Merry Christmas!

Here's our 2010 Christmas Card, featuring our pup Nala for the second year in a row.

Found out last Friday that we're having a baby girl! It's going to be an amazing Christmas in the Deligiannis household this year, that's for sure. I'm feeling more blessed than ever, and I'm already thinking of ideas for next year's card (assuming she makes the cut... Nala's a tough act to beat, so the ball's in her court).

Going Green.

From my Twitter page, Friday (yesterday) morning:



I know, riiiiight? I'll be contributing to Nickelodeon's new Ninja Turtles series, and one my biggest childhood dreams will become a reality. More info later.

Now, here's that Krang I finally finished, plus a variant version (I had to do a throwback version for the old school). I have prints of them if your wall is bare.

Comic-Con 2010.

Comic-Con was, as always, a feast for the senses. Had a great time. Below are a couple of posters the Nickelodeon booth handed out over the weekend. They were drawn by Fairly Odd Parents and Tuff Puppy creator Butch Hartman, and colored by me.

Also, I'm posting photos of a few highlights from the show, including Stan Sakai, Thor's throne, a one-of-a-kind custom figure from Kevin Eastman, Cheif from BSG, and Casey Jones holding up my drawing of Casey Jones (which is basically as gangsta as it gets).

Makin' Moves.

Two moves: Number one, the wife and I bought our first house. We've only been in for 2 weeks, and much of my stuff is still in boxes, but it's slowly coming together. God is good, man.

Number two, Comic-Con is around the corner once again. I'll be there, along with a few artist buddies, at our new location, booth #1802. We've been in the same spot for the past several years, so it'll be interesting to see how we fare with this new placement. Come through and say hi; we'll have a variety of stuffs, including books, comics, and art prints. I'll also (finally) be adding the Krang print to my TMNT set; the color is not quite done, so what you see here is unfinished, but it'll be ready in time for the show.

Gallery At Nickelodeon

I and my fellow Fairly Odd Parents/T.U.F.F. Puppy crew mates are exhibiting art in this month's Nickelodeon gallery. If you're in the area and are so inclined, I think you can call the studio and arrange to check it out. It'll be up through Easter or so.

Also, it occurred to me while setting up for the show that, after sharing all the preliminary sketches of my Bebop and Rocksteady, I never bothered to post the final versions. So, here you go, only a year late. (And hey, if the TMNT is your thing, I've got prints of them, and Casey Jones as well, available in my store on crushcounty.com. Krang's next in the series, if I can ever get some time to finish him up).

Merry Christmas!

Happiest of holidays, and only the best in the new year. God bless!

Krang's Frankenstein Monster

Here's my design for Krang. Along with my final inks, I've included a page from my sketchbook, so you can kind of see how the design evolved. Looking through my roughs, there were certainly more interesting poses I could have gone with, but I decided to keep the robot dormant, and move the focus to Krang himself, as he prepares to fire up his newly-created body for the first time.

Looking forward to coloring him. On a side note, I've heard that since the Twitter explosion, blogs are being updated less frequently. Mine is no exception. I'll keep posting art here, of course, but I've grown to really appreciate the simplicity and instant gratification of Twitter, particularly for sharing doodles and sketches that might not be "blog-worthy," as well as chatter on comics, animation, and whatever else. If you do the Twitters, you can follow me at @alexdeligiannis. I'm also on DeviantArt now, so if you're a DA user, I'm at alexdeligiannis.deviantart.com.

Bebop (Part II: Inks)

Aside from a half-hour game of frisbee with my puppy, the June gloom kept me indoors most of the day, and I was able to get some inking done this morning. I think I can safely say that this is my first time actually inking a entire finished drawing in a long while, probably since college. I'm definitely diggin' the brush pen; surprisingly, despite the finality of ink, it made drawing more fun again, and I'm look forward to inking more stuff going forward. I'll have colors on this soon.

Bebop (Part I)

Here are two passes for my Bebop print: the initial Cintiq sketch and the final (pre-ink) Col-erase drawing. Not pictured are the other dozen or so drawings that it took me to get from point A to point B. I often re-draw the same thing over and over, tweaking one thing at a time until I like what I've come up with. Sometimes I can work things out in a couple of drawings, other times it takes a few more. Inevitably, there's always some sort of spark or energy I like in the initial rough which ends up getting lost in the translation, but I've learned to deal with it. There's also a photo of a practice page I used to try out a few different pens. For years I've cleaned up my drawings using a 4B pencil, but lately I've been getting back into using ink. In addition to my trusty Kuretake and Pentel Pocket Brush (the "Master Swords" of inking utensils), I tried out several new Japanese pens I picked up recently, including a Zebra, a Pilot Pocket Brush, and a disposable Kuratake. Some I dig, others not so much, but I had fun trying them out and hopefully I can find some time this week to ink the drawing for real. Ok, Conan's first Tonight Show starts right now, so thanks for looking. I'm out.

