I want Skeletor to have that Alien in Ripley’s face claustrophobic feel. I also want him to exude the creepy magician vibe combined with the artistic, spooky flair of Mr.Gone’s cape from the Maxx. He has also been enbiggened to a threatening demon boss size so he’s not just He-Man with blue skin and a different head.

I present to you the beginnings of another 80’s nostalgia art piece; inspired this morning by another nerdy conversation with co-worker Mike. We’d run across this Masters of the Universe Tribute Art Show at G1988 a few weeks ago, and upon looking at all this awesomeness I realized that I hecka wanted to do a MoTU drawing.

Fact: I have a giant Skeletor statue in my cube.
Fact #2: I’m the coolest guy at work.

I just got another idea for these two guys that might make a cool poster.

Taking cues from the compositions of Gustave Dore and the modern layouts of Marko Djurdjevic, I tweaked the arrangement of people more than I would have usually. Besides rhythm, flow, contrast, and various rule of thirds, I also had people in groups based on the rooms they were in, home town affiliations, original roommates on one row, and current roommates furthest in front. Also unbeknownst to you, everyone here is rocking out hard to Eye of the Tiger.

FYI, when typing “roomates” 90% of the time I type “roommages.” I’m not sure what that’s all about. Also, I am going to try and go at least 3 posts without drawing another picture of myself. You all are probably thinking I’m narcissistic or something.

Self-Portrait November 2009

I’m not defending or condoning a man’s choice to depict himself as a centaur. I think it’s a shame I hadn’t thought of it myself. Funny enough, I’m also a Sagittarius. Take note ladies, that means I have a thirst for knowledge and adventure as well as that bow and arrow shooting, half man half horse deal. Giggity.

I also missed the Nov 1st – Self-Portrait day event at conceptart.org, so I’ll consider this a personal late entry, if only slightly altered from reality. Side note: I only made myself that ripped because of all the galloping and archery I’d obviously be doing if I was a centaur.

MySpace as most will agree has become that neglected closet that you keep old camping gear and ex-roommate baggage in. The pristine organized storage center you once envisioned is now full of clutter that you no longer need but think you’ll fix someday. It’s kind of lost it’s charm once it started piling up with unclaimed sweaters and messages from hot girls who are lonely and want you to see their new modeling pics!!!!!!”

There’s nothing people hate more than unclaimed sweaters and advances from attractive young women who turn out to be robots. Many of my friends have gone outright and shut down their accounts. I would say that’s probably along the lines of dumping gasoline on a storage shed and throwing a block of C4 into it. I don’t know if that’s how C4 works. I’m just an illustrator who watched a lot of MacGuyver in the 80s.

The reason I don’t consider dumping a MySpace account the same as “emptying” a closet is that an empty closet has become useful. I still have some friends on MySpace and as has been suggested by many freelancers, PR agents, and all around wise folks, the more places an artist can be contacted the better. Even if that place is a dungeon full of lies and emo music*

“But MySpace is full of 14 year old kids and soccer moms who are just about ready to switch to Facebook right as it is getting outdated” you say. Well, you’re probably right, but I had to go in and delete all my drunk pics old artwork anyways.

And just in case you’re a soccer mom here’s the link: http://www.myspace.com/hoabert

*fact, I kinda like emo music.

I’ve been taking a bunch of online courses from Conceptart.org and think I’ve learned a great deal about composition, color theory, freelancing, portfolio reviewing etc. A lot of this stuff I’ve picked up from school and on the job the last 10 years; however, it was nice to have some of these tangential theories in my head vocalized and organized by professionals several years (or more) ahead of me. In summary, I’m way better than I was 3 months ago but can barely grasp of the advanced theories that the classic masters, such as Rembrandt and Doré, or modern masters like Frazetta and Djuredjevic, apply to their work.

Watching Marko Djurdjevic draw for 9 hours this Sunday was pretty inspiring and awe inducing. The man’s ability to confidently place lines and color makes me feel like a kid scribbling with crayon (not far from the truth). I don’t think the man had to hit ctrl-z once during the lecture. I guess that’s what years of diligent studying and practice will bring. On his Character Ideation DVD he did mention slowing down, thinking, and focusing on what you’re next move is. That’s probably something I should consider more while drawing, or talking, or blogging…

One exercise that has come up a lot on their forums is to draw 100 heads. I think I’m suppose to only spend 2 minutes on them, but I spend anywhere between 5 and 45 at the moment. On  this post Jason Manly suggests the student also do 100 skull sketches. Maybe I need to bust out the old Bridgman books and get on that too.

Progress:
15/100 heads, 0/100 Skulls.

Tools:
iPhone: Colors!, Brushes, Sketchbook Mobile
Nintendo DS: Colors!
PC: Photoshop and Wacom
Comment from Frank: “What you’re too good for pencil and paper?”

I need to top 2008’s 10th Anniversary Brew design, as well as keep the cost down and avoid any corporate “Memorial Weekend 2009″ copy on the shirt. I thought long and hard to find that balance of awesome yet obnoxious. It sums up the group dynamic of my friends very well. Inspiration finally struck and maybe beer was involved but I decided that I had to make a wolf print shirt.

We budgeted to have a second color for some moon or wolf eye embellishment, but in the end decided to use the money on separate screens for men and women shirts in order to maximize the size of the print. Making shirts is tricky when your friends aren’t all the same size. Jerks.

I just noticed my last 3 shirt designs have scribbly pine trees in the background. I need to learn how to draw more environmental elements.

I really wanted to go with the sketch of me on a Segway, as a tribute to Arrested Development, but felt it was a bit too whimsical. Comparing myself to GOB Bluth, may not be the smartest professional move to make either. I also thought about redrawing myself in the pose Spidey is in, but the sketches looked too much like I was doing a backflip. I had a dangerous backflip incident while camping once and did not like the look of that image. I ended up going with the one of me in a “read for action” pose with a sketchbook in hand. That is also an Iron Man glove in the sketch. Soon that artwork will see the day of light.

I’m pretty happy with the result that is on the front page now. I think the shadows on the hands need some work (the light source on them is all wrong!) and it needs some texture work. I’ll be touching it up as I also work on some complimentary Flash code for it. Here’s a little preview. I’m going to keep my new Flash skills I picked up building Loud Dog’s gallery viewer last month by building a game “inventory / stat” screen for my caricature. You can put silly clothing on me or feed me gross vegetables through the power of ActionScript 2.0 and XML!

I have important client work to wrap up the rest of this week, but should have the prototype up sometime next week.

In the upcoming weeks I will be setting up an online shop for ordering jet-pack fuel. Until the fusion-cubes arrive though, I will probably just sell some original art, prints, and other primitive collectibles. It won’t help you fly to work, but it might look nice on your wall.