Thoughts?
~ Mark
Thursday, March 31, 2011
4
Decided to do some story boarding tonight, quick sketches for a graphic novel I hope to make someday. I've posted this character in the past (one, two), but anyway, it's called "4".
Thoughts?
~ Mark
Thoughts?
~ Mark
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
How to be a kid...
I'm a sucker for nostalgia... It's a drug for me. I'd like to say something like, "I'd love to crawl back into my 5 year old body", but I'm fairly certain someone would read that and call the cops on me. So let's just say, it'd be nice to relive my childhood. Not in an old-man, "end of my life and I'm full of useless regret", kind of way... Just more of a general desire to return to simplicity. Because when you really think about childhood, it's just simple living. Sure, when you're in it you don't see it. You're stressed over bullies, bad grades, curfews, physical limitations and, of course, getting the same Happy Meal toy you got last week. Yes, I'm aware that there are children who had to deal with REAL issues... But this isn't about them, this is about me and all my upper-middle class white boy problems.
But back to nostalgia. I helped my parents gather some things out of their garage last weekend to bring to the dump and was thrown back in time 20 years. There's an overwhelming sense of familiarity every time I visit my folks... The house they live in is the only house I've ever known. They moved in back in 1981, I was then born in 83'... The greatest housewarming gift anyone could ask for. (Actually, the greatest housewarming gift was received at "La Hacienda del Rio" in Nashua, NH circa 1984... Don't feed a baby Mexican food). Since then, "HOME" for me has always been that house in Derry, NH. I drive my fiance insane calling that house "home" because to her, home is where you live. It's a concept nobody can understand unless they've lived in the same place their whole life. I walk into that place and every room, every corner, every outdoor scent brings with it a flood of memories. I look at the side of the house and remember throwing basketballs against it and teaching myself how to dribble. I look in the bathroom and remember taking baths and pitting your "Ghostbusters" action figures against the dreaded toxic water bubbles. I lie down in my old bedroom and remember sitting at my old desk drawing "Power Rangers" while my DC Talk - Free At Last cassette plays on a Christmas evening.
The point is, it makes me feel like a kid again... And I like that. It's a carefree, relaxing feeling. I then go back to my apartment, go to bed and wake up on a Saturday morning. Still feeling the effects of nostalgia, I turn on the tv to watch some Saturday Morning Cartoons, curious of what kids are watching these days. Oh... what disappointment. I don't know if anyone's already gone on a rant about this, but Kid's shows SUCK nowadays. If it isn't some generic animé CRAP involving trading cards and flashy colors, it's a culturally diverse educational show teaching kids how to speak Lithuanian. It's complete garbage! Not to sound all "Motherland-y", but since when did we start outsourcing all our animation programs to Mexico and Japan?? Yeah, it's a given that America is behind on animation, but COME ON. That was half the charm of our programming, it was just bare-bones, old fashioned entertainment... It didn't have to be GOOD... It just had to be ON!
But I'm not writing this long-winded post to complain about cartoons... I watched the commercials. When I was little, commercials weren't so bad because they were basically a sneak peak of what you were going to ask for come Christmas. Action figures, play sets, NERF weaponry, Super Soakers (I never did get the 200), and two words... CROSS. FIRE. epic. But there's none of that anymore... It's all Yu-Gi-Oh Cards, Video Games and online digital pet/dolls simulation nonsense… When did it become a favored past time to sit in front of a computer and pretend to have a doll? Personally, I love the internet… Without it, I'd be out of a job. But I am SO grateful it wasn't around when I was growing up. I never would have gone outside. Sure, the NES ruined a sunny day or two, but as a kid in the 80s/90s, there were other things to distract me. Like going outside. Or… friends (though that came to a screeching halt once the awkward Middle School years kicked in). I guess digital dolls are weird to me because I grew up in the era of "Action Figures".
My point is, I don't think kids really know how to be kids anymore. Before the internet, we had to force ourselves to be creative. If we were into something, we went outside, pretended we were in that world… We'd dress up, wrestle, explore, make goofy videos with our parents' expensive cameras (and probably break them… getting in trouble is half the fun of being a kid). I don't have kids, so maybe I'm wrong about how they spend their time… I'm just going off of what I see… Which isn't much, as I suspect you can get in trouble sitting around watching kids that aren't yours all day.
