What's Michael?

Girl Walking with a Book

2010-01-18T22:06:00.001-08:00

Still messing around with making my illustrator work look a little bit more like paintings. I stole this girls outfit from here

Me Singin' Karaoke!

2010-01-16T16:29:00.000-08:00

Here I am singing karaoke. I've been practicing a lot with digital painting techniques. I like this one a lot because I think it is the perfect blend of illustrator style work and digital paint. I'm probably going to redesign my whole blog to be in a style like this.

Shinx, Luxio, and Luxray

2010-01-11T18:01:00.000-08:00

Not sure what the background is all about. I was just messing with textures and stuff in Photoshop and decided to go with it. Luxio is my favorite

Turtwig!

2010-01-04T10:03:00.000-08:00

I got the idea of drawing some pokemon in the style of the old Japanese prints. I have quite a few of these in mind and hope to do a whole series of them. This little fella here is Turtwig, pondering nature and what it means to be part plant.

Faces

2010-01-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

Some sketches of some friends I know. Slightly more realistic than my regular style.

2010-01-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

Just messing with old man character designs and old man color schemes. Let's call this one....Roy.

Blair from Soul Eater

2009-10-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

Tis the season.

Managers from work

2009-10-24T06:22:00.001-07:00

Me on the right.

Victorian Girl

2009-10-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

YAY FOR NO BACKGROUNDS

Dead Redd Drawing

2009-10-13T00:12:00.000-07:00

An idea I'm working on for a vinyl sticker for the back of my car. Sounds kind of dumb, I know, but a friend offered to make me one for free so I thought it might be fun!

Cartoony Critters

2009-09-25T02:53:00.001-07:00

No I do not know what kin=d of animal they are supposed to be.

I like them though. They are cute.

Cat In a Three Piece Suit

2009-09-02T00:37:00.000-07:00

What a Dapper Fellow

Zombie Girl

2009-09-01T19:56:00.000-07:00

A reworking of this old thing

I wouldn't want to run into this lovely lady on the street.

Chinese Guy

2009-08-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to learn how to make my computer work look like painted work.

Victorian Witch

2009-08-13T00:22:00.000-07:00

So I've had this idea batting around in my head about a prim and proper witch from England that flies around town and helps people out. Kind of like Kiki's delivery service, but in Victorian times. She'd also have a cat with her that wears a suit. Maybe I'll call him Puss in Suit. The other day I actually got around to sketching some designs for her.

I really want to learn how to digitally paint and then I want to digitally paint one. Any suggestions would be welcome!

Katie Perry

2009-08-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

So I drew a picture of Katie Perry.

Right afterward I kissed a girl and I liked it.
HEY DID ANYONE ELSE NOTICE THAT WHEN A GUY SAYS THAT LYRIC IT IS FUNNY???

12 Comics a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

2009-01-27T00:38:00.000-08:00

Me and my roommates all had Sunday off and decided to draw a comic every hour that we were awake, because apparently that is the cool thing to do Here are my comics for that day, but I went ahead and compiled all of ours over here on this site if you wanna check them out.

1am

10am

12am

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

6pm

7pm

8pm

9pm

10pm

Robbie, of course, referring to Robbie Allen, who I've known since the birth of online comics.

11pm

Here's a link to Uber EZ8's Blog. You be the judge.

Don't forget to check out the awesome ones my roommates did! Many of ours go together.

Dead Redd Comics

2009-01-25T15:21:00.001-08:00

Okay, I decided to post my Dead Redd comics on their own blog over at http://www.deadredd.blogspot.com
These comics won't actually start updateing for a week or two, but the blog construction is pretty much done now! Here's a resized version of the first page that doesn't blow up this template (click on it to actually be able to read it)

Dead Redd

2009-01-18T00:33:00.000-08:00

Yeah so I've been thinking about brining Dead Redd back lately. I just can't seem to find a good way to fit 20 panels onto a small sheet of paper. I've got to figure something out because the comic makin' bug is biting me. I love Dead Redd.

Japanese Flash Cards

2008-12-31T00:37:00.000-08:00

No drawings today. I spent most of the morning printing up some nifty Japanese Flash Cards from this site. They are wonderful! I had been brushing up on some of the Rosetta stone stuff, and I realized that I was learning too much from reading the romanized text instead of learning from actually listening. Then when I converted the text to the hiragana I could'nt get it at all. So I want to learn the hiragana first, then I'll be able to follow along the spoken dialogue with the Japanese text. Hopefully some tough learning on the front end will help emensely in the long run.

So tonight I spent most of the time coloring sticky notes and making little stickers to put on various flash cards. Any symbol ending in "a" has a red sticky, any in "i" has a green sticky and so on. This way in the begining I can have a little help remembering which symbol is which. As I start to get it down I can simply take the stickers off for more advanced practice. We'll see how it works out!

Actual drawings tomorrow, I promise!

I'm Back!

2008-12-29T17:26:00.000-08:00

After toying with the idea of creating a new blog, I have decided to just revamp this one. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I plan to update this thing at least 5 times a week, letting people know what's up with me and my art. So what's up?

Today I took advantage of a 10 dollar gift card to Hal Priced Books and a 25 dollar gift card to Barnes and Noble. I tell you, I have some excellent friends who think I am smart.

From Half Price I got:
1. English Fairy Tales - collected by Joseph Jacobs
2. The Life and Fables of Aesop - edited by Simon Stern
3. The Lost City of Zork - by Robin W. Bailey
4. Star Trek The Next Generation: Guises of the Mind - by Rebecca Neason
and ended up with only 9 cents left on the card!

From Barnes and Noble I got:
5. Samurai Leaders: From the 10th to the 19th Century - by Michael Sharpe
6. The Rime of the Aincent Mariner - by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
7. India: Secrets of the Tiger - Paul Stump
but had to spend exactly 2 of my own hard-earned dollars.

I bought the two fairy tales books because I am trying to come up with good, simple story ideas. I've read some Russian and Arabian fairy tales, now I need to brush up on the European stuff. The Zork book and Star Trek book were only a buck each and were used to fill up the remainder of the gift card.
The Samurai Leaders book quenches my unyielding hunger for Japanese history. The India is filled with amazing photographs of Indian art and culture. There's something about India that has always intrigued me, and I think this will be perfect reference material for future projects. Lastly, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner has always been a wonderful story to me, and this edition had all of the original illustrations at a huge size. It was perfect for a gift card because I would have never bought it for myself, but am very pleased to have it.

And lastly, here are some drawings I did the other day. These are just a bunch of unfortunate people I happen to know or be related to.

LUDO FRIEND

2008-01-13T03:53:00.001-08:00

Some Random Drawings

2007-06-19T01:38:00.000-07:00

Some faces and some sketches I did at work which I decided to color. Not much to say about them.

Fasion Girl

2007-02-20T08:50:00.000-08:00

Every piece of clothing this girl is wearing came from http://www.wetseal.com/
I found this to be a great website for refrences on interesting clothing! Does anyone know of a similar site that has neat clothes for a guy? I am attempting to diversify my characters' clothing styles.

I did not weight my lines on this drawing. i figured I'd try it out. I don't think I like it.

Lolo Worm

2007-01-12T05:49:00.002-08:00

Trying to see if this will work

An Art Dump

2007-01-04T23:12:00.000-08:00

Work was slow the last few days, so I doodled a bunch with the markers. Anything in marker started out that way, without pencil first. They can sometimes be wonky, but I find them to be much more free that way.

General Grievous Color Variations

2006-12-11T20:26:00.000-08:00

Which looks better, outlines or no outlines? If you could just post a comment real quick and let me know, I would appreciate it a lot. It doesn't have to be a detailed critique, just type simply "outlines" or "no outlines" and I would be very grateful!

I think it is interesting to note how the hold up at a very small size.

General Grievous

2006-12-09T05:05:00.000-08:00

The official first drawing for myself now that school has let out! I haven't drawn anything for fun in a long time! This isn't finished yet, but I liked it so much I decided I would post it anyway. This week I plan on getting so much artwork done!

Also, I did this little Twisp and Catsby comic for Penny Arcade. They had a strict deadline which only gave me about two hours, so I am not overly fond of it. It was fun though. I had to include a cat, a meat, the Child's Play logo, and a mention of one of the Child's Play locations.

Guest comics

2006-12-05T11:27:00.000-08:00

I am drawing two weeks of guest comics for Impy and Avey so you should go check that out. You should check that comic out anyway because it is drawn by Robbie Allen, a crazy bastard genius.
My first two installments aren't drawn so hot, but after that I fall into a groove.

Lots of art soon. School is really cracking down this week, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. There is hope. Their ability to hold me is finite. I've got a whole host of plans for art as soon as humanly possible which include but is not limited to:

1. Finish that darn Comics for Kids website.
2. Draw some more Comics fo Kids. I've a good Vetacular Vet story on the backburner and a story about 1950s Outer Space.
3. Draw caricatures of my Top 16 friends on Myspace. (I know, Myspace lol, but it is good practice for caricatures!)
4. Draw a Christmas card for the company I work for.
5. Work on a buisness card design for this lady who is going to pay me real money in American dollars.
6. Something with watercolors.

Stay tuned! If I work tight I could get all of this done before January!

Snow Day!

2006-11-30T07:48:00.000-08:00

Despite the fact that I live in Texas school has been cancelled on account of snow! Well, more accurately it was cancelled on account of ice on the roads. Seriously, yesterday I was walking around at 5:00 int he afternoon in a t-shirt thinking it would be rediculous to wear a jacket. two hours later when my roomate came home he said it was freezing outside. Then the storm started. Texas is one weird state.
I had a big presentation and report due today, but nuts to that! I'm going to sit at home, drink some eggnog, and play some Super Nintendo!!! See you guys later!

Last Week

2006-11-28T08:10:00.000-08:00

I'm trying a new format for my blog where I write in paragraphs and bold the important points so that the lazy can skim.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. I got to take a trip in my grandparents' RV over to my dad's brother's house where we all ate a lot of food, watched some movies, and played a lot of video games. A lot of people dread Thanksgiving because they don't like dealing with their family and having to answer a bunch of questions. Personally, I love to see my family, and I always look forward to it every year. They're a good bunch of people, and I never have trouble relating to them.

I got to see the Nintendo Wii in action. It was amazing. Everyone of all generations was interested in how it worked. My uncle, a staunch defender of the Xbox360, admitted that the Wii was going to destroy sales of the other systems. I wasn't that impressed with the sports game that came with it, but Twilight Princess was pretty remarkable. I couldn't tell I was playing a game, the controls were so natural. I also liked the plot for the first 3 hours a lot more than I have any of the other 3D Zelda games. I wish they would make Link talk, though, I'm getting really tired of these silent main characters in Nintendo games. I want a first person Star Fox shooter that uses the Wiimote!

I got super sick on Sunday. My roomate, Matt, got sick on Friday and threw up big time. He was convinced it was food poisoning from a drink he had purchased at the QT. I didn't really think that was likely. Anyway, sure enough, two days later I had the same thing. I woke up rediculously dizzy and nauseated and through up everything I had ever eaten. Then two hours later I through up everything else. Then two hours later again, and again. And again. Matt was nice enough to cover for me at work (since he made me sick!) while I just laid at home, bedriddin, hoping that my body would give up on purging my system once there was nothing left to purge. Sleep was impossible, I kept twitching, was burning up, and eventually got dehidrated beyond belief. Matt had gotten better within 24 hours, so I took some comfort in knowing I probably would too. And I did. I eventually conqured my fear of water (because I was damn thirsty!) but it took me a few days before I could warm up to any food beyond toast.

Then I had to go to school on Monday morning.

I had to finalize some casting on a sculpture and absolutely could not miss. It was awful. I was still dizzy, had a pounding headache, and had to somehow drive for thirty minutes. I didn't want to make John take me and sit around for three hours in class because he had been so nice to me when I was sick. Thanks bro! So he slept in and I went to do what I hadta do. Pills helped, but only so much. I toughed it out. The worst of my sickness was behind me, and by Monday night I was feelin' fine again. (Note: chemical agents used for latex molding=not good to smell when nauseated)

Monday the three of us got together and cleaned the house too! The moving around helped me overcome the sickness as well. Considering Matt and I had both been so violently ill we decided it was time to give the bathrooms and kitchen a good chemichal meltdown to make sure our disease didn't felter or respawn on our icky kitchen counters. Also, Matt bought a mop, so our kitchen got mopped for the first time! Max was pretty excited.

Computer Fixed!

