Monday Morning Pickled Sketch

I got the urge to sketch during today's morning meeting, so I drew this..... I just penciled some random circles and then started cross hatching. I was not really sure what I was drawing.........


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...... then I added some color..........


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Enjoy,

Jack

WOLVERINE ON THE CRAPPER

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Here are the original pencil and ink drawings of Wolverine on the Crapper I created for Wizard Magazine. I really haven't thought about this version of the drawing for quite a long time, I really wasn't sure if I had still kept this art in my archives. So, tonight I decided to do a little digging around in my art pile to see if I could find it. After about a half-an-hour of searching, I was able to find both the pencil drawing and the ink drawing......

When I drew this version of Wolverine, I was so sure that Wizard was going to use it, I went from pencils to inks and then to color without getting editorial approval. To my amazement, Wizard wanted something completely different, a more calm, exhausted and worn out from taking a dump Wolverine..... I was a little disappointed that they did not want to use this version because I thought this version had a little more humor and action in it.... reluctantly, I went back to the drawing board and came up with the version you see in the "Wizard Magazine #200" post below.

Enjoy,

Jack

Great Review on Scud the Disposable Assassin #23

Another great review by Michael Goldberg from "Criticize This". Michael always seems to give a well informed and educated opinion about what he reviews.

Enjoy,

Jack

Wizard Magazine #200

Many years ago..... about 1998 or 1999, I was hired to illustrate various comic illustrations for Wizard Magazine. I was usually called upon to illustrate the more "humorous" comic illustrations to run with their articles or features, I was also called upon to illustrate a lot of Pokemon characters (let me tell you, there were a lot of them) for their sister magazine "IN Power".

A couple of months ago, I was contacted and interviewed by Wizard Magazine for a feature they were going to be running in their 200th issue. This feature was about the best artwork they had ever commissioned for their magazine. I was honored to have three of my illustrations choosen for the feature. Below are the three images that they picked.
Also, pictured below is the Kevin Smith illustration with glasses that I had originally submitted first to Wizard. I thought that the image with the glasses captured the likeness more than without the glasses. But the editors at Wizard disagreed, and I was directed to remove the glasses for the article.

I have talked about the "Wolverine on the Crapper" and the "Bugs and Homer" boxing illustration in my past blog postings, so I won't go into detail about those here.....

I really miss doing those illustrations for Wizard Magazine, I had a great time drawing the popular characters in many odd and funny situations. I am also very proud of the fact that I am one of the few that has actually gotten paid for drawing Wolverine taking a shit.


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Enjoy,

Jack

Scud the Disposable Assassin #21 and #23

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Now appearing at a comic book store near you are issues #21 (2nd printing) and #23 of Scud the Disposable Assassin. I contributed the cover art for the 2nd printing of issue #21 and also contributed a pin-up for issue #23.

The black and white illustration was completed first. Rob Schrab asked if I would be interested in doing a pin-up for one of the new issues, and I was more than happy to provide an illustration. When I came up with the idea, I wanted to somehow create an image that incorporated the feeling I get from looking at all of the old "Ultraman" pictures and television episodes. I was also very aware of Rob's affection towards Ultraman and his favorites being the episodes that are dubbed. Taking all of that into consideration, I thought that I would do the illustration in sort of a movie-poster style using an iconic pose for Scud that was pure Ultraman and then working in my Cheerleader character that has been with Scud in all of the illustrations that I have done of him so far. I also asked my wife to translate things like "sureality just got funky", "Scud the Disposable Assassin" into Japanese. She said it would be difficult to get an exact translation, but she would give me something that would be very close to the same meaning.

About a month after I sent the image to Rob, he asked if I would be willing to create a color version that would be used for the cover of the 2nd printing of issue #21. I got to work, colorized the image and did some re-illustration on parts of the image. I also wanted to make sure that we kept all of the Japanese text on the image. I thought that it would be "authentic" to keep that kind of thing intact in the image.

So, after all of that work...... both of the images are still basically the same thing, the only differences are:
.....One illustration is in black and white and the other illustration is in color.
.....I changed the color illustration by replacing my "Cheerleader" girl character with Rob's character "Black Octopus". (The thought behind this was that would give the cover image more relevance to what was going on in the series.)
.....Adding the large Japanese version of the Scud logo behind Scud.

I had a lot of fun illustrating this. It suddenly hit me that it has been over 10 years since I was working in comics industry full time. Once I started working in advertising industry, I really haven't had the time to do comic work. It was really nice to do something like this again and the best part was getting to work with Rob again. As Rob said, "it was great to get the band back together".

Thanks again for the opportunity Rob!!!

Enjoy,

Jack

P.S. I just finished working with Rob doing the design for the Scud the Disposable Assassin Omnibus, "The Whole Shebang!". The book is going to be beautiful and I promise that you will not be disappointed. Make sure you buy both the softcover and hardcover versions that will be coming out in June 2008 (hopefully in time for the San Diego Comic Con) from Image comics. This is going to be one GIGANTIC book containing all 24 Scud issues, Drywall: Unzipped and Black Octopus: Sexy Genius.

Also, I have been fortunate to see the ending of the Scud series. I just have to say that Rob has written a wonderful ending that will definitely satisfy the most die-hard Scud fans. It will even tug at your heart strings while you are reading it. Definitely a great ending to a great series.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

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I was working on a Charmin toilet paper project today and I got inspired to draw one of those cuddly Charmin bears. So, in honor of this wonderful day, I came up with this sketch.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Jack

(In case you are wondering, I had a real hard time not drawing bumps all over this bear......)

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOT WHEELERS CLUB

Lately, I have been spending a lot of my time (and my money) on a hobby that takes me back to the time when I was a child growing up in Littleton, Colorado. There were many things that I was interested in as a kid, Godzilla, monster movies, comic books, Godzilla, my Mongoose BMX bike, skateboarding, Godzilla, and last but not least Hot Wheels. For some reason those little die-cast cars have found a place back in my life after more than 30 years. I haven't really figured out why my interest has gone back to collecting these little cars. Maybe it is those memories I still have from when I was a child..... or maybe it is the thrill of the hunt to find those rare and hard to find cars..... or maybe it is just the aesthetics of the die-cast cars..... or maybe I am in some sort of mid-life crisis.....

Anyway, due to this passion I have for collecting these little cars, I decided to search the internet to see if there were any other collectors here in Colorado that share this same addictive hobby. That search led me to the Rocky Mountain Hot Wheelers Club web page. I found out that they had meetings once a month, usually on the third Saturday. One weekend in June I decided to attend just one of the meetings and enjoyed it so much that I have been a member since. The club is run by a great bunch of guys and it has been a great place to meet others that share the same interest in the cars as I do, and to learn more about the hobby of collecting and the history of all of the Hot Wheels cars.

Six months after I had joined the club, the Club decided that they needed to re-design the existing Club logo and decided to make it into a contest for all of the club members. The original logo was an adaptation of the actual Hot Wheels logo, the logo had the same design of the very famous Hot Wheels logo but changed the letters that were inside of the flame to read "Hot Wheelers" instead of "Hot Wheels". I guess Mattel wasn't very happy with this design of the club logo and asked them to quit using it.

I thought that it might be fun to enter the logo design contest and create a new logo for the club. This wasn't as easy as I thought that it was going to be. First, I had to figure out a design that would be dynamic and be elegant at the same time. I knew that there was going to be a "Wheel" somewhere in the design, but I wasn't quite sure where. And I knew that I wanted to have some pin-striping incorporated into the design. I also wanted to see if I could add some "action" or "motion" to different elements of the design. I sat down with a ball point pen, pencil and the back of an envelope and I started sketching.


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Once I got a good feeling for the visual and figured out what would go where, I took my very rough sketch and scanned it into the computer and started to refine the ideas that I had put down on paper. I thought the best and cleanest way to do this was create the logo in Adobe Illustrator. I thought about doing the color for this logo in Photoshop, but Photoshop can be very limiting since the image is rasterized. That makes it difficult especially if this logo might be used on anything from a 5x3 banner, to a small sticker due what happens when the pixels in a rasterized image are scaled to a large or very small size. I really needed the logo artwork to hold up for all of the uses it might be needed for.

Below is what I came up for the final versions of the logo. I wanted to come up with something that was unique but still looked like it had a fun Hot Rod influence. I am really pleased with how this design came out.


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Out of the ten other entries that were submitted for the contest, I was fortunate enough to have been selected the winner of the logo design contest. I had a real great time designing and illustrating this logo. It was really nice to get to work on a project that brought back a lot of the memories of when I was young and happy collecting all of those little cars.

Enjoy,

Jack

Also, if you collect Hot Wheels, live in the Denver area and would be interested in joining the RMHWC, please reply to this thread and I will get you information on how to join, or you can visit the direct link on the right-hand side of this page.

Coors Light Northwestern Region Newspaper Ads

I apologize that it has been a while since I last posted here, I have STILL been dealing with getting my wisdom teeth removed and this horrible sinus infection...... It looks like I am finally on the road to recovery.

I was archiving some images on my computer last week and I ran across these ads I had created for Coors Light. These ads ran last year in newspapers in the Northwestern region of the United States. These newspapers are very similar to the Colorado based newspaper "Westword".

I was art directed to illustrate these ads with a looser drawing style and to try and capture the energy that is present at a rock concert and the energy and the experience while snowboarding. All of these ads presented a challenge for me since they were all going to run in a few different newspapers at different sizes and formats. I had to illustrate all of the elements separately and then combine them together in Photoshop. Doing this makes it easier to move the elements around to create a stronger design and to communicate the idea in the best possible way given the size and format restrictions.

Enjoy,

Jack


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WISDOM TEETH

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It has been almost two months since my last post and I have a few good reasons why this has happened.

First, I finally went in and had my wisdom teeth removed after many years of my dentist suggesting me to do so. Let me tell you that it was probably one of the most uncomfortable and painful things I have ever done........ I had three impacted teeth and one tooth that had erupted. I ended up with dry sockets and there wasn't a pain medicine that could take that pain away. After 2 weeks of having the procedure done, my mouth still hurts, but seems to have gotten a little bit better.

Second, I am leaving for Japan on the 26th of December so I have been getting ready for that. There are so many things that need to be done before you go on a trip out of the country..... itinerary, gifts for family, scheduling transportation (train, bus, etc.), coordinating time with family and friends........ It can get a little overwhelming.

Third, all of this is happening right before Christmas and I still need to buy presents, send out Christmas cards, etc........

So, I apologize for not updating the blog as much as I should.

I hope everyone has a great Holiday Season this year!!!!!

Enjoy,

Jack

GO COLORADO ROCKIES!!!!

You may or may not know that the Colorado Rockies baseball team made it to the World Series this year. I can't say that I have been the most avid baseball fan of all time, but I do enjoy watching a game now and then, especially when I can go to the stadium to see a game live and in person. Since this is the first time the Rockies have made it to the World Series, this is the only thing you hear about on Radio, Television and in the Newspaper. The tickets to the World Series games here in Denver are the hottest ticket in town...... (don't get me started on what I went through trying to obtain 4 tickets, and how disappointing the final result was........)


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Which brings me to the picture that is posted above. During the last week in August, my Uncle Mac, my Father and I went down to Florida to visit my Aunt and Uncle at their home in Ft. Lauderdale. It was a very nice trip. One of the many highlights of the trip was going with all of the family to a Marlins and Braves baseball game. It was fun to see both teams play in Dolphins Stadium.

At the bottom of the third inning, I was lucky enough to catch a foul ball that was hit by the Marlins left fielder, J. Willingham. I was sending a text message to my wife when I heard a "crack" of the bat, I looked up and saw a ball coming straight at me. I stood up with cell phone in hand, and caught the ball.

Since I usually post about my art on this blog, I decided to put my photoshop skills to the test on this picture of me that was taken right after I caught the baseball. I experimented with a few new techniques to make something look "distressed" and old.

I think the final result came out pretty well.

Enjoy,

Jack

COORS SNOW POSTER CAMPAIGN

This years Coors snow program was very challenging for me, but at the same time, it was very fulfilling for me to work on. I was given the task of illustrating three posters depicting the "Legendary" aspects of Coors Banquet. The illustration style was to be based on the technique and style of the Kaiju illustrations I created back in January. I think there is a similarity in the style and technique, but since I ended up drawing everything and not using any photography, there is a definite difference in the look and feel of the illustrations.

When I am given an assignment for an illustration, the Art Director usually provides me a comp, some reference images and what written copy will be needed on the art. I then proceed to the pencil stage, where I will do some initial sketches of what I have in mind for the illustration. I then show this to the Art Director for approval.



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It was quite a daunting task to get these illustrations approved by the Coors legal department due to the subject matter. (no Joe Camel here....) But after a few changes and color tweaks, they were approved.

This Coors Snow Poster Campaign was entered into this years Art Directors Club of Denver Annual Show competition and was fortunate enough to be awarded three times.

1. Gold - for Illustration
2. Gold - for Design: (collateral design - posters - campaign)
3. Silver - for Print Advertising: (collateral - posters - campaign)

Also, the snowboards I illustrated for this campaign were recognized with a Bronze - for Print Advertising (consumer magazine - color full page or spread - campaign).

Enjoy,

Jack

San Diego Comic-Con, Rob Schrab, Scud the Disposable Assassin, and Me.

I was able to meet up with the artist and creator of Scud the Disposable Assassin Rob Schrab, while he was signing autographs and promoting Scud at the San Diego Comic-Con this year. It was really great to hang out with him again after almost 10 years.

Don't forget to keep on the lookout for the Scud the Disposable Assassin Omnibus, coming soon to a store near you!!!!

Jack

CREATIVE CIRCUS POSTER *UPDATE*

I was finally able to take some pics of the actual completed poster. I hope these photos give a hint as to what I was trying to explain about it in my previous Creative Circus Poster entry.

Enjoy,

Jack


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CREATIVE CIRCUS ART SHOW

Here is a few pics of my sculpture entries for the Creative Circus art show that was held this past couple of weeks here at my work. This was the first time I have displayed most of my sculpts all together in one place. I think that they all look pretty good together..... I just wish I would have been able to have the sculpts in the back raised up on a higher surface instead of being on the same level as the sculpts in front.

Enjoy,

Jack


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CREATIVE CIRCUS POSTER

Flashback to 2003...... When I decided to get back into creating art for a living, I was hired by an marketing/ad agency to fulfill their needs of an illustrator/designer. For the past 4 years this agency has been a very fun and unique place for me to work.There have been many fun benefits that the agency offers their employees. One of those fun benefits is the Creative Circus. This event has been an almost a yearly event since I started working here.

This year's Creative Circus will be held on Thursday, August 23rd. This year, as tradition has had it, there are four categories, a talent show, culinary cook-off, art show, and side show acts. Each year the agency also has a Poster Design contest that is open for all employees to participate in. This contest is usually pretty open to what ever you want to create. I always enjoy participating in this kind of stuff, especially if I have the time to do so.

In 2004, I decided to give this Poster Design contest a try and came up with the idea below. I was trying to do an illustration that had the same kind of perception like the skits that happened on the television show "Three's Company".


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Unfortunately, this one didn't go over too well with our HR department and was not approved........ I didn't think that it was that bad, HR did think it was funny but they did not want to take a chance of offending anyone.

Since my first Poster did not get approved, I decided I was not going go down without a fight, so I came up with another design that you see below.


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I seem to have a really soft spot in my heart for this clown character, I always seem to end up illustrating him somewhere whether I am doodling or creating a new personal work. This clown originally started as a sculpture I did for a series of hot rod shifter knobs I planned on creating and marketing. This poster was approved by HR but the PM that was in charge of this job, was a little scared of what the meaning behind it was and decided to keep it hidden in his office instead of hanging it somewhere in the building. My experience with this project seemed to get worse and worse and put a bad taste in my mouth. I decided to take a beak from this kind of participation here at work and focused my efforts somewhere else.

Fast forward to 2007, I have a better personal outlook on the Poster Design Contest this year and I decided to participate since I was sure that I would be able to make the time. I had a more complex idea this time and had a good time trying to solve the problems of design, illustration and engineering.

This all started with a sketch on the back of an envelope....


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Then I took to sketching the idea on post-it notes and cut out paper....


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I finally came up with a design I was really happy with and it included all of the techniques (textures, pin-striping, and cross hatching) that I seem to really enjoy working with when I am creating my illustrations.

I also wanted to do something a little more to this years poster design that the ones I created before didn't have...... movement. I contacted our Merchandise Department and was able to get a small motor that would make it possible for parts of my poster design to rotate.

The task now for me was to take my sketches to a completed design in 3 days. (Of course I procrastinated till the very last minute to put this thing together.)

The image below is of the back layer of my design. I really like how this turned out and I really thought of just turning this in as the design. There was something happening here visually that I really liked.


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Next, I created the part of my design that was going to have the movement. I knew early on that I wanted to have a kind of "hypno-disc" somewhere on the poster. I originally intended to have 4 of these discs spinning at once, but decided that it would be too much work for this silly poster and settled for just one spinning disc.


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I then illustrated my Pickled Clown "Corky" to finish off the design. I really enjoy drawing this guy..... and since he was on the last two posters I illustrated, I would have felt bad if I did not include him on this design. The ".....I'm cold...." word balloon is an inside joke about an incident that happened while I was in Junior High School.....


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Below is the completed design sans the movement. I will try and update the blog with some actual photos of the completed three-dimensional piece soon.


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Enjoy,

Jack