Monday, November 12, 2007

The Big Entry

What's up everyone. As you can see it's been quite awhile since my last update. These past few months have been a crazy roller coaster ride with plenty of ups and downs. With all that has been going on I haven't had time to keep you guys updated. Fortunately I've got a few moments here this morning so I'm gonna drop a big update on yea. I Hope your ready for it...


47 R.O.N.I.N
My buddy Lawrence Christmas hit me one day to say he was doing some illustrations for the Sprouse Brothers series titled 47 R.O.N.I.N. He asked me to do some digital inking on the illustrations he drew for the first 2 books titled " The Revelation" and "The Showdown". Since Larry is a great artist it's always cool to work with him cuz I get to learn a lot. Plus he works on some pretty cool projects and that's always fun. The rest of the illustrations can be found in the gallery section of my site, under the commercial heading.




Bee Movie
Not too long after I finished the work on the 47.R.O.N.I.N books I got a call from another buddy of mine, Stephan Nilson , saying he needed some ink work done on 2 Bee Movie books. I was very excited to work on such a cool property. There were a team of 4 inkers on this job since it was a rush gig. We knocked it out with ease and the colors were done by my boy Kanila Tripp. The books I've mentioned are titled " Barry's buzzy world" and The Honey Disaster".



Carolyn Schaefer
Carolyn contacted me through a mutual friend when she was ready to put her works on the Internet. I was very inspired by the quality of her work and was egar to wrap it up in a nice little shell for the world to see. Carolyn's site is currently featured on my sites main page. Be sure to check it out and let her know what you think of her site and her work.

Art mart 2
Last year when I moved to Brooklyn I participated in the neighborhoods first Art Mart. This year the Art Mart returned and I came back again to support the cause. This years AM was bigger than last, with more artists and more people checking out the work. I had sketchbooks for sale this year as well as baseball card size art cards. That was on top of the original art and prints I always have. I got to meet a lot of cool people in my hood as well as get some more of my work out there. It was great. Hopefully next year they will be able to do it more often. If they do I'll be out there!
*image to follow


Carl Weathers
This has got to be one of the most exciting things that have happened to me in awhile. On my regular Wednesday trip to the comic shop I was pulled over by my girl Jasmine. She told me that Pat, another cool guy from midtown comics, was contacted by a friend who was in need of an artist. Fortunately for me they both thought of me. Pat told me all he knew was that his buddy needed a drawing of Carl Weathers. I couldn't imagine what for, but I was interested for 2 reasons. 1) CARL WEATHERS! and 2) The guy who needed the art worked in my building, for MTV Movies.

After getting his card from Pat I went on about my comic shopping. After leaving the shop I grabbed lunch and went back to the office. When I got back I called the number on the card and got Joshua on the phone. He asked me to come down and meet him and his coworker Brian.

When I got down to their floor they told me that Carl was coming in the next day for an interview. They had the idea to present him with a drawing a long time ago but had never followed though on it. At the last minute they revisited that idea and that's where I came in. They wanted to know if I had the time and interest to do this, as it was for no pay and was needed the next day.

The thought of me being able to do something for Carl, and him owning a piece of my work was more than enough for me to want to do it. I told them not to worry, I'd have there drawing first thing in the morning. They were both very excited and proceeded to tell me the idea they had for he picture. I took down all the info and reference they had, thanked them both and when back to work.


At the end of the work day I went over to Lee's art store and bough some pens, markers and a nice frame for the drawing. I headed home reviewing the ideas of how I was going to approach this. As soon as I got home I jumped straight on it. At about 4:00 am the art was done and I was drained. This was the first full color marker drawing I had done in years. It was super fun to do but a lot of work since I had no time for practice or warm ups. Regardless, It was done and I was happy.

The next morning I came into the office and called Joshua. I came down to their floor and dropped off the piece, which they seemed very excited about. After that I went back to work like nothing had ever happened. I assumed my roll in this whole affair was over, and I was just satisfied knowing they would send me a pic of him holding up the artwork.

Later on in the day I got a call from Brian saying I could come down and meet Carl if I wanted to...Who wouldn't want to!?!?!?! I got down there as soon as I could and there were plenty of people buzzing about his presence there. He was on the phone so people we milling around the area he was in.

As we were all standing there trying to figure out what to say and who would talk first, we all heard a loud "GET BACK TO WORK PEOPLE!". As we turned to see who dared say such a thing we were all shock to find it was David Koechner, who had been traveling with Carl promoting their movie "The Comebacks". As soon as we realized who it was we all laughed as he walked toward the elevator. From his POV he couldn't see Carl, and altho they had been traveling together, neither know the had stops in the MTV building at the same time. Brain and I chased him down and brought him back to where Carl was. They joked from a few minutes and planned to see each other at dinner before David left.

Once Carl got off the phone people converged on his area, effectively blocking him into the cubical area he was in. A girl from the movies department went to talk to him first, and was so excited she couldn't stand still. Carl being the cool guy he is, joked about it and started moving around just as she was. It was pretty funny.


Once she was done with her convo / photo session I was introduced to him as the artist who did his picture. He was very excited to me me as I was to meet him. I told him how much I admired him and his work and he told me how he liked my art. Then he told me to become famous so the art will be worth millions, to which I replied "I'm working on it"! We took a few pictures together and then I stepped aside so others could take their turn.

The whole thing happened so fast if it weren't for the pictures I'd hardly think it was real. This was just an example of being in the right place right time. I was very grateful for the opportunity and I still get excited just thinking about it. Here are some pics of me and Carl as well as the drawing I did. The other pics can be seen on my Flikr account.


Invincible pinup
-So After a few years of reading this book, and doing a few pinups for it, I decided it was time for another one. This pinup was pretty fun to work on. Anytime I get to draw large tentacles being ripped apart I'm gonna be a happy person. At current the pic is over with my boy Marc Deering who is kind enough to ink this bad boy up for me. Once he lays his magic down on it it'll be over to Kanila Tripp next. Keep an eye out for more on this pic.

BTW, I'm going to be doing some more comic work soon. I realized this year I've only done 2 pinups...2!!!!!!! That's no good. So for those of you who would like to help a brother out, just ask me where my comic work is every once and awhile, just to see if I'm working on anything.

Nickatnite.com
- At my day job working for Nickelodeon, I was just part of a huge redesign of the nickatnite site. Take a few minutes to check it out. The main page has been upgraded as well as all of the show pages. We'll still be adding alot of stuff to the site over the next few weeks/months, so keep checking back often.

Teasers

Batman Strikes

Lastly I'm working on some pretty cool things that I can't talk about yet. The first has to do with an issue of Batman Strikes. It's supposed to drop Feb 13 2008. No, I'm not drawing it, but I am involved...Stay tuned on that one.

Nascar
The other thing I got going on has to do with Nascar. This project is very exciting. I have no idea when this will be hitting the public, but when I can say more on it I will.

That's all for now, as if that wasn't enough, lol. I'll holla soon.

Wes

2 comments:

eugene commodore said...

Damn son you been buzy

Marcelo Vignali said...

Wow, that's really something! I'm a huge fan of the Rocky films, and a huge admirer of Carl Weathers.

"You next Joe! You next!"