Art Summary 2017

Posted on December 28, 2017January 11, 2018 by luxshine

So… we’re in the final post of the year. First year I told myself I was going to be constant with my posting on social media, and I re-started my own site and brand as Calico Chimera. It’s been a bumpy ride, to be honest, but I am happy with the results, especially as well, it’s the first time I am able to fill one of these Art Summaries with one image per month (and choosing some months was HARD), and I’m really happy with the results.

(BTW, the blank template is from DustBunnyThumper at Deviantart. Credit where Credit is due)

I did notice that I forgot to post some of the images here. Sure, I decided that Deviant Art would be mostly for fanart, and everywhere else for everything, but I never posted the Horsemen and Squires in Art Noveau borders here! That was a big overlook! (So I guess I will post them in 2018, just for competition sake). Also, I have to balance more my finished color original pieces and the fanart since this year it looks as I did more fanart (But of course, that doesn’t count comic pages, or sketches)

Most of this comes, of course, thanks to the amazing support I’ve had this year. And since this is the last post of the year, I can’t let it go without thanking Mandi Gordon, Writer’s Block writer and Dream Keeper Robin’s editor. Half of the illustrations here wouldn’t exist if she hadn’t supported me, pushed me to my limits, and kept pushing me from under my drawing table.

In any case, thank you for reading this, thank you for being with me and supporting me through 2017. Here’s to 2018 where I hope we all have a much better year!

Memory Lane: R.E.D.

Posted on December 26, 2017January 4, 2018 by luxshine

Back when I was doing fanzines in 1996, I wanted to do EVERYTHING. Like, I couldn’t choose one genre and stick to it. So, when Lyonesse (That it’s in the Old Projects tab if you’re curious) was going to end, I cranked designs for about 5 different stories, draw two pages of it, and put it up to vote among the 300/400 readers that the Anime fanzine I edited with Gabriela Maya had. (Maybe there were more readers, I’ve got to admit that I never knew exactly how many people read us. I just knew they bought the fanzine at comic book stores, and that we had subscribers from all over the country).

R.E.D. -Professional Thieves, Anonymous Society- was not one of the most popular of those ideas, but I had a soft spot for them. I’ve always loved heist stories, so… I just wanted to do one. I just never developed them further after they lost (Out of the five, they were second to last in the voting process, although it was maybe due to the fact that it was the last preview we ran), even if I loved heists, mostly due to the fact that I finally debuted professionally around then and I started doing a lot more shojo stories. (They appeared in a Conque Convention special magazine, kidnapping the organizer, and in another one for the same convention stealing everything from the booths. I wish I still had those pages to show you guys)

(Of course, while the watercolor I did was directly based in their original looks, except for Diamond whom I decided looked a lot better with darker skin, If I do go back to a heist-based idea, it would not be women in brightly colored jumpsuits. THAT particular trend should’ve stayed in the 80’s)

Inktober 2017 part 4

Posted on December 21, 2017January 2, 2018 by luxshine

And here´s the last part of my 2017 Inktober. While these were made in what I jokingly called “Latevember”, it was very satisfying to finish. Can´t wait for next year!

And well, I finished with mostly villains. The one that may not count, at least for half the novel, is Bobby, but she also did some horrible things.

Inktober 2017 part 3

Posted on December 19, 2017December 28, 2017 by luxshine

Third part of my 2017 Inktober, with Stephen King’s most amazing ladies. Despite me trying to pick a random order, for some reason here is where the most terrifying eldrich abominations ended up (except for one, who I had chosen to be the last one). It also ended up having my two favorite strong women of all his books, Bev and Dayna.

Trish McFarland – The Girl Who loved Tom Gordon

Rhea of the Coos – The Dark Tower Series

Inktober 2017 part 2

Posted on December 14, 2017December 26, 2017 by luxshine

When I drew this 9 images, I was still on top of my inktober deadline. And that was even stopping to read some of the books that I hadn’t read in a long time.

