SLAM BLOGSMA

47/52 - Bugbear

2012-02-02T12:03:00.001-05:00

Bugbears are the biggest and meanest members of the goblin family. Here, I made this handy chart:

46/52 - Golem

2012-02-01T13:44:00.002-05:00

Everybody needs their own animate construct every now and then.

45/52 - Ranger

2012-01-31T15:30:00.001-05:00

This is Borlo. He is the ranger in my D&D group. His favorite pastimes include being thrown over pits of spikes and being strangled by bugbears.

44/52 - Knight

2012-01-30T15:28:00.001-05:00

I think I was reading "Best Served Cold" by Joe Abercrombie and looking at Soul Caliber art books and thus: ladyknight.

Spore

2012-01-26T14:00:00.002-05:00

Another one of my short stories.

Detail:

Larger image.

43/52 - Kobold

2012-01-25T14:03:00.002-05:00

A perennial favorite D&D monster. Anyone who's ever started as a level 1 character in Dungeons and Dragons has assuredly mown down a field of Kobolds in their day.

Kobolds are also trickster sprites in German mythology, but those ones don't looks like little dragon-goblin jerks so who cares.

42/52 - Fighter

2012-01-24T12:59:00.001-05:00

This is the Fighter from my D&D campaign, whose name is John Rhys-Davies. He's kinda like a Kratos made out of rocks. He is one of the strongest characters in the party, and as such, it is my job as DM to try to kill him.

41/52 - Lich

2012-01-23T13:59:00.005-05:00

I think I'll always have a soft spot for skull-faces.

40/52 - Captain Falcon

2012-01-19T14:42:00.000-05:00

Captain Falcon drives race cars in space and has hands and feet made out of fire.

39/52 - Mindflayer

2012-01-18T12:32:00.002-05:00

In the Dungeons and Dragons universe, Mindlfayers are a race of brain-eating Cthulhus that serve giant floating brains in underground caves. They traditionally have octopus faces and I think they're supposed to physically eat brains? Like with a beak and stuff? But since they're essentially Lovecraft monsters, I thought it would be more fitting for them to just turn people insane by being super scary and feed of their psychic energy. The end.

38/52 - Dohvakiin

2012-01-17T12:58:00.000-05:00

Some may call this junk me I call them treasures looking to protect yourself or deal some damage gods be praised

37/52 - Hobgoblin

2012-01-16T13:59:00.005-05:00

In my last D&D session a bunch of hobgoblins teleported into a room because someone -- I'm not saying who -- said that he didn't want to work as a slave in the necromancer's tower.

36/52 - Archer

2012-01-12T14:53:00.003-05:00

I played D&D like five days ago and I'm already depressed that we don't get to play again for another month.

35/52 - Misty

2012-01-11T13:21:00.001-05:00

<3 Misty.

34/53 - Tattoo

2012-01-10T13:07:00.000-05:00

One of my favorites from the set. Back anatomy is super weird.

Network World Outlook 2012

2012-01-09T12:34:00.000-05:00

Last month I worked on a series of small drawings for Network World Magazine's Outlook on 2012 issue, which outlines some upcoming trends or movements in networking over the coming year. They go with a themed issue every year and (lucky for me) this year's was nautical. This top one is on looming hazards to your security.

What will you do with virtualization this year?

Are you ready for the flat network?

How will your company deal with consumerization?

I don't understand, either.

33/52 - Asari

2012-01-05T16:18:00.002-05:00

From Mass Effect, my favorite game series of this console generation.

32/52 - Snake

2012-01-04T15:09:00.001-05:00

Solid Snake is a great role model.

31/52 - Brock

2012-01-03T12:57:00.000-05:00

Brock manages a Rock gym, which I figure might be full of rocks? Thus, rock-climbing stuff.

30/52 - Conan

2012-01-02T13:23:00.002-05:00

I think I've mentioned before on this blog how I'm a huge fan of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. I would've loved to have seen Michael Shannon from Boardwalk Empire take on the role, but what are you gonna do? At least we'll always have Arnold's amazing commentary on the Conan the Barbarian dvd.

25-29/52 - A Harry Potter Christmas

2011-12-26T18:39:00.004-05:00

Hope everyone is having a great holiday vacation! I should've stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas.

24/52 - Red

2011-12-22T12:26:00.000-05:00

Pokemon Blue was the first videogame I played in my own house, and I suppose that's one of the reasons I have such an attachment to the series. Up until then, my only access to videogames was at friends' houses, since my parents weren't too keen on bringing me into that world. In 1998, I rented a Gameboy Color and Pokemon Blue from Blockbuster video and played it like crazy. I made it to the Elite Four, but couldn't beat the Champion. I had to return the cartridge before I was able to finish the game.

23/52 - Boxer

2011-12-21T12:34:00.001-05:00

There are times when I really wish I was interested in watching boxing. Luckily I can just watch "When We Were Kings" and get all the satisfaction I need from that. Man, that is the best movie.

22/52 - Goblin

2011-12-20T12:24:00.000-05:00

There are times when I want to go through the Dungeons and Dragons books and literally redesign everything. Not because I think everything is poorly designed, but because it would be a lot of fun.

21/52 - Leon S. Kennedy

2011-12-19T11:56:00.002-05:00

A tribute to Resident Evil 4, the second best game on Nintendo's Gamecube. I have to say, as far as common story archetypes go, "remote village with a terrible secret" is one of my absolute favorites.

20/52 - Gold

2011-12-15T11:57:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite parts of this whole big series is going through designs and finding real-world clothing to match up with the characters. I don't know why, I just love it. This is Gold, who went on a great Pokemon adventure and still managed to send money to his mom every once in awhile.

