Off Kilter Art

Chirp

2012-01-26T19:54:00.000-05:00

A page from March of last year.

A Book Signing, An Office, & Some Trash

2012-01-24T22:40:00.000-05:00

The El Progreso Memorial Library asked if I'd be interested in participating in a book signing being held for local authors. Technically, I'm an illustrator, but was grateful none the less to be invited. The box of Diamond Del books that I was to be tasked with selling did not arrive as hoped, so my father suggested I take his copy of the book (as I don't own one myself). Worked out well having evidence present that I had in fact illustrated a book.

The man in the background is local author, J.P. Ruiz. A fine, upstanding gentleman who's website is here. He's finished three of a ten book series for children, two of which are available for purchase with the third coming soon. A tremendous thanks to his wife for snapping a few shots of me talking to people; my mother is eternally grateful.

The photograph above is of my good friend Jason E. Krukowski's office. On the right hangs a 16"x20" print of "Geometric Convolution 2.0"; The only one in existence (he wished it into existence). From there if you direct your eye left, there's first a lamp, and then beyond that is Jason's very own, and quite excellent graduation poster from school. Continue to roam about the image and you will discover, as I did, that in the company of several recognizably awesome items, is a caricature of Jason that I did several years ago. Conclusion: With the exception of my artwork, Jason has decked his office out quite nicely. This concludes our investigative examination of Jason's office.

Check out Jason Krukowski's work at his blog Acid Kru Design & at Scoleri's Brew

Finally, an envelope I found in the trash at work and

doodled all over during lunch.

2011 Xmas Card

2011-12-10T02:37:00.001-05:00

Presented here is my Christmas card for 2011 that I will mail/hand out to various friends and family. This is one I've had baking in the oven for a few years, and the whole "Satanta" or Santa-Satan thing (both are spelled with the same letters) has been a reoccurring subject in my sketchbooks since high school. Maybe that'll stop now that I've done it as a card (I somehow doubt it, though).

Geometric Convolution 2.0

2011-11-29T00:57:00.001-05:00

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I busied myself vectoring the "Geometric Convolution" page from my pocket doodle book. Upon its completion at three a.m. Saturday morning, in a maniacal fit peppered with spurts of hysterical laughter, I then produced a psychedelic rug (the second image). I would recommend you not stare for too long, it most assuredly would be detrimental to your health.

Flip The Poster Tube

2011-11-02T20:10:00.000-04:00

A lunch break project. I used some children's markers on a poster tube that was lying around the shop and got Flip. He's quite the enthusiastic salesman. I later added a green fuzzy scarf thing from the resale shop next door to give him a crazy afro.

If by bizarre chance you happen to meet his real life counterpart, I would recommend you not purchase whatever he might be peddling. He might be a door to door peddler that pedals up and down your street selling faith in a product that exists only if you believe in its existence.

It is on such an occasion that owning a dog, or an intimidating pet of any sort (a wolf spider would be stellar, as long as it was of the wolf size so as to be more intimidating than a spider) could prove useful in keeping him far from your door. If he ignores your "beware of wolf-spider" sign due to a lack of faith in the existence of wolf spiders, or that a tiny brown spider isn't deadly enough to deter him from spreading the good word about his splendid wares, you can prove the existence of them (wolf-spiders) by threatening his existence with their existence. Assuming of course, his existence were real.

Book of Faces

2011-10-24T23:16:00.001-04:00

Here we have a fourteen page mini-book of faces (the obvious cheesy joke here would be to call it a "facebook," but I'll avoid that temptation). The pictures are poopy because I'm lazy and took pictures of each page with my phone instead of scanning them.

The genesis for the idea came from my friend's nine year old daughter. She stapled together several of these little things, and told me she was going to write and/or draw some books. It seemed like a fun little project so I illustrated my own as well.

Wolf Spiders

2011-10-11T20:31:00.002-04:00

Doodle page from my moleskine book.

