Really Big Tape at the end of '08

The Really Big Tape is a hip hop album by Funk Magnum. All the songs were created over the year of 2008. So I suppose the album is finished since 2008 ends tomorrow night. So in turn I had to create some kind of album art before the end of the year. So here it is, the Really Big Tape.

You may have noticed I haven't been drawing lately. Xmas & work will do that to you. If you remember my New Years resolution is to draw something everyday. I don't want to disappoint myself. Soon I should be posting new drawings at a frequent rate.

Happy New Years!!!

Something New

Okay here's Catwoman and the duck again, in full color. I haven't been drawing nearly as much this week and last I just feel drained of ideas right now. That can partly be attributed to making a lot of music. I started a new blog about that that you can read here. Hopefully I can balance my artistic endevors and get on with more drawings. This one has taken an interesting turn though, I really like the colors. I believe there sitting in a hippos mouth. It started out as a clam shell but ended up a hippo. I think I might want to add some text in here, but I'm not sure what I would say. Oh well I think I'm going to go read another Vonnegut book now.

Books of 2008

As the end of the year approaches I want to share things that were great from this year. I will be posting my favorite albums and movies of 2008 in the coming weeks. I love to read good books. Unfortunately I didn't get very much reading done while I lived in Kalamazoo. Now that I'm in New York and have to ride the train an hour or so a day I get a lot of reading done. As you can see I read classics,comics, Kurt Vonnegut, and books which people make into movies. As far as the movie books go I've read ever one of them before I've seen the movie, so I feel pretty good about that. So here they are in no particular order.

The Giver
By Lois Lowry
A tale of a futuristic society where people have no memories and can't see in color. Imagine having the weight of the world on one person, you. I love the descriptions when he learns to see color. I didn't know right away that's what was happening, or that they couldn't see color. It's a classic and I loved it. Everyone should read this book.




Still Life With Wood Pecker
By Tom Robbins
I've obviously been on a huge Vonnegut kick this year. I was told if I enjoyed Vonnegut so much I had to read this book. It's absolutely correct. This book was amazing. I t had everything you could want in a good story, princesses, bombers, pyramids, ufos, sex, and the moon. Tom Robbins has interesting philosophies express in this book. Plus if you smoke Camels you'll really learn to appreciate the package design after reading this book.


The Sirens Of Titan
By Kurt Vonnegut
Weary space travelers, martian armies, dogs in outer space what else could you ask for out of a good Vonnegut book. I believe this was his second book. Even this early in his career it is obvious he is a genius among men. This out-of-this-world adventure is unlike anything I've ever read before. I don't want to give it away, but the very last line of this book blew me away. Kurt does that to me. I'm sure if you keep reading you'll see that that's a pattern with me and his books.

Man With Out A Country
By Kurt Vonnegut
This was Vonnegut's last book (while still alive.) It's amazing at the very least. This may have been the easiest read I've ever had. I read all 130 or so pages in less than three hours. The man had me hooked. This book is basically just an old man giving up on his country. He is fed up with the current state of the America and doesn't mind expressing it here in this book. It's also hilarious, Kurt has a great sense of humor which shines here at the end of his life.

God Bless You, Mr Rosewater
By Kurt Vonnegut
At the end of most Vonnegut books I read I feel like he giving a big middle finger to God. In this book I feel our hero is God. This story is basically about a millionaire who loves people and helps then with there problems. The thing I love most about Vonnegut's books is the way he ties so many characters together. Each and every one is important in some way to everyone in the story. Another absolutely amazing read from Kurt.

Cat's Cradle
By Kurt Vonnegut
I used to think all of Kurt Vonnegut's books were about the end of the world. It's not an unreasonable thing to think. Especially if you read this book. I think this was the first Vonnegut book I read this year. What can I say it got me hooked. The last line of this book blew me away as well. All the characters in this book work together so well. It's to bad people don't write books like this anymore.


Armageddon In Retrospect
By Kurt Vonnegut
Okay okay this is the last of Vonnegut book I've read this year. This is also his very last book published posthumous. He covers some things that are also in Man Without A Country, but he's dead he can't write anything new. This is an amazing look back at one of Americas greatest writers.






Watchmen
By Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
What a great novel this is. I like to stray away from calling this one a graphic novel. The writing is amazing. This book has been made into a movie which will be released next year. They better not mess it up. The comic panels from this could be used as the storyboards for the film. This was a great story with great illustrations, it was right up my alley.




Batman: The Long Halloween
By Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale
If you've known me for longer than 10 minutes you probably know I love Batman. This comic was great. I love this adaptation of Two-Face. It was very interesting to read after seeing The Dark Knight this summer. The thing I love about Batman is you can choose what Batman you like. He ranges from Campy to very dark. This was a nice dark rendition.




1984
By George Orwell
Another futuristic society book. I've read this one in the past, but it was for a high school class and I didn't get it as good as I should have. In the technology driven world we live this book makes you absolutely frightened. Orwell really hits the nail on the head in his statement on modern society. This book makes me want to crush my phone and live in the woods.






Marley & Me
By John Grogan
This is the only book that has ever made me cry, honestly. I love dogs and i miss my dog terribly. This book is the most heartwarming tale I have ever read. I didn't want to read it because I knew it was going to end up being sad. I love how this book took place from about 1990-2004. Grogan make pop culture references that i remember, which made this story all the more real for me.



Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
By Frank Miller
I haven't read any Sin City comics in years. This particular one was a scene for the movie that came out a few years back. The artwork of Sin City tells a story all by it's self. Combined this Frank Miller's noir style it makes for a great read. I'm so pleased that hollywood has finally started making movie with people who write comics, such as Frank Miller and Neil Gaiman.



No Country For Old Men
By Cormac McCarthy
I watched this movie six hours after I finished reading the book. I only noticed a few slight differences. Nothing so drastic that i was upset. This book is a page burner. The suspense kept me on the edge of my seat, not wanting to put the book down. If you love this movie read the book. If you haven't seen the movie read the book and then watch it, you won't be disappointed.

Catwoman + Duck

I haven't posted anything in a few days and there is a reason for that. I haven't been drawing much. I know I know, I said I would draw everyday. I think I'm doing pretty good for myself since it's my new years resolution and new years is 29 days away. I did draw this, and I don't know what i was thinking. Apparently it's Catwoman and a duck. I don't know why Catwoman would be petting a duck, but she is.

In more important news I applied to The Onion today for a graphics internship. I know I already work at a special effects house, but I want a beefy resume. If I hear back from them and happen to get the position. I will be working two jobs and getting paid for one. Oh the woahs of being a working artist. Oh well I probably wont even hear back from them, but if I do who knows whats next. I mean I live in NYC, right?

November Calender

This is the calender artwork for November. I know there's five more days in this month but I wont be working till the 1st. Quite a few people participated in this months drawings. I think December's drawings are going to be even better. It was kind of hard thinking of things to draw for November. If your wondering who "Kate" is shes the receptionist who gets to have us draw all over her calender. She doesn't really participate in the drawing, but welcomes us to clutter her calender with these sketches.

Intruders!!!

I almost forgot how much I love drawing girls in bikinis .I really like the look of this one. The line art is straight out of my sketchbook. I then added color in Photoshop. The background texture and her bikini are scrapbook papers I scanned and added to the composition. Finally I added the comic bubble using Illustrator. If you've been following you know I've been trying to draw every day. I have been but I'm getting a little burnt out. I have several pages in my book of sketches that I don't like enough to post. My drawing ever day is not about the posts, it's about getting better at drawing. I like the process I used on this one. I sketched it out in my book and worried about the rest in little pieces. The last few drawings I just tried to blast out in my book with color and everything. I love colored pencils, but I like them a lot better when I use them on illustration board. The computer is just and easier more efficient way for me to lay down color.

The Artist & The Octopus (Octopi)

This is the next installment into my daily drawing regiment. This is basically my life, my work life. I sit around and imagine colorful Octopi all day. Well not always Octopi, but you know what I'm getting at. Compared to drawing everything is black and white. The room is basically a cheap rendering of my office. The Octopus is smoking a pipe. What else can I say.

Phychidelica Fantastica

So this is my drawing from the weekend. George Frye drew the shrimp thing in his mouth. I elaborated, as you can see. I left my pencils at work so this weekend was a bit slow for drawing. I have been drawing everyday though. I just don't finish a composition everyday. Art takes time so that's what I'm doing, taking my time. I'm feeling good about this week though I should be able to get a few drawings done and up on here.

Pigeons

I met this girl last weekend who said she had an idea for a cartoon. Being an animator I was all ears. The Premise is they live in New York and each pigeon represents a different Burroughs. So I came up with a few sketches. I don't know which one represent different Burroughs but that will be figured out in time.Okay so this first one was so I could get some idea what drawing a birds face in a cartoonish matter would be like. I'm not exactly sure this one looks like a pigeon though.

Okay so this one is a bird in flight. Once again I'm not sure if this is actually what a pigeon looks like in flight or if I just made it up. The next couple sketches really look like pigeons though.Alright I feel like this on is actually taking on pigeon form as well as looks like he's from New York. He's reading the Times and is starting to get that look.Alright this is the last of my pigeon sketches. These two are engaged in a conversation. I really like the two of them because the almost have human characteristics. While creating these sketches I couldn't help but wonder how animation studios such as Disney and Pixar are so good at making animals have human characteristics. I'm really pleased that I've started getting there with these sketches. Now whether or not I end up making this cartoon I don't know, but it was a lot of fun drawing these birds.

It Continues

Well here is my next drawing in my book. I really like how this one ended up. I know in my last post I said I would be drawing every day. I have been doing that but I think the blog is going to be a few days behind. I've been taking time to ink and color these last few. Oh yeah, there's also a third drawing in my book that I probably wont be posting. What I did was take some sketches, and I mean real sketchy sketches. I tried to make a composition out of them. It didn't work out to well. All in all I'm feeling pretty good about my daily drawing regiment. I hope if anyone is reading this they enjoy what I'm doing. At the very least I'll have some cool books by the end of this.

My New Years Resolution

I know it's a little early to be making my resolutions, but this is a good one. I have a couple nice hard bound sketchbooks. For my early resolution I'm going to draw something in them every day. The drawings don't have to be to the extent this one is. As long as I'm drawing everyday I'll be happy. It's my goal to fill up my books. That way people can flip through and enjoy my drawings. As well this blog will be blowing up with new material.

The Thing?

I don't know what this guy is supposed to be, but I drew him and I think he's pretty cool looking. I've been doing little character sketches like this lately. I'm going to try to update this blog more often than I have been in the past. I live in NYC now so I'm sure I'll have things to say, photographs to share and of course drawings. So if you actually check out my blog from time to time, keep it up because there's more material on the way.

No CIty Animation

This is the text based intermission animation I created for our play. There are two different versions of this animation one for the first weekend (Nov 1st & 2nd) and one for the second weekend (Nov 7th & 8th) It had to be slightly changed due to the election. There's a small section about voting. I'm only going to put the pre election one up. I think it's funnier.

The second weekends version had a picture of Obama instead of Bush. Otherwise it's the same thing. Lastly I would like you all to know I put this together in about a week and a half. It may in fact be the cheesiest animation I've ever done, and all my animations are cheesy.

What I do at work

I work at a place the does special effects for television commercials. A girl I work with named Ariana and I have been drawing all over the receptionists calender during the month of October. I think a few other people have drawn on this as well but mostly the two of us. Hopefully I put a new one of these up every month.

No City Fliers

These are a couple fliers I put together for a play called No City. If you live in or around New York City you should come check it out. All the information is on the fliers. It's going to be a great show. I also have a animated intermission that will appear in the show. That will be up here later this week.

Smokes & Food

I am currently working on an intermission animation for a play. It's pretty much going to be like an old time intermission with little advertisements here and there. As the intermission goes along the ads will be for worse and worse things. It's going to start out with ads for snacks then cigarettes till eventually it's advertising heroin or something. These are my first 2 spots. There going to be put on backgrounds with text saying things like "Eat some snacks" "smoke smooth mentol cigarettes, ohhhh what a taste" and "Heroin it'll change your life". It's satire.

Some Random Sketches & Drawings

Cows Smell Bad

So I live in New York City now and due to the new job (which is an artistic job) I haven't been drawing much lately. I started feeling bad about it, so I'm getting back into the swing of things again. So here's my first new post in almost 2 months. If you actually ever check my blog keep it up because I'm going to make an effort to keep posting new drawings.

Not Blood, Paint

This is quick web banner I made for Not Blood. Paint

Night of the Sasquatch

This is a short animated film I created with my class. The students were awesome. They wrote and animated this in 4 days. The fifth day was spend working on sound and uploading it to every ones youtube accounts. I hope they all grow up to be successfully animators.

I'm an animation teacher

These are the demo reels of my animation students. There all teenagers who are interested in animation. This reel is from my first class. I had them all animating traditionally, with paper, pencils, and light boards. This week is the second class where I'll teach them Photoshop, Flash, After Effects, and 3ds Max. I'm really excited to see what else they make. I'm really proud of those kids.

Cash Rules Everything Around Me

This is a cartoon I did for this guys wedding proposal. He wrote the whole thing, I just had to animate it. I could be a lot better, but I only got $250 dollar. I was also rushed so if you watch this and think the animation sucks, that's because it does I'm almost embarrassed to have posted it, oh well.

More Zbrush stuff

I'm beginning to love this program. This character started out as a simple sphere and with a little imagination we have a demon.

Zbrush Sketch

This is my first Zbrush sketch that actually looks like something. My only problem is once I've created a head in Zbrush what do I do with it?

Susan & Leigh Ann

Charles Russell Alger

Markus P Jaynes