Howdy!
I’ve even updated the Gallery. I know! Crazy, right?
I’ve added a 2012 & 2013 (so far) Section with some Sketches love on the way. I did a bunch of Doodlez, but only posted to Instagram. That will be adjusted soon. So, get a good look at the Sketches while you can and maybe even the older Gallery pics; cuz changes are definitely on the way.
As an update, I’ve been pushing a bit more towards a more painterly style as well as adding some more cartoony elements to play around a bit (as you’ll notice in the 2013 section thus far) I’ll be starting a new project soon and was working towards those processes to use on it. I’m hopeful for some positive results.
And a special mention for one of the newer items in the 2012 section. I was asked by the South Fellini fellas (namely the one and only Rahzzah) to contribute a pinup to their next-week-to-be-released trade collection of their awesome mini called Moon Girl. A friend sent me a photo of my pin up in the book and it looked fantastic. It got me really excited to get back to the drawing board, which should be soon enough after the work whirlwind settles a bit and I’m able to refresh with a nice Caribbean holiday.
Good Times.
That’s it for now. Remember to stay tuned for more updates as they come and I’m able to share.
Play Nice!
Brad
2013 is bringing its share of challenges and progress during its brief tenure.
Finally setting up the Centralized Network Backup I got for Christmas… of 2011!
From there, my plan of finally revamping the website will be underway and my plan for making artwork for 2013 and beyond will have some structure. (Something I’ve definitely needed)
Yes, that’s what I said. I’m revamping the website. One of a few projects I’m prepared to take on for this year. The others will or won’t be announced as their releases are pending on a number of obstacles.
As I look to post more often, along with my other usual outlets, I look to make this the hub of all things me. 
Wish me luck and as always…
Play Nice!
Brad
P.S.- Here’s some of the art I’ve been doing here and there so far in the short year. Enjoy!
Wolverine Pin Up for Fight For Comics
Love Monsters for Doodle or Death Art Blog
Paperkeg Comics Podcast 2013 iTunes logo
Birthday Present for my friend, Navid
Navid
My last post was almost a year ago (a few days ago)
I’ve been using this site as my primary file sharing stream either to and from work, or just in case I want to pop out and show some artwork I’m working on.
“Why the hell aren’t you sharing on your WEBSITE?”, you might ask with a little self righteousness.
Self righteous? Or justified? Only history will judge for certain. All I know is that for the past few months I’ve been busy with a slew of personal projects that haven’t really had deadlines and that I’ve been a little tedious in regards to; while putting them aside for the $$work that comes from time to time. All this while researching into different avenues to take this very website.
My options have been numerous, actually. I thought about just scrapping everything here and building anew using Tumblr, Square Space, and even just sticking to Word Press using a new theme. Whatever I decide, I’m sure it will turn out ok in that I’m spending so much time thinking about it. It’s gotta be good, right?
The first thing I’ve re-discovered is that I am not well suited for web content creation. Web design is not my forté and it’s become something I’m just able to loosen my upper lip enough to say out loud. I’ve always been THAT guy when presented a challenge to say, “You don’t think I can do it? Well, now I’m not sleeping until you’re good and spited, 6 year old girl hiding behind your mom and delicious ice cream” Exclamation point. (I may have had challenge issues- and that poor little girl got totally schooled in the art of mall chess, but I digress)
So, in saying that I admit I might need some help or just some patience in regards to this site.
In the meantime (and in the case it takes far longer to achieve such goals) I would rather have links to where you CAN find me while I’m getting my stuff together for this arena, than some contest that was actually won by a friend of mine I haven’t been able to meet up with to give him his prize which he’s probably forgotten he won.
Here goes:
You can also follow me on Instagram or via your smart device which also has a camera. (stupid 1st generation iPad) Look for “feenstuh” it will be the account with lots of weird sky shots and my new favorite niece. (YES, it’s a competition)
And as an added bonus, you can judge my musical tastes on Path
There. You can also stay tuned as I tease the soon to be internet conquering web comic “INHERITED”
Play Nice!
