Nick Soup

Thrown to the Wolves

2012-01-29T16:20:00.000-08:00

Year 3, semester 2: We're past all of our first projects now and I've already been doing a lot more media exploration than last semester. With mixed results, to be sure, but the results are interesting.

Conceptual illustration for a found article, rendered in scratchboard and digital. Tell me that new NDAA bill doesn't scare the shit out of you just a little bit...

Character study for Figure Illustration, painted in acrylics then tweaked ( a lot) digitally. Features a character from a short story I wrote last year called Idle Words. Shoulda pushed the gritty on this one...

Character study based on the obituary of Helen (Bobbie Nudie) Cohn. Super interesting lady who, along with her husband, created the memorably sparkly and garish outfits for Roy Rogers, Hank Williams and Elvis Presley. Rendered in ink, coloured digitally.

Without Further Ado... MADAM BAUHAUS!

2011-12-27T15:42:00.000-08:00

Commentary forthcoming. For now, enjoy my first completed comic story in a few years, my first full color adventure! And have a happy new year!

Ruin Cathedral

2011-12-26T23:58:00.000-08:00

I've talked a lot about the challenges of the Storytelling and Environments class so I won't anymore, just to reiterate that the more challenging the class, the more promising the results tend to be. Here is the 14 week project which required us to draw the same setting at various points of the day. A bit of an homage to Monet's Rouen Cathedral studies, I call them my Ruin Cathedral Studies. These are digital.

These last two were created by studying the work of masters Franklin Carmichael (water color) and Egon Schiele (naturally) - (Acrylic).

"At Least They Didn't Steal Our Dinosaur Drawings!"

2011-12-23T18:03:00.000-08:00

That's what a seven year old Nick said when he and the family returned home to find that they had been burgled. Jewelry? Replaceable! The VCR? We could get by. But the dinosaur drawings? Thankfully those burglars knew nothing of fine art.

The above pic was my last assignment for Information Illustration, a great class that was fun and challenging, especially when it came to organizing the vast amounts of info on each poster. I freaking loved drawing dinosaurs again, reminded me of my love of drawing them as a kid. Tried to forego some of the outer lines on the dinosaurs, (a la Charlie Harper) letting the colors, values and patterns define the shapes. It was partly successful and I'll be trying more of that soon.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before but my Storytelling and Environments class was pretty brutal. Backgrounds are something I haver definitely skimped on over the years but this class forced me to work on landscapes and interiors, developing my skills with composition and color and in the end, I made some huge strides. This was my last project, a very moody peek into the world of two 70s hippies who fuck with black magic and unleash some unholy horror that takes shelter in the basement. I can;t help but imagine Shaggy and Scooby getting in way over their heads with some real serious evil.

This whole story was based on photo ref of my own apartment building so I can't help but feel the evil demon fetus watching me as I wait for my laundry to finish up.

Coming very soon: more environments and the long awaited debut of Madam Bauhaus: my first full color comic story!

Oh, and if I don't see you, Merry Christmas!

Sketchbook Bonanza

2011-11-20T23:02:00.001-08:00

Haven't shown off any sketchbook pages in awhile. This is a combination of the last bits of my summer sketchbook and my current first semester book.

Lots of figure work, trying to mix it up between photo ref and pulling wonky shit out of my head.

Not much else to say I suppose...

How are things with you?

To Hell With Conventions!

2011-11-14T09:53:00.001-08:00

Hey, it's my birthday, but I have a gift for you!

Because I'm a rule breaker,
foundation shaker,
a loose cannon who gets results,
with or without his badge and his gun.

I'm 29 now.

This is the main character for the graphic novel project we're currently working on in Figure Illustration. Her name is Madam Bauhaus and she is inspired by a photo I found of a Bauhaus actress in costume.

It struck me as very bizarre and weird and super inspiring and I knew that I would have to use her as a character one day. She is basically the personification of the utopian ideals of the Bauhaus school. She runs around with a hammer and a bag of brass tacks, kicking ass in the name of progress. She is alluring and off-putting, like the dream of Utopia itself. Which has recently become the running theme of my work thus far.

I got really carried away with texture, experimenting a lot with collaging real materials and scanning them, as well as adding half-tones and such. I want to far and didn't pull it back enough so the images are a bit too much. But it was very fun to mess around. I'll be doing more collage for sure. Lesson learned. Moving on.

Extra-curricu-killer Activities

2011-10-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

So I made a solemn oath that in exchange for not working a part time job while going to school (which I firmly believe at this point would be the death of me) I would start submitting my work to gallery shows and taking part in art events around Calgary. I have thus far kept my word and have enjoyed the results though I'm definitely feeling the vice of time constantly closing tighter on my nether regions.

This first piece is my first official submission to a gallery show:

Saint Portenta: Our Patron Saint of Possibilities

Acrylic and ink on wood panel, touched up in Photoshop for online viewing, this piece involved lots of research into the symbolism of Catholic paintings, specifically the Saint Portraiture. Because I am not a Catholic, or anything for that matter, I took a crack at what a Humanist Saint might look like. It is filled with symbols representing the potential of humanity as well as the destruction of our pre-conceived notions of good and evil. It was fun to get conceptual and do some research while applying what I've learned from my years in the design program.

(Detail)

This piece was displayed at the Low Brow art show in the Resolution gallery ( a beautiful space with a super nice owner and staff). Overall it felt great to have a piece in the show but as a critic I felt much of the show lacked concept, taking the idea of Low Brow as an excuse to paint pretty ladies with nothing to back it up. But there were some stellar pieces for sure and the opening was crazy busy.

And here are some process shots for my second year as part of chalk walk. It was tons of fun in the sun yet again, and I pulled in third place prize this year for this child-like chalk rendering of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. I really messed up the proportions on that central figure though. Geez, that looks awful. Aaaanyways...

Just finished a butt-load of storyboarding work for a client and started the graphic novel project at school. Can't wait to post the result.

Madam Bauhaus, comin' at ya.

The Holy Trinity of Real-Life Monsters: Plaque, Witches and Heartbreak, Oh My!

2011-10-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I posted anything new but I'm making up for it today! Year Three at ACAD has been absolutely crazy. The projects are bigger and tougher but they're also way more fun. Lump in a bunch of freelance illustration work and that makes me one busy monkey. The top pic was our first assignment for Figure Illustration. I turned quiet and sweet Maaike into the horrid White Witch of Dutch mythology. Don't worry, she got her revenge by transforming me into a crotchety old man. (Some have said it's not much of a stretch :) Wish I had toned down the colors a bit (as usual) and I got some much needed practice rendering in Photoshop, though clearly more hours are required. I accidentally deleted that last one (my favorite) the night before it was due so I had to redo it. Such a techno-twit!

The second pic is from Information Illustration; the assignment was to illustrate something that we can't see and I felt it was my duty as a super-powered humanitarian and enamel avenger to reveal the dirty truth about plaque. These guys were fun to draw. I really enjoy doing work for a younger audience. There was a lot of info to cram onto this thing which definitely made it a challenge. Dig the colors and the handmade title font. Wish I hadn't gone too sloppy with some of the colors and I got chewed out by my instructor for that bogus pinky knuckle.

Finally we have a cover I was commissioned to do for my pal and writer extraordinaire James Davidge. His publisher will be releasing an anthology of his short story work in Fall 2012 and it was an honor and a joy to create the cover. He requested a Lichtenstein/50s Romance feel and I think I nailed thanks to some studies, textures and good ol' fashioned half-tone pattern (computer simulated of course.) But like the capital IDIOT that I am, I accidentally flattened the original Photoshop file so will probably need to recreate this at a later day. Damn my technological ignorance!!!

That's all for now. More work to come, including storyboards and the long awaited comic project.

Why "Nick Soup?"

2011-09-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

A few people have asked me why I decided to start branding myself and my work under the Nick Soup banner, and my basic idea was that a delicious and satisfying soup is made out of many different ingredients just as my practice spans many different fields, from art to music, writing and acting (at varying degrees of failure and success.) I wanted an identity that would encapsulate more than my drawing output. Sometimes an idea can't be limited to one medium and sometimes I like to ham it up like nobody's business! Whenever an interesting opportunity comes along, I just tend to say yes. "Hell yes," actually.

Here is a perfect example:

Yep, that's me as a freaky demo-goblin. My friend Kesar is an amazing makeup artist and she needed an actor to portray a crucified demon in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night, covered head to toe in makeup and fake blood. Hell yes!

Here's the final music video, directed by the intrepid Mr. Doug Cook:

Prolong the Agony - Morta Skuld

And yes, I have entered ACAD Year 3, which I have dubbed The Awakening, as we are focusing more on creating a unique creative voice compared to the last two years which have been very focused on rendering and reality. So the posts won't be as regular as they were in summertime (beautiful, wonderful, fleeting summertime...) but I'm already balls deep in some amazing projects and I'll be posting those as they finish. For now, here is a sneak peek at some landscapes from my Environments class, a class that exploits my debilitating weakness of rendering landscapes and painting, well, anything. It's super difficult to wrap my brain around but I know it will pay off big time. Be gentle:

And finally, here is my submission for the Calgary Expo art book that I was supposed to keep secret until the day of release in June and then forgot about completely till now. I like that lady figure but goddam do I ever hate those giant, purple heads.

Chin up, my friend. Chin up.

Oh, and check out Ryan Gosling in DRIVE. That movie kicked my ass last weekend!

Design by Design, But Not Very Well

2011-08-08T22:03:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my design efforts, the first was my final project for Comm. Design 2. My research led to the Secessionists becoming a very major influence on me and I really do adore their magazine Ver Sacrum. I love researching art history and referencing from life for class, thereby adding new stuff to the Nick Soup Mix. Makes the art gooder and the brain bigger.

This is just something I did really quick when I was bored at work. I can't draw or scan anything while I'm there so I just grab photos off the internet or make abstract shapes and color schemes.

What kind of articles would we find in the latest issue of Bang: a Magazine? I used the Big Bang as my starting point and that's where this image began.

And finally, here are some fake posters for my yet-to-be-made opus Reactionary, also made at work under the constraints of online images and type and color as opposed to illustration. I did these to practice design, as well as large format printing and mounting at work. I also find it inspirational to the writing process to have these phony posters to look at. I really could have pushed that type more... The look and the colors are pretty much ripped off from an amazing poster for the George Clooney flick The American. It really struck me and I knew I had to try my own crack at it.

I have finished a complete and comprehensive plot for Reactionary and have begun writing it. It's still a very large and complicated tale, and quite the challenge, but pieces are falling into place and I've made some serious advancements to both the story and the look of the world of Reactionary.

ON SALE NOW!!!: At the Fabler, you can now purchase the Classics Illustrated book that was meant to go on sale at the Calgary Expo but it's available for online purchase now and there really are some beautiful pieces by some amazing local artists (excluding the Masque of the Red Death pic I contributed which I am starting to hate passionately.)

That's it for tonight. I'm aiming to have some new comic pages up in the next couple weeks before school hits. That's right. ACAD Year 3: The Awakening is on the horizon.

Can't wait!

Shut Up, Crime: Step-by-Step.

2011-08-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

I recently watched the movie SUPER, written and directed by James Gunn. It was definitely one of the most fucked up movies I've ever seen, but what may be even more troubling is how much I loved it. I mean, what does that say about me, right? The film is very similar to KICK-ASS, though I feel it does an even better job of grounding its world in reality, which I believe is why it ended up being more intense, more emotional, yet somehow still funny.

If there was ever any doubt that Rainn Wilson could ever get out of the shadow of his Dwight character from THE OFFICE, this removes it completely. And Ellen Page is downright insane. The movie is seriously so messed up, I am careful who I recommend it to. Bt it definitely has balls and I commend everyone involved for creating something truly unique and it really got to me.

Regardless of my critical blither blather, here is some fan art because I was inspired.

I'm using some different inking techniques to add some personality to my work and I'm pretty excited about it. A nice new Lamy pen and a Pentel Brush pen create some nice details and varying line thickness. My colouring technique is very similar to what I did on the Daredevil pic this week, and it's already starting to feel a little old hat, so I'm going to need to step it up a notch.

"You Can Draw Anything You Want in the World, But You Always Just Draw Daredevil!"

