http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/ katiedesousa's gallery of images en-us 120 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/733005

Last summer my family had gone to the Azores for a vacation and, sadly, I had to stay behind to work. One day at the end of June I went to my family home with a friend to pick something up, once we had driven all the way there I realized I had forgotten my key (scatterbrain!), and because my family was at the time on another continent we had to find another way in. It being the house I grew up in (for the most part) that was pretty easy for me, I led my friend out back to the deck where I was hoping the door would be easier to open, and I saw something incredible. The entire deck, door and back wall was covered with huge lime green moths! Having never seen a luna moth before, I was floored. There was never a day I wished I had my camera more.

After the shock of these gorgeous creatures wore off (wore off my friend at least, I was still swooning) we started towards the door, it was still covered in moths, and they weren't really moving, so we picked them off the door one by one and put them somewhere safer than in our work area (we had to wrestle the window open and unlock the door and all that). Holding them was so cool, they weren't moving, I later found out they only really fly at night, I guess they sleep during the day, and they were soft and so incredibly cute. I had completely fallen in love with them.

A while after that day on my deck, I decided to see if maybe they would make good pets, sadly these moths, in their adult state, only live for a week. They don't eat, they just procreate and die. It's sad, they're so beautiful, if I could just have them flying around me all the time I would.

About the piece, I can imagine she's the softest thing you've ever felt, I imagine she's a spirit of some sort, or a moth queen, or whatever you like to make of her. Her name is Luna, and she glows, she glows every night for a week and then she is extinguished.

I think I learned a lot with this one, about backgrounds, and colors. While I notice some anatomical issues, her short legs and elongated neck, etc., I'm leaving them. Some were intentional, some were lucky mistakes, but her subtle disproportion makes her unsettling, and I like that.]]> Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:31:06 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/731828

This was a commission for the lovely girl on Deviantart. Her character Miriam was a pleasure to paint, especially those folds in her shirt. I usually have such frustration with clothing so I got my boyfriend to snap a photo of me posing with a similar shirt, gosh it helped a LOT. I should do that more often.

]]> Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:31:51 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716233

November 19, 2008
Promotional work for the Infinite Ammo project Marian.]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:28:54 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716232

October 30, 2008
Concept work for an Infinite Ammo project.]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:25:30 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716231

June 6, 2008
Commissioned work of a heavy-armor-clad-massive-sword-wielding paladin.]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:19:51 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716229

May 16, 2008
Commissioned work of a pretty elven bladesinger. Mmmm pretty man-elves.]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:17:11 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716227

March 15, 2008
Indulging myself with fan-art here, this is my Mass Effect character. That game was pure win. ]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:14:31 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716224

March 9, 2008
This was for CGtalk's daily sketch thread, the theme was Self Portrait: My Evil Twin. Yes, my evil twin is a zombie!
I used this for my Facebook profile picture for a while until my friends complained that it freaked them out whenever they logged in and I had to switch it... :(
Referenced a VERY unflattering photo of myself haha.

Linda B's lovely zombie portraits were a super inspiration. Mmmm brains.]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:09:35 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716223

February 29, 2008
Artgerm's Pepper for the PepperProject
Painting her was a treat, I always have fun playing with reds and greens and painting pretty girls with powerful eyes.]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:06:41 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716222

January 28, 2008
Commissioned work of a pretty elven swordgirl.]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:02:57 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716220

December 1, 2007
I started this painting in the summer some time and in between not having time and other art I never got around to finishing it.
If I don't finish a painting in a short timeline there's a good risk of me getting bored of it, which is sort of what happened with this one but I picked it up again in November for some reason to fiddled with it and I finished it.
This is Eros, better known under his roman alias Cupid, inspired by some Bouguereau paintings.]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:59:35 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716218

November 1, 2007
Done for an Artists for Charity calendar project, my month was February. ]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:55:51 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716217

Three Four.

Octber 3, 2007
My friend Minh did a line art sketch of a girl and I decided to color her. Title named after the music I was listening to at the time. ]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:53:51 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716216

June 14, 2007
Personal design of a female dark-elf.]]> Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:51:55 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716175

June 14, 2007
Personal design of a male dark-elf.]]> Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:53:37 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716173

This was a personal piece, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been one of my favorite games for a long time and I knew someday I'd paint Link, and here we are. One of my favorite elements of that game was the music, following Saria's mysterious song through the lost woods especially.
This isn't an exact replica of Link, I used that lovely thing called artistic freedom to paint him as a young adult, maybe after the game when he's had a chance to grow up out of "kid-link", yet he's not quite "adult-link" and therefore doesn't wear pants.
P.S. I didn't add his clunkly boots because I was sure a fairyboy would have the cutest feet ever ]]> Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:40:42 +0000 http://katiedesousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/716171

Old thing painted in 2006.
I feel really unfortunate sometimes because I never dream. Only once in a blue moon does anything happen in my subconscious while I'm sleeping, this was one of those random moments. I had a dream about a boy monster, his heart was cut out by a witch and for whatever supernatural reason he didn't die. I think he was a young prince or something in his former life, but now he was a souless thing wandering around ripping out hearts trying to retrieve his own.
Because I rarely dream I feel my dreams are usually more vivid, not memorable because I still can only recall bits and pieces, but they feel incredibly alive compared to just clonking out into blackness for 6-8 hours. When I do dream I usually try to recreate my dream in some physical form, typically personal writing but on this occasion I decided to paint the boy, his eerie beauty was really just begging for it.]]> Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:35:30 +0000