OctoberSketch 16 MIO

Following up Icky and Constable Crush, Mio join the gang! Another new character I'm not too sure what to do with yet, but I'll think of something.

October Sketch 14: Constable Crash

Following up on Icky/Iggy/Yvonne from yesterday comes Constable Crush, another citizen from Icky's realm.

October Sketch 13: Icky

A random character I just made up. Her name might end up being Icky. Not sure yet... any suggestions?

October Sketch 12: Pai's laugh

Took my favorite panel from my web comic Gremlin World and decided to redraw and color it in the current style of the comic.

EDIT: For good measure, I added the page that this was adapted from.

October Sketch 11 Karasu

Today's post is of the evil ninja, Karasu, who will be the central antagonist in my upcoming comic staring the wanna-be ninja, Jun.

October Sketch Days 9 and 10

A couple random drawings for October Sketch Days 9 and 10. Day 8 is a WIP  that you can see here, so I'll be posting that when I'm satisfied with it.

Zombies and Ghosts

Good morning, all! Today I'm just going to post an update on the Mirai drawing I did for Day 2 of October Sketch. I added some color and shading and I like the way the texture brush adds to the original art.

Hope you like it, too. Also, a friend of mine, LA Virrey, introduced this animation short, Gisoku no Moses,  to me yesterday which is very cute, but has a somewhat abruptly melancholic ending. Still, much respect for Gagame, the creator of this short. Looking forward to more of their work down the line, and even if you watch the video here, please visit their Vimeo page to show support for the original artist!

GISOKU NO MOSES by GAGAME

OctoberSketch 7: Jun

Jun is a character from a new comic I'll be working on in December or January. She's a girl who wants to be a ninja, but is terrible at it. i really like the way Jun's attitude came out in the drawing, but her costume isn't very wannabe ninja-ish, so she's still got some development to go through. Otherwise, I like this alot.

Back in black... and other colors, too!

Hey everyone!

I know it's been kind of quiet on this front, but as evidenced by the daily October Sketch posts I'm getting back on track and there should be plenty of regular updates to come!

Octobersketch 6: Skull Moon

Another Zombie Shark Bear piece, this time of the villain, Skull of the Shadow Clan, doing what ninjas do best- sulking on some place really high.

Octobersketch 5: Yak

Today's drawing is called "Yak"- because it's a surly looking Yakuza guy. I kind of wanted to make it more obnoxious looking but couldn't get it to look right.

OctoberSketch Day 4- Zombie Shark Bear

It's been a while since I drew Mirai in her monster form, it was fun. Seems like ZSB is my fall back topic to draw whenever anything else doesn't work, but it's always fun to do more work for that project, so don't see a problem there.

October Sketch Day 3-- A Fox

Got a request for a drawing of a fox today. So I drew one because I don't draw animals that often.

October Sketch Day 2- Mirai Samekuma

Today's (Yesterday's) drawing is a quick drawing of ZOMBIE SHARK BEAR heroine, Mirai Samekuma!

DOODLE-A-DAY 1: MITTS MALONE

Doing a drawing-a-day challenge. My first entry is this guy, Mitts Malone. The uber-burly type guys aren't my normal schtick, but I like the way he came out.

Gremlin World: Pepper sketch

So, I got Manga Studio a few days ago, and after playing around in it for a while and updating my tablet drivers I managed to come up with this drawing of Pepper in about 20 minutes. Not bad, let's see how practical it is in the long run...

Art Exhibition- STREET FIGHTER

This past weekend, during San Diego Comic Con 2013, there was an art exhibit held by local San Diego artists on a topic that is near and dear to my heart: STREET FIGHTER. The exhibit (lovingly titled Can You Defeat Sheng Long?) lasted only one evening, which was incidentally my birthday, on July 19th.

