JustinCoombsArt.com

GAMES BIATCHES

2010-10-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

New BG form the game

iPhone Game

2010-09-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

heres a test BG for a new iphone game I'm creating...

Space Cartoon

2010-08-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

This is (obviously) a WIP but where I am at in it...

Starting up again

2010-07-19T21:38:00.001-07:00

So, this is a thing we all share. We know we SHOULD do something- but we put it off. WELL i am over that now so I will post ot my blog again.

Since April: Quit my old job, moved to NYC. Living with my gf. Got a new job and am now taking an animaiton course and working on 4 or 5 animaiton @ the same time lol.

so here they are:

Noahs

My Comic (not a cartoon)

Untitled Space cartoon

Ambush

A video game cartoon series.

PHEW! Well right now the space one has my attention as it is 'due' on August 10th (although really I am just using the class to learn. ANYWHOO

ill post using my mac form now on cause uploading a screengrab via PC is super-ridiculous.

THANKS!

Enemies for a Zelda Cartoon

2010-04-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

So I have been cranking out 10 or so frames a day on my gasmask cartoon (about an hours worth) and then working on some other fun stuff as well.

busy busy.

In addition I went to a cartoon museum in San Francisco and saw some SERIOUSLY amazing cel-drawing for really, really famous cartoons. FYI: did you know samurai Jack wasn't flash?

Anyways here are some character sketches for an upcoming project with my brother and buddy Ben Spiking.

Reel

2010-03-31T21:47:00.000-07:00

So I was working on my reel the last week and finally got it wrapped up! lol.

I am hoping to pitch this to some bands

YAZ, ISCHT UNTER BACKGRUNDEN!

2010-03-04T09:06:00.000-08:00

so I am SOOOOO close to having my long cartoon all wrapped up. It has been a long-time in the making, but ridiculously close. stay tuned for that.

these BGs are from the Noah cartoon I am making. On the ship deck and then Inside his home.

I will adjust the colors and take better pictures for the final use- within the cartoon, and this goes for my BGs for the train cartoon as well.

woot!

2010-02-22T23:53:00.000-08:00

This is what my screen looks like at the moment. I am wrapping up this scene, and a few transitions and seriously- this will be done. I am 80% with the sounds and the final one is surprisingly cool. the violent scenes r the best though (that was expected).

in other news- I am also finishing up the backgrounds for noah- all 7 at the same time. I should have shots of these up asap-

they are coming along nicely.

one thing i can reccommend for all artists: BUY COOL ART BOOKS. they will always inspire you and let you examine other artists styles (just accept that they are better than you, so you can always learn something).

always worthwhile, and sure as hell beats spending $$$ a month on a fancy car.

2010-02-13T21:49:00.000-08:00

here are some BGs i am wokring on for a cartoon of mine...

Art Show Coming up in April

2010-02-10T10:40:00.000-08:00

I will be putting Two Pieces in a show in Fort Collins. A couple Ideas I had were to re-make a screenshot form some of my childhood videogames ie:castlevania and redraw a scene in my style.

Another idea was to sort of make my own fighting gmae universe and do the character shots of the two players fighting and then draw a stage of them fighting. Could be cool kind of like two pics with a VS in between and then the fight itself below.

this is all going to be done, I think, using Copic Markers. These are some badass markers, and non-badassly expensive (about $320 for 72 of them). But alas they are the best in the biz so ill cave on the purchase.

WERD. More to come.

BG For The Arc

2010-01-15T12:45:00.000-08:00

here is a the BG for a scene with Noah dangling during the construction of the arch. He wonders to god- how the hell is this thing gonna fit the 600,000 (super conservative estimate) species of life currently known on the planet?

Noah and his Bro

2010-01-04T17:02:00.000-08:00

I am working on a new cartoon describing Noah's Arc in the literal sense, and presenting some of the problems if it were literally interpreted.

Its fun to take jabs at biblical literalists.

skoonchins

2009-12-27T21:36:00.000-08:00

heres a finished room with a shot at lighting too.

HEEB

2009-12-22T00:39:00.000-08:00

this one is coming along too

2009-12-20T18:57:00.000-08:00

Working on a new room. This is an example of a forward gun. One part i like its that the different rooms are stages of the firing process- so the command to fire goes to the loading room, to the firing guys. should be cool to see in full animated pixel glory. right now the rooms R pink btu will be populated once everything is i place.

2009-12-09T23:49:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

here are the few development shots of a space room. We are going for a arcadey look to the whloe thing and invoking a pixel size so we can draw 1:1 pixels. It is super old=-school fun.

JUMP

2009-12-01T17:26:00.000-08:00

here is a screen grab of the animation sequence I am currently cranking out.

so here is the goal: get everything up to this point ready to go ASAP and not add any new scenes. Then i can actually release something from this cartoon that has been taking up SO MUCH of the last year :-)

I am excited to have finally gotten a good hold on this whole animation thing- and am super excited about the future.

cartoon!

2009-11-15T16:36:00.000-08:00

this is what my desktop looks like for an hour everyday. Its when im working on my cartoon and its just the best shit i do.

Hopefully it will be all finished sooner... these things take time i suppose-

so here r a couple images...

