Aang And Friends (And Foes)

Periscope sketch challenge has been a great source of fun for the studio. Sometimes I step past fun into tedium because I try to take on more than I should. It didn't seem like it would be a hard thing to make a mash-up montage between Star Wars and Avatar but it ended up being a lot of work for a somewhat unexciting image. Not enough of either to make something more than the sum of its' parts.


My original intent was to try and throw down a few characters and tip my hat to Luke and the gang in a way that was fun and fast. I used the same ink-wash technique that I used in my ninja turtles picture hoping for similar results. The trick to making a good illustration rather than an OK illustration is not to lose spontaneity or excitement. In this case I was too concerned with the aesthetic of Avatar and I didn't trust myself to make a wholly original composition. Oh well, You draw and you learn eh?

Villains and Rockers.

Last year Rich Ellis and I were tasked with illustrating some stories for Zakk Wylde's soon to be released book "Bringing Metal To The Children" and I didn't want to put these up until the book was announced. I saw a blurb in 'Guitar World' so here you go:

Zakk and Dimebag hang out after a particularly antics filled weekend
Black Label Society takes the stage while the lightning strikes!
Around the same time a bunch of us in the studio were approached to contribute work for Ben Thompson's "Badass" series of books. Here are two of my illustrations from that project:

This little Ragnarok is only measures about 6" by 4" but I like the way it turned out
This was a chapter break for the 'villains' section of the book; it's about 18.5" by 15.5"
Get yourself a copy of both and you'll never need anything else to boost your Radness/Metal quotient.

Well that is all for now. I'll be blogging more again but I had to get my new tumblr off the ground so August was a bit of a dry spell. I'm going to try and do a few more process related posts and add a few more pictures of my day to day for those of you who are interested.

Nate Is Great (Cole is too!)

I teach guitar lessons on Thurdays and it is a lot of fun because I get to relive all the excitement of nascent guitar culture exploration vicariously through my two very promising students Nate and Cole. Nate requested a drawing from me for his teacher and I made him pay me back with an artwork trade. I agreed to color it myself as the accompanying notes suggested:

I kind of want one now
I hear that before he delivered his masterpiece of luthiers' design to me that it made the rounds on the internet creating a firestorm of enthusiasm. Apparently all the well-heeled rockers have started to endorse Z-brothers custom guitars...


Thanks to Nate. I hope you and Cole have been practicing your scales!