I want to be the very best...

...like no one ever was!   (Fun Fact: That theme song was in my head most of the time while drawing this)

I LOVE Pokémon, and from what I hear, "Adventure Time" is an extremely popular cartoon as well. Average Joe suggested that I do a mash-up of the two shows and I'm pretty pleased with the results :) I started off sketching the characters from AT and adding Pokémon qualities to them. Next I inked everything in and colored it. Then Joey worked a little photoshop magic by helping reposition some of the characters and made an amazing mash-up logo. Then voilà! Adventure-Poke-Time goodness! :)

"I just stole a poncho from a wooden Indian"

 

This is the 2nd collaboration on an "Iron Man" illustration between myself and artist Joey Romero of Average Joe Art in celebration of Iron Man 3. We've also tackled the Iron Patriot in the past, and hopefully we'll do at least one more character from the latest film. This illustration is based off of a bust of the new Mark XLII armor from Hot Toys.


Typically Joey will hand off an illustration to me with a few notes, but this one was originally handed off pretty much looking like this...

 

Needless to say I had my work cut out for me. Also, once I'm done he'll usually go back and tweek a few things here and there. This time however, he said he only added a few highlights and of course the "3" to match the rest of our Iron Man 3 series artwork. *Pats self on the back* As for the movie itself..it wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I still really liked it. Plus you get to see a TON of suits fight! What's not to love?

Thank you for playing...

This is the first of (what I hope is) an entire series of old school video game characters. As a HUGE gaming nerd, I wanted to pay tribute to a handful of my favorite 16-bit games. So I started with everyone's favorite arm-cannon wielding hero...Mega Man. Originally I wanted to do something in a true 16-bit format, but I ended up going with a more modern look. This illustration is actually based on a Mega Man X action figure. Since I opted out of giving Mega Man a more retro look, I instead applied that to the background. The  actual "Mega Man" was drawn using a program called Sketchbook and the background was done using Photoshop/Illustrator.

Freedom costs a buck'o five..

The latest and greatest in the Iron Man 3 series Joey (Average Joe Art) and I have been working on is the Iron Patriot. Now even though super geeks will be quick to point out that Rhodey/War Machine traditionally doesn't become the Iron Patriot (He was actually Norman Osborn) we'll have to pretend we didn't know that for the sake of the story in Iron Man 3. As usual any day spent coloring a comic book character is a good day for me! This illustration is actually based off a reference picture of an Iron Patriot collectible figure from Hot Toys (we also did this for the Iron Man picture). While I really like the Iron Man illustration, I thought Iron Patriot collectible had better "poses" to choose from. There were three pictures we were kicking around for a minute before we decided on this particular one. Either way, he looks bad ass and I had a tough time choosing my favorite pose (and I love that he has a giant machine gun attached to his back). This collectible was a great piece of source material and had an incredible amount of detail to it. In fact I might need to purchase one for myself.

I had my eyes opened..

..I came to realize that I had more to offer this world than just making things that blow up." -Tony Stark

This is the latest collaboration between myself and Joey of Average Joe Art. Believe it or not, we haven't officially worked together on something since the Daryl illustration back in October. So with Iron Man 3 playing in theaters early May, we wanted to create some artwork while we're eagerly waiting for the movie to come out. A while back Joey actually did a entire "Avengers" series of art (I helped with the Hulk). While I like his earlier Iron Man, I personally think this one is WAY better. It has more detail, the colors are richer, etc. It was created with our usual arrangement of Joey illustrating and I coloring it. Later he went back and added some highlights and created the effect around the hand. My reining "favorite" collaboration has been Michonne, but this Iron Man might take it's place. It was really fun to do and I can't wait for more "collaborations", those are always the most fun to work on.

Men get arrested...dogs get put down.

I don't know why, but the other day I just HAD to get my Watchmen fix and I have to say Rorschach is my favorite character. I'm sure there are a lot of people who agree with me. I mean he doesn't have any special "powers" or even use a special weapon. He just. Kicks. Ass. I think he's more of a ruthless vigilante than an actual "hero". Mostly because Rorschach is able to see everything in black & white, he's an absolutist. He judges people by their actions, not just by their words. He almost reminds me of Frank Castle in a way. He's got the Judge, Jury & Executioner thing going on. Plus he's got some of, if not the best lines in the story. This picture took me about 4 hours start to finish. I used a picture of Jackie Earle Haley in costume as a reference. I used more shading than I normally do. I added more black to shade with instead of using different shades of grey like I usually do. I think the black shading makes the character seem rich and dark vs. cartoonish. Which is totally Rorschach's style. I think I'm going to do at least one other Watchmen character after this.

The hardest thing to do in this world...

...is to live in it. Be brave..Live..for me."

 

 

Every little girl should grow up with a strong female role model...I happened to grow up with Buffy Summers. I remember when the original movie came out..not fantastic. When I heard that they were making it into a television series, initially I didn't have high hopes. That was before I knew about Joss Whedon. What he was able to do with this character and the entire series for that matter, is nothing short of incredible.

 

Buffy Summers..A highschool cheerleader turned protector/guardian of all humanity against anything that emerges from a portal to hell. She has soo much strength (mental and physical), Bravery & a capacity to put others before herself like I've never seen. But as powerful as Buffy is..she still needs her friends and family. That's what I like about her. Can she do everything on her own? Sure, but she works best when she has the support of friends behind her. Joss was once asked "So, why do you write these strong female characters?" to which he answered "Because you’re still asking me that question." I'm very grateful to him for the characters he's given to soo many young women like myself. I love this series soo much that every few months I start from the beginning and watch the entire series all the way through. It originally aired in 1997, but I think that since Joss's writing/dialogue is soo unique (most of Buffy's phrases are pretty abnormal to say the least) you can still watch this show and it doesn't seem that dated. As long as you're willing to overlook some awesome 90's fashion ;)

 

The thing that gave me the most trouble in this picture was...Buffy's nose. Sarah Michelle Gellar has a pretty unique nose..and that was the one thing I was worried about the most. This picture was a lot of fun to do though. I might do a few other characters from the series later on.



I admit, we knew we’d get in trouble. That part’s true...

..We knew people would be worried, and we still ran away, anyway. But something also happened, which we didn’t do on purpose. When we first met each other, something happened..to us." -Sam Shakusky

Sam is one the of two main characters in the film Moonrise Kingdom. As an avid Wes Anderson fan, I felt it was time to do some inspired art. The best way I've heard someone describe this film is: "It takes as it's primary subject matter, odd, precocious children. Rather than the damaged and dissatisfied adults they will one day become." For those of you who haven't seen it. The film is about two offbeat kids who fall in love and run away together. The main theme in ALL of Wes's films is...Dysfunction. Which I, for one can completely relate to. ;) Maybe that's why I love these films soo much. His characters all manage to eventually function in their own unique way however. Like the Borderlands picture, I tried to experiment a little more with my shading technique. Sam was a lot of fun to draw, I might continue on with a few more characters from Moonrise Kingdom or another film of Wes's. I really love the characters he creates.

Strip the flesh, salt the wound...

I always feel a little guilty when recreating something that's already a "drawing". However I REALLY wanted to draw a Psycho from Borderlands because they're my favorite character in the game. Mainly because they manage to freak me out everytime I have to fight one. (I mean, a guy in a crazy mask running at you while wielding a cleaver AND laughing? Who WOULDN'T get freaked out?) To be honest one of my favorite things about Borderlands is the style of artwork. I LOVE that they mix cartoonish looking characters with a realistic/detailed landscape. But mostly I wanted to experiment with a different shading technique today and this was the guy to try that with. Overall I feel pretty good about it, he looks kind of gross and dirty...as he should. Mission accomplished! :)

Have you seen a girl with hair like this?

No joke, I probably watch "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" at LEAST once a week. I'm a HUGE fan. I believe it's one of the most incredible comic-to-film adaptations around. For one..the movie is almost word for word accurate with the comics. Two..the way they incorporated Bryan Lee O'Malley's original illustrations for all the "flashback" scenes is great. Also any movie that gratuitously utilizes video game noises/references is always appreciated. The soundtrack is phenomenal! All of Sex Bob-omb's music was composed by Beck (who I LOVE). If you can't tell, I could literally go on and on about this flick. I've been on a somewhat brief hiatus from drawing lately and a simple sketch like this was perfect to get me back into the swing of things. I wanted to do something that wasn't as simple looking as the original comic, but not as detailed/realistic as a screenshot. I think I found a happy medium.

It came from outer space!

I had it on good authority that I needed to watch "The Iron Giant"...also that it would most likely make me cry like a baby. I managed to keep it together, but I REALLY liked the story. For anyone that hasn't seen it, it's about a giant metal-eating robot from space who lands near a small town. He befriends a boy named Hogarth and then of course the ever-paraniod U.S. Government has to get involved and screw things up for everyone ;). I loved the part where Hogarth is hiding the Iron Giant in his barn and shows him a stack of comics that he reads (I spied Action Comics & The Spirit..very cool Hogarth). However, it was the main lesson of the story that I loved the most.."You are what you choose to be". In this case the choice between being a deadly giant robot or "Superman". Overall...Cute story.

