Back in the Cabinet.

Posted on May 8, 2012 by treebeerdy

I woke up this morning and realized I needed a break from the computer. The past couple weeks most of what I have been working on has been digital. I just kinda didn’t even realize it had been as long as it had since I sat down with my brush and some ink. Closest I have come is sitting down and doing thumbnails for THE CABINET preview.
That being the case, I sat down at the drawing table and did a drawing based on THE CABINET. I’ve never really posted anything that gives a good view of the style I intend to use on this book. So, I present something like this:

This kinda sums up the basic look of the book I’m working on with Christian Sager. There will be variations on the wash colors as well as how thick they will be. I decided to add all of the snow and such digitally. I think it has a nice clean look to it.

There will be much more of this very soon. Trying to get around to posting more regularly again, hopefully once I finish a couple of the things I’m working on this week I’ll have more time for it. For now, enjoy!

Posted in art, Comics, digital art, fantasy, horror, manga studio, paintings, Sci-Fi, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Free comics, some Hobos and a Bum Blog

Posted on May 5, 2012 by treebeerdy

What’s this?? A post with no pictures to look at?! I figure you are either (a) relived or (b) disappointed. If your feelings fall into the (a) category, then you are bound to be disappointed. If you fall into the latter, then rejoice!
I have two, yes TWO offerings for you on this fineFree Comic Book Day, via other blogs.
First up is a strip I did with Geoffrey D. Wessel, who I also worked with on Unite and Take Over Volume II.
Warren Ellis had a thing where he asked for 3 panel comics to post on his site a while back. We did this, never went up, so Geoffrey posted it up on his blog today. Click to go read FULL DISCLOSURE

The second bit of linkage goes to Chris Reilly and I’s the Hobo Kings: BUM SUB. While we were both out at different locations with copies of the preview, we know not everyone got one that might have wanted.
Those wonderful hobos now have their own blog and have posted the preview in it’s entirety for your reading pleasure! Click HERE
Enjoy and spread the word!

Posted in art, Comics, digital art, fantasy, manga studio, punk, Sci-Fi, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

May the 4th be with you.

Posted on May 4, 2012 by treebeerdy

Yep, I’m a dork and it’s May the 4th, happy Star Wars day! While I am not a giant celebrator of this fine tribute to consumerism and yearly patting on the back for Mr. Lucas, I am still a Star Wars nerd.
This week I’ve found my self sorta irritable at the way we go on about the “nerdy” things we get excited about. Like, say that movie that came out this week with the super heroes and the Firefly directing and what not. I’m sure it’s great and all, and I expect I’ll see it once everything calms down and such. I think we are at a point where we shouldn’t be surprised a movie like this is a hit or successful, or even good for that matter. Yay. Big surprise, that movie is making loads of cash. Great. I’m sure it’s all going where it SHOULD go too…. (sarcasm).
Tomorrow is free comic book day. Take that moment to get excited about comic books! While the big boys play around in Hollywood and distract themselves with big event comics, why don’t the rest of us focus on good old fashion fun to read comic books! Don’t get me wrong, I know those guys still make comic books, heck a couple of ’em are still good too. I just want to remember the awesome comics that don’t have major money backing them or a soft drink tie in shoving them down your throat. Comics from people like TopShelf and Archaia that have fine free comic day offerings this year (and every year). Go see the movie, enjoy it even, perhaps buy 400 bucks worth of foam fists and plastic masks! Just remember the comics were where it started, and that’s what matters.
I hears the big green dude is the best part.
Ok, done rambling and whining and generally acting like I know something. Here is a warm up sketch from this morning of a slightly off proportion Darth Vader…

Also, i will be at Arkham Comics in Arkansas tomorrow for FCBD and I will have a limited number of the Hobo Kings: Bum Sub FCBD preview comic.
We are also working on getting a Hobo site going sometime tonight hopefully where you should be able to download a PDF file of the preview, just in case you can’t make it to one of the locations we will be at. I’ll post something here when that happens.

Posted in art, Comics, digital art, fantasy, manga studio, paintings, Sci-Fi, star wars, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Hobo Kings: Bum Sub FCBD preview!

Posted on April 29, 2012 by treebeerdy

It’s almost done! I just put a cover together for the Hobo Kings Free Comic Book Day preview! I have to wrap up one more page and add the lettering tomorrow. We went with a simple, but effective, cover design for the preview.

Here is the cover to your dreams…

Gumby and Hobo Kings writer Chris Reilly will be at Sarges comics and he will have copies of the preview on hand for Free Comic Book Day.
I will be at Arkham Comics in Blytheville, Arkansas for part of the day and should have a few copies as well. I will also be doing sketches and this and that.

The preview will be 5 pages and introduce you to some of the major characters.

So If you can, you should check it out! Either way, go out and support your local comic shops on Free Comic Book Day!! (which is Saturday, May 5th)

SPREAD THE WORD! please.

