SAM'S ART BLAWG

soaked

2011-05-26T23:28:00.005-07:00

It's been a pretty sad season, everyone.

I drew him this past week, was aware of what the theme was for Illustration Friday beforehand, but wasn't consciously drawing this for the theme. It fits though. soaked inside and out.

Makes me think of that Ernest movie where he's standing in the rain crying, singing "gee, I'm glad it's raining, so no one can see me crying." I think that happened in an Ernest movie...been so long since I've watched one.

Also, the texture used in this image was found at Lost and Taken, a marvelous site.

lookin and grinin

2011-05-24T09:33:00.002-07:00

2011-04-22T20:22:00.001-07:00

Easter's coming.

Which means chocolate is coming...

I should probably start running, too.

cakeparty sugarbuzz

2011-04-18T15:26:00.005-07:00

Hey, Everyone. Time to start blogging more regularly again.

Here are some flyers I did for an event that happened at the beginning of the month. It was for a dance club at Mercer College (Tennessee) that was holding a charity benefit meant to help out Peruvians in need of homes. The event was all about Dancing, Deserts and Dating it up with many a fine ladies and dudes, so I tried to convey that best with the flyers showcasing cookiedancing and cakebeats.

The thumbnails.

The promo flyer.

The informational flyer.

And the images sans copy.

The info flyer looked good as a black and white image, but I decided to color it up recently, just to see it colored. I was going for something bright and flavorful, with a sweet pop.

I'm thinking I'll use it for a postcard. Thinking this would look pretty sweet under a blacklight, too.

I'm also posting the lines for the promo flyer, too, just because I thought they looked nice.

feathers in the road

2010-12-28T22:20:00.005-07:00

I have a few blank canvases sitting around waiting to be used, particularly two with the wonky dimensions of 12" x 24". Probably not wonky for most, but I'm not used to such dimensions.

I've tried working digitally again in hopes of building up those rusty crusty skills. This is fairly messy but it was just intended to be a study or sketch or whatever. Planning something that could make use of those wonky canvases. I was thinking I could try to do a quick thing like this every other day and then select the best from those to paint up, but we'll see how that goes. Like I said, I'm still pretty rusty and fairly crusty with the digital recently, so it may end up less frequent than every other day, but I'll try.

I still find more comfort with a pencil in my hand when drawing away, which had lead me to think that I'll need to find some way to join up digital and traditional, and produce some sort of perfect marriage between the two.

I am working on other stuff beside this need to improve my digital/art producing skills and make use of my neglected canvases. Still puttering away. I will make a post about what I am doing when I get to a good stopping point in the process.

late autumnal reading

2010-12-18T23:04:00.003-07:00

Two posts today! CRAZY.

A bit late since it's probably snowing for most. Maybe it'll remind you of when it wasn't so cold.

Thought I'd try out a textured brush, see how that faired.

Original linework is belowww.

frilly pearls

2010-12-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

This was another fashiony piece I did around the same time as this one. I remembered it a week or so ago and finally got around to finishing it.

lookin' blue

2010-12-10T01:08:00.000-07:00

Something that's something because it's something.

Robot Heart Kaiju Recap

2010-12-06T23:14:00.000-07:00

AUGH.

I meant to post a blog before the signing event on Saturday, but it became a bit of a time crunch getting everything together. The only new things I displayed at the event were these awesome little pins I whipped up using art from "Cute Shoes," the comic I collaborated on with Angela for the Robot heart Kaiju anthology. Each pin sells for a dollar and is looking to find a place on your coat, your bag or in your heart. The pins can also be helpful in conversation if you are looking to find the right words, like when telling someone to slow down or are simply staggering about with your sentences. WAIT! Ah... They are incredibly helpful.

The signing.

It was pretty awesome. I got to see a lot of comics people I hadn't seen since the last big comic event, which I think was Phoenix Comicon, and catch up with them a bit. People like Eric Mengel, Denny Riccelli aka Dennmann, Madame M, and Jeff Pina. Not Thomas Healy, though. I see him every time I go to the comic shop, so we are pretty caught up. I also got to meet new people, namely Glen Curren, that I had only spoken with via Twitter! And I also saw a friend that I hadn't seen since high school, which was great! Good times indeed. It was definitely a great event filled with lots of meeting and greeting.

It was also awesome, because like I said in my previous post, it coincided with the big Godzilla birthday fest that the Mesa Atomic Comics was having. They played a marathon of Godzilla movies in the background, I think Vs. Mothra, Vs. Mecha-Godzilla, and the original Godzilla, so I was definitely entertained when things got slow. Also, birthday cake. Can't celebrate the birth of a giant monster that levels cities without cake.

Reflecting on myself and my prep, I think I psyched myself out a bit, which lead to only having the pins. I will try to be more nonchalant about it next time.

Oh...signing comic books? That I had a hand in making? Yeah. That's cool. I'll be there.

Seriously, though, I really want to thank Jeff and Thomas for giving Angela and me the opportunity to be apart of this awesome anthology with all of these dedicated comickers!! It really makes me want to up my gusto so that my first signing won't be my last. Thanks you guys! And thanks to those who made it to the event as well! It was great meeting you!!

Ah...

2010-12-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

Yeah. Ah...

As I mentioned a blog post or two ago, many, many weeks ago, Angela and I had collaborated on an awesome little six page comic that will be a part of a Phoenix, Arizona based comic anthology. We are going to be in the group's second anthology, Robot heart Kaiju, which will be released THIS SATURDAY!

The theme of this anthology obviously pertains to robots and monsters (kaiju is Japanese for monster). Our particular story is a goofy cute little love story called "Cute Shoes" starring the guy up above as the dashingly awkward, yet lovable, protagonist. Will he get the girl at the end??! Who knows.

It will be a big release event at the Atomic Comics Mesa Superstore (click through to their site for a map to the location) that will coincide with Godzilla's birthday and the huge birthday fest that the store puts on. The signing for Robot heart Kaiju will run from 12pm to 4pm, but copies may go sooner than you think, so be sure to get there early in order to secure a copy for yourself. When you get to the store, be on the look out for this awesome cover by Jeff Pina!!

Contributors will be not only be on hand to sign that fancy fresh copy of Robot heart Kaiju for you, but will also be displaying their cleverly crafted comics and wares that they have dedicated so very much time toward. So if you're looking to taste the local flavor, be sure to check out what they have to offer.

I will be on hand at the signing event, but Angela will unfortunately not be able to make it due to a prior commitment. To find out more about what's going on with her, be sure to check out her blog.

I will make another post soon that will give more details about what I am going to bring to the table this coming Saturday, so look out for that.

I really like how the first panel of the first page turned out, so I thought I would share it with you, maybe entice you a little more to pick up the book check out our story, as well as everyone else's.

bloopadoop

2010-11-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's November and this blog is in dire need of an update, so here's some unseasonal drawings.

Angela recently sent me a package filled with love, inspiration and awesome crayon drawings. Here is my attempt at using crayons. I drew the figure and didn't know what to dress her up in, so she ended up with a future-y plug suit-type get-up. Didn't intend for it to look like Samus in her zero suit, but it also sort of doesn't look like her. So that is fine by me.

And here's some chick topless in a letterman jacket. I get rusty at times so I'm doing my best to iron out the kinks in my anatomy understanding.

Froggy

2010-10-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

By way of Twitter, I ended up over at Kris Anka's blog and saw this fun video he did recently set to a variation of "Froggy Went A Courtin'". So awesome. The rest of his blog is really awesome, too, so check out the rest of it.

I'd never heard that version of the song, so it made me think that it was based on a folk story or something. It is. Looking at the Wikipedia entry, it says that it's based on a really old Scottish folk song. You can check the rest of the entry for more info on it. Pretty interesting and fun.

Thinking about it some more made me want to do some two painting series or something based on it, but make them more realistic like I did those swing cats I did for the Misses Ellen Sunday poster.

I'll do something for Miss Mouse, too, as well as probably do a quick study of cutlasses, belts, boots and bandoliers for a finished piece.

Post-It Post

2010-09-11T00:11:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! It has been a while and a half.

I've been out of town visiting family and food in Minnesota. Man, I missed White Castles and state fair food. So good....I miss the grease and cheese and meat. Wish I had some right now.

I was also working on some...I guess "secret" stuff, but it's not really all that secret. I was just working on stuff in order to apply for corporate jobs. We'll see if that works out. I'll let you know if anything turns up.

I'm also in the process of working on a comic for a Phoenix comic Anthology, a looooovvvveee story. It is a super collaboration between me and Angela. I don't want to say too much more until I finish, so expect more information plus promo images in the next week or so.

Since it's all progressive stuff and I haven't really touched any of the other drawings I had compiled into a "need to finish" list, I'll just share some Post-It notes I doodled on recently.

I was pretty inspired by Katie Rice's Post-It doodles, not so much the style but just how loose she got with them, the use of markers and how much fun they looked. This has just been composition and straight-to-pencil practice, but I'll try to remember to get looser with my Post-It drawings in the future.

