Merry Christmas!!!

Hope Santa Darunia brings you lots of rocks!

NdGT

Heres a sneak peak at my next bigger project. Neil deGrasse Tyson... What a dude. He's the first in a series of portraits I'm working on of people who don't suck. You'll probably catch my drift a little better once I get the others up, but I wanted to share this first one now that I've gotten the initial drawing pretty much done. Different elements of the frames will be animated in each piece, so I'm still experimenting with that, and then I also plan on adding a few more elements while I'm in the animation stage. Anywho, stay tuned for updates. These should be fun!

Soopa Monk

Normally, I try to work from the bigger picture down into details. So I would start with a small sketch of the whole composition then blow that up and narrow things down from there. That wasn't this case with this piece, though. I started with just a sketch of this beefy monk dude and started adding things on. I had a general idea of where it was going, but its hard to tell if the composition as a whole will work out when you do things that way. I'm pretty happy with it though.
Also, just for fun I put a little animation on it there at the bottom. Nothing too fancy, I'm just toying with the idea of putting animation loops in as a final touch to my work. Oh, and don't forget, you can click these suckers for a closer look!

Awshucks Robot Redux

So, every once in a while, I like to go back and redo old pieces. It seems like cheating to some to do things that way. Maybe because people like to know that a piece was the product of a certain time, place and possibly even skill level for the artist. But, the way I see it, every piece of art I have is a work in progress. Even if the artwork itself isn't worth pushing further, the ideas or shapes or characters or symbols present, might be worth the second look. No one gets everything completely right the first go round, and I find that bringing a piece up to date can help me learn what mistakes I made in the past so that I don't make them again. Also, in some cases I feel like I don't need to completely reinvent the wheel for a new piece. Granted, I wouldn't just rework any piece, but if doing 10-20% more on it would take it way further, then why not?

This was originally meant to go on the side of a bus and wrap around to the back. It makes for a weird format, so I decided to move some things around and shorten the composition. I added more waves behind the robot, and I made the space ship more 3/4 to bring in a little more depth. I wanted the piece to have a light, kids booky feel to it when I first made it. But it got a little too light, value-wise, so I added some more variety in lights and darks, and I got the colors to harmonize better overall. Welp, anyway thats all for now. Stay tuned for more!

Vader Deer

Because, why not.

Meatball Dulcimer Wonder

As promised. All you hammer dulcimer players out there, don't fret. Chris Westgate didn't forget about you. I figured the best guy to be playing Stevie Wonder's greatest hits, would be the man himself. Its not like subway goers would pay any more attention if it was the real deal. Although I'm not actually sure if Stevie could play dulcimer. I mean, he's pretty much a musical genius though, so who knows? Anyway, just a quick sketch so no color this time. Whaddya think?

New Remy Dragon Comp

So I promised I'd post a new Remy Dragon comp and here it is. I feel like the Remy Dragon is a mysterious kind of character so I wanted to bring him into an environment that enhances that. I was thinking more of a temple setting in the first two comps I did, but then I realized that those settings just weren't very relatable. Everyone has seen something weird in the subway though. I feel like it attracts weird stuff even. The funny thing is, everyone just ignores the weird stuff going on. There could be a dude playing Stevie Wonder's greatest hits on hammer dulcimer while dressed as a meatball sub and no one would even bat an eye. So yeah, I felt like it was a mysterious enough setting for the Rem Dragon. 

You can see I've started getting into tighter details in the dragon already. The dragon should look less like Master Splinter in the end, and the smoke will be less hairy. I have an idea for it that I think will turn out really cool. You'll have to keep checking up to see how it turns out!

Also, look out for next post: Guy playing Stevie Wonder's greatest hits on hammer dulcimer in a meatball sub costume.

The Los Rises...

And he's spinning! Its been a long time coming, but my buddy Evan Hart and I have finally gotten a rough draft turnaround of Carlos, put together in Flash. I just figured I would take the opportunity to go ahead and start hyping "The Los" up. This is just a small step in the direction of a full Carlos animation, but its an important milestone nonetheless. I'll be giving updates along the way, as we move on with development, so stay tuned!