Posted in art, Comics, digital art, fantasy, manga studio, punk, Sci-Fi, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Creature from the Black Lagoon sketch.

Posted on April 28, 2012 by treebeerdy

HI! I’ve been rather slacking with the posts since the end of alphabeasts. I’ve actually been crazy busy the last couple weeks. I was also sick so I’ve had to do a kooky amount of catching up the last couple weeks. Lots of all day drawing on into the night and into bed at 4 in the A.M. or so.
Lot’s going on in terms of projects I’ve mentioned in the past. Christian Sager is working everything up for our upcoming Kickstarter for our comic “the Cabinet”. He got me a great 6 page preview script that is exclusive to the kickstarter that I will start drawing this week. We have some AWESOME creators taking time to contribute to the rewards, believe me, you will want to keep an eye out on it! I’ll be posting more on that in the next week or so.
I’m also finishing up a 5 page Free Comic Book Day preview of HOBO KINGS: BUMSUB (previously referred to as BumSub) with Chris Reilly. It will be available in small quantities and only at shops we are at. I will post that in a day or two, I can’t remember at the moment… too many all nighters me thinks.

I’ve also been catching up on various illustration projects. I am working on something that, unfortunately, I can’t really share at the moment, but, it is something that put me in a position where I needed to consider a different style of drawing. I have always tried to be diverse in drawing styles, at least a little. I have always been a tiny bit nervous when it comes to digital color or digital “painting”. This project caused me to scrap an almost finished drawing and spend a day trying to learn something new and test different techniques.
My first step outside of that project with this was a pin-up/fan art drawing I did for Eric Orchards MarrowBones. It will be in the second issue, so remember that.
Tonight I needed to rest my brain and play video games and drink beer. So obviously I ended up at the computer sketching and trying some different looser things (and drinking beer). So I give you…

Creature from the Black Lagoon:

While it isn’t fantastic by any means (I really like it though, for the vinyl), I had a lot of fun doing it. I’m so excited that I finally tried something different digitally. I was so timid about color due to lack or self confidence or (perhaps) legitimate lack of skill or know how. I’m still a little kid with this method and am still using limited tools. I did this all with the pencil tool in Manga Studio Debut.
So, I hope it’s at least mildly entertaining. If nothing else, have a laugh at the fact that I am working on 300 different projects and trying to bring 300 different things to each. It makes me laugh.
Check in soon, lot’s of exciting things coming up in the next month or two!

Posted in art, Comics, digital art, fantasy, horror, manga studio, paintings, punk, Sci-Fi, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ian Mackaye is 50 today!?

Posted on April 16, 2012 by treebeerdy

I am sitting on my couch with a horrible lower back pain that has remained, well, horrible, for the past week and a half. On top of that I was sick most of last week as well. This morning as I contemplated the possibilities of needing to go see a chiropractor soon, I seen that it was Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat/Fugazi/the Evens/Dischord Records and a few other bands fame. He is 50. 50 years old. So coupled with my old man back that really just caught me off guard. Helped me feel a tiny bit old.
But it is also kinda awesome. The man has done a lot in those 50 years. Here’s wishing for 20 or so more! (c’mon, let’s be honest, who really wants to be doing anything at 100. Right?)
Anyways, this all led to me doing this as a warm up sketch this morning…

Happy B-day, Mackaye!

So go celebrate with some Fugazi (I suggest a song that might not be Waiting Room. Spread your wings, eh??)

Also, rather quickly, I want to suggest downloading the new digital comic “MarrowBones” by Eric Orchard. I read it last night and it’s great stuff. It’s a fun mixture cute and scary. It’s a fun read and available now, just go HERE!

Posted in art, Comics, digital art, paintings, punk, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Alphabeasts- Z is for Zentradi (and Zerg)!

Posted on April 9, 2012 by treebeerdy

Well, here we are at the end of Alphabeasts. (well, I still need to throw down an A, but I will get to that soon…) I had a blast and it had so many wonderful artists involved, it was great to be involved! I can see improvements in my own work over the course of this project, fueled by a desire to try and keep changing things up and inspiration from other participants. Heck I’m even coming out of this working on a pretty exciting project with fellow Alphabeaster Christian Sager, not bad if you ask me!
Anyways, I knew from the time I did my D (Dragur) that I would NOT be doing zombie for my Z. I mean, my D was basically a zombie. I also pretty much knew what I would most likely do for Z at that time as well. There is that and the fact that I have drawn the piss outta zombies in my day! I thought I would give friends and followers a break. (Not to mention all the awesome Zombies everyone else is throwing in!! More on that in a second.)
Yesterday when I sat down to do my Alphabeast I kept thinking I should change it because it didn’t feel like it had the pop I wanted to go out on. I liked the drawing though and decided to stick with it.

Z is for Zentradi:

I’ve always been a huge fan of the original Robotech series. If you’ve followed the blog for awhile you probably even seen a couple other Robotech type drawings here and there.
Specifically, I chose Commander Breetai. He was a great character with a lot of depth. He basically defects from his fellow Zentradi and sides with the Micronians (Humans) and winds up fighting along side them and other fellow Zentradi defectors against the other Zentradi. You get the idea.
But wait! there’s more!

When I was thinking about doing something different I started a sketch that I ended up abandoning. I have decided to share this as a final alphabeast as well. Granted it’s kind of a throw away…

Z is also for Zerg:

The Zerg are an alien race from the video game series StarCraft From Blizzard Entertainment. I like it as a sketch and may come back to them one day. The only pitfall of doing Zerg was it made me want to just go play Starcraft 2. Which would be a terrible miss-management of my time right now…

So, again I want to thank everyone who was involved in Alphabeasts! As well as a huge thanks to the man who ran the whole thing, Andrew Neal (aka wander lane)! Who, by the way did zombie for his Z installment and included a few of the Alphabeast artists, myself included! it’s pretty awesome too! You should click HERE and go see it!
I hope to have time to be involved in the upcoming AlphaBooks as well! In the meantime, I will post an A soon and will be rolling out news on a couple projects REAL soon!

Posted in alphabeasts, anime, art, Comics, fantasy, horror, paintings, Sci-Fi, Uncategorized, video games, world of warcraft | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dino sharks t-shirts…..

Posted on April 7, 2012 by treebeerdy

So, because I had a few requests, I just kinda reworked the t-rex with shoulder mounted great white sharks design and put it on t-shirts (and other junk) via cafepress. It seems to look ok so, if your interested, you can check it out HERE
The design looks like this:

And don’t forget you can order the original prints HERE

Posted in art, Comics, digital art, dinosaurs, fantasy, horror, manga studio, Sci-Fi, sharks, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Print Available! T-Rex with Shoulder Mounted Great White Sharks (that shoot lasers)

Posted on April 6, 2012 by treebeerdy

That’s right folks, now you can own a signed copy of this fearsome beast (beasts?)! In this brand new drawing I give you a stampeding Tyrannosaurus Rex with shoulder mounted Great White sharks (that shoot lasers!)!!

They all come signed and I also include a sketch with every one! All for 10 bucks! No wall is worth looking at without one!

I have a big move coming up and a daughter about to graduate, so help an artist type guy out and get one from my ETSY SHOP !

As always, thank you!

Posted in art, Comics, digital art, dinosaurs, fantasy, horror, manga studio, Sci-Fi, sharks, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Alphabeasts- Y is for Yara-Ma-Yha-Who

Posted on April 2, 2012 by treebeerdy

Wow, we are at Y. Only Z to go… crazy.
Because my last few have been more modern fiction based I wanted to go back and get at least one more creature of legend in.
I chose this interesting little feller…

Y is for Yara-Ma-Yha-Who:

“In aboriginal cultures, there was a vampire-like being, described as a little red man, approximately four feet tall, with a very large head and mouth. It has no teeth and swallowed its food whole. Its most distinguishing features were it hands and feet. It tips of the fingers and toes were shaped like the suckers of an octopus.
The yara-ma-yha-who lived in the tops of fig trees and did not hunt for food, but waited until unsuspecting victims sought shelter under the tree. It then jumped down and placed its hands and feet on the body. It would drain the blood from the victim to the point the person was left weak and helpless, but rarely, to cause the victim to die. The creature would later return and consume its meal. It then drank water and took a nap. When it woke, the undigested portion of its meal would be regurgitated. According to the story, the person regurgitated was still alive, and children were advised to offer no resistance should it be their misfortune to meet a yara-ma-yha-who. Their chances of survival were better if they let the creature swallow them.
People might be captured on several occasions. Each time, they would grow a little shorter until they were the same size as the yara-ma-yha-who. Their skin would first become smooth and then they would begin to grow hair all of their body. Gradually they were changed into one of the mythical little furry creatures of the forest.
The story of the yara-ma-yha-who was told to young children who might wander from the tribe, and to naughty children to scare them that it might come and take them away.”

That is taken from an article by Micha F. Lindemans.
I found a few different tales actually. They are all pretty much the same other than in some the creature is referred to as a Vampire. Like a vampire with no teeth that sucks blood through the suckers on his fingers.
I love that they can get you more than once and gradually turn you into one by making you shorter and shorter. I think they would only have to get me once maybe.

I actually think this is one of my favorites I’ve done for this.
As we wrap this up, I am going to try and finally get my A installment up between now and Z.

Enjoy!
P.S. I kinda wanna use these guys in a comic somewhere too!

Posted in alphabeasts, art, Comics, fantasy, horror, paintings, Sci-Fi, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments