Tis the season

It's happening AGAIN!!!

Alice's College Years

Hey Pals! Randy here. Here's an illustrator piece from this week.  I'm not sure if it's time at the day job, the amount of painting we've been doing, or holding a little girl every night, but my stuff is getting decidedly brighter. 

Not to worry though, I'm still dark and dreary on the inside. 

Pencils.  On copy paper, its how I roll. 

A few sketches more

Just a few more life drawing sketches this week. I do a lot of this so its hard not to post them. I promise something different next week (mu-whooo-hahahah (evil laugh)).

-Tim

Black  ballpoint pen and white "Pitt" marker  on 9" x 12" brown toned paper,  60 minutes.

Black  ballpoint pen and white "Pitt" marker  on 9" x 12" brown toned paper,  30 minutes.

Black  ballpoint pen and white "Pitt" marker  on 9" x 12" brown toned paper,  30 minutes.

Mural!!

Here is a little snapshot of my work from Ingenuity fest  before Randy and Ben made it more awesome. Enjoy!

Ben: Robot Sketches

Life has been super busy with Art Shows and Home Renovations, but I've been able to do add to the sketchbook on the occasional lunch break.  I've been wanting to animate a robot/villain type character and designed this fella to lumber around my stages.  The trick is to design him with as many reusable body parts as possible.  I'll import the pieces into a skeletal animation program and move the pieces in the same way I did my civilian character.  

If you'd like to see further progressions and random sketches, feel free to visit my personal blog at www.NeedYourDisease.com or follow me on Twitter: @NeedYourDisease 

-Ben

Happy Bob

Happy happy Monday to you all!  

This is merely part of what we did this weekend at Cleveland's Ingenuity Fest. We will be posting the rest later on in the week.  After being totally rained out on Friday waterloggeing my socks and everything else, lifting and carrying the largest rig we've ever made some 40+ yards, having a large, heavy wooden box fall on my heel, risking sudden death in a potentially electrified pool in a filthy warehouse floor while carrying a metal table full of stuff I'm here to report that I would do it all again in a heartbeat!  To be a part of 2 large parts of Ingenuity Fest this year, to work shoulder to shoulder with people I admire and love, to have the unfettered support of friends, nay, family who came up to see and even help with the show is a rare joy you get in life.  Today I feel very lucky to have all the aches, pains, things to clean and unpack from this weekend's festivities.  

So there, big hugs and thank yous all around!

....and yes, this is Bob Ross as a not so happy cloud.

Squishy

Hey Pals, Randy here. Cleveland is on the verge of being more delicious. I recently made this for my buddy Giovanna and her new marshmallow business.  This pig loves these marshmallows, you would too.

Fubar: Empire of the Rising Dead

Since we're heading to Ingenuity today I figured I'd post up a little something to promote one of my favorite projects I've had the pleasure to work on. Fubar: Empire of the Rising Dead was a dream come true for me. A chance to draw zombies. However once I read writer pal Ron Montgomery's script, I was looking at more than just a brain eating tale of the undead. Ron's story was more about a man fighting with not only the ghosts of his stint in a zombie infested jungle, but also his struggle with the ghosts of his families past. It's only an 8 pager...but it had the heart of an encyclopedia. I'll have copies at our booth at Ingenuity this weekend. So stop by...grab a copy...and say hi.

Tim's STLL a little "sketchy"

Black ballpoint pen and white "Pitt" marker, on 9"x12" brown toned paper,  20-30 minutes.

More sketches again this week, maintaing a weekly post schedule has its challenges, luckily I try to draw everyday. These doodles are hot off the sketchbook from last night's life drawing session.

-Tim

Black ballpoint pen drawn over a previous pencil sketch, on 9"x12" cream paper, 20-25 minutes.

Blue ballpoint pen, 5"x7" sketchbook paper, 8-10 minutes.

Blue ballpoint pen, 5"x7" sketchbook paper, 8-10 minutes.

Blue ballpoint pen, 5"x7" sketchbook paper, 8-10 minutes.

Little bit of everything

Want to see the rest of these illustrations in HUGE form?

COME DOWN TO INGENUITY FEST 2013 THIS WEEKEND AT THE PORT OF CLEVELAND!!!!

DEBUT OF THE VOIX DE VILLE THEATER!!!!!!

  

While you are tooling around all the cool stuff at Ingenuity drop by and say howdy to your friendly neighborhood RBMC.  We will be the ones painting a 24 FOOT LONG mural in 3 days!!

SEE YOU THERE!

Inking

Evening....morning or afternoon. Depending on when you read this. Other than creating anything original, probably my other favorite thing to do artistically is collaborate with other creators. Working in the comics industry feeds that need. A chance to work with many talented writers, letterers, colorists and editors is perhaps one of the greatest thrills for me as an artist. You may remember the Deadpool piece done between Mr. Crider, myself and our comrade Mr. Switalski. This was something very similar. A writer friend of mine Fred Duran contacted me to see if I'd like to do a piece for him that reflected a story he was presenting to a publisher. He had offered that I redraw the piece initially. But the sketch he sent me did something for me. So instead I ended up inking over his line work. Below is the original sketch Fred had sent me.

What I did was doctor his sketch in photoshop. Lightening his pencils to where I could just make out his image. I liked the idea of the greys coming through the inks. I then printed it out on a heavy stock paper to do the final inks. The image itself was very strong...and sent a very strong message. Below is the end results. Pen and brush...and a bit of ink spatter. It's my belief that my history with comics...my work, is what has made my work with the RBMC so fitting.

Sticky

Hey pals! Randy here, sorry I've been absent for the past couple of weeks, but I've been busy collecting dad experience points.  However, babies sleep a lot and I found the time to work up a new Rust Belt Monster Collective die cut sticker to celebrate our 3 day, 24" mural at Ingenuity Fest this weekend.  They measure 3x5" and come in three versions.  They only cost 2 bones or you can get all 3 for 5 bucks. Stick em on stuff to make it cooler, even babies. 

 I also reworked a version of our logo sticker which we give away for free at events. 

Yeah, these are maybe more colorful than what I do.  But I own an infant now, it's how I do.

We'll get these and all the other new RBMC merch up on our website after Ingenuity. Come visit, and get first dibs.   

Tim's a little "sketchy"

Another quick one this week, here are a few sketches from this week's Dr. Sketchy Akron. Black ballpoint pen on cream colored paper with whiteout.

Ben: It Came From The Black Lagoon (WIP)

Slowly, but surely, I've been toiling away at a piece for a Halloween art show and thought I'd show what I have so far.  Mainly, because I needed something for my Tuesday post (yes, I know its Wednesday), but also because I think its important to see how much an artist iterates on their concept before completion.  The above drawing is the (mostly) finished creature design.  Below you can see the journey it has taken.  

You can follow my further art exploits at my personal blog www.NeedYourDisease.com or on TWITTER

Original character and pose concept. Didn't like his left arm.  Looking to do a Pulp Comic type cover.

Found reference photos and reworked the pose.  This design was looking a little too
much like Abe Sapien from Hellboy.  So I added further details to push it further (see top picture)

Face concept that I ended up abandoning. 

Hey there

Watch out for this guy.  He'll be watching for you.

Great Lakes Brewing Company's 25th Anniversary Block Party

This past Friday, the RBMC assembled outside of Cleveland's famous Great Lakes Brewing Company to create this GLBC themed action painting during the brewery's 25th anniversary block party celebration!

For eleven hours we slung, splattered, and sprayed the paint, pulverizing what was to start with, 12 feet of pristine white masonite, and had a (expletive deleted)  blast doing it!

If you weren't one of the hundreds of people to stop by and see us painting, never fear, now through the magic of the interwebs, you too can gorge your eyes on all this gooey art goodness!

Many thanks (and happy 25th birthday) to everyone at the GLBC for having us, it was awesome!

Oops

I totally lost track of what day it is because of Labor Day, and forgot that today is Thursday, which is my day to post here on the RBMC blog.

So, here is a Tyrannosaurs Skull I drew in my sketchbook during my lunch break.

-Tim

Ben: More Tests in Manga Studio

I'm still trying to get a handle on Manga Studio in the scant free time that I have.  I'm liking the "tones" and drawing tools.  My only real problem has been with how some of the anti-aliasing on the inking turns out when its exported.  Probably just a setting that I'm not seeing.  Either way, I'm really enjoying the program.

Feel free to check out my personal site at www.NeedYourDisease.com or follow me on Twitter.

-Ben

Some more doodling on my Ninja Turtle.  Not sure how much further I'll take this one.

Original sketch before inking.

Ah HA! Labor Day

Doing a lot of ink work lately made me think of this old drawing of my pal Danielle.  So Enjoy and happy Labor Day all!