Zombie Painting

In my quest of experimenting with acrylics, I made a painting of a zombie today. Yes, I broked the mold of my pixel paintings, I just felt like doing something different! And here's the little guy:

The photos are a little blurry, and I apologize. If any of you guys would like to have it, it's for sale! Just drop me a comment or an e-mail and give this poor zombie a nice home (and a nice set of brains for him to munch on).

The Amazing Joy Buzzards

I'm back to being lazy in what concerns writing for this blog, and since it's been a while since I updated anything art-related, here is a finished piece I did the other day, a pinup of The Amazing Joy Buzzards - an extremely fun comic created by Hipp and Smith.


Enjoy, and give AJB a try!

Geocaching T-shirt

Do you like Geocaching? Do you like cool t-shirts (and, hopefully, the show LOST)? Well, that's awesome, because this t-shirt is now available for pre-order:

Good ol' Jack is not lost, contrary to everyone's beliefs, he's just having some fun geocaching. Created by me and Kasovitz, this t-shirt will be available in sizes S, M and L, and stay tuned for a girl's version of this tee. The price is 10.90€, plus shipping, and if you'd like to order one, you can leave me a comment right here, e-mail me at shirakawa_otori@yahoo.com, or go to this page or e-mail ferreiranet@msn.com.

Hope you like it!

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated

As you may or may not know, I've been working, along with many artists worldwide, on an animated re-envisioning of Romero's zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. Curated by Mike Schneider of Neoflux Productions, this project features a wide range of styles and techniques, which makes it very interesting and appealing to horror and art fans alike. It's been a few months since I started working on this, producing illustrations, and now I'm working in post-production, actually created an animated sequence (my very first!), and it's being challenging but very exciting, and Mike has been of great help.

The project has been recently mentioned on Fangoria's website, here, and the first teaser poster has been released. It's a great poster and a few more will be released, so just wait and see because there will be more eye candy. Here is the poster:

There is one of my drawings in there, Ben, which you may recognize after I post a couple of other illustrations I did for the movie.

You can find these and some others on my redbubble store, here. They're for sale as prints as official merchandise for the movie, so go over there and snoop around all you want!

As always, go to the movie's official website to know more about the project.

BRAINS!

"It's a joke. It's all a joke."

Last weekend, after leaving the Watchmen screening in the theater, me and Cosmic were itching to draw something Watchmen related. The only problem for me was to decide who to draw. I felt pretty torn between Rorschach, the Comedian and Nite Owl II... but Cosmic said it'd be pretty cool if I drew the Comedian. So I left Nite Owl II for him and took the Comedian for myself. Peep it out below! And also keep in mind I finished this while fighting with a cold or flu or whatever I have that is making me walk, sound and feel like a zombie. So it might not be as great as it potentially could, but it was the best I could do haha (excuses, I love 'em!).
Head on over to my deviantart to see a bigger version and lots more geeky stuff.

My incredibly talented boyfriend knocked his Nite Owl II out of the park, complete with the comic suit and everything. Rocking out never looked this much fun! Check out more of his art at his page and prepare for awesomeness.

Still about Watchmen, the guys over at /film did a podcast review of the movie with special guest Kevin Smith. I listened to it and thought it was pretty cool, so head over to their page and download the thing. It's kinda long but it'll be worth your time.
I've spent the whole week talking about Watchmen with different people. Is that normal? It's been a while since I saw a movie that sparked so much discussion, and it feels great. I hope to catch the movie again this weekend. There are many things I want to see again, many things I want to pay more attention too, and the movie deserves it.

Today is the day...

...of the Watchmen premiere. After such a long a wait, the movie is finally opening! You guys must be relieved, after being bombarded with post after post of Watchmen trailers and promotional photos and posters. I'm starting to get really excited, but also nervous - after all this time and with such high expectations, will the movie live up to it? What if it sucks? What movie will I look forward to, in this borderline obsessed way, next?

Well, despite all my geekyness, these questions will have to wait until Saturday to be answered, because I won't see the movie today. Not that I wouldn't want to - but because reasons bigger than myself prevent me from watching it today. Saturday is a day as good as any to see Watchmen!

Anyway, to mark Watchmen's opening day, here is a sketch I did of Rorschach.

It's been ages since I posted a sketch, huh?
To those of you that are going to see the movie today: have fun, and I hope it's as awesome as it promises to be *nods*

My card on the Geek Fight Trading Card Game

This post will be a little bit of shameless promotion, forgive me :D

You love the Angry Videogame Nerd. You laugh with the Nostalgia Critic's reviews. But you weren't happy with just the Final Battle video. What now? Well, I am happy to announce that Diving Dragon Games rounded up a team of great artists, that I am proud to be a part of, to bring an AVGN vs. Nostalgia Critic trading card game.

That's right! Your very own deck with an amazing variety of cards, creatures and powers you can use to battle. I was lucky enough to contribute with art for this awesome game. My card? Well, it's the Nostalgia Zombie. Couldn't be better suited for me :D

You can see the video announcement by the AVGN right here:

And go to Diving Dragon Games to place your order, HERE.

The first 10,000 preorders will receive beautiful Limited Edition foil printings of the Angry Video Game Nerd and Nostalgia Critic cards. You’ll never see these cards printed in foil again, so reserve yours now!

I'm really proud to be a part of this project. So please, fuel my drive (and my wallet!) by ordering this kick ass card set that is guaranteed to show you a good time.

Time for a random sketch

Being without access to photoshop for a month left me a little rusty, so I've been trying to pick up my slack and practice a little.
I sketched up this little guy yesterday, with my trusty Stumpy Pencil tool (that's why it looks like pencil lines... I kinda love that brush for some reason), and threw some quick color farts on it. I didn't mean for it to look good, I just wanted to really just DO something, really quickly, try and use different brushes, etc. So, here it is!

It was also the first time I drew a fully digital complete picture. Woohoo for me or what? :B

Paintings for sale!

Before going on holidays, I thought I might as well advertise it here along with DA.

I have a couple of acrylic paints up for sale. They're Mario and Link, sprite-style, done in 18x24 cm. canvases, with acrylic paint.


Since they're small, the price will be relatively small as well. If I don't sell them on DA, or to anyone here who's interested, I'll try putting them up on e-bay and then I'll blog the link to the auction as well. Anyway, if you'd like to have them, leave me a comment with your e-mail and we'll make the arrangements!

I won't be posting new stuff for the next couple of weeks, but I'll be checking back for comments, so feel free to leave them! :)

If you were a Zombie...

So, the surge of Wacthmen-related news seems to have slowed down, leaving me with next to nothing to post (what are you saying, that other movies exist besides that one? no they don't, shut up.). This leads me to posting today about a little site about zombies I stumbled upon.



It's called "If you were a zombie..." and essentially it gathers zombie videos, zombies news and, the best, zombie postcards. Whenever shopping for postcards, I always find myself frustrated by the sight of row upon row of postcards filled with cuddly teddy bears, cute macroshots of dogs' snouts, or kitties playing with balls of thread. I needed something with zombies, and now my needs have been fulfilled. It's nice to know I can let people know how I feel about them with zombie cards, because, just like it says on the site, "Once they're a zombie, it's too late to say you care".



So waste no more time, and go send your loved one a postcard: If You Were a Zombie.



Enjoy the breakdancing zombie's mesmerizing moves until next time!

More Watchmen stuff and Dragon Ball

This time, it's because I stumbled upon an interesting detail. The new character posters are actually modeled after the original 1986 promotional ads for the comic. Check it out below, and go to Newsarama for more pictures and a nifty article.

To finish up today's post, here's a simple colored sketch of everyone's favorite monkey-tailed alien, Son Goku, riding his cloud Kinton.

Have a nice weekend!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trailer

The trailer for the new Harry Potter movie has hit the web - and I mean the REAL trailer, not that piece of crap teaser that was released a couple of weeks or so ago(by the way, that was the worse teaser I ever saw. It's like they don't even try, they just know us nerds will go see the movie anyway, but we deserve to be teased, do we not? Don't just give us a black screen and a title, for heavens sake).

