CRUMGARI Unicorn - I Call Him Omega

I vaguely recall the difficulty my mentor, David Christiana, would stress about the technical aspects of painting or rendering anything under moonlight.

Knowledge I never forgot, but I remember him telling us that it would always have this funky green hue to it... almost milky, but green. Even more so to convey anything red under moonlight because the effect always renders red in this dark gray hue making anything red under moonlight almost impossible to convey without looking weird.... It was always a difficult thing to explain and I easily understood why... what I didn't know was that he had a lackluster for unicorns as well.

I never paid much attention to it till a few years later (now that I'm knee deep in some fandom for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic...) when a colleague of mine, Jojo Seames, posted up on her facebook about two things Christiana told us never to paint (I somehow never got this memo): Red things under moonlight, and unicorns.

To this effect, there were apparently five students I went to school with, or were going to school at the time of, who had painted unicorns that were red... CADMIUM red, under moonlight.

These people ended up calling themselves CRUMGARI (Cadmium Red Unicorns in Moonlight Guerilla Artistic Resistance Initiative)

Apparently all it takes is to convey a cadmium red unicorn in moonlight to be a part of this merry band of anarchists... which I gladly had to take up on the opportunity of:

Did you know mentions of unicorn date as far back as Ancient Greece?

I had no idea that the Greeks were one of the first in documented history to make mention of this mythical beast, yet ironically, is not mentioned in any of their mythology (That would be left to Pegasus, the flying horse!)

I thought this an amazing opportunity to assimilate three great aspects, two within a single culture, and fuse them together with post-modern tenacity:

Spartans

Unicorns

and My Little Pony...

I name this majestic beast, "Omega" as evidenced by the um... "cutie mark" emblazoned on his flank.

RED95 - Sweet Tooth Extraction

Wow these are old... according to the file details-- September 29, 2008...

Feels like forever ago that I thought about wanting to work on RED95 and it seems like the closer I get to even wanting to get started, the farther I get.

Not sure if anyone else ever feels this way or has the same problem with their own projects... as far as people wanting to get some sort of creative thing set out into fruition, but most days... I think that's the problem involved.

I spend more time wondering WHEN I'll get started and not actually getting started.

There are other factors involved, life, liberty, the pursuit of h... wait, doesn't this stem off from someplace else profound? Hmm...

In any case, one day, it'll happen. When?

*Sighhh*

The Alien Boy

I actually worked on a children's book previous to this by the same group of guys I've done before... it's nothing major (not yet as they seem to surmise, haha) but it at least gives me the sense that I'm actually doing something productive with what I went to school for.

Anyway, this year starts the mark of another project by the same guys; the author titling this particular story "The Alien Boy"

I won't get into the details of the thing since it's way too early to really deliberate any details except that when I read it, I had an amazing time imagining the characters that'll be portrayed!

I'll be meeting with the guys today about what I've got lined out so we'll see where it goes from here....

Giving back to the Community

I've never been much for fan art... I mean I have. I've done it, I just never get around to doing it as much as I believe I should.

But lately I've been listening in to a local Conservative talk radio station here in town on the frequency 104.1FM "The Truth" and there's been one guy in particular I've been diggin' well into.

On the show he's known as "The Beautiful Man," James T. Harris.

Anyway, I'll just leave this here and get to something else in the mean time, haha!

I actually intend to do more stuff like this... as I said, for me to 'give back to the community'. Who will be the next victim in town, illustrated? I'm not quite sure... but I'm certain it'll be just as fun as this was :)

1/19/2012 -UPDATE

Workin' on some vinyl assassin LOVE, representing local radio host and menacing DJ: TOBY ROBERTS!!! from 91.3FM KXCI!

1/21/2012 Update

Toby! TOBY! TOOOBYYYY!!!

(In black and white)

Now in color! WOOOO!!!

01/25/2012 Update

Today on 104.1's The Truth, when James T. Harris was on, there was a point in the show where I called in to weigh in on a certain topic; but in the time that I did that I also let known that I was the particular artist in mind that did the piece he now uses has his Facebook profile photo (so amazing, haha!)

In that time... about an hour or so later, there was talks about my artwork again and Ross, the producer, caught a bit of flak... it was all fun in games but I still felt responsible for his shame hahaha. I find this as a means to hopefully repay that debt, if there ever is any, there is now.

I wish so bad that I could have a copy of that segment that went down today-- I was DYING when I heard it go down in my car. I wanted to call back and rebuttal, hopefully save Ross but... my phone had died long before.

Producer of both the Jon Justice show and James T. Harris-- Ross Williamson! THE SEXY SIDEKICK!!!