Veterans Day

2009-11-11T11:22:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much to the armed services of the USA for kicking some ass, and not putting up with dictators, bullies, fundamentalists and other stupid idiots that are so numerous in our world.

2009-11-09T23:24:00.000-08:00

so I am working on this scene for ym cartoon and also doing color tests for the video game concept...

stay tuned for some movies!

its a fun time just testing styles and different ways to draw a space game... during it I have to winder if I could do this for 32 rooms-and also what effects can be applied to the coloring method i am using.

Space Game Anyone?

2009-10-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

So if you've been floowing this blog, or look way back, you might see a background for a space game. Ths cope of the game hasn't changed much, but new indie games have been very inspiring. Indy games have been picking up a lot of steam and Jordan and I have always had an idea to do this space game... so we are going to make a reel to look like what the game would play like.

here is the initial BG before coloring and lighting.... (the coloring is for separation only, and I then go back in and replace it with real colors...

WHERED HE GO?!

2009-09-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well ok excuses excuses. I haven't been up keeping this blog. I will start doing it asap.

stay tuned for updates on:
Gas Mask Cartoon (as its being called)!
Page 7 of the comic!
New Cartoon Sketches!

all of these will be made easier if: I CAN FIND CAMERA!

which i probably cannot so I am probably going to buy a new one.

Ah well- thats cool with me! 300$

BACKGROUNDS

2009-08-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

so Jordan (my bro) and I have a cartoon due by the 31st...

here is sort of a step by step of the process...

art show

2009-08-04T01:20:00.000-07:00

up at the Bean Cycle, on college st in Fort Collins CO until August 31st.

2009-07-29T00:08:00.000-07:00

so I am wokring on a new cartoon that is due by August 30th. Here is a BG scene from the 1st act... should be abotu 20 of these by the time we're done. gotta hurry :-)

movie

2009-07-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

here is a link to what i've been working on. I will have a more thorough post asap, but I am moving into a new place so it's been a challenge to update. stay tuned.

http://screencast.com/t/vnUe4fFHhK

2009-06-19T00:29:00.000-07:00

So i finished work on page 6 of the comic as you can see above. PHEW. it was a long one. One important thing artists struggle with is having the courage to make art. he reason I use the word ;courage' is because there is an internal struggle with confidence and fear. What if this one looks horrible? What if it is stupid? What if I am a sham? I should do it when I am more energetic...or less tired... or in a better mindset.

then you finally sit down and it all comes natural. You make some bad ones- but your mind takes over as soon as you put pen to paper and the rest is just amazing.

My brother and I finished work on the commcercial I mentioned, we are making final edits and I will have a version of it up really soon.

Stay Tuned For:

A new blog CSS?!!!
A short preview of my perosnal cartoon
A full-length cartoon commercial.
PAGE 7!
a new Cartoon Background.

2009-06-01T23:15:00.000-07:00

lotta work going into each one of these panels, i takes abotu an hour and half apiece. It seems like a lot of work, but the final product I am always happy with, and SUPER glad that I stuck it out. This page has bee monstrous, but for more reason that i have two other projects going on and one of which I am actually getting paid for (so it has priority.

ANYWHOO

Stay tuned for:

This Finished Page
A Preview Of my non-paid cartoon...
A Final Version of my paid cartooon...

Finished Background

2009-05-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, just wrapped up another background for the cartoon. I like the reflections in the rivers for sure, just a fun effect to mimic. Things aren't too peace for long- as the train has a roadblock up ahead and that's when things get hairy...

YEAH!

2009-05-19T23:57:00.000-07:00

two cartoons are both being worked on so that has been taking up the majority of my time. I am going to put a new cut together this week so you guys can see how its coming along in full motion. It is look fantastic.

here are the paintings from last week slowly coming along.

CAMERA!

2009-05-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

not a new one- but I found a charger YAY.

Here is a page im painting from the comic and a background for the cartoon. One is night and one is day.

Work continues on the cartoon at a decent pace. I have scenes 1-5 colored and drawn for a total of about a minute...

I also found some potential music off of a cd, and the lats 1 minute of a song was a really melodic cello solo. Ill post something later this week.

Im also doing a freelance cartoon- I'm excited about that, and also getting it done. We (my brother Jordan and I) have storyboards and an animatics done for it so now is the fun part, animating it. The cartoon is 2 minutes and the turnaorund is 6 weeks and this is only possible because it is 99% lineart, black and white. I put a jpeg here so you know whats coming...

Camera Charger = no work

2009-04-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

so have to use my cell phone to take pictures but here is a shot of the latest page. It took forever.

New comic Page On The Way

2009-04-07T00:20:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

This should be a sick page, I have been super busy at work and had some weekends for fun too- but work continues. Just wnated to let u all know im not dead.

PAGE 5!!!!!

2009-03-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well they take a long time to get right- but really my job has been whats slowing everything down- it has gotten to be ridiculous. SUPER long hours.

ANYWHOO- the page is done and looks great- honestly looks so much better in person. Colors are super-vivid and the paper is just awesome. Big difference in this page has been using the nice brushes and completing each scene panel by panel. Getting the lighting right in the last panel was really hard. But overall the piece shows a nice transition form day to night. I get to do some cool interior scenes soon- can't wait.

