M. Puncekar Illustration

Dry Bones - SotD 149

2011-12-31T15:40:00.002-05:00

This one was definitely highly requested. It seems like Dry Bones has a much higher fan following than I would have ever imagined. Although he was definitely one of my personal favorites as well, even though he was sometimes irritating to deal with. He may hold the spot of the only skeleton based enemy I actually like in video games.

While I was painting this out my buddy chimed in that maybe I should paint him reforming after he's been struck down by the mighty Mario, but I was far too into it to restart. Sort of regret that, but no one would probably be able to tell who it was if I had. I've been sort of putting this one off for the same reasons that I haven't done more of the koopa variants. Jumping around gives me a better variety and with these ones I feel like I have to keep it more consistent. Although while doing this, for the first time, I had the urge to tackle someone like Bowser even though it would go against the spirit of the series.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday. Happy New Years!

Reznor - SotD 149

2011-10-22T15:53:00.000-04:00

Reznor was another one that was requested quite a bit, and he's mostly known for being a boss in Super Mario World. Imagine this guy on a platform, attached to some monstrosity of a wooden ferris wheel, and 3 more of the exact type all spitting fire balls at you. Hopefully that strikes up the memory.

I never really realized just how many dinosaurs there were in Mario. I mean it's rather obvious in retrospect, pretty sure I even remember a "Dinosaur Land" or something being thrown around as a stage or world. Maybe it wasn't a meteor that wiped out all the dinosaurs. Maybe it was Mario. That crazy jerk ran around cracking necks under his boot like it was his calling in life and he was sworn to adhere to it.

"But what about Yoshi? They were best buds..."

Were they best buds when he kicked Yoshi away into oblivion to make that extra long jump? I'm pretty sure putting Yoshi to work as a steed immediately after he hatched violates some sort of child labor law. I'm doing Mario enemies here... but I think Mario is the biggest enemy of all...

Nintendo Power

2011-10-07T15:53:00.002-04:00

After I was plugged on Kotaku, Nintendo Power contacted me about putting some of the Mario Enemies into a feature. The thing about this project was that it really tapped into my nostaglia about running through Mario World 3 or struggling through Mario World 2. So getting contacted by one of Nintendo's journalists for a small feature in the backspace just made me absolutely giddy. I used to get the magazine back in the SNES days, mostly for walkthroughs and cheats as I used to beg Mom and Dad to take me to Blockbuster so I could peruse the SNES isle and grab whatever I thought had the coolest cover... Nintendo Power got me through quite a few of these games. I had a really bad habit of not writing down level codes and Nintendo Power would come to the rescue. And I feel I've come full circle here somehow. Not sure what that circle is, since my metaphor circle logic is incredibly weak, but I have that feeling anyway. Feels good. There's not a whole lot of ways I ever saw myself getting into that magazine, if ever.

Thanks for the article Nintendo Power.

So go check it out, it's a pretty good issue covering their biggest franchises and most importantly Skyward Sword, and the small article on me and my art is right in the back. I would have plugged it earlier, but I didn't know what exactly they had written about me until today and I was a bit nervous about it. Actually turned out to be a 2 page spread instead of the one I was told it would be. The article was written by Andrew Hayward, so you should check him out too.

Belome - SotD 148

2011-09-29T04:43:00.000-04:00

Again I have found myself feeling a bit guilty about using the "Sketch-of-the-Day" moniker in the title, since some of you may have noticed... Not so daily. Hopefully, I shall be back on the wagon here and goin' since I got way side-tracked and while I've been makin' stuff, I just haven't been posting it.

But finally, here is a new Mario enemy for the series. Personally I wasn't familiar with this one at first, and I think anyone who isn't a die-hard mario fan won't get it... but MAN was he requested by a lot of people and I promised this one right in the beginning. Belome is a big four eyed fat cat out of Super Mario RPG for the SNES. He seems to be a predominant memory for players since the second time you meet him in the game he's a pretty tough dude that can eat a teammate, clone him, and then turn the clone against them in battle. It all sounds rather... not Mario. But I looked it up, saw a video, and it turns out that it is EXACTLY Mario. Plus it's a cat with 4 eyes and a huge tongue. There really wasn't any question whether or not I'd try to tackle it.

Anyone who knows me knows I don't do turn-based anything in games so I passed this one up during my childhood. I rented it... I tried it... and I thought it was crap that I just had to stand there while the enemy did damage to me. So I hated it. That thought process is still mostly intact for all things turn-based today. Probably gonna catch some flak for throwing that out there... but after seeing some videos of Belome in action... I may just try it.

Zombocalypse

2011-09-09T15:34:00.001-04:00

I was asked to make some menu and intro art by Ironzilla Media for this very awesome flash game. It went up on Armor Games this morning and I can't imagine it disappointing anyone who plays it. I was given pretty free reign by the creator to put my spin on the characters. Really was awesome, and it's nice that it's free and I can share it you all.

So you should play it... go on... play...

http://armorgames.com/play/12294/zombocalypse

Ghast - SotD 147

2011-09-02T17:20:00.000-04:00

Here is something Minecraft related I never posted. One of those, "I'll be sure to post it tommorrow" sort of deals. I have a creeper and a skeleton somewhere on this blog as well.

I'm only sort of looking forward to the 1.8 update of Minecraft. Minecraft has been my sort of go to stress reliever. If I was worried, or needed to settle down, Minecraft would soothe me pretty quickly. And I'm not sure how fond I am of it becoming more of a real game... or other people inhabiting the world besides my solitary character. I will admit now that I've experienced the multiplayer side of things, I feel like I really have to give myself tasks to stay interested. Whereas in the single it somehow oozes a certain mood to me that I could much easier get lost in.

Minecraft to me has never been explicitly fun, but it's always been relaxing in a weird way. Why does it feel like 1.8 threatens that?

Another Hellboy - SotD 146

2011-08-17T08:36:00.000-04:00

Had a sleepless night, so I decided to doodle a bit and get away from some projects. The result was this quick Hellboy portrait.

Feels good to post again. Bit too tired to write out anything more coherent and lengthy at the moment.

Just checkin' in...

2011-07-27T22:52:00.000-04:00

I'm still around. Still continuing the Mario characters, but with all the internet attention it's made me quite a bit busier. I felt weird not updating in so long again, so this is that update. I'm trying to make some time to sit down and broadcast one but it doesn't seem to be happening. Soon though. Soon.

And I'm trying REAL hard to mean that.

Birdo - SotD 145

2011-07-18T23:00:00.000-04:00

It's been an interesting few days. Some really cool stuff is happening. I'll have some more news later. But I've been really trying to get a storefront up to sell the prints on. The prints are ready, but my original plan for selling them fell through, and I'll found an alternative, but I imagine it may be a few days longer as I now put up a legit personal store that isn't so much as going through a third party. Cannot wait to be done with it. I don't want to read anymore Terms of Service and Copyright contracts. You never, ever read one and be like, didn't mind that... I don't know how lawyers do it.

So I put the store aside and pumped out another Mario Enemy for you guys that have been checking in. Hope you dig it. I think this one came out rather well. I didn't stray so far from the original that I don't think people won't get it. If anything I imagine Birdo and timing the jump on top of those eggs haunted most of us as kids. Until I started doing these I didn't actually realize how brilliant mario 2 was. It was sort fo a strange leap to make from Mario as far as game mechanics went. It always had that different feel.

Well... Hello Kotaku.. - News

2011-07-14T15:18:00.003-04:00

When I first started the Mario things I was like. "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if these got plugged on kotaku?" As a daily reader I must say, I just about spit coffee everywhere when I scrolled down and saw my art on such a huge site. So you can bet I'll have an extra skip in my step today. I'm I so happy and nervous about the sheer amount of people that will see those today.

Prints are still coming. Possibly latter today. Fingers crossed.

http://kotaku.com/5821124/the-horror-of-marios-enemies/gallery/1

Bullet Bill - SotD 144

2011-07-13T23:47:00.001-04:00

Woo... sorry guys.. got a late start and this took way longer than expected. Took so long getting the perspective down. Then of course I sat here and wept as I blurred it all.

Definite favorite here personally... The mechanical ones take so long. Like the bob-omb... most of that was spent on getting the perspective on those darn feet right. This one was spent getting the nose right becuase for some reason I was dead set on a hollow point tip.

Boo - SotD 143

2011-07-12T23:14:00.000-04:00

Revisted boo today. Much much happier with it. May tweak it later but it's definitely done for now.

I have to say that, I have to be so careful right now... because so many awesome tv shows are starting up again. C'mon entertainment industry... not cool... New Top Gear, new Curb Your Enthusiam, Breaking Bad is starting up, the truly awful True Blood is going, new Jon Benjamin has a Van, Penn and Teller Fool Us is going (sucker for magic shows), new Louie eps... just so much amazing entertainment. I just went two months with a no tv rule, and now that this stuff is back I just keep losing huge chunks of time and I don't really realize it. Thank goodness for being able to multi task with a dual monitor set-up. Anyway, this is just a giant lead-in so I can just express how excited I am for new Breaking Bad episodes. Look forward to that as much as Dexter episodes.

