Domino's Best: A Fan Art

 Domino from X-Men, I still am not entirely sure what her powers are, but her costume is pretty cool, drew this one back in 2019 before the lock-down.

Venom and Gwen, Dumb and Dumber: A Winter Tribute Fanart

Dumb and Dumber was, and is (despite the heartbreaking midlife crisis Jim Carrey happens to be currently going through) my favourite 90's era road trip movie. If you haven't seen it, think 'Of Mice and Men' if both protagonists are Lenny, and one of the films that cemented star, James Eugene Carrey in the hearts and minds of the movie going public as the funniest man alive. 

(Spoiler Alert: This miracle run of awesome luck wouldn't last long)

  

Pokemon-th - A fan art retrospective by Ed Dyer -

Like many who grew up in the 80's and 90's we had pretty much an open buffet of pop culture to enjoy, for us it was a time when the internet was only just becoming available as the first dial up modems we're making their way into our homes, mobile phones (if any of us had them) could at best, play a grainy Gameboy display version of "snake".

 So television was king, not just for TV shows (which I'll get to down the track) but video games. In particular Pokemon burst onto the scene into the cultural zeitgeist and has been with us ever since.

So without further ado here's Pokemon-th counting backwards from #151 from the first version of Pokemon I played as a kid here's Mew and Mewtwo!

#151

Wearing pink is so 2005...

My brother was more into the game than I was, but I do remember Mew. Mysterious, bizarre and, like the majority of the smaller characters, pushing on the kawaii scale (a word I learnt when I attended the 2013 ISCA convention) 

Mew seemed to get top billing as the ultimate, but I still think Mewtwo is cooler.

#150

Mewtwo to me at least, felt like a cross between Frieza from DBZ and...

Hippety Hop from Looney Tunes.

Well that's it for today's Pokemon-th, tune in tomorrow for #149 and beyond...   

Void Berg

I got to playing Hearthstone late last year, and it's a fun little game which combines the competitive card game dynamics of 'Magic the Gathering' with the inevitable grind and frustration of the multiplayer losing streak. All without having to go out to the store and getting the physical cards.

When I first heard the Voidwalker's voice I was instantly reminded of Dr. Zoidberg from the show Futurama, which not only lives on in the form of internet memes, but strangely keeps getting better with age. 

Why? We may never know...

Steve from Mine Craft Caricature, First Fan Art of 2015

Welcome to 2015!! If you're new to my blog or have accidentally clicked on a link and found yourself back here, well hello there, we meet again.

I'm a freelance Illustrator by trade specialising in caricatures, cartoons and graphic illustrations. I also paint, sculpt and work both traditionally and digitally. Along with a whole bunch of commission artwork, I also dabble in fan art.  

I got into Minecraft last year, kind of a "let's see what all the fuss is about" type deal, I'm kind of at that age where I'm old enough to know I'm kind of not into so many things that are in the zeitgeist.

Essentially it was this episode of South Park that got me into it.

And I still don't get the appeal of the game :P

Meet Steve, initially I was confused by the character design and it prompted a few questions, for example:

Stand back from your screen and allow your eyes to unfocus for a few seconds...

• Why is he crosseyed? 
• Is that a five o'clock shadow or is his face dirty?
• Where is his nose?
• Does he have eyebrows?
• Are those supposed to be lips?
• Is he making a duck face?
• Is that a goatee or is he smiling?
• Also his shirt, is it tattered or untucked?

Now granted, I understand that when everything in retro look sandbox game is supposed to look like a pixel in the witness protection program (you can only do so much with everything being essentially a Rubik's cube with an 8 bit palette). 

 There's most definitely a wiki page devoted entirely to these nagging FAQ's

But honestly as I grew up with the original NES and Atari consoles (never owned a console but had friends and family who had them) and that I  pretty much study faces for a living I thought about it some more and after playing the game for a little while this is what I interpreted the face to look like.

This is what I see when I look at this character... And when you stare long enough into the abyss, sometimes it stares back at you... and wants a kiss apparently.

Happy New Year to all my friends and Family on the other side of the world ^___^

Little Grooty

I can't be the only one to notice the similarities, surely!

And this is the first thing I thought of when I saw this.

I remember I always wanted one of these as a kid, they used to be everywhere then they vanished... Until now.

Still haven't had a chance to see GOTG yet, this week has been super busy, I did my first gig teaching a Masterclass in Caricature at JMC academy among other preparations I've been doing for upcoming conventions. 