2009-03-09T00:27:00.000-07:00

So it took a lot longer than I had imagined but the inking for page 5 is done. Work continues on the cartoon but really at this point it feels like my '9-5' (9-9) s taking up far too much of my time- it is a challenge to try and be creative when you work long hours-- and for what? A bunch of money?

i have an inkling

2009-03-03T09:30:00.001-08:00

deeeerp.

So here are some stages as I go about inking this page. fun stuff- inking is always a blast, and a challenge. very time consumign as well yeeesh.

sketch for page 5

2009-02-25T22:28:00.001-08:00

Drawing started on Page 5 of the comic, here are the blues, about 3 hours of work (with the sketches too). Should really set this up as a grandiose stage- which is what I definitely wanted to project (its a very barren planet afterall).I has the idea of the giant ship hulls skorched on the planet surface before I fell asleep one night- so I woke my ass out of bed and drew up 5 drawings real quick= and sure enough I used em- goes to show...

Cartoon continues... should have a decent update on that on Monday... (i have a day off EUREEEKA!)

PAGINA QUATTRO!

2009-02-08T00:16:00.000-08:00

YAY- I finished this one up with about 2 more hours of concentrated painting. Chrome is always fun to mimic- as it replicates every color around it- creating a great visual effect.

I love clouds (as you can tell) I just wish they had a bit more depth- but I might be able to add that later digitally. All of these will eventually be scanned with a really nice scanner and such- but for now- WALA.

Work on the cartoon progresses as well- but this was a hellacious week at work- Hopefully I can get a bit more done next week. sheesh. we work to live not vise versa darnit! (tell tat to my bosses)

Coloring Page 5

2009-02-03T22:50:00.000-08:00

I hope to AT LEAST do 1 page a week- yeesh. My job is busy at this moment in time- not that that is a good excuse. I feel a bit more energized about the comic so I should be able to surpass 1 page a week pretty soon- but as it is now diligence is vital.

panel by panel, page by page.

its amazing that we humans create and work because we really have no other option- not to survive, but more so we work so surviving is worth it. My life without the struggle of art would be significantly less meaningful. But it would be a bit less challenging ;-)

if you're an artist and you're reading this- I'm with ya- it ain't easy- but lest keep at it!

inkling

2009-01-27T01:12:00.001-08:00

just did some inks and am working on another scene for the cartoon.

2009-01-25T23:51:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. So I started another page of the comic (and this is my attempt to bring out the light blue I use to sketch). Barely visible but still useful.

I also had time to render the first scene of my cartoon- I wanted to compose more- which I have animated- but getting it through after effects proved ot be a bigger challenge than first thought- I am excited thoug as from here on out I will be adding and building this cartoon up. PLEASE keep in mind that the real cartoon is in widescreen and this video is square so it is all smooshed.

ENJOY

finito- not bad- but time to move on

2009-01-22T23:06:00.000-08:00

this was a hellacious struggle of a piece- it looks decent, but there are flaws, but I can't redo it so I will move on with hopes and lessons learned.

Another thing of note is I will have a good length clip of my animation (maybe 30 seconds) coming soon... im shooting for this weekend.

still may not work

2009-01-14T23:35:00.000-08:00

But I am trying to 'fix' te darn thing. and if anythign it will be more practice before i do the redo- we'll see. I practiced iwth the wet- on wet technique a lot in this piece and it creates some pretty awesome clouds and texture- the paint expands inside of the wet spots and it is really unique to watercolor styles- so I am trying to make a piece I like.

I also added some blacks because watercolors consistently lack contrast- jst by the nature of the media.

im gonna keep trying and trying.

FAIL

2009-01-13T22:52:00.001-08:00

FAIL FAIL FAIL

even the best intentions turn into an UGLY piece of shit- and here is the case in point. Start over. lol.

Another Page

2009-01-12T00:37:00.000-08:00

Started inking another page for the comic.

finsito- uno piu backgrounds!

2009-01-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

this one was a fun piece to do- even though I haven't been as productive as I would have liked over the last month- we all kinda feel that way about a lot of things. SO i did finish this- and have been cranking through the cartoon. Big problem though is that I can't render out the cartoon until I get a new computer- so I wont be able to update with that too often- because of that.

But works is going well.

Next up is another page of the comic.

Back form a long Hiatus (but needed)

2009-01-06T00:26:00.000-08:00

a little R and R goes a long way. Good to be back though.

I am working on the cartoon as usual- prolly clocking 3 hours a day. Lots of fun and it is coming together slowly but surely. On that note I have a new background in the works for scene 4. I had this scene in my head since early on so it is cool to finally see it coming to fruition. As it is now I am trying to establish the tonality (as it is a daytime scene). What will happen is guys start crawling out of the wreckage and then they all get ambushed AGAIN- and then all but one die. yikes.

Page 2 Painted- snerp

2008-12-02T00:53:00.001-08:00

hey everyone.Wow i just figured out how to turn the heat on in my apartment- thats exciting!

Anywhoo- I just finished page 2 of the comic- and man did it take a while. Also work continues on the cartoon- and from the look of it its going very well- but one problem is my computer is too slow. I am using a macbook pro 2.4ghz w/ 4gb of ram and it is definitely not hacking it.