19/52 - The Other

2011-12-14T16:26:00.002-05:00

GRRM has a long way to go in the next two Song of Ice and Fire books to make the Others into anything but a ghostly background menace. Rotting polar bears and crystal swords are pretty cool, though.

18/52 - Wolverine

2011-12-13T15:51:00.000-05:00

I love Hugh Jackman as much as the next guy, but he's neither short, nor ugly enough to play Wolverine. Sorry, Hugh.

17/52 - Blue

2011-12-12T12:11:00.001-05:00

Professor Oak's little jerk of a grandson, from the Pokemon series.

16/52 - Superman

2011-12-08T13:52:00.001-05:00

15/52 - HULK

2011-12-07T14:26:00.001-05:00

I don't really know a lot about the Hulk, but I liked Plant Hulk, and I sure do like drawing him. I can't believe they didn't cast Steve Buscemi as Bruce Banner in any of the movies, though. Seems like a no-brainer.

14/52 - Cloud

2011-12-06T17:15:00.001-05:00

I haven't played Final Fantasy VII in close to ten years, and much of the additional material that Square put forth really ruined the memory for me. Regardless, when I was in eighth grade, Cloud was man, just the coolest.

13/52 - Nathan Drake

2011-12-05T12:01:00.001-05:00

Nathan Drake, from the Uncharted series. The prettiest games out there. Now if you'll excuse me, I have climb this wall and move some statues around.

Complete Works

2011-12-02T08:24:00.001-05:00

This is a small drawing running in today's Wall Street Journal. It accompanies an article about how aging musicians can feel constrained by a boxed set and all the finality that that implies. The article is about a specific anecdote from Elvis Costello, but this guy is just a stand in for older rockers in general.

Pretty quick turnaround -- about a day and a half from phone call to due date, but I still managed to get something I'm pretty happy with.

You can read the article on the WSJ's website here.

Big thanks to AD David Bamundo.

12/52 - San

2011-12-01T13:11:00.001-05:00

San, from Princess Mononoke. Princess of the spirits of ghouls, beasts, and ancient Gods. My favorite movie.

11/52 - Batman

2011-11-30T11:33:00.001-05:00

When I was a kid I wore Batman pajamas pretty much everywhere. Especially when riding around in the Batman wagon that my dad built.

10/52 - Skull

2011-11-29T13:23:00.001-05:00

I don't know what this guy is.

9/52 - Tifa

2011-11-28T13:29:00.001-05:00

Tifa Lockhart, from Final Fantasy VII. Everyone's favorite love interest who DOESN'T get impaled on a nine foot sword.

And hey, I found out this thing got accepted into this year's Society of Illustrators annual as well. Neat!

8/52 - Solomon Grundy

2011-11-24T13:38:00.001-05:00

Do you guys know that DC has its own version of the Hulk and he is a zombie who used to be a mobster? And he's named after a nursery rhyme? Yeah I don't know what's up with that either.

7/52 - Kuja

2011-11-23T13:35:00.001-05:00

Kuja, from Final Fantasy IX. Of all the designs Yoshitaka Amano made his his lifetime, Kuja's is probably the most Yoshitaka Amano-y.

6/52 - Lizardman

2011-11-22T16:19:00.001-05:00

Lizardman, from one of the many worlds in which Lizardmen exit.

5/52 - Link

2011-11-21T11:51:00.001-05:00

Link, from the Zelda series. Man, just blazing through these things.

4/52 - Amarant

2011-11-17T13:29:00.001-05:00

Amarant, from FF9. A character I liked but never used.

3/52 - Richter Belmont

2011-11-16T14:31:00.001-05:00

Richter Belmont, from the Castlevania series.

2/52 - Ganon

2011-11-15T13:34:00.001-05:00

Ganon, from the Zelda series.

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Also, I'm very pleased to announce that my Frog Kaiju drawing won the Silver medal in the Institutional category of this year's Society of Illustrators annual!

1/52 - Zidane

2011-11-14T12:35:00.001-05:00

One out of a set of fifty-two small drawings that are going out to folks who were nice enough to buy the videogames print I posted about earlier. The majority of these things are videogame characters, since I needed to sorta turn the ol' brain off for a bit in order to crank these out quickly. Zidane is the protagonist of Final Fantasy 9.

6x9", sumi ink and ebony pencil on Strathmore cold press.

Brunch Date

2011-11-07T16:45:00.003-05:00

I drew a few different little characters for this month's issue of San Francisco Magazine. Each of them is the type of a guy you can expect to find (and potentially date!) at some of the city's brunch destinations.

Sleep like Dead Men, Wake Up like Dead Men.

2011-10-31T12:48:00.000-04:00

I was extremely happy to be asked to contribute to this year's edition of the Cloudy Collection. If you're unfamiliar, the Cloudy Collection is a set of themed letterpress prints curated by cartoonist and entrepreneur David Huyck. Artists are given a theme, size, and set of pantone colors and then left to their own devices. The prints are then sold as a set on the Cloudy Collection's website. This year's theme is Hanging with the Dead.

I'm excited to be included among this years amazing crop of talent, which includes David Huyck, Natasha Allegri, Emily Carroll, Michael DeForge, Michael Slack, and Steve Wolfhard. The work that these folks churned out is really unbelievable.

Videogames Print

2011-10-18T16:38:00.000-04:00

Limited edition "Videogames" Giclée print on super heavy 100% Cotton rag, hot press, natural white 330 GSM paper. Edition of 50, signed and numbered! Never to be printed again! A sweet 24" on the long side. Each comes with some freebies, including a small original drawing (along the lines of these guys). $65, shipping included.

UPDATE: Annnnnd we are SOLD OUT! Thanks so much, everyone!

