To Be or Not 2-1B

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That is the Question
 A galaxy far far away gets a Shakespearean nod with "To be, or not 2-1B"
This Lucasfilm licensed shirt is available through Welovefine here.

Loki: Son of Laufey

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The House of Odin is Full of Designs 

As the ever-present foil to Thor, this Loki I've been working on is the counterpart to my previous design of the God of Thunder.
The Master of Mischief illustration had only slight revisions before being approved by Marvel and is now available as a shirt at MightFine's site here!

Much like the precursor, I did my fair share of Runic translations and Easter Egg inserting for the detail-inclined. The symbols around the scepter translate phonetically to English from a line in the Poetic Edda:

"Bale and hatred I bring to the gods,

And their mead with venom I mix."

The words are from the Lokasenna part of the Norse text and consist of insults Loki throws at an assembly of other gods and goddesses. Read more about it here, and if you want to make your own Rune scripts, check out this neat translator.

Instagram = Instantly ancient!

There are also some movie version tidbits included in the design such as the Casket of Ancient Winters (overall shape), the Tesseract (top and center!), and Loki's cold connection to realm of Jotunheim (icicles). A more elusive element in the design are the two serpents at the bottom which are from the prop book "Myths and Legends from Around the World" that Eric Selvig looks at very briefly in the film (see right).
There is an more hidden gem but you have to very sharp to find them. I'd wager fairly obscure-- First person that identifies this movie connection (either in Thor or The Avengers) and posts it on my Facebook page gets a free Loki sketch!

  

In researching, I had a great time re-watching what I thought was a great Kenneth Branaugh film. There's an interesting comparison of the mythological folklore vs. movie versions of the story here. Geeks from the monastery to modern day have kept Norse Myth alive! And by reading all this, so have you~

ck

"Catalyst Strikes Back" giveaway

In a Gallery Far Far Away...

Reblog or Comment to win! These designs are NOT available in print anywhere, only as licensed Tees through WeLoveFine.com!Chance to win the alternate prints available through the other social networks.

RSVP here for the Star Wars tribute art show at Catalyst!

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Thor of Asgard

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Mighty Mighty

A new Marvel design coming down the pipeline as a shirt. Developments and release dates to follow!

[EDIT: The official shirt released today: Find it here at WeLoveFine.com]
[EDIT II: The Loki counterpart to this design process post and shirt released here!]

Thor-ough Research
This one went through a research phase before starting. I knew I wanted to work in traditional Norse and Scandinavian art styles so I took a trip to the library. The Cerritos Library had a reference section with some really amazing books on Vikings and the Poetic Edda, an old Norse mythological poem.

I used this nifty site that can turn letters into runes, so the text incorporated into the linework is phonetically translatable to the alphabet.

The left side recounts the tale of the Midgard Snake, Jormungandr and the right side concerns the formation of the World Tree Yggradsil and the connection of the Nine Realms. Hence there are purposely 9 main spheres in the design.

Nested icons within the Serpent include (clockwise from the head) the Bifrost/Rainbow Bridge, Hiemdall, Odin, one of his Ravens, a Viking ship, the Destroyer armor, Loki, and Odin's horse Slepnir.

Around the hammer Mjolnir are the famous words in runes:

"Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, 

shall possess the power of Thor."

Here are some process pictures of a very limited edition screenprint I made for Long Beach Comic Expo last weekend. It was the fast one-day show but a great turnout. Great to meet a whole bunch of people as well see some familiar faces around this convention season. Much like the Realms, I only made 9 of these to release into the world. Fly my pretties~

Drying time

[Read More] for process pics :

Paper Pilgrim & Ms Flowers

Making the Pilgrimage

These are some shirts that will hopefully be hosted by MightyFine~ Ever expanding as they are, they have been holding some design contests as of late and I decided to participate. The theme? Scott Pilgrim!

As well as scouring for iconic moments/images in the comics, I watched the movie several times in a row (w/ multiple commentary tracks) for both inspiration and company during the drawing process. Many plates of garlic bread were had as well.... now I am fat. :P

My two cents in designs subs totaled three:

Guys and Dolls

This was my take on the many t-shirts and clothes that Scott goes through during his journey. There were a ton more, but I picked out some of my favorites like his 'X' logo'd jacket, silly hat, and pixel skull shirt.
Other accessories include his Power of Love sword, 1-UP, and of course, garlic bread.

