Happy Caged-Glo-Frog Day!

Hey all!
I know I've been rather unproductive lately, but now I'm back at school, and the irresistible impetus of deadlines has me working dutifully again! This is the first real piece of the new year (happy 2009, everybody!). It was an assignment from one of my Wintersession classes (Monster: we talk about...well...monsters and stuff. It's neat!). We were asked to do a piece based on the concept of beauty vs. repulsion. Predictably, I went off on a thoroughly Illustrative, "man, I'd like to something blue and glowy" tangent and the result is what you see above! I was actually thinking about (we had just watched Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast" in class) the moment that occurs in many fairytales where the just or generous spirit disguises itself as something repulsive in order to test the protagonist and offer them a decision. I think it's neat that it seems to be a concept we understand in a broader storytelling sense; it pops up a lot. I think it's an important idea...that things may not appear as they seem: "entertaining angels unawares" (Hebrews 13:2) and all that.

So I was thinking about the moment in Beauty and the Beast (the Disney version, anyways) when the Old Hag offers the prince a rose. The result is this. "How do you arrive at glowing froggies?" you may ask. I could make up some great, swaggering "ART" statement about my motivations and genius...but really it, like much else, is the result of a frustrated evening of banging one's head against the table until th stupid idea you have suddenly seems like a good one :p My friend, Jen Hom, and I were talking about getting this piece done (how I wasn't) and the ideas I was interested in...how roses and flowers were off limits.
J: "I...er, like lanterns!"
N: "What about...glowing frogs in birdcages?"
J: -censored for those with delicate sensibilities-
Proof positive, that being an artist with deadlines means that even your latest, silliest, most spur of the moment spontanaety can be exchanged for hours of screen-gazing and wrist ache! ;)

(bee-tee-dubs, Jen Hom is now online with the rest of the RISD crew at DeviantArt :p) Check her out here!

Here's the lineart for the piece...I actually collaged it together because I ran out of page in my sketchbook!

Also, for those with time and interest (who haven't seen it already): this guy's lecture is AMAZING!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

Here at RISD, I'm working on my last half-a-year before graduating...which means I'll be a busy guy! I'm currently looking into a few job and internship possibilities that could be really exciting! As well as continuing on my little comics mystery project, trying to pull together an anothology of RISD student work, and attempting to survive.
Hope you enjoy this new piece...expect more soon!

Cheers!

-Nick

Yule Tidings.

:D

Just a quick note, and again no images this time.
I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas (to those who celebrate, and to those that don't) I hope and pray that the Lord will show you much of his love during this season and I hope you find time to rest and be merry. Sing songs! Drink Eggnog! etc!

Also:
The Muppet Christmas Carol: Best Christmas Movie of All Time?
discuss.

Cheers and thanks for reading!

-Nick

In which a great deal is said, and little is seen.

Just for fun, and because I can: A post!
I am home for the Holidays, and I am lagging like online Stratego circa 2001! So, it's something like 3am in the morning here, but of course I haven't bothered to set my clock back yet so I know full well that it is 9:18pm in America. I have found one of the two spots in the house where the wireless signal is functioning, and have settled in the narrow space between the couch and the TV to write a little note to the wide open web for any who care to read. Weirdly enough, I don't have any art to post or anything professionally significant to announce...I just figured, since I have a blog, I may as well post since I seem to be too tightly wedged here next to the TV to do anything else.
Actually, I've written an essay or two this semester that I thought might be worth sharing with y'all (henceforth, any reference to "you" "you guys" or "y'all" will assume I am talking to those who are actually interested in reading so far down this graphically unadorned posting. If you're one of those still reading: shame on you! don't encourage me.) This semester I took a class with an amazing professor named Dan Cavicci. The class, "Audience", was a study of the concept and idea of audiences throughout history. Sounds strange at first, but it's really rich and fascinating stuff when you get down to it. It's brought to mind a conversation I've been having a lot recently and I began to skew my essays and general focus in the way of the Internet. I actually just went out to eat with the parents of a friend at school and we had a very long and animated talk over dinner about parenting and the responsibilities of the media-maker in the post-Internet world. Fascinating stuff, almost knocked over the water.

