I MAEK PEEKSHUR

YAY!

Hello all!

S'been a little while and I am just about ready to see that Christmas post move down a slot.

I haven't had a thing to post in a long time (since all my recent work won't be seeing the light of day for...well...a while). But I did pick up a little freelance project along the way. And I gotta say: I'm swearing it off for the forseeable future. I don't think I am handling freelance very well alongside full-time employ. :( Still, I did have fun with this...between the tears. Oh, the tears.

The writing is all Rich Fogel (two-time-emmy-award-winner, and father of my good friend Andrew) and the pictures are mine. (I still need to update this with the credits in place).
It was my first time ever working with a script from someone else...it's nice because it takes the edge off my perfectionism; I don't have to worry about writing it, and I'm in good hands.
And it's also one of my very rare excursions into the realm of speculative scientific fiction, which I hear is all the rage these days with the youngsters.

It stars my friend's favorite band, The Phenomenauts, in their comic-book debut. They've been trying to break out into fiction for a while and, seeing as they're a sci-fi-rockabilly band, the match seems to be a logical one. If you haven't heard of them, you should definitely check them out here.
A couple of other friends are contributing comics (all written by Rich Fogel) to the project, and it'll be pirched around a bit by the man himself. It would be neat if something actually worked out!

In other news, I've been really enjoying my job like crazy, and now I have a bunch more RISD kids employed all around me. We're all having a good time. It's a little like camp :)

Other than that, not much news...especially news I can talk about. Life is good, God is great.

Much love to you all and, hey, "Science and Honor!"

-Nick

BE HAPPY ITS CHRISTMAS OR ELSE

Hi!

I thought it would be a good idea, in light of the season, to wish the mostly-anonymous internet a very Merry Christmas!
I'm holed up at my parents' new place in MA, trying to fend off the barrage of cookies my Mother and Sister insist upon leaving lying around the house :p

It's the first time I've spent the actual Holiday in the USA for...well, over 8 years at least. And it's the first time I've lacked a proper "Christmas Break" beforehand (got off WORK yesterday). I definitely feel a little twinge at the thought of missing an Austrian Christmas, but I'll get to experience for the first time in memory what it's like when spent with the extended family here!

I do regret being pretty absent from the Internet recently. I've been trying to keep myself busy outside of work with side-projects, but that has proven to be a *little* overwhelming, so I'm trying to keep things sailing smoothly. I wish I had more art content for you guys , but in my defense: it's been a MAD few weeks here...I just got a car(my first ever), my friends brought it up (from Virginia...they got lost twice and were woken up by the police) with an uncooked turkey thawing in the trunk (which fit snugly in the oven-I've-never-turned-on and set off every fire alarm in the apartment and beyond), we got a (bed)couch (because we helped my parents move into their new house), drove it an hour (strapped to the roof of my friend's truck because it didn't fit inside it), it didn't fit into any door of my apartment (it waited in the rain in my backyard under a tarp for 24 hours to get returned), my mother hit a deer, I've experienced Holiday traffic in large American suburban malls firsthand for the first time (>40 mins for a parking spot), been snowed in for an unexpected long weekend in a blizzard, and my aforementioned new car failed to pass the state inspection. Also I am driving to Michigan in two days. Hooray!

Honestly: most of that's all been kind of a blast. But only because it's been such an absurd comedy of errors that my friends and I keep looking at each other and saying: "I can't believe this is happening!" "I know!"

There will be new art soon! (I did a really neat, more-elaborate-than-anything I've-done-before collaborative Christmas piece for work...BUT YOU CAN'T SEE IT! :( :( :( ) I look forward to when this game launches! :D

In the meantime, you can now order the Trade Paperback from Dark Horse that contains Piper's Pet! BUY IT FOR THE KIDS.

Tell me if you do! :D
In the meantime: DRINK YOUR EGGNOG. DRINK IT.

May God bless you through the Winter's cold!

Much love,

-Nick

Published! (In The Future!)

Hi everyone! I'm alive!
As promised, due to having a job I have recently been kind of absent on the Internets. I doubt that's such a big deal to most people, but if you actually missed me, then: thank you :D
I missed you too.
I have, of course, been resisting the temptation to blog without art content to accompany my silly ramblings. But no longer! Today there is content!

