Hollywood is Dead!

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!  I hope you all are having a nice, relaxing vacation weekend.  I'm being a vampire and staying inside; I'm over the heat.

Earlier this year I took part in the "Hollywood is Dead" trading card set from Rocket Ink Studios.  The "Hollywood is Dead" series is a collection of Michigan illustrator Matt Busch's zombified work based on classic movie posters crossing all genres. Coinciding with Matt's newly released coffee table book of the same name, the trading card set is now available for purchase, and is a must for zombie lovers and collectors.  Many other Michigan artists contributed 10 sketch cards that are included one to each pack making them highly collectible.

For my 10 cards, I chose to do a series of all James Bond characters, primarily villains.  This was probably the most fun I've had working on a set as I'm a HUGE 007 fan.  

 Baron Samedi

 Ernst Stavro Blofeld

 James Bond

 Dr. No

 Jaws

 Emilio Largo

 Le'Chiffre

 Oddjob

 Silva

Zao

If you want to score a pack of the limited edition cards from Rocket Ink Studios, visit them at: http://www.rocketinkstudios.com/store.html and you just might score one of mine!  I also have a few blank AP's (or artist proofs), feel free to shoot me a line for a commission.

Dr. Who!

Another set I recently contributed on for Unstoppable Cards was that of "Dr Who. vs the Daleks", featuring Peter Cushing.  This was, I believe, the 3rd set of Dr. Who cards I have been a part of.  I'll be completely honest, I know nothing about Dr. Who, but Daleks are pretty darn fun to draw.

The Women of Avengers

Here are my 30 cards I did for the very-soon-to-be-released 'Women of Avengers' trading card set from Unstoppable Cards.  I decided to go with a more pop-art feel to them, mostly with just two colors.  I really like how they turned out.  If I'm not mistaken, this has been my 4th Avengers set I've worked on for them.

In my next post....more Dr. Who.

Village Fest and other goodies

Hey everyone, this post is here a bit later than I intended, but here nonetheless.  I have a few updates for you guys, so let's get to it.

This past weekend was the Village Fest out in Grosse Pointe Woods.  Artists, food vendors, musicians, and everything else you could shake a stick at attended.  The artist group I am part of, Motor City Sketch, set up a booth there again this year, this time dong sketches to raise money for the American Red  Cross.  Other artists on hand besides myself were Ted Woods, Bruce Gerlach, Anne Garavaglia, Lee Gothro, and Franklyn Beasely.  The group of us ended up being completely slammed most of Saturday, to the point where we were drawing literally until the sun was down and couldn't see any more.  Sunday, albeit with shorter hours, was no different.  All in all, it was a blast and we all had such a good time.  Here are a few pictures from the event:

 My little friend here was pretty much the highlight of my day on Saturday.  He and his mother came up to me a little bit after the show started asking about getting a sketch done of him, but she didn't have cash.  Ultimately she said they would be back later (which much of the time, isn't the case and you never see them again), but she stayed true to her word and came back almost at closing time.  Her son, pictured above, wanted to be drawn up like Batman (he picked the right guy to ask to do it); I asked if I could get a picture of him for reference while they walked around a bit more.  At first he smiled, leading to me saying Batman doesn't smile, then he gave me a half grin/ half frown which sufficed; it was obvious he was very shy.  I drew up his picture and the two of them came back, he being as shy as ever, but when I gave him his picture I swear to God the way his face lit up you could have lit an entire room.  His mother was so happy with it and the kid was estatic; made my day.

 Almost set up.  Myself and Bruce Gerlach pictured.

 Getting into the swing of things.  Bruce, myself, and Ted Woods.

 The whole gang.  L-R: Bruce, Anne Garavaglia, Kelly Nemzek, myself, and Ted.

 Our friend James Green showed up for a little bit.  Really funny guy.

 Bruce is showing how he really feels about drawing people.

Ted's got a fan base in the Village!

All in all, it was fantastic time and couldn't have been happier with how everything went.  We were all glad to do it.  Also special thanks goes to Kelly's husband, Steve, for providing us with some Starbucks.  

In other news, I have officially signed on to be at the Detroit Fanfare Comic Convention at the Abode hotel in Dearborn, MI. October 25-27.  I'm not up on the official website just yet, but the contract has been signed and the paperwork is all done and in.  Once the show is closer I'll have all the details.

Last but not least, I recently finished yet another set from Cult Stuff, this time for the 'Beyond Bram Stoker's Dracula' set.  There's so much to go off of in terms of vampires and that whole culture that Cult Stuff decided to do a sub set for that.  I did 31 altogether These were a lot of fun to do, enjoy.

Thanks for reading.  Until next time....

Want to own an original piece of my artwork?

Here's your chance!  I just listed a slew of original sketch cards that have been sitting in the archives for quite some time.  To check them out go to my eBay store:

http://myworld.ebay.com/jasonwestlake84

Here are the cards I have listed, enjoy:

Better snatch them up quick, especially the Bane cards, I have some serious collectors keeping an eye on my work!

This and that.

Once again it's been a minute since I've updated here, but bouncing from project to project really puts and damper on it.  At any rate, I'm back with a few of those said projects.

Back in April at C2E2 in Chicago I met a gentleman who loved my Avengers prints (he loved them so much he bought the set, then two more for his friends after the show!).  He asked if I had a Tron print, which I did not, but it was on my list of pieces I wanted to do sooner or later.  Well, sooner it was.  He contacted me and wanted to commission me to get one (or two) off the ground.  The one shown above is the first one, as I started a second, featuring the antagonist of Tron Legacy, CLU, but I wasn't too keen on it, so I'm reworking it. Once CLU is finished, both of them will be available to purchase.

I recently wrapped up a set of cards for the upcoming "Civil War Chronicles" from Cult Stuff.  Major wars such as this (and World War 2 in particular) have always fascinated me.  The thing that fascinates me the most, however, are the soldiers themselves, particularly the pictures of them not on the battlefield.  I chose to go the route of portraits of soldiers mainly because I always wondered what their story was; for the most part, I couldn't find their names (save for John Wilkes Booth) making them more or less "lost" in history.  I don't know if they had wives, children, I didn't know what they did for a living, what their personality was like, etc.  I did 30 cards for the set and I really enjoyed this trip down history lane.

'Til next time...

Just art and stuffs

It's been a minute (again) since I last posted something, but here are a couple things I've been working on.

 I was jonesing to revisit a few childhood friends: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  These were very fun to do.  I recently rewatched the films as well and forgot how awful the 3rd one is; I'm very curious as to how the new one will turn out.

 I've also recently gotten into doing sketch covers; just plain old comic book with blank covers.  I have a whole stack now: Avengers, Avengers Assemble, Green Lantern, Wolverine, Punisher, Captain America, and a few others.  If anyone is interested, I'm open for commissions on these.

I decided to do a small series of a few horror icons including the Mummy, Jason, Freddy (Rorschach), a Killer Klown, Stay-Puft , Chucky, a couple Leatherfaces, and the Creature to boot. These were a blast to do and I just may keep the train going on this series (which I have and will post at a later date).

I've also contributed artwork for the Art of Burlesque and The War of the Worlds sets from Cult-Stuff.  Once I get a the go-ahead, I'll post them up here; I'm VERY happy with how they turned out.

'Till next time.