— The Atlas of Popephoenix

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February, 2010 Monthly archive

Today I had an epiphany. Well more like a “stop being lazy and get back on you’re job!” While researching some prices for work and doing my normal searches for artists websites, I stumbled upon Alida Saxon.  She has some cool work and I enjoy looking at it but the real piece on knowledge that I received was daily on time images can be done. She has these really cool 20 minute paintings on her site. Its possible and I need to stop fronting. SO. Daily. Illustrations. No. Matter. The. Cost. Doo Dooo dooo “YOU GOT THE TOUCH!” oh.. sorry got caught in a Transformers the Movie Flash Back.

I watched the new Justice League movie tonight and this is why Batman is sitting above this text. BTW DC is kicking Marvel’s ass when it comes to animated movies. Highly recommend Crisis on Two Earths, its very well done and excels at both story and animation. Unlike the Halo Legends which disappointed me so much I skipped through most of the shorts. Once I saw Halo Ball Z Odd One Out, I just shook my head and jumped to “the Package.” The best of the series, well so far. I’ll give it another try later in the week since I jumped around but now… Ugh. This is garbage.

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More Pope tees found in the wild. Two new designs I created can be found and purchased on Rue 21′s website in all their glory.  I don’t know why people love these style of tee’s, which were pretty much started by Affliction and Ed Hardy a couple years back. I affectionately call them Jersey Shore Tees in my mind. Hope you like them because I like seeing my work in public. More is on the way.

You can find them here Rue 21 Men’s Graphic Tees and they are named Savior Wing and Empire Cross, respectfully, but not by me, lol.

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I absolutely love this video. Nike’s art department has to have some of the most creative people working in their offices because they create some of the most spectacular videos. Their latest is “Human Chain” showing the path of determination of a driven individual with a perfect song, Ali in the Jungle performed by The Hours. At first I thought it was a group of cyborgs working in unison to create the path to greatness. I was immediately inspired by the amount of work it would take to make that happen so seamlessly. Then I realized it was one person, shot multiple times to show their path to perfect their craft. That’s when it truly gelled into an Ah-HA! moment.

The path to greatness isn’t easy and is lined with constant practice, incredible highs and spectacular lows. Its how you react to these moments, as they arrive which makes the difference.

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So today after a long weekend of memories, I figured there needs to be a bit of typography I do at work. So here we have one of the Beatles Rockband tees I did last year. The Beatles Rockband came out last fall to rave reviews and was a big seller at retail. Whether or not this tee was picked up I’m not sure. I did find the challenge of creating something that had a modern feel yet still blended into the Beatles era which the song “Come Together” was released in. I chose to use psychedelic gradients and large swirls to create a hippie-esque effect. I personally love the big swooping swirls flow in and out of the text.

Do you think I’ve pulled off the effect? Have I successfully merged the two brands?

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Black Bird is a character designed by Edward Ofori who’s in the midst of writing a story that he has been working on for many years. Ed is pretty much a life long friend. I’ve known him since a time when we both attended High School of Art & Design back in the early 90′s. Since then we’ve seen all types of shit around the world and across the great city of New York. He’s no saint (what up Edtumbo), but he’s still my homie. Ed is also a co-founder of Random Order Media Group where he lead the Brand Identity wing of the company. So when he asked me to dress up one his characters I was happy to oblige. I will admit, this took longer than I would’ve liked (its currently 330am) but the end result came out decent.

I’m on a journey to teach myself the art of concept art. I’m still getting the hang of the final execution. The line work is a little ragged but decent, lighting is off in places but I see improvement. With a few more travels down this road I’ll have a better handle on this. Hope you like what you I would love any critiques you might have. After you drop some knowledge on me, check out my boy Ed on his blog: artcharger.ashworld.com

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The other day GameInformer.com posted a character study of BioWare’s latest game Mass Effect 2. In it they break down the process in which they use to create one of the playable characters, an Assassin named Thane. Their process is pretty thorough going through various stages of design and color. Applying pieces of the characters backstory into the design as well as using women in the office as a focus group for the overall sexiness of the character. He was once a love interest for the female version of the main character Shepard.

I have the art book for the last Mass Effect hopefully they will make a full-sized version of the artbook that comes with the collectors edition because that’s only 48 pages. I really like the character designs of this series for the reasoning behind the actual uses of color, girth and technology direction.

Take a minute out to read the article on GI.com its well worth the time if not only for the concept but definitely the artwork:

Drawing Mass Effect 2: The Creation of Thane

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