What an awesome weekend! It was a great show. I'll post again when I gather some photos from a few people. As usual, I took my camera and I took exactly zero pictures. Thanks goes out to my buddy Scott and his wife Melissa who let Sarah and I crash at their place. Thanks guys, you rock!
Some notable quotes from the weekend, in no particular order:
Nathan (my brother): "I dig the beard bro. Very viking warrior."
Dylan (my other brother): "That's like saying you don't know who Earl Campbell is."
Scott (an old roommate of mine): "Naw... I'm not going to the convention. I don't trust myself in a room with that many expensive Thor comics."
Jessica (Dylan's girlfriend/ native Texan... supposedly): "Who's Nolan Ryan?" *insert Dylan's above response here* "Who's Earl Campbell?"
Melissa (Scott's wife): "The sugar is in the small container." (I actually heard this, promptly ignored it, then took "sugar" from the big container that makes for some shitty coffee when it turns out that it is, in fact, salt.)
Me: "How is that possible?! This little 4-year-old girl knows who Nolan Ryan is!" *points to a little 4-year-old girl*
Dylan (Lord of the Feeps) Edwards: "Have you been bothered yet by the weird guy who is going around trying to get artists to draw him having sex with different super-heroes?"
Sarah (my table mate): "THEY HAVE SONIC HERE?? AWWW SHIIIIIIT!!"
Beer dude at the Stars game: "Don't know who Nolan Ryan is?? Aw man, that's fucked up."
I'm going to a comic convention this weekend so I figured I'd post some comic work. This is a pin-up I started for the guys over at Approbation Comics over two(!) years ago. It was right around the time my step-father got really sick and unfortunately this piece was shuffled to the back and consequently lost. I have since rediscovered it and plan on finishing her up. I'm sure the guys at AC will be like "Dude that was two years ago, get bent" but I want to finish it up regardless.
It should be an awesome weekend. I'm hoping to get some non-work-related sketching done. Besides the show where I'll be sharing a table with my "homeslice-in-crime" Sarah Frary, my brother Dylan got us some tickets to the Stars game on Friday. Yeah baby. Violence+sports+beer= good times.
See you guys Monday.
My week's contribution to Illustration Friday, topic: Scale. I've drawn my share of scales for sure so this one was a no-brainer. I wasn't feeling especially creative this week, so here's another fish. For some reason I've always found scales very aesthetic and pleasing; whether it be armor, dragons, fish, or mermaids... consequently I draw them as often as I can.
I remember doing this sketch on a post-it about ten years ago while I was on the phone at my grandmother's house. Around 2002 I scanned the rough, blew it up, worked over it and tightened it up. The big version was done on Letraset marker paper with a brown col-erase (my favorite pencil of all time) and a lead holder with 3H lead. I like harder leads because they don't smear nearly as much and I like the fact that the light lead gives a lot of freedom with your pressure versus light/dark lines. I press pretty hard anyway and harder lead doesn't break nearly as often and keeps a sharper point.So this sketch has sat in my portfolio since 2002. He has gotten so much positive feedback that I have toyed with the idea on finishing him up, full color. I'm usually hesitant on going back and working on older stuff but I think he deserves some more love. 
Next weekend (Nov 16-18) I will be at Wizard World Texas in Dallas (Arlington actually). I will sharing a table with my good pal Sarah Frary. Should be a cool time so if you're in the area come say howdy.
I had to take a break from the cartoony stuff and draw another violent chick. Maybe I'll start doing one of these everyday as I've given up on the fish thing for awhile...
Here are the first batch of "action" cards for "Fishing..."
LIGHTNING BOLT!! LIGHTNING BOLT!!
That's the last of the "terrorists" cards for Fishing For Terrorists. Now onto the 23 or so "action" cards then the cover.
The sad state of my drawing table currently. It's 3' by 4' clean. Currently I have roughly 10"x12" to work. Did the math...
Another set of terrorists for Fishing. One more set to go...
Some wizard hat sketches I did while watching the Titans thump the Panthers. Yeah baby.
My contribution to Illustration Friday's weekly topic: Hats. Staedtler watercolor pen and 01 pigma micron pen on sketch paper.
More break-time stuff. I plugged in my headphones, entered the word "sword" in my itunes in which I got a mix between the band The Sword and the Conan soundtrack, turned it up real loud and started drawing. This girl came out. 10 minute sketch.
I haven't drawn a fish in awhile so I took a break from work and scribbled one out.
More work for "Fishing For Terrorists". I definitely think these guys are my favorite so far. The guns were a lot of fun. Aren't they always?
Happy Halloween everyone!
My contribution to Illustration Friday's weekly topic: Trick or Treat.
I used to hate getting Smarties when I was a kid so I can relate.
A quick mermaid marker sketch to warm up.
An actual phone conversation between myself and my dear friend Barbara's 14 year-old son Orion this evening:
*ring*
Me: Hello?
Orion: Hey Kennon, this is Orion.
Me: Hey buddy! What's up?
