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Post 143

Week 3 o' Rick Dangerous...ORIGIN TIME!!!! Not much explanation though, but I move fast...and doesn't he look a bit scrawny? What's the deal with that? That alien? Is he bad, he sure seems bad, he's torturing Rick...well, you better look closely, because there foreshadowing for next week's, as well as allusions to a previous strip from a long time ago on this blog.

Anyways, enjoy!

Post 142

Okay, had something inside the caption bubble, but deleted it because I thought it would be fun this time if you guys came up with something. Reply if you dare!!!

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Post 140

A couple more I did today, this post will count for tomorrow's. I've gotta' focus on taxes.

Post 139

Well, I was a little bored at work yesterday, and had a bunch of leftover materials: gesso used for primer coats on clay, prismacolors from a sample art pack, and black paper that was a cover sheet for an Arches Watercolor block. I'll tell you, for being something throw-away, it was amazing paper that I'd be ashamed to waste.

Just an observation, but there are a TON of people in the industry. I was looking at the guest list for CAPE, and you'd think that I'd stop hearing a ton of new names at some point. However, I'm always being bombarded with work from artists I had not seen. I guess I just hadn't made it to their corner of the industry so to speak. But I'm psyched for that con. Robert Kirkman will be there, and sure, I have a snowball's chance in a kiln of actually meeting him, but I can still hold out hope. I'll also see Pearson there, and you better know that I'll be trying to talk to him. I've seen him at a few cons, and he remembered me in the past. He's always been extremely nice to me at Heroes Con.
I think that CAPE may be the last of my con season.

I just got money from a job, but I don't think I want to waste it on a flight and a convention. I think I'll just put it into my Cintiq fund (which is getting closer and closer) I'm over half-way for the 20WSX. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't go to out of state conventions (which incur an exorbitant amount of expenses, I mean Baltimore cost nearly 800 for a two day convention). I want to know that there's a possibility of making the money back. Right now, I'm having better luck with work for hire stuff, so it seems more fiscally responsible to jazz up my technology situation. I'm getting a friend to build me a new computer (the one I'm using is 6 years old, and I'm going to make it for browsing and e-mail). The new one will be primarily for art. I was working on an advertisement job a while back, and the file was 3 gigs, and my computer was slowing down to a snail's pace. However, I'd love to go to Atlanta possibly this summer. It'd be like Heroes except far less expensive, AND I'd get to go to Gaijin and see my buddies Doug, Cully, Brian, Karl, and Tony. Not to mention all my friends that live around the studio, especially my friend Sam Ellis (who works on Frisky Dingo). We talk on the phone a few times a week. He's possibly my only long distance friend I do that with anymore. Everyone else is too busy, but Sam always makes the time, and ALWAYS brings the funny. Possibly the funniest guy I know. That's a bold statement, but seriously, he'll be at Heroes, just talk to the man for about 5 minutes...you'll see.

Anyway, I've gotta' get ready for work...and taxes...I've let this get out of hand, never done em' by myself before (other people did them for me), so fingers crossed.

Post 138

Some fun that I had during the day, took a big brush, some leftover acrylic paints, and started painting.

Post 137

I nearly didn't get to do this for today. I'm working on some (hopefully) paid work. Too soon to say anything, but I'm learning a lot, and having a ton of fun with it. I'm trying to have the same kind of fun with pages as I would doing a pin-up. But anyway, Here's Rick Dangerous Part 2...

P.S. The last line, if you don't get it...it's a Street Sharks reference. My friends kept talking about it all weekend.

Post 136

More con stuff. I added some real red to the monster piece. The other one was a sketch in the back of the sketchbook I made in '06. I just now could face them. I did poorly at Heroes a couple years ago when I tried to sell them. It was a domino effect of inexperience and people expecting free stuff. The end result was only two people paying for it: J.D. Mettler...one of the few people I would've given it to for free forced money at me for it. He's always been extremely nice to me, and someday I need to repay the favor. The other was Paul Maybury, and I bought his sketchbooks at Staple. I just feel that it's professional courtesy to pay your peers for stuff like that. For me it wasn't as much the monetary issue as the pride issue.

Post 135

The savage dragon was one I did in January at a Dallas comic con but got a picture of it only now. The Predator I did for my friend Gambit. Looking at it, my inks and just about everything has gotten better. I'll put a couple more con pics up tomorrow. It was fun, didn't see as many people as the last con, but it was still good. I really need to make prints. That's where the con money is at.

Post 134

Well, I noticed that the Udon Street Fighter Tribute contest is over and I didn't get an e-mail. Whatev...

So, here are my two entries. This'll be my art post for the weekend since I'll be at the Dallas Comic Con. Of course, I'll be there with the rest of our studio, Space Gun. So Jake, Luan, Matthew, and myself will be at a table Saturday and Sunday drawing, doing commissions, and talking to all the great folks you run into at a Texas Convention.