I am contemplating building or buying a new rig just so I can actually mess with this cartoon- its frustrating to say the least when you have a great idea but you dont have the tools to complete it- thats why i work 50 hours a week though at my job- so I'm gonna buy it asap.

PAGE 2 INK snitces.

2008-11-24T23:40:00.000-08:00

working on the animation about 3 hours a day- that hing takes some SERIOUS time.

but besides that (and life) I am also working as best I can on the comic. I hope to have 3 pages done by end of month... we'll see... then it is off to NYC and then two weeks back here- then x-mas break so hopefully I can get to page 10 or so by January. Thatd be really really cool.

Another idea of mine is to eventually have this thing printed nicely and sell em for cheap (like at cost) just to get em out there. Im a damned graphic designer- so I could definitely get this done.

well with further adieu...

2008-11-16T16:59:00.000-08:00

so for this background I wanted a nice and calm establishing shot for the cartoon. So I decided that showing a nice landscape fora while (there will be blowing grass added) so I can slowly fade into the scene, I might even add stars... So then the train would come chugging through and I could then cut to the internal of it. Kind of a neat painting in that i got to do a huge sky. I love doing clouds, although obviously the cumulo-nimbus clouds are my favorite. I looked at a sunset image from google image for colors.

The ground was a bit too warm near then end so I used adobe photoshop and added blue- decided I liked it- and then did it with the watercolor. This sort of digital-manipulation is a great tool to use before you do something drastic

the real deal

2008-11-10T23:39:00.000-08:00

so here is page 1 of what hopefully will be a full-sized comic. who knows- but for now it feels good to have one page down. MWAHAHA ITS ALIIIIIIVE! (the text is just for filler)

The real Page 1.

2008-11-09T22:16:00.000-08:00

Yes folks almost done with page 1 of Dan Doggett and I's comic. At this point I am trying to figure out how many pages we want the final product to be- at this pace, it cant be too many pages- it just takes so darn long per page. Each one form start to finish is prolly 6- hours. yeesh.

work also continues fully on the cartoon- I will hopefully have scene 2 up here- but really I added a scene 1,2 and 4 so the ones oyuve seen are 3 and 5

i don't know how long the final thing will be but im gonna try and update a scene 1-6 preview asap. I lost After Effects so that isnt helping anyhitng- but I should have a new computer when i get an extra 80 bucks- yeesh.

Finished Scene 2

2008-10-23T01:02:00.001-07:00

HEY ALL,

finished another backgorund for scene 2. I have been trying to finish up all the work on Scene 1 still but will try and get scene 2 one asap.

enjoy!

New Background- YAY!

2008-10-15T23:22:00.000-07:00

probably one of the most aggressive angles- this shot will encompass a change in the lighting as an alert is heard. I am also going to try and make the cords sway... but we'll see.

PHEW long wait but it is worth it... maybe?

2008-10-08T01:06:00.000-07:00

So over the last month I have been working pretty hard to figure out how to get this cartoon going. I am also working on picture frames- but that will be for another post. for now (it is 2am) here is the cartoon- the first 8 seconds of it. It will only be easy form here as I have learned SO much.

heres the link:

http://www.justincoombsart.com/art/1stSoldier2.mov

first background

2008-09-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

so here are the last stages of creating this painting. Media is pen and ink (with a nib) and then watercolor (i actually use liquitex brand acrylic but I use it like watercolor).

Its all on Canson Watercolor paper. (purple label stuff)

Working on a cartoon.

2008-09-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

So I have been working on a cartoon using a NIN song. I am making everything- including these pics from one of the backgrounds and a single frame of a traincar scene.

it is taking foooooorrrrreeeeeevvvvveeeeeerrrrrrr. but it is gonna be so dope- so I will keep updates on here as the project progresses. Soon I will upload a sample of the animation itself in glorious 24 fps. siiiiickly smooth.

somethings a brewin

2008-09-07T23:21:00.000-07:00

ill update soon...

Finito!

2008-08-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

wow about 10 hours of coloring, 3 hours of drawing, and 5 hours of silkscreening.... YEESH.

color!

2008-08-19T21:44:00.001-07:00

im sarting to color them in. HEEB.

DEEERP

2008-08-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

So using the silkscreen as a graphic element was what I originally intended- the trick is to determine what should go around it. Originally I was going to have one big image- which I will probably still do- but I had a comic laying near one of the silkscreen and I thought it looked cool- so I figured I'd try just doing a mini-comic surrounding the piece.

the first 10.

2008-08-07T23:57:00.000-07:00

one thing to know. Silk Screening is Messy. like so nasty.
Whaddya all think? The alignment is off but it is next to impossible to do it with the method I was using. If I choose to do a reprint of this I would def. like to see each of the respective colors on a different screen- rather than on ONE big one, and having to tape-out the other 3 every time. it is amazing how different each one is.

UGH it was arduous but the results r awesome. They look really rich and vibrant in person. Maybe you will be the first to own one. HEEB.

Silkscreenin snitches!

