Movin' on Up

Today is my last day with Mandalay Baseball Properties, a company I have been involved with for the past seven years. I have learned almost everything I currently know through my work at this firm and I am very appreciative of all they have done for me.

Shortly, I will be starting with Schlegel Sports as their Creative Director. I am excited for this new opportunity and hope to start turning out some top-shelf stuff for all their teams very soon.

Daft Punk is Playing at my House

Sketched this while hanging out in the Inwood Theater lounge and waiting for the Daft Punk film Electroma to begin. Midnight movies at the Inwood rock, and are definitely one of the cooler features of living in Dallas. Local DJ Kieth P dropped a fantastic Daft-centric set and got everyone good and fired up for...a French art film.

Guess what? Daft Punk are French, and there's nothing the French like better than boring you to tears with vague "symbolism"and long stretches of silence. Although, the film had some cool moments and visual elements, moments doth not a movie make. I recommend the 13 minute remix which basically plays the whole movie on fast forward, and adds...wait for it...Daft Punk music!

He's No Use To Me Dead

Sketched this while watching The Empire Strikes Back last night. I think it's been over two years since I last saw this movie, and I finally have to agree with Dante from Kevin Smith's Clerks, Empire is the best film of the series. I can't think of another film that combines true comedy (not dark comedy, mind you) in a completely dramatic script. Brilliant.

The Pile of Goodness

After unpacking at home I realized the full extent of the damage to my both my wallet, and to the forested regions that gave their all to become great art books. There are a few other items that didn't make the photo, but this is the bulk of it. Plenty of top stuff that should keep me inspired for quite some time.

Best Comic-Con Ever!

I am sitting in my hotel room packing up all my fantastic purchases from the con, and thinking about the amazing individuals I met. Many I had known for a while courtesy of the internet, but few I had met in the flesh. I also had the good luck to be exposed to tons of new people and their incredible work. Everyday at the con was another day that made me feel creatively rejuvenated, while reminding me that I need to be drawing a helluva lot more. The saturday night drawing jam confirmed that notion, but I also realized that every other artist in the room felt the same way no matter how jaw-dropping his/her work was. There was so much talent in that room it genuinely made me dizzy, and I was ecstatic to walk away with a handful of brilliant sketches, all suitable for framing!

Thank you to everyone that made this year so special. Your work, heart, and love for your craft inspires me.

Sarah Mensinga
Jeremy Vanhoozer
Kim Herbst
Stephen McCranie
Jeff Smith
Pascal Campion
Mike Daley
Joanna Mulder
GB Tran
Daniel Landerman
Joey Weiser
Kazu Kibuishi and the Flight Crew
Rodolphe Guenoden
Alberto Ruiz
Mitch O'Connell
Chris Sanders
Greg Hardin
Andrew Stanton
and many, many more!

See you at Comic-Con!

It's late, and I am finishing a ton of work, but I am very excited to depart tomorrow for the sunny climes of San Diego. I can't wait meet a batch of new, talented individuals who will help me empty my pocketbook with the artistic goodness they bring to the show. See you soon!

The Jack Bauers of Printing

Big ups to the boys and girls over at OvernightPrints.com for getting me by brand new cards in 24 hours, from upload to delivery. Unbelievable!

Pick a card...

Here is my brand new business card that I am having printed for the San Diego Comic-Con and all points beyond. If you run into me at the Con I will be happy to give you one for your very own. Right now, TonyCanepa.com will redirect you back here, but I will be working hard to get a full-fledged portfolio up very soon.

Making the Best Look Better

Roger Clemens wearing the hat and uniform I designed for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, in his Triple-A start yesterday. (Photo by David Kidwell)

Let it Ride!

This is a sign created about two years ago for a casino night party at the day job. It was based on the sign at the classic Sands casino in Las Vegas. This was one of the first times I used the 3D extrusion feature in Illustrator which, I must say, leaves a little to be desired.

