Iron Man sketches

Some of the sketches I did while trying to find the right design for the Iron Man illustration (previous post). Rather than sketch out a bunch of designs, I thought I'd just generate a bunch of images in marker and then try to combine them and find the design after the fact.





I was really hoping to use an image of Gwyneth Paltrow in the final illustration, because her scenes with Robert Downey Jr. were actually my favorite part of the first film. I thought the two of them played off each other beautifully, almost a throwback to couples you'd see in old-time movies, when the dialogue was rapid-fire and genuinely witty. It's so rare in a blockbuster-type film to see a romantic pairing that's even age-appropriate, let alone intelligent and self-aware (as opposed to say, Downey Jr. and Rachel McAdams in "Sherlock Holmes"). You felt they wanted to be together, but their own intelligence kept sabotaging it. Each time things threatened to get steamy they both looked mortified that they almost let thier emotions take over.

Iron Man 2

I did this for a movie blogger who expressed interest in adding my stuff to his site. I was into it but unfortunately a bunch of paying work hit at the same time, which I had to prioritize, and I didn't get it done before the review went up. I actually could have gotten it done a lot quicker, but I succumbed to the pitfall of trying to find just the "right" image, and thus did a boatload of sketches when it probably would have been just as well to do something simple off the cuff. I have to break myself of this tendency.

I hid a little easter egg on War Machine's armor-- on the shoulder where there's some letters & numbers I instead spelled out the name of my old-time Marvel colleague Len Kaminski (I spelled his last name in 'leet'). My understanding is that Len was the person who came up with War Machine back in the early '90s. But because he was a staffer, War Machine was technically the creation of the 11th floor of 387 Park Avenue South, and long story short he gets no credit on the film. That's showbiz, folks.

beanbots #28

Click here for full strip.


This strip represents the first time I have put this kind of sustained effort into anything creative that didn't have a paycheck attached. It feels great to see so many of them completed. As Dean Haspiel always says to me: "You're building something!"

The best thing is when someone I know looks at it for the first time, and tells me "dude, I was going to just look at one or two of them to be polite, but I couldn't fucking stop! I was up half the night laughing my ass off!!" That feels really really good. Okay, I'm not trying to claim that that happens all the time. But it has happened. As Tom Waits would say, "enough that I would remark on it."

Gary Vaynerchuck

I read this guy's book on internet marketing. I don't know how much of his spiel is bullshit, but he comes off as pretty sincere despite being a born carny. I appreciate that he's not selling a get-rich-quick scheme. He's selling get-moderately-comfortable, if you can find something you're really talented at and work your balls off at it.

If nothing else it's a lot of fun to watch him give his spiel. He posts videos at his site here.

I been codin'.

I spent a bunch of time in the last several weeks re-doing my portfolio website. I couldn't stand to live with the old design for a second longer, so I finally took off the training wheels, scrapped the template and rebuilt it from scratch.

OLD SITE:


NEW SITE:

Of course, now that I look at them side-by-side in these screen grabs, they don't really look all that different to me! But I think I cleaned up the navigation a bit more and made it 'flow' better. Laying out a website is surprisingly similar to laying out a comic book page, in terms of guiding the reader's eye, design hierarchy, stuff like that.

I always struggle with how to organize my samples, because my styles go all over the road. This time around I figured I should concentrate on my core business, which is storyboards. But I might end up grouping the work into five or six categories just to make some sense of it. I've completely eliminated the sections on animation design and illustration (why further complicate the situation). I may eventually create a new section for that stuff, or just put it on another site altogether. I'm toying with maybe doing the illustrator's branding trick of working in multiple aliases, so as not to confuse any potential clients.

Eventually the new site will contain a wordpress blog that only focuses on professional case studies. When I rebooted this blog I made a rule not to rely on posting freelance stuff. Only to eventually decide that I need to commit to a whole other blog devoted to that.

I also started a wordpress blog to group the stuff I do here that specifically references movies, comics and other fanboy stuff. Since Star Wars will always sit at the apex of my geek universe, I gave it a SW-related title: "Wookie Please". Which is meant to evoke both my cynical contempt for stuff like the Star Wars prequils, and my hopeless devotion to Star Wars in general. Since the "Lost" project is ongoing right now, that's probably all that will be going up there in the near future.

Bunche as Hamlet

I definitely do not do enough drawings of the Beige Sensation, Steve Bunche.

I really don't have an explanation for this, except that he recently posted this picture to his awesome blog and I couldn't resist doing something with it. Even if that something doesn't make a lick of sense.

Lost 6/4: Locke

An illustration based on "Lost" Season 6, Episode 4, "The Substitute".

I loved everything about this episode. Particularly that scene at the dining room table that I pulled the quote from. Such a quiet scene, but in its way it was the payoff to everything Locke has struggled with throughout his life. The dude has continually been used, duped, blindsided, and ultimately threw his life away. And he was vulnerable to it all because he could never let go of his grandiose fantasies of the life that could have been, if only this or that had gone differently. In that one moment with Helen he bravely chose to let life be as it is, and thus opened the door for happiness to finally come to him.


Here's my thumbnail for the next illustration, based on Episode 5, "The Lighthouse." Ah, the breaking-glass montage composition, beloved of hack comic book artists since time immemorial.

Lost 6/3: Kate

An illustration based on "Lost" Season 6, Episode 3, "What Kate Did".

I liked this episode a lot. I don't share the antithapy to Kate episodes that many fans seem to have. Not to be some kind of Kate-apologist, I'm just saying that I think her stories tend to be as well-done as those of any of the other characters. It's not as if I'm harboring some kind of ridiculous schoolboy crush on the woman. Well maybe I am saying that. The second thing.

...and my rough sketch for the next illustration, based on Episode 4, "The Substitute." Seeing as how Episode 8 is going to air in a couple days, I'm already getting hopelessly behind.

beanbots #27

Click image for full strip.

Lost 6/1: Sawyer

Welcome to my Lost Season 6 project.

I'm trying once again to produce artwork corresponding to each new episode of this show that I'm so hopelessly obsessed with. Instead of a bunch of head sketches like I did last season, I thought it might be interesting to do full illustrations. It gives me a chance to continue to practice drawing likenesses, while also integrating type and experimenting with various other montage effects.

One thing that hasn't changed since last season is that I'm still running several weeks behind each episode! Partially that's due to my laziness, partly to my desire to let each story percolate in my mind until I settle on a single image that best represents it.

If you're a Lost fan, I hope you take this journey with me, and please take the time to leave a comment. Thanks.