Wind from the North

Wow! It has been a ridiculously long time since I’ve updated here. Life has been… tumultuous, to say the least. But it’s time to get things updated! And by “things” I mean, this blog, and most importantly, The Geek Zodiac.com! It’s been a much longer hiatus than James and I anticipated, but I’m building a back log of comic pages so we can stick to the Tuesday/Friday schedule for the duration of the series. Just you wait. We’re about to lift off! The Daikaiju’s intro will be ready to premiere very soon!

In the meantime, here’s an illustration I just “finished” (there’s plenty I want to change about this but due dates are due dates) for my illustration class at Herron. The assignment was to create a black and white image in the same vein as the ominous, whimsical, mysterious images from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. We were given a prompt, a sentence that would inspire the image we’d come up with, and then we had to give it a title. The goal was to capture the imagination using all the elements – title, caption and image – in such a way that the viewer comes up with their own story in their head. Here’s hoping I pulled that off.

I’d like to do a quick process post that shows how I made this. It was a combination of traditional pencil techniques and digital painting, two methods I’ve never really combined before the way I did it here. I’m hoping to refine that process a bit more for the next illustration.

Draw

Long time, no post, I know. Been drawrin’, though, I can assure you. Keep an eye on The Geek Zodiac.com, too. The Continuum is about to be begin. I’m talking this Friday, September 23rd. So excited for that.

Also, go see Drive. It’s one of the best movies to come out this year.

I have a handful of drafts in the pipeline for this blog. Some old work to share. I’ll get around to it. I just know I will.

Long. Overdue.

I feel like a year has passed since I last updated but it’s only been two months.

The days are just packed.

Here’s what I’m working on now:

1. Storyboards for a project helmed by my former animation teacher, Mr. John Ludwick. I had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement before I started work on it, so I cannot post anything about it here other than the fact that it is happening, it is challenging, and it is exciting!

2. Creatures Classified is still in the works. The project has been on a somewhat bumpy road from the latter half of the spring semester up to now but I’m sticking with it til it’s done, because it’s a great project that deserves to be fully realized, dagnabbit. I’m responsible for a bunch of creature illustrations as well as an actual playable level of the game, all of which will be completed before the end of next month. Actually my goal is July 15th, and I’m going on the record with that. Come to think of it, I have yet to do a blog post documenting the work I’ve done for this project. That will be up very soon.

3. James and I are developing a graphic novel using the Geek Zodiac as a template. If you’re having a hard time wrapping your head around that, just wait and see. Trust me, it’s cooler than you can imagine. My end of the project is on hold while I take care of the two above, but there’s already been some extensive character development and laying down of the plot and… well, you’ll just have to wait and see.

In related news, The Geek Zodiac Store is live! Them Geek Zodiac goodies make good gifts, don’t'cha know.

Which reminds me, I will be posting a bit of the process behind those designs. They really were a lot of fun to come up with and it’s been great seeing people’s response to them. James and I recorded an interview about the Geek Zodiac for a radio show called, Talk Nerdy to Me, last month. Click here to listen! Huge thanks to Emily Kelley for having us on her final show of the semester. It’s a shame I couldn’t hear James during the interview (they were only able to connect me to Emily) as I would’ve liked to riff back and forth with him about the whole thing, but I think we pulled it off nicely, regardless.

4. Here are some other things in the proverbial pipeline:

* building an animated production logo for my good friend Jeff Smith and his Bottoms Up Productions label. He just released another massive supercut in the hopes of outing one of the lamest and most overused lines in film history, “You Just Don’t Get It, Do You?” (commissioned by Film Drunk.com!) Before that he put together the hilarious “Glove, Actually: An Ode to Cinema’s Greatest Slaps.” He’s currently developing a short video that I’ll be starring in later this summer, so I’ll keep you posted on that as well.

* contributing character designs to a videogame being developed by my fellow New Media madmen, Joel Bergman and Dustin Ostrum. Looking forward to seeing how this develops!