2006-11-21T13:37:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me knows I've been having a heck of a time with computers lately. I've destroyed one, built one, had it melt down, found a new processor, cried, cried, and cried. I even considered REALLY going nuts and switching over to Mac!
But I think I can delay that purchase for another year. The computer finally seems to be doing fine, and I can log multiple hours in Illustrator and Photoshop again without a freeze.
I just pulled an all-nighter working on some logos for my Sign and Symbol class, but I don't think I'll post those. Instead, here's some old stuff that never got posted!

Girl Walking (6 color verisons, click and see!)

I had a lot of fun with this one! I want to do more in this style, and more color tests.

Veronica Frowning

A freind of ours from the QT near where we live. This is one of her less dignified moments.

Doodles

2006-10-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Today in Art History I doodled a bull head from some art piece I was supposed to know about
...which lead to this drawing of some kind of a horse

...which lead to this drawing of a goat
...which of course lead to

Character Redesigns

2006-10-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

I've been working on redesigning the characters of my comic Vetacular Vet. Here's Alice, Ernie, Fiona, Roy, Yooki, and Randy. Yooki and Alice didn't get a whole lot done to 'em.

I redesign these guys more than I actually use them. Each time their personalities become a little more defined and so their designs evolve a little more to fit that. Scott McCloud had a lot of great advice in his new book Making Comics about creating charated histories, hobbies, and clothes, so I've been really inspired to pick up Vetacular Vet again.
Sometimes I think I like character design and writing more than I actually like drawing comics. Maybe I'm supposed to be an animator.

Zombie Painting

2006-10-07T03:34:00.000-07:00

I rarely paint, and have never taken a former class on it, but the other day, spurred on by something Animatrixie said, I had an undeniable urge to PAINT. Paint, paint, paint, it was all I could think about. So as a reward for aceing a test the other day, I blew fifty bucks on some brushes and some acrylics. A couple days later I had this!

She's a zombie. It's some kind of Halloween tribute, I think. I had a lot more fun mixing colors and coming up wih nice color combinations than I did actually perfecting technique. But then I am generally that way with art. I made that orange myself, by mixing the pink and the yellow! The whole thing is real vibrant in person, and the hair is more red than fuscia, as it looks here. Lookingat it now, her lips are a bit big. Oh well, it was still a lot of fun.

Here's the original sketch I worked from:

It's got a certain charm to it. Happy Halloween!

Collection of Doodles

2006-10-02T20:46:00.000-07:00

This is what I do instead of take notes.

Highlights include: Bubble Bobble art, many pictures of Crash Man, my cat Max, a bunch of old creepy guys, some animals, and a Colefish.

Hallowen Spirit!

2006-10-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

The company Big Time orders paper from recently sarted including 1/4 sheets with their shipments again! For over a year wev'e been without quarter sheets to doodle on in our free time, so our oodling surring work hours has been few and far between. In celebration of the new quarter sheets, our first doodle assignment was BATS. Here are some of mine.

The top one is my favorite. I don't think it is possible to make him any cuter. The second one I like because of the colors, but I later realized his head looks just like Evil T Cat's! So, that kind of sucks. Everyone at work drew two or three of these, and by the end of the day out bullitin board was overflowing with little flying horrors.
The only other one I could swipe to scan in was John's. His is very cartoony, like everything else he does. I love it!

Happy October!

Puss N' Boots

2006-09-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

I bought this tape at Half Price Book Store about a year ago and it just sort of sat in the closet. Last night some friends were over who got a kick out of some other older animation I had, so I popped this in. (Swinging party, I know). Just as I suspected, it was an old Japanese movie from the 70's re-packaged for American audiences in the late 80's. I thought it was part of a TV series (sense it says "volume 5" on the cover), but it was acatually a full length movie. We all ended up loving it!
The animation was superb, the story was entertaining, and it had this awesome ending. Everything came together and there was a giant chase scene through a clock tower that was suspenseful and fun to watch. We were seiously on the edge of our seats, saying out loud "ooh, ahh" and "Oh no!" when it looked like our hero might take a tumble. Very few movies get audible responses out of me, especially when I'm in public.
The hero was a very likeable character too, you wanted him to win. He was courageous, determined, and constatnly doing what was right. There were also these three cat musketeers that were always chasing him and some other excellent villains. Everyone had great charcter designs too.
Anyone who has a chance at all to see this movie, should. It comes highly recommended. This movie, "Puss N Boots Travels Around the World" is actualyl a sequel to "The Wonderful World of Puss N Boots" (now available on DVD!) which I will certainly be buying shortly!
You should do the same.

