Another Ai-kon has come and gone!

It’s always a good time seeing friends and familiar faces, meeting people interested in my same (rare) fandoms, seeing the amazing cosplays and the ever energetic community. It was awesome! ^^ I even sold out of some of my prints.

But even so, thank you to everyone who stopped by our tables this year!!

In case you’re interested, here’s some contact info for us:

Me (Sloan): deviantART | tumblr | facebook | Scurry & Cover webcomic | Style on ICE!!! fanzine
My sister (Siobhan): website | deviantART | tumblr
My mom (Colleen): facebook
Feel free to follow us on whichever social media sites suit you~
And also, don’t hesitate to send us questions about custom artworks, online orders for things we sold out of, etc. We’d greatly appreciate the support!

On another note, I may take a short break from social media for a few days, and I’ll be back responding to messages very soon!

Thanks again!!

~Sloan
Designs by Sloan

This year’s Ai-kon was very, very different for me.
I was sick so badly last year that I couldn’t go – and in the 700-some days between the last Ai-kon I went to and this new one, a lot had changed. My art, the convention centre, the fandoms, the people I went with… even myself, as a person, along with the reasons why I wanted to go to Ai-kon.

As you can imagine, after such a long time of being away my art-table skills were very rusty and I apologize to everyone for not being sociable like I used to be. My sister had fallen and hurt herself on Friday morning during set up, and I was very concerned (even though she was more cheerful than I was, ha!)
But it was wonderful seeing all of you again – I don’t know many names, but I know your faces and I remember you. Even after all these years. It was great to see you all, whether you’d been to my table before or not. I really appreciated any support given even if it was just chatting about fandoms, because that meant a lot to me!

This weekend was more than me being an artist, though.
I’ve always felt like I belonged in the artist fair. I was content with that… I had never considered that I needed to balance that with being a person too. To some extent, I couldn’t before. But this year, I got to spend time with friends I missed dearly – friends whom are like family to me.
I got to learn about them, their life, and also learn about myself and some new things about being an artist.
I made new friends, and watched my sister participate in the Idolmaster vs LoveLive “death match” panel – many LOLs were had. And I am so grateful for that.

Now, for some contact details:

Despite what my pages say, I am possibly open for commissions. Please feel free to send me an email, message, note, etc about what you’re looking for and we can discuss the details then!

I do have some other sites I have posts on, so please take a look to the sidebar on the right for links.

Photos:
This year I will be posting all the photos my sister and I took on Facebook, in the Ai-kon group. Please keep an eye out to see if you’re there! We got a lot of LoveLive, Vocaloid, and Haikyuu cosplayers especially, but there are some others too.
I cosplayed as Edward Elric, and my sister cosplayed as Rin Kagamine (casual outfits, usually with a black jacket) so if you have pictures of those characters, please let us know!

I will also be starting to post new artwork soon, as well as a link to our online store when it’s set up.

All in all, I had an amazing weekend and just typing this blog post has given be a strong case of The Feels. I can’t begin to describe how much this year meant to me.
Ai-kon and the community it has never ceases to leave an impression on me, and help me grow as a person – this year was no different.

So, thank you everyone for the support – thanks to you, I get to come back next year and I absolutely cannot wait! :D

~Sloan
Designs by Sloan

I have been working on this, on and off, for months now and I am so glad it’s finished. It had more than 100 layers and my computer was being quite slow while working on it (this is only about 14% of the actual size). I wanted to have this finished in April for the Expo, but I had trouble painting the rocks. Now that it’s finished, it will be available at Ai-kon next month~

Speaking of which, hey guys my sister, mom and I got our tables at Ai-kon (July 15-17)!
We are SUPER excited to be back and we’re working hard to prepare some new merch right now. We’ll be right near the entrance to the marketplace so be sure to stop by and say hello!!

Okay, now back to the picture lol. It has some weird parts to it, and I don’t think there’s any forests like this in Ocarina of Time, but I’m really proud of this. It’s been a long time since I’ve painted something this detailed, and I don’t recall any backgrounds I’ve put so much work into compared to this one. I learned a lot more about Manga Studio, textures and painting backgrounds. ……..That said, I don’t think I’m gonna be attempting something like this again any time soon. *phew*

Thanks for looking and have a great week everyone!!

This is my first new upload of the new year, and with it comes good news:

I’m honoured to announce that I’ve placed as a runner-up in the Ai-kon mascot contest again!

I actually really missed drawing Aiko, and had fun finally drawing her again.
Last time I entered was in 2013, when I won the contest.
My artwork has changed a lot since then. I’m still very proud of my winning entry (despite the flaws I now see), but I’m also proud of this entry too. The anatomy has improved, and the design. Once again, I put a lot of effort in figuring out a “personality” for her, too~

The theme this year was imperial/royalty. I was really excited because of all the centuries and ethnicities I would be able to use for inspiration, but in the end I settled on a more contemporary/lolita/anime “Queen of Hearts” theme (because “Ai” = “love”). Though I wanted her to be energetic and friendly, I also wanted her to not be polite or elegant, but demanding and unique. Someone who isn’t afraid to be herself, despite being a princess~

To see my previous mascot entries, click here.
There are some other artworks there too, but the majority of uploads there are for Ai-kon.

