Zombie Comic

So I FINALLY finished my zombie comic. It took months, but it is done. I gave it to some friends at our little christmas party and they all seemed to really enjoy it. If you want to see it go here. I warn you that there are a LOT of inside jokes, so prepare to be confused. There is also a lot of little "easter eggs" in there, but you wouldn't get them unless you were in on some of the jokes. For a little taste, the first page is below:

Top 10 Games of the Decade

A friend of mine; Travis, recently posted on his blog about the top 10 games of the year. A noble endeavor, true. But I wanted to go a step further since the decade is about to end. I decided to only choose one game from a series since a few of these had multiple contenders. Now, I haven't played certain games like Modern Warfare or Assassins Creed. This is just my personal top 10.

In no particular order:

Batman: Arkham Asylum: An amazing single player game that actually does justice to Batman. Its extremely well polished and well executed. The end of the game tapers off a bit, but overall it is amazing.

Metal Gear Solid 3: After agonizing over MGS3 and MGS4, I chose because as a whole its just much more original. It's an amazing game with some great story and a wide variety of of interesting and well developed ideas. Certain things from this game just are impossible to forget.

Shadow of the Colossus: Games as art do exist, and this is an example. All you do in the game is fight HUGE bosses one at a time. Giant puzzles that you must "stab." No other enemies or challenges. But the minimal story here is developed extremely well and really puts you in a whole other world.

Boom Blox: If you've played it, you like it. Anyone can pick this up and understand it. It's so simple and yet brilliant. Just a lot of fun.

Valkyria Chronicles: Artistically beautiful to look like a moving watercolor painting, this a strategy game about a war very similar to WWII. The story isn't too complex, but it does stay away from the cliche of the other side being "completely evil." It's true strength is the way you become attached to the characters you choose to fight with and the strange relationships you develop.

God of War 2: The story is incredible and well thought out. World worlds are well fleshed out, and the scale genuinely impressive. The gameplay is slick and fun. There is just really nothing to gripe about in the game. One of the few video game series Amanda lis interested in.

Super Mario Galaxy: Fun, simple, creative, wonderful music, and easy to control. Not much of a story, but its a "Mario" game.

Flower: What's this? A game where you can't fail? There is no timer, no enemies, points, etc? You are a zephyr, and you literally just bloom flowers you come in contact with. Despite no interacting with anything other than flowers the story is beautiful and simple.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl: It's not a traditional fighting game that just a lot of fun and happens to have just about all the major Nintendo characters. A "king of the hill" scenario. Well balanced characters fight and with a wide variety of rules and modes.

Uncharted 2: An amazing cinematic experience. It feels so much like a movie its unbelievable. It's funny, smart, well designed, looks beautiful even if it can be a little chiche'. The Multiplayer I am still messing around with. Just all around a well polished game.

These were the games that were really close to making my list: World of Goo, Fat Princess, Resident Evil 5

Yeah, I suck

Well so much for posting more often. I do struggle with that, but 'tis the busy season. Anyway, I've spent most of my time being really lazy and being very busy. I made a pretty kick ass costume for halloween which was a little more involved than I thought it would be. I was an arcade cabinet that you could actually play.



I won best costume for that. The theme was 8 bit gaming, so I downloaded a bunch of nes roms onto my laptop and built a little costume to look like an arcade. Presto! Best costume ever... At least it's my favorite.

Speaking of video games... I have been playing a lot of Uncharted 2. It's a great game, but pretty much no one else I know even knows/cares what I am talking about. Other than that I have been busy with something that I can't really talk about just yet, but hopefully should have done in about a month. A month exactly, it seems. Anyway, thats all for now. Please tip your waiter, I'll be here whenever I feel like it, dammit...

I'm Disappointed in Myself

I picked "Wicked" for our book club, and I am saddened by it. It had so much potential but it never did anything with any of it. ARG! I did do a little drawing of Glinda, the good witch because of it...



A friend bought the marvel hardcover of "The Wonderful WIzard of Oz" and that seems (by all accounts) to be extremely well put together. And that art is amazing. I should have picked that instead...

I bought and LOVED Batman: Arkham Asylum. Such a great game in all respects. I am still trying to get Lee to play it as he is a huge batman fan. C'mon, Lee... If you're reading this, give it a try!

Bad Poster!

I've been bad as of late... big surprise. I haven't posted in awhile and I wanted to rectify that. Anyway, I have been doing a lot of other stuff besides drawing and painting. One of which is playing fat princess. A very fun game that I owe to a friend, Travis.



But thats probably done. I just got a game I have really been looking forward too- Batman Arkham Asylum. It's getting to be that time of the year where I have no free time, so we will see what happens with some of the "projects" have have in the works. Maybe this 2 and a half year plan will finally come to fruition...

Anyway, I will try and post more regularly from now on... Don't hold your breath, though...

He Just Wants to Love You

After doing that really menacing Skeletor, I really wanted to do something that was the polar opposite. So for Lee's birthday I did a painting of this little Skeletor:



Gonna be a busy weekend. Lots of places I need to be, but I am glad to have a lot of options. Other than all this, not much is going on. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

P.S. Travis isn't around much anymore... It makes me sad... (tear)

Skeletor

My friend Lee asked me to draw a Skeletor for him. He is a bit of a He-Man fan and I guess he is collecting sketches from people. Anyway, I haven't posted in awhile and I figured I should. So below you can see what I did.



Despite what my last post said, I haven't painted in a long while. I'm disappointed by that, but instead of painting I have been playing "Punch Out!!" for Wii and "Dead Space" for PS3. Been reading a bit, too. Anyway, hopefully I will have something done soon.

More paintings

Been painting a lot, and I am sure I will continue to do so. Granted, I recently tried to sell my Zelda painting on craigslist, and some guy tried to scam me. Luckily I figured it out before anything could happen, but it doesn't breed the most confidence.

This is the first in what I hope will be a series of the "Master Bosses" from from Mega Man 2 (my favorite in the series):



I am currently working on painting from Mega Man 2 of Dr. Wily's castle. You can see what that will look like below.

Wedding

As I said, Amanda and I were at wedding last weekend. Below is a video Lee and Bethany made that shows a bit of the night, and one of the best dances EVAR!

Goomba Painting

The day after I completed a painting in one day, I did it a second time as you can see below:



It was a good but entirely too short weekend. Here's hoping that this week goes smoothly.

Vini Vidi Vici

I can't believe it. One I managed to paint an entire picture in one day. Normally my habit is to slave away on a picture for awhile. Not so last night. I worked fast and wet (insert joke here) and managed to finish a painting in a matter of hours. At the end I started to fall back into some old habits and it kinda spoiled the painting a bit. But I figured if I gave it another go, I might get even better. So tonight I am going to try and work out another painting in a short time probably based on this sketch:



It's in color so that I can get a good feel of how it will feel when done (a problem with the last painting). The only thing I noticed- it looks like the goomba is from level 4-1 of SMB3, but I don't know if I nesisarily dislike that. But it was definatly not planned that way.

It's done!

It's OVER! I finally finished my damn painting. It only took 7 months or so. I blame a lot of things, none of which are me...


So I am happy to be done. Not much going on other than preparing for a friends wedding. That should be fun.

Almost done

I finally got some actual painting done this weekend. I made some "executive decisions" on the look, but I am actually quite pleased with it at this point, which is something I am NOT used to. Not quite done, but I am 99% of the way there. If you are curious you can take a look below. Just some detail pics I took.

Link sketch

I really want to work on my painting, but I have had other things take priority over it as of late. I am hoping to get to do a little painting this weekend, but we shall see. Anyway, my anxiousness has led me to draw this:



I did a quick sketch of the "Wind Waker" Link and colored it in photoshop. Nothing special...

Still Alive

Been awhile since I have added anything to my sketchbook, though I have been painting. I blame that on Travis. He lent me Grand Theft Auto 4, a game I never wanted to play because I have never liked any of its other incarnations. Well, I like this one... dammit.

Well, in case you don't follow Lee's blog, I might be helping him with his He-Man comic, colorwise. I think he did a great job, but if you wants a hand I am willing to lend one. You can see what he has "completed" here.

Very sore today. I blame that on Tim. His bachelor party was last saturday, and we had a great time. It's been almost 4 years since I have played Schleuderball and it feels like it. Supposedly Kristin will have some pictures up on her flickr site soon, but below is my favorite picture for the day:



Usually the bachelor is the only one to be dressed funny if at all, but he made us all dress up like it was renfest. Though, Tim did look the "best" out of all of us.

5 Month Break

I finally started to work on my painting again. It's been about 5 months since I have touched it. To even say that makes me feel like a bad "artist". Anyway, I am really looking forward to finishing that thing. You can see a pic of it below and how far I have to go below.