2011-07-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

I just finished a big client job and there's nothing more satisfying to do in celebration than draw whatever I want, however I want. And as my roomie Chad just mentioned, whenever that is the case, I usually just end up drawing Daredevil.

Why?

Cuz he's awesome. Duh!

I drew this at work and then coloured over my pencils at home. If there's one thing I learned at art school last year (seriously though, I learned tons of things) it's that textures add so much visual interest, as do gradients, colour theory, and actual brushstrokes, even when painting digitally.

So yeah, that's enough about that. Some SUPER fan art is coming very soon, in unison with an exciting inking breakthrough that has me absolutely giddly. School girl giddy. I cant stop weeping.

So stoked about arts right now.

Is that the pBR talking?

Nah!

Because Christopher Gets Bored and Needs Some Stuff to Look At!

2011-07-14T23:06:00.000-07:00

One of the many motivations to update my blog (as infrequent as that may be as of late) is keeping my fellow artists entertained with new arts and humorous observations about arts that I'm sure they never bother to read :) If you've never visited Chris Johnston's blog, do so now, because he's got some truly beautiful work and a style all his own. He's a frequent attendee of the Calgary Drink n Draw and reminded me that I hadn't updated in quite some time.

Both of the top pieces are old work that have finally been given the proper colour treatment. And I must say they look far better than before. The Haunted House pic is tearing it up on Tumblr at the moment. Sweet.

Gah, so much to talk about but I really gotta go to bed. We'll talk soon I promise, but for good measure, here is a sketch from Drink n Draw last night. I'm very happy with this spread, and that is clearly the result of observation based drawing, something my teacher's have really been pushing me to do.

I think it's working.

Goodnight.

Where Have All the Pages Gone???

2011-05-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

So I finally found a summer job and it is in the fifth circle of hell known as a restaurant dish pit. I won't blather on about it because I've already done my fair share of griping but it is definitely tough, stressful, disgusting work and my productivity has slowed. But I'm chasing dreams here, and that doesn't come easy. My current comic project for the Calgary Expo is also rather labor intensive due to the nature of the story and the sheer abundance of photo reference. It is a 5 page story for my writer friend Jason Mehmel and the top pic is a preview of page four in progress.

But as a bit of a treat, I realized I hadn't ever posted my inked pages from No More Parents, a pitch project that me and Andrew Foley were working on that I wasn't able to finish. I still really love the concept and characters and hope to put together a pitch someday. But until then, enjoy this all-ages tale in progress.

100!

2011-05-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

Well, it took longer than it should have, but I've finally reached my 100th post here at Nick Soup and I have some new and old work to show to celebrate! Thanks to everyone who's been checking in on the blog over the years, the feedback and critique is always appreciated.

The top pic is another poem written by William Dorman for his kids. These are always fun because I really get to let my imagination run wild and get super cutesy. It took me forever to get the little girl's eyes right, I ended up having to flip the whole pic just to get them aligned correctly.

And who doesn't freaking love drawing dinosaurs!?

These pics are from my Media Exploration class this year, my first real foray into watercolor media. That class was amazing for experimenting with media and letting loose. These were mostly homework assignments, some of them working better than others. It's a long hard road to competence with real media, but I'm enjoying the walk.

This last one is my fave, a real-life scene where me and Natasha got ice cream during a typical Calgary Spring snowfall.

Now let's take a trip down memory lane to my first blog posts, to a time when I liked cartoony violence and yo mom jokes and was obsessed with perfecting things before releasing them to the public. Clearly, not much has changed.

First Post Evah!

Second Post with First Pic Evah!

Avast! Holiday Men, ho!

2011-05-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

Andrew Foley had the great idea of reprinting Holiday Men for the upcoming Calgary Expo in June. He suggested a pirate motif based on the idea of this reprint being a pirated edition. And so here's the loveable crew of murderous mascots rendered years after finishing the first issue, and adorned in their Sunday Pirate best.

It was interesting to tackle these guys after so long a hiatus. I felt a bit of pressure to a better job than I had a when I first drew them in 2008, I suppose to secretly tell myself that all the time and money on schooling was worth it.

The cover concept changed a bit since the rough thumbnail, mostly just the subtleties of the poses and the removal of the big tanker, which I feel would have crowded the page and taken away the focus from the HMen themselves. I realize the color palette and painting approach is very similar to the piece that will appear in the Calgary Expo Souvenir Book in June (I can't post the pic until the book debuts) so I'm going to have to make some new brushes and palettes, I think.

EDIT: Made corrections based on helpful feedback from Cognoman! And man, Blogger s f-ed right up right now, screwing with my old posts. Blah!

Because Peace of Mind is a Carefully Constructed House of Cards

2011-05-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

As my temp agency scours the streets and my resumes float through the void looking for a place to land, I am at home waiting for the call that will lead me to full time summer work and peace of mind knowing I'll be able to pay rent and keep myself (and my gluttonous cats) fed. Until then, I am hard at work doing freelance illustration and creating a structure for my life designed to keep me sane and productive.

This involves a 9am wake up, followed by dishes and general cleaning and then straight to work answering emails and drawing up a storm. By working like a madman at home, I feel a bit less guilty for being here at all. Anyways, here are some of the newest entries in my sketchbook.

Some photo ref here with some spot-collage inspired by some of Natasha's work. Fashion magazine's are probably the best resource for interesting fashion and figure reference. As are art-school girlfriends :)

This is a photo of a Bauhaus actor in full costume. This picture struck a strange chord when I first happened upon it while researching the Bauhaus school for art history. I love the overall strangeness of it. Her pose in the chair. The blank expression on the bronze helmet. I started devising a pulp story in my head called The Utopian Machinations of the Illustrious Madam Bauhaus where she basically floats around in a rocket-powered Wassily chair, shooting at Neo-Futurists who plan on restructuring the world using a purloined Dada Device. Maybe I'll get to draw it someday.

The surrounding doodles are from Drink n Draw.

Which is still at Dickens. And still awesome.

This last one is a work in progress, based on the idea of a wolf wearing a red riding hood mask. The statue is from the Garden of Versailles in France which is chock full of beautiful mythological statues which make for beautiful reference. I don't often draw animals but photo ref helped immensely with this one, as well as shaping my pencil lead to create texture, something my ACAD parter-in-crime Ryder McLean experiments with a lot. (If he had a blog, I would link to it here. Hint, hint, Ryder;)

Death and the Maiden...and Some Cops...and a 1972 Dodge Challenger

2011-05-04T09:53:00.001-07:00

Here is a piece I've submitted to an indie artist art book that'll be available at the upcoming Expo in Calgary this June. The RGB colors here are different than the final CMYK that'll end up in the book, but they're close enough. I had never read Poe's short story until this year. I ended up doing an adaptation of it into an animatic, as well as this poster so now I'm a bit sick of it, and sick of drawing horrible displays of carnage. But it's a great story and it was a good opportunity for me to flex some of my darker, horror muscles.

I remember during the first week of anatomy, someone mentioned that my attempt at scary work looked very "Scooby Doo." I then set out to push my scary stuff into darker territory. Bleeding eyeballs help with that.

This was the final assignment for Illustration. An iconic poster in the form of the old communist/socialist propaganda of Russia. I liked the contrast of Soviet colors with exploitation Americana content. Different process for coloring on this one, as I didn't rely on greys for value, but separate masks of red and yellow, as well as really pushing the blacks.

"Sketching is a state of mind, man. It's a lifestyle, ya dig?"

2011-05-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

My attitude towards my sketchbook changed dramatically over my second year at ACAD, which recently came to a close.

HALFWAY THROUGH, BABY!

Sketching is just something I need to be doing all the time, and the thing that makes it enjoyable is the idea of using the sketchbook as a journal of sorts, a log of your influences and experiments with art and ideas and sometimes more personal than that. I've been able to more than double my in-sketchbook productivity.

I've been pushing more observational work and photo reference to compliment my current abilities and my teachers are really pushing me to push that further.

Push.

Anyways, here are some choice pages from my current sketchbook.

"Yeah, it's a Moleskine! Because I'm worth it!" he screams, ever searching for validation.

I should mention that the intro page of each of my sketchbooks is now ornately decorated with unicorn magic by my girlfriend Natasha, as well as the promise of nude photos for anyone who finds my skethbook if lost.

"Nude photos of who?!"

I'll never tell! *wink* EDIT: I may have accidentally implied these were photos of Natasha. I meant to imply they were nude photos of me. Better? Worse?

Stay on the lookout for an overview of my second year projects and explorations!

And get some sun, god knows we all need it.

Becoming Intimate with Color

2011-04-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

Like young lovers caught up in the rejuvenating embrace of Spring, digital coloring and I have been exploring one another. Curiosity, hesitation. Trepidation and experimentation.

Haha, such foolish children were we.

So I don't have much experience painting digitally but I have posted here my early attempts. There's much I don't like but in the interests of being thorough (albeit very exposed) I have posted some work here, from Illustration class and Media Exploration class, Year Two at ACAD.

The top pic is my fave piece of coloring so far. I showed some restraint in my color choices and it really paid off. It features some of what you may expect at a ME THREE show.

This is one of my first pieces, and I pretty much hate it all, but it was a good chance to work on my idea for Reactionary, my work in progress for the last decade or so. The bird masks were a very important addition to the design and the story.

With most of these pieces, there are tiny little inch by inch squares that I adore, happy little accidents that I hope to replicate en masse in future works. But for now, I'll be happy with my tiny square of competence.

I have loads of real media paintings (water color and acrylic) so I'll be posting those soon as well, warts and scars and all.

Be gentle.

Of Elephant Men and Homage: A 2nd Year Look

2011-03-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

The clock is winding down on the second semester of my second year at ACAD and there's lots of new and different stuff that I have yet to post, so here's a first look.

These first two pieces are for Typography and Comm. Design, both created in Illustrator, both an homage, one to the inventor of the Futura font (my current fave) Paul Renner and the other being a throwback to the Art Nouveau style of design. The Don Juan poster is not officially for the Trouts, it was just the subject I chose for the piece.

The final project for Anatomy was extremely intensive and involved the creation of a human/animal hybrid from the bones up. Soooo much reference and redrawing was done on this sad, old, elephant bastard and I really had to mess with the muscle and skin structure to accommodate the skeleton I inked first, which is unfortunate because my original roughs looked damn good. The skeleton was inked on illustration board with the muscles and skin lying on top on sheets of mylar.

Anatomy was probably the most beneficial class I've taken the whole program so far.

I've also added a couple new blogs to the Other Who Rock list: my old pal Drewby G, who is as amazing as ever, creating adorable and wonderful illustrations galore. He's also a great animator too. And Lyndon Navalta, a fellow 2nd Year Illustration student who is so good it makes me hate him. In a good way.

Have you told your eyeballs you love them today? Check these guys out!

When Cutesy Fights for the Forces of Darkness

2011-01-10T21:25:00.000-08:00

The Deplorable Mr. Barnaby Spends an Evening at Suspirious Manor: This is by far one of my favorite pieces of the year so far. I used all my artistic powers of cutesy and charm to render pure evil and by god was it ever fun.

Lots to see here, take your time, drink it in.

This is totally my salute to older classic horror movies like the Shining and Suspiria, which is one of my faves.

This piece is pure cute and was lots of fun. Very Dr. Seuss inspired, just like the poem itself which was written by William Dorman for his kids. It was commissioned by him for this past Christmas.

More second year stuff on the way!

Oh and for fun, here's me and the band dressed up in our very own Super-Me Three costumes, hand made by me for our tribute show last week. It so much work being in a band but getting to rock out in short shorts and a cape makes it aaaaaall worth it:)

Etcha-Sketcha-Sneaka-Peek

2011-01-06T16:17:00.000-08:00

Second semester started today so I figured I would make what could possibly be my last post for a while, though let's hope not. So here's a sneak peek at my sketchbook. I've been doing a lot of photo reference to build my observational skills, push my style and draw stuff I normally wouldn't.

Who Needs Sleep When You've Got Sweet Arts to Make?

2010-12-31T18:06:00.000-08:00

Against my better judgement, I attended the 24 hour comic day event in October. I had a blast as usual (6 years in a row, what what!?!) but it really messed with my school schedule. But it was way worth it and I got a finished comic out of it so yeah, awesome!

