Monday, December 23, 2013

Merry Christmas! 2013

Click to see animated gif larger!

    Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! 
May God bless you and yours!


Luke 2:1-20 (New Living Translation)

1 "At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiancee, who was now obviously pregnant.
And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.
That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, 

    14  'Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.'

15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. 17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. 20 The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them."

p.s. About the GIF animation: It was completed by drawing 19 frames of illustration in Photoshop. The elk's major movement and look were rotoscoped on video frames from footage of an actual elk found in this awesome video. The smile, ornaments, and greeting were, of course, added during the animation process.

Monday, December 16, 2013

A Family Portrait in Graphite

Click the image to view it larger.

   Hey guys! Recently, I had the privilege of doing another graphite portrait commission. Here is a snapshot of the finished drawing. This time, it was of three people on an 8 x 10 inches piece of Bristol board paper. I mostly used HB through 4B pencils, but I may have used a 6B or Ebony pencil for the darkest spots. For more on the process I used for these portraits click here to see previous posts about them. Thanks for taking a look! God bless and have a great week!

Monday, December 9, 2013

Superman Turns 75

    Can you believe that Superman turned 75 this year?! I couldn't stand the thought of  the year ending without posting something on here to celebrate, so here is a sketch of ol' Supes I did the other day. For more Superman fun, check out the Superman tag on my Tumblr blog. It would be great if I had time to post a sketch of Lois Lane (she turned 75 too!) or The Doctor (50!) but we'll just have to wait and see about that.
God bless, you guys!

Monday, December 2, 2013

Free Shipping Through Cyber Monday + New Products!

It's Cyber Monday and that means FREE SHIPPING* all day at my Society6 store!

Now Available: Baby Onesies! 



And now you can buy all these All New products: Mugs, Kids T-Shirts, and Onesies! This is the perfect opportunity to get some holiday gifts for someone special or for yourself, but this great deal is only available today! 

I'm super excited about this deal and the new products available. So cool! All you have to do is go to my SHOP page and click Society6 or just click this link to go straight to my Society6 store. I hope this helps you guys out. Thanks for stopping by! God bless!

*FREE Shipping on orders thru Cyber Monday, worldwide Excludes Framed Prints, Stretched Canvas and Pillows.

EDIT: This sale is now over.

ANOTHER EDIT: 

WHAAAT?!?! A CYBER MONDAY AFTER PARTY?! Yep.

From now until Sunday, December 8, 2013 at Midnight Pacific Time,  you get FREE Shipping* and $5 OFF each of my products when you order from my Society6 Store. But this promo is NOT automatically available on my store. You've got to use this handy LINK. Act now my friends!

*Free Shipping does not apply to Framed Prints, Stretched Canvases or Throw Pillows with inserts.

Monday, November 11, 2013

The Amplifier- Y is for YES!


    Hey gang! The newest issue of The Amplifier has hit the street. Inside, you'll find the above typography illustration I did. A bit different from what I usually do for the paper, but it was a fun challenge.

After these sketches & thumbnails, I penciled out the text & inked it. I scanned it onto the computer & then made adjustments in Photoshop.

    I think I almost enjoyed the practice and layout process more than working on the final image. It was a lot of fun to look up old and current text art and try my hand at a piece in which hand-drawn type was the focus.
    Above, you can see how I tried to work out a number of ways of approaching the illustration. I even watched videos on calligraphy and sign making as well as looking through old books and examples of illuminated manuscripts. I'm not sure I well I did, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Make sure to pick up your copy of the latest issue of The Amplifier in the Knoxville, Tn area today! God bless.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Hugo & Rodin

Victor Hugo Bust. Ink pen. About 5x8 inches.

    Here is a sketch I did last week in my little sketchbook. It's of a bust of Victor Hugo that was sculpted by the great Auguste Rodin. I roughly drew it in pencil and then inked over it with Faber-Castell PITT artist pens. That's all for this week. Have a great one everybody! God Bless!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Wizard World Nashville Comic Con 2013

View from the convention: "The Batman Building" and "The R2-D2 Building" watching over the con.