Some of these are my favorites, like Carrie and Margaret White, and of course, Annie Wilkes. Again, what I love about Stephen King is that his women are full characters, not just cardboard tropes.

Inktober 2017 part 1

Posted on December 12, 2017December 26, 2017 by luxshine

This was the first year I could complete Inktober (Ok, so I was a bit late due to my trip to Orlando and Spooky Empire, but I did finish). Most of the reasons why, I think, was because I choose a subject I was passionate about, and that I hadn’t had the chance to draw much: Stephen King’s amazing female characters.

So here it’s the first part of the Inktober set, now scanned and cleaner than when I took photos for Instagram. I hope you like them as much as I did.

Stephen King Houses

Posted on November 21, 2017December 19, 2017 by luxshine

Anthropomorphization is really fun. I get why people draw animals, emotions, objects, and even subway lines as people. Me? Well, everyone knows I love Stephen King´s books so I decided to go ahead and turn some of his most famous haunted houses into people.

This original set is only four houses, but I might do others later on. I kind of have my heart set on making Room 1408, the Marsten House, the Pet Semetary and Al´s dinner.

29 Neibolt Street used to be very unknown to the non-King reading public because her one appearance had been cut from the 1990 It´s adaptation, but she was rescued from oblivion by the 2017 adaptation. Neibolt is a very old house, that even in the 50’s was completely abandoned. But just like Pennywise’s disguise, her depilated appearance was a magnet for adventurous kids. Of course, this makes her even more dangerous, as most adults didn’t even consider warning their kids away from her. After all, going into an empty house was kind of a fun dare back in the day, wasn’t it?

The Overlook, on the other hand, is probably the most infamous of Stephen King’s Haunted Buildings. And for very good reasons. Even when “dormant”, this hotel has had his share of victims over the years, and while some say that it’s “mostly” safe, it seems that no one leaves untouched one way or another (For that, read Misery. Or Dr. Sleep. Or the actual chapter in the book where the story of the hotel is explored in depth). Like Hotel California, for some people, once you check in, you can never check out.

Rose Red is also not very well known, because she’s not exactly from a book. She’s from the TV miniseries of the same name written and produced by King, and heavily based on the Winchester’s House. I love her because she’s a bit of a brat, demanding attention in some deadly ways, and throwing tantrums when she doesn’t get what she wants. She was also the house that inspired me to make this series, because although we see a ton of ghosts inside her, the series makes it clear that she’s a different entity, and a very malicious one at that.

Finally, for this series, we have Dark Tower. Now, she’s not technically a haunted house, but she is a King building, so… she’s here. Also, she’s the center of everything, so she stays.

She also is not evil, depending on when you reach her. Or where you reach her, so I had to show that too. As you can see, I had a lot of fun with her and her hair.

Writer´s Block Volume 1

Posted on November 16, 2017August 26, 2018 by luxshine

Writer´s Block Volume 1, or Parenting is Hard Work.

Writing is HARD. And for Dad, the creator of everything in our world, it´s a bit harder as he has to take care of his six sort of teenage angelic children. Things do not get easier as he recruits his older siblings, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, to try and get some calm.

All he wanted was to create the world, is too much to ask some peace and quiet?

Parenting is Hard Work is the first print collection of Writer´s Block, and it includes all the strips from our first year.

Written by Mandi Gordon, and drawn by Adalisa Zarate (yours truly), it is a pocket size book, 32 pages total, in black and white with a color cover. It only costs $4.00 USD in our stores (Kaliko Dragon will be up soon, promise), and is the very first Kaliko Dragon produced book.

The first edition is almost gone, as we introduced it at Spooky, so grab your copy now! Don´t make baby Velociraptors cry.

Spooky Empire Experience

Posted on November 14, 2017December 14, 2017 by luxshine

The Cosmic Family 2017 Halloween picture. Grandpa is still confused about all the proceedings.

On October 27 to 29 I had the chance to be with Mandi Gordon (my writer on Writer’s Block and editor for Dragon Run as well as my dear friend) in our very first american convention as sellers, Spooky Empire at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando.