06/29/2012 Update

Been meaning to work on this for a LONG time now and ... well, it took another night of Italo from Under Surveillance's David Wright to set things off and get me going again:

It's so far, simple but far from done...

Almost there...

(I've no idea when I'll finish this one...)

VICTORY!!!

3 Months out and...

I've a reason to be motivated in drawing again...

http://moonbeam13.deviantart.com/journal/The-Darkness-II-Contest-272874806

Which resulted in:

Still quite a ways till completion but I've got a really good feeling about this, plus it's The Darkness... a reason for me to finally do some 'fanart' and get motivated in the process! What's shown now could change drastically in the days to come.

I just hope I don't procrastinate and get to a point where I feel like I might not get anywhere.

Reminiscence before Bed

2008 seems so far away, and 2007 even farther though in a reflected time frame it really isn't... alot happened between then and now.

I finished college... got married... been stuck pretty much with the same job I've done through college, sticking with it really to see if anything productive could come out of it. And it sort of had its perks but the glamour of being a window cleaner quickly fades away the harder I tried to stick to it.

More than most, I find myself reminiscing on things of the past; how fun college was, when it was fun (some of the prerequisite studies were a total time sink when all I wanted to do was learn to be a better artist.) Techniques and mastery aside, the journey through it all was pretty amazing, and if I could, I'd relive those moments again just for the effect but not for the experience. Was much easier remembering how nice it was being a student sometimes. But really?

I'm glad I finished.

Or so I thought... 3 years after graduating, I haven't really done much with my degree but sit on my laurels. Well all that's changed, or I think so, as I've actually gone up and out to post my resume out, apply for things... keep on the look out for opportunities and hopping onto them as early as I detect them, search for them, find them...

The struggle for discovery is hard though. For people to discover yourself as an artist, and yourself as the artist to discover those who might appreciate what you have to show the world.

I think in this regard, being an artist can be tough but worth it when you make it.

Still... in more times than most, I often think about what I was doing in college, and while I consider most of the work I did then more experimentally astute studies and 'trying to figure out what the hell I was really doing', it all sorted itself out.

I look at some of my older work and think, "I've come a long way since then," but more importantly, "There's something magic about what I did then... now how can I keep that in check, keep it nearby and have it work for me?"

It's been years since I've graduated, years since I've actually looked at some of these older bodies of work (I'd almost forgotten about them till my wife reminded me through one of them she keeps posted up in her cubicle at work when I visited her once) and it reminded me of just where I came from; the legacy I bore through.

Something to reminisce before bed...

Getting my feet wet.

Or at least believing I am...

Recently, I got in touch with an online job posting (Craigslist, really...) of a team of writers looking for a comic book artist. While I'd prefer the treatment, "Graphic Illustrator" I guess we should call it what it really is, hahaha.

Anyway I got in touch with them, there was a waiting period where they went through a slew of applicants and finally got around to telling me that I was one of three strong considerable applicants. This was my fighting chance as out of these three, only ONE will be chosen to be this particular team's illustrator.

Now I'm not hoping I win, whatever happens, happen, but how nice would the chance be, yeah?

It's the first time my work will be looked at in a professional (at least I think so) manner for the consideration of breaking into the biz, or at least taking that one chance that might make all the difference or better yet, prove to myself that I got this far and have practically 'gotten my foot into the door'. I imagine it won't be THAT big of a deal but a man can still dream big...

In any case, the three applicants, myself included, were suggested to draw up a 3-panel sequential segment of a 'test' page, for what I imagine, the team to analyze and decide which of the three illustrators they really want as to who will depict their idea the best and connect with the most.

No dialogue either, just all sequential stuff depicting mood, character development and just an overall sense of story telling, with no words except the insisted 'Meanwhile...' insert for the last panel as was detailed in the outline for this inaugurating project.

They also mentioned that this thing didn't have to be colored, but rather, it could have just been a series of sketches, or at least that's how it seemed to me... but I thought to myself, "What if that just hurts me and makes the people who are willing to take me seriously think I'm not serious if I don't show them what I'm really worth and able to truly perform?"

So with that... I went the extra measure for the sake of saving my own ass, just in case, hahaha! And in this sense, I really hope it pays off... otherwise it'll make it seem like I was just kissing ass and... well... I'd rather not think farther into it than that.

Still, this was really alot of fun to get back into the mix of things after a partial hiatus of crazy events which I'll get into, in a future post... it just wouldn't be right or keen to mention it here. As for this, this is all on the premise of hoping this will be a new chapter, an exciting chapter, in the progress of events yet to come.

(Psssst! I REALLY do hope I get the job!)