The latest essay was meant to run in a more autobiographical bent, and so I've decided to take advantage of one of those things that the Internet is so famous for providing: putting my crap out there to see if there are likeminded people out there crossing my digital path. Hopefully someone out there might even be amused:

READ MY CRAP!

I edited it down and added a few things for this version, but it's most of the original essay.
There's TONS more to say, and I know I talk a lot, but given the subject matter I couldn't resist attempting to post it and see what people thought.

That's that, then. I've been spending my newfound free time surfing youtube with friends who are likewise adjusting poorly to having no immediate work to do. While doing so, I was trying to explain Europe, the Eurovision Song Contest, and why "Lordi" was such a revelation...so I subjected several friends to the following two videos:
(beware: LAME!)

part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xb9LXuROGI

part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbk4pxXj_P0

Also: I know my website is not properly working on Internet Explorer. I'll be getting to work fixing that in the next few weeks (allow Christmas lag :p)
I'll be working on a number of projects soon enough...I can't stay away from making artwork for very long, after all. I won't make many more of these imageless posts, so don't give up on me just yet!

I hope you are all well and continue to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Much love,

-Nick

www.nicholaskole.com!

Hey everyone!

That's it, as of today: finals are over! I am done and officially one semester closer to graduating from RISD in the Spring! Weird.

Also: as of right now, http://www.nicholaskole.com is live!
My last final was Web Design and the result of it is out and about on the world wide web for all to see...that's right, I now have my own official website! I'm really excited...I dunno why it seems like a big deal, but the "dot com" helps to make it feel all neat and official (so does the favicon, which is so silly as to be preposterous, but it doesn't stop me geeking out about it).
Please go and check it out and drop me a comment. Definitely update your links and bookmarks if you have em and spread the word! :D If people are interested in having a banner to link me with, then let me know and I'll make a few.

It's very new and there are doubtless some bugs to work out, so let me know how it works for you. I'm pretty pleased with the design myself, but I'd really like to hear what everyone thinks!
A large portion of the credit is due to Peter Lefferts (programmer and co-designer of Selah, incidentally) for walking me through the trickiest bits and telling me when I was being stupid. By the end now I really actually feel like I kind of understand how to do it, which is neat...especially when I decide I want to redesign it/design a new page (webcomic, anyone?)

In other news: I'm going Home on Sunday. Which is an unspeakably relieving idea at the moment...I'm really looking forward to what my be my last Christmas in Austria. And I love Christmas so much that generally I'm just looking forward to the break. I fully intend to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol until the tape breaks and I have to buy a new copy.

I'll be working a bit over the break as well...I'm actually going to be doing a 6-ish page story for an upcoming comics Anthology called Seasons. More on that, I cannot say, but it ought to be pretty exciting. It's looking to be my first published comics work, so I'm going to be kicking my butt to get it looking nice :D

Otherwise, thanks for reading and if I don't post before the bless-ed day: Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good...site.

awwwwww....pun-cramp.

-Nick

A Good Day.

-text-

-no text-

Hey Guys!
Here it is: the last assignment for Shanth Enjeti's 'Character Creation' class. The prompt was simple: take two characters that you've designed and rework them. Then, illustrate a scene with both characters. This is the result of all those color studies and a long battle with the idea over the week. I just couldn't bring myself to pull out the purple, being that Kojo was so engrained in my head as this misty green/blue palette. The whole idea is kind of based out of dream-imagery for me and so I've been very attached to the concept from the get-go...and it can be hard to subject those kinds of things to a classroom critique situation.

