The Bug!

Main caracter for a comic I am writing and drawing for the San Diego Comcicon. I am envisoning the bug as sort of a cross between Spider-Man and Batman. Visually, I was inspired by a show we saw in NYC at the MoMA called Design and the Elastic Mind. It featured industral concept designs based on some pretty far out technologies with 3d design and nanotechnology.

My thought was, if in the '60s, a kid could whip up a spider suit, what could somebody whip up today? I wanted something that reflected 3d cad systems, manmade materials and rapid prototyping, rather then just a screen printed t-shirt.

Nash Metropolitian

1959 Nash Metropolitian

Drawn in Adobe Illustrator CS2

"It's been a while since I've drawn anything like this in Illustrator, so I drew this during a lull at work today. I figure it'll sharpen up some of my vector drawing skills plus give me a nice piece for my portfolio."

"The bad thing about drawing stuff like this is in the past editors have focused on my commercial art instead of my comic work!"

Space Invaders!

New York City

THIS POST IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

Michelle and I got back from NYC last Wednesday and I'm settling back into my routine. So it's time for me to attempt a blog about the trip.

I'm not sure where to start talking about a 8 day trip to one of the largest cities in the world and a trip to the second biggest comic convention in North America. (I'm going to the largest in 4 months.)

So I guess I'll go in order.

Wednesday:

Normally when we go on vacation, we leave really early. This time we flew out at a more reasonable 9 a.m. That was pretty cool 'cuz I actually had time for coffee before heading out to the airport.

One thing we did that was a little different this time was we flew into Long Island. We flew Southwest Airlines and that's the closest they come to NYC. The bad part was we had to take a train into NYC. However this was actually cheaper then taking a cab in from Laguardia or Kennedy. And the airport at Islip is pretty small, so leaving was no hassle.

The last time we went to NYC we stayed at a Comfort Inn on 71st, just west of Central Park. We like this place because it's affordable, close to a subway stop and in a nice neighborhood. Plus we had a fridge in our room!

When we got checked into our hotel, we rested up and went out for a late-ish supper. People in NYC eat later and we always fall into that routine.

Last time, I paid for that. We ate a late supper at a Japanese restaurant and I got the shrimp tampoura. It was really good, but I was thinking 'Man, this looks kinda greasy.'

That night, about 3 a.m. I woke up with crazy heart-burn. Nothing like waking up in a strange city with weird chest pains.

I resolved that would not happen to me this trip!

We walked to a nearby Italian restaurant. I got the gnocchies. I love gnocchies! It's kind of a potato dumpling and my Grandma Ronnie used to make them all the time. It's not the kind of thing you find in your average Olive Garden!

After the meal, I went to the bathroom. One tip: If you visit NYC, use clean restrooms when you find them. Sometimes its hard to find a public restroom and sometimes you wished you hadn't!

The bathroom was in the basement of the restaurant. For some reason, this is fairly common in NYC. What isn't common is the bathroom had a stained glass window in it.




I'm happy to report no ill effects from the late meal.

Thursday:

This was our big walking day. We ended up walking 19 miles this day!

We started off by riding the subway down to the Greenwich Village. We wandered around, walking through Chinatown and Little Italy.

Then Michelle tells me, "I want to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge!"

"What? Are you crazy? Can you do that?"

Michelle had read about it in the guide book. And so after a little searching we found the path on and we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

San Diego submission

Here's my submission for the San Diego Comicon souviner book.

However, I don't think this will be in the book. It seems when I went to e-mail the file to them their e-mail box was not working. I tried to call them, but their voicemail was " over it's limit."

I don't want to slag on the SDCC people, but this seems to be how the entire con is ran. They have the largest con in the United States, but the consistently get things wrong.

Everytime I go I am told to go in a different door and about half the time the pros are told to wait until everyone else gets in.

I had sworn off the SDCC, but I am giving them one last shot.

And so far, it's not going too good!

NYCC pages

Here's the first 3 pages of my sample for the NYCC

Gang of Trolls

My latest entry in the Sketchbook Smackdown is this: A Gang of Trolls. I drew this to defeat some 'Land mine Gnomes'.

I was insired by 'A Clockwork Orange', but resisted the bowlers and codpieces!

NYCC preview

This is a preview of the pages I am taking to the New York Comic Con.

The Thing that Ate Tokyo!!

Me and a couple of artists at work are having what I am calling the sketchbook smackdown. How it works is this: the first guy draws a creature, hero or something. Then the next guy has to draw something that could beat the first 'thing'.

This was my latest entry. Normally these are not color (in fact some of the guys were pissed at me for 'raising the bar') but I 'saw' this thing in color in my head.

This was drawn fairly small and colored quick, with the whole thing taking me about 30 minutes.

Dave Stevens RIP

I just learned that Dave Stevens has passed away. Dave was most famous for creating The Rocketeer and his pin-up art.

I happened to be sitting next to Dave on the shuttle bus in San Deigo one night in '05. I didn't realize who he was, but finally I asked him. He was very nice and the next day I came by his table and we talked some more.

