Masters of the Universe: Jitsu final

Jitsu is all done! I handed in the two pieces I made for the art show yesterday over at Double Punch. Pretty cool little space they have over on Powell street, I think it should be a cool show!

Anyway, I'm pretty beat! My apartment is still a mess from all the drawing I was doing; there's reference material, Caran d'ache, masonite and fixative all over the place! It was good to bust out the ol' Caran d'ache though, it's been awhile since I actually worked this process. It's a breath of fresh air to do art that's not digital for once.

I'll post up some pictures of the show when it opens on the 20th next month. That's it for this post, good night and God bless.

Masters of the Universe: Jitsu WIP

I feel all artsy-fartsy.

I'm working on another piece for this Masters of Universe show coming up. But that's not what makes me feel all artsy fartsy. Trouble is, I only work on the piece at night. The other trouble is, I seem to be having a hard time seeing my colors if it's not under natural lighting. So I'm waking up early and rushing home from work trying to catch those few hours of precious sunlight, to work on my piece. Yeah, what a prima donna huh?

Moving on... here're a few preliminary sketches for the Jitsu piece:

The idea was that it would be as a matching piece to Fisto. But I felt like I was forcing it to be an accompanyment. So the first few sketches I had, weren't really working.

So after alot of futsing around, I started doing a wider composition.

Here's a few shots of the piece as I'm working on it with Caran D'ache crayons:

The piece is starting to come together, but there are some key issues I'm running into, mainly with his face and hands (which are uh, probably the most important parts of the piece!)

Alright, that's it for now, I'll be up early tommorrow, hopefully I'll have an idea how to tackle Jitsu-face by then...

Thanks Zander!

Wow.

I recieved my very first piece of fan art for the Bomb Squad! How awesome is that?!

A friend of mine, Kevin James, picked up a copy of my book, but decided to also pick up the Bomb Squad sketchbook for his son, Zander James, to take a look at. Apparently, Zander enjoyed the book and really liked seeing the process that it took to get to the final product. In fact, he was so jazzed that he drew a little scenario for the ol' Bomb Squad (totally unsolicited, I swear!).


Okay, now that's just cool. Zander even caught the little radio-signal word bubble effect I did for the Kid when he talked!

Way cool.

When Kevin handed it to me, it was such a great feeling! There's really nothing more satisfiying than seeing someone draw my character, because of the simple fact that they wanted to!

Okay, now let me tangent rant a little here.

The Bomb Squad is my way of trying to bring comics back to kids. A majority of today's comics, in my opinion, are targeted to kids that grew up with comics 20 years ago. In other words, big dorks in their 30's like me.

Today's kids are lost with the 20 years worth of comics continuity nowadays. Comic book subject matter seem to be written for such a mature audience, and even 'child friendly' characters from back in the day get kinda get 'muddied up' (I liked 'Identity Crisis' like everyone else, but holy smokes is that some mature subject matter for the super friends or what?). And while I enjoy these books, I feel kids nowadays are losing that connection to the medium because their catered to such a specific audience.

Comics are rapidly being over taken by movies, video games and pretty much everything else as a story telling medium. I mean, kids know spider man and the x-men because of the movies! That just seems so backwards to me. Where are the next generation of comic book creators going to come from? Will comics even be around for the next generation? Actually, Robert Kirkman has an eloquent mission statement that sums up what I've been thinking for awhile now.

ANYWAY. Rambling.

So, I can be all rah rah rah, let's make new comics, let's bring in the next generation, I'll draw Bomb Squad for this purpose, yadda yadda yadda. But... would it work?

Well, I'm not so sure if I can affect ALL of the next generation, but I do know I affected at least one of them, even for just a small moment! And I have proof! So thank you very much Zander! Thank you very, very much for the cool drawing! And the Squad thanks you too!

Now if only Bomb Girl could figure out a way to diffuse the bomb she's standing on!

And the Neverending battle continues! Good night and God Bless.

Masters of the Universe: Fisto

I'll admit it. After the high of comic con I've been at a pretty serious slump in trying to get my comic book done. Granted, there are many other factors that have kinda put a mental block on me getting back on the saddle and drawing issue two of The Bomb Squad, but I really can't blame anybody else.