Drawings, The Way To Wear 'Em, and News

2010-07-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here's the last of some of the stuff I've been sitting on. There's plenty more that's unfinished and will be posted down the road, so until then, you can sit tight with of these drawings and things. An assortment of inked linework and marker tomfoolery and a comic or something.
Plus, I'll mention some news bits down at the end of the post.

This is a journal comic that I did about a year ago. It was an assignment for my Illustration 3 course where we were supposed to take a piece of bristol or whatever material and had to illustrate what our day was like on August 27, 2009. The piece could be however long you wanted to be but was restricted to being 3 inches wide. Angela has her's posted over here. This is from Japanese 201. I hadn't studied enough over the summer, so..yeah.. it showed. Also, click to make it bigger so you can actually read it.

Just messing with some markers. They're Prismacolor so they didn't lay down to well. Or maybe I'm still not doing it right. I guess I should really start using that blender... Tried playing around with negative shapes, making her dress lineless.

Just a drawing of a skinny girl.

I drew this while still going to the U of A. I was looking for books that had period fashion and other bits on clothing in the 20th century and found this awesome book called The Way To Wear 'Em. Such a good book, if not for the awesome clothing it showed, the cartoons and drawings in it are phenomenal.

Oh wow! I was just looking up a link about the book, an image or anything, and discovered a copy on eBay. I guess the book was full of cartoons because it was a piece on the satire of fashion published by Punch, the British satire/humour magazine. Huh, very cool.
Anyway, I saw this one cartoon about these bohemians and their attire and decided I should probably get down to drawn before I spent more time poring over the book so I drew him. He was supposed to be bohemian but he looked like the Colonel with a crop.

ALRIGHT! NEWSTIME!

It's not life-changing news, but informative updates to keep you in The Know.

So Angela and I made badges for our Chu Chu Chums blog. Little profile badges that you can read and learn things about us, and then click on and be whisked away to our respective blogs.

Speaking of Chu Chu Chums, we're still doing our exquisite corpse comic WHO NEEDS 'EM??? I finally posted the latest installment after...much thought and meditation on where to take the story. Yes.

Here's the latest one.

Be sure to follow through to the blog and read from the beginning if you're just jumping on. It won't take too long to get caught up.

ALSO! SPEAKING OF ANGELA! She has her Chum Bears for sale up on her Etsy. If you missed out on picking up one of her Bears at the Phoenix Comicon or saw them on her blog and have been dying to get one for yourself, now is your chance! Now is your time! Head on over to her Etsy and check out them Chums now! Y'know..before they're gone again.

And it looks like she might take custom requests, too? Huh! If you're interested in that, I would definitely contact her.

That's all for now!

MONSTER MOVIE

2010-07-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

Hey, everyone!

Remember when I said a while back that I would maybe post some pages from my mini comic, Monster Movie, that I did a few months ago? No? Well, okay.

Last week I uploaded Monster Movie to this super sweet site called ISSUU. It allows you to view a book, document, magazine, or in this case, comic in this really nice flash reader. Pretty nice. Pretty clean and easy to use. Pretty pretty.

Open publication - Free publishing - More robot

If it's acting up or Flash just isn't your thing, I also posted all the pages up over on my flickr account right here.

The cover.

Here is the drawing I did up to go with my bio in the back of the book.

This is just to share some of my comics stuff, especially if you missed out on picking up the comic when you were at Phoenix Comic Con in May or if you're on the fence about buying a copy. Because you know...Physical copies are still available for $2 (plus shipping) if you like tangible items over digital ones. Just to let you know.

ADAM

2010-07-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hey, Everyone. Kind of a let down. I know.

Well, it ended up that I was going to try and post stuff before going to Angela's awesome group art show (you can see her new pieces up on her blog HERE) but I didn't. And then try to post stuff last week. But I didn't. So. Oh well. I'll do my best to make up for that. So here is a post today. I would say look for a new post this Friday, but I don't want to get hopes up again. If it does show up, then it'll be a pleasant surprise for everyone! And I will try to continue the Friday posts then.

For now here are some drawings and things.

Some inking practice using a crow quill. I like the colors on this one.

Another lady in shorts. More could have been done with the background probably but I just ended up laying down some simple colors because I didn't want to post the black and white lines by itself figuring it'd be too boring or lacking.

These people were drawn around the same time as the gym people, but I just colored them up recently. Again, I colored them up rather than posting the linework, and posting them together in a single image makes me realize I didn't have nearly as much extra un-posted work as I had thought.

A gritty self portrait. I was feeling kinda ugly and down so, there you go. This was inked with a crow quill, too.

Little Bigfoot. I had a lot of fun playing with the trees, texturing them and the like. This was drawn with a crow quill

More crow quill practice, along with playing with coloring and layers. This one was pretty fun.

Also, I'm an Adamaholic.

a few things

2010-07-03T00:14:00.000-07:00

Ok. It's been a while, so here's a quick break down of some thoughts before I post some images.

It has been a while since I've posted to my blog. I know...I've neglected it pretty badly. I'm hoping I can keep up a Friday update schedule. There's a bunch of stuff I've been sitting on, so there may be a few more posts in-between this and next Friday's update. Other than that, expect Friday updates for now.

Also, just an FYI: sometimes I post things to my Flickr before I post it to here, I think because I feel I don't need to include as much text with the image? And because it's a nice little holding hub for my work? Either way, be sure to check that out, too.

With this and each subsequent post I'm going to try and get back into the habit of capitalizing letters at the beginning of sentences, as well as the letter "I". Probably not too important for my art blog, but I think it's something I need to work on and get back into the habit of doing.
Perfecting the art of the written/typed word.

Another thing that I need to work on that pertains to this blog and my writing skills and what have you: blog commenting etiquette.
What's the word on that?
I'm not talking about "Don't be brash and rude and out of line when commenting on people's blogs" or things of that nature. I'm more interested in how to go about replying to comments left behind by people. Is it best to reply to them in your own comments, denoting when necessary which person you're responding to, or should you comment back to them on their blog? Or...email them back saying thanks? Or just let it be and acknowledge that someone commented? I know I'm pretty guilty of that, so I want to change up my methods.
I've seen a few different things, people replying in their own comments section and other people not responding at all. I...don't really know which would be best to do. I guess the former considering I'm still trying to build a following, so best to act all proper, right?

And now on to the central part of the post: IMAGES!

I tried to do a journal comic a few months ago, but fell behind on it...and just kinda stopped. This is the only day I've inked so far. Inked it with a crow quill. I was a bit rusty with that and it took a bit to get back into...so I'm thinking that's why I fell behind on them? I like how Napoleon turned out. I should probably start this up again.

This is a figure ink sketch I did a few months ago and just finished coloring today. At that moment, I was into drawing women with the heavy eye make-up and making them all fashiony looking.

Feedback on the coloring would be greatly appreciated. I usually use a cell shading method when coloring, but I thought I should try to be more painterly, understand how that works. This one of the first few sketches where I messed around with different opacity levels on the brush. It was fun and cathartic but I felt lost the whole time, which I guess balances out.

And for those who don't know, Angela and I started up a Chu Chu Chums blog a while ago!! We have an official Chums Phoenix Comicon recap on there, plus we've recently started posting a collaborative comic story which is being done all Exquisite Corpse style!

Here are the first two panels (Angela).

And the second set of panels (me).

Check out the blog for more of the comic as well as other Chu Chu Chums updates!!
And the twitter, too! RSS feeds are cool but if you have a twitter account, be sure to add us Chums! That way you'll get updates on when we post new comic panels and about other Chums stuff that goes down.

late PHXCON recap

2010-06-08T17:43:00.000-07:00

oh man, it's been way too long since i last posted, not counting the post i made about the Phoenix Comicon. which went well by the way.

and speaking of Phoenix Comicon, how about some...

PHOENIX COMICON REFLECTION TIME!!!

