The New Eric for 2011

Figured I needed a new portrait to start out the year!
Got some hobo gloves for Christmas I love them!

WAR HAMMER Ornament

At the opening for the small works show at Arts Benicia, where I had a couple of paintings for sale, one of the board members approached me about making a Christmas ornament for her stepson. She bought the one that I made last year and it was a big hit. This year I was asked to make it War Hammer themed. Now I am not supper into war hammer but I used to love going to the War Hammer store in the Metreon way back when, and looking at all of the models. It also just so happened that when I went into Comic Relief in Berkley that in their 50 cent comic bin I found a War Hammer 40,000 comic, where most of my reference for the piece came from. My quick internet search confirmed this so I went ahead and made it based off of War Hammer 40,000 hope that was what he likes.

On the bottom I put one of the Space Marine symbols, a skull with wings in gold!

I actually forgot to take snapshots when it was actually done. These were the most finished progress shots that I took. I added silhouetted warriors in the back ground to make it feel more epic. The pictures don't show it well, but between the emblem and the picture on top there is a silhouetted pile of corpses that they fight on.
This was a lot of fun I can't wait to make more next year, maybe some more for planning and I can get more then one done in a season.

Christmas Card 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Family portrait time again. It has been a couple years since we did a family portrait and my mom and I thought it was time to do another one. This time we did something a little more fun and had us all flying in Santa's sleigh being led by the families two cats Mr. Wiggles and Sammy.

Social Gaming Viking 02

OK this has now turned into a Red vs. Blue thing. I'm looking forward to trying to get two done a week.

Social Gaming Viking 01

I am working on creating some new material for my portfolio in the hopes of getting a job. This is the first in a series of Vikings I am working on that will be done in a Faceb0ok game kind of style.

CC Zombie portrait 01

Capatin Cadaver is a zombie super hero and his world needs to be populated with other zombies here is the first zombie portrait.

Captain Cadaver portrait 01

I am working on a comic book project with my friend Wes and this is a portrait of the main character. I was trying to do something like Dan Hipp, who's style got me really inspired to work on this project again. It has been sitting on my back burner for a while. Mr. Hipp does a technique where he is uses dashed lines for shading, I took that technique and went over board with it and did it with multiple colors. I don't feel like it works. Though I understand why and I hope to make it better next time. There will be more on Captain Cadaver in the near future.

Steph in a Nom Nom bar

The last two weeks in Consensual Tentacle we have been doing a plot line where august is stuck in a video game dream world. I will be doing some more posts about that in the future, I really fell in love with the character WARGUT and I think a more polished Mother Brain pinup is in order. The whole time Laura has been writing this plot line the ending was going to be this image of Steph done like a Mel Ramos painting.
Steph is inside a Nom Nom bar, which we made up.
On her chest there is a Hanya, fu bats holding peaches, the imperial symbol on her arm, and a storm trooper pm her other side. I imagine on the other side she has the rebel symbol and a Chewbaca, kind of Fan boys style with a light and dark side.
A cross her stomach she has the word "GROOVY" from earthworm jim and the army of Darkness.

August Halloween Pumpkin

This Halloween I went to a Pumpkin carving party on Friday at the Favors House and I decided to carve a August into the pumpkin. So I created a template to carve, my goal was to try and not cut holes into the pumpkin but have a thin layer of pumpkin for the light to shine through so I could have thinner lines.
I have never carved a pumpkin like this I usually use a knife and cut holes into the pumpkins and I had only a vague understanding of what I was getting myself into. My ideas was to tape on the template and then poke holes in around the lines so I knew where to cut. That was way too time consuming do I opted to just draw on the pumpkin with a sharpie instead, it was way faster. I took about 3 times as long as every one else to gut and carve my pumpkin. I used all if my old sculpture tools. I knew there was a reason that I kept those things around.
I was pretty happy with it. Though I think I would do something with some cut outs and some thicker lines next year. It was a lot of fun, but getting all the pumpkin skin out of the cracks was hard.
Next year I'll do the whole CT crew, August, Gilda, and Tako.

Sailor Comes Home to Skull House on the Prairie

Sailor Comes Home to Skull House on the Prairie

Cup Cake Skulls: Sprinkles of the Dead

Sprinkles of the Dead

Cup Cake Skulls: Deadly Frosting

Deadly Frosting

One of Laura's co-workers, Martha, gave me a great idea to turn these into birthday cards. Happy birthday you are one year closer to death!

Cup Cake Skulls: Hostess of Death and Inks

I wanted to participate in Arts Benicia's Small Works art show this year and I had planned to submit 4 pieces though do to my own poor time management (and usually putting too much on my plate) I was only able to get one done on time.

Hostess of Death.

When I started working on this project I knew I wanted to do something with skulls. I started doing some Dia De Los Muertos kind of sketches, but I couldn't get them to look the way I wanted and I asked Laura what I should do. She said I should so something like the Gloom Cupcake painting that I did for her last year. I thought that was a good idea, but I wanted to incorporated a better skull into the piece. So I drew a cupcake with a skull on it. It kinda looked like a Jeremy Fish, piece who has an awesome graphic style, so I went ahead and designed 4 different Cup Cake Skulls.

Now I just have to wait to see if my piece is excepted. Though I have an in with one of the judges, so I am optimistic.

I have the other 3 started, they are already inked I just need to paint them. I plan on painting them this Sunday, After I get my homework done and get ahead on CT

Deadly Frosting

This was the first one that I drew that made me want to create the other ones.

The Gourmet in the End

I guess this is my gourmet one seeing as it has the cinnamon stick in them.

Sprinkles of the Dead

SPRINKLES! That is the only thing that this one is missing, when I did the original sketch for this one I did a little burst with the word SPRINKLES which was one of my favorite parts though I feel like it would break from the style of all the other ones.

Now I just need to find some frames that these pieces will fit into.

CT Costume Design 2010

A Consensual Tentacle Halloween! What should August and Gilda be for Halloween?

Or should they be?
You can vote on the Face Book Page

Tattooed Sailor Girl

Originally this was going to be part of a post I was going to do on 10.10.10. where it was a series of 3 pinups all 10s (get it?) however, my homework ended up taking longer and I had some problems making art during the week so I have decided to simply post them all separately as I make them.
I have have a series of Sailor Girl pinup sketches sitting around for a long time and I have been meaning to finish one. This surprisingly was not one of them, after having so much fun illustrating the Tattoo Style Gilda Head I felt like drawing another portrait like that. I gave her that expression channeling Popeye the Sailor Man. I tried to giver her all traditional sailor tattoos. I had added the 10s for the 10 theme I was going for, though with what I have planned for my next pinup it ended up becoming more of a playing card theme.

The Best Wing Man

Today is the 3rd anniversary of my Best friend Pat "Hetic" death. If you remember him share some feelings on his Face Book fan page.
Before Pat died, he would sit around joking about him becoming a ghost and helping me out after he died. He said he would haunt Stan Lee and all the comic executives to get me a job. When he was alive he was my wing man, I would like to think he tries to continue that role from beyond the grave.

I miss you so much and wish you were still here to be my wing man, there is no better then you my dear dear friend.

Sun Burn

After posting Drunk Stab I started working on another sketch from the same page that I really liked, that of a young girl who had been sitting in the sun too long. I have been wanting to do a sun tan lines piece all summer and now that the summer is over I got it done. Originally I was going to give her a bathing suit and then i realized you wouldn't be able to see the tan lines, so it had to go.

Tattoo Style Gilda Head

While working on the new Face Book Fan Page profile picture for the 1 year CT celebration. I was looking at a lot of tattoo reference and sketching various pin up pictures of Gilda. One of the reference pictures that I found was a series of woman's heads and I sketched up Gilda in that style. San didn't like it for the profile picture, however she loved the sketch and we now both want to get it tattooed on us, as soon as we make enough money doing then comic to pay for it.

Gilda in a Beer

So for some time now San and I have been talking about updating the Consensual Tentacle Fan Page's profile picture; the one year anniversary and the 100th comic are coming up soon it seemed like a good time to update in celebration! The concept behind this piece was to make it look like an old school pinup tattoo. I loosely based this off of some Sailor Jerry flash, particularly the piece that has a woman sitting in a martini glass. We took that idea and decided to use a beer glass instead, much more Gilda Greene's style.

August's Jar Jar Butt Tattoo

So if you follow Consensual Tentacle or my face book art album this might not be new, however, I really love this drawing and felt remiss not adding it to my blog as well. And here I get to add some explanation, which I'm surprised no one else has asked for. This is a detailed shot of the tattoo on August's butt in if i say he is a burglar, a burglar he is. The back story behind the tattoo is that August made a bet with his best friend, and lost (what that bet was is another story), and the stakes involved getting a Jar Jar Binks Tattoo. Hence the text "always pay your debts." It's also fitting because it was the fact that Jar Jar owed Qui-Gon Jinn a life debt, which was he got tacked on to their whole journey and he was able to ruin the whole galaxy.

Test Fail

So my dear friend Tu-Anh has a friend in the HR department of a social gaming company in Redwood city and they were looking for a new artist. They gave me a test.

I was to create a mammoth, a Wild Turkey, a Pagoda Kiosk, a Bumper Car Kiosk, and Animate a cat licking it's self, scratching it's self and drinking or eating out of a bowl. They gave me a week to do it but because I already had some things going on in my life, I had 2 and a half days.

The Mammoth

The Turkey

The Pagoda Kiosk

Bumper Car Kiosk

The cat animation.
Not my best, but I am rather rusty at 2d and using flash. Plus I didn't allow enough time for trouble shooting as I would have liked.

After Turning these in I heard back from the company in about an hour and a half, they said that I needed to " simplified to match the style we have ... "
As quickly as I could I tried to make them simpler and get them back to them.
By the next day I turned this in.



In the end they "decided to go a different direction."

Drunk Stab Part 1

This is from when I was just doodling all night because I couldn't sleep or my computer had a virus. I don't really remember. Though I started drawing things in a kind of new style, really pushing the cartoony look. I came up with the guy running around with a knife and an open bottle of booze and it looks like his night isn't quite over yet.

I think next I will be working on the girl on the right, I have been want to do something with a sun burnt girl with really bad tan lines, I think it will look fun and sexy.
First I work with the default pen tool with the white fill and the black out line so that I can capture what the sketch looks like. I started blocking out shading on the jacket and on the boots.
The idea was to get rid of most of the outlines and just let the blocks of color make the image. I'm really happy with with where it is at. What I want to add is a little more shading, some little details like buttons and adding a background. This was really fun and I'm excited to work on it some more.

Vear the Poet Warrior

Concept art for my Viking story, The Drunken Sagas: Monsterous Mead.