    October 18-20 was the Wizard World Nashville Comic Con and boy, was it a blast! I'd never been to a comic book convention before so when I heard there was just going to be one so close by, I knew I needed to check it out.

So much to see, plenty of time!

    I sure am glad that I did! So many great people were there including comic book retailers, cosplayers, celebrities, and comic and animation creators. The two things I enjoyed the most were the Artist Alley and all of the panels. I tried to go to as many panels as I could, but there were too many great ones for me to be able to make it to them all. On Friday, I had the pleasure of my dad going with me to the convention. We were very impressed by the new Music City Center. We enjoyed going to the "Breaking Into and Staying in Comics" panel featuring Alé GarzaFreddie Williams II, and Danny Fingeroth which was moderated by Dr. Rebecca Housel.  

Batman & Robin must have come by to keep the "Con Men" in line. Get it? heh heh.

    On Saturday there were a lot of panels! The day started with the very interesting panel, "Country Music And Comics" moderated by Danny Fingeroth and featuring Guy Gilchrist, Alé Garza, Shane Berryhill, and Keven Gardner. It was cool to see how much comics and music influence and cross with each other in so many different ways.

Hey! I thought they said no pets at this thing!
THE droid himself, R2-D2 happily roaming the con floor.
    I then went to the very informative and entertaining panel, "Classic Animation" Tom BancroftJohn Pomeroy, and Doug TenNapel (who also moderated.) It was a great look back at their careers thus far and gave good insight into their creative processes while sharing advice for animators and storytellers. Such talented and friendly guys! 

The Mystery Machine!

I then caught the end of Fingeroth's "How to Write Comics" panel. It seemed very good and I wish I had been able to catch the whole thing, but I'm only one man, you know. After that I went to "The Art of Cartoon Animation and Production with Animator/Director Tom Cook," The kind Mr. Cook offered a great look at his career and Filmation Studios, the changes in the way American television animation, and the complete animation process they used on shows like Scooby Doo, He-man and Thundarr.

Lots of people were enjoying posing with cosplayers.
Here, a family is saying cheese with War Machine and Iron man!

    After lunch, I stopped by for part of the "Voice Acting with Jason Marsden" panel. The use of audience participation (audience members on stage receiving voice direction from Marsden) made it really fun and educational at the same time.

   
    I then went to the "75th Anniversary of Superman" panel moderated by Danny Fingeroth. It featured Superman himself, Dean Cain, Neal Adams, and Travis Langley (shown above) who were all a lot of fun. Mr. Fingeroth did a great job showcasing Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and the first comic book appearance of the Man of Steel. The crowd went crazy for it and so did I.
    Following that, I sat in on part of the "Clay Model Sculpture and Mold-Making" panel which was pretty interesting too. 

Tom Bancroft demonstrating how he and the other Disney animators drew Pocahontas


    The first panel I went to Sunday was the "Drawn to Disney" panel with Tom Bancroft in which he led a "draw along." He showed us all how to used basic shapes to form Disney characters while sharing about his design process of Mushu from Mulan. It was wonderful!
    Immediately after that was the "Storytelling with Michael Golden" panel and lets just say I took lots of notes. Mr. Golden isn't only a talented artist, he also knows the ins and outs of commercial storytelling and writing. I think I learned quite a bit.

These aren't the comics aren't the comics we're looking for. Move along.

    I also had the pleasure of attending "Supervillains and Psychology" with Dr. Travis Langley Featuring Eric BaileyJason Marsden, and Danny Fingeroth. Everyone seemed to have a great time talking about supervillains in comics including what makes them tick and why we like them so much. It was quite entertaining and insightful, you guys.