In the next day or two I'll be streaming. So keep an eye posted on the twitter.

Boo: Outtake - SotD 142

2011-07-11T21:51:00.000-04:00

Well I promised when I started up the Sketch of the Day thing again that I'd be posting with a bit of transparency. Today is one of those days. This is today's mario enemy. I do not like it. It is not finished. And I'm taking another whack at it tomorrow. I'm just not crazy about the design I went with. I was really distracted while I was making it, and it just got away from me. Being that these are just sketches I don't spend a lot of time perfecting things... I just slap down some quick lines and go... so before I spent triple the amount of time fixing this thing I'm just gonna redo it.

So expect another boo tomorrow... maybe two if I end up being crazy productive.

It would seem... - News post

2011-07-07T16:04:00.000-04:00

It would seem that the Mario Enemy series has gone a tiny bit viral. It's being featured on quite a few website all over the world, and I'm suddenly getting new twitter/blog followers. First, very flattered that people are digging them. Most artists are modest, but they still love to hear nice feedback, even if they don't know how to react back to it. So let me just say thanks.

Also, a few things:

1. Prints are definitely coming very, very soon. I wanted to get my new portfolio site up before that, but the response to these has been quite overwhelming, so for the safety of myself and people buying prints I will have a storefront up where you can purchase prints and original artwork.

2. I'm still going to be continuing the series. I have maybe 7 more left I intend to do, and 2 full illustrations. So stay tuned. Next monday I will be resuming my update schedule of every M,T,W,Th, F... so keep on checking back.

3. I'm also going to continue streaming while I paint. So if that interests you, follow me on twitter at:

http://twitter.com/mpuncekar

And you'll be notified of when I start the stream, and you can watch me paint.

Again thank you, it truly is flattering if not also a bit surreal.

Intermission: Pirates - SotD 140, 141

2011-06-24T23:09:00.001-04:00

Been a slow day and if I get around to the next mario enemy it won't be for awhile longer tonight. So here's some quicker paintings I did in the last few days as warm-ups and just for fun off the top of my head for the most part.

Spiny - SotD 139

2011-06-23T22:50:00.000-04:00

Not too happy with this one. May need to do touch ups, but I have to post or I'll be breaking my new posting habit. But for now I'm callin' this guy done...

Link - SotD 138

2011-06-22T18:27:00.000-04:00

A small break from mario today, but not from nintendo characters. I'm actually more of a Zelda fan myself. A really crappy fan. I'm incredibly loyal to the series, but I've never completed the big ones. The only one I think I've seen to the end was the very first on the NES. And that one still remains my favorite in the series. I feel pretty alone in that opinion, but I really did enjoy that one the most... and now it's so steeped in nostalgia, no other Zelda can measure up to it in my book.

I put together this Link a bit ago in the vein of the mario redesigns. I don't love it and I want to eventually take a wack at an actual zelda illustration. Something I can hang up on my wall... hopefully that's not too vain sounding...

Goomba - SotD 137

2011-06-21T15:14:00.000-04:00

A classic Mario enemy. No mario game would be complete without them. To be fair though, if they skittered like little spider mushrooms, like I've depicted here? I'd never play it.

I've had an issue with a lot of these in the design process... little ball-like feet don't really translate to how I'm doing these, and I'm trying to find way around the issue. So far the solution seems to be insect like legs. You can stick them on anything. Looks awesome.

Pokey - SotD 136

2011-06-20T16:12:00.000-04:00

Another Mario enemy. Been working pretty steadily so I do have some variety on the horizon, but it's time to paint out another batch of these guys. Got some more popular ones planned.

Bob-omb - SotD 135

2011-06-17T13:49:00.001-04:00

Was really looking forward to doing this one even though I wasn't sure how I was going to adapt it for a long while. Definitely one of my favorites so far.

I finally watched Suckerpunch last night, and got this totally unexpected emotion when I watched it: I got so angry. And that emotion sort of blindsided me. I'd heard some of the reviews, which were horrible (22% on rotten tomatoes) but I still had some high hopes for some good illustrator porn in a way. Let me define that real quick: Anything that illustrators would love to illustrate and work on for fun e.g. Steampunk WW1 concepts. I hadn't considered that the story and tone would be so colossally horrible... so wrongly wedged into the film, that it could sully the very fiber of my favorite things. Things to know about me: I love astronauts, robots, war history, alternate universes, and snow. So when this film took all that, except for astonauts, thank goodness, mixed it all up into this gruel and I sat down and took the first taste I only felt the same sort of emotional reaction you get when you are horribly offended. It was like "How dare you!?" Zack Snyder, to ever take all these wonderful things and disrespect them with this, this... THING. This script, if I dare call it that.

It is just baffling to me that I walked away from Suckerpunch not utterly loving it. I just can't believe he managed to mess that up. So I sat there, with my flag at half mast... because after seeing what he had attached all the wonderful art assets to, those artists had to have gone and jumped off buildings. What a waste of talent.

Whomp King - SotD 134

2011-06-16T14:49:00.001-04:00

The Whomp King, I'll admit, made me so nervous in mario 64. Have what seems to be another fan favorite coming tommorrow...

Complete side tangent here: I need to quit under estimating toast. I'm sitting here eating this delicious piece of toast with some jam and butter on it, and it's just never that food I wake up and want. It's the last resort, the lazy choice, or there isn't anything else to eat. Every single time though, it is so good. Cereal is sort of the same way, but only at night. I can't be alone in thinking that breakfast food feels absolutely wrong late at night, like you sort of pass that 10 o'clock mark and all that food goes from tasty to disgusting. Just this abhorred nightmare situation. Cereal though, it gets the lazy late night treatment that toast gets, and I swear it tastes better at three in the morning. Of course I usually skip breakfast... I sort of see it as a reward most of the time or an experience. Like if I can't get eggs over easy, some slightly burnt bacon and some hashbrowns at a diner... why I'm a bothering?

In conclusion: toast is good, cereal is good, and I apparently have "up in space" expectations of breakfast food and I'm a bit of a snob about it.

Edit: forgot to change the subject title.

Porcu-Puffer - SotD 133

2011-06-15T13:03:00.000-04:00

This particular mario enemy I feel like was the bane of many childhoods. Everyone knows that one stage in Super Mario World where you had to jump from dolphin to dolphin, as the porcu-puffer here patrolled under the surface of the water.

This one has been the quickest somehow... even though it's the most detailed. So irritated I forgot to hit record on the stream for this one.

Czar Dragon - SotD 132

2011-06-14T12:44:00.000-04:00

The Czar Dragon may not be the most familiar of Mario characters as he was only featured in Mario RPG on the SNES. The story to this one is, it started out as Blargg, but as he turned more dragon-like it no longer fit, and I'll have to come back to Blargg some other time. So I took the Czar Dragon notion and ran with it.

I streamed a bob-omb painting last night and I just want to thank the people who watched because I was pretty tired and it wasn't the most exciting cast. But he'll be posted later this week.

Lakitu - SotD 131

2011-06-13T16:13:00.001-04:00

Hello Reddit,

I would like to wave hello. As I just checked my google analytics and I looked at my now severely broken graph. The Traffic spike was just... insane to say the least. I honestly thought it was a glitch until I looked at the scale it had revised. I am absolutely blown away. So I hope you guys saw some stuff that you liked, and to keep checking back because I have a new one to post every day this week.

Flabbergasted,
Mike Puncekar

P.S. I'm also going to continue streaming as I make them. Today's cast is done, but I'll be back tommorrow. Keep checking twitter, or the new widget I have installed over there.

Piranha Plant - SotD 130

2011-06-10T13:19:00.001-04:00

Another Mario enemy for today. Not sure which one is next, but I'm leaning towards Blargg, the lava monster from the later Super Mario World stages. I was gonna save this one for later, but I failed my first attempt at the kuribo's boot with a goomba in it. Just a crap drawing at first. Coming back to it.

Koopa Revamp - SotD 129

2011-06-09T19:49:00.000-04:00

I wasn't really happy at all with the last version, so I wanted to just throw some new colors onto it, then i realized I had lost the file yesterday when the electricity surged again and my comp turned off. So I sort of repainted this almost entirely. Base is still there though, and I am 500 times more happy with this.

Got a few more of these lined up on a list.

Shy Guy - SotD 128

2011-06-09T17:04:00.002-04:00

I always thought Shy Guys in Mario really got screwed, so I decided to beef them up a bit. For the most part, they were just a useless level one enemy in, that literally got taken advantage of when ever Mario and crew rolled into town. They really are bullied little things. Highly creepy though. Those faceless masks sort of freaked me out when I was a kid.

Also, reading through the first Game of Thones book... so just as I got sick of armor... and medieval things... not so much anymore. So picture me shaking my fists emphatically as I yell "More Direwolves, more ice creatures... MORE SNOW."

