A Steaming Pile

I was originally going to make a TS Eliot  "Waste Land" reference (since that god forsaken poem's monopolised my entire head-space over the course of the week) but this title seamed like a more apt, lowbrow substitute, I think.  Much like the poem, though, we're going to traverse the debris of my efforts at creativity and contemplate the nature of the imminent rebirth.  Is there hope for a fertile future or has this arid terrain doomed me to sterility?

... And on that cheerful note, I present the Beast of the Apocalypse:

How on Earth did he get that wife-beater on??

Hellboy is, by a considerable margin, my favourite Superhero of all time, if I can even call him that.  What Mignola does with pulp literature, Gothic poetry, and a wide array of supernatural folklore and classic mythology sources,all on the pages of a comic book, is nothing short of genius. Which is why it's so odd that it's taken me so long to draw draw him (I done fanart of Tess Mercer for godsake!). The accompanying text is a quote from Nick Cave's Red Right Hand, which is such a perfect fit for Hellboy (I still remember buggin' out when it played in the movie) even though the song itself is completely unrelated to Hellboy. Interestingly enough, the whole Red Right Hand thing originally comes from John Milton's Paradise Lost (deep with the epic poetry today!) and refers to the exact opposite of both the figure in the song  and Hellboy.  Overall, I was happy with my tanktop-wearing interpretation of Hellboy (I've since seen much room for improvement), which marked  a significant step forward in my colouring techniques and from-building.

From one apocalyptic beast to two others:  These guys are the Twin Angels previously known as Toku and Rykou (Those names are soon to be changed). They are the two main characters of a series I once called Absolute Power (The title is also Subject to change... Did I mention I was 13 when I thought this up? Back then, I got really deep into Angeology and Demonology. I was also really into Shounen Anime. And Metal Gear. The end result of all those passions eventually turned into a series known as "Absolute Power"). They find themselves on opposite sides of a war that'll determine the fate of humanity. They are also the key to the war's end, as they are both the hosts of an apocalyptic power known as the Toren Beast (that I'm keeping). Their designs were vaguely inspired by Solid and Liquid from the Metal Gear Solid series (which would be more apparent if I'd presented full-body pics, but...), another all-time favourite of mine. 

These guys, or two of them at least, were shown on my very first "exhibition".  From left to right we have Joe, Raziel and Malik. Raziel and Malik are the half-breed sons of twin Angels (sort of), making them Gregori (Hence the title) while Joe is regular human (Ha! A Regular Joe, amiright!) with a supersuit.  The three of them are the main characters of second half of the story, which I hope to at least take a quick look at again some time soon.  As you can probably tell, if you cared to look closer, these last two drawings are a lot older than most on this, employing my older style. They are of the last that I did from this soon-to-be-renamed series. 

And speaking of chain-smoking, Gravelly-voiced one-man-army super clones...  here are my first Solid Snake attempts. The drawings, which I immensely enjoyed colouring, were just from a bunch of sketches I did when I should've been studying.  I just liked how they came out (despite questionable anatomy in some areas) so I ran with it (or them).  Hopefully I'll get to doing a Snake a Solid (when you're on fire, you're on fire!) one of these days.

So what can one glean from this coalescence of epochs that now lays before us, soon to join a forgotten pocket in the flow of time?  I can not begin to guess what the answer may be for anyone who reads this, but for me, there are awaits a hope for improvement. Room to build on what's come before.  And, like the viaduct resembling a bird of doom in the aforementioned Nick Cave song, a looming countenance of despair. 

That wasn't pretentious at all.

Friend of Friend

Al right.  So I won't even bother with any introductions.  As far as introductions go, I would say may skills range from competent to tragic, which largely means they never really dazzle (And honestly, they only ever  meander around the vicinities of apologetic and self-indulgent).  As such, the prudent thing would be to skip them, I think.  I have some time.  I have some art to show.  Let's do it(D'oh! How was that for an introduction?).

One of the curses of being an artist (or an aspiring artist, rather) is that you are inevitably asked by friends and relatives to draw things for them.  And while it never occurs to them that drawing is as much work as balancing a ledger is, you're always obliged to do it.  Sometimes begrudgingly, but you do it.  In this particular instance, I was relentlessly hounded by one of my good friends for well over a year. And after much dragging and procrastination, I eventually got around to it, using it as an opportunity to try and emulate something I'd seen on Rad Sechrist's Blog.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed myself.  So much so, in fact, that I soon followed with this:

Not only was I glad to do these, but I was glad that they were glad when they saw them.