2008-08-05T19:50:00.001-07:00

here is a list of the pocess i go through to make my shiznit.
step 1. come up with a cool drawing.

step 2:

scan this drawing and color it in.

for this drawing I am going for a retro look- and so I changed this drawing into a bessier-dot style one (1950s ish).

I then seperate the four channels, each onto its own layer. Blue, Yellow, Red and Black. and print them on transparencies.

I then burn these into a photo-emulsion coated light-sensitive screen.n and spray out the areas (black) that didnt get exposed (and thereby arent stuck to the screen)

And WALAH a four-color screen. The next step I will apply the respective ink to the respective layer and go from there.

2008-08-03T23:17:00.000-07:00

So i needed to get a test-page out of the way. basicaly i deceided on the paper-type and page size... although I might try a hot-press watercolor paper instead of the cold-press. The hot-press type has less bump- but this may result in less absorbancy of the watercolor... not sure, as I've never used it. It sells about 4$ a sheet- but thats for a pretty good sized one, and so if I cut them down to the size i'm using (12x18) then i can prolly get 4 out of each sheet. Not bad- cause it's gonna be Arches- top quality paper.

werd ya'll.

im also working on some fine art- stuff and deciding what should go in a show and some venues to pick. I also need to frame these darn things... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.-which i don't have. so I might just keep building my own. for now tho- here is the test page.

heeb

2008-07-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hoping to get some cool stuff done this weekend- KERSNOOF. im gonna get this body of work all in a show fairly soon.

Heeba Kaneeba

2008-07-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

So here is another sort of in that cartoony comic style- but a realistic rendering. not sure if thatsa genre. but you be the judge. it was a quick turnaround cause I can kinda crank out this style nowadays.

KERSCHNEIF!

SILKSCREEN SNITCHES

2008-07-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

One thing is for sure- this is a learning process. here is the process in a jist:

1: buy 150$ worth of supplies.
2: make a 2d design (has to be mono-tone.
3. scan the drawing and reverse it. (i forgot to reverse).
4. print the drawing onto transparencies.
5. take that transparency, and place it on top of a photo-emulsion drenched, dried silkscreen.
6. expose the screen-thereby leaving the blackened areas still kinda gooey, and the light-exposed crusty dry.
7. waterblast out the gooey stuff.
8. put a piece of paper down, put the silscreen on top. dump some ink in.
9. use a squeegee to drag ink across the screen- thereby leaving ink where the holes are.
10. examine your image and find out your mesh is wrong, the image is bad and the ink is too viscous.
11. repeat after you get frustrated, then cool down and buy another 20$ screen and try new settings.

holy shit

2008-07-07T23:50:00.000-07:00

this looks dope when I finished it. man. What was weird about this one is that it sort of had a happy effect when I took off the tape and looked at it more as an entire piece. The cool part is that it sort of stands on its own-without the widescreen... which gets me wondering if I might have to do a bunch more of these in a similar style- with a different implied edge.

either way I really love the thing.

thats a good feeling.

GAS MASK!

2008-07-06T23:07:00.000-07:00

you can see my process here (I always seem to forget to take a picture before I start the ink... but you can see the blue lines I use.). I wanted to make a compostion using a lot of white space and assymetry with some bold black hues- and later I think I am going to add some neat mid-tones and then some light wash/gradients ot create a cool edgy piece. I like the form and connotation of gas masks-simple as that.

concept work

2008-07-01T11:26:00.001-07:00

so I am developing a couple animals for this comic. it is kind of interesting going about these. the initial sketches usually begins from some inspiration from sometimes the most random of places. Be it an interesting shape, a stain on my clothes or a cloud in the sky. Theres no regular route to find inspiration.

So then from their you sort of devellop it with an archetype in mind and see how it comes out.

MOVIE!!!!!

2008-07-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody I made a movie of how I paint. Hopefully these will get better with time. but for now here is PT 1. I know its HUGE and taking up the control panel- but this is all to ensure the quality stays.

*** the movie being embedded was annoying. so here is the link :-)

http://www.justincoombsart.com/images/Soldier_PT1.mp4

check it out.

camera is back... but I need a scanner

2008-06-26T09:57:00.000-07:00

darnit. anyone wanna send me 50$ for a cheap scanner? Here are the two most recent works. Some come easy and some come hard- thats the nature of it, and BTW thats a quote from Norman Rockwell- a badass. His propoganda posters were some serious motivators when I saw them Ill post it....

Stupid...

2008-06-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

procrastination: not with my art- thats inevitable- but with buying a camera charger. I had one 'done got stoled' back in Italy and have been surviving on charging over at my brothers every month- but after moving to Boulder I am now faced with the problem of distance. So i bought one and it should be here htis week. Then I can update everyone on what I've been doing. HEEB.

finito!

2008-06-04T00:11:00.000-07:00

well the piece is done- and yay for that. Perhaps there is more to life than going to work, coming home, drinking coffee, and drawing.painting. But this is sort of a content cycle for myself.

Prolly some variety would be nice- and I'm sure it is on the way.

PIECES OF HUMAN!

2008-06-02T23:42:00.000-07:00

I need to finish that damned watercolor- but it is a challenge to pick up the paints sometimes. I will get over this tommorow and finish it up.

