Monday, October 31, 2011

Come Play With Us!

When I first saw the Shining in 1980 with my parents, I couldn't sleep for 1 week. It scared the shit out of m like nothing else had up until then (I was 9 years old). It wasn't so much because of what happened, but what DIDN'T happen. Kubricks rendition of the story was nothing like the book (which was great in it's own right), in that it was one of the great minimilast ghost stories. He focused on mood, rather than shock. And occasionally sprinkled in a little horror.

Happy Halloween!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Reggae Mix VOL.1



Can Be Heard HERE!

Playlist:

Django Shoots First- Sir Lord Comic
Dollar In The Teeth- The Upsetters
Skylarking- Horace Andy
Ital Correction- Niney The Observer
Penny Reel- Justin Hines
That Girl- Dave & Ansil Collins
Lee Van Cleef- King Stitt
Open The Gate- The Ethiopians
Shine Eyed Girl- Vincent Foster
The Upsetting Station- Dave Barker
Wall Street- Jackie Mittoo
Barbwire- Nora Dean
Everything I Own- Ken Boothe
Blood & Fire- Niney The Observer
I Can't Stand it- The Specials
The Higher The Monkey Climbs- Justin Hines & The Dominos

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

DJ Red Alert circa 1986

Once upon a time, a dear friend and colleague Kurt Matlin would spend his summers in New York City with family. He would come back loaded with tapes of radio shows which we would scour and play repeatedly. WKRS and WBLS were two of the premier Hip Hop stations of the day, and had an interesting rivalry that would erupt into on air insults and jabs.

This particular mix is one of those insults in the form of a 'Red Alert Mastermix'. This is DJ Red Alerts show, and a clip of one of his 'battle mixes' aimed toward Mr. Magic of WBLS.

Special thanks to Kurt!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Page 17

Frustration!!

In order to get Issue #4 out in a timely fashion (end of year), and it's seemingly taking forever, I'm trying to stick by a page of pencils every 2 days. This particular page is proving to take MUCH longer. This is one of those cases where I want to pull all of my hair out, and smash things. But, forcing myself to settle for less and get the darn page done (thats almost taken a week!).




Friday, October 21, 2011

Hired Killer 5

The video has finally be completed and delivered. The Guryan's (Darville Music Publishing) were happy with it, and have gone about getting it out into the world. Probably by first sending it to animation festivals and the like.


The whole process was interesting and I learned quite a bit. Notably the consequence of using large imagery in After Effects. The rendering of gigantic images that are being panned into, is extremely costly in regards to processer power, and for a time, looked like it wasn't going to work. I probably would have gone about the effects differently.



There was a lot I would have liked to do, but, I had a time frame I had to abide by. The culling and prepping of the imagery was one of the more time consuming as well as the actual animation tweaking (due to the strain on my computer). Below is the finished video, warts and all. A big thanks to Matt Patsel for being  the model for the 'Hired Killer'!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Ben & Jerry's Bonnaroo!

Just wrapped up a video ad unit for Ben & Jerry's for their Bonnaroo Flavor Ice Cream. I havn't tried it yet, but it sounds insane. These type of video header ads are being made by an 'ad templating system' that I'm also helping design. More on that later, but, here's a link to the live site with the ad:

Open state


Closed state:

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Jack 'King' Kirby

*UPDATE*

NPR's Fresh Air has a great interview with Mark Evanier whose penned the new 'Kirby Art' book. Included is a great quote from Kirby in 1973 saying 'Pretty soon, Hollywood studios will be trolling our books for character and story ideas'.



Probably one of the most influential comic artists of all time, Kirby was responsible for not only creating the ultra patriotic comics of the 40-50's (Capt. America, Bucky, etc.) but for most of the existing Marvel roster. It's debated whether or not he was given his due, as, Stan Lee would tour and parade about his role of Marvel spokesman and creator.

I'd say he's one of the most influential comics/graphics artists ever, even though as a kid I can remember not liking his stuff at all. I was always a much bigger fan of the softer 'clear line' style that guys like Byrne and Herge were doing, which was very European. Kirbys stuff was bold and loud.

I've copped his style for a few projects, probably most notably the 'All Caps' video. It was much harder to try and get inside his head than I thought it'd be. Ultimately, the animation ended up looking like a second rate Kirby attempt. I've really come to love his 70's era stuff, where, it seemed like he was being influenced by the psychedelic style of art that was trickling into the popular culture.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The Adventures Of Tin Tin


The Adventures of Tintin

A fan made title sequence which I for one believe should be the in the running for the actual film (coming out this November). You hear that Speilberg?

Monday, October 17, 2011

Biz Markie Concept Art

Upon the call to pull together an animated video promo for Biz, I started on some artwork in how I envisioned the look. I had thought of the cartoon Bebe's Kids, and also, some of the Fat Albert characters. Here's some art that was prepared for the first proposal.


Thursday, October 13, 2011

Monday, October 10, 2011

ZEUS

For the past 20 years, London artist Zeus has been drawing inspiration from urban culture to create dynamic, experimental compositions that have re-defined graffiti art. Captivated by the hip-hop scene of the 80s, he began expressing his creative talents on the street when he was just 14, using walls, trains, and open spaces as his galleries.


Since then Zeus has continually pushed the boundaries of graffiti artistry, taking the form out of its traditional setting and into new, exciting and more legitimate places. His latest works represents an innovative fusion of graffiti techniques and typography, fine art and sculpture and reflect both his background on the streets and his formal training at Chelsea College of Art.



Thursday, October 6, 2011

1985 Vol. 4 Page 8

Ive been devoting some late night hours to progressing on pencils. Trying to stick by my 1 page every 2 days. Let s see how it turns out. The biggest fear I always seem to have is everything tends to seem rushed. But its the choice between rushed pencils, or never getting book finished.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

This Amazing Printer IS Literally Too Good To Be True!



A layout program, image printer all wrapped up in one? Probably not right now, but defenitley in the development stages. All we have now is this cool animated promo they've put together:


SWYP: See What You Print from Artefact on Vimeo.