Fat Reptar Throwing a Fit

In swim trunks.
15 min warm up sketch.

WUUUHHHAAAALE!!

This one started off as a warm up sketch but I liked it enough to keep going on it. So far I've worked about an hour and a half on it. 

Sketchbork Ep. 3

 I drew this fella while riding in a car. Figured, I'd share. Not really sure what his deal is, but there ya go!

I'm a weiner!!!

Er, winner. I won the Austin City Limits flag design competition with this design! 

The design was chosen from over 170 submissions. I get a framed copy of the flag, signed by ACL Mike himself, and a chance to go to Austin for the music festival, expenses paid for. Alternatively I could take $1500 if I can't make the festival, but I'll have to see how things turn out on that.  Interestingly enough, I didn't hear about the competition until the day of submissions, so this design was the product of some quick thinking. All the more reason to crank work out, amiright? Here's a link to the competition!  http://www.talenthouse.com/design-flag-for-austin-city-limits#submissions

Speed Painting

I'm trying to get faster with painting, so I did this one in about 30 mins. Enjoy!

Warm up Sketch

Drew this fella as a warm up before working on another Remy Dragon idea last night. I should be posting that soon. Stay tuned!

Remy Dragon Comps

I had a little extra time today so I made some comps! I've been liking the Remy dragon design so I figured I'd try it out in a scene. I'm kinda making the story up as I go. I did the second drawing first.  It has a little more detail and tonal range, but I think I like the overlapping in the first drawing more. I think I'll end up going with some combination of the two. 

Star Destroyer Poster Comp

Ayee, its been a minute since my last post so I pulled an idea out of the dusty corners of my computer desktop to share with you. A trusty ole StarWars poster idea. Right now it reads as.. cheesy? too simple? Well its far from finished anyway. We're gonna go for a old school travel ad look with somewheresabouts a Pan Am kind of feel to it. So, a lot of work to be done still! New typography, some sand and sky, and c'mon man, do something about that glow on the suns, right? All in good time my friend. I've been swamped lately, so the posts might be coming slow for a bit, but rest assured I'm making it happen.

 

WIP: The Industry "Distances" Album Cover

Hey, hey, so this is a little different from my typical style, but I've been trying new things lately. Its an album cover for a band here in Atlanta called the Industry. They are really cool guys and they are great musicians. I've seen them play live and I gotta say it was pretty awesome; def worth checking out. Anyway, you can find out more about them here. 

So I used some sketchup models for the city, then went to town with some textures and painting. The final image shows the whole Digipak if you were to unfold it, so the top half would actually be upside down. Theres going to be more typography added later, so this is still in progress. Also, some of the imagery is subject to change, but I'll keep ya up to date on all that stuff when it happens. And that's that as they say. 

SketchBork: Ep 2

Got another sketch for your head! Peep this Remy Dragon and then go to a dance party in a sandwich shop. That's what I'm gonna do anyway.

Iphone Painting: Parking Lot

This is a work in progress Iphone painting, using the app, Brushes. I've done a few of these before, but I'd like to start posting more of them. I've got to be in the right mood for one of these though. It goes a bit slow. It's still got some rough areas but we'll get that girl looking good! Yeah baby! ...Welp, anyway, I'm off to walk the dog. Stay outta trouble!

Sketchbork: Episode 1

Tonight I have prepared for you a selection from my sketchbook. I drew this while enjoying a pizza, so I recommend enjoying a pizza while you enjoy this drawing.

Zodiac Decks 1 and 2

So I made these skateboard decks as a break from my usual artistic pursuits. There are more on the way so hold tight for that. These two are on the wall at Hodge Podge gallery and coffeeshop in East Atlanta, if anyone in the area wants to check them out. I started with the dog drawing and built up from there to the skateboard concept.