same same but different

Found this photo whilst going through some photo albums.

Seems like my shoe fetish developed at an early age...

Boy Meets Monster

Johnny Monster #1 (written by Josh Williamson, art by J.C. Grande) came out last week! Click here to see the cover for issue #1, and click here to check out the upcoming covers.

Here's a little fan-art to celebrate their debut:

click above for larger view

Head to your local comic shop immediately and purchase a copy of Johnny Monster #1! DO EET!

night terrors

For about a month I've had really bad nightmares every single night. This makes me wake up feeling exhausted and upset most of the time. Other times I don't remember the dreams straight away, but can later in the day sit in a meeting and suddenly remember what "my boss said to me", ask her if this was true only to then find out I've dreamt it.

Last night I had a very vivid dream. I was going on holiday with a friend and was waiting by the harbour for the ferry to arrive. The ferry/boat appeared outside the window and then sank. People got off into the lifeboats and a bit later came walking into the waiting area where me and my friend were sitting.

At the end of the line four men in marine suits were carrying a huge life boat. In the life boat were dead people - people who'd drowned in the accident. Some were just looking lifeless. Others were missing body parts, had worms crawling in and out of their noses/eye sockets etc.

Then it was time for us to get on the boat which had sunk, as they had managed to tow it. I didn't want to. Body parts were still floating around on deck!

No bloody wonder I feel tired during the days. The night before last I dreamt I got accused to have stolen 2,4 million pounds. It was so vivid I woke up crying thinking I was never going to get my named cleared.

I wonder what's going on? I wonder how long it will go on? Because I'm tired and fed up with these night time thrillers.

Chinatown Wars Site Launch

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is coming exclusively to Nintendo DS on March 17th 2009. The debut of the Grand Theft Auto franchise on Nintendo's handheld has been generating shock.

In less than one month's time, you will be able to get your hands on Chinatown Wars. Follow through on Huang Lee's search for honor, riches and revenge in the most dangerous and morally bankrupt city in the world, Liberty City. With epic storyline and missions, addictive mini-games and hidden collectibles, Wi-Fi head-to-head and co-op multiplayer mayhem, built-in replay feature, and much much more.

Make sure to visit the official site to see the brand new Official Chinatown Wars Trailer (the trailer can also be watched below), the first in a series of Game Feature Clips, set of new Wallpapers, an entertaining Screensaver that features the game's iconic original artwork and lots more.


Official Debut Trailer


Source: rockstargames.com/chinatownwars

SF - Wondercon & Bizarro Totoro

Bizarro Totoro
11x14in watercolor
For every "thing" there is another version that exists in bizarro world.
I did this shortly after the Totoro Forest Project Auction. What an amazing event that was. For my friends Lorne & Sherry.


We'll be visiting one of our favorite cities this weekend: San Francisco!
If you're in the area, come on down to the Wondercon and say 'Hello!'

Table: Artist Alley AA93-95

busy bee

What a week this has been! And it's not even over yet!

Yesterday I had to go into work a few hours earlier than planned. The reason for this was due to my colleague being signed off sick. She had an important meeting with her staff grop booked in, and so I stepped in to cover for her.

After that meeting I rushed off to my own staff meeting. As usual things got a little heated and I had to calm one member of staff down after the palaver.

I had time to run off and put the coffee on whilst scuffing a banana before heading off to the next meeting:

At three o'clock I had an appointment with the head of medical delegations. She came to check I do my job properly, know the laws and regulations of handling medications, inspect the bookkeeping over given meds etc etc. It was nervvrecking.

The meeting took three hours! And she must have asked me 50 questions. Considering I had been working from 7 am and only had a banana and humongous amounts of coffee in my stomach it wasn't surprising I felt tired and shaky. It was a relief when she finally decided to end the meeting.

I got home, feeling a bit guilty that the cats had been on their own for so long. As a special treat I'd bought them a tin of cat food - expensive rabbit flavoured stuff in jelly. I've never bough my cats anything like it before...

... The cats got wild with excitement when I opened the tin and the aroma spread around the flat. I gave them a bowl each.

Tylor sniffed it. Sniffed it again and walked off. Disguisted.
Kif - who eats everything - sniffed it. Dipped his tounge in the jelly. Then he looked at me before walking off. So much for that treat!

Today we've seen more of eachother, but tomorrow they will be home alone again. I won't waste my money on another tin tomorrow night, but insted will treat them to a long lie in on Friday. I'm sure we will all enjoy it!

Happy Birthday Sketches!

