khylov

2011-11-18T18:47:00.001-08:00

~ Surprisingly not dead... ~

...but getting there soon enough. Some vignettes, with color, despite the Cintiq and the 2nd monitor getting all womanish on me and deceiving me eyes with the tones.

First two were from months ago, around the same time I did the daytime vignette studies (below a few posts); spent the past hour doing cleanup on the lines. Yes, they are cleaned up. Still working on how this will end

Next 3 were from this past month. The entire sequence of 20-something panels is actually finished, with the panties playing a vital role near the end. But then again, when do they not.

Last 2 are more recent; still working on the sequence, but I have an idea of where it'll go. Although a decided lack of underwear, a jetpack and a Chthulhu will more than make up for it near the conclusion.

2011-06-09T17:49:00.001-07:00

~ More Moleskine... ~

Older pieces from the sketchbook, from a few months ago.

2011-04-10T16:56:00.001-07:00

~ Cthulhu Tank Crew sketches...~

Done on an 8.5 x 11 Moleskine sketchbook. (Redid some portions of the above pen & ink piece in Cintiq. I really need to keep from uploading before letting these drawings sit for a few days, to catch the mistakes...)
Another page after this, but I just got done finishing my taxes, and I'm tired.

Morituri te salutant. Or rather, 'So long, adieu - Auf Wedersehen, good bye...'

2011-02-21T12:38:00.000-08:00

~ Color Studies, or: Comic Panel Procrastination... ~

Wanted to do some studies in color. These are around the Golden Hour, sunset. I have another set of panels set during mid-day; I'll post those next time. The negative space is presumably for word bubbles. The panel layout was kind of an after-thought.

I'm noticing that I need to open up my character expression vocabulary a little more, give them a bigger variety of emotions and expressions. As is, I'm tending to start these scenarios or scenes with the introductory shot of someone looking dire or morose. I blame Russian novels.

Besides this, I need to work more on being able to pace a scene out, find where to bring the emotional level up during an interaction between characters. Plus, there are more than a few ways to make a scene interesting without having to resort to yelling and/or violence. I blame Tarantino* and whoever made Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.

(*Although he's gotten better. Reservoir Dogs is the only one that I've seen that's annoying in that respect.)

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Something from the sketchbook this past week:On a side note: Fabric softener is probably one of the best inventions of the modern world.

2011-01-03T09:57:00.000-08:00

~ New Years' Sketch Resolutions... ~

... Resolution - other than to make better scans of my sketchbook - is to actually get better at sketching all around: composition, lighting, human form, etc. To really loosen up, even in the more realistic pieces, if possible. (Looking at the above, I've got some ways to go on that front.)

Claire Wendling's been known to completely redraw a sketch from scratch several times over until the look and feel of the thing catches the balance she's looking for. Good idea... another reason why I shouldn't run off posting anything I've done several months remove, just to look like I'm making progress.

Looking at the first color sketch-up I did of the Wehrmacht characters above (the post before this one, below)... well, was done several months ago. Caca. Hence the redraw above from scratch. As much of an excuse as this is, Cintiq's a pain to draw in; and being on work hours doing these studies doesn't help much. I will say though, looking through this book's helped alot.

Anyhow, more recent stuff from the sketchbook below:

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

~ Mega Dump... ~

..Or post, as is more polite. Some profile pages drawn in Cintiq, sans rambling story text. I like how these turned out.

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And some WWII sketches from... eons (months) ago.

[First pic deleted, as per the rule of not posting shyte drawings.]

Colors turned out ok on this one.

This one... I really tried to make the lighting as balanced as possible. Considering the number of light sources, and forcing the balance so that the eye's directed where I wanted it to go... Eh, needs work. Fire's a pain to render in daytime settings.

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Some Boyar Bots. Da, Cintiq:
And our favorite heroin having LOTR dreams involving said bots. Must be the drinking milk after midnight.

2010-09-10T18:14:00.001-07:00

~ Post Procrastination (Another Sketch)... ~

Earning the paycheck has put a damper on posting. So to make up for it, here's... a post-it note. With a sketch... Two, actually, since post-its are a high quality medium. Inked in the Cintiq.

2010-08-06T18:32:00.000-07:00

~ Stalingrad sequence... ~

Studies for the one Lieutenant character. 'Snake in the grass' is what I have written in the margins... Not my best, but hopefully something that shows progress in codifying the character in 3 or 4 sketches...

An idea for how to first introduce the character - dialog sequence where he looks like just some wounded lump hanging out on the wall in the background, until a cool reveal opportunity at some point.

Nixed panel from the last sequence.

2010-07-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

~ Stalingrad Boards... ~

(Continued from the last post.)

(Maybe a line here in the 3rd panel from the scar-faced lieutenant like: "Heh, I keep forgetting - the point of all this is to go home - right?")

(Yelling at the lieutenant in the 2nd panel: "What the hell are you doing?!"; Lieutenant: "Not enough time for him to reload and shoot straight." 3rd panel: [shot ricochets of wall] "See?")

And off they go to a presumably worse position than this, with the Lieutenant on a death wish binge.

So the sequential got past the 3-panel mark. Hoorah for pushing myself during work hours... I mean... after work hours... Yes.

As one coworker knows, there's a color piece that kind of accompanies this. Will see if I can channel the ghost of Rembrandt or Sargent over this next week and get the thing done.

2010-07-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

~ Robots and Germans... ~

Because the two are interchangeable at times. The parts, I mean.

The Armored Core and Front Mission series have been getting some heavy rotation at the house lately. So, naturally, these wind up on my work warm-up sketches...

Was trying to come up with some different approaches to legs and feet, since I tend to use the same balance and shapes in this area. Hard to break out of that while thinking in terms of mechanical functionality at the same time:
Everyone loves robots. Just look:

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And a quick something revolving around Stalingrad. Don't know if it'll go past these few panels. I tend to do these as warm-ups to try to get the cinematic blood flowing through the brain:

~ Ende ~

2010-06-25T19:57:00.001-07:00

~Oh joy ~

Christmas comes early via Italia and the post office.

Grazie, signorina.

2010-06-10T21:41:00.001-07:00

~ Work Sketch... ~
Out of the pile of them sitting on my desk.

2010-05-21T19:58:00.001-07:00

~ All draw and no play... ~

...makes Khylov a better artist. At least that's the plan. We'll see if that pans out before I become the caretaker.

Me at my work desk. It's actually not as bad as I make it out here, and the folks at the studio are usually the ones to either tell me to take long lunches or to escape at quitting time.

But with deadlines, retakes, responsibility to my employers, etc. Go check out the Snowcat and the radio and you'll see what I mean.

2010-04-28T21:24:00.001-07:00

Robots designs. Courtesy of a huge Cintiq. After an 11 hour work day. Which probably shows - there's probably tangents galore in this pic, as well as better ways of positioning / posing the characters, esp. the cannonball one. But that's what you get when you start drawing cockroach robots I suppose...

Many more drawings - including development sketches of these buggers - which will be thrown up here soon as I get the scanner up and running again.

2010-04-10T23:32:00.001-07:00

~ More sketches, robots, regrets, etc... ~

Full color sketch, for whatever reason. As you can see, even with the drawing taking up more than half the page, I ran out of room for the poses. Probably shouldn't worry about that and just draw outside of the frame rather than trying to get everything to "fit"...

I'm finding more and more that Winsor McCay's stuff is working its way into how I'm hitting the color schemes. Which is a good thing, I think. Now if I can actually use intensity properly to bring some kind of balance or focus to the pic...

I think I did these two thumbnails after I finished the color one. Which is pretty basakwards - in hindsight, the poses on these turned out better.

At the chalkboard, figuring out eye biochemistry. Liked how the characters' shape and form came together with fewer lines, although the hand holding the book should look more weighted from holding an object. Again, hindsight is 20/20. (Ha, get it? 20/20? With the... eye biochem... on the... chalkboard... Ah, whatever.)

And finally, the comic sketch page. High quality here, hence the sketchpad ring binding still at the top of the page....

I'm actually kind of happy that dialog is getting a bit easier for me to do - not alot of verbage, and not spending alot of time on scratch writing (typing until I get something I like). The characters are starting to have their own conversations with eachother, so to speak, without a whole lotta me getting in the way. Having a Spielberg movie on in the background helped with that I think.