Phoenix Comicon was a couple weekends ago over Memorial Day weekend where i shared a table with the lovely Angela Montgomery. it was our first convention where we were on the other side of the table and it was great! it was such a good learning experience and definitely gave us a lot to consider for next time: table set-up, book display apparatuses, not going overboard on handing out promo items or just plan on bringing more, banners, etc.

if you weren't there, you can hop on over to the Chu Chu Chums blog to get a closer look at how our table set-up looked.

for the convention i whipped up a new set of pins, girls eating desert, to go with my guys eating food. i also had a special pin that came free when people bought my mini or was available for individual purchase.

and here is my 8-page mini comic, Monster Movie. if you picked up a copy with a white cover, don't worry, this is the same book. i ran out and had to make more copies and thought green would appear more eye-catching whilst sitting upon our table.

plus, if you were there and you saw me, but only from behind the table, then you may have missed me wearing THESE SWEET PURPLE HI-TOPS!!

i think these will be my convention shoes from now on. yes.

there were plenty of cosplayers running around everywhere, something you'd expect from a mainstream comic con. There was a mixture of US comic book cosplayers (Black Canary, Green Arrow, Powergirl, retro Catwoman, Scarlet Witch) and an abundant crowd of anime/manga cosplayers (Inuyasha, Bleach, Naruto, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, some assumed to be from CLAMP titles). the best ones were the obscure ones i wouldn't have expected to see at a convention, like Invader Zim, Gadget from Rescue Rangers, Ponyo, or Flint and Sam from Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.

also, good times were had with friends aplenty, new and old. many from Phoenix and Tucson that Angela and i haven't seen in a lonnnng time.
we saw our friend Toby's student film, Dorm of the Dead (which i starred in as an extra), screened as part of the con's film festival.
it was also a pleasant surprise to see former classmates stop on by, like Adam, Pat and Autumn, Jay and Natasha, and Christi and Bek. so good seeing those guys.
Ken Wright and his awesome family stopped by our booth for a bit before heading over to see his fellow Tucsonan comickers and our friends and yours, Dave Baker and Eric M. Esquivel.
we had the pleasure of being part of Tiny Army, an Phoenix-based independent artists collective, thanks to Tiny Army and Steam Crow founder Daniel M. Davis.
we also saw fellow artists in tiny arms Denny Riccelli and Eric Mengel.
across the way from us Chums were supercool artists and comickers Sam Spina, who has some pretty rad journal comics, and Jon Garza, who has some unbelievably snazzy designs.
we were lucky to have a nice table neighbor, Teel McClanahan, who also happens to be Phoenix-based, as well as write words for books and poems and things.
we also met another Phoenix-based artist, Jennifer Skarupa, who wore the wore a very cute lolita-ish dress, has some pretty cute things over at her site here.
i also had the chance to meet Javier Hernandez, the guy behind the El Muerto comics that the Wilmer Valderrama film was based upon. super nice guy. i've seen him at a few cons before, but never had the guts to go up and say hey to him, so i'm pretty glad i did this time around.
also also...i got some pretty sweet deals from Arizona based comics dealers Spazdog Comics and Atomic Comics. like..a couple trades and a full short box for $30 for myself and a bunch of X-Statix and X-Force comics for Angela. sweet. deals.
it was also nice to see former Atomic employee and comicker Jeff Pina again, as well as meet current Atomic employee and co-host of the webcast I Have Issues Thomas Healy.

sooooooo many peoplllllleee. it was only three-and-a-half days, but it felt like forever (probably cause i was sleepy). even so, i was supersad to see it end, but i am totally bitten by the convention exhibiting bug now and am excited to hit up future cons with my wares!

chummin' it up at Phoenix Comicon

2010-04-25T04:21:00.001-07:00

Update time!!!!

Much..much needed update time...yes.

Guess what's coming at the end of May!! Memorial Day!! No...wait. Yes, it's Memorial Day, but it's also PHOENIX COMICON!!!

And guess who's going to be there?? Levar Burton!!! READING RAINBOWWWWW!!!

But that's not all...Dave Baker and Eric M Esquivel, too!!!!! WHOOAAAAA!!!!!

And also me and Angela! YAAAYYY!!

Angela and I have teamed up to form the awesome conglomerate that will hence forth be recognized as Chu Chu Chums!!

This is the sweet header that Angela and I worked on together (mostly Angela on this one) for our new blog, which you can view over here -> CHU CHU CHUMS

Chu Chu Chums will be the moniker for all of our collaborative efforts, with the blog acting as a place to show off our efforts. The blog will also act as an "inspiration engine" for the both of us as we look to inspire each other and help rev up our creativity.

We will also be doing weekly themed works that we'll try to post every week. It might get shaky in the big lead-in to Phoenix Comicon, but we'll do our best to post regularly. If you pop on over right now, you'll find our most recent posts seen below.

My mermaid.

Angela's mermaid.

And now some words from us Chums:

"Hey everyone, Chu Chu Chums are finally online! Woo! Party time, right? Yeah, well, for us, it's getting-ready-for-Phoenix-Comicon time! AH! EXCITING! Phoenix Comicon (May 27-30) will be our first time exhibiting our work. There will be comics, pins, bears and things... We will do our best to update with our progress as we get closer. We look forward to seeing you at Phoenix Comicon! Fun times!"

YUP!

Tickets are still are still available, so be sure to pick those up ASAP!! I'll also add that we well be at T-134, so be sure to look for us there! WOO!!! Excitinggg!!! Despite all of the hoopla-let's-git-er-ready leading up to the con, I'll try to post more regularly to get you me and everyone who should be reading this blog psyched for the convention!!

NOT HANDS

2010-02-21T11:33:00.001-07:00

remember when Ben freaked out? no? well, he did. but he's not freaking out now, so he's okay.

after i saw he freaked out, i thought i'd freak out a bit, too. tried turning some instastress and tension into productive energy and made a reflective comic about my momentary woes.

Hourly Comic Day 20X

2010-02-03T01:36:00.001-07:00

20X. that's the probably-not-new way of saying 2010.

oh man you guys. i did some hourly comics this year for Hourly Comic Day. February 1st was the official day, but i'm pretty sure you can make any day Hourly Comic Day if you wanted. you can find out more info about it here at the OFFICIAL SITE. and be sure to read John Campbell's comics on that site, too. the guy is crazy dedicated that he does it for the whole month of January as a big lead-in to Hourly Comic Day. crazy. but really good. read mine and then read those.

here are mine.

it felt like a slow, long day, but it was still pretty fun doing these. glad i did it again. yepyep.

noodley doodley doodley

2010-01-28T23:48:00.001-07:00

figure i should post before too long.

nothing too special to post up yet. but i will hopefully soon.

till then, here are some noodley doodley drawings i did a while ago with some colored pens. pretty fun drawing with the colorsss.

can't sleep

2010-01-20T05:34:00.000-07:00

yup. can't sleep.

i didn't want to draw myself looking all sleepy so i drew someone else.
felt like drawing ladies so i drew up a lady.
just messing around. nothing too serious. just sleepyserious.

gonna go try and shuteye now.
overdue for posts, so i will share more soon.

Cat's Don't Dance

2009-12-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

THEY SWING!!!!!

MUSIC for your EARS in the NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Misses Ellen Sunday And Her Fantastic Cats will be swinging round The Trunk Space to rustle up some good times, some trouble and some fun!! they are a sweet Acoustic/Bluegrass/Crunk/Western Swing band hailing from Baltimore!!

this'll be happening on Monday January 4th IN THE YEAR 2010!!

but if you are reading this and are chilling in Tucson, they will be hitting up Dry River the day before, January 3rd IN THE YEAR 2010!!

and if you're somewhere that is not Arizona!!...you'll have to check their myspace to see where else they will be playing on their tour...sorry. :X

also playing at The Trunk Space that night will be local acts Haymarket Squares and Tierra Del Fuego!!!

for more info, check out the poster i did belowwww.

or maybe this pocket-sized, portable flier instead?

and some sketches for funnn!!!

NOW GO SWING SOME!!!

O PIONEERS!!!

2009-12-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

showshowshow

here is another flier for another awesome show that is happening this awesomemonth. it is on December 22nd at The Trunk Space here in Phoenix so there should be plenty of time to truck on over to check them out.

the headliner for the show is O PIONEERS!!!
according to their myspace page, they are an eclectic fusion of folk and hardcore. CRAZY. but not really because they sort of sound like Against Me!...maybe? that's what came to mind when listening to O Pioneers!!! so if you like things that fuse or folkhardcore fusion or Against Me! or just plain old having fun listening to live music, you should check them out!

also! my friend TK's band BANGARANG will be playing with them as well!

for more info, check out the poster below!

or maybe this flier!

or if all else fails, these sketches for the flierposter will work, too.

marker time

2009-11-23T02:14:00.000-07:00

Prismacolor markers are some pretty powerfully potent things. pheww... i wanna mess with them some more, but i think the next time i do, it'll be with an open window and a fan going.

this is a marker piece of a character from yet another project i am trying to work through. her name is Winnifred, but she goes by Freddie. i almost didn't finish this because i thought i was getting a bit overkill and directionless in the coloring, but i'm glad i kept on keeping on and finished it up.

this is just a long tall lady. i tried working with negative shapes first and then went in with a Stabilo pen to do the details up pretty like. kinda tall, her head hit the top of the paper.

Tall Tales!!

2009-11-23T01:42:00.000-07:00

oh man, more shoooowwwsssss, you guys.

i have not seen Tall Tales before, nor have i heard of them before i did this keen flier for their December 5th show at The Trunk Space, but after having heard of them i went on over to their myspace and gave them a listen. and they are good. they are like a....feistier Cat Stevens?

i am not sure, but i do like him. if you disagree with my music comparison let me know, because i need to increase my musical comparison skills for better recommendations.

anyway, here is that poster i made up for his show at The Trunk Space,

as well as a quarter page flier i whipped up right after for easier access.

and maybe some sketches to interest you?