Deuce's Family Album

Deuce's Family Album was created for the Frisco RoughRiders as a renewal piece for season ticket holders. It was designed as a unique way to remind people of all they fun they had at the ballpark with their friends, family, and most importantly, the mascot Deuce (who is, by the way a prairie dog). It was sent with a letter encouraging the individual to renew their ticket package for the following season.

The cover illustrations were sketched with pencil, then scanned and painted in Photoshop.






For the inside front and back covers, I created a pattern in Illustrator, and aged it in Photoshop.


A close-up of the pattern.


The inside of the book was composed of photo-illustrations with brief explanations (written mostly by Justin McCord, with a few additions by me). Also accompanying each image was an icon that represented the era of "family photo", and an image of Deuce with his own visual commentary. The layout was created in Adobe InDesign.



A close-up of Deuce's break dancing cousin.


You can download Deuce's Family Album in its entirety here as a pdf. Please note that images linked from the RoughRiders site as MORE Deuce's Family Album were not created by me.

My Neighbor...

Another attempt at the digital paint with good ol' Totoro. I think when I plan on painting these in the future, I will try to keep my sketch as clean as possible. My quick pencil shading on this sketch made it a lot more difficult during the painting process. Baby steps...

First Crack at Painter (with Totoro)

I have finally gotten around to giving Painter a shot. After some brief tips from an experienced friend, I did a quick sketch and starting slapping some pixel-paint on the digital canvas. I definitely will be spending some more time on this guy, and I think it's going to be a while before I am really comfortable with this new tool. But hey, it's a start.

Cute Enough To Eat

This is part of a birth announcement for my niece Jo, who was born recently in Japan.

Hellboy

I sketched this last night while watching the Hellboy movie. This morning, I added the red with white highlights. It turned out being somewhat of a stylistic homage of Dan Panosian's very cool white-out pen sketches.

A New Me (In Living Color)!

I first attempted to paint this in Photoshop, but it didn't give me the look I desired. I wanted something a little more clean than my digital painting skills could present, so I attacked it again in Illustrator, and am much more happy with this version. This piece has a lot more gradients than I usually use, but was a good exercise in trying a new look. I think the penguin ended up a bit like a shiny Mac icon.

I appreciate every single person that has dropped by and left a comment! Much to my dismay, when I switched to the new Blogger, some comments were changed to anonymous. I know that all of them from the brilliant Sarah Mensinga were replaced so here is a link to make up for that. Thank you again, it's truly awesome to hear from all you very talented individuals!

A New Me (a work in progress)

As part of my new plan of self-improvement, I sketched this guy today with the thought of creating a new, more friendly, avatar.

I said to myself, "Self, now who wouldn't want to click on a cute little penguin?" To which I replied, "Hitler, probably. But I don't want his business anyway." And thus, it was decided.

I wanted the little guy to be pondering what to draw next. Do you think this came across, or does he simply appear to be picking his nose with the pencil?

Figure Drawing 1

Last year, about this time, I took my first ever figure drawing class. And I must say it was long overdue. I don't feel that my skills had ever improved so much in the same period of time. I definitely need to do it more often.

For this piece, the model was laying on his back facing away from me, and I didn't feel a full-body sketch was really that interesting. So, rather than move, I punched in on his face and drew that instead. I think this was a 10-15 minute pose.

Good Enough To Eat

This is a poster I created for the dessert area of a party. There were lots of chocolates and sexy food, so I wanted to make the poster a little sexy to match. I was going for a Shag-like style on the girl, and wanted to make her look like some sort of tasty confection. The overall look I think leans toward a 1970's adult-film poster, which works in a fun way.

Give Me: Music on Vinyl, Movies on Film, and a Giant Stop-Motion Monkey...

As Sarah mentioned on her blog yesterday, breaking out of your comfort zone is tough. Everyone has that one thing they draw well, or that one medium that feels the best. So, I decided I would follow her lead and try something new today. I have had some charcoal pencils lying around for about a year now, and never really given them a chance. And since I picked up Peter Jackson's King Kong last night, I thought I would do a quick sketch of the original, my favorite, and 100% analog, Lord of the Jungle.