Movin' on UP!

This weekend we pack up our paints, buckets and weird painting stools and head in to the heart of Cleveland to start a 2 year painting endeavor with our friends at Graffiti Heart.  Like our time working in Ben's family barn these first few pieces will be done away from our audience's eyes but this time IN A WAREHOUSE!  So in a way, we are movin' on up!  When these are done and available for public consumption we'll share as well as keep you up on further murals with Graffiti Heart  (big, BIG things coming!).  But until then here are some shots from our time in the Hale family barn working on the barn mural.  enjoy!

We're Okay

This week it's an actual Rust Belt Monster Collective. I'm a huge fan of being proud of where you're from, but this is more my speed. Cleveland's great, I guess. 

2014 was the year I embraced this style fully, after flirting with it for a long time. Sometimes on this very blog.  I've got no intention of stopping anytime soon, so better get used to it. 

I made these fellas stickers too, click here to make your okay bumper a bit more okay. 

Your Pal, 

Randy Crider 

on a pale horse

Just a little work in progress shot from something i'm making for next week's Genghis Con Cleveland.

Go Home! You Can't Stay Here

While framing this print for the Drawn And Quartered gallery show this weekend, I realized that I never shared it with my rusty buddies.  I hope you guys never go home, stay as long as you like!  It was originally drawn for Cleveland Exotic Dance's winter soiree last year, which I could pretend is the reason I drew a giant naked lady, but you'd never believe that. 

Your Pal,

Randy Crider

Sneak Peak

I'm happy to finally unveil our first RBMC T-Shirt design! They will be debuting at our next few events, but you can pre-order now. Get 'em while their hot, folks!

Superman Day!

This July 27th is Superman Day at our favorite comic shop - Carol and John's Comics here in Cleveland, Ohio where the Man of Steel was created 75 years ago. To celebrate, the RBMC and many other incredible artists each donated a comic book drawing to the shop.

My personal celebration has consisted of watching a ridiculous amount of Justice League Unlimited. With that in mind, here is my cover:

See you all next Saturday and have a very super week ;)

- Erin

RBMC Plain Dealer PDQ Story

Feelin' Lucky?

Hey dudes, Randy here. 

Once I found out I was having a daughter, I've been pulled towards drawing tough chicks. I'm not fan of firearms in the real world, but I'd rather her rock an image like this rather than a Disney princess any day of the week.

Threw this on a shirt over at RedBubble, and we'll have stickers at live events (as well as the imminent online store) if you know anyone equally tough as my daughter. 

Also, it looks like I'm doing an "Ohio" series, so expect more like this in the very near future. 

Crunchy Bikini Killer

Hey pals, Randy here, this is my print for our pal Angela Oster's art show; Crunchy:Sugary Cartoon Art For Big Kids.   

Since I've been focusing on RBMC events and freelance work, I've been doing less for art shows.  While the initial drawing started out as a sketchbook piece ignited by a Dr. Sketchy:Akron session, all the embellishments are representations of what I've been doing in lieu of gallery work.  You'd have to ask a therapist why the bloods in there, I'm not going to try. 

I also wanted this to be a response to a piece from a couple of years back that ignited the current arc of  work. 

This is an Adobe Illustrator print from a show I curated called: Easy, Breezy, Beautiful; a little over two years ago. There was a fair amount of overlap of artists in both shows, and I wanted to publicly show the progress I've made by working in Illustrator almost every day for the past year.  While it's easy to put older work down, I think it's important to revisit them so you can see how far you've come. It's why I keep every sketchbook and why this print still hangs in my apartment. 

We're still in the process of putting up a full RBMC store at the main site, and I'll be offering prints of both images soon. In the meantime I put the Bikini Killer image on a shirt over at Red Bubble , and we'll have die cut stickers of the image at our Live Events. 

We'll be posting images from our live mural from the show throughout the week, so keep an eye out for that. 

Stay cool, kids. 

Up..up...and away!!

Good morning...Reverand Jim here. I've been handed the duty of tackling Fridays here at RBMC central. Mr. Friday you can call me. Or MF...wait..no...bad idea. As I was saying, I'll be posting on Fridays while the group and I work our hectic summer schedule. So be on the look out.

I thought I'd post a Superman cover a bunch of local artists are doing to help celebrate Supes 75th birthday...but more importantly, his heritage, his birthplace here in Cleveland. It's for an upcoming event at Carol and Johns Comic Shop. This is the initial pencil sketch I did, directly on the cover. Now originally I was going with a 3/4 profile view of Supes handsome chiseled features. But I opted out for a full side profile, liking the epicness of of his stance.
 However there was something wrong but I couldn't quite put my finger on it....I proceeded with colors hoping it would eventually pop out for me.

 Working so much with comics, where I work in black and white, I struggle with color. I typically work with acrylics or marker and chose the latter in this case. I started working with grays first. Going from light and working in my darker shade. It's always easier to go darker than to try and lighten. I then began laying in color. I wanted the figure to pop, so I went with a yellow background so the cools of Big Blues suit would pop. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to superheroes and went with his original suit and emblem. It wasn't until I neared completion that the eyesore popped out for me. I never adjusted the ear from 3/4 to profile. Kids...if you're paying attention, the ear is always placed half way from the back of the head to the front. Now I could have just started over, scrap this cover and begin again. But...our own Erin Schechtman once taught me a valuable lesson...one I've never forgotten and repeat often. "Every painting...every piece, goes through an ugly stage." And I was there. So I went back in, penciled and placed the ear where it belonged, went back in with ink and white paint marker, then overlayed color pencil to blend the ear into the piece. And I ended up with the final shown at the top of this page. The important lesson here is to, one pay attention to details such as basic anatomy and two, never feel that something can't be fixed. Even if not by computer. Hey...it's only art. What's the worse that can happen? You start over.

Randy, Round 34: Legend Of The RBMC's Gold

For the second year of our website, I made a resolution to not do so much sleazy work, but just like my resolution to stop drinking whiskey, it didn't last very long.  I always wanted to take the famous artist course, but got around to it. So, for this challenge, I wanted to show what I learned on the mean streets of the art world outside of school.  

The other thing I learned on the mean streets was unapologetic commercialism, and you can buy this image as a sticker for only $2.50!  Go HERE, throw us some dough, and make whatever you stick this sucker on way cooler.

Now where's my whiskey....