les sigh…

you know...i got nothing. pretty much got home earlier tonight, picked up a pizza from ye olde pizza castle and started doodling. scanned it in, started inking. then i thought, well eff, i got nothing else to do but watch nic cage get crazy in '8mm' and eat pizza right? and so on. i guess it's mostly an experiment with zipatones and color. never tried it before.

who knows. what it really gets down to is the fact that i love the shit out of cartooning and i've really gotten away from that because i've been trying to be more hyper realistic. mike set me straight though and so i'm just doodling now...no sense of right or wrong, not trying to imitate anyone or do anything correctly. just drawing and doing what comes to mind instead of struggling for just the right way to show it - i didn't feel like drawing feet, the page wasn't big enough from where i started sketching, so there. she doesn't have anything below the kneecaps. why? because paraplegics can be hot pirate wenches too.

but i'm taking mike's advice and drawing stuff the way it comes naturally to me. which means there's gonna be potential for a whole lotta utter shit on the blog for the next few months lol. sorry guys and gals, you're part of the adventure now.

[insert typical sean backstory about the picture here.]

peece.

as a statue...

...he stood. he began to doubt. how long had he walked this path? a week? months uncounted and unmissed? had this truly been his road all these long years? had everything led to this moment?

the questions plagued him ceaselessly. every step, every mile left cluck wondering at the wisdom of his choice. true, he had seen things wondrous as he traveled this trail - but still there was doubt. every glance toward his home revealed a path more hidden than before by swirling mists and a longing he had never appreciated. had he come too far to turn back? was turning back the act of a coward?

he sighed and looked to the sky. the vast expanse of black bid him onward in search of destiny. his constant companions, the stars, shone their encouragement. and so he walked on in the twilight alone and yet not.

one day he would go home, but this was not that day.

mike wanted to go to rustico tonight. which i heartily agreed to. i needed a beer and a pizza after last week. but somehow lines got crossed and everyone was supposed to meet at 8:30 in alexandria. disgruntled, but unable to resist the call of winter lager and woodfired pizza, i hung around the office sketching in fairfax. my friend jack im'd me a song called 'Chouwa Oto' by kokia while i sketched. incredibly intriguing. my thoughts turned to my ever beloved lord cluck, last samurai of the ohiki.

i did a warm up sketch as a painting began to formulate in my brain. glancing at the clock i saw it was only 6:00 pm. so the sketch was scanned in short order and i busted out the wacom. photoshop CS4 is probably the best tool i've ever laid my mitts on. a new feature lets you rotate the canvas as you please. i happen to spin my paper around to draw from various angles when working traditionally, so i was instantly hooked into this new feature (you'll notice the sketch is rotated so you see cluck standing!), the brushes are incredibly responsive in CS4 as well - a vast improvement over CS3's palette.

why the giant black rectangle? because another feature lets you change the view you're working in. the screen goes black except for your canvas. it's amazing. since i know all the shortcut keys i don't need the tool palettes to ink. this was the first time i've done something digital that felt real while doing it.

anyways, cluck may get finished tomorrow - right now i've got a thumbnail tucked away for a pretty fun little scene that came to mind while doing this warm up sketch. and it's begging to be done. all told, this took about 1.5 hrs from sketch to finish.


EDIT: wait wut's this? color test for cluck was interrupted by something wonderful. check back on friday, january 9th for the reveal of that blessed interruption.

sean vs the nerds

in the words of philip j fry, merry Xmas.

so one of my fav podcasts, tom vs the flash, is outrageously funny. tom katers takes about 15 minutes each episode and blows through each issue of classic comics like justice league (tom vs the jla) and of course the flash. he's pretty sarcastic about the whole deal, but he's a real fan. we all are. but when you look back at the 1960's -- well comics were pretty hilarious back then without realizing it. tom asked his listeners to crank out a logo for him to use. considering how much i HATE podcasts that don't have icons for my itunes library, i felt compelled to submit something. he usually just uses the covers from each book he reviews, but i like a sense of continuity. not mention i'd like to see my logo staring at me everyday.