Screening Applicants

2011-10-14T11:30:00.000-04:00

I recently completed a job for PLANSPONSOR about companies using social networking and internet resources to screen prospective job applicants. Seems a lot of companies aren't taking advantage of this useful tool, and might be accidentally hiring secret dinosaur men. Who knew?

AD SooJin Buzelli

I knocked the first sketch out in about ten minutes and then spent about a full day trying to figure out a couple more, only to have that first sketch chosen in the end. I coulda kicked myself. I am pretty happy with that glob man in the third sketch, though.

Another reject

2011-10-09T22:56:00.000-04:00

This is another one of those drawings I got pretty far into before calling it quits. In this particular case, I realized that there were some things I could've done a lot better, and there was a smarter way of conveying the scene. I'll call this a very well-developed study and file it away. I'm almost done the revised drawing and I'm happy to say that it's significantly better.

This is for another one of those short stories.

Videogames Auction

2011-09-28T15:40:00.001-04:00

Bidding is now OPEN for the one-of-a-kind, never-gonna-be-made-again skateboard with my Videogames design on it. Bidding closes in a couple days, and prices are still relatively low. Get it while the getting's good! All procedes from the auction go to AIGA Colorado to help fund the arts community in Denver.

BID BID BID

Advice to Young Associates

2011-09-26T13:45:00.000-04:00

This is a piece I recently completed for the fall issue of Litigation magazine. It ran alongside the feature story on advice for young associates with dreams of becoming trial lawyers. Pretty much everything I know about law practices is culled from Phoenix Wright and Boston Legal, which I don't think are entirely accurate representations of the industry. A lot of the advice was applicable to most professions (distinguish yourself, gain specialized knowledge, etc), which made it easier for me to relate.

I did a couple spots for the article as well. The one below is about sampling.

AD Jill Tedhams

This is the debut issue of Litigation Magazine's redesign. My good buddy Luke Williams is a graphic design supertalent and worked on their rebranding. He was also good enough to use pieces from my portfolio as placeholders in his designs, which led directly to this job. Lesson: make friends.

On another note, I am on tumblr, tumbln the dumb drawings that don't even warrant a blog post over here.

Videogames

2011-08-29T12:52:00.005-04:00

A little while ago I was asked by Joe Marsh and AIGA Colorado to participate in Bordo Bello 2011, a fundraiser to help the arts community in Denver. The project line was simple: create a skateboard deck to be auctioned off at the 2011 event. Go nuts, basically.

Blogger has a cap on image size, so here's larger version for your perusal: EMBIGGEN.

I didn't do much skateboarding as a kid, but I was pretty into videogames, though I didn't have any of my own until I was able to buy them myself. This is more or less a stream-of-consciousness drawing, relating my hazy, romanticized memories of the videogames I played as a kid.

I asked my best buddy Diego Garcia (who you may know as @radstronomical) who is a dedicated pixel-smith to help me out with a couple elements of the drawing. The most important, obviously, was this arcade screen.
And here are some process do-dads.

You can learn more about Bordo Bello at their website.

Lady Macbeth and the Lichking's Bride

2011-08-09T12:40:00.004-04:00

A little while ago Kate Craig commissioned me to do a little piece for Emily Carroll's birthday, requesting only that Lady Macbeth be involved. Kate and Emily are so awesome. This is what came about.
This was the sketch for project that I have to keep under my hat for the next couple of months. I threw this one out and did another that's pretty related and is also better. Both this and the Lady Macbeth piece were posted on Twitter at some point over the last few weeks. Just one of the perks of following yours truly.

Sketches:
It's been awhile since I read Macbeth, but I was still able to count off the different people Macbeth killed!

Trying to figure out the other project:

I don't really remember the deal with this set.

I have a few other Game of Thrones portraits in the works, I'm working on a huge piece right now that should be up by the end of the month.

The Frogeater

2011-07-21T14:51:00.005-04:00

Meera Reed and her little brother Jojen are probably my two favorite characters introduced in book 2. They are two of the Crannogmen (the best name) who live in the bogs of the North (so awesome) and fight with poisoned arrows and tridents (whoa, seriously). Their father, Howland Reed (also the best name) is one of Ned Stark's most trusted lords, and is perhaps the only person alive who knows the whole story of Jon Snow's parentage (whoa).

Meera and Jojen become old pals with Bran Stark, who's left as the eight-year-old Lord of Winterfell in the absence of his father and brother. They're also the key to unlocking Bran's power. I think Bran also has a crush on Meera, who is sixteen? Adorable.

That's all for this week!

The Bastard of Winterfell

2011-07-19T22:18:00.005-04:00

I meant to keep these drawings to background characters, since I think the show does a pretty solid job casting the main characters, but I'm breaking my own rule here. Jon Snow is one of the two most important characters in A Song of Ice and Fire (the other being Daenerys Targaryen). There are a couple other titles Jon acquires in the series, and I'd rather have used those as his title here, but I think all of them are spoilers and I'm trying to keep this relatively spoiler-free.

I guess this image is sort of a spoiler? SPOILER ALERT: Jon sorta gets a scratched up face in book 3!

Jon, of course, is the bastard son of Eddard Stark and an unnamed woman. At least, that's what Eddard Stark tells everyone. The real truth of his parentage has yet to be revealed in the series, but the clues are there. Jon also seems like he may be part of a prophecy that's been slowly taking shape. Or maybe he's not.

I think I drew him a little haughtier than I meant. Maybe he's just watching out for the daggers in the dark.

One thing I haaaaaated about his design on the show is that they gave him an undyed wolfskin rather than being in all black. He's gotta be in all black. I get that they needed a way to easily distinguish him from the rest of the black-clad Night's Watch, but really. It's sort of a really big deal.

I wanted to do a livestream or something of one of these drawings, but the only webcam I have is in my iMac and I can't exactly plop this thing on my drafting table. Maybe I'll figure something out eventually.

