JafariStew

2012... new year...new ART!!

2012-01-22T16:06:00.004-05:00

Here's my brand new Sparta avy!! Made off of the GIJoe Comic Con 2011 exclusive Mission Brazil 2 set! In 2012 I'm hoping to unleash a boatload of new art for you all to enjoy! Plans include a series of ROLLERGIRLS, a 80's RETRO ROBOT series (Esso Robot Racers, Commandrons, & Convertible Robots), MOTU, GI Joe, & maybe even my in development Deathrace 2000 series, & long time Devilman series... it's gonna be a GREAT YEAR!!

ROLLER DERBY photography!!!

2011-12-29T16:20:00.000-05:00

Those of you who know me best know about my addiction to Roller Derby over the past year, & being a visual person I try to take as many photos at the girl's bouts in Providence as a I possible can. It's no easy task as it's SO Action Packed!! But here is a couple samples... I'm so hardcore. lol

Ginger Bread Person

2011-11-30T16:32:00.000-05:00

Had a project at work to do to create a team member as a Gingerbread person, I did that, but also wanted to create my own, so I made a Roller Derby gingerbread girl name "Ginger Snaps!!"

Portrait sketches

2011-10-05T18:07:00.001-04:00

2 portrait sketches! The first one s of my good friend & fellow artist Tamara during a session we did in Fall 2011, the 2nd is from that 80's teenage chick from "WeLikIt" ice cream. =-)

Beast Raiders original sketch...

2011-09-30T15:08:00.001-04:00

Original sketch for my Beast Raiders "BladeKiller" bio. I found the pose reminded me to much of 200X Skeletor, so I changed it for the final posted previously... It's a nice chance to see my line work & sketching ideas/process.

J-ROCK CD COVERS!!

2011-08-29T17:15:00.001-04:00

A picture of the 2008-2010 series of J-Rock CD concert comps I designed for the 2011 J-Rock Party... Yousei Teikoku, Versailles/Dir En Grey, Jam Project/Rentrer En Soi, Vamps CD/DVD & X-Japan Covers/Best!!

BEAST RAIDER height guide

2011-07-29T16:01:00.002-04:00

I simple height guide of my Beast Raiders profiles for reference. I use these to help flesh out the characters sizes in their universe for myself & fans. I hope to return to this project some day in the future as I have more characters, new bios. & new backgrounds I wish to express with the range. =-)

BEAST RAIDER volume 2!!

2011-06-30T12:12:00.003-04:00

Continuing with more BEAT RAIDERS animation style art!!

The character "MYST" is loosely based (with an original name as the actual figure has none) on a figure from the"BEAST RAIDERS" repaint line "WITCHCRAFT KNIGHT." And I mean loosely based, as the figure that this design is created from appears to be budgeted with a lack of paint, so much so that she seems to not even be wearing anything below her waist!! lol ...so some artistic liberty was taken on this one. lol

In the 1st installment both "THUNDERTHOR" & "BLADEKILLER" were originally for the BEAST RAIDERS line, while TRI-TREMIS here first appeared in WIZARD'S RULE range & was later repackaged for "BEAST RAIDERS." He reminds me a bit of King Hiss from MOTU.

BEAST RAIDER volume 1!!

2011-05-30T21:18:00.004-04:00

Hey gang!!
As a new project I decided to create art for the MOTU inspired/knock-off toy line BEAST RAIDER!!
"Savage Warrior-Beast Raider (Warriors Of The Savage)" was a range done by Chap Mei around 2003 & found in discount stores nation wide, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of fantasy lines like MOTU & Jurassic Park at the time. The line featured newly sculpted dinosaurs as steeds with 2 new MOTU inspired leads THUNDERTHOR (could be loosely based on Snake Armor HE-MAN) & BLADEKILLER (a blatant SKELETOR homage) as well as a combination of other figures from previous Chap Mei lines (like WIZARD'S RULE & SOLDIER FORCE) that would fit within the theme of this current line. The range was successful enough to be carried for several years & even was renamed (MYSTERY MEN) & recolored with added figures (WITCHCRAFT KNIGHT) in other countries. Personally I always found the line to be an interesting one with some good quality toys & ideas, as well as a good scale at a very affordable price. It was popular with some MOTU collectors at the time, & still has a following today with some of the items remaining quite collectible among Chap Mei/Fantasy/Dinosaur enthusiasts.
I have never seen any fan-art or fiction done for this line, so the stories in the bios are completely my own, based on how I would handle an animated series based on the property.
I envision it as a darker world than MOTU, with more adult themes.
If this project is a hit with my Fans, I'll continue to add more characters based on the BEAST RAIDERS figures as well as the other already associated lines.
*Special thanks to my brother Brain for his artistic input on the process & my brother Randy for the positive feedback.
Thanks & I hope you enjoy the art & story.

Custom CD Covers 2011

2011-04-30T15:11:00.003-04:00

Some more fun with supplied art & graphic design. From around the web (& bought from Amazon) & into my custom series!

THAT FIGURES!!

2011-04-20T17:47:00.003-04:00

My art is being featured today on the awesome action figure blog "THAT FIGURES"!!

Check it OUT!!

http://that-figures.blogspot.com/2011/04/fan-article-gi-joes-agent-helix-by.html

DIAL-TONE AVY!!

