In the early bits of my career, or should I say the hunt for my profession. I looked up to a lot of artists. One of those artists was Jim Mahfood. Back in 2003 I was gonna have Jim do an alternate cover to an indie book that some might own called “Gravity Girl”. This is fresh off of my readings of Jim’s ‘Grrl Scouts’ published at that time by Oni Press. Blown away by the storytelling, the fun read, and the crisp lines, I won’t lie and say that his art is a piece of mine in some minuscule ways here and there.
When the opportunity arose to work on a property/project that Jim was throwing together, I did not hesitate. This set of cards was one of the most fun I’ve had creatively on a set. Thanks Jim. Thanks Steve over at 5finity Productions, and thank you for liking my art enough to give me a shot at doing something like this.
The set has been out for a bit, but I wanted to show off a some of the returns I got back from the set. Right now they are pending, I will let people know if they are available in the next few days.
So this weekend is San Diego Comic Con. in San Diego, California. Another convention gone that I can’t be a part of. Missed out on Anaheim convention, then missed out on Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina. My frustrations with this is fueling a fire that keeps me creating. When Lisa and I finally get to a con we will be bringing the world down on the spot. Anticipation is creeping for me as we have so much to do and I know you all will enjoy it. Stick around for the ride, and we’ll show you the world we have in store for you.
We are planning right now to attend Detroit FanFare in Dearborn, Michigan. We are doing all in our power to get out there and have a lot of loot for you all to pick up. Things to expect from us will be revealed in time. For now let’s check out some art I did in the past week or so.
Hey guys, It looks like I’m going to be on the second Clone Wars set from Topps. This should be fun filled Bounty Hunter goodness! I see some other people announcing this and thought it would be alright to do so myself. If there are any ideas you’d like me to draw please let me know by replying here!
Also I wanted to say that I still have these Clone Wars : Widevision returns available. I am asking $50 ea. for the returns. You can contact me at crisis.hour@gmail.com
I wanted to do something a bit different than the ones before to seperate them from when they were purchased. The first time around it was just an idea. The second time around however I learned things from the first batch, and wanted to amp them up more. You guys voted for them, so I wanted to make them worth it!
The approach I took with the second set was like this. I cut copy paper out to do my underlying drawings (instead of on the card itself.) Then transferred the image to the top layer. Removing any existence of the prelim from the card (which makes for crisper, easier clean up.)
I then applied the color to the foreground elements on the back of the top layer. (Like a real painted animation cel.) Makes for more vivid cards, and colors to pop.
The bottom layer or the background layer, would only consist of elements found in the background. Makes sense right?
I found that I wanted them to pop a little more, so I embellished the ‘Penny Sleeve’ that I ship them in for another added layer for the card. So you have three layers, for the price of one fifth of my normal rate.
Thought I would make a new blog post to show the Pastel series of cards I did for the 10 for $10 this week.
This was very exciting. A new medium to work with. I’ve been wanting to play around with pastels for a while now. I fell in love with “the Art of Monsters Inc.” Wonderful pastel pieces in that book. I wish I could find a copy at a decent price. I’ve only seen a few scans on the internet, but wow. Anyhoo, this is what I came up with for some of my first endeavors into pastels.
Here is a new 10 for $10 for the first week of July on the ArtCast over at uStream. In addition to the winner of the poll I will be doing these 10 for $10s as well.
I started the 10 for 10 in on the second week of June, and I want to correct the positioning so I’m taking double duty this week to make it all make sense to me.
So I’ve been really wanting to go see Toy Story 3 in 3D. Now I know what you are thinking. “Didn’t he say something along the lines of 3D in movies is horrible, and he doesn’t like it?” Well yeah I did say something like that, and here’s where the but comes in.
I watched ‘UP’ in 3D with my Wife just before we moved out to California. Putting on those big carnival style glasses over my own glasses I was weary of watching the movie this way. I did however lose myself in the rich environment Pixar had created in the movie. I wasn’t in awe of what was flying at my head. I don’t care about that. I tried watching ‘Coraline’, and ‘My Bloody Valentine’ in 3D and it hurt to watch, and it was gimmicky. Now this is where ‘UP’ was different. They used the technology not to make things pop out at you, but to envelop the true third dimension. I fell into the world they created. I forgot about life for a while because I was on the shoulders of the leading characters the whole way through. I have mad respect for Pixar, and mostly John Lasseter. I can’t wait to see ‘Toy Story 3′ and get lost again in one of the properties that has been there at the beginnings of the road that is now my passion.
So the show that gave me my first professional sketch card gig got canceled. NBC/Universal’s Heroes. I wasn’t around for the first set produced by Topps, although I wish I had been. The second season is where I came in. I still see some of my cards from that set hit eBay almost like a memory. I loved working on the blue stock that many others would complain about. It gave me a challenge.
Almost three years later I still wonder if there is ever going to be another Heroes set that I could actually do sketches for. Let’s hope since Rittenhouse Archives has the license to the property we can get a nice Heroes Archives set encapsulating all the seasons. I would love to rock out on something like that. So many good moments from the series (Even if you are not a fan of the show. I’ve loved the whole ride.)
I had a few overdue Heroes commissions to do. I got some reference for the cards and ended up watching the entire series finale… again, and again.
Here is hoping to more Heroes in some form in the future, and here is the outcome of the commissions from a ways back. (My apologies to Rich for being so neglectful.)
