heads up

updating my blog some more with a brand new header. just got the idea this morning so i thought i'd go for it. i also made up this new button series to help with navigation around the blog. i thought about just using the icons, but decided to also include the words.

neca tmnt

i've been horribly busy lately moving in to a new apartment with the wife, so i haven't had much time to finish anything. sure i've been able to sketch some things, but the scanner has been packed away and my drawing table is covered in boxes... hopefully i'll be able to post some real work soon, but in the meantime here are some photos of some of my favorite toys. neca did an unbelievable job creating figures of the ninja turtles from the early comics. this are super detailed and extremely faithful to the source material. they are very articulated and definitely the best versions of the turtles in plastic.

the only drawback with these guys is that they are comic accurate, so they all wear red masks. i grew up on the old cartoon show, movies and action figures so i always think of them as wearing blue, orange, purple and red. i did a little photoshopping to see how they would look if they were in their 90s action figure colors. if they re-released these figures in these colors... i'd probably buy another set. (just don't tell the wife!)

now i just need to find an april and hope they finally make shredder and everybody else!

-x

evil in progress...

i've been working on some of the super squad's super villains the past couple days. unfortunately, this is all i can show you for now. i don't want to spoil any surprises!

more to come

breakthrough

okay, so i've had a bit of a creative block lately. it's not that i've had a lack of ideas, it's almost that i've had too many. i haven't been able to focus. i'd just keep thinking about dinosaurs, ninjas, outer space, monkeys, isolation, magic, cowboys, super powers and so on instead of really trying to nail anything down. however, just recently i've broken through and come to the other side. hopefully i'll be able to keep rolling and keep creating instead of frustrating myself with trying to start things that i can already see the end to.

so back to work on the super squad with some new ideas and new goals.

stay tuned!

Rose Pedal Samurai

so i guess we're going live with this and we're going full force. this is that project i've been teasing you all with for a while now. some buddies from high school made some awesome music but pictured it as much more than that, so they contacted me about some character design, illustration opportunities and this is what we came up with. hope you dig it. i know we're totally pumped!

music video for 'sleeping sound' can be found here

and if you totally dig us, join our facebook group here

hope to see you there!

wolverine vs sabretooth

in minimate form... yeah i'm that big of a nerd. most of my illustration lately has been focused on that band project i mentioned before. it's wrapping up so hopefully i'll be able to share some of that soon... but in the meantime, watch wolvie fight old sabretooth

scott pilgrim contest

deviant art is one of the sites i follow and recently they had an art contest in honor of scott pilgrim vs the world. i'm a huge fan of the comic (thanks to my brother) and i loved the movie, so i thought i'd give it a shot. this is the 8th evil ex idea i had. unfortunately i didn't win, but it was fun to draw this guy that you should hate.

sorry for the lack of updates lately. i've been working hard on a project with some friends of mine and hopefully i'll able to give full details soon... and hopefully i'll be updating more in general soon

super articulated ...continued

here's the rest of the heroes. still a few things to figure out, but i'm still thinking this should work.

-x

super articulated

So I'm working on some hopefully poseable digital versions of my Super Squad. These are the first three completed so I figured I'd go ahead and share them with you guys, since it's been a while. The ultimate goal is to use these little guys to make basic animations. I used to do a good amount of that stuff back in my msPaint days, so I figure why not get back in to it with better technology? I'm hoping it works. We shall see. And we shall see together.

toy story 3

i'm really looking forward to this weekend. the first thing to be excited about is the next toy story movie. this is just a quick colored sketch, but i wanted to do something because i love these movies so much.

more as the week progresses.

mega x-men

okay, so i know i've stated before that i love x-men... so hopefully that at least half-explains this. i used to work a lot in ms paint before i was introduced to photoshop and all of creative suite. i got nostalgic for my old sprites and gif animations and all that and thought i'd try to figure out how to do it with photoshop. turns out, it's much more complicated to primitive stuff in photoshop than it is to do in paint. but i was messing around on my sister-in-law's computer and even paint isn't the primitive beast it used to be. makes me sad, actually. i miss my old processes and cheats and i-guess-this-works and all that i used to do in paint. i didn't really get in to the groove with photoshop because of all of the layers and there's no easy way to erase pixel by pixel... so i created some of my favorite x-men and that's probably all i'll do like this... unless someone can hook me up with an old school version of ms paint...

