Holiday Horticulture

As I researched different reference for Christmas plants, I learned something neat about the holly plant. The prickliness of it's leaves changes based on the amount of animal grazing it experiences. The more bullying it receives the more pissed the leaves look. Kinda like some people I know. 

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/12/121220-holly-leaves-prickly-plants-science/

Betsy's Day Off

Dang I almost forgot to post this here, been busy drawing OTHER X-Men. The one and only butterfly assassin.

Good ol' days of the Disney Afternoon

There was a Christmas episode of Talespin that I could never forget simply because of the opening scene. Baloo uses a slingshot to decorate the tree with ornaments and Kit bounces around on a pogo stick with tinsel. No matter how many Christmases pass by it lingers in my head like Jacob Marley's ghost. I decided once and for all that I'll just flush out this scene so it can leave me alone. If you care to see the episode so you have better context, it's called A Jolly Molly Christmas (Season 01 Episode 43). Just visiting this old show made me realize just how robust it's world-building was. It was so well thought out it felt like you can actually live in it. After posting this, I can finally move on. 

And of course as I always say to the younger crowds, if you don't know this show ... google it son.

I hate spiders

As I was laying this out, I had the realization that Venom was the very first Marvel character I had ever drawn back in the day when I was but a wee bean sprout. I still even have the very comic I drew it out of (Amazing Spider-Man Annual #25), which was the first comic Dad had ever bought me.

Big Bad Monster Bash

Hope everyone likes! This was one of those drawings that started small, then more and more was added. I can never get enough of drawing this sort of stuff, it's simply too fun.

As a kid, watching those animated Halloween specials that aired on TV were playing in the back of my mind while doing this. I just wanted to jump into the screen and run around with all those monsters staying up all night. Well actually I do stay up all night now, but instead of monsters it's freelance.

Halloweenie Time!

One thing I love about Halloween is that it's such a creative license to allow the wackiest designs, no matter how wild it is, and it will still be treated as perfectly normal. I like taking my time and soaking up all the outrageous creature/monster designs that are seen on print in greeting cards, stickers, and decorations whenever I go to the store. Sometimes I get lost for 20 minutes just looking at all the cards at Target.

Short end of the Naughty List

I mean, no one's going to notice a few missing marshmallows right? ... AM I RIGHT?!

Here's this year's X-Mas illustration, hope everyone likes. I've been just a tad absent on my media, been crazy busy with work and other things. Hopefully I'm gonna try to post more consistently once the holidays settle down, but first I'm gonna make some hot chocolate. Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Good grief, I totally forgot to post this one last month: 

Fashionable Freak

When I drive on my way to the studio on I-85 in the mornings, I always see this one same billboard sponsored by H&M. So I thought that X-Men and H&M were a good idea together. This post spoofs the look of an H&M ad where the format typically has a close up on the left, and a full body on the right. Tweaked the logo so it's more fitting. I thought I'd share a little bit of the thought process just to give some insight as I make new pieces. Sometimes they're planned down to the last pixel, other times I'm just as clueless as a turd in a punchbowl.

There's a small thumbnail below the final that has some of my footnotes.

Lord of the Wreaths

Hope everyone is overstuffed with Christmas goodies!

I've eaten sssooooo much Christmas chocolates and crap in the past two days, that I think … I think I can see through time with all the sugar in my system. Here's this year's annual Christmas illustration! Once I liked the idea of using elves, my mind kept thinking of Legolas and this whole Lord of the Rings mindset. Plus I realized that I haven't drawn a dragon or dinosaur since I was like … oh I don't know … 8 years old maybe?

What the Asgard?!

I started to have this crossover couple idea between Marvel and DC last year, in which I wrote down a short list of who I thought would be great together. Kind of like a little fan fiction to myself, but as I did other things my mind kept coming back to that list. So here we are. These guys were there the first ones I wrote down, it seemed like an obvious choice. I think I'll do a few more if you guys like this one! Oh and this is the first post with my new "stamp" on it. I think I dig it.

I love Christmas but not like these people

Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays!!!

I know it's been a long while since I've posted something but this past year was a doozy. Starting in January I'll be posting on social media more regularly (when possible), expand onto other media accounts and start a commission chart due to popular demand.

Anyways, this year's holiday entry was a lot of fun and I wanted spend more time on it since I was a lazy bum last December for not posting one. The girl had gloves on before, but I caught myself and realized, " they don't work on smart phones" so I had her stick them where they are now. Then I was super distracted by wikipedia and procrastinated for like an hour reading how touch screen tech works and it's immunity to gloves. Amazing ...