Out of this mess of characters, the "wolf" spider would seem to be particularly unfriendly, especially if it traveled with a pack. A single wolf spider might not prove detrimental to one's health, but a whole pack, stalking, hunting, pouncing, the inevitable devouring, would ruin your day. There is the issue of size; are they wolf size, or spider size. A gun (machine gun preferably) would be needed to fend off one, while a boot would suffice to wipe out the other.

However, if you think your spouse a spawn of Satan, your children grotesque goblins, or your work a grueling system of repetitive tasks, a pack of nightmarish creatures gnawing away at your fleshy mound might prove a welcome, and very permanent departure from the tortures of everyday life. In this case it wouldn't matter the size. An army of tiny wolf spiders could still accomplish the same goal. A film crew might need to time lapse it though, if they aimed to share it with the rest of the world.

Just thinking aloud (actually not aloud at all. My brain did not produce any audible sounds whatsoever in the writing of this post. Brain speakers could be cool, though. However, I imagine a whole bucket of thoughts would be broadcast through brain speakers that I am positive I would not want others to hear. So maybe such a product should remain non existent).

A Horse & A Bee

2011-10-06T22:18:00.000-04:00

"Both Ends of the Horse"

"Angry Bee"

Two pages from my moleskine doodle book.

Diamond Del Book Interior 04

2011-09-02T16:33:00.004-04:00

Here's another interior page from the children's book.

The book site is diamonddelbook.com

Diamond Del Book Page 03

2011-08-30T21:46:00.002-04:00

Another page from the children's book I was commissioned to illustrate. Written by Anna Allen.

The book site is [link]

Q & A

2011-08-30T21:11:00.010-04:00

To begin this lengthy post I'll throw up some doodles from my pocket moleskine book.

Michael Rakov, a Russian journalist located in Saint Petersburg contacted me by email and asked if I would answer a few questions for mymoleskine.ru. So, of course I said yes.

The interview in russian is here.

For kicks & giggles I used babelfish (knowing from previous uses that it could prove quite hilarious) to translate it back to English from Russian. That translation went as follows...

MIKHAIL [RAKOV] ON AUGUST 23, 2011

I fight simply because I fight, said [Portos]. The Texas artist Of allen Of sutton speaks approximately also the very: “I sketch simply because I sketch”. But they trained it to this grand-dad with the grandmother: “they constantly required that I would sketch only the children and the flowers. And when I once this made, it, you do see, it was wanted so that my psycho-tank plants would end to devour babies. Somehow so everything began”, recalls Allen.

Why you do sketch precisely into Moleskine?

I tried hundreds of different notebooks and albums. But in all of them there was one and the same deficiency - too thin a paper. Paste always flowed. Remained spots on the even cleaner sheets of paper - by word, it is terrifically inconvenient.

Then it tried to sketch on the dense [printernoy] paper. Like, everything is good, but indeed the same not notebook, but the simply separate leaves. On the whole, also troubles there was much. And the pair of years ago I found several artists, who used Moleskine. Naturally, it decided to try. It purchased. In the sense, Moleskine. And in this notebook to me at first glance everything was pleased. Immediately. The sensation of paper, solid cover, [rezinochka] - is simple fantasy. Since then I use only [im].

It most of all me pleases to sketch into Moleskine of large size. There dense paper; therefore paste does not flow to another page. Then knob slides along this paper as oil on the glass.

To of course constantly drag with itself enormous notebook - is not too convenient. Therefore I purchased to itself even and pocket, small Moleskine for the small sketchings.

But that this after heroes on your works?

They do not have names. It is simple fools. Honestly speaking, I cannot explain nature of their appearance, why they are concrete such, and not here such. I simply sketch, this goes from my subconsciousness. Probably, therefore they are constant and [sovershabt] some absurd, inadequate actions.

How was formed your style?

Well, I grew on [multikakh], comics, science fiction, video games - although this standard collection, me this nevertheless inspired. More lately it worked in the store of comics. Here there I saw the work of the staggering artists. This from the feet to the head overturned my ideas about the skill.

