C2E2 is coming up

Hey folks, I've been meaning to post again for quite some time, but I'm glad I head off a bit as I have quite a few things to show.  C2E2 is coming up next month in Chicago, Illinois and I cannot be more excited for it.  I've been busting my rump trying to get new stuff done and ready.  Here we go.

First up: The Avengers.  These have done very well at the past few shows I've done and this time around I wanted to get top-notch quality prints done.  Long story short, when I got a new laptop the chord that went from my external hard drive to my old laptop didn't match up, so I finally got a new chord and when I went to get the files from the hard drive....they weren't there.  So I figured, what the hell, I'll just do them over and spruce them up a bit; I think they look infinitely better.  I even completely redid Thor (truth be told I never really cared for the original one), and come to pass the new one is probably my favorite.  If you've seen the original ones and compared them to the new ones, you'll notice I've made some changes, and I think they were for the better.

OK, next up is Bond.  James Bond.  I'm a HUGE 007 nut, and after seeing Skyfall I wanted to do a series of 007 prints somewhat similar to the Avengers ones.  Well, I didn't get to do Quantum of Solace, nor Skyfall, but I did do Casino Royale (easily in my top 3 favorite Bond films).  Somewhere down the line I'll do the other two.

Whew.  Almost done.  OK, onto the last two I will have on hand.  Season 3 of The Walking Dead has been kicking me in the nuts...and I actually enjoy it.  I've decided to give my original piece a facelift, much like The Avengers, but in the process I decided to do another one altogether.

OK, so there you have it.  These are a few of the things I'll have on hand at C2E2 next month AND Motor City Comic Con in May, but obviously I'll get to that soon.  I hope.

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.

2012 Recap

I haven't posted anything since November from the looks of it, obviously due to the hectic holiday season, but that's OK.  Instead of posting new work right now, I decided to do some reflection on the past year and where things are going from here.

This past year I've had the opportunity to work on properties such as Transformers, Night of the Living Dead, Dracula, and many others.  I was able to take part in the 'Voices from the Deadworld' short-story book which is a wide publication.  I've had the most successful conventions I appeared at to date at Motor City Comic Con and Detroit Fanfare.  I've had great success getting my work out to the masses via Etsy and Facebook.  I've made many new friends and colleages at conventions that continue to inspire and provide guidance.  Without a shadow of a doubt, 2012 as been the most successful year I've had as an illustrator.

What does 2013 hold for me?  So far, quite a bit.  In April I will be at the C2E2 convention in Chicago, Illinois, which will also be my first show out of state.  A few weeks after that will be the Motor City Comic Con in Novi, MI. and with Stan Lee already advertised for the show, it will no doubt be a huge turnout which is awesome for all parties involved.  After Detroit Fanfare this past October, my good friend Ted Woods and I made a pact to do as many shows as possible, even if they're in comic shops (which we've done, and did great at).  Speaking of Mr. Woods, him, myself and my friend Pat Werner are in the early stages of a project that we're really excited about.  I'm not going to give any details yet, like I said, it's in the early stages, but we're determined to follow through with it as it should be something really special. That's what 2013 holds for me: keep on pushing as much as I can.

So to those who have been reading this (even if it's 3 of you), thank you so much for keeping up with me and your support, it means the world to me.  Let's see what 2013 brings, shall we?


If you feel so inclined, pass along these links to those you know who are into all things geek.  Thanks!
http://www.facebook.com/jasonwestlakeart

http://www.etsy.com/jasonwestlakeart

Fanfare Recap

Well, it's been over a month since I posted anything new on here mainly because of preparation for the Detroit Fanfare in Dearborn and trying to beat deadlines on a few projects.  At any rate, here's the lowdown on this years Detroit Fanfare:

First and foremost, this was the most enjoyable time I've had as an artist at this show.  That's not saying I didn't enjoy myself the other times, quite the contrary in fact.  After a better than expected first year, a disappointing, yet fun second year, the third time is definitely a charm as the promoters, in my mind, have finally found a balance that makes their show unique.  In other words: there was definitely something for everyone here.  My only complaint would be that there just weren't enough vendors, and vendors with big ticket items such as variant comics, collectibles, trades.

Whereas Motor City Comic Con attracts audiences by having celebrities from the A-D lists, Fanfare is ultimately about comics, the artists and creators, which obviously works for me.  And the media guests they do have, are related to comics or comic related media.  This years main guests were Michael Jai White (Black Dynamite, Spawn, and Gambol from the Dark Knight, just to name a few) and David Prowse, the main who played the physical aspect of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars films.

Overall the show was very well organized, the staff was incredibly accommodating, and the layout of the show was ideal.  Everything was easy to navigate around and traffic was laid out to where people had to pass by tables to get to their next destination, so people were always stopping by to chat and whatnot.  Sunday they even had trick-or-treating for kids, and I even got up earlier to go out and pick up some candy that no doubt rotted their teeth a bit, but hey, it's part of being a kid.  Right?  Right.

For this show I released a Walking Dead print that is limited to only 30 prints:

It didn't do gangbusters, but I didn't mind; I sold a bit of EVERYTHING.  My Avengers prints were still as popular as when I had them at the last show, sold a few sketch cards, and I even did a couple commissions to boot (something I don't really care to do to be completely honest).  Overall, I was quite happy with the sales aspect.  Definitely one of my best shows.

Also released at the show was the short story book "Voices from the Deadworld" (pictured above, along with my contribution) which is written by Gary Reed and features 30+ short stories and illustrations to accompany them from artists such as myself, Bruce Gerlach, Bill Pulkovski, Jay Shimko, Alex Buechel, John Marroquin, and many others.  I have 3 copies (signed by Gary Reed) on hand, so if anyone wants one, drop me a line.

Overall, this years Fanfare was fantastic, and I truly cannot wait to see what they have in store for next year.  Here are some random pictures from the event:

 Muppet Trooper platoon.

 Muppet Troopers!

 The lovely Heather Nolan, myself, the Dark Knight, and Hellboy with his horns and the left hand of doom.

 Bane took time off from destroying Gotham to show up to the after party on Saturday night.

 Iron Man.  Get it?

 I'm not ready.

I passed.

That's it for now, but I have more stuff to talk about next time and a few more updates on some projects I have on the horizon.  

Til' next time...

Catching Up.

It's been about a month since I've last posted so I figured I'd give an update on a few things.

First of all, October 26-28 at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn is the 2012 Detroit Fanfare Comic Convention. Yours truly will be there with some a couple new prints and some other goodies. Others in attendence will be fellow artists Andrew Shirey, Josh Werner, Ted Woods, Bruce Gerlach, and Jay Shimko among others. It'll be a good time, plus Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White) will be there as well, so come on out. Plus, it's only $15 to get in the door. That's basically a steal. Why not? You can find all the details at http://www.detroitfanfare.com

A couple weeks ago, Motor City Sketch, the artist group I'm part of, was in Grosse Pointe for the Art and Sole Fest doing sketches for charity raising money for the Belle Isle Aquarium. We did our own sketches, plus if anyone wanted portraits done, we did that too. We raised around $1200 and all around it was a good time. Next up, I have a bunch of sketches that I started at the Art and Sole Fest, and continued afterwards. I'll also have these on hand at Detroit Fanfare:

Can you tell which superhero franchise I like the most? Tough one, I know. I'll be working on stuff full-throttle until Fanfare so I'll try to post updates here and there until then. Until then...

DEADWORLD Return Cards

Here are my 6 approved AP's from the upcoming Deadworld trading card set from Breygent Marketing. If anyone is interested in one (or all six!) let me know!

DEAD WORLD

Well, here are my approved cards for the upcoming Dead World trading card set from Breygent Marketing. I did 31 cards, so obviously some weren't approved, but that's ok. It was a fun set to work on and of course with each project I tackle, a learning experience.