APRIL 1, 2008

Note: That drawing to the right is not mine.

So somewhere around 4 or 5 months ago I was contacted by the editor's of a startup digital magazine called D+Pad. If you are unaware of the Gen X reference, a "D Pad" is a direct reference to the "Directional Pad" of video game controllers, which is most often shaped like a plus sign (+). So... if you hadn't pieced it together quite yet-- the magazine is all about video games. The magazine is based out of the UK; the production value seems high, and it is well written-- it seems like it may have a future. They are 6 issues in right now, and seem to be going strong.

Anyway, they were interested in my Super Mario Bros. piece, and had me send over a decent resolution copy of the file. I checked the next couple of issues, to no avail, and basically forgot about it. That is until today, when I thought about it, checked some back issues, and found my piece located in Issue 5. So anyway, props to them. You are welcome to check it out here. One warning, though: the issue downloads are somewhat large.

Oh yeah-- and not that this would even be a good joke in any sense, but this has nothing to do with April Fool's.

March 17, 2008

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Finished the colors of my latest pin-up yesterday.

So a little under a year ago, I was turned on to the Polish sculptor Stanislav Szukalski. I was actually introduced to him by the Tool website, who were advertising an upcoming show of his work at nearby Cal-State San Bernardino. Although I usually find most posts on the official Tool website to be of little interest, I decided to check out his work online, and I liked his style, so I went to the show.

I was blown away by the fluidity in his forms and lines, while at the same time keeping a stylistic rigidity. Not to mention that he had very interesting historical, mythological and religious subjects, which I always like. Turns out, Danny Carey and Adam Jones of Tool are huge fans, as is Tool-artistic-collaborator Cam DeLeon, and even actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who was a close personal friend of the artist up until his death. And all of them were major contributors in putting out one of his published collections, which I picked up.

So anyway-- I was very interested in the work titled Cecora, which chronicled a major event in Polish history. You can read about it here. I had thought of ways to work out a drawing based on that sculpture many months ago, and never got past the penciling stage. However, just a week or two ago, I ran across my original sketches, and something turned me on to restarting the piece. I did, and can say that I am quite pleased with the results.

March 3, 2008

Just uploaded the second installment of my "Untitled" series of sequential exercises. This one is three pages long, and I was going for a very metacomic type of experience. Not sure if I really achieved it completely, but I did have fun with the awareness of that fourth wall which is created in biographical comics, and playing with it throughout the narrative. As I am writing this, for some reason I am reminded of Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, which was a great read, and really challenged my ideas of what a traditional narrative was.

March 1, 2008

So for the first time in life, I began taking some Life Drawing classes. My hope is that maybe... just maybe... if I take these classes, I will begin to at least form the smallest bit of understanding of what the heck is actually going on when I draw the human body. Right now I am alright with the body: I have a very basic understanding of proportion, muscle structure, etc...

But just after two classes, I can already see improvement in watching how certain body parts interact with each other, and how that translates into one realistic, fluid being. Those changes may not necessarily translate into my drawings quite yet, but after 10 more weeks of practice, I hope to see some real improvement (particularly with the female body, which I really have some problems with).

It looks as if we are doing 20+ quick drawings every week. My original intention was to post what I considered to be some of my best here. But starting the second week, I began using a large 18x24 tablet, and scanning those in are a pain in the @$$. I tried taking pictures of them, but as you will see, the detail in Week 2's drawings aren't anywhere close to those of the Week 1 drawing. So, don't be surprised if I don't post any more of these...

And just a note: So far we have only done 3-5 minute poses (and some 30 second poses, which aren't shown here). Our basic idea is to get the spirit of the pose in the drawing. The details don't matter here-- we are looking to create a realistic, natural pose quickly, then we can build the details later.

February 10, 2008

Wow, it's strange enough that I am making two updates in the same season, let alone the same week! So I worked on this piece today because, well, I want to start drawing more, and I had some free time to get back in the coloring groove, and I had found an artist on DeviantArt that I really like, so I 'borrowed' one of his pieces and colored away. His name is Charles Holbert Jr., and he has a great gallery.

Oh yeah, and if you don't know who this drawing is of... then... well... I dunno. Can't wait for July to see Heath.

Anyway, I am laying out my second miniature story for my 'Untitled' comic I'm doing. And in a week or two I am going to start taking some life drawing classes to hopefully force myself into focusing on my art a bit more.

February 4, 2008

Well, it's been almost a year to-the-date since I last made design changes to this site. And here we are again. Version 6.0. And what purpose did that last update really serve? I updated the site a whopping 4 times since the changes-- and haven't touched it in nearly half a year.

As I say every time I throw up an update, I really am going to try to spend some more time drawing and creating work that is worth the effort of me putting in this portfolio here. In fact, I've even signed myself up for some drawing classes to force myself to do something.