2011-03-20T22:20:00.004-04:00

I like to update my GI Joe HissTank website Avy every few months, & I'm starting off the 2011 year with the controversial Reso/ROC charater "Dial Tone!!" Portrayed as the original DT's sister (Jack & Jill), she's crept into most modern GI Joe media... & even though she's not "new-new" as with most of my Joe avy's in toy form, I felt she was worth her due in my avy catalog as I liked this new female character for Joe a lot & used the figure (rather than the comic or animation models) for reference. Based on a friend (Tabitha), with & without glasses, & several digital camo apps, I went with a homemade camo app as I thought it looked the best & most like the figure. I also screen-lined her so it looks like she's doing her job as a tech & is on your viewing screen. I had a lot of fun with this one!

SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD Custom CD Cover

2011-02-15T15:29:00.003-05:00

Easily one of my top 2 top favorite movies for 2010 (the other being "Kick-Ass") was the delightful Scott Pilgrim film... Seamlessly blending real life with comics & video games, it truly is a uniquely wonderful film all it's own. Part of the enjoyment comes from the buzz soundtrack, so here (with Amazon's digital help) I put together a nice little custom CD cover for a 3-cd set (legally) containing the OST, Score, & Video Game music ...nice!

2011 Another Year Of JAFARISTEW !! (Concept Zarana sketch)!!

2011-01-31T18:32:00.005-05:00

We are starting our 5TH year here at JafariStew's artblog... & still going strong!! Hopefully we will have some fun surprises planned for the year with plenty of new art, as I am hoping to bring more hand drawn GI Joe & MOTU art as well as art based on Drive-In Movies & Classic Cartoons... as well as more graphic design w/CD & DVD covers...

FIRST UP, this is a FAST sketch based on a Concept GI Joe Dreadnok "Zarana" figure that was shown to me & other guests @ JoeCon 2010 on Hasbro's Tour, very few got to see the figure in person, so I did this rough sketch for HISSTANK to show this somewhat "Appleseed" inspired interpretation! The figure was beautiful & this sketch can only give a faint idea of the actual unreleased product!

CUSTOM DVD COVERS PART 5 "UNHOLY ROLLERS" PC131

2010-12-31T14:27:00.003-05:00

Another one of my favorites in film is the drive-in era grindhouse films of the 1960's-19'80s. So naturally I would want to try my hand at some custom covers under my own header of "Paracinema 131." Here I have designed a cover for one of my fave commercially unreleased genre films of the 70's "Unholy Rollers" (a roller derby exploitation bash) starring the beloved b-queen & a personal favorite of mine... Claudia Jennings.

I'm using existing images & picking out text, color, design elements, etc. to show my graphic design skills... This was created for my DVD drive-in movies series.

CUSTOM DVD covers (layout design) PART 4

2010-11-30T19:20:00.001-05:00

One of the last (& best) overseas great ventures made by the Japanese animation studio powerhouse TMS... was "CYBERSIX." Intended for the international market, this series has a cult following worldwide. How this ever got made as a Saturday morning cartoon is beyond me, as the comic dealt with many "adult" subject matters, but none the less an amazing animated series was born, & I designed (imho) one of my best custom covers yet for it!!
I'm using existing images & picking out text, color, design elements, etc. to show my graphic design skills... This was created for my DVD animation complete collection series.

CUSTOM DVD covers (layout design) PART 3

2010-10-16T16:30:00.004-04:00

Here is some more fun work that I have done for my custom DVD covers... these have met with rave reviews from my friends, & next up is just perfect for the Halloween season, a favorite of mine from the late 90's... "Extreme Ghostbusters!!"

I'm using existing images & picking out text, color, design elements, etc. to show my graphic design skills... This is the latest example created for my DVD animation complete collection series.

CUSTOM DVD covers (layout design) PART 2

2010-09-05T19:31:00.001-04:00

Earlier this year I showed you my wip for the Bionic 6 custom cover.
Well I'm proud to say that cover is done, along with several other custom dvd covers.
I'm using existing images & picking out text, color, design elements, etc. to show my graphic design skills... Here's some more examples done for DVD animation complete collections.

Both of these covers are some of my most fun & ambitious to date, with the Bionic Six using imagery that I purchased, cleaned, & edited.

The Gobots cover was a labor of love, as all of the Gobots featured on the front cover are figures that my brothers & I actually owned as children. ^_^

DELORA: MOTU Redesign Challenge #96

2010-08-31T17:14:00.002-04:00

This art was created for the near monthly MOTU Fan-Challenges on He-Man.Org.
This time, it's based on Stratos' wife Delora. She has 2 very distinct looks in the comics & cartoon, one is a Female Bird Warrior (much like Stratos minus the fur), & the other is of a Village Commoner.

This particular challenge had a great fan turn-out & was one that I have been waiting for!!

It's funny... I had Delora planned for some time in my head (as she has been rumored to be an upcoming challenge), & at 1st she was going to be more of a faux-plant person, but then I decided on the Native American/Villager ala mini-comic take. I messed around with a green or red outfit for a while, but settled on the red of the mini-comics...
I figure the MOTU character "Hawk" was the female-bird warrior in 200X, so in my Universe, I wanted Delora to be something different. More of a native who used to fight with the Avions, using their feathers in their gear as trophies until her people were mostly obliterated by the Great Unrest & Stratos & her fell in love, despite their previous differences, etc. etc... Her weapons are based on real world Camanche style stuff, & the rest is a bit mini-comic, unintentional 不知火舞 design (after the colors dropped), & the girl from the bowling alley LOL!!