Vear the Poet Warrior

Vear was born in a small town in Norway at the same time as Eric, this lead to them believing that they're fates were intertwined and a desire to work together. Though before Vear found himself in the company of Eric, he had been a warrior in the Norwegian King’s personal guard. While in the employ of the King Vear became deft at the use of the broad sword and few were his match in the keep. Though Vear made one fatal mistake and fell in love with the Kings daughter, he would write her poems and slip them under her door. Vear was as apt a poet as he was a swordsman; there was an argument on who blessed him more, Braggi, the god of poets or Tyr, the sword god. The princess quickly swooned to at the advances of this highly regarded guard, they were in love, they were foolish, and they were caught. The King flew into a rage when he found out what had happen, he condemned Vear to death. On the spot he was knocked to his knees and one of his fellow guards drew their swords and raised it to strike. The Princess pleaded for her lover’s life to no avail. Vear asked for a simple request, recite a death poem. The King allowed the request and gave him but 10 minutes to compose it. He sat quietly for a moment and then began to recite. The court fell silent for a long time after he had finished. The King was moved; he decided to change his punishment from death to banishment. Vear was given 1 day to be out of the King’s keep and 3 months to be out of Norway or he would be hunted down and killed. Vear had contemplated for a time spending his three months with his lover and dying a warrior’s death. Though she would not hear it and one night drugged him and had him set on a ship to Sweden. He awoke at sea he was confused and angry, thinking he had been abducted, he started to lash out at the crew, he took out about five men with his bare hands before a tall berserker knocked him out. When he awoke once again, he was much calmer and tied to the mast of the ship. The Berserker sat next to him drinking ale out of a horn asking the former guard about himself. Vear was reluctant to talk to the berserker; they were known to be bad luck, though this one seemed different somehow and started to speak when his earlier thought turned out to be true and their ship was attacked by a sea serpent. Quick as lightning the serpent killed four of the oars men and had wrapped its body around the ship. The berserker turned to Vear and cut him loose, hoping that he would recognize the real threat as the serpent. He threw him a sword and grabbed his ax and hurled himself at the mouth of the serpent. At that moment Vear started to head over to where the Berserker was doing battle with the head of the serpent and instead jumped over the edge of the boat and began to use his sword to gut the monster. Even though his valiant effort had killed the monster the fact that he was still wearing his chain main was about to have him dragged into Ran’s net (Norse equivalent of going to Davey Jones locker). Though in the next moment he was saved by the berserker, who placed him back onto the ship with the aid of whom ever was left on the ship. Once Vear had been revived the Berserker said, “I guess that makes us even then huh?” they both laughed and The berserker got the ship under way and opened a cask of ale and they all started to drink. Over ale, Vear told the berserker of his past and of his plans to gain wealth and return to Norway as rich as a prince and get his princess back. The Berserker liked this man and decided to help him on his quest and thus began a long friendship.

Pat the Irish

Concept art for my viking story, The Drunken Sagas: Monsterous Mead.
Pat the Irish

Pat was a hardheaded Irishmen who fought against the Viking occupation of Ireland. Armed only with his Burda club was woefully out number and thus was captured by a horde of Vikings and brought back to Norway as a thrall, which was the Viking slave class. He did not acclimate to being a thrall very well; he would pick fights, steal, and lie. How he survived the first few years was nothing short of a miracle. Through his time as a thrall he learned the Viking language and came to appreciate their country, in particular the ale he took to pilfering.

One day the village where he lived was being terrorized by a mad hill witch; his master gladly gave him to her in exchange for the her leaving the village alone.The hill witch quickly became infatuated with the young thrall; she placed glamour on herself to trick him into believing she was beautiful and desirable, and he quickly became infatuated with the hill witch and she made him her sex slave.

After Pat had lived with her for several years, the hill witch was approached by young nobleman one day about a warrior that he could not best. A few weeks before a young berserker and his companions came to his father’s drinking hall and challenged them to a contest of strength in exchange for draughts of ale. They were mighty and won many of their battles and quickly became hall favorite. No matter how the young nobleman tried he couldn’t beat the berserker so he needed help in order to regain his glory and his father’s respect. The hill witch agreed to help, though in exchange she wanted copious amounts of blood and gold.

The hill witch packed and small bag and she and Pat left the small cabin in the hills for the drinking hall down in plains by the fjords. Her scheme was simple, poison the young berserker before he fought with the nobleman. Before the fight she moved up to the young berserker she placed a vial of poison in his ale and encouraged him to drink it before the fight for good luck. He drank every last drop. The berserker fought the young nobleman and still he bested him. The young noble flew into a rage at the witch, and if it weren’t for Pat he surely would have killed her. The hill witch was bewildered; the poison should have killed anything that wasn’t a god or a frost giant. The witch had another plan, she knew the nobleman wouldn’t like it, but he would earn him the respect that he sought. She would place a glamour on Pat that would make him look like the nobleman and the next night he would fight the berserker and win. The nobleman protested but was convinced by the witch that it was the best course of action, he eventually agreed but only after she agreed to also place a glamour on him so that he could watch the contest as well, the witch hesitated, though when he offered more gold she agreed.

