Power Illuminates the Dark

Still a WIP I guess. I'm finished for now but I'll ccntinue to work on it for a while. I'm never fully satisfied.

It's getting harder and harder to concentrate on pieces for long periods of time now and it's a little frustrating finishing pieces but not having them meet their full potential.

As for this picture, I was obviously inspired by Kanye West new album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted fantasy". I listened to it and was impressed by how West blended the themes and sounds of his previous albums into this one. He also has gone through some tough time personal and career wise within the past 3 years.
I also have had a few set backs in my life but nothing too dramatic within the past few years so I could somewhat relate to Yeezy's recent spaz outs.
I decided to make a picture capturing 'Ye in his triumphs and trials without making a passing judgement but just letting the images speak for themselves in a collage style similar to my "Holla" and "Castro" pieces.

Any veteran art eyes can see the flaws in it but I guess that's the beauty in it, while not exactly perfect it is bold and attention grabbing, the way West music is.

Comic con 2010 pt2

I got an opportunity to meet one of my top 4 divas of all-time Lita. I've actually now have met 2 out of my top 4, Lita & Victoria, now only Trish Stratus and Chyna left to go (well hopefully Trish).

I gave her one of the WWE cards I made and took a pic (cost me $25 bucks unfortunately). It was a cool moment.
Then I met former Diva Miss Jackie (I'll elaborate more on that on my other blog ) and saw some of the other pro wrestling legends, celebrities and artist. I do wish I got a picture with Linda Hamilton and Adam West but both of their booths were extremely crowded as you might expect.

Comic Con 2010

Okay...

So the paper stock for the WWE cards, is a little thin. I asked my mom to pick me up some 4x6 card paper if there was some at her job and I would give her the money. She did let me know what kind of paper they had, and I said okay. Would I didn't realize was that they were individual photo sheets.
I didn't want to complain about it, cause she was so tired when she came home and she bought what she saw. I should have been much more specific or went myself to see what was available. It's all good though. I printed on them anyways. The first pic came out a complete mess, but after a few adjustments all twelve pics printed great.
Now I just have to put them with a heavier stock so that I can sell them at Comic-Con next week. We'll see how it goes.

-So I'm out Nellz Nation.

WWE cards

A preview of the WWE cards I've been working on to show at Chicago Comic-Con in two weeks.
Hopefully I can print front and back on these. So far they're looking pretty good to me, despite my tablet acting weird as I work on them. I'll probably have 12 total ready for the show, and some more uploaded on here a couple weeks after.

Check out two of the cards on my wrestling themed blog-SmarksexyLovin

My kinda girl...

This is from last year, when Sucker Punch actress Abbie Cornish was on Jimmy Kimmel Live, to promote her movie "Bright Star". He cracks me up when he watches a clip of her rapping and is shocked that she's pretty good, considering in the US she's only known for doing art house drama films. She went by the name MC Dusk during her rapping days as a member of Blades of Hades. In another clip from that show, she showed some graffiti she did.

Cute face, accent, an action movie coming out next year, rapping, tagging. Sounds like my kinda girl...except for the whole dating Ryan Phillipe while he was married.

BTW, Her group, Blades, finally got a record deal. I doubt she's still apart of the group full-time, but she might get a featured appearance on their album. Her mentioning them on tv, no doubt helped get them noticed by a record label.
Cheers!

Video and images are copyright to Jimmy Kimmel Live and abc network.

This has nothing to do with me...

but it's my blog and I can do what I want.

I saw the trailer to Sucker Punch, finally and it blew me away.


It's five cute young ladies (Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Jena Malone, Jamie Chung, Abbie Cornish battling it out with Dragons and machines in a World War II type setting. Looks cool and is directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen). This will be his first major movie with his own original story. It's got all the potential to be a really awesome big budget B-movie with the girls, guns and monsters angle.
With that said it made me think about my own originality in my artwork. Snyder came on to the big screen by doing a remake of George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead", then hit a huge payday with his adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel "300". That was almost shot for shot the same as the book, but his next film was Alan Moore's classic graphic novel "Watchmen".

He caught a little flak for either being too close to the book and not being original and he caught heat for making the minor changes he did. But with Sucker Punch (due out next year) he gets to make his own call, and direct with not constraints.

Well I kinda feel like I constrain my work too much. I try to think of new and fresh ideas but it always seems to familiar. I do come up with good, deep stories for already existing properties. I've been working on an X-Men story for a few years as most of you know and I think it's solid, my family likes it and my friends like it (legitimately). Some of my closer friends have helped me edit the story so it could make more sense. I hope that I get the chance to show it to Marvel and hopefully they like it.

Even with that, seeing movies like Sucker Punch, and Chris Nolan's wonderful "Inception" (I'll review it when I see it a second time) and also reading different art magazines like Juxtapoz, make me think about being more creative and more out there with my and not be so literal all the time. With more practice and experience it shall come, and the one day I will be able see my work in the same light as some of these modern day geniuses in the art world.

Wonder Woman

Still needs a bit of work, but here's the pic of Wonder Woman vs Giganta that I've been working on for a week and a half. It's featuring Giganta more so because I wanted to do a fierce warrior looking version of her compared to the new modern take on her in the comics. Also I stuck with the regular Wonder Woman costume style as opposed to the new tights and jacket look. Not hating on it, but for a Amazonian-sized battle I figured Amazon clothing will do.

I need to work on my lighting techniques as well. This pic right now lacks the drama that an epic warrior battle should have. I need the darks of Frazetta, gloss of Luis Royo or the sexiness Julie Bell's muscled women have in their pics. I gotta turn it up just a notch to reach the place I want to be in my art and this pic was definitely a huge leap for me.



Wonder Woman and Giganta are copyrighted characters by DC comics
all other images in this post are done by Luis Royo, Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell, Simon Bisley and Frank Frazetta respectively.

Bruce Lee

This is another collaboration with artist Richard Serrao. So far I've colored a few of his drawings that he's sent to me via e-mail. Here's another one we did of 60's/70's Martial Arts film legend Bruce Lee.

This is one of his older drawings, but it was one of the earliest drawings I've seen of his and was kinda excited to color it. I went for a retro style similar to the Chinese Connection dvd cover.

Mr. Serrao and I have been discussing working on a Punisher story that he's been working on for a couple years. He's been giving me some very humbling compliments on his blog, and it's very encouraging. His friends have also been giving me some feedback (positive or otherwise) but very helpful. Hopefully he gets the greenlight for the Punisher book, and I'm able to be the colorist.

Even if that doesn't happen hopefully the two of of us can work on another project together. These projects have been fun nonetheless and have been good for my portfolio. Well I'm out Nellz Nation.

Punisher

Another Nellz & Serrao collaboration. These are based on the Punisher from 2008 Punisher War Zone movie.

CyberPunk Chick

Finally getting to blog thanks to my cousin for letting me use her laptop.
This is the first of a few collaborations I've done with Canadian Comic book illustrator Richard Serrao. He did the original line and ink work, he allowed me to color it after I asked him.
It's not a professional piece, he sketched it based on a character from the Swedish (?) movie series Millenium aka Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
The coloring was done completely in Adobe Photoshop CS3.