Art Dump!

With all the social media outlets these days it's hard to keep up with them all, but I think it's time to go back to making my blog my main source of sharing. Other social media sites can be too distracting; the blog keeps things focused on stuff going out, not coming in. I've got a ton of work to do this year so the focus will help.

And we're having a baby in a couple of weeks, so that should add to the need for focus. So here are a bunch of sketches and stuff that I've put up on DeviantArt but not here.

I got a nice watercolor block and decided to do a series of Hellboy watercolors on them. Here are the first two. I like the less saturated colors on the second better I think.

Here's a sketch of Storm, from the X-Men. I had been looking at a bunch of Chris Sanders drawings before doing this.

Let me tell you, drawing in a Chris Sanders style is a lot harder than it looks. I thought this Vampirella sketch might turn out okay but now I'm not so sure. Maybe I should stick to a more normal approach. Hats off to you, Chris, for making what you do look so easy.

Here are a couple of 5x7 inch sketches, more my style. I like Anakin still but not Ventress Asajj so much. That's the curse of most artists, not liking what they do very much. Time passes and all our mistakes become obvious to us.

 

Next up: a series of commissions. I should try and do more of them but it's hard to keep up with them, mail them, etc...  Still, I'm happy with the entire bunch here.

This one is Dream's sister Death, from the Vertigo comic line. Sandman was a great comic written by Neil Gaimen and Death was easily one of the best characters.

This one was pretty popular on DeviantArt so I added some color.

A few months ago I started contributing to the website/blog Planet Pulp, found here. It's one of my favorite websites because of the diversity of subject matter and diversity of art showcased. It's really fun and worth following if you don't already.

The theme here was our favorite Sitcoms. Better Off Ted was only around for two half seasons (which should be a crime) but it easily became one of my favorite shows during its short run. This one was a lot of fun to do.

And now to end this post with a piece not shared anywhere else. I did some sketches awhile back that I still like so I decided to add some color to them. I love The Clone Wars animated television series. I feel like it has all the fun of Star Wars without all the family drama. Call it a guilty pleasure.

I would love to do some real, official Star Wars art at some point, especially if it centers around this show.

Okay, back to work! For me. Not you. Unless you should be working.

Remembering Childhood Pranks

I just finished chapter 2 of the Steve Jobs biography and as interesting as Steve Jobs is, I have to say, I find Steve Wozniak endlessly more interesting. And funny. I guess I just identify with Woz more; I laughed so much during this chapter, reading about some of their pranks.

I love pranks. I grew up in Alabama and didn't have any of the tech type skills that Jobs and Wozniak had, but I had the same penchant for pranks.

I remember that a friend and I figured out one time that you could call a flower shop and order flowers for one person and have the bill sent to another person's address. I find it hard to believe that it could work but I remember specifically picking a delivery address on my street and we were floored when the flower truck actually showed up!! We laughed ourselves silly because we knew that 1) the person receiving the flowers would have no idea why they were being delivered, 2) they wouldn't know the person they were from (most likely), and 3) the person getting billed would be so confused and pissed when the bill showed up. Hahahaha, that was fun. We did it a few more times but it got boring because we never really got to see, firsthand, the results.

Then there was the X-Lax gum incident, where a girl in our class dared my friend Lewis and I to replace the gum in a Chick-lets package with X-Lax gum. They looked exactly the same. We were dared so we had to go through with it (no 'man' could shy away from a real dare). We were so gleeful, meticulously opening the Chick-lets gum package, discovering that the X-Lax gum really did look exactly like the Chick-lets gum, and then replacing them and resealing the package.

Then we gave the devious pack of gum away on the bus, to a kid named Bailey. We offered it up and a few kids declined. We, of course, had real Chick-lets gum to help sell the idea that we had gum to give away. Bailey took the gum and Lewis and I hunkered down in our seat, laughing our asses off. We did it! We would peak our heads up every few minutes to see Bailey chewing, renewing our laughter fest. Then we looked up and he wasn't chewing anymore. That was unexpected. We asked him what he had done with the gum. We were still chewing our own, so we were afraid he had thrown it out. He answered "I swallowed it" and our jaws must have dropped. Oh my god! This was turning out even better than anticipated.

