Artist's Block. Fun stuff.

Yeah, I still don't post in here as often as I do in other places. Also thinking about moving to wordpress, but that's another can of worms because I want to still be able to update here, and my current web host provider apparently isn't up to date with the ability to interface the two (something about php files that I'm going to have to figure out) plus I'm beginning to hate my current layout of my site so I have to redesign that (not getting enough inspiration atm...Grr...) Working on some concept art and running out of steam on the shading bit. That's usually the time where I punk out on stuff. I get a good chunk of it done, but if I'm not happy with how some of it turned out (the hands on this one, for example) I start trying to do 50 other things at once to take me away from what sucks about it.

Back at the folks' place for Christmas. I'm thinking about trying to work on Christmas gifts - ie gift art - a hell of a lot earlier this year, cuz with taking a few days sabbatical to some friends' house, I'm behind on what I wanted to do. I didn't promise some specific people art (per se), but I want to get it done for a few of them, cuz they're awesome people.

Ah, maybe I'll go back to redesigning my website again. If I can put together a two column page that doesn't make me grimace, I'll be happy.

Rant time...

Wow, I haven't done a rant in ages. I try not to just because most folks don't like listening to/reading em, but this is both a review and a rant. Well, psuedo-review, because I heard one of the tracks on the radio.

Let me start the whole thing out by saying I am a HARDCORE Motley Crue fan. I own most, if not all of their studio albums. I started reading The Dirt at age 12, and it's probably part of the reason I'm so twisted. I was one of the 70 people featured in the Chronological Crue compilation of "What Motley Means to Me." I think I was one of the youngest people featured as well. (I lost my book, and I'm very heartbroken about this.) With all of these things in mind, I feel a great sense of disillusionment as I found out about the recent release of yet ANOTHER Motley Crue "Greatest Hits" album. Not only is this riding on the coattails of the last one (Remember Red, White & Crue? The anthology that effectively reunited the band? Yeah. That was in 2005. ) but there is an overwhelming lack of any real thought into this project altogether. Even with Nikki in charge of the company's label (Eleven Seven records, if I'm not mistaken) this doesn't look like something the guys had any thought/hand in.

Let's take a look: We'll start with the cover art.

This is the album art for Motley Crue: Greatest Hits 1998. New art, still kind of messily done, but not much thought into it. Had two remixes on there: A remix of Glitter (not seen on the original Generation Swine album) and a remix of Shout at the Devil (the same one they recorded around the Generation Swine album).

Aaannd here is our new beauty. Same logo for the Greatest Hits part, reusing a promo photo from a Paul Brown shoot for Saints of Los Angles (If you're going to have someone do a photoshoot, might as well use ALL the photos, right?). It's a great photo, but the logo for Greatest Hits just seems completely off with the overly Gothic Script of the MC logo. Maybe it's just the graphic design student in me, but reusing of past elements in this manner just makes it seem more slapped together than the 1998 Greatest Hits album (which was apparently slapped together in the first place.)

This album features three new-ish songs: If I Die Tomorrow (off of Red, White & Crue - honestly, does that count?), Saints of Los Angles, and a remix of Animal In Me. I use the term "remix" lightly. I managed to catch Animal in Me on the radio and nearly cried. They added effects and called it a remix. Sure, there were some extra strings in multiple parts, but no new verses, and it was the same length as the previous version. Was it a great song? YES. But to call it a remix? Please. The guys would have been better off releasing THIS version of it on Saints of Los Angles and calling it a day.

In the end, this really has to make me wonder what the hell is going on. Cruefest has been a success both on its inaugural year and this one. Sixx has more projects going than he can shake a stick at, and I'm pretty sure some of the others do as well. Does the release of an album such as this disappoint me? You bet your ass. Not only is it poorly timed, but the "pitch" of the album (ie, the reason you'd want to go and even BUY the damn thing) isn't even worth it. Do I have less of a high regard for the boys? kinda. and you bet your ass I'm not going to buy it.

This thing had been bugging me for the past couple of months, so I just had to get it off of my chest. Let me know what you think.

Will have more on actual ART stuff later. Thanks for being patient.

- NG

Holy Crap.

It's been two months since I posted something in here. Goes to show you how much school can drive you nuts and keep you busy. Here's what I've been up to on the internet.