On the NCN forum Jan Op De Beeck started a "Sketch a Day" thread or "threads" I should say. Every Day is of course some one's birthday, so Jan has been posting birthday's of "famous" people and then that person is sketched by whoever feels like joining in. I'm in the middle of a large and somewhat complicated painting for GOLF magazine as well as a few other projects, so my personal sketching time is dwindling a bit. I still try to find time here and there to squeeze in a sketch or two a day if I can manage it. So last night I peaked in on the NCN forum and saw that it is Fats Domino's birthday on Feb 26th! So last night while watching a strange movie with my wife, I did this quick sketch. Happy birthday Fats!





This sketch was for Joe Lieberman's birthday! Happy birthday Joe. P.S. Did you eat Tweety Bird?

polaroid pics

I am too tired to write about my very long, efficiant day.

Instead I leave you with two gorgeous pics of my darling boys.

Hasta Mañana.

Super-Obscure (Part 2 of 2)

In the late 80's, Taito produced a Superman arcade game. Last Friday's post depicted a female character who appeared in some unused sprites from said game--people speculate that she was intended to be a Player 2 sprite. The actual Player 2 sprite in the game was a red and grey palette swap of Superman.

Check out the original sprites in question here, and below is my own interpretation of Player 2:

This piece and the previous one were both drawn rather small, probably because they were done somewhat spontaneously. I interpreted the Player 2 Superman's grey and yellow colors as silver and gold--in my opinion this clashed a little less. I was somewhat at a loss when it came to rendering the hairstyle of the unused Wonder Woman-esque character, but I finally settled on a somewhat anachronistic feathered Farrah Fawcett-esque style.

Who are these characters? Do they hail from an alternate reality known as Earth-Taito? Or perhaps they're modified clones created from the DNA of Superman and Wonder Woman? Maybe they're descendents of the heroes we know so well?

I've mentioned it on this blog before, but it bears repeating--I really love obscure characters. Obscure + mysterious is a bonus. I also have a fascination for bootleg toys (hence the blog URL), and these two characters have such a charming bootleggy/knock-offish quality about them, I can just imagine discovering cheap action figures of them in Chinatown.

enough!

I have had enough.

Enough dishes.

Enough laundry.

Enough bickering at work.

Enough snow and cold weather.

Enough must-dos.

Enough illness.

Enough ironing.

I am in desperate need of a surprise.

A hug.

A holiday.

Sunshine.

Funloving BBQs on the beach.

I have just had enough right now.

down under

Last night my friend and I went to see Australia at the pictures.

As much as I had wanted to see it I dreaded the fact that it is nearly three hours long. But it was sooooo worth it! A perfect Friday movie - I had a few "have-to-close-my-eyes-cause-it's-getting-too-scary"-moments, lots of laughs and shedded quite a few tears too.

Then we went back to mine, and on the way picked up a greek take away which was lovely.

Funnily enough watching the movie made me think about my time in Australia. I never had a chance to actually SEE the country. I studied, met people, was out and about in Sydney and the Blue mountains... I spent many months there, but never once had the opportunity to feel and breathe the country.

I would love to go back on my own terms and conditions. Just explore without having medical exams hanging over me, without a student's empty purse and without the broken heart I suffered so badly from whilst there.

I've been looking through my photoalbum from my time in Australia tonight. I haven't looked in it for over a year. As bad as my time there was I am forever grateful that I got to meet such wonderful people.

You know who you are. Thank you for everything!

Hellboy take two..

For Jason (in San Fran)! Hope you like it!
-Kei

Super-Obscure (Part 1 of 2)

What arcade game is this super-obscure heroine from?

HINT: she's not actually in the game, but appeared in some unused sprites for the game. The answer will be revealed in next Tuesday's post.

Answer revealed.

T-Pain for KING Magazine

This was the fourth painting that I did for KING magazine, and just like Kanye and Jim Jones, I didn't know who T-Pain was or anything about him for that matter. For this illustration, the a.d. wanted something futuristic and space-like. Being that this is a full page illustration, I would have liked to have had more time to develop this idea and explore T-Pain's character a little more. But again, for the time given, I'm happy with it. After finishing the Jim Jones, Kanye, and Wire paintings, I had four days left to complete this T-Pain painting.



One of the sketches done in prep for the final painting.

