Spider-Man!

It was Matt Benyo's golden birthday yesterday and I slaved away on his birthday card. He loves Spider-Man. I used cut paper, cardboard, micron pens, and dental floss for the web! He really liked it (despite knowing that I'd pick Spider-Man). We try to go all out for each other's birthday cards because it's a pretty big deal.

Happy Birthday, Mick!

Today is Mick Foley's 49th birthday so I am celebrating accordingly. I drew this for him yesterday and Matt Benyo came up with the clever phrasing. Mick Foley is one of the kindest people I've ever met with a heart of gold and he has been entertaining all of us for ages. I hope he has the best birthday ever.

Digital Witness.

GUYS, I'M STILL HERE. I am still making art. I present you with some random sketches that feature Brittany from Delta Rae, Spider Man, Norman Bates, and Matt Benyo's lips. I also did a blind contour sketch of St. Vincent! Then I went back in and added the details while looking. I am really happy with it even though Matt Benyo doesn't dig it. St. Vincent is strange, but she's also hypnotizing because I can't look away and her song Digital Witness will not leave my head. Check it out. THIS IS MY 666th POST!! SAIL HATAN! Click to enlarge!

The 86th Oscars!

It is time for the Academy Awards and I couldn't be happier. This year, Matt Benyo and I, have been especially busy. We saw all but 2 of the movies nominated. We didn't get around to seeing Nebraska and we chose not to see Wolf of Wall Street because 3 hours of Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio sounds like hell. Over the past 2 days, I've been working on this. It took me 9 hours. I sketched in pencil and used a Micron in my Moleskin. I wanted to draw someone from each of the movies nominated for best picture. Some of the drawings are good; some aren't, but I'm proud of what I did. Also, Matt Benyo got into the drawing/Oscar spirit and came up with this clever drawing of Elsa from Frozen and said that she needs to win so she can unfreeze the Earth. He's so crazy! Click to enlarge to read the speech bubbles and see the details AND thanks to Matt Benyo for editing the last Oscar drawing/picture because he's so much better at editing than I will ever be.

So Long, Sochi!

With the 2014 Winter Olympics coming to a close, I thought illustrating a Russian icon would be apropos. I have always wanted to draw St. Basil's Cathedral, but never got around to doing it. I only just realized yesterday the Olympics ended today so this was fate. I watched the Olympics off and on. I never realized how many people were obsessed with them. I am just excited for Late Night with Seth Meyers because he's going to knock that show outta the park. I digress, I drew this using a 01 Micron Pen and then used this awesome pen I found on the ground at Cranbrook to color it. It's a little guy, but I like the way it turned out. Click to enlarge!

98: Attitude Era.

I used to roll my eyes when Matt Benyo would sit around with our friends talking about how awesome wrestling used to be. Wrestling was never something that appealed to me. I think that's because in my mind, wrestling was synonymous with rednecks in wife beaters. However, this has all changed. Matt Benyo has every WWF wrestling event from 1998 and he's in the process of acquiring 1999 and beyond. I have to say, I'm like a 10 year old boy right now. It's a world I never knew existed. I have absolutely no idea what the target demographic is for wrestling because as far as I can tell, anyone and everyone is in the audience. I laugh every time someone runs past with their sign up. The SIGNS. Those are one of my favorite things! However, there is nothing cooler to me than Stone Cold Steve Austin. What a BA. He's the real people's champ. I get so pumped up. He's my hero. I love his interactions with Vince McMahon. He makes wrestling worth watching. My second favorite wrestler is Mick Foley. That guy has such heart, passion, and character. DX is moving up on the list. They just dressed like The Nation last night and made fun of them in the ring and that was hysterical. Oh and Al Snow! He's something else! I love the heart all of these guys have and their commitment to their characters and craft. Basically, I misjudged wrestling and I'm getting into the attitude era 16 years after it was popular, but this is quite a ride and I'm loving it. So, I'm still working on trying to master drawing Stone Cold, but here are some drawings I have done. Click to enlarge CAUSE STONE COLD SAID SO AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE!

Fave Movies.

In case you're not hip enough to have an instagram (or simply don't want one), you've been missing out on some prized pieces from yours truly. I use 'prized' loosely because singularly, each of these drawings sucks, but together, they rule. I did a couple collages of a few of my favorite movies: Moonrise Kingdom and Jurassic Park. More to come, but after this next phase: WRESTLING.

Post-It Notes.

I've been having a field day with Matt Benyo. We have been trying to sell Pocket Portraits (TM). They're post-it portraits for $5. I draw them and Matt Benyo edits them and makes them look amazing. The one I did of Matt Benyo is the most recent. Matt Benyo also added a whole new header to my blog (see above)! Here is giant compilation of what we've done (Kory drew me in the last row, 2nd in). Matt Benyo did an incredible portrait of Meryl Streep (2nd row, 3rd in) and then I tried to draw it and FAILED (2nd row, 2nd in). Click to enlarge!

Buffy SUCKS!

Just kidding. She really doesn't, but she is IMPOSSIBLE to draw. Matt Benyo is taking a life drawing class and it is awesome because it inspires me to draw, but I digress. Sarah Michelle Gellar is hard to draw and that is why I say she sucks. We've started watching Buffy again on this new network called Pivot. It rules.

Stickers!

A friend of mine, Rolando, has a sticker company called Stickrmada and he can customize any design you want! He took the lil party bot and gave him life! If you're interested in your own, let me know and I'll put you in touch with him.

The Wild West!

My computer is temporarily out of commission and I am depressed about it. Here is the last drawing I am mustering up for 2013. It's a cowboy. The picture on the left was my inspiration for my drawing. I really dig the little guy. I used different colored ink pens to make him. Giddy'up!

LIL PARTY BOT!

Tonight is the biggest party night of the year, but I don't party. I mean, I party, but in the way of trivia and sitting in Matt Benyo's basement in a snuggie watching non-Jennifer Lawrence movies. So, in honor of the partying that's going down tonight, I made the lil party robot. I used illustrator and wanted to evoke a sense of fun mixed with childish wonder with the color (and I hope it makes you smile). Remember guys, you can have all the fun you want, but you gotta be safe. Party on, party bot.

The Grand Count.

I drew this, inked it, nibbed it, and photoshopped the background/white of the collar. I wish I could properly name this. I don't even know what it's from. I like it though.

Dogs, Houses, & Gaga.

I made a cut out of Lexi the dog (my friend Jiggawatt's), I drew a house while working crazy volunteer hours for the library, and I made a mixed media cut out of Lady Gaga last night during her ARTrave live streaming event via VEVO in celebration of ARTPOP. I've been a little busy, but thought I'd post a big batch of goodness. More to come! Stay tuned!

Happy Halloween!

Well boys and ghouls, we've reached the end of our trails. Or have we? Well, I have way too many ideas that I didn't get to do so Halloween blog updates have been EXTENDED. Maybe I'll post 5 days a week instead of 7; we'll see. After completing this Hocus Pocus piece, I want to die. This took me 13 hours and 185 layers in photoshop. Absolute insanity. I basically use photoshop the same way one would use illustrator except I use paper textures to create my shapes. I like the geometric look. Man, I could've kept nitpicking this, but I just had to let it be. So, without further ado, I present you with the Sanderson Sisters because what would Halloween be without them? No posts until at least Monday. This one took it out of me. Click to enlarge to see the crazy details/layers.

Nosferatu!

I absolutely LOVE Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror; the 1922 F.W. Murnau film starring Max Schreck. Nos has always had a special place in my heart. I saw the film at the Detroit Film Theatre 6 or 7 years ago and I am thrilled to say that I will be seeing Nosferatu TONIGHT in Ann Arbor with live organ accompaniment. If anyone is interested in seeing something great and eerie, come join me! In light of these festivities, I spent all day and night making this Nos using Illustrator anddd I love him. Here are some initial sketches I did as well. What do you think? Click to enlarge!

The Tale of the Night Shift.

So, I've been watching Are You Afraid of the Dark cause tis the season. One of the scariest episodes has to be the Night Shift with the Vampire in the hospital. The character is actually one of the better ones from the series. When I was a camp counselor, I used to play that episode every summer. So, I went a little wild and crazy with this one. Maybe I overworked it, but I wanted him to have some of that menace that the character from the show had. Regardless, I had fun making this.

Woop Woop!

Cause here in Detroit, Halloween is totally synonymous with ICP. Together, the two Joseph's and the halloween extravaganza create the holy trinity of halloween here in the D and you can't have ICP without Faygo. Where the juggalos at?

Demon.

I'm dead. Or evil. Or a ghost. Or whatever. But I'm not a zombie. Make up job compliments of Matt Benyo. Happy Halloween, boys and ghouls. 

They All Float Down Here.

So this isn't Pennywise the Dancing Clown, but he's kind of creepy (if you don't like clowns). I painted this using watercolor and then when I was messing around with it, I made it look scary so I'm posting both of em. I'm not in love with it, but I also haven't painted in forever and happy birthday to my father, Charlessss!

Demontaur.

This is a demon minotaur. I don't know much about him, but he's mean as hell. I can't even look at him. I'm going to give myself nightmares. Click to enlarge this beast!

Are You A Fairy?

He is not a fairy. His name is the Pale Man and he is a child-eating monster according to Wikipedia. He gives me the freak out. I was terrified of him in Pan's Labyrinth. Great movie, by the way; gory and graphic. I like it for its fantastical nature. That aside, blood splatters on everything. Click to enlarge!

"Come Play With Us, Danny."

FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER. I love The Shining. I've watched it 4 times consecutively. I spent 6 hours on this. I work so slow. I inked this, took it into photoshop, made it a cut out, and had some fun with it. I wanted to show them half alive and then half bloodied up. I am super proud of it; probably because of the amount of time I spent on it and because I felt good about it. Mad props to Matt Benyo for being my art critic and helping me make some crucial decisions. Now I am sick and going to be exhausted tomorrow, but this made it worth it.

Monstober.

Matt Benyo and I are watching Halloweentown and I drew this creature. I don't know why. He's scarier than anything in that movie. MB named him Flombat!

Black Parade.

I was inspired by these little skeleton decorations I saw at my friend Betsy's house the other day so I drew them leading a parade. A little skeleton parade. Happy as larks.

Shawnee Smith: Colored!

OKAY I am really proud of this. I don't know why. Maybe because it looks finished? There are still things I could tweak (because trust me, I have), but I put a lot of time into this and I realized it doesn't really look like Shawnee Smith. Instead of looking terrified, she looks like a BA. Maybe some killer robot from the future. I don't know, but I dig this and I hope you do too!

I Want To Play A Game.

Jigsaw hanging out. Jigsaw on the TV. Matt Benyo actually gave me the idea to make the static fuzz over him like he's on TV which I thought was pretty genius. So, I inked it in my moleskin and did everything else in Photoshop. This is part 2 of the 3 part Saw series. I'm wrapping it up with the final Shawnee Smith tomorrow!

Shawnee Smith: Uncolored.

I'm doing 2 Shawnee posts. I drew it with mechanical pencil and then inked the hair and bear trap with Micron pens. I pulled it into photoshop to darken it and give it the grey. I spent a lot of time working on this; especially the details. Next couple posts will be Saw (good guessing, Lindsay)! Click to enlarge!

Final Preview!

Tomorrow I'm posting it. Any ideas? I sent Matt Benyo progress shots as I did it and he said I really captured the eyes which is huge for me because I'm usually not very good at the eyes. Here they are. I hope they haunt you.

Preview 2!

Preview of Coming Attractions!

I've got this piece I'm posting Wednesday. It took me a solid 8 hours and maybe when I post it you're not going to understand why it took so long, but I'm a little proud of it. Not much because it did get kind of destroyed in the process of being inked, but I'm still smiling. Here's a preview:

The Lost Boys.

I really enjoy The Lost Boys. Kiefer Sutherland was mean in this movie, but he was a vampire so it's justified. I always just remember him being mean in Stand By Me. I will never forgive him for stealing Gordie's hat in Stand By Me. I got ahead of myself with the inking here. Meh.

Challenge: Matt Benyo.

I've been on a portrait kick. It all started with this one I'll be posting on Wednesday, but for some reason, they keep turning out okay which is strange because portraits have always been a struggle for me. Matt Benyo posted a photo & challenged me to draw it. I said no, but I thought why not? There are a few things off, but BOOM; I DID IT. I've included progress shots which makes me like this a lot. This took me 4 hours and it's smaller than my palm. SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE. The point is that I am getting better and that makes me happy. Click to enlarge!