A very disoriented and poorly made version of my website is up right now - CasketStudios.com is where I'm hosting one of my online portfolios along with my schoolwork for two of my classes: IM 285 (Intro to Video Production) and IM 365 (Designing for the WWW). I'm retooling the CSS on a semi-regular basis in my nonexistant spare time.

That's right boys and girls, I finally broke down and got a twitter account. It's actually been somewhat useful to have, considering over half the instructors in my major (and the head of the major, and the college itself) all have accounts.

I still have the deviantART account (about the only thing I update regularly), and the dA funded Portfolio, of course. I've also applied to be a Gallery Moderator on deviantART. I think it'd be a cool attempt at being a Psuedo-Intern. And something else to add to my overflooded schedule.

But that's not why I posted. I wanted to plug some really wicked animation and stuff that's going on in the world lately. I wasn't a big fan of the series, but damn the Astro Boy movie looks like it's going to be a cool one. I think I've been watching too many movies with the same actors, because I caught Nicolas Cage's voice within three seconds of voice track. I know it's also about a year or so late, but I've just started playing Xbox360 (a loan from my folks because I need to be more familiar with the video game industry since that's my intended job area) and my first game that I opened was Devil May Cry 4. I know the series has both good and bad mojo going for it, but I'm enjoying it thoroughly so far, even despite the fact that the voice actor for the main character (Nero) is the same voice actor for at least half of the popular anime series on TV in the US right now (and a few that aren't - remember Keneda from Akira? That's the one.). I just need an Ethernet cable to set up Xbox live and I'm all set.

Well, that's it for now...better get back to work....

Headdesk

While working the other day, I came to the realization that I haven't made a colored version of Nightblade since this one about two and half years ago. I've scribbled him in various different places (a few in chibi form), but of late I've been trying to hammer down designs for each of the characters for an attempt at a comic. Possibly. It wouldn't be put together till ACen 2011, but I've got ideas for how I'd put it together. The first book would be purely an "origin" book, showing the beginnings of Nightblade, Raven, and possibly Bloodspire if I decide to revamp her character to that extent. The stories won't change too terribly much from what's up in my gallery, but different things will be added in (including the actual origin story for Nightblade that sets off the whole friggin thing...) I've been using the whole thing as an excuse to do character concept sheets. Because I know I'm going to be doing a TON of those once I get a job "in the biz."  

I was working on colors for Nightblade's cursed form as a warm-up today and ended up spending the whole day on it after one of the peeps that had commissioned me for stuff decided against the whole deal. I am REALLY liking how one of the faces turned out: I drew two shots, one of his "normal" state and one of him in "full demon" mode. Basically, the full demon mode is for when he uses magic, gets really pissed off, and....well, you'll have to wait for the comic for the rest of it. He has about three other forms throughout the storyline aside from that version. I'm kinda looking forward to drawing the full demon form. I haven't done much with the humanoid-monstrous forms yet. I also realize after working on this that I REALLY need to work on my hands and feet. At least I've got head/hair shading down pretty well. Just need to get it down to something quicker. Without further ado, here's one of the heads from my Nightblade Cursed Character Sheet: I like the idea of the hair flaring up as he gets pissed. Kinda like those lizards that have the ability to make themselves look bigger when they're scared.

and on another completely random note: Photobucket's image hosting is bugged. It forgets to add a < /img > tag in its "HTML Code" ability. Never noticed that.

Blast from the Past

I've been sick all day, so I haven't been able to do jack but read manga on the internet. I forgot that not all anime sucks because of the editing that they do in order to get it on TV. I'd go into a rant about how horrible censorship gets at times, but now's not really the time for that. 

I dug around in my photobucket account and found a picture from around the time I did this pic. It was based on an old photo of a friend of mine, Amanda, when she did a photoshoot for a small-time clothing designer in Canada: 

 I was attempting to put together a female character design for my story Requiem that I started putting together in high school. At the point that I put this drawing together, her name was Toki, and I believe she was supposed to be some sort aof angel. I was trying to go with the classics in the story: demons, angels, vampires, werewolves, and the like. However, I was also trying to come up with a way to incorporate multiple religions and try to organize them into a group that coexisted and cooperated with one another harmoniously. However, the traditional (or stereotypical) angel-type found in the judeo-christian background wouldn't tolerate working in hand with my two main characters (a demon and a vampire) however good their intentions may be to the angel. So, she got put on hold while I looked up different versions of angels. I had a really nice character design for her too. She was very punk. You can *kinda* see it from the drawing.