2010-03-28T03:26:00.001-07:00

~ Gulag Archipelago book covers... ~

The Gulag Archipelago, volumes 1 and 3. Did these last year after finding a couple of old used paperback versions of the above. Since the covers were coming undone, figured it'd be worthwhile to take a crack at some layout and make my own dust jackets.

Some more dime-store layout:
The Brothers Karamzov. Probably would do the "Dostoyevsky" font differently now. More than halfway through reading at this point.

Used the mysterious Flammarion woodcut and some Photoshop to make the cover of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica. The fonts were straight from the book binding. Could've finessed them a bit more.

On the shelf. The Chaos Space Marines tend to hang out next to the books (left and right).

2010-03-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

~ Rabotniki... ~

Quick something from the sketchbook. Loosely based on a few seconds of film from a WWII era Soviet documentary I saw this last week. And why not, since we've been heading down that direction for quite awhile now...

Micron pens of varying sizes, Prismacolor pencils.

2010-03-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

~ Birthday card ... ~

A little something from a few weeks ago, given to a special someone. Hope she doesn't mind me posting it here and showing her off - supermodels tend to be shy creatures.

Inspired from one of her previous comics here. (The model owl on her table ended up becoming this after she got her talented hands on it. Full work-up and progress can be viewed here. )

Micron pens, Prismacolor pencils and markers. Did a little bit of level readjusting in PS, since the scan wasn't quite catching the original colors.

2010-02-19T16:18:00.000-08:00

~Quick Illustrations... ~

Been bad on the uploading thing, I know.

Small something I did awhile back for a Ron Searle tribute book. (Loosely) based on his artwork for Those Magnificent Men and the Their Flying Machines.

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And part of a little something for the Valentine's:

2010-01-08T19:31:00.001-08:00

~ Checkpoint Charlene... ~

Quick something to post before the weekend. Considering that it's 2010 now, it should have been a sketchpage of robots; I know...

2009-12-30T18:29:00.000-08:00

~ Morlocks!... ~

Otherwise known as biology undergrads.

I figured since it was the end of the year, what better way to celebrate the future than to watch a movie about the past, where a Victorian scientist... goes into the future... which would be the 1960's...

Anyway, ode to the great campy version of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine." And why not celebrate by actually watching the entire movie!

(In 11 parts. Full screen version can be viewed here.)

~ Happy New Year, ladies and gents. ~

2009-12-20T14:23:00.000-08:00

~ Roboty Sketches ~ ...

...With quick color pass. One's a nautical pressure suit (knock-off from the Alien design) and another's a deep sea explorer, but hey - roboty enough.

2009-12-13T17:14:00.001-08:00

~ Bamboo Art... ~

~ Mille Migliocto ~

Baby's got a new set of Cthulhu wheels. (Chthulhu; Chthulu... however you spell it's name.)

Did this one as a bday present for Mr. Tokunaga. Color treatment partly inspired by Robert Williams (part of the Ratfink/Big Daddy Roth crowd).

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~ Viking Fraulein ~

Did this one quite awhile back actually. Has been hanging on the wall waiting to be scanned.

She's enjoying the ocean air, musing over what hair color her future children will have (blond, dirty blond, bleach blond).... and, awaiting patiently to pillage and burn English shorelines.

Alot of inspiration from the Oseberg Ship: The creature on the upper right was loosely based on the prow figurehead , the background patterns were inspired by carvings on the bow.

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Both of these bamboo mats needed surprisingly little color correction after scanning. I'm either getting better at analog coloring - or my computer updated it's monitor settings without me knowing.

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(BTW, here's a cool looking picture of ancient Russians. Is either a Viking funeral or a lamentation over Minnesota losing yet another Super Bowl. The latter seems more likely.)

2009-12-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

~ Sketches, various and sundry... ~

So, that backlog of sketches I keep talking about - figured it was time to scan some of them for the sake of not looking like a liar.

...And yes, still hating sci-fi. Some random idea pages:

This one's from about a year or more ago. I like how some of the faces turned out (I think I approach facial construction a little differently now), as well as the patterning on some of the clothing. Not liking the fish oil stain that somehow got onto the middle of the paper. Must've been an awesome dinner.

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Saw some guys hanging out behind the grocery store having a Colt 45 picnic. I like the contrast between the foreground scenario and the cars/freeway in the background, not so much how I drew it (I could've made it clearer) but because for me, is kind of a sign of the times for this country at the moment. Eat your heart out, Dorothea Lange. Drawn from memory.

Some License Plate/ State Union workers having a conversation over a smoke break:

Random watermaid:

Even more random sequential. Probably was a warm-up for something else:

Some Ayin character studies. I try not to use reference when drawing these, so these are (hopefully) several years worth of lifedrawing sessions paying off:

Still don't think I've codified her look completely. Getting there though:

Like how this one turned out; will probably do a color pass on this soon. Loosely modeled the background after the boardwalk/movie theater plaza in Century City. I'm sure the straps on her gun holster aren't correct, but that's what happens when you don't have proper reference for weaponry.

2009-11-27T22:26:00.000-08:00

~ The Gulag Archipelago ... ~

Next day, we were allowed to move into private lodgings. I found myself a henhouse to suit my pocket, with a single bleary window and such a low roof that even where it was highest, in the middle, I could not stand upright. "Give me a low-roofed cottage," I once wrote in prison, dreaming of exile. It was not very pleasant, all the same, not being able to raise my head. Still, it was a little house of my own! The floor was earthen. I put my padded camp vest on it, and there was my bed! But Zdanyukevich, an exiled engineer, who had formerly taught at the Bauman Institute, quickly lent me a couple of wooden boxes, on which I managed to make myself comfortable....

I had no oil lamp as yet - I had nothing!! an exile must select and buy every single thing he needs, as though he has just landed on this earth - but I did not feel the want of it... I simply lay on my boxes and enjoyed it!

What more could I desire?...

But the morning of March 6 surpassed anything that I could have wished for! Chadova, my elderly landlady, an exile from Novgorod, whispered - because she dared not say it out loud: "Go and listen to the radio. I'm afraid to repeat what I've just heard."

Something told me to do as she said: I went over to the central square. A crowd of perhaps two hundred people - a lot for Kok-Terek - huddled around the post under the loudspeaker and the sullen sky...

... There were many Kazakhs, most of them old men, among the crowd. Their bald heads were bare, and they held their red-brown muskrat-fur hats in their hands. They were grief-stricken. The younger people seemed less concerned. Two or three tractor drivers had not removed their caps. Nor, of course, would I. Before I could make out what the announcer was saying (he spoke with a histrionic catch in his voice), understanding dawned on me.

This was the moment my friends and I had looked forward to even in our student days. The moment for which every zek in Gulag (except the orthodox Communists) had prayed!...

...He's dead, the Asiatic dictator is dead! The villain has curled up and died! What unconcealed rejoicing there would be back home in the Special Camps!...

...But where I was, Russian girls, schoolteachers, stood sobbing their hearts out. "What is to become of us now?" They had lost a beloved parent... I wanted to yell at them across the square: "Nothing will become of you now! Your fathers will not be shot! Your husbands-to-be will not be jailed! And you will never be stigmatized as relatives of prisoners!"

I could have howled with joy there by the loudspeaker; I could even have danced a wild jig! But alas, the rivers of history flow slowly. My face, trained to meet all occasions, assumed a frown of mournful attention. For the present I must pretend, go on pretending as before...

All the same, my exile had begun with magnificent auguries!

.....

-Excerpt from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, Part VI, Chapter 5 ("End of Sentence"), p. 420-422

2009-11-22T01:59:00.000-08:00

~ Still Hating Sci-Fi (Part II)... ~

But loving the supermodel inspiration for the female character all the same. Busted out the pen & ink on these.

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...And: Gulag Preview (Part II)

I know, I keep putting this one off. But little revisions and additions keep on rolling. I wanted this little project to be a bit more than just the weekly update, a little more exploratory than just "Here are some sketches", and hopefully do justice to a person and subject I've spent the past several years studying. Probably won't, but we'll see....

2009-11-14T16:02:00.001-08:00

~ Quick Sketches... ~

Some Medieval Mujahideen and Crusaders... on Post-It notes - not anywhere near accurate in historic details, but whatever.

