Dats a Lotta Mustard

COME AT ME, BRO!

2011-02-28T23:58:00.000-08:00

...and, we're back.

Here's an old unfinished illustration I went back and re-visited. I did some sweet Photoshop magic in an attempt to hide my hideous linework here. Look at that shiny, shiny hair.

I sculpted this a few weeks back. It was inspired by the fabulous Erika F.

Retro Robot, Wacky Wallpaper. Pencil crayon/ PS magic.

Here's a shirt I made for Steve. I just used permanent marker right onto the fabric. Kinda difficult, I really had to scrub the ink into the material. But, a nice aesthetic in the end.

The image came from a Sinister Spider-Man comic book which Steve chose. I used my light table to trace the image, and then inked it in fully. Quite the process.

If you're reading this, and have an idea for a sweet T-Shirt, maybe we can work out a deal.

...Hello?

- Marvel VS Capcom 3 is totally sweet. I bought it for PS3, even though I don't have one yet. -

- Still looking for work. Sigh. -

- Currently trying to polish up a few ideas. New stuff soonish, probably! -

- You gotta do what? I GOTTA BAH-LIEVE! -

My shoe is off, my foot is cold

2010-11-27T13:36:00.000-08:00

This was drawn for one of my classes in college...

...but then we set it on fire. Our instructor encouraged us to spend as much time and effort on our illustrations as we could, but in class the following week... we would be lighting them up. Well, we didn't absolutely have to, but most of us did anyway. Get it?

It was kind of a statement, I suppose. A few things they tried to teach us back in art school are starting to make some sense now. One thing I try to keep focus on, is not getting "too precious" with my artwork. I'm finding it more rewarding to keep a brisk pace when illustrating.

eg: Don't spend too much time on one idea. Don't get too caught up in tedious details or craft. Walk away from the work time to time, come back later. Never be afraid to scrap what you've done and start all over again.

You know, all that stuff. Anyway, it's something I try to consider.

I did this for Mel:

It was her idea.

Here's a logo I did up for a business in Saskatoon:

Had fun working on it, too. Thanks, Leanne!

and now my story is all told.

Welcome to DIE!

2010-10-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

Where's that from?

This is my favourite drawing ever, maybe.

Blah blah crosshatch... whatever.

Recently, I went to visit Calgary and the people that are there.

Here's some artwork they drew for me:

Melanie "The" Pope drew this for me. Apparently, she likes Team Fortress 2 a little too much. But that's okay. I dig the fan art she did of me!

Devon "Wiggles" Sandboe drew this one of pilot girl. Very cool!

He's really good at drawing mechanical/ technical things.

Devon, update your damn website already!

In other news, I'm working on something. I've been giving it a lot of thought and consideration for a while now. I'm not sure exactly how to present it... but I'll probably post pictures and ideas at some point. Just not going to say too much about it right away.

Here's a little teaser, sure I guess.

I'll post more someday. But for now, though... courage.

Skoobity-Bop!

Danger! Danger!

2010-09-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

High Voltage!

Cartoon people, crammed into a page.

Done with ink, while drinking coffee.

Don't you wanna know how we keep startin' fires?

Nevermind, Posting More Old Stuff

2010-09-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

It's the magazine projects...

I used to enjoy doing these back in elementary school. They're pretty embarrassing, I guess, but if nothing else they should be good for a laugh.

"Video Game Stuff" #1-3 I did from grade 5 to grade 7. If you download the files, you should be able to view little notations I left in the PDFs.

Video Game Stuff 1.pdf

Video Game Stuff 2.pdf

Video Game Stuff 3.pdf

"Psy-ko Magazine" I did in grade 8.

Psy-ko Magazine.pdf

Pretty fascinating stuff...

Influence Map

2010-08-27T23:57:00.000-07:00

Here's a thing

Shane Glines had this meme posted up on his Deviant Art page. Seemed like a fun thing, so here are my favourite artists & games. Hopefully each picture will be self explanatory.

Whatever happened to Fay Ray?

2010-08-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

Get ready for more of the same:

Mermaids are fun to draw, because you don't have to draw legs. Inked this with the brush pen.

This doodle was sitting on some scrap paper by my desks for weeks, and somehow it caught my interest. Something about this sketch just looks right to me. It's a rare thing when I draw something that I like better after time has passed.

I liked it enough to ink it in illustrator...

...and shade it in photoshop. Just a little quickie job, nothing special.

That's all I've got for now. I'm not sorry.

Thanks for coming!

They mostly come out at night.

2010-07-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

Mostly.

Happy jump?

I've watched so many movies lately.

Some of my new faves are Scent of a Woman, Unforgiven, American Beauty, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. You should watch these.

Some of the worst ones include Blade Runner, The Virgin Suicides, and Alien 3. You should not watch these.

My roomates recently started a video blog. If you haven't been to their site yet, here it is:

http://whatasightwhatascene.com/

I helped out with a few of these, they're pretty fun.

Oh, this too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAY4vNJd7A8&feature=player_embedded

Paul Robertson and Anamanaguchi? Head Splode!

