Indiana Otter And The Rockabilly Adventure
Remember the sketch of my thieving otter friend from my last post? It seems he has found a home on a concert poster for my friends in The Rebel Set. Even though the band is mash-up of surfer rock and Johnny Cash country with a modern twist (+10 Description Bonus) this poster, as you can see, has nothing to do with that. And that’s the reason I enjoy designing concert posters so much: you can be as creative as you want as long as it’s attention-grabbing.
The poster design itself is my cell-shaded cartoon take on the Indiana Jones movie posters that were drawn so well by the master Drew Struzan. I would have liked to spend a little more time adding some shadows to the otter himself, but due to time constraints, I didn’t have that option. Even without the extra shadow detail, I think it turned out really well. My favorite thing about the design is the expression on the Otter’s face. Whereas Satipo’s look changed from concerned to conniving in the movie, I wanted the Otter to look as if Indy just yelled, “Throw me the idol!” turned around, and saw a giant otter staring back at him. I’m thinking that the silent exchange to follow would be quite funny.
Maybe they should have re-made the original trilogy with CGI animals instead of making Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? It already sounds like a better movie to me.
I’m Making This Up As I Go Along
Well it’s been far too long since my last post. Even though I’ve been very busy — with art and non-art projects — I haven’t really done anything worth posting here. I started a personal blog where I can share a little more about my life and interests that aren’t related to art, and I seem to update that page more often than this one. That shows me that I’ve neglected my artwork for far too long. And that needs to change. Now.
At my current job, I’m in the process of learning how to develop websites in the WordPress environment (Hey, this site was made in WordPress!), as well as dabbling in some PHP programming. I learned a little C++ in college and I’ve taught myself quite a bit of ActionScript, so the PHP thing has been a lot of fun to learn. I even ordered a book to teach myself some more of it in the form of a catalog project.
What does this mean for Killer Robot? Well, since I’ve already learned a buttload about WordPress in just my first couple of weeks, it means a new website design is coming. I’ve learned a lot about manipulating template files and source code, so I want to take a stab at creating a WordPress template from scratch. It’s going to be a lot of work — which will include a new logo, color scheme and branding as well. I’ve only had this site for a little over a year and it’s incredible the amount of knowledge you can absorb in such a short amount of time.
On top of the new website, I’ve been honing my sketching technique, as well as fine-tuning my process of going from sketch to final product. With these things in place, I’m starting over on the Zabka comic — even though there has only been one page so far — and looking to begin my Human Element story as a webcomic that will be integrated into this site. I also have a few side projects in the works, including but not limited to:
- Logo and website for my wife Laura’s business
- Logo character for a friend’s website
- A birthday card design for my grandfather’s 80th birthday
- A new self-portrait
- Something involving the otter holding the Idol from Raiders Of The Lost Ark (see above)
There’s a lot to be done in the coming months, and I feel like I’ve spent too much time dawdling in laziness and excuses. It’s time to get focused, and hopefully because I wrote it here for others to read, I’ll get serious about it. I want to make a schedule with due dates to keep everything on track, and I hope to share all this with you. Here’s to an eventful eight months of 2009!