Quasimanga's Portfolio

Wrapped

Quasimanga — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:20:13 GMT

Wrapped

Art created for the weekly illustration challenge site, IllustrationFriday.com. This is my take on the subject “Wrapped”.

“Wrapped” started with the octopus. I liked the idea of using its out-jutting tentacles as a framing device for the picture. I considered using a modern day diver, or an unfortunate swimmer as his victim, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was making the picture more mundane than required. Since there were no restrictions (and I’m already using a monster octopus) why not delve completely into the realm of fantasy, and make its victim into a mermaid?

There you have it. She’s wrapped.

I consciously limited the palette and degree of brushwork in this piece, modifying my painting style to match up with the sort of quick-turnaround work seen in magazine spot illustrations. I was shooting for two days, but the work took a little longer than expected – maybe 2.5 days in total.

For more information about this picture, and work-in-progress image buildups, check out my blog:
http://quasieducational.blogspot.com/

For more on octopi, here’s an amazing video, featuring narration by good ‘ole David Attenborough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN99Kx_ghC8

As always, you can follow me on twitter. I’m Quasimanga.
http://twitter.com/Quasimanga

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Sketched on a half page of 9”x12” Strathmore Sketch paper. Finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 3.

Draw Furries

Quasimanga — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:18:27 GMT

Draw Furries

Cover artwork for an upcoming book Lindsay Cibos and I spent the latter half of 2008 putting together for IMPACT Press. The book, titled “Draw Furries: How to Create Anthropomorphic and Fantasy Animals" is a how-to book that goes over drawing anthropomorphic and animal characters. We cover anatomy and poses, step-by-step, for feline, canine, equine, rodent and avian characters, plus coloring and backgrounds. The book also features guest art from several popular furry artists, but more on that when it gets closer to its release date. For now, I’m content to say that the project was a joy to work on, and really let me stretch out creatively.

If you’re interested (why wouldn’t you be?) Draw Furries is available November 2009 from Amazon.com or your local anthro friendly book retailer.

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Character art sketched on Strathmore Bristol paper and painted along with the background in Photoshop CS 3. The image came together over the course of a week.

Swine Flu – ATTACK!

Quasimanga — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:53:39 GMT

Swine Flu – ATTACK!

They’re coming for you.

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Sketched on 9”x12” Strathmore Bristol, finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 3. The image came together over a couple of days.

Viral

Quasimanga — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:36:01 GMT

Viral

Viruses are fascinating little cellular machines. Since viruses are inert and virtually lifeless, they require other forces to spread them around. When a virus, like influenza, stumbles into a specific type of cell, like epithelial tissue, the virus activates. It breaks through the cell's defensive barrier by providing a forged protein passkey. Once inside, the virus assumes control of the host's biological machinery, and uses it to replicate itself. The cell makes so many copies of the virus that the pressure eventually ruptures the cell and new viruses spill out, infecting the surrounding cells.

That's some scary stuff!

Here's hoping we never see another influenza epidemic like this one.

So make sure you get vaccinated. Don't let the viruses win without a fight.

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Sketched on 11”x14” Strathmore Bristol, finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 3. This one took somewhere from 2 weeks to forever to put together. The four point curved perspective made the picture maddening, but I persevered.

Norway Pirate Rat

Quasimanga — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:17:59 GMT

Norway Pirate Rat

A cute pirate anthro based on the Norway rat.

You can take any number of approaches to anthropomorphizing an animal. It all depends on the artist. I like to translate the proportions, and other characteristics into an upright frame, while retaining animal traits wherever possible (or practical). For instance, when drawing rodents I like to go with slender claw tipped fingers, puffy upper arms and thighs, and give them almost no midsection. As with actual rodents, I find their chunky compact bodies adorable.

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From: Draw Furries

Drawn on Strathmore Series 400 Drawing paper. Painted in Photoshop CS2

Off to Work

Quasimanga — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:32:50 GMT

Off to Work

For this picture, I used a 1950's Americana motif (think illustrated ads where the whole family is smiling because everything is golly-gee dandy) to accentuate the horrific absurdity of life for a select few, where strapping on a bomb is "doing the right thing" and "supporting your family". It's a terrible world out there.

This is the last of my three politically focused images.

See more info about this picture and others on my blog Quasi Educational.

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Sketched on 11”x14” Strathmore Series 400 Drawing paper. Image painted in Photoshop CS 2. A day or two for the sketch. About two and a half days for the painting.

American Values

Quasimanga — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:08:31 GMT

American Values

An average American and what he values.

Some of the models used in creating the piece.
A perfectly ordinary Texan
The world famous Fatman

Some of the influences:
The Crying Indian, peaceful friend of nature.

Something tangentially hilarious:
Hippys’ Battle Cry!

In closing, this picture is dedicated to internet luminary, Shawn Elliot, who regularly showcases the morbidly obese via his Twitter feed. Follow him at your own peril. I do.

Then follow me too. Quasimanga on Twitter

Uncle Sam – What’s for Dinner?

