I just wanted to take a minute to say Happy Holidays to everyone. I hope you have a pleasant time this month and get lots of love and share some cheer. In an attempt to spread some cheer of my own I altered a few of my art pieces to make them Christmas themed...
...like Darksol, Lord of the Yule Tide
Thanks to everyone who stops by the blog. It means a lot to see people taking the time to leave comments on my page and support what I'm doing.
I've also been getting a lot more active on my Facebook page. I've been trying to make it a little more special by posting in progress sketches and updates as they happen. So swing by and check it out! That's also where you can see the 2nd Holiday themed alter I did titled "Wight Christmas".
Here are the last of my demon pieces. I'm going to give them a rest for now. I'm hoping to dive into the new Art Order challenge that's currently going on. I've really missed those challenges.
The above guy I originally intended on being a demon, but it turned out looking too alien. There's a couple things I like about it but overall I'd call it a flop. It was a fun drawing though.
I had a blast working on this guy. I really like the pose and the design. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with the colors. I'm pretty pleased with the final.
I really like this portrait, I had a lot of fun drawing it and I think it looks really cool. But by the time I got to coloring in the image I realized this was too much like the Darksol portrait I did a while back. I decided I didn't want to do another face forward demon portrait. So I made the hard decision of casting this to the side and moving onto the next one. I'm still happy I did the drawing though, maybe I'll revisit this later.
This last one is a rework of an old design I came up with a couple years ago that I've been really wanting to give it a new spin and make it a technically better image. I'm really pleased with the results and it's got me wanting to go back and revisit the other stages of this monster.
Above is a rough color of the first demon drawing I created. I'm considering how far I want to take the coloring.
Demonus Plumpus
Above is a new demon I came up with recently, which I really like. I originally gave him a sidekick, but I decided it was better to render them separately. Below you'll find his buddy along with a color version of the big guy...
Itty bitty baby demon
Demonus Plumpus Colorus
And that's all for now, just mainly wanted to show what I've been up to. Thanks for stopping by and keep your eyes out for the finished product of the Parables & Prophecies book! I'm really excited this project got its funding and I'm doing everything I can to try and get in. Stay tuned!
I recently picked up a item called 'Hymns & Wretched Offerings to the Golden Ones'. It's a gorgeously made book that was put together by fantasy artist Jim Pavelec. The book is 135 pages long (counting from page 1to the last page featuring artwork) and it's full some beautifully grotesque artwork showcasing tons of unearthly beings drawn by some of the coolest artists around.
The first tome
I bought the book from Jim at his table in the IlluXcon main show and I got to briefly share my enthusiasm for the book and how I'd been itching to get my hands on it. I had also overheard Jim explaining to someone else that there was a second book in the works called 'Parables & Prophecies of the Golden Ones' and I told him I would really like to be a contributing artist if possible. He told me to send him an email...
'If the offerings are sufficient, I may then enter the mortal plane to conduct endless chaos and misery'
...so a couple weeks after I got home I made the above drawing and sent it to him. I hope you can see from the piece how excited I am about this upcoming book. It would be a HUGE honor if I was given the opportunity to be a part of the book. Some of my all time favorite artists made it into the first one and I would be extremely excited if I got to see my artwork sitting side-by-side with theirs in this upcoming book. But in order for this book to become real, it needs your help; so if you're interested in seeing a 2nd book happen (and maybe even MORE) then I strongly encourage you to swing by the kickstarter page and contribute a little something. Just $30 gets you the book itself, and even just sending the page around to others would be a huge help. With your help, you can make our nightmares come true!
I recently set up shop over atinprnt.comwhere you can buy high quality prints of some of my work!
Screenshot of my InPrnt page
If you like my work and want to show some support while getting something cool for yourself or a friend, please take a look! I'll post updates here on my blog when new work is added to the page. I'm currently working on getting my new Dark Dragon piece up there *fingers crossed*.