The Crow's Eye

2011-07-19T01:47:00.004-04:00

I couldn't really care less about the Greyjoys for three books. Theon's arc was fine, and Asha was fine, and Aeron was interesting but not very well fleshed out. Then the fourth book came along and introduced two of the Greyjoy brothers, in addition to developing Aeron into a bigger character. There's something weird and crazy about the Greyjoys (and everyone who inhabits the Iron Islands and worships the Drowned God), and it seems like it's just getting crazier. Maybe it's the Lovecraftian themes, but I'm so down.

Euron Crow's Eye the still the most mysterious of the brothers. He's just spent however many years as a pirate and a reaver, sailing the haunted seas of old Valyria on his red ship Silence with his mute crew of mongrels and monsters.

The Red Woman

2011-07-18T01:33:00.003-04:00

Melisandre, the red priest of Asshai, introduces us to the first of many schism religions in Song of Ice and Fire. After it's been established that the Northerners hold the Old Gods and the Seven Kingdoms appropriately pray to the Seven, the first chapter of book 2 brings in Melisandre and her Lord of Light, R'hllor. The Greyjoys would later introduce The Drowned God, as well.

The difference is, the only God that seems to do anything is R'hllor, as we see time and time again. His priests see visions in the fires, set their foes ablaze, and breathe life back into the dead. Melisandre is at the heart of a few of the more memorable occurrences in the series.

The Lightning Lord

2011-07-14T13:26:00.003-04:00

Berric Dondarrion was a handsome knight before he died for the first time. The second, third, fourth, and fifth time he died did him no favors either.

The Brotherhood Without Banners, led by Berric Dondarrian and Thoros, the Red Priest, are an outlaw troop, travelling the Seven Kingdom's and delivering the King's Justice.

Hearsay and gossip are important elements in this series. Characters' legends and infamies grow and spread throughout Westeros by word of mouth. What we read chapter to chapter can and often does get distorted as word travels until what we know and what they know are two vastly different truths. In the second and third books, villagers spread the legend of the Lightning Lord, whose band of outlaws strikes against enemies of the late King Robert without warning and cannot be kept dead. Of course, the best tales hold a kernel of truth, and in Berric's case, much more than that.

Kissed by Fire

2011-07-13T12:29:00.004-04:00

While George R. R. Martin goes out of his way to dispel the themes of courtly romance so prevalent in medieval fantasy, the wildlings are another story. The free folk who live beyond the Wall and worship the Old Gods are completely and utterly romanticized. They are lawless, pray to trees, consort with giants, and talk to animals. Women fight alongside men, titles don't pass from father to son, and lead is taken by whomever has the strength. Their clash with the men of the Night's Watch, who defend the wall from wildlings and worse, is one of the lynchpins of the third book.

EDIT: John Bridges in the comments section made a great point on romanticism. I forgot about Craster, and yes, the wildlings romanticize themselves a lot of the time. I'd argue that Mance Rayder's speech about why he deserted the Night's Watch to become King Beyond the Wall is nothing if not romantic.

Those wildlings born with red hair are said to be kissed by fire, and are held as lucky. Ygritte is largely responsible for relaying the hallmarks of wildling life to Jon Snow.

The Hound

2011-07-11T20:53:00.005-04:00

Sandor Clegane, brother of The Mountain and sworn shield to Joffrey Baratheon, is easily my favorite character in the series. He's emblematic of George R. R. Martin's ability to turn a character from abhorrent to sympathetic to tragic over the span of a couple books, while never losing what it was that made him interesting in the first place. Like so many characters throughout the series, the first impression of The Hound is not the one we're left with, as layers are peeled away and the inner workings are revealed. He's still a sociopath and a murderer and the all around baddest dude in King's Landing (except maybe for his brother), but at least we understand why.

The Dragon Prince

2011-07-11T11:50:00.003-04:00

Back to Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire drawings for a bit.

The more we learn about Rhaegar Targaryen, the more bummed I get. He really seems like he would've been a great king, if Robert hadn't smashed his chest in with his warhammer on account of Lyanna Stark. His dad may have been crazy and his little brother may have been crazy, but Rhaegar seems alright. There are some neat theories about what Rhaegar's relationship with Lyanna actually was and what/who became of it.

The Dominion of Melchizedek

2011-07-04T13:16:00.006-04:00

I did this week's cover for SF Weekly, for a story and interview about Pearlasia Gamboa, who is the princess and president of the Dominion of Melchizedek. She is also a con artist.

The Dominion of Melchizedek is only visible and/or above water at certain times of the day, and is located somewhere between the Philippines and Antarctica (they claim a large section of both as territory). The Dominion is a fertile land, known for its numerous gold mines and plentiful shell organizations. You can read more about her here.

The AD requested a fantasy map of the Dominion of Melchizedek, in the general shape of a dollar sign, with Pearlasia on a golden throne, surrounded by details from the interview she gave to SF Weekly. That's her husband (and vice president), David Korem aka Mark Logan Pedley on the left. On her right is a San Francisco man whom she conned out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some details:
(probably the best figure I've ever drawn)
(some of The Dominion's natives)
(this is what gold mines look liks, I assume)
(who's that little guy?)

And the layout:

What a weird job.

AD Andrew Nilsen

The Damphair

2011-06-16T11:00:00.003-04:00

What is dead can never die.

The fourth book in this series was a little jarring, and a little tough to get into. So many new characters are introduced and so many old characters are absent, since about half of the active storylines are saved for book 5. The real shining point for me was the development of House Greyjoy and it's three insane brothers: Aeron (this guy), Victarion, and Euron (the most insane of all).

Gonna do some more of these if I can find the time.