You do sketch simply for the pleasure?

My Moleskine - this as paper packets in the aircraft. When to you it is bad, you take them, spit out in it your dinner - to you more easily. Here and i have approximately the same therapy - to sketch. The large part of the time I this make without some of the final goal. Simply I lay out to the paper everything which occurs. For this very reason in the works so much absurdity and strange heroes. In my opinion this is gay. This makes possible for me to remain in the tone and not to become [psikhom].

Why you on one picture something do make in the color, and something you do leave black and white?

Here everything is simple. Something in the work simply it shouts “paint me! ”, but something is not. Honestly speaking, the majority of my works - complete crap. When I see that in me the complete astrakmans are obtained, I attempt to repair - I add a little color. Astrakman- that they remain astrakmans, but now, also, in the color.

- A why you do put “verbal bubbles” as in the comics? For which?

- Well, probably in order to add somewhat sense, components. But can in order to embellish any of character. I I obtain unspeakable of pleasure putting different small jokes in the dialogues. And, by the way, about the comics. I made their whole ton. In the school in me was this character - cosmonaut. I made with it 26 series, and he then sold to classmates. All this, of course, complete nonsense, but it was gay. I, until now, make any illustrations I, true, constantly somewhere lose them. But generally, me it would be desirable independently something to write, to illustrate and to publish.

End.

So needless to say, I got a good laugh out of it, wishing I could have composed such surreal grandeur on my own.

It felt weird answering questions about myself, but a thanks goes to Michael Rakov for the unique opportunity, and a thanks to Mario Rodriguez for the use of his photo of me for the Q&A.

Hot Dang, this is a long post.

Diamond Del Book 2

2011-08-25T19:58:00.002-04:00

Another page from the children's book I was commissioned to illustrate.

Written by Anna Allen. 30 illustrated pages.

The book site is diamonddelbook.com

Diamond Del Book

2011-08-23T22:01:00.005-04:00

I was commissioned to illustrate a children's book some time ago, and it's now available for purchase.

Written by Anna Allen, "Diamond Del's Search for the Crown Jewels," is a gem hunt adventure that unfolds over 30 illustrated pages.

The book site is diamonddelbook.com

I'll post a few more of the pages in the next week or so.

Doodle Doodle Doodle

2011-08-11T22:36:00.004-04:00

Two pages from my moleskine doodle books. The top from my larger book & the lower from my pocket book.

Presidents

2011-08-07T02:33:00.004-04:00

A lunch time doodle project. As far as capturing the likenesses of all the various presidents, some are better than others, and several are a hundred lines in the wrong direction.

All done with a ball point pen, using a table place mat containing tiny portraits of all the US of A's presidents for reference.

This one to be exact...

[link]

Amazing what google can find.

Party Animals

2011-06-27T19:47:00.003-04:00

A birthday card for a friend's kid. The girl had seen several of my other cards, each time making the comment she couldn't wait for her own birthday. She gives me two to three drawings a week, so the least I could do was muster up a birthday card for her.

Lucy in the Sky

2011-05-18T19:19:00.003-04:00

A birthday card for a friend. Her dog's name is Lucy.

Scribbles in my pocket doodle book.

Old West

2011-04-11T19:36:00.000-04:00

Christmas gift for my mother and her husband. I hand delivered it this past weekend. 9"x12" Pen, & Watercolors.

Clown Cake Leprechaun

2011-03-29T20:41:00.003-04:00

Here are some more birthday cards. The first was for a friend, and the second was for my father; his birthday

is on St. Patty's day.

Welding Scorpion

2011-03-26T22:35:00.002-04:00

Jumbled

2011-03-02T19:04:00.002-05:00

Pocket doodle book.

More February B-Day Cards

2011-02-25T21:56:00.003-05:00

Two more birthday cards.

Lot of Cake B-Day Card

2011-02-09T18:42:00.003-05:00

This is a birthday card I did for my boss. She's a second mother to me so I wanted to do something special for her.

Elder Deity from the Dark Beyond

2011-01-30T15:59:00.007-05:00

Church bulletin art. Anybody that knows me, knows that I draw in church.

Even though the doodling may be in church, it is rarely inspired by what is going on in church (unless I'm drawing funny caricatures of the pastor or surrounding attendees). Jesus or any of the disciples rarely ever make their way into the doodles unless they're fighting off leviathans from the deep (they're fishermen so it's a possibility), or joining their magical walking staff powers into a concentrated beam to take out a horde of Satan's minions to save the world's supply of tacos (which might or might not contain real beef).

This particular beast, however, was inspired by a stained glass window decoration... well partly inspired. It is unfortunate that there are not any extraterrestrials portrayed in this particular church's stained glass windows. I'm sure most would argue that's a good thing. Unless you consider Jesus or angels to be extraterrestrial; they are other worldly.

Dump Truck

2011-01-26T20:10:00.003-05:00

A dump truck illustration I did for a baby boy's birthday card. Pen, watercolor, and a smidgen of photoshop.

Facial Mush The Sequel

2011-01-14T19:10:00.001-05:00

A mash up of faces.

Christmas Gifts

2010-12-27T17:07:00.004-05:00

These are various Christmas gifts for family & friends, the friends being close enough that I consider them family.

Merry Xmas & A Happy New Year!

2010-12-14T19:22:00.003-05:00

Make sure to leave out milk & cookies for Santa.

Gatorplane Birthday Card

2010-12-03T19:24:00.004-05:00

My brother's birthday was way back in September; this was the card he received from me. I usually try and tie the concept of my cards to the individual's personal interests; my bro is a pilot. The visual gags I drew attention to on the inside of the card were the "Tail Gunner" and the "Ball Turret." Cheesy gags, but I liked them, and that's all that matters in my book.

Ooga Booga

2010-10-30T19:53:00.004-04:00

Are any of these individuals possibly just wearing costumes? I'm gonna say that's a negative.

Happy Birthday

2010-08-18T21:59:00.005-04:00

A birthday card I did for my friends' kid that just turned two. Of course him being only two the card was done more for the enjoyment of the parents. I told them to stick it in a book and pull it back out in eight to ten years.

Check out acidkrudesign; some very cool stuff by my good friend Jason Krukowski. In addition to his regular work he's currently involved in a project over at Scoleri's Brew. You should check that out too.

Beat Mama

2010-07-23T13:01:00.003-04:00

A mascot created for Beat Mama Productions.

Toad

2010-07-07T20:25:00.002-04:00

A mascot concept for a digital publishing company. He's sure likes the taste of that generic phone.

Geometric Overload

2010-06-18T16:37:00.003-04:00

I was compelled to fill the entire page. It's my pocket doodle book, so why not go crazy?

Fried Egg Growth

2010-06-10T18:30:00.002-04:00

A strange dreamscape of fried egg growth.

Odd Characters

2010-06-03T18:59:00.001-04:00

A strange collection of characters.

Facial Mush

2010-05-18T19:46:00.002-04:00

Mesh mash mush of faces doodled in my pocket book.

Geometric Congestion

2010-05-08T13:22:00.005-04:00

Geometric congestion is a direct result of bad zoning laws, or lack there of, in the quick & spontaneous expansion of a doodle city. A page from my pocket doodle book.

Mister M

2010-04-30T18:06:00.002-04:00

A caricature for a friend that's been a long time coming. Check out his work at Nu Day Media.

Photo Collage Experiments

2010-04-08T16:27:00.003-04:00

I've been wandering around my house taking pictures of random stuff, mostly just to take pictures, but also so I can have more textures to use in Photoshop. Inspired by my friend Jason Krukowski's own collage work, and a desire to do something different, these strange concoctions are both fun and addictive. Needless to say, I'm hooked and already have several more brewing in the cauldron.