 Ramona Fire Flowers

She's the most fiery type of power-up! A visual pun of her name and the highest achievement in 8-bits in the original Super Mario Bros. I did two versions since I couldn't decide which. The first one is a 'spent' question block if doesn't look familiar~

Vote for one, both, or all of them at WeLoveFine.com between 4/9/12 5/1/12! 
The final judges include the creator Bryan Lee O'Malley but the more that vote, the better the outcome.

To vote:
for "Paper Pilgrim" press the Directional Pad!
for "Ramona Flower Box" press A!
for "Ms Flowers" press B !


If you're looking at this on mobile, click on one of these:  vote!  vote!   vote! won'tcha please~
Sign-up takes just about half a minute (depending on typing speed~)

Darth Atlas

Anakin Shrugged

The mighty Sith Lord bears the burden of the second Death Star-- and his destiny too in DARTH ATLAS.
I wanted to play with shapes that are so recognizable to the fanboy eye and draw a string of circles and symbols. I did a bit of searching to find the right amount of struggle and strength for this mash-up of Anakin and Antiquity.

The Lucasfilm licensed shirt is ready for wearing HERE. See other similar designs on this blog with this here fancy tag: "Star Wars"

The process video below, with brooding & beaty music provided by Digitalcasm:

You might also spy a peek at my action figure collection which I have solely for.. academic purposes.


After the set of Star Wars universe humor tees, there's some more character specific designs in the works. Several to do and so little time... I shall double my efforts~

[Also many cheers to the MightyFine crew for a wonderful WonderCon 2012--
Their booth was fantastic, their giant cool bags everywhere, and the shirts they let me show off at my booth were a total hit! ]

Death Piñata

"...One in a Million."

This design is likely my personal fav for this humor set of tee designs for MightyFine. Avaiable HERE!
There were some initial technical glitches getting this up to par but hey, the Death Star wasn't built in a day...

BTW, how is a blast shield supposed to be practically helpful in any way except Jedi training and festival games?

Wonder-ing where to find these in person?

It's that time of year again--

And this time it will not be San Francisco but at the nearer Anaheim Convention Center. MightyFine themselves ("WeLoveFine.com" Booth #112) and I (Artist Alley: AA241) will be there with some of these shirts in tow.

I'll also have new Sunless Circus character pins (along with button machine and Ardee Fortune Teller!) and my Nouveau Robotica series of prints at my table too.
It's a pretty large space (that's less than half the floorplan) but you can find me near the "Bone Yard". Sounds ominous~
Hope to see folks there!

-ck

Hoth Playground

The Battle of Hoth (Ver. 2)

This one is continuing in this 'series' of silly Star Wars designs licensed thru Lucasfilm for MightyFine. Available on apparel here (in Lt. Blue, Navy, and Silver)

I used to have one of these stick horses and always wished it would make Tauntaun noises instead of neighing...
And no one can deny, despite their terrible destructiveness, AT-AT's are just too cute.

Greedy Han

Going Greedo

A new Star Wars licensed shirt design up through MightyFine. Find it here. Thanks to some clever-er folk at Welovefine than I for the shirt title-- like our little green friend, I'm not a quickdraw.

This one is part of a series of three humor designs (a bit like the Wounded Wampa) and feature kid-ified versions of classic characters. There's another design in particular yet to go live that was great fun to do that I can't wait to share... yes..there is another...

Until then, play friendly kids~ (That includes all the "Han Shot First"/ George Lucas debate teams!)

::pew pew::

And a kind feature on Shirtoid as well-- many thanks loyal Shirtoid-bot!

[EDIT 2/21] Thanks also to more mentions on an amiable HideYourArms post and on friendly Fashionably Geek.
And a tweet from the official Star Wars Twitter feed too! Cheers~

Also, MightyFine has launched their League of Mighty Fine Artists section on the site. You can find all the designs I've done for them so far there-- Marvel, Lucasfilm, and some original works as well.

Look for my banners that looks like these to get my section!:

[Hailing all nerd frequencies]

Wounded Wampa Kit

Wuv Your Wounded Wampa

A more comical take on the Star Wars universe, this is a tribute to all those model kits I built of X-wings & TIE fighters back in the day when they were the only SW 'toys' out there. I never found a Wampa kit, but imagine it might have looked something like this molded in plastic flash-- sans snowglobe and ice cream most likely.

Bonus points (and pack of buttons) goes to anyone that can name what the sign at the bottom right is from. Comment on my Facebook page--!

[EDIT: A belated Christmas variation for the holidays]

The design for MightyFine now available here.

One more Star Wars design has been approved and coming down the line very soon-- keep your helmet on~

The Millennium Zeppelin

Less Than 12 Parsecs!

