SPACE 2013 Recap

Last weekend I returned to the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo in Columbus, OH for my second time (with a couple year hiatus in between!). I had such a blast and met tons of awesome people. Huge thanks to anyone who stopped by my table to chat or buy a book! Here are some pics of my table to check out for anyone who missed it:

I also got to spend some time hanging out with my friend and former professor Ryan Claytor (Elephant Eater Comics) and former classmate Leslie Anderson. Ryan (who is a fan/collector of pinball machines) knew of a local pinball collector who happened to be having a party at his house while we were in town. We swung by to check it out and ended up sticking around and playing pinball until the middle of the night. Needless to say, it was an amazing collection and we had tons of fun. I took a few pictures of his collection, but this collage doesn't even do a great job of showing exactly how many machines there were. Awesome!

I definitely plan on attending SPACE again in 2014. Planning on having new comics & hopefully more other goodies by then as well!

DINO BOOKS - SPACE 2013

This weekend I will be attending the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE) again and I can't wait! I'll be there all day Saturday and Sunday hanging out, selling comics and other cool stuff. Check out the SPACE website for more details on the show.

One of the new products I'll be selling at SPACE this year are these little pocket-sized dinosaur notebooks. There are 4 different designs that I will be selling individually and in packs of 3. These guys are each at least a 5 color screen print (the raptors are a 6 color!) and they're the perfect size for a back pocket for on-the-go sketching or note taking. These weird little dino notebooks have been in the making for a long time so I'm excited to get them out into the world. (sorry for the poor image quality!)

Gates Floating Mountain Shirt

Here are some pics of the latest shirt design I created for gates. I had a lot of fun making this one and learned some new illustration techniques through trial and error.

The mountain on here started as a pen drawing that I decided I didn't like anymore. So I went in and blocked in areas of the drawing according to value and converted it to halftone dots. The finished piece is actually an overlay of those halftoned values on top of a version of the drawing where I attempted to recreate those same values by distressing selected pieces of the illustration.

After I typed that paragraph I realized it was extremely difficult to follow. So I went into my working files and made a little visual aid to help describe the process.

This gif shows the original pen drawing, then the version of it where I blocked in the major values. Then it shows how I tried to recreate some of that value using distress instead of halftones. Lastly, I faded in the halftoned value blocks. I felt like that last step (which was kind of a happy accident) really gave it the final boost of contrast it needed to take the mountain to a certain level of realism or drama. The final piece underwent even more work than the last step of this gif, but this covers the gist of it.

Hopefully you found that little glimpse into my process interesting! If you're really digging the shirt or the band you can pick one up for yourself in their webstore here

Chewski in MSU Comic Anthology

I just found out that two comics I created at MSU are going to be featured in the upcoming MSU Student Comic Art Anthology! Both comics happen to be about my old hamster Chewski. One is titled "Chewski Goes Fishin'" - which you may remember from an earlier post where it was featured in a couple volumes of the Red Cedar Review. The other, lesser known, story is titled "Chewski Goes Sledding". A panel from the latter of those two comics will be featured on the back cover of the anthology.

The anthology is going to feature tons of amazing comic artwork that was all created by current or former MSU students. If you're interested in checking it out, it will be available at the upcoming MSU Comics Forum on March 1-2. For those of you who can't attend the Forum, it will also be made available online at shop.msu.edu and on Amazon (price yet to be determined).

UPDATE:

Here is a link to a nice little article from MSU Today about the Anthology that features a panel from "Chewski Goes Sledding" and has some more details. Price has now been set at $12

METAL SHARK

I had a great time at the Monster Drawing Rally last weekend. Unfortunately my phone died and I was unable to take any pictures of my drawing. So I made this new version of it to share with everyone! The real drawing looked a lot like this one, except it was done in only 1 hour and it was all pen and marker. This drawing was colored digitally. The Drawing Rally version didn't have the space backdrop either. I just thought it was the most fitting background for a metal shark with Gundam-esque laser wings.

The color turned out a little different than I expected but I'm pretty happy with it. I've had some eye problems this week and ended up coloring this while looking through some sunglasses because my eyes were dilated. When I took the glasses off and my blurry vision started to fade, the color completely changed! Still pretty cool though. Hope you enjoy! Quite different from the last metal shark drawing I posted in 2010.

Monster Drawing Rally!

This Friday I will be participating in the first ever Monster Drawing Rally at MOCAD in Detroit! The event starts at 8pm and it will feature over 90 artists creating live drawings. When drawings are completed they will be hung and sold for $40 each. Proceeds will support MOCAD programs. I'll be participating in the 3rd Shift of artists, which will run from 10:30-11:30 PM. Peep the rest of the details on the event's facebook page here.

Warpaint Portfolio

 

For those of you who don't know, I'm part of a design group called Warpaint Studio. My portfolio of work on the Warpaint site has recently been updated too! Check it out here to see a handful of the projects I've made as a part of Warpaint Studio, including some projects that haven't been posted here before.

I'm always open to new projects, so don't hesitate to send me an email (matt@warpaintstudio.com) if you're interested in working together!