Koopa - SotD 127

2011-06-08T15:40:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the no post the last two days. Got incredibly distracted by all the e3 happenings and the weather and just sort of forgot to do my sketch. I'll try to multi post soon.

Here's a Koopa from Mario I made while eating my breakfast this morning. Nothing too fancy

Hellboy Doodle - SotD 126

2011-06-05T10:23:00.001-04:00

Bonus Sunday sketch! Now, I will make sandwiches where the only topping is bacon. Good day.

Landscape? - SotD 125

2011-06-03T11:23:00.000-04:00

I'll admit, not really sure where I was going with this. Sort of an alien landscape, but I feel like that's the easy excuse, when in reality I was just farting around in photoshop. Wouldn't mind trying something like this again, but with more of a goal in mind...

Cowgirl - SotD 124

2011-06-02T23:31:00.000-04:00

Here is another oldie since I haven't gotten to any sketching today yet. This was, I think, the last thing I painted in a classroom. And by painting, I mean lugging my intuos tablet and laptop into a classroom. This was cool because everyone in the class had to take some sort of picture of themselves, posing with a hat on, then the pictures were dispersed randomly for each student to draw as a short activity. While I don't think I got a likeness, C.F. Payne (who taught this class) said a likeness wasn't the point of the assignment, so I happily cranked out a cowgirl that sort of looked like the girl it was based on.

Sun Giant - SotD 123

2011-06-01T22:40:00.001-04:00

This sketch has been a long time coming. I sketched this out in pencil on a car ride over 2 years ago. Went digging through my sketchbook and came across it again- just had to color it. I miss this sort of cartoony, style I used to use, but I leaned towards the realistic so I could learn a bit faster about value and color.

Not a whole lot of story on this one, but I believe the over arching idea was just to put down the sort of image I saw while listening to the Fleet Foxes's Sun Giant. Drew it while going home for a weekend from school, and since I'm in ohio, the fields all around the highway had an effect.

Not sure if this is still a sketch-a-day, since I think I took it a bit further than that, but I'm putting it in that category anyway.

I X'ed out of the Painting by Accident. - SotD 122

2011-05-31T20:43:00.000-04:00

Today has been one of those days. Everything I touched was turning to crap before my eyes, but I kept pushing through, and I'm sure tomorrow it'll look better than I think it is, but to top it off I killed today's sketch with two misclicks in a row.

How the heck after using a computer heavily for, well, far too much of my life, I somehow not only clicked close instead of minimize, I then moused over too fast and clicked "don't save". It's happened so fast I didn't even realize what I did at first. I just entered this startled confusion. But I figured it out. Not a lot I could do at that point, so I sat there in silence for awhile with a stupid look on my face. I've had my fair share of crashes, corruptions, and failures... but so rarely is it 100% my own misdoing. And now I'm so frustrated I'm going to work on design stuff instead of drawing anymore today.

But I dug up some stuff I never posted, and you can feast your eyeballs on this, because I still owe art. I talked about this project a long time ago, but since it never really met the standard I wanted due to some time misspent, I never posted any of it. So here are some select picks from the 23 boards that the project spanned over.

Viking Battlemage Outtake - SotD 121

2011-05-30T21:00:00.001-04:00

Well. There is a bunch in here that I love, but without some serious fixing I can't do a whole bunch more to it. So I'm considering this a bit of and outtake for now. So many things that still need drawn, redrawn, and painted to complete the idea to really bring it to even a painterly ending.

Anyway, I saw Thor, which was awesome, and felt the need to do some norse character. Thor was so much better than I thought it was going to be. The Mythical realms in it were just mind-blowing. Such great concept work. Although, the character development was so rushed it could have been a trilogy. Otherwise all the character changes felt like they were done out of convenience for the plot, than as actual development.

Start of the third week of sketches. I think I already broke my previous record. I'd like to thank podcasts and ambient music. But not terraria. That game was a mistake. A horrible, addictive mistake. It's a good thing that my partner in crime on that game is going to the netherlands for a month and a half. Definitely one of those, "well I'll hop in for an hour" and then suddenly it's been a week and you have a beard and animals living in your hair.

A Respite from Dark Things - SotD 120

2011-05-27T18:44:00.000-04:00

Been listening to podcasts while working on stuff. Not sure how I got so far on just music. This is just multi tasking at it's best. Next step: Painting audiobooks.

I do so many dark things, I decided to do some cute creatures. This sort of thing... so hard to come up with something with any sort of uniqueness to it. So many creatives have attacked this problem that you really have to try to break away from the formula. but when you do, it kids way less kid friendly. I feel like now it's become a style race rather than a design race as far as happy-go-lucky designs go. Not saying I tried to do that. I just started sketching...

Step 1. Take an animal
Step 2. Add two big eyes
Step 3. Add hyper antics
Optional Extra: Snaggletooth
Step 4. Make millions.

Another Landscape - SotD 119

2011-05-26T20:59:00.001-04:00

Another landscape today. Just some quick photoshop, but definitely more time spent than expected. I really need to dig up some texture/landscape brushes you tend to see other concept artists using. Don't have a whole bunch that can create a nice sharp line with some texture still in it. May come back and noodle at this one some more though. I kept finding myself throwing stuff at it instead of painting, but I definitely found out some stuff that I will be using in others.

Quick Landscape - SotD 118

2011-05-25T12:47:00.000-04:00

Got some other things I need to do today, and needed a bit of landscape practice anyway since it's been awhile. So... here are some rocks in the ocean.

The Worst of Places - SotD 117

2011-05-24T23:10:00.000-04:00

If I had put two more legs on this sucker I would have been entering into nightmare fuel territory. Cutting this one way closer to midnight than I ever intended, but some distractions and tasks seem to keep getting in the way. Have a feeling I have a landscape in me tomorrow, cause I am pretty sick of characters and monsters now.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoy makin' em. At this point though, not sure how close to sketches they are.

Just Lurkin' Around - SotD 116

2011-05-23T09:22:00.000-04:00

Painted up a monster. Not entirely sure where this one came from. It strikes me as something that would find it's home in a Resident Evil or Silent Hill game. I mean, it has chains from the ceiling and everything. But I've never really played those games. I'm hoping for a silent hill 2 play soon with a friend, but I think the only horror games I've tried to get through have been Amnesia and F.E.A.R.

Amnesia was a success in that I beat it with a friend and there was much rejoicing and the pumping out of chests. Not so much a success that it had drilled into my deepest fears and turned me into a easily startled mess. "Storage"will never be a normal word to me again. It will not be a container of any sort. It will be the place that got a very true "I am going to die" throat tearing scream out of me. It is one of the best games I've ever played. But I will NEVER play it again. At least it wasn't as bad as this dude... (Not Work Safe due to really explicit language- and also, spoilers. So don't watch if you are ever going to play it) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loSzpvq73FY

You'll be thinking, what is wrong with this guy, but... he's just vocalizing exactly what is happening inside your head while you are at the controls. The build-up and mood of it is just... terrifyingly perfect. Everyone should play through it once.

Space Rooster - SotD 115

2011-05-20T00:44:00.000-04:00

HEY YOU...

Ever wonder what a rooster from space would look like? Well consider this learning time, because this is what it looks like.

Considering my huge Donkey Kong rant ont he last post I'm gonna keep this nice and short. I went into photoshop and experimented a little. Nice change from the recent stuff to really get some color working. And lastly, as a reminder, no updates on the weekends for these. Only going to be posting Sketch-of-the-Days MTWthF. I may stil post bigger stuff, but these are reserved for weekdays.

A Vampire Lady 2/4 - SotD 114

2011-05-19T15:38:00.000-04:00

Thinking I have two more vampire girls in me. I have never been one for pin-up art or anything like that, so while these are actually pretty challenging for me, still fun. I'm gonna be honest here, my strong points lie with drawing men and monsters. But this one took half the time the other did. So I'm gonna do two more, make it potential series layout in a 2x2 grid.

In the last few days it's come to my attention that you can play old Super Nintendo games online with a buddy using the right emulator, and I just want to say that I do not remember Donkey Kong Country being so freakin' hard to beat. I must have been one heck of a masochistic kid to have gotten just 90% on the first one. DK country 2 has been beaten, and me and my friend are gonna move onto DK 3. I didn't even know there was a third. It stars Dixie: a broken, hair swinging jerkface (and I say this because I played Diddy Kong), and some giant baby monkey. And since Diddy was replaced, guess who got the giant baby. Not quite sure what nintendo/rare were thinking about on this one, other than cashing in on an insanely popular franchise, but a BABY? And he controls like Donkey Kong from the first game, but... why not just use Donkey Kong? Also, where where the heck are these monkeys all coming from Rare? You have an island that is pretty much, Donkey Kong (worst first name ever btw), Diddy, Dixie, an old crotchety Gorilla, a game show host (probably some mental illness at work), and a nutjob that taped a barrel to some salvage yard airplane wings- which through the power of imagination and nintendo magic takes you from world to world.