CITY STRIKE SCARLETT Avy!!

2010-07-31T11:47:00.002-04:00

My good friend Gyre-Viper hooked me up with the unbelievably rare & highly sought after unproduced "City Strike Scarlett" figure from the revised GI Joe: Pursuit Of Cobra line. I just happen to love this figure so much that I needed to make a cool new avatar for the Hiss Tank forums. The imagery went over so well that a appreciation thread for my art was started here.
This was a fun project that like most of my works I keep at it until I'm satisfied, this particular image offered the challenge of having a pretty girl behind a mask (as that is the trademark of the figure) & I used images of ROC Scarlett actress Rachel Nichols, some emo-girl artists, & mostly the figure itself for reference. I can't thank Gyre enough for what he did for me here as he really gave me one of my favorite GI Joe figures I own of all time, & she will remain a cherished piece in my collection forever...

HELIX Avy Bust (Alt. Colors)

2010-06-30T16:18:00.002-04:00

A new background & remixed colors for a fresh Avy of my previous Helix work. The colors where inspired by an alternate color/character design sheet (for the ROC video game) featuring my favorite member of the ROC era... Helix!!

FRAZETTA Tribute WIP

2010-05-31T17:11:00.003-04:00

I'm working on a tribute piece to a man that inspired me greatly, Frank Frazetta, & with his passing, the fantasy art realm will never be the same, as he is one of the best modern artists of all time... this is the 1st stage of my wip drawn in non-photo pencil (but darkened so you can see it here), hopefully my version of his "Princess" will show my gratitude for all of the enjoyment I have been given from his works over the years. This will give you a bit of insight into my drawing process as to how it all starts, as this was drawn from a Frazetta figurine I own & some of his paintings/drawings for inspiration, I hope to have this completed (with backing) in the near future.

BLOODY CUSTOM CD covers pt.2 - ZOMBIELAND & KICK ASS

2010-04-25T20:12:00.005-04:00

2 films that I had an absolute blast watching at the movie theater we're ZOMBIELAND & KICK ASS, both of which had fantastic soundtracks, ZOMBIELAND luckily received an official original bgm CD, but never one for the assembled songs, & KICK ASS only had an overseas release & itunes release domestically (minus some of the great bgm). I meant to amend these musical missteps with making compilations for the "part 2" portion of my BLOODY CUSTOM CD covers series. Thanks again to debi-churu for the brushes!! I went gangbusters with these 2 covers, basically using some official art for inspiration, logo, & base covering, & then taking my own twist on the layout/extras to mimic some of the better advertising to create 2 more "bloody custom covers." The ZOMBIELAND selection is a "best of" the official & uncompiled music, while the KICK ASS compilation expands on the import collection with the music not included... graphic design, layout, text, etc. by me...

BLOODY CUSTOM CD cover pt.1 - KILL BILL

2010-03-31T15:42:00.003-04:00

Working on some of my graphic design stuff I decided to make more custom covers for "best collections" of some of my favorite soundtracks. KILL BILL will always be 1 of my all-time favorite movies, as well as one of my all-time favorite soundtracks. Unfortunately between the 2 movies, the ost cd's never had all of the music complete from the films, because of this, I've made several compilations either compiling all of the music or for assorted "best of's." So far I have made 4 supplement cd's compiling the music for KILL BILL. The 1st was "The Best Of KILL BILL" followed by "Vol 1 ost ~ Unreleased Cuts", a "Complete Music Collection", & most recently the "KILL BILL Best Selection." (2010) Credit to deviant artists munky-designs & debi-churu for providing base art & brushes for this respectively, graphic design, layout, text, etc. by me...

BIONIC SIX DVD COVER wip sneak-peak!!

2010-02-28T22:28:00.000-05:00

One of my custom DVD covers I am currently working on is for one of my favorite 80's animated series "Bionic Six." Using my own scans from the Bionic Six "Super Picture Book", I noticed that the one for Helen (aka Mother-1) was not done by the original character designer Mike Vosburg, but was instead done by the sp book illustrator Vince Perez. To make the character designs consistent w/Vosburg's work for my wip dvd cover I used his original head shots, & digitally edited Perez's work (along with my own digital cleanup & redraw) & got what you see below.
3 artists, 1 image...

*** The full wrap around will be revealed later this year!!

SNAKE EYES (Rescue Mission) WIP

2010-01-31T22:24:00.003-05:00

Welcome to JafariStew's Art Blog in 2010!!

I am celebrating my 4TH year with this blog!! >_<
And want to thank all the friends & fans who regularly visit, it's what makes the blog a great experience for me & I appreciate your feedback!!

...2010 promises to be another exciting expression of my art as I have many new (& classic) things planned. I'll be doing more fan-favorites like MOTU & GI Joe, but also have some other stuff planned like character designs for some of my favorite oldskool drive-in style movies. We'll also be taking a look into my artistic past, present, & future with some new art installments I hope we will all enjoy. I plan a big year & will always have something new again each month in 2010.

