"Knock knock..."

More progress... nothing too fancy.
Still, with everything else... at least I'm still moving forward.

I might blur the broken door pieces on the bottom panel a bit more yet... but for now, the look of the page seems satisfactory to me. That should change almost exactly 23 minutes from now...

Started a new painting recently and will post progress on that once it gets past the initial "color block" stages and is actually worth looking at. I'll also post some recent life drawings I've managed to squirt out recently to keep my "artsy" styled work from atrophying overmuch. I do love those conté crayons...

More soon...

"OH.., THE HUMANITY!!!"

More Halloween madness!!!

Here is the posted preview for this year's show... the producer whipped this up just to drum up interest, I suppose.
It's crude and somewhat long... but it really gets some of the frenetic energy of the production across quite well;)

Watching it makes me anxious to get to work on the actual footage so we can post a proper video of the thing for everyone to see complete with full effects and sound!

Just click on the image once it starts to get the fullscreen treatment:

"Here... take a closer look..."

Ok... back on track...

Here's the next page in the upcoming finale sequence. The whole timecode device ended up working nicely... even though it was an absolute pain in the ass to set up at first;)

This page features one of my guilty pleasure story panels... the "Head-butt Carnival". I truly DO feel bad about how much glee I derived from creating that fight sequence. Still, I feel it stands as a fairly effective piece of dramatic combat storytelling... albeit a brutally violent one!

On to the next ridiculous page... wait'll you see the funky lower panel on that one...;)

Some of the players backstage...

Here are a few reference shots of both the Goji-suit and the version of Kong we used for the show... more to come, of course.
This is just the tip of the iceberg;)

"Goji-pants"

Ok... here is a shot of the finished suit... albeit a bit dark and blurry.
It looks best in the video... this was just a pick-up shot we took during the insert sequences we filmed yesterday.
I'll try posting a better image of the costume in the days to come as photos roll in.

I do think that this is the best representation of the suit though... and even this photo is taken after the thing has been abused a bit and been featured in three concurrent shows. We just never got a chance to shoot the damned monstrosity the day it was finished... too much to do... not enough time for such things...

More to come soon...

Mission Accomplished!!!

The 2009 Halloween Show went off as planned with nary a hitch...

The Gojira suit turned out even better than I'd imagined... and soon I will post not only images of the suit itself, but also eventually the filmed show footage! Not everything was perfectly captured and we may need a few pick-up shots... but for the most part, it looks fairly amazing for the materials and budget that we had to work with!

Stay tuned for more soon... and expect new colored pages to follow for "The Pugilist" as well....

"Two arms do not great feats make... so feets, don't fail me now!"

Ok... another quick progress post.
Nothing fancy... just a few photos to document the building of this foam shit-storm.
The materials are really starting to make their cheapness felt... very uncomfortable and ungainly... and I still need to stuff it with cotton batting to get it more bulky!

Still... the light at the end of the tunnel seems a bit less dim now.
More soon...

"We interrupt this madness for some... uhh... stuff."

It's Halloween time again and the madness has already begun...

I've spent the last few weekends or so trying to bang out a full body suit using sub-standard materials and meager supplies... Hopefully, in the final stretch... I'll come up with something decent;)

On a side note, I had to come up with a promotional poster for both the new site and for advertising purposes...
Here was the tiny sketch I did on a napkin a few nights ago...



And here's how it turned out last night after a frenzied few hours work when I was told it "HAD TO BE DONE ASAP!!!"



Back to the grind soon...

Over the hump...

Whew...

This was perhaps the most difficult (image-wise) page of the story to get through...
With the unsettling imagery and multiple effects, this page was really a true test of my newfound coloring skills.

It was hard to keep the color simple but interesting while trying not to over-accentuate the brutality of the action on display...
I'm happy with the results... but I'm still sure that I will be tweaking the image further as I push forward and better master the tools at my disposal.

The next page contains the last two video panels in the story... but I've got a good handle on them now so I'm not as concerned as I was when I began this sequence. Also, the following story sequence contains one of the most violent panels in the entire tale... but because those involved are less than savory characters, it doesn't bother me nearly as much these past panels where an innocent girl is terribly violated and I can really get into the intensity of the image.

Heading into the final stretch soon... but still have a looong way to go before I can begin to relax...

"No... I'm not a real murderer... but I play one on T.V.!"

Wow... was this one a doozy!
So many goofy effects, one after the other... this page has so many layers to it that I spent more time struggling to keep them from overlapping or obscuring one another than actually coloring them!!!

Still... I'm quite happy with the results.
I'll be able to re-use the video timecode effect for the next page as well... that should certainly save some time.

Good fun, this one...

A spare glance...

Just a quick post to cover me until I post the next page or so of progress...
This was a quick 20 minute sketch I did a week or so back. The model had never posed before and was a bit skittish... but the image seems to conveys her modest elegance...

Please pardon the crappy quality... I took the photo with my phone because of the scale of the thing. Maybe sometime soon, I'll re-scan it in pieces and put them together for a proper image.

Page 17 is finished... I'm just trying to figure out how to add a simple finishing effect to a few of the "video" panels.
Once the problem is solved, page 18 is nearly finished as well;)

More soon...

"And behind door number 2..."

