Jim Henson

Here is a funky drawing I did of one of the celebrities who have been on my mind lately. I've been on a huge Sesame Street kick thanks to a book I received for Christmas from my friend Dave (who has just started a really cool photo blog here that deals with nostalgic and pop culture subjects.)

There's not much I can say about Jim that hasn't already been said; he's just one of those rare larger-than-life figures that was around in my lifetime. He sure as heck believed in what he was good at.

Also, if you haven't already you may want to place an order for my "Plumber's Wardrobe" T shirt as they just went on sale yesterday and sizes are already selling out!

Mario's Closet Tee is Here!

The one you've been waiting for! Now officially called "the plumber's wardrobe" for what must be obvious reasons. The shirt is available in men's and women's sizes.

Click here to buy the T-shirt
Click here to buy the Baby Tee

Also a note for those who have been asking, Splitreason will be selling a poster, and Gallery 1988 will be selling a limited edition signed print. I look for both of them to be on sale in the near future and I will certainly post updates as I receive them.

UPDATE: I just found an article about the release of the shirt while browsing Kotaku, please let me know if you see any more!
Kotaku - Clothes Make The Man, Woman, Frog, Raccoon, Penguin, Etc.
Go Nintendo - 'The Plumber's Wardrobe' shirt finally up for sale

A settings change

Unfortunately, a side effect of all the increased attention to my site is that I've been getting some spam in my blog comments. I was trying to wait it out, but they seem to be persisting. For this reason I've elected to enable word verification for commenting on my posts.

I really regret having to do this because I personally hate the whole word verification thing, and I didn't want all you great visitors to my site to have to put up with it or feel like I was trying to hinder your input in any way, so I am sorry for that.

I truly appreciate all the new and returning visitors that come to my site, all the feedback I receive, and all the new little faces that keep showing up in the "Follow" box over there on the right, so I hope this doesn't discourage anyone from from enjoying the site in whatever way they normally do.

Thank you, and God's speed.

Oh, and down with spam.

Peripheral Vision

A new shirt design submitted to Splitreason that is a visual index of first party North American peripherals for the Nintendo Entertainment System (and the Game Genie, made by Galoob.) You can vote on it here.

While simple in concept this design took a lot of work; half of the time I spent on this was just doing research. I had to compile a list of what should be included, then find pictures of each item that not only let me create an accurate drawing but gave me good size reference. Then of course I had to draw the thing. Click on the image above for a bigger version than is available on Splitreason's site.

I have also created a key, below, to identify each item for those who don't recognize them.



Click each item for its Wikipedia page:

1. Power Pad
2. NES Zapper (orange version)
3. Standard NES controller
4. NES Zapper (original gray version)
5. NES Four Score
6. NES Advantage
7. NES console
8. Power Glove (including glove and receiver rig that is placed on the TV)
9. Game Genie
10. Gyromite Kit for R.O.B. (Including platforms, tops, spinner, and grips)
11. NES Satellite (Including main unit and infrared receiver)
12. R.O.B.
13. Dogbone Controller for the NES 2
14. NES Max
15. Stack-Up Kit for R.O.B. (Including platforms, colored discs, and grips)

I know, I know. "Sorry, but you didn't include ______ ." and " That one shouldn't be on there." After Mario's Closet, I'm ready for whatever you want to throw at me. I hope.

She will have them forever!

I am so happy that I heard back from the anonymous commenter who said she got my Bullet William and Robert-Omb designs tattooed on her hips! It turned out to be Emily from Tennessee, who sent me the photos above. Thanks, Emily! This is still blowing my mind when I really think about it. Hopefully we can keep in touch until we're in our 80s, so I can then ask how you let the grand kids know why you have a bullet with a mustache on your hip. :)

MLK Day

One year ago on Martin Luther King Day our relationship began.

A Thanks

I wanted to take a moment to thank Sean, without whom this site would not run! Whenever something goes wrong with the site he helps me with it pretty much instantly, despite living about 700 miles away.

I'm with Coco

Image by Mike Mitchell

It looks like Conan will be leaving the Tonight Show and NBC, but I still support him for being the only person with any integrity in this whole debacle. So whatever happens from here, I'm with you, Coco!

Mike Mitchell created this image to be used on blogs, Facebook pages, etc, to show your support for Mr. O'Brien. When I arrived at Mike's site I was surprised to find that I have a ton of his work saved in my "cool artwork" file, but I didn't know his name or even recognize that it was all by the same person! The fact that I have been drawn to so many pieces of his in the past without even realizing they were from the same guy to me speaks volumes about the quality of his work. Please check out his website here.

And good luck to Conan! I was in the audience of his Late Night show four times during trips to New York, and my trip back to the Big Apple this weekend just won't be the same without him. Maybe now he'll end up back in NY?

Who knew that Jay Leno would be such a jerk?