<---- Starting off we have a rough sketch of the Target exclusive "Rescue Mission Snake Eyes", drawn in late 2010, this was one of my 1st character models made from the last quarter figures released to warm up my skills for an upcoming wallpaper I have planned for GI Joe good guys. Here you can see the general looseness of my sketching process as will as how I start my work (with blue non-photo line art) as I usually go through a couple of these roughs before making a final. This would be a "stage 1" drawing as it's a static warm-up, & most likely not an end pose for the final.

I look forward to the year ahead & hope you are too...

'09 G.I.*Joe Figure Photography!!

2009-12-27T15:22:00.010-05:00

As an active member & mod for HISSTANK.COM, I love to do in-depth reviews of current GI Joe product. And with reviews comes GI Joe figure photography, so here is some of my favorite GI Joe (& friends) merch I did shots of in 2009!! My brother Randy got a new light Box for figure photography for 2010, so I'll be back in full force w/reviews & figure pics over @ HISS TANK, & am looking forward to 2010!!

NA EVIL Man-At-Amrs "Rusty Copper" homage custom figure

2009-11-22T13:09:00.007-05:00

Much to my surprise & delight, He-Man.Org member "Faceless One" made this custom from a MOTU 200X Zodak into my character design of the New Adventures inspired "Evil Man-At-Arms!!"

In his own words: "The first custom I made from a fanart, in this case Evil Man-At-Arms. I chose the rusty version, as it was in my opinion the best one. The base figure was a 200x Zodak."

I think he did an amazing job & I love seeing my character designs inspire other artists.
So a big thanks to "Faceless One" for alerting me to his custom & letting me post the images here!!

My Original Recolored Art:
NA MAN-AT-ARMS ~Rusty version:
The color scheme for this version is influenced by the Fewture Devilman alternate color fig of "ZANN" made years ago & a rusty tin-man...

Original custom thread link: Evil Man-At-Arms (JafariStew design)

CUSTOM DVD covers (layout design)

2009-10-28T10:11:00.010-04:00

Something I enjoy doing is making custom covers for DVDs & CDs. I've shown CD design here on the blog in the past, but here's an example of my DVD work. Using existing images & picking out text, color, design elements, etc. to show my graphic design skills...
Here's some examples done for DVD animation complete collections.

GI Joe: Sigma 6 cover art by Jon Sommariva colors by Jamie Boylan, back images trademark of Gonzo/Hasbro

Galtar images trademark of Hanna-Barbera/Cartoon Network

Sky Commanders image trademark of Hanna-Barbera/Kenner-Hasbro

*None of these are official & are only done from a design/packaging standpoint, as the titles are not current or upcoming releases & are done for my own personal collective. None of these images are to be duplicated or distributed.

HELIX Avy Bust

2009-09-09T19:56:00.004-04:00

It's no secret that my favorite figure from the new GI Joe ROC line is "Agent HELIX. " Wonderfully stylized, beautifully sculpted, & fully loaded, Helix is one of Hasbro's most dynamic & best ROC offerings of 2009... A debatable "Mary Sue", she was created for the EA ROC video game & amped up n the IDW comic from a martial arts/gymnast to an mysteriously autistic super soldier... When images popped up of the EMO-JOE I knew she was going to have a special place for me, & it seems many others, with her starting rep, unique flare, & good looks, she has truly made a name for herself early on among fandom. Either way I love her & wanted her as my new avatar when I was promoted to mod status (thank you) on the HISS TANK website (best GI Joe site on the web imho) . "You Don't pick the Hiss Tank, the Hiss Tank picks you!!" ...

So here is my "rock star" Helix head-shot in a FISH-EYE style view.

ROC Scarlett (covert ops) avatar

2009-08-07T20:24:00.000-04:00

Go see GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA in theaters today!! ^_^

HUNT-ARA!!

2009-07-19T13:31:00.003-04:00

Created for the MOTU Redesign Challenge # 90 is my version of the Filmation "Princess Of Power" character "Hunt-Ara." Originally modeled after Grace Jones (of Conan the Destroyer fame) Hunt-Ara shows up in a 1st season latter episode of "She-Ra'. With an unusual voice & purple skin (originally supposed to be "African" according to the creators notes), Hunt-Ara is a outlander hero hired by Hordak to capture She-Ra after his minions have failed so many times. Hunt-Ara does not know of the evil Horde as she is from a far off planet, & agrees after seeing false images of She-Ra doing evil deeds.
My version of Hunt-Ara is more Asian in nature & is inpsired by a PV from the visual kei band "D'espairs Ray." She was also influenced by Supergirl's last appearance in the TV show "Smallville", & then tweeked with more Hunt-Ara like colors, & MOTU-style garb.
Here she is complete w/a bio based on the POP animated episode "Huntara", I hope you like her!!

