Gotta Love the Pretty Ladies

Here are a few of the commissions I've been doing from my Fiverr, and the last one are some sketches of one of my new friends!
I love drawing pretty ladies it makes me happy, and it just makes it that much better when I get paid for it! 

I also went on a Lunar Chronicles Fan Art Spree.... The ones above are from the first book: Cinder by Marissa Meyer. 

(From left to right: Linh Adri (the evil stepmother), Linh Pearl (the mean step sister), and Linh Peony (the nice step sister) ). You can read the first 5 chapters for free HERE

Next, I have for you the Main Character of the second book: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. 

Her name is Scarlet Benoit, and I have a feeling she's going to be my favorite character, based only on her temper. She's wearing a body suit because she's a futuristic delivery girl, and futuristic delivery girls are sexy. Seriously. 

"She released a guttural scream and slammed the port down on the ship's control panel, hoping to shatter it into pieces of plastic and metal and wire. After three solid whaps, the screen only flickered in mild irritation. "You idiots!" She threw the port at the floorboards in front of the passenger seat and slumped back, stringing her curly hair through her finger.

Her harness cut into her chest, suddenly strangling, and she released the buckle and kicked open her door at the same time, half falling into the alley's shadows. The grease and whiskey scent from the tavern nearly choked her as she swallowed her breaths, trying to rationalize her way out of the anger." - Chapter Teaser from Scarlet by Marissa Meyer the second book in The Lunar Chronicles. 

The whole teaser can be found HERE

Wolf. Also from Marissa Meyer's Scarlet.

“Don’t be like that. He’s sweet! And he’s been here almost every day this week and he keeps sitting in my section, which definitely means something, don’t you think?” When Scarlet said nothing, the waitress set the bin down and fished a pack of gum from her apron pocket. “He’s always really quiet, not like Roland and his crowd. I think he’s shy … and lonely.” - from the Chapter Teaser for SCARLET by Marissa Meyer. 

There really isn’t even a description of this guy yet, but come on. His name is WOLF. He’s gotta be smokin’ hot. This is my logic. 

Just. Umf. 

Yay more Fan Art this time it’s Emilie from Marissa Meyer’s SCARLET. 

She’s a waitress, and so far seems to be Scarlet’s somewhat dimwitted friend. 

“Despite the angelic blonde curls that surrounded Émilie’s face, her grin suggested very devilish thoughts.” -from the Chapter Teaser from SCARLET by Marissa Meyer

Yeah yeah yeah, I realize it says she has blonde curls, but the only thing that stuck in my head was a blonde waitress who had a hankering for lots of boys… thus the straightened hair, mini skirt and wide-eyed innocence. 

Went on an adventure to the Columbia Gorge. This time we explored the Bridal Veil Falls, and the Horsetail Falls area. Oh, and I climbed a fuzzy tree. It was fun :)

Conventions and Film Cameras

So on Wednesday last week Sean and I got to go on a little road trip down to Gladstone, OR to pick up my new (old) camera from a really nice old couple that live down here. We arrived a little early so we were exploring the area when we found this awesome swimming hole!  It's a small beautiful little river with lots of little rock shelves under the water and it was the perfect temperature! I now know where all the people in Portland go swimming. 

Anyway back to my beautiful camera! She's an Olympus OM-1 SLR. For all of my non-camera nerds: The Olympus OM-1 was released in 1972, and they set the standard for compact SLRs. This little old couple gave her to me for $70 with the 50mm lens. The very nice man said he would hold the other two lenses he had for me till I had some more money for them. 

These are a few sneak peaks at my first roll of film from my new baby! I had to order a new battery for the light meter, so my first roll of film is completely me pulling the aperture and shutter speed out of my ass. However, I believe I did a pretty good job for guessing. 

On to KUMORICON! September 1-3 at the Hilton and Red Lion in Vancouver WA, I shall be attending my very first ever Fan Convention! 11 Days to go! 

These are my planned cosplays, God willing I finish the shirt and helmet for Captain America. 

I've been getting a little more Tattoo traffic. In this case a Weeping Angel from Doctor Who! It was super fun to draw, surprisingly. 

Last but not least, have a few sketches of Charlie, and concepts for Nathan. Oh and you can never forget the naked ladies! 

The Happy Accident of the Swing

Behold! My third official attempt at Oil Paintng. I took the time to scan the whole glorious 16x20 on my 8.5x11 scanner.... yeah that took a while. This particular pretty thing is for my mother. 

From top to bottom: Kelsey Lemon, Megan Auch, and Jeff Markette. 

 Mini Story: I recently had a very violent dream about one of my ex-boyfriends trying to kill me. Then out of no where Jeff Markette (a former classmate in Montana) grabbed me and saved me. He took me to some kind of building and sat with me and calmed me very patiently until I could breathe steadily. He even hugged me, and held me telling me he couldn’t get at me anymore. 