What poor mother has to put up with all these jerks? I mean all they do is wander out into the jungle drunk on banana juice and kill hundreds of things just hanging out. For what? To get back some stolen bananas? I think I had a pen taken from me awhile back, I guess I'll go out and send them into a bottomless chasm. But on this island, with bananas everywhere, underwater even, this is like if Trump wondered out of his Golden apartment and begged on the streets for coins. It's just excessive. Monkeys... get some help.

A baby Rare? http://www.mariowiki.com/Kiddy_Kong
And these games keep getting more kid like, but they are so difficult...

Log Boy is Lost - SotD 113

2011-05-18T23:07:00.000-04:00

I made a sketch of Log Boy probably about over a year ago now, but I've always sort of wanted to color that sketch, and this is the result of finding that sketchbook and coloring that sketch. Quite liked working on this one, much more photo based than normal, was just a lot of fun to step outside my normal methods on this, even though you probably can't tell. Turned into a pretty involved sketch-a-day, so that is the reason for the late posting.

This was only really supposed to be filler until I could get a bit further on the Skyrim guy in the below post. It was so hard to stop working on it though.

So I put him in the woods. Being a log, probably not the easiest missing persons to find.

Dark Elf/Skyrim - SotD 112 Part 1

2011-05-17T21:19:00.001-04:00

Before I take this too far today, I figured I'd post it, and finish it up tommorrow, than not have anything today, as I ended up starting 3 sketches all at once and it really slowed me down. But this one will be finished up tommorrow. Or so I think.

EDIT:

So I wasn't happy with what I had at all, and was sort of just winging it without any sort of plan whatsoever. I took a step back, made a plan, and now I'm reworking it into something I like more. So here is an updated WIP. Lots of changes, but good ones. The lump there in the gap will be turning into a dragon peering through/passing. Next step is to make decisions on foreground elements, and to finish the drawing. Really backward, slow way to work on this one. Could have avoided quite a bit of time if I had just taken my time and known what I was gonna try to achieve.

Original Post:

A Vampire Lady - SotD 111

2011-05-16T16:21:00.000-04:00

Well, I've recently installed geektool on my mac. So now, right there on my desktop now I have a To-Do list. I'm not exactly known for my organization. To be honest, most of the time I go to put something away, get distracted and just set whatever item that was down, and forget about it for a week. Which after a few trips doesn't make for the cleanest areas. So this little list is a big step towards a more organized existence. And one of the first things I added on there: Sketch-of-the-Day. So every morning, it's the first thing I see. So these should get pretty consistent - in theory. Although you'll probably see a bunch of boring failed studies along the way. But here is number one. But it says one-hundred and eleven up there, but I'm picking up from where I left off from the original run. Plan is to update with a sketch of the day MTWTh & F. Nothing on weekends. So if I do miss a day, I can still catch up reasonably.

Wouldn't believe the difference this little list has made. I knew I was scatterbrained from time to time, but man, all those all-nighters through school seemed to have taken their toll.

I'm still catching these things...

2011-04-26T19:17:00.001-04:00

Been awhile since an update, and I'm still been coloring these wonderful little pokemon sketches for when I'm all groggy eyed and I've hooked up my coffee IV in the morning. Probably done with these for a long while though. It's relaxing, but at the same time my drawing skills are falling behind, and that's no good. More drawing. Plus, I still have no idea what the names of these things are, as I don't actually play pokemon.

I realized I've been doing nothing but digital stuff for so long now. I actually had to dig out a sketchbook. Dig it out... just... a pretty good sign that I'm not doing enough traditional sketching. So I've found some more bic pens, and will be doing that for warm-up again. This digital stuff spoils you: proportion changes, a fix it later mentality, insanely quick colors... but it's hard not to fall into a rut with those tricks and rely on them. So, traditional warm ups from here out.

Also I'm gonna start streaming again soon, as I haven't lately because to be honest, that free time I spend to do that I've been using to play through Portal 2 and Super Meat Boy. But i've all but conquered Portal 2 and Super Meat Boy's dark worlds have dang near crippled my button mashing fingers. At about 80% completion on it... and I'm not quite sure if I'll ever hit that 100%. So now I'm going back to drawing now that I've got those out of the ol' system.

Portal 2 was so worth the near 3 and a half year wait though.

Lines provided by: http://www.carlyhwang.com/
Colors by: Mike Puncekar

Adventurer... kind of.

2011-03-30T22:46:00.000-04:00

Went streaming again for a bit and to redeem myself from the sketch that prefaced the sea monster I painted up another female adventurer. Although, the further I went the more, zombie apocalypse she got. Still was fun though. Took way too long though. A pretty embarrassing amount of time for such a simple sketch. Ah well, how it goes sometimes. Just wasn't making good decisions as I painted it.

Shamble away Frankenstein.

2011-03-30T04:43:00.000-04:00

This is the result of tonight's impromptu stream. Decided to paint something up real quick and frankenstein came to mind first. Took about an hour to finish. Then I wasted another half hour doing all sorts of stuff to it that I ended up undoing. So before I got trapped in a poorly planned, slightly random finishing process for 5 or 6 more hours I called it quits.

Still sort of getting used to the pressure of having people watch me paint. Have to remember not to rush.

Sea Monster is still stuck in an uncomfortable stare. But slightly different.

2011-03-29T21:31:00.000-04:00

I made some quick revisions to the sea monster I doodled up last night. I'm a bit more happy with this version. I've been liking square compositions more and more.

I'm catching them all?

2011-03-29T21:24:00.000-04:00

I stumbled across a forum topic where a budding artist was taking requests to draw pokemon, then she would draw them from memory. Now personally, I've never really played pokemon. When the craze hit during the 5th grade I had some cards, but I couldn't "shoot things with guns" in the games, so I lost interest pretty quickly. But I still have some nostalgia for it. I think the final straw was that knock off "mewtwo" card they gave out at the pokemon movie screening as a promotional. That was not a real pokemon card. I was entirely dissapointed, as at the time he was the one I thought looked the coolest.

Anyway, before I get too sidetracked, she's posted something like 68 so far, maybe more. Just an awesome amount of these little doodles and she's streaming them as well. Great artist, and the lines on these things are great. So I've been coloring them as warm-ups and just for fun. It's absolutely relaxing to color these. It's like I've got my coloring book and crayons again.

Be sure to check out Carly's stuff...
Her Blog: http://www.carlyhwang.com/
Her Stream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/drawan-n-shit

If you didn't read any of that: I just did the colors on these. I did not draw the lines.

You don't watch sea monster. Sea monster watches you.

2011-03-29T06:14:00.000-04:00

I'm streaming again. New link, and you can watch me here!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/drawing-painting

This was the rather random result of streaming last night for a good 4 hours. I was watching a stream and the broadcaster had to leave, and I ended up broadcasting in her place. For the first hour I struggled with a weak drawing until finally giving up on trying to save it. So, I asked what I should draw/paint and "monster" was thrown out. After the previous effort, I stuck with a relaxing headshot. There's a lot of stuff here, technique-wise, reapplied from the fictional mass effect character I did, but some new stuff too.

My favorite thing being that to get the red tint in the eyes I made a copy of this very same painting, tinted it heavily read, then stretched the picture so it wouldn't be recognizable, then masked it over the black eyes this fellow has. Im quite pleased with this one. Had fun with it, because it was painted with 6-7 other people who were great company, but also because of the result achieved in 3 hours worth of work.

All Photoshop - 8.5x11

Mike Puncekar... Not so Live

2011-03-17T23:27:00.003-04:00

Well, Ustream banned me for copyright infringement... of what?... I have no idea. So until I work this out with them I guess no live shows.

I think maybe they got me on the music I was streaming as I painted? But I've seen a heck of a lot of channels do that. So I'm at a loss as to why it was a problem now. And if it was because of the tiny bit of nudity I was painting at the time, why does it say I've infringed a copyright, hell if that isn't defamation. Need that off of there fast. Not exactly words I want attached to my illustrations. If it was Terms of Service thing I get that... but that is way different.

So Ustream... I take all the nice things I said about you back.

UPDATE: I worked it out with ustream, as in I am still banned and never allowed to stream again due to a boob violation. So, when I get the time I shall resume again on justin.tv since I have a much better grasp on live streaming now. It's sort of irritating that they offer an education/drawing channel and don't allow the human form in it's entirety. If it was lewd, I may understand, but it's sort of a big part of drawing otherwise.

Mike Puncekar... LIVE

2011-03-17T13:19:00.002-04:00

So I finally found an easy way to stream what's happening on my screen and I tested it today for the first time. Ustream, I would like to thank you and your fantastic software. Getting this to work with any sort of decent quality on justin.tv was too much.

I streamed for 3 hours taking requests from people and just sort of screwing around. So far I think I'm pretty happy with the set-up. I can run music in the channel and talk to people with the mic while I paint and work on projects. As long as it's fun or personal chances are I'll be broadcasting it.

