Steph Blakey

Canadian storyboard supervisor, paper illustrator, comicker. Loves games, horror, comics, film, and still doesn't know how to use Tumblr

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ACK I forgot to share here, but I'm tabling at TCAF this year! Right now! Today and tomorrow! Table 159! I've got lots of comics and original paper art & prints & stickers & charms & memo pads - come say hi and pick up the latest issue of Beef Zone lol

[manifeststephanie]

Vote Aoki for a cleaner Tokyo!

(Additional photos and progress behind the cut!)

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Happy birthday, queen 💅✨

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PORK THIEF PORK THIEF (More photos behind the cut of my Maya and Pearl Fey paper illustration!)

I couldn't find the portrait frame I put aside for this, so I modified it to be square for framing, oops. But I'm still happy with it!

Alternate angles!

Details! I had fun with their expressions.

Food details 🤤🍜🥟

The idea was always to showcase Maya and Pearl enjoying ramen together, but I played with the layout and story of the piece a bit. I thought it would be too mean for Maya to steal Pearl's food, so I did the opposite. It was fun making Pearl a little gremlin.

I didn't take many photos mid-build, unfortunately, but here are the completed girls! I used some absolutely gorgeous Japanese papers for their clothes, which shimmer in the light.

Work-in-progress of the ramen bowl, those patterns were a pain to cut out. This is the second time I've used the same bowl design from Eldoon's Noodles from Apollo Justice.

Because the pattern on the Japanese paper I used for their clothes wasn't consistent, I had to find a way to see what would look good on the piece. I did that by cutting out their clothes from a paper template and laying it down upon my patterned paper.

Goofing around with different patterns…

Here's the video tour!

Framed! This was a fun piece to work on and I was happy to finally make something with Maya AND Pearl!

I made this for the wonderful Ace Assistants Zine (@aceassistantszine) which you can now download for free! Take a look and enjoy art and writing from lots of cool people!

Ace Assistants: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1v4CdygYgfoy43q6o-ziY000lGnqzWITo Turnabout Teammates: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12g4-lPiSYwhDQ_JdNLMoehjyyI6ilJhZ

[manifeststephanie]

My name is James Sunderland, watch me Return to Silent Hill

[manifeststephanie]

I made a Death Mark risograph last year in a workshop to help me get out of an art rut! Really happy with how it turned out. I also made this into a glow in the dark sticker which I'll share another time. Sketches under the cut.

Original rough drawing on the left, and an adjusted concept on the right. I changed Mashita's face but kept him grumpy, lol.

[manifeststephanie]

OH I FEEL IT I FEEL THE COSMOS ✨ (More photos behind the cut of my Katamari Damacy paper illustration!)

Full piece, cut for framing:

Angles showing depth. The Prince is held up by a pin.

I don't have a lot of behind the scenes photos, but here's how it looked after I cut out all the paper elements, and then after when I added all the little gems and pearls.

I made this piece for fun and to get back into making art. I wanted to make something colourful with depth as I had a deep frame to use, and I wanted to use some cute gems I have but don't use very often. I sketched a few ideas first, then changed it slightly in the final template.

Here's my rough colouring just done on my phone with my finger, hah:

It's a small and relatively simple piece, but I still made a video tour:

Framed!

[t00thpasteface]

nothing online is ever truly deleted. except that one fucking thing you're looking for

[manifeststephanie]

Combined these images to accurately show how I'm feeling today:

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KIRYU-CHAN! 🔪✨

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I also made this into a sticker sheet and I'm really really happy with how it came out- it was a huge pain to get right but I think it looks great!

I'll have some for sale this weekend at the unofficial Yakuza fan event in Vancouver, but will put them up online eventually.

[manifeststephanie]

KIRYU-CHAN! 🔪✨

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I made a Rikiya charm this summer and I'm super happy with him!

Look at him goooooo

I'm bringing him to the unofficial Yakuza fan event this Saturday in Vancouver, so you can grab him in person there or at my other convention appearances. Hoping to open my online shop with this and other new things... eventually...

[manifeststephanie]

Here’s some behind-the-scenes photos for my Judgment papercut piece! This one was a lot of fun to put together and I’m really happy with the results. You can get the free zine it in over here:  judgment-zine.itch.io/eyesofjudgment

[manifeststephanie]

Finally able to post some more paper art! I made this cutout for a Judgment zine with a bunch of cool and talented folks, which you can get for =FREE= here:  judgment-zine.itch.io/eyesofjudgment

[manifeststephanie]

It's no trick- treat yourself to the wonderful Ace Assistants Zine, featuring all of the incredible helpers from the Ace Attorney series in one spot! Here's a peek at my mischievous paper illustration. Orders open until Nov 3! 🍜

Ace Assistants Zine

Visit Ace Assistants Zine's Shop!

