Chia's Cheese

Some more life drawings

2009-06-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

Life drawing is something I did a fair amount of back in college, but I thought I needed a refresher and have been taking a life drawing class at El Camino, the local junior college. It's something I've never been very good at, but I've been trying to have some fun with it and trying to pick up whatever I can.

PV half marathon

2009-05-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

So I finished the PV half marathon today. It was my first and I was a bit nervous. Surprisingly, I didn't have much trouble with the uphill grades, but the downhills were rough on my joints. Here are my stats according to my ipod nike+ gadget.

misc.

2009-04-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry, haven't been too motivated to keep the blogger up to date lately. I've been doing a lot of drawing, but nothing of particular interest that I felt like sharing. So here's some miscellaneous junk that's been sitting on my photobucket.

and the latest weightloss update.

Still Rockin' at 30

2009-01-27T14:26:00.000-08:00

I am officially old. I had a shared birthday party on January 17th (my actual birthday) with my cousin who is turned 18. We both enjoy playing the Guitar Hero World Tour so we decided on a rock club theme and there was a "battle of the bands". So for the event I made 2 rock inspired posters with each of us as a headliner.

Here is mine.

The band I was in wound up taking third place, but I think it was clear that we were number 1 in the hearts of the audience.

sketches

2008-12-19T23:17:00.000-08:00

I don't sketch nearly enough and it shows. But I've been spending alotta time in meetings and other such places lately and I've been making an effort to bring my sketchbook with me. Here are the first few attempts at getting back into the swing of things.

As for the ongoing weightloss battles, here is an update photo. On the left is me at my cousin's 21st birthday party a month or so ago and on the right is me in heavier days gone by.

The Joke's on Me

2008-12-09T01:04:00.001-08:00

So I went to the Best Buy Dark Knight midnite sale this morning. I had already pre-ordered the DVD online for in store pick up so I wasn't worried about that. What I had gone to the midnite sale for was the Joker figurine and the freebie Joker card. Unfortunately, the store wasn't prepared for a mass influx of nerds and had received only 6 Joker figurines which quickly went to the first 6 people. Also, the particular Best Buy I went to (Torrance) didn't receive any of the freebie cards. So my midnite excursion was all for nothing. The Best Buy staff on hand was very courteous and apologetic, plus it's not their fault, so I sort of felt bad for them dealing with all us grumpy nerds. Just too bad whoever does the ordering for this store fell asleep at the wheel. The good news is, the Joker figurine is now available to order at the Best Buy website, so I should be getting one tomorrow in Hawthorne. Nerd!

Much to be thankful for

2008-11-27T13:14:00.000-08:00

Recently I had the privilege to provide publication design for Antix Press' launch graphic novel Dr. Grave and the Unholy Twelve by Ed Clayton. It was a fun project and Ed & the guys at Antix were a great bunch of folks to work with. So please stop by your local comic book shop and pick it up or buy it here at Amazon because I would like to work for these guys again!

Here are a couple of pieces I contributed to but ultimately weren't added to the book. The first is a pinup drawing by Ed that I contributed some photoshop richness to. The second is a pin up contributed by Brian Churilla which I had added tones to. Unfortunately for me, they wound up just publishing the version with just his inks cause I would have loved to have been able to say that I worked on a Brian Churilla pinup. The last piece is a rejected chapter lead in I made.

In other work, I designed the label for a brand new ice cream company. They asked specifically for it to be adorned with some dreaming cherubs so I made this for the label.

Unfortunately, they said they wanted something more mature. I wasn't sure how to make cherubs more mature so I put this sketch together.
Apparently they didn't go for that either, but ultimately I was able to give a label they were happy with.

Lastly, earlier this week I broke a new milestone. I weighed in at 198lbs, breaking out of the 200s for the first time since I was in highschool. I still got alot I need to lose so now I need to figure out what my next goal is!

My Dumb Century

2008-08-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

So as of last Sunday, I have hit the century mark. That is, on Sunday I weighed in at 228lbs, which puts me over 100lbs less since my heaviest weight of 330lbs in 2006. That also puts me at around 64lbs less then when I started on the weight loss competition with Alex "Skinny Toon" Deligiannis back in March. I'm excited to see where we're both at when we reach the end of the competition in mid September. Hopefully I'll be able to give Alex some competition by then.

For comparison, here is a lil pic I took tonite and the one under it is the pic I took a few months back.

I still have alot that I need to lose, but every little bit is a step forward.

In other news, make sure to stop by the Hard Ei8ht blog and check out all the beautiful pictures that that skinny so-n-so Alex took to show off our new graphic novel anthology Hard Ei8ht vol. 2! Also, if you haven't picked it up yet, we have convenient buttons up at the blog where you can order it and we'll ship it out to you. The book is 164 full color pages of pure awesomeness, guarenteed to make you more awesome by half! How is that not worth 15 meesly dollars?!

BOOTH 1034!!!!!!!! San Diego Comic Con 2008!

