Peter+Niki

Recycled an old Niki/Jessica and added it to my new Peter art to create my dream 'Heroes' couple creation.

:) I am a dork.. I know..

Not exactly our medium..

But c'mon, let's give some credit to the comedy genius of Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel... JEEEEZ!!!

Here's Kimmel's revenge video to the "I'm F%&^ing Matt Damon' gift from his girlfriend.



and here's the original Sarah Silverman gift:

The Mighty Manatee

Figure Drawing Week 6

I'm a little late in posting these because a) I am lazy and b) I wanted to take the pictures with good light. If not it looks too dark for my liking. I've been skipping out on these figure drawing classes lately, but I am going back tonight. Hopefully with some good sketches to show you guys later this week.

Red Owl

Winged Monkeys

Movie Poster Corner

Just a quick comment on some movie posters that caught my attention as I was browsing through IMPawards. I found three posters, that follow that clean, minimal, Helvetica pattern that I always tend to lean toward.



Birds of America: This poster is so retro and fun. I LOVE the colors and the illustration is pretty great. It actually is telling a story with out being overly obvious. Also, the composition is very interesting. How everything is over to the side instead of being smack in the middle like most movie posters tend to be. Creates a tension that captures your attention.



Funny Games: This one caught my eye immediately. Due mainly to the dramatic image (dramatic in scale, cropping and context). Picture this at full size on a wall. It would be mesmerizing. After looking at it closely, I think its a painting (or a photo photoshopped to look like a painting). Either way, it works. And the type is simple and clean. I really like how they managed to put it on her face, it still be legible, and they didn't do the obvious thing and cram it up in the top part, leaving a nice empty space. The text and her eye make up the center of this poster, so your eyes immediately go to where they need to be.


Goliath: Well, this is just funny. I think this is Helvetica Ultra Condensed Bold. Well at least 99% of it is. Anyway, there is nothing really spectacular about this. But I cant help but find it charming.



Just Add Water: This one isn't Helvetica, but, i really like the illustration and i wish they didn't poop on it by putting all those photos on the bottom.

Banana.

I was watching Family Guy yesterday. And Peter, uttered a line that I cant remember what it was in reference too. But it made me split open with laughter, and not because it made any sense, but because it might have been one of the most random things I've ever heard. He said "...It's like Laura Dern, if she didn't look like a banana."

Now I cant get the image or the line out of my head. So... well..

I Had too.



And I think I've confirmed it. She does look like a banana. Any thoughts?

Sketchbook Update

Some random pages from my sketchbook.

I'm almost done with it. Its a very exciting and accomplished feeling. Can't wait to move on to a new one, its like having a new start. But the "new start" feels a lot fresher when you have actually finished one cover to cover. I used to just constantly buy new sketchbooks, and I feel like that was some sort of subconscious way of me trying to restart or reboot my creativity, or maybe even other aspects of my life. I still cave and buy a new one ahead of time every now and then, but I've managed to find some little bit of self control in me somewhere. Enjoy.

Art News: $163 Million in Paintings Robbed

PARIS - Wearing ski masks and dark clothes, three men walked into a private museum in Zurich, Switzerland, shortly before it closed Sunday afternoon and in three minutes made off with four of its most valuable paintings, Swiss police said yesterday. The works by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet were valued at about $163.2 million.

While one of the intruders held museum employees at gunpoint, the other two grabbed the Impressionist treasures, which were hanging together in the large exhibition hall of the E. G. Buhrle Collection.

The burglars fled the lakeside neighborhood in a white van with a painting possibly sticking out of the back, said Judith Hoedel, a police spokeswoman. One of the three spoke German with a heavy Slavic accent, she said.

It was among the largest art thefts in European history and perhaps the most high-profile since Edvard Munch's "The Scream" was stolen in Norway in 2004. The Zurich art's value appears less than that of the benchmark heist in 1990 of 12 works from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. At the time, that art was said to be worth $200 million. Although many of the paintings spirited out of the Gardner have been recovered, a priceless Vermeer, called "The Concert," is still missing.

