Zak Greene

Pittsburgh Comicon

2011-04-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

I went to Pittsburgh Comicon last weekend. It was an interesting experience, being my first time at a Con with MY OWN table. Not very lucrative, but then again, it seemed like my neighbors to my left and right weren't making all that much either. The thing that I found weird was that my newest poster, Nosferatu, garnered a LOT of attention, but very few sales. People liked it, but I suppose they didn't want to lug around a huge poster. I think I need to go back to focusing on comics, putting the posters on the back burner a little bit. Speaking of that Nosferatu print, though, it's available at my store. Go buy one! Unfortunately, Tomb of Madness is no longer available there, but you can snag a copy at Indyplanet!

The Con wasn't a total bust, though, even if I didn't make NEARLY as much as I wanted to. I made a couple of interesting contacts and met some really awesome people. First of all, Leonard Lies (Machete Zombie, from the original Dawn of the Dead). Really nice guy, had a long conversation with him. He ended up with one of my Nosferatu prints and I ended up with a machete in my forehead. Sounds good to me. I also met Sam Witwer (Aiden, from the US version of Being Human) and Bob Hall (comic book artist who's been around the block a few times to say the least).

Also, I got a chance to do a personal piece, a stipple Boris Karlof Frankenstein. Gotta show some love to the classics in the horror genre, and Boris is still the biggest icon that the genre has EVER gotten. Bella Legosi and Robert Englund are probably the next biggest, and even they don't come close to the status of Karlof. It busted this piece out in the three days of the Con, right there at the table. It was fun, and I realized that I've gotten quite a bit faster with these portraits than I used to be. I'm definitely going to keep them up. Who should I do next? I'm thinking I need to do a portrait of someone who's no stranger to WINNING.

So, all in all the con was fun. I've got a new comic book in the works, but I'm not going to say all that much about it quite yet, since I don't want to jinx it. I'll leave you with this. I heard twice this weekend that I look like this dude (Casey Abrams, one of the contestants on this season of American Idol), which is cool with me. He's a pretty boss singer.

Nosferatu... finally.

2011-04-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's the first of what I plan to be quite a few. This is the most complicated stipple piece I've done so far, attempting to go further from the "head shots" that I started out with. I designed it to be similar to one of those old illustrated movie posters in the fact that I did sort of an image collage, using stills from the movie. I plan on selling this at Pittsburgh Comic Con (thanks, Public Domain!!!). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. More to come. I think my next will be Night of the Living Dead, but I might do another "head shot" piece really quick first. We'll see.

Benching for Breast Cancer

2011-03-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

Small post, but a post nonetheless. Did a really quick poster for Cheshire Academy's Benching For Breast Cancer event. I forgot to take a good photo of it before they took it, so I have to resort to the cell-phone pic that my dad took of it.

New website, Nosferatu, and Vault-Boy

2011-03-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to give a bit of an update on what I've been doing. First off, I updated my website quite a bit and gave it a complete overhaul. I decided to switch it back to a Blogger based website instead of a Tumblr based one. Since I'm using simpleviewer, it kind of bypasses the one thing that kept me from using Blogger in the first place. Check out the new website HERE.

I have a couple different things in the works. On the stipple side of things I'm doing a Nosferatu poster, which will easily be the most complicated thing I've done in this style. I'm really starting to get somewhere with it, and it'll be done in time for the Pittsburgh Comicon, which I have a table at. I'm really enjoying that one and I think it's gonna be a good one.

Another thing of note, I'm making a Perk Icon for a Fallout: New Vegas mod that's coming out. I'm gonna keep quiet about exactly what the mod is, since I don't know if the person making it wants to let that out yet or not, but here's the sketch I sent him recently for it. I'm working on drawing and inking a final version of it now.

I referenced a few different perks and icons to make it, namely the Quick Draw icon, the Enclave Remnant Power Armor, and the Plasma Rifle. The perk is being made a youtuber named TheTuninator, who does a show called Mods of the Week, where he talks about mods that have come out for Fallout and tells you which ones are worth checking out.

Black Metal Self-Portrait

2011-01-21T17:54:00.001-08:00

I know I've been silent for a long time, but I have one thing to show you that took a lot of work. This is easily the largest stipple piece that I have done (the original being roughly 11x17!!). This is the for the "Self Portrait as a Rock Star" exhibition that's going to be in the Current Space Gallery in Baltimore, MD starting on Friday, January 28th. The Opening Reception is from 7-10 PM and will have karaoke, so be there. So without further padding, here's my self-portrait.

One other thing that I've been spending a lot of time on is a sketch book for the Arthouse Sketch Book Tour. Click that link for more info on that.