2008-07-14T00:06:00.001-07:00

Hard Ei8ht is back!!! We will be debuting our brand new, full color, full awesome Hard Ei8ht vol. 2 in just about a week from now at the SD Comic Con!!! To make sure you get one before the throngs of con goers buy em all up, you can preorder now at our Hard Ei8ht blog and pick up at the convention or we can ship one out to you. While you're there, make sure to check out the sneak peek pages we have up to show why this is going to be the must buy book at the con this year! See you at booth 1034!!

As for the still running weightloss challenge between the lovely and talented Alex "formerly BIG Toon" Deligiannis and I, I saw him last friday and he was looking pretty svelt. But I am doing my best to keep up with him. At the start of our competition, I weighed in at 292lbs and as of the last time I weighed myself I was 238lbs. When we first started our competition, the pants I wore on the night of the weigh in were size 58 and last week I bought a new pair of pants that are size 48 and they're already starting to get a little loose. I went from wearing size 3-4XL t-shirts to currently XXL. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very overweight and have a long way to go, but I am starting to see results in the clothes that I wear and I think this competition has a been a good thing for both Alex and I. I don't know about him but I very much want to keep going, even after our competition ends in September. Maybe a sequel? Though I have reached the point where my weightloss has slowed and I need to start readjusting my exercise routine and diet, I unfortunately don't fit into any of my old clothes so I've had to start digging deep in my closet, as you can tell by the picture below.

Scud 24 is out, get it before it's gone!

2008-05-15T14:33:00.000-07:00

The very last chapter of Rob Schrab's Scud the Disposable Assassin is in stores now. So far all the original print runs of issues 21-23 have sold out pretty quickly so hurry out and pick up 24 before it inevitably sells out as well! If you do miss it, you won't have to wait too long since next month will see the release of the giant collected Scud book which collects each issue into one handy, roach crushing tome. But if you do wait for the big book o' Scud, you might miss out on my last bit of credits artwork I did, so i suggest you buy BOTH!

As an added bonus, here's the rough of the first Scud piece I was working on, but I didn't like it all that much so I changed the style more to the flatter style I wound up going with.

Scud 23 and a diet

2008-04-26T00:45:00.000-07:00

Issue 23 of Rob Schrab's Scud the Disposable Assassin is out now! Go pick it up! Just one more to go! Just like with issue 21 and 22, I had the extreme pleasure to do the artwork behind the credits.

In other news, my good pal Big Toon and I are undergoing a weightloss challenge to see who can lose the most weight in 6 months. So far the soon to be known as Tiny Toon is in the lead, but hopefully I'm close on hsi trail. When we started the challenge about one month ago, I was 292 and as of Wednesday I was about 277. I've made a few dietary recipes and many observations along the way and I might share them here or possibly start another blog devoted to the weightloss challenge.

As you can see, I've got a long way to go in the next 5 months! Here's to our health!

Scud 22 is in Stores Now! and some other stuff

2008-03-08T00:43:00.000-08:00

Issue 22 of Rob Schrab's Scud the Disposable Assassin is here! Pick it up!

Recently I made some fanart based on the hilarious and thoroughly entertaining Channel101.com primetime show Groove Fighters. Give it a watch, you won't regret it!

Groove Fighters in regular

and in glorious 3 dimensions!

And here are some random creepy stuff I put together a while back to diversigy my portfolio as well as another sneak peek at lil somethin else I'm workin on.

...

Scud is Back!!!

2008-02-07T02:36:00.000-08:00

If you don't have it already, stop by your local comic shop and pick up the brand-spankin-new Scud the Disposable Assassin issue 21!! Not only is it one of the greatest comics you'll ever read, but I also got to do the artwork behind the credits! I've been a big fan Rob Schrab's work since first discovering his amazing films at channel101.com and Robot Bastard. From there I've started collecting issues of Scud from wherever I could find them and have since become a big Scud fan as well. It's been a huge honor for me to even be included in the new issues of Scud and I'm excited and elated to finally see them in print!! Scud has been out of print for a long time so if you're not totally caught up, not to fret, Rob will be releasing a HUGE collected Scud that collects all issues into one killer book that will be published through Image comics in June. But in the meantime, make sure to pick up issues 21 through 24 that will be released every month starting this week til the release of the BIG book in June! For more info, stop by RobSchrab.com!

Art of Hard Ei8ht pics! (updated with more pics)

2008-01-12T22:24:00.000-08:00

I just want to give a huge thanks to everybody that came by our Art of Hard Ei8ht exhibit last nite. It was a lot of fun and I was glad so many people were able to make it. I also want to give a really huge thanks to Nickelodeon for giving us a place to hang our artwork and providing us with a great opening reception!

The Art of Hard Ei8ht at Nickelodeon!!!

2008-01-10T17:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Two-Thousand and Ei8ht friends!