I'll touch briefly on being imaginative. Every kid wants to be a superhero, or any kind of hero for that matter. When I was little, I fantasized about hostage situations, running in and saving the day, rescuing the girl. If I was alone, that's where action figures and "Wrestling Buddies" came in. You can't punch your friend in the face, but you can practically murder a stuffed doll, rip out the stuffing and wear its head like a hat when you're done with it. Stuff a "hero" wouldn't do, but this is make-believe, have a little fun with it, be violent… You're a boy for God's sake! And if you couldn't flat out act the scenario out, that's where your action figures came in… Let me tell you, I'm one of the few kids out there who ENJOYED getting sent to their room for misbehaving. That's where my magical toy kingdom lived. I had every batman action figure known to man in there, I had all kinds of craft supplies and drawing utensils. Getting sent to my room meant it's time for mayhem! Nowadays kids just go to their room, sulk, and play XBox when they get released from their bedroom prison.
I TRIED to get in trouble when school was out for the Summer, that way my parents wouldn't get on me about not going outside or spending too much time in my room. Why would I do that in the summer? I'll explain… I loved me some Mortal Kombat when I was little. LOVED it. And every year in the summer, my room became an arena of make-believe death. I held tournaments for my toys. I built spike pits out of cardboard and toothpicks, build arenas out of my desk and a bunch of toy dinosaurs, had action figures ready to burst into pieces on command, and an assortment of visual effects that would make Pan's Labyrinth look like child's play. I had clay for creating "Clay Man", the champion of the toy tournament, I had different torn up colored cotton balls for fake blood, I would even go to those slot machine toy dispensers at the grocery store and buy tons of that rubbery goop that every mom hated because it stains everything it touches and ALWAYS ends up dried to the ceiling. Let's just say if toys could talk… They wouldn't… Because I killed them ALL.
Maybe that's just being a kid… Or maybe those are just the early stages of a sociopath. Either way, I didn't need a Sega Genesis to play with fake violence. Really, whatever games I couldn't play, I just found alternative ways of enjoying them. I didn't NEED video games, I didn't NEED movies and I didn't NEED to spend hours in front of a television. If I was grounded from the NES, I just ran around outside touching flowers, eating leaves and pretending to fly… Which explains a lot I suppose. Me and the other neighborhood kids would dig up rocks and pretend they were Dinosaur bones, we'd go exploring in the woods, we'd have water-gun fights and play in the pool. I'll tell you what we DIDN'T do though… We didn't play stupid card games and collect Pokéballs. The closest thing we had to that were POGs… And we all know how that ended… Quickly.
I know kids still do the things I did, but I just don't understand why it feels like those things have been watered down. Television cartoon violence has been replaced with educational programming, toys have been replaced with online games, and cartoons are little more than animé or animé rip-offs. I'd complain about how they're just used to sell card-games… But then, cartoons have always been used to sell something. In my time it was for action figures and play sets. But those allowed us to be creative, it was something you could actually play with, interact with… All this other stuff is little more than Dungeons & Dragons… or Go Fish. What they should be selling are playing card templates so kids can create their own whatever-mons, let them be creative, use their imagination. You know what? I'm gonna make those and sell them. Don't use that idea…
I'll sue the pants off you!
~ Mark
But back to nostalgia. I helped my parents gather some things out of their garage last weekend to bring to the dump and was thrown back in time 20 years. There's an overwhelming sense of familiarity every time I visit my folks... The house they live in is the only house I've ever known. They moved in back in 1981, I was then born in 83'... The greatest housewarming gift anyone could ask for. (Actually, the greatest housewarming gift was received at "La Hacienda del Rio" in Nashua, NH circa 1984... Don't feed a baby Mexican food). Since then, "HOME" for me has always been that house in Derry, NH. I drive my fiance insane calling that house "home" because to her, home is where you live. It's a concept nobody can understand unless they've lived in the same place their whole life. I walk into that place and every room, every corner, every outdoor scent brings with it a flood of memories. I look at the side of the house and remember throwing basketballs against it and teaching myself how to dribble. I look in the bathroom and remember taking baths and pitting your "Ghostbusters" action figures against the dreaded toxic water bubbles. I lie down in my old bedroom and remember sitting at my old desk drawing "Power Rangers" while my DC Talk - Free At Last cassette plays on a Christmas evening.The point is, it makes me feel like a kid again... And I like that. It's a carefree, relaxing feeling. I then go back to my apartment, go to bed and wake up on a Saturday morning. Still feeling the effects of nostalgia, I turn on the tv to watch some Saturday Morning Cartoons, curious of what kids are watching these days. Oh... what disappointment. I don't know if anyone's already gone on a rant about this, but Kid's shows SUCK nowadays. If it isn't some generic animé CRAP involving trading cards and flashy colors, it's a culturally diverse educational show teaching kids how to speak Lithuanian. It's complete garbage! Not to sound all "Motherland-y", but since when did we start outsourcing all our animation programs to Mexico and Japan?? Yeah, it's a given that America is behind on animation, but COME ON. That was half the charm of our programming, it was just bare-bones, old fashioned entertainment... It didn't have to be GOOD... It just had to be ON!