Saturday was another really big day for me, I spent most of the day attending more lectures. As soon as I got to the building, I headed straight to the lecture being held by Christopher Burdett and Jon Schindehette on the topic of "Getting Serious*". The room was absolutely packed with people and I wound up standing up against the back wall, but it was 100% worth it. They shared a lot of personal experiences and the advice they gave made a pretty big impression on me. I have notes on that lecture too if anybody wants them, let me know and I'll send them your way. I also got to catch a little bit of Winona Nelson's 2nd Lecture, "Break the Rut*" where she talked about her personal journey on how she lifted her artwork to a more meaningful level for herself and how that lead her to creating her best work thus far. The lecture also covered ways that you can try to push yourself to break out of your own artistic rut, and it was cool hearing her own personal experiences. After that I wandered around the main show a bit more then headed over to see Todd Lockwood do digital paint-over critiques in order to kill some time before my portfolio review with Jon Schindehette.
On Friday I had a portfolio review with Andrew Vallas from Paizo, and Saturday, a portfolio review with Jon Schindehette from Wizards of the Coast. Both of the reviews went well, and the comments on my portfolio were along the same lines I had been hearing all weekend. Without getting too much into what they said, I know I'm really close to working with these people, I just have to work on addressing a very clear issue with my portfolio, and I think I'll be ready. It was a really exciting feeling that really cranked up my excitement and it has me really craving to break through this wall that's in front of me. A few well planned out pieces and I should be blowing that wall to pieces and then I'll hopefully be in a much better place with my work and my career.
Soon after my review with Schidehette was over, I left the convention center to head back to the hotel where they were hosting the Illie Awards ceremony followed by the IlluXcon Jam. The IlluXcon Jam was an idea concocted by the guitar-wiz and very skilled painter, Mark Zug. Mark thought it would be a fun idea to bring together the visual artists who are also involved in the musical arts as well. I was one of the several artists who took part in the Jam the first year around (I play the drums for anyone who doesn't know) and it was so much fun and people seemed to enjoy it. The second year they put on the Jam (the year I didn't attend) apparently there was no drummer and based on what I heard from people the drums were missed. This year was the third IlluXcon Jam and I was back on the drums. I was pretty nervous as I hadn't really played much since the first IlluXcon Jam two years ago, but people seemed to be pretty happy to have the drums back. It felt really nice hearing the reaction to me being back on the drums. I know my skills had gotten a little rusty, but after I got a few rough songs out of the way I really started having fun and it was such a great experience getting to play along with some of my illustration heroes. I was happy to have my dad in the audience as well to cheer me on. I know that night will stick with me for a very long time, thanks to everyone who took part and to everyone in the audience who listened.
After the jam I was pretty exhausted, so I went straight back to my room to sleep. Sunday, being the last day of IlluXcon, I spent a few hours walking around the main show, talking to any people I missed, getting some final portfolio reviews, making my final purchases, and saying my goodbyes. Sunday was also the day I was able to convince my dad to come see the main show with me. My dad was a little out of his element, so he was a little shy walking around and I'm sure he felt a little tense when Matt Stewart starting handing him original paintings to look at. My dad is a fan of the World of Warcraft MMO so I made sure to point out all of the WoW art for him at the show. I even specifically asked Matt Stewart if he could pull out his WoW pieces so my dad could see.
It was really nice getting to show my dad around the main show. My dad has been a huge support for me and my art ever since I was a little kid. I do my best to keep my dad informed as to how the art world works and while he definitely understands more about the art world than most parents might, it really meant a lot to me that my dad got this chance to take a closer look into my world through IlluXcon. It was really exciting watching him react to all the amazing artwork, and he even bought a few prints. All the artists were very welcoming to my dad when I told them who he was and a special thanks to Matt Stewart for sharing his time and talking about his work with us, it really meant a lot.
A farewell photo with J. Edwin Stevens, Dave Mallon and Myself (thanks Jeannie!)