Super Squad

Sorry it took so long to post the real image of the Super Squad here, but I kept making minor alterations to costumes and character names and wanted to have those set before I unveiled them all.

From front to back we have Super Bat (the leader), Froggy (the creature), Super Bug (the sarcastic one), Super Deer (the girl) and Super Rat (the smart one). If you couldn't tell by their terrible names and ridiculous costumes, the Squad is somewhat of a parody of super heroes.

I originally came up with the Squad back around the 4th grade. I continued drawing them off and on until about somewhere in high school. Every time I brought them back I updated their looks a little and played with their personalities. When trying to come up with an idea for a comic, I couldn't resist bringing back my childhood creations. This time, though, some major costume changes were made and two of the characters were kind of combined in to a hybrid that doesn't look like either of them (Froggy). I prefer 4 member teams (rather than their initial 6) and neither of the characters I used to make Froggy had much actual personality, so I felt comfortable combining them in to the team pet. It is funny what a 10 year old who loves cartoons comes up with for heroes, villains and everything else, so that's been fun to think back on and figure out what works and what doesn't. Surpisingly, I think a lot of it will work for this project and it's stuff that I probably wouldn't have thought of now for a completely new team. Some stuff was just too weird or didn't make any sense to bother about translating to the newest version of the Super Squad.


Hey just for kicks, here's some old versions of the characters circa 2001 (DONE IN MS PAINT!)

Stay tuned for more updates

recent developments...

Sorry for the lack of posts since the comic con, I've been horribly busy. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and checked out my illustrations, and an even bigger thank you to anyone who bought anything. My wife posted some pics on her blog after the event. It was a great time and I'll definitely be back next year with even more work.

Which brings me to the main point of this post...

I have recently begun work on a few different projects and with a few different people. Unfortunately I can't say too much about any of them, but I'll tell you what I can.

I've started three new projects which I hope to compile into a comic for next year's con. One, which is more or less pictured above, features some old characters of mine who have been redesigned and reimagined. The second combines a lot of characteristics of characters I have worked with briefly but never quite made it, so I took all the best parts and I'm running with it. The third is a bit more ridiculous, but should be a lot of fun.

Now the projects with other people...

My wife and I are working together (finally) making paintings, prints, collages, et cetera which we will be selling as a company on Etsy.

My brother and I are in talks about his next project and the possibility of me doing some color work. It's mostly just been a "hey would you be interested" and a "yeah let me know when you finish Rock of Pages" type of thing, but it's worth mentioning.

Some high school friends (sorry no link yet) just contacted me about doing some work for their band. This is all still early on and I'm not sure how much I can talk about it, but it could be a huge break for everyone included.

Sorry to be vague, but I'll give updates and post pictures as things get farther along.

Big Red Monkey

Hellboy is awesome and, although I enjoy the movies and animated features, nobody does him as well as Mike Mignola. It's funny, it's creepy, it's dramatic and the artwork is beautiful. If you've never read Hellboy, go out and do yourself a favor.

I always like it when HB slings the creeper over his shoulder, so that's what I did for this piece

Along Came a Spider...

So I've been hard at work getting the rest of my pin ups finished for the con. This is one of the three I've been working on this past week. I don't know why I always seem to work on a handfull of projects at once instead of just finishing one and then moving on...

Anyway, I figured Spidey would look best next to Venom from my last post


-x

We are Venom

To me, Eddie Brock will always be Venom and Venom will always be awesome.

Ghost Rider v2.0

No, not the sequel to the Nicolas Cage movie...

I thought I'd spruce him up a little as I'm thinking of making him one of my prints for sale at the Gem City Comic Con. The Con is April 11, so mark your calendars. It's only $6 to get in or $5 if you have a student ID so you really don't have an excuse not to come.

My big bro got a table this year and he's letting me sit at it with him to try and get the X name out there. We will both have prints for sale and he's working on getting a few comics ready as well. You can check his stuff out at his page rockin' website.