Bronn of the Blackwater

2011-06-15T11:00:00.001-04:00

Just some upjumped sellsword.

Bronn is one of the characters who doesn't get a lot of screen-time (so to speak) in the books, but really makes the most of the scenes he's in. His introductory scene where he fights as Tyrion's champion against one of the Eyrie's best knights is so terrific.

The Knight of Flowers

2011-06-14T11:00:00.001-04:00

Pretty boy Loras.

I have so many favorite characters in this series, a lot of which are secondary characters. I liked Loras best in the first book when he was just some teenage prodigy knight.

George R R Martin does a really great job making memorable secondary and tertiary characters. For all that's done in this series to show the horrible things that happen in war (example: all of book 2 and 3), there are certain times when GRRM goes pretty heavy on courtly romanticism. The Hand's Tourney is a great example of where these two opposing themes literally clash, as Loras Tyrell, beautiful sixteen-year-old living legend faces off against The Mountain, who is an eight-foot-tall mass murderer.

The Mountain that Rides

2011-06-13T11:00:00.002-04:00

Gregor Clegane is the worst dude. In a series that focuses largely on moral ambiguity and paints just about every character in shades of gray, The Mountain is a monster.

I hope you guys like Song of Ice and Fire (and Game of Thrones, obvs). I have issues with the show, but those books are so good. In an effort to preserve my mental image of some of the characters, I've been doing some drawings.

I will do my best to keep these spoiler free!

A Short Story

2011-05-29T17:32:00.004-04:00

Just messing around.

Updates and a note on Personal Work

2011-05-23T12:22:00.007-04:00

There are now a couple new prints in my store, including the Frog Folio drawing in the previous post. My online store is here.

A week or so ago it was Draw Cat Rackham Day on Twitter, and I whipped this up.

Cat Rackham is the webcomic (and now print comic) of Steve Wolfhard. It is endlessly enjoyable.

This is a grayscale version of a drawing I was working on for awhile that I'm tossing into the ol' scrap-heap.

It isn't a paid job, and the deadline is flexible, so I have that luxury.

Priorities change when working on unpaid work or personal work. On a paid assignment, the emphasis is most often on creating the best piece within the timeframe that the client and budget allows. On personal work, there are different, less rigid guidelines. What is this piece doing for my portfolio? What is this piece doing to advance my drawing ability or career? Is this something that people would buy if I made it available as a print?

When the only reward for making a good piece is, well, having a good piece, working can become difficult. When there is a loose or no deadline, you have all the space to second guess every line, every mark, and to go back and change them.

On this drawing, too many of those little negatives added up and I felt like I was just barely treading water. The drawing is filed away, and we move on.

Frog Folio

2011-05-13T13:25:00.004-04:00

Blogger's meltdown deleted this post, so here I am, reposting.

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Every year Dellas Graphics puts out a promotion calendar called the Frog Folio, which led to tons of award-winning illustration over the past fifteen years. AD Jim Burke was kind enough to invite me to participate this year.

Subject matter was completely open, apart from the inclusion of at least one frog. I've had this idea kicking around in my head for awhile and figured now was the time to make it happen.

This year's roster includes Rick Berry, Polly Becker, Ryan O'Rourke, Joohee Yoon, Roger DeMuth, Teresa Fasolino, Bill Mayer, C. F. Payne, and Bill Thompson.

Some details:

And the rough comp -

I basically grew up on kaiju movies, and the best part of this piece was revisiting a lot of those for reference. I don't have my vhs collection anymore, but there are a ton on Netflix Watch Instantly. If you haven't seen Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster, you're in for a real treat.

This was actually done simultaneously with the last piece, in one weird week.

Facing a Daunting Challenge

2011-05-10T14:30:00.004-04:00

I did this piece a couple weeks ago for SooJin Buzelli at Planadviser. It's about facing a daunting challenge, and is also about retirement income. I guess I've been thinking about weird birds a lot lately.

Sketches -

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It's been nice to hear reports trickling in about people picking up The Anthology Project v.2 at TCAF or Stumptown. So far the response have been pretty great.

Spectrum, Society of Illustrators

2011-04-21T19:00:00.002-04:00

Good news, everyone! These top two pieces were selected to be in Spectrum 18, out this fall. The top one is from Turtle Soup and will appear in the Comics section, while the bottom is of course from The Hobbit, and will be in the Unpublished section.

You can buy prints of that Hobbit piece here, and purchase The Anthology Project, volume 2 here. That one starts shipping on April 27, though I think some folks have picked up copies at a couple of conventions already.
Additionally, this piece, which was done for Plansponsor Europe and went on to be selected (along with a couple other pieces) to appear in the Society of Illustrators 53 book is now part of the Society of Illustrators Travelling Exhibition. The selected pieces will be shown in several schools throughout the country. Cool!

I'm currently working on some cool stuff, but it's still secret, so shhh.

Frogs, kaiju

2011-04-19T10:20:00.000-04:00

Hmm, I wonder what this stuff is for?

Kaiju was my lifeblood as a kid. I'm glad Netflix Instant has a few streaming. Helps fill the gaps between NBA playoff games. Ghidorah: Three Headed Monster is my favorite one they've got up. Wish they had Godzilla vs. Megalon or Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.

Elliott Erwitt

2011-04-11T11:16:00.003-04:00

I have a small piece in this week's New Yorker about an upcoming "Best Of" show featuring famed photographer Elliott Erwitt. You may know him from this picture? Or maybe this one?

Luckily for me he's also known for this one.

Seems like an interesting fella.

AD Jordan Awan.

And I'm off! To my next adventure!