SCARLETT (QUARREL) Avatar remake

2009-06-14T14:05:00.009-04:00

This is my 4th remake of my infamous "Scarlett" avatar that I use on the GI Joe boards!! I keep updating the avatar's original image to reflect repaints/retools of Scarlett that are currently available in the modern GI Joe line. This time I not only had to change the uniform color, but also make new hair for her, & decided to also update her mouth to be an open smile. This current incarnation is actually based on an unreleased prototype that I got my hands on from a Ebay seller in China. Not knowing what her release status is, I just had to get her when she went up fpr auction!! Most likely this figure will show up as a '09 Joe-con exclusive. The colors are wicked & makes the "Pilot Scarlett" upgrade a little more real-world military... This deco homage represents her in the UK "Action Force" colors that were placed on her original '82 figure back in the 80's... she also had new blond hair, + a new personality/identity, & was given the codename "Quarrel."
I was one of the 1st to receive this figure in the US, so I also decided to take some photos of her, as well as write a full online review of the figure (for those interested)... It is available on the HISS Tank's website review section located here:
"QUARREL~SCARLETT in hand pics + review"
It's cool for me to have an actual "test-Shot" of one of my favorites, & if for any reason this figure does not get a domestic release, she could quickly become one of the highlights of my collection.
*The photos shown above & below are some of my shots of the actual figure from the review:

BONUS Brian's Cliff Jumper!!

2009-05-31T18:17:00.004-04:00

I had the privilege of assisting my brother Brian with his submission for the new Shout Factory Transformers DVD set fan gallery!! Presenting Brian's Cliffjumper!!

Brian: Comp., Pencils, Inks, Scan, Colors, Line Work, Autobot Symbol
Chris: Digital Line Work, Autobot Symbol

Optimus Prime DVD gallery art!! (Updated 5.25.09)

2009-04-30T23:00:00.009-04:00

*Filling in for the busy month of April is a brand new May entry...

This artwork of G1 Optimus Prime was created in May specifically for the new Shout Factory release of the classic Transformers GI DVD fanart gallery media section that is to be added as extra content to the discs.
Although it was a somewhat of a short notice opportunity, more designed for previously created artwork, I did my best to create a brand-new image, a simple, clean expression of a core character in the classic animation's representation.
I'm hoping it gets selected for the DVD, as it is a great way to have my art on officially licensed Transformers merchandise, as well as great exposure!!
I will update as it becomes official.

Special thanks to Shout Factory for the opportunity, & my brother(s) Randy (for pointing the submission op out) as both he & Brian gave me feedback on the piece.

GY-GOR: MOTU Redesign Challenge #87

2009-03-09T00:03:00.000-04:00

This image was created for the Redesign Challenge #87 "GY-GOR" over on He-man.Org. Originally mentioned in Roger Sweet's book "Mastering The Universe," this was a character that was going to be made as a repaint/tool of a pre-existing gorilla mold from a earlier Mattel line "Big Jim." Alas he was never created before the line ended, but we did get a description of what the character would have looked like in the book by his creator Roger Sweet:
"I changed the ape's body color from black to bright yellow and gave him a dark olive-green face and chest. His face in contorted with white teeth snarling in an open mouth of blood red. I gave him a black body harness. From his shoulders I hung a dark maroon cape."
"When I showed "Gygor" to marketing Mark Ellis said that is ********** great!!!"
"Ted Mayer in my design group created a striking full-color illustration of the beast, with He-Man mounted on his back. Gygor was decked out with a panoply of harnesses and weapons."
This inspired a cool redesign contest to recreate the great ape & the result brought the Org artists together for some really superb entries. So this is my take, complete with bio & a new homemade additive female character for the fans...

GY-GOR single:

Being a HUGE King Kong fan, I couldn't resist drawing a big ape for Masters, so I took the elements from Sweet's description, & then added my own touches pulling from MOTU, Galaxy Fighters, DC, & of course real life... I made him more of a being than a steed... The Bio was developed & changed (originally they were going to live in the icey north) many times before I came up with a story I liked. My brother Randy also suggested his ideas to me, & I took the best of all we thought up & added more before I was thru.

FAW-SIL single:

I knew I wanted to make a cave-girl character for this challenge to add to the Gy-Gor bio. Hammer's 60-70's cave girl films were always a big influence on me... & I thought that type of a character would fit well here... So I came up with a female I was calling Ray-Chill, (in MOTU the simple "dash" names are standard), who was going to have some kind of ice magic. I decided that I would drop the magical ice princess motif & save that name for another character in the future... I took some more cues from the Hammer cave-girl films, & also a MOTU KO line called "The Forgotten Warriors of the Universe"... then after browsing some Fossil watches @ the mall I came up with the more prehistoric flavored name, & switched up my total cave motif to a tribal-girl with a bone warrior element. Incorporated her to fit in w/the new bio, & was inspired by some modern winter wear I saw on an emo-girl @ the DMV for the final touch... lol

NEW ADVENTURES OF TEELA Cast ~recolors part 2

2009-02-16T10:57:00.006-05:00

Today's post features more repaint ideas I had for my "New Adventures of Teela" cast, & as you can see there is more extensive retooling/reworking of the art here (w/CHARI-VARI) than in most of my original recolored projects...

CHARI-VARI ~ Skeleton version:
This version, like the original design, was also inspired by the Cirque Du Soleil:Kooza show to be a true "undercover" disguise while in the Dark Hemisphere's skeletal legions. Based on the Cirque Du Soleil Kooza Skeleton King's army & a Ninja-girl type.

CHARI-VARI ~ Neko version:
AKA "Cat version"... When thinking of ways that I could retool the suit without busting up the original line work, I came up with a skin-tight subtractive outfit rather than an additive outfit. When I finished the piece, she reminded me of Bruce Timm's version of CAT WOMAN, & I decided to role with the fun, making the fur color the same as the original's hair color & adding a tail & ear motif.

