Monster Mold

Halloween is coming early this year. Like, half a year early. I decided it was time to do some concept designs, and what's more fun than doing monster designs? And we're going to take some classic Universal monsters and redesign them. That means you aren't going to submit Dracula in a black dress garb with the slicked-back hair or with the crazy Gary Oldman wig. I don't want to see normal werewolves with torn clothes or Boris Karloff mummies. No! That was then! This is now! What do you have to show!? These monsters can be cowboys, robots, stay-at-home moms, soldiers, etc! They can be scary, cool, or funny! I'm looking for at least one full-body color pose. Facial expressions can be included, and of course, anything in addition is welcomed and encouraged!

Here's what you can choose from:
- Vampires (not specifically Dracula. And I swear to God, if any one of you draws a glittering vampire I will beat you like a dead clown.)
- Werewolves (if you've seen it in a movie, don't draw it)
- Mummies
- Frankenstein (though honestly, it can be any reanimated corpse. Just as long as it looks original)
- Underwater creature (not necessarily from the Black Lagoon. What if it came from the Dead Sea? Or the Arctic Sea? Or a New Jersey sewage system?)
- Invisible man or woman (If you can make this interesting and not just floating clothes, I will bake you cookies)

Thoughts to get your brain wrinkles making that uncomfortable squishy noise:
Was there a lycanthropy outbreak during the fall of Troy?
What if vampires were cardiologists?
What if mummies were not corpses underneath those wrappings?
What kind of hilarious antics would ensue if your principal ATE SMALL CHILDREN!?

Sign-up for the game is here. Entries are due by Wednesday 12am PST (check out our nifty countdown on the top right). Send the entries to me, Sean CW . Let's see what you guys can do!

Inspiration While You Wait

Here are some inspirational blogs that I frequent that I believe people can find useful.

Elephant Art (great animal, especially elephant, illustrations and studies)
Art of Disney (It's in French, but you're there to check out the galleries anyway)
John Nevarez (He's a great blog seeker)
Animation backgrounds
Character Design (Favorite this asap)
Benjamin Zhang (a great Chinese artist I discovered 5 minutes ago)
Imaginism Studios ( a priority for al lwho look for inspiration. Video interviews with artists can be found here as well)
Nathan Fowkes
Illustration Art Blog (any of his entries are gems)
Drawn! (you probably know this one, but it needs to be bookmarked regardless)
John K Curriculum (want to learn the basics of dynamic animation from the guy who created Ren & Stimpy? Here it is.)
Sketchcrawl blog

I also feel that music videos have great art in them as well. Try these out and others!
25 Inspirational Music Videos

Let's get those sketchbooks filled!

Skip Week

yup, it's a skip week.

Please utilize this time to suggest your own game ideas to play, or to watch ghost busters, or get inspired by some awesome artist, or whatever.

We'll be back next week with some cool stuff!

Disclaimer Illustrations!

Here they are!


Sean CW's product is a blanket from Taiwan.
This disclaimer is "not to be used as protection from a tornado"


Teh Mutt's product is a Chainsaw.
The disclaimer is "Do not attempt to stop chain with hands."


Vee-Ka-Torz product is a Manual for a SGI computer.
The disclaimer is "Do not dangle the mouse by its cable or throw the mouse at co-workers."


Mike's product is a Korean kitchen knife.
The disclaimer is "Warning: keep out of children."


Katie's product is a Toner Cartridge for a laser printer.
The disclaimer is "Do not eat toner."

That concludes the disclaimer illustration game! The next week might be a skip week, while Sean and I get a few things together for you guys!

Stay tuned for the next game!

Featured Artists

For those of you who may have noticed, Sean has decided it would be a good idea to have a 'featured artists' section, and I completely agree with him. So, what we are going to do is put your user name up, and then link back to some sort of art-type portfolio/showcase/blog you may have on the internet! The only catch is, you have to completely participate in a game to have the fame. (So you can't just sign up and expect your name to go up without submitting a project at the end of the game.)

For those of you who have already participated in a game, just send me an email with your username and a link to your artwork blog-site-portfolio thing. Only send one link, and make sure it's your actual artwork.

Happy Drawing!

Sign up is Closed for the Disclaimer Illustration Game. For the participants, here's what's going on!

The rules are simple. You receive a product, and a warning/disclaimer label that exists on said product. Then it's your job to create an image that represents some aspect of how that label came to be on the product. It can be anything from the moron who sued the company for lack of warnings to the over-thinking executive that just thought the instructions needed to be clearer.

Your assignments were randomly generated from a list of 50 (YES FIFTY) ridiculous and actual warning labels that exist on products. (And believe me, there were many many more, I just cut it off at 50).

Katie's product is a Toner Cartridge for a laser printer.
The disclaimer is "Do not eat toner."

Kimashin's product is a Rowenta Iron (for ironing cloths).
The disclaimer is "Warning: Never iron cloths on the body."

Inkay's product is a Road Sign,
which states "Caution: Water on road during rain."
*ah duurrr

Kaffrin's product is a Frisbee.
The disclaimer is "Warning: May contain small parts."
*This one is just weird

Sean's product is a blanket from Taiwan.
This disclaimer is "not to be used as protection from a tornado"

Teh Mutt's product is a Chainsaw.
The disclaimer is "Do not attempt to stop chain with hands."

Mike's product is a Korean kitchen knife.
The disclaimer is "Warning: keep out of children."
*not people, just children..

Vee-Ka-Torz product is a Manual for a SGI computer.
The disclaimer is "Do not dangle the mouse by its cable or throw the mouse at co-workers."

There was also a bonus product for anyone feeling the need to make two:

The bonus product is a Japanese food processor.
The disclaimer is "Not to be used for the other use."

Finished illustrations must be sent in to Katie's email by Monday, March 22nd at 11:59 PM to be counted.

Thanks for your participation, and I look forward to seeing the results!

Coming this summer: A CONCLUSION

[insert A-Team music here]

AND THE ENTRIES ARE IN!



“He’s a cop. It’s a dirty job… but somebody’s got to take out the garbage.” by ChuD



"EX-COP. EX-CIA. EX-PLOSIVE",by Inkay



“When all else fails, they don’t.” by Katie


“Today the pond. Tomorrow the world.” by Robotron


“He was Dead… But he got Better”, by Sean CW


So that's it, that's the five of them. I'm not naming names or anything, but a certain 4 someones kinda slacked off on this one *coughpreviouspostcough*. You know who you are, and frankly if any viewer knows how to use a scroll bar, they do too.

Anywho, the next game has been up, sign up is to the right! Great job this week!

Coming this Summer Assignments

GREETINGS, and welcome to another round of "Here are your assignments!"

In today's episode we have;

Mike, playing the role of:
“Two amazing secret agents. One diabolical madman. Conditions are dark. The forecast is deadly. Tea, anyone?”

ChuD, playing the part of:
“He’s a cop. It’s a dirty job… but somebody’s got to take out the garbage.”

Hekateros, guest starring as:
“If you come in five minutes after this picture begins, you won’t know what it’s all about.”

Inkay, filling in for:
“EX-COP. EX-CIA. EX-PLOSIVE”

Robotron, as seen on:
“Today the pond. Tomorrow the world.”

Vee-Ka-Torz, supplying the slate as:
“The crazed love of a Prehistoric Giant for a ravishing Teenage girl.”

Kimashin, making an apperance as:
“Unwittingly, he trained a dolphin to kill the President of the United States.”

Sean CW, making a cameo as:
“He was Dead… But he got Better”

And, myself, Katie as:
“When all else fails, they don’t.”


In case I'm not being clear enough, the part in quotations under your user name is your assignment/tag-line. Remember, 4 panels. Send it to my email when you are finished. Also, finish it by Monday, the 15th, 11:59 PM, PST.

If you have any questions, let me know. I'll post and answer all questions in the 'comments' section of this post.

And be sure to tune in Tuesday, same bat-time, same bat-channel, for the results!

Disclaimer Illustrations

While "Coming this summer" is in progress, I've decided to go ahead and let you know that "Disclaimer Illustrations" will be the next game on the schedule. DI starts on Friday, March 19th, and you can sign up here or click the link to the right. Basically, how this one works, you will receive an actual warning/disclaimer label and then create an image (using any methods you choose) expressing how that particular label came about.

Plain and simple. The finished images will be due at midnight on Monday the 22nd of March. I look forward to your participation.

Next game: "Coming this Summer"

In a world... where game masters ruled over the content of artist's illustration, there was only ONE game that gave me an excuse to pretend I had that movie-guy's voice for a sentence. That game... is "Coming this Summer"!! Out in theaters Smash Bam Pow, THIS FRIDAY, actually.

Here's the catch. You sign up by Friday night with your name and email, the usual drill, and then you get a mysterious email with an actual movie tag-line in it. You then have until Monday night to create a (maximum of 4 panels) comic that tells the story of the movie... based on the tagline.

There are only two rules of movie-comic-club:

1.)The comic should not exceed 4 panels.

2.)Follow Rule Number One. The comic cannot involve the actual movie. It will help you to avoid researching your tag-line.

The goal is to be creative with this, so, if you get a tag-line from a movie you've seen, try extra hard to not include aspects of the movie. If you play only one game this month, you should sign up for this one! The SMASH-bam-pow hit of.... March..