Demonic Tarot Cards From Fire City

The Two of Knives

The Catalyst

The King of Miseries

The 9 of Knives

The Princess of Stones- this is a toned down version. The original was a bit more graphic and she was a bit more exposed.

The Scribe of Blood

Time

 These were commissioned for the film short, Fire City: King of Miseries, directed by Tom Woodruff Jr. Written by Brian Lubocki and Michael Hayes, Fire City postulates that we live among demons who feed off of our suffering. The entire world we see is shrouded in an illusion of normalcy.
 They're currently working on their feature length film, Fire City: The Interpreter of Signs, for which I was commissioned to draw an additional three cards. I can't show you those yet.

Flower Girl in Felt Tip

 I grew up drawing with felt tip pens. It was just what my parents gave us as kids. I still love drawing with a felt tip. Pilot used to make a felt tip with a full conical nib, which gave you a lot of versatility in line width. They don't make them anymore, and I haven't found anything like them since. Someone suggested the Pigma Graphic series of pens. The Microns are nice, because they give a consistent line and are permanent, but they have a dry, hard feel.
 Anyway, I want to do a bunch of doodles with a felt tip. Permanent, water-proof ink would be nice, but for now, I'll stick to my Flair M.

How to Make Your Facebook Profile Pic Line up Neatly With Your Cover Photo

    

 Edit: Facebook changed its formatting so that it now adjusts to the device it's being viewed on. Hence, this technique no longer works. While it may look good in Chrome on your desktop, the images will not line up on your handheld device. 

 
 Your Facebook profile only allows you so much personalization, and it's pretty much limited to your profile picture and your cover photo.So, you want to try and be slick and have your Facebook profile image line up with your cover photo to create a seamless mural that will make your page 16% less boring to anyone who isn't a stalker? Well, I think it's pretty slick. So much so, that I took the time to figure out how to do it. It takes several steps, but it's fairly simple. Oh, and the result isn't seamless, because of the white border around your profile image. Fortunately, that border is overlaid on top of your image, as opposed to being a border around a slightly resized version of your image. Anyway, let's get started. You will need Photoshop to follow my instructions, but any similar program will suffice.

   First thing you need to do is take a screen shot of your Facebook page, with the profile pic and cover photo completely visible. If you're on a Windows computer, just hit the Print Screen button. On a Mac, use either Cmd+Shift+3 to take a full screenshot or Cmd+Shift+4 to click and drag a selection. Open Photoshop and go: CTRL+N (New File) --> CTRL+V (Paste).

  Create a New Layer and use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select the area of the profile pic and stroke it with any color you want(I used maroon). Make sure you select OUTSIDE the wide border of the Facebook profile pic. Selecting inside the border will throw your alignment off slightly. Create a New Layer and do the same for the cover image. Now, you can do all this OR you can just download the template I've already created for you. It's a PSD file, so you WILL need Photoshop for this: Facebook Profile Pic and Cover Photo Template 

 Note: I did not measure out the dimensions exactly,but it seems to work just fine. If you want to use the exact Facebook dimensions as they are scripted, the profile pic is 160x160, and the cover photo is 851x315. 

   Once you have your template(which should be in 72dpi right now), you can upsize it to any size you feel comfortable working with. I use 150 or 300dpi, but I'll be drawing mine. You may just be using photos- or even one large photo. The process from here is simple. Underneath your template layers, just create new layers and add your art or photos. Here, I've added a Photoshop ink drawing of me and some monsters:

   Add some color, and now the Photoshop layers look like this: 

   Save that as your Photoshop file, because you never want to destroy your layered file (BELIEVE ME!). You will now want to merge the image layers together- if you need to- for export and upload. If you want to be real precise, you can set your Rectangular Marquee Tool to Style --> Fixed Ratio and use the exact dimensions (851x315 and 160x160). Select your profile pic, CTRL+C (Copy) --> CTRL+N (New File) --> CTRL+V (Paste) --> CTRL+E (Merge/Flatten) --> CTRL+S (Save your file as FBProfilePic01.jpg or whatever- just make sure it's a jpg!) Do the same for your cover image. Doesn't matter that your profile pic is still visible, because that area will be covered by your profile pic. So now, just use Facebook to upload your new cover image... 

