Just finished pulling an all-nighter to pump this out. I heard about the contest relatively late (only a week, or so 'til the deadline), so I had to hustle. Fortunately I'd done quite a bit of work to it over the weekend, so I wasn't working from scratch. Still, it took almost 12 hours to finish.
The absolute final deadline was 10:00am this morning. I got it in just in the nick of time, around 9:30.
As of now, I'm officially a published illustrator! I was recently contracted to to do over a dozen illustrations for a children's book called "The Elf Bully." The original title was "Getting Santa's elf on the Shelf." That, of course, had to be changed to avoid association with "Elf on a Shelf." That also called for a new cover to replace the one below.
Relatively speaking, it was a quick project. Initially scheduled for 2 weeks, it wound up taking about 4. The time-frame was actually rather appropriate since the project essentially paid my rent. hehe
Pick up "The Elf Bully" today! Now available on Amazon.
There's a radio station here in Atlanta called WRAS 88.5. It's a college run radio station that has the most eclectic assortment of programming I've ever come across. Once I discovered the station a few years ago, I've never listened to anything else. No matter when I tune in, I'm always in store for a new treat.
One such occurrence was when I heard this marvelous piece of insanity. Solla Solla by Illaiyaraaja
Way before I actually saw the video, the song impregnated visuals in my mind that were actually pretty similar. Although, I kept picturing the singer as a duck for some reason.
As soon as I could, I tracked down the album (s). You can grab 'em here.
I loooved them. 70's -Indian-Electro-Pop is a pretty fascinating combo. There's definitely some humor to be had listening to this music, but I dig them in a completely non-ironic way. Not unlike another video I came across.
I believe the song in this movie was written by the same guy. From what research I've done, he's a pretty prolific guy with a staggering amount of work under his belt. Without getting too far into that, I have to say that this clip has really enamored me. All in spite of how goofy it is, or perhaps because of how goofy it is.
I really don't know why, but I freakin' love it. It's almost sickening how much I love it. The bit at 1:36 is especially mesmerizing. The look on her face certainly has something to do with it. I just kept replaying that shot over and over the first time I saw it. I feel compelled to animate it.
I can't complete a post about cool music without mentioning a gem by Burt Bacharach called "South American Getaway." I was introduced to it recently when I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
It's one of the coolest westerns I've ever seen. I was pleasantly surprised at how good that movie was. The soundtrack really took me off guard. I was nothing short of blown away to hear bossa nova in a western! This tune has been stuck in my mind for days. It gives me the sensation of fragmented memories sweeping over me like a steady breeze.
Here's just the track itself, uninterrupted.
This version of it's gorgeous. It's mood is so adventurous and epic. The classical treatment of it almost makes the intro sound like "Frog's Theme" from Chrono Trigger.
I got another dinosaur for you, or should I say dragon? ;)
Most, if not all, of my next postings will be of old stuff. I've been too busy with freelance and other things to work much on new stuff (or finish in-progress pieces.)
This is an ink drawing from college. Based upon the dates written on the back, I seem to have worked on this off and on for six days.
My next foray into Udon's series of tribute books. This time it's megaman.
I thought that this time around, I'd try focusing more on concept than technical execution. I'd figured that perhaps the concept of box art for one of those retro walking robots would be pretty unique.