Well, Bailey wasn't on the bus the next morning. We thought that was funny. Not as funny as the day before, but funny. Then, close to lunch time at school, I got called out into the hallway where the principal was standing with Bailey's mother and all the other boys from the bus. My amusement turned to utter fear. I was in big trouble! Bailey didn't really know us so I guess he couldn't name us specifically as the culprits. The other boys were cool enough not to rat us out, so there we all were, standing in the hallway, getting lectured about the dangers of laxatives. Bailey had been shitting his brains out all night. He was going to be okay but what we did was very dangerous. I felt really bad but couldn't believe we had gotten away with it! My parents would have killed me if they had found out.

A couple of days later, on a Saturday morning, I pulled my bike out of the garage in order to ride to a friend's house. I noticed a bunch of older kids hanging out on their own bikes down by my mailbox. That was strange. The mailbox was on the left side of the driveway - the direction I needed to go in. Instinctively I turned right instead. Most of them followed, calling out to me in angry tones. Uh-oh. Luckily I had a ten speed, which was fast. Most of them were on dirt bikes. I liked speed too, so I was comfortable flying around corners on my bike. I took the long way to my friend Ron's house. A couple of the guys had gone another route to try and cut me off but I was going so fast I beat them to the cut-off corner. I flew into the driveway and back yard of Ron's house, my adrenaline pumping hard. I didn't know exactly why, but these older boys were out to give me a beating. From the safety of Ron's back yard I asked why they wanted to beat the snot out of me. They said I had tried to give the X-Lax gum to one of the guy's younger sister. I denied it, big time, but they were right. I had. I had to watch my back for a few months after that. I guess that was my first real lesson in tactical paranoia, hahaha, something the infantry would later teach me much more about.

There were so many other pranks. Relentless calls to radio stations requesting the dumbest songs, ring and runs, firecracker pranks, rotten eggs in mailboxes, flaming poo, etc... We tried to get our school bus to overturn once. That one took coordination but, surprisingly, the kids were game.

There was a particular turn on our bus route where the two adjoining streets were both going downhill. It felt, everyday, that the bus was really listing as we turned that corner, so we got all the kids to jump from the uphill side of the bus to the downhill side of the bus right as the bus reached its peak point of listing. It didn't work but to this day I can't believe we actually convinced a busload of kids to actually try this. The bus driver was pissed, obviously, but that was nothing new.

My friend James and I rigged my house with fishing wire a couple of times, putting taught lines of it from furniture to furniture, cabinets to cabinets, etc... in the dead of night so that when my parents or sister got up they would walk right into them unexpectedly.

My friend Steve and I got to go to a Commercial Art competition in high school along with another classmate, Jason. The three of us were put up in a hotel room in Ft. Worth, Texas. Jason stayed out later than Steve and I so we moved all the furniture around, turning the sofa on end and placing it just inside the door to the room. We put toothpaste on the bottom of the door handle so that when Jason showed up he would get toothpaste all over his hand. That really distracted him. We could hear him through the door, hahaha. "What the hell?" Then the door opens - it's so dark in hotel rooms when you've got the curtains closed and the lights off - and Jason walks right into the upturned sofa. Bam.

I almost got hospitalized from one of the firecracker pranks, or rather the repercussions of the particular prank. We thought it would be really funny to throw a string of lit firecrackers on top of a passing car, so we did. The car had a couple of older high school kids in it and it scared the hell out of them when the string of firecrackers started going off right over their heads. We laughed ourselves silly. About fifteen minutes later that same car came down the street again. We were so caught up in our own mischief, wanting to throw another string of firecrackers on top of the same car, that we didn't even think about them having any. The car goes by, I throw our string of firecrackers, and didn't notice the giant M80 the guy threw out the car window at me. By the time I did notice it, it was too late. It went off right by my side and tore me up pretty good. I had a slight burn scar on that side for a few years. It must not have been quite as close as I thought it was, because if it had been a couple of inches closer I'm sure it would have done some major damage.