But for future reference I'll be announcing when I start on my twitter here: www.twitter.com/mpuncekar

And broadcasting on the channel here: www.ustream.tv/channel/mpuncekar-live-stream

Anyway, I got three mini-paints done during 3 hours. Something for the irish today, a meaner sonic, and a magician dude who is looking a bit venture brothers.

Edit: Just realized I uploaded the wrong sonic. Finished version now in the post.

More fun stuff I guess

2011-03-05T21:09:00.001-05:00

I did this while I was waiting for a friend to tell me to head over to his place. Could have been more ambitious though, I also watched the social network while I waited. Which speaking of, is such a seriously good movie. Even as a pretty stalwart anti-facebook user, the dialogue in that film is just so good I just have to adore it. Paired with a favorite director, fantastic cinematography, trent reznor bringing his brilliance to the soundtrack, and a trailer hooking you with radiohead lyrics... it's just not fair to other films.

Anyway, more mass effect poop since I was just screwing around in photoshop. Had a happy accident and found a new way to add a great texture. Love it when that happens.

Boneface Alien

2011-03-04T01:51:00.003-05:00

I kept coming back to this one off and one today. I started it this morning when my body just up and refused to sleep, and then did some other stuff and finished it up just now. I've been playing through mass effect 2 off and on for a long while now, and while I've made really no progress in the game itself, expect some aliens and fun stuff because that is one inspiring game. Sort of want the art books. I mean when I do give in and play it I only play for like an hour before I find myself looking for concept art and wanting to paint stuff/work.

Also took the time on this one to practice some texture stuff and what not. Pretty sure I'm gonna chase a concept art gig eventually. Might as well get some of the techniques down instead of being all stubborn and stuff. While I still prefer the painterly look, it did make this really darn quick.

Mass effect 2 is one hell of a game I want more time to play. I bought one of those ridiculously huge steam deal packs where you get 600 something dollars worth of games for like 75 bucks, and I haven't really gotten to play any of them yet. Actually still haven't played anything of the humble indie bundle I plugged not too long ago. Need to turn into a robot, get rid of sleeping and eating... just work and play at a constant rate. I am getting antsy though. I'm spending way too much time behind the computer. A scary amount of retina bleaching time.

And photoshop cs5 is awesome, but I swear it's even slower than cs4 handling psb files. Crashes so much on me, and the half hour save times are really irritating. When I get the cash, 4 more gigs of ram is going into this computerin' machine ASAP.

Study/Future Piece

2011-02-24T22:34:00.000-05:00

Did this tonight at the prompt of Alps Explorers. Would love to take this one further as I like the results so far. I've been watching the Lord of the Rings for the first time in a long time while working on other stuff. Such beautiful movies. The amount of care put into the props and armors is just... so impressive.

Weeping Willows

2011-02-18T14:44:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure why I never posted this. I thought I lost all of my portfolio files today with an accidental rewrite, but I didn't luckily, and I went through it all real quick. This was a C.F. Payne assignment, as he was trying to get me out of my monsters and military gear mindset a bit. So he gave me this, which at the time was really annoying because I was trying to set up a heavily editorial ink port with a dark influence. Borderline horror/fantasy sort of stuff. So I sort of pooped this thing out pretty quickly, but to be honest, I think it turned out pretty good and it's the one all my family members like the most... probably becuase it doesn't make me look like as much of a weirdo. So here it is in all it's colorful wonder.

I still sort of revel in the timeline for this one. It came together really quick once I abandoned the plan to paint it traditionally. It was drawn out on a piece of scrap cold press illustration board I had laying around, and the grain of it really benefited the reddish brown prisma color pencil I drew the lines in. So when I colored it, it probably took all of an hour and half to do.

Bootlegger Speedie

2011-02-17T08:07:00.001-05:00

A really quick speedpaint with a theme suggestion from Kevin Havens. Starting to warm-up to cs5's new painting engine. Love that I can actively soften an edge without having to paint a softened edge.

John Joel Glanton - Blood Meridian

2011-02-14T20:26:00.001-05:00

I previously did a quick paint of the kid and I thought now that I've upgraded to adobe suite cs5 I'd play around with the new brush engine. I did that, then quickly went back to my old method. The new brush engine has some great speed to it, but it still doesn't have that character of texture. It's too opaque, and dropping the opacity just makes it way too computery for me. Any tips would be appreciated regarding how to make those feel a bit more real.

I did however play around with some new texture methods which I really, really like, and made some custom colorable texture masks for myself so I can have more control over how color is effected when I want to add some grime.

Anyway, he's how I pictured Mr. Glanton when I read Blood Meridian. A book I think I may just read through again. It's so good. I see that they are gonna make a movie adaptation out of it, and I can't fathom how that's gonna be possible with the chrisma of the Judge and the sheer violence of it. Tall order making a movie out of it. Next up I'm gonna do the judge depending how much headway I make on other things I'm doing for people.

8.5x11 Photoshop cs5

Trolling is an art.

2011-01-05T06:20:00.001-05:00

A gift for my brother this year.

2010-12-24T22:42:00.000-05:00

It's a long story that I actually don't know the story of, but in our garage has sat this plastic viking hat that was my brother's for years and years. On one side his name, and on the other "Go to Hell". It's one of the few remnants of his highschool shenanigans that we still have, along side his old potato gun (read: potato cannon). So this year my parents as a sort of joke gift decided to give him the things back. So I took this opportunity to "viking" him up, and settle up on a birthday promise of a paitning I sort of maybe forgot about until recently.

Note: My brother has both eyes.

The Humble Indie Bundle number 2.

2010-12-14T16:00:00.003-05:00

Well, the folks at Wolfire Games have put together another Humble Indie Bundle this year. If you aren't sure what this is, it's a bundle of five games, really good games, for Mac, PC, and Linux. The catch is you pay what you want like Radiohead's In Rainbows album. The really good thing about this, and why I'm bothering to post it on here is that you can choose how what you pay is divvied up.

So, you get the games, and the money can go to two good charities, Child's Play in particular which is a wonderful organization run by the Penny Arcade guys. Child's Play is very relevant right now because this charity sends video games and systems to hospitals to entertain the ill children every Christmas.

So get yourself some games, and give to charity at the same time. Only 7 days left though, so be sure to click below. They've already raised a substantial amount of money for the short amount of time it has been available. Gives me the warm and fuzzies.

CLICK HERE TO BE A GOOD PERSON

I'll post some art up real soon.

Draw a dog with eyes closed. Make something out of the aftermath.

2010-11-11T17:46:00.001-05:00

Wanted to take a break from some other things and saw this activity on a forum today. Like the topic title the challenge was to close your eyes and draw a dog. Didn't matter what breed or anything, but just a dog. I went for a wiener dog. The funniest and the best of all dogs.

Here was my salvage job. To be fair, I was flashing back to Dave Devries Monster Machine drawings like crazy. Just so many similarities. Not that I would compare my effort to his stuff.

A Jedi. All moody of course.

2010-11-06T02:15:00.001-04:00

Well, I think I'm on the mend and the constant aches and headaches have been chased away with after halloween sale chocolate bars. So, a few friends came over to watch the last two episodes of dexter so while we were watching I painted this up after I was prompted by Patrick Butler. So he proposed that we both do something really Star-Wars-ish, and since he wanted to do a Sith, I went ahead and painted up this Jedi on my laptop. This one was incredibly fun. It changed quite a bit as I went along adding and taking away a lot. It was just a really organic painting. Hope you enjoy.

Things I managed to cram in because I like them, big hoods, snow, and a graphic planet/moon. Which in retrospect I should have had more of back there. Feels like every Star Wars planet is rocking two suns or something.

Feeling a bit under the weather today.

2010-11-04T18:13:00.002-04:00

I recently had to visit home, and I seemed to have dragged back to my apartment their sick. I painted this... but now I'm convinced my subconscious is telling me something.

These little quick things are great. Faces are that one thing that never gets old painting. Especially strange ugly ones, because I'm sure as heck not gonna use ref when I'm working for fun this way. Just having some fun here since the disease I currently have is trying to ruin my day. Strangely I'm craving cajun food. Not sure how the body is going to respond to that.

Vampires on the brain.

2010-11-04T00:43:00.002-04:00

Due to some other projects I have going on, I've been overloaded on vampires. I didn't get to do a halloween post, so this speed paint from tonight should suffice. One of those that took a half hour to paint and another half hour to finish.

In other news I watched shutter for halloween. The Thai version. Bad move. I'm not one for jump scares and this movie reduced me to a hair pulling mess. If you want a great horror flick I can't recommend it enough, since it turned out to be a great movie as well... but holy lord was it unkind to the senses.

In other, other news, Beach House, plugged into pandora radio makes one heck of a good station.

Click this one for full size. Blogger is freaking out over the reds.

Skeletons. They are stupid.

2010-10-26T22:51:00.001-04:00

Hopefully by now you've listened to my sound advice and bought Minecraft. And if you have you will understand how stupid skeletons can be. Running into one of these guys unprepared definitely means you are in trouble. Anyway, just wanted to do a quick paint today to take a break from other things.

