The Bending Tree

So my good friend Daniel Griswold has been writing a series of poems about New England... sort of an artistic farewell he began working on before he moved to South Carolina for a Youth Ministry position... yes, he left me. Very sad indeed. For some reason saving young people's lives was more important than playing Wii with me... go figure. But anyway, he asked me to make some illustrations for his poems with the intentions of publishing them. DG is a very talented artist, so I'm still a little flattered that he asked me to illustrate these for him... once I get off cloud 9 I'll finish the rest of the drawings. In the meantime, here's the first illustration for a poem of his titled "The Bending Tree"...


If anybody has lived in New England, they're familiar with the concept of that one out-of-place, looks older than your grandfather (and equally as senile) tree which stands curiously proud in the corner of a landscape filled with symmetrical, flourishing and almost cult-like green, glorious trees by a broken down stone wall. I won't post the poem on here because that's Dan's property and I don't want someone stealing it or even thinking I, myself, wrote it. If you want to read it, than wait for the book... or contact Dan over at his blog.

The idea behind the illustration (aside from being about Dan's poem) is how if one were to speak to that old, decrepit tree it would say that it is proud to be where it is, and the way that it is. It's dying branches would become earth again and help to grow newer trees... the tree is happy that it is the way it is, not wanting anything more than to be. So the picture is meant to portray that pride in what others may perceive as one's flaws.

Bendy, bendy, bendy,
~ Mark

You have done well, Grasshopper

I made this whilst I was very bored this evening. I had drawn a picture in college of a grasshopper defeating a bunch of ninjas with an old man saying, "You have done well, Grasshopper"... a little tribute to the original Kung Fu series. I've been wanting to remake that picture for a while, this was the result of that need...

I couldn't sleep until I drew this... now that it's finished, I still don't really want to go to sleep... perhaps this drawing wasn't the source of my awakeness...

In any case, I think it's a fun little concept. I also made another version of this using the same images, just formatted differently to a different size and feel.

Now that I look at it... it resembles a Celtics Ad... Oh well, I think I'm safe, Grasshoppers and The Celtics only have the color green in common... if that's a problem, than Fidelity has a huge problem on their hands... and so does St Patrick's day... never really thought about suing a holiday... I can probably make some big bucks off that.

I'd like to call St. Patty to the Stand, Your Honor,
~ Mark

Tralse

This is a logo design I did for my buddy Dan Gillepsie. Dan is a musical genius and he's been working on a project called "Tranisit 161". It's an electronic music project named after the transportation system he uses in NYC. Dan emailed me a few weeks ago and asked me to design a logo for him which was based off of a symbol he and his friend Ahmed used to use when they were in school called the "Tralse"... I think the concept is a common one for anybody who sucked at True/False questions, basically it's a "T" with a mark next to it which makes it look like it's an "F"... but it also looks like "T" with a random pencil mark which may or may not have been an accident... very tricky for a teacher and easily argued by a student.

The image on the right is a lovely example of this marvel in student testing. The idea behind using the "Tralse" for the logo came from Dan not wanting his music to be restricted to any one idea or concept, leaving the meaning behind it to the listener rather than the musician. I think there may have been some other reasons in there, but I was already thinking of ideas for the image by the time he started explaining it to me... I have a short attention span...

What I did with the "Tralse" logo was have it be a cluster of ideas. It starts as a tree which changes to a tentacle wrapping itself around a piano key which has other piano keys floating from it, the top piano key forms the shape of half a guitar with mushrooms forming the tuners at the end of it. The roots of the tree engulf and weave throughout an island and by the time you get to the bottom of the floating mass you notice the roots and dirt have formed some kind of a veiny levitating heart. The city behind the tree was created using audio level lights to help tie the image back to music... the city is the skyline of NYC... which goes back to the whole"Transit 161" title.

All in all, it came out pretty cool, it was nice to do something out of left field... which I haven't done in a while. This project was a lot of fun... Thank you Daniel and your 161st Transit.

Next stop,
~Mark

Reaper Remake

In a previous post I mentioned briefly that I would be redoing my graphic novel, "The Reaper"... I've begun story-boarding the new take on it in the hopes that I can finally create it in the fashion of my original vision... which I know, George Lucas used the term "original vision" A LOT while he was destroying his once loved franchise and smearing it in the face of his once loyal public... I, on the other hand, actually had a very good idea originally... what was ultimately created was a shadow of this. But in any case, I've done a good chunk of work on this to date, but I'll just show off a few things I was playing around with... which may or may not be used in the end...