When you gotta shoot

2010-04-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

...shoot, don't talk.

Ah, my terribly neglected blog. How have you been?

Here's my friend Sasha from work. Our jobs are about the worst ever.

I drew this while making phone calls. Look, if you don't have time to talk, just say so, okay?

Jeez, Gawd...

Sidenote: Common ballpoint pens are actually kind of interesting to draw with... it's ink, but you can get this sketchy cross-hatching effect that you can't get with most ink. My friend Lance was always pretty good at it, as I recall.

Know what's hard? Bitmap artwork. Pixel pushing takes a lot of time and patience. Here's some 2-D pilot girls I made up for fun. Because 2-D is ALWAYS better.

See you next time!

Meet the Beatles

2010-03-04T00:42:00.000-08:00

...and Bradley.

I did this for some high school friends of mine. Last month was Brad's (shown above, in the middle) birthday, and his wife (not pictured) had me do up this picture of him singing with the Beatles. Very cute

If anyone (or anyone you know) might be interested, I will definitely consider commission work. If anybody's got any cool ideas for drawings, maybe we can hammer out a deal.

COME ON!

Character design?

2010-02-25T14:28:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while when I'm feeling particularly uninspired, I have a tendency to fixate on character design. I suppose it beats not producing any artwork at all, but it can be frustrating to get stuck on one idea for a long time. It's not always so easy for me to get the idea out of my head and onto the page. I guess it's all part of the learning process, right? Am I right? Aw, who knows.

Anyway, I've always thought the term "character design" was a little odd... Even in art school, there were specific classes and students devoted to "character design". It seems strange to me to devote yourself to such a precise field. So you've developed this design of yours, but does it immediately make it a "character"? Not exactly... it seems to me that the term "character" would imply that your creation also has a personality, a voice, and a general fleshed out concept. Most character designs just kinda stand around and... look cool. Which isn't the worst thing in the world, really, just a little shallow.

I'm totally guilty of this, however. What can I say... I like what I like. I always try to create things that I'm interested in, although I'm sure some efforts/ideas are better than others. I make no apologies.

And with that, here's the latest thing:

I've had this WW2 kinda fighter pilot theme in my head for a while. I've played around with similar ideas before, but here's one I tried to refine. I'm happy enough with it for now. She's kinda got this... Penelope Pitstop/Rose from Street Fighter/maybe a bit of Tank Girl thing going on. Although, not nearly as cool as any of those things... actually Penelope Pitstop sucks.

Here's a grubby sketch timeline from the last, oh I'd say 3 months or so...

...Just a few of the more interesting sketches I did. There were a lot more, but they're considerably more embarrassing than these.

If there's one thing I can say about character design that I really like, it's following the evolution of the concept. Yup.

Here's something interesting to read courtesy of John K. if anyone cares...

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/12/character-design-1-character-design.html

Welcome to your doom!

2010-02-11T00:54:00.000-08:00

Zoop!

This is part of a caricature I did for someone. I'll post the entire illustration later, after said person is shown said caricature. It would just be a bummer if that person found out about it beforehand, you know. In the meantime though... the fab four. The young versions. George looks a little scary, but I'm pretty happy with these drawings.

Sketchy sketch girl. I tried to make her really specific looking, so I gave her an overbite.

Another drawing of the same girl. I decided to throw in some quick colour. She looked cuter as a sketch, though. I like her weird, elongated head.

I've got a few projects lined up for the near future. Come back some other time!

Crusty old animations

2010-01-09T14:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, here's the last post of old stuff for a while.

Traditional, hand-drawn animation from 2006! To view the animations, click on the image, then click on the magnification button in the top right corner of the page (in Picasa).

I've tried animation a few times... here are the best ones I've done. You know what? Animation is REALLY hard and VERY time consuming. It's definitely a lotta work, and I respect the people that can do it well.

To create these, I first drew the frames in pencil on plain paper. I have an ancient light table which actually helps a lot. Then, I inked them and scanned them into Adobe Illustrator. I cleaned up the lines and thew in some quick colour & gradients. After that, I turned the "frames" into JPEGS and called them into Adobe ImageReady, where I could export them as a Quicktime Movie. Each animation is 20 looping frames. Oh man, like I said, a lotta work.

Honestly though, I'm sure I made the animation process a lot more involved than it needed to be. At least by doing that, I know now what NOT to do. I don't particularly enjoy animating... it's just too tedious.

Goodbye.

Crusty old sculptures

2010-01-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

Hiya folks. Oh boy, more old stuff!

Yessir, I have been known to sculpt every once in a while. Get yourself an eyeful...

The creepy insane monkeys, these were the first few things I sculpted in 2004 or so. I made the mistake of sculpting them out of plasticine. Not good. They had wire frames inside them, but it didn't work very well. It was just a mess. The longer these guys existed, the more they resembled piles of garbage. Arms, legs, and their heads were constantly falling off. It was horrible. I actually did one short little stop-motion movie with the evil one, where he just kinda waves and then flips off the camera. Then he fell apart.