Edit: Totally forgot to link what these guys look like in-game (LINK)

Cobra Commander is sort of the best. Ever.

2010-10-18T00:56:00.001-04:00

This is my extremely late entry to the sketch-2-death activity that me and some friends have been doing for quite awhile now. Here's a link to the blog, definitely worth checking them out, and their respective blogs. Talented folks, indeed. (LINK)

The theme this time was Childhood Memory. I was going to choose something more activity-ish like nerf or losing my shoe in the woods, but every time I thought of the words I just got a mental picture of this guy.

I had some fun with techniques on this one if you couldn't tell, it's still 100% photoshop start to finish, but there is a lot of textures, adjustment layers, and other stuff at work here. Many of the layers just plain got covered up. Just sort of had fun with it.

Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

2010-10-16T23:23:00.002-04:00

The most horrific noise I've ever heard in a game. The hiss of a creeper behind me. The noise that beckons the soon to be crater in my tediously crafted shelter. Screw you creepers. You destroy all my nice things, and I hate you for it.

For those who do not understand my pain, this is a creature from a game titled Minecraft (click that after you read). If you do not own this game... you must buy it. There is no argument here, only the exchange of money over paypal. It's an indie pc game that runs on anything, designed by a foreigner named notch, and it is responsible for bringing me childhood-like bliss daily with it's sandbox, lego style, adventuring gameplay. It is simply embarrassing how fun it is. And you look like a complete nerd child playing it.

This is one of the creatures in-game (LINK) that I've painted. The game doesn't look like much, but that's what makes it so charming. And it's only in the alpha stage, and buying it now grandfathers you in to all other versions for 14 bucks USD and it's only going up. Don't be cruel to your inner child. You owe it to yourself. Buy it, then e-mail me about your game. I want to see your castles, forts, and cave homes.

I want to keep talking about it, but I'll refrain for now. That's a lot of text for an art blog.

This is how you dress for the zombie apocalypse.

2010-10-15T18:44:00.000-04:00

I feel like a military contractor would stand a good chance during the invasion of the walking dead.

Techno Bounty Hunter WIP

2010-10-14T20:58:00.000-04:00

So I've been working like crazy for a bit. Here is a mini paint I did that I'm probably gonna take to finish. I've been wanting to do a Star Wars-ish bounty hunter for awhile now. My first attempt was essentially a failure and I am way happier with this one. It's like I'm learning.

Really trying to not be a greyscale abuser on this one and do some color work. It is taking so much longer than I thought it would so far because of that. I've gotten really used to painting in greyscale first.

Time to dust off the ol' blog.

2010-10-13T21:13:00.004-04:00

Dear Blog,

I've neglected you and I am oh so sorry. In return I will have a solid week of updates. I have a surplus of sketches and I would like to share them. I'll start off the week with this fresh mini paint I did in photoshop today.

I've recently been reading my way through Cormac McCarthy's book, Blood Meridian. The main character, although it seems arguable he's just a mere part that loosely ties characters together, is "The Kid". He has no name, and his description is... brief. I know he's a male and has a white shirt. And that he is 14. So far it's one hell of a book though, and possibly one of the most unapologetically violent things I've ever read. If you need a cool book, pick it up.

Sincerely,

Mike Puncekar

Vamp Concept

2010-05-22T16:03:00.003-04:00

If I made a vampire film this is what they would look like. Not some pretty boy teenager. They'd have a tail, a belly full of blood, and a face fit for scaring. I'm in a concepting mood, so expect some more of these, especially while I'm currently teaching myself z-brush. Which crashed a lot. So I quickly ended up back in my comfort zone, photoshop.

I've always thought nosferatu type vampires were the best though. To me that romanticism is strange for something that sucks bloods out of human throats. It's irritating how quickly people in the stories can overlook this quality. I think a vampire hunter is up next though.

I tried out some new techniques in this one. Let me know what you think. I'm building a concept portfolio and I need a direction.

More Character Concepts and A Fortune

2010-04-16T01:38:00.004-04:00

First set of concepts were for my last Professional Practice assignment. Story behind this is the teacher, Dave Groff, used a random hero generator for us to illustrate. I managed to miss class that day accidentally, so as punishment my hero was a "Ballerina Karate Master". This is in contrast to "Amazon Adventurer", "Warlock Hunter", and annoyingly what I would have got if I had been there "Astronaut Zombie Hunter". Everyone in the class got something that was easily a winner of a character. I deserved it. The irony being that I missed because I was so exhausted from working on the assignment from this very class the entire night before. Lesson learned.

The last thing was from today's Professional Practice class. It was a 3 hour timed challenge where we had to illustrate our fortune from a fortune cookie. After about 2 hours give or take, once you include printing the thing and meeting up to discuss concepts. It was fun. I'd call it a sketch-a-day, but I'm not sure if I feel right using that term anymore with all of these sporadic updates.

Lastly, I got a tiny new red moleskine, pocket size. Love a new sketchbook. Nothing beats that feeling.

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

2010-04-10T13:12:00.002-04:00

This was my second assignment I cranked out after the last one. Goal on this one initially was to pick a female lead based play and do a poster, as I needed more females in my portfolio. But in the end I leaned on this layout since I felt it was much more striking than the original comp I had planned.

I'm a bit bitter though that I had messed up my due dates on it. It wasn't due and I pushed through the night even though I didn't have to. Started it at about 2 in the morning from scratch, and had an art history class at 11am, the class it was due at 12:30am, and the Annual AOI show immediately after that to help set up. And I put on a suit for the heck of it, that was on from 10 in the morning till 11 at night. My feet hurt from dress shoes. You girls out there that wear heels... I ask you... WHY do you put yourself through that?

I got some really good feedback on this stuff, though. Sure is a nice break from the painterly stuff. As much as I like painting, and the finished product, it just takes so stinking long compared to these. I have a joan of arc inspired wrap-a-round book cover in the works now, so I'm gonna experiment a bit to see if I can merge the two styles happily.

Prohibition - 1920s

2010-04-09T00:31:00.003-04:00

This was what I got to do last night. I really love doing this sort of ink work so I figured I'd post it up on the blog. This one was really fun from start to finish, with start being midnight last night, and finish being a little bit ago, with a whole lot of troubles in between.

The concept came from an old photo I had found where the stage was up on top of the bar. I just exaggerated it. If Iget more time to work on it soon I really want to get a subtle band up behind her. For now I have to start work on a Play Poster based on "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-on-the-Moon Marigolds". I picked it because of the awesome title. Unfortunately, it turned out to be quite a screwed up depressing story.

Sagat Redesign

2010-03-27T21:26:00.002-04:00

Alright. I really have to start doing some work now. Not a whole lot changed on Sagat from his original design. Mostly just gave him some new shorts and roughed up his appearance more. I consider him an aggressive fighter more than a defensive one, so I smashed up his face pretty bad.

See ya tomorrow.

Chun Li Redesign

2010-03-26T23:23:00.004-04:00

Here we have my Chun Li redesign, again from Street Fighter. So when Vega couldn't represent, she was my go to character. She had a gift, and that gift was button mashing kickery. No other character could tear through the bonus stages like her. She's also a girl. And I really need to paint more of these strange creatures. I'm always doing soldiers and knights, and I never remember to get some girls going.

Depending on how far I get on my actual school project I should have been working on, I want to squeeze in at least one more Street Fighter. leaning towards two fellows named E. Honda and Sagat. Guile could be fun, but I can't stand that signature hair. It just looks so freaking terrible.

While working on this I was listening to the new MGMT album. Not thinking I like it very much. On the plus side I discovered the internets virtual keyboard, and I got sucked into attempting video game themes. I at least couldn't stop until the Morrowind theme was perfect.

("We're watching you, scum..."

-every Ordinator in Morrowind)

Vega Redesign/A sketch 2 death event

2010-03-25T00:42:00.004-04:00

Over in the Sketch-2-Death camp, a fellow CCADer started this activity, where we are all being a bunch of fanboys, and pretending we work at Capcom, sketching out some Street Fighters.

I took early dibs on Vega. Why? Because he is clearly the most super fantastic, and I mean that in the most arrogant way. While he may be a pretty boy under that mask, he was just so incredibly awesome in street fighter 2, that he just had to be done. He climbed on the cage wall, and slashed his foes to pieces with the only real weapon in the game, and it's an AWESOME weapon to have in a fighting game. No one beats him in sheer amazingness. Which is why they never bothered to change his character in future incarnations, because he is just that perfect.

I did try to make him a bit more matadorish, tone down the muscles, and spruce up that silly arm band though (he's still perfect though!). I also punched some holes in his mask, because that thing has to be hot. So that leaves the only real addition being the claw hand. I was just going to put another claw on him, but he isn't wolverine, and I think it fit's the whole snake tattoo thing resembling the fangs. Plus, just think of the cool in-game moves those could bring in tandem with the claw.