We just wanted to remind everyone that the opening reception for the Art of Hard Ei8ht gallery exhibit is tomorrow night! This is shaping up to be the best exhibit showing since Thomas Kincaide peed on Pooh!
Come on down and view our best in production artwork from Hard Ei8ht vol. 1 and the upcoming vol. 2, as well as finished pieces and some pieces made exclusively for this show!

The exhibit will feature artists ranging in backgrounds from comic books to animation to video games. Artists such as-

Anne Walker

David Barkmann

Alex and Emmanuel Deligiannis

Eric "the Gute" Gonzalez

Scott Morse

Greg Rankin

Garrett Shikuma

Brian Growe

Matt Roberts aka Osgood McSonogram aka Confucius Jones

Bill Buckley

and many more!

Now if viewing fantastic artwork isn't enough for you, Nickelodeon will also be providing us the best food the orient has to offer and BEER!

We hope to see you all there!!

Info-

Opening reception Friday, January 11th 5-7pm (but we'll probably hang out until all the beer is gone).

The Nickelodeon Gallery is located at

231 W. Olive AVE

Burbank, CA

early incarnations.

2007-12-28T16:03:00.000-08:00

sorry about the lack of posts lately, i've been faced with numerous setbacks. namely medal of honor: airborne, the orangebox, bioshock, gears of war and most recently phantom hourglass.
but that's not all I've been working on, just the bulk of the artwork I've been doing I can't share til sometime after the new year.
tho, here's some teasers of a couple of the things I've been working on, in their early stages. These pieces were rejected as is, but I made improvements and changes and you'll just have to wait til 2008 to see em.

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

2007-10-02T00:07:00.000-07:00

Post Comic Con Madness!

2007-08-03T12:09:00.001-07:00

With the 2007 convention season over, it's time to move the few remaining items we have left. We did well this year, but we need to make room for all the cool Hard Ei8ht volume 2 stuff coming in 2008! So to help move our last box of Hard Ei8ht volume 1 and our few remaining t-shirts, we are now offering them through paypal with FREE shipping! It looks like there's shipping on the first Paypal page, but when you proceed to checkout, it isn't added into your final total. But that's not all, from now until August 8th we're also selling Hard Ei8ht vol. 1 at a discounted price of only $15!! That's $4.95 off the cover price! There's no better way to prepare for volume 2 than by picking up volume 1!

Preview a couple pages at our Flickr page
or just
Buy it here!

For our shirts, we offer a men's shirt design and a ladies shirt design. Both are silkscreened on high quality 100% cotton black shirts, the only difference are the men's shirts are a standard t-shirt cut and the ladies T's are cut for ladies. They are both double silkscreened for durability and to be long lasting.

For the guys:

For the Ladies:

coming soon- Prints!

Booth 1034!!!

2007-07-18T00:24:00.000-07:00

For most of the year, San Diego is a sleepy little waterfront village known mainly for its abundance of salted water, its illegal whaling operations, and the feral hamsters that terrorize its dirt paths. But for 5 magical days in July, it becomes the mecca of all nerdom. For that is when the Comic Con comes to town.
I will be joining my fellow Hard Ei8ht Godfathers at booth 1034. We will have many wondrous items, hand crafted and personally tasted for your enjoyment. Some of the curios you may find at our trading post include copies of the Book of Hard Ei8ht volume the first. Some say it was written by a mad hermit and painted with brushes made from his own hair and paints made from his own kidney stones. Others say that within its words is a secret recipe for eternal life! While others still say it's a really cool graphic novel featuring 9 stories by some of the animation industry's newest talent.
But that's not all we'll have for you, oh no, there is more. We will have artists sketchbooks, the likes of which you have never seen before! Unless you've been to comic con before, then you've probably seen artists sketchbooks, but these are really really good and will add that much needed curb appeal to your bookshelf. We'll even sign em for ya! Or if you wish, we'd be happy to sketch in them for you, which is much easier since most of us are illiterate.
Right now you must be thinking, "Surely that is enough, there can not possibly be anything else you could have to offer!" Well my friend, you have thought wrong. We'll also have poker chips, prints, the living soul of a man named Bill Buckley, and more!
Also make sure to stop by and stare in wonder at our rare posters that can see in to the FUTURE!! These posters were made by mystics and heretics to give you a peak at the stories that will be revealed in the upcoming Hard Ei8ht vol. 2!! What fate shall befall the man that tampers with the fabric of time itself!? An awesome one!
Behold this sneak peek of the sneak peek I myself conjured for the San Diego Comic Con! But be warned, once you have seen it, you may have tampered with the space time continuim and you might turn into a singing chimney sweep. Which isn't so bad really if you think about it. Anyways, BEHOLD!

"Blymy! 'at's one 'eck of a posta guvna!" You say, "But 'ow can I find ya? ello ello."
Well, outside of just going to booth 1034, you can just take a left at "The Those Guys". Or you can look for the fine folks wearing these designs on their shirts.
Right now I'm only planning on making shirts for us at the booth, but if you're interested in buying one, please let me know in the comments section and I might make a few extra.