Here's my first successful attempt using Super Sculpey, which is great stuff. It's a bit like plasticine, but a bit more forgiving. After you put it in the oven, it hardens kinda like ceramic. This guy here is Gyroman from Megaman 5... I'm not exactly sure why I chose him as the subject matter, but hey I thought he came together pretty nicely. The hardest parts to sculpt were the skis and the propeller on the back. 2004-2005ish.

A little 1920's suit guy I named Solomon. This was a gift for my grandmother a few Christmases back in 2005. Kinda interesting, but mostly strange looking. I remember working on this early Christmas morning, trying to finish it. It was almost done, and I had it sitting on it's side drying, when it tumbled to the floor and broke into pieces. I could have cried. Luckily, I was able to cobble it back together with the glue gun. Phew. Made with super sculpey.

Sonic here is probably my favourite sculpture. The spikes on his back were difficult. From 2006, sculpey.

Viewtiful Joe's head. It was surprisingly hard to make his rounded helmet. I cheated on the blades though, it's just painted plastic. I had planned to make his body, but you know. 2006, sculpey.

If you recognize what this character is from, you're probably a giant nerd. This is my most recent sculpture, from 2007. This took forever to make, and at one point I completely lost interest in it. His wings look like crap, but I just wanted to get him done. It took at least 10 coats of model paint to get him such a deep metallic red, although it looked pretty cool when it was finished. I like his big angry claws. Sculpey, and his wings were made from plastic.

A cardboard Simpson's house I made for art class in grade 12, 2004. This one got pretty intricate here and there, although I made a few mistakes. The two top windows on the front are a bit too big, and the back portion of the house looked a little goofy. I remember watching a bunch of episodes, trying to figure out how the house looked. This one jerkstore girl from class saw it and said, "Wow, someone has too much free time on their hands!" I coulda punched her head clean off. Although, in retrospect, I did have too much free time. Hey man, it's a hobby for eff sakes, give me a break.

Someday, I will have to sculpt some more. It's been too long.

A brief history of everything

2009-12-22T23:28:00.000-08:00

Here I am in Saskatchewan for the holidays. Just for something to do, I decided to go through a bunch of old artwork I did from the past 100 years or so. Here are the most interesting picks:

I did this way back in highschool for my English class... about 2003 or so, I don't quite remember. We were supposed to draw an interpretation of a scene from the story "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". Wow, this is old. Pencil crayon.

These were for an advertisement in The Leaderpost, the paper in Regina. These monkey-guys were characters I used to draw all the time. They're slightly insane looking. Ink, 2003.

"Captain Obvious and Obscure Reference Man". These were gross characters dreamed up by my cousin Jen and I. The one on the left is based on me, and the other is based on my other cousin Reid. The idea was for the logo on Reid's shirt to change to a different obscure logo/icon. Pencil crayon, 2004.

I put this one on a couple of t-shirts. I remember I couldn't find a good enough picture for the cereal, so I actually picked out a bunch of pink froot-loops and took a picture. Adobe Illustrator, 2004.

It's the monkeys again, I used to draw them a lot. This was also for a t-shirt. From 2004ish. Adobe Illustrator.

Weird math girl. I think this one was a "squiggle test". The idea is to have someone else draw a random line, and you have to think of something to make out of it. The line started as her strands of hair. ink, 2005?

A little coffee sketch guy. I like it, with the intense Viewtiful Joe-style inking. 2005

"Cactus Jack", a creepy drawing done from 2005. Pencil crayon.

Running frog, pencil crayon, 2005.

This is one of the earlier illustrations I did in Adobe Illustrator. This was around the start of what will be referred to as my "Robert Crumb" phase, with the big beefy legs and hips.

Anatomy is a bitch. 2005

Here's an older pic I did of my cheeseball character "Mrs. Fire." Probably the second pic I did of her, you can see the first in an earlier post. Dem some big legs. AI image, 2005.

Viewtiful Joe style caricature of me. This is where the "amazing superhero" thing started, it's a quote from Viewtiful Joe. I remember enjoying making the logo. AI image 2006.

Yet another Mrs. Fire deal from 2006. Pictured here is the mouthless version. Pencil crayon.

I had intended to put this on a shirt, but I never got around to it. Adobe Illustrator image from 2006.

A take on the piranha plants from the Mario games. I like this one, actually. Pencil crayon, 2006.

Coffee doodle. Ink, 2006.

Another oddball character, I had him on a shirt for a while. Steve accidentally came up with the name for this guy one time. AI 2006.

A herky Morrigan pic. The pose sucks, but I scanned it because I liked the pencil crayon. I remember when my dad saw the pencil sketch for this one, he suggested I slim down her huge thighs. They're still pretty damn big, though. 2006.

This is one of the first drawings I did while I was going to ACAD. It's based on a cute girl from one of my classes, although I never showed her it. That would have been extra creepy. I like the ink here, it goes nicely with the pencil crayon. Maybe I'll try that style again. Late 2006 I think.

One of the more plain drawings I did of this character, and one of the last as well. Pencil crayon, 2007?

Weird umbrella girl, I kinda like what's going on here. I don't often do cross hatching. Ink, 2007.

