zac gorman's blog

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 8-Bit

2011-01-21T07:04:00.000-08:00

Zoidberg GIF

2011-01-18T22:48:00.000-08:00

New Website!

2011-01-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

Goldslime.com is now up!
It's my new blog filled with art work, prints and video game inspired nonsense!

Cthulhu Saves the World

2011-01-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

Based on the new title from Zeboyd Games, Cthulhu Saves the World. Just finished my playthrough and it was pretty great. Go download it now on XBLA for only $3 (240 MS Points, I think).

Babe on Bed

2010-11-12T10:53:00.000-08:00

Red Sonja

2010-10-15T14:25:00.001-07:00

Mary Jane Sketch

2010-10-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

Fantasy Heroes: Human

2010-09-24T14:36:00.001-07:00

Fantasy Heroes: Dwarf

2010-09-21T14:52:00.000-07:00

Fantasy Heroes: Elf

2010-09-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

Fantasy Heroes: Orc

2010-09-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

The Bat-Man

2010-09-09T09:05:00.000-07:00

Costume Quest

2010-08-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

Just watching this trailer gives me the Halloween spirit that I haven't felt since I was a little kid. Playing this game this Fall is going to be the highlight of the season.

Excerpt from New Comic

2010-08-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

A test from the new webcomic I'm developing. The idea of blending small bits of motion with an otherwise fairly "indie" is really something I only recently became interested in. I wasn't convinced it was more than a novelty until I sort of realized the pathos conveyed in simple motion. The rocking of a train, or falling rain, etc. and I decided that it actually could have a really awesome effect. Judge for yourself.

NOTE: It doesn't seem to be looping properly on the main page, so click the image to get the full effect and understand what the hell I'm talking about.

Besides, there are so many downsides to looking at comics on a screen, why not integrate a positive that you can't do with paper?

Daily Affirmations

2010-08-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

--------------------------------------------------------------

Pessimism is Old Age is Stagnation is Death is Misery is Boredom is Latency is Decay is Destruction.

Optimism is Youth is Growth is Life is Happy is Fun is Adventure is Energy is Creation.

The decision of how you want to live is up to you.

Quit trying to figure out who you are and what you are doing with your life, instead, start doing something with your life. Odds are you'll figure out who you are pretty quick. When doubt creeps in, do more.

The worst thing in life is to feel trapped. Do not surrender your freedom for any person, possession or idea. Some people, things and ideas will try to drag you back in; be disciplined in your resolve to be free.

Surround yourself with others who share your optimism for life. Never be afraid to show your real self to people. Never be silenced by negativity, and never stop challenging it's presumed authority.

- Zac G.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Summer Camp - Round the Moon

2010-08-11T08:25:00.001-07:00

SUMMER CAMP - Round the Moon from Paddy Power on Vimeo.

The Magician and the Snake

2010-08-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

A preview from The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects, a hardcover collection by Mike Mignola, printed by Dark Horse Comics.

This particular piece was written by Mignola's seven-year-old daughter Katie, and won an Eisner Award, making Katie the youngest recipient in the history of the award. It's extremely heartwarming and has a wonderfully pure feeling to it that only the mind of a seven-year-old could create. It is so freeing to look at something like this, and it made me think about fairy tales. In the original Grimm versions, you get the same sort of rambling, childlike irreverence to them that seem to have this almost impossibly simplistic, pure feeling to them.

It also says a lot for Mike Mignola, being able to take the simplest idea and give it a real emotional resonance. Congratulations Mike, on being both an awesome artist and an awesome dad.

Continued after the jump...

Originally posted on i09.

2010-07-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

Frank Westfall's 1930 Art Deco Henderson motorcycle, which was built by O. Ray Courtney in 1936 and is based on a 1930 K.J Henderson. Photographs © Grail Mortillaro of Knucklebuster.