Inspired from looking through some of Gustave Dore's Crusader illustrations this past week. (Some of his stuff is available for download here - scroll down to the bottom of the page to find links. )

2009-11-08T06:32:00.001-08:00

~ Win a Trip to Gulag! (Preview) ... ~

...I know it's not much of an update, but the backlog of illustrations and sketches is building up, trust me. Some will hit the scanner soon. In the middle of reading Brothers Karamazov - which is like the book equivalent of running a marathon.

2009-10-23T01:17:00.000-07:00

~ I Hate Sci-Fi... (sort of) ~

Conversation this last week made me realize that sci-fi - besides being my bread and butter for God knows how long - is probably the one genre of storytelling that falls back way too often on the fact that it is sci-fi - the "wow factor", for lack of a better term:

"Check it out - it's spaaaacceee! And they're flying in it!" "Watch as this non-human CG character rides the back of a lightning-fast behemoth with 10 wings!" "Check out this ultra-mega technical object/weapon unfold into - yet another ultra-mega technical object/weapon, which shoots lasers, spins several art-noveau blades, hides in a forcefield, balances the budget, and glows in the dark!" Dutch angle, etc.

So, given that I apparently hate sci-fi, here's my ode to it. First installment, anyhow:

(Resemblence between this illustration and this professional piece is purely coincidental - I swear Marina, I saw yours after I drew this one.)

Probably have magnetic plates in their butt cheeks.

2009-10-10T00:31:00.000-07:00

~ Pseudoethnology and Chimeric Fishery... ~

Because Stephen Jay Gould can't be the only one to capitalize on awkward sounding titles...

(Sorry folks for not being around more often to interact. But I figure so long as I upload the perty pictures, I've earned some points. Cheers, til next time.)

2009-09-27T16:48:00.000-07:00

~ Quick Storyboard Sequential... ~

2009-09-11T00:03:00.000-07:00

~ Take Two ... ~

As per usual, I post something that I'm not happy with 5 minutes later. So, another handful of hair pulled and yet another redraw - on one single piece of paper this time:

And some attempt to make amends for my lack of proper shape and silhouette last post:

I realized that - other than using two pieces of paper taped together, and not drawing fluidly or quickly enough - I hit the first Soldat illustration right after I had read some dated obituaries for Hunter Thompson. I figure that one (or several) of the images from the article - consciously or otherwise - stuck in my head when I started drawing; hence another awesome excuse for why the pose came out the way it did.

.....

Speaking of which: Something cool I noticed while browsing through my laptop archive of pictures - every so often there'd be a random pairing of images together, one after the other, that would look pretty cool: They'd either mirror-image eachother in some way (faces, elements, pose, theme), or else they'd be complete contradictions. Fairly random placing to boot...

Sound boring and convoluted? You bet it is! Here are some examples:

-Akashi Gidayu writing his death poem just before committing seppuku... and Hunter Thompson.

-Operation Ivy (S.F.) and The Faith (D.C.), one apparently channeling the energy of the other.

-Because Ukrainian car models and English punks... tend to be white. And like to pose.

-I'll venture a guess the Google search that day was for something blue.

-About as opposite as you can get. War and Peace, anybody?

-Ok, so these two images weren't exactly side by side - but I couldn't resist. Bill Shatner shamelessly doing a plug for Commodore "computer-and-game" system, and a Soviet poster - which (I think) reads: "With Capitalism: Millions of unemployed workers".

2009-09-07T02:10:00.000-07:00

~ Der Streunersoldat... Awaiting orders, sir. ~
(*edited*)

Overall, pose isn't quite reading as I wanted - chalk it up to drawing on two sheets of paper taped together. I considered cropping the frame to about knee level or higher before posting this... But, in a way, I kind of like some sort of vulnerability to the characters, even if it's "you caught them before they could pose" type pose. (Look through any family photo album and you'll see what I mean.)

So, even if homeboy is sporting Kermit legs with a pantaloon kilt, there's still some room for charm or appeal...

Guess that's my justification for having a pose that isn't reading as dynamically or as exaggerated as I was hoping for. Oh well.

Our wandering soldier in the bushes with our heroine Ayin... No, not like that...

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"...'Tis not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice: The business of it will soon be too weighty and intricate to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power so distant from us and so very ignorant of us - for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or petition, waiting four or five months for an answer - which when obtained requires five or six more to explain it in - will in a few years be looked upon as folly and childishness. There was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease."

-Thomas Paine; Common Sense

Just for fun, replace "Britain" with "Washington D.C.", "the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals", "the I.R.S.", "the Death Star * " - pick your favorite - and then reread the quote above.

(* Replace "miles" and "months" with "light years" and/or "parsecs".)

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Ah, and btw, a compare-and-contrast with one of my previous posts:

One with lighting and one without. While the one has more atmospheric perspective, I kind of like the depth of colors in the other. Hmm, not sure... Let me know what you think folks.

2009-08-28T15:00:00.001-07:00

~ Death March... ~

After about several hundred sketches, I think I've finally formalized her look.

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Reworked a previous sequence - rearranged and added a few boards, redrew some poses, etc.

2009-08-22T01:45:00.001-07:00

~Just in time for the weekend ~

Playing catch-up from last week's lack of posts:

Small scrap vignette from a 3 page short sequence. I ended up doing another version of this with different poses that I liked better:

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Been jumping between A.C. Doyle and Charles Dickens over the past week. First time I've had a chance to read either, including A Christmas Carol. Couldn't help but see Patrick Stewart as Scrooge every other 5th page...

Anyhow, ended up drawing the Ghost of Christmas Future (in a pose suspiciously similar to one I posted two weeks ago)... :

...With Ignorance and Want clinging tenaciously.

Yeah, technically they were with Ghost of Christmas Present, but I liked how Dickens described Christmas Future. And besides, these two brats ought to have been hanging out with the shadowy silent ninja character anyway - literally the Snake Eyes of the story. (Other options include Cthulhu and Soundwave.)

2009-08-09T00:44:00.001-07:00

~ Artwork on the Sly... ~

...Because I'm literally writing this while the car's parked and idling near a streetlamp.

Some color once again:

Alternate/original take with the trio in the bg. I think the head honcho's design in this one is a little closer to what I originally intended, although I liked how the other two turned out in the retake (color).

...Very first take, w/ DNA and notes.

And I realized that the lady-characters-with-whistling-mouth was pretty popular last few posts - so here's a page with other mouth shapes:

And of course, boy meets girl. Or... wait... Chernobyl employee meets chimeric supermodel.... Something like that.

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And because I got permission to post this, courtesy of Miss May Ann: A lovely Ainu couple (and their Siberian tiger/butler) :

(Remember guys, a drawing for the lady's always a good idea. Better than roses even.)

(Well, maybe on-par with roses...)

2009-08-03T00:33:00.000-07:00

~ War Driving... ~

So this is what I'm having to resort to these days for an internet fix. Even as I type this, I'm up the street pulling posting this blog off of someone else's wireless.

Speaking of war driving:

Scan and Graf, inspiration courtesy of Colin Fleming and Pen Ward (Character Animation, '05).

I remember going on a war driving session with these guys back during 3rd or 4th year at CalArts. Creeping around Valencia one dark and stormy night in a gun-metal grey Astro minivan (I think), laptop in hand and the A-Team soundtrack bumpin through the speakers, looking for any unprotected wireless connections to be had...

I think we ended up talking to Kevin back at Woodglen Apartments through a webcam.

....

Short scene I've had sitting around for several months. Finally got around to adding color and words:

And another color piece for all you grim reaper fans. Not as dynamic as I'd've liked it to have been:

2009-07-23T21:02:00.001-07:00

~ "Puffy Cheek" ... ~

...as May Ann likes to say. Been out this week after a tooth pulling and the internet crapping out. But a week's worth of Jell-O and rice pudding = Good times.

In any case, don't know when I'll enjoy internet again, so I'll be turning comment moderation off for now.

And... for all you tens of folks out there who check here from time to time, be considerate of the spambots when they start dropping Nike hyperlinks in the comment box.

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On the upside, had some time to work on a side project involving one of the most well designed cars in the world: The Ferrari 250 GT/L Berlinetta Lusso.

Being the most well designed car in the world, it goes without saying that I have to butcher it several times via sketches and general tomfoolery with exaggeration.

My ode to Mr. MacLeod's recent series (the difference being Steve gets it right when he draws autos):

I discovered the golden reason of why comic artists never use existing car designs for their own comics: It's hard.

