“I gather darkness to please me…”

~ J.Ho ~ 2 Comments

Hey, looks like I can reveal one of the things I was working on:

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This is a cover that I drew for an exclusive edition of Marceline and the Scream Queens #1 (an Adventure Time spin-off), published by BOOM! Studios. This exclusive is debuting at the Southern Maryland Comic-Con (this Saturday, July 7th!), and will be available at the other cons run by Awesome Conventions.

A gold star to whoever can name the album cover that this is an homage to!

(Information for those who follow this blog regularly: still treading water with 8 posts missed, but I have things lined up. Stay tuned for more stuff… )

T & A stands for toons and art… right?

~ J.Ho ~ 3 Comments

Hey, look at me, posting sketches on my sketch blog! Whaddaya know!

Many moons ago, I posted a sketch of Jessica Rabbit. In a very delayed fashion, I am now following that up with a series of drawings featuring other cartoon bombshells. Here’s the original vintage cartoon pin-up girl, Betty Boop:

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Betty Boop is usually depicted in a red dress, but I decided to give her a black dress and pale skin that would be reminiscent of her original black and white appearances. The colors on this piece are not as strong as the other pieces in this series, but I’m happy with how the drawing turned out. I think I did a decent job of translating Betty Boop’s features and proportions into my style.

Next up is Jessica Rabbit’s cinematic contemporary, Holli Would (from the movie Cool World):

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I’m pretty happy with this one. The pose has some energy, and the colors worked out.

I’ve got a few more characters in mind for this series, but if I’m gonna be totally honest here, I don’t know when I’ll get around to them. I guess you’ll just have to stick around and keep reading this blo–no wait, don’t go…

Man. :(

(Let’s consider these pieces my two updates for this week. I’ll be posting more art this week, and those will go towards making up my missed posts. Keeping pace and treading water at 8 missed posts… )

The art of updating without updating…

~ J.Ho

(8 posts behind as of this writing)

I literally spent all my free time this week drawing/coloring pieces I’m really proud of… that I can’t show yet. However, that said, I spent my weekend watching movies and listening to podcasts whilst drawing/coloring stuff for blog posts. My goal is to completely catch up by Comic-Con (July 11), at which point I’m sure I will promptly fall behind again.

I could post a blog sketch now, but it has a companion piece, and I want to see if I can wrap up that one as well and post them together. Art soon, I promise!

Nothing to see here…

~ J.Ho

It’s frustrating when I’m actually working on stuff for stuff, but I can’t quite share it yet.

It’s also frustrating that earlier in the week I spent a night working on something for this blog, stepped back, realized it was utter garbage, and ended up scrapping it. (And trust me folks, I’m not a perfectionist, this was genuinely poop)

At some point in the near future, this blog will once again be updated regularly.

(6 posts missed, and counting)

Pillow Fortitude

~ J.Ho ~ 4 Comments

This basically really happened. It has been one of those weeks.

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By the way, those throw pillows are based on the actual ones on my couch. YEAH, I’M A DUDE WHO KNOWS HOW TO ACCENT HIS LIVING ROOM, SO WHAT?

This should have gone up on Tuesday. For those keeping track, I have missed a total of 4 posts (that includes Tuesday as well as my previous illness-induced delinquency). Don’t worry about me forgetting to make those posts up, the number is etched in my brain, lit up with the red hot fires of shame.

Algebraic!

~ J.Ho ~ 2 Comments

Hey, today I get to show one of the mysterious things that I said I was working on! I did a variant cover for an upcoming issue of the Adventure Time comic (published by the lovely folks at BOOM! Studios), and here it is:

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It’s no secret that I love Adventure Time, so this was a pretty big thrill for me. This cover is for issue 07, and will be in stores sometime in August. But don’t wait until then to check out the Adventure Time comic–the art is gorgeous and the writing is so charming and true to the show. Check it out for yourself. DO EET NAOW!

True Tales of Bronchitis #1

~ J.Ho ~ 2 Comments

First, I am acknowledging that this post is late.

Second, when I say I’m hacking up Lovecraftian horrors, I really mean it:

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I pencilled this while I was actually sick, and finally got around to inking and coloring it. The lettering, you can see… is a bit jury rigged. I drew the sound effects by hand, and did sloppy lettering in Photoshop. I’m capable of doing a rudimentary version of professional lettering in Illustrator, but I confess, I was just too lazy. In retrospect, I should have simply hand-lettered the dialogue to match the hand-lettered sound effects.