Rocket and Groot

I have yet to see Guardians of the Galaxy, but as an avid fan of (most) Marvel movies basically any film adaptation of the comics that stays true to the spirit and generally accepted appearance of the characters is a slam dunk (yes that's a 90's basketball reference) in my eyes. To me that's what Guardians is, it's a bunch of characters that no one up until now has really heard of now they're viral. Much like the wildcard winner of a singing contest show, one day you're languishing in obscurity next thing it's FAME! I wanna live forever!!

I made this fan art piece based on an adaptation of an adaptation of an appropriation I was originally inspired by one of my favourite illustrators, Chris Wahl who had made a fan art piece based on an original piece created by Bill Watterson (also a artist hero of mine) so I thought I'd post this one as both a tribute to them and a strike while the iron is hot type deal. 

Caesar from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

It seemed fitting Caesar would be motivated by a banana.

Played masterfully in a motion capture suit by Andy Serkis, the rebooted movie franchise does away with most of the practical effects to bring us more from the depths of the uncanny valley.

Let it grow, Poison Ivy/Frozen fan art piece

It's probably not all that hard to see where the inspiration came from for this one, that's right, Batman!

I've been drawing a lot lately, it's weird when you get into a rhythm and ideas just keep coming, this one is kind of the organic process pretty much how I work. It's also one of the reasons I'm grateful to have a phone that I can put notes in, it's like being bombarded all the time from within.

Since everyone and their dog has had a shot at the classic Frozen song  'Let it go' (aka this generation's Hakuna Matata) I figured why not, in my typically fashionably late fashion do my own version. As I'm not much for singing I felt drawing something would probably be more appropriate.

Ghosted Marshmallows

Morrigan Bewitched a fan art

Every minute of every day inspiration can and often simply lunges from out of nowhere; usually in the form of a day dream or even as I'm trying to drift off to sleep (which is even worse).

So up until the time I had a phone on which I could keep and record notes this quite often resulted in some kind of panicked search for a pen and a scrap of paper.

I'm a big fan of fighting games, I'm not terribly good at playing them though the "Angry Button Mash Combo" and the "Rage Quit" are some of my specialities. If you've ever played one of these games you know exactly what I mean, one minute you're using muscle memory and reflexes to play then all of a sudden BOOM! Calculous Pop Quiz!     

Darkstalkers is one of those fighting games that is pretty close to having it all, take some awesome anime re-imaginings of classic monsters and have them duke it out Street Fighter style. Like the accidentally discovered recipe for chocolate chip cookies, there's a justified sublime genius to it. 

DAREDEVILS mascot design fan art

The red hallow around Matt Murdoch's head symbolises his extra sensory perception kind of a sonar.

I have a background that includes a bit of graphic design, and particularly illustration. I was more inclined to cobble together my education from bits and pieces rather than a nice standard package, so as it would be a few years until Pinterest became available naturally I was drawn to books with lots and lots of pictures and in this occasion, symbols and masks. 

Some of my earliest memories was making wearable masks as a kid, I found it brought more to the whole imagination experience, plus decent eye protection for when my brother and I would battle with sticks.

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The Xavier Institute Fightin' Wolverines

I based the design for this fan art piece on the Notre Dame Fightin' Irish mascot.

Like many of my drawings these ideas begin life as sketches on paper.

I've always been fascinated by the design that goes into the mascot characters of sports teams, for the most part as a kid with only a mild interest in sport it was the only thing I found that appealed to me.

The logo is not only a sweet cartoon of a stocky, quick-tempered leprechaun stereotype it's also one of the most geometrically balanced caricatures I've ever seen. So naturally when I saw it I thought Wolverine.

Sinestro a mashup style tribute piece

This piece was inspired by the game Infinite Crisis and the nickelodeon animated series Danny Phantom.

There's something about Sinestro, he's a good guy gone bad, he uses the power of fear which means he's "yellow" and he has this amazing "I know someone who looks a bit like him" character design. The last couple of weeks have been highly productive and hectic with new projects and gigs looming (I'm booked pretty much the entire of the month) it's rare to take the time and create something kind of fun for the sake of it. 

Dr Pam in colour WIP

Here's a coloured version of the Z Brush sculpt, soon to be detailed and posed. Though she's a scientist the 1950's rockabilly horn rimmed sunnies were a gotta have; the final version will probably not include it.   

Zee Brush

I began teaching myself how to use Zbrush after seeing some amazing work done online using the program. I've always been an avid sculptor since my days studying fine art and clay, is my medium (with sculpty a close second) so when I discovered software like Maya and 3Ds Max used digital clay I was to say the least intrigued, then along came Zbrush and I knew I found it. :)

This is the first completed painted head sculpt I've made so far, it's a fan art piece of Batman villain Killer Croc. 

The character has a great unusual face to create as he has been reimagined as everything from an MMA fighter with a bad skin condition, to a talking dinosaur so though there's a few parameters the characterisation is a free for all .   I've done other pieces which I'll be posting soon to show my progress. 

Voldemore or Less like him...

I honestly liked the first movie version better.

I never found the final version of Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter movies all that intimidating, actor Ralph Finnes did a great job bringing the character to life but honestly I felt the makeup held back a lot when it came to making the main villain of the story more badass. He just didn't seem nearly as scary or snakelike enough. Though I never quite joined the Harry Potter band wagon my favourite character was Voldemort, but like with a lot of pop culture movie adaptations the live action films quite often fall short of their animated counterparts and honestly I felt the central antagonist of the movies could've been more cgi than simply just his nose.

These movies will be remade someday no doubt.

How does he smell? Awful?

One of the best parts of being a caricaturist and/or police sketch artist.

This is one of the weird quirks and anxieties of being a caricaturist, the old "it looks nothing like me" which happens every now and then (especially when someone's watching you behind your back) because honestly you never know how someone's going to react to a photo of themselves, much less a purposefully  exaggerated portrait, drawn by a stranger. When someone laughs out loud at my work I usually know instantly that the drawing was a hit, because that's what we do as caricaturists essentially we're telling a joke at someone else's expense like a roast, and if they get it, all the better. It's when you're met with a stunned silence or worse, blank indifference that's when it kind of hurts a bit. When all your practice, dedication and hard work is greeted with a "meh" reaction. Ah well that's the process.

Valentines Day with your "X" a fan art piece.

Gambit and Rogue from the 90's X Men animated series, one of the best and most complex relationships in comics.

Happy Valentines Day, ah who am I kidding... SUPER HAPPY FUN VALENTINES DAY ^____^
Though technically it was yesterday in Australia, I figured I may as well publish this one when the other side of the world celebrates. I picked Gambit and Rogue in their 90's costumes as they appeared in the animated series and X-men vs Street Fighter (one of the greatest fighting games of that era)  because for me, it made them far more iconic and memorable. Rogue is an awesome character because of her power absorbing power and Gambit is awesome because he speaks in a Cajun accent and carries a big stick, he can also throw playing cards charged with kinetic energy like shurikens. 

You know who's viewtiful? You're Viewtiful!

Viewtiful Joe is one of those characters that tends to jump out at you, I stumbled upon his original game back in '03 and later in Marvel vs Capcom 3, which in terms of the fighting game genre, is like peanut butter and chocolate i.e. Some things just belong together! :D 

The game pits the established classic line up of well known and assorted obscure characters of the Marvel universe against the mixed bag of awesome that is the Capcom universe, which is a series of arcade tag team fighters that followed the Xmen vs Street Fighter game I remember playing when I was 12. 

It was a big deal conquering it for the fist time with Gambit and Dhalsim (up until that point I had been quickly annihilated in the single player tournaments, never being able to make it to the boss) I found the combination of the tag-team and easy to execute super moves not only made the game playable for the casual rookie, but truly awesome to watch. 

A perfect, subtle blend of pure nostalgia and adrenaline.

As he already has a big head and a little body caricaturing him is somewhat redundant, but is still a lot of fun to draw and as a spare piece of card the size of a largish coaster was around I had to make a piece for the helmet and pink chiffon scarf wearing superhero.

The Desolation of Scrooge

I always thought 'Smaug' rhymed with 'Cyborg' as a kid.

I'm back to doing fan art pieces now that the holidays have wrapped up for another year and I can focus on creating some stuff for my own amusement really but I always gotta share my newest work.
Despite what reviewers, source material purists, and those folks who always feel the need to chime in with their "the book was better" speech might say; I thoroughly enjoy the mightily padded, 3 part Hobbit epic movie extravaganza. The encounter with Smaug, (which is pronounced differently to how I remember it as a kid) reminded me of the massive money vault of Scrooge McDuck from Duck Tales.