About two weeks or so ago I went and hung out with a friend who has to move back to her folks' place. She allowed me to take a couple of shots of her beautiful asian ball-jointed dolls, Soo Lae and Fuuyuki. I apologize for the large sizeness of the pictures. 

 There's one more shot that worked out on my deviantART account as well.

More stuff in the works when I'm feeling better. Stay tuned faithful reader(s)!

Commission Information

All prices are for the types of art listed. If you would like to commission me for something else entirely, please send me an email at kaidentogosa@yahoo.com and we  will work something out. 

Payment Method:
 I take subscriptions or PayPal - kaidentogosa@yahoo.com

What's For Sale:
Illustration (Digital or Traditional)
Portraits
 Fan Art
Original Characters
Character Design ie "The Reference Sheet Style" (Digital)
Tattoo Design (Digital)

Prices:

Illustration (digital)
Portrait (Note: Portraits are stand alone images, no discerning background - can do single color backgrounds on request)
B&W Half Body - $5
B&W Full Body - $7
Color Half Body - $7-$14
Color Full Body - $14-$21
Fan Art
B&W Half Body - $5-$10
B&W Full Body - $7-$12
Color Half Body - $7-$14
Color Full Body - $14-$21
Original Characters (For these, please provide at least a short description of the character itself, or a link to a bio/previous image)
B&W Half Body - $5-$10
B&W Full Body - $7-$14
Color Half Body - $7-$14
Color Full Body - $14-$21

Illustration (Traditional)
Portrait
Line Art - $3
Ink/Shaded - $7
Colored - $14
Fan Art
Line Art - $5
Ink/Shaded - $7
Colored - $14 
Original Characters
Line Art - $5
Ink/Shaded - $7
Colored - $14

Extras
Detailed Background (traditional): + $3
Detailed Background (digital): + $5

Character Design
Reference Sheets (These can be done on a solid color background.)
Basic Full Body, Face (without Character Stats): $15
Basic Full Body, Face (with Character Stats): $20
Advanced Profile: $25

Tattoo Design
Tattoos are as extensive and as vibrant as the people who get them. As such, the creation of the art can be a time-consuming process. For a flat rate, I charge $20, then add onto it depending on the amount of complexity of the tattoo. I can do the design in greyscale, or in color (which will cost more.) 

How This Works:
You contact me (either thru dA or email) with your email, address (if it's traditional art), what you want, and any reference photos or notes if necessary. 
Unless otherwise agreed upon, Art is for PERSONAL USE ONLY. 
If you are interested in larger than single-page projects, or different designs (tarot cards, books, etc.), send me an email and we'll work something out. 
If necessary, I'll send you a low-res sketch of what you want, then we will proceed with the real thing once we agree on it. 
payment will be needed after we've agreed on the rough sketch. 

Communication:
Note me on dA: raithe.deviantart.com
Email: kaidentogosa@yahoo.com

Sushi and Bristol Ren Faire

Slightly preoccupied while writing this - I found an old stand-up routine of Dennis Leary while I was working, and it's funnier than hell. I love the insane screaming rant comedians. 

Updating and working solidly on artwork, but I did have a couple opportunities lately to put together some photos. One was a sort of "staged" photo shoot, the other one was me taking my Canon Rebel SLR to the annual Bristol Ren Faire on the border of Wisconsin and Illinois and managing to snap off some sweet shots. I also walked away from that one with some insane amount of ideas for costuming. I seriously need to buy a sewing machine and put this stuff together. Between the initial design for an outfit for a couple of friends' getting married and that event......I could be busy with sewing for months from now. I seriously could. 

Anyway. There's some new stuff in the general gallery, including some new portfolio drawings. I redid a drawing I did back in 2006. I was sick and tired of it, so I decided to update it. Also some fun stuff from the old abandoned SF comic that I was going to do. Le Sigh. Someday. 

Commissions are open as well! Check here for the price list. 

Here's the Sushi Gallery.

