Ugly Cabaret

Dog Days of Summer

So...fair warning. This is where things start to get weird....

Yet Another New Beginning...

So...earlier this year, I started making some comics, mainly to combat by creativity blocks and prove my inner critic wrong. I did a series of 10 - 12 at the time and then promptly forgot about them. Recently, I was flipping through the sketch book where I made these and they (well, some of them) were enough to earn a chuckle from me. Which is unheard of for me; I NEVER like the stuff I draw.

So in the process of leaning ever more towards professional illustration full-time, it seemed like a good idea to start cleaning them up and getting them out.

Over the coming weeks, I'll be giving this set of comics a quick clean up, mainly for legibility, and getting them up here, over on Tumblr, and maybe even on Facebook. This first set deals mainly with my own internal conflicts and the arguments I have with my inner critic anytime I set out to put pencil to paper.

Hope you enjoy and keep an eye out for a new website and a Patreon page in the coming weeks! 

Story On The Prowl

The Hermes 3000 cinched the broad silk tie tight around its neck. It glanced in the mirror, made sure the knot was straight. Then shrugged into its jacket. It pulled the hardware from the holster under its arm and turned to the hotel door.

"Time to go to work," typed quietly across the crisp blank page.

Mega Orbital

Watching a marathon of TV via Netflix and aimlessly scrolling through Tumblr, I came across a whimsical illustration of the movie Gravity by Bebosoho and thought it was a good Illustrator exercise. Happy with the result of the line work and overall form.

Diving for Dollars (IF - Water)

A recent morning collage incorporating hand-drawn, found and digital elements. Fitting for this week's Illustration Friday theme - Water.

IF _ Faded

I started work on this piece last week for the "Faded" topic over at Illustration Friday though I obviously missed the deadline. That's OK. I wanted to finish this up before moving on to another illustration. 

This started off as little more than a scribble as I'm spending more time getting used to the tablet interface. The abstract in the background evolved from a couple of preliminary scribbles (I suppose I should call them "sketches" in the interest of conveying the character of a serious drawer, but really, let's be true to the truth...) and the figure in the foreground is a composite of several elements, heavily filtered/effected. The overall result being a semi-surreal depiction of a sun-faded and watchful loiter.

Skully Hat

So I found this great little app on iTunes called Procreate and have to say I love it! I've been looking for a great sketch/paint app that does it all and I have to say, right now, I'm deeply enamored. Layers, great brush customization, full range (well, fullish, anyway) of colors, patterns, plus blending tools...the list goes on. 

I suppose it's too bad that my skill doesn't quite match its range....

Anyhow, this is a sketch I was fooling around with the other night, a take on a figure from a game called Smallworld. I can't say I know, well, really anything about the game, but the cover illustration of it on the issue of Game Trade Magazine I picked up had a version of this guy in it. Looked like some great characters and the gesture and action was great practice, both for my skill, and for my use of the app.

Tryit

We've all heard "try it, you'll like it" before, generally as kids, usually in some relation to vegetables. So parents and babysitters everywhere should be ecstatic when they see Tryit coming. Tryit is a character devised for the packaging of Try It, You'll Like It, a new spice rub from Peter Dockendorf, mixed specifically for the vegetable-stubborn child in mind. For anyone unfamiliar with Pete, he's a retired chef and up and coming blogger who also happens to make the best general purpose hot sauce on the planet, Nogginflogger. I'm not sure what the long-term plans are for Try It, but you'll want to look for this character on the shelves. 

Incidentally, this piece also happens to fit with this week's Illustration Friday theme, "Jump". (Those wings don't give Tryit real flight, but more of an extended hop. Think of a chicken rather than a dove.) 

Diogi - a dragon-headed boy; plus Many Happy Returns

Good evening all. I'm back. Again. I realize how long it's been since last posting, as well as how often I've written these words, or eerily similar words, in any case. So, in realizing this, I'm going to choose to not justify my absence or make false promises about more regular posting (wow. that almost sounded like bowel humor, didn't it?). Instead, I think this would be a perfect time to embrace the title of an episode from one of my all time favorite television shows. Though The Prisoner epsiode, Many Happy Returns, is a darkly sarcastic turn on the phrase, I'll choose to evoke it here as a new mantra in the upkeep of this channel of media. In other words, I intend to fall off and pick up as the whim takes me. Perhaps some of you who are left will return with me.

And I will say, if you're unfamiliar with The Prisoner, specifically the good version from the late 60s starring Patrick McGoohan as opposed to the god-awful remake AMC tried to do last year, I suggest you run, don't walk to your nearest video rental worth its salt (for me, that would be the unequalled Videoport down in the Old Port) and pick up a couple episodes and strap in. 

Moving right along, this evening's post is a quick concept piece I did up the other night to get a character out of head. His name's Diogi, and yes, that's a dragon's head he's sporting. Diogi and his pal Eekay (keep an eye out for him soon-ish) are an idea for a story that's been mulling about for a few months and neither one of them have let up. 

So here's Diogi: 

If you've been hanging around, waiting for me to say something, I thank you and appreciate your patience. 


I hope you'll hang out a little longer, and perhaps even find something worth looking at enough that you'll be moved to share with your friends, family, colleagues, whoever. 


Signing off, 
rocketfuelsushi

Surreal Composite with Girl in Taffeta

Another photo manipulation, the result of a series of tutorials and a composite featuring elements taken from found images, put together in a collage. Not the end result I was hoping for, not quite as clean or seamless in some areas as I would have liked, but I think I've exhausted my patience with this piece. 


...at least for today. 

IF _ Gesture

"I worship an elephant-headed god." - King Mob

The first in a series of applied skills taken from tutorials and demonstrations. I used a small image of a brass choki Ganesha to create this image for Illustration Friday. The font was ready-made and all effects were custom generated.

Rabbit Rabbit!

Rabbit rabbit ... although I realize it 's a little late. 

But figured this rough I've been working on was appropriate for the time of year and the beginning of the month and all. 

I was actually working this rough up as an element for the pre-Easter, but it didn't make it through. Keep an eye out for our friend here in the future, though. I think this one is worth working up further.