A couple of new things, more to come

2010-11-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I'm continuing on with the stipple stuff, but rather than just doing portraits of celebrities, I decided to bring it more in line with my other main interest (horror), so I'm doing a series of horror stipple pieces. Here's the first two. This first one is a headshot, like the older ones, this time of the classic Leatherface from the 1974 original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It was a lot of fun to do. This one was finished a while ago, and it's been on my website (http://zgillustration.com) since it was done, but I realized that I never put it on the blog.

Next up is one that goes back quite a ways. I wanted to have some pieces that I could sell at Comic Cons, but since I rely so heavily on photo reference, copyright quickly becomes an issue. So I did a bit of research towards finding movies that are in the public domain that are still fairly recognizable. I found quite some (Night of the Living Dead, Plan 9 From Outer Space, and Nosferatu, to name a few), and you'll definitely be seeing the others in the near future. This first one is of the original 1925 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera, featuring Lon Chaney Sr as the phantom (you may know his son, Lon Chaney Jr, as The Wolfman). It's an old black and white silent film, and it's fantastic. Highly Recommended. I LOVE the look of the Phantom in this one, so I couldn't resist doing a piece on this when I found out it was public domain.

Another thing to note with this one is that it's the first piece that incorporates anything besides a basic head shot. There's a minimal amount of background, and some of the character's torso in this piece. I want, in the future, to expand what I do in stipple, so I figured that this would be a pretty good starting place, since this is very much still a portrait. It took me way longer than the other ones did, but I think that had more to do with not being able to find the time to work on it, and less to do with the piece actually taking the amount of time that I spent on it. We'll see how things progress from here.

Lastly, I've got a quick piece that I did as a Halloween card. I originally wanted to do something more clever and involved, but I didn't have the time, so I stripped it right down to basics. This is a basic still life, but all of the objects are references to horror movies. I might do a post about my process for this one (I'm toying with the idea, since I never do those types of posts). I tried to cram a lot of references into this picture, and ended up with Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Friday the 13th, The Stuff, Hellraiser, Scream, Sleepaway Camp, Child's Play, and A Nightmare On Elm Street. I think I could have done more, but it was a quick project, just for fun, so I decided not to stress it too much.
And here's a reference photo I took, to get the chainsaw right. I changed up the jack-o-lantern quite a lot, simplifying it from the plastic one in the picture.
I've got a couple of other things coming up. I'm doing a self-portrait show down in Baltimore, and I'm doing a sketchbook tour thing (my theme is "Help!"). Expect lots of corpse paint.

Baltimore Comic Con

2010-08-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

Did up Baltimore Comic Con this weekend. It was a lot of fun to see everyone I knew at MICA, and it was a lot of fun selling comics and shirts and stuff in Artists Alley with a couple of buddies of mine from GCP Comics. Todd McFarlane was there the first day, and he seemed like a really cool guy. He was only supposed to do two signings, but he was signing for the entire day, which I assume was because of the high demand. That's awesome. The second day was a little bit slower, but it was still really cool. I plan on doing more Cons in the future, hoping for New York, Connecticut, and other places as well.

And since I do still have some stuff left over, if you missed me in Baltimore, you can still purchase it all at my new store, via Big Cartel (thanks again go to Annie Wu for the recommendation).

So until I get some new artwork up (soon!), here's some photos from the Con!

That's Tony, dressed up like their character, No One.

There's all of us, only one missing is Ryan, who I rode down to Baltimore with. He was a lot of help the whole weekend. He took these photos.

So look out for some more stipple, and I'm going to begin work on Tomb of Madness #2!!!

GOBLINS!!!

2010-08-10T13:54:00.001-07:00

So I have a story, which will inevitably turn into a comic as far as I'm concerned (it's a large project, though... so we'll see). Either way, I wanted to do some sketching for it, and do some more cartoony stuff, since that was always one of my stronger areas, even though I go through periods where I try to get as far away from that as possible (stipple, for instance). These are sketches of the main character. He doesn't have a name yet, but he's a goblin... and a thief.

As you can see, I was digging the oni mouth towards the end of the sketching on this character, as I don't want to go completely cliche' with the design, and I thought it would be a cool little thing. Thoughts?

A few new things

2010-08-06T09:16:00.001-07:00

So here's a few new things from this summer so far. I've got a couple other things in the works, a couple of logos for people, but these are some more "illustrative" pieces. First up is a viking. I didn't have in mind that I wanted it to be more cartoony than what I normally do, but it sort of turned out that way, and I like it. I've always been better at stuff like that than at more realistic stuff, but I have tried to shy away from it for a while. I might be embracing that side of my drawing a bit more often in the near future.

