Happy Halloween!

First attempt at carving a pumpkin. It only took four hours!




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ApparitionAbolishers at GMX

A few shots of our booth this past weekend at GMX. We had a blast and I personally am very thankful to who came out and supported our fun "dress-up group" by purchasing shirts and posters. In doing so, your contributions help us to fund future Apparition Abolishers endeavors.









And then there is this guy.. Just because.




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Rusty Koontz: Design Poster

Here is the finished poster design for the Rusty Koontz. These posters are limited to only 50, signed and numbered by yours truly. You can stop by the Apparition Abolishers booth at GMX this weekend to pick up one while they last.

See you there!

Rusty Koontz design diagram

This weekend at GMX I'll have a few Apparition Abolishers prints and shirts available one of which is the "Rusty Koontz Design Diagram" Here are a few sneak peeks of the drawings. Enjoy!


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New projects on the horizon.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I have many projects I want to share on here and will be posting updates in the next week or so, so bare with me.
-b

Steampunk at Dragon*Con !

Come see the Apparition Abolishers at "The Steampunk Exhibition" (SPEX) at Dragon*Con 2010. It will run SUNDAY from 4:00 PM EST until 5:00 PM EST in the Peachtree Ballroom at the Westin Hotel. The Westin Hotel (home to all Steampunk and Whedonverse programming) is only two short blocks up Peachtree from the front of the Hyatt Regency.

Soldier of Misfortune - Process

This piece started out as just a test on a new type of technique with new mediums I was not too familiar with. But as I painted I grew very fond of this lil' feller. Below are a few shots I took while I was painting. Beginning with the pencils I had drawn on just some strathmore comic book paper. In the picture you will see it's wet because I had just mounted to a piece of masonite with matte medium. Once it was dry I went to town on this thing with gouache paint.

Justin Beaver

Has anyone ever noticed Justin Bieber looks like a Beaver?

Just sayin...

Torque and the ATT

The Automated Torque Telegrapher. (patent pending)



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Oodles of doodles

Some gestures while I watch Horror of Dracula. Nothing too amazing.






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Jeff Preston has started a blog.

My former instructor and good friend Jeff Preston has finally joined the 21st century and started a blog. This hopefully, will be where aspiring illustrators can turn to for their REAL Illustration Art History lessons and maybe a learn a few tricks of the trade by one of the most talented people I have ever met.

Old School Illustrator

Abolisher sneak peek

Currently pounding out another comic page. Here's some iPhone shots because I'm too lazy to upload via computer right now.






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Things to come.

I just got back from WonderFest. Met many great people, reunited with others. I have tons of photos to upload and bought many new toys.

Also, I have a few new pieces I will be posting very soon with some process pics. Plus I'm on the very edge of finishing up the first new wave of pages for the Apparition Abolishers web comic.



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Treat Your Mother Right

Happy Mothers Day.

Quick Sketch - Diving Suits

In the very near future, I will be illustrating Steampunk-esq Diving suits for the Abolishers. So I figured why not doodle some suits. Nothing fancy just scribbles now. 20 mins in photoshop. More to come once I begin the real thing.

Finally returning to the Apparition Abolishers

After 4.5 months since my last Apparition Abolishers web comic post, I am finally able to jump back in and get this dang story going!

Here is a sneak peek at Torque's Telegraphing Automaton.










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I NEED a Wacom Cintiq!

So this weekend I was at a friend's house and had my first experience with a Wacom Cintiq.

Ten Minutes in. this happened.

Needless to say, I have wanted a Cintiq for about two years now but every time I get a little extra cash saved up to purchase one, something always happens and I end up having to buy new tires or other misfortunes.

So I have devised a plan (well, sort of): I will have my Web Store up in the next week or so and I will fill it with random things like prints and shirts for sale. All proceeds will go to helping me achieve my goal of purchasing a Cintiq.

¡Chupacabra!

¡Oh mi, qué moustahe del lujo muy agradable usted tiene estimado Sr. Chupacabra!

SideBar Nation

The awesome dudes at Sidebar Nation has posted a quick little mention about the Abolishers plus posted Jeff Preston's finished Illustration of us! Check it out here!

While you are there enjoy some of the very best movie, comic, and art podcasts around! Great stuff to listen to while painting.

I'm back from maskfest!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Been pretty busy from client work and traveling. Just got back from HorrorHound /HMA's MaskFest weekend.

Had a blast and met a ton of new people! Some amazing work was displayed as well as a few great costumes. Here's a few iPhone shots.









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Quick Sketch

I promise I will have REAL Abolishers updates very soon. Just gotta pump out some client work first.

stay tuned!

-b

Quick Sketch

A quick little sketch of Sir Quincy battling the wendigos.

More info on that later. :)

MidSouthCon - Final Poster

By the time you see this, we have already loaded the Trailer, stocked the coolers, powered up the Plasma Weapons and are En Route to Memphis!