One of the things to tackle was that this illustration, just by the nature of having this big nasty monster in it, had to have that ominous feeling...had to scream "RUN!", so it couldn't get too "pretty". And overall I was realy just pursuing the vision I had for the project in the beginning.
Anyways...this felt SO GOOD to do, I can't even tell you! It's been such a long semester of single-shot character designs against plain-backgrounds that getting to sink my teeth into something with a composition and story was just so nice. Like coming home :)

I'm quite pleased with the outcome, and it went over really well in class! It's such a bittersweet thing, finishing up this class. I feel like I've learned a LOT about character design and how to approach my work in general and I love the people and the dynamic so much that I really don't want to leave, but on the other hand I can hardly wait to get home for the holidays.

In fact, I am very excited to come home to Vienna for Christmas this year! It's going to be great to go home, and I have some exciting work to be playing with over the break that will show itself around here soon enough, I'm sure! I've got a few ideas that I'm sorting through and hopefully I'll get a chance to do come comic-book work soon. I've got some killer classes coming up next semester...two with Jon Foster (I'm bracing myself for a significant workload). I'm also starting to work through the first stages of a project I'm sure I'll be talking about more here later...myself and a friend will be endeavoring to create an anthology of RISD comic work by the end of Spring semester and independently publish...could be really cool!

I just got back in from Caroling with my friends, which was an entirely pleasant experience. Any opportunity to sing in public, really. And I REALLY love Christmas :)

Also: Very soon my personal artist's website will be due, which means that very soon my site will be online. I can't show anything just yet...I'd like it to be a surprise, but I think it's looking pretty neat...I'll be interested to think what people think of it when they see it!
It is extremely late here in Providence and I think I'll head to bed. Thanks for reading and enjoy!
-Nick

A Portent of Things to Come!

UPDATE:
My teacher liked my least favorite and most last minute color study (purple) the best :p That happens a lot...once again, the tighter you hold something...
So I've done a few variations on that layout with some modifications from crit and some color schemes I'd be much more pleased to work out for the final piece. It's fun, doing these! Anyways, I'm posting these to show process and also because I need a link to refer my prof to so he can check up on my progress (I'm partial to the middle one, but that's because that's the palette I'm envisioning Kojo in, and it's a little hard for me to stray too far from that here)

Well, finals are upon us all over here! Things are starting to move towards completion and I'm prepping to say a tearful goodbye to Character Creation class :( For our final assignment we were charged with redesigning/tweaking two of our preexisting characters and doing a variety of color studies for a final piece in which the two (protagonist and antagonist) confront each other. SO: I'm doing a Kojo piece, since I seem to have stumbled across a new little world to develop.
It's been hard because the idea for Kojo kind of came in a bit of a dream (not to get too weird or pretentious) but It's hard to let go of that imagery and color palette even for the good of the piece. Anyways, the top study is my favorite to that end, but here were a few studies I put together for today. I also did some redesign sketches for Kojo and his foe (the big white element in all the sketches stands graphically for what will be the montser) but I'm still working on redesigning the two of them, so I won't post those just yet. It's been a rough week, but I think I'm coming out of the woods! It's been a lovely weekend thusfar, and I can hardly wait for Thanksgiving break! I am in need of a change of scenery and some serious stuffing!

Oh, and before I forget, part of this crazy week was having a portfolio review with Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of Dexter's Lab, Samurai Jack, Clone Wars etc.) which was WAY neat. Although I did leave the meeting feeling very vaguely that he disliked my work, aparently that was not the case. Still, he did mention a lack of readability in terms of value-range in my work and so I spent a good while of this week's process hitting the drawing board with a lot of simple value studies. I actually left the interview and immediately went to my room to work on little value studies. So that y'all can see how I think through this sort of stuff, here's those:

Also: I just snuck away with some friends to see Disney's 'Bolt'. Which (having no expectations to begin with) was pleasantly surprising. Really nice color and background painting, and excellent character design. Bolt himself was freakin' CUTE as crap. And the gestalt of the little group running around, chubby hamster in ball, emaciated cat, and huge-headed pup, was rally nice. Some really touching and sincere character animation as well. I do not regret seeing it, and would reccomend you not write it off completely if you're considering seeing it.

