3D rainy-day fun!

Trying some stuff out while working on Christmas presents. Seems like it works better with the red lens over the right eye, but I don't know if that's the Official Way™ or just the way I made the image.

Please stand by

This is a test. This blog is conducting a test of the Twitter/Blogspot/Wordpress Compatability System.


This is only a test.

Light a Candle, part Deux

I got the chance for a second stab at the van Bommel page ad from a while ago, with a new shoe to showcase for a designer's expo. They ended up changing the background color scheme back to the original ad, but I really like the way this version turned out.

Technology is my friend

Screwing around with some vacation photos, trying out an old tilt-shift technique I just discovered to make landscapes look miniaturized, and instantly fell in love with it. Ridiculously simple to do, and I'm probably very late to the party, but definitely something I'll be playing with in future projects. Huzzah for knowledge!

van Bommel odds n' ends/ Zombies' last gasp

Tried to post this on Facebook just now... terrible.





Also, if you haven't been by yet, my good friend Mr. Jason Liwag's Zombie show has been extended, but only for a little while longer, so go check it out at Yojie's (501 w. Olympic Avenue, Los Angeles)!



Wonderful work by a great group of artists, don't miss it!

Amsterdam, HO(i)!

The newest van Bommel Family Tree is off and running to a new shop in Holland! Did the drawing on illustration board instead of paper this time; great surface to work on but with limited scanning options. Ended up having to cut it into sections (as artfully as possible of course) to get it into the flatbed.



This final shot's pretty tiny, but I'll be adding some detail shots soon. Excelsior!

They Live... on 4th Street.

I only have a few pictures from the other night, but MAN it was fun. So many good costumes, so many great people, and way too many recipes for fake blood!





I'm a pretty lazy photographer, so if you wanna see way more (and better) pictures, visit Pink Cow Photography's Zombie Walk Photoset.
And if you're looking to buy a t-shirt from the event, check out the MondoCelluloid store HERE.



Also there is this:

Ink-scratch delight

Some more work for my favorite client; I feel so lucky to have gotten a gig like this...

Check this guy out

I was digging through some old D&D books the other day (yes, I was an even bigger nerd once upon a time), when I rediscovered an artist that was a huge inspiration for me.




Probably half the reason I kept buying those books was because he'd been given more and more page space as the franchise grew. I could never figure out his signature on the paintings, and never really pursued looking him up until recently.


His name is Wayne Reynolds. Dude works almost exclusively in acrylic! I've always been attracted to his sense of shape, contrast, gesture and characterization, but now that I know he's still working in traditional media... I mean, look at this stuff!

Zombiewalkthrough

Here follows an intoxicatingly detailed rundown of how this year's LB Zombie Walk poster was born...

The back of my receipt from dinner at the Taqueria on 4th, where Garry pitched me the idea and we started sketching...
(If you've never had their Lengua burrito, check it out; pretty messy, but damn good!)

Out of the billions of reference photos I took, only a couple ended up being useful. Had to come back a few times to get all the angles and details I wanted.

More photo reference, ended up straining muscles in my palm I didn't even know I had!

Final approved sketch...

...Taken into photoshop and massaged into a workable value study...

...Blown up and transferred to midtone charcoal paper.

And the fun begins...



Throwing in some tasty sinew and gristle action on the pelvis, ribcage, and so on. Some light touch-ups and texturing in photoshop, a TON of typework brilliantly executed by the fine people of Phone Booth Gallery, and...

BAM. ZombieWalk poster.

More info about the event here.

Something rotten this way crawls...

PBG Live Paint

This video was taken at Phone Booth Gallery, right down the street from my apartment. 10+ artists, two 4' x 8' panels, 5 hours to rock some sweet art together. Had a great time, great people, awesome atmosphere and AMAZING turnout! I've heard rumors of a second one in the works, I'll post info here if you wanna come see it.

Also, one of the coolest remasterings of "Ziggy Stardst" I've ever heard. Great soundtrack, Garry!

Labor of Love

The latest van Bommel shoe ad, TONS of fun to do. The one part that took the longest to iron out was those damn flowy shoelaces!

There are two or three monster homages mixed in with my own stuff here, I couldn't resist. Basically just an excuse to watch Tremors and Enemy Mine again.

sneaky-peek

MAN it's been a while. I gotta switch horses and get back on this one.

Here's a chunk of something I'm working on for my shoemaker friend overseas, I'll post the final version in the next couple weeks.

Off the Hook III Opening Video

Some really great OTH III footage shot and edited by my creative comrade-in-arms Mr. Jeremy Eichenbaum. Show hosted by Fix coffee in Echo Park, orchestrated and hung by the good folks at Phone Booth Gallery. For those of you who missed it, you have my pity and my unwavering scorn. Enjoy!

Summer Camp t-shirts

Just polished off a trio of designs for this year's Riverside District Camps. The third is still under scrutiny for a redesign, but here's Junior High and Senior High (which I'll be serving on as co-dean with my good friend Ms. Risa Vargas).

Blog Banner

Final version of that little somfin-somfin for a friend. Lot of fun to work on, turned out wickid-cool, and the owner liked it which makes it even better, right?

If you've got a minute, check this guy out, he's got the latest scoop on all the print/poster happenings, showcasing a ton of really talented artists from all over the place.

Now that I did this piece, I gotta start thinkin about redesigning my site, blog banner, etc. so they'll measure up! The pressure's on!

Rock Beast

Working on a little somfin-somfin for a friend, changed my mind about this guy and decided to go in another direction. He's got tremendous potential, definitely worth fiddling with some more.

Interlude, with overpasses

Title-less so far, but I'll think of something...

I don't usually do a lot of inorganic stuff, and definitely had to put my impulsive, "who's gonna know if there's no structure? it looks good!" mentality on the shelf for a bit. Tried to, anyway.

I always planned to cram as much ballpoint drawing into this as I could get away with. Had to rediscover a lot of stuff I'd learned about painting, overall a REALLY fun project to work on.

Swing Low

T-shirt design I did for a friend's pet-project (do you hyphenate that? Never used that phrase in writing before). Up top is the original color scheme, below is the final version.

FINALLY

My sister's wanted me to paint her something forever, and I finally got it together for her birthday this year.
It was a ton of fun to do, after at least a year of not even touching a paintbrush. Definitely thinking about doing more of these.

New Old

Redo of a REALLY old piece, after a couple years' practice in Illustrator. Definitely a work in progress, especially since it still kinda looks like a raging wiener with tentacles! This way I'll post something new even sooner than usual, haha!

I had a friend a long time ago who confessed he had a phobia of snakes coming out of the toilet to bite him. Not sure if I was drawing on that when I came up with this, but the idea's pretty frightening.

And we're DONE.

New giclee!

Releasing my first ever giclee print! The guy I worked with did an amazing job bringing out every detail, and in some places it looks even better than the original!


It's an edition of only 25, so grab em quick if you're interested. 20 are available for purchase at Phone Booth Gallery, and I'm selling five of them myself. 12.5" x 12.5" on high-quality paper stock, cut to fit in an album-frame you can pick up at Aaron Bros. They're going for $30 plus shipping, and with each giclee comes a special surprise...

Sweet deal!

Ideation

Found this sketchbook page from when I was working on the Tree, thought I'd throw it up here. I like a lot of these little drawings on the side, some of them could be the start of something else (that crazy-looking Berlin bear especially!). Floris recently sent me a video of an interview he had during Fashion Week™ with Sleek Magazine, shot in the very shop where the work is posted on the wall. Wickid!

Interconnectivity Ahoy!

Just set up a Facebook Page for my art, Czech it out!

This will mark a glorious new era of productivity and art-minded thinking. An era where perseverance and zeal will fall like a Gilded Rain upon the rich soil of Creativity, nourishing the fevered germination of new and bizarre forms, gnarled and strong, deeply rooted in the porous bedrock of Semi-Plausability, straining with all their raw and terrible might toward the broiling heavens.

Even in the lowlands of Sloth, where the earth is a cold barren gray and Hope's flame chokes and sputters in the coiling fog of Doubt, there will the oily-thick Rain be made to gather, to pool. The puddles will continue to swell, rivulets stretching like fingers of dull gold over the tortured earth. The tiny flame will jump and flare, strangely emboldened by the tempest. The once-lifeless basin will be slowly changed, smothered by the downpour and enriched by it, pools of all sizes expanding and joining and weaving their forked tendrils among the ashen rocks, until a larger pool bursts its banks and engulfs the only source of light.

For a terrible flickering second, all will be extinguished...


...and then from the sudden smoke, a great spark! Hope is tempered anew, fed and propelled by the Gilded pools, racing in a bright and roaring ring from its birthplace! Gold and red-orange, blue-violet and beautiful, the hungry flames dance and surge over the lowlands!

Even here, in this once-forsaken and lifeless expanse, the very ground stirs... Ideas and Techniques that have long lain dormant writhe in their membranous cocoons, tearing their nests asunder, ravenously seeking the warmth and nourishment that has been but a hazy memory for eons. The landscape is alight with this strange and magnificent fire, fed by the Gilded Rain which shows no signs of abating. The air is thickened with strange pollens from near and distant lands, shaken by the low rumble of flames and the fervent cries of the Wild Unknown.


...Woah. That's all I got in me for now, I'm goin' to bed.