Thursday, February 17, 2011

Everyone You Know... (Part 2)

“People won’t automatically like you. You may be socially crippled your entire life.”


“You will never receive notice that magic is real and that you are wizard...”


“...Your owl will never come.”


“Despite your canine teeth, you aren’t a werewolf.”
(having some problems with this image, I'll upload it when I can)

“Most sources of information on the world available to you are lying. Even your parents...”


“...You parents weren’t ‘Just wrestling’.”


“You probably won’t live a healthy lifestyle.”


“You will never be an astronaut...”


“...But it’s possible that outer space will come to you in the form of an asteroid, wiping out all life on the planet.”


Uncle Francis tucked Leo into bed.
“You look disappointed, kid...”


(This line would be on the final page of the book:
“...Get used to it.”

Everyone You Know... (Part 1)

So, this semester, my first assignment to deal with, in Drawing, was "Death". For those of you who don't know my work for my classes, I tend to use my stand-up as reference to generally make tongue-in-cheek pieces mocking the general world of fine arts. I'm of the opinion that so many art students have their head of their asses that everyone ends up taking themselves -and the subjects of their assignments- far too seriously. So, when this year I was faced with the idea that I would have to tackle Sex, Love, Death and God as the subjects for Drawing, I was less than pleased with the prospect of the cliched work that would be brought out of the most commonly used (albeit incredibly general and broad) themes in art. So I set forth the goal to shit all over every single topic I came across.

So here I am, finally finished with "Death". The project idea stemmed from the idea of telling a toddler that they would die eventually. Some moment that would destroy a child's sense of joy. I came up with the idea to create a children's book, one which would break horrible "truths" to children. So I went about writing down just awful things to tell a child. I'm pretty happy with the turnout, and I'm just back from the printing place, so I have the physical copy, but I figured since some people won't really get to see that, I'd post the images from it, here. There are a lot so I'll have to do it in two posts or more.

This is the first time I've posted any of my real schoolwork because it's really the only fully digital assignment I've done. I hope you enjoy it. Bear in mind the images are very large, and you will have to zoom out on them a ways.

(Everyone You Know...)
For Nick and Adrienne Sweetman who always told the right lies. I still half-believe that Canola is nuclear.


That day Leo’s parents were out. Uncle Francis came to look after him.
“Where did Mommy and Daddy go?”
“To visit your grandma and grandpa.”
“Why couldn’t I come, too?”
“Cause your grandparents are sick, Leo.”
“Are they gonna die, Uncle Francis?”
With that, Uncle Francis told Leo truths about life, and it all stemmed from that one, tiny question...


“Yes, everyone you know will die, eventually...”


“...but it’s okay, because everyone you know is probably an asshole.”
(In this image, the arrow pointing up is meant to point at me reading the story to an audience)


“And grandma and grandpa? Them too?”
“Oh yeah, them too, but they’ll go senile and forget who you are before that happens.”


“You know, you’re lucky to be born here. In some countries, you’d be forced to do manual labor in factories to make toys for kids in rich countries...”


“...On the other hand you will be forced into years of near-pointless education, which will culminate in very expensive, near-pointless education.”

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Mating Ritual (Finished)

Yo everybody, here's the finished image on my farting creatures.
Here's the description I gave along with the piece:
[To be read in the voice of David Attenborough]:
It's mating season in wetlands of Bumeria. Animals gather round the ponds and bear witness to one of the most unique mating rituals... in the world. Loud sounds echo across the ponds of the Bumerian landscape, as these creatures court one another. The Organ-backed Pondlok... The males will sit on a lily pad, using their organ like flatulating tubes to create music... Females will skitter across the surface of the water like hovercrafts seeking the male with loudest, most melodic and (of course) most pungent song... once they have located the desired male, they will approach the male and begin to play the same song in unison. If the song lasts for more than a minure, this means it is time to mate. The male and female dive underwater where the male shoots his spore-like sperm toward the female's cloaca. The female then nurses the eggs in an underwater nest, until it is time to hatch... The male, tired from expelling most of it's gas from the mating process, dies a short while later.
[/David Attenborough voice]

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Pungent Organs and Stalker Eyes

Hey everyone! Working on a new creature for COW. This week's topic is one of mine: The Mating Ritual. This one has to have a distinct male and female creature and illustrate some unique way that these animals court each other. Much like Clark's Grebe or Darwin's Beetle (hooray for the show, "Life"). Anyway, here's my set, just after the first real colour pass. The males sit on the lily pads and use their extensive organ-like pipes to fart various melodies. The females skirt around the surface of the water seeking out the male with the largest pipes, the loudest song, the best melody and (of course) the most pungent odor. Once they've found it, the two play the song in unison. I imagined the song to be "St. Thomas".

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Quick Enviros

Hey everyone. I'm pretty busy with stuff for my drawing class, so all my digital painting goes towards that, right now. I'll post that final product once everything is done. For now I have a couple of quick 20-30 min. speedpaints of enviros for EOW 157 Large water-filled knothole pools in softly undulating tree-form land. There's some really killer stuff going on in that thread, so comparatively I just opened PS and shit all over my tablet. Anyway, here they are...


Sunday, February 6, 2011

Ol' Rusty

I decided to, in addition to Industrial Design of the Week, check out this week's Character of the Week. I screwed up the letters at the bottom, because I'm so used to Creature of the Week, but whatever. I sort of have an aversion to Character of the Week (ChOW). It's a lot harder to break into than COW, there are way more people doing it and, while the average quality of rendering tends to be a bit higher in ChOW, it also tends to be a lot less original as a whole. I find topics involving female characters just about who can make the hottest babe, and topics about male characters can quickly descend into who makes the biggest badass. Obviously I'm generalizing, and the same problem is present in COW a lot of the time, I just find myself less and less likely to enter ChOW based on that fact. Anyway, the topic this week was "Intergalactic Postman", So of course we got a bunch of the most heavily-armed "badass" postmen you can come up with. My contribution was this little guy:

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

"Pee Pee" Is Still A Funny Term

So recently I've become a little frustrated with concept art. In particular, with the obsession with realistic rendering and "the badass". Myself as much as everyone else. Now, I'm a pretty goofy guy and I think my digital art should start reflecting more of that, so with that in mind here's a piece I did in the past 2 days. ConceptArt.org, in addition to it's Creature of the Week competition, also hosts Environment of the Week, Character of the Week, Panel of the Week and Industrial Design of the Week. This week IDW's topic was "Pissoir". Now, if any of you know my draw series from 1st year, or have heard my stand-up, I love looking at urinals and public washrooms in new light. The urinal had to be designed with a specific location in mind, so I designed this little number with the idea of some kind of Aquarium. In my head "The Aquarium" is still every cartoon's idea of what one is. A big plastic whale whose mouth you enter into, leading to a giant glass tunnel of fish. Anyway, here's my Uri-Vu, Marine-Urine Alliance approved Pissoir!

Description I gave for the piece:
Taking your kids on an oceanic journey by visiting your Metropolitan Aquarium? Now peeing is twice as entertaining with this public urination booth! Watch a myriad of tropical fish in the Uri-Vu P-Quarium, while you pee in a giant fish's mouth! Each urinal is certified by the Marine-Urine Alliance and is marked with it's Cuoy Fish of approval. So enjoy your stay at the Metropolitan Aquarium, and as always: "Don't Worry, Pee Happy!"