Hope to see you in San Deigo!

making a splash

2007-07-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a relaxing holiday weekend in Palm Desert. I had fun messing around with an underwater digital camera. Here's a few pics I took.

My cousin Amy and Uncle Brian enjoy the sun.

My mom tries not to sink.

Brian smiles upon us all.

Amy shows off her triple Lindy dive.

My poker face.

Grandma asks Wes why he hasn't opened either of his beers.

Now back to working on my story for Hard Ei8ht vol. 2!!!

Wisdom in my Armpits

2007-06-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

So my usual antiperspirant was discontinued apparently so I had to search for a new antiperspirant. This was quite the daunting task since I've been buying the same one for the past ten years or so. The first one I tried was a clear gel deodorant. I didn't know it was going to dry like hair gel! Everyone's heard the joke about Don King in a head lock, but this made it look like i had Zach Braff in a headlock. So after one use, I either had to shave my armpits or buy another deodorant. Well, I already spend enough money on razor cartridges just shaving my legs so I decided to try out another deodorant. When I brought this new deodorant home and popped of the cap, like a fortune cookie, there was wisdom on the inside!I feel good knowing that I have a deodorant that finally has the balls to tell it like it is. I need to take more risks and now I have the odor blasting, perspiration pounding deodorant that a man on the go like myself needs. Smell that world? That's the smell of freedom and it's coming to put you in a headlock!

In other news, I now have over 3000 profiles views. wow. Granted that 2500 of those are probably me, i didn't think that many people actually look at this place. Thanks for stopping by!

Hard Eight and the Curse of the Pharaoh's Sneak Peek

2007-05-10T02:28:00.000-07:00

A work in progress.

...but can't work all the time.

Hard Ei8ht and Free Comics!!!

2007-05-03T00:35:00.000-07:00

If you missed us last week, now you have another chance! This Saturday at Metropolis Comics in Bellflower! and don't forget that it's also free comic book day! Please help spread the word!

Hard Ei8ht Signing this Wednesday, April 25th!!

2007-04-24T04:41:00.001-07:00

We will be signing copies of Hard Ei8ht vol. 1 this Wednesday (April 25th) at the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach!! We will also bring along our famous poker chips and other fun stuff.
The Comic Bug will also be having a big fire sale in preparation for their move to a temporary location while their building is renovated. So now's your chance to pick up some great comics cheap!

More Props

2007-04-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

Recently I tried to update my portfolio with some Nickelodeon's Avatar inspired props. I'm so used to trying to be cartoony that I found this to be very difficult and it showed me just how bad I am with perspective. All you Avatar fans out there, please feel free to comment and tear these apart.

I also made a couple cars because I think in one of the upcoming third season episodes, Aang is going to get his learner's permit.

New Additions

2007-02-03T00:11:00.000-08:00

I updated my portfolio over the week with some new prop designs. Mostly just trying to experiment with a variety of styles. I also put together a lil fanart piece for the new Channel 101 program, "Reporters".

R.I.P. Iwao Takamoto

2007-01-13T02:56:00.000-08:00

A couple days ago while visiting the Cartoon Brew I learned the sad news that animation great Iwao Takamoto had passed away. For anyone not familiar with his work, he's probably best known for directing the classic animated adaptaion of Charolette's Web and also for his design work at Hanna-Barbera. Outside of the impact he made on the animation community as a whole, I just wanted to share a little bit of the impact that he had on me. For several years I have been a fan of his, going all the way back to the first time I saw Charolette's Web while in the first grade. That experiance was the very first time a film, animated or otherwise, had ever moved me. That memory and feeling has always stuck with me all the way to today. It's set up what feeling I look to get from a good film experiance and is something I strive to learn to convey in my own work.
Years later, not too long after I graduated from high school, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Takamoto when he was appearing at the local Warner Brothers Store. All my life, at least as far back as I can remember, I've been a huge fan of Hanna-Barbera cartoons, my favorite being Scooby Doo; so I jumped on that chance. At a time when I quite hadn't figured out what I wanted to do with my life; listening to his stories, watching him draw, hearing his passion for the artform, and having the chance to talk to him personally had a huge impact on me. He took the time to talk with me, just some nerd that loved cartoons, and encouraged me to take my love for storytelling and drawing silly cartoons seriously. It was that night that I decided that persuing a career in cartoons wasn't just a kid's fantasy, but was in fact what I always really wanted to do, he just opened my eyes to that fact. I still haven't made it in the cartoon world yet, but it's been a blast so far and I look forward to what I have to acomplish next. I'm thankful for the impact that Iwao Takamoto has had on my life, much like the impact he's had on countless others. He will be missed.
To learn more about Iwao Takamoto, check out the very informative interview that Amid Amidi posted at the Cartoon Brew.

Mr. Takamoto gave me this drawing, it's one of my most prized possesions.

Here's a small taste of my Scooby Doo collection.

Here's another original Iwao Takamoto sketch that I'm lucky enough to have in my possesion. I keep it framed on my wall and it is always a source of inspiration for me.