Sometimes though, you're friends' creations inspire you to draw something for them.This character is the protagonist of an upcoming comic book series known as Soul Heir which will be, if I'm not mistaken, written and illustrated by THIS GUY. I honestly don't know that much about plot details and such (post apocalyptic type setting with an "Assassin's Creed meets Jak 3" type feel from what I can tell) but Haki over here looks pretty badass and I couldn't help doing some fan art. I took a few liberties with the costume but I tried to stay as true to the spirit of the character as I could.  Look out for Soul Heir this December.

Some fans need to calm down...

And every so often, I dabble in social commentary.  I drew this a while ago when I'd first heard about the DC Reboot and the protests that were going around. For the record, I'm not happy about the reboot either, but I just thought the reaction and some of the things that were being said at the time were a bit over the top, and it resulted in this little satirical (and hopefully humerous) piece. Weird how my mind works sometimes. I would do a lot more of these but, sadly, I'm not that funny (that I had to explain this a number of times to a number of people should be proof enough).

I should stop there.  While I'm still not posting as frequently as I'd like, I think it's somewhat commendable that I managed to beat the very neat five-month gap that separated the last two entries.  Catch you on the flippidy-flip.

"Like the Sundance Kid Behind a Synthesizer..."

Because I love quoting Arctic Monkeys, that's why.  Yes, it's been quite a while.  In fact I think this is only my second post for the year! And what a year it's been.  Once again I would like to take the time to assure you (and once again I hope you take me on my word)  that's these hands have not been idle.  At the very least, they've taken to the task of  tearing my hair out (quite literally in a lot of cases) while trying to construct functioning universes, polishing my style and storytelling abilities and working to develop the best possible products for impending deadlines.  Overall, sharpening my skills as a creative  individual.  While there's really no excuse for my infrequency, I hope this batch of drawings will begin to make up for it and perhaps prompt me to become more regular (Ha!).

What's this?  Why it's TJ and his good friend Haku, who hails from another dimension! This is just a bit of Pseudo fan-art I did featuring TJ and Deviantart friend's character Haku.  At this point, I was really starting to get conceptual with the illustrations I made and made an active effort to place what I drew in some kind of context.  Don't ask me why TJ has his face painted like that, but what I do know is that the design he has also doubles as a clue to one of the many aspects of the FuZioN U.  Yes, that aspect does involve cute little monsters.

And speaking of Fan  art:

Yeah!  I did some Batman fan art.  Mainly because...  Well, why not?   I hadn't ever really drawn Batman before but I quickly came to some understanding of why so many other people had.  Weezy is awesome to draw!

Yeah, It wasn't long before I was on to the next one.  Aside from the "weird-factor" of a single billionaire spending all his time with a thirteen-year-old, there was always something very cute about The Batman and Robin dynamic, especially when it came to Bruce and Dick. And the Batman Universe in general (an aspect which, as much as Nolan and other fanboys may vehemently deny, is intrinsic to the character).  Anyway, I tried to bear that in mind when pencilling these images and for the most part, I think they reflect that.

This next piece of fan art (which, in case you hadn't already guessed, is the theme for my latest entry) was just a sketch I had lying around that I decided to colour one afternoon (or was it evening?).  Very few can match the badassery that this man exudes.  I hope I did him justice.

And one last one before I go.  I know I JUST said that the theme was fan art, but I think I'll make an exception for this piece (think it ties up with the emphasis on context thing I was talking about earlier, anyway).  I had a little fun with creating a faux-pulp comic cover for a a random picture of a few characters I had lying around (hence: "Randomites".  How do I come up with this stuff?!)  Not only was this a challenge to push my drawing style (you may not be able to tell, but there's a lot of "perspective-y" stuff I tried out), but it also posed compositional and palette challenges (design lingo out the window!) that got me into expanding the scope of my images beyond just character design.

If there's an overarching theme to this blog post (apart from fan art), it would be growth.  I suppose you could say the same for my entire blog, but I just feel that this selection of images particularly represent turning points for me as an artist, which line up quite nicely with where I am right now.  Sometimes, as you improve, what follows your sense of accomplishment, is an overwhelming feeling of self-doubt and it almost starts to feel as if you get worse.  As you move on to a higher tier of expertise and clarity, the expectations you have for yourself move doubly so.  I have reached so many lows this year that I sometimes think giving up might be the wise thing to do.  There's nothing worse than being average among excellence, if that makes any sense.  But then occasionally, one stumbles onto a development- be it a better understanding of anatomy, or a clever design, or a solution to a plot hole, or whatever-  that reinvigorates that impetus to the point that it near consumes you, and letting go essentially means death...

Or something like that.