For some time I have been meaning to shift the focus of my blog to begin including sequential art. So, I guess this is the start of that. I honestly can’t claim that I have any idea how this will go, but let’s just see what happens…

Wild Thing

~ J.Ho

By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard that Maurice Sendak passed away a few weeks ago. Here’s a little something in honor of him, and his best known work, Where The Wild Things Are:

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As a kid, I was (and I still am) very picky about kid’s books. I thought most of them were “dumb” and “boring” and I wasn’t easily impressed by the illustrations. However, Where The Wild Things Are, was an easy sell.

I should take this opportunity to mention some of my other favorite works from Sendak… He designed the sets and costumes for the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker, which I became familiar with as Nutcracker: The Motion Picture. Watching this on TV every year on channel 13 (KCOP) became a Christmas tradition when I was a kid, and I didn’t even know until a few years ago that Sendak was responsible for the production’s look! The movie is available for digital purchase on Amazon or iTunes. The production also spawned a gorgeous edition of The Nutcracker book, with illustrations by Sendak. The book is apparently out of print, but it looks like used copies are readily available on Amazon.

If you haven’t already done so since his passing, go draw some monsters and wild things in honor of Maurice Sendak! Have a great weekend, folks!

Horrible Post Title #974368: Stop badgering me for a post!

~ J.Ho ~ 2 Comments

Okay, no one has been badgering me for a post, even though I have been neglecting this blog due to being sick as a dog. I haven’t been too sick to post this whole time, but once I was back on my feet I had a lot of catching up to do at work and so on. So I do apologize to you, my hypothetical (and possibly imaginary) dear reader. I missed three posts, which I’ll be making up over the next few weeks, while resuming regular posting.

For now, here’s a drawing of a badger that I did a few years back (the colors however, are brand new). It was a study for this post.

 
Incidentally, if this cranky badger had a lingering cough, it would be a pitch perfect depiction of how I’m feeling at this very moment. Just saying.

It’s a blast…

~ J.Ho

If you’ve never heard of Glyos by Onell Design, I’ll tell you everything you need to know: it’s a line of bad-ass designer toys with interchangeable parts, and you can build anything that your parts library and imagination can cook up, and you should go buy a bunch. I’ve been meaning to draw one of the characters from this franchise for a while, so at last, here’s a little something–Scar Pheyden of the Glyos System:

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I colored this piece a bit differently than I usually do. Rather than taking a lot of time to make super-clean selections with a lot of meticulously separated layers, I did this quick and dirty, and just cleaned things up as I went. I think it saved me a bit of time, but I’m not sure how much.

Also: I talk a lot about trying to drawing more dynamic pieces, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep producing pieces like this, which are more reminiscent of random comic book panels rather than super-static character stances.

Oh hey…

~ J.Ho

… I have a blog, don’t I?

I have been busy working on a thing, which eventually will be posted here. BUT NOT RIGHT NOW. Posts and make up posts will be posted here shortly. Apologies, as always, for the delay in service, dear readers.

Shinobi Me

~ J.Ho ~ 1 Comment

So first I drew myself as a Naruto-style ninja, and then Jazyl did the same. This got Jazyl, Dylan, and myself talking about drawing ourselves as a Naruto-style three-man ninja cell.

We talked about our characters a little, Jazyl continued to refine his design, and I even pencilled my avatar out (though I never scanned it and therefore never showed anyone). But as happens, we all kind of got busy and forgot about it. That was 3 years ago, and last week Jazyl posted this:

click above to visit Jazyl’s gallery

 
BAM! Such an awesome piece, that I’m totally honored to be portrayed in (that’s me on the right with the mohawk, naturally). Please do yourselves a favor and check out Jazyl’s Deviant Art gallery, he’s a great illustrator!

So, the gauntlet has been thrown–now Dylan and I both need to draw a group shot of the three of us as ninjas. For me, the first step of that process is finally inking up and coloring the picture I drew of my own shinobi avatar:

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The original story for our characters was that we were going to be ninjas from the village of Hidden Wacom. Three deadly digital art ninjas, if you will. As you can see, my avatar is armed with ancient relics–a Wacom Graphire II tablet (shoulder), along with a stylus (pendant), and mouse (hand guard). And yes, for those who are wondering, I’m still rocking all my digital art with a Graphire II from like 1999.

This is a more basic design, so I will probably change things up when I draw the completed group shot. I feel like the bar has been raised! Also, Jazyl has developed the story more, and now he has assigned our ninjas to the village of Hidden Paint, which definitely sounds classier. In the end, each piece will be it’s own take on the matter, but I think that’s the fun part. I’m making the ninja group shot a short-term goal, so stay tuned–more on this as it develops!