MAGICAL UNICORN BUTTER!!!

My girlfriend's into dodgeball. And after watching a couple of last season's games, now I'm into it, too.

I hadn't played since 7th grade. My buddy, who had turned me on to punk rock, and I would run amock all over the court and give our battlecry: "WAKKA-DING-HOY!"

But now I'm on a team again. At 35 years old. Beth is on two teams. She's on my team and on another called "MAGICAL UNICORN BUTTER."

So I had to design a logo/mascot for a little battleflag...

Master Otake

I am obsessed with books and fascinated by martial arts. In my collection you'll find a decent selection of martial arts books such as The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere, and one titled simply The Martial Arts. It is from this last book that I have referenced and drawn.

The Martial Arts was picked up at a terrific bookstore on Baronne Street when I lived in New Orleans. The book title itself seems fairly generic but its overview is a rich exposition of the martial arts culture, particularly Japanese, Okinawan, and some Chinese.

These drawings are of Master Otake, a budo swordsman. In trying to understand the drawing of Asian features, Master Otake's face was an enjoyable study for me. I can only guess at the interesting experiences he has had. His quiet intensity certainly bears the stamp of a man that has committed his life to the mastering of a martial art.

These two were layed out in orange color erase pencil. Then I inked them with Faber-Castell Pitt brush pens. Above I was going for a slightly more cartoony look with a nod to Jack Davis. Below I wanted to retain the light and shadow dynamics of the photograph, but rendered graphically.

The same applies to the martial arts as to the drawing arts, dedicated practice and honest evaluation will manifest satisfying results.

Soul Bread

Hello. Would you like to buy some tasty pan (bread)? The forest monk makes it fresh every day. Usually he brings it down and sells it himself, but today I haven't seen him.

I wonder if he's practicing his karate? He really is quite terrific. His arms and legs are as sturdy as an oak tree. His kicks are like typhoons and his fists are like hammers!

Oh, well. Anyway, his bread is even good a day later because the noro (priestess) blesses his hearth every day, too. Why don't I just give you a little sample? Hmmm...?

Kiiiii-yaaarrrrrr!!!!!

This glorious monstrosity was slapped together as a lark during my Fall '06 semester. The premise being that certain things that were played-out would be rolled up into mock-cover chimeraes.

Here's a pirate that's a ninja! He's riding a unicorn that's a zombie! They're being attacked by penguins that are robots! Glory be! How pandemonius!!!

Well, I started my last semester (Fall '07) wanting to jam out some material to satisfy my creative urges. I started with a keen project, which you'll see more of in the future (tease), but its scope exceeded my capabilities as the semester then picked up steam.

I throttled back by putting that (mystery) project on the back burner and decided to breathe some life into my absurd little pirate-ninja. As I'd continued to be inspired by Samurai Jack, with its wonderful background art and character designs (by such ass-kickers as Genndy Tartakovsky, Lynne Naylor, Bill Wray, to name but a few), I started salivating obscenely to apply this to said project. Those abstractions and palettes were the perfect approaches to take with my scurvy-assassin!

Well, things got retarded early on that semester. Life destabilized with unemployment and soon enough I could barely pull sufficient creativity off for my classes, much less a comicky book. The initial thought was that I would just throw together some ramshackle character designs and bg's and let it fly. I jumped in.

But, I couldn't do it. I became disenchanted with my sloppy designs and really felt the need to develop some characters, environments, and storytelling. Even though this would be haphazard action and violence I wanted it to be more dynamic than what I was putting into it.

So, here's the first inspirational panel I'd generated on a whim that gave me the idea to revive this keelhauled-killer. And as part of my list of resolutions for 2008, I'm going to crank out some Pirate-Ninja Yarrri Kari comix (along with developing other projects) to be self-published and for public consumption. Kanpai, me mateys!

SOME FIRES KEEP BURNING

I wanted to refrain from putting anything about my personal views other than art in this blog but I'm compelled to do otherwise with recent developments in the world political climate.

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan on Wednesday is a tragic loss when free elections and talks with President Pervez Musharraf were so close. With her political measure weighing in with moderate Muslims in Pakistan for women's rights, Bhutto's was a strong voice much needed within a historically mysogynistic culture.

After escaping a previous assassination attempt and her recent political incarceration, a potential communication process with current powers and upcoming elections seemed to signal a positive, much needed change.

Heinous murders of leaders such as Benazir Bhutto must be avenged with the articulation of justice in the form of the punishment of those responsible.

As al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility, this surely will further fuel the fires of the United State's open-ended and nebulous "War on Terror." Geographically Pakistan is to the east of Iran, with its own controversial policies of nuclear activities and religious fundamentalism. Such a relationship, Pakistan's nuclear armory, and the continuing instability of the area by Islamic fundamentalist military factions could expand the front of the "War on Terror" on the premise of nuclear capable Islamic fundamentalist alliances, whether between regimes, terrorist factions, or both. Be aware of the Bush Administration's inevitable statements regarding any imaginable scenarios.

Some fires keep burning, they whip and consume, with designs that serve only to sustain entropy. But other fires burn, and they burn within the breasts of those that must persevere for good when all seems lost, when a guiding, vigilant fire is extinguished by madness and hatred. And these fires keep burning, flaring in the face of chaos with a light that bolsters these fires that come together, once diminished by loss, but gaining strength in union to light the way toward positive empowerment and essential justice.

...grant me the Serenity to accept...

This line up is of character re-designs for the movie Serenity. It was the first assignment for fall semester '07 (just finished!) in Concept Art for Movies and Video Games. The class was taught by Tin Salamunic (linked on right), a talented, dedicated and ambitious artist.

Left to right, they are as follows: River Tam, Simon Tam, Kaylee, Jayne Cobb, Wash, Zoe, Mal, Inarra Serra, The Operative, Book and Mr. Universe.

Last night when I first tried to post this I had a long description of all the characters, my thoughts, design decisions. It took me a while to type. Then the router crapped out on me and left me with half of the first line. I would re-type those descriptions except that I have to get back to looking for jobs.

Maybe I'll set something up for future posts.

BRING ON THE BAD GUYS!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner...!

I won the Velocity Comics DRAW! contest this past Friday. The theme was "Bring on the Bad Guys!" I knew what I had to do as soon as I heard the theme. I cranked out this piece in 3 days time with reference, blueline pencils, inking, and digital colors in Photoshop with a Wacom tablet. I was stoked to feel worthy of those votes. And I got to clear out the majority of my comics pull box to bring home some choice comic books. Books like Dark Horse's BPRD, Umbrella Academy, Lobster Johnson, also some hard to find MiracleMan back issues by Alan Moore! Score!

Oh yeah. And I've finally graduated from VCU! I'll be receiving my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Arts degree in the mail some time. I'm finally free of that place! But then come the student loan payments....

Now if I could just get a job.