Now, what will you notice that is different about the site now? Most notably, you will notice a whole bunch of stuff missing that was here before, such as web-design, graphic design, desktops, etc... I have decided to really have this web site focus on what it was originally meant to: self-fulfilling artwork, most often in the comic medium. I'm no longer going to post every little web site I complete at work, or every graphic design side-job I do at home. If/when I am eventually looking for employment elsewhere, or just have a bunch of spare time on my hands, I may try to create a graphic/web design site that I have tentatively called DMV Design.

Something else you may notice is missing: Photography. I know there are about three people composed of family and friends who actually like looking at my photography, but the truth is, I'm not a photographer, I simply take some snapshots when I go different places, and that really isn't worth the time or effort in placing everything on my website. I have started a flickr page here, and I may eventually put up a bunch of my favorite personal photographs here, but I honestly can't commit to whether or not I will ever actually get it up-to-date.

Now, what am I throwing up here today? Adding a few things that have been around here for months, that for some reason I never took the time to display. Mostly because I had this redesign on my mind for some time.

At the bottom you will see a tattoo I drew for somebody. It is the only time that I can remember that somebody actually used 100% of my drawing for their actual tattoo, and didn't have the artist change anything.

Above that is a drawing I did for myself this past October. I was really itching to draw something, and while thumbing threw some old unused sketches and concepts, I came across this idea from November of 2005. I really dislike that it is about the same time in my life that has been covered in my artwork ad nauseam. That whole thing really is old news, but I found the piece to be aesthetically interesting to work on.

And the last thing I am uploading right now is a 2 page comic that I created in November/December titled "Untitled". There isn't much to it, but I hope it kind of serves as a launching pad for me branching off and doing more sequential work.

July 23, 2007

It's been a long time since I posted anything on here. I wish I had more to show. Updated the web design section with a couple of additions. And added about 20 sites or so to my LinkU Realty section-- my day job. Too lazy to put it all in the "Recent Additions" section to the right.

I'm working on a sequential piece in my free time. But I don't really have much free time. So I have no flippin' clue when it may be done-- if ever. *Fingers crossed*

May 6, 2007

Only adding a couple new things:

Went to a Laker playoff game a week ago, and finally found time to throw up my first photo gallery of 2007 (although there really isn't much worth while there). Tried a new style for the galleries.

And I have been working on a website for a wine company. It isn't active yet, but should be within a couple days, so I decided to throw up the link now.

Just got back from Spiderman 3... Eh...

APRIL 9, 2007

No new work to show-- but I did update my web design section-- made a whole page dedicated to my work at LinkU.

And I just got finished giving an overhaul to the web design portion of my 12 Easy Steps for Breaking Up piece. Have been unhappy with the design for quite some time-- and it was something I intended to do when I overhauled the site. When I initially created it, I was in a bit of a rush to make deadline, and I was a much worse web designer then.

February 25, 2007

It's always fun to do a collaboration when the other artist has no idea that they are part of a collaborative effort. But I guess that's what you get when you publish a masterpiece of sequential art solely in black and white-- just waiting for me to color it.

I read Craig Thompson's Blankets a few months back, and absolutely loved it. It was a book I picked up for sole purpose of me being bored and wanting something to read. I had seen the über-thick book around in a few bookstores, and decided it was worth a try, since I couldn't find any other Chris Ware to buy. A few days later as I wrapped up all 582 pages of this 'illustrated novel,' I decided Thompson was a genius, and am now getting my hands on all his work that I can find.

So anyway-- if you're into graphic novels (which most people aren't), then go buy Blankets right now, if you haven't already.

Okay-- that was more of a plug than I intended to give for the book. All I really meant to do was give a small explanation of the piece I just finished up-- a coloring of page 570 from Blankets.

I have some other ideas I will hopefully be working through in the near future. I'm tired of doing a whole bunch of busy work for extra money and having no time to do anything creatively for myself.

February 7, 2007

So-- it has been a whopping ten months or so since I debuted version 4.0 of my web site. And guess what-- I got tired of that design fairly quickly. So here we are, after a solid month and a half's worth of hard labor: I introduce version 5.0; by far the largest upgrade I have ever made to my site. I did not originally intend for this much of an overhaul... but as I began working on it, eventually it just kinda turned into practically rebuilding the entire site from the ground up. As for now-- I am incredibly happy with the outcome-- but you know how it goes, I'm sure something else will catch my eye in a few months.

The design is entirely my own. Completely thought up in my own little head. But can you believe this!?: It's like the Mars Volta web site was somehow already able to completely rip me off! Weird!

The only thing that didn't get an extensive overhaul was the photography-- and I still think it will in the future, as soon as I see what the Media Galleries in CS3 are capable of. Also, just wanted to give a little thanks to the author of this script, which I found incredibly awesome.

Also added a couple things to the galleries on this update. First two are colors and inks that I collaborated with Dan Mulhern on for 'The Commission.' It is a t-shirt design that I drew and he colored/digitally enhanced. And after that is another web site that we collaborated on together. Also, if you go to the Web Design section of my portfolio, you will finally be able to see some of the web sites I have been creating for work.