Henkmation

2007-01-03T20:02:00.000-08:00

For Christmas my mom gave my uncle Henk a digital picture frame that rotates through jpgs as well as mp4 and avi movies. So instead of attatching a "to/ from" card, I made my mom a simple flash animation to say who the frame is from. I'm not much of an animator, but I think it's cute and not too bad for one nites work.

I hope everyone had very happy holidays and I wish everyone all the best for 2007!

It's like Naruto, More Filler!!

2006-12-22T01:13:00.000-08:00

I think the lovely and talented Brian "Browe" Growe is the only person who might get the Naruto joke in the title. Anyways, since there were no comments for the amazing Stooge tree (and it is amazing), I'm going to take up space with even more filler!! So here's a buncha bad sketches of talented artists, drawings from photo ref and some exercises.

Filler!

2006-12-18T22:55:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the lack of new posts. Things have been hectic around here, what with the holidays and the Hard 8 vol. 2 deadline looming. But come February I will be back to posting more regularly again.

In the meantime, here's some filler!

Behold! The mighty stooge tree! Nothing says Christmas like miniature representations of dead Jewish comedians.

It's also good to leave some goodies out for Santa!

And lastly, here's a virtual tour of my workshop. Santa's might be made out of gingerbread, but mine has blue blend shag carpeting.

whelp

2006-11-07T00:54:00.000-08:00

UUGGHH! So I go to start my car this morning and it made a terrible squeaking noise and smoke started to billow out from under the hood. I talked to the mechanic and he said to bring it in after three but when three rolled around and i was about to call for a tow truck, i find out his lot is full and i have to bring it in tomorrow. Waiting another day wouldn't have been too much of a trouble, but it turns out I have to go in for jury duty tomorrow. So in addition to whatever repair cost i got coming up, I had to spend $117 to rent a car so i can frikkin goto jury duty tomorrow. and all i get out of jury duty is something like $6 a day!
But i thought since i'll have so much sitting around to look forward to, i can make alotta sketches while doing so. so here's some recent sketches to post up before doing any new ones.

(i still don't like that right hand, but i guess it don't matter since i don't really like how that sketch came out in general.)

Buy my book!

2006-10-22T23:52:00.000-07:00

In case you missed em at the San Diego Comic Con, you can now find my mini art book at Stuart NG books!

Here's what to look for:

The Art of Erich Haeger vol. 1.5 by me
2005 and 2006. 1st. 8vo, color, wraps. Signed. VF. A color portfolio by this young artist-cartoonist (Hard Eight). [21565] $5

Also look for books from contributing Hard 8 vol. 1 artists Alex Deligiannis, Brian Growe, David Colman, Richard Pose, Justin Ridge, Mike Roush, and Stephen Silver!

Hi!

2006-10-04T00:58:00.000-07:00

Hard 8 Video Teasers

2006-09-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

The super talented Ben Pluimer recently uploaded the Hard 8 video teasers he put together for us on to youtube. Thanks Ben and also thanks to Jason Makiaris, Chris Tallman and Derek Wallace who were kind enough to lend their amazing voice talents to the videos!

This first clip is a teaser of the Hard 8 vol. 1 story by the dynamic Deligiannis duo, Alex and Eman!

This next clip is a videoization of my own Hard 8 story from Vol. 1.

This last teaser is one I edited together hours before the San Diego Comic Con. I just wish my amateurish after effects skills were better so I could've better shown off the Hard 8 story by the talented and down right cuddly Matt Roberts and Eren Blanquet-Unten.

I would also like to thank David Hartman who provided voice work for Garrett Shikuma's Hard 8 vol. 1 story but the video is still a work in progress.

Meet Meeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-09-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

I will be signing copies of Hard 8 with the rest of the group (or as many as can make it) on September 20th, from 3pm-7pm at the House of Heroes in Torrance. In addition to Hard 8 the book, we'll also probably bring some poker chips and decks of cards with us as well. So if you missed out at comic con, now's your second chance!
We hope to see you there, but if you absolutely can not make it, we will make sure to leave plenty of copies at House of Heroes so pop in and pick one up!

Hard Ei8ht vol. 1 is also available at the fallowing locations:

House of Secrets
1930 W. Olive Avenue
Burbank, California 91506
(818) 562-1900

House of Heroes

18214 Prairie Ave 90504
Torrance, CA

(310) 516-7800

Meltdown Comics and Collectibles
7522 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 851-7283
meltcomics.com

Golden Apple Comics
7711 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 658-6047
(323) 651-0455
goldenapplecomics.com

ComicKaze
55178 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117
(858) 278-0371
www.comickaze.com

And of course Hard 8 is available for online order 24/7 at the Hard 8 production blog!

mmmm poison!

2006-09-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

It's my aunt's 60th birthday tomorrow and my mom is planning on giving her a basket full of gag gifts. One of which is going to be a caulking gun relabeled with a custom label I just threw together. I'm not much of a graphic designer but I thought it was funny enough.

