SHANTI RITTGERS

A belated shout-out to Lost in Oz for getting 5 daytime Emmy nominations! If you have Amazon Prime but haven’t caught the original animated pilot with extended adventure yet, I recommend you check it out here. It’s 90 minutes well spent.

Saw a beautiful human on the metro @ Union station last week. 

Evening procrasti-portrait. Also I've had short hair for months now and LOVE it!

Monster High: Making Of Hey all, It’s been too long since my last update! But for the past couple years, I’ve been working on some neat projects with the amazing studios, Flaunt Productions and Axis Animation, in Glasgow, Scotland. Rebooting Mattel’s Monster High films was just one of them; you can watch the ‘making of:’ film at 2:53 to see a couple of characters & costumes I designed (early Draculaura, Gob & Webby explorations). I had a fan(g)tastic time with the team on this, both as a character designer and art director. I learned a ton about working with a team of talented individuals, both in-house and remote, and what it takes to breathe new life into the world of a beloved toy franchise.  

Colored some chicken character designs for a cancelled project from a few months back. 

Prompt: “Draw an angel. And make her some kind of steampunk.” I’ll admit, steampunk threw me for a loop. But inspiration grew from the roots of early women pilots and  ww1 (primarily British & Australian) nursing uniforms. We imagined her to be a sister from an imperial Medical unit (Queen Alexandra’s Angels?) in an alternate history, where her duties on the battle field were search for the wounded and tend to them, swiftly, by dropping from the skies. Though the design ultimately went towards a younger model, my personal favorite remains the stern, battle-aged nurse, #4. 

“Draw an orc named Freddy, who is also the town drunk.” 

It’s been a while, I’m sorry to’ve neglected you. Since late last year I’ve been involved heavily in a few projects that will remain unmentioned- at least, until I get the sacred green light to spill the beans. It’s been quite an adventure, and I’ve learned so much! I hope I will get to eventually flood you with some really cool art and character designs.

Sometime in art school I traded off using traditional paints for the crisp and speedy world of photoshop. Since then I rarely looked back- until last year when I started reconnecting with some brushes and paint tubes in my studio. These pieces were all for fun and experiment; they provided a relaxing escape from commercial work. I'm hoping to learn more as I continue to practice painting this year.

P.S. Have a dating sim or similar project that needs some hot baddies drawn for it? Hit me up.

For now, here's the finished image, along with the original thumbs and lineart. Many thanks go out to Whitney, who worked tirelessly with me on this and gave me the opportunity to draw candy experiments, a disgruntled Jake and pocketed Finn in the first place. Happy holidays!

Made for a friend's birthday, the love of burlesque and black cats.

I made a thank you card for my bf's family the other day; they shared their garden's tomato harvest with us.

Practicing technique with an acrylic-digital portrait of my D&D warlock. Applying acrylics on masonite feels a thousand times better than using a digital canvas lately.

Speedy acrylic/digital painting from the weekend: my character from D&D communing with his demon patron... who may or may not be Cerberus. More and more, I'm loving the challenge of switching between digital and traditional media. 

(In case anybody's planning to make the next Animal Crossing/Pet Society ip and looking to hire a designer, my email's just a click away!)

Oh, and don't underestimate the value of shin guards. or the kicking power of an artist's legs.