I realize that it was just a dream, but I can’t shake the feeling like I owe him now, for saving me. I’ve been having the same nightmare for a while, it comes and goes every couple months. However, this was the first time someone has saved me. It’s odd to me that it was Jeff though, since we’ve never really known each other very well. I mean we grew up together since we both went to the same school since second grade, and graduated together. I just don’t quite understand why my brain picked Jeff out of all the people who could have saved me. Ohhh the unconscious mind is so fascinating. 

 So, to try to get rid of the feeling of owing Jeff, I drew him. Then I kind of went on a spree of drawing a bunch of my old classmates.. more to come. 

The most recent Zombie Commission. 

This Zombie was rejected, but I had to color it because I just love the way the victim came out! 

Last but not least, have a few of my warm up gestures!

See ya next week! - Zito

Thoughts from Places: Fort Stevens and Fort Columbia

(If you don't wanna read all of the text just watch the video) 

So, I had the awesome pleasure of being escorted to Fort Stevens in Warrenton, Oregon and then to Fort Columbia across the river in Washington, by three awesome people! Before I go into my little story, I want to say a huge thanks to Kathy and Beth Kerner for taking Sean and I to the Forts on Friday.

         So, my little history/back story starts with the Peter Iredale Shipwreck, featured behind my awesome friends here; Sean Sartin , Donnie Standerfer, and Kathy Kerner.  Over a century since her hull breached the sandy shores of the Clatsop Spit, the Peter Iredale's bones are bleached -or in this case rusted- in the Oregon coast, standing as a  tourist attraction. However, the tale of the lonely bones isn't that exciting. No Pirates, cataclysmic storm,  mythical creatures or even a mutiny!
    It was sailing from Salina Cruz, Mexico around the end of September of 1906 on it's way to Portland, carrying in her bosom some one thousand tons of ballast and a crew of 27, which intriguingly included two stowaways. Truth be told, it was a very boring voyage until the night of October 25, when things got spicy!  Captain H. Lawrence sighted the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse at about 3 a.m. -he must have been a night owl like me. The crew altered course to enter the Columbia River in Oregon's notorious thick mist, but they found themselves being flung by strong winds into the shore. They tried and failed to stop her from mating with the shore, and shortly after a lifeboat was sent to escort the sailors to Fort Stevens.
   See I told you! No excitement! Not even during World War II, when the Oregon Coast saw live bombardment from the Japanese submarines. The ship was in the line of fire, but she got off scott-free without a scratch on her from the gun play. She must have some kind of force field around here, seriously. 

        The second part of my little history/nerd rant is Fort Stevens! It's namesake is from a Washington Territory governor (of course) who became a general during the Civil War, Isaac Stevens. The massive Fort itself, was built during the Civil War, originally named Fort at Point Adams, then renamed in 1865 after Stevens was killed in action. This Fort, Fort Columbia, and Fort Cape Dissapointment... wait did they really name it "Cape Dissapointment"!? That is so perfeeee...oh . ... they renamed it Fort Canby later. Awww.   Anyway! The three forts were built to defend the mouth of the Columbia from potential British attack, ya know, 'cuz we weren't on such good terms with our wonderful fore-bearers. However, the Fort didn't see much excitement, I mean they got to be all "we can offer you refuge!" to the crew of the Peter Iredale, but other than that not much happened until World War II.  

 Now, this is when Fort Stevens gets to hunker down and get ready to whoop ass with all of it's massive guns right? Nope.
In June 1942, a Japanese submarine with orders to destroy enemy ships and engage the enemy on land shot several rounds at Fort Stevens. The rounds missed! Most of them struck a nearby baseball field and a swamp. There were no casualties  At most, the only damage that was done was to several large telephone cables. The Fort called in a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber to attack the submarine but it dodged the bombs and submerged undamaged.
  The attack, however unremarkable, helped create the 1942 West Cost Invasion Scare. From Point Adams southward, rolls and rolls of barbed wire were strung along the beach. Some even entangled the Peter Iredale until the end of the war. 

    Fort Stevens and Fort Columbia (pictured above), were both decommissioned  in 1947-1950.  All that is left now are their hollow cement corpses, graffiti and the echo of the footsteps of tourists.  Both of them are apart of the Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks, and Fort Columbia features twelve historic wood-frame buildings that still stand.  The Steward's House and Scarborough House are available as vacation rental homes. 

    Even though their history isn't very exciting, the Forts still have the resounding echo of being apart of times in our Nation's history when men had a kind of romantic sense of patriotism. When over 1800x the amount of casualties in Iraq died protecting our freedom and our country. When I think about that, walking through the hollow shell of any Fort active during World War II is a haunting experience. Thinking about the thousands of men that walked up and down the halls of the buildings that are now caked in grime, rust, and graffiti and how homesick most of them were, staring at the same scenery day in and day out, wondering when the war would finally end.
     Of course, I can't deny that the Fort also holds a kind of beauty to my eyes. The kind of beauty you see in dilapidated buildings from the Homesteader days, or the look of an old Ford with sagging tires given over to the weeds and tall grass. The rust of Fort Stevens is like lace, the grime like an embroidered bodice, and the hollow buildings its' skirt. 

Next week I shall have more sketches and things in progress to show you! See you then! - Zito