Blast from the past?

2006-09-01T03:39:00.000-07:00

I was sifting through the Hard 8 archive and came across this cover from the 1983 edition.
Just kidding. It's a little something i put together as a joke in the style of CSUF alum Patrick Nagel. Also, the photo referance i used for Hard 8 is from the guy that did the never ending story song. like totally radical!

I'm Back

2006-08-29T03:39:00.000-07:00

I've been away from the blog world for a little bit now, but I'm back and I've got a backlog of stuffs to share over the coming weeks.
As for where I've been, well the San Diego Comic Con for one. A good time was had by all and Hard 8 did very well. If you haven't picked up your copy yet, stop by the Hard 8 production blog to buy a copy online or to locate a store near you.
I also recently attended a couple beautiful and fun weddings. Big congrats to Mr. and Mrs The Gute and Mr. and Mrs Eren Blanquet. I wish you all the best on your new lives together.
Lastly, I spent the last two weeks in the small mountain town of Seiad Valley in Northern California. My grandma has a cabin up there and I try to spend some time there every summer. While I was there this year, I brought up my painting kit and did a couple little studies. The first is of my grandma's cabin. The second is an unfinished study of Indian Creek in Happy Camp, CA. By the time I got all my crap lugged down the mountain side and it made it's way across the water and I got it all set up, I ran out of very much time before the sun dipped behind the mountains. At least that's the excuse I used for how crappy it came out.
And to round out this post, I'm going to post up some more studies I did a few weeks ago during some sessions of William Wray's awesome plein air class. Unfortunately, the class has been cancelled for the time being and I miss it already. Hopefully it will be starting again sooner rather than later!

Don't eat these chips!

2006-07-11T00:54:00.000-07:00

Check out these sweet Hard 8 chips we're going to have at the San Diego Comic Con! We only have 500 so I think they're going to go fast! And don't forget to visit us at the Prehensile Press booth (1032)!

Tutorial Part the 2nd

2006-06-21T01:57:00.000-07:00

Part 2: Finishing your line work, adding in color and taking it into photoshop.

Continuing from where we last left off, here's a really cool tip that the Gute taught me.

You can select a stroke, goto Object>Path>Outline Stroke and this will turn your stroke into a fill.

By turning you stroke into a fill you can refine it with much more precision.

Once you have all you outline work to your liking, lock the outline layer and create a new layer under it.

I create a new layer for each major color mass I create, such as skintone and hair color, and I lock each layer I'm not currently working on so I don't accidentally put 2 color masses on the same layer.

Once I've made color masses I'm happy with I unlock my outline layer and I color my outline according to the color masses I just made. If you just want black outlines then skip this step.

At this point you no longer need your sketch layer so delete it by selecting that layer and clicking on the little trashcan towards the bottom right of the little layers window. Now you're ready to take your work into Photoshop. Goto File>Export and choose the file type photo shop PSD. Once you name your file and hit OK you'll receive a dialogue box, make sure "Write Layers" and "anti-alias" are selected. Now just hit OK.

Now make one last save in Illustrator and then close out of the program. Once Iluustrator has completely shut down, open up Photoshop. When Photoshop has finished loading, open up the PSD file you just created. You'll notice when your file opens that all the color mass layers and outline layer show up exactly how you created them in Illustrator. Isn't that just a jimdandy!?

Before you start painting, Lock all the layers except for the one you plan to work on. You do that by clicking on the layer and then clicking on the little lock symbol near the top left of the Layers window. On the color mass layer you wish to work on, only lock the transparency. You do this by clicking on that layer and click the small white and grey checkerboard image near the top left of the Layers window. By locking the transparency you will only paint on the color mass and won't have to worry about accidentally painting outside of it.

Photoshop allows you the use of many differant tools and brushes. I like using textured brushes to add texture to my image which is difficult to acheive in just illustrator. You can just directly paint on your color mass or you can use the pen or lasso tool to select areas for more control or to give a cel shaded look.

But painting technique is all personal preferance from here on out so the rest is up to you. Pluss I'm a pretty awful painter and don't really know what I'm doing. Just remember to "Save As" often and with a different name now and then. I hope this tutorial helped!

Odds n Ends:

here's a couple quicktips. Now that I have all my colors and brushes for everything set, I made myself a template to use for each page that is premeasured to size and with guides according to the size chart the Big Toon sent. I also made a color swatch table with all my colors and brushes for easy access.

Another thing I like to do, I once I build an object, I collect all the layers used to build that layer and collect them all into a single layer. That way it is easy to move and resize and select everything at once with out dealing with seperate layers, but the individual layers are still available if you only need to change something small.

Adobe Illo Tutorial-Part 1

2006-06-08T03:08:00.000-07:00

Just for Mr. Kramer, here's a reposting of the Adobe Illustrator tutorial I threw together for the Hard 8 forum. These methods may be right, they may be wrong, but this is how I do things. If anybody has any tips or suggestions on how to do things better, please leave a comment.

