Thirsty Boots

First in class painting for my Situation and Environment class:

… And so it begins. Oil painting. We have our first homework project due a week from Friday and I”m a little stressed. Color painting freaks me out. It seems like whenever I pick up the brush all my fundamentals fly out the window and I just can’t function. I’m scared that I can’t make sense of color, that I can’t control the medium, and so far my attempts have proven me right. But there’s nothing like a bath of fire to clean this deep down dirt out of me.

The Ballad of Aaron’s Pin Up

Aaron’s pin up is finally finished, and, being the professional that I am, I’m posting it without his approval. In fact, I’m SO professional, instead of sending him the color proofs in an email, I’m gonna just link him to the blog. It’s a wonder that I don’t get any work…

I’m pretty stoked on the colors to this one. I actually added highlights and reflective light and STUFF! So, it took me a bit more time, but I’m pretty happy with the results. Too bad Aaron’s gonna print everything in black in white. So instead of this amazing color version, the comic will have this version…

Lame.

And Yet Again… I Have No Idea What I’m Doing

Man, these last few days have been crazy hectic because I’m still working out the kinks in my new school schedule. But, sadly, I haven’t really had a ton of time to finish any of the one-hundred-billion projects I’m juggling. So, here’s what I got today…

I did this as a facial study for my YFB pin up… a somewhat incomplete study, but whatever. Really I wanted to play around with the colors – see if I could color my “realistic” humans better than my Imagination Nation characters. I really have no clue what I’m doing here, but it’s kind of fun to play with. In any case, Aaron, I apologize for the crappy coloring of your pin up in advance. Good thing you’re gonna print it in black and white.

Just Ignore That

Crud. I didn’t really want to post this piece until it was fully finished, but school started and the last few days have been a little hectic. So, I’m a little low on finished work at the moment.

Awhile ago my buddy Aaron asked me to do a pin up for his comic “The Ballad of YFB”. I, being the accommodating person I am, said, “Sure thing!”, but being the forgetful person I am, completely blanked that I agreed to this. So, about a week ago I got an email asking, “Are you gonna do this or not, because if you don’t do it, then I’m just gonna leave the page blank… Come to think of it, that might look better.” So, being the spiteful and angry person I am, I drew the pin up.

He dug it, but said that the layout might be better if it was vertical. I tend to agree, especially since someone else (Shaun) pointed out the massive amounts of negative space on the right side. So, here’s a conundrum… How do you rearrange the composition of something without redrawing the whole thing? Easy… Photoshop.

Ah. Much better. I think it’s a little weird that the poster is so high over everyone’s head, but just ignore that and it looks okay. Also… See that gap in the bottom of the poster where I cut out the robot’s head? Ignore that also.

Post Script – Hey, I really, really am interested in getting that White Stripes thing I posted on Monday put on some shirts. Actually, I would like to try to sell the design to someone so they can put ‘em on shirts, pay me a little money, and print me one to wear around. The problem is that I have no idea where to start with something like that. Any ideas from all you brilliant, beautiful people out there? At the very least, anyone willing to print me a copy of this? For free? ::wink::

Rock, Jack. Rock

Monday already? Yeesh, time flies when you’re keeping busy. I’ve been workin’ on pin ups and more of that Imagination Nation stuff and… yeah, buncha stuff.

So, good news everybody. School starts up… well, today actually… so you should get to see some new paintings and stuff real soon. I’m taking a class called Situation and Environment, which, from my understanding, is a finger… er… figure painting class. So, I’m a bit nervous, but we’ll see how I do with that.

I had this idea while driving down to Santa Cruz this weekend, and thought it was so good that I’d actually take the time to put it together. I really think this would make a great t-shirt where it has this on the front, and on the back it says, “Rock, Jack. Rock.” I’d hella buy that shirt.

Alternate title for this post: ”I’m Pretty Good Looking For a Girl”

Mo’ Monet Mo’ Problems

Yes, I know that the title has nothing to do with the post, but Colbert said it tonight, and I thought it was really funny. Here’s the finished colors for IF… er… IN, rather:

I don’t wanna say these are the “final” colors – I still wanna do something to give the cover that little extra push. I tried adding a third value, but it wasn’t really working out the way I had hoped. Also, I’m still not 100% taken with the logo. What do you guys think?

The Last Minute

Ugh. 2 AM already? I really gotta stop updating these things at the last minute…

Yup… You guessed it. Inks for that Imaginary Friend’s cover. Colors to come by Friday (hopefully).

People Punching Each Other

Ah! Told you I’d get something real up here by this week!

Well… It’s not much, but at least it’s something – I’ve been pretty busy lately. In any case, as you’ve probably guessed, this is the new Imaginary Friends cover. Sorry to everyone who liked the first design I posted earlier, but this is the one the writers wanted to go with (after a little bit of coercion on my part). I’m pretty happy with the outcome so far, even though it popped out pretty quick. I still haven’t shown it to the writers, so hopefully they like it as well. Well, enough chit-chat for one night. I’m off to watch people punch each other. NIGHT!

End Of A Dismal Week

Wow… what a dismal week of blog images. Sorry folks. Hopefully next week will yield something better.

I’m not sure about this one… Your guess is as good as mine.

The Top Two Contenders

Oy school needs to start so that I can start posting more interesting things than stuff out of my sketchbook… I’m working on some other stuff as well, but, again, nothing is ready for posting at this point.

In an effort to keep ya’ll entertained, here’s two thumbnails for the Imaginary Friends cover. There were actually 4 of these sketches, these are just the top two contenders. I know they’re rough, but hopefully they’re somewhat decipherable. In any case, I need all ya’ll’s opinion. What do you guys say? Which cover would inspire you to buy our book?