Actually, I didn't quite finish colouring the hair here, but I still like the drawing. Pencil crayon, 2007.

Here's a poster I did for a friend/client of my dads at the University of Regina. It ended up with a bunch more text and some other stuff at the bottom. My friends said there were tons of 'em hanging up at the U, which was pretty cool. Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, late 2007.

Simple jumpy girl, featuring lyrics by Weezer. I remember sitting and drawing this at the Ricky's cafe next to Kinko's in Calgary. Brush pen, 2008ish

A little stylish drawing from 2008. Brush pen.

I feel like I've been drawing forever. It's getting to the point where I'm forgetting about so much of the artwork I've done. Honestly though, a lot of it may as well be forgotten... ugh. Well, just thought I would share some of the better pieces. You're welcome.

This post took like, forever to compose.

Batman could totally beat Superman

2009-11-18T21:57:00.000-08:00

It's true.

I always liked King Dedede. Why is he the king again? Is it because he's bigger than the other characters?

I've always likde the concept of a "friendly nemesis". I usually find the bad guys more appealing in general. Knuckles the Echinda, Wile E. Coyote, Captain Hook, Hannibal Lector... just to name a few.

Made this drawing in Adobe Illustrator, built it from scratch! It takes a bit more work that way, but it's the best way to get a faithful, nice & clean vector image. To be fair, I built the image overtop of a JPG I grabbed from the net. I think he'd look good on a t-shirt.

Peach Toadstool. Felt like drawing her, but her dress is boring to draw. So, here she is in normal-type clothes. Pretty cutesy, but what are you gonna do?

Inked with brushpen again, and colour in Photoshop.

In other news, "The Dark Knight Strikes Again" was pretty smelly. Although, something kinda cool happens at the end.

From there to here, and here to there

2009-11-11T19:55:00.000-08:00

Funny things are everywhere.

Here's some junk:

I did this for my friend Becky. She writes for a magazine called Uppercase in Calgary,

and she asked if I could do an illustration to accompany her article. She's not sure if they'll be able to use it, but we'll find out soon.

I thought this one turned out okay. I was surprised to end up liking the 'boring' neutral colours of the suits, as opposed to more bright, vibrant colours. Also, I like the texture the pencil crayon gave this one, kind of an unfinished appearance. I don't like how the girl with the black hair turned out, her head is kinda wonky.

Here's some grumpy lookin' old dudes. I did these with Captain Brushpen. The guy on the right ended up looking kinda like G-man from Half Life.

Boring looking girl. Her pose is kinda stiff, but whatevs it's just practice. I like the crosshatching on her jacket though. Note the ass-kicking boots.

Not much to say about this one.

Did you know?

The logdriver's waltz pleases girls completely!

First you draw a circle...

2009-10-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

Then you dot the eyes

Add a great big smile

And presto, it's Kirby!

I tried some sorta-different caricatures last week.

Here's a really simplified version of Steve Wright:

Sketchy

I inked this one by hand, with the good ol' brushpen, although It's not as easy as the tablet. But, I like it. Still need more practice.

Just threw in some quick colour in Photoshop. Look, it's Steve... Ka-bong!

Here I am, it's me. I miss my long hair. Also with the brushpen.

I don't like this one as much, it got really generic on me. It's not really supposed to be anyone specific. Brushpen again.

Well, I hope you're happy!

It's like looking in a living snow-mirror

2009-10-24T23:50:00.000-07:00

Caricatures.

Here are some:

I did this one about 2 years ago, for this guy named Kevin from Calgary. I guess he was retiring. You can see him in a few of the pictures... he's supposed to be juggling them, I know, it looks stupid. Hey, it's what they wanted though, and they were the ones paying for it. Made with ink & photoshop.

Here are some far more interesting people:

Here's my good friend David Littlejohns, I did this at the market collective a while back. He's a pretty rad dude, as you can tell from this smirky picture of him. Pencil & ink.

Incidentally, Dave just started a new blog recently. Check it out, his stuff kicks ass:

http://www.anomalousartifacts.blogspot.com/

This is my friend Jackie, I did this for her birthday. She was easy to caricature, many stand-out features. Illustrator & Photoshop.

Here's Ben, he's about the coolest guy I've met in Montreal. Don't worry, he's usually much more photogenic. Illus/PS.

This is my friend Shannon, who I've known for about 20 years. I made her eyes WAY too big, but I was too lazy to fix them. Isn't she cute? Illus/PS

This is the crew from Kinksource. From left to right:

Dave R, Lance B, Kevin M, Becky V, this guy, David L (again). I made this for our first CD exchange, which was a whole lot of fun. If any of you guys are reading this, CD swap round 4 in January? Yes/no? Illus/PS

So, who wants one? I will start doing them for the limited time low-low-price of 10 dollars! Makes a great Christmas present, sure why not.

...come on!

I Just Started This Thing...

2009-10-15T16:56:00.000-07:00

...one year ago.

Dats a Lotta Mustard Turns one today. Do people still read/keep blogs? I guess it doesn't really matter, because I have personally enjoyed recording a timeline of all my current artwork. It gives me something to do, and is always a good excuse to show off.

