is not very epic.  I had a wonderful 2 week vacation where I fell in love with Scotland and never wanted to leave.  Unfortunately I didn't find any attractive Scottishmen to fall in love with and marry so I had to return to the states.  I'm accepting commissions again, so if you're interested send me a note or email me(preferred) at ratgirlstudios@gmail.com.  I'm not sure how much I'll be posting on here but I've been doing sketches over at my tumblr [link] if you're interested.

-Kate

On April 1st I'm running off to the UK for 2 weeks and I'll have limited internet access.  I'm closing my commissions for now and I'll start accepting them again on April 20th.  Also if you send me a question I probably won't be answering it right away.  I'll try to answer my messages upon my return, but it may take a while. If you curious about my adventures I'll probably post a few things here and there during the trip to my tumblr since I have the ipod app.  My tumblr can be found here [link]

In other news who is excited to see The Hunger Games?  I've already got my midnight tickets!

-Kate

Some of you may know the Cute Monsters contest is going on right now.  While I'm not submitting anything my good friend Matt has some great designs up. I usually don't promote these things, but his stuff if pretty great and like I said, good friend.  

Go check it out, vote for it, favorite it asap [link]

It's recently come to my attention that I've been neglecting my DA account to some extent.  I'm always drawing and posting new things over on my tumblr, but very few of them end up here on DA.  Sometimes I forget that not everyone uses tumblr [link] those who don't may look at my account here and think me very lazy and that I don't draw enough.  Well,  you can never draw enough, but I promise I really am working on stuff.  I try not to post quick sketches and doodles over here, I want my DA account to house my finished works.

For those Hunger Games fans out there I'm going to be doing a piece that will be raffled off at The Hob's charity event.  They're partnering wit WhyHunger? to coincide with the movie release.  Go here for more info [link] .  I'll post the finished piece here afterwards.  

That's what I'm up to at the moment and I hope to post more here soon.

In order to get myself drawing more I'm allowing people to submit, 1 to 3 word drawing prompts over on my tumblr [link] .  You can send a prompt to my askbox and I will pick one prompt per day to sketch or possibly draw a more advanced piece of.  These are not commissions, so don't send me anything too detailed.

Please Send prompts like these:

Demon Cat

Aladdin

Alien Planet

DO NOT send prompts like this:

Bella and Edward sitting in a field staring into each others eyes and sparkling.

My character! she has green eyes and wears pink tutus.


You guys get the gist.  Anyway, this is tumblr exclusive so no requests here, but you can hit up my askbox on tumblr.

In the past I've had lots of people asking me to do a tutorial on how I draw.  Well, I'm finally obliging with this very rough tutorial where I draw a head shot of Katniss Everdeen.  [link] I will possibly due better tutorials in the future, so let me know what questions you would like answered about how I draw/color/etc.

If you haven't seen my Doctor Who themed Christmas cards yet, then click here-ish [link] .  If you have seen them and liked them then you should head over to my tumblr [link] .  I've got a few extra and decided I'll be giving those away, mostly likely with a quick drawing inside them.  Just follow the directions and one of them could be yours.  

If you want more than one then you can purchase them over at my redbubble page [link]

Now that the holiday season has actually begun, I find myself increasingly lacking funds.  In order to help afford presents for my loved one's this year I'm selling a bunch of drawings on etsy [link] and have even discounted some that have been up for awhile.  Also if you purchase you'll receive a bonus Back to the Tardis [link] sticker!  I'm also open for commissions at the moment so feel free to send me a note if you're interested.

I believe I mentioned before that in addition to doing illustration work I'm also a library assistant.  All day today my library is doing a Facebook Readers Advisory challenge.  What is this?  Basically you give us some parameters to work with and we'll give you some good book recommendations.  We've got people manning the FB page all day, but my shift on recommends is 1-3 EST.  I've had a lot of people ask me for recommendations on DA before so I figured I would promote this.  