Quasimanga — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:49:18 GMT

Uncle Sam – What’s for Dinner?

Let’s hear it for Uncle Sam. He eats over six thousand Americans each day.

The genesis for the picture was an episode of the PBS show Frontline, where they tackled the issues of America’s failing health system. One figure they brought up was that more than 20,000 Americans die each year because they can't get access to the healthcare they need. The issue always comes down is money (or lack thereof) or the games insurance companies play with coverage. Either way I started thinking about some of the ways the American system kills Americans, whether through lack of healthcare, the military, or other means. This picture sprung out of those thoughts.

Check out the Frontline episode here.

There’s a bunch of interesting info about Uncle Sam on Wikipedia. To summarize, according to American mythology, Uncle Sam is the enduring personification of the United States. Aside from other functions, he’s often seen lobbying support for the military and US treasury.

Thieving Ferret

Quasimanga — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:35:21 GMT

Thieving Ferret

Anthros from a book project. See: Link

A ferret, skilled in the art of espionage makes a daring daylight raid on Cat Castle, stealing their precious kitten goddess statue. The bumbling palace guards take after the thief, perusing him into the gardens surrounding the castle. The cats are out of luck, because unfortunately for them, ferrets are incredibly good at hiding.

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Sketched on 11”x14” Strathmore Bristol, finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 2. This one took somewhere from a week to forever to put together. Many studies and preliminary sketches went into this image before I started on the painting. I ended up creating several new Photoshop brushes to help get me through the layers of foliage. Though you can’t see it from this angle, the castle actually forms a giant cat head when seen from an aerial view.

Apple

Quasimanga — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:33:00 GMT

Apple

The idea for this picture came from a comment by Leo Laporte on an episode of his TWiT podcast. One of his guests gushed endlessly about her amazing experience using the Apple iPhone. The device changed her life, it allowed her endless freedom, the ringtone cured cancer, and basically life wasn’t worth living without the iPhone by her side at all times. Leo responded by jokingly jabbing at her, saying--in effect-- that she was French kissing her phone.

I think the comment captured how love and loyalty for a brand can become fervent and even fetishistic. An unconditional attachment forms. Like an addict, or someone suffering from Stockholm syndrome, the consumer feels compelled to support, defend, and purchase the products delivered by their beloved company. Stories of Apple supporters buying every version of the iPod, spring to mind.

Lovemarks-- they work.

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Sketched on 9”x12” Strathmore Series 400 sketch paper. Image finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 3. Three-day turnaround.

Quantum Entanglement

Quasimanga — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:00:09 GMT

Quantum Entanglement

This idea came via the Scientific American podcast where a journalist was discussing quantum entanglement and how entangled particles have an instantaneous effect on one another, even across great distances. Apparently, this breaks Einsteinian relativity, because entangled particles exchange information faster than the speed of light.

The way the journalist on the podcast described the linked particles reminded me of the Chinese red string of fate concept. The string links people together that are destined to meet—like soulmates – or E-harmony.com.

About the science talk above, please cut me some slack if I’ve completely botched entanglement. Aside from watching Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series several times, and occasionally listening to science related books and podcasts, I have no formal background in science. I make drawings for a living. ;)

More info about this picture up on my blog Quasi Educational.

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Characters sketched on 9”x12” Strathmore Series 400 Sketch paper. Image finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 2. About a week from concept to completion.

Ode to American Gothic

Quasimanga — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:43:07 GMT

Ode to American Gothic

Another crazy anime related idea I couldn't suppress. This was probably sparked from an article Lindsay showed me about Taichi Takashita, and his online campaign to establish a law permitting marriage to fictional characters.

NEWS LINK

Regardless of my feelings on this very important matter, it got me thinking about a picture combining a 2d cel-style character with a realistically painted character.

"It might create an interesting juxtaposition." I thought.

Initial image concept: “The image is composed like American Gothic, except with two people outside of a modern Japanese house or apartment community. The male character is a realistic looking guy, drawn in a photorealistic style. I'm not sure if I want him to look flattering, ugly, or average. I suppose he should be the type of guy who would marry an anime character. The female character is drawn in a generic anime style, and painted like an animation cel. She has a baby in her arms, drawn in a semi-manga style and colored with soft shading. The background art looks like a colorized manga panel, that is to say, it looks like a rotoscoped photo with screen tone. Add a color wash overtop to finish, but don't paint the bg.”

To get the background shot, I ended up having to do extensive photo research. I walked the streets of Tokyo on Google Earth for several hours collecting reference shots of buildings. Since I didn't own any of these photos and none of them where from the proper angle, I ended up drawing the background from scratch. It took the better part of a night, but it integrated into the picture far better than a manga-style photo trace would have.

I tried to echo contextual and textural elements from American Gothic throughout the image, like the patterning on the schoolgirl uniform. See if you can find everything. :)

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Characters sketched on 11”x14” Strathmore Series 400 Drawing paper. Background sketched on a 9x12 Strathmore Series 400 Sketch paper. Image finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 2. 2d character line art inked in Paint Tool SAI. About a week from concept to completion.