CHARI-VARI ~ Orko version:
Another retool... This time, designed to look more like the character of "ORKO" from MOTU that she is meant to replace in my NA continuity with a new scarf & more "Trollan flavor" to her color scheme.
*This turned out to be the most popular version in a poll on He-Man.Org.

CHARI-VARI ~ Devil version:
An alternate idea from the "Neko" version with a new tail end, horns, & pitchfork... LOL!!

NA MAN-AT-ARMS ~Skeletor version:
My original idea for a recolor, as this is the character that my creation was meant to mimic/replace, thus replicating the colors of the original MOTU nemesis Skeletor!! And based on a mix of the MOTUC/200X version's color scheme.

NA MAN-AT-ARMS ~Grim Reaper version:
An amalgam of a grim reaper & other influences for this original color scheme...

NA TEELA ~ Sahari version:
Based on the oldskool anime "GENESIS SURVIVER GAIARTH" OVA series lead female character "Sahari" for this retooled color scheme...

NA TEELA ~ '90 version:
This color scheme is based on the original 1990 "New Adventures of He-man" animation's version of Teela...

Hope you enjoyed my alternnate colors & maybe saw a new favorite!!

The Dream Mistress: MOTU Redesign Challenge #86

2009-01-31T11:00:00.004-05:00

This image was created for the Redesign Challenge #86 "The Dream Mistress" over on He-man.Org. An obscure Masters of the Universe character that was only featured in UK MOTU comic #67 "The Deadly Wishes."

The Dream Mistress is a magical woman that lures & seduces men with promises of fulfilling their inner most dreams, if only they can brave the dangers & traps of her fortress, located in the ancient ruins.
You can see more about her here...BUSTA TOONS BLOG
I came up with my own take on the character which proved to be a real challenge as she is nearly nude in her original interpretation, wearing a thong & armor w/nipples. What's the challenge there you say? Well to meet the boards standards on nudity without going overboard... lol. Many entries were placed & some had to be redone just for that reason. I made it through successfully. I also made it to the finals among a lot of amazing entries by the boards artists where I tied for 3rd. I made her bio a bit different than the original story where she actually ended up being Hordak in disguise, & made her a real entity instead. Her design is based on the original with some real life model inspiration for the pose, as well as her hair & face is based on Kahlan from the hit fantasy tv show now airing "Legend of The Seeker."

PILOT SCARLETT avatar remake

2009-01-11T12:48:00.008-05:00

Pilot Scarlett avatar version 2.0:

Here is an updated version of my G.I.*Joe Scarlett avatar. It reflects Hasbro's Modern Era wave 11 '08 version of the character. Which is a tribute to "Glenda", an international repaint that was done in Argentina by the Plastirama toy company. I really like this version of Scarlett as she is loaded with gear, has a nice new head sculpt with the more formal pinned-up hair-du, & has a great color scheme.
One of my favorites in the '08 line-up!!

TOP 10 Favorites in 2008 (in no particular order):

1. J-ROCK: My favorite bands have been invading the US with a banner year in music!! (I saw a LOAD of awesome J-Rock bands LIVE this year, including Japan Nite '08 (Scandal/The Emeralds/Petty Booka/Ketchup Mania/Detroit7/The Beaches) in NY, Noodles/The Pillows (3rd time!) in NY, TM Revolution in NY, Renter En Soi in NJ, Jam Project in MD, DaizyStripper/Marbell/The Underneath in MD, Versailles in NY, & Dir En Grey in NY... best year for J-ROCK in the US ever!!
2. G.I.*Joe (Modern Era): '08 continued to impress with there best line since the 80's!!
3. Masters Of The Universe Classics: the new collectors brand launched this year with new fully-posable amazing figures online.
4. Transformers Universe: Classics 2.0 brought us some of the best reinvisoned staple TF's yet!!
5. Cirque Du Soliel ~Kooza: one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen, go see Cirque, between the performance & live music, it is a really unique & special... & I was lucky enough to have seen this with my friend Katrin from Germany. ^_^
6. Grindhouse Films: Cult classics & drive-in fare continued in '08 (despite some major industry hits) with some of the best guilty pleasure DVD releases yet.
7. Star Wars the Clone Wars: has made Star Wars all new again with a great new animated series that is bringing new life to the franchise!!
8. Avatar The Last Airbender: Possibly the best animated series ever made ended triumphantly this year with it's 3rd book having what is the best finale I have ever seen!! It was nice to share this show with the fandom @ NYCC.
9. Classic Cartoons: More favorites from the 80's dropped on DVD this year like Galaxy Rangers, Saber Rider, & Jayce & the Wheeled Warriors!!
10. Batman~ The Dark Knight: might be the best super hero movie EVER.

NEW ADVENTURES OF TEELA Cast ~recolors part 1

2008-12-25T19:24:00.008-05:00

MAN-AT-ARMS (New Adventures) Original version ~JODO KAST:

Much like Toy Companies, I like to recolor my product into different versions lol. Here you see the original & 1st color scheme I came up with for my "Master-Of-Arms" character. Loosely based on the classic color 1980's Man At Arms, & more defined in the final coloration by the influence of Hasbro's Star Wars "Jodo Kast" '08 figure.
*This turned out to be the most popular version in a poll on He-Man.Org.

