Light, Sweet Crude
For about a year and a half now I've been working with Shof and a mutual friend named Chris Feliciano Arnold on a new comic adaptation, a political thriller called Light, Sweet Crude. Last week we were able to get the first 8 pages together and show the comic off at Comic Con (by we, I mean Shof and Chris, I stayed put in Manila).
If you'd like to have a closer look and flip through the first 8 pages, you can do so here. Chris wrote the story and script, adapted from a short story he wrote and got published in Playboy in 2009. Shof did all the art, and I'm doing consultation on the project.
If you'd like to have a closer look and flip through the first 8 pages, you can do so here. Chris wrote the story and script, adapted from a short story he wrote and got published in Playboy in 2009. Shof did all the art, and I'm doing consultation on the project.
Much ablog about nothing.
For the past few weeks I've been feeling increasingly frustrated. I want to blog, but I can't figure out what to blog about. Everything seems so downright trivial! Well, not to me, to me it's actually important, but if I were not me and I was reading about the things the real me isn't blogging about, I'm pretty sure they'd be trivial.
There's that, and there's the fact that I whenever I think about something truly blogworthy, I'd much rather be lying down.
Enough! Let's get to the good stuff. Some time back I promised that I'd write about the process of creating a web comic I've been working on, the page below has actually been done for a few months but I'm only now getting around to posting it. I've got a new computer set up here in the Philippines and will at last be getting back to the project. This is actually a page from a third of the way into the book - I decided to start on page 11 you see. There's no text yet (apart from a font style test in the first panel), I hope to post more over the coming weekend.
Visions of the Gods.
I'm not entirely sure when this became an "art only" blog, it was never intended as such, it's always been my intention to write about the things that interest me day in and day out, so I'm going back to that.
That said, this new post is in fact, art related.
A little while back I decided that if I wanted to finish a project I've been thinking about for the past 12 years, then I'd have to actually start working on it (shock, awe). As such I've recently started work again on a project that I've called, for a long time now, Visions of the Gods, a name which barely seems appropriate these days as the story and tone have changed quite a bit, but a name which I'll probably end up keeping just because I'm too lazy to think of anything else.
Visions of the Gods or "Visions" for short, started out as something of an African take on Lord of the Rings, of course, this was before I decided I wasn't smart enough to attempt that. Over the years Visions has changed multiple times as I tried to figure out what sort of representation African comics and Nigerian comics needed.
There was a lot of stopping and starting along the way, and I've finally come to the decision that instead of working on what I thought was needed, I should just work the way I wanted (what a novel idea!). The result is hopefully something that mixes pulp and whimsy in equal measure, my two favorite things you see, I'm also hoping to make it an ongoing web series, posting pages sporadically as I finish them.
I've got an old script from about 2 or 3 years ago that I'm using as a spine, but I'm kind of winging it, and I'm trying to enjoy the process and learn from it.
From this point on, I'm going to be posting as much as I can about the process of writing and drawing Visions, in an attempt to chronicle the difficulty of creating a comic for any other artists struggling with similar endeavours. I'll also be talking about the decisions I make with my art and writing, why I make them, and it'll hopefully also be a cool little visual log of how my art changes over the course of the project.
Here's a panel from the page I'm currently working on.
That said, this new post is in fact, art related.
A little while back I decided that if I wanted to finish a project I've been thinking about for the past 12 years, then I'd have to actually start working on it (shock, awe). As such I've recently started work again on a project that I've called, for a long time now, Visions of the Gods, a name which barely seems appropriate these days as the story and tone have changed quite a bit, but a name which I'll probably end up keeping just because I'm too lazy to think of anything else.
Visions of the Gods or "Visions" for short, started out as something of an African take on Lord of the Rings, of course, this was before I decided I wasn't smart enough to attempt that. Over the years Visions has changed multiple times as I tried to figure out what sort of representation African comics and Nigerian comics needed.
There was a lot of stopping and starting along the way, and I've finally come to the decision that instead of working on what I thought was needed, I should just work the way I wanted (what a novel idea!). The result is hopefully something that mixes pulp and whimsy in equal measure, my two favorite things you see, I'm also hoping to make it an ongoing web series, posting pages sporadically as I finish them.
I've got an old script from about 2 or 3 years ago that I'm using as a spine, but I'm kind of winging it, and I'm trying to enjoy the process and learn from it.
From this point on, I'm going to be posting as much as I can about the process of writing and drawing Visions, in an attempt to chronicle the difficulty of creating a comic for any other artists struggling with similar endeavours. I'll also be talking about the decisions I make with my art and writing, why I make them, and it'll hopefully also be a cool little visual log of how my art changes over the course of the project.
Here's a panel from the page I'm currently working on.