We went as Kaliko Dragon, our joint effort (As hers alone is Dragon Crest, and mine… well, you’re here in Calico Chimera) and had a blast. We had Dream Keeper Robin 1 and 2, Dragon Run and the very first Writer’s Block compilation for sale, as well as a ton of brand new prints (seriously, the only “old” one was the Sugar Skull Horsemen, that is still available in Mexico through my Calico Chimera store and will be available for everywhere else soon at the Kaliko Dragon store)

Isn’t he adorable? His hoard consists of books, movies, and coffee. Lots of coffee.

Now, Spooky Empire is a convention specialized in horror. So I wasn’t quite sure of how things would work and a bit nervous. Still, Mandi didn’t need to pull me out from under the table at any time and I even go to the Celebrity autograph hall on Sunday without being poked too hard by her so that was a win against my usual anxiety. But people did like our stuff, and they were all very nice when talking to us. I saw a Ton of great cosplay, some of which I had never seen before -ok, so there was an overflow of Pennywises. That was to be expected. But they were great Pennywises. Funny thing about the Pennywises… at some point, they started to lose their balloons. So the roof of the Hyatt was filled with floating red balloons. Between that and the Freddy Krueger mannequin that I swore was moving on it’s own as every time I lifted my head was in a different position, the atmosphere was amazing (Later I found out that Mand asked the people with the mannequin to move it, just to freak me a bit. I loved that because it proved that I was right: it WAS moving)

We were joined by the amazing Amelia Poole, Harlequinarts (https://www.facebook.com/harlequinartscosplay ) as our official Janna, Horsewoman of War. And she was perfect! I am almost 90% sure she didn’t kill anyone or started some conflict at the times she didn’t have coffee, but trust me, Mandi and I could have a full spinoff Janna strip with all the hijinks going around. You can check her page for more pictures, but at the end of the post you can see some (she still won’t tell me how she got those red balloons).

I could only see Richard Dreyfuss from afar (he had a TON of people all the time), and didn’t have the chance to see John Cusack, Molly Ringwald or Anthony Michael Hall. Fairuza Balk looks JUST as she did in The Craft, I swear (I also saw her from a distance). On the other hand, Eileen Dietz is a great lady, really funny, and Ken Foree already had me as a fan for life, now even more so. John Kassir was really fun, and, to my eternal glee, Jamison Newlander bought Writer’s Block! That made my day. I also had the chance to say hi to Jaeden Lieberher, Wyatt Oleff, Jeremy Ray Taylor and Sophia Lillis. All of them were amazingly professional -still staying long past the time they were supposed to sign autographs in order to accommodate everyone-, and really nice.

All in all, I loved the experience and can’t wait to go back to Orlando again. Florida man stories aside, everyone was really nice and welcoming! So if you’re a fan of horror, definitively hit the May edition of Spooky. Can’t promise Kaliko Dragon and Calico Chimera will be there -as we’re totally doing Conque in Mexico- but I can assure you you will have fun.

(BTW, all the pictures taken with an obviously better camera and an obviously better photographer were taken by Mandi Gordon)

The Pennywise Parade…

And now… some fun with Janna

Sugar Skull Horsemen

Posted on October 17, 2017December 12, 2017 by luxshine

The horsemen of the Apocalypse, Hunger, Famine, Pestilence and War.

They were supposed to be supporting characters in Writer´s Block, but they’re so fun to draw (And, I guess given Mandi’s scripts, to write) that they started to appear more and more so now they’re sometimes shown more often than the actual main characters.

These were some of the very first color illustrations I made of them. They were made individually, for last year’s Day of the Death. It started with Thanatos, because, of course Thanatos would look amazing as a Catrin, then Carmen (who had been already established as LOVING Mexico and Mexican food), then Mahlon who was still finding his personality, and finally Janna whose white hair sometimes is a challenge to draw.

These images can be bought as bookmarks in our site, and pretty soon we will also have the print for sale too.