The Zurich works came from the collection of the late Emil Georg Buhrle, a German industrialist based in Switzerland who built his fortune selling arms to both the Nazis and Allied forces during World War II.

A one-time art student, Buhrle amassed one of Europe's great Impressionist and early modern collections after the war, acquiring in 1948 the celebrated "Boy in the Red Waistcoat" - the Paul Cezanne painting stolen Sunday. In 1960, four years after he died, Buhrle's family created a foundation in his name and opened a museum in a 19th-century villa next to his home, according to the museum's Web site,

The museum is offering a reward of $90,000 for information leading to the recovery of the paintings. Also stolen were Degas' "Ludovic Lepic and his Daughters," Monet's "Poppy Field at Vetheuil" and Van Gogh's "Blooming Chestnut Branches."

Thanks to The Baltimore Sun for this story. Click the link for more on this.

Eye on Design: NYC Subway Papers

In the first edition of what I have now decided to label 'Eye on Design' (Trust me, it took me all morning trying to find something that sounded a wee bit nice..), I'll be doing a short commentary on those often annoying, often helpful subway newspapers. I know we all avoid the poor people with thankless jobs handing these out to us when we're in a rush to get to the train, but I want to pose a question none-the-less. From now on, 'Eye on Design' will provide the blog viewers with an understanding and opinion from ALL of the PID'ers on a given issue. This will prove to be interesting in and of itself, as we are all very different in perspective. Anyone reading this post can comment on this post and leave their own opinions as well, as we'd all love to hear what you out there have to say.

Now here's the question folks: Which of the two major subway papers are you more apt to pick up in the morning? Is there one particular specific about either that calls out to you? Is there a logo or color scheme that just makes more sense to your eyes? Or is it the news itself that has won you over? Speak up!




Now on to the opinions of the PID staff (any of the pid'ers can feel free to either directly post into this blog post or e-mail me their commentary):

Laz: It may be no surprise to those of you out there who know me, but my choice is always (and i didn't realize it until I actually took the time to think about it this morning), AM New York. To me, firstly, the logo is just a lot more creative and attractive to me. It makes interesting use of an already iconographic landmark and makes it work. The color scheme is simple and inviting. And for some reason, I just feel a much younger, liberal vibe from this subway paper. All in all, it just feels hipper and energetic, which works for me as I and most of NYC is generally in zombie mode every morning.

Alex: I agree with Laz, I am leaning more towards the AM New York cover, because it was designed in a way that makes it easier for my eye to read what's on there. The logo is also more appealing, and I like that they only used a few colors on the cover. Simplicity always works for me. I think the Metro cover is crowded (not sloppy though). I think if they got rid of that left sidebar, I would like it just as well as the AM New York.

Shalimar: Im gunna have to go with Metro. Even though the AM logo is cute and clever. I do not enjoy the "NY Post" way their front pages are. I dont have any issues in front of me at the moment, so its hard for me to comment, but based on these pictures you posted, it reminds me that, I am not a big fan of flipping through pages of newspapers (messy fingers), so the fact that metro has stories right on the front page is a plus for me. And I enjoy the fun color coded bars. Although its dense, its clean, and its pretty informative from the get-go. So I can read a few snippets of a story before i get off the train and leave the thing there on the seat for the next bored-zombie commuter. ;-)

Paul: I agree with Shalimar. The fact that there's actual content on the front page of Metro makes it more appealing to me. However, in truth, Metro reminds me of the front of The Onion, which may be the real reason why I'm attracted towards it.

The particular sample of AMNY you posted is quite appalling in terms of lame, uncomfortable design....Take for example the pictures of Hillary and Prince Charles on the top- they couldn't find two pictures with the same aspect ratio? And don't get me started on the AT&T "fold down" ad...yuck.

Though, in reality, both AMNY and Metro are so poorly written, I never pick them up just because of the painful tabloidness. I'll grab a copy of the Times for a buck and enjoy that a whole lot more....or even better, just go to 23 different websites when I get to work and enjoy a nice combination of different articles and points of view.

