LOTS more STUFF

finals are OVER. that = YES!

been stockpiling LOADS of little sketches, pictures, and paintings i did whilst a-schooling and being ridiculously busy in general. HERE WE GO. time to drop a LOT more STUFF on you.

sketches.."Cockfighter"

underground fighter-type dude evolved from a random scribble i did in my sketchbook.

"CityScape III"
3rd ever attempt in a LONG time at doing a more... serious city thing. no reference. just all mental practice. like a lot of things, i don't do enough of this.

"Outlaw"
had this in my head for some reason.. felt really good to get it on paper. might draw more of this guy..

"Knight"
duh. haha.. anyways, another random scribble i turned into something. guess i was in the mood for some clunky armor, heroes, and all that.

"Toned Beard the Pirate"
love pirates. don't draw enough of them.

"Blade"
was sketching while the tv was on one night.. half way through, Blade: Trinity came on, so everything started getting a blade/vampire twist to it.

"Sensei Stuff"
dunno. was drawing kids in my class while we were on a field trip at Jim Christensen's place. this is what came out of it. (been forEVER since i've been on a field trip.. i should've called my Mom up and asked her to pack me a lunch with a caprisun just to make it that much more legit.. heh.)

digital stuff..."Tea Party"
got an assignment to redo Alice in Wonderland, 16 rough pages. my take was sort of about this girl trying to fit in with all the weird "genres" of people in Wonderland. i'll post all the pages up sometime, but for now you only get the one page that's colored. oh, and the Mad Hatter is supposed to be Ozzy Osbourne.

"Haïti"
assignment - do something in photoshop for Haïti (back when it was only them who had been rocked by serious seismic activity). the idea was to sell all our Haïti posters through the internet, and donate all the skrilla to charity for the Haïti peeps.

"up here..."
assigment - do an environmental design for anything. finally forced myself to go more speed-painty on this one, and try techniques out i don't normally use in photosohp. actually really pleased with the result.

assignment - illustrate a fortune cookie, all in adobe illustrator.
my fortune was, "An Important Person Will Come to Your Aid"
not gonna lie though - i did some slight tweaking in photoshop.

"William Noe Livingston, 1835-1909"
got lots of leeway in a family history class i was taking, for a final project. decided to draw an ancestor. this guy here is my grandma's great great grandpa. all i found for a physical description to go off of was that he had blue eyes and wavy brown hair.

random side story: two years before he got married - his wife and her family were all eating breakfast one morning, when suddenly her dad (who apparently had been acting a little strange for the past couple days) just gets up from the table without saying a word, goes into the next room, and blasts himself in the face with a rifle. apparently your family history can be pretty intense.. heh.

acrylic paints...assignment - use cliché images (like the heart shape, or fluffy clouds, or whatever) and do/say/create something different or new or creative or whatever with them... or something like that.

assignment - redesign a fruit, pasta, or cupcake.

assignment - take an abstract word (from a list they handed out) and do something conceptual with it. i picked "invisible."

assignment - pick and illustrate an article (from a bunch that they gave us to choose from.)
mine was on hitmen acting as informants to the FBI, who were trying to get after the Mafia - and in turn, cops would look the other way while these guys started stealing/killing/taking over Mafia guys' stuff.

assignment - another article illustration like the last one, except this one was about "nintendo thumbs" from people playing videogames "too much". they don't know what they're talking about - my thumbs are just fine, and i've played WAAAAAY too much.

assignmment - another article thing. this one was about a study that was done on how good smells influence you to be a good person, while nasty smells make you more negative.