First of all, new Canaanite Logo... the original logo resembled the Crescent Moon of Islam just a little too much, I'm not about to associate myself with that sort of mockery, this novel was never supposed to have any religious propaganda, but it came off a little anti-Muslim as I was rushing to throw some Canaan imagery together... if anything, it was supposed to be more reminiscent of Soviet Communism... So I'm rectifying that mistake... The image is the profile shot of a Ram's head. It's the most common imagery associated with the Canaanites of the bible that I could find, and generally, there's something sinister about the imagery of a ram's head... they do look a little evil... Ram's and Goats... But at the end of the day, the most sadistic animal, in my opinion, is the Squirrel... I'm serious, don't trust them.

Given this new logo, I decided since the "reaper" in the comic is basically smearing out Canaanite Leaders, the book's logo should represent that a little more... So I used a few ideas from the original look of the titles in the book and mixed it with the concept of wiping out Canaanite heads... This also captures the look and feel of the novel, which was best represented in some of the earlier pages of the the last attempt... and I know you ALL read it... just download the pdf from the last post already!

There's a new character I'm adding to the story named Samson, if you've read any of my other posts or browsed around the sketches in my portfolio, you've probably come across this figure. I originally drew him for a friend's band, but that idea ended up falling through, so I started to doodle him a lot more in the hopes I could use him for something. I know, the name Samson isn't all that original, but the graphic novel is a loose interpretation of the biblical Book of Judges... Samson was a judge, hence, he's going to have a counterpart in the story... I don't think I need to worry about a lawsuit from him, right?

All the character's names come from Judges... including the character "Barak"... no. No, no, and NO. He is in no way a representation of Obama. I created his character in 2006(I'm from NH, I didn't even know who the man was until last year), and the Book of Judges named him WAY before the President's time. So I ask that nobody even allow the thought to enter their head that Barak is in any way, shape or form related to the President. Please. Pretty Please. The fact that he is African American is a coincidence. So don't. Aight? Good.

I've created a little promotional image for the novel... more like a rough sketch with color.


So yeah, just a little update on what I've been working on. I hope to start making some serious progress on this, it's something I've really wanted to do for a long time.

I said don't!
~ Mark

Playing Cards

I was going through some files on an older computer of mine from college and came across a project I had all but forgotten about. I don't remember why it was I had made these, but I think it had something to do with one of my finals. These were my take on playing cards... a topic with which I am completely inexperienced, but I like to pretend I know something about from time to time... I'm a "Go Fish" master... almost as much as I am a "War" veteran. Yeah, I like games which require little to no talent... it's where I shine.

In any case, these really stuck out to me because of how deranged some of them were... not Todd McFarlane deranged, just a little twisted... Tim Burton twisted... i.e. PG-13 twisted. But creative nonetheless. It's your basic, make numbers and letters out of creatures and figures, a few of them could have come out a little better, but then, this had to have been almost 4 years ago now... I'm clearly more awesome then this shell of my former skills now... you can stop laughing now. You're a terrible bluffer.

I may do more with these down the road, it was inspiring to find these...

I fold,
~ Mark

City of Heroes

So yes, my brother is getting married today! Now, you may be thinking, what does that have to do with this picture of superheroes being strangled by a giant octopus? Well, you can either assume that it means marriage will squeeze the life out of him... which may or may not be an appropriate assumption... or you can guess the other obvious answer (based on 90% of my portfolio posts)... which is that I made this for him as a gift. Now, this isn't his wedding gift necessarily... that would be out of place... no, I bought him a spice rack... whatever, it was in the registry. But I figured I'd make him a drawing to sweeten the gift pot. We used to (and still do from time to time) play a game called "City of Heroes"... which is basically your typical online game where you run around, get levels, be a nerd... only this game is awesome because you design and create your very own unique superhero. In this case, Brian (my brother) was Sexy Stud, and I was Azriel Reaper... which wasn't really all that funny by comparison, but he was an awesome character. There was a giant octopus in the game as well that you had to fight. It was an epic battle. We used these characters from 2004–2006... which is when we retired them for "Villains". I intend to make two more of these pictures for him each with our other characters from various years. Dorky or not, they're fun to draw and a lot more colorful then most of the stuff I make. It's like a breath of fresh air.

Anyway, I have to get ready for a wedding! Oh yeah, 100 degree Texas whether and heavy tuxes. Should be a ball.

Here comes the groomsman,
~ Mark

Moose

A few years back I made this drawing for my parents to have for there lake house out in the boonies. They had been decorating every inch of the place with moose and moose paraphernalia. Giving it that New Hampshire feel... because we apparently are abundant in Moose... Mooses? I don't know, I've lived here my whole life and I'm still yet to see one. I hear tales of this mythical creature hitting cars and causing pile ups... but as far as I'm concerned, they live at the bottom of the Loch Ness with all their other magical friends.

But I digress.

Because I made this drawing right around my dad's birthday, I figured I'd pay homage to him and add a pair of nose glasses to one of the moose butts... you may be wondering why the moose's back is shaved. Well, my dad is bald. And wears glasses. And has a mustache. It's amazing what sites you'll find if you get out of the house...

Nature is beautiful,
~ Mark