The drawings are the culmination of the first Burne Hogarth anatomy book that i was studying in preparation for some upcoming comics involving- what else, but the human figure.

The human figure presents itself between Fromalistic art and interpretive/emotional art. On one hand you get to express so much using its forms and shapes- on the other hand you can have a decidedly wrong drawing if you are not careful. In every single one of these drawings there are scale problems or perspective etc. but I am getting closer.

How do comic-artists draw so amazing? They do this about 1000x more than I have been doing- but I hopefully will look back in 3 or 4 years and laugh about how far I have come. I am already beyond what i used to be- and yet have a TON more to learn how to do.

I also wanna start really getting my stuff together into shows and making some real comics (real ie: completed)

now if I could only get up at 7am and go draw for 2 hours before work... i'll try.

I Am now in Boulder, CO

2008-05-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

And the move was horrendous... and My new job takes a lot of my freetime- but it is cool and I am still keeping as busy as ever with art. I have been trying to finish that big watercolor and I am trying to find my style more and more everyday... for now though I am keeping this drawing going and practicing an anatomy book by Burne Hogarth in preparation for all the cool figures im gonna be drawing for the upcoming comic.

but for now here are the process shots of the piece developing...

frames finished.

2008-05-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

HEEEEB. Whaddya all think. It is either this or all-black wood frames. Honestly though i am not sure which one works better- whereas the plain-black frame accents the paitnitng the mechanical latex frames r just more fun. So I say screw it and go with the cooler one.

Schneebin it

2008-05-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

Well i started work on another large-scale watercolor piece. This one came from a random sketch in the coffee shop. It is going to be complicated and mechanical...

At this stage I try and get as much information about the general shapes and details. With a drawing of this nature there is one all-encompassing factor- perspective. I utilize the two points of perspective as best I can and draw based on those. I also add vertical lines to keep focus on maintaining verticality.

Here I have started the inking process- this typically starts as smooth a lines as possible, and trying tobe sure and do the foreground objects before adding lines behind... creating depth. I will do a second pass to thicken and highlight specific lines.

Work continues on trying to finish the first frame. I have to paint... let dry... paint and let dry... the entire process is essentially letting things dry. from plaster- to latex- to foam- o latex again to paint and finally to highlights... I will post pictures of the finished work as soon as it gets done- SCHNERT. I am interested in the reception these things will get..

Have you gone insane?!

2008-05-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

What is it? you might ask, well it is a picture frame.

Why is it white? Because I haven't painted them yet silly.

Why are there only three sides? Because the fourth side is currently drying in the mold.

These are a new invention of mine to try and come up with another solution to the framing problem. I have lots of frames, and am making them slowly but surely. Frame-making is not fun, by any means, but it is necessary to present my art in a professional setting. These frames, however, are unique. I have never seen anything like them before, and that makes me think that they are a great idea. Once they are painted and hung on a wall you will see what I'm saying, but for the time being take my word for it- and know that I am busy trying to make them cool.

HEEB

HIYA! A FINISHED watercolor snitches!

2008-04-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

here is another completed watercolor- this is the mini-tank concept I was working on for the comic and threw in the characters from my old mini-watercolors, cause I haven't really developed the characters for the comic just yet.

Yaaaar- some more concept sketches of the new comic

2008-04-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

Here is the intial inking. I grabbed this perspective from a Katsuhiro Otomo book (guy did Akira). He's got some really neat shots of space-stations and this particular angle is good because it lets me give volume to the tank, while also making sure that the angle is about eye-level.

I deepend the lines- and you can tell the difference. The drawing just jumps- this is because the thicker lines can be sued to indicate overlap- and what order the pieces fall into place in the room.

SPACE

2008-04-11T16:36:00.000-07:00

Before this first image I had put in an hour or so sketching ideas for what the satellite would look like. Dan (the writer) had envisioned a satellite that launches these sensor balls that detect minerals and other elements...

As is typical I start (from looking at a loose sketch for ideas/compositional thumbnails, I start with light-blue. I use a mechanical pencil. because every step after this I start to lose detail- so the more information the better.

You'll notice that the satellite is the only element that has ink on this- this is for depth using atmospheric effect. Things farther away appear dim and adjust to the local air . I did the shadows before the clouds (leaving the clouds white corresponding to their shadows on the planet) but I should've done the reverse, as I struggled to define the clouds based on shadows and not vise versa.

Well I king of go through all the colors. Starting with earthy tones for shadow, and keep building and building and building. Thats all there is too it. You have to build the piece up and up and stop when u get tired. then come back to it. Just jump in and not be afraid to ruin it (when it is looking good). I would rather learn from 10 bad drawings than only have attempted 1 perfect one.

Scheeeeef

2008-04-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

So my friend, Dan Doggett and I are working on a graphic novel and while he works on the story I am concepting some shots from the planet. I will need to concept a lot fo things, and get my workload cranking- but this one is a good example of point A to point B.

I start with some sketching in the coffee shop. At this stage I have the anti-gravity cylinder as a base-idea. From here I think of how someone would make a vehicle- and I kind of come up with the idea of a segway-like correcting anti-gravity drive. So it will counterbalance the driver. and it goes from motorcycles to more a boat style cruiser.