Designing your own auto-thing and keeping it consistent is easier, since you don't have to worry about gearheads and car enthusiasts faulting you for not getting the wheelbase parallel to the hood, or some other technicality. All the more shameful that I was using reference the whole time (for the car, not the girl).

But at least I can get the girl's countours if I squint enough while drawing:

My horrible renditions of the Italian James Bond-mobile. Ach, the wheelbase... the wheelbase.

Any wonder why I was drawing death and reapers near the end.

If I have time, I'll scan the finished mat in. If I didn't screw up the wheelbase, that is.

2009-07-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

~ It's just a minor sketch... ~

And now for a bit of early 80's nostalgia from D.C. and the Beltway: Minor Threat:

Did these while having youtube clips of the band playing in the background. Tried not to pause or dwell too long looking at the footage while drawing - which actually helped I thought.

Anyhow, the drawings are pretty loose and sloppy.

And I know, there's something to be said about clarity when doing crowd scenes. But trust me, if you watch the video, you'll see what I mean...

Some links to other clips where the audience is being tossed around in a dryer. (This show's happening inside of a replica pirate ship, by the way):

-"Seeing Red" (This one's got a double stagedive at about 0:36)

-"Stand up" (First song of the set. Audience literally explodes within 0.5 seconds. Guy with a whistle jumps onstage and directs traffic.)

-"Little Friend" (Breakdown near the end is pretty off the hook - there's at least one jumpkick to the face.)

-"I Don't Wanna Hear It" (Michael Jackson launches off stage at about 1:03.)

-"Sob Story" (Although not the fastest or most intense song, the last part between 1:13 and 1:40 captures for me why I dug on this band so much.)

-"Betray" (Pretty much says it all. They fully throw themselves into the song, with some sharp Sinatra dance moves near the end.)

2009-07-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

~ Guns, Robots, Reapers, Founding Fathers... ~

Haven't done a digital color piece in awhile. I'm not sure if that's helped or hurt any. Well, anyhow...

.........

And what's a 4th of July without a 20 min. sketch of a founding father, ah? Mr. Thomas Jefferson, ladies and gentlemen of the jury:

"I sincerely believe … that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." *

Hmmmmm... now that doesn't sound anything like our modern society. C'mon, we're smarter than that, Mr. Jefferson. I mean, who would ever think that a nation - which won a two-front World War, landed on the moon, and invented the Internet - would willingly run itself into a housing bubble, credit funk, and a national deficit - all of which would end up making it an indentured debtor to its own banking industry, its own Federal Reserve, and ultimately to other countries? And all of this via small plastic cards and "creative" financing? Ha! Not us, Tom! We're smarter than that...

....Now where'd I leave the keys to the Hummer and the speedboat?...

Ah, here they are, buried beneath this Fannie Mae stationary and my limited edition Enron copy of "The Selfish Gene"...

....
* Thomas Jefferson; Letter, May 28, 1816, to political philosopher and senator John Taylor, whose book 'An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States' (1814) had argued against the harmful effects of finance capitalism. [Link]

2009-06-27T09:31:00.001-07:00

~ Revolyutsiya... ~

"Lev Tsarya", Ch. I:

........

So that was one way to go about brainstorming for an idea while drawing: Storybooking the whole intro.

I found the importance of coming up with the character design sheets first before settling into a sequential involving several main characters - if for nothing else than to codify their look, uniforms, and getting comfortable with possible facial expressions. Was interesting to go back to page 2 (first one done) after hitting page 15, and realizing that a couple of characters had to be redrawn; "Wait; who's that again? Oh yeah..."

I'm usually pretty good about kicking myself to do the exploratory sketch thing first. (I actually had a couple of full page illos of these characters before this.) Then again, I wasn't anticipating doing a short sequential off an initial loose sketch (second page, first panel).

..Snowball kept on rolling, and found myself just making it up as I went - which probably shows. But I did my best with improvising and not going back to readjust panels (although this happened a few times). First pass, with all the bells and whistles happening as I was drawing. ("Ah wait, this guy could be the angry leader.", "This guy could be the simple peasant that always lifts his hat to everyone.", "This is how the inner sanctum and Patriarch will look."; "These are the two prisoners they release.","This is how everyone gets into a Keystone Cops scenario.", etc)

But it pretty much follows the same theme as the WWII sequence I did a while back (on the portfolio page) - just added a few little things here and there. Stories can be the same as rough sketches - exploring and reworking the look and feel until you get an offshoot that's more refined.

Anyhow, there's hopefully some clarity in the panels. Some of it's pretty crammed, but that's what happens when this stuff's happening in one go. Besides, story's supposed to be organic and all - which is just another way of saying that it does its own thing while having some sort of structure in the meanwhile - kind of like an Amazonian jungle, nitroglycerin, or Windows Vista.

2009-06-21T20:13:00.001-07:00

~ Between Drawing and Revolution ~

...Been late in uploading anything this weekend due to being glued to the TV - and no, it wasn't because of the Bill Murray Marathon they had going on AMC (although I flipped over to it a few times - Caddyshack is a good counterpoint to the news).

Watched most of what's been going on in Iran, flipping between CNN and Fox. Even stayed up to listen to McDonald's co-founder and Baby Milk Factory advocate Ali Khamenei give his speech, with the crowd doing a pretty decent job catching their cues to yell "Death to [insert name here]... Death to [insert nationality here] !"

Speech was long, and I only caught the last half hour. Stayed up and took notes:

...Illegible notes. And equally illegible sketches.

............

And yes, I did the Ayin sketches during the speech as well. I didn't consciously draw her "rushing-forward-with-knife" in relation to the Ayatollah giving his spiel. (*cough*):

(I wasn't really happy with this pose of hers in the last sequence, hence the redraw - and I'm not sure I'm really satisfied with this sketch either - and I'm starting to sound like a broken record in these blog posts of mine. I promise, I'll post better sketches with less whining next time.)

.....

Speaking of revolution: Since I'm just about done with a several-page prologue to a story idea revolving around a Russian Revolution, here's a preview panel:

Since I suck at drawing historical details accurately, it's an alternate universe deal revolving around a future Revolution in the Holy Empire of Tsarist Russia. Either that, or it's my lame attempt at making a comic that falls somewhere between August 1914 and Big Trouble in Little China.

Given that parallel, it will have plenty of historic and spiritual motifs. More important will be the huge free-for-all shootouts, running through dark tunnels, freeing prisoners, blind old wizards in catacombs. And wildlife - with four legs and wings. That are as tall as a water tower.

Did I mention that it has wings?...

Fin.

2009-06-13T18:47:00.001-07:00

~ Short Sequence... ~

...Which I actually finished this time. Well, sort of. (See end.)

This should've had some kind of dramatic name attached to it, kind of like those chapter headings in graphic novels. You know, something like "Death Dance" or some such. (Other hit titles include: "Waltz Between Worlds", "Grim Creeper", "Slowly The Shadow", and "Super Happy Funland Awaits IV: The Reckoning".)

Wouldn't you be embarrassed if you just defeated Death with a mystical butter knife?

Anyhow, I think I could've put more emphasis on the Death Agent being invisible/incorporeal to everybody else besides the main character. More shots with him floating through people unawares? Hmm, nah; probably just more clarity in the shots I have already.

.......

Some panels that didn't make the cut.

An idea that hit me later: I should've had her stall by digging for change for a homeless guy, right before she does the turn-around-with-knife thing. Then I could've had the bum at the head of the crowd while they're gawking at her, with him toothing "She's crazy!" (all while peeing his pants).

......

On a side note, I found this picture online while searching for something else:
Pretty sure that's Ant Ward, Justin Wright, and Sam Marin (CalArts character animation folks). Kind of cool how even 3/4 back view can still make for distinctive character profiles.

2009-06-05T20:29:00.001-07:00

~ And now, an interlude... ~

Yes, I've been bad. I haven't updated. Which means the characters have to console my laziness with a round or ten...

And a random post-it with my crappy Japanese from memory. The sentence has nothing to do with the character. Or maybe it does....

Many more sketches these past weeks, but the above were the ones I didn't second guess posting online.

Many more later.

2009-05-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

~ Peek-a-boo ~

...Because those bastards at Adobe won't let me download Flash.

..There was a bigger sequence that I liked better, but this is what you get when you've got to be up at the crack of dawn.

2009-05-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

~ Aleph & Ayin ~

A few sketches in the meantime, since I'm gonna be gone most of Saturday for a Flash class at Titmouse. Should be fun.

Anyhow, what I neglected to upload last week:

I still need to work on the silhouette value in these; they're not quite reading the way I'd want them to at a distance. Still, these were just for fun, on a first-pass basis - based off of quick sequences I did this past week. Characters are beginning to feel a little more solid, consistency-wise.

If any of this looks any good by the time I get back, I may clean one up and add color. Movie poster stuff.

...

And yup, still gots my bamboo stuffs available at Gallery Nucleus - just to remind you all. Still for sales, yup. Stop by the site and check out the inventory.

BTW, the WWII sequence I kept harping on here the past few weeks is up on my portfolio page, for anyone interested. (Scroll down past the first few illustrations.)

2009-04-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

~ *UPDATE* "Jab Strong Fierce"; Gallery Nucleus and the aftermath ~

Original pieces still available online for a limited time at Gallery Nucleus.

For print requests, make sure to click on the "I WANT THIS PRINT" button on the bottom right of the Gallery Nucleus pages. The more votes, the better - and I'd really dig on if they made prints of my works. Spread the word. Danke, folks!

~ Featured works ~

-"Metaphysique"
33.5" x 21"
$320.00

-"Dhalsimer"
13" x 18.5"
*SOLD*

-"Ueno-chan"
14" x 14"
$150.00

-"Elena"
18.5" x 13"
*SOLD* (woohoo!)

.......

So to celebrate, here are a few of the workup sketch/color pass pages I messed around with before hitting the actual mats.

Thanks again to everybody who showed up opening night, as well as commentators here. (*high fives in succession*)

2009-04-24T20:35:00.001-07:00

~ "Jab, Strong, Fierce..." - at Gallery Nucleus: Opens *Today* ~

That's right folks, swing on by on Saturday at around 7pm if you get the chance. Should prove to be a cool show. Artwork will be up til May 11th I think - so for all you late comers, stuff should still be there for you to relive your past Street Fighter nostalgias and glories.

Eric Caoili over at gamesetwatch.com went above and beyond the call and posted a really kind article on the upcoming show here. Many thanks, Eric. (*salutes*)

Several other blogs and sites have mentioned the show as well, including offworld.com, Nerd City, Arrested Motion... many others for sure. Danke and thanks to all who've put the word out and been supportive - not to mention folks who've commented here. You all make doing the art/drawing thing worthwhile for me, for sure.

.............

So I should probably post some newer artwork while advertising my wares. Fair enough. A little preview on a sequence I finished up not too long ago:

And (again) a little color something on the WWII sequence I flashed here a few weeks back:

2009-04-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

~ "Jab Strong Fierce..." ~

"...A Tribute to Street Fighter". April 25th at Gallery Nucleus.

Following pieces will be featured there, and for sale. So come and buy, friends - bamboo's not just for fingernail shoots anymore.

"Dhalsimer"
Acrylic, brushpen, pencil on bamboo

"Ueno-chan"
Acrylic, brushpen, pencil on bamboo.

"Elena"
Acrylic, brushpen, and pencil on bamboo

"Metaphysique"
Acrylic, brushpen, pencil on bamboo

Sponsored by:
- Capcom
- Udon Entertainment
- I am 8-Bit
- Coin-op TV
- Cha For Tea

2009-04-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

~ This Weeks' Dump ~

...Of sketches, that is. Can't go wrong with pseudo mech designs...

...Or lady sketches. Some studies of Elena from Street Fighter, for an upcoming show at Gallery Nucleus.

...And a small preview for a short WWII sequence I worked on a little while ago:

2009-03-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

~ And again... Take 3 ~

... I'm noticing that the turn around time for me hating anything I draw is becoming shorter and shorter - days instead of weeks or months. I'm not sure if that's a sign of me getting better at drawing or getting worse. Hopefully, I can hone that hatred for my own work within the minutes and seconds range soon enough...

(And here we go with this illo; for the last time hopefully. #1's got the rubbery arms on a quick pass. And I think I finally found a more realistic pose that feels ok in #2. Well.... Nah, I hate it already.)
....

But on the bright side!... Well, no. Again, tangent issues I had to deal with during drawing - and I'm not sure I got rid of all of them either. Aiyah...

But I at least got some color and artistic nakedness happening in this post, along with my cheating a James Jean ziptone effect in the bg.

Special thanks though to the lovely May for suggesting the lomo effect. I don't think I quite got it here; but having slightly darker edges did help the overall illo a bit.

2009-03-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

~ ...Take 2 ~

Still not entirely happy with sketch from last post. Spent a little time doing more workups, trying to find a better pose.

Biggest prob I had with the sketch in the last post: The one arm holding the lance - technically it felt correct, but silhouette-wise and pose-wise, it just wasn't sitting right for some reason.

I think a part of the prob was positioning portions of the armor in relation to the pose, esp. w/ the shoulder/arm areas. But for the most part, I think it was just the general angle, shape, and silhouette that was turning me off. Not exaggerated enough, not loose enough. I should just do the rubber hose thing with the arm and the whole body - one long bendy shape...

Which calls into question just what exactly am going for here, character design-wise?

Ugh.... But a good challenge.

......

Speaking of tackling challenges: A bit of Gordon Ramsey a'la Ch. 4's Kitchen Nightmares, one of the best shows out there. Did these while having it on in the bg:

And that seems to be his equation: Growing a pair = better restaurant. Somehow, that works even when the restaurant is run by an all-ladies cast.

2009-03-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

~ Sketch Dump ~

...or more like sketch constipation, since I haven't really dumped anything on here in awhile. But all hail Photoshop, which has decided to work again - and the scanner, which has always been a little trooper.

Ok, onto the sketches. Some randomage, some story ideas. A few are older pieces that I liked anyhow:

(These aren't them, however. From last week I think.)
-Some fantasy samurais. And a white ninja bookin' out of a castle with a TV under his arm. Because I like historical accuracy.

-Oh, pesky female ninja... If Lucha Libre has taught me anything, it's that lady ninjas don't like to sneak so much as they like to do backflips at (*a-hem*) revealing angles in relation to the viewer. Never the (male) artist's fault, of course; he has no choice. Laws of Physics and all...

-Only thing that's missing are the Sun Chips...

-Ballpoint pen on this one. Did this while watching a documentary on an Australian pilot, Valentich, who apparently disappeared on a routine flight to Tasmania. Read more here.

-I like the second one better. Not coincidentally, it was the later sketch of the two. And yes, I have been reading Asterix. In Old Norse. (En kvæðin þykkja mér sízt or stað fœrðehurdygurdy waffles...)

-Some after-studies from the Krupa Troopa piece.

-Part of an idea page. Didn't everybody play with Nerf bats and paper ninja stars when they were in grade school?

-Kind of a treatment for a story idea. I like doing these kind of pages: They help w/ creating story points and w/ the pacing during certain moments, all in a condensed format (meaning that this isn't like committing to a finished comic page, nor does it have to be sequential in a storyboard sense). Plus, procrastination and all...

Colerase, post-it notes, copy paper, etc.

(*flushes*)

2009-01-12T21:23:00.000-08:00

Anatomy of a Gun Show...

...Otherwise known as an ethnological study of the American Caucasian and their NRA Tribe.

Some sketches of the Ventura Gun Show (plus knives, swords, sharp sticks, pocket watches, coin monies, jewelry, car parts, old porn, French postcards, etc).

Drawn from memory, so I don't know how accurate these are. Either way, alot of strange little old white men running around, as well as the other usual cast of characters: Greasy bikers, Bardahl rednecks, and most any other subdivision of the Linkhorn gene that can be gathered under one roof without bursting into flames. Was like something out of a Coen Bros. casting call:

...And surprisingly, quite a few other faces too: Local vatos, Latino papas with family in tow, helmet hair Emo kids (w/ iPod), Pilipino wives, Korean vendors, and some well dressed African Americans looking over the finer rifle selections.

I'll draw these some other time. For now, enjoy this awkward slice of the American pie.

2008-12-25T14:42:00.000-08:00

Merry Chimerasmas...

...Because I realized I had the Halloween post up until December.

That, and I wanted to post this for the folks who I couldn't email it to (i.e., those that I don't have an email address for. *cough* Steve! Hwang! Sah! *cough*...)

Anyhow, seasons' tidings and all that.

.............

"Arisaka gozaimasu!"

Had a good time the other day letting rip some bullets. Drove out to the middle of nowhere with the pops, found a good spot, and tested out the new toy: an Arisaka 99. (That's a WWII bit of weaponry from Hirohito's Imperial Army.)

Thing with Arisakas - many of them were decommissioned after the war, meaning that some were intentionally disabled by various authorities so that the rifle couldn't fire again. The way this was done - a little sawing into a nicely hidden area, in and near the breachblock/action. Thus, the end result is a time bomb if you try to fire it.

We had to do a test fire first: A parachute string on the trigger while standing 10 paces back, in case the thing remembered it's Bushido obligations and decided to blow up in our hands. But it worked great, and I have to admit: 'Twas fun to play Eastwood for half an hour on Christmas Weekend in the backwoods of a NorCal National Park.

............

Bambooty...

And in keeping with the Japanese theme: Some bamboo mats.

The first two are old news for some of you folks out there. These ones are 42 x 21 cm.

The work up sketches for the two.
I kind of wish I could've gotten the little action thumbnails into the painting. Maybe larger stand-alone's with those would be better.

And, needless to say, translating a drawing from sketch to bamboo accurately is something else that I'ma need to work on...

This last one was a test run on a larger canvas (19 x 13 in).

Some tangent issues with a couple of the characters overlapping one another, and some emphasis issues with color saturation and line weight. But is a good start, and I have plenty of blank mats to cut my teeth on til I get this right. (That's the nice thing about this kind of medium: It's cheap. Not necessarily easy, though...)

2008-10-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

Full Cult Press... (Proverbial Halloween Illustrations)

Hmm, colerase and ink. I'll get around to coloring it later.

Was talking with Noel about the benefits of being a ghost. Naturally, the conversation turned towards basketball... Her idea was us as members of the undead Harlem Globetrotters vs. zombies. My thoughts were along the lines of the classic Gene Hackman ode to underdog college b-ball...

And hence (once again): Boosiers.

(The name works on two levels: ghosts playing basketball - and the drunken assistant coach played by Dennis Hopper - the only actor slightly below Christopher Walken on the "he's about to snap" scale.)

And a random sketch from a few years ago, with a quick paintjob from a few minutes ago. Special thanks to the wonderful and ever-talented May Ann for providing the inspiration for this one ("Cucurbitophobia").

2008-10-25T16:50:00.000-07:00

More Acheulian Goodness.. with spears...

Ah, stone tools, spears, and jumping. Perfectly safe.

First work-up sketch. Feet are doing more of the fighting than the stick here. Go Nike. (or whatever the ancient equivalent was of a heartless shoe monopoly.)

This would've been the next candidate to get a finishing pass, but the angle/composition was a little too close to another illo I did about a year and a half ago.

Some quick passes to get the feel for how she'd ease out of the action pose.

And the concluding panel. Ah, dental plan.... Anyhow, the characters live happily ever after.

..............

And now, a comic break. With legible fonts this time.

Special thanks to Mr. Brett Nance for the font suggestion. Extra special thanks to the British for the imaginative hand gesture.

2008-10-25T16:40:00.000-07:00

Some random scenery...

Well, maybe not so random - a few of these are connected to story ideas.... Blame the jazz one on too much Krupa, Sonny Rollins, and Mr. Miles Davis.

2008-09-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

So, remember those sketches I promised before?...

I know - I don't upload for over 2 months, and I pick today of all days to do it. Yeah, bad timing...

A quick sketch page with notes.

A couple of comic pages I did today - and dialog this time. Hoorah.

Alot of the erasing ended up leaving an accidental tone/shading of sorts - which kind of works at times. But I need to figure out a standardized way to do comic pages, something a little cleaner maybe - and more importantly something that will carry over into print without anything becoming lost in translation.

...Pen and inking is one method, but there are alot of drawbacks - one being a loss of the immediate line that you put down when you loosely sketch (i.e., you lose some of the life and energy of the drawing - or can potentially - when you nail it down with solid linework.)

I'll have to figure something out, to save my sanity if nothing else.

An older work-up sketch, from that box of sketches I keep talking about. (It exists, and it will be scanned at some point - trust me.)
Foreground character should be resting his one foot on something in-frame - or be repositioned so that he looks more "on level" perspective-wise with the other characters.

Was based off another sketch that had more realistic rendering and proportions. Maybe that was part of the problem? - basing it on something without as much exaggeration? Problems, problems....

(There's a good reason why the lady's naked in the above sketch. Honestly. There's a whole sequence that revolves around that as a story point... of sorts. Stay tuned.)

............................

And a little color, to upset my friends and family.

Alot of copy paper, alot of colerase, and a little PS cheating.

2008-07-17T02:12:00.000-07:00

Slight Detour...

Before getting back to the Acheulian stuff... some left overs from that box of sketches I was talking about earlier...

-Quick illo to finalize the characters. (After several hundred sketches, you'd think I'd have it by now...)
-Couple of quick pages. I lagged on putting the dialog in the word bubbles.
(I'm trying to approach these with the mindset of getting the scene to fit within a page/frame limit. Bastardized version of a Sunday strip. If I can get this down to one page of images explaining the scenario... but then again, that's assuming anyone's reading it by that point.)

..........................

-And no word bubbles this time. Hooray for lack of ideas. First panel could've used a little more finesse with the characters against a busy bg - line issues mostly.

(I think I ended up doing ok on the 3rd page, despite the discrepency with her hair being out of her face/in her face between the first two identical poses.)
(Spacing of panels needs work. Pose on his recoil on the final panel could be pushed more - problem is how to get it to read easily as silhouette while making him look like he's barely keeping on his feet from the kick back. Problems, problems... On the upside, I finally got to add some shooting and explosions for once. )

(And no, she's fine, as are the C-Sec troops - it's one of those magic "no one dies" moments. Call it the GI Joe equation, where the characters find that mathematical sweet spot in the space/time continuum that allows them to parachute out of exploding planes in the middle of a hellstorm firefight - and no one gets hurt. This enigma of nature correlates directly with American FCC regulations circa the 1980's, coincidentally enough...)

Thanks to everyone who posted comments last time, much appreciated. I'll respond this time, I promise.

2008-06-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

Acheulian pt II
...And a box full of drawings waiting for the scanner.

Colerase, portfolio binder paper.

2008-06-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

Acheulian Camp

...Because Alex has been asking me about when I'm going to post something. So, here it is - quick sketch and quick color pass. And the characters' first acheulian hand axe... Well that's a Kodak moment, folks.

I'll blame Mr. Chao when I see the line weight and tangent mistakes tomorrow.

Animation paper, colerase, PS CS. Chop chop...

2008-06-05T19:40:00.000-07:00

Dos cazadores...

(In the Sahar Poreh (Fertile Crescent) Campaign, circa.... well, whenever.)

He who makes a beast of himself... etc etc.

Some work-up sketches before the final piece. The Selectric was a pain to render, what with the weird curves. The Irish beauty made it into the lower right hand corner somehow.

PS CS, Colerase pencils, a little bit of this and that. I'll make the .357 more obvious next time.

2008-05-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

Can you say "nerd"?....
(*updated*)

Acanthostega - classified as a stem tetrapod of the Devonian. What Darwinism would claim is a "missing link" or "a transitional" between fish and amphibians.

Ahhhh, Good ol' Acanthy; the mainstay of the Darwinian hypothesis for probably the last two decades or so. A funky kind of chimera tetrapod, with multiple digits on its fore (and presumably hind) limb. Awwwww.....

I'm of the thought that Acanthostega - besides being a chimeromorph of sorts - exhibited a Hox gene malfunction in the doubling of digits - digits that Acanthostega already possessed from the time it was created. I don't think that the evidence warrants the conclusion that Acanthostega arose from a fish ancestor. Here's why:

The doubling of digits, also known as polydactyly, is not uncommon even for modern day organisms (most notably amphibians) where digits and even whole appendages are doubled, due to a malfunction/mutation in the genes which code for proper limb placement. These genes are known as Hox genes, and essentially do the job of plugging in where exactly an antenna, limb, or leg goes. Remember news reports several years back about geneticists getting a fruit fly to grow legs where its antennae should've been? Hox genes at work (or out to lunch, presumably)...

But, besides polydactyly and lab technicians playing Dr. Frankenstein, there are a couple of things to keep in mind:

1. In order to go from fish to amphibian, the fish "fin" needs to dump the lepidotrichia - the fin rays of presumed fish ancestors - and generate the more complex articulated digit array of later tetrapods (like Acanthostega).

This complexity would include:

-Change in structural composition (from partially cartilaginous fins to fully ossified endochondral skeletal digits)

-Construction of the digits themselves (running the risk of hyperphalangy in the process)

-Functional articulation of skeletal structure into working digit array

-New musculature (including tendons), as well as new attachment points to the skeletal frame

-Structuring of nerve endings

-And finally, new and novel developmental pathways during embryonic development to make way for all of the above. (i.e., proper Hox genes clusters, Sonic hedgehog signalling, and regulation/timing of these biochemical systems.)

And so on. Basic upshot is that in order for the more complex limb with digits to have arisen from a fin design, the fin design would need to have been scrapped completely - the fins or lepidotrichia would be gone. Hence, the arrival of a new bauplan (body design) requiring an increase in complex functional information to arise on the genetic level, properly regulated so as to code for functioning limbs instead of thalidomide nightmares (or hyperphalangic hindrances - imagine Nosferatu picking his nose or wiping his arse with 10 foot long triple-hinged fingers)...

In other words, we need the genes to 'pop up' with all the new info for the hi-tech gadgets. Natural selection and mutation can only work with what's there - it can't do the biochemical equivalent of alchemy and make things (like complex and interrelated biochemistry to regulate limb-with-digit development) "appear" out of nowhere.

Some evolutionists will posit that the digits came from previous "radial" bones in the fish ancestor, and all that was needed was a mutation in order to duplicate the radials, until after numerous disasters and roulette wheel spins, we have a winner! Digits!

But consider: What would be happening is an unregulated growth algorithm running rampant due to mutation (for this is a non-guided process according to Darwin's hypothesis). If an indiscriminate duplicating of the radials - or internal bone structure of the fin - is taking place in the presumed fish ancestor, then the possibility for a non-functional result, such as hyperphalangy, is much more likely. (This is, of course, assuming that we've even gotten to the point of having any semblance of a functioning digit morphology for mutation to act upon - with all of the morphological and biochemical prerequisites mentioned above having been met.)

And natural selection would more likely weed out any genetic deviation from the fitness norm (depending on how strictly niched the organism is to it's ecology) rather than preserve potentially nascent structures. What we see in tetrapod fossils already are fully formed and (in most cases) functional limbs (even in a Hox gene example like Acanthostega, which has a fully digitated limb, not a fin. Which is why I think it's more reasonable to assume that Acanthostega's presumably mutated multi-digited limb happened *after* it was created, fully formed.)

So as with Vegas, so too in nature: The house always wins. "Hopeful monsters" aren't conscious capitalist ventures - faith in mutation and natural selection to "create miracles" is a false idealism, and I think it says more about Western thoughts on "success" and "beating the odds" than it does about factual biology.

Evolutionists tend to espouse the possibility of bioengineering wonders via mutation, but they seem to overlook the fact that their scenarios - while highly speculative and lacking experimental verification as is - are already assuming a complex state of affairs from the get go. To put it differently: They get the cart before the horse. They imagine what mutation can do in a fish limb, never realizing that the fish itself (not to mention a tetrapod like Acanthostega) is an already complex and fully functioning organism, complete with fully functional structures, both physiologically and biochemically.

Which is especially important to our scenario, since they propose that duplicating bones in the fin is enough to create digits - Well, where did the complex biochemical signaling for all of this duplicating and placing come from, in either fish or tetrapod? Where did the genetics come from to weave and form endochondral skeleton, musculature, nerve endings, and so on? Or cartilage? What about the ability of Hox genes to act as placement signaling for what later become interrelated morphological structures? Or the interlinked regulation between Shh and GLI3 expression, which is now understood as being an important factor in proper limb/digit development?...

These are the questions that evolutionists tend to overlook, unintentionally at times I think. The usual recourse is on the superficial: "It *looks* like a fin, therefore..."

2. Doubling or repetition of already existent genetic info (in this case, the genetic pathways for digit development in Acanthostega) does not constitute an increase in functional genetic info.

It's pure semantics to try to say that repeating an already complex signal is an increase in complexity. In the case of Hox gene duplication - and presumably the multi-digit state of Acanthostega - the complexity in the genome was already coded for: Acanthostega already had a fully functional limb with digits, which I believe mutated and doubled. (Polyphylangy! ...There's that word again.)

Anyhow, this business with having multiple digits, it's like copying and pasting an image multiple times on your computer: You may have more of the same image, and it may alter the content of a folder (more images, more hard drive space taken for more images), and the image itself may be altered in the process (lacking pixels, file becoming corrupted). But ultimately, the copying process itself does not account for the initial creation of the image, much less the computer. The creating of a specific image - as well as the computer - would require intent, purpose, intelligent input and direction.

Add on top of that: The image is a full, high res, 1 gig picture of the Sistine Chapel. That's about the level of specificity and detail we're dealing with when speaking about genetics (even for lil' Acanthostega baby fingers...)

-Older reconstruction of Acanthostega; may be accurate. Courtesy: PBS

And remember, this applies to the host of *other* features that need to be accounted for in an evolving "fish-to-tetrapod" scenario. These would include the evolution of neural pathways, metabolism, reproductive and developmental pathways, respiratory, locomotory (in the case of fish, respiration and locomotion go hand in hand - it needs to swim in order to breath!). And on and on and on... Picture: Sistine Chapel covering the interior of the NASA space shuttle.

Ultimately, this portion of Darwin's explanation is a Victorian creation narrative: Very ingenious in trying to explain things, but which... well... breaks all the cardinal rules of science. None of these hypothetical scenarios involving macro evolutionary increases is in any way observable, testable, or repeatable in a scientific, laboratory setting. And it runs contra to observed genetics.

...On the upside for Darwinism, however, here's a fairly positive example of macro evolution in action:

Yes, it's me. And yes, I got tagged on this: Portray yourself as you were in junior high/high school, and who you are now. (You see? Increase in information... maybe not complex or functional most of the time, however...)

So, here I am... was.... whatever... in all my junior high glory. And then, onto the future, which... is presently now. And stuff. Yeah...

Notice that I moved on from Hasidic locks to grocery bag stylin's. Koshrut and all that.

Colerase, PS CS, copy paper... More to come soon, minus the nerdiness. (Or maybe not...)

2008-04-02T20:12:00.001-07:00

Sketches, sketches, sketches...

...And some finished pieces. Enjoy.

------

(Some quick Tablet PC work. Started with a fat brush for the undersketch gesture, then went in with finer point. They's look worried.)

(Sah and Angelo from Six Point Harness. Fun folks to work with, and skilled at what they do.)

(Based on a true story. For some reason, skaters like to hang out at the back alley bridge near Kinkos. Go figure. Leave it to pitching and nature to learn em something awful.)

(Various sketches.)

(Gee, what movie was I watching while drawing? Hmmm.... This isn't sequential, btw. Terrorists and Nakatomi Building not included.)

(Address: 242666 Ry'leh St, Abyssal Depth, Pacific Trench.)

(And to cap it off, a little comp page I did awhile back. The 3 Wise Men at the office, looking over their ranks. Blah blah...)
Post-it Notes, note paper, sketchpad, Colerase, Microns, PS CS. Blah, basically everything but paint.

2008-03-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

I Remember...

I found out Wednesday night. And this morning, this is what ended up on my sketch paper...

This was the circle of creativity and mayhem during the Pixar Internship/summer of 2006 (I’m off camera on the sofa; hence the vantage point).

I remember many scenes/conversations/situations like this... The intern room on the second floor east wing, all in an uproar about anything from films to music, to just about everything else that has happened on God's green earth (including Quest for Camelot.... Don't ask.) And in the middle of the chaos, Mark and Pete would storm in and regale us with guitar strums (I still recall those Bernard Hermann chromatic scales) and the telling of various stories - most consisting of poop and cockroach narratives (with some ghost stories to bookend the entire thing)…. We were lovin it.

So many other people and so many other memories there. Where does the time go?...

I never got a chance to take any photos, although I remember Val having a field day with her digital camera (never saw the pics though; I’d really dig having some copies). So, I had to take those pictures *here* (*points to cranium*). And I do this now, because there's a definite absence of that group as of Tuesday...

Colerase, copy paper, PS CS.

In memory of Justin Wright (1981-2008). *Salutes*

2008-02-26T21:52:00.000-08:00

- COMICS -
(Various takes on several different storylines. First attempts, with all the trips, falls, and cutting of teeth... not to mention flesh.)

(-P.S.; © 2008, Khylov; no taking.)

2008-02-22T15:57:00.001-08:00

- Design Stuff -

M-hmm. More sketches and pen work. I'm still waiting for the color to show up; should take about 2 to 4 weeks for delivery.

2008-02-17T14:39:00.000-08:00

- Golemobile -

So, how does he fit into his car?.... Eh, he squishes into it - he's a golem for cryin' out loud... he's made of mud and used Snickers wrappers. Anyhow...

Tablet PC, PS CS. Vrooooomischkeit...

2008-02-10T18:43:00.000-08:00

-Finally.... color.

...When you mix One Crazy Summer with Cthulhu: Instant box office hit.

(Or was it Better Off Dead? Well whatever; they both had John Cusack in them. Close enough...)

Tablet PC, PS CS. And yes... color! (Oooo...)

2008-02-07T21:47:00.000-08:00

-Character moments, plus more Kikuchiyo -

Second pass on the drunk take. No reference for Kikuchiyo this time. (And maybe it shows for the worse? Eh....)

Animation paper, Colerase, Micron pens. Yosh^2.

2008-02-03T01:26:00.000-08:00

"Shichinin no samurai"

It's been a few years since I last saw Seven Samurai. I had plenty of reference material to look over (Thank you, Google). I did a couple of sketches before any of the ones posted here, based straight off of DVD covers and film images. Felt kind of cheesy with that though, so....

Here's a prelim page. Kikuchiyo's character was the first one I started in on, and the toughest for me to do through the course of this whole thing. Design is one thing, but design that has to resemble someone... Aiyah....

Probably one of the most memorable parts for me was Kikuchiyo stumbling drunk. I tried getting a hint of that here; and in theory, drawing a character inebriated and about to puke on himself sounds like a nice warm up to keep the character design from becoming too stiff..... Turned out to be alot harder than I gave it credit for. I was going by memory and improv on this one. Still needs work:

It was fun to finally try to render a character that has been, I think, the archetype for all latter devil-may-care ronin-types in samurai films and (do I say it? Do I?!..) anime films.

Mifune got it spot on, a really brash, careless fool who's just as much a warrior as he is a bully... but very skilled, very likable and (this may be the reason for why he has the appeal that he does) very vulnerable.

Several times in the film, he's either laughed at, put in his place, or finds himself in the middle of some sort of crisis/internal conflict that he doesn't solve right away, or at all... (Friggin McKee....)

But he also is shown gaining victories, whether it be in fighting or in his outward charisma towards others (i.e., the villagers). And, he's actually one of the most introspective and observant characters in the film (from what I remember anyhow)...

Hmm, was that "film analysis"? Pssh, I get 10 points knocked off for that. Boooo....

Animation paper, Colerase pencils. Yosh.

2008-01-25T23:15:00.000-08:00

Vacation? What vacation?...

...So yes, just to prove to you all that I haven't been slacking on the art end of things, I'm going to start posting regularly again. I have a nice new little notebook to sketch in (and with which to plan world domination).... plus one browntone drawing pad to finish up on... plus a comic in the works (Oy vey).... I know that there's a life to be had somewhere amidst all of that....

The upshot of all this being: I have a whole backlog of art stuff that I ought to archive on my computer. (Meaning I get to show off some more to you out there in Internet Land. Hoorah...)

Anyhow, just in case you're wondering about the predominance of red in the drawings (no, not blood; but might as well be), I've taken a liking to Colerase pencils over the past few months. So expect more of that in the future.

Thanks to you all who commented on here while I was away. I'll try to interact with you all in the upcoming weeks; that is, if my cave schedule allows me to break out of my Howard Hughes routine for a little while. (Those bottles are adding up, son.)

Various grades of paper; Colerase, Prismacolor, and graphite pencils, and a whole lotta catching up to do....

2007-10-02T23:52:00.001-07:00

Some quick exploratory sketches of an old idea; non-sequential, and for a short comic scene in the works. I'll probably regret having posted these later. (You know, seeing mistakes and cringing, etc.)

PS CS, Tablet PC, gray tones, post-flood humanity, etc etc.

2007-10-01T13:08:00.002-07:00

I was told to upload more sketches; so.... here we go. More to come soon.

Colerase, animation paper. And a bucket.

2007-09-10T20:44:00.001-07:00

Tick Platform, pt. II:

Yup, well; he seems to be shooting at something else (preferrably another mech). And of course, whatever he's shooting at is still offscreen. Hey, I have to at least keep a certain amount of mystery or suspense to this; not too much revealed.... Works for Lost, right?

Here are some additional studies for the mech:

I'm thinking that the feet are designed to dig into the ground in conjunction with a discharge from the cannon, stabilizing it whenever it fires. Hence, the designation "tick" for this model. The arms are bowed so as to take the recoil of the gun at odd angles (Actually, it's for silhouette value, to make the arms read easier against the body; but hey, sounds fancier to have a physics excuse for the design).

PS CS, Toshiba Tecra M7 tablet PC. And the shooting of phantom bogies continues...

2007-08-27T00:46:00.001-07:00

Not much to say for this one: Pseudo-Europa city landscape + robot + frightened citizens + even more robots.... possibly off-screen.... uh.... All equals: another photoshop drawing by Kyle.

(One could argue that it equals "a story" as well.... I'll come back to that later.)

PS CS, Tablet PC, and a bit of forced perspective. Robots sold separately.

2007-08-13T23:57:00.000-07:00

That's right..... a flying car.

Although millions of dollars have been spent in developing something like this for the private sector (and I'm not exaggerating here; some professor at a U.S. Uni has been working on the Jetson wagon for over 20 years), and in theory a flying car sounds like a great idea.... Think about it: Driving now on a fixed horizontal axis is dangerous enough. Imagine if you give Americans the additional option of pitch, yaw, and Z coordinates.

Add on top of that the additional balast of SoCal drivers and cell phones.

Nah, I didn't think it a good idea either. Nonetheless, it makes for great illustration possibilities.

PS CS, Tablet PC, and some sketchy lines added for good measure. (Take that, Art Center.)

Farfegnugen, comrades.

2007-07-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

Older piece from a few years ago. For a book project which I'm not quite sure what happened to; just sort of disappeared (That seems to have been the theme for alot of things in 2005; at least for me anyhow).

Graphite on copy paper, PS CS, and a little motion blur filter. Yeah, better than lens flare, I'll tell ya that.

I'll update with more recent Tablet PC art next time, I swear.... (Huh, that almost sounds like a threat.)

2007-07-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

Portfolio piece; redux of an older pic.

Done in Tablet PC; all hail Toshiba.

(Here's to hoping that my editor May won't mind me posting some of this online.)

c. 2007; Khylov. Don't be stealin', hoes.

2007-06-19T01:40:00.000-07:00

Well, since I've decided to move here from dA, I should probably have this page be art oriented. I'll try to keep the verbage here to a minimum, as well as just having the perty pictures be the sole focus. Rabbit trails, technical things, and observations: minimal.

We'll see how long that lasts.

In other news, I decided to replace the header banner I had going here (top of page... see that ugly fool with the goggles? Yeah, that one...). And since I'm a modest guy, here's the old banner I had up there previously:

It didn't turn out too bad for 20 minutes worth of Photoshop work... looks like an ad for a lower-end cologne. I'm sure I'll have bids for the next Calvin Klein ad campaign geared towards Afghanistan.

Good night, ladies and gentlemen.

2003-04-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

"I would say, 'I wouldn't dream of trying to drive anyone from this paradise.' I would do something quite different: I would try to show you that it's not a paradise- so that you'll leave of your own accord. I would say, 'You're welcome to this; just take a look about you.'"
-Ludwig Wittgenstein, "Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics", ed. Cora Diamond (Sussex: Harvester Press, 1978), 103