I had the distinct honor and
privilege to participate in the Grand Opening show for the new location of Gallery 1988
West this past Friday. The show; titled,” Is This Thing On? #2”
was a secret blackout show. Specifically, that means that people had
no real idea of what the show's theme would be until the doors were
opened that night! Of course, the artists were aware ahead of time and so we
had some decisions to make. The theme was Saturday Night Live- any
era, any characters, anything.
It was a fantastically broad area to
work within but was so rich with fun imagery and story -so I was really
excited.
I made a ton of sketches from a bunch of
different skits. I really liked what was going on with the sketches I got from the digital short I chose. Ahem, this may be the only time I ever paint nine cats
into the same painting. Ok, then again, it may not be. At any rate,
cats with lasers shooting out of their mouths happened all over this
painting.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I chose Laser Cats. The boys from the Lonely
Island (Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schaffer, and Andy Samberg) have put
together one of my favorite series of short films in SNL history so I
thought it fitting to pay a little homage to them through this.
Gathering reference for the painting
was super fun since I got to go back through and watch all the shorts
over again. You can find them on the Lonely Island website, NBC.com
and Hulu if you'd like a quick refresh.
I've always loved 70's and 80's movie
poster art so I used one of the greats from that era of genre of
illustration, Frank
McCarthy, as reference. Here you go:
By the way, you can also view my Laser Cats painting on Buzzfeed and Huffington Post along with a bunch of other awesome SNL inspired work!
Ok, so after painting and inking this guy up using Ray Frenden's brush pack for Manga Studio 4, I dropped him into Photoshop. I added some textures that are just black ink with a dry, flat brush or drips from above the paper for the snowy atmosphere. This was a fun experiment. I don't usually play with digital these days but I may start up again with tools that feel so analog. Nothing beats getting ink on your face because you scratched yourself and forgot to wash up though...
This is a digital painting of Ragnar Blackmane from the Space Wolves chapter...
Hello there fine friends, welcome to the new hub of my online existence!
As of now I have just transferred some of my older blog entries over here from but I'll soon be creating a bunch of new content. So be sure to follow me here by bookmarking, using the subscribe feature or even by mailing yourself a reminder to check my blog every week. I recommend USPS First Class mail for the latter. You won't be sorry.
A little illustration for Nate Williams creACTIVISTS site. Plus I finally got to try out my Manga Studio app! The excercise is a Must(have)stache. I’m getting a little older and I need my glasses more and more soooooo…
This is a game with so much awesomeness going for it that its hard not to love it. I grew up playing the arcade version of the game at a local neighborhood convenience store. This was one of those places where they had maybe two or three fluttering flourescent lights and what must have been 20 year old pickles in jars on the counter filled with Reanimator bright green pickle juice. Tucked away in the front corner of the store was a line of literally the cream of the crop arcade stand up machines. It really puzzles me, looking back, to understand how this store had such great games. I doubt that the crotchety older gentleman who owned the place knew what he was doing when he was picking which games to put in his store. Maybe he was a time traveller, knowing that his proper selection of grade A game choices would set up a lifetime of illustration fodder for me. Yeah, thats it. Thank you, you space-time continuum tripping sourpuss. Thank you.
Ah, but I digress. The home version of Double Dragon on the Nintendo, as well as the arcade, was perfect in its simplicity. The main difference being the one player aspect of the NES port (but I’ll go on about that later.) The game is perfectly simple; it tells you all you need to know about your motivation for the coming beat down that will be laid to the evil Shadow Warrior gang in the first couple seconds of gameplay. There is no long written out intro, there is this:
WHHHHHHHHAAAAAAT??!!
Those dudes just gut punched your girl and walk away with her like an evil marching band! It’s on like Donkey Kong.
And so you travel through this relatively short yet ridiculously difficult game learning new moves, fighting new enemies and getting closer to rescuing your girlfriend.
As I said, the main difference between the home NES version and the arcade game was the number of players. The arcade game, which came out first, offered two player, simultaneous beat em up action. The players would work side by side, as brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee. The storyline was to rescue their uh, collective girlfriend from this rival gang. So kids around the world got used to fighting side by side with their primary color clad brother in a display of brotherly love that was downright sickening.
On the other hand, the NES port of the game disposed of the two player together aspect entirely. I’ve read online that this was because programmers had problems making the NES work well with the simultaneous fighting but I offer you a different reason. I think that the way Jimmy Lee is revealed in this game offers a bit more exitement to the storyline. In the arcade game, you work your way through the gang until you meet machine gun toting Willy. He is the boss of the gang and when you defeat him, you save your girl. In the home port, after defeating Willy, it is revealed that the until now invisible Jimmy Lee was behind the capture of your beautiful girlfriend. WHAT?! Bro come on, really?
So the game takes on this underlying sibling rivalry that wasn’t really present in the original. I like it, you can do what you will with it.
SO anyway, whew! On to the illustration. This game always makes me think of the Warriors film. Gosh I love that movie. Can you dig it? The costumes, the feel of the atmosphere and the ridiculous attitudes of the characters just made it so fun. In a way, this illustration is dedicated to the fun of that film as well as Double Dragon. In my mind, they go hand in hand.
The characters, Abobo and Chin Tamei even make an appearance in this illustration because what fanboy doesn’t remember the sheer terror when an Abobo appeared or the utter frustration that was fighting Chin?
This is an original illustration made for the bros at PaletteSwap. I was honored to be able to choose the theme for January for the video game cover art blog. My theme: Double Dragon of course!
So, if you’d like to hang this guy on your wall and remember the good ‘ol days with a couple of spiteful, angry brothers, you can go and order a print at my shop.
The time of year where you struggle to find the perfect gift for your weirdo brother or sister. Well look no further because the Giant Robot annual Post-It Show is here again!!
Curated by the lovely and talented pair of Mark Todd & Esther Pearl Watson, the Post-It Show is now in it’s eighth incarnation. Post-Its are $25 each- cash and carry- for original artwork from world renowned artists!
Stop by Giant Robot 2 in Los Angeles on December 8th from 6pm-10pm and you’ll be able to rub elbows with the masters. Most art sells on opening night so get there early!
For my theme this year, I decided to go with some of my favorite deceased professional wrestlers. Come buy them.
Ravishing Rick Rude December 7, 1958 – April 20, 1999
Road Warrior Hawk September 12, 1957 – October 19, 2003
Big Boss Man May 2, 1962 – September 22, 2004
Mr. Perfect March 28, 1958 – February 10, 2003
Macho Man Randy Savage November 15, 1952 – May 20, 2011
Bam Bam Bigelow September 1, 1961 – January 19, 2007
For whatever reason, I thought of Rear Window and I wanted to paint Jimmy Stewart with googly eyes. Remember kids, you can never go wrong with googly eyes. Never.