Well, I'm going to get some much-needed sleep...but be on the lookout: In the next two weeks I'll be finalizing a redesign on Kojo and the monster, putting together a full-sized finished piece based off of one of these studies, and finally putting together and launching my website! Fun!

Much Love and Enjoy!

-Nick

Kojo, Monster-puncher and the Nipplebeast

Hi all!
I'm really flattered that there are actually watchers to this blog once I posted that gadget...I never knew if anyone actually read this or not, but now I feel somewhat heartened: at least 21 people plus my parents read this blog on a regular basis! :)
So, full of vim and vigor, I hasten to post!

This week's assignment was a neat one. Another good/evil pair, this time a protagonist and antagonist based out of our life experience. It's all very similar to the other assignments, but the point is essentially the critiques and improvement over the class. Each assignment could be the same each week and the variety of the work on the wall would be pretty immense, and this class would still rock.

Anyways, I started out pretty strong this week, got my sketchbook out and started doodling right out of the gate. But the middle stretch killed me. I just kept running into this wall. I wanted to deal with the idea of brotherhood in a very positive light, but all my very hairy muscle-y multiple-faced barbarian men with their beards braided together looked a little negative. I was way stuck on this Celtic thing and I couldn't get away from the bare-chested warrior motif. Not that there's anything wrong with that (I'm going to have to do one soon, just to remind myself that I CAN) but it just wasn't working for me. I also have this concurrent running design of this translucent jelly-suit with things suspended in it...but that wasn't really doing it for me either. I'll have to come back to those, but in the meantime I was just frustrated and the week was wearing on and I still didn't have a design. So I stayed up late sketching Wednesday night and ultimately decided that the best thing I could do was just sleep. I got into bed, on a whim put on the Yoshida Brothers (I had never played their stuff much before) and had some very grassy, windswept dreams ideas before I drifted off to sleep. I woke up Thursday morning, still humming the Yoshida Brothers, and went down to the library picture collection to look up Chinese costume and came back to the studio with Kojo and the Nipplebeast.

Just to lift the veil on the concepting process a little bit, with Kojo (I know he and his little brother are pretty soft and androgynous...I may tool with the design to clarify it, but they're meant to be male characters) I wanted to communicate the idea of brotherhood and protection. I used the arm shapes of my jellysuit to make the stone slabs over his arms, and reworked the idea of the inter-braided hair...the ideas of weaving and braiding were pretty important to me. I was really touched by this picture I found in the costuming file of this little Chinese boy with his hair in a long braid and his little baby brother slung over his back.
I sort of brought the Celtic vibe back in, but I found that the best way to get to the good stuff is to let go of whatever it is you're clutching tightly at the time. The principle has applied so much with God, why shouldn't it with art? (or vice versa)

Ultimately I'm pretty psyched about the design and the vague notions of the world I'm forming. The name is very silly, but I haven't started disliking it yet...and I think it's kind of silly-fun :)
In terms of the 'Nipplebeast' (a working title ;)) I think the design speaks pretty clearly...it's pretty repulsive. I apologize to those with frail constitutions...but my thought is, if you're going to design a monster and talk about evil: it should look way evil. Likewise, the cute should be very cute. So: it's a nasty, blind, sunless, wretched thing with the mouth of a frill shark and caterpillar breasts all up the front. Sorry, Mom. :)

The next week's assignment will be the character final. I'm looking forward to it! We get to work up a protagonist/antagonist pair (I think I may do another pass on these two) and do a variety of color sketches for a scene with the both of them in. Ultimately, we'll be designing the scene. Fun! I really like color sketches and we saw a book of really gorgeous ones today.

I'll see y'all then, but for now: Enjoy!

-Nick

P.S. my personal soundtrack for these two, and the most played track of the last two days: Frontier - Yoshida Brothers
so. good.