WOW... that was a lot.
gotta be a record post for me or something.

and now here's where i go off into an unrelated part of my life that has recently ocurred that i feel like sharing for no particular reason:

i HATE cops. okay... not really(skip to 5:43,) but i hate unreasonable laws being enforced unreasonably.
i was off skateboarding last week just to relax... might've only done like 4 miles or something like that, and i'm almost back to my apartment. there's this HUGE empty parking lot with only a few cars on both ends, and i start cutting through, since the road to my house is on the other side. not even halfway through, some cop sticks his head out of his green non-cop-esque secret covert-op camo-cop car and motions for me to come over.
tells me there's no skating on campus. well, i'm not ON campus. apparently campus consists of anything the university owns, including this effing huge/effing EMPTY parking lot almost right next to where i live. i tell him i'm aware there's no skating OR biking on campus, and ask him what would happen if i decided to cut through the parking lot on a bike - and not to sound like i'm just giving him crap, i let him know i'm just trying to understand, because it's true.
apparently this issue has gone through the legal system for years, because some junior high kids were on the university's campus (real campus, not weird stuff they own from afar) one night, and one kid got a serious head injury from being stupid. i think there was an attempted lawsuit, and cop guy says somehow if somebody's injured on campus, the university can be liable - so a bunch of, i'm assuming spiteful people, decided that skateboards, rollerblades, "razors" (now my cop buddy starts bringin' in the "street terms." heh heh..) and anything else that doesn't have a break (even though all these things actually do) isn't allowed because of control issues and potential liabilty that this can cause the university due to accidents.
dood let me off with a warning, but if i was caught again he said he'd have to shoot me in my left knee cap or something. we had a good laugh.... and then i killed him and tried to hide the body underneath my wheels, again.... and again.... and again. hahaha.... yeah.
but seriously, got me thinking later that day - i saw some ten year old kids off a-scootering in the direction of the now foreboding parking lot. is a cop gonna stop KIDS from scootering through? give them tickets? oh, and what if i'm in a car and accidentally or intentionally run somebody over in the parking lot. this thing has breaks, PERFECT balance. all i have to do is sit down, and no worries about the thing falling over - who's liable then?? i don't know if it's just me, but if i run somebody over, or i eat concrete with my face off a bike or a skateboard, or get my neck tangled around my scooter, i'm pretty sure it's my own fault - especially if it's in a huge empty flat space where almost zero cars park.
i'm not complainin' - i'm just sayin'
here's an idea - let me sign a WAIVER or something. problem solved.
no big deal.

on a more positive note, i went on a really long walk the next day, and discovered some kid playing Lord of the Rings music with an accordion on his porch. it was awesome. day was totally transformed into awesome, instantly.

anywho, first day of spring semester starts tomorrow?!
i'm expecting really exciting stuff to happen this summer, but somehow i don't foresee this as being part of that. should be fun though.

The Bear and the Two Travelers

"Two men were traveling together, when a Bear suddenly met them on their path. One of them climbed up quickly into a tree and concealed himself in the branches. The other, seeing that he must be attacked, fell flat on the ground, and when the Bear came up and felt him with his snout, and smelt him all over, he held his breath, and feigned the appearance of death as much as he could. The Bear soon left him, for it is said he will not touch a dead body. When he was quite gone, the other Traveler descended from the tree, and jocularly inquired of his friend what it was the Bear had whispered in his ear. "He gave me this advice," his companion replied. "Never travel with a friend who deserts you at the approach of danger."

got to do one of Aesop's fables for a school assignment. for those of you who are within walking distance of BYU's library, you can see it hanging up on the same floor as the family history place. so down one floor, take a right, go straight til you hit a wall - and go right again, only make sure to watch out for the wall this time. and it's that hallway. this monster is 11x17, all matted, framed and all that.

for those of you who are unsuccessful at reading/following directions, aren't within walking distance, or just don't care - there's a little plaque next to my picture that is supposed to read as follows:

"In the beginning of this fable, Aesop doesn't use the word "friend" to describe the two guys who are traveling together. We don't know where they're traveling, or why. We don't even care. . . or at least I don't. What I do care about is how their relationship is defined after the bear encounter. They didn't have any weapons, anti-bear devices of any kind, or any Chuck Norris that we're aware of. The only thing we know they did have was each other.

