Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Life Drawing


It had been a while...

Saturday, January 26, 2013

The Zoo...

When living in Japan for the last two years, I was working on a graphic novel for a while... It's called The Zoo. My life recently changed dramatically and my work was greatly affected and may have moved on from this point. I've been working more experimentally lately, but this is what The Zoo was. 

I was drawing it like this.








These days, I've been drawing like this. 



I was 30 pages into The Zoo, after writing the whole book, and after last December, everything changed. I recently had a separation with my wife and returned from living with her in Japan for the last two years. It hit me like a dinosaur befriending a comet.

All of my family and friends supported me through my separation. I was lucky enough to spend time playing SNES Mario Kart with my brothers and spending long nights talking with friends. My dog is the shit too. I took him for a lot of walks. I'm lucky to have them all.

Since returning, I've been working on lots of freelance stuff as well. I'll show some of that soon. I'm planning on attending SpringCon '13 with Eric Schuster in May and I will have the pen and ink Zoo in my newest Processing book and the 4 and a half year old in me will have The Zoo for sale as well.

Rocket ship. Mars.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Last Bit of Little Things

I've updated and edited and re-edited this post many times. Now, I'll just say that all of the work has already been done for almost a month and after speaking with some people who are very important to me, and giving it much thought, I've decided to not do the show. Here is the rest of the work, originally meant for that show.

This is my kabutomushi, Killer. I once had a beta fish named, "Killer," who lived for 3 years. That's about 2 years longer than most beta fish. I thought I'd give him the best name I possibly could. I love beetles. This little fellah was given to me by Mako's father. Mako's father and I didn't get along when we first met, but now when we meet we tell jokes and drink beer together. When him and I were at our least friendly, I saw him give beetles to his grand-nephews and I saw a different side of him that I'd never seen before. I see Killer as a sign of friendship, respect and peace. I have made a shrine for him and I do pay my respects.


Mako brought back this porcelain egg from Russia. I was interested in the textures and reflections.


One of our sake glasses. I enjoyed the subtlety of the colors and shape. 


One of Mako's plants. I grew up with many plants in my household as a kid. It always reminds me of home and that time when the cats knocked over my mother's plant and she blamed it on me. (She believes me now!)


This little ceramic sake glass is the companion to the sake bottle in my previous post. If you look at the bottom, there is a "Y" like shape carved into it. That's the signature of the ceramicist. This is a special type of Okayama pottery called, "Bizen Yaki." Wake-san, the commissioner of this painting, told me that his father likely drank out of this 30,000+ times.


Some ginger. It could also be some kind of alien. I'm okay with either one.


My glasses.


The first of a series of black and white ones. A Japanese pinecone.


A bowl. We use it for miso soup.


One of Mako's shoes.


I'm drinking out of this coffe cup right now.


White acrylic paint. A common question I get asked at conventions while someone is pointing to my drawing is, "Are you using white out here?" I find that white out eventually turns either blue, pink or purple, so I use acrylic white paint.


A pepper.


Another one of Mako's plants. I've actually got to give this to some good friends of mine!


A leaf.


 It's time to get back to work. Thanks for taking a look.

Monday, June 11, 2012

More Little Things

I'm still deciding the exact date for the show at Mai Mai, but all of the work has been done for about 2 weeks. There's 24 pieces total. Here are four more. 

This first one, has actually already been sold. This is a sake bottle that was used by a Japanese man for 30 years. His son commissioned the painting from me. There is also a small sake glass, that will be at the show, that is the partner to this piece. 


An apple.


I found this feather while on a walk.


I have very nostalgic memories associated with color. This rock that I found outside my apartment has all of my favorite colors and color combinations within it. I really wanted to paint some natural planes and build up some textures. I loved painting this rock.


Thanks for taking a look and hopefully I'll see some of you at the show in July!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Little Things

I've got a new show coming up in July in Okayama. It's at Mai Mai in Okayama, in Toiyacho. The exact date hasn't been set yet, but it is surely in July. It had been planned originally for a date in late May, but things were just too busy around here. 