Got to: Grand Rapids Public Library's Facebook Page

www.facebook.com/grandrapidspubliclibrary  

Like GRPL
Post on our wall and we'll fire back with a recommendation

As I mentioned in a previous post I've started selling prints and other items over on Redbubble [link] .  Yesterday I decided to create a few IPhone covers because A) I was curious and B) why not?  You can now find an Iphone cover of Back to the Tardis [link] & Make Mine Macabre [link] .  

What prints/t-shirts/ iphone covers would you want to see next? Sound off in the comments.

The wonderful people over at Welcome to District 12 asked me to do an interview. I answer questions about drawing, fanart, and of course the Hunger Games.  Please check it out! [link]

The fabulous people over at Down with the Capitol are holding a costume contest for Halloween.  One of my HG drawings [link] along with a poster is the 3rd place prize. They have other amazing prizes for the contest so you guys should check it out and participate. Also if you win third place I'll be shipping directly and you will also receive a Back to the Tardis sticker [link] and possibly another special prize.

Go to here [link] for all the details.

I just wanted to say thank you to all my lovely followers for my many happy birthday wishes.  You're posts give me warm fuzzies inside, the metaphorical kind though with all the lamas that were thrown my way it could be literal.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I'll get back to the drawing board and start creating new art for you guys. I hope I can live up to your amazingness.

-Kate

After much thought and contemplation I decided to open a facebook specifically for my art.  This will be a place that I will check more frequently than here and updates are more instantaneous.  This account is open to the public so I'll friend everyone and this will be the best place to ask me questions (I promise I will answer them).  I will also be using this to update when I add new stuff to my etsy or redbubble.  

My Facebook is www.facebook.com/ratgirlstudios [link]

After a few questions about prints, t-shirts, etc.  I've opened a redbubble account.  There isn't much on it for now, but I hope to add more in the future.  

Since I'm a huge Doctor Who fan and eagerly anticipating the new episodes starting on the 27th I'll be doing daily DW sketches over on my tumblr [link] day for the next 7 days I'll post a new drawing inspired by the series.  The complexity and medium of the drawings will vary depending on my mood and time constraints. The first drawing is up for your viewing pleasure.  I will post some of these on DA eventually, but for now they'll only be on tumblr.  Let me know if you have any particular Who drawings you would like to see and maybe I'll cobble one together this week.

Since I have way too many drawings lying around and I'm saving up for a trip to the UK next year I've decided to re-open my etsy shop [link] be adding more drawings as I find the time.

Tonight I'm going to be a guest on the Hunger Games Fireside Chat podcast [link] to talk about the Hunger Games and my artwork.  Fireside is the #1 weekly Hunger Games podcast, hosted by Adam Spunberg and Savanna New, along with the top fan sites on the web. Listen LIVE every Monday at 10pm ET.  My segment is to be at 10:40pm ET, but you should really listen to the whole program.  If you can't listen live  tonight they post their shows for listening after they air.

Podcast:[link]

After doing the series of drawing of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss I was commissioned to do Josh Hutcherson as Peeta and Liam Hemsworth as Gale. [link]

Mockingjay.net reblogged the images and it's been getting a lot of comments (which I love).  To address some questions people had, A) no I didn't just put photo images on as heads.  I used photo reference and did digital paintings based on those.  B) This was a commission, it doesn't reflect whether or not I agree with the casting choices.  I'm unfamiliar with these actors and I'm withholding judgment until I see them in action.   

Anyway go forth and enjoy.  I'll probably post the drawings on DA in the next few days, but for now go comment on the hollywood crush blog. [link]

I need to start selling some drawings because right now my apartment is overflowing with drawings.  Anyway I reopened my etsy [link] and the following two drawings are up for sale.





Most of the sketches you see here on deviantart I still have lying around.  Prices vary depending on the detail of sketch and what type of paper I did it on.