Chess Phantasms - final

Done-done-done-done-DONE. I was thinking about adding rain and reflective puddles and whatnot, but the smokey tendril bits and overall level of visual congestion nixed that idea close to the end. Oh well, maybe next time.

Happy 2011 everybody!

Chess Phantasms WIP

I've been working on this off-and-on during the course of the month. Progress has been slow due to my lack of experience, but I think this kind of pace is for the best, learning-wise, as it allows lessons to sink in and ferment into something resembling understanding. That said, I really should develop a faster, more confident technique.

Viking Sombrero

Sketched while playing "Poker Night at the Inventory" by Telltale Games. Using it as background noise, especially with all the cpu banter, encourages silly, nonsensical ideas to bubble up, which makes for great doodle fodder.

Portrait-dex: Matri

MATRI is usually quiet, but the slightest mention of an interesting topic will cause it to involuntarily use Ramble and cause the sleep effect to all within earshot. On a more useful note, its Burrito attack can be used as both an offensive technique and a lunchtime supplement.

The Portrait-dex blog features self-portraits of cartoonists as pokemon in various stages of evolution. Some truly talented folks have made entries for it, so go check it out!

Salai repaint - final

Done at last! There's stuff here and there that could have been done better or more efficiently, but I'm still rather satisfied with the results overall.

Salai Repaint WiP

WiP as of 10/31. Going *really* slowly since I'm not completely sure what the heck I'm doing. Happy Halloween, everybody!

Adventuring "Food" Chain

Not really a true food chain, since there's only two creatures here that actually intend to eat their victim. The whole process on this was incredibly fun!

Prints for sale!

I've recently set-up an online store through Big Cartel! There are five prints up at the moment, each one sized at 8.5" x 11" and priced at US$5. Shipping is US$4.90 per total purchase, no matter how many items are ordered. Stop on by if you have the chance, and please feel free to leave some feedback!

A few WiP-ish shots

It's been slow going on this current project, but I'm really liking how it's coming along. The troll's head alone has been a blast to draw, and I hope the inking stage will fare just as well.

Sketches and Stuff!

I'm still alive, and here's some photo-referenced sketches to prove it! The source for each was from the September 2009 issue of National Geographic, though most are from advertisements therein.

Regarding future work, I've got an extra large sword-and-sorcery piece in the works, as well as a series of digital paintings. I'm a bit nervous about the latter, both because I haven't done any serious digipaints in a while and because I've learned that my monitor has crumby color accuracy, but, if successful, they'll be a great asset to the old 'folio.

In other news, I've found a fantastic Photoshop plugin combo for flatting comic pages! Developed by Boudewijn Pelt, they're simply named Flatten and MultiFill, and they reduce the amount of time spent slapping down base colors by a ridiculous amount. They aren't quite magic easy-mode buttons - the presence of grays, including those from resizing the image, will create some ugly artifacting, and the colors applied are a bit random - but they do free up more time for rendering and other adjustments. Very useful, and highly recommended!

Castle Bunnyskull

Just an environment painty thing. It was supposed to be quick, but trepidation over colors prolonged its creation needlessly.

Glitterfarts

*poot*

Many thanks to my brother David for recommending an autumnal approach to the colors.

Just a Quick Orc Portrait

Not satisfied with "King o' da Orcs," I decided to crank out something quick and orc-related that wouldn't be completely horrible, and this was the result. I'm much more satisfied with this, even if the scan over-emphasized the forehead highlight. Speaking of "King o' da Orcs," I've been tinkering around with it a bit more, and while it's not completely redeemed yet, there has been some progress. I'll post a revised version of the piece if my obsessive editing works out.

King o' da Orcs

This looked fine in the rough pencil stage, but some very, *very* obvious flaws manifested as work dragged on, particularly in regards to the rendering of those pauldrons/shoulder armor bits. They're supposed to be curved plates, but the lack of shadows on their receding planes and the dead-on, what-is-foreshortening view of the spikes makes the armor as a whole feel like a cardboard cutout. I suppose it could add to the overall whimsy of the piece, but I'm not sure. On a related note, I'm probably going to avoid working at 18"x24" until I get a larger scanner. 15+ scans on an 8.5"x11" scanning bed just to get everything in focus is a pain, let me tell ya'.



Just for kicks, I tried slapping on some digital gradients just to see if that would fix anything. It kind of worked, but now the plates seem to curve into each other instead of overlap.