TEELA (New Adventures) ICZER-2 version:

I am an oldskool anime fan, & I can tell you that one of my all-time favorites (as well as the 1st anime video tape I ever bought in the 90's) was the epic sci-fi horror OVA Iczer-One. So when re-designing the New Adventures Of Teela, I automatically thought of the Iczer series' influences on me, & what similarities I could draw from between my design, to fit in with the 80's fantasy theme of NA, as well as the wonderful Barbarella-flavored body suits of the Iczer-1 OVA series. And with a couple alterations I based my 1st recolor on the nemesis character from that anime classic... "Iczer-2."
...As I felt her character color key/design fit best with my creation...

TEELA (New Adventures) 200X MYP version:

This color scheme is based on MOTU Teela's 200X MYP animation colors. It is also very close to her Classic 80's Colors, but I opted for the 200X MYP colors to have her uniform have more variation than white & orange/gold, with things like the teal shoulder pads & green belt. This would be the most representational of what fans would consider a classically themed MOTU Teela.
*This turned out to be BY A LARGE MARGIN the most popular version in a poll on He-Man.Org.

UNLOCKING THE VAULT # 3: MOTU Character Sketches '05 UNCUT!!

2008-12-01T19:56:00.002-05:00

SY-KLONE (unfinished WIP):
based on the 200X figure

I thought I would help celebrate the new highly anticipated MOTU CLASSICS this week, by "unlocking" my MOTU 200X vault again to bring my friends here on the art blog some of my never-before-seen "Masters Of The Universe 200X" art work!!
This art dates back to 2004~2005...
Since these have never before been released from my archives to the fan community, all the dirt & flubs are there that I would normally clean, so you can really see my sketching process. Hopefully you will enjoy this installment as much as the my other 2, as they are all direct character sketches used as practice!

HE-MAN (Shield-Strike):
based on the newly-tooled armor 200X figure

MAN-E-FACES:
based on possibly my favorite figure of the 200X line...

TRI-KLOPS:
based heavily on the symmetrical look of the 200X figure

RATTLOR:
based on the 200X figure

TEELA (unfinished WIP - UNCUT):
based on the 200X figure with some anime influence, this figure is censored on the ORG by myself for non-descript nudity to meet the board standards, but the figure was a wip & never got to the "uniformed" stage so you can see the UNCUT drawing here!!

SKELETOR:
based on the 200X figure

***Be sure to CHECK out the BRAND NEW MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CLASSICS line launched TODAY by MATTEL & pick up the 1st 2 figures, HE-MAN & BEAST-MAN...follow the link... MATTYCOLLECTOR

New Adventures Of Teela: MOTU Redesign Challenge #85

2008-11-29T17:28:00.007-05:00

Created Specifically for He-Man.Org's very special 85th redesign Challenge (The New Adventures Of Teela) here are my entries...

TEELA (New Adventures):

CHARI-VARI (my own creation):

MAN-AT-ARMS (New Adventures) ~Grayskull Green version:

Even though we are only committed to entering 1 entry to be considered for this challenge, I decided on 3 entries so I could really flesh out some ideas I had for what would have been happening on Eternia during the New Adventures phase, loosely based on some of the elements mentioned for the unmade Season 3 story arc of NA from Olesker's thread outlining some events that may have transpired if the 2nd HE-MAN series (in the 90's) would have continued.

This vision of "Teela" is an updated version of her original NA character design elements & I was also influenced by the anime "Karas" in both creation & sheme, plus adding some minor elements from Teela in 200X.

"Chari" is my own fan-character creation, made specifically for this challenge.
I find that Eternia's history repeats itself, King Grayskull had The Oracle, & He-Man had Orko, so if Teela becomes He-Man & MAA becomes Skeletor, then Chari would become Orko. Not a Trollan, but fufilling the obligations of that wacky sidekick-type character. Her design is based around some of the costume elements I saw & loved at this years amazing Cirque Du Soleil: Kooza show with my long-time friend Katrin from Germany. ^_^

The color scheme seen here for Man-At-Arms (Grayskull Green) was made by my brother Brian. I can't thank my 2 brothers Randy & Brian enough for all their imput on what you see here, they really helped tighten up some of my artistic expression.

I hope you all like my entries, as I very much enjoyed the time thinking & creating my vision of a NA Teela & co. for this challenge. As I see it very fitting as a big Teela fan to be my 1000th post on He-ManOrg...

My Art in Costa Rica @ TICOBOT '08!!

2008-10-31T18:18:00.003-04:00

Ticobot is a new Transformers fan convention, & the very first TF related con to be held this year in Costa Rica!! It's run by fans (for fans) trying to share their passion for Transformers.
My Classics Optimus Prime image was inserted in a new layout & is being used for their Autobot Con logo!!
They have my blessing for a successful Con, & with using my previous artwork for it, it provides some free publicity for me!!
Check it out!!

Website in Spanish: http://www.ticobot.com/
I've gone international!!

UNLOCKING THE VAULT # 2: MOTU Character Sketches '06 UNCUT!!