Very talented guy who died way too young!

Gary Gygax RIP

Gary Gaygax passed away the other day. Gary was the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons. It is impossible to measure the impact DnD has had on popular culture. I think you could just about eliminate any fantasy-based movie, tv show or video game.

It's also impossible to estimate the impact DnD has on my life (along with comics).

My mother might argue I would be more serious and resposible. If that's true, Thank God for Dungeons and Dragons and the impact Gary Gygax had on this planet!

ZOMBIE!!

I'm not a big zombie fan. I'm not sure why I drew this one. Longtime readers my remember this blog was started with a goal of someplace I could catalog art styles and analyze different artists.



What this has to do with the zombie is this is an example of the style I am currently developing. My problem is everytime I see a new cool artist I want to draw like him. As an experiment, I am naming my styles. My theory is if I name them I can classify them and then it'll be easier to be consistent. It's all about consistency, baby!

Btw, this style is Omega Prime!

The Dark Knight

From my sketchbook

RISK!

Me and the guys got together and played a little RISK this weekend. I cooked brauts and was the first one out. The Amazing Wayne Haynes won!

btw, these are not photos from our game. D. L. Nelson sent them to me.

Chesterquest Results

Well I got my response to the Chestequest Contest.

_____________________________________

Hey. Scott

Figured I'd rip the band-aid off and tell you myself... Marvel has now selected most of the ChesterQuest artists who they'll be giving further consideration to, and at this time, you're unfortunately not one of those chosen creators. Sorry, bud. I don't know what to tell you. I was pulling for you, but there we're people Marvel just felt had better samples. Wish I had better news...

Take care,
C.B.

_____________________________________

Oh well, Oviously I wish I had been picked as one of the 12, but it's okay.

Funny thing is, I know I can do better. I mean I did the best I could, but since the contest, I have filled a sketchbook with figure drawings, working on developing a solid mainquin. Now I am working on drapery.

New Samples

ICE!

Oklahoma got hit by a major ice storm. This in turn (combined with the constant Oklahoma wind)destroyed many trees, which fell and snapped power lines all across the state.

At one point over 50% of Oklahoma had no power.

The Sackett house was one who lost power. We were without power for 24 hours. I was annoyed until I talked to people and realized we were lucky, most people werew powerless for longer, some people MUCH longer.

Today, the high is going to be 66 degrees, 4 days before Christmas!

Only in Oklahoma!

The End.

For the last 6 weeks or so Michelle and I have been on what I have been calling 'The Sackett World Tour'.

Thankfully it is now over.

Basically, the 'tour' consisted of a series of weekend trips to Dallas, New Orleans and Omaha. I've been in 6 states (Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Kanasas, Nebraska and Iowa) and I gotta say I've had a ball. I love to travel and meet people and I've been able to do it in spades.

But now the fun is over, it's time to look sharp, stand straight and get back to work!

She Passed!

In an earlier post http://scottsackett.blogspot.com/2007/11/dallas.html I mentioned we went to Dallas so Michelle could take a test to become a Certified Lighting Consultant. As you may have guessed from the title, she passed. This is very cool as the test was very hard and she was sweating it.

Awesome!

This weekend we went to Omaha to go to Michelle's office Christmas party. (Yes, it's 1000 miles round trip!) The home office is in Omaha and so we got to check it out.



I saw this in a guy's cubicle and I thought it was awesome!

More Iron Man

I've been messing with Painter lately. This is the final of the Iron Man I posted a few days ago.

I haven't painted since colleg and it was never my media of choice, but I really enjoyed messing with this. Once I got the hang of how you get the paint to blend.

Painter seems to replicate the painting experience pretty good, except for no painting brushes or no smell.

Cleaning the brushes I didn't miss, but to be honest the smell of paints I did miss. It always made everything seem more 'arty.'

Btw, I didn't paint the background, it's a photo I swiped off the web.

Real Old Time Hockey

Okay, last post I bemoaned how we seem a little softer nowadays. Kids can't leave their houses without cel phones, metro sexuals are all the rage on tv, Rocky Balboa owns a resturaunt, heck even Han Solo has turned wimpy.

Then I found this video. All I know about hockey is from EA Sports and Slapshot, but this video ROCKS!



btw, I got the link from http://www.takeshimiyazawa.com/

RIP Evel Knievel

Iconic daredevil Evel Knievel dies at 69
By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.


**************************************************

Having grown up in the '70s, Evel was one of my heros when I was a kid. I still remember seeing him jump on ABC's Wide World of Sports.



While Evel may have been a drug-using, womanizing, boozer-thug, he was constantly aware of being a role-model and he was always throwing out inspirational sayings.



This is one of my favorite: A man can fail many times, but he's never a failure unless he stops trying.



One thing I miss from my childhood is the sense of rugged individualism we had back in the '70s. Nobody embodied that more then Evel Knievel.

Digital Iron Man

Wacom is releasing some sort of new digital pad thing and looking at it has got me thinking about working digitally lately.

The idea of a digital sketchbook you can carry about and draw on seems pretty cool.