After I made my last purchases and said my final goodbyes, it was time to head back out onto the road and head home to Philadelphia. I had an absolutely amazing time the whole weekend. I can't express that enough, just a wealth of knowledge, advice, inspiration, and good times. I learned a great deal and I'm super excited to get back to work. Next year, IlluXcon VI is going to be taking place in Allentown, PA, so I'll only have about an hour drive from my home to the convention, so hopefully everything works out for me to go again next year. I hope to brings some more friends with me next year as well...we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Me and my dad posing with the amazing work of Tom Kuebler
Lastly, I would like to extend a huge thank you to my family for all the support throughout the years. I know the path I've chosen with art isn't the easiest, and it can be very difficult to understand when you're not an artist yourself, but I'm very thankful to havethe huge support from my family in order to help me get to where I want to go in life. A special thanks to my dad, Michael D. Burns for taking the time to travel across the state with me and for helping me with all of my IlluXcon arrangements. I would never have made it to IlluXcon this year without him, nor would I have made it this far in my art altogether. Thank you so much!
Last Thursday, my dad and I loaded up the truck and made the 5 hour drive from our home in Philadelphia, PA to Altoona, PA to attend IlluXcon V. A lot of awesome stuff went down over the weekend, and in the next two blog posts I'm going to share what my experience was like this year as well as how it differed from my last time attending, two years ago at IlluXcon III.
That place where I wanted to go to and then did
IlluXcon III was my first time attending a convention of any sort. When I arrived at the main show I was blown away by all the amazing artwork and I felt really intimidated by all the talent I was surrounded by. I felt pretty insignificant that first year. I knew I had a lot to improve upon, and I was too scared to talk to a lot of the people I wanted to talk to. Getting sick halfway through the show didn't help either, it only taxed my energy and excitement even more. Yet despite all of the hurdles during the convention I still left feeling inspired and motivated to keep creating and honing my skills. The year after, when IlluXcon IV came around, I had just graduated from college and somehow talked myself out of going to IlluXcon that year, and I never forgave myself for not going.
My first year at IlluXcon I felt like I didn't get the most I could have out of the experience, and the next year I was kicking myself for not even going at all. I mention this because these things put me in a state of mind this year that really forced me to get the most out of the experience.
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When I arrived this year I was overflowing with excitement and energy. I was so happy just to be standing in the main show room that any fears or insecurities I had in the years before flew right out the window and I was able to just enjoy talking to all the artists without worries. When I showed up the first night I talked to a lot of awesome people like Chris Rahn, Ralph Horsley, Steve Prescott,Matt Stewart, and plenty of others. These guys are some of my illustration heroes and it was really exciting to get a chance to pick their brains, listen to their critiques and just share a laugh with people who I really admire. It's not everyday you get to meet one of your heroes, but at IlluXcon there are rooms completely filled with them.
The next day (Friday) I spent a lot of time sitting in on lectures and taking notes. The lectures I attended that day were: "Self-Teaching & Self-Design*" by Winona Nelson, and "Narrating in the Dark*" by E. M. Gist. Winona talked about how to make ourselves most efficient and how it's important to be open to experiencing new things because you never know who or what could wind up teaching you valuable information. Erik Gist's lecture covered popular conventions in telling horror and dark fantasy stories, and gave plenty of great examples of where these methods have been executed successfully. Both lectures were very interesting and insightful, and they got me excited to apply what I learned to myself and my work.
*Note: I typed up my notes from all the lectures. Nothing can replace actually being in attendance yourself, but if anyone missed a lecture and wanted an idea as to what was talked about let me know and I'll happily email you the document.
After the lectures I spent some more time in the main show, making my way around to artists I didn't get a chance to talk to the first night. I met the very talented Milivoj Ćeran who came all the way from Croatia to attend the convention, and I also met Jeremy Caniglia, whom I had never heard of before but I wound up really liking his work. I stopped by and chatted a little with Randy Gallegos who I'd met 2 years ago. And I also got a really helpful portfolio review from Winona Nelson, and since she lives in the Philadelphia area she was able to give me some really great information to help me find resources in my hometown.
It's almost like I'm a professional or something...
...almost.