I did the comic at the hospitable and awesome-possum comic store Happy Harbor and everyone there had a grand ol' time making fun of me for being a snooty art student now, which I totally am, as evidenced by my use of various medias and paper types for this comic, from rice paper and watercolor paints to coffee and china markers. Snoot snoot snootie.

Anyways, here it is, complete with my usual themes of sleep deprivation, aimless trips through the human psyche and poop jokes.

Happy New Years everyone!

ACAD Year One: The Awakening

2010-12-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh, winter holidays, how I yearned for your warm and gentle touch. And the ability to get a normal amount of sleep. And time, sweet time. What will I do with all this free time? Work of course :)

At long last, I have posted some of my first year work, featured in the portfolio I used to get into VC this year. It had the sweet gimmick of having a comic introduction hosted by a cartoon me who also popped up throughout the portfolio to divide it up and ass some personal flair. Always with the gimmicks.

Hurm... looking at it now, after my first semester in Year 2, I cringe at some of the work already, but some of it holds up I think. A lot of important principles and ideas can be seen taking root in this early work and I'm really getting a chance to explore that now which is very exciting.

My teachers really pushed me to explore graphite rendering and realism because I am stuck to my cartoony style like a Siamese twin but you can see that I have a long way to go. I'm really feeling that in this year as well, probably moreso.

There's alot to say about all the art that follows but I don't have the time to write a full-on essay and I don't like the prospect of boring anyone who reads this to the point of weeping or leaping from buildings from the sheer boredom it would cause. Instead, enjoy. Gasp in horror! Laugh in wonder!

More posts on the way!

And a happy New Year if I don't see you!

Rock Out with Your Chalk Out!

2010-11-03T01:06:00.000-07:00

My second year at ACAD is well under way and it is every bit as insane as I was told it would be. The good news is that I'm taking some sweet classes with some awesome projects, good teachers, and I'm sure I can already see a difference in my art.

Anyways, the first week of school also brought with it the annual Chalk Walk. I almost didn't enter because I was pretty busy but I'm glad I did. My first day at Chalk Walk was tons of fun, Natasha was a fun chalk buddy and I managed to pull in second place for the competition. I basically just did my take of American Gothic: cartoony, chalky, saturated like a mushroom trip.

Below are the pics of my work in progress. It's not very comprehensive. And I threw in a pic of me looking like a maniac. And Natasha flashing some gang signs or something.

Took part in 24 Hour Comic Day last month. Hoping to have that scanned soon.

See you, Mary Lou.

When James Joyce Gets an Eye-full of Flaming Junk...

2010-08-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

It's felt really damn good to be hitting Drink n Draw over the summer since I missed so very many while at school. I'm starting to actually produce a few sketches too, which is nice. The subjects for the sketch dump today range from the Comic Con Eye Stabbing to possible REACTIONARY designs to James Joyce (whose book DUBLINERS I am currently enjoying.)

I even through in a work doodle for good measure. Speaking of...

NICK: Guess what, kids!?!

OVERPAID CHILDREN ACTORS WHO THINK THEY KNOW EVERYTHING: What is it, Mr. Nick?

NICK: I have a week of work to go and then I'm off for school! That's the greatest news in the world because another month at a job site that had nothing to do with art would most-assuredly have driven me to the point of debilitating madness!!!

OVERPAID CHILDREN ACTORS WHO THINK THEY KNOW EVERYTHING: Ha ha ha!!!

Talk to you soon...

GO SEE SCOTT PILGIM!!!

Because Cute n' Crazy Pay the Bills...

2010-08-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

Looong time since my last post, but the Summer is busy with work, trying to pay back debts incurred during school and in preparation of upcoming debts for next year.

Debt shmebt, school starts in less than a month! YES!!!

Anyways, art wise, I've been mostly busy with commissions which always seem to focus on subjects who are atrociously cute or ridiculously crazy.

This first pic is yet another piece for GRIMZEN who now have quite the recurring character on their hands. Buddha dude is so much fun to draw and every pic seems to get a bit better than the last. I really fucked up some of them trees though... and in some sort of Freudian display, I accidentally rendered what looks like a pot leaf right smack in the foreground.

"I never inhaled..."

This piece was for Puttin' On the Foil and is modeled after the band's front man, Kevin. He actually does look like this character, although he looks a little crazier in real life:)

This is for the local Calgary band TRUCK and is an obvious reference to Mr. Prime, and will be gracing some T-shirts for the band some time in the near future. I love seeing my work on people's chests. Some people more than others...

And finally here is a pic for a pitch that a friend is making for a potential kid series. Giving a dust fleck personality and cuteness? Why that's a challenge and a half.

The secret?

Huge eyes and the slightest gap between his two front teeth.

Some past Drink n Draw sketches are on their way...

But first, I',m gonna go see Scott Pilfrim! Hell yeah!

My Horrible Debut

2010-06-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

A Study in Horrible-Ness

So, I made my first unofficial stage debut this week as part of an intro video for the first professional stage production of Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog! So I wasn't technically on stage as part of the play, but my face was pretty huge. (Click above link for the goods!)

Shooting at Good Earth was fun, though we really got on the Barista's nerves by the end of it and they asked us to leave. So I rattled off the last line and bolted! It was pretty awesome. And Jason Mehmel did a great job putting the video together. Same for the rest of the cast and crew.

Best part of the day was when I was waiting for my shot, dressed as a Barista, standing behind the counter and some dude asked me "Hey, can you get me started on a couple breakfast paninis?"

To which I replied "Oh, I don't work here... I'm just an actor."

The Square's Burden

2010-05-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

This comic was inspired by a great many things. I imagined a scene on my way to school, whilst sitting on the c-train, and the rest of the story settled rather quickly.

Influences:

1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell
Exodus by Anti-Flag
Flatland by George A. Abbott, although I've never read the book, I was aware of it and I'm sure its influence crept its way into this story.

I wrote the script at 24 Hour Comic Day last October, penciled it on my Christmas break last December and wrapped it all up this evening. Feels good to have finished another story!

Enjoy!

Heads, I Win...

2010-05-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some random pics, some drawn months ago, another drawn today, all of them tightened up with a splash of ink and color.

The first pic features my next big project, an 8 page comic featuring Andrew Foley's The Absurdist. I read the script again after abut a year and I love it even more than before. It's gonna be a gooder, folks.

Have I mentioned recently that Daredevil is the Bees Knees!? Well, he is.

That two-headed dude is from a novel I've been working on for the last year.

And the Joker was drawn today at my new job: I am a scan monkey for Riley's reprographics at the moment, working during the summer to survive as an art student. It didn't take too long for me to remember why I spent loads of money every Friday on food and booze after working in an office all week.

Just helps reaffirm that going back to school was the right thing to do.

It appears I have been accepted into the 2nd Year Design Program at ACAD, but I'll only allow myself to get excited when I'm holding the actual letter in my hot little hand. Once I get the portfolio back though, I'll post the whole damn thing online. A shining testament to an entire year's worth of hard work.

Ooooooh...

The Simple Joy of a Frightened Child

2010-05-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

This comic started off as most of my inside jokes tend to: a misunderstanding on my part. I misheard my friend Katherine say the words "fountain in the front yard" and instead heard "phantom in the front yard." And that's all it took for my brain pan to concoct this spooky little story and its hero, a proper young English boy, Quincy.

People will probably ask "But why, Nick? What's the point of this story?"

"We've all got phantoms in our front yard," I'll say, as my cold eyes stare into nothingness, lost in my own dark memories, and sipping away at the tumbler of scotch that I fully intend to chuck into the fireplace to add to the dramatic tension.

It's going to be glorious.

Tank-ety Tank-ety!

2010-05-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

GRIMZEN, the unstoppable Metal Machine of Malice from High River, commissioned me to do another piece featuring their War Buddha dude. The tank was way fun yet kinda tough to draw and I actually got to use some of the perspective and color theory knowledge that I unwittingly gained from my first year at ACAD.

At least that's where I think it came from. The CIA doesn't beam sweet-ass knowledge directly into the brains of the random public anymore, do they? Cuz I suddenly know how to dis- and reassemble an M-16 too.

Here's a sneak peek at a one page comic I'm working on. It's an inside joke that got wildly out of control. (Thanks Katherine.)

His name is Quincy. And he needs your help.

Expo Peep Show

2010-05-08T08:51:00.001-07:00

Not only did I attend the spectacular Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo last April, but I also had the good fortune of being featured in their beautiful art souvenir book. The theme was sci-fi, so I fell back on the only sci-fi story I've ever done, Space Ninja Monkey Face, from Rocket Juice.

Like with all my pinups, I tried to mash as many characters and story points onto one surface as possible, I guess to ensure that people always get their money's worth and are able to spend some quality time with the page.

Quality sexy time.

Summer Dresses and Job Distresses

2010-05-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

I have officially survived my foundation year at ACAD! My portfolio for the VC program has been submitted and I now have stories, and scars, and stories written in scars to tell all. I had to drop off the grid to finish things up, but once I get my portfolio back, I plan to scan the beast to show what I've been up to throughout the year. And to see if I've improved. At all.

But until then, summer is nearly here! And I need to get this art blog back on muthafuckin' track, right?

SCORES OF ENTHUSIASTIC CHILDREN ACTORS: Right!

A FRESH FACED AND REINVIGORATED NICK: Go team!

So while I'm looking for some work this summer to keep my bad self fed and off the streets, I'll also be updating more regularly. Let us begin with some Drink n Draw sketches:

(This character was created by Fiona back in High School.)

And now, because Fiona and Rebekah have started a revealing Show-All of High School Art via Facebook, I have decided to bare all and reveal my knobby kneed illustrations from junior to high school. I wear my influences on my sleeve:

(These 2 were my first full length comic, The Mist, drawn in Junior High.)

(And this was High School!)

That's all for now. Updates soon!

Ideas as Weapons

2010-01-18T10:17:00.000-08:00

That's the concept behind High River Metal band GRIMZEN's latest logo:

ME THREE has played with these guys three times now and they are lots of fun and they sound better every time I hear them. I had fun redesigning the logo for them and this is now online via their MySpace and I believe they intend to make it part of their next T-shirt line. Which is awesome! Am I worried about this controversial depiction of chubby Buddha? Slightly. But it was the band's idea, I'm just the guy that drew it :)

I should say, this is the slightly different version from Grimzen's, as Chris Peterson helped me adjust some of the colors in post for more impact. Pretty sweet.

In other news, HARRY GOES FISHING has been printed and is ready to be sold and distributed.

The release is fairly limited, as it is independent, but if you'd like a copy, feel free to get in touch with me. They're going for $10 a pop.

I read some great books recently:

Naked Lunch
Lord of the Flies
A Clockwork Orange

I'm working on Catch-22 right now and it's hilarious. Really good so far!

Well, must go now. Lots to do, as with any Monday. In fact, with each Monday that rolls around, I kind of wonder if I'm going to be able to pull it all off...

...no problem!

Busy Bees Knees

2009-12-24T15:31:00.000-08:00

Over two months!

Since my last post!

Truant! Truant! Alright so while I haven't updated in a while I can confidently say it was with good cause. School, plus the band, plus some illustration gigs on the side have kept me right busy. I totally intend on posting some of my first year work (the few rare good ones that is) but first I figured I'd show some pages from my recently finished (and very first) children's book, HARRY GOES FISHING:

The book is written by first time author Kathy Sue Modesette and contains the very powerful message of recycling to keep the oceans nice and clean. The book should see release early in the new year.

In other news, I finally finished an online portfolio of my work, something every working illustrator needs in this biz. It's a wonder it took me so long to set it up...

Here's a shot at me doing some fancy design work:

It's just the gig poster for our latest show. I will say, however, that I am getting very interested in the Design portion of my education. I figure, if I can develop a really keen sense of Graphic Design and Typography, I could use them to create strong visuals in my comic work, really create something original. That's the dream anyway.

Anyways, back to work for me.

Merry Christmas everyone!

On Devil's Night...

2009-10-19T01:20:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest poster for Me Three's upcoming gig at Vern's on October 30th. Just had to finish this one before I went to bed tonight.

