So take it easy I’ll make it so easy

I’m sorry for the absence here; I went out of town for a few days for Thanksgiving, got pretty sick right afterward, fell behind on work, etc. I’ve been having a lot of fun, though, too–going out more than usual and saying ‘yes’ to more invitations.

Emi and I did an interview on Wednesday with the Pedal Powered Talk Show that was SUPER fun. We talked about Emitown V2 and Between Gears, which are coming out at the same time next year. We also had an impromptu, on-show challenge with some high stakes! It will air in January, and I’ll be sure to post when it does. Here’s the set, Emi, the back of host Boaz Frankel, and 2″ of my forehead:

December is characteristically jam-packed with stress and joy. One of my books wraps up next week, my family is going on vacation again and I need to decide whether or not I can join, my birthday is the week after that, I still have pretty much all of my presents to make/buy, and then there’s a slew of holiday parties, the actual holidays, and back to encroaching (or blown!) deadlines…

I used to get really sick every Christmas; it was too much excitement and my body invariably succumbed to some awful thing. I’m going to try to get healthy quickly and stay healthy this year, take one thing at a time and not be dumb about biting off more than I can chew.

Okay okay okay, but how about some art??

I’m inking the LAST CHAPTER OMG of my book with Jamie! And I’m trying to find a panel I can post as a preview…but I’m pretty sure that every single one is in some way a spoiler. Sorry! There will be new art soon. Whole books full of it!

This is what I’ve been obsessively listening to lately.

Everyone who sees us greets us as we fly

I. Love. This movie. We watch it every December!

My favorite part (besides the song, OF COURSE) is when they ride the motorcycle through the trees.

Holiday cards!

***EDIT: If this wasn’t clear, you do not have to pay to get a card! It’s just something I’m doing for fun! :) ***

A lot of artists I follow have made it a tradition to send out postcards to friends and fans around the holidays. I think it’s lovely as a fan to receive them, and they look like a lot of fun to send as well. I’m reeeeeally excited to say that this year I’ll be mailing my own for the first time!

If you’d like one, just email me (Tally at farbeyond dot com) with your street address before December 10. Anyone who would like to receive one is more than welcome, so don’t be shy! :D Yaaaaaay, I am super excited for this!

It’ll all get better in time

I drew my holiday card design last night, and thought I’d post the process for those interested:


I came up with a couple of ideas that I thought would work for the card, but as soon as I drew the girl with her reindeer, I didn’t want to draw anything else.

I searched Google Image for reference. I liked this site a lot, and I found my reindeer’s pose here.


I posed for a reference shot to use for the girl. Necks, shoulders, and arms are the most difficult for me to draw correctly from imagination. Even a somewhat similar reference pose is a big help. I used things like my hood and wrinkles around my elbows in the final drawing as well. I used this expression, but tried to change the face shape.


I penciled with non-photo blue lead. Pros: don’t have to erase after inking, so ink scans nice and dark, paper doesn’t degrade from erasing, and I save time and energy. Cons: can’t erase, so pretty much have to get it right the first time, and the original will have lots of visible blue lines.
At this point, I generally know what the setting will be, but I get my characters in place first and leave drawing the background for later, since it should complement their pose and composition.


I inked the foreground first, and went left to right whenever possible.


I inked her hair without clear pencil lines, and ended up with the braid being out of perspective. I have to remember it’s worth the time to put down my brush and tighten up my pencils when I run into these areas…


I started to stray from my pencils in the background. I realized that the hay/wall division was too high for the perspective I was using.


I used a photo of the image and messed around with it in Photoshop to test out a new background composition.


I added a spot black in the background to help frame the important part of the composition (reindeer face, girl face, hands). That left hand looked ungrounded, so I increased the shadow that it cast.


I scanned the image into Photoshop, cropped, adjusted the levels to get rid of any visible pencil lines and make the ink dark, converted to bitmap, and saved as a Photoshop file. I closed and reopened it, edited the line art, and converted to grayscale.


I converted the image mode to CMYK, added a layer set to ‘multiply’ called ‘flats’, and began flatting the image. My black and white line art stayed untouched on the background layer.


I colored the reindeer on a new layer so I could push color around with the brush tool and not ruin the flats around it. Then I selected the areas around the reindeer on the flats layer, moved back to the reindeer layer, and deleted where I went outside of the lines. I merged the reindeer layer down onto the flats.

I made some adjustments to the flats like differentiating the foreground and background wood and changing the levels and saturation of different areas to complement the girl and reindeer.


I added some highlights and color to the flat layer (blue reflection in sleighbells, pink flush on her cheek, white highlights on reindeer and her hair). On a new layer called ‘shadow’ set to multiply, I add shadows in a reddish gray.


I made a final layer called ‘effect’ set to multiply and added a radial gradient in the same tone that I used for shadows. This is a little cheat to pull the eye to the center of the image.

You were right, there was never reason to worry

More Christmas art!

From Terry Blas, LOST characters Desmond and (my favorite character!!) Dan!!!!!:

From Ron Chan (the one last week was Emi’s present that I sniped), Nausicaa!!!!!!!:

Best Christmas ever, seriously. Now I just need a couple hundred dollars to give this art the framing it deserves…!

Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry

Here’s a little WIP for my dad’s x-mas gift:

(Click on the second image to see full size on DeviantArt.)

Very thin ice, very thin ice

I’ve received some AMAZING art gifts this year, and just want to take a second to pimp them! (There will be more once I can get the physical art I’ve received scanned and uploaded)

First up, here’s a birthday present Nico sent me on Tuesday!! ADORABLE. I smell a new profile picture~~ :)

Next, not actually for me, but for Emi. This one is by Ron Chan for Emi’s comic Emitown! DAH. How sick is this??! LOVE IT. (I’m second from the right, with the gun!! GUN!!)

Everyone put on your jammies now!

Some more Christmas art for y’all:


Tally Nourigat’s Gift
Originally uploaded by Erika Moen

Circle Skirt by ~Tallychyck on deviantART

Audrey Hepburn by ~Tallychyck on deviantART

Hun sier at den lyser enn


Me as Saint Lucia in the Bend, OR Sons of Norway pageant. I just walked in a circle around the room with the other children behind me, but apparently it made my grandparents really happy, so cool. It was fun playing dress-up and participating a bit in the Norwegian culture.


My herd.


With Grandma and my cousins Abby and Emily. Note the ad for Lutefisk!

I ain’t wastin’ no more time

Happy holidays!

I’m out in Sunriver, Oregon, with my family for the week. My mom’s family lives out here, so we’re celebrating Christmas early with them before going back to Portland for the actual date.

T-minus 4 hours until I play Lucia in the Bend Sons of Norway Lodge’s Christmas pageant!

Lol. Kind of excited.

My birthday is in 3 days!!! AHAHAHAHA!

Copyright © Natalie Nourigat
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