I have not kept my promise, and I apologize.

I sort of let life get in the way of things for a bit. Here are a couple of sketches for the meantime!


She's a bit fed up with all the skinny models in the magazines.


A Parisian dog-walker.

Missed Friday

In the course of moving the office and preparing for the beginning of a leadership course I started today, I forgot about the Friday update!

There's not much to tell though. Moving kind of wore me out this week (but I still made it to yoga somehow). Until next friday, unless I decide to post some stuff earlier to make up for missing Friday. For now, I sleep.

Not much to post tonight.

But! I did come to a realization the other day, which resulted in some better roughs.

All/most of the drawings I've done since the devil chick haven't really fit into the overall look I was going for. And I have been sort of worrying for a while that the book was going to look like some mish-mashed hodge-podge of varying styles that just didn't go together, and would make it look like it was done by a variety of artists rather than one.

So I sat down and thought and sketched, keeping in mind what my strengths were, and what strong-points I have that really make up my design aesthetic. And now I believe I have a firmer grasp on what I really want this project to be. So yay for that. I've got some work planned for this weekend, and I'll at least update next Friday to let you all know how it develops.

In completely unrelated news, I got a haircut today. It almost looks like a modern take on Barbra Streisand as Fanny Bryce in Funny Girl, towards the end when she has shorter hair. It's really cool.

Just a sketch for today...

I didn't get a chance to finish coloring the Dorothy/Scarecrow drawing, so here's a sketch I'm still hammering out: Alice and the Queen of Hearts duking it out.

I wanted to make the sketch emulate a classic playing card, the way that the illustration turns in on itself and flows.

I've been pretty busy this week, since I started up yoga again. I'm taking a class almost every day and I feel great. It's just what I needed. I'm going to work hard to finish a couple of pieces this weekend.

See you next week!

Work in progress sneak peek

This is a small peek at part of an unfinished piece I'm in the middle of coloring:

(I've still got to finish a bit more shading and such, as well as the background... but I'm pretty happy with how it's going.)

I'm a little frustrated with myself about how little I update this blog. And I've decided that instead of just posting here and there and saying I'll post again "in a few days" (which usually turns into a week or more), I'm going to set a regular update schedule. I am going to make an update every Friday, regardless of whether or not I've got a finished piece to show you. If I don't, I'll have another sneak peek like this one, or I'll just write about what I'm doing and how things are going with the project. And it's in my palm, so I won't forget!

So I'll see you Friday!

Productive weekend!

I got a lot of drawing done this weekend and ended up with five relatively tight sketches; two of those got inked and are ready for digital coloring. One of the others I'd like to do in colored pencil.

Here's one of the inked drawings:

Really, it was an excuse to draw those ballet boots.

I'll update a little later this week with a color version and perhaps the other piece I inked (I would have posted it tonight, but I really want to get that one colored before I post it).

Another sketch and "ouch!"

This is a small peek at a frazzled librarian and a faulty card catalogue.


I'm hoping to have a finished piece or two up this weekend. If not, more sketches, at least, or maybe I'll post images of the same piece as it progresses...

I clocked my head on the garage door a little bit ago. I misjudged my timing walking inside as the door was opening, and walked right into it. Thankfully my head was down and I hit the blunt bottom rather than an edge, but OW. I started delirously laughing, as I am wont to do in situations in which I hurt myself as a result of doing something dumb, and my roommate kept asking me if I was okay... I was laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face. And THEN it began to hurt. I should probably take some ibuprofin before bed... I do not look forward to how this will feel in the morning. Currently, my brain feels dented! Isn't that fun!

Gasp!

It's been almost a week and a half since I last posted. Oops. I had planned on updating this weekend, but I got sort of tangled up in cleaning my room. I'll be making a real update tomorrow after work. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive.

More sketches!

I've got two more rough sketches for you:

A parody of the Uncle Sam poster; I left the guy on the right in the scan because he looked goofy and cool.


Sunburns suck. Aloe makes 'em bearable. Sort of.

I'm itching to finish more pieces; I'm hoping to get a couple done this weekend. I finally found some really awesome inking markers that are like mini versions of the markettes I used when I drew caricatures, so I can get some really nice line width variation.

In other interesting news, a shirt I designed for Chris Daily (the Nerdgasm! shirt) was on Attack of the Show! the other day. That's pretty rad. Here's how you can view a video clip of it:

1. Go here: http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/videos/index.html
2. Click on the link for DVD Duesday 08/07/07
3. Watch that segment after a dumb ad for Stride gum

It's really trippy to see something I stared at for so long on my computer screen on someone's chest on tv. It was already weird just seeing someone wear one at Con.

A brief update, plus: Who am I, anyway?