My Showcase neighbor and good friend, Jimmy, aka J. Edwin Stevens, aka Level20artist, aka J master Flash
Friday night was a big night for me because it would be my first time being a part of the IlluXcon Showcase event and my first time ever setting up any kind of convention table. My 2 artist friends J. Edwin Stevens (aka Jimmy, also setting up in the Showcase for the first time) and Dave Mallon made sure to save me a table next to Jimmy's so I had a familiar face to keep me company. As we were setting up we both could tell we were a little bit unsure of how to arrange things, and what to expect from the coming event. By the time people started pouring into the room we were all set up and ready for, well...whatever was going to happen. For me, the night was full of highs and lows, but overall I'm very satisfied with my first display at Showcase. At one point I was sitting at my table and I look up and there's Julie Bell taking a look at my work. She said a few kind words to me about my work, and upon seeing my Wights painting she tipped me off about a Game of Thrones exhibit happening in Austin Texas. Later in the night Raoul Vitale and his son Santino stopped by my table to check out my work and also share their excitement with me about Santino and I performing in the IlluXcon Jam the next night...but I'll talk more about the Jam in a bit. It was really great feeling having artist's I admire so much taking the time to check out my own work and spending some of their time chatting with me, it helped keep my nerves from getting to me. In the middle of all the hustle and bustle of Showcase night I even sold a couple of my pieces! I sold my 18"x24" Boo Berry, and my 11"x14" Darksol portrait. Thanks again to China and Shawn, I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of them! Towards the end of the night I decided to step away from my table so I could see what else the Showcase had to offer. It was great seeing some familiar faces like Chris Burdett and Jeremy McHugh, and I met a lot of great new people as well, and of course collected a bunch of postcards and business cards. It was a long night, but overall a great experience and I hope I can be a part of Showcase again next year.
That's all I'll cover for today, I'll cover the 2nd half of the con in a later post, so stay tuned if you enjoyed reading about my experiences so far. Thanks for stopping by the blog!
Here's the piece I finished up right before heading out to IlluXcon. It's is a companion piece to the Darksol portrait I did back in March that I've been meaning to tackle for a while now. I kept the image mostly secret until I presented my work at my Showcase table this past weekend. I've been making a huge effort to really push myself to limits of what I'm capable of doing, and I'm really happy with the quality of work I've been producing.
"Darksol Ressurecting Dark Dragon" from the Shining Force video game for the Sega Genesis
I'm going to make another post very soon covering everything that went on at IlluXcon this past weekend. My brain's still trying to digest everything it got bombarded with, but in a good way. I have so much I want to share so please stay tuned if you're interested in hearing all about my IlluXcon experience!
Next Thursday (in less than a week) I'll be heading over to Altoona, Pennsylvania to attend this year's IlluXcon. I'm immensely excited to see all the new work, attend some exciting lectures, buy some sweet goodies and of course setup my very own table in the Showcase room! If you want to find me and say hello (*wink wink* art directors) look for the image below...
"Come visit Mike Burns' Showcase table or I'll haunt you forever"
It's the image on my business cards, and there will be a nice sized print on display at my table as well. I'll have some things for sale, including a couple framed prints (like of the piece above!) if you're into that sort of thing. I've been preparing for this con for over a year, and it's almost finally here. Looking forward to the awesome time that's sure to be had. Hope to see you there!
On Friday October 12, 2012 me and my awesome girlfriend Amabel attended the New York Comic Con! We only had one day passes, but we made sure to get the most out of the trip. Here's a little rundown of how our day went...
View of the convention center (not my photo)
We arrived about an hour before the convention center opened where we waited in an insanely long and very loud line full of other excited attendees, many in costume as per expected. We stood there looking through the convention program figuring out where we had to go to see the panels and events we wanted to attend and we also saw some new things we hadn't noticed on the con's website.
We were looking for something to do in the beginning of the con and we found an event called Dare 2 Draw which took place on a stage were 3 models posed in costumes for various warm-up sketches leading up to a 15 minute long challenge where you had to use the models as inspiration to do a Tor themed drawing. After the 15 minutes was up everyone then submitted their drawings, a couple of which would be contacted for prizes if they were selected to win. Not sure when they choose the winner but we haven't heard anything yet. Either way, we both had a lot of fun participating as neither Ama or I had gotten to do any figure drawing for a while. Plus after the event they gave away from free art supplies which was pretty cool. I was also surprised to see my SU classmates Kerff and Jenn at the event too, I haven't seen either of them since graduation.