Mole In My Pocket

2010-04-01T19:37:00.002-04:00

A page out of my pocket moleskine. It lives in my back pocket and gets doodled in when I'm out and about with a moment or two to kill.

Granny

2010-03-22T17:03:00.003-04:00

While staying with some good friends of mine I noticed they had a frame on the mantle that didn't have a picture in it, just the price sheet. Decided I'd rectify that problem. This crappy shot of it was taken with my phone.

Sunset

2010-03-11T15:03:00.002-05:00

Snapped these the other evening while at a family get together. Who can resist snapping a pick of a sunset? Not me.

Pour Me Another

2010-02-02T15:46:00.002-05:00

First page in my new 2010 moleskine book. What we have here is apparently some very interesting people socializing in a bar. It looks as if the guy on the right isn't wearing a shirt... I don't know why. I'm going to assume he has no idea where his shirt has gotten to either.

I Have It!

2010-01-18T15:27:00.006-05:00

That would be one crazy bird thing to catch. Might be worth something to the scientific community. A bit of advice... don't feed your hand to a mutated cat's butt no matter how cute it might appear to be.

I want to get me one of those A3 sized moleskines. It would take me forever to get through that thing. Here's a link so you can see for yourself...A3 Moleskine Folio

A Guy Named Meh & Jog Bot

2010-01-14T20:16:00.003-05:00

I have been having some fun with the digital paints. The old guy I whipped up just last night and the robot had been sitting around a while so I finished him. I've got some other stuff sitting in a folder, I guess I'll see if any of it is worth finishing.

2010

2010-01-01T00:15:00.003-05:00

They're all like sardines packed in there.

Finished my moleskine (this page is one of the final pages) and ushered in the new year by unwrapping and dating a new one. The smell alone is probably the greatest part. That first blank page is a doozy though.

Earthworm Jim

2009-12-28T16:32:00.003-05:00

This had been sitting uncolored in my moleskine book for almost a year and I decided I'd color it.

Pen, & color pencils.

I used photoshop to kinda cover up the page divide and knock the background back a bit to help bring out Jim and Psycrow.

Earthworm Jim created by Doug Tennapel.

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year

2009-12-21T19:03:00.006-05:00

Santa is coming to get you!

...kinda cheesy but who cares.

Sky Battle Showcase Poster

2009-12-08T13:50:00.002-05:00

A poster done for my graduating class presentation showcase. It's being printed so it had to be gigantic, 24"x 36."

Everything done in Photoshop. I used a few brushes made by this nice fellow link.

Potato Chip Crazy

2009-11-10T23:14:00.002-05:00

An illustration for a friend's Dorito's Superbowl Commercial Contest Submission called, "The Chronicles of the Dorito's Caveman."

Check out his vid here...

http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/3005/

I originally had his hair white and changed it to dark gray at the request of the client. Dark gray looked good, but for some reason I still like his hair white.

He was originally drawn out on paper, inked, scanned, then vectored in Illustrator. Lately, it seems everything I do has gone through Illustrator. An extra step that is well worth the effort.

8-Bit Adventure Crew Logo

2009-11-09T16:08:00.004-05:00

Updated the 8-Bit Adventure Crew's logo for them. myspace.com/8bac

Skateboard

2009-10-31T12:56:00.003-04:00

A skateboard. Drawn in my moleskine and then colored using Illustrator & Photoshop. I dream about food a lot for some reason, so this is all my dream food.

Rabbit Hole Cannibals

2009-10-28T11:51:00.007-04:00

This is for the Magnolius Art Contest. You can find the details here http://www.myspace.com/magnolius

I picked a song and chose a lyric to base this on. The lyric made specific mention of "rabbit-hole cannibals," and this is what came to mind.

Thought I'd post a step by step just for the heck of it. Why not right?

To explain the process:

1) Penciled & inked on real paper (moleskine paper to be precise).

2) Then scanned in and vectored using Illustrator. It is here the lines are cleaned and refined.