The Wire for KING Magazine

This is another painting I did for the same issue of KING Magazine. I really enjoyed working on this piece. It was a little challenging because in order to finish the four paintings within the time frame given, I had to work on all four of them at the same time. I worked on the Kanye and Jim Jones at once and then gave myself three days to finish The Wire painting, all while working on the last and final painting of T-Pain. This Wire painting will print on the bottom half of a page and will print a bit small in comparison to the size I painted it. Another challenge with the time given was painting three people together in a car at night . . . and to make them feel as if they're all in the same place at the same time. It was also important to capture the feel of an urban night scene while not seeing any of the city in the background. It was a fun challenge to tackle in only three days. I would have liked a little more time for detail, especially on the car, but for the time given, I'm happy with the end result.





Some of the sketches done in prep for the painting.

this morning

I had the morning off today. My phone was swithched off and no alarm clock was set. I woke up around 9 am only to fall asleep again.

Kif and Tylor are getting very fond of these mornings I don't get out of bed straight away: Kif climbs on top of me and Tylor squeezes in somewhere on my legs (preferably with a paw or two on my hand if he can reach).

I have been thinking how nice it would be to document our mornings in bed, and last night I remembered to put the camera on the bedside table...


1. Kif and Tylor have noticed I'm awake. Kif climbs up on my hip and Tylor is here just about to make himself cosy.
(And yes, that IS a hideous pyjamas I'm wearing, but it is dead comfy!)

2. Tylor has had a bit of a cuddle and is getting bored. Chasing his brother's tail is always fun!

3. Hmmm... No reaction? Perhaps my owner will give me some attention and something to chase?

4. Kif is paying nooooo attention to his childish brother. He just purrs away on my hip (with his elbows digging into my hipbone and ALWAYS giving me bruises. But who cares when you have a gorgeous cat giving you love?)

5. Oh, god damn it. Why won't you leave me alone cuddling my owner?! Now you've gone and spoilt it!

6. Me? Moi? Innocent until proven guilty, mate!

Jim Jones for KING Magazine

Here's another silhouette spot illustration for KING magazine. Like the Kanye West, this Jim Jones painting was done as a 1/4 page spot. I painted the Kanye and Jim Jones in four to five days, that's including sketching and all the goings on of working a job. I really enjoyed the look of Jim's mouth, looked a bit greasy, sort of slimy, so I tried to capture that feeling a bit.

Jim Jones is a very successful business man, but in the "business world" people are confused how he became so successful . . . . . I don't know anything about him, or Kanye for that matter, but I was told that he's pretty much horrible at everything he does. So the a.d. wanted me to portray him as a bum of sorts wearing a business suit.


These are some of the sketches that I did in prep for the painting.

it's finished

The scratch pole/climbing tree is finally completed. Tylor thinks it's the best invention - it gives him such a good view of the going ons in the living room!

Also it's great to give himself a bit of a cuddle on.

Thank you mummy for my little play area! He seems to be saying. The "half way shelf" is the perfect height to jump up on peoples shoulders from, should they happen to walk pass. You've been warned! :-)

Kanye West for KING Magazine

In December I did four paintings for KING Magazine. The issue is finally published and in book stores now, so I can finally share what I did for them. For now, here is Kanye West.

Ape in a Cape

Drawn for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The subject is Gygor, a never-made concept for a He-Man toy, as described by a former Mattel employee. Read up on Gygor, and check out the other entries in the challenge's thread. My post can be seen here. First round polls are here and here. Final poll is here.

click above for larger view

It was tough making the colors from Gygor's description work. Maybe they don't work? On the other hand, the description of Gygor's colors very much paralleled the garish colors of Battle Cat, so maybe if the colors don't work that means they are working? Anyways, I designed Gygor's helmet to mirror Battle Cat's as well. The guns are all modelled on Stridor's armaments. The chair mounted on Gygor's backpack should give you a sense of his scale.

A garishly colored giant gorilla decked out in a cape and high-tech energy weapons... hmmm... something's missing. Oh, I know--how about some supplemental nerdy background info, written by yours truly? Here you go:

* * *

PROFILE: Standing at well over 13 feet tall, the ancient being known as GYGOR is one of the most powerful entities on Eternia. His physical strength surpasses that of He-Man, his wisdom rivals that of the Sorceress, and his knowledge encompasses aeons of Eternia's rich history. His helm is made from the hide of a powerful prehistoric Eternian beast, and he is outfitted with a battle harness powered by an enchanted gem. The harness is armed with two heavy shoulder blasters, two hip mounted stun rays, and rotating light rapid fire blasters mounted on the back turret. Gygor rarely needs to rely on more than his brute strength and great wisdom, but he has also demonstrated powerful spellcasting abilities from time to time.