The next night Pat entered the hall disguised as the nobleman and quickly challenged the berserker to a fight. The witch quickly found a place next to the ring; she needed to focus on Pat or the glamour wouldn’t stand up to a beating, and the nobleman sat next to her to make sure that her man could beat the berserker. In the ring the two began their fight; they were matched blow for blow. The berserker was confused and surprised at the change in style that the nobleman fought that night, it was much more like his own and wild and unpredictable. Pat quickly gained the upper hand and knocked the berserker into the crowd around the ring. He hit the witch, who fell into the dagger that the noblemen had at her back in case she failed him. This did not kill the witch, as they are very difficult to kill it simply broke her concentration and every one lost their glamour including her. The witch grew crazy and flew into a blind rage, she froze the young nobleman and turned and attacked Pat. Realizing that the threat was no longer the nobleman but the witch, the berserker jumped up and took the brunt of the attack meant for Pat saving his life.

At that second Pat could see who the witch truly was and he was enraged that she had tricked him for so long. Pat flew into a rage and threw himself at the witch. Fighting her tooth and nale as she tried to cast her magic on him, her spells of ice and wind quickly started exploding out of her wildly and with no rhyme or reason. The berserker’s companions quickly ran into the ring to help fight the witch. One of the berserker’s companions threw a knife to Pat and he stabbed the witch, and she fell to the floor and shattered like glass. The glass hissed and crackled and a screaming specter exploded from the shards and flew away to the hills to the north, as witches are very hard to kill.

Pat was sitting in the rubble of the witch as the Berserker approached him with a large horn filled with ale, the berserker said, “I guess you won, so here is your prize.” They both laughed and shared the ale and became quick friends. Pat had nowhere else to go and found he enjoyed the company of the Berserker and his companions, so he decided to join them for more fights, women and ale.

I posted this today because this would have been Pat's Birthday, I think much like my portrait of my grandfather I will be doing a picture of Pat every year on this day.

Big Sip Self Portrait

So after working on the portraits of Vear and Tu-Anh with big puffy cheeks (well Vear technically had big droopy jowls) of course it wouldn't be long until I would make one of me, being the ego maniac that I am. I imagine I'm taking a big sip and some one is telling me something horrible and this is right before I do a spit take right in their face.

Papa T

I was commissioned by my friend Pat's mother to do a portrait of her father as Mr.T, since he appears to have been obsessed B.A. Baracus from the A-Team. This was a birthday present for her daughter, who found it rather hilarious that her Papa was so obsessed with Mr.T. in the first place.

I sent these initial sketches to Nancy and asked which one she liked, and she said that they were all too awesome to pick. She told me to pick which ever one I thought would work best; the last one was my favorite so I went ahead with that drawing.

Pencils
At first I had started the drawing on another piece of paper that reacted poorly to water, it would just instantly buckle when I applied the watercolors. So I had to start over and as I drew in Papa T and I decided it needed something more. And what would be more appropriate than a giant explosion?
Ink
I had decided to add some bullet holes to the inked version to make it look like the A-Team logo. I also decided to carry this onto the matte and cut bullet holes into the matte and colored the insides with ink.
Paint
I wish my scanning bed was a little bigger it seems that everything I paint is just a little too big for the bed. I couldn't get a good scan but here is the general look. I had planned this painting to fit in this gold frame that I had in my possession for a while. I figured that a picture of Mr. T could be in nothing else.
Matte and frame
Originally on the matte I had painted the words "I pity the fool" in gold letters in a stencil font. However, I didn't take into account that the frame covered the matte so much and it cut off the bottom of the words. I didn't really know what to do about it, Laura suggested that I just paint the whole matte gold, which turned out awesome! I think Mister T would approve.
Nancy really liked it, Kelsey really liked it and they told me that Papa could recognize himself, so I count it a success.

Laura's Bert Impersonation

Laura often has this picture of Bert from Sesame Street, that she found on tumbler, as her status message with the note, "This is how I feel."

Looking for a quick project to work on and realized I haven't done a portrait of Laura in a while I decided to do one of her looking like Bert in this picture. Thinking it would be good for a laugh if nothing else.
I then formatted it like like the image if Bert. This is a look I am all too familiar with.