Jul 30, 2008

desktop battle

I just won the "desktop battle" over at my favorite design blog KITSUNE NOIR, the premise of the contest was to design a desktop wall paper under the theme of "ghosts". My entry "Ghost Ride" depicts a ghost riding through the night with all of his ghostly possesions, even his cat Betsy.

Check it out, it is available for download in multiple sizes

One man's trash...

This week I decided to conduct an artistic experiment by doing things a little differently. Instead of taking my usual illustration route, I thought I would make things more... graphic approach. I have been playing around with this concept for months, and now had an excuse to make it. Below are the steps I took:

#1- Sketch out the concept and scan
#2- tweak and trace in the computer
#3- color


...and the last step was to add some extra elements to help punch it up a bit.


As for the concept, I believe it came to me because my wife and I have been on this garage sale kick lately. We have been making our rounds in the neighborhood garage sale circuit as well as the local flea markets and finding some really nice vintage stuff. And like the title says, one man's trash is another man's treasure.


Enjoy.



One man's trash...

This week I decided to conduct a little experiment and do thing a little differently. Instead of taking the my usual illustration route, I thought I would make things more graphic. I have been playing around with this concept for months and now had an excuse to make it. Below are the steps I took:

#1- Sketch out the concept and scan
#2- tweak and trace in the computer
#3- color


...and the last step was to add some extra elements to help punch it up a bit.


As for the concept, I believe it came to me because my wife and I have been on this garage sale kick lately. We have been making our rounds in the neighborhood as well as the local flea markets and finding some really nice vintage stuff. And like the title says, one man's trash is another man's treasure.


Enjoy.



Coatí...



Popgun Plug


Pardon the plug, the promotion and pimpery ..but I've got something coming out on the comic book stands today.
Actually...it's my very first published comic book style adventure! Pretty cool huh?

It's a short story titled "Bloom", in Vol. 2 of the Image Comics anthology series "Popgun". All sorts of cool folks have contributed art and stories to it...Heck, it's even got a cover by Paul Pope!

In a nutshell, my story is about a super-powered girl shipwrecked on a hostile alien planet populated by killer robots....
Think Planet of the Apes meets The Terminator...uh...with superpowers... Yeah. :)

I've previously talked about it here and on my blog, showing process sketches, etc.. I finished it over a year ago, and 'am looking forward to finally seeing it in print. WooHoo!

Here's the official website for the book: Popgun 2

Look for that snazzy PP cover at your local comics shop & bookseller...or you can get it on amazon here.


'Nuff Said!

Polly Anna


We have a summer intern at work. His name is Chris and he went to the School of Visual arts in Manhattan. I wanted to make some little buttons for my blog links. He showed me how to do it. He was checking out my blog and noticed I was not sizing my photos properly. I was making everything too big. He showed me a few tricks. Not being brought up around computers and never haven taken a class, I am always fumbling my way through things. So it was nice to have a lesson or two from a twenty year old. I can now rest easier at night knowing knowing my images are bicubic smoother. Whatever that means.

Jul 28, 2008

Bird Girl


This is for a friend in Los Angeles.

the bird...illusgeometricus!...




Blauwborst (Bluethroat)



















Acryl, Inkpen and pencil - 2008 -

SFG: Mischief

Wow! Has it been two weeks already? Okay, I admit, I've been busy this Summer...somehow so busy that I didn't even realize that 4 weeks had gone by, not just two. My apologies. I'll make efforts to make sure it doesn't happen again...lol!

The SFG Challenge was created to offer every member an opportunity to stretch their creative muscles, venture outside of their artistic boundaries and post their interpretations each week on a specific theme. This is a completely voluntary challenge!

Be sure to label your illustrations with the appropriate labels as well. Label your entries with your name and the challenge label, in this case SFG: Mischief

The next challenge begins Monday, August 11th, 2008.

Thanks everyone! And don't forget that advertising on SFG and Design Inspiration is being offered right now at an all time low price. E-mail me for details.

-Jeff

Buffalo


The is a water buffalo that lives on my friend Pat's farm. The thing is enormous. Bill (Pat's brother-in-law) told Yun and I that they kept it as a pet. It's as friendly as the nicest dog you've ever met. Her name is Buffy. You can sit on her, lay on her, even grab her face and she loves it all. She has two huge horns but they seem to be smashed against her head out of the way. Bill said they do that to them when they are a baby. They burn the horns somehow. The horns are very dangerous and can do serious damage if you are not careful. Anyway bill said they started to let the buffalo out to hang out with the cows and all of a sudden her personality changed. He said she became very protective of the cows and she started to menace Pat nad Bill. She was becoming unpredictable. There are kids around so they can't take a chance. Buffy is going to live with another farmer who has a bunch of water buffalo himself. Maybe she'll find a mate.

Jul 27, 2008

Doodle friends


This is a doodle from my days at Sierra Entertainment.
We had a great time but those meetings, nothing duller when you are just sitting in a closed door room with no air circulation... doodling helps to keep me awake!!!
Hope you enjoy this, another blast from the past! Viva Summer!!!

Composition and Color Study



Got a chance to play with some shapes yesterday and built this weird little flower. Amanda and I have a small amount of flowers around our townhome, some planted by the association and some that are ours in pots. We've been spending a lot of time tending them recently, removing dead blooms, weeding and pruning the herbs. The biggest surprise this year has been how well our herbs have done. I really should have had more uses for thai basil in mind before I planted it, the thing is monstrous.

Earlier in the week I went to the Farmer's Market by the University and picked up a bouquet of wildflowers for Amanda and delivered them to her during my lunch hour. (Because I'm smooth like that.) I've had flowers on my brain this week, so it's really no surprise I drew this.

Jul 26, 2008

Jolie


Jolie
Originally uploaded by Blake C. Himsl Hunter.

This is a test for a project I am working on.

Mario Sughi at Associazione Illustratori



At the end of June 2008 with my great pleasure I was accepted as a Full Member of the Associazione Illustratori. And now this is my new Images-Gallery with one of the major Italian Illustrators Group. If you like you can also surf through all the other Members' Works by entering this other page.
And or if you are Italian or a free lance illustrator based in Italy you can apply for membership by writing at: info@associazioneillustratori.it
Ciaoo Mario Sughi, at www.nerosunero.org

Jul 25, 2008

Enter the dragon...





Have experimenting with this geometric style of illustration and i just love it. I think i will call it illus geometricus..LOL!

And here is a dragon excersice. Best, Choper!

Is anyone going to COMIC-CON???


I'm going on sunday to go show off all my work to all the fine chicks... :) (yeah right!) hah ha! Enjoy!

big enough to shade an elephant

Elephants are some of the most intelligent creatures you'll ever run across. However, due to their stubborn refusal to use sunscreen and a shortage of extra large golf umbrellas, the elephant's skin tends to be prematurely wrinkled and leathery.

Batty


When I was at my friend Pat's farm, he told me that they sometimes get bats in the house. He lives in a giant old barn converted into the family's living quarters. Yun and I were staying upstairs in the main room. We were having some wine late one night about to go to sleep. I looked up and noticed their was a bat hanging on the wall. Of course I said nothing to Yun. She would have freaked out and then we couldn't have slept in that room. I was too tired to deal with that so I just said nothing. I signaled to Pat and he saw it too and laughed. He told us a story about one cat in particular that he had. The cat was an expert at catching bats. He said when a bat gets in the house it will fly around. He doesn't care but his wife would go nuts. The cat would observe the bat and then pick it's moment and then leap into the air. He'd snag the bat in mid flight and trap him under his paw on the ground. Pat said he never killed them. Just trapped them. Then Pat would scoop them up and release them outside. Too bad for us his latest cat, Jimino, didn't have similar skills. We slept fine and I noticed the bat was gone in the morning.

Jul 24, 2008

Ms bad day

Ah! its been a while! I've been trying watercolors, no much progress around here, but grate time doing it! they say: practice make the master... or something like this. Well, i guess i'll be practicing some time now

P.S.: dont hate me for my baaaaaaaaad english!!! :P

Some Updates



Hi guys, here some new works and I have launched my new website : www.benqwek.com
Please drop by! Thks : )

Jul 23, 2008

Long haired freaky people need not apply


My buddy John is going through a bit of a wildman phase. But it’s okay, I think he looks a little like Sweetums. Besides, I’m sure his kitten enjoys curling up in all that hair, and hey—I’m all for catering to the whims of a kitten.

www.lepenquotidien.com

Door To The Invisible




A City, one of the major influences for this piece was music.
My hand hurt!





Smithsonian


I found a cool flickr site. It's the Smithsonian Insitute. There sure is a lot of groovy stuff on there to draw. Check it out here if you have a flickr account.

Jul 22, 2008

The Doctor is In

I'm a huge fan of the newest version of Doctor Who, so I thought it would be cool to illustrate the newest doctor (along with my favorite of his companions, Freema Agyema) as the cover to a classic comic book.

Visit my website.

Children's Imagination Series: The Pancake Kid



One in a series of children's illustrations. Enjoy.

The Way I Draw



This has happened many times in my career. In advertising when I sell an idea to a client I always show them in the form of a drawing. It's great being able to draw so well. Most art directors can't draw at all. The problem is that people fall in love with my little drawings. I give them a lot of personality. What ends up happening a lot, is that the clients are let down by the final result after the ad is photographed for real. They love my dumb little drawings better. These are just some dumb doodles I did while thinking about some ads I had to do.

Jul 21, 2008

Savers


Stylized 3D illustration regarding a higher enthousiasm about saving when your fortune is larger.

More at Sevensheaven.nl

Dinos...

A couple of weeks ago my friend Daniel Esqueda asked me if i could do a dinosaur painting for his son´s room so i did agree and here is the piece with some close ups, hope you like it.
best, Choper!