Anyhow, while trying to get over my artist block, I drew Fisto for this upcoming art show. I went back to using my old school Caran Dache technique I learned in college from my old teacher, Tony Gianello (I think that's how you spell his name). It's a process where you layer 'scribbles' of crayon lines on top of each other, focusing on mass and blending color with each layer that's put down. If memory serves me right, it's a process that similar to egg tempra, but a whole lot more forgiving.

I'm pretty rusty at it, but it sure was fun to bust out the caran dache again. I'm starting to get nostalgic about the ol' college days, but I'll just skip to Fisto and spare you.

I began with a few sketches of Fisto's face, really quick ugly little sketches, but they help get the ball rolling.



Afterwards, I draw him in an action pose. I wasn't really thinking about composition at this point, but luckily the piece was simple enough so that it wouldn't be such a big issue later.


I picked up a nice 16 x 24 piece of masonite from home depot and scribbled a rough first pass of the composition.


You can see I was trying out a circle shape as his 'background' but it really wasn't working for me. I took a picture of the sketch in progress and put a simple graphic shape and messed around with the background colors in photoshop. I think I like the sharp angles better than the lame circle I had initially planned to be behind him.


I went with the blue color and started trying to match the color with the caran dache crayons. Something funky was going on with his foot in the foreground so I scrapped that and drew a new one.

With this caran dache crayon medium, I spray a clear matte fix over the piece every now and then. The coating acts as a fresh new layer for me to draw on, preserving the colors underneath and helping me not mush the colors around when I work on top of them.


The foreground foot was starting to feel a little better, but now there was something weird with his knee.

So after another coat of spray fix, I changed his knee. I also shrank down the size of my signature, I always feel like my signature gets so intrusive sometimes. Anyway, here's the final piece: Fisto in yo' face!

Well, I gotta go! Good night and God Bless.

Wondercon 2009 Day 3

Hoooo-wheeeee! Wondercon is over and I am beat! Day three wasn't as insane as Day two, but not as mellow as Day 1. It was raining that day, but people still braved the weather and there was a good amount. Saturday was such an awesome day for sales I only had 7 copies left to sell, and sell them I did! I actually sold out!

Sue! Wheat! I am very thankful to all the people that came by the booth and bought a copy of my book. Every bit of encouragement helps for me to keep on going! I'm also very thankful for the guys over at Ghostbot for letting me share their space and work the booth. And of course, I'm very thankful to God that He's given me the opportunity to be able to pursue a dream I've had since I was a kid!

It was a very tiring weekend and we were all on our last legs because of the madness of Saturday, but we all trooped on and managed to push a few books. I took a quick break and visited a couple friends of mine from RISD: Andy Ristaino and Chris Bennett.

I hung out with them at the end of the first day and we ended up going into a CBLDF sponsored auction where people could donate sketches for people to buy and have the proceeds go to the CBLDF. That was a lot of fun, I don't think I've just sat around drawing with other artists in a long time! Anyway, it was cool to see Andy and Chris again.

I think the biggest highlight for me happened around the end of the day, as we were breaking down the booth. We were handing out free sketches that day, but ended up having one left over. It was a drawing by Brad and it was just kinda laying around at the booth, when a little girl with her father walked by. I figured, why let the sketch go to waste? And told them they could have a free sketch. At first they were in disbelief when I told them, but they were so happy when I gave them the drawing.

They wanted to thank the artist that drew it, but unfortunately Brad was taking a lunch break (yeah, his lunch was at 4:45 or something that day!). Still, they were very happy and I caught glimpses of the daughter showing off her cool Wondercon Sketch to the rest of the family. Brad had finally returned and while we were telling him how his sketch made a little girl's day, that family passed by the booth again.

They were so happy to see the man who had created the sketch, and immediately wanted to snap a picture with him. They wholeheartedly thanked Brad and It was so cool to see the geniune appreciation they had for him and his sketch.