And Now Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

Because it's been a while, that's why. This is my first blog of the year, and I think it'd be prudent to get all the admin out the way.  First and foremost, I'd like to reassure everyone that I'm still alive.  Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. Secondly, I'd like to thank all (three?) of my new followers and also apologise for having nothing to offer until now.  Despite what my last entry may have suggest, my juggling skills are currently far from masterful, and I've found that I've often had to sacrifice a few things - this blog,unfortunaltey, being one of them for all of December and January - in order to get some of the more pressing tasks done.  I've still got tons on my plate but I think it's way overdue that I make time for this much neglected blog.  But, that's neither here nor there, I suppose. What is here, or what should be here, is my collection of pictures, which I'm about to get to.

Starting with this cutie. I remember promising that we'd be delving back into that mystic nook known as the FuZioN Universe, and sure enough, here we are, kicking it off with one of it's main characters, who has taken an astonishingly long time to make an appearance.  I give yiou Ms. Katrina Summers.  She'll be TJ's foil and eventual kind-of-love-interest.  I know she looks like a bit of a cliche(Attractive blonde as the leading lady is so 90s) but hopefully her personality will make up for it. I assure you, she has quite the personality.

That being said, this isn't her final appearance, but was the the first batch of drawings that showed me the way to go. Her final appearance looks closer to the person she was based on and less... "Depro" (which was the sort of vibe I got from these sketches).

See what I mean?  This is her in her much perkier, more streamlined final appearance.   I also feel this version really allows much more consistency as far, as far as drawing the character goes. Yeah, I know it's just head-shots but that's what I was focusing on at the time.  And yes, the two at the bottom have a slightly different hairstyle/head shape, but the face model had already been established at this point so I didn't think it was that big a deal (plus those two just have so much attitude!)

And this is Lisa Bleu(originally spelt "Blue"...But then I took up French), yet another member of H.A.W.K.E Industries.  I'm not sure what was going through my head when I drew the first Lisa and Katrina concepts but these characters looked way too morose for my liking afterwards.  Her current design(which I've yet to colour) is slightly cheerier, but the badass 'tude is all left intact(I think).  I think  I'll keep the characters details to myself for now.

And last but not least by a long shot, we have Champion of the FuZioN U himself, TJ!  Over my one-and-a-half years of Photoshopping, I've really grown to love doing is messing around with textures.  Especially grungy ones.  But ironically enough, I hardly ever get to use them.  This picture represents one of those moments when I could finally let loose and (tastefully) go crazy with applying some chaotic grunge.One thing I always ask myself when looking at this picture, though, is what could possibly be happening in this moment that TJ would need to stand like that?  Seriously!  Although I suppose it's not half as random as...

This last number. Yes, last. And inspite of it's randomness, I really enjoyed cooking up some poses for Chibi TJ.  Maybe a Gaiden of Chibi TJ shorts might be in order?

Hope this tepid return wasn't a disappointment to all those eagerly in waiting(because we all know how sought after my thoughts are).  I'd like to think the drawings will help make up for my being less than forthcoming with the FuZioN U goings on.  I don't know if I've mentioned this beore, but after reading Nicholas Cole's blog, I've decided become a lot more calculating about what sort of info should and should not be given out.  It's nice to get readers involved and divulge the inner workings of characters and their motivations and roles, but you really don't want to pull the curtain too far back and reveal too much.  Some of the mystery still needs to be retained even if that means keeping aloof at times.  So I guess this is me trying to find the balance. Bare with me.

Master Juggler

...And in this entry, we shall travel back and and forth(but mostly back) through the sporadic mess that is my oeuvre, as we attempt to distil genius and bottle inspiration.  Okay, well maybe it's not as dramatic as that, but this entry does focus largely on updates of older works and ideas that I've had for a while. This may come as a shock to some, but over the years, I have come up with a multitude of ideas and concepts that have sparked my imagination that I simply have not had time to work on (be it due to to a lack of motivation or an actual lack of time), which has inevitably led to a mass of my properties left neglected and unnurtured (which I'm shocked to find is widely not recognised as a real word!).

Oh, Daikan... Will your will the hardships and perils of your quest ever be told?  This, as the date suggests, is a fairly old image, being done in '09, although the concept was thought up as early as '07.  The basic idea of this story revolves around a spiky-haired protagonist (don't they all?) known as the Daikan, who single-handedly challenges an empire of  monsters known as the Sheyde. That's it.  A lot of these ideas may not sound that complicated or even that original but frankly I've long given up on trying to create a completely original story.  That feat has proven, in this day and age, to be quite literally impossible, as well as superfluous when you consider that the highest grossing film of all time is basically cookie-cutter copy of the most common tropes and story structures ever known.  Even Harry Potter is incredibly derivative in it's nature! No. What matters is the execution of the idea you have, the dimensions and believability of the worlds you create(which sadly, still doesn't apply to Avatar).

