Student Art + PreCollege!

So how about that Tumblr business, huh?
Anywho...I am sad to say that I am all done visiting high schools and giving students illustration demos and lectures for the current time being. From now until August it's strictly office time, updating the scan system and the Crystal Report database. This is interspersed with helping students around the campus for The New Hampshire Institute of Art's...

PRE COLLEGE SUMMER PROGRAM!!

That's going to be such a great time and the shirts just came in for the program with the Tubular Robot on them! Also can I just say how STOKED I am that these shirts have TROLL FACE on them!?

And just an example of some of the great students I've had the opportunity to meet in my travels, freshman student Kylieh from Gilford high school and I chatted about art last week and she shared some her great ideas and really impressed me with her passion for the arts. SO I gave her a homework assignment; draw me a space man elf riding a rad wave in the ocean surf while also repping his patriotism! Sure enough she delivered, great work Kylieh! 

I have the absolute best job and to be able to talk art with so many new and growing young artists is such a great opportunity, and it's also so humbling. Also, I'm plugging away at my comic for the graphic novel anthology coming out this October, BOO! Here's a preview! 

NHIA Preview Party 2013!!

This Saturday the New Hampshire Institute of Art will be hosting it's 2013 Preview Party! Join us as we celebrate another year of extraordinary work by the Bachelor of Fine Arts students. You are invited to preview over 1,000 pieces of remarkable artwork, DRINK WINES, stuff your pie hole on hors d'oeurvres and dig some jazzy music.

Support provides significant scholarship aid to over 98% of Institute students. All proceeds from ticket sales directly support scholarship aid. It's going to be a lot of fun and I'll be helping families with questions about our admission process, career service inquiries and I'll basically also just be making a ton of dirty jokes and silly impressions. It's a damn good night and a lot of fun. And afterwards I'm  going out for drinks at the bars in Manchester so come on along and toast the night with me with a game of pool and a shot of Patron! You might even be invited back to my apartment with a bunch of artist friends to drink and draw and sketch into the night! 

Creature Concepts

Working Title Collective has shifted gears for the next few assignments and rather than giant pieces stretched out over months we'll be doing short spurts of artistic exercises to stir the creative juices. This week's is creature concept art. Come up with a creature: Horror sci fi fantasy, what have you. Do a character sheet of it! I'm seeing some great ideas coming out thus far and will be posting the assignments here. We've got everything from six limbed battering ram soldiers to multi limbed were-boars to rabbit/fox monsters. Not a bad homework assignment if I ever had one!

 A revisit of an old unused idea of mine: GOAT HEAD ROSIE 

The vestigial-limbed Were-Boar by the devilishly handsome Evan Benoit 

The gentlemanly Fungus Sir by the always intimidatingly awesome Amanda Boucher 

The Unicorn Diva by Jonathan Burns 

Characters for a comic book being drawn by Nathaniel Owens ("Five 20-somethings dealing with their own quarter- life crises. Until there's an oil spill which attracts out of town attention. Shit get weird and they find themselves fighting to protect a secret none of them know they share.")

The Demon Bunny Creature by Andy Stoltz 

The Cursed Ice Dwarf by Brad Turgeon 

The Green Eyed Monster by Kate Bresnahan 

I think we're all familiar with the tale of MOONASAURUS REX and his laser eyes and orbiting field of hand sanitizer! Art by my very VERY good friend Ryan Farrell! 

More as they get handed in! 

BOO! Anthology and Visual Storyboarding

IT'S FINALLY HAPPENED!! See that little zombie there? I've been wanting to put that little bastard in a comic for FIVE YEARS now! My friend Calamity Jon, who gave me a 13 character slot for the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe Redux Edition, has asked me to do a comic for his upcoming comic anthology BOO! I'm allowed quite a bit of freedom here and the exposure is going to be AWESOME but what I'm MOST excited about is being able to finally do this one particular comic featuring Abbot the Zombie here. The comic I'm doing was originally thought up between a close friend of mine years back when we were working in a party store and I'm SO excited to finally be doing it! 

It's a busy week here in NH. Trying to finish up work on a HUGE poster for my work, starting a new D&D game with my VERY talented friend and someone I greatly admire Joe Acone...

...going to look at a certain ring for a certain someone for a certain life-changing something...

...and I'm also very happy to be teaching 4-5 classes in the next two months! I'm going to be giving a teaching lecture on the process of Visual Storyboarding and Character Design/Illustration/Cartooning at the Alvirne High School and Gilford High School to name a few. FUN! In the mean time if you haven't, check out Calamity Jon's Ignatz nominated comic "Jeremy-Just Turned Nine". Awesome stuff! 

Robotabunga, Dudes!

Retro Video Game Art!!

The pieces are rolling in! Everyone really stepped up their game and it's such an honor to have such talented people lending their creative forces to Andy and my idea. Thanks to everyone, you guys are GREAT! 