And Here's the Bristol Ren Faire Shots. 

Catch you guys on the flip side. 

Commissions are Open!

Head on over to my dA page to check out what's for sale in the single-page art realm. 

Tinkering with CSS

So today I sat down and decided to try my hand at messing around with cascading style sheets @ dA. I had a journal that I absolutely liked the style of from another member, but didn't quite like the  colors that were put together. I messed around a bit in Adobe Dreamweaver and came up with a very quick style change for the journal. It's installable, and about the only thing I did today aside from finally getting the electric bill in my name here at the Apt/Studio. 

Here is the link to the installable journal CSS (deviantARTists only)

Here's a link to a sample blog with 2 of the 3 extra styles added. 

Going to look around about starting up commissions and the like. I have poor health on a semi-regular basis, so I'm going to try to find the easiest way to start making money off designing logos, websites and the like. I will post FAQ in one of my many sites, I swear. 

That's all for now!

Update ~ Among Other Things

There's been a lack of updates recently, real life has gotten really freaking hectic. If you want the full story, check my dA account. I'm still working on the website, and thanks to a few classes, I'm going to be able to do some decent formatting on it. Eventually, I'll be able to post it up once my issues with the apartment is done.

Click here for my dA journal entry explaining what's up.....

Casket Studios closer to launch...

Made my bid for the url today. Within the next week I'll know wether or not I can make the site casketstudios a reality. It'll host all of my artwork (a PROFESSIONAL resume-ish thing...) and that sort of joyus muck. 

I got some of the cool stuff from a lot of the free-to-use Stock over @ DeviantART. I'll post a list when I actually launch the site and send notes to those who's stock I used. I might tweak a TON of crap, but that usually happens. After all, it is me. I'm never satisfied with my stuff. 

Hop on over to my DeviantART page anyway and critique one of my WIPs, a Mac-sized Desktop of some old characters from the defunct-Champion Server-based SuperGroup, Stryke-Force. Ahhh, I miss the SG. Not the drama, but the people. But that's another matter entirely. 

For those of you who give a crap, I've reopened one of my blogs as a general rambling blog. I tend to do it too much, and want to keep things on this blog art and design-related. More will be there as the days unfold. 

New Art @ DevART...

While I've been overloaded with work, I managed to shoot a couple of photos of my traditional stuff that are posted up on DeviantArt. Once the school year winds down, you'll see a bit more of me. Big kudos to waiting out for so long. 

Here's the link because I'm going to eventually work on sprucing up this place a bit...

Productive Suck.

What started out as a promising year has hit the doldrums since March. 

Ugh. So much has happened that I'm being productive in many other areas....just not drawing. Forcing myself to pick up the tablet and pencil when I have a few breaks, but those breaks end up being REALLY late at night. It sucks. 

So far this week, I've had to deal with my ceiling still leaking (thanks to a ruptured pipe, apparently) and a messed up ankle. STILL don't know what's wrong with it, and my room's a bloody mess because I haven't been walking about and fixing it up. 

Welcome Back.

"You now have Six weeks left in the semester. Have a good time!" 

Shiiiit. As if I wasn't trying to pull my shit together long enough to launch the portfolio site, I need to catch up in uber-quantities after being sick. I'm still kinda sick, but not sick enough to get out of classes. 

I promised photos, right? Here are some photos. They're not the exact ones I promised, but it shows you I'm alive, ya?

The photo above is basically my portable art station:

(1): Mac Book Pro (15 inch)

(1): Champions Online Backpack full of tech gear (portable harddrives, USB memory sticks)

(1): Wacom Graphire4 Tablet (beaten to shit but still usable)

(1): Soon-To

-Be-Replaced Adobe CS3. As soon as I get the money for it...

It's funny, I used to carry a sketchbook all the time about a year ago, now lookit me....I'm almost 100% Digital and it's kinda scary.

Movin on...a few quick shots of my cat. He's a wonderful little thing, but getting on in yea

rs like you wouldn't believe. Yes, that is an eyetooth sticking out of his mouth. 

 

He wouldn't stand still...the rest of the shots came out blurry. 

More later, I promise. 

-N Graves

Still Having Health Issues

At home for Spring Break, recuperating to say the very least. I can't shake the feeling that, while I have gotten rid of the cyst, something else is just around the corner...But that might just be me being paranoid.  I've been accused of that once (or twice) a week. 

Website is in the process of being built. I'm laying out the skeleton over break. 

Medical Issues

Sorry folks, not a lot going on here. I've been sick lately. At first it started with a small pain in my right side. After that pain grew to intense blinding pain over the weekend, I went into the emergency room at St. Francis. Apparently, I have a cyst on my right ovary that has made it swell to four times its original size. It's kinda interesting how distorted my body is on the lower right side now. I can clearly tell which side is messed up. Because I'm such a young pup, they don't want to operate on me (they could only discern that it was a cyst, not what it was caused by), so they shoved off a bottle of pills on me and smiled as I limped away. Unfortunately, the disease known as Endometriosis runs in my family, and cysts can be caused by that too. If that's the case....I think it's probably likely I could have the entire ovary removed. From what they told me (and I remember very little), the cyst has enveloped the ovary. I'll keep you all updated as it goes along. 

The Heroin Diaries

Before I post some pics of the place I work in (well, create in, anyway..), I wanted to show these pictures. They're not much more than scribbles done while i was listening to the CD, but at the same time, I drew each with an intent of what I would want to do later on as a painting/whatnot (if I ever get that mythological and far-off "free time" where I don't have to work on something "important.") I only made thru the first three and a half songs before I started to pass out. Working reeeeeally late at night can be fun. 

In reverse listing, because I'm still figuring out the blogger photo thingy...

Pray For Me

Yes, I have a sick twisted sense of humor. I want to do a surrealist type painting of this scene of the main character sprawled out and bloody on a stretcher where his body and the surrounding materials make it look like a cross. It works for me. 

Life Is Beautiful

(if you can believe it, anyway.)

I was getting an image of Nikki in the alleyway in Asia, saying "Like fuck I'm gonna die." Then kinda fastforwarding to the line from "Dancing on Glass" 

Valentine's in London, found me in the Trash....

Van Nuys

I think it's kinda self-explainatory here. If I could go back and redo my painting now, I would. 

X-Mas In Hell

Oddly enough, this is what I decided on if I ever pick up the paintings again. I want to do a more fish-eye lens of it, though. I think it'll look super-fucked-up then.

Photos to come soon. At some point. I think. 

Slight Change...

In order to try to get my mind out of the dark pit it usually drags itself into, Devil's Grave has been changed to Ramblings & Rants. I know it's a lame title, but it's also open to the public, albeit having an adult tag on it. I like to say "fuck" twice as much when I'm pissed. 

Photos will be done once I get my hidey-hole cleaned. 

Wait, another blog?

If you look at my account, there are quite a few blogs sitting on there. Two of them are parts of research projects, and one of them is a private journal for rants, ramblings and general screams to the world. It doesn't have anything in it as of yet, but I'll probably throw something together when I feel so inclined. 

Here's a short list of the blogs:

Axel Kimagawa's Ramblings

(a blog about MM333: Introduction to Research in Virtual Environments. Most of this blog uses notes taken from observations in the virtual-reality program called SecondLife. It's complete, but my professor has asked us to keep it up for at least another year. It doesn't cost me anything, so I'm cool with it.)

Rock'n'Roll Geisha

(This is for the follow-up course to the last one - MM444: Field Research in Virtual Environments. We're studying a specific place in SL, but I don't have much to post in the way of findings yet (I'm a bit behind on the work, honestly.) Stuff will be updated in there as it goes - as long as our group allows it.) 

Devil's Grave

(Angsty Screams and Idyllic Musings. In short, what I think about the world that really doesn't belong on "professional" sites (such as the DeviantArt site I have, or my personal portfolio that has yet to be re-launched). At this point, I'm not screaming at things all that much, so it's pretty empty.) 

Why the new blog?

As a musician and an artist, I do a lot of creativity at home (wherever home may be at this point in time.) To that extent, my belief is that in order to create, one must have an environment that is beneficial to that end. If you want to call it feng shui, then go on ahead. I also find it kind of amusing to see where some of your favorite (or just rather interesting) works are created. 

In very short summary without the flowery crap: I'm posting pictures of my working space as it changes throughout college and afterwords. Deal with it.