My life eventually took me to New York City and Chicago, two cities that I love dearly. The more liberal mind set suits me. Looking back, though, I have to say, growing up in Alabama was a lot of fun and I treasure the experience and what the place had to offer.

How to THINK you're getting work done without actually getting any work done

I love Google SketchUp. Seriously. Some purists might consider it a cheat, but I don't. I think it's using another tool to help the comic book artist. Our job is already one of the most difficult jobs there is in the storytelling world (we're the actors, the directors, the cinematographers, the editors, the set designers, the concept designers, the continuity person, etc...). Utilizing whatever tools you can to help is just smart business to me.

Anyway, I'm no 3D wiz, but I can stumble my way around SketchUp okay and I continue to learn how to be more efficient when making my models. Regardless, it's a time suck to be sure. My hope, however, is that by making models of locations that I'll come back to over and over, I save time in the long run. Oh, how I hope. Anyway, below are a few of the models I've put together for RECOVERY INCORPORATED.

This first batch is Mia's home, a penthouse loft on the upper east side of Manhattan. I built the building but cobbled together most of the other parts using all of the awesome models you can find on Google's 3D Warehouse. Mia's pad is a pretty cool place, indicative of the lifestyle she leads. It's large and open, accessible only through the regular elevator, the service elevator, and the stair well. Only her closest friends and family know the code to access the penthouse floor. The biggest part of the loft penthouse is devoted to her own in-home dojo, decked out with all the proper equipment. And to contrast that physical part of her life? A zen garden in her bedroom.

Next up is her office. She has the first two floors in a corner building off Broadway on the upper west side of Manhattan. The lobby, where her cousin Jackie works as her assistant, is lavish. It suggests to potential clients that she is good at her job, hence the ability to afford such a place. Up the stairs and to the right is her office, which is considerably more low key and sparse. It's nice but she doesn't spend an over abundance of time there. Still, it is up to date technologically. She may not be a techie but she's always on the cutting edge; it behooves her to be due to her line of work.

Last up for now is a simulation of the Mount Sinai Medical Center on 5th Ave. in Manhattan, where Mia's mother is in the hospital. I will eventually be able to use this model for other things, replacing the building but keeping the general street and traffic. This saves a ridiculous amount of time when it comes to pencilling and inking, believe me. Like I said above, it's offset by the amount of time it takes to build the model, so it's a wash at the moment, but once I get to use it on a few more occasions my time savings will creep into the positive.

And one more thing: so you can see how such a model winds up in the book, here's an inked page showing Mia at home and a page of my "pencils" showing Mia out front of Mt. Sinai.

Two posts in one day! How about that?

A Tale of Two Spielbergs

I have long believed that there are two Steven Spielbergs. There's the guy who can make films like Schindler's List and the guy who makes films like Jurassic Park II. One is a filmmaker who has an intimate understanding of story and character, who puts his all into his films and sacrifices nothing en route to making some of the most powerful films on the American landscape. The other one doesn't seem to care much at all about story or logic and is just having a romp at the moviegoer's expense, which brings us to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.


Not many people are fans of the most recent Indiana Jones film. I personally think it's got some fun moments but it is a stinker. I just read an article with some quotes from Steven Spielberg regarding the film. He told Empire Magazine this:

"I sympathise with people who didn't like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin. George and I had big arguments about the MacGuffin.

"I didn't want these things to be either aliens or inter-dimensional beings. But I am loyal to my best friend. When he writes a story he believes in - even if I don't believe in it - I'm going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it.

"I'll add my own touches, I'll bring my own cast in, I'll shoot the way I want to shoot it, but I will always defer to George as the storyteller of the Indy series. I will never fight him on that."

Jeez. He kind of throws George under the bus, doesn't he? Frankly, I think it's a load of crap. I feel compelled to express this because, as a storyteller, I'm a little surprised that Steven has so completely missed the point.


That MacGuffin would have worked just fine if the rest of the story had been told well. Aliens are somehow less believable than the Ark of the Covenant? Or the Holy Grail? Or the Shankara Stones? I don't think so.


