Featured Illustration: Talib Kweli

Last night I went to New Era's Flagship store in NYC to meet Talib Kweli. I found out he was going to be there to promote his new album.
I was still on a high after Skyzoo seeing my work and figured I should paint Talib. Things went even better than I expected. Kweli is a humble dude that makes time for fans. I was just surprised he asked me to sign the print for him. You can check out the making of video right here.

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Speed Painting: New York State Of Mind

I just got back from my trip to New York City. I went to see Talib Kweli at The New Era Flagship store. He was signing posters to promote his new album, Gutter Rainbows. Before he arrived I started this painting and then finished it when I got back. I gave Talib a portrait I did of him in Brushes too. That will be posting tomorrow with a YouTube video also.


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Euphony Series: That 70's Girl

It's been a while since I sat down and worked on my Euphony Character series. While working on another piece I got inspired to do this one. I've had the idea for a few months. (Pretty much after I finished Passion.) I just wanted to produce another one in the series when I was ready.Originally I was going for a style that would scream Celebrity Music Star. The afro made it look like she came out of the seventies though so the theme changed. I'm so happy with the results that I did three versions.


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Dream Haven

Recently at The Grove I was taped by Dream Haven. They asked Rose and I about our dreams as artists. Anyway my video is up. It can be viewed here.


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Speed Painting: Beats Solo HD

I am a gigantic Hip Hop head. For Christmas my Mom got me an expensive pair of Beats by Dre headphones. Sorry Apple but those ear buds just don't cut it. Aside from the sound quality I love the design of headphones too. Just before I left work last week I started a quick painting of them. The style I had in mind was the one I used for my Mom's tamales. I've been coloring my comic book exclusively for weeks now so it's nice to switch it up too.


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Apps I Use Daily: Animation Desk

I was very curious about this app when I read about it on Pulse News Reader. Lately I've been trying to expand my repertoire of art apps. This one was just to good to pass up. My major was cartooning but dabbling in other fields only makes you a more well rounded. Plus I have some very good friends that are animators too. I've been using it since Sunday and I'm very impressed. The interface makes animating your frames simple for the most part.

I do have some gripes though. First off there are no layers to speak of. This is going to make coloring each frame harder. Second I'm very surprised that you can't expand your fingers to zoom in on the frames. Last but not least there should definitely be more colors for the palette. it seems like this was aimed at casual creative types but I hope I'm wrong. I would love to have some Sketchbook Pro like features thrown in. Aside from that I look forward to working with this app. Seeing my characters move is pretty amazing.

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Christmas Illustrations for all!

I wanted to give illustrations to my girlfriend and my family for Christmas this year. It was a real challenge getting everything done but nothing beats that Christmas morning astonishment.


For the most part these were made in Brushes for iPad. My Dad's was made in ArtRage to have a painterly effect. I had a blast doing these pieces. It was definitely a learning experience.


It's amazing what you can accomplish when you're under pressure to meet deadlines. Look for videos on these pieces later.


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Speed Painting: Fire

This is my third element speed painting. This painting was done in Brushes. I completed the whole thing on the bus going to the gym. That's another convenient feature of the iPad. I paint practically anywhere. I left my stylus at home so this was tackled with my index finger. It's much easier to finish a painting quickly if you're not using a stylus. I didn't have to worry about accuracy so why not?


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Speed Painting: Water

Element speed painting number two. I felt like rendering this one in ArtRage. I was going to use watercolor but it just renders too slow for my taste in the app.


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Speed Painting: Ice

I put this one together quickly on my break. Definitely inspired by the cold New England weather. It proved to be a nice experiment in layering. Put together in Sketchbook Pro for iPad.


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Featured Illustration: Taz

This one is another illustration for the kids and my third Brushes piece. It's Taz from Looney Tunes. Illustrating him was harder than I anticipated. I think for me drawing cartoony characters is really hard because of the exaggerated anatomy. I ran into the same problem with Princess Sally. I was taught to do things anatomically. I guess these drawings are good practice for me. I want to be able to tackle all sorts of projects. I mean why pigeon hole myself. I want to be able to do whatever inspires me or is asked of me. As always the making of video can be seen here.

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Featured Illustration: Aladdin and Jasmine

I'm still adding kid friendly work to my portfolio when I get the chance. This Sketchbook Pro illustration of Aladdin and Jasmine has been sitting in my gallery. I figured it was time to add some color to it. Being faithful to the movie was paramount. I managed to find great reference from the first movie and I just knocked it out in about an hour. The real pain was getting the hues and stars right.


