Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Beast-Man


I have been waiting to post this, since it was a Christmas gift. Now that it has been passed along, I wanted to share it.

I will be doing a series of these watercolor illustrations. There is one more gift I will be posting after the new year, and an Incredible Hulk that I did as a color test for the long awaited Hulk I promised a while back.

I'm back in the swing of things, so hopefully I will be posting much more in the near future.

Monday, December 20, 2010

"Crash-o-rama!"

So, Chris Wiewiora's story is finally up at the Smokelong Weekly along with my fine illustration.  Check it out at:


http://www.smokelong.com/flash/chriswiewiora30.asp

Cheers.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

He-Man Zelda Duo switch for Comics Should Be Good

Here is the work in progress that was going to the reader art gallery.

Missed the deadline, but I will be finishing it anyway.  The He-Man side is almost done, but the Zelda side still needs some polishing.


Friday, December 10, 2010

Comics should be good reader art for November.

This past month I submitted a piece to the reader art gallery for the www.comicbookresources.com blog, Comics Should Be Good.  I chose the video game with comic character mash-up to illustrate and chose one of the best games of all time, Tetris and paired it with Magneto and the X-men.  This definitely an homage to the cover of X-men #1.


I did the pencil and inking by hand and colored it on Photoshop.

I was working on another one for the site, but I missed the deadline.  I will be scanning and posting what I have done of it and plan on completing it either way.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Been away much.

So much for procrastination... I have been away for sometime now. I moved back down to Miami, and life has been hectic. I'm currently finishing up some projects, but I have some things done that I will be posting over the next couple of days as well as some stuff in progress.

I recently submitted the previously posted Conversation With Kate comic to Bateau Press, but got a rejection.  They enjoyed the comic, but wasn't suited for their publication.  They did ask for longer works so, still a positive experience.

Also I did an illustration for Chris Wiewiora's story Crash-O-Rama which will be published online at www.smokelong.com the week of Dec. 20th. Here are the two sections plus the finished piece.





I did some tweaking on Photoshop with the final drawing as you can see.  I was originally going to do a watercolor piece, but decided that due to time constraints, color pencils would do the job just fine. I'm happy with the end result, and plan on doing the man on fire portion in watercolor separately as part of a series of motion studies.

Saturday, September 4, 2010


From our recent trip to Miami.

Moving Forward...

So, I'm back in St.Pete... but not for long as it turns out.  I will be moving back to Miami soon.  End of the month soon.  Better start packing.

Also wanted to mention that I'm on the twitter now... http://twitter.com/grim842.  Follow me there for updates.

I will be posting new stuff this week for sure, as we as my thoughts on some things.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Sketchbook fun!

Here are some rough sketches I've done for the Hulk piece I want to do...  I'm trying to figure out the face, since with different artist come different interpretations.  There are some basic traits of the character that I'm keeping, but everything else is negotiable.  This first doodle I did in the car on the way to Miami.


It's too gentle for the character in my opinion, but I still like the way it looks.

This next one just reminds me of Will Eisner's work.

 
Once I figure out how I want the face to look, then I will work on the pose.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Current city... Miami.

The family and I have taken a short vacation to Miami, to visit the parents.  It's good to get away every once in a while, but I'm missing the little free time I had to get some work done.  I have managed to squeeze in an hour or so at night for sketching and short comics, but I don't have any other supplies with me.  I wish I could do some watercolors.  Oh well. 

I have some short comics I will be posting soon, (as soon as I can get access to a scanner), and some rough sketches for the forthcoming Incredible Hulk illustration.

On a side note I just finished reading the first volume of Invincible, and I'm not sure what I think of it yet.  This came just after finishing the Firebreather 4 issue mini-series.  Both comics are published by Image.  There will be more to come on this once I've gathered my thoughts. 

My son just woke up from his nap.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Inspirations and comic origins.

So I've been working on some more mini comics and some random illustrations.  I figured I would take the time out and just post this image of the first comic I ever owned. 

