AV_InfiniteSadness_Preview

Quite behind on updating this site, but deadlines are just about beat, after which we'll marathon some posts up. For now, here's a quick preview of an upcoming January poster featuring a composition inspired by the Norman Rockwell.
Warning, it can get depres.Reuxben

Design_RedAtNight

This is some fan art for the Adrian Simon. Most of the music I use in my youchoob videos belongs to him (used with permission, of course!), and since I didn't get to do fan art of him last time, I thought now would be a great time to draw a token of my thanks. 

So the art "order" was for a "cute graphic" t-shirt with some kind of redhead-based saying. I couldn't think of any sweet sayings myself and research left me with nothing sumptuous, so I stretched a line a little to fit using innuendo (gingerly).

The expression I heard when I was young was "Red at night, sailor's delight; red in the morning, sailors take warning," apparently a nautical saying seafarers used to ballpark the day's weather before casting off to go fight the forces of the Negaverse or whatever it is people do in the Naaaaaavy. The phrase synched up pretty neatly with the AO, particularly when you factor in Adrian Simon's more recent work kinda gets a touch blue, so there was more to munch on there if you choose to take it up that way. Not that there's anything outrageous here that would make you turn your head, but it can go as coughy as you want it to.

Fun Facts: As we were driving up to LA for my interview to get the very job I currently enjoy here in Japan, we listened (appropriately) to Adrian Simon's Ivy League albums for the occasion, complete with his BUAD cover. 

The only one in the car who hadn't heard the song before, like I did way back when, squinted suspiciously after a couple repeats' worth of plays granted the lyrics lucidity.  It's like getting tricked into loving that song. But it's so great!  Ok, not the song, just his cover. I normally can't stand rap, but this dude killllls it.  Every single time.  I would be all over it if he did a rap covers album. He can make the most horrific stuff beautiful. Gosh.

ANYWAY. So I sketched this one mostly in my head, but early versions had him in a full-on Sailor Scoutfit but I thought that was a little much since it might inadvertently dishonor rather than laud the guy. So we just settled with a regular sailor's uniform but with Serena's pose. Clever right? Yeah I am.

But the trickiest thing was it had to be cute (I really wanna draw him cool, though, you know? I so badly wanna draw a cool picture of a redhead some day). I wouldn't normally do the extra-chibi-riffic thing but it was to sell the Sailor Moon angle, and because chibi has become a shorthand for cute, even if the SD figure isn't even actually cute (and who knows if mine is!).

As for making it feel like a t-shirt design, I tried to keep the colors simple, though if this were an actual t-shirt, I'd prolly just make it all flat.  Additionally, while I knew this would be destined for a red shirt, I thought it's be neat to make the frame riff on of the Heinz ketchup labeling.  Google it.

So, final score--redhead expression: check-ish. Cute: check-ish.  T-shirt graphic: check-ish.  Pretty close, right?

There was super short notice on this piece and I was neck-dope in a different production, but it was a fun project to undertake for the experience points.  I would love to make real t-shirts down the road someday.  I want to make them by hand, though; I'm not crazy about this 100% digital art business, ya know?

Oh! Also, if you've never listened to the Adrian Simon, you gotta chuckim oot.

Reuxben

Fun_Snowmz

Here's another Christmas card I made for a jKid who mailed me a Christmas card of her own. I didn't know what to draw so I went with a US-style snowman. In Japan snowmen are only made of two snowballs, two buttons for eyes and a bucket for a hat. They get a thrill out of how we deck ours out.

Speaking of decking things out for Christmas but not really but kinda anyway...

It's our Christmas Special for youchoob. It's only about a third Duel Masters-related, but there's plenty of other content including some looks at obscure manga. A lot of art in this video, too, including stuff we hadn't even debuted on this site yet.

Reuxben

Fun_GuyWhoseNameIsDaniel

This is a sequel Christmas present I drew for my pizza man. I was floored he still has last year's card!

Still waiting for Japan to get that stuffed-crust technology, tho, son!

But it's all good.

Reuxben

AV_anp.MySpanta_MO

Here's the Making Of that one piece we did a while ago. Dang I love coloring snowmens.

Here's the pencils if you're into that kind of thing.

Statistically you are not.

By the way, this piece is called MySpanta because of this. Boy, that link was worth clicking, wasn't it? Are you proud of yourself?

Ugh.

That last "ugh" wasn't directed at you.

I just can't get the taste of stealthed wasabi out of my mouth. Why don't they ever warn you?

Ugh.

That one was for you. My disdain for your disinterest in just exactly the things I'm interested in.

Speaking of feeling special for clicking things, if you click anything in this post, make it this picture. It'll zoom in so you can see our coloring proh-sess. We're using Copic Ciaos of course, and this time I got a bit more daring and used purple to bitter up the eye sockets. This is terribly exciting to me and only me. But now you know that.

That's it.

Ugh.

Reuxben

Fun_Presents

Drawing Christmas cards and such for people. This is a riff on a card I received in the mail.

Actual mail.

Gosh, I'm lonely.

Reuxben

AV_anp.MySpanta

Here's our proper December ALT poster, fresh in oh-twelve, right? Right.  We've got a special section on Christmas rock tunes including selections from My Chemical Romance, and The Matches, Something Corporate, Fall Out Boy, and Those Guys.  This one was kind of a rusher towards the end, but pretty happy with that Santa!

This is a close up of the reindeer I have named Doofy.

Trying desperately to draw a cute reindeer that doesn't look like a Chopper rip-off is not easy. But fortunately I failed miserably. I am the fool. Pity me.

I've started using my lightest skin tones for wood and stuff so I tried it out on the antlers and was pleasantly surpised with how it turned out.  Neat, said nobody but me.

This is a close up of our section on how to Secret Santa. Because that's a verb. Sentence fragment.

I would tell you more, but it's a secret.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH get it?

Reuxben

AV_INGLook

Here's the third and final ING illustration. Can you guess the verb? Tough luck, the answer is "looking."

I was really happy with the character design here. I think I finally landed the perfect leader of the crew. I want to call her Jinjin.

I was so happy with the postcardy version that I did a run of her for my chardesign practice exercise. So this was the version of her that conformed to our challenge's rules. That session went so effortlessly and it was so fun. I would love to tell a story with her. But it's about assembling a team, you know? Who is good enough to hang with her? That's tricky.

As for her powers, she has a compass that gives her different abilities and techniques based on the direction of the compass rose. So for example, she'd get cold-based powers from the north, heat-based powers from the south. She also has basically an auto-shield against suckerpunches in her compass. So no cheap shots. And she always looks out for her crew more than they will ever know. But who is looking out for her, when even she can't?

Reuxben

AV_SnakeOne

I had to make some Holiday cards for the jKids. I normally loathe the term "Holiday" since that usually is just code for Christmas, but we were in actuality covering multiple holidays, so it was a tolerable usage this time around. The two holidays here are Christmas and New Years' (the year of the snake). I wanted to try going inkless, just pencils and Copics, but I still don't know how I feel about noinks. But I do know I love the word "noinks."

Gonna give this away to someone...but who?

Noinks. Away,

Reuxben

Fun_VanIceCory

This is a char from the chardesign sketch sesh. This is Cory. Her full name is Van Ice Cory, but she rarely uses her first two names. Cory isn't her last name, it's just the last name of hers.

She can use peeps like walking globs of C4. She can use cold and ice through her hands and her breath. She can use heat and fire through her feet.

They say her "real" name is Corey...there are also some filthy rumors floating around...that she's Canadian.

Reuxben

AV_INGeat

Here's another selection from our ING practice. Can you guess the verb?

I'll give you a hint: eating.

Reuxben

Fun_BilltedStilted

Billted is from our chardesign exercise. I want very much not to have a boy be the leader. So this guy started out as a girl but then as he became more evidently a boy, it became a struggle to make him not feel like the leader. So he aspires to be the leader. Or maybe he just leads a rival, but lesser or minor crew?

Anyway, he's hooked on placebos. And he knows it. But he can't function without them. He's looking for the legendary Panacebo, which will cure all his placebo-related issues. But for now, he remains functional thanks only the the thin shred of functionality granted by his placebraces.

Will he ever find the Panacebo? Or will he learn to overcome his crippling, entirely constructed dependency himself? One thing's for sure, he will never remember to zip up his pants.

Reuxben

AV_anp.HAWsanta

Here's a QUICK poster I did for an elemenary visit. They popped this request on me the day of (I'm beginning to suspect a doggone pattern). But I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. I even finished BEFORE (just before, let's be honest) closing time! Really happy with how the early reviews went from the jCrew, but woulda loved to see the little jDudes lose their little jMinds!

Here's the process shots. Not as detailed as usual since time is terribly precious on these one-dayers.

Anyway, I got the common mark of success--people wanted to rub the drawing...guys, you gotta stop doing that...especially on the pencils(!).

Reuxben