Here you can see a compositional study using the vehicle in context, I was trying to depict it shooting across the sand. (kind of tatooine like.. but ah well no ideas are truly original)

Here is the ink work. Underneath was a light-blue mechanical pencil drawing. I try to determine what pieces are in front of what. That way i dont make my pen marks across surfaces that are supposed to be in front. I found blue pencil lead, and I used the .5mm (although I skecth with the .9mm)

Here I am building values, and trying to figure out the sky and sand. At this point the drawings is too value-neutral and I need to match those comic-ink blacks...

wala. I added some post-painting white ink (with a brush.... so it techinicaly is painting) for highlights and to bring out a few of the shapes a little better. Lookin good so far... NEXT

heeeb

2008-04-03T18:35:00.000-07:00

DOPE

fast

2008-04-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

real quic update

schneebin it

2008-03-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

Well I am about done moving to my new place- and I did some freelance design work over the weekend (pay da biiiillz). I like the new setup- it has much more room than previously (although nothing is gonna top my personal studio in Italy...then again this room has heating).

Work continues on the large-scale watercolors. I really wish I could get 5 of these done a month, but I always am so darn busy with everything I don't have enough time for it all... but alas such si the nature and I am tyring to persevere. Really though, there is little excuse and I will be updating/working much more often now that i am a bit more settled- AND FINALLY over my chest colds... yeesh.

I have a chestcold... AGAIN

2008-03-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

This is a cieling-tile that I did for a local coffee-shop that i frequent. The entire cieling is covered in these- some good- some bad... but I thought itd'd be a real shame ot not leave my mark on one of my favorite coffee shops. The Alleycat. So i put together an ink drawing of a coffee machine. Very comic-y and from a good perspective. I sketched it (using a lot of ruler lines for perspective) with blue mechanical pencil lead .9mm and then burshed pure ink with a #2 brush by Raphael.

This piece is probably the starting piece of a series on world war 1. I did a lot of sketches in my skecthbook- and kind of grabbed the best poses from all of them. The bottom line is the 'ground' of the vanishing point- so it is basically on the ground looking up. but from a distance (so you dont see up into their noses) I hope to hae this finished this weekend. This piece- I have tried0 to work on it whenever I have time and am forcefully trying to avoid the inner-discussion of 'when is a good time to paint' because your work can become sacred if you're not careful and thats bad- cause it slows you down and isn't reproducable. You should work at 10% and not worry if this isnt your best moment to be working- just work damnit. 3 bad ones is better than 1 good one in my opinion- because in the long-run 100 bads is gonna make you better than 5 goods. it will.

Here is my art in one of the frames I built... I will put a how-to up one fo these days.

sorry for the bad pic. I dont know where this one is going and if it is going ot be finished or not... ugh im struggling with it, and it is HUGE

Hey Justin- WHERED YOU GO?!

2008-03-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

I didn't go anywhere- instead I am busy as I can be (with a 9-5 job... LAME) but besides that my camera is broken0 and what is an art blog if I can't show you my work. Another reason/excuse is that I haven't been producing art... WHAT? you say... Well I have been doing art-related things... including (but not limited to) building frames. My work in frames looks awesome- I am serious. Like I didn't know how much a frame can add to artwork- but seriously it does- like in a crazy way. I will post a how-to sometime.

SO here is how things are gonna go:

1. I will get my camera back from jordy Oleson (or I will break his knuckles)
2. I will post pictures of my art in-frame
3. I will post pictures of skecthes I was doing for a now-probably-canned comimc idea about an assasin.
4. I will post sketches of some sick WW1 art that I am doing comic-style, with lots of guns and death and coolness.
5. I will post the in=progress HUGE watercolor rocket-building rpcoess (see blue sketches below)
6. I will post pictures of the latest watercolor- it deviated form the tried and true... btu ya gotta experiment (that includes drugs!)
7. I will post pictures of the over-sized WW1 piece I am going to start once I finish typing this email.... well I gotta poo.... then I will start.
8. All will be well with the cosmos.

THANKS FOR READING EVERYONE- It is awesome that you follow little ole' me

finito

2008-02-24T09:32:00.001-08:00

well this is one of those paintings that has been sitting on the burner for almost a month. SO i took this weekend to finally finish the old-hound-dog up. AND THAR SHE BLOWS

something big... like huge

2008-02-17T19:15:00.000-08:00

So I'm planning on doing a triptych (3 pieces that are related) and it's gonna be HUGE. And then im gonna ink em, and then im gonna watercolor em and frame em and put em up and SELL EM MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

well anyways, all great journeys start with a tiny step, and so here are some steps towards composition. I really like dhow some of my previous large-sized comic works came out and so I'll be mimicking the style of those-with these 3's layouts.

should be interesting...

New Watercolor

2008-02-08T15:30:00.000-08:00

Well I am hoping to get back into things. I have been super busy with getting back into a job etc. But my work will go on, and I hope now more than ever before. I am looking into getting a studio for solace.

sorry for the lack of UPDATES...