I dug up the Daikan property in the efforts of honing those aforementioned qualities in my storytelling and illustration. But my head is a fickle one and I've only recently gotten around to developing the world of the Daikan, this being the first step:

Character consistency aside, I think this series of sketches I did begin to capture the spirit and attitude of the world I'm trying to create.  The script for a Daikan one-shot has already been written.  It's only seven pages long and there's very little dialogue (there's roughly a page dedicated to exposition. The rest is all action) but I've packed in as much mystery and intrigue as I could into it.  Oh. Yeah. There's a bit of a "mystery" element to the narrative (did I mention?).  Not a "whodunit" type-deal or anything, but rather a mystery in the behaviour of the characters.

Speaking of characters...

If you'll recall, I proposed the idea of pitting some of my favourite characters from my "Four-A-Day" phase against in each other in a hypothetical universe.  That day has finally come(well, in reality it came a few months ago, but...)!  Remember Night Owl? Or Red Mist? (Probably not, since I didn't actually mention the name Red Mist in the entry I debuted the character)  Well, I do remember, fortunately, and I decided that they'd go toe-to-toe on one Midsummer Night.  Yeah, I know. The moon's a bit of a compositional copout, but Night Owl is a ninja, goddammit! And what kind of a ninja doesn't prance about accompanied by a full moon?! That's just...!

And SPEAKING OF "Four-A-Day" phase...

Here's the last picture I did from that era. Not in the finality sense. Just chronologically. Although, After I finished this I thought I might never go back there again, due to (as I've mentioned so many times before) how much my style has changed! Look at those legs! This is a character I really liked, which is why I proceeded(in spite of the bogus anatomy), but I think if I do do another one from back then, it probably wouldn't be without an update.

So that about wraps it up for today.  Next entry, we'll be getting back to the FuZioN U and it's infinite glory!  My swing has never been so full (think about that for a minute)!

"The Hand That Reaches From the Grave..."

Within the effort to articulate the impetus behind my art and the need to escape the banalty of being uninspired, I've finally found my inevitable return to be necessary (Yes. I talk like this now).  You may have all (three of you) been wondering what eventually became of the self-absorption and inscrutability that was this blog, well the answer is finally here, and it is an emphatic and admittedly underwhelming "Still Alive"... Things have certainly been happening, many of which I cannot discuss until the appropriate time.  In the mean time, though, let's discuss these things:

That's right!  FuZioN things!  I'm back, full-force and so is TJ.  Adjusted colour-pallet and all!  I have to say, the script for the this property is coming along so well! I'm like 50 pages in with no end in sight, but who needs to worry about things like "page count" and "Frames per page" at his stage, amiright?  Even though I'm not a 14-year-old boy any more, TJ's character (who essentially started out as nothing more than a self-insert) still fairly vivid in my head and I'm having the best time coming up with all the dialogue and character interactions.  Guess all the pre-production development and characterisations really paid off... Exactly what is up with those random floating hair things???

In the midst of all the universe moulding(which is still technically in the process, just far ahead enough to start working on basic scripts and such),  I developed a love for drawing TJ and Strike doing the most arbitrary of tasks.  Funnily enough, though, this image was integral to the development of the Sandal Empire (TEASER!) as at the time I was exploring the designs and aesthetics of various cultures 'n such...

"Merlin's Bird!" (Terrible pun)

Another important aspect of the FuZioN-U is the monsters in it.  The thing you have to learn about me is, if there's an opportunity to work cute little monsters into a story, I will do it!  Thankfully (as I'm sure I've mentioned before) the FuZioN-U is essentially built around the interactions of humans with these Pets... named as such mainly because... People keep them as pets(that's the official name for them until I can come up with something better)!  Trust me.  It's not as derivative as it sounds!... I mean, at first it was. Obviously! I was 13 and Pokemon was beyond Colossal at the time and I thought, "Hey.  Wouldn't it be great if we could each have our own little Pokemon to hang out with all the time?"  Which is why a retooling of the concept was necessary...Although, to be fair, the comics I made were never really about the Pets.  All those elements occurred in the background while the story focused on all the high-school dramedy.  Currently, I think I've managed to distance it enough from Pokemon comparisons (story-wise) that it can stand on its own.

The two new creatures featured in the images are Bolt and Merlin's yet-to-be-named Pet. Bolt (the yellow one)  belongs to Raex.  More of this shall be discussed in due time. I think that's a decent batch for now...