After a week of just busting out sketches, putting on our salesmen gamefaces and worrying about how to sell as much of our stuff as possible, it was nice to see someone actually appreciate the artist behind the sketches. It was a good way to end our first con!

At the end of the day, packing up the Ghostbot/ Bomb Squad booth was pretty efficient with all four of us pitching in.

That's it for tonight's post! Wondercon is over and the neverending battle continues! Goodnight and God Bless!

Wondercon 2009 Day 2

When I got to Wondercon on Friday, the foot traffic was not bad. A few people stopped by, some customers who had never seen my work bought a few copies of my book, and it was good. But, it didn't seem like I could sell much.

This is my Day 2 shirt. day 2 was such a rush, I took this picture while brushing my teeth. That's my toothbrush in my mouth in the upper left corner...


Anyway, upon entering Day two I had similar sale expectations for Saturday as I did on Friday. The Ghostbot guys whom I was sharing the booth with were also thinking the same thing. So to drum up foot traffic, they had decided to offer free sketches. They even let me tag along and do a few sketches of my characters! This is the booth at early morning setup:

And sure enough, once that "Free Sketches" sign went up, boom! Actually, more like KRAKA-SROOMA-DOOM! There was a flood of people all over the booth! The Ghostbot guys had to keep a waiting list and have people come back to the booth to get the sketches! On top of the free sketch idea, the crowd was different on Saturday.

A lot more families, kids, teenagers, people with costumes, R2D2's, The Watchmen, Spiderman back packs... you name it! Everybody and their mother was there (Actually one of the Ghostbot guys mother was really there)! It was that double whammy that just made the day go by so quickly because we were all drawing sketches at such a breakneck speed, selling the books, hob-nobbing with the fans... whooo!

Here's a view from my corner of the booth as I witnessed the power of Ghostbot! I didn't get fifth Ghostbot, Kris into the pic who dealt out some sketch madness as well...

I don't think I've ever drawn my character that fast in so many poses! But for every sketch I did, each Ghostbot must've done 3 in that time! I mean, I know the amount of work these guys (and gal!) have to do on a normal workday, but I've never seen them in their working state! And lemme tell ya that was impressive! It was like that scene in Raiders of the Lost ark when Marion and Indy have to shut their eyes when the Holy Spirit is released from the Ark! I had to close my eyes otherwise I would melt like a Evil Nazi with glasses...

Here's a pic of Ghostbot breaking down the booth at the end of the day... What a day!

Anyway, the day went by so fast and a few friends came by, I met a few nice people in publishing and people also trying to get their own stuff going, it was really fun. Thanks to my friends who brought by food, I didn't really leave the booth much but we were well stocked with Beard Papas, Dim Sum from Yank Sing, a Turkey sandwhich from Firewood and Beef pot pies! Yeah, I ate alot!

I've almost sold out of my stock! I think I have 7 books left. Definitely, my sales were better than I expected, I was actually hoping to just sell 10! Good thing my friend told me to print more and I bumped it up to 50. So, thanks to everyone who bought my book! You guys definitely made me more optimistic in cranking out more issues! Okay, I gotta get ready for Day 3! Woooondercoooon! And Awwwaaaayyy!

Wondercon 2009 Day 1

I survived day 1 of the Wondercon! Whoo! Pretty cool to be on the other side of the table, but also pretty tiring! I took a few pictures:

Here's my Wondercon Beef Brisket Breakfast from this hole in the wall restaurant around my neighborhood. Yum! See my name tag? It says 'Exhibitor'! Oooooooo...


Here's a shot of a shirt I had made of Bombgirl from my book to promote my Comic Book.


Here's me having a total dork out at the beginning of the day over by my area.


It was pretty cool to have people drop by and say they like the book. I think my favorite moments were when I'd catch people do a double take and actually stop and look at the book. Even if they didn't buy it, there's a certain sense of satisfaction to know the Bomb Squad was able to attract attention. Especially in a place where everything else is asking for attention!

I think it was good that I changed the name to "The Bomb Squad" rather than "Bombgirl". When I heard someone else say it (someone I didn't know), it sounded nice to hear it. A little shout out to my buddy Roque for suggesting I alter the the title a little!

