Ben: Free Comic Book Day Preview!

Free Comic Book Day is coming up and the Monsters are going to be all over the place!  In keeping with the rest of the crew, I'm also sharing my piece for the gallery show.  I wanted to draw some of my favorite characters from the period when I read Marvel Comics.  Had a good time with this one.

See work in progress pics over at my personal blog: NeedYourDisease

And follow me on twitter: @NeedYourDisease

-Ben

Swing!

Been hard at work vectoring up a logo package for yet another astounding Rust Belt band.  This time, the Syncopated Sin Swing Band!!  You want to feel how the music of the 30's and 40's felt for your Grandparents and Great Grandparents?  Go see these guys!  They are really impressive live but if you can't get out their debut CD (also designed by me) will be available soon!! Keep an ear out!

Cheer Up, Big Guy

Your pal Randy here, and if you've been following the blog this week, then you know that there's a Marvel Comics themed art show happening at Carol And John's Comic shop on Free Comic Book Day.

I like Galactus, and I like eating my feelings so this one came together pretty fast.  If you like those things (they go hand in hand like ramen noodles and peanut butter toast) It'll be available framed and unframed at the event, which you should be going to anyway. 

Stay frosty, kids. 

501st Post! FCBD Venom!

Hey there Rust Belt-or-inos, here is a little painting I did for the 2014 Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) Art Show at Carol & John's Comic book shop in Cleveland!

The show is up for the weekend of FCBD (May 3rd) only, so if you're in the area, stop by and check it, and the rest of the art and festivities, out.

Good ol' Spidey (and Venom) up there was painted with Acrylic paint, on a 16x20 inch panel. 

-Tim

500th Post!

It has been a wild ride since we began in 2012 and it looks like we have plenty to show for it.  500 may seem like a lot, but its just the beginning.  We will continue to share our creations on a regular basis and engage with the community.  We cannot thank you all enough for your support of our group.  Thank you.

-The Rust Belt Monsters

King of the M.O.D.O.K.s!

I suppose I'm some sort of M.O.D.O.K. fan, I certainly draw him enough .  Here's my version of Thomas Edison as M.O.D.O.K.  This version is no stranger to the mashup either.  I started with Edward G. Robinson cause, he would be good cast as ol' M.O. , if her were alive, and mostly head.  But anyway.  In drawing I came across the idea that Edward G. and the King o' Comics, JACK KIRBY kind of look similar, at least a little bit and Kirby having been a cigar aficionado I added the cigar.  The rest is graphite, watercolor acrylic and ink on clay board.

If you are interested in seeing this and other AMAZING Marvel art come to Carol and John's Comics on Free Comic Book day AND Free Comic Book eve!  See a show, get free comics, get a local Artist to draw something cool for you, come see the RUST BELT MONSTERS paint a mural that Saturday, Cos Play, EVERYTHING!  Really the best place for FCBD in the Cleveland area!  

Prints of this and other pieces (as well as the pieces themselves) will be available for purchase at the FCBD show!!

See you there!

The Orgin Of The Painter

One of the pieces from SPACES Monster Draw Rally April 12, 2014

Last weekend all six of the Rust Belt Monsters descended upon Spaces Gallery for their annual Monster Draw Rally fundraiser.  We painted two 4'x6' murals in 5 hours (More photos on www.rustbeltmonster.com soon!), and I had a chance to share someone from my sketchbook who'd been tooling around for three years. 

Original concept sketch, with added paint splatters from the mural.

I keep every sketchbook, even if they only have one drawing in them.  They serve as a way for me to communicate with my past, and now as a father, to communicate to the future.  Without a doubt they are my most valuable possession. 

I hadn't been to SPACES gallery in three years, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to look through those sketchbooks and see where my head was at the last time I was there. 

Early sketchbook piece circa 2011

Three years ago was when I started drawing in earnest, and when I started putting double page stream of consciousness spreads in my sketchbooks. The fella in the left corner popped up a lot in those pages usually rampaging a city. Having three years between the pages, it felt appropriate to give him a paintbrush, since that's how I've been rampaging the city since then.   

