Masked Avengers

I did two new pieces for my boy Jerry, for a benefit show, the theme is Heroes. The first is a bit more personalized, but the second we started back from scratch and set out to make a more "All-Encompassing" approach not specific to a particular case.

 

As a more personalized theme, this lil' guy likes wrestling. Can you guess the wrestlers?

Here's the second, quite a funny take on a pop-icon-local-icon mashup.

 

This piece came together so well, and in such short notice for the show. Check out the Houston skyline (once again!) and right in the foreground those little, sterile, cereal box cottages that are popping up all over town. And of course, they're backed by those dorm looking apartments (also popping up) and a crane to build them all. The background sky is an actual water-colored panel. I really dig the effect. The billboard is a separate layer to be used to declare who's top-billing at the show.

Time to get ready for Comicpalooza. I'll have tons new original art, as well as hidden gems that I've uncovered shuffling, moving and organizing all my shit.

LMFA Outta Houston

 

New poster/flyer art for my boy Jerrylicious and his comedy production team, for an upcoming show on September 5th. With the approaching show date and a new venue me and Jerry had to put our heads together to come up with a new theme for the art. And then it hit us- parody all the hoopla surrounding the new NWA movie. I drew out and colored the characters and the poster practically put itself together. We are both pleased with how it turned out and it's striking on a few levels. Not only does it utilize the NWA font from the old albums but we also incorporated the new 'Straight Outta Somewhere' meme generator, promo for the new movie. The purple color, working with the red in the title, to me serve as a nod to late 80's color schemes which is a plus. 

the source material

 

 

 

 

another parallel

 And then on that note about the 80's scheme, I felt when the poster was finished it has this feel to it as well, a nod to the Ghostbusters DVD cover, what with the purple and the 4 characters walking. And I love Ghostbusters, so that's a plus.

The World's Most Dangerous Comedy Showcase is the cherry to top this poster sundae. I think that phrase is hilarious in and of itself and it works perfectly for the theme. All in all I think the poster turned out rather well. Stay tuned to Jerry's website for more details about the comedy show.

Battle Ready

New illustration for my boy Jerry Carrillo for his son's laser tag "Call of Duty" themed birthday party. It's a caricature of his son runnin' and gunnin' through battle. It made it to the invitations and to the cake.

Main illustration, with the Halo sniper scope

Original edit, standard sniper scope. This edit was used for the invitations

And alas, the cake. 

Jerry kept asking me to use brighter colors, as the darker cake frostings tend to taste bitter. Everything in Call of Duty and Halo and every other FPS game is pretty dark in color and otherwise, but I think I made it work pretty good.

F.Z.K.

or Fearless Zombie Killers! New commish I whipped up for my boy Jerry Carrillo. Do you remember the one piece I did with his son and nephews in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? It's right HERE to refresh your memory. Well, his nieces saw that piece and wanted one of their own. Except they wanted to be fighting zombies as Captain America and Bat Girl (Bat Girl originally wanted to be Batman but Bat Girl's outfit is a lot more colorful, so I added the gauntlets).

Too Fly

One more flyer for JerryVision, Super Bowl themed! I whipped this out for him about two weeks ago but I feel like posting today.
The first one is the art file. And then I hand it in to Jerry and he turns it into the second one. His Photoshop skills are coming along.

 

 

before and after

Rounding it Out

Here's a commission from last Christmas that I can now post 'cuz they received it, thus not spoiling the surprise. I intended to use of the Aztec and 'Frida' decorations and garb to make fun of the over-abundant use in Hispanic contemporary culture. The cats are the client's real cats drawn from personal study as well as reference photos. Needless to say they were quite pleased.

 

More work for JerryVision productions. Jerry keeps racking up shows, keeping my pencil moving. Before I started drawing up Jerry's flyers he did his introductory show. This next piece is an updated rendition of that old black and white flyer from his first show. I'd post an image to compare but I can't find a copy of it online. Notice the Metrorail train. It's loaded down with money, symbolizing how Metro tricked us into voting for the money to be outgoing this past November. Pretty fukt up. And I really drew a dong on the rat, a really nasty, pale, wrinkled one.

Hey Kids! Can you name all the different types of bodily fluids  that are in this image?

Nude Year's Resolution (72 dpi)

Happy Nude Year, toonsters! I know I'm a lil' late on this post but whatever. I'm posting a few Christmas commissions I knocked out this season. Two to be exact. Check 'em!

Kid Heroes

a commish for my buddy Jerry. We work on flyers all the time and his son and nephews wonder when they'll get their own custom poster. Well, he surprised them with this. Can you tell who the popular characters are?

