A New Look

You may notice that the site looks a little different, and if you dig a little deeper you might notice that some superfluous things are gone and a few others have been changed around.

I did this for a couple reasons, one being that I got the itch to change things up a bit when I updated some behind-the-scenes stuff a week or so ago. The other is that if you visited my site on an Apple product like an iphone or ipad then you couldn't see the navigation at the top of the page since it was Flash driven. I've known about that for quite some time, but I didn't really want to give in and change it until I had a new idea for my site banner.

I understand that all technology must evolve over time and that some stuff will become obsolete, but I still think that it's quite arrogant of Apple to cut off Flash support so soon. In my opinion it alienates the many people who have used it to develop web content, especially the creative people Apple seems to care so much about. I understand moving on to something new, but I just fail to see exactly what it is we're gaining by making sure that nobody can ever see or use anything that was created in Flash. I mean we've moved on to DVDs and Bluray, but nobody took that to mean that we should burn all VCRs.

But that's just my two cents on the matter. I feel like the changes I've made are for the better, and I'll probably still be tweaking things here and there for a while.

Video Game Gore!

Here's my piece for the Autumn Society's Video Game Gore show which opens next month at Brave New Worlds in Philly.

At first I was leaning towards something based on Silent Hill since it was the first horror video game I ever played (and genuinely scared me when I was a kid,) but once I had the idea for a Luigi's Mansion piece I knew I had to go with it, if for no other reason than it seemed like a really unexpected choice. You don't really think of a Mario game when think of horror, and this game in particular was pretty offbeat and received little fanfare. I loved it, but then again I have a weird fondness for secondary characters.

There's some Super Mario World ghost house flavor thrown in as well, just because I liked the idea of using the P switch. The Princess was added to fill the role of obligatory horror movie heroine and give it more of a movie poster feel.

The Glen Brogan Store is now open!

I am very excited to announce that my official store is now up and running. You can buy the shirts, prints, posters and stickers that I've designed for Splitreason. Pretty much anything that I offer for sale you can find in there. Check it out and buy some stuff! Also, all the store links on my site now redirect to my Splitreason store.

The reason this is such a big deal for me is that I get quite a few requests for different prints and things, but my schedule doesn't really allow me to fill all these orders on my own. Now I can add whatever prints I like to this store, so rest assured that I will soon be adding my most requested pieces.

Also, this really wouldn't be possible without everybody who supports me; by which I mean my friends and everybody who contacts me me with requests and comments. I can't thank you enough for your interest in my work.

Duet

I had some major computer issues recently, so I'm sad to say that 'm a little behind on a few things including posting the Seth Martin & Friends shorts. On the one hand this is a good thing because it means the videos are being produced faster than I can keep up, which is excellent. I've mostly been playing catch-up and working on my own projects while the other members of Brainwrap manage to go out and shoot these awesome things.

This one is called Duet and I was actually around for the filming, though I mostly sat and watched. I love the song that was written for this short; it WILL get stuck in your head.

Scott Pilgrim and the year-long drawing

Another drawing in tribute to Scott Pilgrim! This is something I did just for fun and I've been working on it my free time. I started it forever ago but I just couldn't get it to a place where I was entirely happy with it, so I reworked it to death, probably wasting more time on it than I should have. I just love the characters from those books so much, both in personality and design. The look of these characters is so deceptively simple that you'd think they'd be easy to draw but they're actually quite difficult to get right. When you have simple characters like these every line placement counts, so getting even one thing wrong makes the whole character look off. It's really a testament to Bryan Lee O'Malley's drawing skills which improved significantly over the course of the six book run.

I actually had this idea over a year ago, I think around the time book 5 came out. I gave it a shot back then but decided that I just couldn't combine my style and O'Malley's in a way that worked. So here I am a year later and I was finally able to see the idea through to completion. I basically took several ideas and images from the book that I liked and combined them into one scene, adding my own goofy ideas here and there.

I also opened up the old Photoshop file of my original attempt at this scene and boy was it awful. I wanted to post it here as a nice supplement but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Some things are better left unseen!

Mario Cart

Autumn Society members were invited to create original pieces of artwork out of old Atari cartridges and donate them to Too Many Games, a gaming convention in eastern Pennsylvania. My understanding is that the pieces will be featured in a show, then given away as prizes at the convention. I thought this was a pretty cool idea and right up my ally, so I had to give it a shot. I decided to turn my cart into Mario as he appeared in the game Mario Bros. Not Super Mario Bros, but rather the first "bros" game which featured arcade style action of Mario and Luigi bopping turtles and crabs that came out of pipes. In the early days Mario seemed to get drastically redesigned for every new game he was in, but this version was always my favorite of his retro looks. Plus Mario Bros was actually ported to the Atari 2600, so it seemed appropriate.

I tried to take a bunch of fun pictures since I knew I'd never see the little guy again:






And here are some progress photos:








I really wish I could make it to the convention because it looks like a blast, but on my current schedule a weekend that involves 14 hours of driving doesn't sound like a very welcome break. I do hope Mario finds a good home.

Extra Terrestrials shirt for sale

I am very happy to announce that my extra terrestrials shirt is up for sale and may be on its way to becoming a hit. It seems to be making the press rounds and getting quite a bit of attention. I was happy to see it listed as geek apparel of the week on ToplessRobot.com, a nerdy news site that I frequent, and I'll also repost this entry about it on the official Alien Facebook page.

Thanks to anybody who has posted about the shirt! You can buy the guys shirt here and the girl's version here.

King of the Festival

I picked up the August issue of Front with my "King of the Festival" illustrations. This was the first series of two-page spreads that they asked me to do, and I designed the icons too!

Ernie Hudson at 3G

Here is a photo that a fan submitted to Splitreason this week. It's from the 3G show reception at Gallery 1988 where Ernie Hudson made an appearance, as did the Ecto1 and several other celebrities! As you can see, this awesome fella is wearing my Ghostbusters shirt. There are a few things I like about this photo:

1. This is the second picture of Ernie Hudson and somebody wearing one of my shirts.

2. All four Ghostbusters are in this picture.

3. By coincidence, somebody wore one of my shirts to a show I have work in.

Also, I have a new shirt up for sale that features many pop culture alien characters, and it seems to have become a big hit on the official Alien Facebook page. I will make an official announcement about the shirt being up for sale soon, I was just happy that so many people seem to enjoy it. 530 likes and 62 comments!

Phanto is Watching You

A new shirt design for you to vote on! I'm happy with the style of this one, and I think it will appeal to fans of Super Mario Bros 2 and 3 (Which I would imagine is anyone who has ever played a video game.) I've had this idea for a little while but just now got around to executing it. Vote here!

Tooth Key Rack

Continuing with another dental-themed post, here is my birthday present for Hillary: a tooth key rack for her new home. I was able to complete the design and construction in a couple evenings.

Dr. Hillary

Hillary has started her new job and she is the first dentist they've ever had on staff, so they wanted to make some flyers advertising her services. They got lucky that the dentist they hired just happens to have a boyfriend who is a graphic designer. I made this image for the flyer, basically reusing the modern cartoony design of her that I created for an earlier piece.

I also laid out the flyer itself, but seeing as how I had to make it quickly it's not exactly the best design I've ever produced, so I'll just stick to posting the illustration aspect of it for now.

3G Show Opens Tonight!

The 3G art show has it's opening reception tonight at 7pm! I wanted to be sure and tell you that if you live in the LA/Hollywood area to go check it out, but I doubt this show needs my meager promotions; It's going to be huge. This show has gotten so much press that I can't even keep up, and I've been informed of a few surprises that are in store. Specifically that Ernie Hudson, Winston Zeddemore himself, will be arriving at the gallery in the Ecto1 wearing full Ghostbusters getup! I almost wish I was making that up since I won't be able to attend, but I speak the truth.

I also read a blurb that featured quotes from Joe Dante, director of Gremlins, who has become aware of the show and will be stopping by at some point.

Again, this is going to be giant and I wish I could be there!

One article I will link to is this piece from /Film that features both my poster and my actual pieces for the show.

College Girls

My latest assignment from Front Magazine, an illustration for a feature about different types of college girls. They actually left the poses up to me this time, but gave me a list of things to include for each girl such as "goth cleavage." From left to right, we have the goth, sporty girl, nerd, "posh," (I think we'd just call her rich) and punk.

One thing I've noticed when doing these Front spreads is that they always like to have the characters drinking different types of alcohol as a way of differentiating their personalities. This was especially funny to me on my last assignment when I had to draw soccer players drinking apparently as they were playing. The nerdy girl was my favorite out of this group, and as someone who doesn't drink I was especially pleased that they requested for her to be drinking plain ol' Coke.

I also always have to learn new British terminology when I do these. This time the word that stuck out was "plaster," which I figured out means bandage.

Working for Front is always a pleasure!

Here's my original pencils for the piece: