Artjumble

My artjumble image this week -

Kind of straightforward, some anatomy issues with our detective, but it was just fun to work on paper again after a couple weeks.

** edit, larger, toned version of this up on the Sketchjam blog.

Thursday watch the walls instead.....

My new contribution to ARTJUMBLE is up, check it out. Also, on a weird coincidence vibe, I stopped drinking Cola and eating so much fried foods about 10 ago and it has had 3 glaring effects. Not surprisingly, I feel better even if it hasn't shown up on the scale yet, I am having a hard time figuring out what to drink now besides water, tea and coffee, I'm used to having that 4th option. Also, I am dreaming again, not to say I wasn't dreaming before, but these are noticeably more vibrant and lifelike, and it's ALL NIGHT LONG, no kidding, it's insane. It makes sleeping fun again. Too bad I haven't had any of those dreams yet, but unfortunately, I'm not 13 anymore either. Updates forthcoming.......

Bring your Monster to work day!

Yesterday I got to bring my youngest to work because of a snafu with the sitter. It was great, he behaved really well and we took some awesome photos. I don't post pictures of my kids on the net, but here is one he took of me, he's 4 years old. And Awesome.

Monday stuff

My interweb is on the shit at home, I have plenty of access at work, but posts may be slow in the next few weeks. Had a good weekend with the boys and my parents, saw some great scenery, if you feel the need to jump over to the SketchJam, I posted a few new pages of a little side project I'm slowly working on.

Artjumble

Here is my first post the wonderful and inspiring ArtJumble blog.



Vegas was great, I golfed, went skeet shooting with a shotgun for the first time ever, drank a beer in a way I never have before, ate amazingly well, and saw one of my friends do the greatest dance ever while mocking a group of frat boys. I wish I could have stayed longer, but life happens.

I get by with a little help from my friends....

Ever hear the saying "a good friend will help you move, but a really good friend will help you move a body"? Well I personally believe in that wholeheartedly. My Boys Momma (MBM)and I often discuss how I am anti-social and don't make new friends often (or at all), and she considers that a negative aspect. I on the other hand, consider the fact that I have a small cadre of amazing friends to be a HUGELY positive personality trait. If I meet new people, I often forget their name and sometimes I don't even remember if I had met them previously. I attribute this to the fact that my brain is at 110% capacity, and I often have to clear out space to retain new information. I'm a whiz at trivial pursuit and pop culture knowledge, but I can't remember the names of the parents in my kids' school, so sue me.

I have a small group of friends here in the Phoenix area that I have known for over 10 years, 1/3 of my life. They are great friends and I see them as often as I can and I enjoy hanging out with their kids and BBQ's and bar sessions and everything that it entails. I am blessed to have such great, loyal companions.

There is a smaller group though, that I consider my greatest friends, my brothers, my family, I have known since I was 13. 18 years ago I met these guys, and if a really good friend will help you move a body, then I have 3 that will commit multiple heinous felonies and help me flee the country, after burying the bodies and aiding me to exact my bloody revenge. And I would do that for them, because that's what true friendship is about. Not that I have anything liked that planned, but it's good to know that it is an option, if such an extreme situation arises.

I'm going on a short vacation this weekend to Vegas and seeing 2/3 of the trifecta, and I can't wait, I'm like a child on Christmas eve. Nothing overly amazing ever happens on these weekends, nothing to write home about, but a good time is guaranteed, and it's always nice to visit family.

I can see MBM's point about me making new friends though, if I don't learn how to be more sociable, I might never date a woman again. My apologies for the weepy eyed sentimentality, here is some art for no good reason.

Dear Diary

Friday night was the first ever meeting of the Arizona Chapter of the Drink and Draw Social Club, it was a fun time, we had about 17 people show up and I hope everyone had a good time, I know I did.



Hop on over to The AZD&D site for more pics and fun!

Also this past weekend I took 2/3's of my brood to see Surf's Up, the Sony Animation feature about surfing penguins. This movie was really, really, really, good. The way they "shot" it and animated it, f-ing brilliant, I loved the story too, although it was super predictable, but the performances the voice actors and animators put on were amazing. Go see it, if you're local to Phoenix it is showing at the budget theatres now. It actually touched that sensitive spot in me as well, you know, the tiny little spot I keep far behind the anger and bitterness I usually project. I really need to learn to let go of my aggression and negativity of the way things have been going the last year or so. I need to learn to absorb and be "in the moment" when positive and calming events are happening. I think I have started to take advantage of that over the last few days, but it's a work in progress and I need to to adjust 10 years or so of negativity.

Okay, diary, enough of that, I am also doing a bunch of inking while waiting on more script pages, jump on over the SKETCHJAM! blog to see a Kirby page and Wieringo pin-up I did.

Dear Diary - Thursday

I feel like I should post something to get into a rythym of some kind. I made the decision, for the first time in years to put together a proper portfolio to show around to try and line up some more work. My first target is the Marvel Adventures line, I got a script from one of the MA writers so I'm going to pencil a few pages from that. Meanwhile, I am also putting together some inking samples as well. So I spent tonight inking a 'Ringo pin-up and a Kirby Thor page. Here's a shot of my table -



Since I don't have an 11x17 printer, I printed up the Kirby page in 3 parts and I'll put it together in Photoshop.

Also, I got the hardcover collection of Ultimate Spider-Man #100 Project from Marvel & The Hero Initiative yesterday. Once again I can't believe how great it was to be a part of this thing, and the book will only raise more money for the charity. To date it has raised over $81,000. Here's a quick shot of my page in the book, it's alphabetical so I'm next to the amazing Frank Cho.



Tomorrow night is the first ever Phoenix Drink and Draw session, so I'll post about that over the weekend.

hmmmm

I want to start posting at least 3 times a week, even if it's just something small.

A Noble Causes pin-up I did because I like the look of the character and Jay seems to like my stuff at least a little bit. I totally used every cheat and was very lazy on this one.



My weekend was uneventful, but fun. Got tipsy on Friday and finally saw Borat. Saturday I cooked myself a lovely little bit of seasoned catfish with roasted potato. Yummy.

I'm bored 99% of the time, even though I am busy 150% of the item. I need someone to talk to that's over the age of 10.

Yes, I am a dork.

One of those "you are most like" quizzes, this one for Harry Potter. Pretty dead on tho.

Ron Weasley		78%
Hermione Granger		78%
Remus Lupin		75%
Harry Potter		75%
Bellatrix Lestrange		72%
Oliver Wood		72%
Sirius Black		63%
Neville Longbottom		63%
Luna Lovegood		59%
Percy Weasley		59%
Severus Snape		59%
Draco Malfoy		56%
Lord Voldemort		44%
Albus Dumbledore		44%

Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test
created with QuizFarm.com

A sad day

I heard this morning that Mike Wieringo died yesterday from a heart attack. I never knew Mike personally but I did exchange an email or two with him in the past and I never heard a bad word about it from a fan or a pro. By all accounts, one of the best guys around. Whenever I feel like I need to decompress and ink something, to loosen up or to study how another artist spots blacks, I always grab and image from Mike's blog and use that. His blog posts were always insightful and honest and he always seemed just a tad bit sad that he wasn't doing more personal, creator owned stuff. I will miss him although I never knew him, and the industry just lost one of it's classiest creators. Here is a Tom Strong of his I inked earlier this year, and I totally screwed the right eye, but Mike only said nice things about it.

Projects update -

Finally started work on my new book last night, had a lot of fun on the first page, I will post more on that when an announcement is made. Still doing a fun little inking project and I'm looking for an artist to work with on a book I'm developing. I've been searching DeviantArt and man is there a ton of manga art on there, and a lot of it is really bed. I am not, looking for a Manga artist,

a face

SketchJam

Hop along over to the sketchJam blog, I've posted a few new pieces there done on the Wacom. I like it alot, but I'm nowhere near ready to ink actual pages on it yet.

San Diego Comic-Con 2007

What is it about San Diego that drains every bit of energy I have? I was only there for about 48 hours, hardly drank anything, and I am still tired. Maybe it's the constant barrage of noise and color. The excursion started out on a down note as I left my cell phone back in Phoenix, my lifeline to everyone I know out there and all the people I wanted to see, and I had no way to get a hold of anybody. So, consequently my social schedule suffered a bit, but the Viper Comics crew are a great bunch of guys and I enjoyed their company immensely. I was also able to hang out with VILLAINS writer/superstar, Adam Cogan, as well as see my buddy and ultra talented artist, Robbi Rodriguez while I was out there. We had dinner at a fabulous Japanese place on Friday.

The con itself was cool, I picked up some great stuff, said hello to the usual fellows and got to spend alot of time at the booth. I appreciate everyone who came by and had nice things to say about Villains, and to all who picked up the trade. Even though 3 days sold out, I didn't think it was as busy as last year, but I was able to avoid all the media/gaming areas, and that's where the kids go nuts. I left a little re-charged about my upcoming project (now if only I could get a script so I could get started). One thing about being around all those talented artists, it makes me strive to show that I am better than what I have shown in the past.