Gem City Comic Con April 11. Be there or be... somewhere else.

X-MEN: professor xavier

Well... kind of. I went with a psychic projection rather than his phsyical self so he could kind of just watch over the team instead of stand (sit?) with them.

He's the last member for my line up so all I have to do now is the final composition. I think I might do a couple touch ups to some characters, but I should be posting it soon.

X-MEN: shadowcat, white queen, havok

So these guys might not always be essential, but Shadowcat (Kitty) has always been pretty popular and White Queen (Emma) has been pretty important lately. Havok is just a personal favorite of mine.

I think of Kitty as being a bit younger and less experienced so I went with a little more of a basic costume. It also kind of reflects her Astonishing costume.. which was probably her best. She's changed a lot over the years, but still maintains her youth and optimism for the most part.Emma gets to break a few rules with her costume... I'm not talking about what you're probably thinking about right now. I let her be even more monochromatic than Iceman who is covered in ice, even down to having the only white belt. I debated over her X being red or white, but I wanted to keep some sort of conformity throughout the uniforms.Havok typically has a simple costume so I tried to keep my version that way. He has a little trouble controlling his power (must run in the family) so his full body suit helps contain it. I also like his big gauntlet that help focus the power because it adds some unique shapes to his character. I think part of why I like Havok is because he and Cyclops are kind of like me and my big brother... but I don't constantly compare myself with my big bro. Havok could be so much cooler if he would just step out of Cyclops's shadow instead of complaining about it. I don't know if you'll notice, but I tried to have as much family resemblence between Cyclops, Cable and Havok as I could... maybe a little more so with Cyke and Cable.

That leaves just one more character for my X-Men. Can you guess who it is?

X-MEN: cable and bishop

These guys hail from two different alternate futures in the X-Men timeline... timelines? Neither future looks very positive for humans or mutants. Cable's is more of a constant war and Bishop's is filled with mutant concentration camps. Both guys are huge gun-toting soldier types and both think it's their own responsibility to save the future.

Cable started off a lot more militant, but has become less so over the years. He's still not a guy you want to mess with, but now he might use a staff against you instead of the biggest gun you've ever imagined. His original look was unfortunately designed by Rob Liefeld and featured giant shoulder pads and approximately 75 belts (each riddled with pockets and pouches) wrapped around various parts of his body. Over time this has been simplified and streamlined and he has grown to adopt more traditional X-Team colors. I drew him somewhere between his current costume and an older classic.Bishop is famous for a few things other than the 'being from the future' thing. One is the M brand over his eye, two is the red bandana around his neck, three is a mullet. I opted out of the last one. Bishop's a cool enough character when he's fighting evil humans or robots or aliens or mutants, but now he seems to be fighting good mutants... specifically Cable. This doesn't sit well with me. Sure, it makes the mutant baby hope for the future thing interesting, but I'm with Cable all the way, so Bishop isn't currently anywhere near my favorites list.

Rounding out my X-Men will be some other cool characters.

X-MEN: gambit, rogue, psylocke

Back in the day, X-Men had two teams, Gold and Blue. Most of the members were from the first two classes, but the Blue team had some newer members.

Gambit is awesome. It's hard not to like this guy... unless it's the Gambit from the Wolverine movie. In the comics, Gambit has pretty much only had one costume. Cartoons have tried variations and I took some inspiration from all of them. You basically just have to make sure he has his signature coat and is wearing black and magenta. He always talks like he's super confident, even refering to himself in third person, but seems unsure of his place on the team.Rogue is a cool character if you give her flight and strength. The whole 'I can't touch anybody or be close to anybody' thing only goes so far... and isn't always helpful in a fight. I much prefer the tough southern belle dramatic one. It adds another layer. She typically wears green and yellow and had a short coat in the 90s that... maybe doesn't make much sense, but it adds something. I also like the hood she sports now, but maybe I just like the 90s too much. I gave her the newer style hair, but I'm not sure I'll ever understand the white streak.Psylocke is a character that I actually don't know a whole lot about. I know she's a telepath and a great fighter. Apparently she was just a British telepath but then someone took her mind and put it into a ninja with purple hair. I don't know, but it makes her look cooler I guess. I tried to add some sort of Japanese influence to her look instead of just giving her a leotard.