HISTORY: Gygor was already ancient in the days of King Grayskull, and in fact, records indicate that Gygor was a staunch ally and advisor to the legendary king. Allegedly, in modern day Eternia, Gygor has been sighted travelling towards Castle Grayskull. Has Gygor returned to aid the heroes of the land in the dark times that have descended upon Eternia? Only time will tell...

* * *

the wedding

Kerstin and Michail (my second cousin) getting married

on Valentine's Day.

First snog as a married couple!

In the background: bridesmaids, my brother as best man and my second cousin Helen (yes, she's a vicar)

We just can't help ourselves! :-)
Myself, my brother and his girlfriend


Cutting the very nice tasting cake

My brother together with our mother's cousin Britt-Ingrid. A woman I have admired all my life and wish I knew better.

The mad and absolutely wonderful family!

Needless to say I had a brilliant time. A beautiful day and a fabulous night!

Tree Spirit (WIP)

Here's a (work in progress) painting I've been working on (on & off).
It's about a tree spirit that talks with the crows.

I imagine he wants to be a comedian. He tells jokes to the creepy crows in the forest but I don't know if they like his humor.

No real reason for this painting... just doodling the weird and funny ideas in my head.
Sometimes it's fun to paint things that only amuse yourself. You know what I mean? :)

HELLBOY Drawing

So you might have noticed we've been posting more of our sketches (as well as our finished works) so that we'd be able to update more often.

This one was fun to do.

Done with ballpoint pen.

Valentine's Day

I'm off to my cousin's wedding tomorrow. He's getting married on Valentine's Day. I'm childishly excited. This is due to several reasons:

I like my cousin Michail soooo much. He's possibly one of the funniest and kindest persons there is.

After my mum passed away I've lost contact with her side of the family completely (apart from Michail, that is). I can't wait to see them all again. It's been far too long.

Being ill for months and months has taken it's toll on me. It will be lovely to get a chance to dress up and have a drink or two, knowing I now have the strengh and energy to actually socialize and meet people. I've been a bit of a recluse lately.

My brother is Best Man tomorrow. I have never before seen/heard my brother do a speech, and I am looking forward to it - I bet it will be funny as!

Now I'm off to pack my bag and make sure I have everything ready for the morning. The wedding is up north and I've booked myself into a hotel for tomorrow night. Once back I'll show you all some pictures from the weekend.

Happy Valentines Day!

Number Sixteen

Abraham Lincoln's birthday was yesterday, and Monday we observe President's Day here in the States, so:

The blog has been a little lethargic recently, due to my preoccupation with plagues and unusually large apples inhabited by millions of people... I'll be back next week with something elaborate and nerdy, more befitting what you have grown to expect of me.

Gordy, waiting for the Bus!

This is a preview of what's to come with my work in the future. I'm slowly working and developing my work in a "fine art" sort of way, painting large with oils and acrylics. Some will be exaggerated to an extent and others just stylized, but painted traditionally. I hope to have a show here in Chicago, one in New York and another in L.A., I'll be sure to share the info here once the shows are set in stone.

This is a practice painting, or "sketch painting", from this I will do a large oil. I'll be sure to share the process here.

Oooh magic.

an oldie..

<3Kei

The Real Group

I looooove this Swedish Acapella group!!! And this song is one of their best - saw it being performed live last year and nearly fell of my chair laughing.

Fish.

surrounded by nutters

My brother has for as long as I know called me a "weirdo magnet". What he - rightly - is suggesting is that I seem to have a strange way of attracting weirdos! Somehow they spot me a mile off and corner me for a chat, some advise or to shout obscenities.

As I work with people with various kinds of challenging behaviours and mental disabilities I get my daily dose of this even at work, which I do love truely and fully. I really do. But when I'm off work I like to be off work completely.

Today I left work and got on the train to meet my beloved friend Fatima for some food and a good old chin wag. On the train I was approached by a man who smelt like a brewery and asked me for some change. I ignored him.

As I got off the train a man came walking towards me screaming something.
"Nutter" I thought and walked on. He got right in my face and screamed "you look like a giant walking dildo!" at me, then started singing a Christmas carol. I was actually lost for words, giggled a little to myself and walked on.

On my way home (after a huuuuge and looovely meal) my phone rang. I walked and talked and as I did so I noticed a woman following me.
"I can hear you" se hissed. "Everything you and your friend says is being recorded into my head and I will pass on all the information to THEM!"

I turned around and said - without thinking " I'm off work. I don't care". Then I got on the train home.

Yes, I drool in my sleep.

Back from NYC, all tuckered out. Bedtime is now. TTYL.

Sketchy, sketchy...

A blog-challenge!