Everybody's got a friend. Maybe you've got a friend who just so happens to be a BEAR who likes to mess with people, and at the same time possesses the unnatural ability to communicate perfectly with humans through speech. Maybe your friends just suck. No matter what happens, they're your friend. Deal with it." - my interpretation of what the moral to the fable is.

that's about it for now. got lots of other random stuff coming, once i'm no longer busy fending off the icy grip of suck known as school.

finally saw sherlock holmes. t'was indeed EFFIN' AWESOME.
lastly, OC Remix came out with another album not too long ago i've had on repeat for a few weeks straight. it's called Serious Monkey Business. DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 2!!!!!!!!!!! already one of the best soundtracks ever, and now we've got some seriously rad remixes (i tried to avoid the aliteration there... but i didn't, and i'm coming off to myself as really corny, but whateva.) Bramble Reprise is probably my favorite. ATLEAST top 5. check it out.

sketch dump

did somebody say update? . . . no? . . . .interesting.
so, i've got a quick update. last couple weeks and more have been some of the busiest weeks of my life for some strange reason - and to show you some evidence to discredit this undeniable truth... sketches!! some to be "digitally remastered," some to be left almost forgotten in the abyss of the wake known as personal experience.

shooting the curl, or gleaming the cube as some might say...

making faces. when i've got nothing better in mind to draw, i'll do these huge face collage things... it's fun. i like to make up stories for how they'd interact with eachother, or why they're feeling what they're feeling, in relation to the other faces or people.

sketching some kids at school - it was one of those "older kids hang with way younger kids on a field trip" type thing.

G'liath.
was really feeling this one.. this little guy will probably go into my huge archive of original characters who i've made up a small story around etc., and should draw more of, but odds are i never will. shame on me.

a guest appearance in a random, quick cityscape sketch thing.



Bram Stroker's Dracula was on tv, and then this happened somehow..
honestly don't understand how many "actors" ended up in the same poorly written movie.. and super weirded out at Keanu's enlgish accent - or lack there of... WOW. it's like he thought he'd sound more english accent-y if he just randomly captain kirk-style paused through half of his sentences.... hahahaha... that movie was awful.



made some random scribbles that turned into a girl, that turned into a gorrilaz-esque girl, that turned into a v-day related thing... i had this idea of making a black hole in space, in the shape of a heart as a tribute to v-day, but don't know when i'll have the time for that - for now, this'll do i guess.

lots more where that came from.. still need to get them on the computer and mess with them. i have this vision where paper will be able to run some cool photoshop-esque software.. but you do everything with a real pencil or something equally and/or more awesome.


also, unsketchbook related,

colored this dude's lines of his character he made up.
As a christmas act of goodwill, i had this random contest on deviantart the morning of christmas where the first two people to respond with a link to their linework, i'd throw some colors at it.

long story short, i was giving a band another option for an album cover in the spirit of music, and indian folklore perhaps, to try and help some friends feel better or something. done in an hour? can't remember. super last minute, super don't care, even though they decided not to go with this. it has this eerie... strange charm to me, enough that i thought i'd share it.


THROWBACK TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
kay, so i was digging through old old sketchbooks from way back. found 'the red one.' the red one is the best sketchbook i've ever had - senior year of highschool, '04, i would take this EVERYWHERE, and draw in it ALL THE TIME. soooo satisfying. you can see the spot where all the red has vanished due to the prolonged magical grip one would employ as it was carried to various locations of drawing.

i'll be posting a few drawings from it every so often, till i've got all my favorites on the computer.. really wanna do some paint over stuff with all this, digitally. we'll see.


i remember trying to figure out how to make building and fudge perspective, so i could do what i wanted. these were the last two serious attempts i did, and it's been a while since then.... totally need to do more stuff like this. sepia tone-gradient thing was thrown on a few days ago, just to add a little something something to it all..




in this next one, you can spot the following: a person asleep in a car. a large pop can, an abstract kitchen sink, a mario building, and one of my most favorite inventions of all time - the 'no handi-capped parking allowed' parking spot.



also, Pretty Lights just came out with a new FREE ep. get it if you want to know what happy and electro/hiphop/funk awesome sound like together. all the eps on the site are free, so you should probably get those as well. here's a preview of my FAVORITE Pretty Lights song ever, in case you're like... "well Kevin, i'm ridiculously lame and have absolutely no desire to listen to something crafted with the potential to unlock all the hidden chi within msyelf, thus rendering my soul more complete... "
yeah. you would.

other things worthy of note involve getting pulled over for speeding and getting let off with a warning. skating home from BYU campus at night past the only other person outside in provo who just happened to be a cop - who also let me off with a warning, and playing Heavy Rain with a friend from 10pm until 6AM.

Final Fight: Double Impact

not "Double Impact" as in the movie where Jean-Claude Van Damme plays two twins separated at birth, which had super parody potential by "Twin Dragons"... sadly that didn't happen, and both movies sucked. and sadly, i'd watch either one of them without question if they were on tv... haha..

ANYWAYS. i'm talking about Final Fight - this epic beat 'em up game our legendary babysitter would bring over when i was super little. My favorite guy was Cody, and I'd always get really excited whenever we'd find a lead pipe or a sword to beat people up with. around 17-19 years later in real life, i still get pretty exicted whenever i find a lead pipe or sword laying around to aid me in beating up the local street thugs preventing me from getting to the next screen i'm walking towards in an unchanging 2-dimensial straight line.

Capcom was having a coloring contest i decided to enter at the last second, did everything the day of the deadline as usual, thus rushing overall quality of my entry, and not getting to try everything i wanted to do. if i win, my colors go on the cover of the box, plus some other stuff, and i get to look at all the entries which were WAY better than mine - thus giving me a great learning experience as well. if i lose, i still get that great learning experience by seeing all the entries that were WAY better than mine, but i also get the wonderful bonus package of absolutely NOTHING at all!! totally exicted.

so here's my entry - please excuse the more slutty aspects of a couple of the characters. i didn't draw them. other than that - the rest of this drawing seriously awesome, as it should be.

alternate version... sort of

and for those of you who've toughed it out this far through the post in hopes for more van damme related content - you shall be most dearly rewarded for your persistence.
enjoy! (how the original live action 'Street Fighter' starring van damme... for some reason, SHOULD have been made in the first place.)

Upular

just had to share this:
was checkin' some tabs i got on some awesome people and was more than a little happy to listen to this musical FEAST!! check it.

Hot Blades through Moon Cheese

so, this was actually drawn on the same page as this picture in my sketch book. this was definitely influenced by one of my favorite games of all time - Jet Grind Radio - but also by the recent obsession i've had with actually skateboarding, and looking for any excuse to do it.

HERUMAT-O-MARU!!!

gots lots of art to dump off. feel like being all fancy, and have this go down reverse chronology style.

"Herumat-O-Maru"

here's the deal with this guy - his name is Herumatomaru. get it?? try saying it with a japanese accent, and really announce it like it was your favorite saturday morning cartoon... and you lived in japan. *ahem* HERUMAT-OOOOOOOOOOO-MARUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!

heh. confused yet? no? shut up.
so i did this all last night, for an awesome drawer-person that was having a random sentai contest, in celebration of a contest that he was in at the time.
Sentai?? what the asian?!?! basically think Power Rangers, and all the MANY abominations that followed.
with my little guy - think, the love child of power rangers, deep sea diving, and really cool action poses and awesomely cheesey fight scenes, and you've got the idea.

also, in a rather spreading-of-Christmas-cheer-like fashion - i ran acrossed some really cool drawings from other people i just had to color over the Christmas break. and here they are:

"The Gorillaz"
orignal drawing by some crazy korean kid

"Samus Aran"

orignal drawing by Sam Liu

and last but not least,

"Hellboy"
original inks (i actually drew the tentacles in myself, just for fun)

The end.
sleep mode commencing.