My main project is my graphic novel, The Zoo, however I spent some time being distracted to work on other small commercial and personal projects. I made a video game, 2020 Wheelchair Gladiator, for my two brothers. I also illustrated a cover for The Objective Standard


After working on 2020 Wheelchair Gladiator, my wife and I went to Tokyo to see the exhibit by Otomo, Genga. It was absolutely amazing. We stayed in Tokyo for 3 days. We had a small vacation on the second day with some friends before going to a show by Amano on the 3rd day. My wife and I usually don't get to take vacations because of our work, so this was a real treat for us. 




I worked on 2020 Wheelchair Gladiator for close to 3 weeks. It's difficult to not show any work, material, process or images when you're working on a gift for someone for 3 weeks. It was a good distraction, but a distraction nonetheless. It makes me think about how I've been working on my graphic novel for almost a year now and I've been keeping all of the material close to the chest, yet now I've got another distraction lined up in July. 




I don't know if this gets easier or people develop into a smarter artist, but I'll certainly say that I'm getting exhausted from staying up all day and night and then into the next day and night. I've been lucky enough to have a few people, that I'd call digital studio mates, that I've gotten to show some material too. Bless you folks and thanks for the support.


For you folks in Okayama, I'll hopefully see you at Mai Mai in July!

Friday, May 11, 2012

2020 Wheelchair Gladiator


I have been a little distracted from my book while making a computer game, 2020 Wheelchair Gladiator. It has many players from my family, including the dogs. Everyone rides a wheelchair and has two weapons, one that hits and one that shoots.

There are about 30 weapons, 10 characters and 12 wheelchairs. It's a two player battler.

Title Screen

Character select screen


In the heat of battle at the purple stage.


It can actually be played online at http://2020wheelchairgladiator.com

The game only works with an actual computer, so no mobile devices, needs a keyboard and will only work on Safari or Google Chrome. Chrome, is the fastest browser out there, especially when using the JavaScript language, which I used to make this game.

It will not work on Firefox or Internet Explorer. If you do play the game however, you can play as a dog riding in a wheelchair with triangular wheels while hitting people with shark-chucks and shooting stars and stripes out of a patriotic dinosaur hand puppet... amongst other things.

The game is controlled using the keyboard



Player 1 Controls
Attack 1/Enter - 1
Attack 2/Back - 2
Up - W
Down - S
Left - A
Right - D


Player 2 Controls
Attack 1/Enter - <
Attack 2/Back - >

Up - Up Arrow Key
Down - Down Arrow Key
Left - Left Arrow Key
Right - Right Arrow Key

Here's a video of some demo game play. 





Sunday, March 11, 2012

Cover for The Objective Standard

I recently finished illustrating a cover for a magazine, The Objective Standard.



Here's some of the process, starting with sketches:


Developed Sketch 


Values and Sketch


Inks

Original Color Cover


Editor Requested Adjusted Expression Final Version

Saturday, February 25, 2012

A beetle from The Zoo

Here's a character design from my upcoming graphic novel, The Zoo. It's coming along nicely and the first episode should debut sometime this year. He is based off of my pet Japanese kabutomushi beetle, Killer. 


Sunday, February 19, 2012

More from Rome


Here are two of the four large ink drawings from Rome. I'm hoping to finish inking the other two today. Please open these in a new window if you want a larger image and to not see it in that annoying light box program. 

The first was made while sitting in the park with my brother at Villa Borghese.


The second was made on a quiet morning looking outside their apartment window in South Rome.

Friday, February 17, 2012

The Conformist quick study



From the 1970 Italian movie, The Conformist.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Sketching, Rome and Wheelchair Ball

I'm working on a project. In the meantime, here's a sketch from this afternoon.


I also spent two weeks in Rome, visiting my brother Ian. I watched a lot of wheelchair basketball and did a lot of sketching. Here's some gesture sketches of playing ball.


I have some larger finished drawings that don't fit into my scanner, so I don't have scans of them. However, they might be in a show soon. In that show, these sketches would also be inked and finished. So, here are a few of the quick sketches. Sorry about the bad scans.