I have never been nothing, I am the blood of the dragon...

I LOVE Game of Thrones! Today I was dreaming about the 3rd season and saw that it won't be airing until March 31st :( So I thought I'd pass the time by doing some "Song of Fire & Ice" inspired art. I wanted to start with one of my favorite characters..the "Mother of Dragons" Daenerys Targaryen. Originally I wanted to put a lot of detail into her dragon. Only I thought it might be too easy to get carried away with it and I wanted to keep the overall look pretty simple. Plus I knew I'd be spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to create her hair without over doing it. It's in a braid AND her hair is white...Yikes! Like the Supernatural drawing I did, I used a photograph for reference. Or in this case a screen shot from the show. I also changed her eye color to purple (Targaryens are known for having purple eyes) instead of going with the hazel color the actress portraying Daenerys has. I'm a sucker for accuracy ;) I had a lot of fun creating this and I'm thinking about doing a few more characters...perhaps Jon Snow?

Driver picks the music, Shotgun shuts his cake hole...

This is the first thing I've worked on where I stopped for a minute, zoomed out, and for the first time REALLY impressed myself. I took a promo photo of everyone's favorite "Hunters" Sam and Dean Winchester and used it as a reference. I've also noticed that I have a really bad habit of tweaking drawings to death. I have to know when to stop myself otherwise I'll never complete it. Is it the greatest drawing ever? No. Is it progressively better than the last thing I did? Yes and that's all I care about. I'll get there one day ;)

                                                    (My "Hey..this is actually pretty good!" Moment)

Technical Difficulties

Now before you get all excited about this drawing...let me explain. I started off just wanting to color something, but I was feeling too lazy to draw something up. So I decided I'd just find a b&w picture on the Internet and color that. So I found this Superman drawing and I start to go to town... Only I can't quite get my layers right. Every time I try to bring the line work to the top, it prevents the layers underneath it from being "colorable". At this point I say screw it and decide since it's a pretty basic drawing, I'll just re-draw it really quickly and then I'm good to go! WRONG! It took a LOT longer than I expected and by the time I finished I almost didn't feel like coloring anymore..but I got over it and finished it anyway. I definitely need to figure out where I went wrong before I attempt that again. So we'll just chalk this one up to gaining more "experience" :)

Street Cred

Rob Liefeld created Deadpool...no big deal. (Totally geeking out right now)

Movin' on up!

So I recently upgraded from a Bamboo Pen & Touch tablet to an Intuos Large tablet...why? Because I deserve it! At least that's what I'm telling myself. Going from a 5.8"x3.6" active pen area to a 12.8"x8" active pen area...is AMAZING! Ugh, I think I just turned myself on a little... ;)

Got bit, Fever hit, world gone to...

Daryl Dixon is my FAVORITE character on The Walking Dead! A bad ass crossbow-shooting-Redneck with a southern twang?? Ugh..Sign. Me. Up. I pretty much BEGGED Joey to draw Daryl :) This picture took me the longest to color and shade out of the Walking Dead series. Mainly because I kept tweaking it. I finally decided that if I didn't just post this as is...I'd probably NEVER stop.

You've got a pretty mouth!

As part of the Walking Dead series Joey and I have been working on...of course we had to do a Zombie! This was illustrated by Joey and I laid down the original flat colors. A lot of those colors had to be changed (he wanted to try painting the entire thing by hand), but I still wanted to share this illustration and a little story behind it. When I originally opened this file up...it scared the shit out of me. So much so that when I was coloring it, I literally kept it zoomed in as far as possible so I didn't have to constantly look at his entire face! At one point my sister came into my office to talk to me and after about two minutes asked me to "please turn the computer off" because the zombie was "going to give her nightmares"! It really IS an impressive zombie and it's a real credit to Joey that a drawing legitimately scared the shit out of two people. Maybe I'm just a baby, but it's still pretty awesome. Click here for his interpretation.

Street Cred

A comparison to an INCREDIBLE comic book artist like Tim Bradstreet?!? Yeah...we'll take that. This my current inspiration to keep it up :)

You're staying? This isn't a democracy anymore.

OMG!! Rick Grimes is not messing around anymore! The season 2 finale and the season 3 premier show an all new Rick..and I LOVE it! So of course my friend Joey and I had to create something to pay homage to Rick Grimes. Joey drew him, and again I shaded and laid down the flat colors. I love the cityscape in the background! I think this may be my favorite collaboration so far..