Slight Website Revamp (Rejoice?)

The ol' website's been given a slight revamp, including new navigation buttons and a more organized portfolio section. Nothing exciting, but the streamlined interface makes me happy. Sadly, the old "Welcome" page has been axed in this set of revisions, which renders the above-posted doodle obsolete. I rather like this arm-headed fellow, so I'm hoping to find a project that he'd be suitable for.

Dwarvish RuneTank

I decided to tackle a traditional weakness of mine: vehicle design! Figuring out how the engravings on the wheels contorted was the most difficult part, and were I to do this again, I would probably just draw the design on the underside of a cup and reference from that.

Fan Art Month Day 30 - Inspector Gadget

The live-action movie from 1999 was bland and so-so, but the original Inspector Gadget animation was awesome.

...And with that, Fan Art Month 2010 has come to a close. Huzzah!

Fan Art Month Day 29 - Earthworm Jim

Earthworm Jim only spawned a few games, but each one - with the exception of "Earthworm Jim 3D" - was comedic, platforming-centric gold.

Fan Art Month Day 28 - Nabeshin

Watanabe Shinichiro is an anime director with a mighty afro who is known for such absurdities as "Excel Saga" and "Puni Puni Poemi." He often inserts himself into his work under the name of Nabeshin, gives himself ridiculous powers, and generally provides comic relief without becoming a Mary-Sue character.

Fan Art Month Day 27 - Pyanfar Chanur

The anatomy came out a little weird on this one, but I think the washes save it somewhat. Kinda'. Maybe. Anyway, Pyanfar Chanur is from C.J. Cherryh's "Chanur" series. The first Chanur book I picked up, "Chanur's Legacy," had a fantastic Michael Whelan cover on it, and the story within described an adventure that hinged mostly on intrique rather than explosions. Go read it!

Fan Art Month Day 26 - Lord Alberto

Lord Alberto is a villain from "Giant Robo."

Fan Art Month Day 25 - Lord Deimos

Lord Deimos was the marquee character for "Mace: the Dark Age." Like most fighting games made by Midway, it wasn't really that great in regards to mechanics and combos and whatnot, but its characters were top-notch concepts.

Fan Art Month Day 24 - Ashley Riot

Its timed attack system was a tad annoying, but everything else about "Vagrant Story" was masterful.

Fan Art Month Day 23 - Vampire Hunter D

I'm not much of a movie guy, but "Vampire Hunter D" and its sequel, "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust," are films that I can rewatch and enjoy endlessly. I still need to read the translated VHD novels, though.

Fan Art Month Day 22 - Razputin

I heart Psychonauts. So much humor, such strong art direction...it's bliss!

It's also a decent game, to boot.

Fan Art Month Day 21 - Iria

The Sci-Fi Channel used to show anime films on Saturday mornings, one of which was "Iria: Zeiram the Animation." I didn't know until recently, however, that I:ZtA was actually a prequel to a series of monster movies.

Fan Art Month Day 20 - Wonderella

The Non-Adventures of Wonderella is one of the most consistently amusing webcomics I've read. It's also one of the comparatively few webcomics made entirely out of vector imagery, which lends a certain edginess (da-hur-hur) to its irreverent humor.

Fan Art Month Day 19 - Scud the Disposable Assassin

Scud the Disposable Assassin is the twisted creation of Rob Schrab.

Fan Art Month Day 18 - Jericho Cross

Jericho Cross is the protagonist of Capcom's "Darkwatch." It features a number of rather nifty weapon concepts, such as a shotgun that doubles as an axe.

Fan Art Month Day 17 - 2HB and Strongman

2 Headed Baby and Strongman are from Scott C's DoubleFine Action Comics.

Fan Art Day 16 - Abe the Mudokon

Good ol' Abe. It's too bad that the Oddworld Inhabitants are MIA and will likely never finish the Oddworld Quintology.

Fan Art Month Day 15 - Demona

Hey hey, a fanart-of-the-day that's actually posted on its correct day! Too bad her face turned out kinda' wonky, though. Anyway, this is Demona from Disney's "Gargoyles."

Fan Art Month Day 14 - Ikiss, Oblina, and Krumm

For years, I couldn't remember Krumm's name, even though he was one of my favorite characters from "Ahh! Real Monsters."