Isilme – Laid Back

Quasimanga — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:06:51 GMT

Isilme – Laid Back

This is an updated version of a client’s City of Heroes character. The previous version (LINK) had the character in a dynamic action oriented pose. For this picture he wanted something more laid-back, which better suited the character’s evolving personality.

Though it wasn't part of the commission, I had an idea for a logo depicting the character's name. I'm not sure if the look/lettering is appropriate to the character, I don't really know much about her besides her general look, but I'm happy with how it turned out. It seems to add an extra layer of richness to the character art.

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Photoshop CS2 and Painter X

The Box

Quasimanga — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 13:33:40 GMT

The Box

Two ferrets launch out of a jack-in-the-box and hurtle past the rainbow bridge into animal heaven. One of the more surreal two-page spread illustrations from the newly released (Dec. 2007) manga/graphic novel, Peach Fuzz volume 3. If you find yourself in a bookstore or on Amazon.com this holiday season, check it out.

The dotty patterns in the grayscale are caused by the size reduction on the digital screentone.

Image copyright 2007, Jared Hodges, Lindsay Cibos, TOKYOPOP.

Special Swimsuit

Quasimanga — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:32:50 GMT

Special Swimsuit

From the client: “A young woman is having a good time on the sunny, windy beach, she trying her new "special" swimsuit.”

When the days are short and it’s cold outside it’s nice to imagine you’re out having a good time in some inviting tropical paradise with a beautiful cel-colored quasi-anime-styled woman. Perhaps that’s a fantasy only this picture’s patron and I share, but I like to think all people desire this on a primal level.

This commission picture couldn’t have come at a better time. It doesn’t often get cold where I live in Florida, but earlier this week was an exception. I channeled all my desire for warmth into this picture. Now, a couple of days later, it’s becoming unbearably warm again. Is it the magic of the Special Swimsuit, or is Florida just a hot and miserable place to live? It’s anyone’s guess.

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Sketched and finalized on paper, and then painted in Photoshop 7. It took about four days to work it from concept to completion.

The Sound behind the Door

Quasimanga — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:27:51 GMT

The Sound behind the Door

This is the chapter one illustration from volume 3 of the manga/graphic novel series, Peach Fuzz.

Somewhere in small town America, a horrific scratching noise emanating from within a child’s bedroom terrorizes a family. Will they open the door...to fear? Are they prepared to face the pocket-sized monster that dwells within?

Despite how that description sounds, Peach Fuzz isn’t a macabre tale. It’s a family-friendly, but bizarre romp through the lives of a 9-year old girl and her prissy pet ferret. I wanted to heighten the tension caused by a ferret digging at a bedroom door, to the point of farcical, so I went with a vintage horror-movie motif for this two page spread.

The dotty patterns in the grayscale are caused by the size reduction on the digital screentone.

Image copyright 2007, Jared Hodges, Lindsay Cibos, TOKYOPOP.

Pirate Booty

Quasimanga — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:41:24 GMT

Pirate Booty

Nothing makes a ninja-pirate happier than a chest full of booty.

The sensation of cold metal pressing up against hot flesh. The euphoria of financial security. It's enough to get some girls amply excited.

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Sketched and finalized on paper, and then painted in Photoshop 7. It took about four days to work it from concept to completion.

Summoning the Season

Quasimanga — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:16:58 GMT

Summoning the Season

Summoning Zodiac Warrior: Meri Kurisumasu!

Created in Corel Painter with some Photoshop for effects.

From: Digital Manga Workshop..

Bronco Boar

Quasimanga — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:08:38 GMT

Bronco Boar

A rough riding cowgirl breaks in a problematic boar for desert service. While the giant boar's temperament may be hard to manage, his ability to detect and unearth water-rich plants buried below the desert surface makes him invaluable for ranchers or desert travelers.

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The picture was created in Painter 10, using the artist oils for the background, and soft pastels for the character art. When conceptualizing the picture, I primarily set out to combine my interests in Mesoamerican design motifs with fantastical creatures. I did however have an ulterior motive for the picture. I wanted to put something together that would celebrate the year of the pig. Happy Chinese New Year everybody.

Bronco Boar Cowgirl

Quasimanga — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:07:14 GMT

Bronco Boar Cowgirl

This is the design and rough color model for the boar riding character featured in illustration titled Bronco Boar. Since she’s only a small presence in the finished picture, I thought it would be nice to post a more detailed shot of her design.

The design sheet is unfinished because my project deadline for Bronco Boar was fairly tight. I spent my time concentrating on finishing the illustration, rather than fluffing out the character design sheet. Besides, I had a pretty good idea for her overall look and coloring scheme by the time I made it down to her hips.

Many thanks to my partner Lindsay Cibos for assistance on designing the character’s general look and color scheme. Hopefully, she’ll post her earlier iteration of the design so I can link to it.

I used Painter 10’s pastels brushes for the coloring.