Second is a piece I did of the Wicked Witch of the West melting. I wanted to do it really gross and almost EC comics style, but I also decided to experiment with coloring my linework, as that's something I've never really messed around with before. I like how it turned out for the most part.

Righteous Dude

2010-06-21T19:39:00.001-07:00

Something new! This is the CD cover (which I illustrated) of the music single (which I wrote), "Righteous Dude" by VEKTR (me). Decided that I'd make the picture somewhat ironic, being a big fat nerd with a grill surrounded by women. All in all, this was a pretty quick one to do, only spending one day (ish) on it. I'll spend more time on the cover of the upcoming album (did I mention shameless plug?).

If you want to check out some music, it's up at http://myspace.com/vektr
If you want to get the single when it comes out (TOMORROW), then check out http://vektr.bandcamp.com

website

2010-06-15T21:46:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't already notice, this blog is now formatted lightly different... more like a blog (go figure!) I plan on posting more process and random ramblings on here, as I now have a website (using tumblr).

Check it!!!

http://zgillustration.com

Finally got something new

2010-06-14T17:04:00.001-07:00

Well, I've had this one done for about a week, but was waiting on getting a new scanner before putting it up. Check it out! It's the best actor of all time... Nicholas Cage. He starred in such classic movies as... The Wicker Man... Brilliant!

ECA Alumni Show

2010-06-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

One of my 80s movie posters is in an upcoming show in New Haven, CT. I also designed the invite. Check it out! New pieces coming soon, keep checking.

Thesis Work

2010-05-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

Additional, more recent comic book work that hasn't been posted on here! Just follow the link....

http://zakgreenethesis.blogspot.com

2010-05-05T17:36:00.000-07:00

FINALLY... finished ALL of my 80s movie posters. An 11th hour decision had me taking out Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and replacing it with FIRST BLOOD (aka, Rambo 1). The titles in that series make no sense. How a movie named "Rambo" can come AFTER a movie named "Rambo 3" blows my mind. Anyway, here's the poster.

Also, here's a shot of all six of them, showing how they will be hung on the wall for commencement. Yay.

Gremlins!

2010-05-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

Part 5 of 6 of my 80's movie posters. This one was a fun one (and a fast one). I'm happy with how it turned out, and that I got to do something with a little bit more going on compositionally, without completely abandoning the style that I had done the other posters in. This is also the most colorful poster to date. Also, I love any chance that I get to draw monsters, even tiny little ones.

80s movie poster number 4

2010-04-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hey, so I totally haven't posted anything in a really long time, but I've been finishing my comic, working on music, and getting ready for LIFE. Anyway. I'll be finishing up that series of 80's movie posters. Here is number 4. It's something a little bit more comfortable for me in terms of subject matter (clearly), as it is Friday the 13th: the Final Chapter.

I felt a little bit weird doing a sequel, but Jason is such an iconic 80's character that I just HAD to do something with him in it. Unfortunately, as you and I both know, Jason was not the killer in the first movie (at least you'll know that if you've seen Friday the 13th... or Scream). Besides that, Jason doesn't get the hockey mask until Part 3, and if we're already going to do a sequel, I'd much rather do one of the better sequels, and The Final Chapter (it's not really the final chapter, there were 6 more after it, plus Freddy vs Jason, and a remake) is easily the best movie in the series.

Also, you can't really tell, because glasses are covering his face, but the kid on the right is Corey Feldman, playing Tommy Jarvis.

The Terminator

2010-03-23T14:20:00.000-07:00

here's poster number 3 from my series of 80's posters... Terminator. Check it!

Spring break = lots of work

2010-03-18T13:24:00.001-07:00

So rather than actually going somewhere and/or doing something for Spring Break, I decided to take the week to work on illustration, and as a result, I have yet another poster for you. It is also yet another John Hughes movie, this time, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I had a bit of trouble getting the colors to do what I wanted them to do. I still might go back and tweak it. We'll see.

and now for something TOTALLY different.

2010-03-12T20:12:00.000-08:00

The Oscars had a badass tribute to John Hughes, so I felt the need to do this, as I was planning on doing some movie posters to put in my portfolio anyway. I know, I know... this seems like an odd choice for me to want to illustrate, especially with Hughes having made movies like Weird Science and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but something about this movie is just SO 80's. Also, I wanted to draw Molly Ringwald, so it was either this, 16 Candles, or The Breakfast Club, and the Breakfast Club already has a poster that is practically more iconic than the movie itself.