* designing a cd cover for G-Ometry’s upcoming mixtape. G-Ometry consists of Indy hip hop producers, Mandog (Nick Smith) and Do-Re (Jonathan Williams) who you may remember from that Princibal Flash poster I did a while back. These guys are beasts. Check out their latest work as The Milky Way Vandals, too. My little brother, Jeremy, knocks out the first verse on Donmesswidus. I’m addicted to that one and Back to the Lab.

* designing movie posters. Somehow I’ll get around to finishing my Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang posters. Somehow… someday… In the meantime, be sure to check out Reelizer and AMP as much as possible.

…

Wow.

Hey, it’s not all work though. Lori and I are driving to North Carolina to visit some friends this Fourth of July weekend! Nothing like a nice relaxing road trip to clear your head.

Geek Zodiac and other updates

My good friend James Wright came up with this very cool, very fun, and very smartly put together alternate zodiac – the aptly named GEEK ZODIAC. When he first sent me the link, I was utterly compelled to put together a nice, clean version that would make it more palatable for mass consumption. So far it seems to be catching on (in places like Geek Tyrant, Blastr, and Nerd Bastards).

The next step is to design the poster and, potentially, t-shirt versions! So stay tuned. I’m trying to crank out these designs as quickly as possible so we can make something more official available.

In other news, I let my website go. It was getting too expensive for me to keep it live and, honestly, having looked at other artists who are going into similar fields, I’m noticing that having a website isn’t too crucial. So I’m sprucing up this place and I’m going to make it my one-stop shop. That’s why you’ll find the current incarnation of my flat art portfolio to the right under the Pages section. Check it out, leave me some feedback if you want. Since I wasn’t able to attend the latest SIGGRAPH portfolio review, I’ll need some help shaping mine up.

Also, this happened a couple weeks ago, but it’s still very notable. Two of my posters were accepted into the coolest online movie poster gallery on the web – Reelizer.com. My stuff will be shown alongside work by some of my favorite illustrators and designers! People like Olly Moss, Daniel Danger, Tyler Stout, and a bunch of others I’m forgetting at the moment. I’m flattered to be in such esteemed company.

I’ve also been added to an online poster gallery that just started up last week: Alternative Movie Posters.com. Be sure to check out their collection, too. Quite a lot of inspiration to be found there.

This is very exciting stuff. I have posters for Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in the pipeline right now. But they’ll be a bit delayed while I take care of some school work and try to send this Geek Zodiac thing to the next level.

The Thing poster (finished)

Earlier stages here.

Sleezeball

These are from an alternate version of my website that I was playing with earlier this week. I wanted to change things up a bit, so I made it like there was this sleezy talent agent representing me on each page. I showed it to some people, and it turned out it was just too confusing. “Is that supposed to be you?” and so on. So it’s been scrapped, but this guy is fun to draw.

Home page image:

Anatomy for Artists so far…

Here’s almost everything I’ve worked on in my Anatomy for Artists class. It’s all in chronological order, ’cause I’m orderly like that. And I just love the fact that I’ll be able to look back at this blog and chart my progress. I’ll refrain from commenting on any of the pics with excuses about why something doesn’t look right. Some of these will be added to as the semester goes on, anyway.

Sketch Dump 1

Random stuff I’ve sketched on ze tablet.

Way Out of Proportion…

Last semester in our drawing class, Kevin and I had some fun messing with anatomical proportions.

Kevin started with this page:

Then I tried some:

The Thing poster (in progress)

Another one of my all time favorite movies. I started this a little before finals last month and tinkered with it a little bit over winter break. No deadline. Just for fun. I wanted to try my hand at painting with the tablet.

Unfortunately, I can’t say it’s completed. The head needs touched up around the edges so it doesn’t look so “cut out,” some details need to be added, and I can’t decide what to do with the background. I’ve tried simulating the metal table texture behind his head, covering it with green slime, etc., but I wasn’t happy with any of that. For now I’ll just post it here for feedback and get crackin’ on the onslaught of school projects that have already started to pile up.

All of this was hand drawn (using my trusty tablet). Here’s what I used for reference:

And here’s the process: