Saturday, May 21, 2011

Coming soon


What's this? A mysterious project I'm working on and no additional information? How tantalizing!

My ode to Alexander Rodchenko



"The War of the Future" by Alexander Rodchenko
Okay, first off, I LOVE propaganda posters. WWI, WWII, Modern, you name it; I just find them fascinating.
But there's a special place in my (very cold) heart for Soviet Russia propaganda posters. There's just something about the colours, the geometric, minimalistic style, dramatic angles and heavy, bold font that appeals to me.

Anyway, for our final project in The History of Illustration we where all given an image by an artist from the last century and where to analyze the style of the actual image, the artist, and the social/political climate of the time: so basically any and everything surrounding this image. My image was named "The War of the Future" and was created by a Russian man by the name of Alexander Rodchenko.
Now, before this project I had no idea who the artist(s) that created all those old Soviet posters where; I just knew that I really really liked their work. So, by an incredible stroke of luck, I get to research the granddaddy of all those old posters that I love so much.
Anyway, I could go on and on about Rodchenko, but instead I'll just say his work has been a huge inspiration to me and the above poster was completely inspired by him and others of the Russian Constructivist movement.

As well as a challenge issued from Brian Best.

(PS: I am not talking about Alexander Rodchenko from Star Trek: TNG)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

We've been learning so much about Sigmund Freud in Psych that I had to do this in class.
Special thanks to the Action Figure Freud for the reference (yes I have a Sigmund Freud action figure).











A load of digital paintings for classes at Sheridan. The project is to make a 12-month calender and I wanted to do a sci-fi one (the first fun project we've had an opportunity to do). Overall they are very rough and rushed i'd say, most only took me about 2-3 hrs a piece (I would have loved to spend more time on them, but there's simply to much else going on). a couple are really good i think but overall, this has been more of a learning experience for me in digital paintings, something I hope to continue over the summer, so stay tuned folks!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Bloodghast: MtG alterations




Extended art of Mtg's Bloodghast from the Zendikar block.
Done for a client at the local hobby store here in Milton :
(http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5890075263 )

Going to start doing a couple more extensions/alterations soon I think, it was rather fun!
And how cool would it be to show up to a tourniment with a deck full of full-art cards (the best kind of card Wizards! Hint hint, nudge nudge)?

Now, unfortunately I can't take all the credit here; the original art for Bloodghast is done by 'Daarken'
(Real name? idk, but it's cool) who is fantastic by the way.
Bloodghast, Zendikar, Magic:the Gathering and all other registered trademarks are the property of
Wizards of the Coast.

Interested in having some custom art extensions done for your cards?
Send me a request at gentlemanoctopus@gmail.com and we'll work something out!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011





Watercolour I did of Tali'Zora Vas Normandy a couple months back, finally happy (enough) with it to post it.
Took a long bloody time!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Poe





I found out recently that it was Edgar Allen Poe's birthday (or anniversary of his death, I can't remember) a couple of weeks ago and decided to mark the occasion with a quick poster for/inspired by 'The Raven".
Took maybe an hour or so in Illustrator, it was fun!

Monday, January 10, 2011

not seen here:
Jon - Noah, stop drawing bugs!
Noah- FUCK YOU JOHN!!!








In celebration of the first day of the second semester of Illustration at Sheridan, IT'S ART DUMP TIME!
above are just some stuff I had lying around in my sketchbook. Because I was bored.

watercolours






Saturday, January 1, 2011

Black Swan

First off, Black Swan is brilliant and you should drop whatever you are doing, find the closest theater playing it and go watch it. Right now.
Stop reading this post, and go watch it.

Ok, I'm going to assume that you followed my instructions and watched Black Swan. Pritty good huh?
That has to be the best psychological drama/horror film I have ever seen. Everything in the sets reflects the breakdown of Natalie Portman's character, the pacing and acting are brilliant, and the use of special effects is subtle and only adds to the increasing delusions and frame of mind of Natalie's character. I won't ruin the movie for you if you didn't actually listen to me (but you should. Always.) but the Black Swan gives such an interesting and convincing portrayal of someone incredibly obsessive going insane and does it so well I was on the edge of my seat the entire film. And Natalie Portman sells it. She has undoubtedly just given the best preformance of her career and I will be most upset if she doesn't win a million awards for it.
Also on a more misogynistic note, the dancers (and Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis) have AMAZING bodies. Like, holy Jesus in a birch-bark canoe, amazing. wow.
Ok, done with that part. Go see it. I cannot recommend it enough.