Hope to see you there, and if you see us... please come say hello! We will have these posters available as well as the super awesome, limited qty Jeff Preston / ApAb poster. Exclusive ONLY to the Con.!

See you on the other side.

-b

MidSouthCon... here we come!

I owe you guys a peek at the poster I made for MidSouthCon. This will have to do, it's the pencils for the "group shot" that is on the MSC poster (which also has the portraits I created)

I will post the FINISHED poster tomorrow morn as we head out of Nashville to Memphis for the Con.

See you in the Morning! :)

OH YEAH! I almost forgot! JEFF PRESTON has allowed us to share a little treat as well.... but ONLY for the con goers! So the lucky people of the con will be able to be the FIRST to see the Apparition Abolishers Illustration by the Mighty Jeff Preston! whee!

Are you excited yet?

-b

Torque's Lab is coming soon!

I know, I'm very sloooow. but.. I promise it's coming... just hang with me!

Thank you for your patience. :)

-b

Testing the iPhone upload...

Just a quick test to see if I'm up and running mobile style....


(torque.... If he was a Saturday morning cartoon... Hint?)

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It's my birthday! Yay!

Thanks Jeff for this SWEET video!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

2010 Student ADDY Awards

My Wizard of OZ series won a Silver ADDY last night at the Student ADDY Awards.

This was my last time entering anything in the Student competition rounding out an even number of 10 ADDYs total throughout my art college career.

Although I still feel my work is not up to a professional level as I would like to be, I will continue to learn and try my damnedest to get better. So, goodbye art for grades, hello Living the dream of "Please hire me to do art so I can pay my student loans... and rent."

Thank you to all the great instructors I've had at Nossi, especially Jeff Preston, if it wasn't for you, I'd probably still be working as a cook in a chain restaurant. As Arden always says... *"We're competition now"* and may the best artist pay the bills. :)

*note to self- I've got my work cut out for me...

The Road to MidSouth Con - JASPER

Last but not least, we have Jasper Dunlap to round out the Apparition Abolishers. This concludes the portraits that will appear on the upcoming poster that will be available (from us) at the MidSouthCon in Memphis. (more info about the con here)

Next week will be the first look at the poster, although I might post some progress or comp shots of it this week. Stay tuned to find out!!!

-b

Fun Time Fridays - FARMVILLE!

Farmville, oh how I loathe thee...

Torque's Lab - thumbnails part2

The whole point of the quick thumbnails is so that I will have a map as to how I want the story to unfold. They are very crude as you can see, but their only intent was to get the story down onto paper while I still had it fresh in my head. That way I can later go back and reference them when I am drawing more realized layouts without worrying about the story continuity as much.

Now I am able to go back and basically redraw the scenes with a bit more attention to overall design more conscious of the perspective and details of each scene. Some of these images will be different in the final cut and some might not actually make it at all. It's just better for me to just keep drawing fast loose renderings and then be able to take away rather than struggle for content.

These will then go through another phase where I will bring them into Photoshop and fix all perspective issues and create pretty tight color comps before I go to the final pencils.

The goal here is to fully realize the entire painting before I even begin the paint process. I want to work out all my kinks early on so I can just have fun when the paint starts flowing.

I'll try and post some of the color comps next week.

-b

Torque's Lab - thumbnails part1

After the abstract thumbnails I did about two weeks ago. I was able to revisit my original thumbnail sketches (below) and try to make what I thought was a bit crammed and bland into something a bit more exciting and interesting. The abstract thumbnails helped me find new perspectives and overall better layouts of what I thought should be an over the top underground laboratory of whom a few have considered "The Tony Stark of the Victorian Era." With a title like that, you can't just cheapen out on the grand introduction of his laboratory. I needed bigger and better. So what was a measly two pages, has now turned into EIGHT, most are full page illustrations too. Full of steam, gears, airships, nautical ship, gentlemen robots and the introduction to the first Abolisher. (finally!)

(initial thumbnail sketches = poo)

Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me. :)

Tomorrow I'll post some more refined sketches and maybe you can actually understand what the heck you're looking at up there.

-b

The Road to MidSouth Con - SIR QUINCY

Back again with another Abolisher portrait. This week we have Sir Quincy Peck. Next week will be our fourth and final portrait with yours truly aka Jasper Dunlap. and a sneak peek of the new poster which will be available at MidSouthCon the weekend of March 12th - 14th.

Thank you for viewing. and see you Wednesday when I will post the next stages of Dr. Torque's underground secret laboratory!

-b

Fun Time Fridays - My Little Pony ...Movie?

This week's fun little post goes to this epic adventure...

MidSouth Con Bios are up.

They put up our bios for MidSouthCon 28 today.

Just an FYI.

The Craftsman's Apron -logo design

I do not normally like to post work from my day job, but I thought this logo was Victorian / steampunkish enough to pass as awesome. Inspired (and requested by client) to pay homage to Col. Littleton.