From there, we headed over toattend a panel and as we were leaving the room I noticed a familiar face who turned out to be none other than Tester Season 2 contestant Mo Chocolate. We didn't say anything to him as he seemed pretty into what he was saying to his handheld video camera, but it was pretty cool passing by him. I'll have to check out his Youtube page, we might have wound up in his video.
The panel we then went to was How to Get a Job in the Video Game Industry held by Capcom. There were a lot of speakers, each with their own unique story as to how they got into the industry, and what their responsibilities were in the company. There was a lot of really nice information provided, and we took some notes. Definitely glad we went to the panel, it got me feeling motivated and with a better idea of how to research finding work. After that we had some time to kill before the next panel we wanted to attend so we decided to head towards the Artist Alley.
We didn't have enough time to see the whole Artist Alley showroom so we decided to scope out some of the specific artists we wanted to see, the first one we spotted was Katie Cook. Ama was especially excited to see her booth as she's worked on the Official My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Comic (Ama kind of likes My Little Pony...kind of a lot actually :P ). Katie was busy doing quick little con sketches for fans so we had to wait in line, but we were looking at her prints for sale and decided to buy prints of the 2 images below...we couldn't resist the adorableness.
When we got to the front of the line we got to talk to Katie a little and Ama asked her to do a sketch of us which, as you can see is pretty freaking adorable as well!
(Pic coming soon)
Waiting in line took a while so afterward we had to leave to catch the first of the 2 back to back panels we wanted to see in the IGN Theater. The first panel was featuring Kevin Smith and his new show Comic Book Men. Season 2 is starting up soon so Kevin and his pals Walt, Mike, Ming and Bryan (the stars of the show) talked about what it was like doing the first season as well what's in store for the second season, and we even got a sneak peek on the show! I think it's safe to say that Kevin Smith is one of my heroes, so it was really awesome to get to hear him speak in person. I've been watching his movies my whole life and I love his sense of humor. It was pretty inspiring hearing him talk, everything that came out of his mouth during that panel was solid gold and I'm really happy I got to attend, even though we were all the way in the back of the room. After that panel was over the room began emptying out and Ama and I ran up front to get closer seats for the next panel. We noticed that the guys from the show were posing for pictures up front so I ran up and handed Mike Zapcic some of my postcards. He was really polite and excitedly took my postcards so we'll see what happens with that.
Comic Book Men Panel (not my photo)
The next panel right after Comic Book Men was for the new Silent Hill movie called Silent Hill: Revelation 3D. As everyone knows, I'm pretty obsessed with Silent Hill so of course I just HAD to see this panel. Not to mention the fact that Ama and I were both super excited to see that Kit Harrington (Jon Snow from Game of Thrones) would be there since he's playing Vincent in the new movie! We got to see some never-before-seen sneak peeks at the movie and at the end there was a Q&A where I got to ask the panel a question of my own! I asked them if they all played the games themselves and if so what they thought about them. The audience seemed to react when I asked the question and I was happy to hear them all speak very highly and at great length about the games. It was an awesome panel and I'm really excited to see the movie!
Silent Hill: Revelation 3D Panel (not my photo)
From there we decided to grab some food and then we headed through the merchant booths which were completely overwhelming. Crap stacked to the ceiling of the room and people EVERYWHERE. There were some cool booths set up by video game companies and such but like I said, the place was crazy crowded so we mostly just walked through the place. After we were done we went back to the Artist Alley and got to see more of what was in the room. I met Ben Templesmith and got one of my issues of Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse signed by him along with a cool little doodle. Later I found Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera's booth where I got to show Bobby my portfolio and got some really nice feedback from him.
The last thing we headed to was the CollegeHumor LIVE panel, but the line was really long and we just missed the cutoff for getting into the room. Instead we just took one last walk around the convention center and then made our way home. It was a really awesome day and we had a lot of fun! I'm going to do my best to make it back again next year, and who knows, maybe I'll get to attend 3 or 4 days!
As for now, I've gotta get ready for my next convention coming up...the BIG one...IlluXcon V
I recently decided to revisit an older piece of mine and here's the final product which I'm really satisfied with!
Sometimes I really like the ideas I come up with but I can't always execute the idea as well as I'd like due to my technical skills at the time. However, when I really like an idea I can really get a craving to redo the piece.
Above is the original B&W piece I did about a year ago I think. At
the time I was really happy with some elements of the piece but I felt
like there was something missing (and it wasn't just color). What's
great about redoing an older piece is that I have a lot of things
already figured out it's just a matter of refining everything. The older
version winds up being a roadmap for the new piece. I hope you like the
new version!
CollegeHumorreleased a video yesterday advertising the deck of playing cards I illustrated for them a few months ago. It's pretty cool seeing a bunch of people excitedly promote a product I worked on. If you are so much inclined to desire a deck of your own, or even gift one to a friend, you can purchase them here!
Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be attending a couple of conventions in the next few weeks. Those conventions are New York Comic Con and IlluXcon.
I'll only be attending the New York Comic Con on Friday, October 12. I've never been to NYCC and I'll be attending the con as a spectator. I'm planning on enjoying some entertainment panels and having fun, but there's also a panel being held by Capcom on how to get a job in the video game industry which I'm really looking forward to, so I'll be trying to squeeze in some business on the side as well. I'll even have some of my new postcards on me just in case (see below). I'm really excited to be attending the NYCC and depending on what happens I'll see about making a blog post about my experience.
As for IlluXcon, this will be my 2nd time attending the con, and I'll be setting up a table for the first time as well. The con is from November 8-11 and this is the big one for me. Over the past year I've been putting a lot of effort into taking my artwork to the next level and I'm really hoping to attract a lot attention from art directors. I'm really looking forward to making new contacts, meeting new people and catching up with old friends. Look for my table at the Showcase event where I'll have some large framed prints up on display and you can even purchase them if you'd like. Below you can see one print I already have made of my Darksol portrait. See this and many more pieces, including my General Mills Cereal Monsters Series, and grab some of my new postcards / business cards too.
I'll be posting more updates on what's in store for my Illuxcon venture so stay tuned. Let me know if you're going to the con too! I'm really looking forward to meeting tons of awesome people.
Here's my latest piece in my ongoing series I'm calling "Why You Should Hire Mike Burns". I have a habit of avoiding environments in my illustration work so for this piece I wanted to focus on establishing an environment to place my star creature in. I originally just wanted to showcase a creature (like usual) but instead I wound up giving him some prey to go after, thus creating some story, and adding to the drama of the piece and adding some story. Later on I decided to add the doe in the foreground to emphasis the story and drama even further, not to mention adding some depth to the piece.
I'm pretty happy with this piece for a lot of reasons. I think it's a lot different from the work I usually produce. I also got a very pleasing amount of useful feedback and advice from several fellow artists who really helped me push this piece to it's limits. A special tip of the hat goes to renowned creature monster illustrator Christopher Burdett. Chris gave me a lot of really helpful feedback regarding some anatomy and perspective mistakes. As an artist, there are many mistakes we get so used to making that we don't even notice that they're there. Chris noticed some problems with me piece that he struggled with in the past as well, so he knew what he was talking about. Check out his work at the above link, some killer creatures are on display.
I hope you like the new piece!
I'd also like to remind everyone (or announce for the first time in case I hadn't done so already) that I will be attending Illuxcon V, 2012. Keep an eye out for more info in a later post, right now just wanted to make sure everyone knows I'll totally be in attendance. Hope to see some of you there!
I just finished up the last of the 3 Sanbone Trio portraits (from Gitaroo Man) and I've compiled them into a single image.
Pine, Carrot & Soda
It's been fun working on the portraits and I'm really happy with how each one turned out. For anyone who's interested in Gitaroo Man I've added a clip from the game, featuring the battle with Pine, Carrot, and Soda.
First, I need to gush a little bit. I loveGame of Thrones / A Song of Ice & Fire. I've watched both seasons of the show and I've started reading the the 3rd book, A Storm of Swords. It's an amazing story and I love all of the richly detailed characters. Even the characters I hate as people I still love as characters. Anyone who likes fantasy settings and great characters should check out the books and the show. Each version of the story has aspects that I prefer over the other and in the end I'm really happy that both versions exist. Anyways onto the artwork...