To those interested: the job has been amazing, and I'm really enjoying myself. I basically get to draw monsters all day and design armor and swords and stuff, so there's precious little to complain about.
The verdict: life in the "real" world = not so bad.
The pace of non-school life has been very agreeable, though I am generally either busy or asleep at the moment (still getting used to the waking up "in the morning" thing). But despite a new and confusing schedule, I decided to take on some freelance work on the side.

SO: I got contacted by some people at Disney Publishing to do a cover for them! YEAH!
(I got a letter in the mail this week with The Mouse on it. I peed a little.)
It was a very quick job due to deadlines, but this is what I did: It's a cover for an upcoming children's book (They're bringing back the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure format!) based on the soon-to-be-released Prince of Persia movie (the one with Jake Gyllenhaal). it's called Guardian's Path. They liked my Moby Dick piece and wanted me to do a riff on that with Henna and her hand and the dagger. So this is what came of that! I hope you enjoy. They were very generous in giving me permission to post this in advance of it's publication (like actually this time, instead of before when I posted it and didn't really have full approval).

(Also: it's being published on April 13th. But is Available for pre-order HERE :D)

I'm mostly just excited because this will really be my first officially published work!

Other news? I'm confirmed to be going to San Diego Comic Con this year for the first time ever! Let me know if you're going to be there. More news on that as the date approaches.

I have a few more freelance projects I'm working on, so those should pop up over the next few weeks...slow, though. I'm sorry.

And also, that's the first time I've ever chibi-ized myself for a blog post. Guilty pleasure? Perhaps.

Beyond all that, keep warm and thanks for reading!

Cheers!

-Nick

Fan Art All Over Again

I haven't done a piece of fanart in...like...forever!
This was a blast. I'd been sketching Luca off and on for a little while, and it was only a matter of time. I've been getting a little itchy to make some art on my own, so I figured I'd ease in and do something light...like a character portrait! :D

For those not in the know. This is Luca, a fan-favorite character and antagonist of Der-Shing Helmer's webcomic The Meek
It's a great read, and an awesome testament to what one artist, with a lot of determination can do on their own nowadays. In my estimation, it's about the best webcomic around for quality of art and writing. Loads of fun, I highly recommend it. She's just started Chapter two, which is going to be SUPER AWESOME, so yeah...just read it, please!

Otherwise, for me this is the calm before the storm. I start work on Monday (at 38Studios as a Junior Character Artist)! I'm SO excited, but could certainly use your prayers and well-wishes! I'm finally going to have a real job!

-Nick

MIT Summer 2009 (SHADOW SHOPPE)

YAY!
Guess what went live today? Yes, you're right! The MIT GAMBIT Games! Good guess.
Which means that finally I get to post some of the art I've been working on recently. :D
I DID THIS:

That's the main poster (there are two other color variations) for the project I was assigned to: Shadow Shoppe. I was privileged to work with some of my best friends and some very talented and gracious students from Singapore. We were holed up in a beautifully appointed lab at MIT for the sole purpose of developing video games in response to a variety of research questions. The game was developed entirely from the ground up with the basic question:
"How do people associate certain types of traits with basic forms and shapes of character design?" Trickier than it might seem, actually.

Thom Chang and I worked on Shadowshoppe. I'm responsible for half of the concept work, and all of the backgrounds. He accounts for the other half of the concepting and all of the animation in-game. Oh, and I also did all of the voice-acting for the game! I love voice-acting! Head on over to the following link to play the game and let me know what you guys think!

Play Shadow Shoppe
(Click "Go To Website" and please don't be put off by the age/gender/location form...it's for the research aspect of the project)

Here are some screenshots from the game, for added visual interest!

My fabulous friends and colleagues are also responsible for much of the artwork on some of the other projects, all of which can be found here.
For those of you familiar with the rotating cast of characters in my life. My friend Fabiola Garza worked on Camaquen, and roommate Brandon Cebenka worked on Waker. Definitely check out their games and all of the new work up on the website!

I will leave you for now with a poster all of us GAMBIT kids (art team) put together at the end of the program. We each took a crack at drawing eachother's characters, since over the course of the summer we all generated a lot of fan-art :) I did the Dearth characters and had a large hand in collaging this all together. Stay tuned for more concept art and doodles if I get permission! :D

GAMBIT kids, if you're reading this: I miss you. I'll see you in Singapore some day! Here's to a fantastic summer!
Much love,

-Nick

So...Now What?