A very special thanks to the waitress at Trophy's who liked my tabletop Hellboy drawing and I want to leave this post with a super-sized recommendation of Ted Mathot's Rose and Isabel books. I have been wanting them for a while, and I picked them up at the con and I must say, they are simply amazing. I was so inspired and I think I might actually do my "Ronin" series of books in a similiar, square-size format. Go to his site, buy his books, you will thank me later.

Leaving on a jet plane....

I leave EARLY in the morning for my 2-day whirlwind San Diego Comic-Con adventure. I will have a hilariously funny report when I return. While I'm gone, hop over the THE SKETCHJAM BLOG and look at a stupendous Harry Potter pin-up I did.

Random Potterness.

Read the last Harry Potter book over the weekend, and while I didn’t immediately love it upon first read, I thought it tied everything up reasonably well and I plan to re-read it in a few weeks, so I can get a better grasp on it. After being initially disappointed with book 6, I re-read it and liked it much more a second time. I do think part of the problem is that I love books 3-5 so much, that 6 was a bit of a letdown. Also, it seems that parts of the book she retreated to easily explaining it all, like she did earlier in the series, obviously catering to a younger reader, although I think the average Potter reader at this point doesn't need that storytelling tool any longer. Overall though, it was a fabulous coming of age story, with all the proper epic elements thrown in. I hope she does stick to her word and not do anymore books; it would be a shame to cash in when one really doesn’t need to. I wouldn’t mind a few anthologies though, filling in some back-story characters or introducing new ones, it’s a world filled with wonderful ideas, I just don’t want anymore to do with the 3 main characters.

So, for the record, not that anyone cares:

Favorite Potter Book = The Order of the Phoenix

Favorite Potter Movie = The Prisoner of Azkaban

On other news, I’m waiting to start my new project once the funding happens, I’m also very anxious about San Diego Comic-Con, I’ll only be there 2 days but I’m pissed because I’m missing an awesome party on Thursday, and then Friday and Saturday are so insanely busy down there. I hope I get plenty of time to sign and I look forward to seeing everyone, so it should be fun, CROWDED, but fun.

Nerd Prom 2007!

All Official like....

Ryan Cody, artist of the critically acclaimed VILLAINS for Viper Comics will be signing Friday July 27^th and Saturday July 28^th at the Viper Comics booth inside the Independent Press area at Comic-con International in San Diego. On top of having copies of his graphic novel for sale, Ryan will also have the first ever Sketchjam Sketchbook collection featuring over 50 pages of sketches by artists from all over the globe. The Sketchbook is an off-shoot of The Sketchjam Blog which is an online home for over half a dozen talented international artists and illustrators.

Artists included in Volume 1 include: Ryan Cody, a creator based out of Phoenix, AZ, whose previous work has included Viper Comics critically acclaimed “Villains”. Federico Milella is an Italian artist and animator currently working in Luxembourg. His work is frequently seen on the popular Drawing Board website, and is at the forefront of a great new wave of young Italian illustrators. Brent Schoonover is an illustrator and comic artist from Minnesota. His past work includes the best-selling “Horrorwood” from Ape Entertainment and the upcoming “Astronaut Dad” from Silent Devil. Derek Toye is an animator and artist from British Columbia who has previously worked for Mainframe Entertainment as a character designer. Finally, Daryl Walker is a UK based artist that is best known for his wonderfully stylistic versions of classic film and music icons.

On top of a wonderful crop of sketches and illustrations, there is also a short 7-page original story entitled “The Ronin & The Island of Beralku” by Ryan Cody.

The Sketchjam Sketchbook is 52 pgs, Black and White interiors with a full color cover and a “sketchpage” inside the book for a custom sketch if you’re lucky enough to catch one of the creators at a convention, or you can contact and order from your favorite creator online. The Sketchjam Sketchbook will be available worldwide this summer, for more information please visit the Sketchjam blog at http://sketchjam.blogspot.com/ or contact super75press@gmail.com

HULK SMASH!

a pin-up to donate to the CBLDF

Ultimate Spider-Man #100 Project.

Something I was very proud and honored to be a part of, I did a sketch cover for this project that was auctioned off at The Emerald City Comic Con this past spring. Click on the cover and go read the press release and find out how to get this awesome book and help out a great cause.