Avril Lavigne ripped me off!

I bring you evidence that Avril Lavigne read my comic book and then totally stole my idea:

http://sequential.spiltink.org

Ed Pages Colored

All colored up. Check it out.

Finished Zoo painting

Here are the final steps. I should have been finished this a week ago but haven't been in the right mood.

So this step was painted about a week ago, I roughed in the flesh tones and some of the darks.

Then I contrasted the darks with some bright highlights. I just work back and forth until it looks right to me.

Then it sat for about a week. Today I finally felt patient enough to complete the last bit of detail work. It only took a couple hours, I kinda feel bad for putting it off so long.


I'm pretty happy with the way this piece turned out. I find my art is quite different when I work directly from reference.

Inked Ed Pages

Check these inked ones out. Comments? (keeping in mind I already know about the arm thing)

Stripmalling

Here's a page from the work I'm doing for a Canadian author's new book, Stripmalling. It concerns a gas station attendant who lives in his car. I'm the inspiration for a supporting character, drug-dealer-slash-cartoonist Ewan Sunday, who befriends the protagonist.



The book is mainly text, but there will be sections of comic pages and comic strips from 'Ewan Sunday'.

Life Drawing - Jan25/07

I came into the studio with about 9 dying markers. About 6 of them were used up in the drawing process and only 3 came back home with me. Here are the drawings.

8-Bit A.S.S.

I recently picked up some game making software for the Mac and I have been toying with the idea of making an Action Satisfaction Supreme 8-bit game for quite some time. After working with various pixel designs I have produced these guys here. They are not done but I think its a start. The software itself is capable of producing very slick looking 16-bit games but I thought it would be best to explore its econimical potential as a whole, having being raised by an 8-Bit NES. If anybody is interested in the game making software it is located here http://www.sawbladesoftware.com/

Horsing Around

Hey Fellowship of the Krieg!

Lately I've been sketching horses ...
It's for an illustration so don't think I'm a weirdo ...
'Cuz Arthur thought I was ...
But they're very interesting and fun animals to draw ...
Not sure if you guys have ever done it ... but I suggest it ...
Here are my sketches ...
After those warm ups, I did a couple of rough sketches ...
Then moved onto the linear stage ...
So here's the linear sketch before it gets inked and coloured ...

Enjoy! I know I had fun working on this ...
I'll post the final once it gets printed ...

-Ty

Ed the Sock pages

Check these out. Comments?

What's Wrong With University?, Part Trois

The final series of the university book illustrations. I promise. (There are actually about 40 in total.)

To answer Tyrone's question, the publisher and author gave me a lot of freedom. The publisher hired me, and when I asked him what the next step was, he was like, "Uh, what would you normally do next?" So I pretty much just read the book, selected things I thought would make for good illustrations and sketched them. (Then krieged them!)

Anyway, I did about 60 sketches. They were originally going to use 20, but bumped it up to 40 because they liked them (which was really nice). They had some changes and suggestions, but they were pretty minor.



This is the one the author is really worried about. It's illustrating an obscure point about how kids as young as 16 can sign student loans (which they can't get out of, even if they declare bankruptcy), but they can't drink, smoke, vote, etc. So I drew all the things they can't do in one image.



This one's about Anarchist University in Toronto. (You don't have to pay for classes!)



The ugly side of student politics.

Rocket pops and giraffes - Day 1

Here's a day's work on my zoo painting. I begin by transferring the finished drawing to Rives paper using graphite paper. Then I mask the edges with one inch painter's tape. Next I lay down a thin wash of burnt sienna. I have a tendency to work really brightly, so this wash helps tone everything down a little and make it look a little more realistic.


I block in the backgrounds. I'll probably go back to add details to the sky and ground later on depending on how it looks against the finished figures.

Working background to foreground I paint the giraffes. Shadows and highlights are done first and then the detail of the spots is painted on top.


I add some fine light blue linear work around the heads to pop them forward. Out of curiosity, and needing a break from the earth tones, I block in the sunglasses, hair, rocket pop and dress. I'll probably need to redefine these once I get the flesh tones on, since I'll probably end up painting over the edges.. which is why I usually try to work background to foreground. It saves a lot of time on touch ups in the end. Sometimes I just can't resist breaking away and working on a part of the painting that seems more appealing.

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

I haven't had much of a chance to do any personal paintings recently. So here's the start of a new one. I was going through some of my old reference shots from the Toronto Zoo this summer and came up with this image. There are some really odd shots from that day.. thought I would try to capture some of that surreality.

Like this..


and this..

What's Wrong With University?, Part Deux

More images from What's Wrong With University? by Jeff Rybak. (Since we're on a university theme, it would seem.)



This one's about professors using test scores to weed out the good students from the poor ones.



Anyone else have a Psych 101 class with 600 other people?



University is a ticking time bomb of different pushes and pulls ... or something.



Best multiple choice test. Ever.



One of my favourites. The author talks about the intergenerational conflict of provincial money, which largely goes to either health care or education (with the older folks needing the one more imminently, and the younger folks needing the other). Says the author, 'You're going to get me in so much trouble!' (For this one and another picture to come.)

Student Life

This is a large painting that was recently returned to me from a student art contest that was cancelled because the students that were running it were much too lazy to simply select thier favorite piece and give a small cash prize.

Many thanks to Jason Skinner.

I love you Jason Skinner.

Point of Interest

I have discovered something rather interesting that I have located in the notes of Scott McCloud's Making Comics. If you don't already know about this it might be worth checking out.

http://24hourcomics.com/

It is a comics challenge complete with rules where comic creators make a fully completed 24 page comic in a single 24 hour period. "No Script. No preparation. Once the clock starts ticking, it doesn't stop until you're done." Scott McCloud calls it "Great shock therapy for the creatively blocked." Over a thousand comic creators have tried it since 1990 and the best work gets published.

I am highly considering trying this in the near future on my own accord and without publishing it. I believe it is a worthy point of discussion between our common interests. An exercise like this could potentially create an enourmous amount of self awareness and can break new grounds in our individual approaches.

I urge you to check the site out and consider trying it out.

Love Zen.

I'm a sexy model pt.2

Here's another small preview to one of my new pieces for the upcoming SPY! artshow, with myself x3 posing for reference.

What's Wrong With University?

The following images are illustrations for the forthcoming book, What's Wrong With University?, written by Jeff Rybak and due out from ECW Press this spring. (I'll post some more later ... don't want to hog the homepage.)



Illustrating how university shoves students with different needs and goals into the same system.



The bureaucracy of university.



Professor hiding from an eager student.



The Scarlet Letter of a bad grade.



This is what idealistic students imagine happens after graduation, I suppose.



The eternal struggle.

Sketch Book Doodles

Hey!
Check out what I've been doodling in my sketch book ...
Just having fun ...

Random People
Cutting it up in the bedroom

Boo!
Word!

-Ty

ZEN: Chicks & Chairs

Chicks and Chairs. A perfect combination.

Life Drawing - Alana's

The model was excellent - a sinewy old man, all muscles and veins. His poses were so imaginative as well.
I struggled at first. I haven't been to life drawing in a while and it was hard for me to stop drawing the figure from my head and actually observe the model. After the midway break something finally clicked. My lines became fluid, I was finally seeing what I was looking at.

1 min gestures -

10 minute poses -
15 minute poses -