Quote
May 23, 2013
3,279 notes
"Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth. You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them."

— Bill Watterson (via mikekarnell)

(via kharyrandolph)

Photo
May 06, 2013
3 notes
(via Mech Engi) I’ve spent a lot of time working on commissions these past few weeks which doesn’t leave me a lot of time to work on my personal stuff (which is all I want to do in my life really) but I’ve managed to squeeze in a few hours over many days to knock this baby out. I blurred the city in the background too much and past a point of no return but I completed my two goals which were to do a big tech piece and to play around with lens flares. I don’t know how I’ll feel about all the lighting stuff three months from now but hey, I wanted to give it a shot. Back to commissions!

(via Mech Engi)

I’ve spent a lot of time working on commissions these past few weeks which doesn’t leave me a lot of time to work on my personal stuff (which is all I want to do in my life really) but I’ve managed to squeeze in a few hours over many days to knock this baby out.

I blurred the city in the background too much and past a point of no return but I completed my two goals which were to do a big tech piece and to play around with lens flares. I don’t know how I’ll feel about all the lighting stuff three months from now but hey, I wanted to give it a shot.

Back to commissions!

Tags: mech engi

Photo
April 16, 2013
5 notes
(via Morrigan Redux) Oftentimes, I’ll start working on something and then I’ll force myself to change my original concept to suit the guidelines of, I dunno, whatever the hell. Case in point, I started doing this Morrigan piece and then I heard of a contest where you had to zombify a fighting game character and I used the Morrigan I had started to enter. What I ended up with was a shitty Morrigan and a shitty zombie. I’ve gotten better at not doing that sort of thing thankfully. Fast forward to now. I just finished part of a week long, personal project (will post stuff soon enough) and needed something mindless to work on before I tackled some pending commissions. I remembered this piece and my desire to make it justice. I’ve also been wanting to experiment with the cuts and grads style of shading that is so prevalent in Western comics in an effort to add another move to my coloring repertoire. I hate to revisit old work but I decided to make an exception for this. Also, I have a much more ambitious Darkstalkers piece in mind but it’ll be a while before I start working on it. Got some other projects to tackle first.

(via Morrigan Redux)

Oftentimes, I’ll start working on something and then I’ll force myself to change my original concept to suit the guidelines of, I dunno, whatever the hell. Case in point, I started doing this Morrigan piece and then I heard of a contest where you had to zombify a fighting game character and I used the Morrigan I had started to enter. What I ended up with was a shitty Morrigan and a shitty zombie. I’ve gotten better at not doing that sort of thing thankfully.

Fast forward to now. I just finished part of a week long, personal project (will post stuff soon enough) and needed something mindless to work on before I tackled some pending commissions. I remembered this piece and my desire to make it justice. I’ve also been wanting to experiment with the cuts and grads style of shading that is so prevalent in Western comics in an effort to add another move to my coloring repertoire. I hate to revisit old work but I decided to make an exception for this.

Also, I have a much more ambitious Darkstalkers piece in mind but it’ll be a while before I start working on it. Got some other projects to tackle first.

Tags: Morrigan Darkstalkers Capcom Vampire

Photo
April 07, 2013
18 notes
(via Mario vs. Slender Man) So I was gonna do Mario vs. Jack Cayman (from Mad World) before I worked on Mario vs. Crono. I was gonna do it digitally but the crappy composition I had and the crappy line art that I started forced me to pause and rethink. I scrapped what I had done, chose to work on it with pencil and ink (as I usually do), but I was exhausted with it so I decided to shelve it for a later time. Around that time, a commenter suggested Slender Man. I was vaguely familiar with the character and, coincidentally, Giant Bomb was doing a Quick Look (which I watch pretty consistently) that day about Slender: The Arrival. Soon after I started watching it, I was sold on Mario vs. Slender Man and quickly came up with a composition to work with. These fights are usually very colorful so I wanted to have a lot of black this time, just as the game does. Once I started getting into it, I became worried that I had a layout that was too similar to Mario vs. The Spy (and Mario vs. The Pyro as well but less so). I tried to change the angle a bit and the mood is obviously different but I still think it’s perhaps too close for comfort to those pieces. I have a couple of unwritten rules for these fights: 1) no Nintendo characters (which I’m actually breaking soon enough) and 2) original video games character only. Slender Man originated as a meme so I guess I’ve broken rule number 2 here. I’m OK with that I guess, just don’t expect to do it again anytime soon.

(via Mario vs. Slender Man)

So I was gonna do Mario vs. Jack Cayman (from Mad World) before I worked on Mario vs. Crono. I was gonna do it digitally but the crappy composition I had and the crappy line art that I started forced me to pause and rethink. I scrapped what I had done, chose to work on it with pencil and ink (as I usually do), but I was exhausted with it so I decided to shelve it for a later time.

