Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Combat Critters!

A friend of mine commissioned me to customize some of his Battle Beasts. If you don't know what Battle Beasts are then I'm sorry... you missed out on a lot of fun. Here's a crash course. Battle Beasts are still quite popular and kinda hard to find these days, so I've never customized any before. Wow-- what a lot of fun! These little dudes just beg to be reworked into stuff... or in some cases just augmented in their original color schemes, which is what my friend wanted with two of these figures. I figured everyone would like to take a look, so here ya goo:






This is Pirate Lion. I had been asked to just repaint him in his original scheme, only a bit more gritty and battle-worn.





And here he is with the injury that caused him to wear the patch in the first place-- GORY!!!!




I call this one the Magma Lion... he's kinda hot.




And this is the Ice Lion. You get the joke.




And this is Panzer Panda reworked into Samurai Panda!


Hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I enjoyed making them!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Monsters and Aliens and Crayons-- OH MY!!!

I got a really cool package in the mail today. (I love it when a store throws in extras like stickers and postcards!)



In a thread in the kaiju section of the Octorber Toys Forum (best forum EVAR!) someone mentioned a store called Monster Worship, and, while browsing for toys there, I came across a wonderful coloring book by artist Terence E. Hanley called Monsters and Aliens of America. I managed to snag the last one in stock at the time, but they have restocked, it appears! They have another of his coloring books that I'm probably going to eventually grab called Mothman, Aliens, & Flying Saucers



It's illustrated in a very classic style that makes me think back to the old coloring books I had when I was a kid. Have you guys seen coloring books these days? Most of the ones I've seen lately are just photographs that have been digitally wonked around with until they look like line drawings-- it's pretty sad. There used to be quite a bit of artistry in the making of coloring books



The way the creatures in the book are presented reminds of old episodes of In Search Of, a show that pretty much was responsible for 99% of the nightmares I had when I was a kid.



20 pages of fun critters and brief stories about each one. This is definitely one of those coloring books that will never be touched by a crayon, pencil, or brush-- the line work is just too perfectly beautiful to me to sully with any color. Not too shabby for 5 bucks, huh?



I looked up Terence E. Hanley, and he has a website for those who are interested in hearing more about him. Unfortunately it seems to be in its infancy with very few links or pages. Hopefully that will change. On the good side, it provides contact info for the artist!

If you like his stuff, let him know! Artists need to know they are appreciated! Sometimes we feel all alone, scratching away at our drawing boards like madmen!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Sketchbook Mega-dump!

My father has been in and out of the doctor's office and hospital for tests and such lately. I have been driving him there, so I have been in waiting room after waiting room sketching like crazy to avoid watching Doctor Phil (is it a law that all waiting room TV's HAVE to be tuned to Dr. Phil???? I really hate that guy).

Enjoy:

















Monday, October 18, 2010

Tag it Up!

The last time I went down to Georgia (kinda like the Devil) I made some gifts for my friends there. My friend Pablo just sent me some pictures he took of the gift I gave him. I have been so busy lately I had completely forgotten about it-- what a nice surprise!!! Here ya go:








You should all go check out Pablo's awesome blog here, his great videos here, and his cool toy collection here