Well, I think that’s it for now. Thanks for looking! :)

Last year, I started a contract to draw mini comics for Scurry & Cover, and the project has finally launched!!

The main comic (drawn by somebody else) updates with a full chapter every 2 months.
In between those two months, the mini comics I’ve drawn will be uploaded every Sunday!

The first chapter and first mini comic is already up, and it’s free to read, so give them a try and check back every Sunday!!! :3

Thank you everyone and enjoy! C:

And… happy New Years too, I guess XD; This is my first post of the year, oops! Sorry for the inactivity, I should have more to upload soon though.

Hello! I just wanted to post a quick notice today. C:

I have changed my deviantART username from “artigirl” to “DesignsBySloan”.

Why? Because I wanted my social media accounts to be more consistent; I wanted my username to have my actual name “Sloan”; and I thought something more professional would be nice too.

For those who are not familiar with dA:

• I’m on the exact same account, it’s only been renamed.
• Old links/URLs such as artigirl.deviantart.com STILL work, and should always work. However, if you go to that specific page, you will be sent to the new page instead (DesignsBySloan.deviantart.com).
• For more information, read dA’s FAQ on the subject here!

Aaaand that’s pretty much it. Have a great week everybody! ♥

Hey look, it’s a 11″x17″ Poster I drew for Ai-kon this year! For those not familiar with the series, it’s from Beyond the Boundary/Kyokai no Kanata~ x3

This piece has it’s issues, but it’s the first poster I’ve drawn at full size. Also, while I sketched it in Photoshop, I actually did most of the work in Manga Studio 5 EX! The picture took a while to complete due to the fact I was colouring multiple characters and still trying to figure out how to use the picture. Since then, Manga Studio has become my main program, and I really only use Photoshop for post-editing. C:

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

“Madder red, please. No more; don’t bring ruin to anyone else’s future.”
I thought as I cried again, keeping it hidden with a smile…

Now that I’m gone, I wonder if those secret agents
Are still getting along, and smiling together?
I’m sure they must be upset with me…
But I wonder if I’ve become their “big sister” now…

Music: “Ayano’s Happiness Theory” – by Jin, featuring IA – translation by VGperson

Well. I didn’t intend to draw Kagerou Project fanart so soon, but I think Shevi’s definitely turning me into a fangirl. >u< //// I kinda just whipped this up yesterday, I was inspired to do a composition like this after Shevi sang "Ayano's Happiness Theory". I had to shrink the image to fit it on my blog, if you want to see a slightly larger version, please view it on Deviantart here. Thank you!

I don’t really have much else to say, so thanks for looking! ;v;

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Artwork © 2013 Sloan | designsbysloan.com | artigirl.deviantart.com
Kagepro and characters (Ayano Tateyama, Tsubomi Kido, Shuuya Kano, Kousuke Seto) © Jin
Do not use without permission.

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DBS UPDATE: I changed the category “Realisms” to “Realism + Semi-Realism”. It’s a small change, but it’ll include work like this (which isn’t realistic but has more realistic features). If it doesn’t work well I might create separate categories for them, but I’m gonna try it like this. -u-

View the process/speedpaint videos on Youtube!: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
My actual youtube channel is Designs By Sloan.
I also posted a dA journal about it that you can read here.

The picture itself has actually been finished for a while, but I FINALLY recorded myself drawing, and I wanted to prepare the video and post it alongside the picture at the same time… which took a while ’cause it meant learning a new program. ;v; It’s not perfect, but hopefully somebody can get some enjoyment out of it!

But anyways, back to the picture itself. This picture started off with me wanting to draw a random mori girl with blonde, wavy hair. Then she turned into an elf for some odd reason. Then I added the animals and background, and it just.. I don’t know how to explain it.

The roses are called “Prickly Wild Roses”, also known to Canadians as the Alberta rose.
The butterflies are tiger swallowtails. The birds are common house sparrows.
The rabbit’s no species in particular. The flower beside the girl on the opposite side of the rabbit is called a “Lady’s Slipper” orchids, they’re grown wildly in Manitoba.
Most of these are things I grew up with or things I love now. The song “The Neglected Garden” by Cecile Corbel (from Studio Ghibli’s “The Secret World of Arrietty”) basically sums up how I feel.
….Except for the wheat, which is very pretty but considering I’m extremely allergic, I don’t like it too much. XD

Anyways, I’m not sure what I actually think of this picture anymore. I can’t even count the number of hours I’ve put into this over a period of.. months. I’d love to change it or redo it, but for now I really just have to let it be and move onto new projects.

Thanks for looking!! <3 - - - Artwork and character © 2013 Sloan | designsbysloan.com Do not use without permission.

A downy woodpecker that probably lives in the area. I’ve seen a couple around, quite frequently actually.
(Oh, and what a creative title!)

On another note, I updated my Sword Art Online fanart to the version I printed for Ai-kon! You can see the updated version (and old version) HERE.

Thanks for looking!

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Picture taken: July 6th, 2013
Species: Downy Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens
Minor edits in Photoshop CS5.

Photo © 2013 Sloan | designsbysloan.com
Do not use without permission.