Santa on Holiday

Happy Black Friday

so i found this book while at the bookstore, perfect gift for that child of the 80's, last weekend and would love to post some of the memories it brought back:

ok I had the King of Pop, he was Bada$$ back then

2 awesome scare your sister type toys

oh man I had all of the Barnyard Commandos, loved the cartoon, pigs vs sheep~!!

nuff said

oh C.O.P.S. just awesome, some of the guns they used were cap guns~!! dangerous, awesome cartoon

one year i had almost all of what i wanted, to this day i only have on left and that is a Boomer Esiason from 1994, once found Keith Byers on my parents roof though

C.O.P.S. again, they were that awesome

Silverhawks~!! they had spring action arms and legs

Visionaries, i dont remember cartoons much but they had holigrams in their chests and staffs, remembering animal powers

what's this??

Bionic, Bionic Six, just awesome marvel-style storytelling with robotic ppl

micromachines~!! loved the yellow vette~!!

Battlebeast, probably my fav toys? Just so many with the Rock-Paper Scissors aspect, i would love to get the poster with all the characters on it, gimmie a link pls~!!

Thundercats, natch

M.U.S.C.L.E. Men: little rubber wrestlers that got creepier in appearance as the toys were made

MEGATRON, so awesome a football player is named after him

VOLTRON?!?!!? ok this was my green ranger, my tickleme elmo, my cabbage patch

my really fav. TOY EVER~!!

yup, BADA$$ again, had it

oh the tru pimp of the 80's toys, i had that jacket, but no gadgets in it

unstoppable fun~!!

more unstoppable fun, these last 2 just influenced so much and are produced to this day, 20+ years

MEGATRON again~!!

wrestling was my 3rd parent, JIMMY SUPAFLY SNUKA

who doesn't love a badguy~!!

Honorable Mention: (in the book but i didnt picture)

Centurions

Chuck Norris action figures

StarWars

Alf

Ghostbusters

Rambo

Astronaut Barbie & Jem (GiJoe's gfs)

Pee Wee's Playhouse (creept)

M.A.S.K.

Atari

Watercolor Class take III

So i've signed up for my 3rd watercolor class this year and I have to thank James Browne, Andrew Kish, Jess M. & my sister for supporting my artistic journey in watercolor with their inspiration, encouragement and supply purchasing ability =)



I wasnt completely prepared for class so I did some fooling around: a thor study and what might possibly be my 30Characters character for day 23: Drinky the Bear

this, Drinky the Bear, was done on a YUPO (translucent synthetic watercolor paper?? 100% recyclable & tree-free) I have never painted on anything so strange: if it's wet it'll wipe away like a dry erase board otherwise it has all the properties of hotpress watercolor paper, except for the insanely smooth sheen it has, water moves fast!~

I noticed that a few spots didnt take to the pain at all, you can see them on the left, what looks like fingerprints left on the back side of the paper, not sure if it was grease or what that stained the spots and all i know is that it would not take any paint as you can see

this translucent variety (they make opaque as well) allows the painting on the back (purple & blue circles) to come through to the front

I'm excited to try more of this paper out, the drying is much like regular paper: if you let it sit you will have hard edges of color.

thor was fun but not nearly as exciting and intimidating as YUPO

30 characters & art update

here are some prelim & planning sketches that I did yesterday for character #17

i plan on putting a book together with my 30 characters when i'm all finished with notes and my process thinking in a sketchbook format =)

ive also been doing some 15 min sketching for the penciljack.com forum

Halloween 11-01-10

While at the bookstore a week or 2 ago I got an idea for a sketch from the back of a horror magazine.  It was previewing some japanese horror flick and this was what came out of my brain to do last night.  The image in the hair window was actually taken from the front of the magazine.  I needed something scary to put in there and the cover had just the right amount of creepy imagery.  I'd love to darken the whole thing one day but what i really dig is that i just flipped open the sketchbook and poured this onto it relatively easily.  on the back inside cover which makes it more a part of the actual sketchbook and now everything that fills these pages has to be a bit more interesting.

Recent ATC's

A few recent ATC's i did for illustratedATCS.com

October swap for grrrdjules, she likes wine, the circus & elephants among other things so the goal here is to incorporate those elements into an intersting composition.  I would have likes to have a background and darken up the table and made the bubbles/balloons get bigger as they floated to the top but that's all things to recognize for improvements when i'm planning.  Watercolor & ink pen - the colors arent as intense on the card.

like so:

also,

Manga swap sent to Japan.  I decided to sign up for a swap taking place in Japan, mostly because i am fascinated with japanese imagery.  So I did Chun Li & Honda (prismacolor markers), Ghost in the Shell (watercolor), Rockman & Rush (colored pencil) & Scott Pilgrim (ink).  I'm most proud of the colors with the streetfighter card, the rest are blah to me and i've really lost my sense of how to use colored pencils in my opinion. 

UP Fair update II

ok so with some advice from the penciljack forum, i've added some things to the deadspaces here and some shadows and made it a little more interesting if not confusing

i'm always afraid of going too dark and with the Voltron (what?! a Voltron head?? yeah it came to me tonight at borders and i cannot quite remember what made me add it in, i think i saw an image of voltron in a GiG Poster book that i have been using for inspiration lately) in the other room it think it takes away from the rest of everything

there's still a watercolor wash to go over it all maybe that will even it all out a little? hopefully and maybe some better contrast tomorrow

this is very theraputic, drawing and helping me to deal with my problems that i dont want to attend to at the moment, but i've been up a few nights now at 2 am, like a real career artist, but i have to remember that this isnt my day job and i have to get some sleep

I have to commend real artists who make this their living, it's a lot of work but i recognize that i have gotten better at some things and while i look at this and it has very 'young artist' moments i am proud of some of the things here that i had never taken a stab at =)

so i'll keep drawing and i'll get better, still mad that i didnt take a bigger commitment in my youth to getting better, but i'm still dealing with my desire to committ and to allow myself to succeed and deal with failures

ahh life lessons, hopefully my art confidence grows and bleeds over into other aspects of living my life

GO TO UPFAIR

NY Comicon 2010

If you were at comicon maybe you saw the 'not so incredible, early 20's x-men'...

(less angel, more psylocke)

or maybe you saw the crowds...

or Thor warp time-space around him...

or some mom letting her underage kid steal the Green Hornet's car...

or the 2 ft tall iron man suit...

or some of my favourite artists and Larry Hama...

aaaaannd this...