   ...and then your profile pic. Everything should line up nicely and your friends will bow to your Facebook supremacy(which probably makes you kind of a loser, but stand tall and be proud!). Oh, and if your profile pic doesn't line up for some reason, hover over it, click the Edit Profile Picture box, and check the "Resize to Fit" box. I had this issue this morning.

I went to Sandy Hook the other day and found something horrible. I made a movie of it! Here it is:

Cathedral Head

Cathedral Head is a monster I drew back in 1975. I didn't call him Cathedral Head- that's just the lame name I came up with recently. I believe the 5-year old me was inspired to draw the cathedral window-like single eye after seeing my father create a six-pointed rosette with a compass. You know, that basic trick where you're creating arcs around the circumference of a circle.

   Here is Cathedral Head amongst a throng of monsters who are currently being attacked by Eagles, from Space: 1999.

   Here is a second drawing of Cathedral Head, this time he's battling Ultraman. Arashi, a character from the show, can be seen in the lower left, firing his Spider-Shot atomic gun at a monster, causing it to bleed. The Science Patrol's VTOL aircraft can be seen in the sky, just above Cathedral Head's shoulder. A flying saucer is depicted soaring away at the top of the drawing. Masses of  people are trying to escape the city as Ultraman protects them.

   Since I cared enough about Cathedral Head to draw him at least twice, when I was five, I figure that it's about time that I revisit it. I'm pretty sure that I drew more pictures, but I can't find them. Below is my first attempt to modernize it, but I don't like the way I've drawn the scales.  They're very sloppy. The claws don't seem very practical for much of anything. I'm trying to figure out a good anatomy for a giant humanoid creature- something to make it look BIG, without having to draw small buildings next to it.

   I think that the scales should be more patterned, more structural, like those on the head of a horned toad:

   Here were some attempts to implement that thinking. Don't think I succeeded, but I'll try again. I kept falling asleep while drawing the ink version in the upper right. There are some errant lines here and there, that I tried covering up. I have this horrible thing where I often get very drowsy when I draw. 

   I need to do a full color version. My thinking is that the "window/eye" is lit from within and will be lavender, but that may change. I may actually color it like a cathedral's window, but I'm not sure how literal I want to make it. A giant demon with a head resembling a cathedral is certainly worth exploring, though. Hmmm.

   Finally, here is a doodle I drew last night, right before scanning in these sketches. Not sure what it is. She has something to do with the completely non-existant Cathedral Head storyline. I like the way she came out, though. It's as if there's some afflicted cult or army that follows Cathedral Head around, destroying things in its path or wake.

Re-Drawing Childhood Drawings

I had a better imagination when I was a child. It wasn't limited by my adult need to argue and crunch everything into the confines of plausibility. A monster consisting of a giant mouth the size of its body becomes the internal discussion: "Where is it's stomach? How does the jaw work? How does something with teeth so massive even close its mouth?" And so on.

I find that I can't even sit down and draw a monster, because I find myself going, "What is this for? A story? A movie? How does it work? Where did it come from?," and to a certain extent, such questioning is good. It's nice to have some secret lore, some depth to the characters you're creating, even if they'll never be drawn again. My mind, however, has just been overly critical, and not in a constructive manner. I'm not producing stories or even neat characters that are the part of some untold story. I'm getting stuck before the pen or pencil can even begin to flesh out something new.

A few years back, I tried looking at my old childhood drawings, done back in 1973 or 74, when I was 3 or 4, to see if I could recapture some of that youthful creativity. Did I succeed? Ehhhh....nope.

 

Flame Brain! I'm not even sure I drew it correctly. Are those flames on its head....or horns? The "brain" part likely comes from seeing a photo of the Mutant character from This Island Earth. I should try painting a version that makes him look giant, maybe even in the ocean, attacking the ship, like in the original.

Black Beak! I'm not sure why I made him black in the new version. I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that the chest design was inspired by the Ultraman monster Gyango, or Gango. 

Puffy Red Face! Not much to go off of in the original drawing. Pretty sure he has a train car in his mouth, a la Godzilla. The full color Photoshop drawing was done in a rush, but I think it's cute. It shows absolutely no sense of scale, though. May as well be 5' tall.

Recently, I went back in and tried a couple more re-draws:

Nightmare Monster: This headless- or faceless- creature appeared in a nightmare back in 1974. It appeared for only a second. I was standing in my doorway, looking out into the lit hall when it just flashed into existence. I woke up right away. So, I drew it the size of Godzilla, but it was actually about my size at the time, since I remember seeing it straight on. I  drew it all wrong in the original- it was much more squat, like an H.P. Lovecraft moon beast- but I've re-drawn it here to match it.

The drawing on the left, above, is more like it was in the dream. It didn't move at all. It's skin was green, and the "cut off" area was red- but not from blood. The puffy, ringed look comes from these monsters from a Japanese series called Red Baron. They were these plant-like monsters that had hands that looked like the cut-off head, here. The fat T-Rex version on the right....well, I don't know where I was going with that.. Above it, cropped off, is a dream I had recently about my brother, Paul, but that's another story.

My nephew, 5 and a half years old, inspired by my brother, Paul, has been drawing monsters. Here, though, is one he drew after seeing my drawings of the yokai Dodomeki:

And here is his version:

 So, that was a child's interpretation of my interpretation of a Japanese Yokai. Naturally, I had to do MY interpretation of the interpretation of my original interpretation:

It kind of has the body of a horned toad. The way I drew it, this is a top view, and it lies on it's belly, like a horned toad. Upon reconsideration, I doubt that that was what my nephew intended.

Finally, we have Gearis. An original creation by my nephew- and my version, based on his drawing: 

I got a little carried away with the coloring(done in Photoshop over an ink drawing). I was debating whether or not to stick to his colors, but then decided that he only used the colors he used because he was limited by the markers he had before him. I think I should have drawn the legs to be more like his. A friend saw this and, from the thumbnail, thought that Gearis was holding a saxophone in one hand.

I intend to re-draw more of my childhood drawings, but I really hope I can get out of this damned slump and start producing some work of my own for something good.

Freelance Art and Macro Madness!

   May is over. That's sad. My birthday was last month. I'm 42, now. That's sad, too. All things considered, though, I'm feeling good.  I enjoy doing work for the RPG community- and they're good at recommending me to eachother. The subject matter has consistently been within my interests, and I get to experiment with a variety of styles. I've done work for Burning Wheel, How We Came to Live Here, Bulldogs, and now I've just finished a bunch of illustrations for Star Hero. Here are a few examples:

   The mechanic, above, didn't turn out as whimsical or gawky as I had originally envisioned, but the quick painting technique seemed to work out alright. I knew I wasn't going to do the entire job in this style, but I felt like playing around.

  A character depiction, based heavily on a Komodo Dragon. I decided to follow the more colorful specimens, to add some more distinctiveness.

   This came out pretty much exactly as I had first envisioned it when reading the brief, except that I think I overdid the colors. Maybe I just don't like the day-glo looking palette. I guess I could easily fix this in photoshop, since everything is on layers. I find that I really enjoy drawing plantlife.

   Some whimsical spaceship designs. I haven't drawn spaceships since I was a kid, so this was interesting. The client chose the middle ship on the left for an ion storm illustration. When sketching it, I wanted it to be reminiscent of a skull and bones.

   Okay, the other thing I've been doing- and this has been my main drive for the past month- is macro photography. I picked up a Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens for my Canon 40D, and have been having a ball with it, despite the lack of good specimens at this time of year in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

    I couldn't believe just how close I was able to get to my subjects right out of the box. Above is the head of a carpenter ant. Here, I was using my 580 EXII flash with a diffuser attachment. 

   At the request of my brother, I went on a special mission just to find good centipede specimens. This first one, 14 segments long(adults are 15), was very small, but did me the favor of hanging out in the open. Something it's larger, redder brothers and sisters wouldn't do. here, I am using a Ray Flash ring flash adaptor- not the expensive LED types, but an imitation that uses mirrors and gets very, very good results. I highly recommend it!

   This is an adult garden centipede-  very fast mover. I just had to grab it by its hind legs and drop it into a glass ashtray with smooth sides. The smooth sides worked on insects, but this guy just ran round and round until it built up enough speed to literally leap over the edge of the ashtray. Still, I got a few good shots of it.

   A small jumping spider called "Metacryba taeniola." I got a whole bunch of shots of this jumper, and I think they're better than all the other shots of this breed I came across when trying to identify it. 

   I can't wait for the summer or travel to bring bigger and better subjects to shoot. Please check out all of my macro shots on my Flickr page.