BANGARANNNNNGGGGG

2009-11-23T01:31:00.000-07:00

my friend TK is part of this awesome band named Bangarang.

but when you go see them just yell BANGARAAAAAANNNGGGGGG for the full effect.

man, Hook was good.

and so is Bangarang, so if you are in Phoenix be sure to truck on over to The Modified Arts next weekend, November 28th to check them out. if you are not in Phoenix that just means you'll have to truck farther.

here is the flier i did for his show, chock full of more information to let you know what is up, who is playing, how much it'll be and so on.

to get a feel for Bangarang, listen to them here.

color dump

2009-11-19T17:07:00.001-07:00

here are some colored doodles. just some people. animalpeople, too.

this is a marker piece i drew up of Angela. she's all zazzy and energetic, just like i like her. used Prismacolor on these.

this is something drawn from memory, referrencing some woman's outfit from a film called Media Burn that i watched a few times in various art history courses. i drew and inked, Angela colored it up with Copics.

this is my spirit animal. i'm still trying to work him out some more, figure what he's all about. all i can tell right now is he's all about the milk and cookies. this was colored up in CS4: PS. that's how you acronym it, right? Creative Suite 4 Photoshop?

black and white dumppp

2009-11-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

DUMMPITY DUMMPPPP here are some sketches and drawings and such that i've been meaning to post. bit of this and that. here and there. and everywhere that's on this blog.

Angela and i went to eat at Zachary's, this hole-in-the-wall pizza place in Tucson that serves some crazy good deepdish pizza but it's superheavy on the stomach, too. we felt like two-ton bloated pizza pigs after eating there, satisfied but full beyond belief.

back at Angela's house, i drew her with her laptop and she drew me as a throw rug.

reminds me of something from X-Files. Flukeman maybe? or the bactine bath guy?

i was looking at Sam McKenzie's stuff before i drew this. all tough and punk and black and white.

fancy and frilly.

this is a firepit i drew at Wild Horse Lake up in Flagstaff while on a campout with my brother and his Boy Scout troop.

pretty dots, pretty horns. i think i drew this with this girl Boum's work in mind. also trying to be more realistic and refined over cartoony.

Iron Giant

2009-11-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

hey, before i forget here's some recent art stuff. a few weeks ago The Labyrinth bookstore had a tribute art show for The Iron Giant. they kept getting all of these inquiries, asking if Art of The Iron Giant book was in, but one was never produced. so The Labyrinth took it upon themselves to have a show as a tribute to the amazing movie, putting on an instore display and as well as a cybertronic gallery up on the Iron Giant Project blog.

be sure to check it out! there's a bunch of cool stuff up over there.

and if you don't happen to follow the links, here's my piece for the show.

late Comic Con recap: part2

2009-11-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

part2part2part2part2

now with more photos!!

BEING LOST AND ASSORTED THINGS
a bunch of other good and interesting and stuff stuff happened at the con, too. i saw Ross Campbell again and bought some minis and prints off of him, but it seems like every damn time i manage to swing by the Oni booth when he's there, it's always toward the end of the convention day when i'm all jittery and tired from no food/water and large crowds. so i ended up looking like a doofus when talking to him, but he was still pretty nice about things and signed stuff. oh well, i could try to explain myself in email or comments to him, but that'd be overkill, so i'll just wait until the next con.

double thumbs up from Ross!!

at one point in the convention Angela and i were making through the floor with our portfolios trying to talk to people and ended up getting separated in the large mass near the WB booth. it was hectic because i lost contact with her for a while, but i got to see Chuck from Chuck signing at the booth, so that was neat.
so i set up my phone to get twitter updates from people going to the con and text updates and so on, right? well my phone ended up crapping out on my, overloading from too many texts and shutting off after being on for a few minutes. super sucked ass. my phone ended up dying just before that, so i ended up with no way of getting a hold of Angela. so i rushed around and stopped and rushed around the aisles, torn between trying to find her and figuring that if i stayed in one spot, that she would find me. during one of the stops i saw Claudio Sanchez (frontman of Coheed and Cambria walking by with this looking like "oh man,i hope noone recognizesssss meeeee." i tapped on shoulder and asked him casually where i could buy his new comic (KillAudio) and he pointed the other way, told him i liked his stuff, said thanks and walked in that direction. i'm glad i didn't go up to him all fanboy like to embarrass the shit out of myself like i probably would have done in high school. (i was a big Coheed and Cambria fan in high school. i still am, but i've toned down a bit.) even so, i was still a little giddy when i walked away. while the big people may bring big crowds surrounding them and high security to ward them off, it's still cool how the convention floor makes everyone equals. sort of? yeah?
anyway, so then i rushed around again and then ran by the Dark Horse booth trying to ask if they were handing out their green bags, figuring it to be the top of the hour. these bags were super popular because they weren't like the big plastic bags they had in past years, they were slightly more durable fabric bags. i asked about bags and then went to ask bout the time at one of the tables and realized i was standing in front of Stacy Wheeler, creator of Too Much Coffee Man. so i asked him about the TMCM operas he released in the past few years and how it was doing cartoons for The New Yorker. he was such a nice guy! after he signed my books, i decided to be bold and gave him my business card.
after that, i ran to the trolley, waited forever and ran back to the hotel to charge and use my phone, running into Jay and Natasha when i got back. so lucky. Natasha was nice enough to let me use her phone to call Angela and then they rode the trolley back with me to the convention center to try and find her when she called again to let me know where she was. phewwww. another big thanks to Jay and Natasha for the phone call and support. and the cookies. Jay bought so many cooookieeeessssss so good.
she was up in the portfolio area, so i ran up to meet her and everything was oookay. she said she just went up here right after we were separated. i probably would have been lost on the con floor till it closed if i hadn't have gone back. hahah...ehhh.
another random thing that was great was walking through downtown San Diego in the Gaslamp Quarter just outside the convention center and running into Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. i was with Angela, Dave and Eric, and Natasha K and Margarita from school. i didn't realize what was going on at the time, but Dave and Eric just about shit themselves when they saw them. it was pretty funny and pretty damn cool on Dave and Eric's part mostly because they were able to strike up a conversation with them. a lot of it was Dave and Doc talking about fashion, relating about wearing tight, skinny jeans, and how far you could go leaving your shirt unbuttoned without looking tasteless. i wanted to say something to them, too, but it probably would have been dorky and nerdy with a lot of wheezing and nose wiping and asking if they could sign my volume 1 dvd box that i left back at the hotel. so it was pretty enviable and admirable. good show you two. after Jackson and Doc left Dave sorta broke down with Joy by some building. yes Joy with a capital "J". it's understandable. i probably would have done the same. i think i sorta did that after meeting Scott C, but i'll talk about that in the next part.

Dave and Eric striking a pose with Doc and Jackson.

BEST TIMES
the next part!
so EA had a booth and they were sporting the Brutal Legend demo which i had the great fortune of playing. oh god was it amazing. it was like everything in my life had been leading up to that point. so. amazing. (i know it was the demo and that the games been out for a while, but i can't really play it at the moment...at least until i get a console. but i have faith it'll still be as facemeltingly amazing.)

thumbs up with Scott C!!!

that experience was then topped once i got the guts to go up to Scott C's portion of the table at the Flight/Gallery Nucleus booth. he was the nicest, coolest guy EVER. i'm sure he still is, but man, good meetings! i re-introduced myself, told him i had made contact with him before about interviewing him for my watercolor/illustration classes, and that i was here to say hi. he noticed our portfolios and asked to check them out right on the spot! man it was so cool. and he said such nice things that totally upped my confidence and desire to get out there. i told him about how i wanted to do the same kind of stuff he did, character design and conceptual stuff, and he gave me the low down on what it entailed. that you need to be well-versed in everything, not just characters. need to be aware of environments, vehicles, objects, etc. so helpful.
and i told him that i was pretty decent with watercolors but that i wanted to improve my acrylic painting skills. he then told me, why not have watercolors be my thing? and work that further? i can tell why Tim Schafer made him an art director. very friendly and supportive and good at looking at the positive things, bring the best out and all that, encouraging nudge and such, beside from the amazing art and deadline handling skills. he then invited us to his live art jam that he was going to be doing with Jim Mahfood at some club in the downtown area, which lead to dancing that i'll talk about later.