Speaking of finishing, my good friends Andrew and Alison look like they will become parents in about 4 days. A little earlier than expected, but this is taking into account Alison and the baby health. Hopefully all goes well there.

Waterhouse Sketch

It's been a little while since I have posted. Not as long as it normally takes me, but still...

Anyway, not a whole lot is going on, but I have a bunch of weddings and other engagements creeping up on me. I really am wanting to finish my painting that I haven't worked on since November. Maybe I can do that this weekend. Below is a sketch I did from a John William Waterhouse painting. It was one of those drawings where after I finished pencilling it, I thought that pen would take away some of the finer detail. I was right. I was much happier with it when it was just in pencil. I overworked it a bit, but I am relatively pleased with it.

Gaming

I have been playing a LOT of video games recently. I know it, my wife knows it, but I just have to ride it out and get it out of my system. The real culprit is Resident Evil 5 which I like a lot more than I ever thought I would. Thats because it plays the same as Resident Evil 4, and I was not really into that game. The difference: cooperative play. I have mostly been playing online with a friend, and it makes all the difference. That fact that I have a partner to watch my back helps SO much. He actually made a comic about us playing which you can see here.

As for other news, it looks like baby Willey (1 up) might be coming sooner than expected. Alison is having some complications, but thankfully its nothing too serious so far. So we all hope for the safety of Alison and the baby.

Haven't been drawing in my sketch book as often, which makes me pretty sad. Though, I am getting the urge to finally finish my Zelda painting. Below is a sketch of a piece by Mike Mignola that I liked. I think its a zombie cowboy:

Vacation

Well, I just got home from my vacation to Florida. It was really a great trip and I am glad that we took it. It was nice to see my family and spend some time in a different climate. Though, it seemed like KC was actually pretty warm while we were gone. Anyway, besides a few sunburns it really couldn't have been a better trip.

I am sure there will be pictures up on flickr soon. below is a knocker from the condo we stayed in.

2 Sketches in 1 day!

So as you can tell I have been in a very "sketchy" mood as of late. I have to admit I am pretty pleased with the results. I might not post anything for a week or so because I am actually going on a vacation to Marco Island soon. that should be a lot of fun.

I am pretty pleased with these drawings, though I am kicking myself for not drawing the "300".

Another Mignola sketch

I love this guys work, so I just drew a bunch of stuff from the 6th volume of the Hellboy series.

Mignola Sketch

I like just about Everything about Mike Mignola, so I drew this:

I'm Batman, too!

A good friend of mine drew and posted a picture of Batman yesterday. And while I was at home pondering what to draw I saw that and figured, "why not?" So I drew my own (potentially favorite) Batman. Laugh if you must, but he makes loosing your parents to a gunman at childhood look like it could be fun.

Besides, somedays you just can't get rid of a bomb.

'

DAMMIT! I just realized I should have drew him holding a bomb over his head! ARG!

Now with COLOR!

2 posts in one day!

Volume 5

I recently got Scott Pilgrim Volume 5. It's a bit of a change of pace from the normal fare, but in a good way. I really want to read the last one now. Volume 5 is the "Empire" of the series.

The Style of O'Malley is interesting. It's not quite "manga", but its easy to describe it as such. Not the easiest style to imatate, but not the hardest either. A nice change of pace for me at least.

Old Abe

Abraham Lincoln just turned 200... 13 days ago. Anyway, I watched an interesting thing about what happened to his body in the years after he died. So I really wanted to draw a picture.



Still a little rusty, but things are getting better.

Venus Sketch

I am starting to get the "art itch." Its been awhile since I have really had it so I welcome it back. Though as this sketch shows, I am a little rusty...

I should really post more often.

I really SHOULD post on here more often. Whenever I tell my friend Lee that I have posted, he makes some sort of snide remark about how I never do post anymore.

Anyway, there is a lot to "report". But I will just give you the cliff notes version: Was sick for 3 weeks, now allergic to penicillin, office broken into: they stole my computer and the Wii, Amanda's aunt-in-law died, Amanda is a "zero hour employee", and Tim's grandfather died. That's the short version of whats been going on.

Maybe from now on I will post little "snippets" every so often. Kinda like this:



This was drawn at the Art in Steam exhibit at the Nelson a dew weeks back. Not bad in my own opinion,