Ally

A drawing of my friend Ally for possible use on a project she's working on.

Updates

The art page is now up to date with all my new work, including personal illustrations, shirt designs, and Cubees. The store is also up to date with all new products.

After the shows I was in last year and the press related to my Mario's Closet design, the task of updating my resume was starting to look daunting. I decided it would be easier to create an HTML version that could be updated easily, as well as contain hyperlinks to things like press articles, so that's exactly what I did on the contact page.

Also, If you are the person who left a comment saying that you got my Bullet William and Robert-Omb designs tattooed on your hips, PLEASE send me a picture! My email address is glen.brainwrap@gmail.com

Birdgirl

Here's the finished image I hinted at in the last post. This was a ton of fun to do because it was one of those things that just clicked from the beginning; there wasn't too much second guessing or changing around after I had the pencils done. It almost makes me want to do a series of "Unlikely Pinups" using subjects you wouldn't neccesarily expect, but that would have to be a long-term kinda thing as I have other, more business related projects to attend to for the time being. This was a great break though.

Time for a quick one

Not too long ago I posted a pinup I did as an entry for a contest that was going to be judged by storyboard artist Bill Presing, who draws pinup girls in his spare time.

Some examples of his work: (For anyone just glancing through I want to stress that these are NOT my drawings, but the work of Bill Presing, pinup extraordinaire)



The more I studied his work the more I liked it. He finds a good balance between simple shapes and just the right amount of detail. I think that quality is what makes his pieces sexy, yet artful/innocent enough to not be vulgar. Thinking about that made me want to see if I could shift my own pinup drawings in that direction, or at least do a test for fun. I like seeing and drawing pinup pieces for obvious reasons, especially cartoony ones like Bill's, but getting them to come across the way you want can be tricky. You'd probably think it wouldn't be that tough considering how much sexual imagery is in our everyday culture anyway, but I'm not looking to open up a sociology discussion or anything like that; like I say, they're just fun to draw.

One of the gifts I got for Christmas was Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law Vol. 3 on DVD, which is something I've meant to buy for myself forever but just never got around to. Watching it reminded me of the show's take on Birdgirl, one of the many obscure Hannah Barbara characters spoofed in the series. They had her constantly and accidentally flashing skin and striking sexy poses much to the excitement and frustration of the male characters on the show. She seemed like a fun character to try out, and would also give me an opportunity to draw some other H.B. characters, so we'll see how it goes. Here's a preview:

Back in Huntington

I'm back from from my extended holiday "vaction" in Charleston (where I still got plenty of work done, but enjoyed myself quite a bit too) and the increased business due to the success of my Mario's Closet design continues.

I have gotten quite a bit of fan mail which I very much appreciate. The deals revolving around that piece that are in the works right now are:

An article in the Official Nintendo Magazine of France
An interview for a website
An offer to design a shirt for shirt.woot.com
And my favorite, a limited edition of signed and numbered prints sold through Gallery 1988 in LA.

My older piece of Mario playing a slot machine will also be featured in a magazine that's doing an article about the Autumn Society show that it was featured in.

I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting to mention, but it's all coming so fast and each opportunity requires so much consideration that it can be hard to keep it all straight sometimes. Since most of this recent work is business related I'm taking this opportunity to work on a personal piece before focusing on more shirt designs and whatever else may follow, so more about that soon.

I also really need to update the art section of the site, so here's hoping I can get to that next week sometime before I leave for a trip to NY!

Glass Lady

This has been done for quite a while but I couldn't share it on here as it was a Christmas gift for my girlfriend, Hillary. The actual print is in a nice old-style oval frame. The one I gave her parents looks great against their old fashioned stripey wallpaper; I kinda wish I had taken a photo of it hanging there.

At any rate, one of Hillary's passions is Belnko Glass, a company located in Milton, WV, not far from our hometown. Blenko employs amazing craftsmen who make all their glass pieces by hand, and have for many decades. I believe one of the reasons that people who collect Blenko love it so much is that it is one of the few companies of its kind still around, providing a long and rich history.

Hillary does more than just collect the glass, however, as she has done quite a bit to spread awareness of the company as well as promote and help them in any way she can. She writes a blog for the Herald Dispatch, the newspaper of my current town of Huntington WV, that is about everything Blenko. I get quite jealous of her blog from time to time because she somehow manages to update nearly every day despite being a full on resident dentist at OSU, whereas I sit at my computer all day and consider myself lucky to update once a week.

The idea for this piece mainly came from looking at the shapes of Blenko glass pieces and thinking about how when rendered flat they could all interlock together. Then I thought it would be interesting to mirror those curves with the curves of the female form, (namely Hillary) and integrate her into the array of glass. The name of the piece, Glass Lady, is actually what commenters on Hillary's blog call her, which has always been funny to me.