So I busted out my Wacom and painted and drew this. It's pretty rough, but I kinda like it.

I kept my blue line layout so you can see the process.

Obviously, I've got a long ways before I'm going to put away the pencil & paper, but this is something I'm going to keep working on.

Maybe by the time the technology is to the point I can buy a 'Digital Sketchpad' my skills will be up to the task!

My work on television

The other day I saw a new commercial for a local hospital and I realized it was the first storyboard job I drew over a year ago. I had kinda wondered why I hadn't seen any commercials I had storyboarded.

I figured maybe I had done such a poor job they didn't sell the concept. I guess really I didn't realize how long it takes to make a commercial. Since I draw the concept boards (instead of shooting boards) I am at the very front of the process.

I really enjoy drawing the storyboards, almost as much as I enjoy drawing. I'm not sure which I enjoyed most about this job, the actual work or the fact in one evening I made enough garbonzos to pay for my trip to the San Diego Comicon in '06.

New Orleans

Some Photos:


Looking up in our hotel lobby.




Next door was a hat shop.


Across Royal street was The Pearl.




Just up Canal street was the Ignatius J. Reilly statue. When I first went by the statue, it was night and there were some guys in suits looking at the statue. They couldn't fugure out what it was for (despite the plaque). When I told them, one guy said he had always thought it was a tribute to the homeless!


Typical French Quarter architechture.



Night falls on Burbon Street.










"It seemed like an ordinary day... until I had coffee with Jesus at the Cafe Du Monde."


Michelle looking angelic at the Cafe Du Monde.


Statue at cemetary.

Houston, we have a problem!

Well, I believe things tend to go in cycles.

(Problem #1)
A few days ago at work, we moved downstairs. One thing about moving downstairs is we now have carpet and are on the route of the costodians. Which is cool, now I don't have to empty my own trash, which was mostly filled with used teabags.

Except, the second day downstairs I arrived to find my headphone cable wrapped around the wheel of my chair. After I unwound it, they were dead (Jim!). No big deal, except my day is loooooonnnnnnnggggg without aid of an audiobook or podcast. I played jazz low on my speakers, but it wasn't the same.

(Problem #2)
Last Thursday evening, the night before leaving for Nawlins, I was trying to download a podcast onto my phone. My pc locked up and when I restarted it, it rean really slow. I monkeyed with it until 1 am (we were getting up at 3am) and finally gave up in exhaustion.

(Problem #3)
Monday morning, after coming home, Michelle woke me up with the dreaded phrase: Well, it seems we have a problem!

Now this could be anything from whiskers in the sink to the roof is on fire, either way it's not good.

Yesterday, this signaled a leak in the waterbed. This is very bad as our waterbed is upstairs and this could be a huge disaster.

Sometimes it seems like everything is going wrong!

Well, Michelle talked to Dell and the figured out it was the hardrive. So I've installed and new one. And she got a new mattress, which we've put on the bed. And tonight, I picked up new headphones.

One thing I've learned is sometimes you gotta roll with these things. And some times thes things work out better.

The new hard drive was a 320 gb on sale. It cost me $80, but it's much bigger then my old one. And I seem to be mostly working, I just have some kinks to work out.

The mattress cost $35, but we got it installed just in time. Last night, the bed was still pretty cold, but our house was pretty warm. Tonight, it's turning cold and the bed should be fully warmed up by the time the weather turns. If it'd happened a day later, we'd have been sleeping on the floor!

My headphones cost $14, but my new ones were black, instead of white. And they came with a nifty zipper pouch, so I'll bring them home with me.

I guess the moral of this is sometimes things are gonna break and bad things are gonna happen. But the best thing you can do it to keep on going, fix the problem and make the best of it.

And who knows, you may end up with a bigger harddrive; you may even end up with a nifty zipper bag!

**********
I should have posted about Nawlins. It was awesome. I'll post about it next time!

page one

Dallas!

This weekend Michelle & I went to Dallas for her to take a test to be a Certified Lighting Consultant. Actually, we went to Arlington, but to me the whole Dallas/Fort Worth area is Dallas.

On the way down we stopped at the Gainsville mall and I saw this:

Marvel Team-Up with Superman and Batman? Wonder if this is a counterfeit?

Then we went to the Grapevine Mills Mall and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. I'm not a huge fan of their food, but I love the theming. I love eating in a fake jungle!

The one in Orlando really puts this one to shame, but hey I was in Dallas, not Florida!

Before Michelle took her test, we went and ate at a Chinese Buffet. Actually it was the Jumbo Super Buffet. It was a HUGE buffet.

They even had octopus!

And I did not try it! I try and be careful what I eat when I'm traveling, but to be honest, I'm not sure i would have tryed it at home.

I saw them building the new stadium for the Cowboys. I'm not a NFL fan, but the construction was pretty cool. The photos don't show it, but it was HUGE!

I also hit a few half price books & a comic shop down there. I got a books on Googie, Milton Caniff and Chris Ware. I also went to an art store in Arlington where I hung out and shot the breeze for a while; everybody there was pretty cool & I bought a couple of pencils.