The ever-present peoplemover of the original Trilogy gets a Victorian/ Steampunk overhaul in this design for MightyFine. There are many a detail hidden in both wording and design--who knew Corellia had it's own logo?
Keen eyes might also spy some Aurebesh script. It's a very small detail, but y'know...size matters not.

Find the shirt here!

[EDIT: An added thanks to MightyFine for making me my own section in their shop! ]

I also created this process video as I concepted and drew out this one. It went through a few iterations while trying to consolidate a blimp look with the iconic starship shape.
[Music provided by dapper pal Digitalcasm] :

Jango Fett & Son

Fett Family Business

This design was previewed in an earlier post-- now I can finally show the completed result!
Available as a t-shirt through MightyFine, check it out HERE (welovefine.com)

A Victorian ad influenced design, I thought it would be fun to conjure a promotional idea for the bounty hunting duo. The most treacherous of freelancers, I can't help but want to relate to their notorious business acumen... If only I could strike a good deal with the Caminoans-- a clone would come in handy during busy illustrating seasons~

There is one more similar Victorian influened design in the works along with a few more Star Wars designs--- stay tuned!



Taun Taun 2.0

I also made a process You Tube video of the previous Star Wars design I did for them, "Echo Station".

Fancy a Lift?

Flights of Fancy

This is a design submission for MightyFine's STEAMPUNK themed contest.

Seeing as how there are several projects I work on that lean toward this re-imagined past/genre, the contest theme was a natural one to work in. I had two more design ideas in mind but ran out of time to finish. 

This one is more simple and not much more than what you see~

Y'know...it's a rocket, with a mustache. The end.

Enjoy you fine fellows! 

And please if you might, vote it up on their site HERE-- the contest concludes in less than a a week!

Cross Pollination

For Hire!
[Preview shirt design]

A Little Fett Up? 

If you like less words and more images (and general stuff I like), check out my Tumblr stream.

Tauntaun at Echo Station

It's Getting Hoth in Here...

Available at MightyFine here.

This design was a challenge and a fun one to do. 

Growing up a huge fan of Star Wars (during the lowest point of it's popularity~), working on something stamped by Lucasfilm was a certain boyhood joy.

The idea behind the illustration was to incorporate the Galaxy far far way with the Steampunk genre. Adding a sort of Victorian inspired armour to this beast of burden was an interesting task-- trying to figure out if it could still move with so many accouterments. For the true fans, you can find small details like the silhouette of the Ion Cannon and the Shield Generator in the framing. Also even more scrutinous lookers would find the design decal on his retro looking gun and the accurate "Commander" ranking patch.

As for the subtitle, Wookiepedia take it away... Echo Station 3-8

It's pretty crazy how much detail has been amassed about the 'events' in the movies... I think actual engagements in real wars probably have less detailed accounts on them~

Hoth was also the 6th planet in the system and I wanted some excuse to put numbers after things.

Well, enjoy!

Chris9

[edit: added process GIF]

Namor Nouveau

Undersea Tee

This Marvel design for MightFine available here.
The character's costume choice for this one is more like his recent versions in the X-Men books. It was just more fun to draw than only those green underoos--

I did a bit of catching up with the classic title and now really dig Dodson's work. Pulling my nose out of the indie books, there's some great work out there. 

In drawing the first Marvel mutant, I wanted to incorporate both (his sailor father's) nautical motifs and Atlantean influences. Oceanic fun~

The Nouveau Magneto

The Nouveau Master of Magnetism

Marvel licensed shirt design for MightyFine (welovefine.com)-- get attracted to it here!

Tee Time

(Marilyn ain't got nuthin' on this Monroe..!)

[6/18 updated T-shirt design info!]

Storm Front

Hot off the news presses and available in apparel form HERE through fantastic MighyFine tees-- it's everyone favorite weather goddess!!

The X-Men were the comic characters I grew up with as a young lad, so to add some Nouveau flair to one of these iconic characters was mighty fun! Her design is meant to incorporate some African influence to merge with the art movement of 1900s Europe and pay some homage to her Wakandan royalty.

By the power of the wind! ...wear this shirt to stay warm ;]

Belated Crescent


Also on my late newsfront is that the "Arabian Crescent" design for Threadless was chosen for print and is up for sale up their site. The winnings from it have provided a warm and steady stream of tees through these temperate Californian months~

(This shirt is perfect camouflage in wheat fields)

It's been supremely encouraging to join a part of their ranks and there'll certainly be more apparel design related news to spread in the coming weeks.

Thanks again to all who voted--!