Orion: Not much, I was just wondering what kind of dice I need to buy to play Dungeons & Dragons?
Me: Well you'll need six different kinds; one four-sided die, one six-sider, one eight-sider, two ten-siders, one twelve, and a twenty. Get that?
Orion: Yeah thanks. See ya.
*click*
I did these fellows while watching Monday Night Football.
This is the last illustration for the Invincible Czars nutcracker CD. A panel for the song list/credits/whatever with portraits of the band members. Honestly I was most nervous about this piece because of the portraits. Hopefully the guys dig it.
Two of my favorite naturally occurring aesthetics: hot chicks and scales.
Whew.
Here's the line work for The Invincible Czars' Nutcracker Suite CD interior. I'll be finishing the colored version today.
You can get a taste of the music that will be on this album at the Czars' myspace page here.
Here's another page from Imperial Lance. Not having done much comic book work, this is the first time I've seen one of my pages done with someone else's lettering which I think is pretty cool. I have a batch of colored stuff too which I may start to post soon.
So my team for the upcoming Fist-A-Cuffs 4 tournament was sent yesterday. If you haven't checked FACA out yet I suggest you do. It's a brilliant idea where artists submit "fighters" and are then pitted against one another. The fighters are voted upon, smack is talked, and it's generally a great flurry of art and genius(?).
Well the upcoming tournament is comprised of tag teams and a manager so each team has three different artists in them. My team consists of Melita Curphy aka Miss Monster and Jeremy Mohler and I have to say our team is pretty kick ass. I'm really pleased with how well our team meshed without any forethought or discussion. It really came together well. Even if we get spanked in the first round it was a great exercise and a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, one of the rules is that the whole thing must be done anonymously so I can't tell you exactly which team is ours but once the tournament starts I doubt people will have trouble recognizing which one is ours if they're familiar with our work.
Once the tournament starts I'll let everyone know. It's pretty exciting. Stay tuned.
A painting I started while playing with Photoshop a few months back.
Due to numerous requests for t-shirts I opened a little Cafepress shop so I now have some Sabertooth Tabby Catfish t-shirts and a few other odds and ends available. You can find my shop by clicking here.
I'll be adding other designs and products to the shop as I figure it all out so if there's any other stuff you'd like to see please let me know. Thanks.
*For those of you who do order something I'd love to hear reviews on the quality of the stuff as I've never seen anything printed by Cafepress. Thanks again.
I had to take a break from drawing nazis and explosions so I thought I'd draw something ridiculously cute.
My submission to this week's topic at Illustration Friday: The Blues. It's my take on a smurf.
Here's some of the work I've been doing for Imperial Lance. Most of the work so far has been talking head stuff to push the story but it's now starting to get into the fun stuff.
My fish tank is on my dresser right next to my tv in my bedroom so while watching Sunday Night Football last night I sketched my goldfish Earl.
Here's my FACA Arena Girl submission for the upcoming tournament bout over at FIST-A-CUFFS. I'm not sure when or how voting works but feel free to throw her a vote once the ballots open. Thanks.
*Edit - Well Bam Bam was sent back to the dressing room because her original outfit was too risque, plus the FACA needed to be a little more prominent so here's the new outfit.
I just noticed today that my profile has been viewed 999 times. For those that know me you'll know why this number is significant.
Sweet.
I finished these up last week and took them out on my camping trip last weekend. I gave a few away and used a few myself. I have done a total of seven of these now and they're all numbered so I know exactly which ones went to who. I had a lot of request for people to buy them but I don't think I could charge appropriately for the time it takes to make them (they're kind of a pain in the ass to make) but they are all hand-stitched (saddle stitched for those savvy with leather-working terms, for those who are not it's much sturdier than a running stitch) and if taken care of, will last forever.
Here's the album cover I have been working on for the Austin band The Invincible Czars and their version of the Nutcracker Suite. It's a rocking version thus the flying V.
Been busier than a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest lately so the blog has been sorely neglected. I personally know a one-legged man and I have actually seen him in an ass kicking contest so I know firsthand how busy that is. I will try to post some recent stuff that I have been working on soon.
In other news, The Fish Show will be up at Z Tejas here in Austin on 6th St throughout the Austin City Limits music fest. So if you're in the area go check out the fish and have some awesome Tex-Mex chow.
Anyone still use their VCR? I have about 20 of these Shawk videos and would love to find them homes as I would hate to have to just chuck them. If you want one, just shoot me an email or comment here. I just ask for a simple $5 to cover postage (I'll even send you a free sticker or two). Again, they're VCR but the video has all of Shawks season 1 and some AWESOME behind-the-scenes footage. You can check out all/some of the episodes on Atom Films for free. If you're new to Shawks and like wtf is that? It's an animated show that I worked on with some awesomely talented dudes at Mongadillo Studios up in Portland, Oregon at the turn of the century. This video is a culmination of some of the stuff we were working on, Shawks being our most popular show. Get'em while they last...
