What?

"What?" you ask...?
"I just thought it was sorta funny." I says.
Done on a lark without much attention paid to detail, the pencils and inks took maybe an hour total.

Nasty little beastie...

Just more fun with random style monsters and what not. I feel the colors on the little phallic like monster guys in the back could be WAY better - I'm going to work on beefing that up.
Over all it's fun in a "run for your life" kinda way.
Drawn somewhat small-ish at about 8.5x14, from pencils to inks to digital junk it took about 4 hours to do, give or take.

Minions

Not much to say about this one - it started off as a self-portrait (the profile in the foreground is my profile) and rapidly turned into something else.
I figure hey, EVERYONE can always use more minions...
Drawn at about 14 x 17 (give or take a little) and between pencils, inks and digital colors it took about 4 and a half hours in total to get to this point.

The Nebule... DEUCE!

This is another photo manipulation of burning coals. I took the picture at The Mirage coffee house in mid-town Long Beach. As a result I named it The Mirage Nebula. Again I used the same photo of the stars I got from The Astronomy Picture of the Day website. This time however I also added in a picture of the moon I also took with my camera phone.
I used photoshop to put it all together.

I wish I had the specific link so I could properly credit those responsible for the photograph of the star cluster Messier 67 (Messier after Charles Messier who cataloged hundreds and hundreds of objects in the night sky). I believe it was a Hubble image but I could be mistaken about that.

The Nebule...

of my mind....
This photo manipulation was made from some images I had taken with my camera phone
(of all things). It was pictures of some glowing ash in my friends backyard fire pit. It just struck me as being very nebulous so I used them and an image of a star field I had gotten from The Astronomy Picture of the Day website ( http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html ).
After some manipulation and photoshoping I put the various images together to create what I called The Herbold Nebula in honor of the friend whos house I was at when I took the pictures and had the idea.

The Indiana Jones Adventures

This is basically not much more then a sketch that I threw together in photoshop to get an idea of how I wanted a project I wanna work on to look. I want to change up Indys stance - it's too stiff here.
Hopefully I'll be able to get it done someday soon.

Surprise

These are pages 2, 3 and 4 of a little 4 page storyboard I did for my comic portfolio. Page one is a splash page I haven't inked in yet.
It's morning - the man gets up and looks at the woman in bed with him. He heads off to the shower and when he re-enters the room she is awake and up (if not totally nude).
He commences with his morning man-scaping only to see the woman pull a weapon.
She fires.
Until you turn the page it would be thought she was shooting at him until we see the demon-monster "phasing" through the wall.
I must admit I'm not too terribly fond of how these turned out. I like them a lot more in person (as it were). I feel they loose something on the computer screen. Even still though there is something I am not satisfied with and I cant quite put my finger on it.
Anyway each page from pencils to inks took between 6 to 8 hours.

In Search Of...

No reason for it really. This amounts to not much more then a sketch. The little rose added into the desolate landscape was a bit of an afterthought as I felt one piece of life in the rocky landscape would add a certain poignancy (even if it is a bit cliché).
It's always fun to draw fantasy type stuff like this though and with the right colors something like this could really rock.
Drawn on a scrap piece of paper (that I don't feel like measuring) from pencils to inks and p-s'ing the star filed and moon in it took about 2 and a half to three hours to do.

Go To Hell

...I saw my funeral that day,
I know who didn't show to mourn.
My judgment was life in hell,
with pillars of pain and thorns.
My only friend the goat,
with 666 between his horns...


An idea from a Megadeth song of the same name.
This REALLY needs good colors to fully make it work - and I'm just not good enough with colors to make it happen. I'll probably give the digital painting work in this one a try but until I do just use your imaginations I guess...
This was drawn 14x17 and from pencils to inks and a little "post work" in the computer it took about 3 and a half hours to complete to this stage.

Frustration in Red and Green

My color blindness is something I (probably quite obviously) think about a lot. The intent of this piece differs from my work The Grass is Always Greener in so far as that piece was about how I was interested in others points of view in relation to my own; how they desired to see as I do while I experience the same thing for them.
In this piece it is pretty much all about me. I'll admit I've been frustrated quite a bit at times by my particular disability (when I was in kindergarten one of my teachers made me cry when she yelled at me for finger painting in the wrong color - she was criticizing my "defiance" when I didn't even know at that point I was color blind). Anger is quite chaotic and that feeling was what I was expressing.
Red and green were chosen again for their common association with those who are color blind.
The work itself is photo silkscreen masquerading as mono type prints. Basically I took large sheets of acetate and duralar and inked them up with opaque relief printing ink. I then modified the flat with mineral spirits and isopropyl alcohol. Then I printed them in layers.
I did these this was to experiment with the idea of trying to get a reproducible mono type. As the name suggests mono types are basically a one off - a ghost image can be printed but it is never as strong as the original. Playing with textures, pattern and formal elements in mono type printmaking fascinates me and I was searching for a method of reproducing the work in a traditional way (I would like to avoid digital reprints).
The method itself needs work and for those who know printmaking the look of the ink on the surface gives it away as a silkscreen but it's a fun process and I hope I can experiment with it further in the near future.

Examples of my abstract and mixed media mono types can be found at the following links:
Tarus the Bull
Grizzly Truth
When the Storm Comes Down
Roots

Need

I could swear I posted this one here before but as I looked thru my work I've put up here I just couldn't find it.
This piece is a linoleum reduction cut (also called a suicide cut because it "kills" the block) utilizing the white of the paper as a color. It was done as a companion piece to my work Cyclical which can be seen here CYCLICAL LINK.
This appeared in my BFA show at Long Beach State University earlier this year.

Random Animals...

...are pretty cool.
There is a certain sense of fantasy to animals for me. Even everyday mundane animals because as a guy who grew up in the city they are just not as commonplace for me as one might think.
They can be immensely expressive and profoundly dynamic.
Mostly they are just a BLAST to draw.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

This is a slightly older drawing - from early last year.
I had just seen the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and thought the portrayal of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde was well played. Shortly there after I busted out my ol' sketchbook and did this. I drew the character of Mr. Hyde here with his likeness from the movie in mind (Dr. Jekyll not so much..). I really liked they way it came out in pencils so I threw some ink on it as well.
Drawn at about 9x12, with pencils and inks it took about two and a half to three hours to finish.

The Animal

Sometimes we all just feel a little overwhelmed. I certainly am no different.
I mostly wanted to play with the little splatter pattern I used here and "paint" in a stylized abstract background in the computer. That is really why I drew this.
I had you going with the "overwhelmed" bit didn't I?
This was drawn fairly small at about 11x14 I believe (perhaps a shade smaller).
Total time for pencils, inks and digital color was about 4.5 hrs.

New Press

I was basically playing with typography and design with this as I was thinking about magazine covers. I've always felt my sense of design was quite lacking and it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately when it comes to my art.
Everything in this image is from scratch except the word "PRESS" which is, of course, a computer font.
The "NEW" part was computer generated but is not a font - it was made it in photoshop.
All in all I think this is still rather weak as far as design goes - it looks cool and is fairly well drawn but its design is just weak.
But at least it's a step in the right direction as I am thinking more about the very important elements of design in my comic book work.

Star Wars

This is a work in progress (and a splash page for my comic portfolio) based on an idea I had; Let's just say I personally felt Samuel L. Jacksons character Mace Windu from the second Star Wars Trilogy was tragically under-used.
It's based on an idea I had feeling he should have had a more central roll in the post Revenge of the Sith era as opposed to being killed of in the rather lame manner he was done away with. I threw in the "generic title" because I didnt want to put the name I had thought of for the story idea on there yet.
When I finish rendering this I'll post the results - probably with the full title for my little idea...

Waiting

This is a splash page I did for my comic portfolio.
In giving it a second (or third or fourth or fifth) look I'm not sure now that I'll use it.
I like it , but I may not use it for submissions.
Anyway Spider-Man is cool so I figured I could post it.
The basic idea is Spidey Vs. Venom, but a Venom that no longer has a host body.

Wendigo Re-Ink

This one is actually quite old. I really liked it when I first drew it (10 years ago or so) and recently dusted it off for another look.
Needles to say my inking skills have improved by leaps and bounds since then and I decided to beef up the inks and add a little detail to see if I could get it to hold up.
I also re-drew the stylized trees in the background as I felt no amount of re-inking would help the initial ones I had drawn in there. So I digitally removed the original trees and added these newly drawn ones in.
If you would like to see the original it can be found at this link .
I should note that the moon in this one is actually the original moon I drew for it while the moon in the version in the link was one I added in after I imported the image into my computer all those years ago.

Wolverine V. Wendigo Storyboard

This is a bit of an old one - I did this several years back for my comic book portfolio before I decided to re-do the whole thing with brand new material.
I went back in and re-inked it, beefing up the lines a bit and making it look more solid.
I liked it a lot when I drew it a number of years ago and I like it still with the updated inks.

Krenny Lavitz

This is just a bit of an inconsequential little thing. While I like Lenny Kravits music (to an extent) I couldnt help but see him as a complete and utter tool. He was featured in a commercial in all his weird glory not to long ago and I was struck by how much of a slave to the next big thing he seems to portray himself as.
Whether thats his doing or his management team I don't know. Either way he would do well for himself (in my humble opinion) to carve out an identity that is truly his own.

Head Go Boom

I have long been thinking about comic art as a vehicle for fine art expression. Recently I saw the work of artist Nathan Olsen. He's currently working on his masters in (I believe) illustration at California State University Long Beach. If I'm incorrect about his specialty someone please let me know.
Anyway he just had an advancement show and one of his comments in his artist statement that accompanied his work was about the "... absurd and impossible landscape..." that I felt he expertly expressed with his "absurd and impossible" imagery.
Something I quite enjoy thinking about.

In this work I felt like I wanted to express the way people tend to be bound by some nonsense from which it seems apparent they could easily escape.
Yet they don't.
Instead they go on to let said nonsense blow their mind (as it were) or somehow otherwise completely wreck their world.
Ultimately I believe I will be adding to this work to create more depth in meaning as well as a more unified whole.

Stains

Neither of these two "stains" I've posted are really stains at all.
They are not really digitally produced in their entirety either.
The "stains" were hand drawn and the backgrounds were texturally digitally manipulated.

I like the concept but the execution needs a little work - at the moment I have an idea or two in mind to spice them up a bit. Additionally I have a number of new stains that I am currently working on.

The Avenger After Jeff Jones

This is a little homage to the fantasy painter/illustrator Jeff Jones.
Years ago my brother bought me some trading cards featuring his work and at the time (around '93 or so) I did some drawings based on his designs. Well that was a long time ago and I wasn't a very good illustrator then so I decided to re-draw many of my little homages to his work. There are three others I am currently re-working. I'll post 'em as I get 'em done.

Pirate Monkey

Full title: Pirate Monkey - The Banana King Vs. The Unfortunate Blob.
It's kinda silly I know but it's fun.
Pirate Monkey is just a little character I came up with about a year ago - give or take.
I have no real background for him yet; only that he's a monkey who happens to be a pirate.
This was drawn at 14 x 17 or so and took about 3 and a half to 4 hours to do - pencils and inks plus a little work in photoshop.

For the Sake of...

I got into a bizarre argument with some kid on Deviant Art about nudity in art.
Basically his adolescent hormones were all about boobs for the sake of boobs and it appeared that nothing I could say would change his mind.
I drew this as a response to his mindset about the subject and his antics within another members site.
It took only about an hour to pencil and ink because I didn't put much effort into the inking.
I am going to go back into the image and beef up the inks and probably throw on some digital color. I'll post the result when I get it done.

I should add that the background is a digitally manipulated stock photo from the page of another member of DA.
Unfortunately I cant find the link at the moment.

My Robe Please

The Pale Rider, Death itself, coming up out of the pit to harvest fresh souls.
Quite the corny explanation but images like this are really fun to draw. Fantasy drawing in general has no real rules so you can do pretty much anything and justifying it is easy - hahaha.
Drawn at about 14x17 in. from pencils to inks to digital color (the background is a digitally manipulated mono type print of mine) it took about 6 hours.

Anatomically Incorrect

This one is slightly different than the one on my Deviant art page (Anatomically Incorrect). I couldn't decide which version worked better so I posted both at different sites.
There is quite a back-story behind this image but I don't think I'm prepared to get into it at the moment.
The quasi-angel as a mannequin missing some limbs is more work with displaced body parts. I guess in this case the whole body is displaced revealing a sense of incompleteness in supposed perfection; lifeless rigidity replacing tenderness...
The background splatter was drawn by hand and the whole image was drawn relatively small at about 7x10.5 inches (the ratio is a standard comic format at 2:3).
The whole thing from pencils to inks and digital color took about 5 hours.

Spidey and Venom

This is the second page of a little two page spread featuring Spider-man and his 'ol enemy Venom.
Initially I really liked how this turned out but I'm a little luke warm on it being in my comic portfolio right now. Not that I now dislike it but there is something about it - something I can't quite put my finger on that makes me feel it's not totally up to snuff...
The more I look at it I think it's the buildings in the background that I am dissatisfied with...

Harvester - Finished

This is the finished version of the Harvester of Sorrow poster.
Colors are in photoshop and all of the textures used are actually (in some cases digitally modified) pieces of my own printmaking body of artwork. They created a nice (gruesome) vibe for the drawing. Total post work time 2 and a half hours

Fat Mans Paradise

This is basically a totally fake comic book cover...
I did it because I thought it was funny and fat guys are fun to draw.

Prior of the Ori

Again, I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to the Stargate franchise.
This particular character is one of the foot soldiers of the main bad guys (The Ori) in the last two seasons of the show.
I think it made for a good splash page.
Drawn fairly small at about 9x12 I believe; it took about one hour to pencil in and about two hours (give or take a smidgen) to ink in.
I'm going to be adding color and textures to this so and when I do I'll post the results.

Harvester of Sorrow

This is a work in progress - based on the Metallica song of the same name.
Basically my next steps are to add color and some textures as well as the Metallica logo.
This was drawn about 14 x 17 or so and took me about two and a half hours to pencil and ink...

Smokey Jasmine

I was sitting around yacking with some friends one night around a fire pit and we noticed the rather pleasant aroma of night blooming jasmine...
Well because of that and the smoke from the fire that sort of lead into an odd back and forth about how that sounded like the name of a circa 1970's nighttime A.M. DJ...
As we went back and forth this is basically the description that came up - I thought the idea was pretty funny, so I decided to draw it up...

Screaming Worms

No reason for it really. Done just as sort of a stream of consciousness type of drawing. I just sat down and started going and this is what came out.
I have an idea to modify this one a bit and will probably do so in the near future. I'll post the results.

Jawbone of a...

Jawbone of an Ass/Head Full of Hot Air...

I do a lot of stuff with displaced body parts. In this particular case I was stewing on the idea of how disappointing (and in particular cases quite vacuous) some people can be when they open their mouths...

Great SCOTT!

Or rather great whites...
I was watching the stuff on Discovery Channels Shark Week and while sitting around I decided to draw some sharks...
It's a pretty simple drawing but it was a pretty simple idea...

I Don't Feel...

...Good

A little something I did just for me - not for my comic portfolio.
I have not been in the best of spirits lately.
However I digress. This is a basic line drawing that took all of about 40 minutes to an hour to both pencil and ink. I accentuated it in photoshop with a woodgrain texture for the background for which I pushed the contrast to the highest level. I adjusted the curve to flatten it (removing all the gray scale pixels that appear when its scale is changed) and added the red.
Then I just filled the white of the face with another texture (a photograph of my brothers hair) and adjusted the opacity.
All in all I spent about two hours tops on this little deal, but it turned out nice...
When I was done with it I sat back and looked at it and was reminded of the great Bernie Wrightson - one of the best horror illustrators out there. If you have the time I highly recommend looking up his stuff.

Splash Page

Just another splash page for my comic portfolio. Wolverine is one of my favorite X-Men of all time. He and Colossus actually.
Hes always so fun to draw because he's so nutty. Basically you can put him in almost any situation and it fits.
Loads of fun...

Stargate SG-1

Another storyboard page for my comic book portfolio.
This one is based on the Stargate franchise owned by (I believe...) MGM.
I've always really liked the show and decided to do some original storyboards for my portfolio.
This is page one of a three page spread.
The basic story is that Te'alc and Col. Mitchell are trapped and unarmed (save for one grenade) on an enemy planet and the stargate is guarded by a a group of Jaffa soldiers.
Here in panel one our two heros are hiding in the ruins of an ancient temple. The have just realized their path of egress is cut off by the enemy and are currently trying to figure out how to get out of this particular jam...
Just as a point of interest I'm surprised how few people notice our two heros peeking thru the ruins of the wall at the Jaffa soldier in the bottom frame...
Do you see them?
Click on the image for a larger, higher res. look...

Circles in the Field

This is one page of a two page storyboard about a farmer and his UFO experience.
When I did this I was listening to a song called Circles in the Field by The Galactic Cowboys.
Tho I must admit there are no references in the song of cows being blow to smithereens by UFOs.
This was fun to do and I enjoy how sarcastic it is to the whole cattle mutilation phenomena. Something I totally do not believe in.

Spidey and Bats

This is a splash page I did for my comic book portfolio.
I had had an idea for quite a while now where there two teamed up to solve a mystery outside of either ones home territory.

The Wendigo

The Wendigo is an Algonquin Indian myth based on the idea of the spirit of this beast taking over peoples bodies. Those who engaged in cannibalism were believed to be especially at risk.
Marvel comics has appropriated the idea and this is their concept of the way the flesh eater would look.
He's a classic character in the Marvel line up and I wish they would use him more often. I have been thinking for a while now he would make for a great lead character in his own more adult oriented horror comic.
This is another splash page (dual page layout) I am including in my comic portfolio.

The Divide

These are a series of mixed media pieces where I incorporated mono type printmaking with silkscreen.
The work itself is intended as a representation of the gap between nature and urban life with man caught conspicuously in the middle.
I made 7 or 8 of these in total. I find the third of these to be the weakest of the three I have chosen to post here. The mono type element is a ghost print (a secondary print pulled off the plexi after the primary had already been printed) and as such the washed out look of the element of urban life becomes an interpretable commentary I didn't intend. What I do like about it is the heavier outline of the buildings that was created after I removed the stencil that masked out the sky and pulled the second print.
These are elements and ideas I intend to work with further as I begin considering graduate school.

Dain Bramage

I was sitting around thinking about people who dont think for themselves. I happened to have my little 5x8 sketchbook on me and this is what came out.
Again I had no intention of how I wanted it to look - this was just the free-flowing result.
I want to do a larger piece mixing painting and drawing elements in together with this same theme. I think this one is cool - but it could be a lot better...