AMAZING Shiva from Final Fantasy by Joe Acone

Spyro the Dragon by Amanda Boucher

Morrigan from Darkstalkers by Kate Bresnahan

Metal Gear Solid by my brother Brad Turgeon

StarFox by Evan Benoit

MegaMan by Tim Jones

Kirby by Nate Owens

STREETS OF RAGE by Aimee Cozza

 

LUIGI from SUPER MARIO bros. by Jonathan Burns

 

METROID VILLAINS by yours truly

Nephilim and 80's Nintendo

So there's the header for the group I'm heading up with my friend Andy. The Working Title Collective. Props go to our good friend, the valiant and husky brawling big-shouldered city-man Nate Owens for designing our header. I'll be posting all of this months artist works on Monday evening as they get sent to me. I'll be on the road all of next week so it'll def be Monday night. I'm on my last section of mine tonight and then it's ON TO THE NEXT PIECE. What I DO have is a small preview of my costume for Comic-Con in October. Not only am I getting my getup professionally photographed,  I'm going all out this year and am really investing time and money into my getup and it's paying off in SUCH EXCITING WAYS.

All I Need 2

I'll be the first to admit that my girlfriend is my best friend. We compliment each other on nearly every level, both in our faith and in our attitudes, humor, families everything. She is my better half and when I am with her I'm the best possible version of myself SO...I'm going to be starting an eight month project comic. It's going to be 100 pages and it directly ties into something that's going to be extremely important and 120% life changing for us, I'm sure. This is the cover and every page is done on the road while I'm away for work and the whole thing should be done within three to four months. I plan on releasing this book for a "name your price" on Etsy or on any of these newfangled internet sites. I will not be uploading any previews or anything but this IS the cover...

And since the video game piece for my artist group "Untitled Collective" isn't set for completion until the first of April, here's a quick look at one of the many characters from mine. METROID PRIME!! 

Nausea

"Saturday, about four in the afternoon, on the end of the timbered
sidewalk of the new station yard, a little woman in sky blue was
running backwards, laughing, waving a handkerchief. At the same time a
Negro in a cream-colored raincoat, yellow shoes and a green hat,
turned the corner of the street and whistled. Still going backwards,
the woman bumped into him underneath a lantern which hangs on a paling
and which is lit at night. All at once there was the paling smelling
strongly of wet wood, this lantern and this little blonde woman in the
Negro's arms under a sky the color of fire. Then everything came
asunder, there was nothing left but the lantern, the palisade and the
sky, it was still rather beautiful. An hour later the lantern was lit,
the wind blew, the sky was black; nothing at all was left."

Metroid!!

One of my best friends and I came up with an idea to have various consistent art projects for each other to use towards gallery spaces in the near future. Every other month a theme is picked and a fully fledged piece of art is created towards this goal. I picked our first assignment which is Classic Video Game Art from the 80's and 90's. The reception has been so positive that nine other artists have joined! Here's a quick preview of my piece (I only just started it as I was away on business in New Jersey this past week. Metroid has always been one of my favorite video game series as it has SUCH DEPTH and such CREATIVITY. I LOVE IT. I also adore Ridley, such a great villain.

Lunch break office art time!

Also, I get off work a BIT earlier tomorrow because we at the New Hampshire Institute Of Art are PROUD to welcome James Gurney! The Dinotopia author will be giving a demo at 2 followed by a lecture and a gallery of his other fine works in our Amherst gallery!! It's tomorrow at 7! French Building auditorium! 148 Concord Street! Manchester New Hampshire! Come on by! Tickets are only $20!!

Lo, Burgers On High

Me and the guys in the office at work have decided each week to go to a random phrase generator online and illustrate the first phrase that pops up for show each Wednesday. These pieces can be in depth, quick doodles, or full length pieces. Whichever we choose. It's just a good art workout. This weeks randomly generated phrase was "PRAISE BURGERS". So this is my piece. I've been so busy that it was nice to take two hours to sit down and just have fun with a brush and make a quick piece (extra thanks to my wonderful girlfriend for buying me the brushes for my birthday!)

La Vita Nuova

The future is certainly looking up lately...

New Digs

So all the things I need to survive until my roommate and I move into our NEW and even BETTER apartment are all settled in and jazzin' smooth, baby. Since I don't have work until Monday I've been drawing and drawing and eating nothing and walking around and doing home workouts. My friend Kara recently explained a theory about Pokemon she came up with and the ensuing conversation put the little bastards on my mind. Yesh.

Moving

And what better day to move into my new home than my birthday this weekend?

Sea Oleena

Been a tough couple of months, but things are really starting to look up. Job interview in Manchester at my alma mater, getting a new tire for the new car, meeting up with my good friend Jim Burke for beer and lunch, and spending two hours with my girlfriend before she comes down for the weekend the next day...and all on a THURSDAY! Thursdays don't usually fair that well for me so it's a plus to have one that does!