Around that time, a commenter suggested Slender Man. I was vaguely familiar with the character and, coincidentally, Giant Bomb was doing a Quick Look (which I watch pretty consistently) that day about Slender: The Arrival. Soon after I started watching it, I was sold on Mario vs. Slender Man and quickly came up with a composition to work with. These fights are usually very colorful so I wanted to have a lot of black this time, just as the game does. Once I started getting into it, I became worried that I had a layout that was too similar to Mario vs. The Spy (and Mario vs. The Pyro as well but less so). I tried to change the angle a bit and the mood is obviously different but I still think it’s perhaps too close for comfort to those pieces.

I have a couple of unwritten rules for these fights: 1) no Nintendo characters (which I’m actually breaking soon enough) and 2) original video games character only. Slender Man originated as a meme so I guess I’ve broken rule number 2 here. I’m OK with that I guess, just don’t expect to do it again anytime soon.

Tags: Mario mario versus series Slender Man Eight Pages Nintendo

Text
April 04, 2013

Carmine Infantino (1925 - 2013)

image

It feels so pointless and futile at times to write these posts when a creator I admire passes away but it’s the only way I can think of for me to commemorate and pay tribute to their work.

Carmine Infantino was a true legend and an unquestionable pillar of the Silver Age. His contributions to comics are known far and wide but it was his work on The Flash that is dearest and most enduring to me. It was the seeds that he, along with Robert Kanigher and editor Julie Schwartz, planted in Showcase #4 that led to The Flash being, unquestionably, my favorite superhero. I have a soft, warm and fuzzy spot for every single one of the colorful Rogues he created and Barry’s suit is, to this day, absolutely flawless. No more proof is needed of this other than the fact that it’s remained largely unchanged even to this day.

In a time when superheroes where no longer “in,” Barry Allen came like a bullet and reignited the genre for decades to come. Showcase #4 didn’t just bring back The Flash, it brought back superhero comics. I never got to meet Carmine Infantino but, if I did, I would’ve only said “thank you.”

His work will live on forever in the hearts of countless fans, old and new.

(via Carmine Infantino (1925 - 2013))

Tags: Carmine Infantino

Photo
April 04, 2013
215 notes
brianmichaelbendis: RIP Carmine Infantino, creator of the some of the greatest Silver Age comics and still the definitive Flash artist. 

brianmichaelbendis:

RIP Carmine Infantino, creator of the some of the greatest Silver Age comics and still the definitive Flash artist. 

Photo
April 03, 2013
8 notes
Sketchdump 014

Sketchdump 014

Tags: sketches sketchbook sketchdump

Photo
March 29, 2013
(via Shroud) I drew something similar to this in my sketchbook a few days back and I kinda wanted to give the idea more room. That didn’t happen and this basically turned into an excuse to try out a bunch of different, and not necessarily good looking, stuff. Can’t say I love it but there it is. Have a couple more ambitious things planned for later.

(via Shroud)

I drew something similar to this in my sketchbook a few days back and I kinda wanted to give the idea more room. That didn’t happen and this basically turned into an excuse to try out a bunch of different, and not necessarily good looking, stuff. Can’t say I love it but there it is.

Have a couple more ambitious things planned for later.

Photoset
March 20, 2013
6,043 notes

brianmichaelbendis:

 

Chrono Trigger illustrations by Akira Toriyama

Toriyama is, to this day, a massive influence for me.

(Source: ironliar)

Photo
March 11, 2013
10 notes
(via The Summoning) I’ve wanted to do something like this (woman in skimpy outfit with some kind of demon nearby) for a while and, a couple of months back, I actually got as far as clean line art for a similar piece but it just wasn’t working for me and I scrapped it. Fast forward to a couple of days ago and, in my indecisiveness when it comes to what to draw next, I decided to revisit the concept and give it another shot. The end result is what you see above which is completely different on nearly every level (monster design, lady design, layout, style, etc.) to that initial drawing from a few months back but, obviously, this time I liked it enough to take it to completion.

(via The Summoning)

I’ve wanted to do something like this (woman in skimpy outfit with some kind of demon nearby) for a while and, a couple of months back, I actually got as far as clean line art for a similar piece but it just wasn’t working for me and I scrapped it. Fast forward to a couple of days ago and, in my indecisiveness when it comes to what to draw next, I decided to revisit the concept and give it another shot.

The end result is what you see above which is completely different on nearly every level (monster design, lady design, layout, style, etc.) to that initial drawing from a few months back but, obviously, this time I liked it enough to take it to completion.