Seward Home

Mr. Hopey Changey

It looks like Obama is the Democratic Nominee for president...so I thought I'd paint him.

Old Snake

I'm a pretty new Metal Gear Solid fan. I played the third not long after it's release but have only recently played the first and second. Their ridiculous plots and unforgettable characters are pretty addicting and totally awesome. I am very excited for the 4th installment of the series being released in a couple weeks and thought I'd try my hand at a little Shinkawa style art. I recognize some of the anatomy is off, but that's also in keeping with the Shinkawa style...also I just sketched it out quickly with a brush pen.

Right now I'm playing:

Dementium: The Ward - So far a very fun DS FPS/Survival Horror game. Something I never thought would exist on the DS (let alone be successfully pulled off).

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness - I've never played a Tactical RPG before so I thought I'd try one. I like the character designs and it got good reviews and so far it's pretty cool.

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb - This is a relatively old PS2 game that I picked up just because I've been excited about Indy lately. I wasn't expecting it to be very good but I'm actually quite surprised by the fun gameplay, solid story and quality voice work. The graphics, however, look like something from the PS1.

I've recently finished:

Resistance: Fall of Man - Awesome! I can't wait for the sequel.

MGS2 & 3(again) - As I said above, these games are great. There's nothing else quite like them.

You playing anything good?

James "Sawyer" Ford

Tonight is the first hour of the three hour finale "There's No Place Like Home." There is no character in particular that this episode focuses on and I got a lot of requests for Sawyer so here he is. I'll be out of town for the finale so I might have to catch it in a small low definition hotel room TV, which sucks! I probably won't be able to do another Caricature for it, which also sucks, but I might do some more when I get back.

John Locke

Tonight's LOST episode is called "Cabin Fever" and focuses on Locke. Next week we get the first of three hours for the finale, but then have to wait two weeks after that for the rest. Apparantly the final episode focus on no particular character but I'm so enjoying these caricatures that I'm open to suggestions on who I should do next.

Jack Shephard

Tonight's LOST episode focuses on Jack and is called "Something Nice Back Home." I'm hoping we get to see more Daniel Faraday. He's my favorite new character.

Frog

It's my monthly video game themed post! I think there's no better day to do it on than today, the day when the biggest video game ever is being released (that's Grand Theft Auto IV by the way). Which means that for today and the following weeks we'll all enjoy the numerous news stories about how this game turns kids into homicidal drug dealing criminals. I will not be playing it. At least not for a couple months. I'm under a self imposed game buying freeze. I was buying a lot of games and not playing them because my "to play" pile was getting bigger than my "currently playing" pile could ever catch up to so I'm trying to exercise some self control and finish what I've got before I get more. My gaming embargo will be lifted on June 12th (coincidentally in time for Metal Gear Solid 4) but until then I've got plenty to play.

Right now I'm playing:

Resistance: Fall of Man - Why this incredible FPS doesn't get more attention than the very average Halo series I'll never know.

Metal Gear Solid 2 - This is the last of the previously released Metal Gear Solid games I've not played. This is one of those video game franchises that tells the type of story and has characters and situations in it that really could not successfully exist in any other medium. They are all so weird and wonderful.

Rock Band - Still Awesome.

I've recently finished:

Zack and Wiki - I actually liked this game less when I finished it. The early puzzles are short, fun, and solvable, but near the end cease to be any of those things. I'd still recommend it, just not as glowingly as I did last time I posted.

Metal Gear Solid - Fun, engaging, challenging, rewarding...I love this game.

Chrono Trigger - Frog is a character from this game (in case you were wondering why I painted a frog with a sword and wearing armor), he's a warrior cursed to look like a frog and he speaks in old english (how cool is that?). He's my favorite character from the game and he's also got a great musical theme. If you like JRPGs and retro games definitely track down a copy of Chrono Trigger.

Games I started to play, but didn't like very much, and stopped:

Devil May Cry 4 - This is a good game, the DMC series is just getting stale. I highly recommended it if you haven't played any of the others or you just loved the others so much that more of the same sounds great to you. I just got a little bored.

Super Smash Brothers: Brawl - I tried to get into this series with Melee and just didn't get it. I tried again with Brawl and I still don't get it.

Anyway, what are you playing? Anything good?

Benjamin Linus

LOST is on again tonight (woohoo!) and it's a Ben-centric episode (woohoo?).

Green Gore

I'm not sure how well I captured the likeness, but anyway, Happy Earth Day...yesterday.

Tutorial Thingy

This is a demonstration I did here at Avalanche for my fellow artists. Others have posted or may post their demonstrations as well. I talk mostly about shape-making and composition then start a sketch (which eventually became my "Wii Warrior" a few posts before this one) using those principles. It's pretty long but is hopefully informative in some way to those interested, if any, in my thinking process.

The Seward Family

This is a new piece for a project I started a while ago. I didn't like the direction it was going then and dropped it. After some retooling I'm excited to start it up again. I've found I'm good at starting things, but not finishing them.

Wii Warrior!

I consider myself as much a gamer (I really hate that term) as I do an artist. I play almost every day (to my wife's dismay). I own a DS, Wii, and Playstation 3 (60gb). I don't know who visits my blog and plays games but I want to occasionally do some video game themed art and list what I'm playing in hopes that people can see what good games are out there and post suggestions for other games I might enjoy. I'm fortunate to have 3 brothers who are all gamers and I feel like we're in our own little game club, so I at least expect them to contribute.

Right now I'm playing:

Zak and Wiki: the Quest for Barbaros Treasure - If you own a Wii I would seriously consider getting this game. It is fantastic and one of the few 3rd party Wii games to really "get" the platform.

Silent Hill: Origins - A worthy addition to the series, and considering how amazing the series is, being called a worthy addition is high praise.

Chrono Trigger - I've wanted to play this for a long time since it is generally considered one of the best console RPGs out there. Younger players might be turned off by it's 32 bit presentation (it was originally a SNES title), but don't let that stop you. It has it's reputation for a reason, the story is great the characters are charming and the gameplay is really smooth. I'm really digging it.

Rock Band - Awesome.

I've recently finished:

LOST: Via Domus - Fun for LOST fans (like me), but I can't imagine anyone else liking it.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village - If you own a DS get this game!

Bigfoot

I guess Totoro was grossing people out so I've updated my blog with another woodland creature. This one painted with watercolors about 20 years ago. I think I was 7 or 8 at the time.

Alan Tew's Totoro

This is a painting I did from a sketch by my friend Alan Tew. Check out his blog here.

"My Friends..."

I've been doing a lot of caricatures lately (as you can probably tell). They're pretty quick, plus I feel like I learn so much doing them. What is a group of caricatures without politicians like John McCain? I'm having fun with these so I'll probably keep doing them for a while.

The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

Captain Ahab

"..the madness, the frenzy, the boiling blood and the smoking brow, with which, for a thousand lowerings old Ahab has furiously, foamingly chased his prey-more a demon than a man!"

-Herman Melville

Happy Birthday Heather

My wife's birthday is on Sunday and she loves to cook. She has a binder which she keeps original recipes, recipes off the internet, and recipes from magazines in and has expressed an interest in me drawing a cover for it. So I did this for her birthday and gave it to her a little early.