Early Bird

Something for class tomorrow. Err, today.

The King of Sketchbooks

On April 19, 2009, I finished a sketchbook by drawing The King of Sketcbhooks. Since then, the last page of all my sketchbooks has been devoted to a drawing of him. He's gone through several changes of outfits, ages, and demeanors, but he's always there at the end of every book.

Sometimes he's better drawn than others but he's always there. So, another sketchbook draws to a close.

Speak and Spit

Hannah tossed out the idea of going to the zoo and doing some life drawing of the animals there. Anybody else interested? As far as I know, El Paso has the nearest zoo. Here's a link, and admission prices:
Adult (13-61)$5, Senior (62+)$4, Child (3-12)$3

In other news, welcome to Angelina and Heather as new members of Pencil Pals aka Steam Machines aka Caligula Dentata!



Quick watercolor and ink. I've been looking at a lot of inspiring blogs lately, maybe too many. But here are my favorites:

FFFFOUND!
DETHJUNKIE
This isn't Happiness
Them Thangs
Morbid Anatomy

These are all great sources for interesting photos to leech some ideas from. Most of them feature NSFW content, so beware!

Turn off that TV/computer/significant other/life and fucking DRAW GODDAMMIT!

Remember, if at first it seems that work is overwhelming, if it seems that it can't be done, keep in mind that

YOU ARE GOING TO DIE.

Black Metal, Or Heavy Metal?

I did this fat drummer for an art trade with a friend.

This is a companion piece to this guy that I also traded to the same dude:

Both these guys are in the same band, I'm open to suggestions as to what the name should be. Leave your suggestions in the comments!

Black metal is one of those genres of music that really interests me, but I just can't listen to it for an extended period of time. I've tried, I really like it and own several albums that are fantastic, but the recording quality is just not made for my ears. This video explains it all:

Vile Haberdashery and Other Assorted Goodies

On the weekend of the January 29, I had the pleasure of participating in the Global Game Jam. Participants show up at one of the official locations on Friday, and at 5:00 pm receive that year's theme. At that point, people break and brainstorm ideas over food, then present their game outlines and divide up into teams. Participants then have until 3:00 that Sunday to create a complete, working video game. There were over 300 locations this year in over 35 countries.

The theme for this year was "Deception!", with the added challenge that our game had to include either a "maid, a raid, or a trade." I teamed up with 3 other people: Hannah McGill (creator of the lovely Pawnography poster in the previous post and my sister), Hector Saenz (a co-worker, friend, and podcast-bumper-recording rival), and CC Chamberlin (a co-worker and founding member of Barking Dog Interactive). Together we slaved over the next 48 hours to create a game for the iPhone called Vile Haberdashery.

Vile Haberdashery is a multiplayer iPhone game that uses only one phone. Players take turns as one of four siblings, trying to kill each other off to gain a larger portion of the inheritance. Blackmail, coerce, and flatter household subordinates into doing your dirty work for you. All character art was handled by Hector, Hannah, and I, with some help from CC. CC handled all of the programming, and pitched the original idea. This was one of those rare things where the initial idea worked flawlessly, and allowed us to devote all of our time to making really awesome artwork. All of the work here was done by the three of us.

I had a ton of fun at the game jam. Honestly, I was worried before it started that this was going to be just a big waste of time, that I would be giving up my whole weekend without even being able to complete the game. I am happy to report that I was really, really wrong. The whole event was a ton of fun, and we not only finished our game but submitted it to the iTunes app store! You can purchase it right now at the iTunes App Store for $1.99.

The theme was really great, especially since it provided me with an excuse to draw a sultry lookin' maid (something that doesn't happen too much when making educational games). And now I will finish this post with some more artwork from the game, and an unrelated picture of ravens because I drew it and I like them.

The Internet is for Pawn

As seen in this awards video. Oh and hi, new here, just got invited to the blog. :)

The Art of Conversation

I think we've all had a conversation that felt like this before. Ink on illustration board with digital color.