Finished the Clown

2006-09-28T03:26:00.000-07:00

So this is the thing I was supposed to draw.

I was told to make her look more like a cartoon character and less liek a caricature, so I basically just used my own stlye. I also had to do the whole thing in Illustrator so it could be infinetly resized.And there you have it. the fact that it had to be cmyk really hurt it, but cmyk generally kills everything dead. Pretty happy with it, I guess. It took way too long.

Need to Scan some Art.

2006-09-26T00:52:00.000-07:00

School is starting to suck. My schedule is constantly full. I still draw all the time, but don't have time to scan aything.
So why do I waste time posting in my blog???
It is a mystery.

This is the coolest thing in the world, and not even in a creepy way! (I promise!) Apparently these people weren't even higherd by Disney, they just felt like dressing up as Disney characters! Although Jasmine is probably my favorite princess, I think Belle looks the best here.

My Computer is Broken

2006-09-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

The Season premier of Law and Order was on today. I just got into the show last year through TNT, and this was the first "new" episode I've seen. They had to inroduce a new detective and a new DA, both of which were okay, I guess. None will ever compete with Orbach though.

In other news, any time I spend more than 30 minutes in Photoshop or Illustrator it freezes and I have to restart. This also happens whenever I play any music, and usually when I'm just THINKING about maybe playing some music. What is wrong with it??? Ever since this started last week it seems like a can't finish a singl

Clowns

2006-09-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

So, my boss gave me this job. I'm honered and all, because it is going to pay pretty well and he chose me specifically but....
I have to draw a clown. A clown.
It's some kind of girl clown and she has a real traditional "clown look". But I hate clowns, and I especially hate drawing them. Since it has to look something like her, I have to draw her actual face, plus all the fake makeup, plus the fake hair, and it just keeps turning out ugly! Of course, clowns are just naturally ugly to me, but I think this one is supposed to be cute.
Not only all that, but I've got to render it in Illustrator, so I'm going to have to stare at her forever as I maticulously draw her.
Perhaps this project wil bring to light a previously unknown fondness for clowns and me and clowns will form some kind of a bond and I'll begin to love and appreciate them.
More than likely though, this will only prove to be a festering wound on the already mangled body of contempt I have for clowns.

Not Ronald though, he's an exception. I love that dude. Especially since he has started offering Mario Toys in his happy meals! Yeah!

Jeep and Pink Jeep

2006-09-14T00:56:00.000-07:00

The first image I did here was a vector tracing from a photo of the ol' Jeap Cherokee Loredo I used to drive around in. The second version uses that skeleton and turns it into some kind of a pink monster. Why pink? Who knows. I started with just pink windows, and went from there. It looks like a Barbie car.
I have never traced a photo in illustrator before, and I was curious to see if I could adapt a real drawing of a car into a more cartoony one. I think the answer is yes. I wonder if I could do something with this in Flash.
I'd like to trace some scenery and backgrounds in the future to further hone my skills.

Bubble Bobble Bad Guys

2006-09-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

I just discovered an artist named Bindi Meezer http://binsybaby.livejournal.com/ who's art has really inspired me. Each one of the colorful monsters above were originally just doodles on some Art History notes, but I wanted to try them out without outlines like Bindi does, so there they are. They are all bad guys from one of my favorite Nintendo games, Bubble Bobble.
I've got to do more art like this.

Ernie the Collage-Girl

2006-09-12T01:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a little cut-out collage I made of Ernie today. I used a brush pen, some scissors, some glue, and various colored post-it notes I got as some sort of promotion at school. It was nice to work with real art tools again, not just the mouse!
I wonder how many people got those reams of post-it notes and immediately thought "I'll make a cartoon collage out of 'em!"

Robot Heroes

2006-09-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

Here's a series of robots I doodles at work in celebration of finally getting my computer fixed. After being a full 2 weeks without Photoshop, I kind of went crazy on 'em. The poor bug robot got neon'ed to death. I think he's my favorite. Which one's yours?

Edited the layout

2006-09-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

How's it lokin

First Post

2006-09-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

I'm popping my blog's cherry.
How romantic.