Oh Man! Tim Schafer!!

i think the same day Tim Schafer was supposed to make an appearance at the EA booth to sign some Brutal Legend posters, so i hightailed it over there when it came to be that time. i was super nervous to meet him, so excited. so when i got up there i showed him that i had my copy of Psychonauts for him to sign, he told me to bust it out and hand it over for some inking. when i opened the case to pull out the cover for him to sign, i found my memory card for my PS2 and was all "OH there it is!" and then he was all "YOU FOUND IT! here, i'll sign that, too." so i now own a signed copy of Psychonauts for the PS2 and a red PS2 memory card with "Tim S" written upon it. man, he was so nice, too. and i told him about how amazing it was to play Brutal Legend, that it was the high point in my life, and that it was then topped by meeting Scott C, and now by meeting him. he was so great. everything that seems fun and awesome and nice about him in his blog entries and video clips was there when i met him. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. i even told him that i was a big fan of his since playing Grim Fandango. when i told him that i beat it, he seemed pretty amazed because apparently not too many people were able to finish all of the puzzles, which actually amazed me. i tried telling him that i used the Prima walkthrough guide and was about to tell him that i had it because of the concept art and his awesome developers diary that was included in the back...but then i was cut off so we could take this awesome photo together. so he probably figures i'm a cheater. A CHEAAATTTERRRRR. BUT I'M NOT...i only used the guide for a portion of the second and third year....so..not a total cheater.
anyway, playing Brutal Legend, meeting Scott C, and then meeting Tim Schafer were pretty much the best experiences i've ever had at a Comic Con. EVER.

DANCING
when i was talking with Scott C, he was super nice to invite us to a live art jam that him and Jim Mahfood were going to be a part of at some club in the downtown area, and gave us a postcard giving more details about it. well i was pretty excited to go because i know Jim Mahfood's a pretty cool dude and produces the most amazing shit at those live shows, and Scott C's stuff is amazing, so it'd be cool to see what he'd pump out at something like that.
it took quite a bit of time to get down there. once Angela and i dumped our stuff off at the hotel after the convention was done for the day, we went back to the trolley and waited for our ride down there. since it was after convention hours, there'd be some change overs we would need to make in order to get there. so we ended up looping back and forth on the train for a little bit because we made the mistake of standing on the wrong platform a couple of times.
on one of the rides, Angela and i sat in this empty seat, which had another empty seat across from it, so we put our feet up, enjoying the ride and anticipation of seeing the live art that night.then in comes this old man, wearing a denim jacket and hat that probably said something about the military. i was hardly interested in looking to see what it said. he carried with him a slightly worn bag and one of the worst attitudes. he stands next to our seats and tells us to put our feet down. "what, do you think you're at home??" something like that. he then tells us that this is his seat and he has to sit on it and doesn't need our feet dirtying or roughing it up. yes, i know it wasn't a good thing to put our feet up like that. people do sit there. if my mother had been traveling with me, she would have scolded me the same, but at least my mother would show loads more courtesy. putting my feet up and then
expecting courtesy from this old man? yes, i did, because that old jerk just gave us crap for where we put our feet and then proceeded to sit down across from us, provided next to little leg room for me to the point that i was knocking knees with him. i have long legs so it sucked and made me very agitated. there was also another couple sitting close to us, but they were sitting opposite each other with their shoulders to the window. there was more than enough room for that old coot to sit next to them, but he had to go and pick a fight with us. whatever. i may come off as bitter with these words, but if you had been there you would have felt the same sour taste in your mouth after riding the rails with him. suffice it to say that it sucked, but at least it was the only crappy thing that happened during the Comic Con excursion. so whheeewwwwww.
i think we had planned to meet up with Dave and Eric at some point, telling them about the Jim Mahfood/Scott C artmagicexperience. while Angela and i went down the main street trying to find where it was we stopped for hot dogs at this cool little hot dog place that was standing room only. i'm not much of a big city person, so places like that seem pretty cool. ordering and eating at a counter or on the go. Toby gave us a rang, so i filled him in on what was going on that night and planned to meet up with him, Chris and their friend, too. after many calls and shouting to each other across the street once everyone was found, we proceeded to the nightclub. it ended up being one of those snooty upscale ones where you had to dress supernicely and wait inline until someone left and then, if you looked okay to the bouncer, you were let in. i'm not a clubber either, but i do have a set idea of how they are thanks to tv, and this one came off as way snootier/haughtier.
anyway, after much deciding and me accepting i wouldn't get in to see them do their thing, we left in search of other spots to hang out at. it ended up being a really fun and adventurous night. a lot of walking up and down of the streets and checking some bags in at a hotel for safe keeping. we ended up at this one club...i think it was called Thin?...and it was pretty crazy in their with the smoke machines and the lights and the everything. like i said, i'm not much of a clubber. i sort of wallflowered it for a bit but there was this one big dude who was dancing over by us that tried to get me to loosen up and enjoy the beats. there was a lot of Michael Jackson played, so Toby cut loose to that. he is a superdancer. not like Michael Flatley or Baryshnikov, but he is up there for sure. it was cool because it was the sort of group i wish i could have stood/danced around with at some of my high school dances, because we were just having fun nerding it up and not giving a shit. awesome.
after three or so hours of hanging out there, Dave and Eric dancing with some latina bachelorette party that was there, and us hanging with that dude (who happened to be tabling at the con. man i love how San Diego gets turned into Nerd Town when Con rolls through.) we went back to the hotel to pick up the bags and parted ways with Toby and his crew.

our first big con together.

i've had some pretty awesome Con experiences before, but this had to have been the best year so far.

THINGS FOR NEXT YEAR
i always tell people who've never been to Con to plan things out and bring supplies for surviving the crowds and lines and whatever may come their way, but i end up forgetting to listen to my own advice next time i go i NEED to remember to bring in plenty of water and bits o' food so i won't end up getting cranky or getting the shakey hands. that's where the blurry photos come from, so i definitely need to beat the shakey hands next year. sick of them showing up when they aren't needed.

i also have to obviously rebuild my portfolio if i plan to bring it again. i ended up bringing my senior portfolio, which was a bit of a scholastic retrospect rather than a focused package, so it wasn't really geared for what i was looking for.
also maybe bring different sets of images to trade out so i have mulitple portfolios for various jobs?
that sounds good. worth trying, right?

EPILOGUE
after that, Natasha was supernice to host me and Angela for a few days in Burbank, showing us little bits of the city and giving an awesome tour of Cartoon Network (her place of work). aside from getting to see Phil again, who was nice enough to give us another tour where we got to meet a lot of other people who worked there (who were also really nice). Natasha's friend Thaddeus showed us his sketchbook, which had a lot of amazing inked drawings colored with Dr. Marten's dyes. i've had some professors recommend them to me before, but seeing them in action like that really made me want to try them out. i also got to see a bunch of the sweet 3D props used for Chowder.
Angela and i went and had lunch with Natasha and Pen at Chipotle, who was was supercool enough to serenade
us while we scarfed down our burritos. Angela, Jay, Natasha and i saw Bruno later that night, too. it was alright. it had it's good moments. not funnier than Borat, but definitely more absurd.
we all went to Hollywood the next night, my first time going there. having lived in San Diego until i was eight, i had never travled any farther north than Disneyland, so this was pretty exciting. but when we tried walking the streets for a bit we got bothered by this bum, so that wasn't exciting at all. kind of like the old man on the train, but ten times worse. at least it was a learning experience if, so i'll be prepared if i ever go to a big city again. upside of the Hollywood trip was i got to see the cement shoe prints at Grauman's chinese Theater and snagged a picture of Steve McQueen's brick.

so. cool.

it was a really great trip, all of which i owe to Jay for getting us to and from San Diego, to Jed for hooking us up with tickets, and to Natasha for being an awesome host in Burbank and showing us her new, awesome workspace/community!!!!

late Comic Con recap: part1

2009-09-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

AUGH!

sorry about that...hopefully nobody's noticed i haven't updated since...August?
this isn't soon for me, by the way.

anyway, i have more things to update with, but i was planning on writing a recap of Comic Con first before i posted anything else...but i guess it's taking longer than i thought and ending up lengthier than i expected, so i'm going to break it down into two installments. let's see how this goes.

somehow i forgot to mention that i went to San Diego Comic Con this past summer. it was a pretty good
experience as always. was probably my seventh time going, or something like that. it was my first time
going with the intention to find work though. before that i was just fanboying it up with the rest of
them. i still managed to do that...which probably wasn't too good, but i still looked for work! i think
the next time i'll try to be more focused about it, plan it out like my friends Dave and Eric
who broke it up into pleasure for preview night, business the next couple days after that, and then
fun again on the weekend.

i don't remember everything because it blurred together so much by the end, which anybody who attends
can agree upon. so i'll just lay down the highlights (yes...these are highlights) of the event with some pictures and links.

BIG THANKS TO JAY
Angela and i left Tucson Wednesday morning with our friend Jay driving. we wouldn't have been able to make it there without him, so a superbig thank you to Jay. (you don't have worry, i already told him thanks tons of times while we were there. probably not enough, but i did tell him thank you in person.) we got to San Diego in the afternoon to check in. after that was all done, Jay took off for LA to pick up Natasha from work. she got time off from work so she was able to attend all of the con if she wanted, so that was awesome.

OH. also big thanks to Jay, because he was the one who secured the room for all of us. so more superbig thanks are in order!