So, thanks to those of you who keep coming, and especially to those of you who leave feedback!

Get ready for it...

2009-10-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

It's crappy sketch time!

Fat Bubble Bobble! It's just like the original, only... you know. Fatter!

More practice. Trying to simplify her design a bit, I like the 2 on the far right best. I have a future project with her in mind. But, will it ever see the light of day?

When I'm in class, I get the weirdest ideas. It's fun to doodle on command, and it's a good way to stay fresh and loose. The hotdog, helicopter face, and fat bubble bobble were all doodles that started in class. How about that!

Tune in tomorrow.

Same bat-time, same bat-channel

The Process

2009-09-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to do a process post for a while now. Sometimes I find it's kinda interesting to trace my steps. Here's how I built the most recent Dot Robot picture...

I did this sketch quickly just to get an idea of how the concept might look. This picture was taken with my webcam, straight out of my sketchbook. It's trash.

I drew these, scanned them in, and cobbled them together with photoshop, which you can see below.

I used my digital tablet thing to trace this picture in Adobe Illustrator. AI is great to "ink" with, it gives you nice clean lines, and a highly versatile image.

Here's the finished "inking". You can see the pencil drawing I traced in the background. Incidentally, I haven't seen Chasing Amy for a while.

After I figured out a colour scheme, I tinted the lines with corresponding colours. Usually, bold black lines look best for ink, but sometimes it's fun to screw around with different styles.

After I finished the lines, I imported the Illustrator file into Photoshop. This is where I paint the image and add airbrushing, or any other effect I might want it to have.

Here's my workspace in Photoshop. On the right side of the screen you can see all the layers that I used. Generally, I separate different colours and/or objects and designate them to their own layers. This makes it much easier to work on each individual piece of the image. Got it? Good.

Here I zoomed up on the image and removed the linework. Now you can see all the seams and mistakes I made. My life is apparently a sham.

The last thing I did was create the background in Illustrator. Uhm, for some reason I made it in the shape of an oven mitt. All I had left to do was place it into Photoshop with the finished illustration. Whoo!

And there you have it.

Pick a box

2009-09-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

Its contents will help you on your way.

Welcome back. I've been busy enjoying summer, while it lasts. Soon, winter will be here to crush our spirits. Here's some new stuff:

Yup, another electric lady machine illustration! I'm sure you're all sick of her by now, but I am not. Not yet, anyway.

The concept came from my friend Kevin, who said "She needs to be doing something... like vacuuming." So, here it is! This one took a while to finish, for some reason. My favorite part is the chair she's lifting, it's based on furniture my grandparents used to own. If you look closely, it's orange with green stripes... barf! I had fun with it, anyway. Ugh, I'm a little concerned about the empty space on the wall of the left side. Should have added something... but I'd rather be dead than work anymore on this pic.

I started this one early this summer. It's not finished, and it never will be. Kinda lost interest... guess it happens. She's a character from Drill Dozer, a game by one of my favorite developers, Game Freak. I didn't do the character justice at all, so I'm sorry. Feh!

Crappy sketch time!

Slowking. I just noticed his crown makes him look like a member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes.

This one almost doesn't suck!

And there you have it.

video/song of the week: http://www.vimeo.com/5904993

Before you go, there's this Guy I think you should meet:

http://realgoneguy.blogspot.com/

Oh, no! Not DOOM!

2009-08-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, doom.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is coming out soon. Here's one of the characters that's caught my eye:

Her name is Doronjo, from the 70's Japanese cartoon Yatterman. It's kind of asinine, but definitely enjoyable. There's a running gag where Doronjo's clothes get blown off in every episode. Makes me laugh!

Anyway, I really dig the design of her costume. She was a lot of fun to draw, and it came out pretty good, I thought. I made it in Adobe Illustrator. Here's a flat version without any gradients:

Also, I did this next thing a while ago, but forgot to post it here. It's kinda old news, but here it is anyway:

Whoo! Dot Robot. Done with pencil crayon.

"Sometimes, nothin' is a pretty cool hand."

It's dangerous to go alone!

2009-07-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

Take this!

My sort-of self portrait. I guess it's more accurate to say it represents me. I'm much fatter in real life. Anyway, this was inspired by the Legend of Zelda. Because as Ocarina of Time taught us, holding a chicken above your head grants the ability to glide! I'll have to try it out sometime.

Pencil Crayon on bristol paper. Although, I did clean up the background in photoshop after I scanned it. I'm a cheater. Oh yeah, and be sure to zoom up on this one. Pencil crayon looks awesome when it's scanned in!

It's me, bitches!

2009-07-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

I'm back!

Hello. Been busy... I kinda moved across the country, and that can be distracting. I've been trying to try and draw, at least. Here are some sketches worth mentioning.

Rosalina from Mario Galaxy. I ran out of room on the page... I liked it though, I will try it again sometime.

Come back some other day!

Pay as you exit!

2009-05-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

Sweet Deal! Check THIS shit out:

Classy Arachnid.

It started with this crummy drawing (above) I did at work one day. I liked the concept, so I decided to sit down and work it out. While I was sketching it, I had the extra limbs kinda roughed out. I thought it was interesting so I ran with it. Now you know how some half assed doodle turned into some half assed drawing. I've really been into the retro stuff lately. I wish I were around in 1950.

So the idea for this one came from the girl at the coffee shop. I went up to her and asked what I should draw. Now, most girls would say "draw me!" or "draw a horse!" or something else fuzzy and cute. Ugh. No, I swear to god this is exactly what she asked me to draw. I kind of stood there dumbfounded after she said it... So, I just had to finish it for her. I think she liked it.

Soul Fist!

2009-05-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

I must confess: I have an unhealthy obsession with the Darkstalkers series. I'm sorry, but it's true. It's just awesome. If only Capcom would wake up and release another game already. There's a lot of buzz going around recently about the DS series... Udon is publishing a tribute collection of art soon.

http://www.udonentertainment.com/blog/?p=802

I expect it to look pretty shiny. Definately worth checking out.

I decided to bust out this picture of Morrigan. Perhaps a little bit influenced by Shane Glines, although I would never make the direct comparison. I was happy with it in the end, although I almost lost interest in the drawing. I had fun with the hair here.

Darkstalkers is so great. Make sure you download Marvel vs Capcom 2 when it's released online in a few months! Don't forget... Do it!

Put this in your pipe and smoke it

2009-04-27T22:52:00.001-07:00

The Calgary Comic-Con was this weekend. Damn, was it ever a good show this year. Loads of laughs, lots of talented people, lots of C list celebs. What's not to like? So I met some cool people, I felt like sharing what I got. And by sharing I mean showing off. Here:

Sergio Aragones... wow. He was about the nicest guy in the world, too. One of the top artists of Mad Magazine... I was super lucky to be able to meet a legend like him. Like, holy shit. What more can I say?

Remember that Shane Glines guy I mentioned? Well damn, he was there too. Again, a super nice guy. I bought this amazing book of artwork from him, and he was nice enough to do a little sketch of a cute girl in the front. If I could draw like this guy, I would lock myself indoors and draw day and night. His stuff melts my brain. Sorry, I'm done.

I actually got this one at the Comic-Con a few years ago already, from Angus Oblong. He's an.... interesting guy. He always wears facepaint when he's out in public, I'm not sure exactly why. I bought "Creepy Susie" from him, and he was nice enough to draw Milo in the front. Cool!

So that was Comic-Con in a nutshell. Pretty memorable, indeed!

I will mention that I set up a Deviant Art account... although I'm not sure why. Deviant art is kinda cheesy... and is, in fact, a vast sea of garbage. Not that my stuff is super great or anything. Maybe check out the page once in a while, I plan on loading it with odds and ends I would otherwise never mention.

http://amazingsuperhero.deviantart.com/

The end.

Famous Artist

2009-04-19T23:57:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was the Market Collective in Kensington. It is more or less a big hippie craft sale. Kind of fun, I guess... lots of good looking girls, too. There was some pretty cool stuff this time, which is good because last time I went there was just a bunch of trinkets and crap. Anyway, my good friend Dave Littejohns convinced me to reserve a table there. I sold prints and did caricatures, and it actually went pretty well! Made some moneys, anyway. The picture above is what I did and had on display at my table. It actually busted up a couple of people. I kind of drank an appalling amount of coffee and beer, so I got a little twitchy by then end. Yup, a good time. Anyway, I guess if anyone is interested, I will start taking commissions for caricatures or random drawings. I guess the price will vary depending on what you want. Just send me an email. So, just something to keep in mind, I guess.

I guess that's all for now. I haven't done a lot of drawing lately, mostly been playing Zelda. I'll have to gather up some new ideas!

Some old garbage

2009-03-27T16:23:00.000-07:00

Here is some crusty old junk from a while ago! Dig in!

So this is my kinda interpretation of the starbucks logo. Really, this is what it is and this is what she's doing. She's a two-tailed siren... spreading her fish tail-legs. I guess they used to show her full body, but later decided to have it cropped tastefully. You know, so she's not showing you her... stuff. I didn't actually intend for this to turn out so dirty... it just kinda happend. I may make some kinda background for this at some point, we'll see if I get bored of the drawing or not.

I started this about 12 years ago and just finished it recently. It's an idea I had for a t-shirt design. Turned out okay, I thought. I really wanted to add her creepy smile and fang, but I couldn't get it to look right. Midna is the hottest dumpy imp around in my opinion.

I should mention this thing. I decided I want to club this guy and eat his flesh to gain his superior artistic abilities. Check out Shane Gline's page:

http://www.shaneglines.net/

I was just kidding about the flesh eating thing. He is pretty awesome though.

Look what you did, you little jerk

2009-03-04T19:48:00.000-08:00

I never know what to title my blog entries, so I always just put a quote from a movie or something. I suppose it would be helpful if the title had something to do with the entry, but that's not how I roll. I have just noticed how random this blog is. Sorry. Here's another thing:

Hooray more electric lady machine! Pretty much the same illustration.... just more different. I think I like this one better than the last. I decided that while she floats, she has only one leg. When she walks, two legs. She has to be able to float around, it's just obvious. I think about these things while drawing sometimes. I like the rings.... why? Guh! Because rings are stupid, of course.