Brad
Today
5PM EST
FEENSTUH FOLLOW RAFFLE PRIZE DRAW
All you have to do is follow me @feenstuh on the Twitter
If your name is drawn, reply quickly
Play Nice
Just a reminder that I updated the Gallery section
I added some recent posts and sectioned it off between 2011 and fond Memories from the distant past before 2011.
Further updates and posts are coming. Stay tuned.
Also, check out the new episode of Paperkeg Comics Podcast. It’s their best cast yet and it has a quick cover by me (I’ll do better for future covers)
Play Nice
Brad
2011
It’s been a pretty decent year so far.
The previously posted comic with Chris Jones, aka @JonesyLovesBeer, is going well. It’s back on track after some confusion, vacations, and unfortunate battles tween science and nature. And thanks to a brief interlude, doing covers for Paperkeg Comics Podcast, I’ve worked out some kinks and have a better plan moving forward.
That being said, the good news is that I’m just as stoked now as I was at the beginning. The only bad news is that I’m rounding a corner where my “open schedule frame” is closing substantially.
Along with that, things have been perking up at work; which I have to be honest- is a bit of a surprise.
The project I’m working on is on the final lap on its way to the finish line Then I have a pick of a couple of projects that could both use a little help. And then an x-factor project that could be very interesting for the category of, “Yeah- I get paid to do this”, department. Even though that one is being presented as an option, I’m not seeing anything other than “scheduling needs” keeping me from it.
Kind of an exciting time for me the way I look at it.
That’s that for now. In the meantime, you can check out my newest works over at the Paperkeg Comics Podcast and look for podcast covers Sleeper, volume One, and X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills; while I add them to my galleries and make some adjustments to their presentation as well.
And I plan to update a lot more than I have been.
Play Nice
Brad
2010
What a year.
It was one of the best, yet worst years I’ve experienced in a great many years.
Professionally, I can say that it was more draining than rewarding.
There was lots of personal growth. The typical losing myself and finding myself stuff that ends up sounding cliché. In the end, it’s a matter of losing focus.
Recently I’ve put too much faith and responsibility for my direction in the hands of others and it’s simply just ended up kicking me in the teeth.
2011 will be different. This year I look to start laying down a bit of my own path and a bit of that process has already begun in the form of a new side project.
Destroying You One Metal Hand At A Time
NEW PROJECT
I know I’ve threatened before, but I’ve actually begun a new comics project with writer @jonesylovesbeer (seen above) that has already proven to be rather interesting in its beginning stages. Our only goal (for now) is to finish the first issue and then see where the winds take us. It was officially announced on the formidable podcast - NERDCAST.ORG, and you can listen to the big news here. (it’s just after the spectacular Keyboard Cat intro- at not quite the first quarter mark)
I will start marking the process for the new project on here, but I’ve already begun over at my twitpic collection. You can see some samples below:
From there, who knows? 2011 will bring some interesting twist and turns as all years do, but it will be my ‘bend and don’t break’ resolve that will make it a success. The obstacles from the previous years have been set. I’ll just have to do some stretching to make those hurdles.
All in all, things are certainly looking up and I’m super excited to view the results.
Here’s to an awesome New Year to you and yours.
-Brad
As I’m in the middle of my third Bakshi movie of the day, I find that I’m really relaxed and this is but the first day of a much needed three day weekend. So awesome.
Next on the agenda is probably some tv I’ve been meaning to get to for a year or three and then on to the second volume of the Strangers in Paradise pocket editions.
After that, who knows? I might sit down and doodle while finding the gumption to clean the house….maybe do some laundry. Or at least clean it out from the bedroom as its collected into the space where my desk chair is. That’s cleaning, right?
In the meantime, I make an offering of new art. Well, newish art. It was done the week after I made the Cheeks pic and then had comings and goings and work and stuff in the way and I just got around to posting it to my CG HUB gallery, where I haven’t got the amount of viewers I’d like to have. Maybe I should do something more fantasy driven with a half naked lady under some sort of male dominance theme that seem to get the big viewers and downloads. You know…for science.
This pic is of J. Torres, the Shuster Award winning writer of Love as a Foreign Language andTeen Titans Go as well as the Eisner Award nominated Alison Dare and the YALSA listed Days Like This and Lola: A Ghost Story.
Play Nice
Brad
It’s been a sort of busy year this year.