But I'm not writing this long-winded post to complain about cartoons... I watched the commercials. When I was little, commercials weren't so bad because they were basically a sneak peak of what you were going to ask for come Christmas. Action figures, play sets, NERF weaponry, Super Soakers (I never did get the 200), and two words... CROSS. FIRE. epic. But there's none of that anymore... It's all Yu-Gi-Oh Cards, Video Games and online digital pet/dolls simulation nonsense… When did it become a favored past time to sit in front of a computer and pretend to have a doll? Personally, I love the internet… Without it, I'd be out of a job. But I am SO grateful it wasn't around when I was growing up. I never would have gone outside. Sure, the NES ruined a sunny day or two, but as a kid in the 80s/90s, there were other things to distract me. Like going outside. Or… friends (though that came to a screeching halt once the awkward Middle School years kicked in). I guess digital dolls are weird to me because I grew up in the era of "Action Figures".
My point is, I don't think kids really know how to be kids anymore. Before the internet, we had to force ourselves to be creative. If we were into something, we went outside, pretended we were in that world… We'd dress up, wrestle, explore, make goofy videos with our parents' expensive cameras (and probably break them… getting in trouble is half the fun of being a kid). I don't have kids, so maybe I'm wrong about how they spend their time… I'm just going off of what I see… Which isn't much, as I suspect you can get in trouble sitting around watching kids that aren't yours all day.
I'll touch briefly on being imaginative. Every kid wants to be a superhero, or any kind of hero for that matter. When I was little, I fantasized about hostage situations, running in and saving the day, rescuing the girl. If I was alone, that's where action figures and "Wrestling Buddies" came in. You can't punch your friend in the face, but you can practically murder a stuffed doll, rip out the stuffing and wear its head like a hat when you're done with it. Stuff a "hero" wouldn't do, but this is make-believe, have a little fun with it, be violent… You're a boy for God's sake! And if you couldn't flat out act the scenario out, that's where your action figures came in… Let me tell you, I'm one of the few kids out there who ENJOYED getting sent to their room for misbehaving. That's where my magical toy kingdom lived. I had every batman action figure known to man in there, I had all kinds of craft supplies and drawing utensils. Getting sent to my room meant it's time for mayhem! Nowadays kids just go to their room, sulk, and play XBox when they get released from their bedroom prison.
Maybe that's just being a kid… Or maybe those are just the early stages of a sociopath. Either way, I didn't need a Sega Genesis to play with fake violence. Really, whatever games I couldn't play, I just found alternative ways of enjoying them. I didn't NEED video games, I didn't NEED movies and I didn't NEED to spend hours in front of a television. If I was grounded from the NES, I just ran around outside touching flowers, eating leaves and pretending to fly… Which explains a lot I suppose. Me and the other neighborhood kids would dig up rocks and pretend they were Dinosaur bones, we'd go exploring in the woods, we'd have water-gun fights and play in the pool. I'll tell you what we DIDN'T do though… We didn't play stupid card games and collect Pokéballs. The closest thing we had to that were POGs… And we all know how that ended… Quickly.
I know kids still do the things I did, but I just don't understand why it feels like those things have been watered down. Television cartoon violence has been replaced with educational programming, toys have been replaced with online games, and cartoons are little more than animé or animé rip-offs. I'd complain about how they're just used to sell card-games… But then, cartoons have always been used to sell something. In my time it was for action figures and play sets. But those allowed us to be creative, it was something you could actually play with, interact with… All this other stuff is little more than Dungeons & Dragons… or Go Fish. What they should be selling are playing card templates so kids can create their own whatever-mons, let them be creative, use their imagination. You know what? I'm gonna make those and sell them. Don't use that idea…
I'll sue the pants off you!
~ Mark
Thursday, March 24, 2011
more promotionals for something you won't see in a lil' while...
~ Mark
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Some Sketches...
I was going through some old piles of paper, doodles and sketchbooks and found a few gems that I had all but forgotten about... The first is this pile of frogs. I drew it for someone who liked frogs. Y'know, there's really not a whole lot to say about it, I just drew some dang frogs. I think I found the photo it's based on somewhere on google images...
This next one was something I whipped up for a girl who sang... music... Obviously hasn't gotten anywhere with it otherwise I'd just be linking to her on wikipedia, in the meantime we'll just call her music girl... And this was her logo... That was never officially a logo... Basic Black & White...