Art and Materialism

2010-07-27T00:31:00.000-07:00

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" — Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Is it possible for artists to live a completely scientific, materialistic or objective existence? Or does our willingness—perhaps our necessity—to visit the often fantastic and intangible realms of our imagination force us to abandon the materialism of the modern world?

Our predominant cultural tendency, more than likely a leftover from the culture shock caused by the aggressive spirituality of the abstract expressionists, is to assume that fine art is solely a virtue of the metaphysical mind*. This assumption is so entrenched within our cultural identity that it informs not only how we come to view ourselves as artists, but also how we perceive the entire artistic process.

*We need to make sure to note the distinction that fine art seems to necessitate a spiritual origin or message, but no such designation is necessary for commercial art. The cultural impact of the spiritual expectations of art has seemingly altered our current distinction between commercial art and fine art just as much as where the paycheck is signed.

The idea of art necessitating a spiritual element closely connects itself to the concept of artistic talent being driven by an unknowable, external force; which can be extremely destructive in regards to artistic production and confidence. More importantly, the expectation of artists to openly embrace the spiritual or transcendental casts a cultural pall over art in general by limiting our definition of fine art to only that which contains spiritual qualities. Limiting the definition of art in any way is at it's worst regression and at it's best stagnation.

In order to overcome this obstacle, we need to quite simply rethink our terms.

First, we should look at the relationship between art and science. Two disciplines who—though historically related—have in modern times become perceived as diametrically opposed. Both art and science aim to understand and explore the world and our relationship to it. What exactly is the difference? Science is the method for understanding the external world through observation and experimentation, while art is the method for understanding our personal relatedness to the external world through individual reaction and interpretation. The fundamental difference is that science ultimately aims to minimize the role of the individual in the process, whereas in art, the individual is absolutely central to understanding.

An analogy would be that if science was an explanation about how the lunar orbit affects the tides crashing into a shoreline, the concurrent erosion of that shoreline and the surface tension of a leaf carried in on the water, than art would be the way that the waves feel against your feet, the aesthetic beauty of the coastline, and the fact that the leaf reminds you of your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend. Critical to understanding is that though neither method produces the same result, nor intends to, both methods aim to explore a deeper understanding of the world and our relatedness to it.

However an individual artist chooses to interpret that information, whether they believe that the leaf was merely blown there by accident or sent by fate, only alters the interpretation. Their is no prerequisite spiritual element. Art does not necessitate spirituality. All art necessitates is some modicum of individual human experience*.

*Art is not created in a vacuum. Even that which seemingly generates internally is borne from an experience of your [or a] world, real or spiritual in origin.

Secondly, our biggest fear perhaps, the often unspoken fear which lingers long after many artists have given up on religion and spirituality in other aspects of their life, but continue to cling to it for artistic purposes; that if we dared to disown the spiritual in our work, it would become flat, lifeless and dead. This is a real fear, justified countless times over by the vapidity of pop and commercial art that we're bombarded with on a daily basis.

Clearly, artwork that aspires to be more than just eye candy, must be imbued with something special. This is often mistaken for the point which necessitates the introduction of spirituality into art. However, that something is really just a description of your own personal filter. The lens through which you view life. Art is our reaction to the world as interpreted by the individual, and it is actually the personal filter or lens you use which selectively permeates your interpretation with that something. Whether that something is a belief in the individual, or humanism, or transcendentalism, it only matters that you try to work in a way which is true to yourself as an individual and your personal experiences.

Be free to visit the places within you that you see fit and do not conform to popular notions. The most telling, beautiful and wonderful art is going to be that which was created to serve your vision honestly. If you are not a spiritual person, do not pretend to be. If you are not a scientific person, do not pretend to be. Your job as an artist is to react to the world as seen through your own lens, and your job as a person is to keep trying to figure out exactly what that lens is.

- Z. Gorman
-----------

Scud the Disposable Doodle

2010-07-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

Slight variation on a classic.