Here's the inverted version. I actually really like it, except for the bright blue eyes and text.

Don't forget: You're here forever!

CD Swap Number 3

2009-02-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

Finally, CD swap round 3! So me and the Kinko's crew periodically exchange CD's with each other.... it's gotten to be quite an event. Rounds 1 and 2 went pretty well.... and this time, my friend Kevin asked me to collaborate on his CD covers. So Kevin drew them, and I coloured them in Photoshop. It was actually a lot of fun, I think it went over pretty well too! I illustrated my own cover as well, although I gotta say I'm less than thrilled with what I turned out. Anyway... here's the Kevin/ Gallagher collaboration:

This thing was featured on the back of everyone's CD. The track titles were written above, but I think Kev would be upset if I posted them so I left them out.

The idea was that Kev would make a bunch of CDs with unique covers, and let each one of our friends pick out their favorite picture. This one was Dave R's fave. This was actually the last pic I coloured, and the one I tried the least on.

I like this drawing, but I was unhappy with the colouring job. I think the only thing that managed to pull it together was the background. David L picked this one out.

This one turned out pretty good I thought. This one was of Kev's favorites, but sadly, nobody picked this one. (There were a few extra CDs... "just in case", says Kev.)

Kevin said he hated this drawing. I thought it was kinda funny. Lance picked this one out right away. Good for him!

This one is pretty classic. We were both pretty happy with it... but again, nobody picked it.

This is the first one I coloured. Somehow, I knew Becky would pick this one. She pointed it out right away, in fact. Hooray!

This thing is my favorite by far! Thats funny, considering I hated it while I was colouring it. After I threw the background in, I was like "yeah". Sure enough, I chose this one. Lucky me!

So there you have it. The secret project is finally out. I had a lotta fun working on it.

Here's my CD cover. I called the album "Sandwich" because I decided arbitrarily one day that sandwich is my favorite word. I have a hard time trying to sell that to people... I've brought it up a few times and generally people don't agree. Well I like it, anyway! Enough to name an album after it, anyway. After I finished this one, I sat back and looked at it and decided I hated it. But I was too lazy to draw something else for the cover. So here it is. I kinda like how the guitar turned out, but that's about it. And yes I'm aware that she doesn't have a nose. Have I mentioned that I hate drawing noses? I really really do... I can never make them look right, and I'm never satisfied with how they turn out. So forget it, no nose this time!

Fight, Megaman! For everlasting peace!!

Prepare your bladders for imminent release!

2009-02-14T21:24:00.000-08:00

So I discovered this sweet band called Fantastic Plastic Machine. They rock pretty hard... I was inspired by one of their songs, "Electric Ladyland" to draw this crazy thing. Uhm take a look:

I'm going through this "ugly colour phase". Like, oranges and olive greens... pinks and blues. Gotta love that whole 1950s-60s design style. I kinda wanted her to look campy, kinda Jetsons style. With the rings, and the plastic pink hair. She was fun to draw, I might upload some more pics of her at some point.

Here's something kinda interesting... when I upload a jpeg with CMYK colour settings, they go all wacky and inverted for some reason. Because Picasa sucks. Here's what it did:

Bizarre. Even uglier than the original. Thought it was worth a look.

That's all for now. Secret projects coming soon...

...and the fat kid has the ball

2009-01-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

Hi again. It's been a while. More stuff!

I like the handyman.

Some guy that may or may not be me sitting down. Also, an unfinished girlie sketch I kinda like. I may end up doing a finished version at some point.

"Why would he draw that?"

Dopey looking self portrait. It doesn't look a whole lot like me, actually. I was thinking about death that day, apparently. How creepy.

So I was talking to Steve recently about this comic I did in highschool... back in 2002. I had planned to post it on here, but upon reviewing it, it's entirely too corny and embarrassing to post. So no deal. But here's the only panel I drew worth mentioning:

It was about... two monkeys that are discussing things over a cup of coffee. It's very preachy, and as Steve proclaimed, "kind of a downer comic". He's right but I think what he really meant to say was "It was a pile of garbage." Oh yeah, and the place I drew in the panel is based on the Robin's Donuts we used to hang out in.

In other news, I'm working on a big secret project right now that I will post in a week or so.

Hoorah!

Something New Has Been Added!

2008-11-29T22:06:00.000-08:00

Hello there all you happy people. I will start this post with 2 guest artists, my cousin Reid Gennutt and my good friend Stephen Wright, of all people!

Here is Reid's birthday card to me, I'm not sure how old I was....maybe 6 or 7.

This card is amazing. I love that it looks like it was printed on receipt paper.

Here is Steve's card. It may very well have been the same birthday.

On the back, there was a drawing Steve drew and erased, I tried to make it visible.

One of my favorite cards ever, and one of the only documented times Stephen took a pencil to paper.

Here's some crap I did the past week. I bought a new tiny little sketch book, and it's fun to doodle mindlessly in.