Part 1: Clean up and making an inkbrushed look

Once you've opened a new document in illustrator, goto File>Place and find your pencil drawing. Once it has been placed, resize it to fit in your work area.

Once your drawing is sized and set, lock that layer and create a new layer to make your outline on.

Choose the Pen Tool and start going over your drawing by left clicking with your mouse and making points along the line.

To make a curve, when you left click, keep the left mouse button pressed down and drag with your mouse.

Once you've finished outlining your drawing, hide the drawing layer. At this point you can use the white arrow to adjust your lines and to adjust your curves by manipulating the bezier handles (they're the lines with the ball at the end that come from the points at the ends of the curve).

Once everything is adjusted, it's time to make a new brush. I start by creating a new layer on which i'll use the Pen Tool to make a perfectly straight red line (to make the line perfectly straight, make one point by left clicking with the mouse and then holding the Shift button when left clicking to make the next point). Now that you have a perfectly straight red line, lock that layer and create another layer on top of if. Using the red line as a guide, I'll use the pen tool to make a shape the looks like a brush stroke, filled with black and with no outline.

Using the black arrow, click on the brush stroke shape and drag it into your Brushes pallette. A box will pop up, choose New Art Brush and hit OK.

Another box will pop up, for colorization method, choose Hue Shift. This will allow you to change the line color later on. Congrats! you've just created a custom brush! Now let's make another.

Click on the brush shape and goto Object>Transform>Reflect.

When the reflect box opens choose Vertical then hit OK. This will make a vertical reflection of the original brush. duh.

Now grab this new brush shape and drag it to the Brushes pallette and fallow the same steps as before.

you can now delete the two layers you just created to make the brush shape.

Select all the lines.

With all the lines selected, click one of the new brushes you just made in the Brushes pallette.

You can use the scissor tool to cut the lines that over lap or to seperate lines that might be too long.

Now all that's left is to adjust the line width and choosing which of the brush shapes you created works best.

That's about it. This is the way Mike Daley taught me and has worked pretty well for me. It's not perfect, so if you have a steady inking hand, go that way. I don't, so this method helps my work look alot cleaner.
I'll post part 2 soon.

Plain Air

2006-06-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

I've been taking the great William Wray's great plein air painting class. I'm still very much a beginner but I feel like I'm learning alot and I really enjoy his one on one style of teaching. These were all painted in class at a variety of outdoor locations. Each study is oil on canvas board at about 2"x3".

Make sure to stop by William Wray's blog and drool of his many amazing paintings.

Hard 8 Page

2006-05-10T00:26:00.000-07:00

So I've been neglecting my blog again, but this time my excuse will be that I've been busily working on my contribution to the Hard 8 anthology coming this July. Goto the official Hard 8 Blog to find out more and to see some amazing artwork from all the other contributers involved.

Fresh Babies

2006-04-16T01:21:00.000-07:00

At our family Easter dealie today (we have our Easters on saturdays because our parties tend to last into the early hours), my cousin and her husband announced that they were going to have a baby. I happened to have my computer there because I was working on my Hard 8 comic and my aunt (the soon to be grandma) asked me to do a cartoon of what the baby will look like. So I made a boy and a girl each in the image of my cousin and her husband. I did these in about 10 minutes each without any sort of presketching which is why one looks like a leprecan and the other looks like some twisted, mary blair meets south park, mutant. But I haven't updated the ol blog in a while so I thought i'd toss em up here.

Old Vector Pic

2006-03-16T23:19:00.000-08:00

So Drawn(!) recently posted a link to this site that does photorealistic vector graphics. which made me dig up this old semi realistic vector illustration I made when I first started learning vector graphics. Now that I'm a little more experianced using vector graphics it might be fun one day to give vector realisim another shot.

Bluh!

2006-03-07T00:43:00.000-08:00

what? two posts in one month!?! ahhhh!!! the system's crashing down!!!!!
well, before you get too carried away, it's only more sketchbook crap.

2 of my Favorite Writers

2006-03-01T03:01:00.000-08:00

Ya, so I haven't really posted in a while, but I really don't have anything in the way of new stuffs. So, uh, here's some more sketchbook crap for now.

Here's Garrett without head preggers.

Ya, this is supposed to be Joss Whedon. Bad likeness. Bad colors. Bad ink job.

No, this isn't Chuck Grieb, this is also supposed to be Joss Whedon. Again, bad likeness n stuff.

A Couple More

2006-02-06T00:58:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple from cafe sketching the other nite.

This a concept piece of Mr. Garrette Shikuma if his ear became pregnant.

Here's your dictator and mine, Osgood McSonogram!

No, this isn't the governor of Cahliforneea, this painted up hussy is master Brian Growe!

Don't Take that Tone with Me!

2006-01-27T04:29:00.000-08:00

Just messing around with some Brian Growe recommended toned paper.

Sack vs Snipes!!

2006-01-17T23:45:00.000-08:00

Return the Sack vs Snipe wars has. and hopefully this time in blog form.
View the Sack vs Snipes trailer

Best Movie of the Year!!!

