Its all in the Cards! (Clubs)

Dave and I have been doing a lot of traditional work lately to get the kinks out of the system…if you know what I mean. One of our recent tests is being able to work in both mediums and get the results we want, so I set up a little challenge for myself. I roughed these digitally, inked them traditionally with a Pentel Brush Pen on Strathmore 300 and then digitally colored them. It was a bit more hassle between the steps, but nothing beats the traditional brush. Pretty fun…besides I’ve always wanted to do a set of playing cards.

I roughed out the other 3 suits as well. Diamonds is Robots, Hearts is Zombies (Ha!) and Spades is Space Rangers! I’ll post them up as I finish them. Should be a cool project.

Have a great week!

Turtle Power!

Original for Sale! Sold!
When I was in middle school, my dad would drive me 45 minutes to the nearest comic shop. Needless to say, the sleepy central Florida town where I spent my adolescent years wasn’t a hotbed for culture or entertainment. The shop was a bit of an oasis and I couldn’t wait to get inside.

Of all the books on the shelves, none grabbed my attention like the original run of TMNT. There were “better looking” books adorning the shelves, but something about the black and white and bizarre premise made all the difference. As the years passed I continued to collect each issue of the sporadic run and they still serve as some of the highlights in my old battered comic boxes. And now those crazy turtles are worth mega millions – who would have thought? Here’s to you Raph!

In other news, we’ve been in full swing on some traditional pieces that we’ve been showing through our Twitter account. It’s been a blast getting away from the computer from time to time. We’ve had some requests to grab the originals so we’ve decided to add some to the shop. To that end, we’ve got Raph hanging out – an original brush inked piece. We’ll also be throwing in a digital print of the final color illustration! Madness!

Finally, the turtles will be making a come back at Nickelodeon and the uber talented Alex Deligiannis will be involved! Check out his work, you won’t be disappointed!

Gettin’ older…

2011 has come in fast with a brisk slap to the face, and it’s time to get back to the grind. No more lounging around reading comics in single sittings, watching horribly delightful 80′s action movies starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, or drawing random intergalactic space rangers hell-bent on defending the universe from the Salagrion blitz attack at Contrillion 5 after peace talks went sour when Princess Sotroy made a off-color remark about Ambassador Gillietrow’s infected coigal spout. Oh well. So I drew you all some random monsters to get the year going. Enjoy!

Attack of 2011!

And just like that, 2010 rolls off into the sunset. It was a wild year for Greg and I and as always we REALLY appreciate the support from all the CreatureBoxers out there. We have big hopes for the coming year – so let’s get this thing started!

Twitter

Lately we’ve been having some fun on Twitter giving viewers a peek inside our sketchbooks. After staring at computer screens all year, we both had the huge itch to get back into traditional materials. It’s been refreshing and we plan on pushing it further this year. Make sure you join along for the ride at our CreatureBox Twitter Account.

Google Reader

Our pal Skottie Young turned us onto Google Reader and it just might be the best thing in the world, ever. If you’re like us and want to follow tons of inspiring artists with a click, RSS feeds are for you. I know I’m extremely late to the party but there may be some holdouts out there – give it a look! For mobile, I’ve been using MobileRSS and it’s been an awesome way to start the day. To get you going, Skottie has posted his complete RSS list here. Tons of inspiration. And as always, you can find our CreatureBox feed here!

Here’s to a great year folks, let’s try to make some pretty pictures together.

Sharpening up the Skills!

Dave and I have been having a blast getting off the Cintiqs and getting back to traditional media. Dave’s been posting tons of super cool ink sketches on Twitter lately, so if you haven’t seen them, go check ‘em out. As for me, I recently built a new desk and some animation discs for me an Dave. I’ve always wanted one, but I just couldn’t justify dropping the cash on a legit one if I was only gonna dabble in it. But its done, installed and I’m fresh out of excuses to try out some new things. In the mean time, I wanted to share a few outtakes from some of my Moleskins. I love using the Col-Erase pencils in them.

Happy Holidays to you all, hope you all get lots of pencils and paper!