High Concept

2009-10-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

For a year or so, my fellow VA chum, Chris Peterson, has been slaving away on an exciting new comic project for Arcana Studios entitled DRAGONS VS. DINOSAURS. It seems like he's nearing completion on the beast (I can't wait to see the final product) and he was kind enough to let me do a pinup for the book.

I'll be adding color soon. The overall jam-packed-craziness of the pic can be attributed directly to the rest of the artists (Fiona, Conor, Steve, Neil) egging me on at 24hr Comic Day, which I used to complete my new profile pic and a lot of homework.

Yes, that Dragon is attacking a volcano.

Yar-tee-tar-tee-tar!

2009-10-05T21:35:00.001-07:00

Here are the detes for our upcoming show next week! We had a jam tonight that went so awesome.

Damn, I can't wait! Hope you can make it.

He's Alive! Ali-i-i-i-ve!

2009-10-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

...barely :)

Art school has been keeping me supremely busy as of late, which shouldn't be a surprise, but still managed to surprise me. I'm learning lots though, especially about design fundamentals, perspective and contemporary art.

Oh! and this just in: I suck at painting. But I'm learning.

I just wrapped work on a program for a local dance production of West Side Story. I didn't get to see it, which really bums me out. The program was supposed to contain a full comic story, but ended up being 2 pages of intro with some character designs. There just wasn't time in the day to do the whole thing, but I'm still disappointed in myself for not pulling through. Anyway, here are some choice pics:

These character profiles were all based on real folks so it was nice to flex my portrait muscles.

In other news: My brother and I are now part of a rockin' musical trio known to the world-at-large as ME THREE. We're a punk band with fast and heavy beats, screams, growls and harmonies a plenty. Something for everyone! My bro is guitar and vocals, while I play bass and back-up vocals. Our drummer is one Bayan Sharafi and he's fantastic.

Here's our kick ass logo, designed by me and my bro:

So be sure to drop by our MySpace page to hear our first two tracks and find details of upcoming shows. Our first one is Thursday, the 15th of October at the Shamrock Inn!

I just read Jeff Lemire's ESSEX COUNTY by the way. It's very good. It may very well have been the first comic to bring a tear to my eye. Powerful, evocative stuff, here people. Take notes.

Pull Up Your Knickers! School's In!

2009-09-03T19:48:00.001-07:00

Yes, my first year of a four year Bachelor in Design has begun at ACAD. I am brimming with excitement and ready to get down to the nitty gritty of arts. I might post some of my work on the blog here, as long as it is kinda good in some regard.

Anyways, here's the inked Archie piece for the Art Show at Happy Harbor:

Also, thanks to my online presence, I scored a gig doing some drawings for Bic at Sunridge Mall this September, the only shitty thing being that it will conflict with my drawing class. Here's hoping my instructor isn't too cross with me right off the bat. Here are some press releases with the details (the second one claims that I am smooth. I shall not argue this:)

I Wanna Be in a Gang, Too!

2009-08-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Harbor Comics will be hosting a Comics Art Show in October. I have decided to submit two pieces, the first being a gig poster for the Archies. Here are the pencils:

Now, I've never been a huge Archie fan, but there's no arguing that him and the gang are comic icons. And I never would have thought I'd have this much fun drawing them!

To fix: Veronica's ham fist. Give Juggie a bit more space on the left.

Oh, and the Bingoes and The Madhouse Glads were both bands featured in the comics. That'd be the best show ever! Right?

Drinken' and a-Drawin' and a-Postin'

2009-08-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a collection of Drink n Draw sketches over the past few weeks. I just realized there's a whole lot of guns...

And you can blame Derek Mah for the guy with the razor. It was all his idea, I swear.

San Diego was awesome. Now working on comic strips for Science Alberta Foundation. Just registered for classes at ACAD today. 2009 is pretty rockin'.

Reliably Unreliable

2009-07-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

URGH! So I just spent, like, 4 hours coloring page 1 of No More Parents and then I accidentally saved the reduced version of it. It should do for a rough print out, but not when it comes to actual printing. (mutters various inventive cuss words under breath, all directed at himself.)

Anyways, bitching aside, here it is:

I decided to stick to flat colors, no shading, just to speed things up (San Diego is less than a week away) but I did have to add a shadow in panel 2 because the script called for it, so now it's kind of inconsistent...

And here are pencils for Page 4 as well:

This page is a little sloppier than the previous 3, as I didn't spend as much time tightening the pencils and greying in the areas that will be black (in the interests of saving time, of course.) After finishing the rough pencils for page 5 today, I had to wonder how many more times I could draw Britney angry in a different way. I counted a total of 12 so far, some of them rather similar.

Here's hoping she cools off a bit.

So yeah, SD next week. Holy Canoli!

Slowly But Surely

2009-07-15T16:47:00.001-07:00

Feels like no matter how much I get done, I should be getting more done. And faster. And more. You know what I mean?

I can't seem to get the hang of the Sheriff's face yet, which is funny, because it's basically mine.

Behold...le Backgrounde!

2009-07-14T20:54:00.001-07:00

Here's page 2 of No More Parents. Get a load of all the stuff in that first panel!!! There's room for words, right?

Ju-Ly Peep Show

2009-07-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

After making a mockery of sorts out of "Post-every-day-in-June", I've crawled out of my rock with some tantalizing treats for your rods and cones. . . well, at least some of them are tantalizing.

COMIC WORLD

The Comic World exhibit is in full swing at the Creative Kids Museum and things are going great. If you've got a couple of rugrats, you should definitely drop by and say hello and make some comics.

NO MORE PARENTS

I've been working on this all ages tale during my stay at the CKM and here's the first page of pencils so far:

DRINK n DRAW

And here are a few Drink n Draw pics to throw into the mix (the first one, this dumpy-looking, sad-sack Batman, well, it's an experiment gone horribly awry and I wasn't gonna post it, but Chris J demanded it be so. So here he is in all his glory...)

I'll keep updating with No more Parents as it gets completed. Till then, see ya!

June 29: No More Parents - Final Pinup

2009-06-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well, the Comic World exhibit starts this Thursday so I had to wrap this right up:

It goes without saying that there's a lot I would fix up (like adding an actual ground for these cats to be standing on, and the actual composition, etc...) but the final piece does give a good idea of the characters' designs, personalities and the energy that this comic will have.

Oh, and I had the pleasure of reading the first seven pages of the script, provided by the amazing Mr. Andrew Foley, and they are great! This is going to be a lot of fun.

June 23: No More Parents - inks

2009-06-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

Les inks!

June 23: No More Parents - pencils

2009-06-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a pinup I'm working on for the Comic World exhibit (which starts next week by the way!) I'm going to be posting and displaying this piece in three stages: penciling, inking, coloring.

Because I didn't thumbnail this beast, my composition is way out of whack. I'll be fixing that up before I splash some color into it. The roster (starting clockwise from the top):

Ghost Boy
Chinchilla
Bossy Beth
Fisthead
Can-Do
The Sheriff

I'm half way through ON THE ROAD, by Jack Kerouac. It's getting me accustomed to the idea of not eating much or having a lot of money as school approaches and it's making me excited to meet some more budding young artists. Really excited!

June 17: Chinchilla Justice!

2009-06-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a redesign for Chinchilla that I'm much happier with. Foley suggested something a little more thrown together. Even goofy. I realize I totally missed the mark on goofy, but I'm sure a confused "wha!?" expression on his face instead of a bad ass one might help that.

June 16: Ketchup

2009-06-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've definitely fallen behind on my "post-a-day" attempt, though I did do a bit better than last year. But stuff happens.

Webster's Dictionary defines Stuff as :
-heinous computer problems and internet troubles
-writing a short prose story for submission to a local anthology (that feels nice)
-all around laziness

But here's a bunch of character designs for the upcoming No More Parents (which I get more excited about with each passing day:)

Chinchilla! I did this with a brush pen, which is why it looks so sloppy. Maybe I'll stick to the regular pens when I ink the book...

The Sheriff is based on me and a costume I wore to Pure Spec last October.

This is Bookworm and I just realized I forgot to draw the straps of her huge back pack full of books. I think she'll need a bit more tweaking anyway. Looks a little too conventional.

Bossy B--(etty or Bertha or whatever we decide to name her) is my fave design I think. The dress is modeled after one that this lady used to wear at the insurance place I worked. It was so mod and so Kirby at the same time. It was a bizarre thing to wear at the office but I thought it was pretty sweet and I knew I would use it eventually.

In other news:

The Manga I was working on for Zeros2Heros has been posted and you can read the entire volume of stories online right HERE.

My story is called A Day to Remember. I think it's quite obvious that this was my first attempt at Manga, as my work doesn't really fit in with the others (which are all very solid) and just ended up looking a bit too kidsy I think. Ah well. Learning! It was great working with Nick, the writer, and Morgan, the editor. I hope to do so again soon.

Been reading a lot of books lately. Like actual written books. Which is partly why I was so hell bent on getting my short story submitted to the local anthology. I've been bit by that writing bug and it's consuming most of my daily thought. Here's what I've read in the last two months that has my mind a-buzzing:

The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon
Animal Farm by Orwell
1984 by Orwell
Brave New World by Huxley

All very awesome. Next on the chopping block:

The Alchemist by Coulho
V. by Pynchon (with more to follow from this guy, I'm sure.)

June 06: Topless

2009-06-06T15:54:00.001-07:00

This is sorta cheatin' but it is still artwork I guess...

Day Six: These are the final inks for the project I'm working on with Robert Burke Richardson: Top*L.E.S.S.. Now, the powers that be are not too fond of the pencils at this point, so we agreed to fully ink, color and letter the first two penciled pages. If the verdict is still no, then I'll try re-penciling. No problem.

Thing is, I've been staring at the first 2 pages for more than a month (put on hiatus as I finished a contracted assignment) so now, I'm sick to death of them and wondering if I even like them anymore. Ah well. Typical artist reaction, I suppose. We'll give it our best and see what happens.

June 05: Lenny the Lineman

2009-06-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm a day late posting but it was Friday!

Day Five: Lenny the Lineman is a cartoon character I created for Fortis Alberta (where I currently hang my hat as a Xerox contractor nowadays) and will probably be making his debut at the Birds of Prey Centre...wherever that is. Lethbridge maybe?

This is a unique piece in that, after I inked it, it was vectored and colored by my friend Sean Rice, making it suitable for embiggening on posters and it's my first official work that's been vectorized. So this is definitely a collaboration.

After the drawings had been inked and colored, the powers that be were originally concerned that his sleeves being rolled up would be a potential safety hazard for this cartoon character. Regulation states that lineman can't roll up there sleeves.

In protest, Sean declared that if we had to change this drawing to pander to this request, we would pull it and replace it with a purple dragon. Lenny was then approved.

HUGE NEWS!!!!

I put in my three weeks notice at Xerox to prepare for a stay at the Creative Kids Museum (at the Telus Science Centre.) Here I will be the resident artist for a limited stay, manning a small exhibit called COMIC WORLD! More details to follow, but basically, it'll be a little place where I will display the history, process and magic of comics, along with my comic work.

Even more exciting, is I will be working on the spot to complete a brand new all ages story called NO MORE PARENTS! Based on an idea I had last year, this exciting romp will be written by Andrew Freakin' Foley and drawn before your very eyes, at the centre, by myself.

Can't wait to get started. The exhibit opens in July, and I'll be posting pieces throughout the month as the date draws closer.

Huzzah!

June 04: Daredevil (surprise, surprise!)

2009-06-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

Ugh. I almost didn't even get anything today but here's a DD. Can't say I'm too fond of it...

Ah well. Onward and upward:)

On a side note, I saw Drag Me To Hell tonight. Scared. The. Shit out of me! It's awesome. Check it out.

June 03: The Preacher and His Posse

2009-06-03T23:23:00.001-07:00

Alright, so technically this is a little late, but I have a very good reason.

Day Three: This is Jesse, Tulip, Cassidy and The Saint of Sinners from Preacher. I absolutely fucking loved this comic when I first read it. I liked it a little less the second time (as Garth Ennis' voice became a little clearer/preachier on second reading) but I will still acknowledge this comic as one of my favorites. Especially considering the awesome dynamic of the two dudes and one chick and the study of a super strong bond of friendship. And the sheer beauty of reading a modern, truly epic western.

I'm a little tipsy from my night of Drink n Draw n...

But I like this piece I think...