Artist Spotlight: Ariel Olivetti

As usual, I've decided to spotlight in a genre of art that I understand best: Comic Books. My next artist feature is on Ariel Olivetti. Olivetti is an Argentine artist and penciller best known for his work on American comic book titles such as Daredevil, X-Man, Space Ghost and Punisher War Journal.

Olivetti studied Graphic Design in college and first had his work published in the Argentine magazine Fierro. He created El Cazador de Aventuras, a popular adult comic in 1992.

His first American work was 1995's The Last Avengers Story, which was written by Peter David and published by Marvel Comics. He went on to have a brief stint as regular penciller on Marvel's Daredevil between 1997 and 1998, where he worked with writer Joe Kelly. His next major work was in 1998 when he worked with writer Steven Grant on the Warren Ellis devised "Counter X" revamp of Marvel's X-Man title. In 2005 he again collaborated with Joe Kelly on DC Comics Space Ghost limited series which revealed the character's origins for the first time.

Other titles he has worked on include Mystique and Sabretooth (1996), Alpha Flight (1997) and What If? (1997) at Marvel and JLA: Paradise Lost (1998), Haven: The Broken City (2002), Green Lantern (2003) and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (2006) at DC.

In 2006 he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel Comics and launched the second volume of Punisher War Journal with writer Matt Fraction.

Ariel is scheduled to illustrate a new Cable ongoing series that debuts in March 2008.

Vamped

A quick digi of Buffy's main charachter. I might do a series of them if time permits.

State of the Blog

PID has been seeing growth over the past few months. Nothing amazing, but growth none-the-less.

Since June 19th, PID has had:
9,845 visits
5,002 Unique Visitors
15,371 Pageviews
50% of which are new visitors

Back in June, we averaged between 9 and 20 visitors per day. That has been steadily increasing to the point where we now have between 37 to 103 visitors per day.

Our visitors are becoming more geographically spread out- Of our 9k visits, 7600 came from the United States. 400 came from the UK. 300 came from Canada. 120 came from Germany. 100 came from Australia. 70 each came from Spain, India, Japan, and Brazil. 60 came from France. We also have visitors from Italy, The Philippines, Mexico, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Sweden, Malaysia, Poland, Belgium, Romania, Turkey, Singapore, South Korea, Argentina, Denmark, Chile, Hungary, Ireland, Russia, Norway and about 70 other countries.

Like I said, we're maintaining this growth with a healthy 49/51 split between returning and new visitors. I'm no statistician, but that seems like a really good place to be- that should mean we're getting just as many people to come back to the blog, as new viewers. However, our Visitor Loyalty index indicates otherwise. 50% of our viewers have only been to the blog once...ever. However, 40% of our visitors have been here more than 9 times (and 14 percent have been here more than 200)

The average time spent on the site has been decreasing. We hit peaks in September of about 20 minutes (not sure how) with averages in June and July around 12 minutes. Since October, the average is under 2 minutes. All these numbers average out to 3 minutes per visitor.

Our Bounce rate is a tad high (72 percent) which means people leave immediately after viewing the front page. Since most of our relevant content is on the front page, this doesn't concern me too much.

So there you have it.

Poison Ivy

I've always liked this character for too many weird reasons to list. I had started some loose concepts sketches last summer and even started a 3D model for fun but just didn't find the time to fully finish it. If I d0, I'll prob redo it and make her even more toony like my original concepts.

Mujer Gata

Heroes+Villians: Batman vs. Posion Ivy

I may be a day late, but for me that's pretty good. I may submit another version of this at a later time.

Niki/Jessica

Was bored and decided to do another of my favorite TV Hero/Villian, Heroes' Niki/Jessica!

Ranas Venenosas

Heroes+Villians: Xavier Vs. Jean Grey

The Search For Spock

My very first etching from my printmaking class. Still need to get used to the process, but it's all very fun. I'm going to try some silk-screening next.