I tried a few new things in this piece. First, I wanted it to be kind of graphic, but also kind of loose, and try to get it done using just my pencil lines, no ink. Let me know what you think!

Forum of 40 Champions

2010-03-01T06:44:00.000-08:00

Something different. I'm in an exhibition at the Creative Alliance, though it's not illustration, it's a small figure at the scale of Warhammer figures. In the image that shows them as cards, it's the second row, 4th from the left. The exhibition is up until March 10th. Go check it out!

Mike Patton

2010-02-25T15:15:00.000-08:00

Here's another portrait. This time it's singer/songwriter/actor/genius Mike Patton. He was the singer for such bands as Faith No More, Mr Bungle, Fantomas, Tomahawk, Peeping Tom, General Patton vs the Executioners, and even did an EP with the Dillinger Escape Plan. The man is my favorite musician. Period.

Toshiro Mifune

2010-02-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

So I felt the need to continue in this style that I had done the Biggie Smalls piece in, even though I couldn't work it into a class this semester. That, and I decided that my portfolio needed some more things in it. So, I plan on doing roughly one new piece a week, outside of class. This is the first one, a portrait of Toshiro Mifune in stipple. If you don't know who this actor is, you need to check him out. He was in a lot of the old Akira Kurosawa movies (Seven Samurai, Rashmon, Ran, Throne of Blood). He's one of the best actors to ever live (see: LEGIT).

So this isn't VISUAL art, but I'm gonna post it anyway.

2010-02-02T18:27:00.001-08:00

In case you don't know me, or don't know me that well, I create music. My current project, the one I have been doing for a little over a year, is an electro-house project named VEKTR (yes, like the mathematical equations that run Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Flash, only spelled incorrectly). The point is, I have just posted a TON of stuff for download, which includes the album, The Enigma Codex, The Lost Levels EP, and my halves of splits with Belliacher and Faith in the Glitch.

Here's the link... http://vektr.bandcamp.com

Go download some stuff... IT'S FREE!

A few Leftovers

2010-01-28T13:10:00.001-08:00

These are a few images from a class last semester that I wanted to go back into and add things to.

This one needed a background, so I scanned a simple wash and added it in.

These were originally part of a series of four, but I'm not particularly happy with how the other two turned out, so they're residing on my computer for the time being.

And now for something completely different...

2010-01-15T12:13:00.001-08:00

Here are scans of my sketchbook. These are just various life drawings that I've done while on the go. A lot of them are at Penn Station, here in Baltimore, some on the train, and some at a Borders in a mall in Connecticut. They're done in a small moleskin sketchbook (which is why everything is yellowed out a bit). I've been trying hard to sketch from life as much as possible, so having a sketchbook that I can fit in my pocket and bring with me helps. Just thought I'd share them. Nobody posed for any of these, I just tried to find people who were sitting relatively still.

The Hellbound Heart

2009-12-15T13:54:00.000-08:00

OK, so I have two finals down (does a happy jig) and two to go. One of those is a research class, so you won't be seeing any art from that, and one of the ones I have done is my thesis, which I'm not posting just yet. ANYWAY, what this means is that I have brand new images for your eyes to see! These are a series of pieces done for The Hellbound Heart, by Clive Barker (the novella that inspired the movie, Hellraiser). While I do love that movie (as well as the first sequel, but none of the ones after that), it just does not hold a candle to the novella. I tried keeping things a bit closer to the book, meaning downplaying Pinhead, since he's just not that important a character.

So anyway... take a look.

Biggie Biggie Biggie, can't you see? Sometimes your words just hypnotize me...

2009-11-16T08:38:00.000-08:00

So here is something a bit different for your eyes to behold. This is a portrait of notorious rapped Biggie Smalls (pun intended) done entirely in stipple (rendering using tiny little dots). Now you may be asking yourself things such as "Why stipple!? Why Rap!? Why NOW!??!??" The assignment had to be in stipple, and it had to be a portrait, so I chose the artist that happened to be in my CD player (yes, I still have a CD player) at that particular moment. I have an extremely eclectic taste in music, so if you assume I only listen to metal, think again. This was my first venture into the world of stipple and I now have a love/hate relationship with it, that I believe would be more accurately described as simply a hate relationship. Stippling is not fun. It takes a long time, it's tedious, and it hurts me psychically. Unfortunately, I was extremely happy with how this turned out, so I have no excuse to stop doing it, unlike my watercolor work, where I hated doing it AND it turned out looking terrible. You win this round, stipple. You win. Below is the aforementioned portrait.