BIG THANKS TO JED
Angela and i got to the convention center a little late because of me and having to wait for the trolley. when we got there we met up with my friend Jed, another friend who i owe a lot for getting me to Comic Con. he was more than kind enough to offer to order extra tickets for me and Angela after 4-day passes sold out. so a superbig thank you to Jed, too!

ANGELA'S FIRST IMPRESSION
it was great once we got inside because Angela's jaw dropped automatically. her first comic con was the Phoenix Cactus Con, so this was a pretty intense step up for her. we tried going through the con with Jed and his friend, but i kept getting sidetracked by some of the booths and the crowds got too thick to keep a group larger than four people together. we decided to meet up again later.

MEETING UP WITH JED
didn't meet up again until a couple days later, but we still met up. we interrupted there lunch, which was pretty funny because their restaurant was only a block down from ours. what wasn't funny was they were eating at Dick's. i don't care if it is their schtick. i don't need that kind of asshole service from a waiter. Jed said he was planning on taking off for home because he had some extra work that his employer wanted done by weekend's end, so i was pretty lucky to see him again before he left.

CRAZY SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS
well...not for me. not complaining. it was just crazy because Angela and I ended up sharing a room with Jay and Natasha, as well as Dave and Eric. Angela and I met up with Dave and Eric after the con closed for the day so we could take the trolley back with them to the hotel while they hurked their two-ton comic manuscripts around with them. somehow Dave hurt his leg earlier that day just from waiting in line, so carrying the manuscripts didn't help him too much. by the end of the convention he was this hobbling little, old, babyman. sad sight to see, but his leg was better the next time i saw him.
anyway, so Dave and Eric ended up sleeping on the floor. sometimes near the door. sometimes under the table. sometimes near the bathroom door.
one night, Natasha's friend and lead from work, Phil Rynda (he's the lead Character Designer on Cartoon Network's new show, Adventure Time), as well as his wife, stayed with us. Natasha and Jay were super hospitable and let Phil and his wife take their bed. sorta made me feel like a bum, so i'll bring a pillow along next time i go, just to switch it up with people.

PANELS
i dunno if i made it to as many panels this year as i have in the past, but i made it to some pretty big ones, so i was super satisfied. the biggest panel for me was making it into the Disney/Hayao Miyazaki panel in Hall H.

-Disney/Miyazaki
i never thought i'd see the inside of that hall! the line usually snakes on forever, and if you don't get there in time, you're totally shitoutofluck. i can say this from experience, because one year Jack Black and Kyle Gass were there to perform and promote the Tenacious D movie and i remembered about the panel 15 minutes before it started so hahah no luck.
anyway, the panel was pretty AMAZINGGG. Angela and i were getting pretty tired out there...i think i got sunburned too (the line wraps around outside the convention center because it's a high capacity meeting hall), but once we got inside we were all superjazzed and mouth-agape and everything! we were handed these spiffy 3d glasses that had sensors in them so people couldn't rip them off, and then we tried to find seats in the almost-filled, half-lit room. it was convenient that they had multiple screens around the room broadcasting the stage because we ended up some where in the middle back.
i can't remember what happened in what order, but it all happened and ended with Miyazki appearing. the panel started with John Lasseter introducing the director of Toy Story 3 and a segment of Toy Story 2 in 3d (the opening sequence where Buzz flies to Zurg's planet, raises hell, and gets blasted to bits). then Lasseter went on introduce the directors from Beauty and the Beast who spoke about the task of reformating the movie to 3d for re-release in theaters on Valentine's Day 2010. they also spoke about the upcoming The Princess and The Frog, showing an awesome clip with Keith David's witchdoctor character. he was singing and dancing and all of this trippy stuff was happening, reminiscent of The Three Caballeros. totally makes me want to go see the movie for his character and that segment. they then showed an unfinished clip from the movie, which was pretty cool because you were able to see the process as it jumped from colored to roughs in an instant. there was also a trailer for this upcoming made-for-TV holiday movie called "Prep and Landing." if you're skeptical about the movie because of the look of the commando elves or it's a holiday movie or whatever, watch the trailer. it's soooo good.
so then Miyazaki came out and everyone went crazy, giving him a standing ovation before he could even say hello.

Lasseter chatting it up with Miyazaki at SDCC '09

it was pretty great to see him. he introduced a clip from Ponyo where she was running by the cliffs on the large waves of fish and spoke about his inspiration for it. i took video of the conversation between Lasseter and Miyazaki, as well as some of his responses from the Q and A. i haven't even looked at it yet to see how it turned out! so once i do, i'll post it...y'know..if anybody is interested.
i felt lucky to see him and thought it great that i got to video tape it, but i feel like i lost a bit of the "magic" because i spent a bit more focus on getting him in the shot and can't even remember what he said. but i can't remember what Lasseter said either...so i don't know if that's any better..hmm...
anyway, i do remember this one girl from the Q and A noted that he featured quite a few strong female characters in his movies and asked him what his intentions were, to which he responded that, paraphrased, he felt women to be strong people, what with birth and all that, and admired that...something like that.
yeah, maybe i'll post the movie anyway.
does anybody know what happens to the video that they use to record the panels? is it archived some
where or is just a for fun thing or whatever?? i always wondered what the hell the point was if you
never saw it outside the convention.

-Adult Swim/Venture Brothers
was lucky to make it to the Venture Brothers panel, too. so much running around and close calls from trying to portfolio and see the convention floor, so i was pretty grateful that Jay and Natasha were holding spots in line for us. i tried to record their panel, too, but by then i had the shakey hands, so i was only able to snap off a bunch of shakeyblurry photos. their panel was more than amazing, too. i think a majority of the panel was just them (Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer, Michael Sinterniklaas (the voice of Dean Venture), James Urbaniak (the voice of Doctor Venture), plus some other producer guys) responding to audience questions, because i don't remember much else in from the main discussion aside from the awesome trailer for season 4.1.
in case you weren't aware, the new season has already started. the third episode airs this Sunday.
man, that panel was a whole lot innuendo, due in part to all of the sexual advances made by Doc toward the people asking questions. the panel wouldn't have been funny if that didn't happen though, and you know it. people asked the panel about continuity, if they would bring characters back, what Doc and Jackson's musical influences/preferences were (because of certain character cameos), who the voice actors' influences were for developing the sound of the characters, which one of them had better legs (which they proudly displayed to the audiences hootin and hollerin), and if they'd play the trailer again. such a good panel. and then after that all of the Venture Bros cosplayers were grouping up outside of the hall for photos, so check out the photos Angela and i snapped up, plus others, HERE.

-Cartoon Network panel
the Cartoon Network panel was some sad fun. it was sad because CH Greenblatt (the creator) and Tara Strong (the voice of Truffles) were saying goodbye to Chowder. he said that the current season is the last, which i heard is because Chowder's voice actor is getting older and his voice is changing, so he won't be the same loveable little apprentice when the show started, so Greenblatt wants to end it now rather than try to continue it and risk the quality. the fun was Thurop Van Orman (creator and voice of Flapjack) and Jackie Buscarino (the woman who sings "TWO PIECES OF CANNDYYYYYY") and Steve Little (Doctor Barber) representing Flapjack. Pen Ward was also there to introduce his upcoming show Adventure Time, which will be out around summer or fall of 2010...i think...
Greenblatt and Tara Strong were also fun, too. everyone just got goofy and had fun talking to each and interacting with the audiences. panels like that are always so damn cool because you can tell that the people, the animators/directors/producers/whatever and the voice actors, really love their jobs and have tons of fun with it. Thurop (used to have) posted videos on his journal of some office guys messing around with these knit K'nuckles and Flapjack masks somebody sent to him, and he and Pen actually put them on at the panel. so cool. and then while everyone was talking about their shows, Pen was cutting up minicomics he had been working on for the con. and man that guy has so much enthusiasm, he kept YEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAing and HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOing. hahah it was so great.

-Bryan Lee O'Malley spotlight
the Bryan Lee O' Malley spotlight panel was fun and informative. it was basically him and Scott McCloud shooting the shit about Mal's comics. McCloud looked into how Mal changed his style, still trying to develop it from his work on Lost at Sea, eventually finding it with the crisp, machine-aesthetic brush strokes evident in the most recent volumes of Scott Pilgrim. he also asked Mal about his music influences, since music is a big part of the story, as well as his life, and talked about how real world settings make a difference when trying to develop a story that will appeal to everybody. (Scott Pilgrim is set in Toronto, where O'Malley lived for some time before moving to the States a few years ago.) they also talked about the upcoming movie and his involvement with that, the development of the characters, how he goes about writing the stories, his love of Sailor Moon, and a little bit about his relationship with Hope Larson, since McCloud deemed them to be one of the "power couples" in comics industry. when McCloud asked about if Mal and Hope were able to focus on their work at home, since they shared studio space, she spoke up from the crowd to say she had an office now (which she's tweeted about). kind of wish i went to see her spotlight panel. maybe another time. did anybody manage to go to it? was it just as fun and informative?..yes? maybe?

hope that wasn't too overkill. be ready because there's still a part 2 coming. more photos and links will be in part 2.
part2part2part2.

also, as a reminder, the rest of my convention photos can be found HERE.

