Week 17: Free Comic Book Day

 

Image by Jameson Campbell

This week we're teaming up with our pals at Carol And John's Comic Book Shop to celebrate one of our favorite holidays: Free Comic Book Day.  Each year, publishers and comic shops give out comic books absolutely free of charge!  That's better than a turkey dinner, and The Avengers could beat up Santa Claus any day of the week.

Who better to introduce this week than the owner of Carol And John's. Cleveland's comic book stalwart:  John Dudas. 

The Challenge is this, to create a comic book cover for one of Marvel Comics Blank Variants using any Marvel character you like! Marvel Blank Variants are special editions of popular titles that have a cardstock cover and only a logo on the front. The intention is to take the book to a comic convention and have an artist you like draw you a sketch on the cover. These can be as simple or elaborate as you want. It's sort of extra cool when the logo blends in with your drawing. These books will be used to enhance the spendor that is Free Comic Book Day at Carol and John's Comic Book Shop. All books will be on display for the entire event with your name and any website you'd like to link to your art under it. At the end of the event we will raffle the covers off after dicumenting them. We get about 1,000 people passing through our doors in under 24 hours. You also get a free pass to Dr. Sketchy, and we're also going to send out an email to our 2,000 plus mailing list thanking you guys for being true supporters of FCBD in Cleveland. It sounds like I'm trying to sell the perks, but the reality is I'm just very grateful that you've all choosen to help spread art and Keep Cleveland in Comic Books! Excelsior!

 

 

Week 16: Rust Belt... IN SPACE!!

Told you I was a little obsessed with the Hubble Space Photos...

All done in Illustrator!

Week 15: That deaf dumb and blind girl sure plays a mean pinba...er... Roller Derby

Just don't call her Roller Derby Barbie

 

I had a blast with this one! ... For some reason I had "Pinball Wizard" running through my head whenever I worked on it...

This is all in Illustrator. I used it as an Artclub demo last week and have been working on it bit by bit since then (hence the lateness). Ben Hale took this picture of us when I started.

Art nerds who get to show off are happy art nerds!

BTW... Totally digging the Hubble Space photos right now. I want to put galaxies in everything... including my outfits. The fantastic thing is that all the Hubble photos are free to download and use from the Hubble Website. Awesome! Thanks NASA!

Week 16: Crider's Dusty Logo

Left to my own devices, I color everything like it came out on Man's Ruin fifteen years ago.

Week 16: Ben - It Came From Beneath The City

Referenced a bunch of Hugh Ferriss architecture and tried to give it a classic movie feel.  A lot of fun with this one.  Can't wait to have all of these printed out.

See a "quick work in progress" here: Link


Personal Blog: Still-Reaching
Twitter: NeedYourDisease

Week 16: Craig: the rustening

Wk 13: Drawn n' Quartered!

The RBMC formed like Voltron for this years Drawn N Quartered flyer. It's an event you don't want to miss! http://www.facebook.com/events/375005312523760/

Tim W16: RBMC Logo!

Tim's kick ass "Heavy Metal"(I can totally imagine this a a patch sewn on a sleeveless jean jacket in 1987, and I think that is rad)  logo colors!

Week 16: Logo Reveal!

It is with great pleasure that the Rust Belt Monster Collective reveals our official logo.  In celebration, each of the monsters have decided to do their own variation and post them to the site.  Keep checking the blog or our Facebook page as each variant is revealed.

Week 15:(T)Hugs

 

Just enough time for a sketch this week, which is a damned shame because roller girls are sexy. 

Wk 15: The Hillbilly Haymaker

This week's post is a homage to my state of birth and my lovely wife.  She's a skater, a WVU grad and known to throw a sweet set of fives when card playing.  If she were to ever try out the roller derby the Hillbilly Haymaker would be her moniker.  

Drawing is in pencil, color is my first go at Sketchbook Pro on the ipad.   

Tim W14: "Little monsters, huh?...

...I'll give you a monster!"

Sorry, I'm back...So, instead for designing a new stage outfit for Lady Gaga, I decided to turn her into a zombie! That counts as an "outfit", right? Yeah I think it does. Well, anywho, if you want to see some sketches and scribbles that made that there drawing what it is today, go HERE.

 Big oversized image here!

Wk 15: Roller Derby Queen Brunhilde

Wanted to try some new things this week.  Its been a long time since I'd drawn anything on paper and I really have no experience with brush pens or markers so I gave that a try.  I also wanted to try coloring over grey scale values so I laid the color on top if it in photoshop and did some additional touch ups.  Its a sloppier style than I'm used to, but I was trying to get out of my comfort zone.

See a composite of the different stages over at my personal blog: Still Reaching

Week 13: SUPER!!! ...mega ...late

These guys will be flying at each other on the poster.

I chose to draw an epic rivalry close to my heart... illustrators VS graphic designers. As an illustrator who designs, I have seen my fair share of this pointless, tragic war. When will the violence end... when?!

On a side note, my wonderful university had one of the worst Illustrators VS Designers relationships I've ever seen, at the sacrifice of the students. Really people, really? Is that what we're going to fight about? Designers and Illustrators, the most important advice I can give you is that you should LEARN TO DO BOTH. You and your career will only be stronger for it.

Tim W13: Dr. Frank's Mad Monkey Monster

So, I know that I'm really late with this post, and I if missed out on being part of the finished piece I'm really sorry, but I just wanted to make sure that I didn't totally blow my RBMC duties. So, week 13 done, two weeks late, but there is a monkey and everybody loves monkeys (and Frankensteins, everybody except bavarian villagers love Frankensteins).

Hey If anyone is interested, I colored this bad boy and posted him here Look at my Doodle!