I've gotten a bunch of sketching done this weekend; I'll be posting some of them sometime in the next few days. I'm wondering how may pieces I should put in the book... I'm thinking at least 24 or so, but I'm not sure.

So... who am I? My name is Stephanie Burrows. Like most artists, I began drawing as soon as I could hold a crayon and decided never to stop. I honestly couldn't imagine life without drawing. I also loved drawing cartoons from an early age, too. My dream job when I was in elementary school was to be a character designer with Disney.

I started drawing comics (and taking cartoons more seriously) during the first months of 2001, the latter half of my first year of college. I worked on a couple of webcomics and made a lot of friends in that community. My first real experiences in print were with a couple of group projects produced by my friends at Young American Comics; you can find me in Unseen On TV and The Big Ol' Book of Bizmar. I also designed the website for Punch An' Pie, which is drawn by Chris Daily and written by Aeire, both of whom are my crazy roommates.

I also worked as a caricature artist at the San Diego Zoo from April of 2006 through June of 2007. It was a fun job, and my drawing skills shot through the roof. Now I have an 8 to 5 job with a company that handles tenant screening and criminal background checks for property managers. I'm working on new graphics for their various websites. I've gotten to play around in flash again for one of them, and it's been a blast. I'd forgotten how fun that program is. I might even come up with some extra Pissed Off Pinups material later.

I'd always liked pinup art, mainly vintage and vintage inspired as well as those in a quirky cartoony style. Last year at Comic Con, I ran across Chris Sanders's table, and bought his sketchbook. I was completely taken with how he drew women. Then Chris (Daily) showed me the Dean Yeagle/Morsels (Scott Tolleson, Kristen McCabe, Gary Ham) booth. I think it was at this point that I began drawing pinups while I was still at the convention. I had never even thought about drawing pinups before, and it turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun!

So that's me. Well, more of a shortened version of events leading up to this project. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email at steph.burrows (at) gmail (dot) com.

As promised: The origin story and preliminary sketches

I was having a very bad day. No details are needed, really, other than the fact that I was very much in an emotional pit. Earlier in the day, though, I had been quite chipper, and was discussing things I could do for Comic Con this year with one of my roommates who also happens to be my coworker. The previous year's Con left me inspired to draw pinups, so I was thinking of different sorts of ideas for that. And then something rained on my parade. While I was sulking in the car on the way home, the aformentioned roommate tried to cheer me up, and suggested I channel my upset into drawing... Why didn't I draw some angry pinup girls? she asked. She even coined "Pissed Off Pinups". At that point a bell rang or a lightbulb went on or something. Suddenly, I didn't feel quite so bad. And what was going to be a couple of prints I might have tried to sell on a friend's table turned into a much larger project, which is going to be the book. And who was that roommate? Aeire, writer of Punch an' Pie, and arist, among other things. Thanks, Aeire.

And the first five links to the right (Chris Sanders, Dean Yeagle, Kristen McCabe, Scott Tolleson, And Gary Ham) are some of the people who inpired me to start drawing pinups at Con '06. The last (GirlsDrawinGirls) is a group whose table I ran across this year, and their stuff was great.

And here are a few of the very first rough sketches:

I do not endorse the kicking of pidgeons, for that is a very mean thing to do. I do, however, endorse the kicking of cartoon pidgeons.


That's the original devil girl sketch. I was going to put a halo and a harp in the flames, but I thought it would have been a bit much in the end. As for biting the head off of a teddy bear, I've yet to get that pose right... but rest assured I will, and it will involve a men's button down pajama shirt. Perhaps with stripes.

Comic Con 2007: So it begins...

Comic Con is now over this year. I must say it may have been the best year ever for me, and this is my sixth. I handed out a bunch of postcards advertising Pissed Off Pinups (with the illustration of the angry devil girl above), and I got a lot of really positive feedback from everyone! Thank you, to all of the cool new people I met (and my old friends, too). I'm more excited than ever to work my ass off and get this book out for APE. And I filled out a form to get a small press booth at Comic Con next year too. Yay!

For now though, I need some sleep, because it's back to the daily grind tomorrow. But check back often; I plan to update at least once or twice a week with my progress. I promise my next update will include a couple of the first rough sketches I did for this project, as well as the origin story.

Generic Introductory Post Title

Welcome to the Pissed Off Pinups blog! This blog will follow it's journey from rough conception to it's release at the 2008 Alternative Press Expo, including sneak peaks at some of the art and my experiences with my first big venture in self-publishing. I'm really happy to be working on this project. It's been (and will continue to be) a lot of fun. I can only hope it amuses others just as much as it does me.

Posts in the not-to-distant future will include:
- A bit about who I am and where I come from
- How Pissed Off Pinups came to be, and why drawing angry girls is fun
- A couple of really rough preliminary sketches