2009-08-20T10:59:00.001-07:00

page1
Originally uploaded by Sootypoo!

jeeze, it's been two months already!!

sorry, about that everyone...again...

like i said in the last post, i was away in Italy for a month long study abroad program, living and studying in the little city of Orvieto. i can do the trip no justice by simply saying that it was fun and exhilarating and a great life changing experience. i didn't journal about my experiences like my trip roommate/now awesome friend, Kyle Arthur, but i did my best to document it photographically. a photo essay of sorts. i've posted only a small fraction of my trip to my flickr account, but i plan to add more, as well as annotate the present photographs, soon. i'll also try to post pictures and small anecdotes here, too.

here's a link to the trip set: Orvieto (European) Trip

a big thing for me on the trip was i had my first moleskine to sketch in. it wasn't really a moleskine though...was labeled "A la Modeskine" on the tag on the back. but it's essentially the same thing. using it was a really great experience, trying to get myself to draw more often, draw what i saw, work pocket size. it was great!

i managed to post the sketchbook to my flickr and am attempting to post one of the images to my blog via flickr.
don't know if i'm doing it right... never done this before, but i'm sure i'll figure it out.

anyway, i'm currently working on some stuff and i've scanned a bunch of older (within the past year) drawings and sketches that i will dump on here soon.

SOON

it's time to

2009-05-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

it's time to update. thats. that's what time it is.
jeeze...a month? i'm sorry.
it's been a while so it would be good if i did. just to get some fresh content up, add to the little i have right now, maybe keep those who've sort of been following this a little interested to continue following.

here are things that i made for my final portfolio exit interview for the VisCom program at U of A, stuff i touched up for that, and something i did that wasn't part of that.

these are a few character designs i had been playing with for the last project in my senior capstone. i had some others (i'll try to post those later) but they didn't seem to stick together as well as this group did. so i colored them up and pasted them together in Photoshop. starting to get used to the program's basic mechanisms, but could still stand to learn more about it. finished this up to use in my portfolio for my exit interview.

this is just the colored version of the Heads for Sale guy i posted a few entries back. not much else to say, other than i like how the colors turned out.

OH, and if anybody is interested, i was talking with my friend and she manged to help me out with screenprinting some shirts of just the straight inks of Heads for Sale. So, if anybody is interested in purchasing a shirt, let me know.
i'll post more on this in another entry, hopefully soon? with a better example of the art and the placement on the shirt and prices and everything.
just saying so i can get people excited and possibly interested in grabbing one.

i was playing around with some Stabilo pens, just playing with circles and working on drawing straight to pen. the fancy, hip new scarves a lot of people seem to wear nowadays. or maybe just scenesters? maybe. i'm out of the loop on trends most times. just remember this asian kid wearing one when he came into the coffee shop.
the circles were pretty challenging. not too used to just doing abstracted doodles or patterns or anything like that. need to work on that some more.
i included this in my portfolio as well. thought it was a fairly good piece, which my professors agreed upon, but thought it a bit too rough, so it'll be part of my rough, sketchy, process examples then. i guess? yeah, i'll go with that.

this was the irrelevant, just for fun piece. this was for Harvey James' sweet meme calling for Cat Girls in Hats that he busted out at the end of the activity week he hosted on his livejournal. was especially cool cuz he was nice enough to extend the deadline of the meme an extra week, so i whipped this out later that night after i finished up with my exit interview. i think it turned out pretty well. would maybe redo it or pick another catgirl to work with. might do that too..hmm.
but if you haven't seen it, you should definitely go over there because a lot of people turned out some awesome catgirl reinterpretations, including Harvey James himself.

i'm hoping i will be able to make at least one post in the next month, but if not expect an update from me in July. reason partly being that i recently graduated!

YAY.

but...technically i'm not fully graduated....

huh??

yeah...i'm actually short two credits in an upperdivision VisCom course. most likely because of taking Japanese the past three or so semesters WHICH I DO NOT REGRET. just....sucks that i'm short these credits.
so i'm going to be taking a summer course to make up for it, specifically taking advantage of the Orvieto Arizona in Italy study abroad program. i will be making books and working on picture book development in Italy! will be tons of fun. i also managed to score a flight to Paris during the three day weekend that takes place during the program, and will be hitting the town with Angela. wooooooooooooo.
will definitely be coming back with fancy French and Italian things, along with plenty of comics and pictures.

like i said, i will do my best to update during the program, but if i fail to do so...expect another large lag in my updating..hahah...ehh...and i will be starting up a more consistent posting schedule in July.
so until then! have a good summer/winter!!

sketches and a foto

2009-04-14T01:42:00.000-07:00

i figured it would be good to try and stay consistent with posting, keep up the rhythm that was started up again by the last post. so here are some sketches of some animal-y people.
i was originally thinking this blog should be used for finalized, professional-type pieces, but whatever. i think using it as a housing unit for ideas, in-progress, sketches, fotos, whatever, as well as finalized, would be best. i can save all of the finalized stuff for a website or portfolio unit.

but enough of that.

here's Chevre from Animal Crossing (Wild World, specifically).

she's my favorite character, or at least favorite in my village so far. hope neither she nor anybody else has moved away. haven't played in a few weeks. eeshh....

and here's Carl the Lumberjack Elephant. my co-worker/friend Rian from the cafe said i should draw him, so i did. good call on everyone's part. i think he turned out pretty awesomely.

i discovered Carlos Nine's work last semester and had the need to draw an anthropomorphic/superdeformed woman, so that's where this bunny lady came from.

Bryan Lee O' Malley held a contest earlier this spring for people who couldn't make it to New York for the midnight release of Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5 so they would have a chance to win the sweet stuff the New York people had a chance to pick up. For the contest, people had to submit an image that was clever, funny, cute or whatever would most likely snag them the prize. it also had to show a plausible reason why they couldn't make it out to the New York release, including some sort of local landmark to signify that. I was in Tucson during the release and couldn't think of any interesting landmarks since i'm not too familiar with the city, so I teamed up with my friend Toby, who's a native, to take pictures for the contest.

we didn't win. which is okay, i guess. it was still pretty fun.

you can check out this image, as well as Toby's, over here in Mal's flickr set.

fixed spots

2009-04-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

i fixed up two of the three spot illustrations for the juried VisCom show U of A had last week/weekend. it's an annual event that spans a week with 2 days for submitting pieces, 1 day for alumni lectures/same day for them to judge pieces, and then the opening of the show the next day, which also features an awards ceremony.
this was the first year i actually got something into the show, so that makes me 1 for 3 in submitting pieces to it. i submitted 7 but managed to get 1 in, so that's pretty..decent. yeah. good to think positive because some people didn't get in, so there's a brightside.
the piece i submitted also won bronze in character design so that was pretty awesome, too. hoooraay!

this year was kind of depressing for the event because it didn't seem like as many people from this year's graduating class cared about going to the lectures, the show opening/award ceremony, or the dinner that followed like last year's group of seniors did. very discouraging on my class's part. sad face all the way -> :C

anyhoo, here are the touched up spot illustrations, improved upon from last time.

the articles i used for this spot illustration exercise can be found here:
The President Will See You Now
Fetal Foreclosure
Stop Whining About Facebook's Redesign

spot illustrations

2009-04-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

This is just for a presentation for my capstone course. Things will be tweaked and refined later.
But for now spot illustrations for some articles on the online newsjournal Slate.

Hourly Comics 09

2009-02-27T01:36:00.000-07:00

these are comics i did for Hourly Comics Day which was on February 1st. pretty bad since it's almost a month later, but like i said i'm going to be better about posting more regularly.

anyway, i thought John Campbell was the one who invented Hourly Comics but a friend informed me that someone most likely came up with it before him. i now feel as though i've been spreading lies, telling everyone of his greatness due to this wonderful invention. either way, he made them more popular with his annual event which is still a pretty great thing.
if you haven't read his comics you should check them out. and if you haven't read anybody else's comics from the event then you should too, which you can do by following the links i placed above. they will lead you through a maze of bewonderment until you come upon your final destination of The Forum where a bunch of people posted theirs.

and if you haven't read my comics yet, well...just take a look below.

