Detroit Fanfare 2011 Recap

Ren Cen.

Well, it's been a while since I've updated this and to be honest I was pretty burned out for a while after Fanfare. Looking back on the event, I have no complaints. It was even bigger than last year, and overall a much more enjoyable event. These conventions are learning experiences and there's so much to take in, but it's completely worth it in every aspect. I made some new connections, made some new friends, and took in alot of inspiration. This scruffy guy can't complain. Onto a few select shots...

Good ol' table set up. The thing is, my fellow artist and good friend Andrew Shirey and I were going to split a table, but during set up, one of the volunteers approached and informed us that the guy next to us cancelled, so we ended up having tables to ourselves. Win!

Myself, Kara Pierce (rad chick), and "Hollywood" Jay Shimko

Group shot of our crew (and some new friends) along with.....wait for it......Brian O'Halloran (Dante)!

My studly self along with Dante. Very cool guy!

Best Costume Award.

In other news:

-"My Father's Keeper", the short story I did coloring work for is FINALLY printing and should be available soon. I'll keep everyone posted. I've also begun the coloring work for the second part of the story.

-I'll be on a few upcoming sketch card sets from Strictly Ink which I'm pretty stoked about including The Avengers 50th Anniversary and Night of the Living Dead.


That's about it. Peace!

Detroit Fanfare 2011 Deets

Well, next weekend (Sept 24th & 25th) is the Detroit Fanfare, and I am incredibly stoked. It promises to big much bigger than last years, first of which is because it is at Cobo Hall in Detroit. And from the looks of it, there will be at least 3 times as many artists on hand. So if anyone is interested in scoring some amazing artwork, see some crazy costumes, and get some awesome deals on books and other memorabilia (Spider-man) this is the place to be.

Not only that, but someone who I would personally like to meet is going to be there: Bruce Campbell. Those who are unfamiliar with him, he is the star of the Evil Dead movie,s which kick my balls into the ground every time I watch them.

Hail to the king indeed.

In other business, this year I will have more stuff on hand than I have before. I've worked my ass off, but I'm incredibly proud of what I will have and I hope people will enjoy everything as much as I've enjoyed creating it. Having said that I want to unveil two prints that I will have on hand for the show....


The first is Heath Ledger as the Joker. This first started off as a sketch card (which I will also have on hand), but I liked it so much that I decided to turn it into a full-color, full-sized print. As of right now, it is either going to be 8.5x11 or 11x17, but that will be finalized in the next few days.


This 11x17 print will be on hand as well. This piece will be featured in the artists collection book that will be on hand for all attendees at the show. After a little tinkering in Photoshop to make it looked aged and a few scratches here and there, I'm really happy with how this turned out.

Finally (I think this is the most I've ever written on this), Saturday night, Sept 24th at 10 PM at Andiamos Restaurant in the Ren Cen, Motor City Sketch will be hosting "Shots 4 Sketches". This unique event will allow people to get a personalized piece of art from their favorite artists....all for the commission price of the alcoholic beverage of the artists choice. This means, you buy us booze, we draw you stuff. I recommend getting something early, as the quality of work will most likely go down as the night goes on, ha!

I cannot express how excited I am for this show. Be sure to check out all the artists that are listed on the flyer at the top of this entry, along with my good friend and Kendall Alumni, Andrew Shirey, and also Josh Werner of As Fall Leaves Illustration who will no doubt have some amazing stuff on hand.

KONG!

....is coming for Fanfare.

Detroit Fanfare is coming up pretty fast and here is a bit of something I've been working on to get ready for it. I've wanted to paint on skatedecks for a while and finally got to it last night. I'll be posting stuff on here more often with Fanfare coming up next month, but I'll go into more detail on that soon.

In the meantime, check out their site for more info:

http://www.detroitfanfare.com

This evil....rises..........

"Do you fear death? Do you fear the black abyss?"

Release the Kraken, indeed.

Dr. Who(m) and The Avengers

It's been a hot minute since I last posted here, but I just recently finished 20 more cards for Strictly Ink. While waiting on their next series, they sent me some blanks for Dr. Who and The Avengers to keep me busy. These sets were interesting to work on because A) I never watched either of the shows and B) I only knew a little bit about both (Peter Cushing (Tarkin from Star Wars is Dr. Who and the only thing I knew about the Avengers is that it was made into a crappy movie with Uma Thurman). At any rate, these were pretty fun to work on, especially the Avengers because I decided to do a couple of them a little more design-oriented, as opposed to doing character drawings, which I also did.





