Daemons in the Mist Now Available

Hi viewers and KatGirl Studio fans, guess what came out this weekend?

If you said Daemons in the Mist then you are correct! My debut Young Adult novel Daemons in the Mist is now available in e-book form for the Kindle and Nook for only $2.99. That's right, you can enjoy Daemons in the Mist for less than the cost of a cup of coffee. You start exploring the mystery of The Marked Ones by download a free sample at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. For those of you who love the feel of the printed book, don't worry, the print edition will be out in early June.

Don't have an e-reader? No problem, you can get the Kindle or Nook app for free for the following devices: PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, BlackBerry, Nook, NOOKcolor, NookStudy, NOOK kids, Android Tablet and Android-based phones.

Daemons in the Mist

Korat Publishing
May 2011

She could have been a perfectly normal, albeit a breathtakingly beautiful girl, but she wasn’t, for I knew there were secrets hidden behind her eyes.

Seventeen year old Patrick Connolly has been drawn to Nualla ever since he first saw her, but as the years pass she seems to take absolutely no notice of him. Until, that is, he rescues her from a confrontation in the school hallway. Little does he know that he’s about to be thrust into a world of life altering secrets and things that shouldn’t exist, because the fog and mist of San Francisco is concealing more than just buildings.

Deliriously captivating and extraordinarily soulful, Daemons in the Mist beautifully weaves together two voices to tell the story of what happens when life leads you down a not so normal path.

Where to buy this book:

Amazon ● Kindle ● Nook

Secret Project Revealed

Kickstart Our Launch

Hi viewers we just launched our first project on Kickstarter! It's my debut novel that I wrote for NaNoWriMo this year. Daemons in the Mist a Young Adult urban-fantasy paranormal romance novel set in modern day San Francisco. I am currently finishing up the novel to be edited for publication and it will be our first release at Korat Publishing.

Book Blurb
Here's the back copy blurb for the book:

She could have been a perfectly normal, albeit a breathtakingly beautiful girl, but she isn't. For I know there are secrets hidden behind her eyes.

Seventeen year old Patrick Connolly has been drawn to Nualla ever since he first saw her, but as the years pass she seems to take absolutely no notice of him. Until, that is, he rescues her from a confrontation in the school hallway. Little does he know that he’s about to be thrust into a world of life altering secrets and things that shouldn’t exist, because the fog and mist of San Francisco are concealing more than just buildings.

Deliriously captivating and extraordinarily soulful, Daemons in the Mist beautifully weaves together two voices to tell the story of what happens when life leads you down a not so normal path.


Artwork Evolution
This past week I illustrated this book cover for the book. You can view an evolution animation of the process here.

Artwork in Motion
My awesome twitter friend Merrie Destefano, told me about this great site that lets you make music videos using their special software. It's really perfect for book trailers wouldn't you agree? You can watch the book trailer I made for Daemons in the Mist below.

From the Studio 3

Greetings KatGirl Studio Followers that was a crazy summer wasn't it? We were so busy we hardly had time to work on any personal projects. But now that we are swinging into fall the Studio blog should see more frequent updates.

This image was intended for Illustration Friday's topic "Old Fashioned" but I had too much client work to get it done in time. It's a stylized self portrait of me and our studio kitty Crash the Stampede in Steampunk Victorian wear. I will be finishing this image for my Halloween themed avatar, but I thought I would share a little work in progress.

Some of you who have been staying up to date with the going-ons at KatGirl Studio though our Purr Post newsletter may remember that this summer I went 100% digital with my art. It is not immediately noticeable from the outside looking in, and in truth 90% of the people we meet at shows are down right shocked to learn my illustrations are digital. The reasons I made the leap to 100% digital are two fold.

It saves me time.

I'm not saying I spent less time on the actually painting or that digital is easier than traditional media (trust me it's not). What I mean is that when I still drew my illustrations traditionally I would have to do alot of scanning and clean up work. A typical illustration would go like this:

I would scan my thumbnail and blow it up to the correct size then print it out, tape it to my desk and put a piece of vellum over it. Once I had my sketch down I would tape down another piece of vellum and draw a clean copy of the image. I would then have to scan it, usually in two parts since most of my illustrations are larger than the standard 8.5x11 paper. I would then have to clean it up in Photoshop before transferring it over to Painter. That's alot of time spent not painting, don't you think?

Now that I have gone 100% digital I can work up some quick concept thumbs quickly in Painter 11 (usually at 2am). Once I pick the one I like I just drag it into a new file and size it in a matter of seconds. I can then either sketch directly on it or turn it's opacity down and work up the sketch on a layer above it. Inking the line work is the same process. Or I can "ink" it in pencil to keep the paper grain texture. The painting part of the process is pretty much the same for my illustrations as it was before.

It also means I can get work to clients faster and make changes for them quicker as well without having to sacrifice quality.

The other great part about working digitally is I can also easily show the step by steps by either turning on or off certain layers or by cloning a flattened version of the file every so often.

It saves the world.

Ok it doesn't actually save the world but it does save alot of trees and make our studio more Green. By doing all my work on the computer I don't use the ink, paper, vellum, tape, pencil lead and erasers I use to.