 
    While I wasn't at panels, I was usually in Artist Alley chatting with creators and looking at all of there great work. Tom Bancroft was nice enough to sign my copies of his wonderful character design books and even did a quick sketch in one! While at his table I bought his new graphic novel Opposite Forces and his Character Mentor workbook, Shape Inspiration. Such great stuff!
    I also bought a signed print from Tom Cook who gave me the Road Rovers signed print for free! He was really great to talk to. I also had the pleasure of meeting Christopher West and his family. I was lucky enough to buy his comic strip book Our Time (quite funny) and Timeless Comics: The Island Queen (his collaboration with his brother, Scott West and writer Geoffrey Freeman,) which is fantastic!
    So many talented people and they were all so nice! It's no wonder I had such a great weekend at the convention. I can hardly wait until next year. Maybe you'll be there too next time! Well, I'm going to go "recover" from the fun and maybe read some comics. God bless!

Monday, September 16, 2013

Sketch: Woman Playing Dominoes

Chillin'

    Hi everyone! Here is a sketch I did a few days ago. I used an old photo by Harri Peccinotti for the reference. It was a good practice drawing to get accustomed to using multiple pens for one drawing again. It had been a little while.

Close up!

    I hope your week is off to a good start! Don't forget to check out all the new things available in my Society6 store! Lots of cool new things over there and there have been a lot of sales lately. God bless, you guys!

Monday, August 26, 2013

The Amplifier- X is for X-ray

Click Images To See Them Larger

    Hey folks! If you've purchased the most recent issue of The Amplifier, you've probably seen my latest illustration, "X is for X-ray." Above is a detail from the image. We wanted this one to emphasize how we are all human beings and should be treated as such. It was important to depict a scenario in which someone was being ignored or treated worse just because the person is homeless. It was also important to invite the reader to take a moment to look inside and see the value in themselves & others. What better way to look inside than to use an X-ray? ;)


    Here are a few of the thumbnail sketches I used to work out my approach to the concept and what composition would be best. These are very rough, but they only need to show my basic intentions for the illustration.


    I became excited about the idea of using a "bird's eye" view and showing lots of people walking in a public place in Knoxville, TN, like Market Square.


    Using the big "X" on the ground seemed to be the perfect way to add focus to the person others are overlooking.


    I then gathered photo reference online and drew the people in pencil and inked over them.


    Above, you see what the people looked like after I scanned them into the computer and made corrections in Photoshop. The same process was also used for the homeless teen you see added.


    I also used this process to create parts of a planted tree that would appear in the illustration. I made it in pieces so that I could easily wiggle and shift its parts around in order to have the appropriate angle and foreshortening from the view above. I then colored the people, tree, and ground in Photoshop.


    After researching back & chest X-rays, I was prepared to digitally "paint" them. Off to the side of my image, I made standard chest and back X-rays for men, women, and children. I then copy and pasted them over top of the people and adjusted and changed them to fit the person's body.



    The final "definition" for X-ray was yet to be pinned down for this one, so I finished the image with the three options we had narrowed down. The first one was chosen to go to print.


    I thought it might be cool to show you some of my process illustrating this one by making animated GIF of some of the steps. Here you can see how after the colors, I added the shadows, details, X-rays, and then the text last. I hope you enjoyed this little bit of "behind the scenes." Feel free to purchase the latest issue of The Amplifier up in the Knoxville area. God bless!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

NEW DESIGN "INTERDIMENSIONAL GUIDE" for sale in my Society6 store!

INTERDIMENSIONAL GUIDE

    HEY GUYS!!! Check it out! It is my new illustration/design available on my Society6 store! It is called "Interdimensional Guide" and is rather sci-fi and space fantasy like. The original drawing was just done the old fashioned way with pencil and pen on paper. I then cleaned it up a tad in Photoshop and made the appropriate adjustments to the different product templates etc.

Lemon colored shirts too!!!
 You can get this design on guy's and gal's T-shirts, hoodies, art prints, framed prints, stretched canvases, throw pillows, and tote bags!

TANKS!