Carl Fisher's Roads

2011-04-01T11:30:00.001-04:00

These pieces accompany an article in the May/June issue of Muse Magazine, titled 'Carl Fisher's Roads.' It's a textbook excerpt about Carl Fisher, an entrepreneur in the early part of the twentieth century who had his finger on the pulse of America's growing need for personal transportation and the hurdles that needed to be overcome.

Highway engineer F.H. Trego recommended packing the following items on a long-distance drive in the early 20th century: an ax, shovel, and four-foot hardwood plank, 50 feet of heavy rope and 16 feet of cable, an extra engine valve, two jacks, two spare tires, three gallons of oil, a pile of cooking and camping gear, and a small pistol.
The first roads were nothing more than glorified game trails.
Early bicycles were extremely dangerous, and the big-wheel bikes (called "ordinaries") were essentially brakeless.
One of Carl Fisher's terrific business models as a bike salesman involved throwing a bike off the roof of a building and then giving a free one to whomever lugged the wreckage back to his shop. He also used a similar tactic when he sold cars later on.

A small diagram of the different layers of the typical road.

Prints of the top three images are available for purchase here.

I always love working for Muse AD John Sandford, though I have a tendency to bite off a whole lot to chew on in his assignments. These are all half or quarter-page spots, but I thought they'd make pretty nice prints, so I ended up working on them quite a bit bigger. Ah well!

Dungeons and Dragons and Drawings

2011-03-17T12:00:00.002-04:00

This is weird. These are sketches of the five characters in the D&D campaign I've been playing in for the past couple of months. I can't say enough in favor of Dungeons and Dragons, despite the (well-deserved) stigma of being really, really nerdy. It's a great exercise in world and character building, and gives you a chance to think creatively and solve problems in a group dynamic.

Unlike videogames, which I still love, the quality of the experience and the end result is directly related to what you bring to the table. The more you invest in character creation and creative thinking (two of my favorite things, obviously), the more fun you have.

My character is the guy with the spear and the mace and the black, dead hands. All of these (especially pages 3 and 4) need some more work before I can do a final character drawing. If you can guess everyone's race and class, I'd be really impressed.

As stated in yesterday's post, I opened up an online shop to buy prints. It is here. They are super good quality and super affordable.

EDIT: Since folks are still guessing the character races/classes, they are as follows: halfling ranger, goliath fighter, dwarf bard, eladrin ranger, human cleric, and the eladrin ranger again.

Prints!

2011-03-16T18:41:00.001-04:00

I am selling prints online for the first time!

You can buy them here.

I'm also giving away a couple on twitter, so you can follow me there and maybe win a free one.

Turtle Soup process

2011-03-15T17:12:00.002-04:00

Hey folks!

There's a short slideshow of some Turtle Soup process work on the Anthology Project's tumblr here.

And remember, you can always preorder the book by checking out the link in yesterday's post.

Preorders

2011-03-14T11:12:00.002-04:00

The Anthology Project volume 2 is now available for preorders!

Preorder!

More updates soon (hopefully).

More undertakers

2011-02-20T23:25:00.002-05:00

Slowly working on some more undertakers, and getting a little more ghoulish as I go. It's nice to step back into horror for a bit.

Undertakers

2011-02-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

I'm working on some developmental sketches for a new piece for a potential alphabet book, headed up by a good friend of mine. My letter is U, which in this case stands for Undertakers. I don't have much to say on them as of now, since I'm still in the very early stages of exploration on this one. So far though, it's a little like going back to Innsmouth.

If you follow the Picturebook Report blog, you probably know by now that the project has come to an end. It was a group decision that the concept and our volition to complete our respective endeavors had sort of run its course. Once I fell behind with The Hobbit and worked on other things in between pieces, my interest in the series waned. The next two scenes are a couple of my very favorites in the book, but my heart's not in it right now, and I would much rather work on some things which aren't bound to that narrative. I'm proud of the work that I completed and may return to the project, but there will be no formal posting schedule. Thanks for understanding.

Beorn 5

2011-01-23T22:40:00.002-05:00

Alright, I think I'm about done with the design stage of Beorn, which is great, because I'm also finished with this sketchbook. In the end, going back to the absolute basics of character design really helped figure out his body shape. Square = solidity. Duh.

The final design will probably incorporate elements from a lot of the drawings, which is what usually happens when I go through all this. I think these drawings are more a way of weeding out bad decisions rather than arriving at a final, concrete design.

Beorn 4

2011-01-19T11:30:00.001-05:00

I sort of went off a little on these and just started doing strongman body structure. There are some fun ones in there. I think the last page, where the bodies themselves are bigger and thicker are the best of the lot. I used to love watching World's Strongest Man competitions on ESPN2 at like one in the afternoon. That sort of body type has always been interesting to me, where it's not the defined musculature that conveyed the enormous strength of those men, but their sheer size. I'm hoping to get to something like that with Beorn, but on a larger scale. He's what, fifteen feet tall? Twenty? Something ridiculous.

As some of you in the comments have hit on, Beorn IS a really simple character. He's big and he's strong and he's old and he lives alone. The origins of the character are obvious and singular -- Tolkien just wrote a berserker into the story. A giant man with a huge beard who builds long wooden houses and turns into a bear? And his name is Beorn? Alright.

Despite that, I really like the character. The giant bees that he keeps and his weird bipedal dogs that he talks to really seal the deal.

Beorn 3

2011-01-17T11:30:00.002-05:00

So, Beorn's coming along. I'm on a better thought-train with these, though I'm still shaking a lot of the dust of a few weeks without much drawing. The checked images are what's workable here. I think there's one on each spread. I struggled through these drawings to make something better than the second drawing in the previous post, and I don't really think I succeeded. I think I'm onto something a little better for his face and something a little better for his attire, but I think these body structures are a step backwards, or at least a step sideways.