We'll see tomorrow:)

June 02: Green Man!

2009-06-02T17:12:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick one for today as I'm heading off to the Evil Dead musical tonight.

Day Two: It's Green Man AKA Charlie Kelly (my fave character) from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a contender for my favorite comedy series of all time! If you haven't seen the show, then you've never truly known laughter.

June 01: Jet Pack Mike

2009-06-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

I finished my Manga project last week and in typical Nick fashion, haven't done fuck-all since then.

So!

I have decided to try my hand at the "Draw Every Day in x" challenge that my home fry Cognoman always does, partly as incentive to get off my lazy keester and keep drawing. So every day in June, I'll be posting a new pic her on Nick Soup. Sometimes it'll be black and white, sometimes just pencil, sometimes a full color force to be reckoned with. Regardless, something new will be here.

Day One: Chris Johnston's Jet Pack Mike. I've been meaning to do fan art of this guy since April. Visit Chris' blog if you love your eyeballs and be sure to pick up his first comic (JPM) because it's a great read. And I believe it's his first comic ever to boot! (What a bastard...)

Wish me luck. I almost regret it already:)

Oh! And feel free to make requests if you want to see any particular characters drawn. I'll probably run out of ideas pretty quick.

"We Will Not Join Your Ballet."

2009-05-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, so my blog has been rather truant, of late, so here we go. Update, ho!

After this evening, I'll be over halfway through my Manga project! Yes! And I double checked with my editor and he said I could post a small preview of my stuff. Double yes!

It's a cute little story, full of cute, adorable things. It's quite sweet and pretty fun to draw. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't have the urge to depict some horrific violence to compensate. So on that note:

This is a fresh idea I loved two weeks ago that I only sort of like today. Basically, if humanity took a different evolutionary turn and ended up a bit more predatory, what would office life be like? Life or death, baby. You could get eaten by the boss for fucking up those TPS reports. Or maybe just because he's hungry! . . . I'll work on it.

Free Comic Book Day was last weekend. I went to Edmonton with a coupla the VA guys and Fiona as well. And it was freakin' AWESOME! Thanks to Happy Harbor for throwing the legendary bash! You can get a taste of the wickedness by reading Stephanie Chan's report here. Sketching all day with Steve G., Chris, Fiona and Steve R. was so much fun and the party at HH v1 that night was outta control! And then I lost a buncha laundry money to Steve R.'s horse race game. Take my advice, kids: Quit while your ahead! :) Here are a few more pics of the madness:

That's right. Ladies Roller Derby.

Oh and the week before was the Expo! Rocket Juice debuted to a smashing success! We're nearly out of our first print run already! And the VA Dance Party was also tons o' fun. You can actually see a clip that was posted by a dancing fan on the YouTubes. Damn ghetto blaster was malfunctioning but fun was still had.

Well, it's been crazy busy this Spring, but most of the madness is through. I do have an awesome project in store for this July but I'll have to hold on to that mystery nugget of wonder for another month or so. But rest assured, Comic World is coming.

Here are some unfinished pics from yesterday's Drink n Draw:

Thanks for stopping in.

PS Hey, Fiona. I won the blog-update-race that you didn't know we were playing.

"Hey! Let's. Get. Bizay! Hoo, hoo, hoo!"

2009-04-14T18:58:00.000-07:00

Who was that? Arsenio Hall? I just remember some goofy dude from the Tiny Toons cartoon blurting that out to David Letterman. Quick! Here's a pic from the last Drink n Draw!

I don't know if any of you have had the chance to read Robert Kirkman and Corey Walker's new Marvel Max series DESTROYER, but it's awesome. Not just gory action like I thought it would be, but with some heart, and a cool premise. This is my interpretation of the old fart.

Anyways, "busy" is the word of the day. Fortunately, that goes hand in hand with "exciting!" Let's break it down.

BC --> Just got back from visiting my pappy in BC. Hadn't seen him in two years, so that was great, plus I was able to hang out with my hilarious brother and sister. How is this art related? It's not. But it is very up-building and that helps. Leave me alone.

Seattle --> The week prior, my friend Fiona and I flew down to the Emerald City Comicon and had a grand ole time, thanks in part to hanging out with the Proof Crew! Also saw some celebs and a 40lb Pacific Octopus. I believe it has taken the cake for most terrifying animal ever! It remembers your face, dude! It can seek vengeance!

Manga???--> I'm noticing a strange trend where I receive random work offers shortly after returning from conventions...that have nothing to do with the convention. This time I will be creating my first paid comic work...which is, needless to say, freakin' awesome! Thing is, it's for a manga story. So, I am trying my hand at manga:) I'm surprised how naturally my style drifts towards it. Here's a very quick example:

Top*L.E.S.S.--> So that's the name of the story I'm working on with Robert Burke Richardson and so far, I'm having a great time drawing it. I'm 2 pages in and I simply must show you a sketch of one of the main characters because I just can't bare to keep it to myself:

I know, right? Love that suit.

Rocket Juice?--> Oh yeah! That's right! It's coming out! I've seen the PDF proof of the entire book and I can say, without a doubt, that it is the coolest, best looking book in Vicious Ambitious' 6 year history. This ain't just huckster crap, ladies and gents! This book looks fantastic and I can't wait to show it to you all! Be at the Calgary Expo in April to pick up your copy. VA will be there, of course:)

Reactionary--> After submitting a very tight and finely-tuned plot to my friend Drew, I made two drastic changes to the story which has, of course, set me back a bit. But it is for the good of the story and I have all the patience in the world if it means a more engrossing, action-packed tale. And I assure you it will be! Here's a quick sketch I did of one of the main characters, RED FRED:

I've been having a hell of a time finding a style for this book, as it is a bit more serious in tone than my usual fanfare, but I'm kinda liking this last attempt. We'll see.

Long post, huh? I'd say it was because I've been up to a lot lately, but I think it's just procrastination, pure and simple:)

"Oh my, we're having some fun now."

We're Off to See the Wizard! Here's Hoping He's Wearing Pants.

2009-04-02T12:39:00.000-07:00

I'm headed off to the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle tomorrow. Should be loads of fun!

Here's some stuff from Drink n Draw yesterday. It was my first official D n D session in 3 weeks, which is a long damn time not to consume copious amounts of spirits whilst doodling and exchanging witticisms with my creative brethren. We had a great showing too.

This page has random heads (the ladies are starting to look better) and features one of the many quotable quotes that are hurled into the Void at every Drink n Draw. Seriously, it's always super hilarious.
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Speaking of brethren, my friend Jason Mehmel, who also happens to be a talented writer and director, has a blog which I have added to my Other Who Rock list. Or you can click on his name. Regardless, be sure to visit. If only to just to take in his awesome banner photo:)

Page one of my current project is penciled and looking good. Don't think I'll get much work done over the next week unfortunately, as I'll be in BC after Seattle, but I'll try my damndest. I don't want to lose my groove and then have to go to the Islands to get it back or anything.

Space Monkey Being Launched in 5...4...3...

2009-03-23T19:13:00.000-07:00

Alright!!! So I'm finally finished penciling and lettering SPACE NINJA MONKEY FACE! It took way too long, but it feels nice to have another story freshly squeezed from my mind grapes and ready for mass consumption.

Just gotta wait on Conor's inks now. They will blow. Your. Mind.

ROCKET JUICE will debut at the April show in Calgary and it's going to be sweet!

Immediately after finishing a project, the question becomes "What's next?" I'll be working with another Edmontonian writer, Robert Burke Richardson, on a short story which we're hoping to see published, though I won't yet say where (don't wanna jinx anything:)

Also, VA has had some sweet publicity lately! And you thought we'd given up!?! You can see a glowing review in this month's BROKEN PENCIL for the classic Gord Cummings release MERCY SEAT Volume 1. I got to draw Gord's willy in this one and the reviewer had this to say:
"This zine includes, I kid you not, the cutest cartoon penis I have ever seen. Seriously I never knew that the penis could aspire to the adorable, but apparently Cummings' unit when he was in grade school could have been captioned as a lolcat."

That should probably go on the cover of future reprints:)

Next, we had the pleasure of being interviewed by a very nice fellow from the Calgary Journal, Kevin de Vlaming. It also features some wise words from local artist Riley Rossmo and a pic of three of the handsomest devils that VA has to offer;)

What's that you say? "Enough chit chat, Nick. Make with the pictures!" Sorry, you're right.

Here's some more Verasoft stuff. The first is the final product (the client requested the color scheme) and the second was my first stab at the pose, which I like better. Who doesn't like a badass? I guess no one wants to buy software from a pissed off superhero.

This last one was done a long time ago for a strip for these guys that never quite got made. I love this design, but once again, no dice. Dems da breaks. Just means I can use it later:)

Kor-VUE TO A KILL

2009-03-10T00:13:00.000-07:00

I really should be in bed right now but I'm up late doing (what I hope to be) the final colors for my latest piece for Verasoft. I just can't get to bed right after I finish working because my brain is all wired.

This was a toughie, as I had some difficulty giving life to the client's fairly specific vision but I think it turned out alright in the end. I guess I'll know for sure when he emails me back later. It was also one of the first times I have had my work critiqued based on a vague description I gave to the Drink n Draw folks:) It was surprisingly informative.

The right is pretty blank because that's where all the words will go.

Tonight was also the first table reading for The Wizards' Christmas, the upcoming animated film from Calgary based New Machine studios in which I have landed a juicy part. It was so much fun and I am getting really excited about this. It's so great to be a part of such a large production where everyone is adding there own creative expertise (no, that doesn't refer to my squeaky voice work) to achieve this wonderful final product. Plus, apparently I'm a ham, so this acting thing is way cool to me:) I'll keep you posted on the release of this future classic.

I felt like there was something else I had to say...

"...You're Locked in Here With ME!"

2009-03-08T20:22:00.000-07:00

Just got back from watching the Watchmen.

Goddamn, what an experience. It's a special thing to be able to to see something so bizarre and unconventional playing out on the big screen. It's really heavy, very moving stuff, as is the comic book itself of course, and they both really inspire me to add as much weight and care as possible to all of my upcoming written projects.

Speaking of which, I've just finished a fairly detailed breakdown of the Reactionary plot. It was brain straining work, as I'm trying to get the story as tight as possible, but I think it'll be worth it. I am a little worried that the content might be a little harsh though. Guess we'll see. Next step is to hand it off to my pal, Drew, for some great critique.

Here's a pin-up I did this weekend for an anthology book being published in Edmonton:

The book is being put together by Paul Lavalee and this is his original character, Sabotage. I was going to add some gray tones but . . . I just didn't feel like it, I guess. I think the piece is still pretty strong in the classic black and white though.

"Do a Whole Bunch of Settler Shit!"

2009-03-05T19:23:00.000-08:00

Another helpful piece of advice from Fiona that helped make last night's Drink n Draw another memorable good time. Here are a couple of pics from last night's shenanigans:

And here you'll see a lounge singer (a secret dream job of mine) and a character that was created out of the madness of our last VA podcast. A secret agent who is terrified of heights while he is human, but can fly a helicopter when he's a Werewolf!

I think we should call it...Airwolf:)

Man, things are stupid busy right now. It's awesome. And exciting. Lots more to come:)

Get This Space Monkey Off My Back!

2009-02-28T13:28:00.000-08:00

My trip to NYC filled me with unfathomable amounts of inspiration and energy. I'm am using some of it to put the finishing touches on my Rocket Juice story, SPACE NINJA MONKEY FACE. I am really digging how it's turning out and am quite excited to reveal it to the world:) Here's a panel:

The "other monkey on my back" would be my apalling lack of skill with the tablet. I have been coloring all my work with a mouse, like cavemen used to do back in dinosaur times. I hear that once I learn how to use this mysterious machine, my work will improve by leaps and bounds and I will save oodles of time. I mostly want to learn it so my roomie Chad (sporting a sweet new blog by the by) and the rest of the folks at Drink n Draw will stop razzing me:) After that, I'll focus on trying to draw characters who don't always have their leg up.

And I will update my blog more. I'm pretty sure, yeah.

"With Every Day That Goes By, You Get a Little More Insane."

2009-02-28T13:10:00.000-08:00

Fiona's words to me during our brief, albeit mind-blowingly awesome and inspirational, time in New York. They pretty much wrap up the whole event of visiting the NYC Comicon.

