Zap! Boom!! Pow!!! [MORE TEES]

Geez, I swear I keep meaning to update and I just kind find the moments - things are going full steam right now!

Last time I posted my first tee design Love Robot had just been released on teefury.com; now, a little over a month later I have had two more prints over on shirt.woot! It seems lots of hard work and perseverance are working off right now, whew! It's really great to see people wearing my shirts! Thanks to all of you who are buying the shirts, and making these designs a success!

superbotanical study - printed at shirt.woot Feb 19, 2012

of monsters and rpgs - available at shirt.woot Mar 19-25, 2012

I've got some great new designs in the pipeline, I hope to have even more prints make it to the assorted tee sites soon.

If you're looking for other things to buy, you can also check out my updated Society6 and Spreadshirt shops (which includes kids size shirts!) - now with  more stuff to spend your money on! YEAH!

I hope to get a few more updates out here soon, I have so much to update you on!

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".

The Road Trip II

I told you we should have asked for directions.

The Road Trip

...is that a lighthouse?

WIP :: Things to Come - Lions and Peppers

I've been busy drawing away - here's a glimpse at things to come!

A kingly lion!

A stand of colorful peppers!

WIP :: Things to Come

Anna-Maria Jung and I are collaborating on something new, here's a hint of stuff to come!

Threadless :: Rise Above & a bunch of monsters

Some quick stuff for you ---

A new shirt to vote on!

Monsters!

Super Secret: Project Pepperpot

So, there's a rumor out there that maybe I'm working on some kind of super amazing collaborative project with the ever formidable Anna-Maria Jung. This project may feature lots of awesome fantasy stuff and a lot of silliness.

Here's a first glimpse of the awesomeness in store!

The Good (model sheet by Anna-Maria):

The pointy (sketch by me):

The intensely awesome (pencils and colors by Anna-Maria, inks by me):

Buildings, buildings, buildings

Boy do I love drawing buildings...

WIP :: Orc v. Dwarf

New project featuring medieval fantasy characters fighting. 

Yes!

The Lady Knight :: WIP

...this needs a background...

WIP :: Super Secret Project! - COLORS?!

So this is me, pulling my hair out, wondering whether these colors look right. Do these colors look right? I can't tell! I CAN'T TELL!

On the upside, almost done and before the deadline, no less! *fist pump*

WIP :: Super Secret Project! - final inks

Geez, I didn't think I would ever get those pencils done. Now I have one week to finish coloring. GAH! GAAAH! AAAAAH!

Can she do it? You bet your bottom I can.

More to come; same bat time, same bat channel.

WIP :: Super Secret Project!

First post of the new year, awww yeah.

Here's a super secret WIP for you!

wip: The Apothecary - pencils v2

WIP: The Apothecary - pencils

WIP: The Apothecary - color