I’m starting to find some holes in my weird schedule and working and driving and this and that to make time for personal work. I usually end up taking that time to shrug and go watch tv or something, but it’s making me lazy art wise. I guess the day job’s been taking a lot out of me….too much.
So, I was inspired recently when Sean “Cheeks” Galloway decided to make it his personal agenda to work on an aspect of his art he felt he was weak: Caricatures.
He asked his many fans to help him out by sending him 3/4 photos of themselves and he’d make a quick sketch of them and post it to his blog and Facebook account under the gallery “Ugg Muggz“.
His goal with this I gather is to establish features of faces and quickly translate them down to paper in exaggerated form. A really nice exercise he wants to attack as he recounts a short time he worked as a caricature artist and he left due to the critiques of the clients. Attacking our weaknesses head on is what what makes us better artists, it’s just that the artist ego usually gets in the way enough to create haziness in what particular areas we might be weak. It’s finding those weaknesses and working on them that allows the artist to loosen up and be able to improve. As art is a continued process with no finish line, it’s important as an artist to be able to determine the areas that need improvement for us to able to draw, paint, sculpt- whatever- anything that crosses our path. If we feel we can’t make an expression of something, we’ve failed at what it is that we are: visual translators.
Eventually, we hone our craft to a point where we’re able to push and pull aspects of life and make them either caricatures or cartoons- but it’s knowledge of the process- or the rules- that allow us to know where and when they can be broken.
I think that nowadays, too many artists start in a discipline without knowing the rules or why they do things. Namely, 3D Art. 3D modelers, or “game artists”, start with a bevy of buttons that when pushed in a particular routine or order make the images they become accustomed to looking good or acceptable in the market they’re created for. Games have a certain look, film has a certain look, most media has a certain “Look”, and more people are trapped within the process of what makes that look than are driven to get away from it.
Back to caricatures. I got my dues in video games, but was lucky enough to be honing my art skills at a time in video games when artists were still artists. We did everything- modeling, texture maps, animation- it was weird to think of a time when everything would become marginalized and cornered into specific tasks where it would completely remove the art from the artist position. And anything and everything that was done personally or professionally was usually shown to the team and put under the scrutiny of other artists. Usually cruel, because it was also akin to a frat party; it was strengthening as it built our resolve and allowed us to take the critique and go back to the piece in question with a “screw you- I’ll show you I’m a good artist, damnit!” mentality rather than slinking in our corners and going fetal.
And I would put my art out for anyone and everyone to see, no matter how blatantly horrible or beautiful it might have come out. Mostly thru white board art. I’d draw on the white boards, being as funny or rude as humanly possible and the results would be the reactions. 1) if people knew who were in the drawings- win. 2) If there were laughs in the situations those people were put in- triumph.
I’ll admit that most the people I’ve worked with in my 16 year career know me more for the white board drawings I’ve made than any other work I’ve actually done. I take it with pride. Now, I don’t do many white board drawings anymore. A nasty experience at a certain company that will remain nameless (until the book comes out where I will pull no punches) plus working at Ubisoft, where the multitude of talented artists kinda force you to be the best all the time and put it into the work and working hard most of the time: not to be on schedule so much as just keeping up and showing that you belong. Those two experiences have put me in a weird place of where I want to be with my art in recent years.
That being said, Cheeks’ willingness to put himself back in harm’s way in order to attack what he considers a weak area of his already awesome arsenal is pretty inspiring and kinda lead’s the way for artists of all levels to follow.
With that inspiration I made an Ugg Mugg of Mr. Galloway and hope to follow it with many more and get back on track where my art, and where I’m going with it, is concerned.
Enjoy
Play Nice!
Brad
How’s it going?
Oh, me? I’ve been busy.
It occurred to me that I hadn’t done anything with the site recently and thought I should pop up some art- which is the purpose of the site last I checked.
The top two are more recent and they’re pics/ comics of some pals at work. The Machine Man cover was for an issue of Pulp Legacy, an APA I very rarely contribute to these days, that I’d done last year.
In the meantime, I continue to exercise my comic storytelling of people I know until I find myself at a point to go full on comic mode.
Stay Tuned
Brad