Here is the next page... as it stands now anyway.
I have to make a few decisions as far as possible changes go... but basically, I'm fairly satisfied with the results.

The face on the Pugilist in the third panel is one of those happy accidents that happen when you're just drawing without thinking... I couldn't match that crazed expression now if I tried!

Onward...

"Why yes... yes, that IS a giant inflatable woman in the background..."

And so the final act begins...

I'm actually looking forward to the next set of pages as the action picks up exponentially with each panel.
Hopefully, I'll be able to keep my momentum going as I tackle the next page...

Wish me luck;)

What the Hell?

This next page is killing me...
More specifically, by the time I get back from lifeguard duty, I'm completely spent both physically and mentally... I don't seem to have the inspiration/facility to move forward at any decent pace with this page.

If I can just get the basic character colors set up, I can more easily move ahead... but for some reason, the blue shift has me a bit befuddled.

I'm happy with the first panel though... hopefully, I can realize the rest of the accursed thing soon. Only the first 2 panels are finished in this scan... I'm slowly fleshing out the 9 figure panel as I write this.

Wish me luck...

Calm before the storm...

Ok... now we get to the nitty-gritty, as they say.
From here on, we introduce a new assortment of vile characters that only last a few panels past their introduction.

Soon, the main protagonist will be introduced... and the true tale joined.

"Plug-licious..."

Popped by the MoCCA Festival at the Armory downtown this afternoon...
It turns out that the cover for "City of Fever" doesn't look too shabby after all!
They managed to get at least close to the tone of the original painting. Very surprising...

Sure... the very first interior credit page has two misspellings ("penceled" and "writen")... but at least my name is spelled correctly;)

All and all, worth the effort.

Back to the grind now...

"Lucky 13"

OK... another page in the can.
This photo-to-location transition page turned out fairly well, I must say. I'm just hoping that it jives properly with the next page's imagery... only time will tell.

The madness really begins in the next few pages... the part of the book that I've been waiting to get to while wading through all these transitional sequences... the carnage fraught studio-turned-abattoir that provides the climax of the tale!

Onward...


PS: Dig the coffee stain on that photo, baby...

Shameless Plug #1...

Just a quickie post today...

I painted a cover illustration for a friend's first graphic novel to debut at this year's MOCCA Festival this coming June.
It was a terrible rush job, given the circumstances... but in retrospect, I suppose that some of the loose spontaneity of the piece was only possible this way.

I hope that it's crude charm helps his sales somewhat...


I'm also including some interior color sketches I did for background elements for his editorial/intro page.

"1/3"...

12 pages in the can now... what a relief.
Still, I've got a looong way to go yet... but now I'm at least moving at a more confident pace.

This page was a bit tricky, but I'm pleased with the results.
The next page is the last "set up" sequence... it's all action from there on out.


Thank goodness, eh?

"Dumbbells"...

OK... here is 11 in all it's desaturated glory...
I hope that the spatter effect works well enough without it being overly gratuitous. I must admit that it went better than I had initially hoped.

I was also pleased with the panel where the titular character is escorted through one zone into another through color cues. This is the sort of transition that I spoke of in my last page entry as well...

Moving on...

The Coming Storm...

OK... I've got two new pages to post soon.
Barring a disaster, I'll have them both up by this weekend... I just need to adjust a few niggling details before I'm comfortable seeing them here in their full pigment-drained, lackluster glory.

Here is just a teaser panel I'm putting up just so I can say that I have an April Fool's post...

"38 up, 10 Down..."

And another page in the can...

I'm embarrassed that it took so long to get this one up, but I've been a bit occupied lately with other interfering influences.
I'll be able to speak more freely about them once they are behind me for good.

This was a challenging page, to be sure... but I'm fairly pleased with the outcome.
Barring a sudden change of heart, this is how the page will basically look (albeit more saturated) in it's final form.


The bottom panel marks where the special lighting of the old coot's office area intersects with the rest of the outside world... a sort of transition between two differing zones.

"In 2001, Greg would do almost anything for cash..."

Here's an old blast from the past...

This was to be a cover illustration for a certain New York Gaming Magazine to illustrate the featured editorial exposing the exploitation of women in the video gaming industry. Needless to say, while they LOVED the piece once it was finished and approved the progress through all the editorial stages, when it came time to go to press... they hadn't the testicular fortitude to follow through with the idea and ran a tame photo instead.

As a sort of lame compensational gesture, the magazine owner offered to buy the original artwork after the whole debacle (he gushed about the piece as soon as he saw the thing)... but the price he offered for the original painting was so insulting I actually burst into spontaneous laughter in his office! I told him that even if he offered double that price, I wouldn't have sold it to him on principal...

What an utter douchebag...

Anyway, here it is in it's lackluster glory... enjoy.

"Peek-a-boo"

Ok... I'm almost on schedule now... kinda.
With page 10 in the works now and nearly 30 more to go, it might seem that I am screwed beyond imagining if I want to finish the colors before July or so... but I am going much faster now and soon most of the pages will have only a single color scheme working within them (aiding selection time), so I should make up a bit of time.
Again... maybe...

Whatever...

If I can get around half of the thing done, I might just try to get it published in two installations...

We shall see....