MY THOUGHTS ON: THE LONE RANGER

I've always had an appreciation for the stereotypical, old school American Hero; Captain America, Superman (most of the time), and Indiana Jones are some of my favorite fictional characters ever and I really love the idealism and staunch morality behind them. One of the oldest of these characters is The Lone Ranger, who has been resurrected by Disney in a new film by the team behind The Pirates of The Caribbean franchise.

I saw it, and these are my thoughts on it.

As always, SPOILERS FOLLOW.

GREMLIN WORLD WIP: World 20 Page 15

New page coming soon!

GREMLIN WORLD- JET HONOU

Another up-and-coming character from GREMLIN WORLD, today we're giving you a look at Jet Honou.

GREMLIN WORLD- Silver Rally

Here's a quick look at an upcoming character in GREMLIN WORLD.

MY THOUGHTS ON: THE MAN OF STEEL

I mentioned in my last article that two movies I had been waiting for were coming out last week and since I've already covered This Is The End, I figure it's time for me to write about The Man of Steel.

Yeah, spoilers.

MY THOUGHTS ON: THIS IS THE END

There are many movies I'm looking forward to this summer, and two of them just so happened to come out this week. Of course, one of those films is The Man of Steel, the other is This Is The End, a film I have been waiting for since the day I saw the first trailer. It's a film that has that random, sarcastic, raunchy humor which I find particularly funny, and if you've liked any of the films in the Evan Goldberg or Judd Apatow pantheon, you'll like This Is The End.

GREMLIN WORLD World 20 Page 14

Here's page 21 of the current GREMLIN WORLD chapter! This was the first page I've drawn on the computer without a storyboard scanned in to go over. Turned out pretty well.

New "LOADING" Page

My updates have been kind of slow for... a while, so I decided to create this "Work in Progress" illustration while I'm finishing up my work on new Gremlin World art. Hope you enjoy it!

MY THOUGHTS ON: THE DARK KNIGHT

Christopher Nolan's now legendary film, The Dark Knight, was originally released back in 2008 to acclaim from both critics and viewers alike. Much has been said about it since then, so why do a review now?

At this point, I don't think it's something I need to worry about, but Spoilers are ahead.

Kuuki WIP

Work in progress picture of Kuuki the Oni, Pai's fated rival in my web comic, GREMLIN WORLD.

GUILTY GEAR Xrd-SIGN- Trailer Debuts

This is some nice news to come home from church to, Arc System Works has announced the newest title in their Guilty Gear series of 2D fighting games (currently the only genre of video games I play on a regular basis), Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign-. The last iteration of the series came to us last year in the form of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core + R in September, 2012, and was the final update to the Guilty Gear XX game which had originally debuted way back in 2002.

GREMLIN WORLD World 20 Page 13

FINALLY, Finally finished with this page. It seems like a simple page, but I had to essentially redraw every panel at least once. Most of the lay out had to be reworked as well, my characteristic pickness was also in full swing, so that slowed things down as well. I did a slight redesign on Eisen K' as well so I that took a day or two to develop, with the first version looking too much like Re Zem.

My Favorite 80's Cartoon Intros

Now that I'm using advanced technology to embed videos into my blog posts, I thought I'd go out on a lark and do a random post listing my top 10 cartoon intros from the 1980's. These are the opening sequences that either fostered my love for the medium of animation or are shows I have gone back and watched and left an impression on me. With each video I'll be providing a brief explanation about what in particular I enjoyed about each intro, and a great big thanks to the fellow fans who uploaded these videos! 

Of course, I'll put my disclaimer here stating that I do not own any of these intellectual properties and they are copyright to their individual owners.

Hit the jump to get to the videoy goodness inside.

MY THOUGHTS ON: Iron Man 3

Okay, it's been a while since I've sat down to write something, but today's been pretty good so I think we'll cap it off with a new post. A post about the new Iron Man film- 'Iron Man 3.' You've probably already seen it or at least know someone who has, but I will tell you up front, if you are any type of action/ adventure/ science fiction/ comic book film fan, you should've seen it by now. Seriously, go do it now.

Oh yeah, SPOILERS AHEAD.

MY THOUGHTS ON: One Piece Chapter 707- B Block

My weekly semi-review of One Piece. Good stuff this chapter, you should definitely check it out!

SPOILERS FOLLOW

SKETCHES! ... and that feeling.

So, the past few days of practice have been good for me. I'm really starting to get quick with these gestures, and have been able to know several of them out in a few seconds. I'm also getting a better eye for balancing my characters and I think soon this foundation will be solid enough for me to move on the the next step of my new training. 

MY THOUGHTS ON: One Piece Chapter 706- I won't laugh at you

Some brief thoughts on this week's chapter of One Piece from Weekly Shonen Jump.

SPOILERS AHEAD

ZSB and today

Here are a few new takes on Zombie Shark Bear main character, Mirai Samekuma. ZSB is still planned and will be happening eventually, and the story is actually in the final drafts. Just putting a little more polish on it and I think it'll be coming along. Expect some more news on it soon. These concepts were some ideas on making Mirai look a little older, but after consideration I think Mirai should be a cute character in her human form in order to make her zombie form all the more terrifying and monstrous.

Also, went out to dinner while on some errands today and decided to have a special kind of comfort food. Spicy ramen and grilled chicken skin from Gunco/ Kanpai Ramen in my local neighborhood. Delicious food and a great place to get something thinking and writing done!

More practice

Another set of gesture drawings. Yesterday I was really focused on trying to achieve proper balance on my standing figures. I'm still not feeling that these are coming out as quick and naturally as they should, so further practice is going to be imperative!

One Punch Man Volume 3 Graphic Novel

...is out!

Back to the basics

I've recently decided that I need to get back to my art basics in order to really boost my artistic capabilities. After purchasing a new anatomy book (Figure Drawing Design and Invention by Michael Hampton) at Wonder Con last month, I've started doing some daily gesture drawings which I'll be trying to post as often as I can.

The tricky thing is improving old techniques and learning new ones without having my current and developing styles conflict, which is something that's been a little vexing. Anyway, here's today's posts!

MY THOUGHTS ON: Naruto Chapter 627- Sasuke's Answer

Besides reading One Piece, I also checked out Naruto this week. I have a love-hate relationship with Naruto, having once been an big fan prior to the beginning of part 2, and subsequently losing interest due to some questionable writing decisions and the somewhat uninspired designs of new characters. However as the series draws closer to it's conclusion and many of the plot threads are ironed out, I've begun to enjoy the series again, though I still can't say it's as good as it was during the early part of it's run.

Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto-

Chapter 627 Sasuke's Answer

SPOILERS FOLLOW

MY THOUGHTS ON: One Piece Chapter 705- Maynard the Pursuer

After writing a lengthy article on how much I love Eiichiro Oda's One Piece in it's cumulative entirety, what better way to follow up than with a brief run down on the most recent chapter? Hit the jump to read my take aways on this week's installment.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

MY FIVE FAVORITE MANGA #2: One Piece

Now that my religiously themed blogging project is done, I'm going to start doing more of my regular comic, film, and toy posts again and to start, I thought it'd be a good idea to finish up my Five Favorite Manga countdown I started a couple weeks ago.

I really doubt this comic needs any introduction from me at all, since anyone who reads manga has a high probability of know about this series already. It is the most popular and best selling manga of all time in Japan, and it's demographic is surprisingly all inclusive which is an incredible achievement for a comic book. Obviously, it's one of my favorite comics as well. If you haven't read it, here's a brief primer on it and before we even begin I'll just say that every comic fan owes it to themselves to give this series a try.

ONE PIECE By Eiichiro Oda

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 40

Okay, so I've been a little behind on my final three posts, this weekend was really busy so I didn't really get a chance to sneak away and write like I thought I would. There was also the matter that the subject matter of days 38 and 39 required a little more thought than I was expecting, and wanting to write something worth reading, I decided it'd be best if I took my time with them.

Anyway, here we are at the final post of my Lent blogging project.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 39

In the penultimate post of my project, I'll be examining the reason for the season: Jesus' death and resurrection and my thoughts on why it was necessary and our benefits from God's pro-activity.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 38

Yesterday, I speculated on the nature and the need for humanity's imperfection and to follow up I'm going to be putting to "paper" my ideas on sin and its nature to form the basis for my thoughts on Jesus' sacrifice.

Cafe

A quick sketch I drew up last night. This will probably go in the Gremlin World vol. 3 graphic novel which will be out this summer, as Cafe's character information page illustration. The book version will be in color.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 37

Last night's post on metaphysical speculation was actually very enjoyable to write. Today I think I'm going to be focusing on something a little more tangible and down to earth, that is the value of imperfection. I will looking at my theory on why human beings were made to be imperfect and how that fits into God's plan.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 36

Another day, another post. Today I'm going to post about something that I think everyone thinks about every once in a while, I'm going to post about what I think Heaven, or the afterlife, is like.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 35

The final five days of my project.

The past couple of days have given me a lot to think about. For starters, the timing on my blog posts has been out of whack for a few days, which is why I didn't post anything this weekend. Turns out I was actually ahead of schedule by two days. Secondly, I can definitely say now that I'm coming out of this project having made progress on some of the issues that I described a few days ago, but there is still always room to push myself more.

I can say what I want to say now, but I think I need to improve how I take action with my words now. I need to really commit to my opinion and what I want to do. Now that I know where I want to start, I have to continue to follow through with that but also take my improvements to the next level.

FIGUARTS ZERO SUPER SAIYAN SON GOKU

Bandai has finally announced the release information on a figure I've been waiting to get for a while, which also happens to be their first foray into Dragon Ball Figuarts Zeros- Super Saiyan Son Goku from the Frieza Saga.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 34

The past few days have been great, but they've also felt a lot more busy. There's so much to write about lately and trying to get to everything plus work on my art has been kind of a pick-and-choose situation, but it feels good to actually be working on things most of the time. I've got alot of ideas of what I want to do, it's just finding the next starting point that's the challenge.

The Xombi Family

At the behest of one of my usual Gremlin World readers, here's a quick sketch of the Xombi family. Yes, Pepper's last name is officially Xombi. Here's a bit about them:

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 33

With the last few days of my religious postings winding down, I do have to say that this experiment has been a really good thing for me. I definitely feel much more confident about putting my thoughts out there and communicating with others. I'm also much more focused, I think, on both my writing and my art- which I am still a little behind on but I've been learning alot of new tricks for.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 32

The last few days have seen some set backs since I've been having some trouble figuring out what to write and unfortunately, there hasn't been much toy news to report on either to fill the gap. I've been diligently working on some artwork but it really isn't anything I can show off yet, though I'm hoping to have something finished up later on today.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 31

We have finally reached the final 10 days of my posting project.

Religion has many functions in my life, it is the path to the truth I believe in, it is a program of self improvement, it is a moral compass, and it gives me a concrete relationship to the world around me. Through religious teachings I find challenges to constantly better myself and philosophy to meditate on. It also offers me a chance to decompress from the stresses of the world after the week and a place to find solace when I'm distressed.

Not a bad deal for an hour of my time once a week.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 30

Well, this is no good. I finally caught up on my postings just to fall behind two days.

Anyway, today something important happend: I posted a comment on a Yahoo! news article.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 29

And now I'm a day behind again, I knew I shouldn't have started the last post with that.

Today's Gospel was another of those famous Bible stories that almost everyone knows, Jesus and the Adulterous Woman and it functions much like last week's Gospel with the Pharisees acting high-and-mighty and missing the point of Jesus' teachings. However, Jesus is able to turn the tables on his antagonists and uses their human imperfection as a way to outwit them and save the life of the adulterous woman.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 28

Alright! Finally all caught up!

Today was a pretty good day. Yesterday was very productive with three posts made along with a speed painting posted. Today work went pretty well, I had a nice dinner with my family, and I'm looking forward to the weekend.

FIGMA News: Week of March 11, 2013

New toy news post! Today we're looking at the new Figma figures that've been advertised over the past week. Hit the jump for more info!

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 27

Today I'm going to just go over some art stuff since I've been hitting the philosophy pretty hard lately. I think I would really like to do a regliously themed piece of art to celebrate Easter, but I'm having some trouble thinking of what I want to do. I'm going to keep thinking on it, for sure, so hopefully I'll have something cool to show for it in a couple weeks.

SPEED ART: Tree

Another painting today. Obviously a tree, I was inspired by the plum and cherry trees around my neighborhood while I was out walking tonight. About 30 minutes again, Photoshop CS3. Hopefully, I'll be able to make these speed paintings regular updates here... afterall, that's the main reason I have a blog! I kind of think I overdid the glow a little... but it's been a long time since I did a non-character piece so this was nice!

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 26

Okay, so moving on from the previous topics, today I'm going to look at my ideas when it comes to man being made in God's image. Most people seem to think it's in a literal sense, especially since Jesus was a seemingly ordinary man, but many have said that humans could have a more optimal form. Here's my thoughts on the topic.

SPEED ART: Pai in 30 min.

Today I decided to challenge myself a little and did this quick sketch and painting of Pai Bunny Pinhead from my comic, Gremlin World. You can also view this pic at the Gremlin World website. The illustration took roughly 30 minutes to complete, all in Photoshop CS3.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 25

It has just been brought to my attention (thanks Kam!) that the Catholic Church has a new pope: Pope Francis from Argentina, making him the first pope from Latin America. I eagerly await to learn about our new pontiff's stance on many topics (many of which I outlined in this episode), and pray for his blessing and that he will lead the Catholic Church into a new era and out of the shadow of past sins and transgressions.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 24

It seems like one of the big arguments these days is Religion vs. Science. There are many proponents for both, and traditionally, religion has been used as a way to explain the unknown, while science takes its place when we develop an understanding for the unknown. Personally, I think both are essential to humanity now and going forward and believe science will always be playing catch up to God.

FIGUARTS News: Week of March 11, 2013

Each week moving forward, I will be doing a round up of the news on the figure lines I collect. It won't be as comprehensive as a news site like Tomopop, but it should have some information for those interested. To spice it up, I'll also be posting my impressions of said figures along with links to preorders or stores you can buy them from.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 23

Forgiveness is a primary tenant of the Christian faith, but is also one of the hardest to live up to.

People piss me off on a daily basis and it's not that we aren't allowed to react to the ugly feelings that build up inside, it's just that we shouldn't react in a way that abuses the person who made us upset in the first place. Even if everyone else said they'd deserve it. I'll say it again, this is hard.

GREMLIN WORLD: WORLD 20 PAGE 12

BEHOLD!! The new page of Gremlin World! I see some new faces amongst the legion of The Dark Plum! Looks like they're finally tired of losing.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 22

Today's Gospel was the story of the Prodigal Son, which I'm fairly sure everyone is probably familiar with. To summarize it, the Prodigal Son is about a man who squanders the wealth his father gives him on debauchery and gambling. When he returns to his father's home after he's wasted everything, his father welcomes the man back with a feast. The man's brother, who had obeyed his father and stayed with him, gets upset because he has never had a party thrown for him, but the father tells him to welcome his brother back because he was lost and is now found.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 21

Well, this is a little bit late. Curse you, day light savings time!

So, for those of you who know me, or maybe just those who've been following my blog for a while, you know that I'm a huge toy collector. I have been collecting toys seriously since 2007, and originally I was only going to be buying high priced figures as a way to get me to save money. Well, that plan has pretty much backfired, but I'm getting a serious case of buyer's fatigue right now so I'm hoping I can use this to kind of start fresh and thin the heard.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 20

Half way point, FTW! (I just gave myself a hi-five.)