Rocksteady 4: Color (Finally).

Hey, remember me? I used to draw stuff. If you're still with me, I'm impressed, and I thank you. I finally got around to slapping some color on that Rocksteady drawing I posted ages ago. I could tell you it took forever because I've been swamped with the day job, but really I've just been playing Wii. Also, I wasn't really feeling my first color pass, so I just walked away from it for a while. When I finally came back to it, I ended up redrawing the entire lower half on the Cintiq to fix wonky anatomy (that's what I get for ditching life drawing classes). Anyway, it's nice to post something new again.

Other stuff:
I got a new puppy, and she's the bomb. Also, I swore I'd never join Twitter. That was a lie. If you're into this social network thing and you care to follow my nonsense, my feed is to the right username is @alexdeligiannis. Peace!

A Little Holiday Spirit.

Last year I wrote and illustrated a story for the Hard 8 Vol. 2 graphic novel titled, A Little Holiday Spirit. Its a Christmas story, and with turkey sandwiches on the dinner menu and December firmly in our sights, I felt like sharing it with you. I've posted bits and pieces of the artwork here before, but now I'm posting it all, in its entirety.  EDIT: Sharing time is over, but I've left a few pages up, so you can get a taste. I'm still quite proud of this story, and I hope to make the whole thing available as a digital download in my store when time permits.

If you've got a few minutes, put on some warm slippers, pop in some Vince Guaraldi, and give it a read. You can click on each page below, or you can scroll thru the whole thing > here. Either way, I hope you enjoy it. Merry Christmas!

Casey Jones Part 4 - It's out!

I took a trip to the comic book store on Saturday, which always makes me happy, and was greeted by a nice surprise. Tales Of The TMNT #49, the one featuring my Casey Jones pin-up, was staring me in the face. I wasn't expecting the book to hit store shelves until this week, so this made me extra happy! Eric gave me the OK to share the final version a while ago, but I wanted to respect the book and hold off until it was offically out. Since it's out, here ya go, the final version in glorious color...

Man, I still get all school-girly at the thought of being in a TMNT comic. Incidentally, next time you hit the comic shop, pick up an issue of Tales. It's the only TMNT book still published regularly, and not only do the guys do a kick-ass job every month, but they also use the book to spotlight new talent, which is awesome.

Casey Jones Part 3 - A dream come true!

Everyone regain their composure after that little tremor we just had? A 5.4, I'm hearing...and centered in Chino Hills, where I reside. I bet my Justice League toys will be all over the place when I get home. Not cool.

Anyway, Comic-con was awesome, despite the fact that Hollywood has bastardized it beyond recognition (did we need a booth for The Office? Really?) and I couldn't find the comics I needed. I'll post some Hard 8 updates when I get my pics uploaded. In the meantime...

One of my childhood dreams has come true. The Casey Jones drawing that I posted down below is going to run as a pin-up in the August issue of Tales Of The TMNT, #49. Can you believe that shiznit? As a kid, all I ever wanted was to draw the Turtles. They're the reason I chose this career path, so I couldn't be more excited to have a piece of my art published in an actual TMNT comic!  That said, I'm going to hold off on posting the final colored version until the book comes out. A HUGE thank-you to the amazingly talented Eric Talbot, and to the entire Mirage crew for allowing this to happen.

I'm giddy.

Casey Jones Part 2

Here's the "rough clean" and "final clean" of my Casey Jones sketch from the other day.  I generally clean up my drawings with 3B or 4B pencil right on top of the red line sketch, and then polish it up a bit further digitally (though, I suppose "final clean" is a bit of a misnomer, because I usually continue to tweak the line throughout the color phase, too).  Anyway, hopefully I'll find some free time to finish coloring it this week.