I also have one blank for each of the subjects, so if anyone is interested, let me know!

-JASON!

"I wanted to see what you could do....and you didn't disappoint."

In case you were wondering, Nolan's Joker is one of my favorites. RIP Heath Ledger.

More Shtuff

Been quite busy lately, but I had some time late at night to work on some more stuff for the "30 Day Challenge".....which I'm about 20 days behind on. Here are a few goodies I completed...

THE MUMMY RETURNS!!!!

Sort of.

This is my artist proof from the Hammer set I recently finished. I actually did this for one of the fellows who put the set together, so it was cool to do some side work who is doing stuff on the business end. I really liked how this turned out.

One hot minute

It's been a minute or so since I've updated this, mainly due to work and class scheduling. On Facebook, fellow artist Josh Werner started a "30 Day Challenge" to sculpt, draw, paint, doodle, etc. And due to my work/class scheduling I'm.....about 6 days behind. Ha. But, I will catch up. In the meantime, here are a few things I have done.


I bought Tron: Legacy (which totally slays by the way), so I did a couple cards featuring Daft Punk who did the score for the movie. If you haven't seen it, the soundtrack alone is worth watching the film for.


I did this in honor of Wrestlemania 27 last weekend. Yes, I watch pro wrestling.


This was a quick card of a character from 'Night of the Living Dead' I had to send in as a test piece for a potential gig.

Hammer Sketch Cards

It's been a hot minute since I last updated this. Between working, going to the Center for Film Studies, and everything else in between I've been incredibly busy. But that's not to say I haven't been doodling. I recently did some sketch cards for Strictly Ink for their upcoming "Hammer Films" set. Here are the 10 that I did.




Overall, I'm very happy with how they turned out considering the card stock was glossy to begin with; a small obstacle that I overcame. Go me. They also gave me an extra blank one for myself, so if anyone wants a personalized one, drop me a line!

Old Timin'

I've been looking through old vacation photos today, trying to find a few I would like to paint with watercolor. It's been a while since I've done a watercolor piece, but I've been thinking about doing a few here soon, and I love working in the medium. Even though this piece isn't watercolor (it's oil), I thought I'd put it up for the sake of putting something up in the meantime. I did this a few years back during my time at Kendall.

Sneak Peek

Well, I literally just wrapped up my coloring duties for my part of the 'Red Wet Dirt' graphic novel called 'My Father's Keeper' and I must say I had a blast doing this. The artwork to the book is easily accessible and adding color really brought it to life. I can't wait to see this thing in print and I'll let everyone know when copies are available.

In the meantime, I'm able to post two pages from the book. My portion is only 22 pages, and even though the lettering isn't there yet, I want to avoid major *spoilers*. Heh. Enjoy!

The times they are a changin'.

Well, it's been a minute since I've last posted anything so why not. I'm going to deviate from the norm this time around and put some graphic design stuff up. For the past few months I've had an internship for "Couples Magazine" in Southfield, MI., but unfortunately it couldn't take off. In a world where everything can be read online it is very tough to get anything print off the ground.

During my time there I worked on the look of the publication (including page layouts), a promotional board game that would have been sold through the website and as a free gift with a subscription purchase, and other odds and ends. I'll be going through all my work there and posting it here as a way to show what work I've done in Illustrator, Photoshop, and hopefully Indesign (once I figure out how to turn the files into JPG's).

This is an advertisement for Art Van to be pushed as a sponsor for the publication. Note: This is in NO WAY endorsed by Art Van Furniture. This ad and the following were created to be taken to the companies to show how their business could be incorporated with the publication (The loveseat ad for example is pretty self explanatory, whereas the car ads incorporates the family side of the coin, and the Greek Town Casino ads were to attract the younger demographic of couples.). Whereas the Art Van ad would have been a two-page spread, the following ads would be single and quarter page advertisements.

Having said that, I will post the next ads I have created, and the same disclaimer applies to those as well.

*As an additional update, I have completed preliminary color work for the upcoming comic "My Father's Keeper", one part of a three-part graphic novel published by Shot in the Dark Comics. Refinements are being done and I'm very happy with how it's turning out. I don't know when it will be published, but Amazon.com already has it up, but without a preorder. Once I find out when, I'll let you all know. In the meantime, here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Wet-Dirt-Nicholas-Grabowsky/dp/0982253001/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296125826&sr=8-5

Whew! That's alot of ground I just covered. Til' next time...