Star Wars Mashup: Darth Jafar!

With Disney owning Star Wars, and new Star Wars movies being made, I felt it was finally time to do a Star Wars Mash-Up!  So here it is: Darth Jafar!  Kinda amazing how many of his features matched so well with Darth Vader's helmet!

A LuchaDoodle!

  Had a friendly challenge in a drawing group to do a Luchador painting. Which I forgot 'til the night of the deadline of the challenge. So this is what I pulled off in a handful of hours.

A Redesigned Pink Power Ranger

So I've decided to make a massive redesign concept for every Power Ranger. I started many moons ago with a Yellow Power Ranger for a work's weekly design challenge, but since then I kept revisiting old concepts for other rangers that were left on the cutting room floor, I thought, "Why NOT draw them all out?"
  So here's my final illustration for the Pink Power Ranger. Enjoy!

  And of course don't forget to check out my normal portfolio at www.ConceptCreature.com.  Thanks!

A Fish

Part of researching animals is finding out things. I found out they're NOT called "Bugged-Eyed Goldfish", but Black Moors.  There ya go! :)

  Wouldn't mind making this lil' fella into a game, one day!

League of Legends: Wukong, The Monkey King

Here is the first of several League of Legend characters I want to illustrate. I have become more and more obsessed with League of Legends, and the amazing world that Riot Games is producing. It's super-inspiring to see how far they've come, and how fast! Wukong was a character that fascinated me in original Chinese mythology, and I was thrilled with how LoL approached the character. I really want to do a few other champions from that world, and have created a survey you can take here, to decide who else I should draw next. This final painting was an upgrade to a very old illustration I started, and put down, many years ago. Here's my original rough illustration that I started and walked away from:

I liked the initial IDEA, but made tons of notes on this original doodle, knowing where it needed to be improved upon:

Beyond that, I knew there were fatal flaws in the entire composition. The color wasn't vivacious enough, the monsters looked like lame lions, instead of something that had more emotional impact (was trying to make an organic version of the Chinese lion statues we've all seen). Finally, many years later, I came across Wukong, and he and the entire League of Legends universe, and it seemed to answer all the questions I had with the composition--this badass monkey HAS a staff, and is a natural character and animal to be so deftly balancing on it! The minions and realms where you fight in League of Legends had the natural type of surroundings that'd add more drama to my composition. And Cho'Gath is just a more vicious-looking champion and frustrates enough LoL players that'd be thrilled to see him wasted on the ground. From there, I had some great friends that really helped me evolve this initial idea to the next level. I love that I have seriously talented friends in the industry that are willing to give me honest and constructive feedback. You can't ignore a note if you hear it consistently from completely different sources. Or, as I like to say, "If nine Russians tell you you're drunk, lie down." Here's more of the process I went through:

The Work-In-Progress

Value Study, with emphasis on Character, and general layout.

I already had a general idea from my prior illustration years ago of how it would look, so just wanted to make sure I could make Wukong look cool, and that it'd fit the composition layout.

Refining Composition

After Wukong was heading in the right direction, I started to make sure that the rest of the elements tie together in the composition. I ended up flipping the mountains in the background as I was refining the background. It just seemed to "flow" better, from a composition standpoint.

First Color Pass

Color isn't my strong suit, so I threw some color layers on the different elements, playing with the transparency layers and values of different background and foreground objects. Had very specific objects on different layers: Wukong had two color layers, Minions had one, trees had a color layer, the entire background did, and Cho'Gath was broken into several pieces (head/arms, torso, leg, abdomen) which ended up helping me greatly, as things were further refined.

Revisions Based Off My Friends (aka, "No Man Is An Island")

I *highly* recommend to all artists out there to get feedback often and frequently during a composition. To create entirely in a vacuum is just not beneficial to the end result of your product. At this point, I got feedback from some good and trusted friends. Got consistent feedback from all: they had a hard time understanding the foreshortened shape of Cho'Gath (LoL players knew exactly who the character was, but I need to think beyond a niche audience, and make sure shapes read properly, especially since you may be involved in creating promotional art of characters to draw new players in); even more specifically, the left leg/knee cap was described as "penis rock" by several of my friends. You gotta eat a big piece of humble pie if any drawing you make gets phalic references from your buds! There was also requests to cool down the background to make the character "pop" more, and perhaps blur the background for more drama.

Responding To Feedback

Ended up redrawing the penis leg, and that actually helped with the entire composition's perspective, and clarified the features of Cho'Gath, as well. Since the color was on a different layer, and the body parts were separated on layers, it wasn't nearly as complicated a revision as it could've been. Cooled down the background, too. Dammit, they were right, it helped! They also noticed that the sky streaks should be going from right-to-left, just to add more flow to the composition.

Fine-Tuning

If time permits, I highly recommend walking away from a composition and returning a few days later. Don't think about it, don't picture it in your mind. Come back to it fresh, and see if anything else "pops" at you. I did that, and decided okay, the background would look pretty cool blurred. Like my friend suggested. Did a slight blur to the front claw, as well, to add a real shallow depth-of-field. Also polished up some features on the ground, on the minions, and on Cho'Gath and Wukong's weapon and costume.

So I hope you enjoy my rendition of the champion, and please vote on which League of Legend character I should draw next!

A Drawing For Halloween

So thrilled! Finally have a real "big boy" desk! For the past fifteen years, I've sufficed with two crappy file cabinets and a door for the top as my desk. It worked fine, when you're in college and just need a solid surface, but now I've officially moved into a new house, and my office is the first room you pass when you're walking through the downstairs. So, in order to not make everyone's first impression of the place be, "Oh wow, what a junk heap..." I actually spent more on my desk than I did on the bloody refrigerator! But I'm pleased as punch with it, and I'm grateful that it's a tax deduction, since it's a work-related expense. My next upgrade will be an uber-powerful new computer that I'll build from scratch in order to have it beefed up enough to satisfy my need to have a good frame rate when I'm animating scenes in AfterEffects. Until then, here's my illustration for Halloween:

Just did a friendly art competition for my company's blog, called "It Won't Draw Itself." The challenge this week was to do a revamp of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I took it WAAAAYYY out into left field, and made the Yellow Ranger have more of a Geisha influence.

A Giant Brute

Sometimes You Just Gotta Draw A Lizard!

Sometimes you just gotta draw a lizard!

I'm On "The List!"

Well, I've never worked so hard for just the POSSIBILITY of being employed, but after jumping through several hoops, I've convinced one of the editors of Archie Comics that I'm qualified to be a colorist for them!
After sending him the pencils I did, he was complimentary about them, but said it was more organic than the polished style their comic book typically subscribes to. He was cool enough to send me some samples of finished pencils from previous comics that they had done, and I took one look at them, and said, "Oh, I can TOTALLY do that!" Fortunately, I just need to simplify my style, instead of having to step up my skills. But he also liked the colors in my original art, so he sent me a coloring test. Here's the first whack I took at it:

He liked it, but said to focus on the depth of the characters a bit more, and make sure there's a specific heirarchy to what takes the make attention of the viewer, and then sent me ANOTHER color test. Which ended up looking like this:

On this one, a few more notes were given, but he was confident that I had the right work ethic and skill to work with him, so I got the paperwork and contracts to sign, and I'm now on the "The List" of people he'll call when he needs some work done for colors.
He was also cool enough to send me another script to take a look at, so I could send him another pencil sample, 'cause I KNOW I can give him what he wants, it was just a matter of knowing what they were looking for, specifically. And since he sent me the pencil samples, now I'm confident I can pull it off. Coloring isn't the "pie-in-the-sky" dream that I imagined, but I also have been in the industry long enough to know that all you need is a foot in the door, and eventually the rest of the body will be invited, as well. So here's to having someone cool enough to give me a chance! Only better and better news from here on out!

My Take On Sonic

Been talking to a few editors since my return from San Diego ComiCon, and have an active dialogue going on with one of them from Archie Comics. Here's some spec work I did for them:

Sonic, Different P.O.V.'s:


Sonic, in action!


Knuckles Character Sheet:


The final Page Layout/Illustration, based off their page script:

No! Sleep! 'Til ComiCon!!!

T-Minus Nine Days and Counting! Man, TOTALLY stoked about going this year! I'm at the point in my career where good friends of mine that I went to college with are now becoming movers and shakers in the industry, and a lot of them are going to be doing presentations and networking at ComiCon. Disney, Hasbro, Dreamworks, Sony, Blue Sky, Pixar, i09, G-4, Image Comics, Sideshow Collectibles, cosplay bitches....basically, if you're a nerd, this is your Woodstock. My bud, Andrew, brought up a good point the other day about ComiCon:

At sports games, they gotta line every square block with tons of cops and riot squads. Don't have to do that with Comic Book conventions!

True fuckin' that! Us nerds are WAY too busy having fun and playing make-believe to ever be violent. 125,000 people going to be there this year, and I'm confident not a fist will be thrown. Probably 'cause the nerds with weapons always have a play fight "arena" they can jump in, and swing their PVC pipes and cardboard creations around for hours, if they want.
So, gotta get back to finishing up pieces of artwork and stories to knock the socks off of editors and art directors with! Not leaving there until I've got five potential commissions lined up!! Either way, I'm gonna have a spectacular time! More news and pictures soon!

