The Pig Devil made me do it

I am still alive, you guys! Sorry for the long radio silence, school is crazy right now.  I actually have a bunch of other stuff I can post up from other classes, but I'll probably end up just posting them all after school is done (which is in like, a month!)
Anyways, we were given an assignment in Subversive Illustration, and that was to do an illustration for a short story. The story, in summation, is about a man with an intestinal disease getting his digestive system replaced with a pig's.  It works perfectly, but effects his appetite.  He now eats garbage and pretty much anything he can get his hands on.  The government sees an opportunity in this and starts doing this procedure on homeless people, hoping to take care of hunger and garbage problems at the same time.  They started eating other people, and the government locked them up until they eventually ate each other until there was only one man left.  He ate his own limbs and then died.
tl;dr: A man gets pigs guts and ends up eating people.

Process!
small thumbnail sketch.  I did five or six of these, and I landed on this one.  This is scanned directly in from my sketchbook.  The red pencil is Prismacolor Col-erase pencils.  I always use these as a rough first layer, and then a tighter graphite drawing over top.  It's a lot easier to tell these layers apart and have revolutionized my drawings!

 I threw some color on top of the sketch.  I had decided pretty early on that I wanted to attempt this one in gouache (it's kind of like watercolor paint, but thicker and more opaque).  I wanted to get a good idea of what colors I wanted before diving in with the paint.  You always need a plan!
This is the scan of the gouache painting.  I drew this freehand, based off of another sketch I did (I didn't scan that one, and I'm too lazy to do it now. It looks closer to the final painting than the first sketch did)
Naturally, I screwed something up painting it, so I did some editing to the color in photoshop, moved some stuff around a tad, etc.  There's always something that needs doing.
And here it is as it would appear in a magazine had it been published! Hooray!

That's it for now.  Feel free to message me or ask me questions or whatever. Thanks for stopping by and checking it out!

Sketchdump

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but I have been busy doing stuff, just nothing that got finished or has a deadline yet.  Sooooo... sketchdump

Fear not, I shall be posting more stuff and soon, it's just not all done yet

Monkeys in Space!

Today in class, we were given a rush job assignment (to keep up with the news, I'm sure) about the Iranian monkey space program.  Given from 10 am to 1 pm when we get out of class, we had to have the project done.  Just a fun little project simulating a real life situation that could actually occur as a freelancer.
A bit sloppy, but hey, it's a rush job, what do you want from me?  

Thesies Piecies

I'm going to periodically be putting up progress from my Thesis.  I said I was going to keep it hidden from you, but you know what?  I love you guys!  I could never turn you away.  I mean, look at those puppy dog eyes!
So! Here is the first reveal:  I'm working on a story that is eventually going to be a graphic novel!


So this is Takeru, my main character.  I'll be posting more things about this as I develop it, but I'm super excited about this, you guys!

Tattoo part II

So I know I just posted the sketches, but I finished the tattoo yesterday, so I guess there's no point in keeping you waiting!
There was a slight change of plans, and instead of inking and then digital painting, I painted it completely in gouache.  I never really used gouache before, but it's a ton of fun! I even did the lines in gouache. Then I cleaned it up in photoshop.
So the idea behind this is the vastness of the universe and how little we actually know about it.  The monsters themselves don't really represent anything specific, except the newt thing, which represents the parallel between space and deep sea, both of which are barely explored.  I was inspired by one of my favorite quotes by H.P. Lovecraft-
       "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."

Side note: Does anyone else get reminded of Calvin and Hobbes when looking at the skeleton? I can't look at it without thinking that..

Tattoo

Attention, everyone!
Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, and I'm actually totally fine.  I was pretty busy over break, and unable to make any new post.  I'm starting a new semester at school, and I have many new projects coming, so worry not.
Meanwhile, I'll post some sketches for some current projects!
 So this was the original sketch  (ok, I actually had a really crappy doodle that this was based on, but I don't happen to have that scanned, so you're not allowed to see that. Also, it was pretty crappy and bad.) That's the earth floating there in the middle.  (The squid/cuddlefish thing was going to substitute for the fish, but I decided to not go with either.)
So instead of the fish or the cuddlefish, I went with this little cosmic newt.  The original reason I was subbing out the fish was because he was too cute, but you know what?  I like cute! So the newt is staying.  My next phase is printing out, tracing (on my new light table I got for Christmas!) inking it, and scanning it back into the computer.  So the next time you see it, it will be inked up and ready for some color! It needs to be finished by Wednesday, so I'll have it up around then.  Keep an eye out, I'll be back soon!
Oh, also: I have an exciting new project I'm working on for my thesis! I'm not going to show any of it until all of it is done, but I'll show some teasers for it.  So keep an eye out for those too!

Runaways!

My piece is done! I don't really have a whole lot to say about this, so here it is!
I actually was given a few things to fix, so by the time I submit it into the Society of Illustrators student contest (that what this was for, I don't think I mentioned that) but I'll have them fixed by then. Anyways, let me know what you think!