Everyone should be punished...A History of Violence

Or...at least that's what Frank Castle seems to be brooding over. Hi..it's me, Rev. Jim. It's been waaaay to long since I posted anything to the blog...(something the devious Crider nonchalantly screams out at events.) So I thought I'd throw this here. This is a piece I did, entitled "The Punisher: A History of Violence", for the gallery show for the upcoming Free Comic Book Day event at one of our bestest buds, Carol and Johns Comics Shop. There will be sketches done at the Friday night Pre-Party and on Saturday, the RBMC and myself will be doing the live mural thingy. So come by and see us and the rest of the talented artists Cleveland has to offer. You can get the skinny on everything here...Carol and Johns Comic Shop
So until we meet again...Stay frosty.

Bal Ingenieux 2014!

That time of year is here again, Bal Ingenieux is coming back to Cleveland!  The annual fund raiser event for Ingenuity Cleveland filled with live music, Vaudeville entertainment, costumes and just a ton of awesomeness.  For us at the RBMC it's an event close to our hearts, it was at the fist Bal Ingenieux that we did our first live mural and got absolutely addicted to it!  

All in all it's an amazing event, if you are anywhere close to Cleveland you should go, it's like stepping back in the past.  You can find ticket info here.

I have been fortunate to be asked for the last three years to provide the poster for the event.  To be part of a grand Cleveland tradition is really humbling in the best kind of way.  If you are interested in the past year's posters you can back track at least last year's in this blog OR I'll be posting the whole process back at my Facebook page, here and linking them onto the Rust Belt page as well.

Searching The Thesaurus For Pirate Treasure

For the past two years I've been drawing every damn day, and I didn't see too much improvement until I directly compared it to past work.  This piece is the same gag as something I did on our Ingenuity Mural in 2012.  It wasn't intentional as I didn't put that together during the conceptual sketches, I try not to repeat myself too much. Apparently my interests remain the same despite my skill level. 

I'll post the final once It's all shaded.  

Your Pal, 

Randy Crider 

Tim's 50 Liters of Imagination

So, a friend of mine somehow "acquired" 50, 1 Liter bottles, of CMYK inkjet ink, and instead of doing the obvious thing of stealing throughout the night, "refilling" any inkjets in sight, she decided to pass the bottles out to 50 artist friends and see what they would come up with and then put them all together in a show tomorrow night (Friday 4-11-2014)! 

This is my piece! It's a 16"x20" drawing on illustration board, with a quill pen and brush, using Cyan and Magenta Inkjet ink.

The show is called "50 Liters of Imagination", it's hung at "Studio 2091" in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and it opens Friday night, April 11th 2014 (More info can be found on Facebook).

-Tim

Ben: Happy Birthday, Tim!

Happy Birthday to my fellow Rust Belt Monster and Doctor of Sketchy things, Tim Switalski. He's one of the finest artists I've ever seen, one of the nicest people I've ever known, and the closest thing I know to a real life viking. Hope you had a wonderful day.

Check out my personal blog for work in progress shots here: Tim Pics

Ben Hale
@NeedYourDisease

I Don't Care What You Do, But Never Do It In Uniform.

This weekend (4-5-2014) the Rust Belt Monster Collective will be painting a live mural for the "Oh Captain!" show at Breakneck Gallery. It's a group show centered around our buddy Captain America,  if you're in the Cleveland area you should come out for what promises to be a stellar show. 

For the past 4 years whenever I ask my friend and former comic partner for suggestions on what to draw , without fail he tells me to draw the dude smoking a joint, and I finally took him up on it. The original piece will be on display (and for sale!) at the show Saturday. Hope to see you there! 

Your pal,

Randy

Tim: Ole' Cap's punchin' robits' again!

Hey Look! It's my piece from this coming Saturday's (4-05-2014) "Oh Captain" show at Breakneck Gallery in Lakewood Ohio!

Cap is painted in acrylic on a 16 x 20 inch textured wood panel.

If you're in town, come see him and the rest of the Cap-tacular art at the show!

-Tim

Coast to Coast with.......

So yeah my schedule has changed a tad.  Babies tend to switch one's awake hours to a more nocturnal skew.  Luckily this comes with some advantages, late night, talk radio!  Tonight's topics, living dead guys and Millionaires that dress up in goblin suits and try to maim High School Students!

 Deadpool

and

 The Green Goblin!