A part of me is just sort of burned out on drawing big burly guys with giant beards. I'm desperately trying to find some new ground there to tread.

I'll talk about Beorn's character a little more in the upcoming posts.

I just finished rescanning most of the work from my 2009-2010 sketchbooks in the hopes of compiling some drawings into something you can buy. I have about 150 or so spreads to cull images from, so the book that I put together will have a lot of content. I'm shooting for around 80 to 100 pages and I'm hoping to have it done and for sale in the next few months.

Beorn 2

2010-12-27T20:30:00.002-05:00

The good news is that these aren't terrible. I think I'm coming closer to the right body shape; the more realized drawing on the second page is pretty good. I draw a lot of big burly guys, and varying their body shapes is becoming more and more important. I can't have Beorn just being a big dwarf, and I have to differentiate his body shape from the trolls as well.

I'd like to show him with that type of strength that comes from manual labor rather than weight-lifting, with a solid core and sinewy, corded muscles in the limbs. The first drawing on the left is too ape-like, too stupid. I like the one on the right. Let's see where it goes.

Beorn's long, low house is surrounded by hives filled with bees bigger than your thumb, which of course beings to mind one of the ultimate horrors of this world, the Japanese Hornet. Learn more about these living nightmares here. I don't know if the final piece will include them in any, but now's as good a time as ever to get good at drawing hornets.

Beorn 1

2010-12-23T00:26:00.004-05:00

These are awful, but it's good to be back.

Beorn is a really simple design that is going to be really difficult to figure out. Big black hair and beard, wool tunic to the knees, bare arms and legs.

The next two pieces (this included) are two of my absolute favorite scenes in the book.

Turtle Soup

2010-12-14T17:31:00.003-05:00

This is the first half of Turtle Soup, my comic for the upcoming second volume of The Anthology Project. The book will be out in the spring, so if you want to finish the story (which take a SHOCKING TWIST on page 7), you'll have to pick it up. I'll remind you when the release date is closer.

Here are some layouts and things:

Kali did my title text and spent a solid chunk of time helping me nail down the color, which is always difficult and frustrating for me and less so for her.

I was working for awhile on a story called Good Work, which didn't pan out and simply ate up a lot of my time for this comic. As a result, this thing is a little more rushed than I would've liked -- I was redrawing bad panels into the eleventh hour, when the whole thing could've used another pass at the layout stage. I will say that the second half is much better, both in drawing and storytelling, so pick up the book next year. I think it'll be at all the main conventions, so that'll be super easy for you. There is some amazing work in that book, so far as I've seen.

Updates

2010-11-29T17:49:00.003-05:00

from Turtle Soup, page 3

Only TWO days left to pledge to support The Anthology Project, volume 2! We're well past our goal, but you can still use the site to preorder the book, which will be out in the spring.

Pledge!

IN OTHER NEWS

Spectrum 17 is out, and I am in it, as well as a lot of other great people. So, if you're interested in great stuff, you may as well pick up a copy. And how about that sweet Manchess cover? Huh? Talk about great.

ALSO

These three pieces will be in Society of Illustrators 53 this year. The first in the Uncomissioned show and the second and third in the Editorial. This is my first time in the book, which is cool. I will be at the Editorial show for sure and the Uncomissioned show for maybe.

Turtle Soup page 8

2010-11-10T17:38:00.002-05:00

Turtle Soup is my contribution to the second volume of The Anthology Project. It is a short comic about buying too much soup. It also has a bunch of monster and knights and stuff.

If I inked my comics, this is what I'd call the final pencils. My final lines will be IN pencil, of course, so that term is a little misleading here. Anyway, here is the final rough drawing before the final lines, and below that are two stages of the layout. Original thumbnail is at the very bottom and a more developed digital sketch is right above that. Some things still need to get moved around now that I look at them (drawing in panel 4 is gonna get shifted to the left a bit), and I'm adding the speech bubbles in separately in case they need to be resized or anything like that.

I have four more pages to draw and then it's on to the finals! Everything will be done by the end of the month, and I'll post some more previews when I get a chance. The book will be out in the Spring.

If you're interested in preordering, our Kickstarter page is still taking pledges until December 1. We're way past our goal, but you can still get the book and some prizes and stuff if you're interested.

The Trojan Prince

2010-11-08T19:40:00.004-05:00

This piece accompanies a short story in this week's New Yorker by Tessa Hadley called The Trojan Prince. It's a bit of a Great Gatsby-ish fiction featuring a teenage love triangle and romantic misunderstandings and that sort of thing. It's strange for me to spend so much time drawing nice things happening to regular people.

Sketches:

AD Jordan Awan

Sub Rosa again

2010-10-25T15:06:00.002-04:00

This piece was "completed" about a year ago for the Secret Service show held by Rotopol Press in Kassel, Germany. After posting it, it was quickly pointed out that there were no footprints in the snow, an element which I had in the sketch version and just plum forgot about. Cut to nearly one year later and I had both the small sliver of free time and the volition necessary to put the prints back in. There are a couple of other minor tweaks as well. Since updates around here are scarce while I have my nose so firmly pressed to the grindstone, I figured I would post this.

Old version is here.

The Hobbit, part six

2010-10-12T19:09:00.001-04:00

Surprise! I've been a day late before, may as well be a day early this time.

Ah, finally done.

This post was supposed to go up last month, but I need a little bit of extra time and figured I would save it until now. Instead of finishing it way ahead of schedule like I might have, I put way more work and time in than I wanted to. Ah, so it goes.

I wrote up a nice little post about this scene over at Picturebook Report, so head on over there if you're interested in that sort of thing.

I'm proud of this piece, though I'm not sure that I had fun doing it. Birds are agonizingly hard to draw and it seemed like the drawing and then the coloring just went on and on and on, way past the point of interest. Anyway! Because I put way too much detail in, here are a bunch of detail shots.