2005-12-20T04:51:00.000-08:00

With 2005 coming to a close I can now safely say that Serenity is hands down the best movie of 2005. And the best part is, the best movie of the year is now available to own on DVD!!!! so do yourself a favor and go out and buy it!! And for all the last minute shoppers out there, it makes the perfect stocking stuffer!

More Integration

2005-12-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

Rob Scud?

integration

2005-11-30T02:03:00.000-08:00

ya, i suck.

Kinda like Magic Eye but not.

2005-11-29T01:19:00.000-08:00

Bully!

2005-11-03T03:57:00.000-08:00

So some more of my amazing acting skills can be seen in the latest episode (episode 3) of the Wright Stuff at Channel101.com, though you'll have to look real hard to find me.
To help, here's an animated gif of Teddy Roosevelt hitting me in zombie form with his big stick.

The entire episode can be seen here. Wright Stuff

Losting!!!!!!!!!

2005-10-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

i honestly don't know.

Robot Bastard Studies

2005-09-30T01:43:00.000-07:00

i've been trying to make some fan art for Rob Schrab's Robot Bastard short film. unfortunately i've been having a hard time with it and just haven't been able to produce anything of any quality. i guess i'll just have to keep trying. in the mean time, here's some studies i made from the short. for more info about Robot Bastard and Rob Schrab check out his website.

Big Screen Debut

2005-09-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

Recently I had the honor of being an extra in Channel 101: The Musical episode two. Check it out and look for me as the man in the fez.
http://www.channel101.com/shows/view.php?media_id=1390

You can check out the first episode and other hilarious videos at http://www.channel101.com

Hollywood Steve

2005-09-24T03:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick piece of fanart i made of Yacht Rock's Hollywood Steve. Yacht Rock and other funny videos can be seen at www.channel101.com

More Sketches

2005-09-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

...that suck. but not "my name is earl" suck. just regular suck.

Fooooooooooooooooooooooore!!!!!!

2005-09-19T10:02:00.000-07:00

some more oldies.

Sketches that Suck

2005-09-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

but it's all i got.

Mad Props

2005-09-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

to help kick off the art portion of this place i thought i would post up some oldies (mostly because they're already on my computer). so here's some props.
all comments and criticism are welcome (cause i know i suck and need to get better).

Seiad Sketches

2005-08-30T15:51:00.000-07:00

here's a couple sketches i made while on my trip. i had made more but i left many of them up there. oh well.

Grandma

Cousin Andrew

Uncle Tom

Here's the "Seiad Kids" illustration i made last year while up there.

Seiad Pics

2005-08-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics from my recent trip to Seiad Valley in northern California.

Gandolf the Grey?Jungle Savages
Oh no i'm going to hit the rail!
Cheeeeeeeeeese
Keep both hands on the handlebars
It came from the Black Lagoon
old man river 2
dad likes it on the rocks
awwwwwww

2005-05-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

old man river

2005-05-25T13:33:00.003-07:00

front o the boat

2005-05-25T13:33:00.002-07:00

the mighty sportsman

2005-05-25T13:33:00.001-07:00

tipping the boat again

2005-05-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

the guy in the mask is really skinny

2005-05-25T13:32:00.003-07:00

yup

2005-05-25T13:32:00.002-07:00

sun

2005-05-25T13:32:00.001-07:00

moon or sun?

2005-05-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

that's better

2005-05-25T13:31:00.001-07:00

focus

2005-05-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

shannon pours her drink on arno

2005-05-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

adorable

2005-05-25T13:29:00.001-07:00

george lightly kisses arno on the cheek

2005-05-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

grandma: zzzzzzzz

2005-05-25T13:28:00.004-07:00

proud mary...uhh.. if orgot the rest of the words

2005-05-25T13:28:00.003-07:00

big wheel keep on turnin

2005-05-25T13:28:00.002-07:00

more boats

2005-05-25T13:28:00.001-07:00

boats

2005-05-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

katherine's drinking water right?

2005-05-25T13:27:00.001-07:00

awwwwww

2005-05-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

weirdos

2005-05-25T13:26:00.002-07:00

nice watch

2005-05-25T13:26:00.001-07:00

the kids section

2005-05-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

jennifer flips off the camera

2005-05-25T13:25:00.003-07:00

hotwel lights

2005-05-25T13:25:00.002-07:00

see

2005-05-25T13:25:00.001-07:00

this photo shoot actually tipped the boat

2005-05-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

dad tries on a green toupe

2005-05-25T13:24:00.002-07:00

hey where the thorps go?

2005-05-25T13:24:00.001-07:00

what? the baars/thorps again?

2005-05-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

2005-05-25T13:23:00.002-07:00

but hank beats him to it

2005-05-25T13:23:00.001-07:00

tommy eyes another piece of steak

2005-05-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

doh!

2005-05-25T13:22:00.001-07:00

connie's still posing