I shared a booth with Ghostbot and their producer extraordinair, Corrine Lau, hooked Ghostbot up with a goodie bag, filled with food and water for the day. And she also made one for me too! Thanks Corrine! And the best part of the goodie bag? Everything in it was "Ghostbotted"! Awesome!


Whew! I am beat! Day 2 here I come! Good night and God Bless!

Wondercon Bound!

I'm going to Wondercon this year, but for the first time ever I'll actually be on the other side of the booth! My friends from Ghostbot had a little extra space that they have generously shared with me! Here're the details:

Wondercon
Booth 415
February 27 - March 1
Moscone Center South
San Francisco, CA

I'm really excited to be able to jump in and actually take my first step into the comic book industry! And with the Ghostbot guys to boot! I've just been in my safe little apartment producing my comic book, but I've never truly let it loose on the general public (Sure I post up some pages on my blog but that's like 2 people seeing it!). I'm anxious to see how it's recieved!

And the Wondercon will be my ground zero! I'm selling the comic book itself as well as a Sketchbook edition. I just got the copies a few days ago and now all the promotional stuff I have is set up. Have a look-see:

To see all this stuff together is definitely a cool feeling. Multiple copies of my book, a big ol' poster of the cover, the shirts, buying little frame thingys to hold my comic book upright... it's so surreal. True, I haven't sold a thing yet, but it's such a blast for me to realize, whether it fails or suceeds, this is the launch of my book! The neverending battle is beginning!

If you're going to the con, drop on by and say hi! Good Morning and God bless!

Robot concepts

Today, I just successfully got my router to work! Now my 360, PS3, Wii and PC can now be on at the same time! The possibilites are limitless!

Now with my PS3 and Wii updating themselves, I'm just popping on my PC for a quick post on some old concept art I did with robots...

A lot more misses than hits, but hey, what can ya do!

Until next post, God Bless!

The Jetsons

Just posting up a couple of Jetsons drawings I previously did. I never really watched a lot of the Jetsons growing up. I saw a lot more Flintstones instead.

But doing some research when I was prepping up for these drawings was a lot of fun. It was cool to see how these characters were constructed and trying to figure them out. Plus it was a great excuse to watch some episodes!

This first one I did was pretty much standard, by the numbers action shot.


Some people had remarked that it looked like the Jetsons vs. Arvin's robots. And it pretty much is because I hadn't had the chance to soak up the Hanna Barbera style at the time I drew this (... still haven't!)

This second one was a little unorthodox. It started off quickly and I was pretty confident that I got the composition figured out so 'easily'. Oh how little did I know! Here's the early thumbnail:

The finish was a struggle. The shape of the drawing changed many times and I was trying to wrap my head around how it would work. I drew the image in 3 different segments and I had to manipulate those assets in the computer later. I was fighting with it until the end, it was pretty frustrating.

I ended up with this crazy long image. Kinda cool I suppose but rather unwieldy and odd! Oh well, that's what I get for charging in there like the Sandman with no back up from the sinister six (snort)!

This Episode of the Jetsons was a pretty good one! See if you can track it down! Eep! Opp! Ork! Ah! Ah!

Until next time! Good Night and God Bless!

1942 and WOTB: ego boost

Well, I just came back from my vacation in the Philippines! Apparently I'm more jet-lagged than I thought as I slept for 12 hours and woke up at 1 in the afternoon today. I still have a lot of unpacking and laundry to do. I miss my family already and the fact that I'm leaving the really nice weather of the Philippines for my cold lonely San Francisco apartment makes it even worse!

Luckily, whilst surfing the internet to catch up on my usual stuff, I landed on a certain top 20 chart for XBLA's most downloaded games of 2008. On it, are two of the games I worked on (1942 and Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3)! Yay! Number 14 and 19 respectively!

So in light of that, I'm posting a test video I did for how I wanted the special move effect done in Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 done. I mocked up this anim with the original assets from Mercs and I think a Chrono Trigger background (I can't remember, game nerds, please correct me). The explosions were mine from the GBA version of Grand Theft Auto and the concept art of Wolf's face is from Sach Steffel. So click away at the link below!