Father's Day

I woke up this morning and watched a retrospective on Tim Russert (who died on Friday of a sudden heart attack). It focused a lot on his relationship with, and love for, his father, and it made me flash back to last year, 3 days before my wedding, when I thought we might lose my dad (from what, incidentally, turned out to be a stroke). Tonight I went to see Kung Fu Panda with my wife. Wow, what a film...top quality thru and thru! It starts off with an opening piece of animation which is just bananas, and it never lets up from there. Anyway, there's a nice father/son thing going on in the story. It's done so well (touching and heartfelt, without being sappy), and again it made me reflect. I'm really looking forward to seeing my pop tomorrow and taking him out for what I hope will be a delicious steak dinner.

Here's a piece I drew for my father-in-law this week. He owns a company called La Habra Fire Protection & Plumbing, and my wife thought he might like to hang it in his new office. I had a lot of fun doing it, so hopefully he'll dig it.

Everytime I Think I'm Out...

...they pull me right back in. This past week, I thought I finished drawing my story for the Hard 8 Vol. 2 graphic novel. But yesterday, as I was laying out the text, I realized there was a big part in the middle that could use one or two more illustrations to go along with the words (my entire story is basically an illustrated poem). I was able to bang out one illustration last night before bed, which is good, 'cuz we're assembling the book this weekend. I'm ready to say goodbye to Hard 8 for a while. I like dude, but I'm suffering major burn-out from drawing all these cute kids and playful ghosts. Once this book is done, I need to bust out on some bad-ass superhero type stuff, for real. But in the meantime, here's a couple of finished images (including the colored version of the pencil drawing in my previous post).

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

Comic-Con is here! Ah, I love Comic-Con... there's so many people that I normally only ever get to "see" on the blog circuit, but through the wonder that is 'Con, we all get to be together for one glorious weekend of geekdom! If you're attending the show, come by booth 1034 and holla atcha boy, cuz I'd love to meet you! We'll have plently of Hard 8 books on hand, as well as those swanky Hard 8 poker chips, prints, and sketchbooks. And while you're there, check out all the movie posters we've created to promote the upcoming Hard 8 Volume 2. Here's a sneak peek at mine... See you at booth 1034!

Supreme Shirts.

A couple months back I posted some art I collaborated on with Joe Cool (Snoop’s cousin) for urban clothing company Supreme New York (he drew them, I colored). My younger brothers have a friend who’s a huge fan of Supreme clothing, and when he found out I was working on something for Supreme, he almost flipped. Anyway, earlier today he emailed me to tell me that the shirts had been posted on Supreme’s website, and that they will be part of the new line debuting May 10th in New York and Los Angeles, and May 12th in Japan. If you want to see them, go to www.supremenewyork.com, click on News, and scroll through the images. They look pretty cool (unfortunately, I guess my name doesn’t carry enough clout to be mentioned in their little blurb, but it’s all good).

Back From Hawai'i.

So according to the doc, my dad wasn’t going to be released from the hospital in time to attend my wedding. According to the weathermen, our record-setting lack of rain was going to be interrupted, just in time to threaten the wedding. And according to me, I was about to faint and fall flat on my face, in front of all those people, even as my bride walked down the aisle.

Well, my dad made it to the wedding. Not only that, he also gave the final benediction. The rain did come. It poured hard all day on Friday, and brought with it some big clouds that loomed all through Saturday. But as I stood there posing for photos on Saturday evening, I felt the unmistakable warmth of a sun ray on my shoulders. I turned to see that the clouds had opened up to reveal an ocean-blue sky, golden sunshine, and a gorgeous, clear day that was a direct result of the previous day’s rain. All of this, moments before the ceremony. And though I almost lost it, I didn’t faint. I wobbled, but I held my ground, and when I saw my wife-to-be, everything was perfect. I told Melissa that this was God’s wedding gift to us... A reminder of who's really in control of everything. If nothing else, He knows how to make a fashionably-late entrance, that much is for sure.

PS: We returned from an absolutely perfect honeymoon late last evening. After all the stress, a week in Maui was just what we both needed! Now back to work... Maybe I can still finish my Hard 8 story before the deadline... maybe.

Shower Time...

The countdown is steadily moving forward... In just under 2 months (58 days, to be exact) I'll be a happily married man. Planning has been a pretty smooth ride, and Melissa has been more than great about working around my schedule so I can still get some drawing done. Right now we're at the part that I've been waiting for the most: the gift registry (followed by food sampling and cake tasting)! In lieu of a traditional bridal shower, we're throwing a co-ed shindig with a Monte Carlo theme (because my woman didn't want to exclude me from anything... she's that good). So this here is the invitation to the party, as drawn by yours truly. If you find one of these in your mailbox, I expect to see you there.