Before we begin, a Public Service Announcement: today at Starbucks, a barista was wearing a Captain America Tiara. I am happier than I’ve got any right to be about the fact that these things exist.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

On today’s episode of “Oh my god, these people are so talented, why the hell do they hang out with me??” I present my friend Melissa, who is the most talented artist I’ve ever met in real life.

Online, you may have heard of her, especially if you’re involved in some video game fandoms. Her handle is LuckyBlackCatXIII, or Lucky for short. She’s actually done Let’s Plays on YouTube and has quite the following on various art sites. Within the next couple of weeks, she’ll be displaying her art at a few Conventions (as we speak, she’s flying on a plane somewhere over the Midwest on her way to a few weeks/Cons in California), and I’d freaking love it if you’d support her.

Want some examples of her art?

And that’s the tip of the iceberg. I’ve picked three of her most recent pieces from her website, but she does things in about a million styles and in every type of media, so there are sure to be cool things at her booth in Artists’ Alley at Fanime.

You can check out her art, her wit, and her very liberal use of emoticons at her Tumblr, which can be found at this link. I think this is also the best way to contact her if you’d like to commission something – she’ll definitely talk to you about doing a piece for your very own!

And just to reinforce how awesome she is, here’s a picture of Melissa and her girlfriend Chelsea as Grunts from one of their favorite games, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. These costumes and the characters both terrify me, but that’s kind of the coolest thing ever.

I promise, more mani pictures will appear within the next few days – my new stamping plates finally came in, so I can’t wait to show off the cool stuff I’ve been doing with them!

All the best,

Mary