just a quick vector job i did this morning. illustrator and photoshop. since he's reviewing a classic comic book character, i wanted to use a version of the character from one of my favorite artists. i used a drawing of the flash michael turner did to get the body posture i wanted and used my imagination to create the rest of it -- all in all it took about 3 hours for a fun little ditty.

what are you retarded kid? i'm the batman!

been reading all star batman & robin: the boy wonder. picked up the volume one trade hardcover for 14 bucks at instocktrades.com - which is an awesome place to get whatever you need dirt cheap.

while it's very different for typical batman, i'm overall pleased with it. most people can't stand it, but at least i don't think dick grayson is a queer for wearing that retarded costume anymore.
just finished up a quick doodle. i'm working on a comic book cover for a commission. no, it's not a real one, but the guy wants a batman comic cover for his son for christmas and i'm more affordable than a real comic book artist! so in true fashion, i sketched up the gotham knights (batman, robin, batgirl and the ever badass nightwing) for an over sized cover. it's so damn big i'll have to scan it at the office.
as far as the above posted dynamic duo is concerned, i reached back into the ever flowing spring of arcane wisdom that is rick and drew this clean up in ink. overall, i'm pretty happy with most of it, except robin's hands and one or two other details. i'm gonna redraw those since you can't really erase ink and i didn't have any white-out. one 20 minute color job later it goes up on teh blog for your eyes only.

ciao.

*edit* rescanned batman and played with him some more at lunch minus the wacom today. adjusted the inks around his shoulders and cowl. took almost the whole hour...man, wacoms make like teh easy!

*yaaaaawn*

...the kitjutsu foxes emerged from every shadow of the forest, releasing themselves from the dark embrace of the trees to slink towards the defiant rooster.

in the stillness of that terrible moment, time stood frozen. the mist hung thick about his frame, the banner caught silent and unmoving in the sky, 'peck' and 'scratch' glinting fiercely...death in his eyes.

"come vermin," he clucked softly in a strangely quiet tone.

then twenty they came...forty, fifty, one-hundred.....a legion. the sky above him filled with a mass of red paws and cruel fangs...

and lord cluck laughed...

been busy. real busy. almost...too busy?

perhaps.

but i spent a night in the paintchat with my favorite southern belle rachel. in between sketching on this cluck and chatting with her, i jumped back to the oni forums for the rick and phil hour. a good time was had by all.

a little bit about what's going on, lots of sketches and some nice work developing but definitely lots at the office with furnace breaking into new markets.

anyways, this cluck is perhaps my favorite so far - minus the facial tattoos...gotta finally settle on those. i've been exploring different looks for him, but i keep coming back to this cartooned styling. i'm so tickled with this current sketch i'm going to paint it up classic style. we'll see how it turns out.

peece!

you can't deny the force...

i played 'the force unleashed' demo.

holy. shit.

it has never been so gratifying to be a jedi. usually they're cry babies. or the sith are underpowered. galen marek is no such pussy. he's ridiculously powerful. just like the demo is ridiculously fun to play. force lighting? pwns. force lighting wrapped around my lightsaber while i skewer a guy? that's just plain hot to trot. this game may just remind me why i am busting my tail to crack the game industry out here in maryland. these are the kinds of things i want to be a part of from concept to creation. i've gotten to the point where i don't play games for fun. i haven't done that in years. now it's all about what i can glean from the process to make myself better.

this game just happens to do both for me.

finally got my pc hooked up and running again. i love my macbook dearly, but she's a little unusable when i want to opencanvas with rachel. matilda fired right up though and she's been doing great (minus internet goodness) while terrorbot5000 is getting her logic board replaced.

to the business at hand though, i suppose i'll post up a little bit of our OC shennanigans from last night...which took me well past midnight - and i'm a grown up now so that's tough.












and that's it. that's all i have for now. i am buying this game the day it comes out. already got it reserved. and i'll be there...sweaty palms and everything. don't think so? i find your lack of faith...disturbing.

destroy them all starkiller...destroy them all.

