Fresh Ink

I've not been doing very well at keeping up the blog these days, so many things to do these days! I'm sorry I neglect you, blog. I'm sorry!

With the end of the school semester I've been working full force at Project Pepperpot, the comic collaboration I've mentioned in the past with Anna-Maria Jung and Daniel Scribner. The comic is going great, though my speed at inking is a bit slower than I would like to admit. At this point I've just finished inking page 28, Anna-Maria is miles ahead in the pencils, and Dan is doing an amazing job in giving us a complex script full of silly jokes, action and loads of adventure.

Now, those who know me (or who have seen pictures of me, at least) know that along with art, I am also quite fond of getting tattoos, I have several large color pieces and am always looking for more. I'm also usually trying to invite my non tattooed friends to experience this very permanent art form; "It's magical!" "You'll get addicted" "It totally doesn't hurt" - these are the things I tell them, all of which are true.

I've never felt so positive about a project before, I do really love working as part of a team. Anna-Maria and I work great together, and I'm really having sooo much fun - so much fun, in fact, that I suggested we get a tattoo together to commemorate how terrific the project looks so far - and lucky for me she agreed!

We went decided to try East Side Ink, a lovely tattoo shop on the LES on Ave. B, between 6th and 7th. I had never been to this particular shop before, but it had some great reviews and a really wonderful portfolio of work for all of its artists. I had the honor of being inked by Mark Harada, and Anna-Maria was tattooed by Kristi Walls (you can find her portfolio on the ESInk website), both wonderful artists and super nice people like everyone at ESI (seriously, go check them out if you're in the area and looking for some sweet tattoos).

The design we chose is a symbol representing the the city of Acco, where our comic takes place. I had made this design as part of the concept work a few months ago, and we decided this would be best as our tattoo design.

Pre tattoo anticipatory excitement!

Anna-Maria is prepped and ready for a needling!

See? It totally doesn't hurt!

Pain? What pain? I eat pain for breakfast. With bananas.

This is our edgy action shot of me getting inked.

Anna-Maria got her tattoo in black and white, looks AWESOME!

I went for color, I love color! This took just over and hour.

Post tattoo drinks and food at Stand4. 

And there you have it! Another of my friends is brought into the fold of tattooed people! Now theres just the waiting for the tattoo to heal, today I'm definitely a little sore, but the pain is always worth it in the end.

Want to keep up with what's happening on the comic? Along with our Pepperchronicles website (which has lots of behind the scenes art!) you can also get updates on our Facebook fan page - why don't you go and follow us already?!

A Return from the Depths of the Semester

Geeeeeez, what a semester! It was pretty rough at the end; I really learned a lot about painting with watercolors aI also learned that I need to work on my time management skills! You can see a lot of the preliminary work on my Tumblr page, but here's a roundup of some of my pieces from the last few months: 

A Self Portrait: I am very humble.
Ink wash

Based on the song "(Nothing But) Flowers" by the Talking Heads
Watercolor

I will never underestimate the value of value again.
Pencil

The Vampyr - Digital

Gretel Had Enough - Fairy Tales Assignment
Digital  

A Pepperpot Study: A Tribute to Mike Mignola, master of composition.
Watercolor

I'm excited that the semester is over, because now I can get back to working on The Pepper Chronicles, my comic project with Anna-Maria Jung and Daniel Scribner. And hey! You can get all of the updates on the comic by following us on Facebook!

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!

Dr. Sketchy's NYC

I went to my first Dr. Sketchy meet up here in NYC last week, the theme was Godzilla! Dr. Sketchy's is hosted at the Bowery Poetry Club, the costumes are fun and silly and there's booze and prizes for silly drawing!

Warm up, one minute sketch!

I wish they had used the tiny, old school Godzilla head more. This was the only time the model used it.

The theme for this one was an epic battle between Godzilla and someone. Not remembering how to draw Ultraman, I made a knockoff Ultraman and won an enormous, squishy narwhal!

Drawing @ SOI

Last night I went to the Society of Illustrators for a little costume drawing. The theme was Bastille Day so the ladies were dressed up as saucy French women; they brought bread as a prop which broke soon into the drawing session. After the bread broke, there was a bready battle!

Life Drawing @ the Society of Illustrators

Now that school is out I have time to head to the Society of Illustrators for their weekly model drawing nights (with live music, SO cool). This time around they had a lovely full figured model who was lots of fun to draw. 

This is my favorite of the sketches done in crayon.

Life Drawing @ the Society of Illustrators

The Society of Illustrators has life drawing nights (with live jazz and wine!); below are the results of an evening. The models were a Gothic Lolita character and a Mean Clown (with scary big nose and The Crow makeup).

Oh boy!

More from Photog Class

Old New Photos

Self Doubt at 2 a.m.

Photography Class

I had forgotten how much fun it is to develop my film, it's so old school. These were taken with a Nikon FE10.