 

Bebop and Rocksteady

And if you don't know who these bumbling characters are then you're in the wrong place. The client I did these for wanted to see what I would come up with if I drew Bebop and Rocksteady in a more realistic sense in respect to the animals they mutated into. I also kept in mind that they're punks so the detail in clothing keeps that close by; patches, belt buckles, buttons, piercings.

I actually have one more commission to post but since I haven't sent it off yet I don't want to ruin the surprise for them if they happen to tune in to this site before they get it. Once I do send it, I'll post post post. 'Til then, keep thinking this year will be your year!

destruction, terror

Once again, throwing down some art for Jerry Carrillo. I've been sitting on this one for a week or two, waiting on the perfect time to post and today is that day. My boy Jerry hooked up a show at the one-and-only House of Blues, slated for this week actually, the 16th, and so we needed to come up with something on the fly. And make it more universal in theme cuz the audience is a bit broader, pretty much turn down the ghetto themes a notch. Jerry kept mentioning the notion of wrecking it so I drew him literally towering over the HoB and swinging a mic into it like a wrecking ball. And it worked out also on another level. Turns out his character has done this before, swinging a mic into a brick wall for the 'Breaking In' show, our first flyer/poster we worked on together. Spotlights, wrecking-ball mic, and the character is even rocking flip-flops.

How's your October so far?

Ig'nant Thoughts

The latest from Jerry Carrillo, new poster for his upcoming show this September 21st at Bohemeo's, right here on the east end of Houston. The show, Ignorant Bliss; he provides the idea and title, I provide the visuals. Here's what we came up with. click to see detail.

 

Basically, it combines current hot-button issues and political climate with today's materialistic, shallow youth, or shallow people, for that matter. Jerry told me the title last week and ever since then I envisioned a saggy-pants'd, do-ragged youth having delusions of grandeur, oblivious to the world on fire all around him. It was also important to depict a healthy young man, someone who can physically get involved with his community if he so chose to 'open his eyes'. As with most of the Jerry Vision work we always throw in a nod to his son, which explains the kid. But it also hits you with the notion that this man is also a bunk parent, choosing to pacify his son with cheap entertainment rather than talk to him. Among the 'ignorant thoughts' the man is thinking of is the played out subject matter of commercial radio rap today. And he intends to obtain his wants with...*sound the fanfare*....his unemployment check. 

We wanted to fill the protest signs with the hot topic wedge issues of the day. A lil' piece of trivia: the 'Drug Law Reform' sign on the ground is a symbol for the dearth of drug policy talk from both parties during this election year. And the rat is a nod to that lack of talk reminding everyone of how lucrative the drug market is here in America at this time. Look at him go, a wheel barrow full of mexican-grade shwag to peddle out to the delusion-ed people of America, like our main character right here. 

That about covers this show's design. On another note, it's my last day in my twenties. Oh boy, it's been a helluva ride. I remember how crucial it felt when the time was ticking on the 19, how I encompassed this feeling that would no longer be a teenager. Being 20 sucked, though. Not a teen anymore yet, not eligible to drink either. A sort of veritable young adult limbo. The realization that I'm turning 30 is not so bad. Not bad at all actually. Sure, I'm not where I thought I would be 15 years ago, hell, even 10 years ago. But, I'm still moving forward, still evolving. In a sense I'm just getting started. 30 is still young. Ain't it the new 20 or something?

Jerry Mandering

 

Dirk Strangely in town for a week, I feel the closing in of deadlines and time running short. New poster design for Jerry Carrillo's next comedy show, above is a snip of the art. What else have I finished? New Chester, a Black History cartoon, plus a NEW episode of HTTV. Click those links and follow follow!

For the Homies

The updated version of the latest flyer in the Jerry Vision Campaign. Click it to get up close and see the detail!
When Jerry came through and told me the concept, I conjured up images of the Homies characters concocted by barrio legend David Gonzales. Usually when we get down in a brain storm session to we spend hours tossing ideas about possible comedy show concepts, catchy phrases, and silly images. But this show idea came pretty straight forward, and the layout and art followed suite as well. Do a Homies image search and see if you can spot the image I parodied!
Ahh, the very second post in my NEW place. Just playing with it and getting a feel for it and what not. So far I'm really digging the input formats and the simplicity of everything on this Blogger site. I'm used to doing everything the long way; uploading, HTML coding, testing the links and the whole site...enough! Not only that but this site is ideal because it links my youtube, gmail, and other blogs I follow up in one spot. So, this is the very second post in many more to come!