Angry Tiki

Rat eating mask man

True Story

This is a conversation that i heard right outside my house while coming home from work. TRUE STORY.

Kid suggests to buddy with wolverine mask and GIGANTIC ( I mean this thing devoured about 90% of his freaking arm,) Hulk glove that he should punch him off his bike because it would be cool.

I totally agree.

Kids are great.

Stretchin'

I've been getting up at 6:30 every morning to run for 20 mins before work. It's really refreshing to get the rising sun and fresh air and be out when everyone is still pretty much asleep or getting ready in their homes.

That's when I can get myself out of bed. I often feel like Fudge when I try to get up- grumpy and still wanting more sleep. But who doesn't? Apparently Emily.

I remember when I was like around eight years old, I could wake up at the crack of dawn to watch Ultraman: Towards the future (which was the version filmed in New Zealand.) And it wasn't just this show, and it didn't have to be just cartoons. If i had a new toy or a new video game or even a cool drawing I just finished the night before I could wake up just to take a look!

I still get this way but with work it's harder to do this. At one point in 5th grade- I remember waking up at 5am just to watch cartoons for 2 hours straight.

Swingin'!

Having fun and being inspired by swing music. Trying to capture a feeling here. Definitely think I caught it . What do you think? Swing On. -Nels

Character Drawing, Week One: Tom Bombadil

My buddy Pedro has been doing some great artistic excercising by drawing one literary character per week. He's done a bunch and they are rather impressive.

I'm always having trouble finding what to put down unto a blank page so I'd thought I'd give it a shot. My first go at it is Ole' Tom Bombadil from the Fellowship of the Ring.

-Nels

Little Tremors

This story was inspired by an outing with my family at a mexican restaurant where my extended family and I were all enjoying dinner.

I was sitting across from my six year old cousin Nina who while munching on her chicken fingers decided to fart quite suddenly. She started laughing hysterically and her enjoyment from breaking wind made me laugh out loud.

What I found very silly and annoying was that her uncle told her off and acted like she had commited the most vile sin a little girl could ever do.

I understand he was trying to instill some semblance of manners at her young age....but really...come on, she's six. Every six year old finds farting hilarious.

Yay farts.

-Nels

rusty tank robot

Started this in photoshop and basically tried to start from a really rough painterly sketch and just block it out over many layers. Not sure what to do with it next, or how to polish it further. I know it's missing something. What do you think?

random characters

Some fun lil doodles I did over the last couple of weeks that i've meant to scan in.

Joey Hardcore

Burlesque life drawing courtesy of Ms. Joey Hardcore, who is a roller derby warrior from Gotham Girls Roller Derby league.

Rend of Terror

2nd Fudge and Emily comic! I'm actually content with the coloring on this one. It was a lil weird at first but I think it really came through. Still don't know how to color really. Cheers to Liam for the title.

No such thing

This is the first of many Fudge and Emily comics. After a lot of thought on the handball comic I wanted to do, I realize the only way to get better at my craft and also get something done is just to start off by doing simpler things.

Please let me know what you think.

Mid-air combat!

Watercolor painting from a short i'm trying to pitch. Not really happy with it, but then again I haven't played with watercolors in a while, so go figure!

-Nels

BAM BITCHES!

Elemental Warriors

I know I know....gasp....Elemental Warriors....how cheesy can I get?

It started with the Norse warrior and it continues with the Earth shaman...the series keeps growing..... I want to change the backgrounds on some of these by cleaning them up a bit. I'm really enjoying where I'm able to take the characters. I know I can polish the backgrounds up more, and make them both more clear and atmospheric. For a first couple of times I think it's ok, but already I know i'm barely scratching the surface.

Earth Shaman right here is the latest. More to come. Let me know what you think.

Earth Shaman

Witch of the Wind (A.K.A. Serafina Pekkala in Cittagazze, A.K.A. rip off of Kiki's Delivery
Service Postcard.)

Fire Gypsy
Norse Warrior

2006

Happy New year!!!

-Nels

Sketchcrawl Dec. / Lasseter / cell phone blurs

God-diggity-damn! It's been a long time since i last posted.

Sketchcrawl Dec. was awesome. Lots of great artists. Illustrators, graphic designers, animators. Good people. Good sketching. And of course it's really nice to have Enrico take us out to the Museum of Natural History.