2008-01-29T09:46:00.001-08:00

but my girlfriend is visiting from Canada and we are busy hanging out whilst we can. I will be updating soon soon soon.

unified shadows

2008-01-14T21:29:00.000-08:00

The first one is obviously an inked line drawing. I did india ink on top of light-blue pencil (sharpened often whilst drawing) and used a medium-sized nib. The tape-mark you see hanging off the side of it with a dot is my vanishing point. You can approximate where your off-paper vanishing point is or you can just add it with tape(giving you a larger workspace that the paper allows).

I didn't take a picture of the middle stage... but

I then added a blue/grey mid-tone shadow level. ever object in this piece that had a shadow was first treated with blue/grey (the blue/grey tone I used for everything was left un-altered on the rocket's body) I then come on top of the shadow layer with the color layer- and then finally highlights and nit-picks, and its done- pretty easy.

I really cant recommend enough giving your watercolor/painting a unified shadow- at least a light one, so you can define the light-source and it links all the colorwork later on- even if the original shadow-work becomes lost in the later-added colors, you still have an underlying unity not found if you added the shadows independent of one-another.

FINITO

2008-01-10T22:49:00.001-08:00

YAY, here is a finished painting, probably one of the best i've done. Hope you guys like it. I am sure I will be doing more in a very similar style. SNERF

2008-01-07T22:06:00.000-08:00

So I am back in action. I left Italy, spent two week with my family at home for the holidays, Moved back to my college town Fort Collins, and am now settled back into place. This is a piece I am currently working on. I have been watching animes for a long time, and this reminds me of the background images they sometimes use. It is fun to work on this.

Like I have said a lot before, using a single-color wash to make the shadows provides a unified image. When you add the color on-top the under-shadow isn't as pronounced, but it is more ethereal/subconscious. And it breaks up the complexity that i was left with after only the inking. (sorry I don't have shots of the line-drawing, but my camera charger seems to have been stolen in Italy.)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

2007-12-23T11:59:00.000-08:00

so here is that room wish the lighting effects added- its really amazing the difference (if you scroll down to the previous post you can see the change) I also included a shot of what the room would look like in 'red alert' mode.

I also included a shot of a show I did with some other peoples work in Italy- I got a lot of good reception, especially considering I was the center dish-washer, and my art was leaps better than almost anyone elses- it sounds ego-centric, but they weren't very serious about working on their fine-arts.

ANYWAYS

I hope everyone has a great holidays- im gonna simply not draw for a week, or worry about it. It is a healthy thing. SO when the new year comes expect a sick-ass large-large format watercolor piece and hopefully this year will be a breakout year.

DERF see you all.

finished another watercolor- getting ready for gttin back to the USA

2007-12-06T05:20:00.000-08:00

Well here is another in-progress shot of the watercolor I finished today. The methodology behind the coloring was to unify the coloring a bit- I felt the last one was a little too seperated. One way of going about this is to use a unified under-painting. It should be a somewhat neutral tone (to dull it down... altho a bright under-painting could have an interesting effect... but then again this tonal work is meant to be shadow... so a bright color may not bring about the desired shadows/instead it would simply saturate the darker areas). The unified shadow does three htings... it unifies the overcoat of colors, it defines the source of light- which is important to defining a realistic/interesting space... although dramaticizing this space should also be a focus, and finally it creates otherwise challenging-to-mix colors. The interesting aspect of watercolors is that a red on top of a yellow, is different than a yellow and red mixed- one of the interests of watercolor-style painting.

here is the final piece.

this is another shot-in-progress of the VGA room I am currently designing for a concept space game Jordan and I are considering undertaking... while I know a game is a random idea to try- we have always had an interest in doing something of this nature... and technology seems to appreciate retro more than ever before- so we will see how far it goes.

DERP

2007-11-26T12:51:00.000-08:00

so this is the latest of my large-format comics that are trying to question fine-arts and also the role of comics and general media in society. They use a lot of different methods to garner our attention and money- and some of these are subversive to our well-being. I thin violence, and the triviality of it is part of it. And such is the theme of this one- how comics (and media at large) trivializes violence.

The Dream of Making a Video Game

2007-11-24T07:51:00.000-08:00

Wouldn't it be great to design a videogame? Well Jordan and I always are tossing around the idea. It more involves finding time, and getting a good programmer- and keeping at it. We have been playing video-games forever, and board-games as well. Obviously 3d games, with rediculous graphics is completely unfeasible- but that doesn't mean the game is not fun. X-COM is still one of the best games ever, as is Tie Fighter or Super Mario World. Games age well indeed, and the reasoning behind most of the graphics on systems of old-wasn't that the technology didn't exist-so much as large development teams didn't exist yet. During those years a group of four or five guys could make a smash hit )look at Myst, or X-Com or Civilization or any number of titles.

here is a little concept design for a game we are thinking about. it was a fun way to spend a Saturday. Now, sadly, I have to go wash dishes for 4 hours. UGH. the life of broke artist.

Using My Art Degree Part 2

2007-11-22T07:10:00.000-08:00

here I add a general wash to setup the different colors and hues I am going to eventually use. I like to use a layering of color, so I get some neat shades- different from just the 8 base-colors that I start with.

Wala. I try and use translucent (versus opaque) washes to bring out the main colors- I had to differentiate the metal panels from the sky, so I threw on a green. I am not sure about the 'out of frame' effect on this one- but whatever... you win and lose.