seriously, is smarter then she wants you to believe, and knows much more about everything then she's willing to let on. She's a little cold-hearted, but she doesn't like distancing herself from other people and takes great pride in the fact that she has more friends then she can keep track of.

Artists I'm In Love With

Well, in light of recent events I haven't been doing much in the ways of art. Grieving takes a lot out of you, believe me. However, my free time has been spent researching, reading and plotting about my next project - a comic series! I've discussed it here in the past, and as the project progresses I'm sure there will be tons more!

However I don't know when I'll be posting artwork here again. Hopefully soon, but I'll be traveling a lot and wont' have much access to scanners for a while. :)

Considering these two factors, I figured I'd update about, well, something. Just so you know I'm alive and that I'm watching you. Aaaalways watching.

This time it's artists I'm in love with! They're probably much less known to some of you, others of you have heard me gush about them before. Or are awesome enough to know them for their own merits!

First is Sumomo Yumeka. I love her comics. Something about the pacing is totally admirable and is definitely something I strive for in my own work. She's especially good at slowing down a moment and making the reader really feel for a character in a story that's only 10 pages long! I feel connected to all of her works. "Sumomo Yumeka" is the alias she uses when she does BL stories, though she has several other aliases and isn't limited to one genre. Though if you don't know what "BL" is, you may want to pass on looking her up.

Suzuki Tsuta, another BL comic artist. Her way of drawing is so organic, I just love it! All of her characters feel so animated and lifelike. She's a little limited in terms of subject matter and composition (in my opinion at least) but makes up for it with her adorable characters and wonderful style! She's a recent influence and I'm sure you'll see some of it come through in some of my work.

Lois van Baarle, arguably my favourite illustrator. My favourite thing about her work is her colour palette. No other artist really renders the way she does in the colours she uses. Every single piece of work she does is interesting to look at even if at first glance it may seem like an ordinary portrait. She's one of the biggest inspirations for me and I definitely recommend looking at her work!

Tracy J. Butler, illustrator and comic artist. I've been following her work for almost 12 years now. She was one of the artists who made me want to draw and made me want to write stories! I'm still impressed by the work she did 12 years ago in the media she used, and it should go without saying that I'm impressed by her current work. I'm so happy to see her be so successful, but also a little sad! Only because I like having niche artists to admire. :)

I think that's it for this installment! Next time I'll have some male artists to show you. Promise!