Too cool for a Sith

I loved Elsa's design the minute I saw her in trailers and I knew she had to be Sith, but I didn't want to make a repeat Sith Snow White(post 4.1.13). Snow White's design was soft, bell-shaped, and symmetrical so I wanted to go the opposite direction by making Elsa's design sharp, lean, and definitely asymmetrical. I think of her as a jagged piece of ice, or a sharp icicle and so I played up the blues a lot as well instead of the purples and magentas. Part of what inspired her asymmetrical design was the villan Venger from the old 80's Dungeon's & Dragons cartoon (If you born after the 80's, Google it). His asymmetrical design on the show was awesome especially with the giant horn sticking out the side of his head. Also, I found that the Sith symbol looks closely to a snowflake, so for all the SW geeks out there who look at the lightning you'll see it. Well, I guess by default ... I'll have to make Anna too:-)

The Big Sleep

In planning out all the crossovers, this one seemed obvious to me. Aurora's treatment, however, was much different than the others. What I was bringing from the Star War world wasn't just a costume but a whole background. Additionally, I had to redesign her dress to make it "belong" to the Star War world but still keeping it looking like hers. I was scared when I began working on it because I thought, "This is too ridiculous of an idea. This won't read right. People will think it's not Aurora but a big pink cracker." But I learned you just gotta be fearless and commit to your visions. I'm afraid to say, but I think I like how it came out. 

Oh that Lawrence Talbot ...

If all the Universal monsters lived together in a haunted mansion I could totally see the Wolfman chewing up everybody's shoes out of his natural canine impulses. Except for Creature from the Black Lagoon ... he doesn't have any.

#Instagram summer

Here's something I wanted to do that was colorful and vibrant yet with a tinge of nostalgia. I've always been drawn to surfers and the beach, I guess that comes from growing up in Miami most of my life. The love of surfer and the surf life also reminds me of my old skating days with my friends and I. Skating for hours around downtown Miami and all the beach areas, makes me nostalgic for those old times. Hence, this piece. One thing I do wish though ... I wish I could actually surf :-/

A girl worth fighting for!

Although Mulan is not my favorite of Disney's female persuasion (it's actually Ariel & Pocahontas ^_^), she does hold a special place for me the other ones don't. Drawing Mulan actually takes me back to my formative years in college due to one particular animation professor. During my senior year there was a new teacher that no one knew anything about or what he taught. It was like this weird mystery professor but the mystery was revealed on the first day of class. He was a former animator of Disney, Warner Brothers, and Dreamworks who had his hand in all the recent classics. One in particular, Mulan. As our assignment, he would give us the actual model sheets the real Disney animators would use from Mulan, to draw new poses and were graded on how well we kept them on model. He had tons of handouts he collected over the years at Disney, even actual drawings from Glen Keane! He was an absolute well of knowledge to whom I largely give credit to my growing skills in my career today. When I started this drawing, I had dusted off my old college portfolio and pulled out his old model sheets to help me out, even with the original syllabus stapled to it! So as I post this ten years after taking his class (boy I'm old) I hope I do him proud :-) 

A whole new world ...

Since I toiled so much over my lightsaber girls, I wanted to try a different direction that is just fun and simple. Even though I think her idea isn't as original as the others, I do like this execution more. It's made me rethink how I handle the rest, even go back and tweak the previous ones. When I think about Leia in Jabba's ill-lit palace, I always remember those slats of light across her figure, so I made sure I put that in there.

Yup, she took the plunge

Yes ladies and gentlemen, she has finally gone off the deep end. It was not easy to work Snow White's signaiture BRIGHT YELLOW DRESS into a SITH design. What was I thinking when I started this? The blues and reds were easy to work, but that mustard yellow ...great googly moogly. After many attempts of different color palettes, I finally decided to pull back the yellow and replace it with colors from the Evil Queen. The pattern on the front flap is taken from the box the queen hands to the huntsman to put White's heart in. I think I'm okay with it ... for now ... but let me know what you guys think!

The Force was strong with this one ...

Rapunzel was a bit more involving than Ariel because there was more overlapping ideas to work into the design. Translating her outfit into the Jedi garb was tricky and since her hair glowed already, I ditched using a traditional lightsaber. I don't know if I feel totally satisfied but none of the less I'm happy with it.

Once upon a time ... in a galaxy far far away ...

Woo hoo, first posting of 2013!!! I have a good feeling that this year I'll have a more creatively productive year. For a while I've been wanting to put my own spin on the Disney princesses and I've finally found a different direction for them that I haven't seen explored too much (surprisingly).I had to look up a good bit of Star Wars reference because I'm not entirely familiar with all their characters, so I borrowed visual motifs from different Jedis such as Asajj Ventress and Kit Fisto. There are more designs for other ones so stay tuned!