Aaaaand up next! This is a guitar which has apparently been completely ignited by the holy spirit. It looks all 90's glow-in-the-dark... ish. There's no logic behind that. I just like making things glow. Next stop, my teeth!
Last but not least... Though technically it is least, because I spent the least amount of time preparing this one for the web. We have a tree that I titled "Branches in the Shadows"... It's pretty much a ghost tree... But in black & white. I think it was a season of negative space for me.
Thus concludes my random sketches.
~ Mark
Last but not least... Though technically it is least, because I spent the least amount of time preparing this one for the web. We have a tree that I titled "Branches in the Shadows"... It's pretty much a ghost tree... But in black & white. I think it was a season of negative space for me.
~ Mark
Coloring Book!
So at the suggestion of my good friend Kevin, I've started de-colorizing some of my drawings and I'm making them into a coloring book of sorts. I'm featuring them on Six AM Comics if anyone's interested. Just download, print and color!
And if you want, email me with the results of your coloring adventures, I'd be curious to see em'.
Here's one of them (probably the best):
Color away!
~ Mark
And if you want, email me with the results of your coloring adventures, I'd be curious to see em'.
Here's one of them (probably the best):
~ Mark
WWF Threadless Design
Looks like I got another design in on Threadless... Please score it/vote for it/whatever you gotta' do to get it printed! I NEEDS IT!!
http://www.threadless.com/submission/330841/Remembering_the_True_Titans
Yeah... Vote it up! Unless you want me to keep wasting my time with these posts;)
~ Mark
http://www.threadless.com/submission/330841/Remembering_the_True_Titans
~ Mark
Monday, March 21, 2011
PLEASE HELP!
Okay, so my design finally made it through... Please vote/score for this design like a fiend! PLEASE OH PLEASE!
http://threadless.com/submission/330417/Connoisseurus_Rex
Love you long time,
~ Mark
http://threadless.com/submission/330417/Connoisseurus_Rex
Love you long time,
~ Mark
Threadless... Round 3
So I don't know what the outcome of this will be... I imagine I'll be declined. Like the last two times... But here's hopin'! Tell them you like it!!
I'm sure you've seen this drawing before, but not colorized... And on a shirt!
Rawwrrr... delicious.
~ Mark
I'm sure you've seen this drawing before, but not colorized... And on a shirt!
Rawwrrr... delicious.
~ Mark
Friday, March 18, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
NO st. patty's WAY
Well I'm not celebrating any holiday that I don't get work off for. NO WAY!
I'm Italian. The Irish half of me is debatable and quite possibly Scottish. I don't like beer. It tastes like what I can only imagine must be pee.
I'm wearing blue today. No green. I'm not even going to pick my nose. Though, I might just give myself a nosebleed because blood is Red... Which is the opposite of green.
I'm working today. I don't get to make a fool of myself at the local pub. I don't even have the opportunity to buy a Shamrock Shake from McDonalds (Which, given the "Mc" in the name, I will not be eating at either this evening).
But Mark, why not just wait till' five and go celebrate? Because by five all the drunk idiots that also had to work today will be out and about flooding the streets of Portsmouth and making my life miserable! I'm probably going to be up all night listening to the frat boys next door act exactly you'd expect them to act. Fortunately for me, they're probably going to flunk out of school and die in an alley way buying crack.
...
And this makes me happy. Because I'm working, and they're drinking.
~ Mark
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
AWESOME! - Peanut Butter
Now I'm not going to lie, you give me a spoon and three jars of JIF, you can lock me up for a week and won't hear a peep. I don't need no bread, I don't need no celery n' raisins. I'll eat that succulent veggie byproduct raw and untainted with a song in my heart... But only in my heart, cause I don't know if you've tried it, but singing with peanut butter in your mouth is tricky. I am but a man... A man who loves Peanut Butter.
I'm technically of the "JIF" persuasion, but in desperate times I'll resort to Peter Pan... And in VERY desperate times, I'll even submit to the generic store brand... Only a real Peanut Butter junky can withstand the bland flavor of Shaw's Butter. Or Hannabutter... Or whatever they tastelessly name it. I'm not even sure it's made out of peanuts. But even in times of lesser known butters, it's just another reason to bring my mind to a place where I immerse myself in a tub of JIF, let it seep into my pores, become ONE with that dark, golden goodness...
Then, like a peanut warrior rise from the warmth of its embrace to conquer kingdoms, wrestling with the likes of various Jelly's and Fluffernutters in the most epic and heroic of fashions!