I've described the dreamlike wonders of my time in the big apple to dozens of people in various forms and you can here my report on the latest VA podcast. You may wonder why I've never mentioned the podcast before and I think it's mostly because I didn't think they were that good. But our shit is getting pretty tight and I think the last two have been really enjoyable for our listeners, thanks in major part to Chris' wonderful sound editing. So give a listen and let us know what you think!

I will mention a few super-cool folks who I had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with though, and they are (in no particular order): Mike Costa, Ryan Browne, Neil G., Ray Fawkes, Haroon...

...and pictured here Jon Browne "Man About Town", Zia, Fiona and the photo was taken by the hilarious Mr. Frazer. We're at the James Jean art exhibit, which was very cool. I may look intellectual in this picture but really, my chin was just cold.

Oh, and I got to do some karaoke, which is always fun! Oh, and I walked through the Hell's Kitchen. How freakin' sweet is that!?! I didn't see Daredevil though. He must have been in Japan fighting ninjas.

Best of the Worst

2009-02-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it's been such a long time since I updated my blog. Why? I wonder. Then Fiona says that I'm overthinking it and I should just put up my sketches cuz people like that. So here's some of the better stuff I've done at Drink n Draw lately, which is in a brand new location, the coolest (most probably haunted) pub around, the Hop n Brew. You should come down sometime. It's tons of fun.

My apolgies to everyone last time if I got a little nuts. I showed up late from a work function at which there was free wine:( Though I don't always get to show up dressed in a tie with a lay around my neck and a hula hoop around my waist:)

Bring on the pics!

This is an alien, for no reason. And that's Dan Van Cool beside him, yelling about podcasts. Perfect likeness by the way:)

You'll notice I've really been experimenting with spotting blacks, at the behest and encouragement of my D n D brethren...and sistren.

I was quite fond of this Barbarella at first, and now I see her forehead and eye are huge. So I'll keep trying...

And that's all for now. More updates to come...in, like, three minutes.

You Must BECOME the Rock!

2009-02-12T16:33:00.000-08:00

I have been jonesing to do an album cover since I was a kid and I finally got my chance. FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL TO THE GATES OF HEAVEN is the new CD from Lac La Biche artist Leo Biollo and it drops sometime soon. Its great heavy metal with a surprisingly strong and positive message and its a concept album to boot, so I can't wait to hear the whole thing.

I was lucky enough to contribute a front and back cover to Leo's CD and here's a glimpse at the pain staking process:

These are the pencils.

These are the inks, which always seem to ruin the pencils.

And these are the colors, which I'm told make this hellish cover look like a desert.

And the battle continues . . .

I'm Kissing 2008 Goodbye...But NO Tongue

2009-01-03T13:33:00.000-08:00

Happy 2009 everyone.

I figured it's been way too long since the last post and I should start the year out right by showing off some new art. First is a Wolverine pic that I did up for a friend's nephew's birthday. It's Wolvie's new costume from Whedon's Astonishing X Men run, which I think was one of the best comics I read last year. Absolutely brilliant and highly recommended!

I completely forgot to let anyone know that I had another pic appear in Swerve magazine. Twas an advertisement for a Christmas play called Christmas HAMlet. Sweetest deal? I got paid again:)

And finally, drum roll, please...ladies and gentlemen, believe it or not, the flighty Mr. Nick Johnson has finally penciled the first page of The Holiday Men, Episode 2!!! There's a different style at work here, a little more detailed, more spotted blacks, and I think it'll seem like a pretty big jump when put next to the first issue. But here's hoping it's not too jarring. Here's a peek at a panel:

And finally, with the start of a New Year, I have committed to writing REACTIONARY, a story that has been percolating in my brain pan for about 6 years. It's pretty close to me as it is a story that brings up a lot for discussion and it isn't actually a comedy, like most of my stuff. It's really my first attempt at a serious work. I'm excited and a little anxious. But enough talk. I'll show you stuff as it appears.

Happy new year all. Here's hoping it's awesome.

And the Train Gets a Rollin'

2008-11-29T10:48:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I FINALLY got another page of Space Ninja Monkey Face done! There is a big reveal on this page as the package that Gary has been carrying for four months is finally opened. To preserve the secret, I have covered the contents with pictures of my ample face.

I really enjoyed designing the pimped out pad of this famous rock band, Stitchface and the Fingerpuppets. I mean, if you were a successful, interstellar emo band, you'd own giant lava lamps right?

I had the pleasure of attending THE OTHER DRINK n DRAW last week. Riley invited me along and it was a full house. I was too shy to really make any good conversation, but I did drink and draw and try something new, so Mission Accomplished! There were a lot of nice, talented folks there and I definitely plan to attend again sometime soon. Here's a cowboy I drew that night:

Because I'm a big jerk, I neglected to mention two new sites that you must visit soon and regularly if you love your eyeballs. The first is jemapellerobot.blogspot.com. It's Chris Johnston's blog and he's a co-worker of my roommate's and is acting Art Director of New Machine Studios. Needless to say, he is awesome.

The second is cognoman.com, the brilliant webcomic by mystery member of VA, Cognoman. I am baffled at the sheer volume of ridiculous, poignant, demented things that leak out of his brain and into his pencil.

Have you told your eyes that you love them today? Check these guys out.

Bob Prodor's BAD GUYS

2008-11-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

A challenge for Canadian Geek, drawn whilst drinking beers and smudged horribly by drawing on 80lb silk paper with a brush pen.

One Fish, Two Fish, Hey, I Get to Be in the Newspaper!!!...ish.

2008-11-13T19:46:00.000-08:00

Thanks to some sweet connections I made a while back, I'm lucky enough to have a piece featured in tomorrow morning's Calgary Herald. It refers to some Dr. Seuss readings going on here in Calgary.

I attempted to ape Dr. Seuss' style for this pic, while still inflicting my personal style upon it and I think it worked out. The composition is kinda wonky thanks to some misplaced book stacks, but I think I can get over it...I think. And it's always nice to have another colored piece floating around. I went with a very simple coloring scheme, similar to what the Almighty Seuss went with in his books.

Went to Drink n Draw last night after a looong hiatus. It was tons of fun as usual. And here's all I got done:

I know what you're saying: "The Holiday Men, again?" Yeah, well, they're tons of fun to draw and I'm right about to jump back into it and I want to fool around with their designs a little more. Val especially. Trying to get his head just right, and then keeping it consistent, has always been a challenge. But I like this new head. I think I'll keep it. Drawing St. Nick is almost becoming second nature. I threw some PS color in there to keep things interesting too.

Well, it's my BDay tomorrow. Turning 26. Here's hoping this year involves me working harder, being more productive and fucking shit up a little less:) My outlook...is good.

OBSESSION for Geek

2008-11-07T19:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm seeing a trend here. I tend to drift in and out of these various obsessions. Creator wise I mean. Not, like, stalker shit or anything.

Like right now, I'm crazy for Daredevil. I've got DD Fever. Just got the first Bendis Omnibus and it's kicking my ass. I'm starting to think that one day, I may just want to do a DD story. And god, do I ever want to see them take another shot at the movie. I just watched the Affleck one again last week.

My god, does it blow. Jesus, it blows.

I think it blows worse after watching Dark Knight, which is essentially is the greatest Daredevil story never filmed if you ask me. Which no one has...yet. But there is a one hour documentary on the DVD that interviews the likes of John Romita (Jr. and Sr.), Gene Colan, Frank Miller and Bendis, and it is one of the most inspirational things I've ever seen. It's chock full of passion and insight, from both the writers and artists, and always give me chills. I mean, Frank Miller talks about Daredevil like he's a real person. He calls him "Matt", like he's a friend that he's known for years.

What's so alluring about the character? Matt Murdock is this guys always trying to do good, but has a tendancy to fuck up. And when that happens, he loses control. He gets pissed off. And he makes more mistakes. But regardless of how low things end up, he keeps fighting his way through the muck and the mire. He gets the shit kicked out of him and he gets his heart broken and he breaks a few of his own.

Everyone talks about how Daredevil is Miller's character, but I really think Bendis is the man to take that mantle. He really made DD his own. He shook things up. Made changes. Took risks. And kicked a few asses himself:)

Jeez, I've had a few beers here to be honest. And sometimes, after a few, all I want to do is talk comics. We just recorded our first VA Podcast last Tuesday (hopefully we'll release it soon) and I found myself totally caught up in this conversation with Gord about Brian Wood's LOCAL. Great book. And fun to talk about. I think I sometimes take for granted being able to talk comics with all of the talented folk in this town. I'm lucky to have this.

Anyways, I drew a bunch of DD pics the other day and here's one all colored up.

Events Galore!

2008-10-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Whoa! Busy weeks. Still haven't gotten much done...but I've been keeping busy.

So Fiona, Steve and I went down to Edmonton for Pure Spec and it was a blast. I knew the costume ball would be worth the trip up and I was right. Here is proof. Me preparing to partake in a dance off with a human sized cow. I won. Aw yeah. I also did this drawing of Steve as a zombie, because he's always drawing people as zombie's so I figured he'd like to know how it felt. Suck on this you bastard!

Okay, so the following week, last weekend, was 24hr comic day in Calgary. I understand the international event was held two weeks ago, but who gives a crap right? Here's is a picture of myself, filled with despair and self loathing, the usual mentality of a 24hr marathon artist at around 3AM.
But believe it or not, I actually finished (thanks in no small part to Fiona for helping me ink and Conor, Dan, Gerald and that weird kid Neil for filling the day with laughs and entertainment.) My story was called ME AND I and it featured two best buddy doppelgangers. It's some of the cutest, most adorable work I've ever produced, but it ends in utter tragedy. I didn't even consider another ending but I'm not sure why. It was a low blow to see if I could make the reader feel something after lowering their guard with cuteness, I think. Cheap shot, I know.

The style I used was very simple just to keep things quick.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I'll have Space Monkey done very soon so I can move on. Ugh.

Alexander Jay Interviews the Elusive Nick Johnson

2008-10-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

Alex: I guess I'll start with the question that's been on everyone's mind here: Where the hell have you been?

Nick: Yeah, sorry. It's been pretty quiet around Nick Soup lately. Honestly though, it's been pretty quiet on all fronts regarding my current production levels.

A: Any particular reason?

N: No, there's a few. I mostly just hit a rut lately, despite the fact that a lot of really exciting things have been happening. But like I said before--

A: This isn't a whiny blog about your life.

N: Exactly. I want to focus on the cool shit. The art. The stories. The process. There's a lot in the works right now, I just haven't been doing much lately.

A: Alright, well I know you have a tendency to be rather vague, so I'll bite. What are these "exciting things" you're working on?

N: I just finished my first paying gig as a freelance illustrator working for an ad agency called Verasoft. My contact there is a great guy with some cool ideas and so far, the experience has been really positive. Here's the first finished piece.

Not sure when or where it'll hit, or how much they'll mess around with it. But I was pleased. With everything but the label anyway. Just couldn't get it quite right.

A: Looks great. I like the colors.

N: I tried pretty hard to get the right palette here. I don't work with color often and as you can see, not a lot of values or texture is used. I do all my coloring with a mouse at the moment (which is, needless to say, a huge pain the ass) but I plan on purchasing myself a sweet ass Cintiq soon. Learning up on color will be my first priority.

A: Good to hear. Are you still working on the next VA Anthology ROCKET JUICE? Wasn't that supposed to debut this month?

N: Yeah, I missed the deadline on that one. I'm not sure why it was so hard for me (or the other VA guys) to pull this one together but we just couldn't. I suppose we're all really busy doing our own thing at the moment (paid gigs, lifting the kettle bell, growing a beard) but it'll definitely be ready for the big Calgary show in April. In fact, it'll be a better book with that extra time. As it stands, I'm really pleased with my story so far. And everyone else's looks great.

Fiona Staples is in the book. She's actually the only one that finished on time:) And it looks awesome (despite what she says.) Very funny. Her first written work, too. Makes the rest of us look bad. Maybe we should cut her outta the book...

A: Assuming you don't want to make any money, that would be a wise choice:) What's this I've been hearing about a secret project? Are you trying to build a buzz by pretending people care what you're working on?