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Featured Illustration: Kid Charlie

After finishing Waka Flocka Fozzie, Lola Minaj and Bugs-B I wanted to come up with another mash up. Kid Cudi's album cover for Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr. Rager came to mind. While I don't adore his music I did like the symbolism in the album cover. I liked how he portrayed himself as a tragic figure, alone in a dark room and sitting in front of a window to the stars. I wanted to put in place a tortured cartoon character that would mesh with this image.

After a lot of thought I came up with Charlie Brown from Charles Shultz's Peanuts. He definitely fit the bill. Charlie Brown is always getting kicked around by everyone from Lucy to his sister. I knew he would work for this. ArtRage was used to paint him and the background. Sketchbook Pro was used to put in the starry background.


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Featured Illustration: Cook Kirby

I've been into cartoony character illustrations ever since I finished Sade a few weeks ago. For one I need more kid friendly drawings for the SOAR raffles at work. I also want to do my take on certain characters. Everything I do should add variety and quality to my portfolio. I want a portfolio that shows everything I'm capable of. I went with Kirby because he's an iconic Nintendo character. He's actually more difficult to illustrate than I surmised. I ended up scrapping the first draft for a more refined sketch. The cupcake was inspired by my girlfriend's "Kitchen Doll series." You can check that out at http://sitaraonline.blogspot.com.


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Featured Illustration: Human Torch from The Invaders

This is my first real ArtRage painting. I went with The Human Torch from The Marvels series by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. Doing this helped me warm up (no pun intended.) to how the app works. I just love that I can keep my reference in the corner. Blending all the reds and yellows wasn't as difficult. I've always loved painting with oils so that's what I used to tackle this one. Alex Ross has always been an inspiration to me. Perhaps I'll do a series to pay homage to his work.


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Digital art: The iPad as my canvas

Over the past five months since I got my iPad 3G it has become a lot of things for me.(notebook, newspaper, notepad, fitness coach, etc.) The most important role my iPad has taken on has been the role of Digital sketchbook. It took my time to take that leap of faith and go all digital but I'm definitely there. A few nights ago I even proclaimed to my girlfriend that I didn't have any more use for my India Ink. How crazy is that?

As a cartoonist I never imagined giving up Bristol Board, pencils and colored pencils in High School and college. A Bamboo or Wacom Tablet never interested me. Now I'm at the point where illustrating on the iPad is second nature to me. I can draw however I want, whenever I want. Not having to carry around various supplies is incredible. I can literally paint almost anywhere. Hopefully I won't start taking it for granted. Probably not though.


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Featured Illustration: "Super" self portrait

I wanted to illustrate a self portrait but I just didn't know what to use a a picture. My girlfriend snaps plenty of pictures of me but this had to be unique. I asked her to decide. Eventually she cam up with the idea to do something Superman inspired. This illustration came from Superman from the '30's. Rose gave me some great reference. The plan was adapt to this Silver Age cartooning style and pay homage as well. I think it's appropriate that I render a self portrait like this in October too.


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Lamp Still Life

I don't have all the reference for my next project but I still wanted to work on something yesterday. I decided to do a still life of my Mom's lamp. The fitted cap illustration was the piece I had in mind for the style. It's cool to go back to finger painting on the iPad every once and a while.


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Location:Norton Pkwy,New Haven,United States

Wexler Grant Kid

My Mom works at Wexler Grant school in New Haven, Ct. So she asked me on Saturday how long it would take me to illustrate something for her on the iPad. Thankfully I've been practicing. I was able to finish this in one sitting. The illustration was done in Sketchbook and the fonts are from Photogene. It's funny that I realized while doing this that Photogene is great for comic dialogue. Who knew?


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Location:Blake St,New Haven,United States

Artwork for the kiddies

This year I wanted to get more involved with the extra curricular activities at my school. Work has been enjoyable but I wanted to do some art with and for the kids I work with. My Cartooning class is underway now. I. Teach after school on Monday and Tuesday. Also I have been raffling copies of my kid friendlier work too. I gave a student Spongebob already. The next one is Goku versus Superman. There's a raffle every month and I will have another piece for the lucky student. This way I'll keep getting work and possibly get some exposure too. But really it's about rewarding the Troup kids for their hard work.


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Location:Platt St,New Haven,United States