Hey All!

Sorry for the long silence. I've been moving in to my NEW PLACE OF RESIDENCE!!!





(just kidding, I live across the street from this place.)

I am now *officially* moved in. Well, I'm still in-process to be honest, but I've been using my new place as the base of all my operations, so it counts. I'm no longer half-in-half-out of Boston!

This new step in life is both exciting and BORING AS CRAP.
I am thrilled to have a new place. I am excited to be moving forward with post-school existence. But I am now in a waiting room full of ramen and gas bills. D:
Basically, I'm just whining because my actual job starts in 8 days and in the meantime I have nothing to do.

Alright fine, I've actually been keeping quite busy, and have found myself in the company of the most wonderful sort of people. But leave me at home alone for any length of time and I start going nuts.
It's good to me made to relax and spend some quiet time alone, though. I just come to it reluctantly. Kind of like broccoli.
My significant art supplies are all stored elsewhere right now, as well. So I don't have anything to show for my boredom except some idle doodles. All of my actual recent "artwork" is top secret until the game I was working on gets released (soon! here!)
I just figured I should post a newsy post about all of the nothing I'm doing. :D

In the meantime, I have found a number of very diverting things to occupy some of my downtime with:
I bought one of these! (excusing my frivolity with the fact that I am now a video-game professional and don't really play so many video games...so I had to buy a console! right? right???)





Of course I got the cheapest and girliest console out on the market. But I couldn't resist Professor Layton and the upcoming Studio Ghibli game. And I am cheap. And girly.
And I am now, once again, a world-class Pokemon Trainer. First time back since the late 90s :D
Once I get my internet set up here, I'll be taking all comers. So if you've got a DS and a party-full of Pokemon, then feel free to taste the wrath of my Torterra! Friend-codes, anyone?

Also: I went to go both District 9 and Ponyo. Can you guess which one I preferred?
PONYO WAS WONDERFUL! (On District 9 I know I'm in the minority but it made me sick to my stomach in a kind-of-don't-want-to-see-this-ever-again kind of way, *winces*) I've been seriously considering my fanart options, and this one *might* win out. Some of the scenes were just really sublime. The night-scene after the power-outage, the fish storm, the father-son signal scene and so on. But for me, the cake was taken as soon as the town flooded. I mean: Kids. In a plastic boat. On adventures. Over a sunken town.
Awesome.

I've also just started (and then finished, in the matter of 3 days) reading Scott Pilgrim.
Whoah.
I am really glad I gave that a chance. The american(I know, I know...Canadian)-manga-for-12-year-old-girls look didn't really grab me off the shelf initially, but I'm really hooked. I didn't even know there was gonna be a movie until yesterday! Hooray!
If you don't know what I'm talking about, I highly recommend that you slip off to the nearest bookstore and give "Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life" a chance. No matter how much it may look like it's gunning for the sailormoon market. I'm in love.

And lastly, my friends and I have been guffawing at this particular series of Youtube videos.
If you have never seen them , definitely check out some Viral Video Film School. Some are funnier than others. This one's my favorite: Youtube's Worst Demo Reels.

Hope you guys don't mind this very chatty post. :/
Overall: boredom or no, the Lord has been good to me, and I have been really blessed to be here. Job soon, art soon too!
Thanks for reading, even when there isn't much art I can show!

Cheers,

-Nick

Weighing In

I loved it.

I loved it.

I am referring to Half Blood Prince. I enjoyed the crap out of it, and I had to throw my blogging hat in the ring, since I have one of these and I've had to withstand much Potterhating since last night from some disappointed coworkers.

Had a great night celebrating a Jackie's birthday, and went to the theater. I was so excited: and here's the real thing...I wasn't disappointed! It was one of the very few movies this summer that didn't totally bum me out!

More than that: I liked it best of all the Potter films so far. The performances just sky-rocketed in quality, as far as I'm concerned. No more than one spit-riddled "POTTER!" from Malfoy, even! And it didn't suck!

Other people are better critics and reviewers than I, so I will resist the temptation to break it down spoiler-style. I just had to air my opinion. See it? Love it? Please?

Also: YAY! AUTO-TUNE THE NEWS 6 IS THE BEST YET!

Much love,

-Nick