Character Sketches

Don't wanna say too much too soon, but got approached by a good mid-sized comic book company last week to potentially work on one of their flagship comics! Here's some sketches of the main character I did for them to prove I can replicate the style:

One Week 'Til Convention

It's Memorial Day weekend! Guess what I'm doing? Beach? Barbeque? Beer? Nope, nope, and maybe later. I'm knee-deep in watercolors, making Critters for my in-process children's fantasy picture book, Lil' Book of Critters.
It's a little bit of a drag, 'cause I'm running a few weeks behind where I wanted to be with the book. I was hoping that I'd be finished with a website commission a few weeks ago, but in standard Jason fashion, I misestimated how long this project would take. S'kay, I got it taken care of. And I'll GLADLY sacrifice a weekend of fun for....well, FUN, honestly. I lovelovelove art, and it's SO nice to just be able to focus on your own wacky project, for once.
I have the SCBWI Florida Children's Book Mid-Year Workshop this coming weekend. I'll have an Illustrator's Intensive on Friday, Picture Book Workshop on Saturday, finished off with two critiques of my book that Saturday evening. I went to the event last year for just the one day, unsure who or what this convention had to offer. But after seeing the big-name authors, literary agents, and other "power" people there, as well as the direct-access addresses and other inside help the organization offered, I realized it's worth me taking this seriously.
In amazing synchronicity, this year had two big industry editors coincidentally really gravitate towards this book that I just had mentioned on a lark. One was an editor from io9.com, who found my art on a site like DeviantArt or something like that, and did a whole little blurb about me. I felt like I should have my Professional Geek card revoked, because I wasn't familiar with io9.com! I checked it out, and just marveled at the amazing stuff they had on there! Comic books, fantasy and sci-fi book and movie reviews, concept art from big-time video games....and now an online article about lil' ol me?? No way! She asked me what current/future projects I was working on, and decided to mention this children's book I was toying with. She was really interested in it, and in addition to my other illustrations that she wanted, I sent her some scans of the rough illustrations I had done. She asked me if there was a story in addition to the characters, and I'd discovered through sharing the book with others that people had more fun making up their own stories, so felt it was more enjoyable for the viewer to just have the visual of the critter, their name, and then let others make up what the critter's story was. The editor loved the illustrations from the book, and then did exactly that--she took the critters, and made up what she felt these creatures do, what they eat, where they live! She even changed the gender of what I felt some of the critters were, which was once again affirmation that leaving these critters this open truly gave people their own imaginary playground to enjoy!
A few months after that, I contacted an editor from one of my favorite art magazines, ImagineFX. I sent him some samples of my work, as well as a link to my site. He liked what I had to show, and asked for three print-ready samples of my work, as well as to answer several questions that he sent along. One of the questions that he asked was, once again, about current and future projects I was working on. In the same way, I mentioned the Critters book. My work was supposed to appear months ago in the magazine, but due to circumstances out of his control, ended up postponing my blurb in the magazine 'til June of this year. As that date approached, in early May he revisited my information, and realized that I was doing this Critters book. He asked if I had some information about the book, as well as some pictures of some of the critters, and if so, he'd put it in their "Products" section in addition. Holy shit!!! I was now going to have an internationally-known publication helping me sell my book, free of charge! This has made me suddenly have to move in fast-forward. I immediately contacted the information architect that helped me put together my own site, and told him, "Hey, here's some scratch! Can you please set up an e-commerce site for me, stat?" I've looked into Paypal, and am setting up a new bank account to just focus on money earned from that project. Hopefully if I get enough pre-orders from this, it'll help me seal a deal with a publishing agent or better yet, a publisher.
It's really amazing how life works, sometimes. I never really thought very much about this book, except for it just being an exercise for my imagination. But after seeing two industry people react so positively to it, I suddenly thought, "Holy shit! I might be on to something, here...."
I REALLY hope this convention and children's book does well! I'd love nothing more than being a daddy that takes care of his kid during the day, and earns his keep, working on his art during the evening. That, in my ideal mind, sounds pretty much like a dream come true, no doubt! Wish me luck!

Concept-A-Day

Each day, I try to draw a concept to keep my mind fresh, and keep the gears going. Some weeks I'm way ahead on my concepts, other weeks I've got so much work backlogged, I start to slack.
Remember, I've got a full-time job, plus a little lady to keep happy, PLUS I gotta work out or exercise on occasion (or what I like to call, "Fat Control"), so these sketches are done afterwards, on top of all of that. I also try to theme them, each week. I also like having the opportunity to experiment with different styles than what I normally do, or have the freedom to work on something different than what I currently am. Like most artists, very short attention span. Feel free to subscribe to this RSS Feed, in case you like a bit of visual inspiration each day!

April 30-May 11, 2008: Car/vehicle designs