3) The base colors are done in Illustrator as well.

4) Shadows and some highlights are added.

5) I moved it over to Photoshop at this point. Did some more cleaning and refining, and added some shading, textures, and atmosphere.

All throughout this process my good friend Jason Krukowski (acidkrudesign.com), a fellow artist, was providing feedback and critique. The end result would have been different, if not for his input. So it's good to have friends to look at stuff.

Light Paintings 2

2009-10-15T06:14:00.002-04:00

Having some more fun with my camera. The broader stroked ones were done with my phone.

Light Paintings

2009-10-10T13:55:00.003-04:00

Everyone knows it's fun to play with a slow shutter speed in the dark.

Samurai Soda Brain Crab Belch

2009-10-07T21:09:00.003-04:00

Started and finished most of this back in April but can't seem to find the motivation to finish coloring the samurai football swimmer so I just decided to post it. Maybe someday he'll get finished... or not.

Flash Game

2009-08-27T12:08:00.003-04:00

Flash game done for class. We were given the engine and just told to plug our assets in. Kinda disappointing. Had fun though. There's quite a bit of detail in the background and characters that gets wasted by the low res vid file. Oh, well.

Boss Sphere

2009-08-25T20:04:00.002-04:00

Hand drew the lines in my moleskine sketchbook, then used a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop to color it. Lots of fun. I've been playing quite a bit of old school, side-scrolling shooters, so I guess I got the itch to do something in that vein.

Bizarre Dreams of A Kitchen Sink

2009-08-03T20:16:00.004-04:00

I had forgotten I'd had taken pics of this painting at different stages. Did it for class but I thought I'd share the process here.

Acrylic on 16" x 20" canvas.

Cereal Box Art

2009-07-31T19:45:00.005-04:00

Just messing around with Prismacolor markers on a flattened cereal box. Definitely gonna try some more of these; gotta finish another box of cereal first.

Drive-By

2009-07-26T22:01:00.011-04:00

This page depicts a scene from an action film about the effects that tossed salad has on society.

A ballpoint pen exercise. This one is of my father.

Another ballpoint that I had some fun with in photoshop. Supposed to be my brother, but the likeness isn't quite there.

Off Kilter Art

2009-07-26T02:38:00.003-04:00

Starting this blog in the hope it will be easier to post new sketches and work here than offkilterart.com. It's not hard to update the site, it's just not worth it to bother trying to update it on a weekly basis (I'm having a hard time getting around to it every couple months).

Most of my posts will contain pages from my sketchbook. Works in progress and finished pieces will make their way here as well, but mainly doodles and things of that sort.

All this space for text also provides me an opportunity to share zany backstories about the characters and miscellaneous content within my scribbles.

Not much about this first sketch page to tell, except that an actual blue horse would be a sight to see. Not a regular horse painted blue, but a horse naturally blue from birth. If it roamed the bottom of the ocean with other blue equines in herds and I had to pilot a submarine down to the blue depths in order to gaze upon this amazing sight, that would make it all the more awesome. These mustangs would surface once a year to frequent beaches and perform mating rituals. I'm not into watching animals reproduce, but if I couldn't afford the submarine trip to the blue ocean plains, I could show up and watch them rise out of the sea then skip out before the mounting party.

These blue equines would probably pull in a mighty hefty price being as they're blue. Entrepreneurs would venture to capture these creatures and place them in captivity, breeding them to no end. These individuals might look like the green individual riding the horse on this page. They would sport fancy suits and drink insanely expensive soap laced with freon during the week, but spend weekends prancing about their farms in overalls, drinking and gazing through telescopes at neighboring horse breeding entrepreneur's pink plastic wives.

Beelzewolf eats kids. Some he imprisons and forces them to make him expensive designer purses, but he likes nothing more than to devour a fat, over medicated, under educated child. Especially, if they happen to be the spoiled rotten offspring of blue equine breeding entrepreneurs.