Blast off! [PICTURES!]

This year seems like it's started off with a bang! I've been busy with lots of projects since the very beginning, and it feels great. Album art, tee shirts, demons and a card game - plus the start of school - January has been a blur!

But not only have I had projects, I am getting my first solo tee printed at teefury.com! This little love robot will be available for the entire 24 hours of FEBRUARY 5, 2012 - for each shirt sold, I will receive one American dollar.

I'm contributing an illustration to the Ars Goetia: 72 Demons project. My choice was Duke Aim. This one is due really soon, and as usual - I have no idea what I'm going to do about color. I'll be sure to post the final piece once it's done.

This is an ice cream golem. He's part of the pieces I'm doing for the nifty sounding Jak and Poi Cards project, up on Kickstarter. I was definitely thinking of the Thrice Cream Man from the cartoon series Chowder. Scoop in  mouth time!

I'm also doing some album artwork for the Staten Island band Tryptophan. Here's a dude exploding.

Through all of this Team Pepperpot has been going strong, we've got a great comic coming together. Most especially I love collaborating with Anna-Maria Jung and Daniel Scribner.

I've been surprised to find out how much I enjoy drawing layouts and backgrounds. Here are some of my favorites, so far:

There's still a long way to go on Project Pepperpot, I can't wait to see how it's going to unfold!

With all of this going on, I'm also just heading back to school. This semester seems like it will have a few great teachers (along with the usual crazy ones). I'm hoping to have lots of great new stuff as the semester goes on, new stuff that isn't all life drawing. I'm excited to get deeper into the illustration side of things.

As usual, keep your eye here at Cubefarm for more news as the month rolls on! If you're feeling more social you can follow me on Tumblr and Facebook!

Art School :: Uuuuughhhh

While the majority of my classes this semester are pretty good, there's always one that drives me insane.  It's been a long time since I've had an art teacher that has given me an assignment that has made me so irritated; The project, in a nutshell, is to make a huge drawing on illustration board, from magazine reference. The layouts were put down by the teacher (she claims the students have never been able to make good layouts in past years), and we're supposed to "find the shapes" in each figure - apparently this makes every drawing good "always, every time, no exceptions". 

Apparently.

In any case, I'm making the best of this project and really working on those cross hatch and stippling skills, I'm actually pretty happy with how it looks so far - considering I'm less than thrilled with the subject matter itself. I'm also head over heels about working on illustration board, which the ink flows over and sits on the surface without any bleeding or buckling. It's a thing of beauty, I tell you.

I started this out by using the same process I used in my Illustration 101 class, blowing up the reference image and laying it out using a transfer sheet, then just inking it in as I go with brushes, dip pens and a .07 marker. 

Now it's time to get back to work, this thing is due in the morning.

Portrait from Photo :: Process

I'm taking a really great illustration class at FIT with Salvatore Catalano. With some tricks I was able to paint this (fairly impressive, IMHO) portrait in acrylic.

The trick was making a transfer of the original photo then slowly working in each of the values. Finally, using some matte acrylic medium to thin the acrylic a dry brush technique is used to blend the values together.

The finished piece, it looks like me!

Almost done! At this point Sal told me I needed to soften all the hard edges (like around the shirt and the hair) as well as adding a tiny bit more value to the nose. The softened edges really MADE the piece.

The ugly baby phase. Ugh, at this point in the painting I was a little worried it would never look good. An important lesson as an artist is to know that you just need to keep working no matter how fugly a piece is looking -- it will eventually get better!

This is the first pass at the major values over the tracing of the photo.

The Zombies Ride at Dawn and the Magicians Assistant

Over on my Facebook Fan Page I asked fans to suggest something for me to draw. The suggestion given was "zombie unicorn" and this is what I came up with along with a quick show of the process. this was definitely one of those lucky times where the first sketch and the finished piece look pretty much the same!

First there was the sketch... 

Then there was the cleaned up pencils. 

Then comes inks and colors!

I also participate in the Today's Doodle blog, an excellent repository of talent and daily drawings from around the world. Here's one of mine from the topic for "magicians assistant".

Supercat

Supercat is unhelpful...

American Gods Art Jam

I got to be part of a really excellent art jam over at SuperPunch - there were so many great illustrations! I feel great being part of such an esteemed group of illos.

This illo gave me lots of trouble, it really took awhile for me to figure out exactly how I wanted to show Mr. Ibis & Mr. Jacquel. Below are a bunch of my sketches, the early colored work, and finally the finished piece.

Make sure to check out the rest of the great illustrations up on SuperPunch!

Of Tees and Tshirts

Big news folks, if you don't know already, my Doctor Who tshirt collab w/ Anna-Maria Jung is up for purchase at J!NX. Available in ladies and gents fittings!

The Doctor loves silly hats!

Speaking of collaborations w/ Anna-Maria, here's one that just finished voting on Threadless! This might be my favorite collaboration yet. Check out Anna-Maria's blog for a nice recount of our process working as a team.

Ninjas! Dinosaurs! Space! Melee! EPIC!

Here's an illo I've just finished - maybe it will be a tee shirt somewhere? Maybe not. Either way - I've had this idea about meerkats as hipsters for awhile, and I finally got around to drawing it!

Also, I've got a random assortment of shirts up at Tilteed and DesignbyHumans for voting. Why not leave a few comments?

DbH: Deep City

DbH: Fail Bird

Tilteed: Rising Above

Tilteed: Nerdy Ganesha

Expect a few more tshirt subs soon, as well as some other goodies. 

That's all for now!

threadless :: the children of the night...

• I seem to be on a drawing spree! Another Threadless sub based on the Dracula quote:

• Listen to them - the children of the night. What music they make!

Threadless :: Super Botanical Study

I really adore the old botanical illustration style and nature identification books in general. All those details, those lovely watercolors, that illegible writing! 

Here's a play on those illustrations featuring creatures from one of my favorite video games. 

Mushrooms, piranha plants, koopas and goombas - oh my!

Threadless :: Moonlight Foxes

Here's my latest submission at Threadless.

Sometimes an idea comes out pretty much fully formed, this was one of them.

A fully formed sketch! I don't think I even drew a thumbnail for this one.

The finished piece took a few hours, but came together with seemingly little effort. I think it looks great!

Threadless :: The Fight for the Throne

Here's an homage to the Game of Thrones (both the books and the HBO series, which I am thoroughly enjoying). This piece took me FOREVER - but I think it came out great! 

The dragon, the stag, the wolf and the lion: who will win the throne?

Threadless :: Seacity

Coral! Fish! Buildings!

Buildings, buildings, buildings

Boy do I love drawing buildings...

Fighters!

For an upcoming Burning Wheel project. 

Yes!