Now that the new work is out of the way, a few updates on other fronts. I have another new image that I was tossing around the idea of putting online, but as it is part of a series, I decided to wait until the series is done, at which time I will post all of them. Also be on the look out for an illustration of an urban version of the Greek goddess Persephone, and I've been going back into the Hamlet poster. I want to give it somewhat of a weathered look to it, and haven't quite gotten it looking how I want it yet. When I have more time hopefully I'll get that done and posted. That's all for now.

Hamlet, the final frontier....

2009-10-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hamlet in space. Dig it.

a quick update. New piece.

2009-09-21T13:28:00.001-07:00

So I'm gonna add some more to the pirates when I get the chance. For now, enjoy this image of a doorknob.

new colors

2009-09-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

Just an update on the colors for the cannibal pirates....

Snakes and Cannibal Pirates

2009-09-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

Here's just a couple of quick assignments for my inking independent study and the Illustrated Book. The first is a one week assignment of a snake, done in sumi ink with a teeny tiny little brush. The second is a two week assignment for the Illustrated book. We had to illustrate alliteration, so I did Captain Carl's Cannibal Cookout. I had fun with these pieces and it was good to get back into the swing of things with some kind of low key assignments. More to come.

Cleaning out the junk

2009-09-05T12:56:00.001-07:00

Don't get excited, nothing new yet (but soon... very soon there will be!). Just a basic update. Cleaned out the blog of a couple of the older images, and just some of the ones I don't really like for various reasons (usually because I think they are a bad representation of my work). Anyway, you'll notice that a lot of the things in the illustration section and sequential / comics section are gone, and the design section is gone in it's entirety (I'm not a designer, and while I do still like quite a few of the things from that section, I don't want to promote myself falsely). I might also switch some things from illustration to sketchbook, since they were never meant to be finished illustrations, but were meant as practice and whatnot. I'll keep the Jason Lives piece in the illus section, because that's pretty complete. A couple of the black and white ones though might get switched. Also noticed that I never put that Pumpkinhead piece into a section, just posted in the news part, so I've got to do that as well.

Enough rambling. I'm sure you don't care about the reorganizing of this blog, unless you're sad that the Happy Hellraiser and Bee Barf images are gone.

I have another piece in Morpheus Tales magazine. It should in Issue 6 (I think), so check that out. I'm also in issues 3 and 4, just so you know. There is also something else in the works coming up, but I don't want to jinx anything just yet. We'll see what pans out. Also Thesis. Yeah, thesis has begun, so eventually you'll see a longer sequential piece (12 pages!) and another one much later. I don't plan on posting the entire thing, but maybe a sample after it's done, but that's far from completion right now. Also, there will be a longer project in one of my other classes, so don't expect a lot of updates to this blog, and then a MASSIVE update at the end of the semester (around December). I've got a few smaller things coming up though, so I'll get at least a few things up here.

Anyway, the near future should at the very least be interesting.

Jason LIVES!!!!

2009-08-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

Just something a bit new for your eyes to see.

Pumpkinhead

2009-07-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here's something a bit new, forcing myself to get better with a brush and practice digital coloring a bit more this summer. Also, it's god damn Pumpkinhead.

Experiments with brush

2009-06-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

So I decided I need to force myself get better with a brush. Here's what I've come up with. These are some rough things, just kind of experiments. I've had Friday the 13th on the brain lately, so here is a Jason picture for you. It's BAG Jason, ala Part II. I think I'm gonna do more Friday the 13th related stuff in the upcoming weeks. Someone suggested doing a Jason progression, since he's changed a lot over the years. We shall see...

Finals and Updating and whatnot

2009-05-07T16:23:00.000-07:00

I'm rather sleep deprived right now, so I'm leave this pretty brief. I'm finished with all of the work for my finals, and here it is for your viewing pleasure. First, some concept art based on the old arcade game, Primal Rage!

Next, we have a circus poster (in the loosest definition of the word). This is a portrait of John Wayne Gacy, a serial killer who raped and murdered at least 33 boys in the Chicago area and buried them in the crawlspace beneath his house. Yeah, he was pretty messed up.

Logan's Run

2009-04-28T00:32:00.000-07:00

You're definitely going to be seeing a lot of new work in the next few weeks. Firstly, we have Logan's Run. For my illustration Concepts II final, the assignment was to create concept art for a video game adaptation of Logan's Run, Things to Come, or Zardoz. I chose Logan's Run, and as is the way with concept art, I have done a LOT of drawings based on this film. The final piece was to be characters interacting in an environment, and here is what I have to show. This is the scene where Logan V meets Box, the super cool android. You can also check out some of the sketches over in the sketchbook section.

ALSO CHECK OUT THE SKETCHES!!!