It has been over a year since this blog began!  Somewhere during the month of October last year, I decided it was absolutely necessary to have my drawings exhibited and discussed over the internet!  I probably should have had a "Birthday-Halloween-Double-Whammy-Special" sometime ago, but sadly the I missed both ships.  And as I watch them both sail away into that temporal sunset from whence they shall never return,  I can't help but think, "At least I bothered to come back at all!"

"Mr...'Reeks?!'...'Rucks?'...'Rakes?!?'..."

And so première's yet another instalment of one of the most inconsistent (in terms of frequency, not content) and conceited blogs to ever grace the fringes of the internet (Just listen to that hyperbole! I doubt it's THE most conceited blog, but there you have it). Yes, I'm back.  Not only to inform you of my "backness" but also to present some actual art to you. As it so happens, that time has come again, where I where the thought of doing something constructive repulses me so much that doing this is the only decent outlet available to me.  So lets make with outletting...

My passion for drawing cute little monsters has been left so neglected and unnurtured as of late, so this certainly serves as a nice reminder to myself and anyone else who might dare read this that drawing monsters is still something I do (or should do, rather).  I took a surprisingly long time to actually getting round to this.  What's crazy is that this little critter is from my 4 drawings a day phase, and looking at it, I just marvel at all the little ways my style has changes.  Yeah, I  know. We've been through this before. Moving on!

This may come as a shock to some folk, but the majority of the limited amount time I have to draw is spent developing my TJ FuZioN character as it's a project most dear to me and something that has been with me since I was 13 (and as a man at the ripe, old age of 22, I can comfortably say that this is a pretty long time). So naturally I'll have more pictures of that world than any other, meaning that the meat of this post will be almost entirely "FuZioN-U-centric".  If TJ and friends have never been of particular interest to you, now would be the time to stop reading (although objectively speaking, I'd advise you to stick around just to see exactly where this whole thing's headed).

Now, as I'd mentioned, in my last post(all those years ago) I'd devised a new and hopefully more organised method of presenting new characters, which oddly enough means I'll have to sacrifice presenting these posts in a chronological order in order to present the characters' development chronologically(I say this all the time, but just to reiterate: This blog is a few months behind the amount work I've actually put into my drawing.  Hopefully one day I'll be able to catch up and all will be right with the world).  This entry, We focus on the "newest" addition to the H.A.W.K.E Industries roster, Raex Lipton!

Yes, Raex Lipton. Questionable naming-skills aside, Raex's character, along with just about all things associated with the Hawke, is a part of the entirely fictional aspects I decided to put into TJ FuZioN this time round.  He's part of the team that will essentially help TJ realise his purpose in the world(I was going to go with "destiny", but it's such a loaded term nowadays) and take him in when the world turns on him.  As such team H.A.W.K.E. are a sort of surrogate family that adopt TJ.  That he's entirely fictional (instead of being based on someone I knew) says something of his metaphorical implications... but that's neither here nor there.I suppose.

These sketches were the first I did with the conscious thought of including Raex in the FuZioN-U.  I hadn't entirely fleshed him out and was toying with a few notions (One of the notes suggest that he was going to be Merlin Hawke's son!).  The final design and personality is incredibly different from this one.  This one's a lot cooler and more conventional than the current one, although I think the development is for the better.  Certainly makes for a more interesting character to write.  What's interesting is that, although this is the concept art, and thus one of his earliest incarnations,  this is one of the more recently coloured images. So at this point, his colour scheme is is final one even though his appearance isn't. Weird!

Here's yet another picture using the early Raex.  Here, I was just playing around with Photoshop and this is the result.  That H.A.W.K.E. Industries Sign Still feels so... "Vector-y"

At this point the appearance and personality of the character was a bit more concrete in muh head so I felt more comfortable drawing him.  I really loved how moronic his face looked, despite him being something of a genius.  Those balls of light are a clue as to the purpose of those black implants and lines on his arm and neck are, which I have intentionally avoided discussing as the story is still hush-hush for now(and I also don't wan't to contradict myself by stating something so early in this whole thing, only to change it later).

Right now, pretty much all the main characters are done and the story (which is almost 10 years old) has neatly rewritten itself around the new elements I've introduced to tie everything together.  What's left is for me to make the villains more intrinsic to the story-line and pace everything right.  I really like all the stuff I've come up with and I just want to package it all so other people will like it too, which means tightening up character designs,  developing vivid locations, and writing a good script.  This all sounds obvious, I know, but it's nonetheless important, because as legendary comic-book writer Jeph-Loeb once said: "there are no bad stories-Just stories told badly"... At least, I think is was Loeb.  Yeah. I'm cool with giving him credit for that.