Who's up next? Maybe I can interest you in a few time travelers...

X-MEN: storm, colossus, nightcrawler

That's right, when the team decided to have some international members, they got Storm from Africa, Colossus from Russia, Nightcrawler from Germany, Banshee from ... nevermind. I never liked Banshee and Thunderbird died before anybody like him, so we'll leave it at Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler.

Storm always seems to wear black or white or both, but I prefer white because I grew up with her 90s costume. I thought about adding her headband...thing... but decided to just let her hair flow freely. I tossed in her cape..thing.. and some jewelry to get some sense of tribal goddess in her design.Colossus likes to wear red and yellow. He also likes to not wear pants. I was fine with the colors, but thought he should have pants. Sure, it's fine to see his metal legs when he's fighting or something, but it's just weird when he's in costume but not armored up.
Nightcrawler and I have some issues. You see, I like Beast, who is a blue furry guy who is very acrobatic. Then along comes Nightcrawler who is also blue, furry and acrobatic... but instead of being as smart as Beast, this guy can teleport. To make myself feel better, and make the two characters a little less similiar, I went with a dark blue-gray for Nightcrawler kind of like they did in Ultimate X-men. This way, he's different enough and I can appreciate him for who he is instead of be indignant because he's stealing my favorite character's thunder and adding teleportation to it.

Who's up next for the X-Men? How about a few members made popular in the 90s?

the lone wolf

So my brother was looking at my blog and pointed out that I never actually posted my lonewolf video after talking about it so much... Well here it is

THE LONE WOLF

X-MEN: cyclops, phoenix, beast, angel, iceman

As promised here are the first five redesigned by yours truly. With all of these characters, I tried to create new costumes by looking back at what the characters have worn and taking key elements or colors and combining those with my side-panel team costume idea.

Cyclops got a little more detail this time. Quite a bit more, actually. I like his gold trim on his current (Astonishing) costume but I've always liked his stupid belts from his 90s costume. I guess it's a good time to mention that none of the X-Men really need belts. However, I like the idea that their red X circles are communicators and locators, so I went with belts for everyone.Phoenix looks pretty close to how she did in my last drawing. I gave her more of her Phoenix sash/belt and also whited out her eyes. I figure she'd kind of be like Storm how she has eye color when she's normal but they go white when she's powering up.

Beast also got some more detail. He's a big guy and tends to get stuck wearing the big X to identify their team. It happened with their black leather uniforms and with his Astonishing uniform.Angel's costume doesn't typically vary too much. It's been red and it's been blue. For a while he had a really different costume, but he seems to be back in blue. I took away the headpiece so his longer hair could flow. I like the idea of him looking really angelic, kind of like Ultimate X-men, but hopefully not as bad, so here he gets chiseled features and pretty hair.
Iceman should be covered in ice/made of ice, but I don't think he should lose his costume's visibility. I also don't think he should have giant boots. Sure, that's my costume of choice for him when I'm playing Marvel Legends, but not when I'm drawing him.

My next installment of X-Men will be their next installment of classmates... minus a few losers (I'm lookin' at you, Banshee and Thunderbird).

X-MEN: wolverine

You may recall my earlier X-Men post featuring my dream line-up for the team. Well, that image of four X-Men was really meant to be the start of a much larger image featuring many more x-mens. I've been slowly working on all the character sketches and inks and finally colors. Now I'm ready to show them as I finish polishing them up and eventually after all members are revealed, I'll show the big group shot I've been working towards.

First up is Wolverine. He's a little different than the last time I posted him. I had some changes I wanted to make to his costume and face and to the way I colored him. I still love me some Wolverine.

Up next is the original team... just not in those original costumes. Sorry to those who like Iceman in boots...

TMNT Cover Art

Oh how I love my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I've been a fan as far back as I can remember. I had briefly toyed with the idea of trying to work for Mirage and work on TMNT comics, but now that will never happen. Did everyone hear about Peter Laird selling all rights for TMNT to Nickelodeon? Hopefully good things will come from this. I still think the turtles would be a fun project to work on.