"The Back's on The Front." Moby Dickery

Moby Dick!

This week, for Jon Foster's cover-to-cover class, we got to bring a sketch of Moby Dick to finish. I brought a bunch of thumbnails in last week for him to peruse...many types and kinds, and found myself once again in the predicament of choosing whether or not to go with what the teacher recommended. I kind of always am tempted to go with the action shot...something epic and sweeping. It's what I like, and I assume it's what people like to see as well. However, he liked the ever so slightly more conceptual approach of the back-sketch.
(for those not in the know, one of the main characters in Moby Dick is Queequeg...a cannibal harpooner with tattoos all over his body) So I decided he was right, in the end, and I did the back piece. I was less interested in painting a dude's back than I was in painting the whale-in-the-air-jaws-wide-flailing-Ahab picture, and the beginning of the piece was rough. Overall, though, I'm actually really jazzed with how it came out!
I'm particularly suprised because I started out so unenthused about this idea...and the lineart was really lame, but once the painting went down I was really into it. So here are the fruits of my labor. We'll see how it goes over in crit tomorrow!
And while you can't see it all right now, you'll have to trust me that this is the least of my work at present. The MIT gig is going well...although the work is strictly under-wraps...the art-team brought the pain this week and our bosses actually had to ask us to do less work (which is an odd thing to be asked, really...especially coming from RISD). But I am happy to oblige and really excited about SPRING BREAK. Which is, like, now. (well, it starts Friday)
I am going to see a friend in Virginia and intend to chillax to the absolute max.

Also: I have been unable to drive this song and it's video from my brain recently. If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to take a look. It's hilarious...I'm on a Boat.

Oh, and here's my doofy lineart for this piece. I'm posting this partiularly because I think the contrast between the lineart and the finish is kind of hilarious. :p

Propaganda Turkey and The Last Charge of the Carboard Brigade

He liked it!

So, I bit the bullet and went for it...I did PROPAGANDA TURKEY. :p
Just got out of Jon's class today and the critique went very well. There were some really neat pieces on the wall today, and we had a pleasant day of critiquing among friends.

Among today's pieces was Lia Marcoux's cover here, and Fabiola Garza's here, go check em out!

Also, my friend Jen Hom just finished a piece she's been laboring over for WEEKS and it's finally up online. Throw some love this way.

Other news: I'm CRAZY busy with work. The MIT Internship is going very well (though I'm really swamped with work...we're going to have fun with this one, I'm sure! It'll be a long weekend of game art and comics.

I've gotten my two-pager for Dark Horse approved...so I'll be developing that (expect to eventually see it online with Dark Horse in the coming months). I'm really excited about that one!

Tonight, I am going to see my little sister in a production she's performing in at Wheaton College...I'm excited!
Otherwise I am keeping sane as much as possible despite being frequently assailed by madness at every turn.
I am insistent that this semester will not break me...but it will be a squeeze, for sure!
If I graduate peacefully it will be but for the grace of God. :) (But he's good at that sort of thing)

Other news: This week was my third and final THUNDERDOME here at RISD (an event I helped conceive of a few years ago where students with angst and delusions of grandeur craft cardboard and duct-tape armor and then meet on Nickerson Green to beat the crap out of eachother with foam pool noodles.) It was AWESOME. It has solidified the notion in my mind: I will miss RISD very dearly when I leave this place...
For anyone reading who was there, thanks for making it a blast!

Next week for Cover-to-cover: Moby Dick!

:D :D :D

God bless and thanks for reading!
-Nick