I've opened a shop. Come take a look!

[manifeststephanie]

Would you kindly enjoy my BioShock inspired paper illustration? Happy 17th anniversary to one of my favourite games! More photos and behind-the-scenes below the cut.

Detail of the Big Daddy and the Little Sister.

Here are closeups of the other splicers.

This is absolutely the most intricate and difficult piece I've ever made, and took a LOT of planning. Here are my initial thumbnails. It was always going to be somewhat complex.

I had to collect a TON of references and screenshots for the piece. I found a bunch online, but I also took screenshots myself in the game. I drew and cleaned up the background first, since it was going to be the most elaborate one I'd have ever made, then I did a rough overlay for the characters.

And here's the final template! It drove me crazy!

Here's the Big Daddy in progress. I used a single type of gold paper for this piece except for the sparkling red light in his helmet and the copper piping. The gold paper has lines on it, so by turning the paper vertically or horizontally, it captured the light in different ways. When I attached the copper tubing to his helmet, I made it stand out to give it a 3D effect.

And the Big Daddy, finished.

A test layout of the Big Daddy with the Little Sister!

All of the splicer masks were built with as few pieces as possible. I tried to keep all of the gold trim cut out of a single piece of paper for each one, and succeeded! The worst one to do that with was the spider mask!

Here's my favourite spider splicer, all cut up and about to be assembled.

All of the main female splicers completed.

Tiny guns for a tiny guy!

Some photos of the background being made. This is easily the most complex background I've ever built but it was very satisfying as it came together. My signature (SB) is stylized on a neon sign.

The art deco door took a huge amount of concentration and effort. I wanted to keep the pieces as whole as possible and it ended up working out great.

The completed background!

After I took my illustration photo, I had to cut the piece down to fit in a frame. It's always a really stressful part of the process because there's no going back. Here's the piece after I cut it down to frame it. I removed one of the splicers in the foreground (the bunny ears) because it looked too busy.

I also installed LED lights behind the foreground splicers and between the back wall and the Rapture cityscape. It gives it a fun glow and atmosphere. Here's the height I've added to the back with black foam paper and the affixed lights.

Framed! It's really tough to get a good photo of it framed so I might try again later, but here's what I got for now.

And here's a video tour of the piece. It's the largest, most complex piece I've ever made and I'm really proud of it.

This piece was made for the "Are You Scared?" horror zine a while ago but I just hadn't shared it online yet. It's been fun to bring to conventions with the LED lights on, though! And people have been really interested in it and love to look at it and chat with me about it. I look forward to showing it in public again.

I haven't had the time or energy to make a large piece like this again, but I would really love to- especially with LED lights. I've got a few ideas kicking around for that, but don't want to jinx it so I'll just finish it or I won't, hah.

[manifeststephanie]

Hey you whippersnappers! Take a look at this paper illustration I made of Wendy Oldbag, protecting the universe like she always does, but really- kids these days have no respect for heroes like her- let me tell you, I was quite the space hero when I was younger, in fact-

(More photos and behind the scenes under the cut!)

Some close up photos and alternate angles!

This was a super fun illustration to work on! I haven't made a sci-fi piece before, and I wanted to make Oldbag look cool. Here are the reference images I saved for her spacesuit design.

I wanted to do something like a cool retro sci-fi poster or magazine cover, so I collected a few references for inspiration.

I had too much fun cranking out thumbnails for this piece, trying all sorts of adventurous poses, expressions, and situations. I originally wanted to include Miles Edgeworth as a damsel in distress, but as funny as those thumbnails were, I ended up just wanting to focus on Oldbag.

I ended up going with this thumbnail of Oldbag looking tough on a planet, like she was on the cover of a sci-fi anthology magazine. Next to it is the tidied up rough design.

From there, I cleaned up the linework even more and refined it a bit. Here's the final template.

Here are some photos to show the depth of the piece. I replaced temporary, thick, black foam with pins to hold her up so that they wouldn't be as easily seen from the front.

Here's a photo of the piece after I'd cut it down for framing. It's always really stressful cutting it down to fit the frame, as it can change the illustration quite a bit, and mistakes could potentially ruin it.

Here's how it looks framed!

And a video tour, where you can see it before I cut it down and before I replaced the thick black foam with pins for height. You can see the foam peeking out behind her sometimes, and it leaves a more obvious shadow.

I made this for the Ace Attorney Women Zine- leftover digital sales end TODAY! So grab a copy for this illustration and tons of other amazing work ASAP!

🌷 One Day Left of Leftovers!

There are just twenty-four hours left to grab a digital copy of Iustitia! If you love the women of Ace Attorney, you can't miss out on this