Something completely unrelated to schoolwork

2009-04-10T00:10:00.001-07:00

So if you know me fairly well then you will know that I create electronic music. If you know me, but not fairly well then listening to this music will come as an utter shock to you, since I do come across as fairly "metal," but I assure you, I listen to a lot of music that doesn't consist of screaming and references to decapitations and/or Satan.

I create electronic dance music under the pseudonym, VEKTR. Yeah, it's cool to spell things wrong. Now, you may be saying, "but Zak! I thought this blog was about your artwork! Pens and paper! Photoshop and illustrator!" Well hold your horses, because I'm getting to that part. I am currently hard at work on my debut album for the VEKTR project, and since it is somewhat near completion, I have made a mock-up of the album cover. This may or may not stay, and the same goes for the album name.

It's a shame she won't live, but then again who does?

2009-04-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

Hey there, just uploaded the Baba Yaga pieces that have been living in my computer for a little while, as well as a new piece. I'm prepping everything for the internship fair tomorrow, and I have a business card design up and running. Just printed them out in some sexy gray and not-so-sexy manilla.

Also, here is a new piece done in pastel, which I've never really delved into much before. I liked working with it a lot. To add on to the fun, this is a portrait of Roy Batty from Blade Runner, which is one of the best science fiction films I have ever seen. Ridley Scott is the man.

"More Human Than Human"

Also be sure to check out those Baba Yaga pieces over in the illustration section.

here's one more thing

2009-02-11T06:39:00.001-08:00

It is 9:41 AM, and I've been in the Fox building computer lab all night for the second night in a row. Here's something for your eyeballs. Also check out the Poe stuff from my post yesterday.

Poe

2009-02-10T03:04:00.000-08:00

Starting up the new semester with a whole lot of Edgar Allan Poe. There's three new pieces up, two being from "The Fall of the House of Usher" and the other being for "The Raven." The raven piece was my first time using scratch board, and I actually liked it quite a bit. I might experiment with it some more in the future. It lends itself quite nicely to taking a very graphic approach. The Usher pieces are part of a much larger production that is being organized by Jose Villarubia. It is a performance of the story in the BBox Theater on February 20th and 21st.

Oh, and I'm being the doctor in it...

February 20-21
8 p.m.
Black Box theatre at the Gateway 1601 Mount Royal Avenue
Fall of the House of Usher
This one-act, experimental performance piece is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s masterpiece and features artwork and sets by MICA illustration students. As part of Baltimore’s Nevermore 2009 celebration, Baltimore native and Obie Award-winning playwright and director David Drake has conceived and will direct The Fall of the House of Usher, a one-act, experimental performance piece inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s masterpiece. It will be performed by MICA students from across disciplines and features lighting and multimedia projections designed by MICA staff member Kel Millionie--performance space technician for BBOX--and artwork and sets by illustration students from faculty member Jose Villarrubia’s classes. FREE

So go check it out.

FINALS

2008-12-17T03:07:00.001-08:00

HURRAH!!! I'm done with all of my studio finals, and here is the outcome. I'm gonna keep this short since I just uploaded a LOT of images.

CLICK HERE for a comic about a Viking

CLICK HERE for 6 horror movie illustrations and a zombie landscape

2008-12-13T00:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't really updated in a little while, as I have been extremely busy. Finals! Oh JOY! Anyway, I have a few things that will be up sometime in the next week or so, including zombies, George Romero, lots of horror illustrations, and a 5 page comic about a viking fighting a troll. Also black metal. Other than that, I am in two publications at the moment. Firstly, In Orbit, a book put together by the Illustration and Sequential Art Clubs at MICA to showcase the talent in the department. Secondly, the new issue of Morpheus Tales, a horror / scifi / fantasy magazine which is coming out in January features a couple of my illustrations for a story called "Produce." In the meantime, here is a recent comic that I have just gone into and fixed up. This one is a children's comic in the vein of Goosebumps, and it's in COLOR. This is the first one that I have done in full color, so that is exciting. Check it out below.

New Comic

2008-11-10T22:54:00.000-08:00

Here is some new work from my sequential art class. This is a 3 page comic that is a bit of back story to something larger that I am working on.

Morpheus Tales

2008-10-14T00:03:00.000-07:00

OK! So here is a magazine that I've been doing some work for. If you check their website I'm listed under "the team." I have some work in Issue 3, which should be coming out sometime in November. It's a horror / science fiction / fantasy magazine that is still fairly new, so you should probably go check them out! Click on the banner below for their website.