N: Ouch, dude.

A: (laughing) I'm just being a prick.

N: (Laughs) You writers just can't help what you are on the inside.

A: But seriously, what is it?

N: I don't really want to give away to many details, as it is still more of an idea than anything, and I hate talking about ideas too early on. But the final draft of the script is finished and I'm getting some very positive feedback.

A: Script? So it's a comic?

N: No.

A: Movie? Play?

N: No. I'll keep you posted. I'll keep the cat in the bag for as long as I'm able. But I'm pretty excited to dig into it, so that probably won't be long.

I'm still doing illustrations for Beatroute magazine as well. I've got a few more gigs out of it with the possibility of another big paying gig from a contact who's moving up. It's nice to see that thing happen, as I'm always telling people "make contacts and connections and they'll be your doorway to more work and blah, blah, blah," and it's actually true! That actually works and is happening to me right now.

Jesus, this interview is long. You're going to edit it for space, right?

A: I've already satarted to. I cut out all that stuff you said about maybe going to art school. It was just kinda boring.

N: Oh.

A: Are you still working with Andrew Foley.

N: Oh yeah. That's too much fun to ever stop. I am chomping at the bit to finish SNMF just so I can get back to drawing Episode 2. I have slight redesigns for all the characters and my pencils have gotten a lot tighter since the first part. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Plus he sent me the first 5 pages of another script that we may pitch to Zuda. It's hilarious and riduclous. Ridicularious, I'd say.

And he's also helping me develop an idea I had a ways back to possibly pitch as an animated show. That's very exciting as well as it is an all ages concept, which I don't do very often. I like kids n' all, I just like nudity, swearing and violence more:)

A: On that note, I'd like to thank you for your time.

N: No problem. Thank you. This interview forced me to update and think a bit about what's on my plate.

A: Good. Maybe you'll get off your lazy artist ass and have more to show us.

N: Sooner rather than later.

A: God willing.

Witness the Fall...

2008-09-14T10:10:00.001-07:00

Fall is coming. I see it coming. I feel it in the air. Is it part of the reason that I can't keep my ass at the drawing table for more than an hour lately? I suppose there are a few reasons. But although my SPACE NINJA MONKEY FACE pages are coming out at an ungodly slow rate (terrifying considering ROCKET JUICE is to be released in the next three weeks) I am quite proud of the results.

HOT SUZY is a character that's been shacked up in my head for awhile. I never thought I would draw her. I was quite intimidated by the thought of drawing this lady/man because of my lack of experience with the female form, especially since she is a character that flaunts her sexuality. But one of my main pieces of critique when I went to Seattle was to work on my ladies. And work I did. Still have a long way to go, but at least les Femmes de Nick don't look like men with tits anymore:)

I saw a movie called THE FALL last week. It's directed by Tarsem, who directed that weirdo JLo movie the CELL. It comes with my highest recommendation. It's a beautiful, visually stunning movie filled with laughs and heart and tears and sea elephants. Please watch it.

So I have been working on this other secret project of mine (not so secret if you talk to me in person for more than three and half minutes) and it's got me giddy with excitement. It is probably a good reason for why my comic work is going so slowly. But it's going to give me an opportunity to work with many of the talented people I've become friends with over the past few years and it'll give me a chance to scratch a very persistent itch.

Oh, and I've been absolutely OBSESSED with British comedies lately. Especially THE I.T. CROWD. And the MIGHTY BOOSH. And BLACK BOOKS. But especially THE I.T. CROWD.

This is a long post, huh? It's the first time I've ever updated my blog on a Sunday morning. I'm really fighting all my primal urges to start spewing retrospective, life shit. But this is an art blog and shall always remain an art blog.

I just remembered I have a lady drawing from Drink n Draw this week (which was an absolute blast, by the way, thanks partly to meeting Fiona Staples' cool friend Karen, from the UK. I think she said she's from Gladsham. My roommate Chad and I hounded her about accents for far too long:) Anyways, behold the splendid glory of the more experienced female form:

Oh, never mind. My scanner is being a douchebag:(

Next time, my friend.

Good Riddance, You CyPygmie Bastards!

2008-09-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

Well, here's page 3 all penciled. Pages 2 and 3 took a while to render, thanks to the many ravaging space pygmies I had to draw. But now they're dead! And things will be easier!

Though now I have to draw a hot space lady for the next 5 pages...

Will it never end!?!

I'm coming close to a final piece for an ad agency I've been working with. I've been doing a lot of fun stuff for them (some of my fave pieces of late) but I haven't been able to show many people. But I'll be sure to post it as soon as I can.

In other news: blurgh.

SQUEEZE that Rocket Juice!

2008-08-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are the first two pages of Space Ninja Monkey Face. I'm really pleased with these so far (page 2 still needs some work) and I was surprised to see that drawing these pages was not at all like pulling teeth. I'm trying to focus on the basic shapes and composition of a page before actually committing to the details (in fact, I've been trying to do that for the last couple years) and it seems like it's starting to pay off.

And it may be tons more work, but I'm going to do all of the lettering by hand for this one, though there is the risk of the pages looking a little more sloppy. But I really like the look of hand lettering (especially after seeing work by James Stokoe and Sheldon Vella) and I really want to train on how to make it better. If anyone has any tips, I would love them. The tips, not the person. Well, both.

And now I get to sit back and watch Cognoman work his magic:) I'll post a finished page as soon as I've got one.

Tron-foolery

2008-08-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

An update at long last. I've been busy working on a few projects lately, though I'm not able to show all of it at the moment. But here's a glimpse of what I've been up to.

Last weekend, VA had a 5 Year retrospective panel at ConVersion. That's right, August marks the 5 year anniversary of Vicious Ambitious. Exciting stuff!

There weren't a lot of people there sadly, but there was jokes, chocolate cake, videos and it's not everyday I get to wear red booty shorts while shaking my goodies to Eye of the Tiger. Anyways, this TronNick pic was for the free poster giveaway at the event. We still have a bunch left so we'll probably be giving them away at the next con in October.

After that we have two pics for the upcoming Alcohol Issue of Beatroute. It was fun to get to do something new for the Beatroute crew aside from a CD review and while I only sorta like the Horny Toad pic, I'm quite pleased with the Bouncer one. Plus, there's a chick in it that actually...gasp...looks like a woman! I've been working hard at improving my rendering of the female form and it is slowly but surely paying off.

In other news, I'm working on pages of my Rocket Juice story and will scan them very soon to give you a peek at the pencils before Ink Wizard CogNoman works them over. I was trying to do this comic very quick and simple, but the first page already has more background's than ever. I'm very excited to show it off, and will post some pages soon.

This morning, I also finished the first script for a secret project I'm working on which will see the light of day sometime in the winter, I'm hoping. It's going to be tons of fun and I'll keep updating as work progresses. It's not a comic, but it is about comics.

And I think that's it for now. I'm going to finish the layouts for Holiday Men very soon and am eager to start drawing in September. Realistically, I think we'll start up again in October.

Oh, you should check out Tropical Thunder too. It's hilarious! Oh, and read some books by Stephen King's boy, Joe Hill. Heart Shaped Box was freaking great! And his short stories are wonderful.

Crack That Whip!

2008-08-05T21:53:00.001-07:00

It has indeed been a while since the last update and I just couldn't bring myself to go to bed before posting one. Thanks for gentle nudging, guys.

First and foremost, I must direct your attention to the fifth issue of superstar artist Fiona Staples' Wildstorm series HAWKSMOOR. Not only does it continue the awesome tale of Jack in San Francisco, but Fiona was nice enough to sneak in the logo for everyone's favorite indie comic studio with a name that rhymes: Vicious Ambitious! Thanks, Fiona! And congrats on wrapping up the book. (She drew the shit out of it!)(...that's a good thing.)

Next up is a peek at a pic I'm working on of Man Crush #24: Racer X from Speed Racer. I just saw the movie last night and my god wow. (insert horrible mental image of eyeballs ejaculating here) What a visual feast. And I couldn't stop grinning every time Matthew Fox was on screen. He's just so badass! So awesome! Anyways, I'm hoping to get this pic all inked up sometime soon...

Then we have Gary, the soon to be star of my Rocket Juice story, SPACE NINJA MONKEY FACE. Did I mention it'll be inked by none other than Cognoman!?! Of course I have. I'm just really excited.

And lastly, my #1 favorite superhero of all time (at the moment): Daredevil. I drew this at a party. Not my usual time and place to decide to do some drawing, but sometimes you get the itch and you just can't help but scratch it.

Exciting news: I'm working on some full color comic strips for an ad agency and it's turning out to be a lot of fun. Will post when finished. And what of Holiday Men? Still working on layouts. Sorry Foley.

Try and Stay Positive

2008-07-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been way too long since my last post. I'm surprised no one's called me on it. But here's a nice peek into the the process to make up for my silence.

This is a piece for the August issue of Beatroute and features the lead singer from Hold Steady, whose new album "Stay Positive" is being reviewed. I tried really hard to get his likeness down. I think it's there but it could be better. As you can see, I went a little crazy with the pastels on this one. I'm really trying to make these Beatroute pics very colorful and eye catching without being gaudy or aneurism-inducing. I don't have too much experience using color, so it's all part of the grand learning experience.

I've laid out the first 4 pages of the Holiday Men, Episode 2. It's going to be great and it feels good to finally get down to business. Far too much lolligagging on that front lately. On every front in general I suppose. It's been a rough fuckin' month, guys...

COGnickMAN

2008-07-02T13:51:00.001-07:00

BEHOLD! This thing of beauty is evidence of the magic that can happen when two artists put there heads together. This is Iron Man (I draw him a heck of a lot more than I use to) with pencils by myself and inks and colors by fellow VA Poster Boy, COGNOMAN. Cogs has a very unique style to his pencils and inks, and seeing it rendered on top of my work gives me quite a thrill. It must be mutual because we've both agreed to work on a story for the upcoming sci-fi VA anthology "ROCKET JUICE."

Oh, and I believe that qualifies as the first official announcement of said project. We're shooting to have it debut at the Comic Expo at the Red and White Club on October 5th.

If I can get some nice quality prints of this, I'll probably be selling them at the Olympic Plaza Art Bazaar on Sunday. Hopefully we'll see you there!

Doodles of Mice and Men

2008-06-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

I spent the entire weekend out in the sun trying to hawk VA wares and it was pretty freakin' wonderful. We were part of the U of C Park Sale on Saturday, and we were at Olympic Plaza on Sunday (as we will be for the next 8 weeks or so.) It was here that I experimented with a different style, drawing straight to ink and having crazy amounts of fun in the process. The result was the pic at the top.

I did a similar pic of the guitar playing fellow who hung out at the Plaza providing some very soothing background music, but it was purchased by a kind couple from England, I believe. They promptly walked over to the musician and showed him the pic while I waved shyly. He shook his fist and said "I'll get you for this!" I yelled back "What? Are you gonna write a song about me?!" I'm pretty sure it was all in good fun. Pretty sure...

The elf was a doodle done at work. I can hear him shrieking in a Zim-like voice "Oh my god, I fucking LOVE snow!"

The last two pics were from last Drink n Draw. I love the boxer mouse guy and kinda want to do a story about him now.

So back in Junior High I saw the play Of Mice and Men. It was so good that I became horribly sad for a week. I was such a delicate flower.

If I don't see you tomorrow, Happy Canada Day!

Bizarre Bazaar

2008-06-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Alright, so the Art Market at Olympic Plaza wasn't that bizarre, but I couldn't pass up such a great blog post title. And really, we all know that post titles are what differentiate the good blogs from the great ones...right?

Check out the VA Blog (http://vacomics.blogspot.com/) to see some photos of said event, which was pretty slow for the day, but a great opportunity to reach people who have never heard of Vicious Ambitious. We'll be at Olympc Plaza for the next 9 Sunday's, so feel free to drop in and say "who are you?"

Above are some sketches I did throughout the day, starting with an animated version of Chief Black Beans and Kochise, characters played by Steve and Gord for our grindhouse cop flick Enter the Dragnet 2. This was a blast to draw.

That devil is from a story I was going to write for Pumpkin Juice but just ending up bailing on. I still like the visual of the devil in a duster though. I could never think of a good title for the story and then Gord just said off the top of his head "God Looked Away." That's pretty awesome. Don't know if I'll ever do the story though...