For a peek at how it ended up looking in the game there's a clip of it in here (scrub to 0:22 for the start of one):



Okay, enough bragging and ego boosting! I go back to the grind tomorrow! Good afternoon, God Bless and a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

My Comic: The test print

I haven't been putting up new posts about my comic book progress because I didn't want to post so much that people wouldn't want to read the final thing when I got it done! Anyway, I have a new post now about my comic! Tan ta da duuun!

Issue number 1 is all done and colored! I'm missing a cover, but the all the heavy lifting is done!

I was so excited to finish I wanted to see it in print ASAP! I sent off a test print to this company called ka-blam. I heard about them through Keith Erickson, a friend of mine at work. He published his own Dr. Pineapple comic book with them. The print he showed me of his black and white book was pretty nice, and apparently they do full color stuff as well.

The wait between sending my order and getting it was excruciatingly long, even though it really only took a week! I just wanted it already! When my book came, I was so giddy. I mean, sure nobody else sees this thing on shelves and all, but to finally have it in my hands... the feeling's priceless.

After around a year of working on this thing, it felt really good to have it in my hot little hands! It felt kinda good to tell people, oh yeah, I'm working on my comic book, here! Have a look! It's a crazy feeling for me to be able to do that.

The colors came out pretty good considering how saturated most of my schemes are. It's also a good guide for me to see how my digital colors look like in print. I'm still having trouble getting the hot pink I like to use to show up!

I'm so ecstatic over having it physically here, all stapled and everything, I don't think it's quite sunk in yet: what do I do with it?! I'm not quite selling it online yet, as I want to do it when I'm close to finishing the story arc, so I think I should show it around to publishers and editors. Get some kinda feedback, reaction, whatever.

But, I don't really know how to do that.

Nonetheless it's part of my dream, right? So this coming year, I'll definitely push myself out the door and put on my hob-nobbing game face and hit the comic book conventions and see what happens! Not my greatest strength, but definitely something I'm going to have to do, or else I won't know if my book can succeed or fail.

Anyway, that's next year's conundrum and prayer! For now, I think I'll just sit happily thumbing through the comic I made for an audience of one (so far!).

It's been a long road, with so many stops and starts, and I am very thankful to God that He's given me the strength to see this first issue through. That's it for this post! Good day and God Bless! The neverending battle continues!

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 - Minesweeper/Coyote

Next up on the Wolf of the Battlefield front is Coyote. The red bandana wearing Rambo look-alike was never part of the initial character designs I had drawn up. What he was before was an explosives expert/minesweeper. I got a few reference materials on bomb diffusal equipment and sketched up his initial design.




He ended up being one of my more favorite designs from this game. I actually took his arm design from a previous design I did for Backbone (way back when we were still called Digital Eclipse). Since that old design was never used, I was happy to work it back into the minesweeper.

Alas ol' minesweeper didn't have such a happy ending. Midway (pun intended) through the project cycle, Capcom had switched management teams. We had lost our Capcom side producer. The new management wasn't quite happy with a few of our characters. They had wanted to change a few of the designs and sadly, the minesweeper got the ax. In his place, they wanted Rambo:


Apparently, he looked too much like Rambo. I didn't know this but Sly Stallone didn't really like other people using his likeness, even in a parody. I had heard that he had sued other video game companies for having his likeness. So, in an effort not to get the pants sued off of us, upon Capcom's request, I went through a few re-designs of the head.


I had already designed a few UI screens with the minesweeper, and because I really liked his design it was really painful to redraw everything all over again.

Really painful.

I think I was already close to my breaking point at this time, but I still had to push through. I remmeber trying to draw the options screen and I was just having such a difficult time trying to get the drawing to look right. No matter how much time I spent on it, I was simply too tired to get that drawing right. It still looks kinda funny, but it's passable.



So, while I like how the Rambo character turned out, I really do miss the grumpy ol' Minesweeper. Well at least, my blog will be the only time he'll be able to see the light of day. So here's to the old codger! That's all for tonight! Good night and God Bless.