EDIT you know, when rick is right...he's incredibly right. he basically asked me why i didn't finish this picture and i couldn't conjure a reason. that's the worst form of sloppy thinking. "done because i'm tired".

lolz.

he's done now.

moments of clarity…

…are hard to find. it's been a long week. maybe one of the worst i've ever had. it seems like everything will be made in the shade by monday, but who the f*$% really knows.

anyways, two sketches…each took about 45 minutes. i started doodling with nothing in mind and batman just sort of appeared. after that, a young onlooker saw what i was doing and asked if i could draw two-face. i didn't use any references, so don't be too harsh on my harvey dent. yes he's messed up, yes his gunhand is skewed and yes it could be a lot better. but to a 11 year old boy, i'm sure it's awesome.




i took a little time this morning before work and did some tonal work on em, more to keep busy than anything else. nothing fancy, just a mouse and some soft brushing. i feel like i've had to be doing something all the time or sleeping this week or i will have a nervous break down and shut off.

on a lighter note, i will be starting inkstatic studio back up and begin plugging-in here in dc now. i've been reflecting on it and after a couple of very long conversations this week, i've decided it can't wait any longer - i've had my time off and it's time to get back on track. too many needless and unwanted distractions lately.

inkstatic@mac.com

open for business.

ART CHALLENGE 4!

The blood wouldn't wash off. The steaming water swirling around her turned red and angry. No matter how she tried, the blood stayed.

…Tomoe sank to her knees in the steam. Jin hadn't fought. Hadn't begged. He had looked her full in the face as she raised the sword and struck his head from his shoulders.

"For Edo." she breathed as she gazed at Jin's lifeless body. He had smiled at her. A smile she had known since childhood. That confident, crooked smile he always gave her before he did something extraordinary. The same smile he had given her beneath the cherry blossoms the night he had told her he loved her. The smile that would engulf all of her memory of him. Fingers trembling, she gripped the sword tighter.

No.

She would hate him. She would hate his memory, she would not let him hold this over her. He had led the rebellion, she had begged him not to, but his foolish pride would not let him do otherwise. Yes, she had no choice. An arrogant fool he had been and now he was dead. Her father was no tyrant. She was not some ignorant child, naive and awkward. What blame could she possibly hold? She had every right, and after all he was just a man…no, a boy really. Any man would die to have her…to be with her. But Jin did die. Died with a smile that said "You have killed the only true happiness you will ever know."

She was the Samurai Princess of Edo and she was alone…




and i tossed in the unsteamed version so you can note the multiple layers of color i utilized to build the skin tones. man it was grueling.

so art challenge 4. ball in my court, i selected at random "the lone samurai princess of edo" for our topic. rick's is done of course. mine is a two-parter. i have this inked drawing of tomoe with a blade in hand standing above jin's headless body. unfortunately, i've been under one deadline or another, sick or gone and haven't gotten around to scanning it. so today, while sitting at home i banged out a quick digital sketch of tomoe alone in the bath house to keep it loose and fresh.

photoshop of course. just continuing to refine and practice my techinque. and speaking of technique, go check out kung fu panda. it's an absolute joy. from the opening credits to the end of the closing credits, everything is meticulously designed for your viewing pleasure. dreamworks has truly brought their game on this one. i've seen wall•e but pixar is going to have to pull something else fairly amazing out of it's ass to top the martial arts antics of a panda.

batman: gotham knight

alright...rented the new batman animated flick off itunes. one word.

hawt.

not too many spoilers, but enough i should at least warn you. to lay the groundwork, this movie is not visionary, but it is sexy as hell. produced by bruce timm, this movie chronicles 6 minisodes (think animatrix) all in different stylizations that chronicle batman's journey between batman begins and the dark knight.

at times the segments are a bit disjointed, but the flow is smooth enough. i really thought i'd be disappointed in some of the art direction, but i really wasn't. each batman brought something amazing to the table, each look excited me. bruce wayne on the other hand wasn't that amazing, but hey, it ain't called bruce: gotham playboy either.