YES TAKE ME THERE! I WILL FIGHT FOR YOU, MY PRECIOUS!!
It is in that moment that I chomp down on a delicious PB&J (and/or Fluff and/or Nutella) and relive my youth in the calmest of tranquility... Oh Peanut Butter. You are truly awesome indeed.
Taste buds out,
~ Mark
Yes, No, Maybe so...
Quick sketch based off a drawing I made back in college... It basically sums up my life of prayer for many years in regards to the unknown.
Ah, mysterious ways indeed...
~ Mark
Ah, mysterious ways indeed...
~ Mark
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Veggie Zombies
So at the request of my good friend Seema, I made this t-shirt design... The catch phrase was her idea... The drawing was sadly all me... I'm not sure this is what she had in mind, but this is all I could think about when she wrote it... Hope you like it!
Go ahead and click the images for larger views...
Greeeennnsss!
~ Mark
Go ahead and click the images for larger views...
~ Mark
Friday, March 11, 2011
Mecha-Trout Rejected!!
Threadless, you are a vicious fascist with a heart of ice... Probably why I love you so much...
Yet again, my feeble attempts to be recognized by the abusive, drunk significant other that is Threadless.com have ended in cruel defeat and utter humiliation. And by that I mean my art got declined AGAIN.
Oh well... I'll just order my own dang t-shirt and sell it. I'mma' call it Threadfull! Jerks.
Seriously, Threadless, you are a favoring jack-hole... Call me!
Threadlessly delicious!
~ Mark
Yet again, my feeble attempts to be recognized by the abusive, drunk significant other that is Threadless.com have ended in cruel defeat and utter humiliation. And by that I mean my art got declined AGAIN.
Oh well... I'll just order my own dang t-shirt and sell it. I'mma' call it Threadfull! Jerks.
Seriously, Threadless, you are a favoring jack-hole... Call me!
Threadlessly delicious!
~ Mark
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Six AM Comics Updates
Not sure if I can really advertise this website enough...
I've made a couple of updates to Six Am Comics including avatars for me, Kevin and Dan for use with the news page... The news will function more like a blog from now on, providing updates and explanations for whatever artwork is uploaded to the site... Originally it was auto-updating the news... Very poorly.
I guess this isn't much of a blog... But I gots nothin' else to show ya... So here's our avatars!
Three's Company Too!
~ Mark
I've made a couple of updates to Six Am Comics including avatars for me, Kevin and Dan for use with the news page... The news will function more like a blog from now on, providing updates and explanations for whatever artwork is uploaded to the site... Originally it was auto-updating the news... Very poorly.
I guess this isn't much of a blog... But I gots nothin' else to show ya... So here's our avatars!
Three's Company Too!
~ Mark
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sonuva Nark Updates
Finished up Nark's basic attacks... All that's left is an updated finisher and a couple stances... Included in the updates are a second jump attack, a second special move utilizing Nark's ability to create "art" and finally a new throw where he erases time, reaches through it and pulls his enemy through... Sounds cooler than it probably looks...
Go ahead and click the image to view the animation:
Erased!
~ Mark
Sonuva by Mark Marianelli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Go ahead and click the image to view the animation:
Erased!
~ Mark
Sonuva by Mark Marianelli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Sonuva: Archfiend
I believe... This is the last fighter in the Son'Uva lineup. Archfiend.
He's sort of a spaceman meets demon meets circus act... And he flies!
Batteries not included,
~ Mark
Sonuva by Mark Marianelli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
He's sort of a spaceman meets demon meets circus act... And he flies!
Batteries not included,
~ Mark
Sonuva by Mark Marianelli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Sonuva: Nark
Promotional Art for "Nark"... He's scribbling!
Scribble Scrabble,
~ Mark
Sonuva by Mark Marianelli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Scribble Scrabble,
~ Mark
Sonuva by Mark Marianelli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Sonuva: Jack
Did me some drawin' for good ol' Jack! The everyman of Son'Uva, he's an Irish Bostonian with an axe to grind... or rather a baseball bat.
But enough about that, heeeeere's... Jack.
Go Sox! ... Or whatever it is you Bostonians say,
~ Mark
Sonuva by Mark Marianelli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
But enough about that, heeeeere's... Jack.
Go Sox! ... Or whatever it is you Bostonians say,
~ Mark
Sonuva by Mark Marianelli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Sonuva: Nark Mask
I don't know... Originally I designed him with a mask. I think I like it. Though he kind of looks like the Predator now... Like an art Predator... If only they used their technology for good. They'd be great pioneers in the web design world.
Here was the original design from way back when...
Thoughts?
~ Mark
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