Total Eclipse of the Dong

Trojan

Sketchbook Dump 12-03-2014

Check out my tumblr feed if you want.  I mostly re-post stuff and put up my drawings.  Here's a drawing of actor Timothy Carey in the movie Paths of Glory:

Run For Your Life

Here's a drawing I made.

Ouch.

From The Magus by John Fowles, Chapter 61--



'As Doctor Conchis has observed in his The Midcentury Predicament:  "The rebel with no specific gift for rebellion is destined to become the drone; and even this metaphor is inexact, since the drone has at least a small chance of fecundating the queen, whereas the human rebel-drone is deprived even of that small chance and may finally see himself as totally sterile, lacking not only the brilliant life-success of the queens but even the humble satisfactions of the workers in the human hive.  Such a personality is reduced to mere wax, a mere receiver of impressions; and this condition is the very negation of the basic drive in him - to rebel.  It is no wonder that in middle age many such failed rebels, rebels turned self-conscious drones, aware of their susceptibility to intellectual vogues, adopt a mask of cynicism that cannot hide their more or less paranoiac sense of having been betrayed by life.'"

Frog-Gun "Accident"

I did this drawing today to fight off the Sunday swamp monster.

Demon With Sweater and Motorbike

Harold Sees or Harold is Missing Half His Head and a Cube is, Like, Coming out of It

A new drawing I did today.

Motor Bikes

I've had an unrequited love affair with motorcycles ever since I was about thirteen or fourteen years old.  A couple of weeks ago, I finally decided to take the first steps in scratching this two-wheeled itch, and I signed up for a beginner's motorcycle riding course to get my motorbike license and learn to tame these metal beasts.  Because of this, I've been thinking about where this strange obsession that's been bugging me for almost two decades came from.

I grew up around motorcycles.  My dad, and all of my uncles on my mother's side, all had motorcycles and were constantly riding them.  I was always around dudes on motorcycles, dudes arriving on motorcycles, and dudes getting ready to go somewhere on motorcycles.  Some of my earliest little-kid memories are sitting on the back of my dad's motorcycle, riding through the Nebraska panhandle to Scottsbluff, and visiting Celli's Cycle Center.  I'd run around, sit on all the shiny new motorcycles and ATVs, and play with the enormous dog that helped man the store.

At this point, though, I wasn't in love with the idea of riding a motorcycle.  Two-wheeled vehicles were just a part of life.  They were so ubiquitous in my world that they seemed a standard of adult life, like when a boy grew up he was handed a wife, some kids, a house, a job, and a motorcycle.  No, if I had to pinpoint the first moments, the initial spark, of my motorbike obsession it was probably seeing the 1988 Japanese animated film Akira in my early teens.  In particular, the following scene:

 

There is/was just something about the combination of the music, great art, teenage angst and rebellion, violence, speed, cyber-punk setting, how alien the Japanese culture felt to me, and the goofy coolness of that early English dub that planted a seed in my adolescent brain, and it's never really stopped growing.  I dreamed, literally had dreams in my bed as I slept, of riding through the streets of Neo-Tokyo on a high-tech Japanese street bike, outrunning the cops and battling opposing gangs.

As silly and juvenile as those fantasies were, pieces of it never went away, and here I am awaiting my first class on motorcycle riding basics and still dreaming of fast, red, Japanese street bikes. 

Things Crash Landing Here Soon!

I'm trying my hand at comic book writing and illustrating.  Stay tuned!

Plop Blopin'est Games of 2012

My favorite video games of 2012 in no particular order: 



Hotline Miami - Maybe my favorite game of the year.  It oozes energy and the kind of creative outburst that can only come from a team of two people making something they love.  I described the game earlier as the possible output of Suda 51 if he was living in Miami in the 1980s, doing boat loads of cocaine, and his roommate was a psychopathic killer.  It's a beautiful balance of repetitive yet satisfying gameplay and stunning audio/visual presentation.

X-Com:  Enemy Unknown - This is the only other game that gave the short Hotline Miami a run for its money this year.  X-com is an addicting tactics/strategy/resource management game that just begs you to continue playing it.  Not surprising coming from the developers of the Civilization series.  I loved naming and customizing my X-com soldiers to be friends, co-workers, and family members, and then watching them rise through the ranks to be powerful super-soldiers, or die horrible deaths at the hands of alien invaders.

Dishonored - An incredibly fun first-person action/stealth game set in a well realized steampunk world of whale oil and magic.  The graphics also have a great 19th century caricature/cartoon vibe that is very subtle, but gives the game a distinct look, and I love that you can kill every character in the freaking game, or play the entire game without killing anyone.

Dust:  An Elysian Tale - This game was made by one dude.  It's a 2-D action game with RPG elements, crafting, and a Metroid/Castlevania-style map.  It's really good.  It was made by one dude!

Spelunky - Another game made by one dude.  Way to go dudes!  A rogue-like action/platformer with randomly generated levels and items.  Incredibly tough but just as rewarding.  I was very addicted to this game for a time, and will probably go back to it soon.  Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.

Trials Evolution - Physics-based, 2-D motorcycle puzzle/racing game.  It's really hard, but so damn fun.  It's also hilarious.

Dungeon Looters of the Year:

 
Diablo III - I'm not going to say much about this game.  It was ultimately disappointing and Blizzard made some really bad decisions, in my opinion, outside of the actual gameplay, but it was still a really fun game that I sunk hours and hours into.  Based on gameplay alone, this game succeeds.

Torchlight II  - Made by the folks that created Diablo and Diablo II, Torchlight II is like Diablo III's more likeable older brother.  Less flashy, more down to earth, and after getting to know it, more fun and more complex.

Hunters

Here's a drawing of Charles Laughton and Robert Mitchum on the set of The Night of the Hunter.

The Runza of the Beast

"...and lo, the seventh seal will be broken, and the fallen angel will rise from the lake of fire.  The Unholy One will present unto men a bun filled with the flesh of slain four-legged beasts and the heads of the foulest, gaseous flora.  Rings of weeping vegetation fried in the oils of the Earth and covered in jagged sharp minerals will be given unto men along with the demonic sustenance to tempt the weak among God's children."

This receipt I got from Runza yesterday made my day.  Apocalyptic fast food!

Hmmmmm.

I have to be honest.  I don't really know what I'm doing.

Input:  Dishonored on PS3, Beauty is Embarrassing documentary, Freaks and Geeks television program, Dopesmoker album by the band Sleep, and various promotional material for the upcoming Xbox blockbuster Halo 4.  Sprinkle in some presidential election fear/anger/apathy/interest.

Output:  The above image, which I'm not really that proud of.  My creative output is kind of in the toilet right now.

TV Ate the Radio Star

This is a very primitive concept sketch I did of an enemy for a video game some dudes I know are working on.  It was fun to do.

The Master

Here's a sketch I did of Amy Adams in the P.T. Anderson film The Master.  I initially didn't know how I felt about the movie, but as more time passes since I watched it, the more I like it.  It's sort of been growing in my mind.  It has to gestate in the brain for awhile.  I definitely recommend it.

Mask

 

I dug this image out of my computer the other day and drew it.  It's a ceremonial mask from a tribe in the Pacific Northwest.  I'm not sure which one because I lost the link.   That's all.

Random Procedure Drawing #3: Thor Heyerdahl

This time I got the famed adventurer Thor Heyerdahl.  Check it out.  I tried something a little different.  I went for just two or three values in the drawing.  It looks okay, but I felt like I had to add some rainbow-ass effects to make it more interesting.  I'm not sure I really like this drawing, but it was fun to do anyways.

Random Procedure Drawing #2: Lute

The second random subject that I came upon using "The Procedure" was "lute."  I was a bit disheartened at first because I didn't see many interesting images when I first Googled it, but a few pages in, my eyes landed on a screenshot of Spock playing the Vulcan lute.  Bingo bango!  It's not a great drawing, but I had fun doing it.

Check out the dirty space hippies.