My excitement towards trailers has already been largely spent this year on the Watchmen trailer, so this one only left me mildly excited.
There's very little of Harry, it focus more on Tom Riddle, and it's darker than usual, which is good. This next movie should be dark (despite all the teenage love affairs), so I consider it a good sign. I guess we'll have to wait until November 21 to know for sure.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

I confess I never read a single one of C. S. Lewis' books. I just never felt curious enough, despite them being fantasy classics, and after flipping through the first one I found it, on a glance, too infantile for my taste. I'm probably already over the target-age for them, but anyway.

I saw the first Narnia movie not knowing very well what to expect, since I was largely ignorant of the story, I only knew that it was about some kids that went to a magical world through a closet. Silly, right? Could have been. But I actually enjoyed the movie, I thought the characters were endearing, the story was interesting enough, and the fantastic element was always very present and well-balanced. The action sequences weren't that brilliant, but in the end the movie worked well and was, if nothing else, a nice movie-going experience.
I think almost the exact same thing about the sequel.

"Prince Caspian" finds the Pevensie siblings traveling to Narnia again, where they find out a cruel ruler, Lord Miraz, wants to usurp the throne and drive all Narnians - the magical creatures - to extinction. Prince Caspian, the legitimate heir to the throne, is the one that sumons the Pevensie kids, the Kings and Queens of old, to Narnia, so they can help him take the throne that is rightfully his.
As far as character development goes, only the kids and Aslan reprise their roles, so we're familiar with them. Well, sort of. Peter Pevensie was the most changed character, he actually came off as a bit of a cocky bastard, and not in a cool way. I know he was meant to be like that in the movie, as it actually serves as a starting point to some jokes and puns, but I didn't really like it.
Prince Caspian was a little bit of a wuss. I know he's supposed to be kind, and noble, and all, but I'd like to have seen him be a little braver. It's not like he didn't do anything, but he just came off too delicate and almost "lady-in-distress" like. The character might actually be like that in the book, as far as I know, but I wanted to see him kick a little ass. I wanted him to impress me and make me respect his character, but that didn't happen. Oh well.
Lord Miraz is just your token evil guy. He has a pointy beard and a cool war helmet, but not much more. The other characters are also kind of forgettable, which is a shame, because in the first movie, Mr. Tumnus, one of the supporting characters, was pretty endearing and ended up captivating the viewer. They also tried to hammer-in a romance subplot that was wholy unnecessary, in my opinion.

You can see they tried to focus more on the action in this sequel. That is all well and good, but one can't avoid compare them to the action in Lord of the Rings, which is far superior, and the comparison leaves kind of a sour taste. The action falls short of being enticing or awe-inducing, but it's pretty enough and entertaining.
Last complain I have is that the movie is a bit too long. But that's a minor issue.
All in all, it was an okay movie. It was good watching a fantasy flick, it's not the most common movie genre ever. I know I shouldn't compare it to LOTR, because both the movies and the source material were meant for kids, while LOTR was meant to a more mature audience. I think that as far as kids fantasy goes, this movie was pretty well accomplished, and I'm sure I'd enjoy it tons more if I was younger - especially because the stars are KIDS in the movies, and I'd be able to sit in wonder and wish I was them, running with the Centaurs in Narnia.
I'm giving Prince Caspian 3 out of 5 stars.

Be sure to check out the "Narnia Rap" too, if you've been living under a rock for the last 3 years and haven't seen it. :P

narniarap
Colocado por Gennita

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sob on a corner over Christian Bale's arrest.

Beast

No, not X-Men's Beast (although he is pretty cool too).

Beauty and the Beast continues to be one of my favorite Disney animated movies of all time. Say what you will about CGI and 3D animation, this stuff was the real deal. The characters were so lively and expressive, that you can't help but feel drawn into their story. The classic tale of the girl who learns to love a beast is funny, beautiful and moving, and I like this movie so much that I even forgive it for having Celine Dion sing the main theme!

That being said, my favorite part of the movie was the Beast himself. His character is complex, and it's great how we come to discover his kind, human side throughout the story. And as far as drawing goes, he is one of the coolest character concepts ever. So I did a little sketchy tribute to this piece of my childhood, during a genetics class, last year I think. Enjoy!