Rules:

• go to "my files" on your computer.
• select "my pictures".
• pick the 6th photo in your 6th album and add on to your blog.
• Write 6 sentences about the photo you've just added.
• Challenge 6 other people.

My 6th album in "my pictures" is named "calender photos for dad". For a few years my brother and I gave our dad a photo calender each Christmas, containing photos of our families and lives. This photo, of me and my granddad was taken around 2001.
Me and my beloved granddad always drank coke and played with "brain toys" (he was an extremely clever man!). On his kitchen wall, in the midst of the brass pans, is a photo of my little Mini Mayfair car that I bought in Jersey. He was an extraordinary man and I miss him dearly.

I challenge Anna, Malin, Katrin, Kari and anyone else who fancies doing this rather sweet challenge!

the mobile phone saga

Last November I bought a new mobile phone.

A while later 2 buttons broke so I handed it in to be repaired. The warranty covered it. Fine.

Then another 2 buttons broke. I handed it in to be repaired. The warranty covered it. But when I got it back it started to switch itself off about 5 minutes into a phone call. I handed it in to be fixed and again the warranty covered it.

Then - that horrid night (read this blog to refresh your mind) when the mobile phone died I just gave up. So after Christmas I handed it in yet again and asked to have a new mobile phone as I clearly had bought a faulty product.

They said that they would sort out a new mobile phone for me, but it could take about 2 weeks. They were going to phone me when I could collect my new phone.

Two weeks later I started phoning them. Phoned at least once a day for over 14 days without getting through ("sory we can't take your call at the moment. Please try again later")

Yesterday I managed to get through - told them I had been promised to have a new mobile phone three weeks ago, and why hadn't they phoned me?!

The guy said "please hold.." whereas I interupted him and screamed "don't you dare put me on hold - sort it out now!" I was livid. Poor bloke. Probably scared him to death. The guy spoke to his manager and I was promised I could collect my new mobile phone today.

Today I got there, handed in all my papers at the refund till, got a reciept of some sort and sent off to collect my new phone by the department in question. They had run out of my model.

I was nearly in tears. I just wanted a god damn phone - and the same one that I had before, not a funky, teenagy one they tried to give me instead. I asked them for a cash refund instead. The sales assistant probably saw my despair and teary look, because he took me slightly aside and handed me a little piece of paper:

"I'm not supposed to recommend cutomers to go elsewhere, but this website sell your mobile phone for half our price. Order one from there" he said.

And so I have done just now! And saved myself shit loads of money! Now I just hope the phone doesn't get lost in the post... Would be just my luck.

King Kong ain't got nothing on me!

This is a pre-recorded auto-post. I am taking a bite out of the Big Apple. Leave your comments at the beep.

click above for larger view

The Kid's Last Heist

Here's an illustration I did recently.
It's of Billy the Kid's last heist a la 'steampunk.' I worked on it in between breaks from my 'real' work over the span of 6 days.

I'll post 'work in progress' pics below

GTA Legends III Art Piece

Another year and another astonishing art piece by Patrick Brown. It’s been some time since we saw anything from this skillful Australian, but the wait was worth it. In this artwork we can see every single protagonist from the entire Grand Theft Auto series so far. Even the ones we haven’t played with, yet. Unbelievably it took Patrick only 25 hours of hard work to finish this incredible scene.

- So as you can see Tommy Vercetti (Close left) is acting like he is THE BOSS! Haha that's because he is, he owns The Malibu, remember back when playing Vice City?

- As for Niko (behind Tommy) he's working for Tommy and is asking him if he wants Vic dead for a price (remember, if it pays, Niko does it...) No one should fool around with Tommy's girls.

- CJ (third) is fighting with Claud Speed from GTA III, if you remember back in San Andreas at the end, CJ gets a call from Catalina who had a little thing for CJ. She dumps him over the phone and says she with Claud now...

- BUT Claud trying to tell him how she's a back-stabbing bitch for blasting the crap out of him with a shotgun in GTA III.

- Now Toni (back) is about to beat the crap out of Claud for killing Salvatore Leon back in GTA III...

- Vic is basically just trying to have a good time and stay out of trouble (just like in Vice City Stories) but trouble always finds him.

- Now the two new guys Huang Lee and Johnny Klebitz, I couldn't actually have them doing much because I don't know anything about the games yet... But basically they are trying to get pissed.

Here’s a bit older masterpiece by the same artist. As you can see the styles and color schemes in both are very similar. Both illustrations also fine examples of how magnificent and exiting Vice City is.

Source: patrickbrown.deviantart.com