Internalizing Failure and Externalizing Success

2010-07-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: I've decided to include more writing in the regular updates on my blog, both for personal writing exercise and to give myself a reason to more thoroughly examine my own processes. Undoubtedly, many of my posts will be about comics, art and art making, and probably even creative writing, scripts or whatever else.

I hope that by making my process more transparent, I can better evaluate what works and what doesn't work for me creatively, and maybe even produce something of interest to anybody who happens to read this and is genuinely interested in the artistic process.

- the mgmt.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As artists, we are often guilty of romanticizing failure and discrediting genuine success. Why is this? Are we really just inherently self-loathing, depressive people as pop psychology and contemporary media stereotypes would have us believe? Is this what drives people to become artists initially, or is it perhaps that when we adopt the artist identity we are also adopting our current cultural vision of the artist, and all of the projected ideas that come packaged with that identity.

We as artists all too often casually dismiss successes, both large and small scale, as uncontrollable flukes or happy accidents caused by the divine powers that our culture has indoctrinated into us as being the primary cause of artistic inspiration and talent; yet, somehow, we accept our shortcomings and failures as a testament to the limited human capabilities of our corporeal bodies.

This attitude, a remnant of the Greek idea of the Muse and later co-opted by the church as divine inspiration, is still the predominant attitude of the day, despite how antiquated it may seem when presented to any modern, critical thinking person. Over time, we haven't changed the core idea, we've only altered the source of this divine power. What we used to say was "the intervention of gods" is now commonly dismissed as "genetics." Yet, the idea of being born with the magical power that we call "talent," in reality is still as untraceable and ethereal as being blessed with good luck. There is no exact way to quantify or measure talent, no specific region of the brain that we can clearly point to and say "that's where the talent is processed/stored," and yet we treat it as a scientific truth because it comes couched in the vast and commonly misunderstood realm of genetics. When examined critically it's fair to say that our current understanding of artistic talent has far more in common with magic than science.

This is not to say that it does not exist in some form. We base our understanding of talent predominantly on two thoughts; 1) on the artistic qualities that we can examine in children who have little to no artistic training or practice and 2) on the fact that most all people have had the personal experience of trying, failing and quitting art making during their own lifetimes. Obviously, we could disregard the second point as nothing more than an obvious personal bias, but it would be foolish to dismiss just how important this bias is in regards to formulating a mass opinion on the origins of artistic skill.

As children, I believe it's safe to say, we are all exposed to artmaking in some form. Typically, those who express an aptitude for art at an early age will be praised for their ability and continue to make art, until either an external force, such as the judgment of their peers, an internal force, such as a shifting of personal interest, interferes. Those who continually overcome this interference are artists, those who don't are ex-artists. At that first critical juncture, when we first see some children expressing an aptitude for art making and others not, is where I believe this personal bias takes root. For people who continue making art beyond this first juncture only to quit later in life, this bias is only strengthened by their rejection. What the bias ultimately reflects is a basic defense mechanism which allows us to blame fate, or divine/biological intervention, as opposed to our own stunted artistic development.

In regards to the first point, there is indeed evidence that clearly indicates that different children develop artistically at different speeds. This idea is the first thing pointed to when somebody seeks to prove a claim about the importance of inherent talent. But this idea fails to hold up under scientific scrutiny due to the vast array of external factors involved with childhood development. Simple things such as a child's exposure to visual arts and media would have a vast influence on their ability, not to mention the development of basic motor skills which would allow them to create more complex and intricate art at an earlier age than their peers.

Again, that is not to say that there aren't any genetic factors at play. A person with borderline mental retardation would be unlikely to ever produce a novel with the depth and quality of Hemingway, but the idea of inherent talent being paramount to artistic ability seems to fail to hold any merit under critical scrutiny. Even if it does have some effect, it appears to be negligible at best.

This idea alone would be a trifle, as it must seem to non-artists, if it were not for the burden it placed on artists. It is not merely an unhelpful mode of thought for artists, but a harmful one.