So what made Indy IV so stinky? Well, here's another quote from the esteemed filmmaker regarding the nuclear explosion and the lead-lined refrigerator:

"Blame me. Don't blame George. That was my silly idea. People stopped saying 'jump the shark'. They now say, 'nuked the fridge'. I'm proud of that. I'm glad I was able to bring that into popular culture."

Proud? It's hard to believe this is the same guy who made Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, and Amistad. I admit, I thought that scene was pretty funny, but I'm aware (at the same time) that it was completely ludicrous. When The Fonz jumped the shark on Happy Days it was an event that signified the show had crossed a line, a line you don't want to cross. It's a line that disengages the audience and causes eye-rolling. It became a saying to signify that your show or film no longer has any credibility. Why would anyone be proud to trump such an event? And yet I guess it shouldn't be a surprise; Spielberg has tried to trump it before. Remember the scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where the mine car makes the leap across a huge chasm and lands, with everyone still on board, safely on the tracks on the other side? Ugh. The fridge and the nuke is much more egregious though. I can't believe I'm having to say that, but there it is.

And the worst part about Indy IV? The fridge and the nuke is only the tip of the shark jumping iceberg! How about the giant ants? Or the sword fight on the hood of a jeep? Or (and this is the best/worst one to me) Mutt swinging on vines faster than the speeding jeeps? And we're not even done!!! How about driving a jeep off a cliff only to land in a tree that ever so gently lowers them into the water!? Or said jeep going over not one but three massive waterfalls and all of our heroes staying in the jeep, safe and sound, after all three!? That's what made Indy IV suck.

Or how about the climax of the film, where our iconic hero just walks out of the giant hole as it fill up with water. And once they're out, they stand on top of a hill and watch as the aliens return home. That's how you end an Indiana Jones film!? By having the hero walk and stand!? 

And if all of that wasn't enough, how about the progression of events between Indy, his son, and Marion. There was so much potentially to explore between Indy and Mutt. It would have been much more interesting if the tension between them had continued to build until the climax of the film, or at least the third act break. Mutt sure wasn't very angry at his father for abandoning them. Even if that wasn't exactly the case (Indy didn't know that Marion was pregnant), it could still seem that way to Mutt, especially if his mother had never told him the truth. Indy also gives Mutt lots of good 'life' advice during the film only to completely reverse his thoughts once he finds out that Mutt is his son. Really? Just for a funny line? That undermines Indy as a character. 


I've heard people moan about the aliens, the MacGuffin of Indy IV, and have been able to more or less ignore it, but when I hear the director, a man who's dedicated his life to storytelling, lay the blame of Indy IV openly on that MacGuffin, I have to finally speak out. So there it is, on the record: the MacGuffin in Indy IV is just fine. If you still don't like it, that's fine, but don't say that's why Indy IV stank to high heaven, 'cause it's not.


Oh, and just to clarify, I know, in the end, that there are not two Steven Spielbergs. And how do I know? Because the two met on one film in particular. Minority Report. Spielberg captured some of his best and most exciting storytelling in this film, and yet it was also more or less devoid of internal logic (my term for a story's own set of rules). John Anderton, Tom Cruise's character, comes up on a redball (meaning he's going to commit murder) and yet he still has access to the police building later? He uses his old eyeball to get in. I've been fired before. The first thing they do is restrict your access to the building. They don't even wait for you to get out. His wife is also given Anderton's service pistol with his belongings, which she then uses to rescue her husband. Service weapons are issued, not owned. And then there's the entire logic behind the precogs. It doesn't make any sense. I'm not even going to try and explain why; it'll give me a headache. 


So who's up for seeing Warhorse? And how to feel now about the knowledge that Lucas is working on the story for an Indy V? After all, we've already "nuked the fridge".

Business As UnUsual 0030

People liked the last one much more than expected so I thought I'd follow that up with a possible dud. If you don't see it as a dud, then bless you. :-)

Business As UnUsual 0029

Business As UnUsual 0028

A new strip finally. I've been swamped with other work latey, hence the delay. I hope the wait was worth it. Cheers.

Business As UnUsual 0027