Fan Art Month Day 13 - Heffer and Rocko

Rocko and Heffer are from "Rocko's Modern Life," which aired on Nickelodeon back in the 90's. It was masterminded by Joe Murray, who more recently developed Nickelodeon's "Camp Lazlo."

Fan Art Month Day 12 - Slick

This was going to go up last night/early this morning, but I made a hefty amount of mistakes and the gouache didn't want to dry or become opaque in time for scanning. Excuses aside, here's Slick from Tatsuya Ishida's Sinfest.

Fan Art Month Day 11 - Vectorman

Since Vectorman's box art, cutscene art, and sprites each feature a different design, it was a tad difficult to decide which approach to take. In the end, I settled on deciphering a likeness from the sprites.

I never could quite grok how his hands work, sadly, and the different shapes they've been drawn with here is probably a product of that.

Fan Art Month Day 10 - Clango

Clango is from R. Stevens' Diesel Sweeties.

Fan Art Month Day 9 - Smiley Bone

This here's Smiley Bone from Jeff Smith's "Bone," a non-traditional fantasy opus that never ceases to inspire me.

Fan Art Month Day 8 - Ben

Full Throttle was my introduction to Tim Schafer, adventure gaming, and motorcycles. Fun fact: Mark Hamill, who voiced Batman: the Animated Series' Joker and acted as Star Wars' Luke Skywalker, voiced FT's main villain, Adrian Ripburger.

Fan Art Month Days 6 and 7 - Testament and Demoman

I didn't manage to post Sunday's image up in time, so I spent some time this morning adding flat washes to spruce it up a bit. Testament - the late piece - was inked with Pitt pens (soooooo fast!), while Demoman - today's piece - was inked with the ol' brush (pretty lines, but soooo slow). Coincidentally, both characters happen to utilize trap-based playstyles and are often referred to as "top-tier" and/or "overpowered."

Fan Art Month Day 5 - Sparkster

Those who have played Rocket Knight Adventures may recall the flying portion of level one and the castle-ramming that culminates it. Call me crazy, but I find it hard to believe that ol' Sparkster would have been looking forward to smashing face-first into a structure designed to withstand, say, a cannonball barrage.

I should practice with Pitt pens more often. The fine, elegant line that brush provides is nice, but there's something to be said about inking really fast, too.

Fan Art Month Day 4 - Nicodemus

I made *lots* of mistakes on this one, and the white gouache took forever to dry, so this one's staying in black and white. In retrospect, adding some denser black areas would have helped considerably in disambiguating the overall form.

Fan Art Month Day 3 - Freakazoid

Spielberg produced a lot of great animation back in the '90s, and most of it has aged pretty well. Zoosh!

Fan Art Month Day 2 - Mrs. Brisby

I recently rewatched The Secret of NIMH. 'Tis a thing of beauty, it is, even with the occasional story inconsistency. CG animation is wonderful and much easier to inbetween with, to be sure, but there's a certain magic that well-done 2D possesses, and it's a shame that there isn't enough of it around these days.

Fan Art Month Day 1 - Beastly McPedro

During the month of June, I'm going to attempt an art-a-day challenge involving fan art. Why fan art, you ask? Between fan art and portfolio work, the latter engenders personal attachment due to said work's intent of showcasing my abilities and problem-solving strategies. Fan art, on the other hand, cannot be used in a portfolio - generally speaking - and as a result I can just draw or paint and have fun.

That said, here's the first of the bunch. For those who haven't read Girls with Slingshots by Danielle Corsetto, this is the talking cactus McPedro...with a monstrous twist. Here's to a good month!

Untitled (Branching Narrative)

At the time - November 2008, I think? - I had been reading Scott McCloud's books on comics, and the idea of a branching narrative sounded nifty enough to try out. With that idea in mind, I took the tail end of a roll of printmaking paper, broke out the ink and newly-acquired bowl nib, and started hashing this out. It's fraught with terrible drawing and lettering alike, and the use of rectangular panels near the curved edges fights against the piece's physical form oh-so-distractingly, but there are some moments that I still kinda' like. A few months after finishing it up, I submitted it into the 2009 Annual BFA Show at CSU East Bay, where it received favorable wall space near the gallery entrance. From what I remember hearing, it was generally well-received, too.











I've still got a few jumbo-sized pieces of that printmaking paper roll left over, but I haven't the foggiest idea of what to make with them. Any suggestions?