That's really all for now. Just wanted to plug the magazine. Other than that, expect a few things to be coming soon, including some horror comics and maybe a drawing of the Monkey King from Journey to the West, since I kind of want to do one, and might end up doing it over Fall Break for fun.

SPX and Hack Slash

2008-10-08T00:44:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update. SPX was cool, though I didn't stay as long as I did at Comicon, since it was a lot smaller. I also spent faaaaaaar less money, which is a good thing. I did walk away with four books, though. I picked up the three volumes of Daybreak, because my teacher (Brian Ralph) did them and he stomps a whole lot of ass. They completely weren't what I was execting, but they were great nonetheless. It got really heavy towards the end. I also picked up a book called "Too Cool To Be Forgotten" which I had heard of before but hadn't gotten the chance to read. I talked to the artist / writer (Alex Robinson) and he was really cool. He gave me some good advice, and I've got a few things to work on outside of schoolwork now.

And speaking of work outside of schoolwork, here is a picture of Cassie and Vlad that I did for fun.

Comicon and Massive Update

2008-09-30T01:29:00.000-07:00

So a lot is happening right now! First off, the Baltimore comicon was this past weekend and it ROCKED!!! I got to meet a lot of awesome people and tried to get some advice and feedback and things to that nature. I got to see Erik Larsen there, which was awesome and a half, since I am a huge Savage Dragon fan. I also met David Mack, the creator / writer / artist of Kabuki, and I talked to him for like 15 minutes. He was one of the nicest people there and if you're not familiar with his art then go out and get familiar, because he kicks a whole lot of ass.

Other interesting things included a book called Shiver in the Dark. The art is really interesting and from what I've read of it so far (I have a stack of things I need to bust through) the story seems pretty intruiging as well. The artist / writer Stuart Sayger was really nice and gave me a lot of advice on how to break into the business which was really helpful. He also had some prints there which were gorgeous. I also picked up a huge print of batman and the scarecrow in black and white pencil. It was from a Batman Black and White story (which I loved when I read it in the comic) and it was done by Tommy Castillo. He had some prints for sale of paintings he had done and they were really great. A lot of batman, horror, and fantasy stuff.

I also saw a panel / interview with Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing) and he was really awesome. I picked up a nice bundle of horror comics, one of which being a Halloween comic, which has a couple different artists in, one of which (Jeff Zornow) was at the table that I bought the comic at. He did a segment in the book about a comic that characters in the book are reading. Spiders. Oh yes. As I was flipping through, I noticed another segment that had some VERY familiar art. I checked on who the artist was, and low and behold, it was Brett Weldele, who I became familiar with after reading the Surrogates.

But I doubt you want to hear about every little thing that happened at the 'con, so let's get to the art.

Alright, so I have 4 new pieces for all of your little prying eyes. First off, there are two pieces that were done on commission for Morpheus Tales Magazine. They're for a short story titled "Produce."

Next up, are two class related pieces. A one page comic, which is my second attempt at the roommates assignment, and an instructional comic on how to properly eat a cocoa bean.

That's all for now. Next weekend is SPX (Small Press Expo) and I'll be bringing a portfolio to show some publishers. Keep checking this blog, because I am going to start updating a LOT. I might scan some more sketchbook stuff soon.

A bit of an update

2008-09-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a one page comic I did for class. This is the same assignment as "The Knight," but this time it had to be one page instead of two. I was very pleased with how this one turned out.

God damn you, Diablo

2008-09-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

So I have recently gotten completely HOOKED into Diablo 2. Not as hooked as some of the WOW-ers out there, mind you, but the game is rather addicting none-the-less. Long story short, videos of Diablo 3 are floating around the internet, and the first brand new class that they have shown is the Witch Doctor, which looks EXTREMELY BADASS!

So I felt the need to draw a witch doctor. I also wanted to experiment a bit with a new style, as I have been trying to cement something all summer. I've been absorbing as much Bruce Timm and Mike Mignola as possible, but the artist that really altered my style in the most positive way (at least I think it was positive) was a Korean artist named Min Woo Hyung. He does a book called Priest, and the art is very unique, especially for something released by Tokyopop.

It's also pretty interesting to see a Western about Christian Mythology come out of a Manga company.

Anyway... here's that Witch Doctor.

Horror Icons

2008-08-04T13:49:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I've been doing a LOT of sketchbook work over the summer, just in some attempt to get my chops up. The other thing I have been doing, is watching a whole lot of movies, many of them being in horror genre, and many of those in the slasher sub-genre. So here are a couple drawings I did recently. You should recognize both of them.