the biggest bonus, aside from an amazing fight sequence with the scarecrow (god it must've taken forever to storyboard out) was having kevin conroy back in the suit. conroy has been the voice of batman since 1991 when batman: the animated series launched and i was just a lad of 9. his voice is so dark, so primal; he's batman. i'm really glad they didn't bring christian bale in (though he did an outstanding job), because honestly it made my night to see conroy's batman as a true heavy hitter. someone that inspired fear. to see him hold a man off a train and watch that man squeal in panic and utter "shoot your mouth off now" is an indescribable dark pleasure.

while i'm no great fan of anime, i completely respect and admire what these folks have been able to do with perhaps one of the greatest literary characters every created. in the end, it doesn't matter how well you're written. comics are a visual media and look is just as important (if not more than!) as story. these directors were truly pushing boundaries and still able to bring the batman to life fantastically. there's even a tribute to jim lee's famous batman #608 cover and it fits so nicely you ALMOST don't catch it.

i'm buying this movie. if you have the chance, rent it or buy it. hell download it. just make sure you watch it.

why so serious?

ART CHALLENGE 3!!!

…glancing over her shoulder, hannah mischievously smiled at the stormtroopers. they had pursued her this far...little did they know what lay in store. men often followed her into dark corners and strange alleys thinking her a soft prize. men had often followed; men had often died…

you're probably wondering…

where the hell is art challenge 2? well, i moved from OKC to washington dc and never got it scanned. well it's scanned now, and he'll go up when i get back to work and pull him from my desktop. silly me.

art challenge 3 rotated the subject matter to rick's court. and he laid that game down. laid it down flat. a girl han solo...hannah solo. being that i already have a man crush on han, this was a hoot. today is the first day i got my new wacom pen and i put it to hard work.

drink it in. photoshop cs3 and only one break to watch an exceptionally good episode of 'friends'.

the last crusader is still to come.

ART CHALLENGE 2!

…the hot sands swept around joric. under his watchful eye hundreds of pilgrims had journeyed safely to jerusalem to seek new lives, new forgiveness, new happiness. hundreds…but not he. how long had he waited? how long since his sword, now rusted and pitted, gleamed bright and deadly in setting sun of the desert? long enough for god to forget even him? joric smiled bitterly into the sky. saladin had taken the holy city and with it, his calling…

so yes, retroactive, but art challenge 2 nonetheless! i chose the topic "the last crusader standing watch over the pilgrim road" and this is what i done come up with.

pencil, ink and marker. sexeh? is sexeh.

check out rick's if you haven't already. it's pretty baller.

ART CHALLENGE 1!

...the falconers of genghis khan are among the most sinister of his one thousand assassins. they are a quiet breed of hunter, preferring the silence and solitude of the vast mongolian steppe. skilled with knives and swords, spears and bows, the falconer's most dangerous asset is the near psychic connection he or she shares with their bird or 'hand'. with the merest flick of their wrist, death descends. it is impossible to hide from a falconer, and khan uses them appropriately to hunt deserters, slaves and even his enemies.

jai is the only daughter of yinra kot, and the only woman to have ever achieved the rank of falconer in kahn's service. to cross her path, is to step in death's shadow.

so my art challenge with friend and jedi master rick lacy began last week. the whole idea is to keep ourselves fresh and doing new things. the first topic of the challenge was a falconer serving under genghis khan. i banged out the prelim sketch fairly quickly, fully intent on a digital doodle to bring to the table at the end. but in the frenzy of packing for my cross country move...i'm ashamed to say i snapped my wacom pen in twain by sitting on it.

however, i had a great deal of fun drawing the marker version up. after the initial sketch i decided i'd much rather have jai in a more intriguing action pose. and recalling a tip rick gave me once (draw in ink, it'll loosen you up) i started working completely in pen and marker, pencils be damned!

definitely one of the most challenging things i've gotten to do, but also incredibly fun. i haven't busted out the old stuff in months it feels like so it was good to get back to the hand skills. my only regret is that i couldn't find my india ink, being that i think i packed it already. so 7 or 8 days from now...when i'm hopefully unpacked you will see entry 2 in our challenge.

and if you haven't already clicked on rick's link to look at his, go do it now. it's absolutely amazing. take special note of the seemingly carefree lines, brushed 'just so' onto the page with a kinetic energy that makes me gnash me teeth in delighted jealous agony.