As artists we tend to internalize our failures as a reflection of ourselves. After all, the artistic profession (all artistic fields included) is unique in the fact that we do not, as a culture, separate the identity of the artist from the artwork they produce. They are intrinsically linked by the contemporary view of art as an exploration of the self. The view of art as deep self-reflection is all too often taken for granted as the sole definition of art, born from the moment man first painted in the caves, but that is simply not the case.

The notion of art as self-reflection is a modern idea which we project onto primitive man. An idea that is deeply ingrained within us, perhaps due to it's ties with our modern religious and mystical beliefs that the journey to spiritual enlightenment is an internal quest. But this notion was introduced to man far after the concept of art, which predates nearly all of mankind's endeavors. Primitive man made art before language, even before the idea of the self. What primitive man was doing was a reflection of his external world. A reflection of the incomprehensible patterns of nature reflected onto itself. It was after the separation of art and craft as distinct entities, which came much, much later in history, that we began to make a distinction between internally and externally guided art.

So, due largely in part to the modern construct that the artwork is the artist, or at the very least a reflection of him/her, we cannot as artists help but feel responsible for our failures. The weakness of our ideas, of our abilities. We open ourselves willingly to public criticism and judgment, which can be a healthy and functional way of improving and developing artistically, if we were allowed the luxury of separating ourselves from our work. This ability requires a great amount of discipline on the part of the artist and is one of the skills developed in art institutions through peer critiques and learning to separate quality criticism from the bad or destructive criticism that artists too often face in the professional world.

This is what pushes us to romanticize failure. It is a defense mechanism that makes it possible to continue making art in defiance to being personally affronted by destructive criticism. We romanticize failure with the notion that others are simply unable to understand the breadth, goal or ideas behind the work. That critics have simply yet to jump the intellectual gap, over which they will finally grasp it's true genius. We hide behind the one fundamental truth we learn in all our art history classes, that great artists are not welcomed with open arms by the public and critics. That truly great artists must battle against adversity and public opinion as they patiently wait for the masses to catch up to their genius. On paper this all sounds well and good, but in reality, it's rarely the case.

The unfortunate downside of this mode of thinking is that it causes artists to relish their failures under the pretense that they are actually future successes. In reality, they are more than likely just present failures. Failures that an artist with a healthy grasp on the separation of self and work might be able to view objectively and learn from going forward with their next piece. If we are not able to separate the artist and the artwork, we end up internalizing personal failures, and if we are reliant on the idea of talent as the primary factor in ability, than we also simultaneously externalize our personal successes.

This is the dilemma of the modern artist. We need to stop accepting the importance of talent as projected by our culture and we need to begin to understand that the work we create is not only a reflection of us, but also a reflection of our environment, our time and our culture. At any given time an artist could not be creating another artwork, nor at any given time could another artist be creating another artwork. Through this, we must learn the difference between taking responsibility for our failures and taking blame for our failures.

- Zac G.

Bronson

2010-07-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

Based on the film Bronson by Nicolas Winding Refn, which was in turn based on the real Charlie Bronson, England's most notorious prisoner.

Not smart.

2010-07-20T14:20:00.000-07:00

Piran and Hem

2010-07-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

A while back, it feels like a lifetime ago already, I was kicking around an idea for a comic with a friend of mine Scott. Today it kinda popped back in there so I drew this. Originally, the main kid was NOT a monster, but I thought he'd look cool with horns and green, scaly skin.

Mega Man Universe is Confusingly Awesome

2010-07-20T07:51:00.001-07:00

Breath of Death VII

2010-07-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

Characters from Breath of Death VII, an awesome 8-bit styled RPG available on Xbox Live for only $1.00! That's less than the 20 oz. bottle of Mountain Dew you'll want to pick up to enjoy the game with proper nostalgic refreshment! The characters and game are the creations of the very talented Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games.

Batman Drawling

2010-07-14T16:18:00.001-07:00

Nanny Trejo

2010-07-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

After drawing that Machete inspired piece yesterday I couldn't stop thinking about how hard it would be for Danny Trejo to get hired as anything else but an actor. I think he's too gritty to do anything other than kick ass, or pretend to be a guy who's kicking ass.

Machete Reboot

2010-07-12T15:13:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty excited about seeing the new Rodriguez flick, Machete starring Danny Trejo. However, this was not started as a direct drawing from that movie, it just sorta evolved that way. So, understand that while it's not entirely accurate...it is a large Mexican man holding a bloody machete. I consider that a win regardless.

Jubilee = Still awesome after all these years.

2010-07-09T15:48:00.000-07:00

Drawing I did of much reviled X-Person Jubilation Lee, aka Jubilee. Couldn't decide whether to post the colors or the black and white since I dug them both so I decided to throw them both up here.

When is Marvel going to give me an X-Title already? I mean, COME ON!

RSAnimate David Harvey Lecture

2010-07-05T08:51:00.000-07:00

Mostly Naked Woman

2010-07-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

Adam N.: King in Hell

2010-07-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

This is a drawing of my boy Adam in his truest form.

Carmen Sandiego Sketch

2010-06-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

First piece from a series I'm working on called "Uncomfortably Hot Cartoon Characters from the 90's."

Professor Layton Warm-Up

2010-06-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

Kitten in a Tiny Hat

2010-06-16T14:05:00.001-07:00

Words escape me.

Her Majesty and the Wolves

2010-06-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

I did this logo for the band Her Majesty and the Wolves a month or so back. For the sake of space and time I've only included a few of the versions that came along the way after the jump. Trust me that there is a lot more work that I could show for this project.

Here are some early versions in chronological order.

Futurama's coming back!

2010-06-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

And what better way to celebrate than with some good ol' fashioned fanart?
Click the image for a large version, conveniently sized to be used as a desktop!

1979 - The Muppet Movie Camera Test

2010-05-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

It begins with a completely improvised dialogue between Kermit the Frog and Fozzy that quickly turns into the most revealing existential moment ever captured on film.

There's some funny stuff later on also with Frank Oz (as Fozzy) yelling jokes at cows while cracking himself up.

* I've been busy with work and I'll start posting some of that stuff this week, as those projects wrap up.

Alice for the iPad

2010-04-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

Dear GOD, is this awesome! I'd love to work on something like this. If only I knew a decent programmer...

Where's the Money George?

2010-03-31T13:36:00.001-07:00

WHERE'S THE MONEY GEORGE ? from oizo mr on Vimeo.

Common Sense

2010-03-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

Common Sense is a poster that I'm doing for the Cranbrook Academy of Art's Off The Wall, Zine & Poster show.

The idea is that every poster will be customized with red pen and marker to alter the story for every individual poster. To do that I created a framework that is pretty open to interpretation, and allowed areas for customization, especially in the word balloons.

Hopefully, I can get these printed and will have them on sale through the Silent Giants, my brothers from another mother, asap. When that happens I'll put the word out so that they can be snatched up.

Being Able to Draw...Anything

2010-03-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

This morning (which I apparently have off, score!), I was doing what I so often do and searching for new cartoonists and comic artists, both to steal from and be inspired by, and I came across a gentleman by the name of Raymond Macherot. And I use the word gentleman here because, well...

...yeah.

I've been into the Belgian cartoonists for a while now. I originally got drawn in with Lewis Trondheim's Dungeon series (though he is French, not Belgian). This led me to look more into artists like Hergé and André Franquin who continue to blow my mind.

But I had never heard of Raymond Macherot before this morning. Like all of the Belgian cartoonists, his clean layouts, simple and expressive characters and sense of balance were immediately noticeable.

What I love about the Belgian cartoonists is their ability to communicate so much story with such ease. I was impressed with his work but there was nothing exactly mind-blowing about it, that is until I came across this page.

This page is so good that it melted my brain. Why?

Well, first off, the color is great. The washes of watercolor set the tone perfectly for this scene, pale blues and greens with those spots of bright yellow light in every panel to keep your eye interested and focused on the action. The layout is good, clean and effective. The characters are emotive, there are no words on this page (aside from sound effects) yet you understand the feeling of what's happening. And the line work is wonderfully fluid and varied to keep the look playful. But that's not what impressed me the most.

What really impressed me was how Raymond Macherot can draw...ANYTHING.

I mean seriously! Just look at what he chooses to show on that page and how much more effective it makes the scene. If you asked any modern comic artist to draw a scene with that many motorcycles and cop cars you better believe they'd take shortcuts. Hiding bikes in shadows, using easier angles, etc. Take a look at the first two panels and notice how he shows the motorcycles from essentially four different angles in only two panels and keeps them absolutely solid, believable and seemingly drawn with ease.

That's what impresses me most about Macherot here. It's not just that he simply chooses to draw very complicated scenes, but that he executes them in such an effortless way that it keeps the scene light and fun. He doesn't draw every single detail on his vehicles but he clearly knows where every one is at, what it does, and how it moves through space. His understanding of form and depth is extraordinary.

It has been a while since I've seen a single comic page that has impressed me this much. Good show, Mr. Macherot, good show.

Toth Obsession

2010-03-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been obsessing over the works of Alex Toth, probably the greatest comic artist of all time. Here's why...

Sorry, that I don't have any new work of my own to post. Should have something by Saturday worth showing. Until then do yourself a favor and look up the work of Alex Toth, his stuff is crazy good.

Zombie Apocalypse Mindy

2010-03-12T17:13:00.000-08:00

Messing around drawing after work today, just trying to stay fresh, and I doodled up this piece here. Originally it was just a girl but when I was done and I looked at it I thought it kinda looked like my friend Mindy if she was fighting back during the zombie apocalypse, hence the title.

Weyland-Yutani

2010-03-11T14:08:00.000-08:00

Weyland-Yutani Logo from Zac Gorman on Vimeo.

Did this for a project that I'm working on, taking a bunch of logos and title cards from fictional companies and animating them. It's mostly a training exercise to teach myself After Effects. I wanted the Weyland-Yutani to look and sound like it belonged at the beginning of a VHS company training video.

Oh, and for those of you who don't know Weyland-Yutani is the company from the Alien franchise.

I did this with a combination of Illustrator, After Effects and Garageband. That's right, it's an original "score."

Drink Champagne When I'm Thirs-tay

2010-03-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

Unfinished work for an upcoming collab. It's all super top secret though, so don't tell anybody.

Stop Child Predators

2010-03-09T13:12:00.000-08:00

Only you can stop child predators.

Kevin Smith Vs. Hordes of Hell

2010-03-06T09:52:00.000-08:00

This is a WIP poster that I'm illustrating with the Silent Giants. It will make more sense, or possibly less sense, once the entire poster is revealed but for now feast your eyeballs on some of the action.

70 Million by Hold Your Horses

2010-03-02T07:19:00.000-08:00

This really brought me back to taking art history classes (mostly spent doodling monsters in my notebooks instead of paying attention). Cool video, especially when you consider that a lot of those scenes look like they were made with cardboard and acrylic paint.

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

Jake "The Snake" Roberts

2010-03-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

I drew this for my friend Brad. And for Jake "The Snake" Roberts, wherever he is right now.

I think the most amazing thing about him wasn't that he brought a snake to the ring to terrorize his opponents, but that he did so while remaining predominantly a hero. It just goes to show you where wrestling was at in the 80's and early 90's during the height of Roberts' career. Even if you brought a live snake to the ring and used it as a weapon against another wrestler, you were still probably more noble than your opponent (especially if he happened to be foreign). Ahh, those were the days.