So, today I'm going to discuss an issue which is a little nearer and dearer to me than some of the other things I've talked about so far. Although I'm a fervent Catholic, not many of the other people that I know are. In fact, many of them aren't religious at all, and I think that this is something worth writing about.

MY FIVE FAVORITE MANGA #3: Busou Renkin

Busou Renkin is Watsuki Nobuhiro's third comic serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, following the iconic hit Rurouni Kenshin - Meiji Kenkaku Romantan and the widely panned (even though I still love it) Gun Blaze West. Watsuki has long been my favorite manga author and while Rurouni Kenshin was an epic drama battle comic, Busou Renkin gave Watsuki a chance to make a comic that was as funny as it was exciting.

BUSOU RENKIN by Nobuhiro Watsuki

MY FIVE FAVORITE MANGA #4: The World God Only Knows

"I can see the ending."

Actually, I can't; but that's a good thing in this case. Today I'm going to do a review of my fourth favorite manga out there, The World God Only Knows (or Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai)

THE WORLD GOD ONLY KNOWS by Tamiki Wakaki

.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 19

Looking through the news these past few weeks, I couldn't help but notice all the speculation and gossip regarding the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the strange assumption from some corners of the media that without the Pope, the Catholic Church is going to be lost in some Mad Max-style wasteland where only carnage and desolation subsist.

MY FIVE FAVORITE MANGA #5: Prunus Girl

The best thing about my Lent project is that its kept me posting everyday, but as this is an art, comics and animation blog, I think it's time for me to inject some of those topics back into the blog. This week I was originally hoping to be doing a countdown of my five favorite comic book heroes along with fan art of each character but that's hit a bit of a snag so I'll be looking at my five favorite manga instead- not that I have anything against more mainstream comics, I just happen to have access to more manga than Marvel or DC right now and I'll be getting to the guys a little bit later.

Prunus Girl by Matsumoto Tomoki

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 18

Today I'm going to post about love. Love- the core of God's essence and the most powerful force in the universe. And as corny and cliche as that sounds, love does some really awesome things, though there's been some bad stuff done in its name, too.

THE AH-HA SHOW- LISTEN TO IT!!

Coming off my last "Pals with the Big G" post, I just want to give a shout out to my friend Andy and his pod cast show "The Andy and Harrison Show Featuring Harrison and Andy." Or as they like to call it the "Ah-Ha Show.'

The show is a loose format-styled podcast, and is primarily about the real life escapades of the titular duo and their relations with the opposite sex. The show is straight forward, honest and engaging; refusing to shy away even from some truly eyebrow raising details. It is often hilarious, as well for the same reason.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 17

Almost half way through all 40 entries! Still need to make up an entry though.

Today I had lunch with a good friend who does ministry work with his church. Speaking with him was very reaffirming in a way that I don't get to experience too much. The majority of my friends aren't particularly religious, so it's hard to get feed back from peers that are Christian as well. My friend also did well to remind me to stick it out when thing seem tough... God has a plan and when I look for the signs, I'll see them.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 16

Today at church we discussed how God is always with us at all times and in all things. That he is a universal existence.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 15

I didn't get to post last night because I was really tired and ended up trying to rush through my writing, which is not what this project is supposed to be about. So, after some much needed rest, I'm coming back to this blog with a clear head to really contemplate the topic at hand.

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 14

Got some rough news today, and I think I'm really going to need to do some praying and soul searching. This is the time to really put my best foot forward and live the life I really want to live. I will be praying for God's good graces and putting 110% into my goals moving forward, I've got some time off of work coming up and I'm going to give it my all to put it to good use!

PALS WITH THE BIG G: Day 13

Okay, going to be real here, I'm a geek (this surprises no one familiar with this blog).