At the end of the day we went to Rafaella's (restaurant,) in greenwich village. They promptly kicked us out after an hour or so of sketching. Bitches.

Here are my sketches( In no particular order):




And this last pic was the massive exodus from the Museum of all the sketchcrawlers, crawling to a restaurant for lunch!



Last friday I went to see John Lasseter vice pres. creative of Pixar and director of Toy Story and Cars talk at the Museum of Modern Art. John's awesome. Such a down to earth person even though he's basically the creative head of probably the most cutting edge animation studio today.

And he said something that inspired me and made me very happy:

"Art inspires technology, technology inspires art."

And to anytime i've ever been questioning myself on what's funny he said to:

"Remember the first joke you laughed at."

Great words of wisdom.

Something I'd like to say about Pixar's latest movie Cars. Almost everyone I've talked to about watching any clip or teaser trailer of Cars, has said that they aren't very interested. That it doesn't really pique they're animated hearts, that it just doesn't look that great. And honestly I had felt the same way.

That is until John talked about why he decided to make Cars.

He said he had taken a cross country trip in a motor home with his family, and he remembered what it was like going on a trip when he was a kid and watching everything from the side of a window: telephone poles going by, lights bluring in the distance, the sun going down over the horizon.

When he said this was his inspiration for Cars, my heart immediately informed my brain that we needed to see this film.

The reason is because I know this exact feeling. That kind of distant awe and observation when driving with your family as a kid in the backseat, watching the world pass by in front of your eyes. It humbles you when you drive more than 2-3 hours in this country- to know that it is so massive and that you are only one tiny person in it.

And so I think Cars might be Pixar's most unique and undeniably American film to date because it will so succinctly capture the heart and vastness of America in the mode of transportation every american is familiar with, driving in an automobile.

So here is two bad photos of John Lasseter. Notice that he's so damned fast with his hand movements that he blurs. He's like a living inbetween:


About blurring. On a totally different subject- I was toying with the idea of starting up a seperate blog of only pictures from blurred cellphone images. They look so vivid and weird. Here are some I took with a digital camera. You too can capture neon ghosts.






Tell me what you think of these and the idea!
-Nels

I <3 Sketchcrawl!

Today i went out for Sketchcrawl day to meet other sketchers at Washington Square Park in NYC. I met with some ol' buddies as well as new friends and sketched all damn day.

It was freking awesome! It was a beautiful day and the light poured over everything magnificently. In short- It was a great time and I can't wait to do this again. I really think drawing all day like this helped me a lot.

This was the first drawing I did. The morning was great because it was a clear and cool (tho a tad breezy) autumn day with marvelous light.

Theirs the fountain in the center of the park. Alisa and the other sketchers were to
the right of this.

After lunch at great sezechuan on st. marks place (yum) we went to Tompkins Square park where they were handing out bags of free popcorn which was super delicious. They actually had two of their mascots their that were chilling out bouncing around all happy and jubilant.

This was an ultra cool dude with a navy blue leather jacket with a black fur trim. I hate to say it, but he looked super hip with the cigarette.



And here's the center of Tompkins Square Park and the lonely trees in the center. Or not so lonely, their were some people to the left their chilling.
I love this pic, because we were dead center in a breakdancing show on the steps of union square. They just engulfed us by shouting out "SHOWTIME!" and drawing people closer and closer. All of them were amazing, and I was lucky I even caught this dude.
Alisa and Cynthea, drawing while I sketched them asap. It was the very last drawing I did.
And finally random faces I tried to capture at different times throughout the day.

Can't wait for the next sketchcrawl.

-Nels

So many projects so little time

Hi- new pic. Not enough hours in day. Need Coffee. erghhh....

-Nels

Brooklyn Handball

This image has been in my head for at least a year or two now and i finally spit it out and into the comp.

A web comic that will be coming soon... inspired by so many things. Too many thoughts to type them all down right now. Just happy I'm finally letting myself tell this story now.

-Nels

Dorkdom

Man its good to work! Getting that paycheck feels good! Finishing that project feels great! Working with awesome creative individuals is incredible!

But not being able to draw..........baddddddddddd!

So I'm going to post a lil pic that is my tribute to dorkdom.

CILLIAN STEELHEAD BITCHES!!!!

-Nels