Feel the Thunder

I'll be honest with you: the prospect of the animated Dreamworks movie Kung-Fu Panda never really excited me much. I watched a few trailers, and a few promos, and I even wanted to like it simply because it had Jack Black doing voice-acting - and I have a soft spot for Jack Black - but none of these things really delivered to me. The trailers just seemed bland and sort of unfunny, like they had a lot of stuff that would be funny for kids (like the panda tumbling down a bunch of stairs and hitting the vilain in the face with his big panda ass), but would it be funny for me, even if I'm sillier and more childish than your average 23 year old? I wasn't thinking about watching it, until some reviews started rolling in. People were really enjoying this flick. Random comments on Deviantart stated that the animation was really good, and that the movie was actually a pretty decent, nice one. So last night, it was decided that Kung Fu Panda would be a laid-back movie to watch, and could even hopefully create some good spirits for the upcoming week.

The sinopsis of the movie is very simple: the main character, a fat and loveable panda named Po (like the damn Teletubbie) is "accidentaly" chosen by an old Kung Fu master to be the Dragon Warrior, the mightiest warrior ever and the only one that could defend the Peace Valley from the menace of Tai Lung. None too happy with this are the Furious Five, the 5 legends of Kung Fu - Tigress, Monkey, Crane, Viper and Mantis - that hoped one of them would be the One. Now it's up to Master Shifu to train Po from clumsy bum to kung fu master before his former pupil Tai Lung escapes and wreaks havoc in the valley.

First, I have to say the animation is amazing, very well-done indeed. The first couple of minutes of the movie are actually done more traditionally and were beautiful, they made my eyes shine with glee, I was so happy :D The fight scenes were all wonderful as well, with smooth kung fu movements and great choreography.

My next concern was about the HUMOR, this being a kid's movie I was worried it would rely too much on childish fart jokes or something, but I was so glad I was wrong. Of course there are a lot of instances of Po falling down stairs, knocking his head on walls, and generally being clumsy, but they are all so well done and intertwined with the story that it doesn't get annoying. It was great, and although I wasn't rolling on the floor laughing, I did laugh out loud a few times, and had a smile almost throughout the whole movie. It was pretty funny.


The voices... I thought Jack Black was on the spot as Po. He was great, and his little quirks really fit the character. Most of the Furious Five only had a couple of lines or so, which was a shame. Ian McShane did a pretty good job as the villain, and I also really dug James Wong as Po's father (who, by the way, I would have liked to see more of).

Overall, I had a great time watching it, more than in any of the latest movies I watched. I definitely recommend Kung Fu Panda!

It takes 4 out of 5 stars from me.

Random 1

Since I bought the tablet, I've been using it mainly for coloring traditionally drawn artwork. For some reason, I don't feel comfortable drawing with it. But I think that it might be a matter of practice, so I plan to do little bits and sketches, to get used to the the brushes, and to learn to control the digital linework better.
In that spirit, I drew this little random dude directly on PS, and colored very sloppily... but hey, whatever, it's still practice ;) enjoy!

Thing

Pretty self-explanatory little sketch. Enjoy!

Dwight

I just recently got into The Office US, and I think it's delightful (I'm on the 3rd season, so please don't go spoiling anything for me). The characters are awesome, the actors do a great job, and the humor is, well, rather kick ass. So, after sketching a few of the characters, I decided to throw some super quick colors on this little Dwight sketch.

Enjoy!

Patrick Bateman

I'm a big fan of the movie American Psycho. I know there's not a lot of people who appreciate it, but to me it's one of the best dark satirical movies ever, with great interpretations, twisted characters, awesome dialogue, and cheesy 80s music. Plus, you know - Christian Bale is bloody amazing in it. So here is a little sketch (very old-ish) of the sexiest movie serial killer ever, Patrick Bateman.If you'll excuse me, I have to return some videotapes.

Indy

Gah, I'm going crazy from all this genetics. I managed to do a little sketch in between studying transcription and translation (curse you, thousands of enzymes and crap involved!!), it's a weird Indiana Jones. I hope you guys enjoy it - just like I hoped that the 4th movie would be good. Oh well. No point on dwelling on it :) Here's to the Indy memories!