Post 133

Some Dylan Dog. Really enjoy Dylan Dog, even Cemetery Man, the movie, fun stuff!

Post 132

Today's is just in black and white. I am so swamped right now it's surprising I even got to ink this...but I'm really happy with the inks on it.

Post 131

Well, here you go, the first page with hopefully many more to come. A (hopefully) weekly webcomic for the blog. Rick Dangerous is a go. Don't expect a lot of talking, because from here on out it will pretty much just be action. To explain: Rick has been locked up for many years...why? You'll probably find out later, I'll be honest, I usually don't think too far ahead on these things.

Enjoy!

Post 130

Just having a bit of fun with this one. Tomorrow is a surprise, but I will say that it's something Craig demanded...

Post 129

I really enjoyed the Jones/Immonen run on the Incredible Hulk a few years back. I don't really know what it was, but it was just great. You didn't see Hulk too often, but when you did, it was that much more frightening.

Post 128

Felt like doing a Domino picture for a while, but just now got around to doing one. I really enjoyed the work Stelfreeze did on his miniseries. I think that came out when I first met him, but I'd been following his work for many years before that.

Post 127

Well, just got these in the mail today, did these a while back, so it's cool to see what I did. I'm going to ship these to my art dealer Paolo soon, but I wanted to make sure and scan them in first...because I stupidly didn't scan them all before I sent them out. I thought I was under a quick deadline when I first got them, but after I sent them out early, I found out the deadline was moved back a bunch.

UPDATE: Kind of funny, I was talking to my friend Chris and jokingly looked on eBay and already saw one of my cards there. Kind of flattering in an odd way...

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Post 125

Happy Friday folks! Seriously, this work-week has only been 4 days for me, but geez has it felt long! The weekend is extremely appreciated to say the least, so TGIF!

Post 124

To answer Craig's question from yesterday's post, I was going through some old sketches I did, and found one from 2004 that I did of a character called Rick Dangerous. It's funny because the style I used for this sketch is similar to what I'm using now, but as Brian Stelfreeze told me years ago, I had problems in replicating effects.

Essentially, I accidentally stumbled across some more advanced techniques, but I just wasn't ready to harness them yet. But he's an adventurer character much in the same vein as Doc Savage and Den (, except he's pretty close to losing his mind from being stranded on a savage planet for many years.

Post 123

Post 122

I put in a new nib on my pen, and put a new cartridge on my old pen nib. I tested my old one out...and it was too wide for my tastes, it'll be good for thicker lines, but I like to get really fine with certain things...so I moved to the new nib. I hesitated using it because I only had one new nib for my copic, so I'm going to have to order like 3 or 4 of the nibs. They're a part of me at this point. Lord knows I get enough ink on my ring finger for it to be in my bloodstream (Side-note: I utilize my ring finger for stabilizing the tip of the pen; I make that lazy finger work).

P.S. Why is it that many of my favorite shows get canceled? It's hard for me to get into programs anymore because so many great ones get struck down in their prime. Tonight was the last episode of Jericho. At least it had some elements in it that would lead you to believe that some decent resolution will occur. But shows like that, G vs. E, Keen Eddie, Committed, Threshold, Firefly, and one of my favorite shows of all time, Tru Calling were all canceled far too soon. I don't understand what these channels are thinking. I don't think they give shows enough time or proper exposure to gain success. When stations change the night of a show, that messes with the people viewing it, when they don't give it a good time spot, how are people supposed to watch? I mean seriously, I'm sick from this.

Post 121

This was a request from my brother, did a Clark Nova from one of our favorite movies (note: not family-friendly by any means). I'll tell you, one day I'd like to make one from an old typewriter. Maybe I'll give it a try this summer.

Post 120

Happy Easter!

Sorry I didn't have a post yesterday, but I've spent most of the past two days having a movie marathon at my brother's place. We were watching just about every Cronenberg film we could get our hands on. I love his movies, that's pretty much all I can say. Brilliant, disturbing, horrific, and always intriguing.

Anyhoo, have a great easter. For those of you who can't tell, these are some characters I created a while back and decided to use in the Easter theme (I have a page from my never published 8-page story on this post). I tried to avoid any kind of furry-like depictions. The one on the right is a bunny version of my cyclops character Monmulta and his assistant Jamie is on the right. I'd like to do some more stories with them...

Post 119

First off, I really like drawing zombies, I just don't get to draw them very often, so this was a treat. I was listening to a song, and there was a line I really liked, so I decided to illustrate it. Ultimate props if you can actually figure out which song it is.

Post 118

Post 117

The way I look at this blog is like it is a live acoustic concert in a small venue. At this show, there are only close friends who took the time to show up. There isn't anything fancy, and even though most of the crowd knows all of the stories, they still show up and stay when between songs the artist tells how the song was made, or little bits of their life. There aren't any record deals on the line, and no money is being made.

That's how I feel about this blog, it's just a select few really viewing it, I've pretty much always said as much. Growing up, I don't think many people have expected much from me. At school, I worked harder than anyone, but my friends always got the accolades. I've grown accustomed to it, and maybe it's a little easier to grow when people don't expect you to do great things. For years I tried to find a way to get people to notice me, and it actually just made me more frustrated. When I stopped caring, and started doing my own thing, people actually came to me with work. But the work was never good, and the pay was rarely there. I thought in lieu of payment maybe I'd at least be getting recognition, respect, but that wasn't there either. I've learned to expect very little from this business, because it gives you little.

Of the people I meet, maybe 1 in every 50 or more is a true, genuine person. I've had a lot of horrible dealings with people who just took from me, there are few mutual friendships that I have built, and over the years some of the friendships that I have built have deteriorated as people move to the next step in the food chain. However, at this blog, I feel good, I can do what I enjoy without any expectations, and I know that the people viewing it are friends.

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Lately I've been bothered by certain people. They look like they're 'dead behind the eyes'. Just staring vacantly, and when you try to talk to them, their voice lacks soul of any sort.

Post 113

I had a disturbing dream this morning that I was at a comic convention, and I ran into Carrot Top. He was angry that I was afraid of how freakish he looks nowadays, and then he injected himself with steroids and started to pump up even further...kind of like that guy in Big Trouble in Little China, and he started chasing me around with props that were torture weapons. I'm sure someone would ask what I ate last night, and the answer was spaghetti with mushrooms...I honestly don't know.

Quick explanation of this piece. The part on the left (line art at least) is based on a sketch from around 4 years ago. I was looking in my old computer folders (I've had my current computer for around 6 years now, so it has almost all of my artwork on it). I found an early wacom sketch from my second year of college, and then I re-did it and had fun with it.

Post 112

Betcha' thought I had forgot about today! No such luck. Though I'm tired as I can possibly be. It's been a long month, and I need some rest.

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Post 106-Hey Mister, Put a Little Mustard on that Mustard

Post 105

By the way, I've now got a commissions section up over at Cadence (my art dealer). I am open to doing just about anything. Just contact my Art Dealer Paolo, and he'll get things started. I know we'd both really appreciate it.

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Post 103

Guyver was one of my first exposures to anime back in the early 90's, but it left a lasting impression. Even though I consider myself more into American comics, I enjoy comics from everywhere, I enjoy the medium itself more than anything.

I've met a lot of people in recent times that are JUST into manga, or JUST into a certain genre. It's great to like certain things, but I feel it's important to give other things a try. My brother and I have this defense mechanism where if people are talking a lot about something and saying it's the best ever, we don't believe them initially and then maybe a year later we'll look at what they're talking about and sometimes we'll enjoy it, sometimes we won't. He didn't listen to Alice in Chains until a few years ago. I was playing some of their music in the car I think, and he actually liked it I think a lot of people are this way nowadays, they put up this barrier. I think you have to find a way to knock it down without crushing their ability to enjoy whatever it is you're showing them.

It's important to give new things a chance. But yeah, Guyver's stuck around with me for many a year. I wish they'd translate all the other volmes of the comic, but it's doubtful they ever will.

Post 102-The Renaming-Reckoning...

Some of you may have noticed that I changed the name of my blog. My reasoning...my brother told me that calling my blog "THE Sketchbook" sounded pretentious. The fact of the matter is, there are tons of sketchbooks, and that small comment began to fester...until I just couldn't take it anymore. I wanted to go with something like Art-Monster...but that's already taken in some form. So, I like piecing words together...still wanted the art/monstery feel...thus ArtGANTUAN was born!!!

So, same artsy-fun...different name...still by Evan.

Post 101

Post 100 !!!!

Well, time to get started on the next 100!

Post 99

My buddy Luan posted some pics from Staple! here. The accompanying picture is from the live art show at the after-party. Lots of fun, we were able to sneak in on the list near the end thanks to Tom.

I'm mad at myself for the picture though. This was my first time doing live-art, and I haven't worked on slick foam board in a long time, and I was fighting the surface of the paper the whole time. It made me go crazy!!!! I'm not trying to make excuses, because it was my fault for not being prepared.

I think I'll have a chance to redeem myself at the Cape convention though...

Post 98

It's nearly 6 a.m., we just got back from Austin and Staple. I'll say more later. We left at 2 after the live art show/after party. Had TONS of fun...almost too much for one day. I have to say, it really helps to have a portfolio and business cards ready for once! Met a lot of new people. Also, I am such a fan of Kristian Donaldson, he is SUCH a nice dude. At this point he feels like an older brother.

Anyway, we JUST got our book in time (at 5 before we left for the show on Friday). It's stories by 4 artists (Jake, Luan, Matthew, and myself), and we each got 9 pages. I did a story in it and the cover, as seen with the post. So check it out, it's for sale at Indy Planet.