Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Kazakhstan


I'm currently visiting that Central Asian country. We're down here to host some workshops for the local youth in Almaty, based on street art culture and how it can lead to a career in graphic design/visual arts. We'll also be putting together a couple of murals for a local gallery, so, pictures and updates will be added.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Figures 2

Some more rough color sketches of some figurine work Ive been doing. Mostly color studies and posing. From there, a premium pose/stance will be determined for the model to be sculpted from.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Big Fun in the Big City


This was a 1986 Documentary from German Television, documenting the exact time-frame that the book I'm working on takes place. I had a friend in from out of town who showed me this, and, needless to say, I was pretty blown away.



The doc features MC Shan, footage of Biz Markie and Shante at the Latin Quarter, along with a newly-wealthy DMC showing off his new Cadillac.

The stand out for me was probably the two rappers performing on the street, right outside of the Def Jam offices. And we get a glimpse Russel Simmons himself ducking in on the sly.


Check it out 'HERE'.

There's a newly tacked on 15 minutes or so of Ice-T playing his Body Count demo. You might wanna skip that part.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Blurb 1.0

About 15 years go, and after a couple of self-published strips, I started Blurb. It was a simple story involving street artists who lived in a fictional town. I had a family of characters which I'd developed over a while, and populated the story with music and art references from all over the map.


The story itself wasn't too coherent, but, it was done in one page installations, that continued a basic plot involving thugs, freight trains, and UFO's. At the time, I'd contributed to a couple of magazines, and submitted the comic strip as one off's. I got some positive feedback, although one person had admitted to me that thought a little kid had drawn it.

Best of all, I'd gotten up the nerve to submit it to Fantagraphics for publication. Below is the rejection letter I got a couple weeks later. I did learn a lot from feedback like this, and, started a second iteration of the strip and characters a few years later.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

MadVillain "2"

In a few days, Stones Throw will be releasing the 'MadVillainy "2"' LP. The quotes around the 2 are due to the fact that the actual sequel LP never materialized. Mostly due to MF Doom's new found fame on the indie circuit. The mans had some troubles on his own, including accusations of 'Doom-posters' donning masks and performing for crowds, and collecting payments.



The booklet to this remix record was to act as a sequel to the All Caps video. We put this together in a few weeks and included a plot point involving the 'Doom Army'.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Figures

Some rough color sketches of some figurine work Ive been doing. Mostly color studies and posing. From there, a premium pose/stance will be determined for the model to be sculpted from.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Eggs Paint & Chaos

I came across some pages of an old comic I put together as a youngster some time ago. It was one of my first attempts at a complete comic (this one was 25 pages), and it was a bit of a learning experience. The story is a bit incoherent, but, it gave my hands some very much needed practice:



I See You




These are a series of photos taken from the 'I See You' benefit for Keith Tamashiro. Keith's an incredibly talented graphic designer who heads up a shop called 'Soap'. The work there should speak for itself.



Anyways, he was struck with a brain aneurysm in 2006, and ended up comatose. Happy to say, he's just about fully recovered, and, the art auction/ concert that resulted was a huge success.

No logo

TFU pieces

James/Jank

Slick