Lastly, I'm on spring break! But I don't have my scanner cord (although I have the scanner) so while I had planned to post a metric crap-ton of art on you to make up for my absence here the last month, I can't unless I get to a scanner. It'll be a busy month or so working up to graduation, so updates will be very sporadic as I get my portfolio together and finish branding, but I'll try to keep updating.

Lastly, lastly... everyone needs to tune in or somehow get their eyes on HBO's The Pacific. It's two episodes in, and it is glorious.

Before the Bull

2010-03-02T05:04:00.004-05:00

So this is what I had to paint up last night for the CCAD Illustration Workshop Class. It was completed on a very tight timeframe, and at this point I swear it's the only way I can get my brain in gear. I've come to the conclusion, that I enjoy tight deadlines. Bit masochistic I guess, but I just like the silence of the night and the 4:00 am Mcdonald's breakfast trips. Working on something during the regular daylight hours just feels... wrong.

And I have an excuse to drink an unhealthy amount of coffee.

Story on this one was that we had to take our character concept we had done previously, and relate it to the Haiti Disaster. It was an odd one, very odd. I kept it simple though, since my character is placed in time quite a bit after the disaster. Not to mention I didn't feel quite right putting my character there in a mocking way. I tend to live in a box, and check the news every long once in awhile with no tv, and any reading time going to books or fun stuff like cracked and science/tech, not counting the infinite loop of wikipedia. So when I finally did see photos, it was the day before he gave the "twist" of the assignment, since when we designed the characters we didn't know the second part of it, and they weren't the easiest photos to look at to say the least. This was my solution. I wouldn't mind getting some more arena equipment in there and solve some outstanding issues, but for now it's off of the queue and on to something else.

FARRGOO

2010-02-18T16:07:00.004-05:00

So here is a recent assignment for school that I finished up last night. We had a list of column A movies, and a list of column B movies, and then we had to pick one from each category and combine them. So I chose Peter Yate's "Bullitt", and the Coen Brothers' Fargo. In other words, 1968 in snow. I had also been looking at some minimal french 1970 movie posters, so that crept in as well.

This one was really a challenge, since I can't remember I took a legitimate stab at a car. Pretty happy with how it all turned out on the short time frame I gave myself due to a start over last night at midnight.

So I haven't really slept yet, and I'm feeling pretty darn sleepy, but if all goes to plan I may have another piece for you by midnight.

The Hound of Kings

2010-02-17T19:16:00.003-05:00

Recently I was contacted to do a quick sketch for a silent auction in alabama. The subject was weimaraners. More specifically for a an event to raise money for a rescue foundation for weimaraner's in Alabama, Mississippi, parts of Tennessee, Georgia and Louisiana. The event is march 6th in Homewood, AL. Looks like a good time, so if you live around there check it out, and bid on my drawing, please. Thanks to Vanessa for giving me the chance to contribute. The idea behind the drawing was that Weimaraner's are considered the dogs of king's since their breeding came about as a result of the king's wanted decent hunting dogs to accompany them. They did their job so well, that it was among one of the first breeds to be accepted in the home to live with their owners, so in a sense, they have a royal bloodline, as well as one of the most historic.

More information on the event by clicking here.

In other news this place has been a bit quiet since I have a lot of projects going right now, but I'll be updating soon enough. Want to thank everyone for the support lately. Gives me the ol' warm and fuzzies in the heart regions.

Society of Illustrators - Student Competition

2010-02-11T21:58:00.003-05:00

Edit: Thanks for all the kind words all. What a great few days. Coincidentally, at the time I made this post I hadn't known that Irene Gallo had posted the Undertaker on her blog in the image attached to the post about the competition. Which really made this something special for me, just being on the same page as posts with Tor Books artists. So exciting.

Here's the images that made it in for those that asked.

Groff: This cloud is pretty comfy. We will see.

Thanks again everyone

Let me start off with a WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

....and compose myself....

When I came to CCAD I only had one goal after freshman year, and that was to get something into this student competition for Society of Illustrators. Man, is it a good feeling to have gotten two pieces in, The Undertaker and Lincoln's Secret Letters. I understand that judging is more of a matter of taste on the judges panel, and the best piece that I may think will get out in the first round, but as a general feeling towards this, I feel like I've been assured at least a shot in the illustration world.

Holy hell I'm excited right now. Have to get back to work on an assignment I'm way behind on, but be sure to check out everything that made it into the show this year.

Society of Illustrators Student Competition

A Space Rodeo

2010-02-08T21:00:00.003-05:00

This was a fun one. This one was for Thom Glick's half of the Illustration Workshop at CCAD. Everyone had to concept out a few characters based on the theme "rodeo". I eventually landed on this rodeo rider that essentially rides a multi-rocketed platform with bull riding rules. I devised a ruleset for it, and arena type atmosphere that I'll be using when I take this concept further.

Interestingly, there was a "twist" second half to the assignment and we have to base an illustration on the character. Unfortunately for me, it has to include the character, and be based on the Haiti Disaster. Gonna be a tough one to pull together tastefully. Excited to see where it goes though. If you want to see what some of the others in the class came up with click here: CCAD Illustration Workshop.

Also on the table this week is a borderline children's illustration with some bird creatures. I got a bit ambitious and the scenery is very... perspective...y. A friend suggested I use sketch up to eliminate a bunch of the complicated perspective work. I have to really recommend this software. Absolutely great, if you haven't tried it. It's incredibly intuitive. Download it, it's awesome.

Also, also, I found a early leak of Massive Attack's new album. Just couldn't wait, so I nabbed it and I gotta say, definitely a return to form to the likes of Mezzanine. It's called Heglioland, and if you can get it, not sure on the actual release date, you have to check it out. Good stuff.

Sketch-a-day Vol 2 011

2010-02-06T00:03:00.006-05:00

Here's my new sketch-2-death submission. The words this week were "Flying" and "Slave", so I responded with a butler making his escape.

This one was great becuase I finally found out how to properly color my lines instead of using me horribly convoluted method of masks and selective colors.

Also got featured on a major blog today thanks to Faye + Co. I'm really grateful for the feature, Diane. Made my day, bigtime. She even managed to pick my favorite piece, the undertaker, as the thumb people see on the front page of the blog.

Mom approved as well. I'm embarrassed in that normal son way, but I definitely appreciate that too haha

Sketch-a-day Vol 2 010

2010-02-04T22:05:00.003-05:00

This was a quick in-class exercise from today. About 2 hours from beginning to end. We had to conceive a new reality show and make an illustration with 2 or more characters in it. So, I created a show where 8 contestants enter the house under the impression that it will be a big brother type situation, but every once in awhile a siren goes off, the lights dim and something goes awry, ranging from a toilet overflowing to bee swarms, to a full on minotaur slaughtering a house member. Good times.

I really love these assignments, there's jsut no time to think, and in that there just isn't really any pressure. Also fun to do with the whole entire class at once, and to really see what people can do on a true time frame. Although I did lose the original file due to the ridiculous amounts of virtual memory that photoshop gobbles up, had fun.

Sketch-a-day Vol 2 009

2010-01-29T14:58:00.002-05:00

Here is a quick color test for what I have in store for an upcoming conquistador illustration. This is maybe 30-45 minutes in class today with some limited reference. The goal of this illustration is just to use color more adventurously, and so far Im having some fun with it.

Sketch-a-day Vol. 2 008

2010-01-28T19:39:00.002-05:00

Stewart - Age 10

In the town of Goosebury lives Stewart Appleton, a small boy whose misadventures in sailing his miniature boat changed him into a hideous remnant of a human being. On a pond positioned in front of a chemical overflow pipe from the Lexico Lead Stripper plant, little Stewart Appleton sailed his boat, and unfortunately for him this was the day that a bird flew through and open window and into the vat, clogging a very special pipe. In an emergency they flushed the vats to keep the cleaner from turning flammable as machines sparked and workers scattered. So Stewart sailed his boat unaware, when suddenly he was nearly drowned by 10 tons of Lexico Lead Stripper chemicals. He awoke blurry eyed, and severely disfigured. His boat was lost.

Stewart is still making his way in the world many years after losing his boat as a high school janitor, where his appearance has never once been questioned. Although, it is suspected that he is currently building a ray gun that can shrink boats down to petite sizes, he lives happily in the attic of his grandparent's house where he can often be seen peeking out from behind a small curtain in a small window.

(My entry to the now alive again Sketch-to-death blog)

Sketch-a-day Vol. 2 007

2010-01-27T20:12:00.003-05:00

Possible pirate piece in the pipeline. I did this sketch as a sort of warm-up to get excited for it. I may come back and paint this one up like yesterday's. Not sure if I want to make it a lighting study, or just to move on.

I said possible though, because I also want to do a conquistador piece. It has to be a brighter looking piece, but i can't get away from the burial of a conquistador with his gold.

Sketch-a-day Vol. 2 006

2010-01-26T18:11:00.002-05:00

Oh man, I am super behind. While I have done a good 10 or so new sketchbook pages, it's all a bit crap. It's not terrible, but in trying to get my drawings more dynamic and correct, I've been experimenting, so while there may be success on a page, right next to it will be a drawing I wouldn't show to the blind.

But I feel like I'm so close to clearing that next checkpoint drawing and really being able to knock these things out 10 times easier and really being able to push it.

Sketch-a-day Vol. 2 005

2010-01-14T03:05:00.002-05:00

New sketch a day thanks to Melisa Des Rosiers who threw out the idea of basing a sketch-a-day on a television, a tree, and desperation. Thanks.

So last night I finally got to watch Inglorious Basterds. I'm not sure if I'll be all that excited to see the next Tarantino movie. I mean, talk about packing a movie so full of references to other movies and an era of filmmaking that your own film loses it's way. It had a few story lines, but literally none of them had the chance to be complex. It was just a bunch of static characters all around, talking far too much. He had that tense feel he always is able to get, but at this point it's so expected from him, he needs to learn a new trick, or at least ditch a few "trademarks" to make more room for story.

But, it's still full of inspiring wwII imagery, and now I feel like I need to draw some.

Sketch-a-day Vol. 2 004

2010-01-12T04:20:00.001-05:00

Just a super quick head study tonight before going to bed. 15-2o minutes

Sketch-a-day Vol. 2 003

2010-01-10T23:39:00.003-05:00

Well...

... about that resolution. I was hoping for another strong start to the year with these sketch-a-days like last year. I couldn't figure out why it was such a chore to do this time. I mean, I love to draw, always have a decent sketch book, including a beautiful new 8.5x11 moleskine courtesy of my super talented girlfriend (her blog here), and I have quite a few sitting here right in front of me. I have a few reasons why I failed so miserably at this task: The free time I usually use to do a sketch-a-day has been competing with some heavy hitters such as all of "lost" on hulu, a new computer that can run s.t.a.l.k.e.r. in all it's beauty, and a morning coffee addiction where I get sucked into hours of news and tech articles. That last one has to be my favorite. Nothing like a cup of coffee in the morning that is just hot enough to lightly scald your mouth and force you into sipping, and some entertaining reads. I'm living the good life right now. The best life I could have really, and this winter break is so hard to fight.

I guess that is what I should be doing before embarking on my last hectic semester at CCAD. What I'm trying to say here, is I got ahead of myself, because I was really excited about getting back into this and getting some motivation. I'm not quitting though. Gonna stick to my resolution of 3-4- updates a week. Just can't believe I slipped up so early. Cause once you are behind on sketch-a-day... man, does that guilt and pressure build up everyday you miss.

I did a few sketches today, on paper, and a few digital ones. This one was my favorite. I'm in a bit of an artist slump right now, so I'm gladly taking requests from people on here as far as stuff you want. Keep em fun and I may wind up doing you a custom sketch. Cause I'm getting rusty and I gotta keep up the work.

Sketch-a-day Vol. 2 002

2010-01-04T00:15:00.003-05:00

Well, I didn't make midnight because I had a full day at my girlfriend's house, and I spent a vast majority of the day on a wii fit. Man, I will never ever make fun of yoga again.

So, this is a eyeball spider thing. It came about because when I went over to her house her little sister was doing a project for a contest and she had to draw some eyes. And she made the comment that some of them were just looking hairy once the eyelashes were em. So I made a hairy eyeball, and added legs for good measure in a quick pen sketch while I was sitting with them. Color job is a bit rushed but eh, I still like it.

A New Year, A New Sketch-a-day

2010-01-02T23:29:00.004-05:00

It's time to start the new year. As far as new years go, this is sort of a big one I would think. School will officially end and I'm gonna have to grow up or some such nonsense, and hopefully, I'll be able to make something out of this hobby turned career called "Illustration". But that's not a for a few months. So besides that, and realizing that all the little kids I knew have entered high school which weirds me out, things are gonna be normal for a bit. So I thought, this is the perfect time to revamp sketch-a-day.

I used to be pretty on the ball about sketch-a-day. If you check out my back logs over there you can see I was doing alright. Then once last summer hit it's been spiraling downward. So I made a resolution this year: to update this blog four or more times a week. I have some ideas ranging from using it to develop a universe of sorts, or to turn it into an ongoing comic for at least an "issue". But my hopes are high that this is one resolution I won't break.

2009 was a good year though.I made a bunch of break throughs as far as art goes, and met a lot of artists I've always respected. Got in my first book, won my first art contest, and made a few pictures I actually like quite a bit.

In 2010, look forward to a limited offerings of prints, and I'm hoping to do some sketch trades or something with a few people on here if they will have it.

To kick it off I'm going to update everyday for two weeks straight. Keep on checking back.

Sketch-a-day Vol. 2 001

15xThirteen

2009-12-26T23:42:00.005-05:00

15xThirteen is something I am really excited about...

The very talented Coey Kuhn and Shy Custis have put together this book of 15 different artists, each with a few pieces and some info about them. It's a good size, full color assortment of a lot of great work, no back door bragging intended here, they got some talented artists from all over the globe in on this.

Here's the thing, there aren't that many of these. Only 250 are going to be printed, then it's done forever. And I assure you that they will start to disappear, especially once Coey and Shy go to sell them at a con. They are the cool popular kids on the indie artist block. So if you want one, grab one now, because once they are gone... no more art book.

Heck, if you do buy one, send me the book, I'll do a sketch for you in the front. A nice one. It will involve ink, and pencil, and whatever else I can use without ruining your nice new book. And I'll send it back to you. No extra charge. If you are interested, just shoot me an e-mail about it and I'll tell you where to send it. No shenanigans please.

Here's the stats of the book:

-Only 250 being printed!

-55 pages

-8.5"x11"

-$40 USD each

-$5 shipping US and Canada, $9 worldwide

The Contributors (in no particular order):

Shy Custis/Coey Kuhn/Rachel Britton/Renee Britton/P.Gaither/Lois van Baarle/

/Ms. Rosek/Kelly Bastow/Mike Puncekar/Kaite Ryan/Ash Evans/Kai-ou 'msh' Tang

/Agnes/Andreia Parreira/Hamlet Machine

And remember my sketch offer. Shipping is all that it would cost. If you wanted something in particular, just write it on the inside cover.

Click Here to Buy

Some Finals

2009-12-17T19:21:00.003-05:00

Here are two finals done from start to finish on the same day. Luckily I had all the parts I needed going in, but halfway through I feel asleep from exhaustion and almost didn't get a good enough finish on ahab here. Haven't sketched a whole bunch since being back home, but I'm looking to get an activity going during my month off. I'm getting antsy without any type of real assignment.

Moby Dick

Tour De France 1923

Portrait of a Mobster

2009-12-06T07:36:00.006-05:00

Apologies for the lack of posting as of late. It's finals week though. Here's a quickie from tonight that I had to do for a homework figure drawing class assignment. I just sort of pulled this one all from my head so it has some issues, but it's also doubled as a bit of a skin tone experiment for an upcoming moby dick illustration I have due friday.

Here's everything due this week:

-One Exam

-4 four corner illustrations for monkey project

-25 11"x17"concept boards based on the monkey tale and present

-2 out of class figure drawing assignments, second one is going to be a painting. Over-gesso'd the canvas, though. Still drying. Need to Start!

-2 Editorial illustrations, one based on the tour de france, one on moby dick

-one artist paper

-and some other odds and ends like a contact list of companies, portfolio reviews, and a artist compendium.

In other news: Last week I had my website due. And now you can go there and look through my work without stumbling through this blog here. A lot of really dated work on there, but hopefully I can really start overhauling my portfolio soon, because in my opinion it's pretty weak right now haha.

Anyhoo: Check out the new website, hmm?

Some characters from a story.

2009-11-26T03:50:00.003-05:00

Meet some of the cast, of "The Lifeless Bones of Edmund Barret".

This has been a long project in the making, that up until this point I've been calling the monkey project. I really haven't been posting as much as I'd like (everyday...) so I threw together this portrait of sorts off of the character boards I have thus far. I have such a long way to go on this before the deadline roughly two weeks from now. Not really sure how it's going to happen. Hopefully it will see a decent finish though, because it's certainly been fun up until this point. Alas, I have so much other stuff due, I'm afraid to write it all down.

But here is Agatha, Edmund, and Hanuman.

Bad Moon Rising

2009-11-19T09:22:00.003-05:00

This one is the culmination of alot of research, alot of drawing, and then about two hours of quick inking. We had to illustrate a song from the 60s for a class assignment, and I chose Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It had some type crammed on it, but when I shrunk it down from print res it got all wonky so I ditched it.

I have to ink more stuff. I really love doing it.

Sketch-a-day 98

2009-11-17T11:08:00.004-05:00

I colored a study i did for an upcoming piece because this place was itching for an update.

Lots of stuff has been going on lately, and I'll go into it more when i post up some finishes later in the week.