This piece started off with me wanting to do a portrait of myself as an icy, undead wight, and in the end I decided to add in some of my close friends. They know who they are. Thanks for stopping by!
A couple of days ago my sister posted to Facebook a doodle that my 2 year-old niece did. After looking it over I got really excited at the idea of giving it my own flare. I brought her drawing into Photoshop, lowered the opacity of it and traced right on top of her drawing, adding in details I imagined when I looked at her picture...pretty much doing my own take on Dave DeVries' The Monster Engine.
Gabby's & Michael's drawings
I really like the outcome of my piece. I think you can clearly see my nieces drawing come through, but at the same time I've made it my own. I'm not sure if my niece Gabby can understand what I did if I showed her the drawing, but maybe someday she can appreciate it and maybe even work with me on another piece.
The project I worked on with College Humor has finally been released and so I finally get to talk about it! I was approached about doing some artwork for a College Humor themed deck of cards. The original idea was a little bit different than the final product, but I think we came to a successful conclusion.
Card back (designed by College Humor)
Over Skype, I discussed the original ideas with a group CH of writers. They came to me with the idea of giving the deck an internet theme since CH's main platform is the internet. I gave my own feedback on the ideas provided by the CH team but they had a pretty clear idea of what they wanted to do so it was mostly just tweaking and refining their original ideas.
Check out my new threads. Get it? Because they're SUITS??
Each suit would have it's own newly designed pips for each suit: Spades, mouse pointer; Hearts, power icon; Diamonds, wifi icon; Clubs, USB icon.
The royalty
Then each suit was assigned it's own theme for each of the face cards. Spades featuring various PC icons: the King with his mouse pointer swords; the Queen with her hourglass that everyone dislikes so much, including her; and the jack with his pointer finger for clicking links. Hearts featuring different computer accessories for faces: monitor King, keyboard Queen, and mouse Jack. Diamonds pay homage to various internet memes...can you guess them all?? And finally, Clubs referenced various adorable animal videos that saturate the interwebz, including a King of Corgi, a Queen of Cat, and a Jack of Sloth.
Jake and Amir
Jake & Amir and their show
Jake and Amir and their cards
Last up are the Jokers, which feature two of CH's most popular stars, Jake and Amir, from the sketch show titled Jake & Amir. The Fedora on Jake is an inside joke for all the Jake and Amir fans.
This was a really exciting project to get to work on and you can probably tell based on my portfolios that this is pretty different than the work I usually do. It was a real pleasure getting to work with the College Humor team and I really hope I get the chance to do more work with them in the future; such a blast and it felt extremely rewarding.
A while back I posted a portrait of a character from the video game, Gitaroo Man. His name was Carrot and he is the leader of the SanboneTrio, a musical group made of of 3 skeletons that use their own boney bodies for instruments. I recently finished another portrait of another member of the group named Pine. Below you can see the new portrait right beside the old one. Will the Sanbone Trio ever be complete? You'll just have to keep an eye out and see for yourself ;)
I recently received a note on DeviantArt in regards to a critter I sketched a few years ago. I was told that apparently the drawing below has become quite a hit on the gamer community website twitch.tv.
The Lost Glompus
The individual who contacted me requested that I repost the image if I still had it, because it had somehow been lost on their site and it no longer on my DA page. This dopey faced critter had been lovingly named Glompus by the twitch.tv community. I happily reposted the picture and it quickly got around and some fans even left some very nice comments which I really appreciated. After some searching I even found this youtube video that shows some of the excitement of the Glompus fans (see comments on youtube).
Finding out about all of this has been a huge and pleasant surprise. It's really awesome to know that there are people out there who appreciate one of my pieces so much. In hopes of thanking everyone who has shown their appreciation of my work, I went ahead and repainted Glompus.
The Return of Glompus
I hope everyone enjoys this version as much as the last! In case anyone is interested in having Glompus on their wall, I went ahead and posted the piece to my Society 6 page and made it available for ordering prints of him in all of his slobbery glory. Thanks again to the community over at Twitch.tv!