I dunno. I just started moving the pencil without thinking and this happened.

I kinda like this guy. I've been reading "Scud: The Disposable Assassin" lately. If you can find the book anywhere, you must pick it up. This guy is kinda similar to Rob Schrab's stuff.

That's all I have for now. I haven't had much time to draw. Come back some other time.

Here comes another comic

2008-11-17T20:07:00.000-08:00

YOU CAN'T UNSEE IT

Blogger Sucks my Ass

2008-11-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

Goddammat anyway, apparently you have to be some kind of rocket surgeon to get this site to display a proper thumbnail link... so I give up for now. I kinda got it to work, it takes you to this "Picasa" image bank, where it displays my images.... you can kinda sort through and zoom in on the pictures. It still pretty much sucks ass, but it's better than it was. So I encourage you to pour over every detail, in all it's splendid high rez glory.

Great Scott!

2008-11-13T22:44:00.000-08:00

Holy Moses, somehow I managed to draw something! I decided that my slump problem was due to a cursed sketchbook. Trust me, that's what the problem was. So I inked this with my rad brush pen, and coloured it with my rad pencil crayons. I needed a break from all the digital stuff I've been doing lately. Here it be:

Me and art are like peas and carrots again.

Blank

2008-11-10T21:59:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I have nothing new to post. In fact, there's been a whole LOT of nothing lately. I'm in the slump of the century. God, I swear, I used to love drawing. I'd go for coffee, sit myself down, and draw for hours. Lately....nothing. I stare at my sketchbook for 10 minutes, scribble on the page, then erase what I drew and go home. It's the worst thing ever, I feel useless. Moreso than usual, anyway. This is crap! Crap, goddammat! Somebody post cool ideas for drawings in the comments, maybe that will get me going. Here's a sketch I will do right after I write this sentence:

You can tell it's me because I added the dot on my forehead.

The Facepuncher

2008-10-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

I drew a comic for you to enjoy.

And Now For Something Completely Different

2008-10-21T18:50:00.000-07:00

...Uhm, wow. Just look at these masterpieces. Just yipes.

So once upon a time I came up with this idea for a character. The name came to me before anything else did. I was sitting in this shitty art class I took in Regina in.....winter, 2005. Her name would be "Ms. Fire." Get it? I'm not sure I do. "She needs an eyepatch" I thought, for some arbitrary reason. Because chicks with eyepatches are hot, of course. Well, get a load if you must:

Winter 2005 (During what will be referred to as my "Robert Crumb" Phase)

Damn, where didn't I go wrong here? Her thighs are HUGE. Her beefy arms, her giant hands and feet, her goofy lopsided boobs... I may as well have made her a man. This drawing is a turd.

Fall 2006 (right before I moved to Calgary)

I started drawing her pretty often, and she stayed pretty beefy like the last pic until I wised up and made her slim and...well, less hideous. The proportions are still pretty freaking wacky... "herky" sums it up, I think. I dunno why I gave her a huge gunt, either. I was really concerned about not making her too short, so I instead made her tall and lanky. Uhh, believe it or not, the "style" is influenced by John Kricfalusi's stuff. I claimed it was, anyway.

Summer 2007

By this point, I was getting pretty tired of drawing her. Every new drawing of her I did looked way different than the last. I kept drawing her anyway, I don't know why, I have trouble with subject matter at times. I changed her name to "Tracy Fire" shortly after I did the last picture, after one of my teachers from high school. Still lame. I think this one has a few good things about it, I guess the pencil crayon looks okay. Mostly, it's just stiff and awkward. Kinda unremarkable, I would say.

Early 2008

I drew this almost a year ago, but coloured it recently. It was good practice with the tablet. I walked away from drawing her for a while before I drew this one. This is the last drawing I've ever done of her that I still like... actually the ONLY one. I've done a few more since but they suck ass. So she won't go much further than this. I like how she looks when she's "cute" more than any other of the styles I did. Especially when you compare this last drawing to the first one. 'What an eye sore!"

I was just interested in how far she came since I started drawing her. I think I'm done for a while.

...and that's all I have to say about that.

I'm Hungry

2008-10-19T00:23:00.000-07:00

So this is gonna be my new art blog. Pretty much an excuse to show off, which I always enjoy but sometimes feel guilty for. But whatever. I am hoping that this thing will give me some motivation to create some new stuff... or at least, that is the excuse I'm going to use. So, here's some stuff worth mentioning I guess:

Jonny Hammerfist. Yup, here he is.

This here is Ruby Heart from Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. I think this one turned out okay, it was one of the first pieces I used my tablet on, so I had to learn lot while working on it. Pirate chicks are rad.

This guy is my new kinda character. He just kinda happened one day. I recently got a new brush pen, and I was anxious to try it out. So I did.

I like him because he kinda reminds me of like, weird-o's or rat fink or other 60's kinda stuff. Plus, he's fun to draw.

So there you have it. The first post ever. I will post more in the future, but for now though..... courage.

I Just Started This Thing

2008-10-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

Yup. Here I yam. What am I supposed to write?