 
My dad picked it up from a comic shop on his way home from work one night after I had expressed interest in reading comics.  I was 10 or 11 I believe.  I think its interesting how I knew so much about this character before ever reading a single issue.  He really is just such an iconic character that his history is just ingrained in pop-culture.  I'm sure I could talk someones ear off about the Hulk, having only really read a few issues.


I have been doing some serious thinking about my future, (as it quickly becomes my present), and I really want to do something serious in comics.  So in honor of this green titan and my lifelong obsession with comics, I plan on doing an illustration of the Hulk in the near future. 

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Yes, I am a film snob... I'm okay with that.

It disappoints me when people can't watch a movie because of some stupid reason or another. 

It's foreign and there are subtitles, "I shouldn't have to read when I watch a movie."  Shouldn't have to read or is that you can't?  You must not be able to because I watch foreign films all the time and haven't found the process of reading subtitles all that taxing.

Or better yet, there's the "I have to watch a movie in color, I can't stand black and white."  Well really it's more like shades of grey, and you could just pretend you're color blind for an hour and a half. 

And then there's the, "There was too much talking, not enough action."  Well, customarily in a film talking is one of those "devices" that helps to further the plot... Sometimes movies need talking because its easier than pantomime.  I mean Christ, we developed sound in movies for the talking.  I guess we could go back to the silent era if you'd really like, but I can already tell you won't dig it.

My favorite by far is "I don't like movies that you have to think about."  You know, I totally understand.  We wouldn't want your fragile little brain to pop a blood vessel trying to piece together a plot.  God forbid there be a deeper meaning that you would have to figure out all on your own.  I guess critical thinking skills are hard to come by.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Abel wore a leather jacket in the Miami summer.


Illustration of my brother Abel for the liner notes in the final Crumbs record, Gator Kicks.  It should be out soon on Livid Records (http://www.lividrecords.com/).

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Spoon!!!

Had a burst of energy this morning and decided to do a simpler crossover piece.  Here is the inked final.  I will be adding color soon.


 

Here is the final submission.

 


Taste our mighty blue justice!


Dream crossover illustration I was going to submit to Comic Book Resources' Comics Should Be Good blog.  I'm not going to hit their Thursday 3pm deadline, but I plan on posting it here when it is finished.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Future ETC comics anthology.

My good friend Chris Wiewiora and I have been working diligently for sometime now compiling the material for an anthology of all the comics that were printed in our zine.  It's going to be a lot of my brother Carlos (www.chazfstan.wordpress.com) and I's work.

I've had a hard time looking back on some of my earlier comics.  I really wasn't very sure of myself and my work back then.  Thankfully I've managed to work through a lot of that and progressed, but its hard to stop myself from wanting to redo all those old comics.  Improvement is always important, but always moving forward.

I've also been working on doing a watercolor piece for the cover of the anthology.  This is a trial run of it.


I gave this piece to Chris as a graduation gift recently, but the cover will be a similar depiction of Sam and Ted.  This is loosely based on the first painting I did of them... actually the first painting I ever did.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Friday, August 6, 2010


This is the first and only Sam and Ted comic to date.  I originally concieved the characters to be the mascot for the now discontinued quarterly zine ETC (everybody that creates).  This comic first appeared in ETC #5 and has since been republished online at http://www.theheatlightning.com/

Thursday, August 5, 2010

in the beginning...

Procrastination...  Everyone does it.

God procrastinated I'm sure.  If man was created in his image then he certainly took his time to get things going.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, genesis 1:1.  But how much time did he spend prior to that pissing about his home trying to get the energy to create?

I guess this is my answer to procrastination.  A way to keep it in check.  I have for one never been one to keep deadlines or have a steady flow of work being produced.  I have called myself and artist for some time now, but have very few works to show for it.  It's time for a change.

That being said I should state my plans for all of this.  This blog will serve as a space for my work.  I will be posting comics (these as a rule will be done fairly quickly, so they might not be as polished), paintings in progress, and rantings about one thing or another (probably film and music since I am very passionate about both). 

...so on the seventh day he rested from all his work, genesis 2:2. A day for procrastination... a luxury I will try to avoid. 

Cheers.