I'm not sure yet if I will do a process post for this, since you folks already know how I do things. Maybe I'll do something smaller and show just the myriad of drawings that I did before things ended up as they are.

As always, comments are more than appreciated.

Also, count it! I am officially halfway done with this project.

Turtle Soup 4

2010-10-11T11:40:00.000-04:00

I'm starting to re-thumbnail my story in an effort to pair it down a pag or two, and I figured it was about time to nail down my background characters. I needed about twenty, a mix of humans and monsters, basically just a scrum of tough guys. I wanted to have them all down before I did my second round of thumbnails so I could keep them all consistent shot to shot.

Page four has the basic layout of the armory and the seating chart (far right). In placing them at tables, some small narratives cropped up even among these nonsense characters who have no lines and no real action in the story. It was a funny little organic thing. Three and nine found love after their warring armies destroyed each other. Seven is making peace with her long-vanquished foes, eleven and twelve. Just stuff like that.

Page three has the mostly final designs for the smith and the boy, who are the two main characters.

Again, The Anthology Project Kickstarter page is here, if you are so inclined. A pledge of $30 gets the book when it comes out and if you want to give more than that, there several tiers of prizes beyond that.

Updates

2010-10-07T17:42:00.004-04:00

The Anthology Project has started a Kickstarter fund! The Anthology Project is just what it sounds like - an anthology of comics by people like me, Kali Ciesemier, Joy Ang, Emily Carroll, Edward Kwong, Aurelie Neyret and others. We are looking to raise $7000 to finance and publish volume 2.

If you don't know how Kickstarter works, it's simple: you pledge a sum of money (as low as $1), and then if we meet the goal by our deadline, that money you pledged goes to our cause! If we don't hit the goal by the deadline, no sweat, you don't get charged a thing.

Sound good? Our deadline is December 1st, and here's where you can pledge: Kickstart!

The comic I have been working on for awhile will be done by then, and I'm gonna be really mad if we don't reach the deadline.

Anyway!

Hobbit 6 is done and will be posted next Wednesday. Things are gonna be a little quiet around here until this comic is done, but I'll try and put stuff up when I can.

Ok, pledge!

Turtle Soup 3

2010-10-01T18:15:00.004-04:00

Getting into the two main characters, the blacksmith and the squire, from Turtle Soup. I don't really like to leave design choices up to the last minute on a project, but I sort of have to on this since the deadline is creeping up on me. As soon as I got my head around a design even loosely, I had to move on to the next thing. I probably won't have finalized designs for either of these characters until I'm drawing in panels. It's a little scary, but it also insures I don't overthink things.

Turtle Soup 2

2010-09-28T20:06:00.002-04:00

Some more background character work for Turtle Soup.

Since none of the background characters have any importance to the plot (not really, at least) and they exist purely for flavor, doing these sketches is basically just pouring my brain onto the paper. I'm not really thinking about much or looking at much reference (sometimes for uniforms and clothing), but it's more or less stream of conscious.

I am beginning to think that I am the true weirdo here.

Turtle Soup 1

2010-09-27T22:56:00.003-04:00

I am working on a short comic for the second volume of The Anthology Project, along with a lot of really talented people. My story is called Turtle Soup and is about eating too much soup (sort of).

Here are some drawings of some guys that may or may not be in the story. I don't want to give away too much.

The story has two main characters and a lot of people in the periphery. The four-armed bigface you see on pages three, four, and five is one of the main characters, though those are all pretty wrong. I was working on a different story for awhile and that ate up a lot of my time and I drew a few designs (corpses and princes) for that story which were a shame to scrap. I'm trying to incorporate a few of my favorites into the background of this one. This thing will be done by the middle of November, so hold onto your butts because I'm going to try to keep you all updated on it as it goes. It's going to be a lot of fun to draw since I populated it entirely with weirdos and monsters and maniacs.

Here are some panel layouts. There are a few more pages to get tagged onto the end, and then I'm hoping to cull the story down to maybe 10-12 pages total. I have a couple more passes of thumbnails before I get into the real drawings.

I don't draw a lot of comics, but they're pretty fun.

Salamandurai

2010-09-21T11:30:00.000-04:00

A small drawing I did for the dudes over at Drawforce. They do a monthly drawing topic and compile it all into a group blog. The topic for September was samurai. I've been thinking about salamanders recently. What is their deal.

I almost never do one-off character drawings anymore, but that is literally all I did for most of my adolescence. It feels weird to draw a character without an environment or context, but it's also an interesting challenge to try and pack as much narrative as possible into a design. Some different things become prioritized.

I took a character development class with Brian Ralph my junior year of college which really did a lot of good for my work and my sense of humor.

GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

2010-09-20T03:27:00.002-04:00

Wow, amazing response, thanks everyone! I really appreciate all the nice comments and all the RTs on twitter as well. The winners, via random number generator are as follows:

1. Chris Colella!
2. Hannah Lee Stockdale!
3. Guy!
4. Mark Grambau!
5. David Huyck!
6. Katie Rose!
7. Pedro Paulo!

If your name is on that list, send me an email with your address and I'll get your print out as soon as possible! If you have a preference for what you get, let me know, but no guarantees, sorry. If you don't send me your info by Friday I'll choose another winner instead, so be quick about it. I'm going to try to send all of this stuff out next week.

A clarification: I WILL be making these prints, among others, available for sale sometime in the future, so if you didn't win one, you can still buy one from me. Just not until I can afford a large-format printer. I will even make it a contest. You can send me money and I will do use a random number generator (min: 1 max: 1) and then you will also be a winner.

Thanks again for the great turnout, and I hope some of you stick around for the next 200 posts.