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Jumpin' Pulpy Press Release!

I like when things become all official-like :)

I'll be providin' the cover and and interiors for Volume 4 of Episodes From The Zero Hour, an anthology I've been looking forward to for some time now. And believe it that I'll be pushing to make this look like the BEST volume.

Check out the official site HERE

 

Roller Derby Etsy Banner

I joined roller derby a few months ago as a referee, Having not skated in my life prior to that, (aside from an unsuccessful attempt at a cute friend's birthday party). I'm a good bit better now, gotten a better grasp of my form, (I practice like I'll actually play one day, which I plan to next year), balance, and speed. As I'll be a ref in my current league, (Black Rose Rollers in Hanover, PA), I also need to learn rules... a lot of rules. What's legal, what's not. What's a Major Penalty, what's a Minor, what's a No Impact No Penalty, blah blah, and all that other (seriously no sarcasm), fun stuff. But time-taking it be. I'm also on the arts committee and plan to be doing quite a number of  designs for merchandise, bout posters, etc, which I'm of course absolutely stoked about. And that produced a great segue to this piece.

I was asked to create the banner for our Etsy page. I've been a fan of Etsy and all it stands for for a few years now, but have only visited it a few times during that period. I had no recollection that there was a little banner customization opportunity. But here it be, and the steps I took in creating it...

1. Quick Sketches. 

Seeing that this isn't a paid project, and I had more freedom to merely enjoy my progress, I didn't spend much time as I typically do on concept. I had a couple images in my head that I thought I'd give a shot. I did a few, including the ones you see here, and eventually settled on the middle sketch shown.

 2. Vector. 

I took that sketch I liked and opened it up in Illustrator. Then I vectored the poop out of it.

3. PhotoShop.

Saved the Illustrator file, and opened it up in PhotoShop. I took a photo of an old piece of paper, (I have lots of these saved for I USE lots of these... don't want to reuse the same textures over and over, or fans of your work will begin to notice). I set this to a multiply layer on top of the banner, adjusted some opacities, and settled on the following...

 

4. Splotches.

I added them. Yep. Splotches. It was brought up by the officers that the league's colors are black and maroon, and we can reference that in the splotch color. So goes the edit.

 

 5. Final

Cropped. Ready for posting.

 Go check out Black Rose Roller's Etsy page.

And the link to the Black Rose Rollers Facebook page.

I should do a banner for this blog. Someday... now that I know how easy and fun it is.

Sketches For 31 25 Days Of Santa

Just some of the doodles I saved from this project...

31 DAYS OF SANTA changed to 25 DAYS OF SANTA...

Super sorry, peoples, but I'm cutting the series short, for a couple reasons-

1.) the freelance is beginning to build up a little, and I promised to start it up beginning in January. That time is creeping up fast now, and the days I missed already, I'd have to do some rush work to give myself some breathing room in between

2.) Not too many people care about Santa past Day 25 (you know, Christmas Day, after which most folks tend to think two things- PARTY LIKE ITS 2011, and MAKE SURE I DONT PASS OUT NAKED IN SOMEONE ELSE'S FRONT LAWN AFTER PARTYING LIKE ITS 2011

3.) Ummm... Because? Yeah. Because. Other things too, but that's enough. Onto new things to post. And new art. Not Santa related ;)

Dirkus

31 Days Of Santa: 27th Day- Aubrey Beardsley

I'm counting down :) These have been fun, but I have some freelance to get back to!!! Hopefully these last few come out as good as I'm hoping they will...

 

 Aubrey Beardsley, another famous Art Nouveau artist. Hung out with Aesthetic Movement contemporary Oscar Wilde and the like. British born, died at a very early age. Did a lot of erotic stuff, then towards the end of his life, converted  to Catholicism, and asked for all his naughty drawings to be destroyed. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Fantastic graphic blacks and details, and organic forms. I love great black and white art as much as I do color, and I diggeth him righteously- as should you.

PS- he would've owned those lateral lines in the robe. I however... did no owning whatsoever, unfortunately.

31 Days Of Santa: 26th Day- Tex Avery

Nice holiday weekend. That's it.

Wasn't as successful with this one as I hoped. I sort of assumed that since my other animator-influenced works were done decently successful at not too lengthy of a time, that my Tex piece would be quite similar. But I guess that "assume" saying can come into play here. I must've been a little too excited over football and roller skating today. Tex Avery took one part slapstick, mixed it with 2 parts elastic form, and stirred it on the next level above HIGH, called COCAINE-INDUCED NEVER-ENDING-THRILL-RIDE. The guy didn't let up in his cartoons, and provided the racy subject matter that glue the adults.

His Bugs Bunny/ Elmer Fudd/ Daffy Duck/ Porky Pig shorts were all responsible for establishing the characters' famous personalities. When he moved on, he created Droopy Dog for MGM, the Wolf and Red Riding Hood, and those great, nonfamous-character shorts like Cars Of Tomorrow.

I prefer his Bugs and Daffy over Jones', and that early style of his is heavenly in my opinion.