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benignkingdom: Benign Kingdom presents their first...

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:20:00 -0400

Benign Kingdom presents their first collection of themed titles - Capture Creatures, the Exquisite Beast, and Midnite Surprise.

Capture Creatures - by Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson
Inspired by Ken Sugimori’s feat of designing the original 151 Pokemon in a single year Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson have created 151 unique creatures, relations, and descriptors.

The Exquisite Beast - by Evan Dahm and Yuko Ota
A series of illustrations of a monster evolving traded between Yuko and Evan. All illustrations were done with ink and inkwash.

Midnite Surprise V2 - by KC Green
A collection of material from KC Green’s art blog - midnitesurprise.tumblr.com this collection features a new collection of work featuring original illustrations, comics, and more.

If you were not previously aware, these fine books are now available for preorder! Including-but-not-limited-to my and Evan’s collected Exquisite Beast project!

We worked really hard on designing these books and the Exquisite Beast book is hopefully gonna be really lovely, especially the deluxe edition. We’re shooting for the deluxe cover to be a three-piece done with black faux leather binding over a cloth cover with a screenprinted design, debossed title area, a pasted-on title card. With a ribbon bookmark. I’m ridiculously excited. 8D

And it’s gonna be full of weird monsters and that is cool, too!

freehand god head. pen, photoshop. We’re back from...

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:15:00 -0400

freehand god head. pen, photoshop.

We’re back from Toronto! I’d like to thank everyone who stopped by and/or hung out at TCAF, you guys are so lovely and should feel good about yourselves.

I’ve been doing a bunch of stuff that isn’t for public consumption yet, so here’s a thing I drew in the airport. I had a really enlightening conversation about freehand drawing with Boulet and have since been trying to incorporate more of it into what I do.

We’re gonna be a TCAF! Hey guys! Ananth and I are gonna...

Wed, 08 May 2013 23:54:56 -0400

We’re gonna be a TCAF!

Hey guys! Ananth and I are gonna be at Toronto Comics Arts Festival this weekend! We’re gonna be tabling with Benign Kingdom somewhere in the the cluster of 218-221 up on the second floor.

This is honestly, genuinely, our favorite show. Hopefully we will see you there!

So we were watching Star Trek:TNG during dinner and this weird...

Wed, 01 May 2013 22:56:00 -0400

So we were watching Star Trek:TNG during dinner and this weird perfume commercial started playing and then Conrad decided it needed some honest rebranding and it all went downhill from there.

My right hand’s still messed up, so this one was done 100% left-handed. Y’know. To make it sexier.

anyway, sorry. sorry everyone.

there was a great shadow in the wood. ballpoint pen, pencil,...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:40:35 -0400

there was a great shadow in the wood. ballpoint pen, pencil, photoshop.

Drew this while traveling! Also: hello everyone, I have returned from traveling! I hope you had a good time while I was away.

I had a small procedure done on my dominant hand last week so I can’t do a whole lot in the way of drawing or typing. Please excuse me if I’m absent from the internet for a little bit!

2 Kawaii 4 U process gif. (final illustration, as print, as...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:00:21 -0400

2 Kawaii 4 U process gif. (final illustration, as print, as tee)

Still in Japan for a few more days, but I put this together right before I left so I’m gonna post it now for you guys!

Here’s the Kawaii design, from initial concept to sketch, color mockup, and finished design. I’m really glad it resonated with people! The number of people who stated a desire to get it as a tattoo was astounding (which I’m cool with by the way, please send me photos if you get it done!) Anyway, thanks guys!

north, dhio, kaia. photoshop. The young god, the old god, and...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:35:00 -0400

north, dhio, kaia. photoshop.

The young god, the old god, and the mortal monster man who the two gods liked enough to make immortal so they could be together forever. Ha ha ha, so many people have asked me lately when I’m gonna do a comic about these guys. The answer is: ????? the future ????? I’m really thankful they resonate with people, though!

Hey so I’m going to be out of the country from the 12th to the 24th of April, so this blog is going to be fairly quiet until then. Ananth will continue updating over at Johnny Wander in my absence and I’ll hopefully be able to update dumb photos over at my twitter whenever there’s free wifi access. Take care, guys!

We’re going to be at MoCCA! Ananth and I (and a gaggle of...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:01:22 -0400

We’re going to be at MoCCA!

Ananth and I (and a gaggle of Benign Kingdom folks) are going to be at MoCCA fest in NYC this weekend! Hopefully we will see you theeerrrrreeeeee

Three of Swords process gif. (final illustration.) Here’s...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 11:05:05 -0400

Three of Swords process gif. (final illustration.)

Here’s a process gif of the Dhio tarot card from yesterday! I’ve been really trying to/meaning to delve into better design in my illustrations. If you are also interested in those things, Kali Ciesemier (kalidraws) has some great articles on her blog about composition and subdivision!

Three of Swords. photoshop. Sometimes I like to think about what...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 16:29:23 -0400

Three of Swords. photoshop.

Sometimes I like to think about what what tarot cards best represent my characters. Dhio is the three of swords because he has emotional issues.

Penny and Walter’s Uncomfortable Dinner. brush and...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:47:00 -0400

Penny and Walter’s Uncomfortable Dinner. brush and ink.

If you were not aware, Ananth and I are currently posting pages from Lucky Penny over at Johnny Wander! This is a panel from page 60-something, but I was pleased with the inks and am sharing it with you now.

This was the second time I’d ever used SketchUp to do a panel layout. Just a buncha squares to show where furniture sat — but it was a fairly painless process, all things considered. And it saved me an incredible amount of time!

2 Kawaii 4 U Omigosh I can finally share this! At SPX last year...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:13:00 -0400

2 Kawaii 4 U

Omigosh I can finally share this! At SPX last year I was asked to draw something including the words “TOO KAWAII TO LIVE, TOO SUGOI TO DIE.” Afterwards, Ananth and I asked if we could elaborate on the sketch and make it into some sorta design and then I did.

This is now available as both a tee and a print over at Topatoco if you’re interested! And there’s the rest of our store at Topatoco as well.

monstrous, hungry gods. pencil, photoshop. Drew this on the...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:20:17 -0500

monstrous, hungry gods. pencil, photoshop.

Drew this on the plane headed to ECCC. I guess it’s a spiritual successor to the Dhio Journal Comic from a while back? Been thinkin’ a lot about my pantheon of prehistoric beast gods lately! Some day I won’t be working on four big projects simultaneously and will have the time to do a proper comic about these guysss

We’re at Emerald City Comic Con! Ananth and I will be...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:53:00 -0500

We’re at Emerald City Comic Con!

Ananth and I will be attending ECCC in Seattle this weekend! Stop by the Benign Kingdom booth at tables F12-F16, there’ll be all sortsa great people hangin’ out there.

her hair like blood. pencil, photoshop. Another old sketch that...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:46:40 -0500

her hair like blood. pencil, photoshop.

Another old sketch that I dug out and colored. Gosh I hope there’s no kids watching this blog. Go away, kids. Come back in a week.

Death and the Hearth. Pencil, photoshop. There’s a open...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:28:00 -0500

Death and the Hearth. Pencil, photoshop.

There’s a open ballot to vote for the names of Pluto’s two unnamed moons and let-me-say-right-now, I am a huge supporter of one of them being named Persephone. (Well it should technically be Prosperpina/Prosperpine if you’re going for the Roman names but I digress.) The whole thing’s made me think a bunch about my own Hades and Persephone analogues; Dhio being an irritable creepy god of what people (mistakenly) assume is death and Kaia being an even-temepered goddess of the hearth and domesticated animals.

Anyway what I’m getting at is that, despite its being in first place, Vulcan really isn’t an appropriate name for a frigid moon of a dwarf planet.

Reason and Desire process. (final) As promised, here’s the...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:46:00 -0500

Reason and Desire process. (final)

As promised, here’s the process gif of yesterday’s illustration. The colors were originally more muted with soft greens instead of the yellow, but then I decided to shoot for a high-saturation primary palette.

There’s more of my process posts over here if you’re interested!

Reason and Desire. pencil, photoshop. Found this drawing from...

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:21:00 -0500

Reason and Desire. pencil, photoshop.

Found this drawing from last year then kinda got carried away cleaning it up and coloring it. I’m not 100% on the meaning of cosmos flowers, but the name means “balanced” and there’s a variety called the Psyche cosmos, so I went with ‘em. (And Serona’s costume design is the same as from this illustration.)

I’ll post a process gif tomorrow!

Prakin’ Theon. Fanart Fridayyyy OH HEY HEADS UP, spoilers...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:33:00 -0500

Prakin’ Theon. Fanart Fridayyyy

OH HEY HEADS UP, spoilers for ASoIaF: The Winds of Winter. This was drawn back when the Theon sample chapter went up last year (which seems to have disappeared off the internet) and I fiddled the thing into a readable state after my buddy Chelsea asked me to dig it up.

Now that the Beast is slain, maybe I’ll try to do more Fanart Fridays in the future? I’ve been meaning to draw some Vattu fanart for ages.

Hourly Comics: 2013 We posted the second half of my 2013 hourly...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:21:38 -0500

Hourly Comics: 2013

We posted the second half of my 2013 hourly comics over at Johnny Wander! Man, I was extra boring this year. Although this is pretty much what my average day looks like; work a lot and don’t leave the apartment.

And again, here are some of my older hourly comics!