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!

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!

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!

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".

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!

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 :: 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!

Spiderman #666 Variant Comic for Jim Hanley's Universe

For the release of Amazing Spiderman #666 (written by Dan Slott, penciled by Stefano Caselli) Marvel gave comic shops the option of placing an image of their choosing on the cover of the Daily Bugle. 

My local shop, Jim Hanley's Universe (which is full of awesome, btw), asked me to come up with an image for their variant. After some thinking I came up with the below illo of long time comic enthusiasts and managers of JHU Nick Purpura (on the left) and Ronnie Hill with his darling babe (in the middle) just moments after Spidey has saved the beloved and iconic shop from the evil clutches of evil (alas, Nick got a little scuffed up in the process).

You can swing by (haha) Jim Hanley's Universe (located in midtown Manhattan, across from the Empire State Building as well as in New Dorp, Staten Island) to pick up this special variant today!

Even babies love Spider-Man!

A long box of comics with my illo! Yes!

Threadless :: Temp Tat Challenge!

Threadless is having a temporary tattoo challenge to which I submitted the below!

Show your love by clicking this tasty link!

Shirts Shirts and more Shirts

Hey there kiddos! Some new stuff for the month of July!

FIRST, you can buy stuff with pictures I've made on it! Yes, it's true, I've opened a Spreadshirt shop where you can acquire a shirt with everyone's favorite Nerdy Ganesha image!

You can ALSO go to MY CAFEPRESS SHOP and find a pint glass with the same image on it.

You can expect to see more designs up soon. If you have suggestions for products or favorite illustrations let me know!



Also up, is a new Threadless design featuring many, many bunnies. Gosh, I really, REALLY love bunnies.

WIP :: Things to Come

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

More from Photog Class

Fighters!

For an upcoming Burning Wheel project. 

Yes!

Tshirts - Revenge of the Damsels

This awesome collaboration between Anna-Maria Jung and I is now available for purchase (but for a limited time only!). You know you want one!

Old New Photos