Today, Nigeria turns 50. Here's some Jupiter Jonah.
So here's something Shof and I whipped up in time to post on Nigeria's 50th anniversary of independence. As you can see, it features almost the entire main cast of Jupiter Jonah and the Eye of Oduduwa (lovingly rendered by my good brother). From left to right, there's the pirate trio of Denarii, Blass and Rashidi, and then the scourge of the seven systems, Captain Stein, Jonah himself, Prospero the gladiator, and Funlola, the renegade.
As a bonus, it's even tricked out in green, white and green! Be sure to check out Shof's blog, he's got another wallpaper he put together to commemorate today :)
As a bonus, it's even tricked out in green, white and green! Be sure to check out Shof's blog, he's got another wallpaper he put together to commemorate today :)
A mural for Greensprings
Greensprings, for those that don't know, is my old high school. I have fond memories of Greensprings, mostly involving games of frantic football in the classrooms... with Fashionable Fashionate's bunched up socks...
Anyway, a couple of weeks back, my dad was asked to do a mural for a brand new kids library in the schools currently-under-construction new wing, and I took a stab at designing it myself, here's what I came up with.
Section 1 -
Section 2 -
Section 3 -
The whole piece -
It was an interesting experience because I had to take into account things like windows, corners and furniture which will be present in the physical location. I'm not painting the mural on the wall myself, but I'll post pictures of the end product once everything's done.
Anyway, a couple of weeks back, my dad was asked to do a mural for a brand new kids library in the schools currently-under-construction new wing, and I took a stab at designing it myself, here's what I came up with.
Section 1 -
Section 2 -
Section 3 -
The whole piece -
It was an interesting experience because I had to take into account things like windows, corners and furniture which will be present in the physical location. I'm not painting the mural on the wall myself, but I'll post pictures of the end product once everything's done.
The thing about blogs...
is that the longer you leave them alone, the less likely you're ever to return to them. Shocking, I know.
What you see here are a pair of renders based on a design I worked on for my dad. We're building a children's library in a new school here in Lagos, and we thought it would be cool if the library had a really impressive Vernesque centerpiece that the kids could go up into and read for a bit. Hey! How about a bathysphere coming to rest in a docking station at some underwater city?
Construction is gearing up on the room, the bathysphere itself is going to be made out of fiberglass and wood, and the four walls and ceiling of the room are going to be fully painted so that the kids can "see outside" and have a great view of giant squid, schools of fish, a coral reef, and a massive city in the distance. At least that's the plan.
What you see here are a pair of renders based on a design I worked on for my dad. We're building a children's library in a new school here in Lagos, and we thought it would be cool if the library had a really impressive Vernesque centerpiece that the kids could go up into and read for a bit. Hey! How about a bathysphere coming to rest in a docking station at some underwater city?
Construction is gearing up on the room, the bathysphere itself is going to be made out of fiberglass and wood, and the four walls and ceiling of the room are going to be fully painted so that the kids can "see outside" and have a great view of giant squid, schools of fish, a coral reef, and a massive city in the distance. At least that's the plan.
Two more Jonah wallpapers
I think these ones are nicer, I have my method down better and it shows (I hope). Once again, if you'd like to see some of 3D models I used in these, check out my brother's work on Jonah.
[Hi-Res Download Link]
[Hi-Res Download Link]
[Hi-Res Download Link]
Jonah-riffic Wallpaper!
He's a myth, he's a legend, he's nothing but a man!
Shof created the 3D model for this a while back, and I worked on the graphics for the poster but wasn't satisfied, after some tweaking though I'm finally happy enough to put this up. I've made it in three different sizes:
Shof created the 3D model for this a while back, and I worked on the graphics for the poster but wasn't satisfied, after some tweaking though I'm finally happy enough to put this up. I've made it in three different sizes:
- 1280x720: [Download Link]
- 1680x945: [Download Link]
- 19200x1080: [Download Link]
Well... that's pretty cool!
Dad came home from work the other day and showed this to me. They are a pair of tile based mosaics put up by at a building on a jetty somewhere in Lagos. The mural on the right is based on a design he asked me to do last year.
There are (I think) two more murals to go up on the opposite side of the building. Obviously the building isn't quite done yet, but here are some better views of the murals:
There are (I think) two more murals to go up on the opposite side of the building. Obviously the building isn't quite done yet, but here are some better views of the murals:
The last of my embroidery
Well I'm all done with this project, frankly, not a moment too soon as after 70 designs, I was starting to run out of ideas.
This latest post covers the last 30 or so of the designs I did for the mysterious client known only as... Embroidery99!
This latest post covers the last 30 or so of the designs I did for the mysterious client known only as... Embroidery99!