R.I.P. Dick Giordano

R.I.P Richard Joseph "Dick" Giordano
(July 20, 1932 – March 27, 2010)
I remember him best for his work as an inker working with penciler Neal Adams in a series of critically acclaimed comics featuring Batman, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow.

Rodeo

Here's a tattoo I did today on my friend Rob Krauss. He wanted a cowboy riding a bull done in a cartoon style, to represent his up bringing. He also wanted the word giddyup somewhere in the design. It's a phrase he uses often, and his friends pick on him about it all of the time. I always enjoy working on Rob, we have a lot in common, like boxing and movies, so the conversation is always enjoyable.

This is the original sketch followed by pics of the tattoo. (The Pics are kind of blurry, but you get the idea.)

DreadHeadz

A couple of t-shirt graphics for a friends clothing line, Dread Headz Apparel.

Planet 51

I don't normally do movie reviews, but I just got done watching Planet 51 on Blue ray. This movie was a lot of fun and the cg animation (the real reason I watch any of these type of movies) was exceptional. I just ordered the art of book from Amazon.com to add to my collection of Art of books. The character designs were reminiscent of other movies and cg we've seen before,
The Rover in the movie reminded me of Pixar's Wall-E


Some of the Aliens reminded me of The Inhabitants of the Odd World franchise,


Here was a homage to Spielberg and E.T.,

and this character reminded me of a character design I did years ago,




here is my guy,



We artist are all influenced by the same thing it seems, however, intentional or unintentional, imitation is still the best form of flattery. As they say, Great Minds Think Alike. I can't wait to see the sketches and character designs in the book. If your interested in purchasing the book or DVD visit the links on this post.

Undercover Brother

Some more Graf, This character was inspired by undercover brother, starring Eddie Griffith, and Denise Richards. Inspiration also came from Anime movies like, Afro Samurai and Samurai Champloo. The Graf was recycled from the last post. I experimented with a non-conventional, non-mathematical pallet. Hope you likes.

Street Art

Back to my Brooklyn Roots for this post. This is a composition I did with the intention of reusing it for a t-shirt design with some character design in the mix. Growing up in Brooklyn, I was very much inspired by the cities street artist and fortunate enough to have met and worked with some of the biggest names in that field as I got older. I was always amazed at how the majority of the street artist had no understanding of color theory or composition, at least not in the academic sense, but yet they put together these beautiful pieces of art and all of these art principles were evident. They draw from the soul with little or no formal training. Now if that doesn't inspire you as an artist, I don't know what will.