kennethcoker.com

Happy Birthday Shobo!

2012-02-01T23:12:00.000-08:00

Roughly five years ago, my brother, Shobo drew this gem. Since then Jonah has been through obvious transformations (he got some clothes, heh). A script has been written, a full cast of characters, a universe fleshed out, with a comic set to be put to paper soon. We work on it whenever we can with silly things like day jobs and a small matter of 3,000 miles of geography hindering progress on this project that's become a dream of ours. I drew this as a gift for him. I feel incredibly grateful because like many things in my life, Shobo shared Jupiter Jonah with me. Cheers, Shobo, have a good one.

Cool guys don't look at explosions

2011-12-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd end the year with a measure of style and something I wish I could work on more often. I'm constantly thinking of Jonah, but never have the time to properly devote time to the comic because of other obligations.

For me, 2011 has been one of my most frantic years in recent memory. Moving twice to two different cities, once from the horrendously cold/windy, but vibrant city of Chicago, to the rainy, contemplative city of Seattle and then on to California... lots of driving, sigh, but hey the weather is great!

It hasn't been the easiest of years but there were some bright spots. I got to see my little sister graduate from college and for the first time in 6 years I'm currently spending Christmas with my parents. I started working in San Diego and its quite nice so far. I got to go to the San Diego Comic con and met some artists I respect quite a bit, and saw some things in retrospect as a videogame/comic nerd growing up in Nigeria, I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. I read some influential graphic novels this year, like Asterios Polyp, Daytripper, Petrograd, as well as novels this year that strengthened my resolve for the vision of Jupiter Jonah. One of them was Herge's biography. I've always loved Tintin and my brother and I often talk about how we'd like to develop Jonah in that iconic vein. I think it's easier to do something when you know its been done with some measure of laudable success before. Reading about Herge's life, his successes and failures reading about his personal life and work ethic was a small revelation. All in all I'd say it was a decent year.

Light, Sweet Crude

2011-07-24T15:57:00.000-07:00

Over the last year I've been working on a comic project with Shobo and Chris Feliciano Arnold. All info about the comic is located here. You can also see the first 8 pages of the comic. The comic is an adaptation of a short story published in playboy in 2009, written by Chris. It's a political thriller that takes place in Texas and the Niger Delta, told through several narrative points of view.We sort of unveiled this short segment at Comic-con last week and got favorable responses from some of the independent publishers we showed it to. Now let's see about getting this finished, shall we.

MAGNA CUM RIVETER

2011-05-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

My lovely sis, Funlola, graduated from the Memphis College of Art last weekend. She majored in sculpture (metals) and finished with a magna cum laude. I'm super proud of her. IYAAAABOBOOOOO!

Here's looking at you kid ;)

You look so familiar

2011-05-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever tried to draw a face based on an impression of a person's expression? I find you always come up with interesting results, so I tried it on this sculpt. Of course everyone unconsciously does this with whatever creative process they work on (implementing the familiar that is), but consciously applying this technique is quite fun. Five naira to the person who guesses who this sculpt's expression is based on.

There is a turn around image of the sculpt here.

Robomodo

2011-05-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

In the nine month period I was at Robomodo I produced quite a bit of video game art. I believe I worked on seven character with alternate snow and skate outfits for Tony Hawk: Shred. We had some stringent deadlines so working fast and consistently was paramount. We'd sometimes finish characters from start to finish in 10 working days. My time there ended with a swooping lay off of about 50 of us, but I don't regret working there. I learned a whole lot and won't soon forget my experience there. There were good hard working people at Robomodo.

Paddy

2011-04-03T21:51:00.001-07:00

My family took care of a West African grey for several years in Lagos, and while this is a bust of a macaw, I thought I'd give him a mention. He was an annoying, lovable bird, and quite entertaining. Here's to you Paddy.

Ace McD

2011-02-11T23:07:00.001-08:00

Did this quick drawing when I first got my hands on the cintiq at work. I wanted to see how repsonsive it was with line work as opposed to a wacom tablet. It didn't disappoint.

2011-02-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

A new Sungbo sketch. I'm sporadically working on the project while juggling others. Finding the balance between the new day job and personal work eludes me at the moment, but I'm working at it and getting settled in Seattle. I also started using a cintiq at work and its a revolution really. I don't know how some people prefer wacom tablets. I shall be getting a cintiq as soon as I can save enough to appease the hefty, substantial, cintiq gods.

Ho Fafhrd!! Hist, Gray Mouser!!

2011-01-13T21:25:00.000-08:00

I recently read Mike Mignola, Al Williamson and Howard Chaykin's graphic novel adaptation of Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser on a trip to Seattle and loved it! The titular characters' relationship with each other and adventures were quite the swashbuckling ride. The storytelling and art were great and the book jarred my early memories of fantasy adventure comic stories of that nature, like Conan and Thud the Barbarian (having strayed from them recently in my comic reading). Anyway, the images above were for a job test I did late last year and had I read Fafhrd at that time it might have helped visually inspire these images, but I think I did a decent job considering I've never drawn Western fantasy before.

Swan sketch

2010-11-04T02:39:00.000-07:00

This is a quick digital sketch based on a still from the upcoming movie Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky. Aronofsky's work as a director is always impressive, however, his willingness to reach out to worthwhile illustrators to collaborate with him on projects is part of what distinguishes him. He did so with illustration master Kent Williams for The Fountain graphic novel and once again now with the exquisitely striking Black Swan international posters. Hopefully after the film's release we'll get to know more about who designed them, but for now enjoy the simple sketch fueled by my enthusiasm for the film.

Note: The Swan Posters were created by London based design studio, La Boca. Their work is definitely worth a look.

Happy 50th!

2010-09-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

That's right! 50 years ago Nigeria got its independence from the British. Its has been a tumultuous 50 years to say the least, but there have been small and formidable triumphs along the way especially in the arts and literature. October 1st is also special because that is the day our titular hero's journey began.

Jupiter Jonah's cast for book 1, The Eye of Oduduwa is more or less complete here from left to right; Denarii, best buddies Blass and Rashidi, Captain Stein, Jonah, Prospero, and Funlola along with the Baron Kookoomba looming hungrily above. Rest assured, work on Jonah is alive and kicking. There is also a variant poster designed by my brother, Shobo for your viewing pleasure on his blog here.

Once again Happy Independence day to every Nigerian out there!

Cirque du DD

2010-07-31T21:56:00.000-07:00

I don't usually redesign established characters, but a couple of friends of mine are involved in what's called the Superhero Costume Coalition and I thought I'd thrown in my two cents. The redesign blog can be found here along with my friends' similar efforts. Enjoy!

Timeworn

2010-04-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

A long standing and mysterious member of Stein's crew, Denarii has been around for ages and he has seen and experienced a rough history that has hewn deep, salient lines in his careworn face.

Greed and Virtue

2010-03-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

Two more characters from the Jupiter Jonah camp! The comic is begining to take shape, with Shobo doing a few more script revisions and yours truly concepting a few more characters before we start the comic in earnest. For now enjoy this sneak peak of Stein, the captain of the pirate ship, the Avarice, and Prospero, a freed manservant/gladiator that aids Jonah on his many adventures. Also for more Jonah stuff, check out Shobo's suhweet desktop wallpapers here and here. More coming soon! hopefully this Friday soon! so stay tuned!

A little hiatus

2010-02-27T16:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the leave of absence folks. At the beginning of the month I moved to Chicago and started work as a Character Artist at Robomodo! Its been busy and fantastic so far, getting comfortable with a new environment, learning new tools and meeting good people. Have no fear though, ladies and gents, I still intend to work on some of the personal projects you've read about on the blog. Unfortunately, nothing to show right now, but there's some illustrations a' brewin'.

Oh and one last thing. Here is an interview I did with an art collective in Memphis last year called Flier Arts.

Updated Reel for the New Year

2010-01-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

Kenneth S. Coker Demo Reel 09 from Kenneth Coker on Vimeo.

All the character modeling work I did in 2009 along with some recent illustrations and drawings done over the past 3 years. All presented in glorious HD, which you can watch over at Vimeo. Constructive criticism is quite welcome.

Ending the year with style

2009-12-27T05:14:00.000-08:00

This here is Jonah's adventuring partner, Funlola, as mentioned earlier. Again, her design is based on my brother, Shobo's concept here, and although I changed some things about her I'd say I stuck pretty close to the original design. It must seem kind of annoying posting these character images without describing their back stories, but I must as I don't want to harm any story element Shobo intends to use in the future.

Well, I'm glad I got this final post in before the end of the year. I'm thinking 2010 is going to be a pretty interesting year, lots of exciting projects in the works for me. Also who knows, maybe some Croatian scientist is getting ready to unveil the worlds first functioning matter teleporter... fingers crossed.

Jonah lives!

2009-12-20T03:30:00.000-08:00

So over the last few months work on Jonah has admittedly been slow, as a combination of freelance illustration work and learning new techniques hampered speed, however I learned several new things in the process of creating a fully rigged character from scratch. A lot of toenail-biting frustration and ludicrously long technical problem solving hours finally added up to the fact that I can now animate Jonah with a decent animation friendly rig that is not the rubbish, buggy rig system I used for my animated short earlier this year. I've also almost finished rigging Funlola as well so stay tuned for a very short test animation in the near future. For now enjoy Jonah's first hero shot in full Technicolor glory.

N:B: Been forgotting to mention that Jonah won the Best Bust/Character award at the Queen of the Rocketmen Hardcore Modeling Challenge at CG Society earlier in the year. You can see the work in progress thread here also.

Wood Spirits

2009-11-22T08:40:00.001-08:00

Amazing. Two posts in one week! Setting standards that I'm pretty sure I can't maintain. Anyway since I enjoyed the process and subject matter so much, I felt compelled to do more sketches for the Eredo project. These are two common wood spirits that inhabit the forest of Eredo, referred to by Yoruba people as Oro/Iwin. Also I forgot to mention in the last blog post that I attended a lecture by animation legend Bill Plympton earlier this month at MCA, and got to meet him briefly thanks to my old animation professor. He seemed like an affable person and it was just fantastic learning about his techniques and philosophy.

Sungbo

2009-11-20T07:57:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a lot of illustration lately and I decided to channel some of that energy toward a personal project. These are two quick sketches of the main antagonist for a project I've been developing in my spare time. Her name is Queen Sungbo and about a thousand years ago she once ruled over a really large portion of Southern Nigeria, specifically the area North East of present day Lagos. She was a childless widow and commissioned the building of Africa's largest earthwork, a 100 mile long (circumference) system of 20 meter high ramparts and ditches surrounding present day Ijebu Ode. I'm still working out the story of Eredo so I won't even try and explain any of it now, however Eniola as seen previously on the blog is the story's heroine.

Chatterbox Audio Theater

2009-11-02T18:20:00.001-08:00

Hypnosis

Silent Retreat

Over the last week, I worked on these illustrations for the wonderful people at Chatterbox Audio Theater in Memphis. They air live radio performances every month on WKNO, which can also be listened to on their site. In October they had a special Halloween program that they performed on the 31st from 7pm- 9pm which can be listened to here. I created two illustrations based on two stories from the program called Hypnosis, and Silent Retreat written by Robert Arnold, who is also the co-founder and executive director of Chatterbox Audio Theatre. They were really fun to work on as I got to experiment with some techniques and don't deal with material such as this very often Let me know what all ye in blogland think.

Funlola is bald!

2009-10-13T03:53:00.000-07:00

Another character from my brother's comic. Her name is Funlola and yes, she's bald, uber tough, and she's Jupiter Jonah's fellow intrepid adventurer on their quest to find the Eye of Oduduwa. I stuck pretty close to my brother's original concept design above because it captured her attitude perfectly. Her suit also appealed to me because of how simple and striking it is. According to Shobo, she is part human, but mostly Jovian, an alien race of his making. My interpretation of Funlola is below.

With the pictures of her and Jonah below, I was hoping to achieve the intimidating physical presence that I perceived Funlola commanding over her peers in the comic. Right now I'm at the stage where I'm rigging the duo and all the texture work is done. So when I finally get some decent rigs done, you can all finally see them in color and maybe some animation... hopefully.

Africa Benson

2009-10-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

Fell off the blog wagon for a little bit, but only because I've been quite busy working on a couple of projects, some of which I can't post just yet. Here is one I worked on in the last month for the writer/designer, Yegwa Ukpo also known as Spaceboy Nigeria. It was a pleasure working with him, and we had a lot to talk about the current state of Nigerian comics and entertainment. He commissioned me to do a T- shirt illustration of his new character, Africa Benson, a scientist and inter-dimensional traveler. I won't say much more than that about the character as you will be able to read more about her in the upcoming months on Yegwa's site and his upcoming comics. Anyway, the moment captured in the illustration depicts Africa's leap through an inter-dimensional warp portal. I wanted an iconic pose with lots of energy and strength. There are also concepts images and iterations it took to lock down her suit and final look. I would have liked to have kept the poncho in the final illustration but the pose would have made it look like a cape, which I didn't want. Let me know what you guys think.

The Edward Usher Project

2009-08-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

Edward Usher Run cycle from Kenneth Coker on Vimeo.

I just joined up with my brother on a video game called the Edward Usher Project. Its a 2d adventure platformer that looks wonderful, plays great, and is loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe's short story, The Fall of the House of Usher. I'm working on all the animations and character designs for the project and I have to say its quite fun working on 2d animation for a change. Here is a basic run and jump cycle I recently completed. Some of the frames seem kind of choppy because the game engine can only use 2 frames for the jump and 3 frames for the fall, but I think it looks pretty lively and stylized because of that. There's also a video of the game running with a stand in character here.
Anyway, I am however still working on an animatable 3d Jonah so have no fear, he'll show up before the end of the month... I hope.

The Space Faring African

2009-07-30T22:53:00.000-07:00

As promised, the sculpt of Jonah. Still to come... the fully pose able, animated leading man.

Jupiter Jonah

2009-07-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

So I have put creating a color image of Eniola on hold for a while, but I have not been resting on my laurels for the past few weeks. Eniola is a Zbrush sculpt only at the moment and not really animation friendly and for some time I've really wanted to practice a range of animation principles with a humanoid character. I will also be attending Siggraph from August 4th to the 6th, and I wanted another character to add to my portfolio for the job fair there.

Anyway Jupiter Jonah is a great character that my brother, Shobo Coker created a while ago for a comic of the same name. He is currently working on it and has some fantastic images of the characters on his blog here and here. I decided to put my spin on Jonah. Here are my concept sketches with some actual 3d models and sculpts, and animation tests soon to come. So here he is folks, my version of the intrepid Jupiter Jonah: Space Faring African!

I Got Interviewed!

2009-07-06T23:49:00.000-07:00

... Interviewed by the good folks at the African Digital Network. You can read the interview here.
Exciting stuff. hehe

Shot Breakdown

2009-06-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

Please click to read.

Demoreel '09

2009-06-26T04:31:00.000-07:00

Kenneth S. Coker Demo Reel 09 from Kenneth Coker on Vimeo.

I finished my demoreel just in time for the end of the month. It spans the best of the cg work I've done over the last three years. Hopefully, this will be the key to getting a decent job in the animation/ videogame industry. The Shot Breakdown is here. Critiques would be much appreciated.

Eniola

2009-06-21T09:56:00.001-07:00

Some may have noticed that the last few updates on my blog have been Zbrush models. Well, over the last few weeks I decided to move past my usual tinkering with the program and really try and create presentable models with it. I was really unprepared for how lovely Zbrush is to model with. Simply put it is the best 3d modeling software I have ever used. I mean you see zbrush models on CG sites and think it must take forever, or deadly amounts of skill and time to achieve sculpts like that. While knowing other 3d software helped a lot in learning Zbrush, the program really does make you feel like you are actually physically sculpting clay. So anyone with real world scuplting experience will find it pretty wonderful. If only you could animate in Zbrush, then I would dump 3ds max in a proverbial heart beat.

Anyway, I finally realized this character design I've been trying to develop for ages. As stated above her name is Eniola, and she is a somewhat mischevious girl, who is in love with everything Bruce Lee. She has hand tailored a customized "Game of Death" banana yellow jumpsuit and a pair of lady Bruce Lee tiger shoes. Her physical attruibutes are modelled loosely on my sister who has a mole on her nose as well, and mother (both have scars on their chins). Like her idol she considers herself a citizen of the world and has great philosophical aspirations. Stay tuned for a high resolution, color post of Eniola.

Egungun Concept

2009-05-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

This is a small project I'm working on at the moment. This is an Egungun, a messenger of the Yoruba god of death, Iku. I will be using Zbrush to make a digital sculpt of the character over the next couple of weeks. He's supposed to be a character in the upcoming animation I'm slowly working on with my brother. I posted a concept image for the project a while ago here. If you know my brother, Shobo, please poke and prod him about completing the script. Oh and here is the original sketch of the character I did last year.

Iwa gallery: Production Stills

2009-05-13T01:56:00.001-07:00

Iwa gallery: Pre Production

2009-05-13T01:17:00.000-07:00

Iwa

2009-05-05T01:58:00.000-07:00

Iwa from Kenneth Coker on Vimeo.

It is finally finished. It took roughly four months to create using 3ds Max, Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Logic Pro. It was written, directed, and animated by myself, original score and sound design by Michael Peery and Brian Truesby. Click here or on the image to watch in higher res. Enjoy.

A 1 minute trailer for Iwa

2009-04-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

Its without sound at the moment as I'm still working on that, but next week the whole 9 minute short will be completed. Comments are very welcome.

Test Renders for the Orisha

2009-02-11T03:59:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple of test renders of an Orisha who features as a sort of creator figure in my story.

First look for backgrounds.

2009-02-04T16:28:00.000-08:00

Well the storyboards were finished over the weekend and I have begun animating in earnest, however for my illustration class I had to create what you see below to fill the requirements of what is missing from my portfolio. It's not great in my opinion but it is the first solid idea of what I want Ikole Orun to look like. The blueish tint the strongly lit shapes and the foreboding atmosphere. I hope to have some scenes built soon to show you all some render tests. Tah for now.

Side Project

2009-01-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

Some weeks ago, the family decided that it would be kind of nice if we could all do drawings every week based on a common theme or idea. Well, we decided that we should do drawings for a story Shobo (my brother) and I are working on. So only Shobo and I did one this week, but we're hoping to rope the rest of the family in by our efforts. The story is about a little Nigerian girl who gets lost in a forest of spirits and that's all I'll say for now, mostly because the story is still quite in its rudimentary stages.

Hard at work on the cusp of the New Year

2008-12-30T07:33:00.000-08:00

Over the last few weeks I've been working steadily on my animation project. Although I have no footage as of yet, I have this fully rigged character and have been reacquainting myself with some of the intricacies of 3ds max. Here are some renders of the artisan in progress. The render features the artisan that will be used in the animatic, which is what I have been working on to figure out the pacing and structure before I jump into actual production. I will have a short walk cycle as well as concept art posted in the next couple of days. As always, comments and crits are welcome.

Real paintings?!

2008-11-30T19:10:00.001-08:00

Yes, as promised here are the paintings I said I was working on during the semester. They're not as fantastic as I hoped (they look to "heavy" to me), but considering I haven't painted for about 5 years I think they're not so bad.

This is what the Bazaar looked like:

2008-11-30T19:06:00.000-08:00

Every wall in the upper gallery and lower gallery of the college looked like this. Same as every year, but all the same it's still a spectacle.

Final Bazaar Prints

2008-11-28T19:41:00.000-08:00

It was a pretty decent outing, although I figured out pretty quick that my paintings (which didn't sell) probably didn't have a chance from the start. They were too highly priced and I noticed people went for paintings that had specific subjects like animals or flowers. Anyway I'll post them soon, but in the mean time these are the rest of the prints that sold at the bazaar.

The Bazaar inches ever closer

2008-10-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

With less than a month left till the bazaar arrives, students are entering a frenzy stage at MCA (my art school) and of course in an attempt to keep up, I've been trying to kick into high gear too. I have several prints (not to mention 2 neglected paintings) in the works right now and here are two of them for preview purposes. One of them was borne out of an experiment, the other is a serene market scene. Once more, please let me know what you think so I can make necessary improvements.

More Bazaar Stuff

2008-10-12T01:09:00.000-07:00

Another print for the bazaar in the works. This is another re purposed drawing from contemporary concepts in drawing class. Your crits are very welcome as I fully expect them to go through a couple of iterations.

News

2008-08-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

As the summer is drawing to a close, I would like to take some time to explain a few things that are going on with my projects. Well, I only have a week left at my internship in Salt lake city and that means a number of things. First of all, the 'Oro Iwin' posts are going to be on hold for a while, because they were mainly a summer project developed to channel research I had collected and to keep my drawing skills up to a decent level (as I was using Maya (3d software) all summer), plus they were really fun to draw.
Fortunately, this dire news has an upside; this means that upon returning to Memphis in a week, my attention will turn to the mammoth-scale animation I'm working on. The pictures above are a work in progress mask that will feature in said animation. Also I will be working on a painting or two that I plan to sell at the Holiday Bazaar this year (news and plans on that soon).

Anyway to close the chapter on Oro Iwin, several people have asked me what an Oro Iwin actually is. I defined the term earlier, but I guess because it was so long ago they didn't read the post. However, I am more than happy to reiterate. Well here goes; Oro Iwin are a race of beings/spirits that are neither demons, nor Orisha (deity), who are forced to dwell in certain forests in Yoruba land. Oro Iwin were once living beings eventually reincarnated by Olorun (the supreme deity) as spirits serving penance for a certain transgression in a life previously lived. Olorun must make this decision if a being's 'Ase' (life force) does not deserve after life in the ancestral plains or as a lesser Orisha. Oro Iwin all have unique stories,abilities and traits, as a result of this, demonstrated with the ones I threw light on. I hope you enjoyed them people, however do not fear for the next time you see them maybe in a 'Compendium' somewhere... hint hint.

Oro Iwin: Iya Jijo Imo

2008-08-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

Here is an Oro Iwin called Iya Jijo Imo, which literally translates to 'Mysterious Lady.' Well, I knew I wanted lots of calabashes and I had a fairly good idea of her pose and the composition, but the masks came from stray lines that I thought were promising.
She is not based on any existing myth or legend, so the story or understanding of her character that I developed rather is built around the conventional nature of a mystery. The masks of course are an obvious symbol for this and the empty/ full calabashes (you never know) are linked to this key aspect of her character. As with all mysteries, she seeks to confound or trick unsuspecting people in order to better understand the nature of humanity, and many over the centuries have fallen prey to her fancies.

Oro Iwin: Iya Korin

2008-07-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

This character was actually done in the 100 demons scroll section, but I decided to redo her with better execution and an actual explanation of who she is. She is the 'singing lady' or Iya Korin (in Yoruba), who was cast out of her village somewhere in old Oyo because of an age old transgression; She gave birth to twins, which according to old Yoruba customs meant that the mother had an affair with a man besides her husband. She was cast out of the village into the forest of Irunmale where she roams to this day, singing an agonizingly dolorous tune trying to allay the perpetual screams of her unfortunate children.

Oro Iwin: Fere Baale

2008-07-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

This fellow was a fun one to illustrate and his name literally translates to 'Flute Landlord.' He is similar to the Pied Piper except that instead of mice this Iwin Oro leads humans deep into the forest with his his ethereal tune to be transformed into one of his enigmatic race. All that hear his mesmeric tune never leave the forest again.

Oro Iwin: Madame Koin Koin

2008-07-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a lady Yoruba Oro Iwin for a change. Her name was Headmistress Ina Kere (small fire) and she stems from an old tale that most Nigerian school kids know, but here is my telling of the old tale.
She was once the headmistress of a prominent school in the old Oyo kingdom in Yoruba land. She was of course very strict and puritanical, as her name implies. So on a hot day the students of her school grew tired of their Headmistress' wrath and hesitantly dared one amongst them to retaliate. It turned out to be the headmistress' little son who was instructed to steal his mother's shoe. Unfortunately, he was successful and all the students knew this when they could hear cries of pain. The hot afternoon ground scorched the Headmistress' feet as she looked for her stolen shoe. It turned out that hearing his mother's cries the headmistress' son fled into the forest nearby for fear of a swift and painful reprimand. In time the boy did not return, and a determined and angry Headmistress Ina Kere followed in search of her lost son all the while calling out.
They never returned, and it was said that hunters and travelers over the years could hear cries of anger slowly turn to cries of sorrow. Till this day kids in Nigerian schools (especially kids in boarding houses in the middle of nowhere) hear the spirit of Headmistress Ina Kere, (which she came to be known as) calling out to her lost son all the while the eerie, paralyzing 'koin koin' sound ringing from her one shoe as she slowly wanders through the night. Today she is popularly known as Madame Koin Koin.

Wireframes

2008-07-02T11:28:00.000-07:00

Here are the wire frames my brother requested earlier. They are screen snapshots so please excuuse the quality. The wire frame is overlaid over the normal map.

Test normal mapped artisan head

2008-07-02T10:40:00.001-07:00

These are normal map tests for the previously shown model. The final normal map will be sculpted in zbrush. This was just a quick test to see if I could pull of normal mapping successfully on the character (it being the first time I've used the process). Any comments or crits are welcome.

Oro Iwin: Baba Itaniro

2008-07-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here is the newest edition to my list of Iwin Oro characters. His name is Baba Itaniro (Father of stories or the storyteller). I realized while working on this guy that I'm facing the same dilemma I encountered when I was doing the 100 demons scroll. The demons that were myth- related in the scroll were a great challenge because there is such a lack of visual information on what Yoruba mythological creatures and deities look like and also the literary accounts vary, or are very sparse, however I believe this is why I enjoy creating them so much. I am able to infuse the character and visual identity without much of a preconceived mental fog, I also believe they look a little more unique than say if I would have referenced a design from some established visual source or the other. That said though, when I do look for visual info I look to Yoruba sculpture (Ife, Benin, Nok, Oyo, etc), a lot of character can be derived from those iconic looking sculptures.

2008-06-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

As a reminder here is one of the original concept sketches I was shooting for with the model. I made some changes to accommodate his appearance from many angles, particularly his profile which is what I enjoy most about the character.

Test Renders

2008-06-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Here are low polygon renderings of the artisan's head which I created in 2 days in Maya. I'm about to build a higher polygon model with more detail which will make him look more like he's cut from rock. I just wanted to show work in progress and they are not the highest quality renders because of time. I'm hoping that he will be able to emote sadness and contemplation with an idle look. Let me know what you think.

We begin again.

2008-06-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

I have recently been working on a character here at the studio and I just wanted to post the concept sketches... He looks familiar because i'm working on the Oni Ise Owo animation like I said I would... I will post story boards and the plot synopsis soon. For now here's the character.

Normal blogging resumes: Oro Iwin

2008-06-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

Ever since the end of Illustration 3 I've been in Salt Lake City, Utah in a video game company called Sensory Sweep as an art intern... I've been familiarizing, settling in and getting organized, which is why I haven't posted anything in a while. I, however, have done some work while in Salt Lake. For instance, here is one image in a set of a creatures I'm working to realize. He is a creature of the Forest of Irunmale called an Oro Iwin (from the book Forest of a Thousand Demons by D. O. Fagunwa) . Oro Iwin are neither deity nor spirit and definitely not human but share characteristics of all of these beings. This particular Oro Iwin enjoys dancing and playing his shekere (maracas) while annoying hunters with the odd ribbit sounds made with his frog-like neck sac. Which is why I called him Opolo Baba (Father of frogs)Expect more soon!

Word/Picture relationships

2008-05-30T14:55:00.001-07:00

Visual Metaphor revisited

2008-05-28T19:57:00.001-07:00

The platypus is the key to mammalian genetic evolution

Original piece here

Tesselation Revisited: Sustainable Energy

2008-05-28T19:31:00.001-07:00

Old tessellation

Visual Rhyme Silhouettes Revisited

2008-05-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

Corinthian Fish

Cactus Kid

Lettering Studies

2008-05-27T13:33:00.001-07:00

Insect lettering study

Burnt toast lettering study

Blind contour lettering study

Negative lettering study

Scribble stick (3 foot) lettering study

Visual Metaphor

2008-05-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

Duck-billed platypus; understanding evolutionary mammalian biology.

Artist Research: Nicolas Bouvier

2008-05-24T22:23:00.008-07:00

Bouvier is a French illustrator/concept artist that now lives and works in Dallas, Texas working for ID software. He traveled extensively when he was young and perhaps this influenced his love for landscape, architecture, and various cultures. He has worked on several projects including Alone in the Dark 4, Prince of Persia 2 or Ubisoft, for Darkworks-Studio that have collaborated with Namco and Capcom. He has also worked in Montreal to work for Ubisoft on Assassin's Creed. He has also been illustrating book covers in France and England throughout hi life. Examples include: Lou Anders and PYR publishing. I find his work intriguing because he is able to depict the most complex and otherworldly scenes effortlessly and still imbibing the illustrations with energy and life.
his blog
his site

Artist Research: Sam Weber

2008-05-24T22:23:00.007-07:00

Weber is an American Illustrator born in Alaska, but grew up in Ontario, Canada. He attended the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary and then moved to NY for graduate school at the School of Visual Arts. He worked as and assistant art director for the OpEd page at the New York Times for two years after graduating. Right now he mostly does freelance illustration. He has published work for Atlantic monthly, New York Times Book Review, Time, Rolling Stone, SEE magazine, Business Week, The New York Times, Playboy and a host of other clients lining up for him. Weber's use of ethereal imagery and realistically depicted figures is an interesting combination that seems to evoke thoughts of individuals that are trying to fit into their place in an environment. His use of flatly rendered graphic elements and rendered elements also works effectively representing unsettling and uncanny looking imagery.
his site

Artist Research: Murray Kimber

2008-05-24T22:23:00.005-07:00

Kimber is a Canadian illustrator and graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1988. He became a freelance illustrator for subsequent years working as a children's book for packaging, billboards, postage stamps, etc and then began teaching for 5 years until 1997 when he moved to Mexico with his wife. He returned to British Columbia, Canada in 2001. His clients include the Vancouver Opera, American Express, Canada Post, GM, the U.S. Tennis Open. His work seems built for the iconographic/ communicating ideas in a deceivingly simple manner of stylizing forms. He has a great manner of oil application and his color choices always strongly emphasize the emotional tone of his illustrations.

Artist Research: Kevin Michael Dalton

2008-05-24T22:23:00.003-07:00

Kevin Michael Dalton is an American freelance illustrator born in 1983 in Detroit Michigan. After high school Dalton enrolled in the College for Creative Studies and tutored under David Chai for 2 years learning animation and character design. He now works on commissions and freelance illustration like Flight volume:4 comic. He lives and works in North Hollywood, California
His working method is a such:
"I tend to use regular white copy paper 8x11 for starting things out or Bristol if I'm trying to be extra fancy or selling work. I ruff out the drawing pretty hard in red col-erase, go over it with pencil or ink, I knock out the red in Photoshop (this saves for lightboxing), then I use Photoshop to color mostly since it’s the fastest. But whenever I got the time I like to use prisma color markers, watercolors, and any other traditional medium that suits the mood. That’s where the real fun is at, sitting waiting for things to dry, smelling the paints, getting it on your hands, it really touches your inner child. I tend to now more than ever just color digitally using gradients, cuts, and the airbrush tool. Since my work is mostly 2-dimensional I think this way fits it the most." source
Dalton's character design and color usage are his strongest attributes I think a lot can be learned from his working method too. His characters hold a lot of personality and visual interest which all illustrators strive for. His style of drawing also translates into animation which is a quality I'm very interested in too.
his site

Artist Research: Svetlin Velinov

2008-05-24T22:23:00.001-07:00

Velinov is a 29 year old Bulgarian illustrator/concept artist that lives and works in Sofia, Bulgaria. He graduated at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia with a concentration in animation in 2003 after a brief stint at the National Academy of Arts.He was trained with a staunch adherence to the academic styles of painting, but later abandoned it in favor of digital media which he now uses exclusively. His work has been featured in the CG Society's Gallery of Choice Awards, on Conceptart.org, in Format Magazine, Death Jr. 2 for Konami, World of Warcraft for Blizzard entertainment, etc. Velinov has a very lively and dynamic style and is one of those cg artist pushing the media to its fullest potential. His style has also garnered attention from Dark Horse comics and a future project is in talks.
Interview with Velinov
his site

Artist Research: Michael Kutsche

2008-05-24T22:22:00.003-07:00

Michael Kutsche is a German illustrator/concept artist, animator/designer that lives and works in Berlin. He has been working in the visual effects industry since 1998 working in advertising, video games, and feature films. His passion is creating character concepts and Kutsche uses the programs Painter, Photoshop, XSI in conjunction with each other to bring his illustrations to fruition. His style varies depending on the project he's working on, but usually retains a level of polish and inspired character development. His clients include SEGA, BMW, The Creative Assembly, Sony Ericsson, Fiftyeight3D, Publicis, etc.
his site

Artist Research: Alex Toth

2008-05-24T22:22:00.001-07:00

Alex Toth is arguably the most influential illustrator's illustrator in the last 50 years. Toth's work spans from comics, to animation, toy design, storyboarding for movies and tv, and even teaching. Toth's work was revered amongst his peers and the subsequent generations of illustrators that followed. Artists like mark Chiarello, Tim Sale, and Paul Pope to name a few are greatly influnced by his work. His work for Hanna Barbera designing characters for Johnny Quest, Scooby Doo, The Herculoids, Space Ghost and many more ensure that every kid in the born in the last 40 years has seen his work. Some of Toth's influences include Howard Pyle and Milton Caniff. Toth's story telling and most of all spell bindingly elegant design sensibilities set him apart. He is a true legend. Alex Toth lived from 1928- 2006.

See his work here
There is also a great podcast tribute here over on Sidebarnation

Artist Research: George Pratt

2008-05-24T22:21:00.006-07:00

George Pratt was born in 1960, October 30th in Beaumont, Texas. He moved to NY to study Drawing and Painting at the Pratt institute where he also taught later in his career. He also taught at the Joe Kubert school in New Jersey. His work appears in private collections throughout the world. His graphic novels like Enemy Ace: War Idyllic for DC Comics/ Warner books have garnered several awards and nominations and have been translated into many languages and have won numerous awards, most notably the Eisner Award for Best Multimedia Artist. He teaches full-time at Ringling School of Art & Design, Sarasota, Florida and each summer with The Illustration Academy. I really enjoy Pratt's use of color, a juxtaposition of muddied chromatic grays with muted colors producing tension which in tern creates form, space, and story telling.
his site

Artist Research: Sterling Hundley

2008-05-24T22:21:00.005-07:00

Born in 1976 Sterling Hundley is an American illustrator and painter that graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1998. Even as a student Hundley's work was sought after by the CMYK, Step by Step magazine. In the summers of 1998 and 1999 he attended the Illustration Academy where he is now a full time instructor over summers. His work is publeished in in the pages of Communication Arts magazine, American Illustration, Print Magazine, the Los Angeles Society of Illustrators, 3 x 3, Graphis, etc. Some of his clients include: Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Arena Stage, Bungie, Topps, Marvel, Atlantic Monthly, the Grammys, GQ, the New Yorker, the Progressive, Vibe, the New York Times,etc. He has exhibited is work round the world and i a juror for the Society of Illustrators, Society of Illustrators Scholarship and 3x3 magazine. He is truly a prolific artist that many respect and sometimes revere and has much to do with the sense of style that he infuses into his art work. He bends perspective and space to provide more interesting compositions and uses planes of color and shape to define form. His use of collaged textures also often times works seamlessly with his paintings.
his site
his blog

Artist Research: Mark English

2008-05-24T22:21:00.003-07:00

Mark English is an American illustrator/painter born in Hubbard, Texas in 1933. He attended the University of Texas and graduated from The Art Center College in Los Angles in 1960. His work has featured over decades in several publications as McCalls, Time, Sports Illustrated, Redbook, Atlantic Monthly. His client list is as such: IBM, U.S. Park Service, RCA, GE, Ford, GM, and Honeywell. In 1995 Mark began painting for galleries solely even though he had already exhibited for solo shows and group shows throughout the United States, Canada, and Japan. He was inducted to The Illustrators Hall of Fame in New York in 1983. I tend not to like painting styles that use a lot of luminescence and transparency to convey their point, but English just does it well.
His Site
Illustration Academy demonstration.

Artist Research: Gary Kelley

2008-05-24T22:21:00.001-07:00

Gary Kelley is an American illustrator that received his degree in art from the University of Northern Iowa, began his career as a graphic designer and art director. He has received awards from the New York Society of Illustrators including the Hamilton King Award in 1992. His clients include the New Yorker Magazine, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Atlantic Monthly, Time, Newsweek, GQ, and many major publishers and advertising agencies. His most recent endeavor is a mural at a renovated Barnes and Nobel Bookstore in New York. He is also a guest lecturer at the Illustration Academy held every summer. His painting work uses cubist principles and his color palette is influenced a lot by his use of pastels. Kelley's work is great because it effortlessly evokes the energy of the situations he's trying to depict like a Jazz concert or Spanish dance,etc. The colors and interplay of figure and background really go a long way in describing the mood of bygone classic eras..
his site
Here is a demonstration by Kelley on the Illustration Academy site.

Artist Research: Natalie Ascencios

2008-05-24T22:20:00.005-07:00

Natalie Ascencios is a well known American illustrator and graduate of the New School University’s Eugene Lang College and Parsons School of Design in NY/Paris. Ascencios has been a commercial illustrator since 1994. She has won many awards-for both illustration and puppetry. She now teaches drawing in the New York School of Visual Arts. She has also done murals and exhibited her work in the U.S. and abroad, with some of her work in private collections like Sean Penn, Kevin Smith and Oprah Winfrey. I find her work attractive because of her delicate use of color and the presence of 'drawing' in her paintings. Her paintings breath life because of these reasons and her inclusion of themes of music, history, and culture. She regularly publishes work in the New York Times Review of Book, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, GQ, Penguin Books, Entertainment Weekly, Simon and Schuster and several Illustration Annuals.
her site

Artist Research: Jon Foster

2008-05-24T22:20:00.003-07:00

Foster is an illustrator that earned his BFA in the Rhode Island School of Design in 1989 and currently lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island. The main subjects in Foster's illustrative work are sci- fi and fantasy and his images oddly posed seemingly animated characters and environments help to bring these worlds to life. Everything from his painting application which stylizes anatomy in favor of dynamism and suggestive motion to his complex perspective choices and composition make this illustrator unique in my eyes. He ha worked on books like Mistborn, Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, Alternity, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and many other Dark Horse comic books. His method involves painting with oils and adding digital embellishments.
his site

Artist Research: Kent Williams

2008-05-24T22:20:00.001-07:00

Williams is an American illustrator/painter that studied in the Pratt institute of New York. He has exhibited his paintings in a number of galleries in NY, LA, Sundance, Utah and San Fransisco. He has published his work in magazines like Playboy, Omni, Swallow and the Learning Channel magazine. He has been awarded four medals from the Society of Illustrators and has received the Yellow Kid Award. Some of his most accomplished work has been seen in graphic novels like his recent collaboration with Darren Arnofsky on the Fountain book, Havok and Wolverine for Epic comics and Blood: A Tale. His paintings use a lot of symbolism and suggestive imagery of narratives that inform the viewer of a collective binding force of humanity. His painting ventures into the realm of expressive but is quite grounded in naturalistic figurative painting. He tends to use muted colors with slightly tortured surface quality.
his site

Artist Research: Simon Goinard- Phelipot

2008-05-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

Goinard- Phelipot is a self taught French illustrator that has worked in several fields including advertising, comics, and cg companies. His work is a subtle blend of traditional and digital media, relying more on traditional media. His work's great because of his expressive reliance on the materials he uses to paint, which ubsequently does the work of depicting mood and tone for communication and storytelling.
his site

Artist Research: Aaron Robinson

2008-05-20T00:10:00.001-07:00

British illustrator Aaron Robinson lives and works in Derbyshire, UK and has numerous client including GQ Magazine, Penguin Classics, Penguin Readers, Faber & Faber, and Chatsworth Communications. He also exhibits his work in various galleries in and around. He classifies his work into a dichotomy of mixed media illustration and contemporary figurative oil painting. He produces his illustration work under the banner Pixel Fingers and is a blend of digital media, mixed media and conceptual work. He recently separated his portraiture and illustration into two separate blogs and upon seeing the kind of work the split is understood. His painting has a realist quality to it with contemporary touches of abstraction with media handling and perspective, while his illustrations are more whimsical and imagery that branches away from reality. I feel you can learn a lot more from his phenomenal paintings personally because of his use of color, material handling and perspective choices among other things.
His blog

Artist Research: Joe Sorren

2008-05-20T00:09:00.004-07:00

Joe Sorren is an American illustrator born in Chicago, Illinois in 1970, but was raised in Arizona. He graduated from Northern Arizona University in 1993 and began to work for publications like the New Yorker, Time, Juxtapoz,Rolling Stone, Warner Bros, etc. His work has been used for album cover art like the Attraction to All Things Uncertain. His work is almost exclusively painted with oil on canvas and takes on a conceptual and children's story book quality. He is a gold medal winner in the Society of Illustrators. He has exibited work in group shows in galleries in LA, San Francisco, and New York and has completed a mural that took nine months to complete in Flagstaff, Arizona where he lives. The most compelling aspect of his art is odd sense that something is alway occurring beneath the superficial painting. His colors always hold high chroma, but despite their forthright nature they still look unsettling. He also has an interesting way of deforming characters into rigid yet quietly expressive poses.

His Site

Artist Research: Daniel Bueno

2008-05-20T00:09:00.003-07:00

Daniel Bueno is an architect, illustrator, comics artist and graphic designer from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He graduated in Architecture and Urbanism from the University of Sao Paulo in 2001. He has done illustrations for postcards, magazines, as well as logo designs and illustrates for Folha de S. Paulo and the magazine Caros Amigos. He contributes to publications of Editorial Abril and the Front comic book. Illustrationmundo.com classifies him as a pop surrealist. His style is based on a collage technique that employs the use of anatomically stylized characters, painterly texture, photographic elements, and pattern. I think his work is compelling because of its deceptive simplicity. The flatness of space in most of his painting and 'naive' proportions of his figures create a unique and fun visual communication. For this reason I think his work also translates well into animation which you can see at his site.

Artist Research: Megan Kimber

2008-05-20T00:09:00.001-07:00

Megan Kimber is an American painter/illustrator born in 1975 in Poughkeepsie, New York where she grew up, although she now lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1997 with a BFA in Illustration and received her master's degree in illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design and has exhibited her paintings and illustrations in galleries in Rhode Island, New York, Savannah and Birmingham in the Nordys gallery and has designed skateboards for Yellow Brand Skateboarding. She was listed in the May 2008 issue of of 3x3 magazine. The magazine Lipstick described her work as such:
"You say "creepy," we say "moody." Megan's art has an uncanny quality about it, as if she has captured the fleeting images of a strange but beautiful dream. And what a dream it is: somber-faced little girls, lions that look ready to speak, unearthly figures (and sheep) that cavort as if set free from a Hieronymus Bosch painting."
I enjoy her painting because of the technical aspects like the quality of hundreds of defined planes of color all interacting intelligently to tell a story and the mood it subsequently evokes.
Her site

Artist Research: Ray Jones

2008-05-20T00:08:00.002-07:00

American illustrator Ray Jones recently graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art earning a BFA in illustration. He is currently pursuing an MFA at the School of Visual Arts and has published work in the New York Times. I think Jones' work looks great because of his smart blend of traditional and digital work. He usually does line work (which looks stunning and fresh) for his illustrations and then overlays digital paint with a wash of watercolor to achieve texture. I also enjoy Jones' imagery and characters because of their originality and stylistic execution which evokes an ethereal and otherworldly sensibility (which is something strive for with my personal stuff).
his site
and blog

Artist Research: Jeremy Forson

2008-05-20T00:08:00.001-07:00

Forson is an American illustrator/painter that was born in Reno, Nevada in 1983. He moved to Oakland, California and attended the college called at the time California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) and graduated with distinction in 2005. He mostly works in San Fransisco, California as a freelance illustrator, but dabbles in graphic design, bookmaking, printmaking and web design. He has contributed work for Juxtapoz, SF magazine, and the magazine True Eye.
his site
his blog

Artist Research: Emmanuel Malin

2008-05-20T00:07:00.000-07:00

Emmanuel Malin is an illustrator born in 1982 and lives in Paris, France. He studied urbanism and architecture and received another degree in medical and scientific illustration. His clients include LaRecherche, Brandweek magazine, National Veterinary school of Alfort, ann the Japanese magazine Sky. Malin's work represents the level of finish I wish I could achieve with my digital illustrations. The combination of vector graphics, design, line art and texture is a process I have explored with lesser results. He is a great resource for ideas about aesthetic and mood execution. He also has a great site.

Artist Research: Andrew Jones

2008-05-19T23:05:00.002-07:00

Andrew Jones, also known as Android Jones is an American illustrator born in Boulder, Colorado. He works with charcoal, oil, but primarily with digital media. He is noted to have completed 1000 self portraits in 3 years (roughly a portrait a day). Jones also spent a lot of time in Europe doing street portraits which would influence his later endeavors. He has worked as a concept artist for the video game company Retro Studios, Black Isle Studios and now currently co-owns Massive Black which has studios in LA and Shanghai. He co-founded the website conceptart.org with college buddy Jason Manley.Andrew Jones is a revolutionary artist in the digital field because of recent experimental methods with his work. He is often hired by musicians (mostly electronica) to illustrate the concert going on around him live (live digital painting or as he calls it "Shape Sifting"). He uses a laptop, Corel painter and Zbrush, a large wacom tablet and sketches away until he ends up with an image seen above (banner format) capturing the tone of the concert and live emotion. This really an exciting an artist is pushing digital media toward and it really makes one wonder what more can be done with the fledgling practice.

his site
clip of his work as an optical DJ

Artist Research: Linda Bergqvist

2008-05-19T23:05:00.001-07:00

Linda Bergqvist is an award winning artist born in Sweden in 1977. She studied education and teaching at university at the Jonokoping University, but later witched her emphasis to illustration and storytelling. Her work tends to veer toward the fantasy realm thematically using mystical narratives and ethereal settings. She works mainly with a Wacom tablet and employs a perfectionist attitude towards her work using photo reference loosely. Her work has been featured in artist compilations like the CG society.com book D'artiste and editions of Expose. She has been working on her fantasy world of Furiae for several years and intends to publish a book based on it (she also writes). She recently worked as a concept artist for The Golden Compass movie and likes to dabble in other media like making fully painted and complex paper mache masks. Lastly she also publishes several online tutorials.
her site

Artist Research: Sarah Mesinga

2008-05-19T23:05:00.000-07:00

Sarah Mesinger is a character designer and comic artist that lives and works in Texas. Mesinga is a graduate of Sheridan College's classical animation program. She has worked as an animator for tv like Jimmy Neutron and several animated films like Warner Bros. Ant Bully, but is currently working on a graphic novel, called Flight. Her work is interesting to me because she manages to infuse her own style consistently into every character design, illustration that he does. It is a fairy tale illustration book type style with an edge stemming from her unique manner of rendering form and anatomy. Her digital painting style is also very loose, but grounder in her drawing ability which is a skill I can identify with.
Her site
Her blog

Artist Research: Ian Francis

2008-05-19T23:04:00.004-07:00

UK artist, Ian Francis was born July 7th 1979 in Bristol England./7/79. He has a BFA (honors) in illustration form the University of West England. He describes his works as such:

'My work is about modern life, particularly television, world events, celebrities, and day-to-day living. It's about pornography and news reports from war zones instead of sex and death.'
His current work seems to me like the ultimate paradigm of what one can achieve with great skill at mixed media. He uses everything from acrylic, pen, charcoal, ink, collaged textures, photo transfers, etc. Francis said on his site that he use to combine all these skills digitally, but switched over to the traditional media (I'm sure his strong deign sense was influenced by his work digitally) in the Autumn of 2006 with stunning and fresh results.
An interview
His site

Artist Research: Bill Sienkiewicz

2008-05-19T23:04:00.003-07:00

Boleslav (William) Felix Robert Sienkiewicz known as Bill Sienkiewicz was born in Blakeley, Pennsylvania was born May 5th 1958. He attended the Newark School of Fine and Indutrial Arts. Sienkiewicz is best known for his work on the comic book series Elektra (Marvel) and his unorthodox style of rendering in the comics industry which involves mixed media like mimograph, collage, oil and watercolor painting. He began his career working on Moon Knight and the Hulk for Marvel in 1985 and illustrated covers for The Mighty Thor, Tranformers, etc. Sienkiewicz has alo worked on several titles for DC including Aquaman and Batman. He has also illustrated album covers for artist like Jimi Hendrix (Voodoo) and Tori Amos. His most recent work was illustrating pencils for the graphic novel 30 days of night. The most compelling aspect of Sienkiewicz's art to me is his mixed media. His skill with th combination of water color, collage and ink produces stunning visuals that usually evoke mood first in the mind then comprehension. That reason and stylization of form and anatomy is why I think his work is so well respected.
His site

Artist Research: John Berkey

2008-05-19T23:04:00.001-07:00

John Berkey was born in North Dakota in 1932. Although he just recently passed away in April of this year in 2008 I felt he was worth mentioning with this list of contemporary artists because of his influence on this generations illustrative world. He is best known for his sci-fi themed illustrations, but actually began his career in Artists Inc Minneapolis and then Brown and Bigelow advertising agency. After an eight year period in advertising and calendar illustration he turned to freelance illustration in the 60s and never looked back. He created some of the original concept illustration for the original Star Wars trilogy for Lucasfilm and also painted the old Elvis Stamp. He also did a lot of poster and novel illustration (Isaac Asimov novels), work for National Geographic, Doubleday Advertising, etc . His city of residence in Excelsior, Minnesota honored him with "John Berkey Day." He worked with a variety of media like acrylic, casein, and goauche mostly achieving similar impressionistic results. This was the backbone of his style which offered movement and dynamism to usually static themed sci-fi scenario. This neo impressionist style is one of the main reasons Berkey's name is spoken with reverence universally among illustrators. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Society of Illustrators in 2004.
John Berkey site

Artist Research: Michael Cho

2008-05-19T23:02:00.000-07:00

Michael Cho is illustrator/cartoonist living and working in Toronto, Canada. He has done cover illustration for the Toronto literary magazine Taddle Creek, the Swedish design agency Karnhuset, and has done inking work for DC comics like Justice League: New Frontier Special. He is currently working on his online web comic, Papercut which is part of the Transmission-X group of web comics organized by Toronto based artists. His strongest influence is Jack Kirby's work. Michael Cho's work stands out to me not only because of his method of inking, but his splicing of reality and cartooning with a duo tone graphic treatment.

his blog

Tesselation: Sustainable energy

2008-05-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

Tesselations

2008-05-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

Gap Method, Slice Method, and Linear Method

Artist Research: Lenil Francis Yu

2008-05-15T23:28:00.003-07:00

Lenil Francis Yu is a 30 year old illustrator/comic book artist born in 1977 in the Philippines. He started working in the United States for Marvel on Wolverine, X-men and later moved to DC working on Superman: Birthright. He has also done cover illustration for the new Conan books and is currently working on a new Avengers series at Marvel.
I assume his process is largely from pencils to ink ten straight to digital coloring with a wacom tablet.
His work is unique because of his energetic line work and his approach to color which looks like an unexpected blend between watercolor and a pastel palette.
His work

Artist Research: Cary Nord

2008-05-15T23:28:00.001-07:00

The American Cary Nord began his career as a comic book artist working on franchises like Marvel's Daredevil. He worked om various titles for DC and Marvel, but is best known for his work on the new Conan the Barbarian series for Dark Horse, which is where his work hits its stride. His work for Conan is a distinctive blend of digital coloring and energetic, almost gestural drawing style. He also does cover illustration for the Conan books and he has mot recently been working on Marve'ls Ultimate Human series.
Site related to him

Artist Research: Mike Mignola

2008-05-15T23:27:00.003-07:00

Born on September 16 1960 in Berkley California, Mignola is an American comic book artist and illustrator. He began hi career illustrating cover for the Comic Reader. He worked as an inker for Marvel and DC and notably working on Batman in the 1980s. He worked on indepent comics with Craig P. Russel to create Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. He also worked as a storyboarder and designer for Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula and Blade II. He would later work on the animation Atlantis under Disney and a movie adaptation of his own comic Hellboy in 2004. Hellboy was an original series published by Dark Horse that brought Mignola into the limelight with its rich blend of horror, humor, and folklore. The success of Hellboy has led to several spin-off comics like B.P.R.D and Abe Sapien.
Alan Moore is quoted as saying Mignola's work looks like a blend of German expressionism and Jack Kirby who was in fact a major influence on Mignola. His work features characters and environments with heavily shadowed areas, bulky anatomy and a strong sense of design and composition. He works mostly with pen and ink exclusively but at times does watercolor treatments for covers. Hellboy has also been made into feature length animations.
Hellboy site

Artist Research: Dave Mckean

2008-05-15T23:27:00.001-07:00

Dave Tench Mckean was born on December 29 1963 in Berkshire England and has become one of the world's most celebrated illustrator's. His most famous work came out of a partnership with the American writer Neil Gaiman. The pair have collaborated on a number of graphic novels like The Sandman, Mr. Punch and The Day I Swapped my Dad or Two Goldfish. He has worked for DC on Batman: Arkhum Asylum and several CD cover illustrations including work or Tori Amos, Michael Nyman, etc. Mckean made his directorial debut with Mirror Mask with screenplay written by Gaiman and has since worked on the Harry Potter movies as a concept artist.
His process includes collaging almost every single artistic process known to man including photography, puppetry, digital panting, and several other traditional media. He combines all of these processes via digital media. He is also an accomplished jazz pianist.
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Artist Research: David Mack

2008-05-15T23:26:00.003-07:00

David Mack is an American comic book artist/illustrator who is most recognized for the success of his original comic book Kabuki, which he wrote and illustrated published first by Image Comics , but now by Marvel's imprint ICON. He graduated from university with a major in Graphic Design and a minor in English. He ha received many prestigious nominations for Eisner awards and Max-und Moritz award for best imported comic in Germany. He has worked as a writer/ author for several Daredevil comic. He has designed CD cover illustrations for musicians like Paul McCartney and his work has been hung in galleries in the LA Museum of art.
He works primarily with watercolor paint and incorporates collage elements in his work . He is known for innovative storytelling which emphasize mood and pacing and page design as well as unexpected color choices. He is currently working on a screen adaptation of Kabuki with 20th century fox.
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Artist Research: Bayo Akinsiku

2008-05-15T23:26:00.001-07:00

Born in Leicester city, England to Nigerian parents, Bayo Akinsiku (Siku) moved to Lagos, Nigeria as a young boy and grew up there with his father, eventually ending up studying many disciplines in art at the Yaba College of Technology. He majored in Graphic Design and graduated with honors. He left for England again and sought work as a Graphic designer, but soon grew tired of that career and began looking for a job as a comic book illustrator. After harrowing trials he was hired by 2000AD comics (Britain's largest comic publisher). He began work on Judge Dredd magazine, painting a full length graphic novel called Fetish; a story with Judge Dredd in a post apocalyptic Africa. His style came to full glorious fruition here, although of course distinctive work like that took few people aback because of the hyper stylized color schemes and strangely enough Judge Dredd's chin. The 'chin' actually created a split in the fans of the Judge Dredd series; the pro-Siku Judge Dredd fans and on the other end of the spectrum fans who actually took the time to set up an anti-Siku website, despite this Fetish was well received and widely acclaimed. He has since worked as a concept artist for Nexus, Nickelodeon, Marvel Comics and was a Visual Director for Elixir studios where he worked on the critically acclaimed video game Evil Genius. His style hyper exaggerates the human form elongating planar anatomy, all brought to finish with acrylic paint or digital coloring (Photoshop and Illustrator) and sometimes 3d work using 3ds max. His most recent work is a modern day adaption of the stories of the bible called the Manga Bible which was actually praised by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
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