Rincewind, Twoflower, Luggage and Death

2010-03-01T12:46:00.000-08:00

I'd like to dedicate this pic of Rincewind and Twoflower to my friend Eric for letting me borrow his Discworld books which I regrettably now must return. For the raw sketch click the jump.

The Automatic Detective (Comic)

2010-02-24T14:50:00.000-08:00

I worked up these pages over the last day and a half as a short comic adaptation of the book The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez. My friend Brad got me into reading some of his books and they're a ton of fun. I finished reading Automatic Detective earlier this week and I had an idea about doing a scene from it in comic format.

I'm going to color this later this week but here are the inked pages (almost complete, still might make some tweaks after I let it breathe a little bit).

I read a blurb on the author's blog about how he feels feels about modern comics so I hope that this passes his litmus test.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Buffy

2010-02-22T11:43:00.000-08:00

Continuing on in my fanart for friends kick, here is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer piece for my girlfriend. Suzy loves Buffy something fierce and I'm a fan also, but oddly enough I don't think I've ever done a single piece of Buffy fanart. You'd think it would've come up at some point over the last fifteen years that I have been a nerd and enjoying that universe, strange.

Well, the problem is fixed now. Hit the jump after the image if you'd like to see the rough sketch and the bare inks from the piece.

Captain Power

2010-02-21T09:48:00.000-08:00

I've decided that every warm-up I do for the next few weeks will be dedicated to a geeky property beloved by a friend of mine. Today's piece is for my friend Dave who is still a lifelong member of Captain Power's Soldiers of the Future.

Doing these give me a chance to draw some things that I'm not personally as familiar with as I am with the things that I grew up loving, so it gives me a chance to draw some new things and maybe makes somebody else's day a little brighter.

Strange Priorities

2010-02-20T11:57:00.000-08:00

I love everything about Conan the Barbarian. The books, the comics, the movie, Robert E. Howard's blatant misogyny and uncomfortable racist overtones, everything (however, in his defense he really wasn't that radically racist or misogynistic for the 1920's and 30's when his stories were written). I love Conan as a character.

Anyway, I was thinking about that line in the movie when they ask Conan what is "best in life," and he answers, "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women." While this is pretty badass in the context of Conan's character, can you imagine trying to hang out with a guy like that? I feel like my answers to "what is best in life," would be "a cold can of mountain dew, hanging out with my girlfriend, and playing old video games with my friends." I think Conan and I might have a hard time understanding each other on a personal level.

Zealot Drawing

2010-02-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

Did this drawing of Zealot from WildC.A.T.S. this morning for my friend Jon who has done me some solids recently. I think he's the last person on earth who still loves WildC.A.T.S., a dedication which I admire.

Song of the Week #1

2010-02-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

"10,000 Lovers, Pt. 2" by Yoyoyo Acapulco
Buy the album here if you dig the sounds of sweet Norwegian ukulele-infused synth pop.

Ball of the Gypsy Prince

2010-02-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

I did this for a Dearborn Symphony Orchestra fundraising gala. I was trying to make it look like one of those Art Nouveau styled prints by Mucha.

Mesmo Delivery Coloration

2010-01-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

I colored this piece tonight that was drawn by my friend Scott, who is both awesome and a gentleman. Check out his work here, if you dare! I don't usually color stuff that I don't draw myself but I make an exception for Scott since his work is mad fun to color.

This illustration is for a fanart blog for Rafael Grampá's Mesmo Delivery book which is crazy awesome. He's an artist who has been really influential on my work and I know he has been for Scott too.

Check out the raw lines after the jump!

Vimeo Test

2010-01-26T11:36:00.001-08:00

Garuda from Andres Salaff on Vimeo.

Shark Poster Test

2010-01-26T11:06:00.001-08:00

This is how text before an image will look.

This is how text after the image would look, although in reality it would be full of vulgarity and slanderous lies.