WEEK 14: Gaga sketch

Sorry for the tardiness...and just droppin' a sketch. But wanted to at least post something here so as to not tarnish my reputation. : D

WEEK 15: Roller Derby Queen

This weeks' topic comes from the mean rinks and even meaner make-up counters of ROLLER DERBY!! We salute the gorgeous bad asses who dare to strap on skates and throw atomic elbows on a regular basis.

Week 14: Kitty Monster

This Week: Lady Gaga models the latest in Kitty-Cat fashions.

Week 14: Gaga Is A Star

 

This week terrified me.  I don't know anything about Lady Gaga besides her dispute with Weird Al Yankovic.  In fact, I was filled with dread when I found out that she calls her fans monsters this week since that's our pet name for everyone here at HQ.

Amongst this anxiety, it was explained to me that Lady Gaga is a visual free square on a bingo card.  You can do whatever you want. Which means I can play with watercolors and draw her like the back of a pinball machine. 

Lady Gaga is pretty cool I guess. 

   

Wk14: The 3 faces of GaGa

My first thought with this week's topic would go with the easiest idea I could think of, a conglomeration of every major Madonna costume. It would have been good but seems like it has been done and if it hasn't it should be. Instead my mind went to kookiness from my childhood and beyond!

An oldie but a goodie, The Slim Goodbody.

Another from the 70's, 80's Mummenschanz (look it up!).

A look fit for the FUTURE! The Dr. Zoidberg without the shell, aka a Naked Zoidberg (sounds like creepy Urban Dictionary fodder).

As usual, pencil drawing, Photoshop color, enjoy!

Wk 14: Gaga Takes Monsters To Their Natural Conclusion

After years of deeming herself and her fans "Monsters," Gaga enlists the help of scientists to transform her into have pop diva, half lizard queen.  Finally, the Queen of the Monsters can take the stage.

Just a quickie this week.  Scanned in the pencils and emailed them to the iPad where I colored it in Sketchbook Pro.  Not as flexible as I'd like, but worked pretty well for "on the couch" digital coloring.

See the original Sketches at my personal blog: Still-Reaching

And follow on Twitter: NeedYourDisease

Week 13: Momma Said White You Out

Couldn't really resist rooting for the home team on this one.

WEEK 13: The Eisner V.S. The wizard Vincent Van Go-go.

Two of the many artists that have influenced my work...with a touch and tip of the hat to Grant Morrisons run on The Doom Patrol....

Week 14: Lady Gaga - Drawn this Way

Image by Adrian Valencia. Check out Adrian's amazing work here.

Ever since she came on the scene, Lady Gaga has been bending the borders of music, fashion, and performance in way we haven't seen since 1980's Madonna. In the process, Gaga has built herself into an incredible multifaceted character accompanied by truly legendary costumes. They can be beautiful, compelling, disturbing, and sometimes outright bizarre, but they are always the most memorable part of the performance. Love her or hate her, Gaga brings these works of art into the public eye - and that is simply amazing.

 

We at the Rust Belt Haus of Fashion have been given the (pretend) assignment of a lifetime: Design Lady Gaga's next edgy look. Come see how couture we can get...

Wk 13: 2 More Warriors Enter!

A classic confrontation between the stoic Warrior Bob Ross and the Bazooka-Airbrush wielding artist.  Who will win?


Personal Blog: Still-Reaching

Twitter: NeedYourDisease

Wk.13: Fin Fang Whom?

My bits of our collaborative piece: El Artisto, fighter of monsters, lover of ladies vs. Fin Fang Tippy, multi headed hydra and infamous befuddler of Artists everywhere!

Week 12: Marge!

It's been a hectic week at the Crider Compound, so I apologize for the lateness. 

 I've been scribbling a lot lately, and it's been a real blast to see my style evolve.  Apparently this is how I draw when I throw my layouts to the side and jam freely. 

 I've spent hours studying simpsons episodes for storytelling techniques, and my early comic book work isn't much more than Simpsons fan fiction.  Even now I'm still cribbing from Futurama and Groening designs, sometimes without realizing it. 

Aside from visual inspiration, The Simpsons shaped my worldview. It taught me to question everything and laugh while I do it.  Which is arguably the only artistic inspiration you really need.

Meanwhile at the Hall of Justice...

This week in the Rust Belt we are trying a Collective first, a collaborative piece! Drawn and Quartered is an annual event in Cleveland where area life drawing groups (GO CLEVELAND DR. SKETCHY!) and other groups of Artists meet for gladiator style combat! By gladiator style combat I mean group drawing competitions in front of an audience. It's a lot of fun and a great event so we've decided to collaborate on a flyer to help advertise!
The concept comes from our collective childhood, "The Challenge of the Superfriends." What will we do with it? Stay tuned and you will find out!

Week 12: Preview

Oh dear... I'm running really late this week.
Here is a little taste of what's coming:

sorry!

Wk:12 Old Man Yells at Cloud

From the thirteenth episode of the thirteenth season (thank you Wikipedia) came the best illustration of, futility, impotent rage that I have ever seen and it's been stuck in my mind ever since. Love Grandpa Simpson!
This piece is pencil and ink and colored in Photoshop. Messing around a bit more with ink line, I should say with ink that doesn't come out of crowquill dipped and ink to varying success. I have yet to find a non dipped ink pen that I like but I am enjoying the experimentation.

Tim W12: "Ho-Mar, What is best in life...?"

By Crom! I finally finished my week 12 "Simpsons" challenge (5 weeks late)! My "van worthy" mash up of Homer Simpson meets Robert E. Howard (and comic books), ...I don't think there is a more perfect summation of my entertainment tastes.

 -Tim

The old line drawing is posted over here.

For a giant size image of the painting, sans the comic stuff, CLICK HERE