I saw Hulk last week and liked it more than I thought I would. Any time my inner critic tried to speak out, he was interrupted by my inner twelve year old shouting "whoa!" or "Jesus!" I couldn't deny the cool. That helicoptor crash at the university was just too sweet.

Long post. Thanks for reading.

Congrats, Steve and Rhonda!

2008-06-16T10:55:00.001-07:00

Huge congrats to Steve and Rhonda Gervais on the arrival of their first child, Dean! That's so friggin' awesome! Best wishes to all of you.

I thought it fitting to show off a pic that I did up last year after joking with my friend Abby about inappropriate greeting cards and invitations. This one is for a baby shower:

Back Dicks and Murderous Octopi...

2008-06-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

... are just a few of the madcap topics that get kicked around at the local Drink n Draw. So here's a sampling of delights from the past eve, the first being another character design for the upcoming Holiday Men arc. It's a Nutcracker Bot and I like it. The original design was very clunky and far too simple, but I'm happier with this one. They should be a blast to draw.

I've also got a lady, which is okay (I'm still trying to get better at drawing women, especially since two major characters in HMen Ep.2 happen to be hot ladies) and a rather poorly rendered Sharkmang. He is Mexican.

Well, I'm off to research Octopus related deaths on the Google. Thanks for stopping by.

Gettin' Design-y on Yer Ass

2008-06-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been awhile since the last entry, but I HAVE been working on stuff. See?

Character design is probably my favorite part of the comics process at the moment so I'm really having fun with the designs for Episode 2 of THE HOLIDAY MEN. The main characters won't change too much, but I wanted to update them a bit, add some more detail, and well, the next part takes place at the North Pole, so these guys have to dress for the weather right? Plus, I have to draw these friggin' guys for 27 pages, so I had better dig their duds.

A lot of photo ref was used here. Though not at all on Bunny's junk. I have that shit memorized.

These look pretty sloppy, so don't judge too harshly, but they should do rather nicely for reference throughout the upcoming arc. I am by nature a pretty sloppy penciller, usually refining the drawing after retracing it a few (sometimes more) times and then inking it all nice and tight. Thank god (or more specifically Steve and Fiona) for hooking me up with a light table on my last B-Day. It is intrumental to my process and was probably the best present I've ever received.

I've actually done a few more designs, but they are of new characters and I don't want to spoil the surprise. But I will say, I cannot wait to start drawing this comic again.

That being said, me and Foley will probably be submitting a comic to Zuda. Before or after Episode 2? I'm not sure. But it'll take some prep, as I'll be modelling my style after a classic artist, which will be fun, but definitely a challenge.

Drink and Draw tomorrow! Yes!!!

Priorities!

2008-05-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

Almost didn't make it to Drink n Draw last night, but I'm glad I did. I told myself I HAD to clean the bathroom (company's coming over on the weekend and I might not have time tonight. Oh and if you feel like dropping by my pad, now is the time. The place is looking cleaner than it has in a while. But I digress...) and I had to finish a long overdue commission for my friend, Twyla.

Twyla's is the first pic and it turned out better than I thought as I don't consider myself too good at drawing from actual human people. It's a tricky business.

And why add this shitty Iron Man? I guess just to prove to myself that I did some drawing yesterday. We did lots of chatting and I had a great tme, but I didn't exactly bust my hump to finish any pieces.

This is only the third time I've drawn Iron Man. I always avoided him because I've never been too good at drawing robots and tech stuff, but a kid paid me 5 bones to draw Iron Man at the Calgary Expo and low and behold, I enjoyed it and the kid did too. It's also encouraging to see talented artists like Eric Canete and Skottie Young tackling ol' shellhead, as their style is more animated and their renditions still look great.

"You can't win with robot junk!" ??? Just ask Fiona.

No Drink? Just Draw?

2008-05-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Once again I have some Drink n Draw pics to present. Do I ever draw sober? Maybe. If it's any indication, I'm sober right now...but I'm not drawing.

What makes these pieces special is they were done on the Saturday Drink n Draw of the Calgary Expo, which was crap loads of fun and even featured a visit from such pros as Steve Rolston, Stuart Immonen, Jim Mahfood, Derrick Robertson and a half-cut Andrew Foley. Didn't get to chat much with any of them (dammit), but it was nice to chill with them for a bit before we were ejected from the pub at the unholy hour of ...12:30? What pub calls last call at 12:15!?! Rubbish.

That batman is undeniable proof that I need to work on my rendering of closed fists. "Behold my freaky left hand!" the Batman screamed. "It knows all!"

Tonight is another Drink n Draw. Not sure if I'll go or not. I'll see how much work I can get done before 7:30. But if I do, I'm sure I'll have something to post for tomorrow.

Oh and you simply MUST check out the new VA vids on YouTube. They're impossible to hate... unless you hate awesome that is. In which case I feel very sorry for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYnR7c7UrJU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0ZQ_W4nY4Q

Rough It In, Rough It Out

2008-05-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

Alright, so here are a few of the pics I liked from last Drink n Draw. All of them are pretty rough, so behold the magic of the process:

The first pic was done with a regular ballpoint pen. Surprised with the textures I got out of it. That little yellow guy looks like a twisted version of CHEESE from FOSTER'S. And yes, I believe he is scary.

Secondly are the rough pencils for a pinup I'll be doing of Gabriel Bautista Jr.'s I LOVE HAM characters. These guys are tons of fun to draw.

And finally, here's the Slacker Hero who needs no introduction, SCOTT PILGRIM. Also tons of fun to draw. I look forward to inking and coloring his rambunctious ass. I've got lots of writing to do this week, so here's hoping I can squeeze some drawing in. It'd be nice to get started on The Holiday Men Episode 2.

--Oh, and on a completely unrelated note: I saw Indy 4 on the weekend (didn't like it too much) but on the way out, my roomie Chad spotted the HIVES! The very band we had seen the night prior at one of the best shows I have ever seen. I actually got to shake Howlin' Pete's hand! I managed to maintain composure unitl after he left, at which point I hid behind a column, grinning and giggling like a maniac. It was magical... I regret nothing.

You Know What a Zoomer is, Don't Ya Sammy?

2008-05-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

My work will be gracing the interior of Beatroute magazine for the second time and I'm much happier with this one than of the Breeders pic I did for them in April. This piece will be in the upcoming June issue and focuses on the band Wolf Parade and their new release "At Mount Zoomer." The concept was all Jesse's (the writer guy) and even though this is a few days old, I still like it. I was quite pleased with how the coloring came out.

-----I'm going to check out the new Indiana Jones flick this weekend. Should be fun.

-----Plan on posting some drink n draw pics this weekend or maybe Monday.

-----Saw the Hives in concert last night. They blew my mind. It was fucking delicious.

-----I can't get paragraphs to work on this stupid blog!

And So the Drifter Roamed the Seattle Streets...Passportless.

2008-05-15T09:48:00.001-07:00

Got back from Seattle's Emerald City Comicon this past Monday. It was great time aside from losing my passport in the US and almost flying off the frozen Alberta roads on Thursday night. I'll definitely be heading back next year with an eye to exhibit. Thanks to Peterson and Barkman for being great company.

Notables? Andre of "Groove Junction" fame. Cool guy. Great comic. Can't wait for the next issue. Gabriel Bautista Jr. , seated to Andre's left. Very talented. Look for his work in the second Popun anthology.

Bryan Lee O'Malley signed a copy of Scott Pilgrim 4 for me. I read it through in one night. Damn good fun. can't wait for the flick. On a panel, he mentioned that he knew about a million people who all claimed to be the real Scott Pilgrim and his ambition is to have them all fight to the death in the middle of Toronto for the official title. I'll pay to see that. Hell, I'll fight to compete.

Anyway, what precedes my rambling is another skecth dump from another Drink n Draw. Twas good fun. Really digging Random Guy. Especially his smashing boxer-briefs. Also my preferred choice of undergarment.

Marvel Cards? Really?

2008-04-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, so I finally got off my lazy behind and started my Marvel Sketch Cards. 9 down. 41 to go. Due date is tomorrow. I figure if the bus driver can punch it to 88mph with a flux capacitor in tow, I can somehow manage this deadline. I'm hatin' that Scarlet Witch...

In other news, the Calgary Expo has come and gone once again. Best con yet. I got to speak with one of my fave artists of all time, Jim Mahfood. Really cool guy. Very talented. Also got to see Steve Rolston again, and he is also a very cool and talented guy. We swapped books. Holiday Men for Little Ghost.

Can't wait for Seattle!

It's a Royal!

2008-04-24T11:15:00.001-07:00

I do believe last night was my most productive Drink n Draw yet! And so here for your viewing pleasure is my biggest sketch dump yet. I'd love to blither blather on about each pic, but I'll just say this: fave pics are Scud and Ambush guy... and I still can't draw the ladies.

Exciting news! Tonight is Vicious Ambitious' first comic release party! It'll be held at the world's finest hot dog establishment Tubby Dog, and will also feature the debut of our new "flick" ENTER THE DRAGNET 2: DIRTY BADGES. Visit the VA web page for details!

Also, the Calgary Expo is this weekend and it guarantees to be the biggest, most funnest event that ever was. Here's hoping me and Foley sell enough copies of the Holiday Men to cover printing costs. Although honestly, I don't care. I'm not in this business for the money...

I'm in it for the chicks.

How Do You Spell Relief?

2008-04-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

"D-R-I-N-K -N'-D-R-A-W"

It was my first drink n draw in a looong time and it felt good to see everyone again and do up a few random pieces that didn't involve the Holiday Men for once (though I did skecth a pic of Nick anyway...)

This fella happens to be a rendition of my fave animal...the mighty Red Panda! I didn't have photo ref though, so he's not quite right. But I like's him. You can thank Abby for that bit of crotch fat peeking out there. And who is 'Platon', you ask? A photographer that said friend Abby really digs. Mental note: Look up Platon.

I'll finish off today's post with two smaller pics. The first is The Immaculate, a kick ass mother f*%$er who will be featured in a story that is percolating in my brain pan. Drawn with the brush pen, inspired by Crispin Glover.

The rabbit will be for a friend's birthday card and was more fun to draw than I expected.

Lots of news coming up about signing in Edmonton, a release party in Calgary and of course the 2 day con in Calgary! Spring is always so busy. I love it!

Stick a Fork In Me...

2008-04-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

...I'm done!!! More to the point, WE are done. Andrew, Tiina and I have posted the last installment of Episode 1 of the Holiday Men. Head to chemsetcomics.com to check it out!

And what have we here? Is this the full color preview for the upcoming release of the print version of Holiday Men? Why yes it is! Drawn by myself and colored by my roommate Chad "I've Got a Beard and You Don't" Veinot. The book is the main reason I haven't been posting regularely, but I'm happy to say it's at the printers and I've lit several candles in hopes that they arrive before the Edmonton con on the 20th.

Anyways, I've got shit loads to talk about, but I have no time at the moment. But soon, I promise.

Thanks for everyone's support on the Holiday Men. I appreciate all of the feedback and comments so much.

Define "Epic"

2008-03-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

The action over at the THE HOLIDAY MEN is getting more intense and ridiculous with each passing week and this panel's a nice little preview of the madness to ensue. It took awhile to get this one down as reference was needed for HumVees, Tanks and even a US Coast Guard boat. Plus let's not forget that I kinda suck at backgrounds and perspective! But, I'm fairly happy with the result thus far.

If you haven't yet checked out the latest installments of the Holiday Men, get your fix at chemsetcomics.com or check out all of the catch up pages, in order, right here:http://www.chemsetcomics.com/the-holiday-men/

And for you old schoolers (like myself) who simply MUST have an actual physical comic, printed on paper and stapled together, to digest and truly enjoy a story, the wait is nearly over! Issue one of the Holiday Men is being released this April and features a new color cover, a preview pic for episode 2 and some kick ass contributions from the uber-talented Trevor Sieben and everyone's favorite nihilistic moralist, Chris Peterson!

I'll post a preview of the cover at a later (hopefully sooner) date.

You Learn Something New Every Day...

2008-03-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

So when you post CMYK files online it screws up the colors. Now I know:) Here's the pic in glorious RGB.