Heads for Sale

2009-02-26T21:57:00.001-07:00

wow. it has been way too long since i last updated my blog. i'm sorry everyone. i'm sorry blog. i'll do better this year, starting with this month.
and this image.

this is something i came up with for my resume for my illustration capstone. it's supposed to be like Caps for Sale, but instead it's "Heads for Sale". I've been drawing lots of faces recently and thought it would be best to make use of them this way. and here's an extra image i'm posting. was going to try and whip up a tshirt design for the Japanese Association at the university, but i didn't make the deadline in time. think i might try to reuse him for a shirt design or something. loosely influenced by Powerpuff Girls. y'know...that one episode where they had that giant mech and had to fight some monster similar to this. was a really awesome episode.

illustration 3 final

2008-12-13T13:55:00.001-07:00

i haven't posted in forever. i'm sorry. hopefully i'll be better about these things. part of not having updated recently is because i wanted to edit some of the images a bit more before posting them. i also wanted to add a big ole' write up accompanying them to explain my process and thoughts. that's nice, but i shouldn't have to worry about that and should just let the image speak for themselves. i'll do my best to add a write up here and there, but i'll just leave it up to the images for the most part.

starting next post...
but i'll try to be a brief with this.

my Illustration 3 final, which was half of the course and the grade for the course, was a project we had to design ourselves. this proved to be pretty tough for me cuz there was so much i wanted to do and couldn't narrow it down to anything at first. long story short, i ended up choosing something loosely focused around character design, so my Illustration professor suggested i should come up with three highly contrasted characters and set them in two highly contrasted settings. so here they are. one setting is playing video games where all the focus is on the screen and the other setting is school where the focus is everywhere and nowhere.

yep! and now that school is almost over, i'll focusing my attention on Super Mario Galaxy this winter so i can finally beat the damn thing. hooraay!

The Fleas of De-Industrialization

2008-10-05T02:25:00.000-07:00

figured it best i post before i put it off any longer.
this is an assignment that was due two weeks ago for my digital illustration course. the topic of the illustration focused on the De-Industrialization of America. talking with my friend, we thought that it was the assignment where we had to do a bit of digital work first and then print it out and continue to work on it with paint and then scan it back in for finishing touches...but i guess it wasn't. oh well, though because it worked out a bit easier doing it this way.
i sketched something up (the something being the two figures: a Northeast factory worker and a cowboy from the Southwest). scanned it. did line work in painter. printed it out on watercolor paper. watercolored over it. then scanned it back in.
to fix up the minor error i had when turning it in, i did the same process with a sketch of fleas and then layered it over a zoomed crop of the two figures and preceded to blur it to give motion.

i was originally going to focus on outsourcing as a major cause of the De-Industrialization of America, but had read in a wikipedia article that de-industrialization also occurred because of internal problems. mainly that factory workers from the midwest and northeast had migrated to the southwest and southeast for more jobs and for something more open and free, since this migration happened in the early part of the 20th century. so i decided to go with fleas moving from a Northeast factory worker to a Southwest cowboy because the cowboy looked healthier and brighter compared to the greyed, overworked factory worker. sunnier skies and more blood to the west.

i dunno why i'm explaining all of this. i think it's because it's what i'd probably say for a critique. explain myself = explain my process.

portrait of Aurum

2008-09-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

Digital Illustration project that was due last Friday. we were paired up with students from our class and were then assigned to do a portrait of them that captured their "essence." we were also supposed to incorporate into the composition some of the objects that the other student found.

i was paired up with my girlfriend's friend, Aurum. i'd say she's my friend now, too, since learning more about her and talking to her more.

what i tried to depict in this image is how Aurum, a native of South Korea, is will be facing a predicament once she graduates. she's only here on a student visa, so unless she can find work right out of school, she will have to return home. she wants to stay and is hoping to find work in California, possibly go into animation (3D stuff like Kung-Fu Panda. i guess the character designer is Korean as well.). her father on the other hand is wanting her to return home and find work there.

the balloon from her cell phone is in the shape of Korea because it is her father calling her home. i tried to take a portion from Aurum's shoe and layer it into the piece. it felt like i was just slapping stuff into the background, but the further i got it seemed like i was trying to emulate waves. waves with detail and ornamentation from Korea that carried her to the United States. on the left side of the image i tried to have the final destination of Arizona, where she wants to stay. i had fun manipulating her lipstick into the shape of cactis. also have a chain running from her phone to her wrist because she said that it's always by her side, so i wanted to embellish that by chaining it to her. also thought the inclusion of Korean would be a nice touch, too. Aurum's saying, "Hello, how are you?" while her father is saying her name in Korean.

i had fun with this. liked how it turned out. also was well received by Aurum and my professor, so that was great.

this class is supposed to be about progressing our skills in a digital medium while already possessing a basic understanding of Photoshop. sadly i have none of that right now (i did this in Painter IX) so i'll need to jump on that and check out the tutorials posted...somewhere. i think U of A's computing resource site?

iscribbblesss

2008-09-07T15:21:00.001-07:00

yep! this time with my friend Jed. (usually i use iscribble with Angela. i'll have to post those soon.)

did this with Jed last night (090608) and i really like how it turned out. i was feeling pretty loose and ready to draw so you could see that in my barbarian girl. i had the idea that we should draw our significant others all beefy and amazonic, but i guess we took a more barbarian approach on this one.
he drew up his wife, Belem, with the awesome skirt and Xena-influenced outfit. i really like how he did the detailing on her, too, as well as the axe. pixel art is really awesome when done well.
i drew up my girlfriend, Angela, as the barbarian on the right. i was going with this one pose that wasn't work and decided to change it up and trade out her other hammer for her mom's dog Momo. i thought she turned out pretty well over all. tried to make sure i got her face and hair down, as well as her long torso. thought hammer was pretty sweet, too.
i had her saying that she'd kill me for drawing her like this because during the summer i was showing a coworker my sketchbook and she was saying that i should draw Angela like some of the muscular women i had been drawing. i told Angela about that and she was all like "NOOOOOOOOoooo. Don't draw me like that!!" so i thought it'd be interesting to try drawing her like that anyway, and brought it up to Jed who liked it and went along with it when we were iscribbling.
it was funny though, because i thought she would freak out when i showed her today, but she said she really liked it. (only cuz she didn't recognize it as herself. makes sense.) i told her i wouldn't spell it out for her but then i told her anyway and she was all like "WAHH?" but she just laughed and said she still liked it. thought it was funny that i included Momo and all that.
wasn't as bad as i thought!!

update: burned toast

2008-09-05T09:11:00.000-07:00

need to update. too long since last update.
so i thought i'd post this sketch i did last night.
i've had the idea for a while now to start doing a daily drawing or something or other showing what my girlfriend wore that day because a lot of the outfits she wears are really cute.
and she's pretty cute anyway, so good outfit or not, it'll still be an enjoyable image.
so....i guess i should call thisss.....Angela's Outfit-A-Day? yeah, i'll just use that.
no...Angela-A-Day?
or Angela's Outfits since i'm not sure if i'll be able to do it every day since i won't see her every day due to work and not living together. but i'm going to try and shoot for something every time i see her.

The Amazing Adeline: Girl of Wonders in "Raisin Hell"

2008-07-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

i finally finished my mini comic for my Sequential Arts class this summer.
here's the cover:

if anybody is interested in a copy, feel free to e-mail me.
i may try to post the first couple pages later this week, generate more interest.
i may just leave it as a class project though, and move onto another comic project.
who knows.

color test

2008-07-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

i had wanted to do something for the competition that Jacob Covey held on the BEASTS! blog earlier this year. someone hadn't replied to him in time about their submission so Covey held an open call for entries asking people to submit pieces featuring a creature/beast/monster/thing that has some basis in fact, like folklore (ie. Thunderbirds..some..thing) or possible sightings in the news (ie. The Lochness Monster, Bigfoot).
the call for entries actually closed a long while back but you can check this entry for more info if you're interested.
i tried testing out materials on illustration board because i thought it'd be good to make it on something on a nice paper/board. this of course ended up being last minute for me, so i never submitted anything. oh well.
Angela was able to submit something though, so you should go check out her Korean Kumiho here.

watercolor and brush and ink and a little bit of crowquill on the left side. the figure on the right is marker and micron. illustration board is pretty good for absorption.

mal makes music

2008-07-05T13:32:00.001-07:00

if you haven't listened to Bryan Lee O'Malley's music project Kupek, then go listen NOW. it's awesome, laid back stuff, but also some upbeat awesome stuff, too. you can also check out his PureVolume profile here.

balled hair

2008-06-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

sketched this on the back of a drink order slip at work. i wanted to draw a girl with different hair and thought balled hair would look different and quasi-futuristic or something like that.
drew it with yelloworange colored pencil and then went back over with mechanical pencil.

Jams with Jed

2008-06-29T17:44:00.001-07:00

i was talking with Jed on msn and said i'd be willing to do some warm up sketches with him since i needed to warm up a bit more, too. he sent me a scan of sketch he just did and i worked off of that.

this was his. ^
these were mind. v

this was supposed to be the couple going to someone's place to look at a car after seeing an ad in the magazine. apparently the gentleman's really skilled with his words.

with this one, the couple saw the amusement park had a new ride that looked tempting but it wasn't as fun as the guy hoped.

man, i really need to draw more autos.

COFFEE MONKEY

2008-06-24T00:52:00.000-07:00

thought i'd better get this blog rolling.

i doodled this little thing around April this year while i was at work. i work at the coffee shop at my student union, so that's why he's a coffee monkey.
i inked this with a Micron Graphic 1 pen.