Touching and tweaking.

Fatherhood has been the dominating factor and sole time consumer these days.

I like to get in and work on personal projects when I have time, but that has been far few in between. 

I get the baby to sleep and work on art when I can. It usually leaves me up well into the early hours of the am. I average about 4 hours of sleep on these design nights. Continuing the Risk VS Reward design project, here is the "jockey" design for the piece. 

Izzy's room update...

"More clouds daddy. It needs more clouds" 

"Fun" to mount on to the wall. 

So the last post was Photoshop & here's the real deal. I already can see that there is going to be a call for more clouds in smaller sizes like I did in the mock up. To see it fully fleshed out in front of you makes the difference & so would the smaller clouds. So it's back to the vinyl cutter machine hopefully tomorrow so I can make the revisions as such. As always, stay tuned.

Wrapping up Izzy's room...

*Click image to enlarge.

So this is the design I'm going to go with for Izzy's room. I made some changes from the first design I did for the baby shower and elongated the body of the dragon to cover more design space and to look more playful. I painted her playroom and the two shades of blue work out really nice I think the white clouds will be a nice balance to help things really pop. Measurements to be taken and the finished product should be done by tomorrow.

It's been quite a while since I've posted on the site. Fatherhood & work has kept me busy.

With the new addition to the family, Isabella has had me wrapped around her finger ever since she popped into the world almost 4 months ago, but with a face like this:

You can see why I wrap around so easily. 

Been off the grid...

                       Update to follow soon, but for now... FOOTBALL SEASON IS BACK!!

TEAM Yak Bidawz for the fantasy football win!

Long over due update...

According to the Blogspot my last update was April 12. Quite a bit has happened since then that's for sure. some designs in the works and a few new sneakers, but my biggest project is ongoing... forever.

Meet Isabella Christine Barron

My Greatest Masterpiece. 

Preparations abound & the "BOF" logo.

It's been a second since I've updated. The apt is currently undergoing baby transformation mode and my work space has been migrating to various places in the apt according to need. Couple that with the fact we've been prepping for the baby shower & it's made for minimal creative goings... sort of.

I managed to eek out a requested logo.

"As A Batter Of Fact" Logo ©2012 Lori Palencia 

I put together some quick shirt compositions for a client interview. * Click to enlarge images.

Client: 555 Soul NYC ©2012 Che Barron 

I've been making an effort to go back to my roots and going back to the graffiti. Here's a work in progress.

I still have a bit more to tweek on this obviously. I want to expand vastly on this & perhaps I can pull some collaboration in from some old friends.

Stay tuned.

Being expressive err...Part 3.5???

I followed up my first design of Jugoya with a full body design layout with a play on the Japanese characters for Tengu. I'm still not sure if I'm gonna run with the laser scopes, but I figured I would give it a go just because. I'm still not 100% sold on my font layout just yet but I'm getting closer methinks. As usual, stay tuned...

*Click to Enlarge

*Click to enlarge 

Post expressive...JUST BLAZE!!!

I've been in a Japan mood since I've been prepping & working on the "Jugoya" character designs.
I've been digging through more of my old artwork and archived custom work and I found some pics of customs I did during my Manhattan Records days. These were customs done for an album release of a Japan only exclusive by Just Blaze. Shout to Take and the gang in Shibuya.

*Click to enlarge

*Click to enlarge

Being expressive Part 3

*Click to enlarge

This is the version 2 character mock up I made for Jugoya I went to make him more "cartoonish".
Stay tuned...

Being expressive Pt2.

*Click to Enlarge

Continuing with the character design theme, I'm showcasing my second set of expression sheets for one of my more mature themed characters. The character Jugoya is one I have had in the books for a long time. One of the few characters I have an avid backstory for, but never sought to develop him fully. I would need a good writer to help me on this one and someone aptly knowledgeable in Japanese culture. More previews to come soon.

Being expressive...

Click to enlarge

Here's some work in progress. In addition to the "Ruckus" vectors I posted in the previous entry I'm working on some character rotations and expressions for some kid character designs I want to add to my portfolio. Hair can be a pain the the butt and it's common for most cartoons to have characters to face at a quarter angle for relative space arrangement, but since my character is a Whirling Dervish, I'm going to have to have him drawn at more extensive angles.  More images to follow.

The "Ruckus" works.

©2012 Ihsan Thompson

©2012 Ihsan Thompson

©2012 Ihsan Thompson

Back in 09' I did a collab piece with my long time friend and fellow artist Ihsan Thompson. He's had a pet project in the works for many years and is in process of finally putting together his comic book.
These are some of the designs of pencil and marker comps that I'm working on in vector that I plan to color. These images will be apart of a collection of art that will serve as a companion piece to the up coming comic book series.
Stay Tuned
Ruckus / Justice Sabre ©1998-2012 Ihsan A Thompson/Truth 0ne

天狗!!! Oh those Heavenly Dogs!

I've always been an anime/ manga /chambara (samurai films) nut.
I grew up thinking ninjas ruled & obsessed over Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden. I read up on what I could in high school on Japanese culture, but didn't get full exposure until my college days. I was able to meet many diverse friends and get insight into their cultures. Relationships I still have til' this day. Yoichiro Tagiri was the first person to give me clear insight into Japanese legends and folklore. He told me stories about the various creatures in Japanese folklore. The Yamauba, Oni and Tengu. I found the Tengu to be the most interesting of all the creatures. I saw them depicted as bad ass bird- like warrior monks. A saw the other various incarnations in design where some had the long noses and others that looked full on like birds. I even created a character with Yoichiro based on his whole folklore, but gave him a modernized story( I have the sketches somewhere I'll have to dig them up). Which brings me to what you see here. Above is the concept sketch. And below...

Click to Enlarge

This is the B&W inking of a tattoo design that plans to be a tattoo. Not for me of course (I have another idea in mind for myself). My cousin Mike is looking to get some fresh ink done and I'm on design.  My good buddy and fellow art class mate from high school Seth Mushrush is doing the handy work this weekend at the Philly Tattoo Convention. I made it a point to keep as simple a inking as possible for him so that he could have a simple base to work from.  but I plan to go in and do a colorized version of this image myself for a bit of compare and contrast.

Cupid's Art of War

Click to enlarge

This is a case of "Oh shit, I forgot all about this!" aka My Bad Danny!

I put this design together around the middle of last year for a good friend of mine Brazen who has been working on producing his solo project entitled:

"Cupid's Art of War"  which focuses on a more "militant minded" Cupid and his attempts at instilling romance in a modern day society. Needless to say, by the cover design, it looks like a loosing battle. Or is it? 

迎春接福!!!

"Tsui Lung" * Click to enlarge. 

Happy Chinese New Year. May you meet new happiness! This is the design I put together for baby's room. We are celebrating the water dragon this year so I went with a strong blue motif. The wife and I decided we didn't want to go stereotypical pink seeing as we are having a girl so this works out perfectly! Back with some more scribble soon!

2012 in full effect.

It's 2012 and my greatest creation is in the works. This is the sneak preview. 

She's going to be daddy's little dragon.