Rejected!

Technically I'm not adding any new art today, as it's my only day off [sigh,again!] and I've decided to take it a little easy. Going to see Quantum of Solace tonight, catch up on some script reading for my colleage Reba and do some marketing for Gritz n Gravy magazine [gritzngravy.com].
But I'm addicted to my little blog so I thought it would be fun and switch gears and present a illo I inked and colored a few months ago. Probably in retrospect I should have gotten my good friend Sky Owens to color the piece. He's so much better at photoshop than I am. And yet, overall I really like it. Yup, it's STREET FIGHTER, albeit completely off model. You know I just gots ta put my own spin on thangs...for better or worse. So what's that got to do with the title of this entry? Hmmm... In the long term? Not much. Not much at all.

Aliens! 3

Okay, working 48 to 50 hrs a week with only one day off per week for the last 4 weeks probably wasn't the most condusives schedule for getting artwork done. But I should be grateful for the overtime when most folks are losing their jobs left and right. Citi-Bank comes to mind with the loss of 50,000 jobs alone yesterday. And yet I've managed to post at least one piece every two days of late. Here's hoping I can keep this up!

THE XERUS: Oldest race known in the unified galaxies. The first to discover interplanetary space travel. In addition to spacecraft the Xerus invented warp gates- enormous constructs which activate navigational wormholes which make intergalaxy space travel possible. Initially, the Xerus were quite warlike attempting to conquer two other alien races, the Va’-N’LL Vox and the Kravorians. After a thousand year war relative peace resulted and served as the basis of the unified galaxies which would eventually annex three more space worthy alien races. The Xerus are hyper intelligent and a somewhat cold race. They value co-operation and extensive trading of resources. The Xerus have three sexes, all three are needed to procreate.

Aliens! 2

Two days later and another post...hmmm.... not bad! This is the kind of trend I really need to keep up. Here's another important alien race that populates the galaxy in the Space Station Orbiter series. Enjoy.

KRAVORIANS: This race of beings initially clashed with the Xerus sparking the thousand year war with first the Xerus and eventually the Va’-N’LL Vox as well. Considered the most proficient in the art of warfare, in the end the Kravorians decimated the Xerus population. The Xerus has yet to fully recover from the loss of 75% of its people from Kravorian war initiatives. The Kravorians participate with Arcadian unified galaxy trading agreements out of necessity. It depleted its three worlds’ natural resources thru the millennium long war. Kravorian’s primary export is genetic manipulation. Every other race has benefited from their technology as natural life spans have been extended by decades.

Aliens! Part 1

Been gone for a few days... a bit longer than I intended but I'm back. The next batch of sketches will be of the various aliens that inhabit the Space Station Orbiter universe.

World building can sometimes be daunting if I think about it too much. My first instinct is to simply jump into the pages and design as I go. And I'm sure as this project really gets going that's probably EXACTLY what I'll do. Unfortunately, I instinctually know that's not the way to go now. The more problem solving I can get thru at the design stage, the better. And since I don't have a design team consisting of Dave Johnson, Jim Lee, Cheeks and Paul Rivoche I'm just going to have to muddle thru as best I can...

These two are Ra- Kreallians, basically the villians of the story.

The RA-KREALLIANS: It is theorized the Ra-Kreallians are from an alternate universe, whose system shifted into Unified space two thousand years ago. The only race that was not directly contacted by the Xerus. Instead, the Ra-Kreallians petitioned for admittance to the Arcadian Trade Alliance. Not much is known about the Ra-Kreallians even now. What is known is that their technology rivals that of the Xerus.

OHMYGAWWWD! OBAMA WINS!!!

One of the nice things about this blog is I get to make new friends interested about my work. But every so often, a old friend catches up with you, reminding you're on the right track. Take fellow artist Brad Rader... we've been out of touch for awhile but he was kind enough to say a few good words about my blog. Of course as all discussions these days seem to go... it devolved [or in this particular case evolved] into the state of the presidential race. Somehow I don't think he'd mind me reprinting a portion of our e-mail exchange here...

"Oh my God. Obama is President!!! I'm in shock. I'm stunned. Throughout my entire adult life I have felt nothing but despair for the future of this country. Everything just seems to get worse...especially after 911. But I truly feel we've turned a corner. I feel optimistic about our future. Last week the city erupted in joy due to the Phillies winning the world series. It was electric. Well clearly, lightning has struck again in our fair city in less than a week's time. Center city was FULL of Obama supporters, the streets full of cars honking and men and women yelling out their joy. Me? I just cried. I was elated, and completely stunned. But the points you make are extremely valid. We need him to come thru with everything he's promised. And we can't let those 20th century dinosaurs called Republicans thwart his, no... OUR wave of change."

Well it's election day morning. As in 5:38 in the fucking morning. Me and my partner Seb intend to be in line when the polls open at 7am. Hopefully there won't be long lines at that early hour... but I'm prepared for a horror story. I'm not one for a whole lot of praying, and OBAMA is clearly ahead in the polls but those crooks [ I mean Republicans ] have stolen an election before. Anyone remember 2000? So I think we need JESUS. Black Jesus... that is.

Below are the first character designs of StealthShadow and FyreFist. Good friend Aarron Beatty was nice enough to ink the pieces waaaay back when. Funny how your tastes change, initially I wanted StealthShadow to be of Indian descent but have blond hair. Ugh. These days I've come to my senses and I think it's important to reflect nationalities in a more authentic manner, even in a futuristic setting.

Astute viewers can also see my original running title was CLOUD 9. I still like it, but I difinitely wanted to go with something that sounded like it could be a potential anime title.

Sigh. I should have known this blog was going to devolve to a catch-all for all my work, not just Orbiter related artwork. If there's a silver lining to this I can look back on this week at what I was drawing when i wasn't knee deep in Orbiter work. Anyhoo, enjoy a new logo I designed for a family member as she bravely starts a new business in what could be described as the worst of economic times. [Of course, if Obama is elected I fully expect the stock market to truly bounce back to it's former glory. Here's praying, anyway!] Also, I put the finishing touches on a new Gritz n Gravy illo. I'm hoping good friend Sky Owens will be kind enough to color the piece. I'd assume it's eventual home will be the Gritz n Gravy website.