Line art for contest

For an art competition going on where the subject is solitude. This is what my stuff looks like before I color it.... Well, sometimes. It should look a little less blocky, but what can you do when you work really, really big and only have an 11x17 scanner... you can only imagine how big the original was.
^___^
On and off this probably took me three days to do. Let's see where my inspiration leads me with color. Off to the fun part!

If you yourself are interested, here's the link! http://www.asingularcreation.com/showdown.htm
They compete all the time. I just wanted to see if I was rusty (and have some fun, of course.).

Those pesky fruit flies!

Just a quick sketch:I would imagine a fruit's fear of flies are like the equivalent of a boar charging at us. It is quite scary.

It's.... the FUTURE!

I am starting to soften to the whole 3d movie craze. Once I had a livid hatred for it, but now I think it has found its proper place in cinema. I remember when it was a toddler, awkwardly crawling into big companies. Everyone thought it was so cute, and they would throw any scripts they could towards it, just to hear it gurgle pleasantly. It didn't really matter if the story fit the media, they just needed to see it grow. I feel it's now in its adolescence stage, trying new things, and making small victories here and there. Good for it.

No, I am not a Shrek fan, to start off with. While many like it, I feel like it went stale. Perhaps it wasn't because of the acting or animating at all, but because they sucked it dry. It's hard to say. I enjoyed the first one. I watched the second one with a slight sense of caution, and I didn't bother watching the second-half of the third. It was sadly rehashed. I hate when they take something that works and milk the cow dry. In this scenario, third time is simply not the charm. But this is another issue for another day.

Onto a more positive note, I talk about this because about a month or so ago I watched Despicable Me. I absolutely fell in love with the film. The character designs and writing were spot on, the acting had that magical quality which really made you think they were real, carrying on their day to day lives without us watching. The voice actors were great, and I enjoyed myself throughout it's entirety. Even within the first ten minutes or so, there was an "I killed your dog," joke. I was delighted to see a mainstream film get a little cynical. A couple more odd-ball jokes thrown around throughout the movie and I was hooked. I will be buying this as soon as it comes out.

And, my goodness! Before Despicable Me, there was How to Train Your Dragons (which I instantly drew a Ruffnut fanart of... how could I not?), and over the past week I went to my local cinema and bought a ticket for Tangled. I didn't really have high hopes for Tangled. Therefore, when I watched it, I enjoyed it for what it was, but I believe it would have done much better in 2d. The characters were fun, if not slightly predictable, but you know. Just a film. I pine for the day when 2d is on top again. I really do believe our time has passed, though. Heck, even Disney has to have their teethe pulled out before they spend money on another traditional film. The Frog Princess was an embarrassment that not many 2d artists are happy talking about. Weak plotline, characters no one cares about, and .....NEWMAN!!! Randy Newman over Alan Menkin? What, my dear friends, has the world come to? What the heck happened to the days where 2D films got good scripts? Where did they go? I believe they are all going towards the 3d realm. Maybe one day, things will go back to how they were. Until then, 2D will stick to cereal commercials and flash cartoons on the web, made by angsty teenagers.

J'ai retourné!

I just came back from Las Vegas yesterday and I swear, it's like everyone says. It is certainly one of the oddest places I've ever traveled to. After having been a part of MAGIC for my job (which for those of you who don't know, it is the largest tradeshow in the world for retailers to gather and show off their new items before they even hit the market), I had a night to kill. After an exhausting day, me and my friend (the main person who was running our booth for the show) felt like wandering. Our first stop was the Bellagio. How could I pass that up? It was beautiful. Well worth the visit, especially for all the glass art by artist Dale Chihuly. A tidal wave of scents washed over us. The room was filled with the fragrance of flowers. Then we went into room beyond that. It was like walking onto the set of Ants on crack. Pictures to come, I hope.

When we went outside we were greeted with a show from the Bellagio fountains. Around this time, me and my friend were pretty hungry so we started walking, wondering what we would see next. If you haven't been to Las Vegas before, let me tell you it shines at night. Not just the lights, but the people. Everything changes at night, and the atmosphere is so quirky. It might not be my favorite place in the world, but it was certainly worth the trip. We eventually ran into the Harley Davidson Cafe, and as I should have expected of a biker cafe, they PILE food on. We couldn't even eat half of our meals.. oh so good for leftovers in the hotel.

I had about half an hour at the tradeshow the next morning, enough to get me and my friend breakfast, and then it was taxi-time. An eight hour plane trip back, and I'm home again.

So, as you can imagine, I have a little bit of free time and am sketching away at some new art. It's coming along well, and what I have, I'm happy with my results. Maybe a few scans are on the way as well...

Pennies, anyone?

Seeing as how this blog is very, very new, I really do not expect anyone to be reading it at this point in time. BUT that doesn't mean I can't pretend you all are. In due time, I am sure I will eventually make friends. In the meantime, I feel like talking about some of my inspirations. This will be a little harbor for my thoughts, against the rapids that I would like to refer to as "other more exemplary and well-known bloggers".

Speaking of inspirations, what better subject to talk about than that of European comic artists? There has not been a single stronger influence in my style than that of people like Cyril Pedrosa, Pierre Alary, Aurélie Blard-Quintard, and Valérie Vernay to name just a few. Their fluid style really swept me off my feet and got me to loosen up my own drawings quite a bit. Within the last couple years, my art has really blossomed into something wonderful and unique.

Examples, you say? Well, sure!
To start off, this is Cyril Pedrosa's style up above. This is a page from his mesmerizing story titled "Three Shadows". Graceful lines, full of detail, and an attention to form. One of the things I have tried hard to mimic is the grace and fluidity of Pedrosa's line art. Wonderful.

Up there is Pierre Alary. He used to work for Disney as an animator. Neat, huh? Looking at the lines, you can tell he's had quite some practice. Beautiful character art.
Introducing the cute and charming work of Aurélie Blard-Quintard! She, along with msr. Pedrosa and Alary, draws comics as well. If you are curious, this is her own blog where you can see a bunch of her own art : http://aurelieblardquintard.blogspot.com/
Here's a little Valérie Vernay. Her characters are just so organic, I love it. She primarily draws children's comics, but I have seen her collab with people on more adult themed bande dessinée's. Either way, I found out about her long after a trip to Europe, where I could have gotten her books more cheaply. Oh, well.

So, those are just a few of my own inspirations. My drawings used to be tight, stiff, and just plain BORING! Oh, woe!

I can't completely say that European comics were the one and only catalyst to my new and improved style. To be honest, I was lying when I said it was only European comics. Truly, what started me down this path in a more subtle way, was Cycladic art and sculpture.

Sculpture was my real foundation...for drawing? Why, yes!

You can learn a lot when you let yourself explore other mediums. Cycladic art, shown here:
It got me to explore other styles that were drastically different from my own. If it hadn't been for Cycladic sculpture, I probably would still be drawing anime. This makes me sad. Not that there is anything wrong with anime. I can respect it for what it is. I watch anime from time to time. But for what I wanted to do, it just didn't seem right. So here I am. And there you are. And here is a sandwich in front of me with my name on it.


-ciao ciao (yum)

Testing Mic

1, 2. Testing.

fabulous.