Six Bullets From Now

2008-06-13T20:14:00.001-07:00

I was recently asked to design a logo for a friend of mines' band, Six Bullets From Now. He wanted something simple, and iconic, so here is what I came up with. I also made a few different versions of his album cover, but he hasn't decided on which one he's going to use yet. I'll post that whenever he decided.

Superman redesign

2008-06-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

So Project Rooftop is doing a contest to redesign the first superhero, Superman. I thought it would be a good opportunity to try some stuff out and hopefully start getting my name out there. We'll see how it goes. I've sent in my design, and I'm posting it under the illustration section, but here it is

also, there are two new comics in the Sequential section. "The Stranger," and a collaborative mini comic between myself and Rob Schachter. Go check them out.

Update

2008-06-05T13:58:00.001-07:00

Huuuuuuge update. Everything is divided up into nice neat sections now. I wanted it to look somewhat professional. This page will still have my commentaries, rantings, and ravings, but if you want to ignore them and just look at the art, that is now an option, too.

New shit

2008-05-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, so a slew of new images. First off, we have a quick in-class assignment I did. We were supposed to show something transforming from one state to another. Here is what I came up with.
Next we have some updates on that Knight. Here is the colored version of the Knight, and the two page comic featuring him.

Knight

2008-05-24T11:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I started my Summer class on Thursday, Character Development and Sequential Art with Brian Ralph. Our first assignment is a castaway project, and I'll be doing a two page comic for this guy, but here is the main character in all of his knightly glory. I also started to do a color version of this, but I haven't completed it as of yet.

Updates

2008-05-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm updating a few things here in this blog. First thing, two of the links have been changed in the "peers" section. Slam Bosma (sure, his real name is Sam, but this nickname is far too cool not to use every chance I get) is updating his url in roughly a week or so, so I changed the link (so that I don't have to do it later and then forget. If you are having trouble reaching his page, then it either means that he has not updated the url yet, in which case, go check out http://theredcenteroftheearth.blogspot.com for his blog, or it means that I misspelled his new url, in which case, feel free to slap me with a boxing glove wrapped in razor wire (they call it the stinger). The second change is to the Link entitled KALI CIESEMIER. I originally had a link to her official web page (which you can locate here), but now there is a link to her blog instead.

Also, a brand new coloring of the SHADOW!!!

digital goat masque

2008-05-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

ok, so this isn't visual, but check out my music. It's black metal guitaring mixed with aphex twin or venetian snares style breakcore.

CHECK IT OUT

Shirt design

2008-05-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

This is a redesign of a shirt I did earlier in the year. I'm much happier with this version than I was with the original. It took a very short time to do, but people seem to like it a lot, so here it is. I'm considering actually printing shirts of this design.

the image up close

and here is how it would be placed on a shirt, as well as the quote that inspired the image

new stuff

2008-05-06T19:48:00.001-07:00

The Shadow knows!

Altered the color of this image recently, made it a lot darker, so it would fit the mood better

Scarecrow

2008-04-20T00:55:00.000-07:00

a quick coloring of the Scarecrow from Batman

Venom

2008-04-09T16:17:00.001-07:00

just a quick coloring I did of Venom for practice in photoshop.

Beatnik

2008-04-08T21:45:00.001-07:00

This one is weird... for some reason whenever I upload it to the blog it completely rearranges the colors. I uploaded it to photobucket and linked it instead.

Forest God

2008-04-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

This is another project for class, an illustration of a "literary exquisite corpse."

Sanguinarian ablum cover

2008-04-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

Album cover for my black metal project, Sanguinarian. I designed the logo as well as the cover. This was the second cd, entitled "Bleak."

Glaurung Logo

2008-04-08T09:11:00.001-07:00

A logo I designed for black metal band, Glaurung.

Collage

2008-04-08T09:07:00.001-07:00

An experiment in collage. I had never worked in that medium before in depth, so I wanted to experiment with it a bit.

Happy Hellraiser

2008-04-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

This one speaks for itself. It's a cartoon version of Pinhead and the Chatterer from the Hellraiser movies. My club (the MICA Viking Clan) got Hellraiser shown on the big screen at MICA around Halloween time. This was an idea for a poster that never ended up being used. I found it in a sketch book and decided to vector it and color it. I just kind of thought it would be a funny visual.

Bee-Barf

2008-04-08T08:58:00.001-07:00

This was a project for my illustration 2 class. It was submitted to Weekend America to be an ecard.

more sketchbook studies

2008-04-08T08:34:00.001-07:00

a few Marvel characters

a couple more

everyone loves a clown

sketchbook stuff

2008-04-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

Here is just a selection of various doodles and rough pieces from various sketchbooks.random monster

The Savage Dragon and the Maxx

studies of Leatherface