    AND NOW AVAILABLE: TANK TOPS, YA'ALL!!! "American Apparel Fine Jersey Tank Tops are made with 100% fine jersey cotton combed for softness and comfort. Heather Grey contains 10% Polyester."-Society6

More like, iAWESOME!

ALSO NOW AVAILABLE: iPhone & iPod skins and cases, iPad cases, iPad and laptop skins, and stationary cards!!!

Your pad can be "RAD."

    Woah, woah, woah. Don't worry, guys. You're ol' pal, Kit the Cat is still available. And he's now available on all of the products mentioned above as well! Is it Christmas in August or something?! I don't know, but I like it and I hope you do too. Just head on over to Society6 or the "SHOP" tab above to go view all the goodies you can buy! Thanks for stopping by, God bless!

EDIT:
You can now get FREE Shipping* when you order from my Society6 Store. Please note that this promotion is NOT automatically available on my Store, the promotion is only available once you click on this special link:


Promotion expires August 11, 2013 at Midnight Pacific Time. *Offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert.

Monday, July 29, 2013

The Amplifier- W is for Walk


    Here is my most recently printed illustration for The Amplifier. From the thumbnail sketches to the final art, it was done completely in Photoshop. I had fun trying out some new Photoshop brushes and techniques I was unfamiliar with. The purpose of this illustration was to address how so many people in the homeless community have a day to day life of walking and moving from one place to another with nowhere to go. If you would like to contribute to these people and check out this image in its sweet printed form, pick up a copy of The Amplifier from a street vendor in the Knoxville, TN area. Thanks for taking a look! God bless. :)

Monday, July 1, 2013

The Letter B is for Baby Brooklyn!!!


    Hey guys! Wow, it has been a little while since I've posted on the site. But rest assured it just means I've been busy making art (and having a little Summer fun with the family!) I really wanted to share with you all something that I had a lot of fun making recently.

    One of my best friends, Antonio, and his awesome wife, Lindsay had their first child this Spring! So Incredibly cool! Their beautiful little girl's name is Brooklyn and she is super cool. So cool, in fact, that my girlfriend and I wanted to give her something extra special. Luckily we happen to know someone who can paint cute animals in watercolor (It's me guys.) Above is a photo of the final watercolor painting we gave Brooklyn and her parents.


   Here is just a page of the sketches I did while trying to plan and figure out the painting. The goal: super cute baby animals acting like human kids. The inspirations: the works of Richard ScarryAdam Rex, actual baby animals, and actual human kids.


    Above, you can see how it looked right after I finished it! ...and my bare foot. Below, you can see the animal kids having a real grand time doing fun things that animals and kids like to do.







    After receiving the painting in the mail, Brooklyn had her mom send us a photo of her observing the painting. You can tell she really digs it.

    Thank you for also observing the painting and a little bit of my process. God bless you all and have an outstanding and pleasant week!


(psssssssssst) P.S. In preparation for this painting, I did painting above. It is now available for purchase in the PABshop! Check it out, if you wish! :)

Friday, May 31, 2013

Engaged Couple Portrait in Graphite


    Hello all! How are you guys doing? Check it out! I was just recently commissioned to do another portrait drawing in pencil! This drawing was to be of a sweet engaged couple for their wedding gift.  I thought you all might want to take a look at the piece as well as a very quick look at the process.


    I used the same process as I did on the last couple portrait. Applying the grid method, I blocked out the image, drew in the basic shapes, and then filled in the values.


    As you may be able to tell, I then enhanced (darkened or lightened) the values and forms with the used of different pencils (such as 4B, 6B & maybe an Ebony?) and a kneaded eraser. I also changed and corrected some of the placement of the eyes and shape of their faces etc. I also used a smudging stump (or whatever you call them haha) to soften and blur certain areas before I came to the final version of the drawing as you see it above.


    I hope you all enjoyed taking a look at my process on this commission and I wish this couple a "Congratulations!" Have a great weekend, folks! God Bless!