2008-09-05T22:47:00.004-04:00

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!! And to help celebrate I am UNLOCKING THE VAULT AGAIN to bring you some of my never-before-seen "Masters Of The Universe 200X" art work!! This time a compilation series of full figure sketches!! All the dirt & flubs are there that I would normally clean, so you can really see my sketching process.
From Top to Bottom/Left To Right
SKELETOR was to be used with him & his henchman (drawn seperately) in a big Evil Warriors piece at Snake Mountain... this piece was never finished.
BUZZ-OFF was my 1st attempt athe the "New Legacy" series piece featuring him & Grizzlor in a much less action-packed moment & more of a "Hey you... Stop!!" moment. Sometimes you need to get out more than one idea for your artwork, & I am glad that I did... as I am much happier with the finished piece shown here (earlier in the blog), that still remains a fan-favorite!!
EVIL SEED was a drawing session I was having with my friend Jared on sketching MOTU figures, I roughed this out in a few moments to show him some direction on how I would go about a solitarty piece of Evil Seed, who he was sketching out at the same time. This is a rare find, as you normally would not see me draw a non-action figure made character in MOTU, as I like to work from the actual figures on my art.
This HE-MAN was used as a reference piece for me... I would always use it as a character study as for how I would want the He-Man character to look each time I redrew him in other works. Kind of like my "Default He-Man." He is more anime-styled than I would draw MOTU now, with his boy-ish looks featured here.
TEELA (Nude) UNCUT!! Most artists draw their figures without clothes first to make sure they are getting the body porportions & pose down pat, then drape the clothes on, this Teela is no exception, & looks more like a figure drawing from art class then a "Masters" piece, she was drawn nude & was fully intended to have her battle dress on & snake staff in hand, but I never went back & reworked the piece, so she has always stayed NUDE.
***This piece was mildly censored on He-Man.Org by myself & later by my good friend Baena to meet the family friendly forum standards, which is very cool with me, so here I present the original "UNCUT" version!!...!! @_@

UNLOCKING THE VAULT: MOTU Head Shots '05

2008-08-31T22:30:00.006-04:00

I'm UNLOCKING THE VAULT!! And showing never before seen MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE 200X art from my sketch pads!! First up is my "Head-Shots" from late 2005!! Created for the "New Legacy" fan-comic series, I did some character studies of a few characters I would be illustrating for that project as well as a couple others...
These have a little more anime influence then most of my MOTU work. All the dirt & flubs are there that I would normally clean, so you can really see my sketching process.
Here you see from top to bottom, left to right: "Battle Sound He-Man, Fisto, Adora, Buzz-Off, Moss-man, & Teela."

***FUN FACT: Teela was a seperate sketch, added to this picture replacing a "Jungle Attack He-Man" sketch that was to light for scanning... These are done with Blue-Lined non-photo pencil except for Teela who is is Graphite.

BATTLE ANGEL

2008-07-31T19:00:00.005-04:00

Hunter...Warrior... Battle Angel!!
ADV has rereleased one of my ALL-TIME favorite OVA's from the 90's back into the DVD market for a limited run... with the live-action movie rights expiring to allow this, I thought I'd celebrate by revisiting one of my past artworks...
In 2002 I penciled & inked this illustration based on my beloved Marmit Battle Angel figure, now in 2008 I decided to revisit this piece & add some color!! I did a bunch of different photoshop techniques to try & get the dry flavor of the manga-colored covers. I don't usually revisit older works but in this case I thought I'd make an execption being a big Battle Angel fan, & to welcome back that wonderful animation into the US DVD market... I handled this pic a little differently then some of my others by leaving the dirt & grit of the pencil & ink to emulate the dingy cityscape... Hope you enjoy a trip to my artistic past with some of my modern day colors!!
This picture depicts Gally (Alita) sad overlooking her crime-ridden cyber city...
It is supposed to emulate the feeling towards the end of the 2nd OVA...
I couldn't decide on the final sky color so I made 2 versions, the original "blue" sky, and then a "rust" colored sky...

BATTLE ANGEL:

BATTLE ANGEL ~Rusty Angel version~:

TMR - RETURNS...

2008-06-30T20:38:00.003-04:00

Inspired by the T-Shirts for the AMAZING TMR Concert sold at NYCC '08 this year, I re-created this image as a graphic design element for a cover based on a special collection of T.M. Revolution's awesome J-Rock music & return to the spotlight...
Thanks for returning to the EastCoast for your fans TMR!!

You can read my full review here...
(coming soon)

For those in the know, I'll see ya at the OK'08 Party this 4th of July weekend!!

SCANDAL Japan Nite '08 ~Mami

2008-05-31T18:31:00.011-04:00

Hi!
After the incredible performances at the "Japan Nite Tour '08", in NYC at the Knitting Factory (3.16.08), ... much like last year's ... I was inspired to do some artwork based on one of the acts. This time it was for the 1st band up, the all new Japanese Girl Quartet Indies Act "SCANDAL!!" These fresh high-school grads opened the show right with their blend of high energy pop-rock tunes that got the crowd going immediately & all 4 of them were very talented & very cute!! I picked my fan-favorite Mami to base this art piece on, as she demonstrated some amazing guitar skills & handed me her guitar pick right after their set!! AWESOME!! ^_^

It was nice to have my friends & family join me for this event, Brian, Mike, Jeff, Jamie, & David made a unique experience even more enjoyable...
Bands performing were:
SCANDAL/THE EMERALDS/PETTY BOOKA/KETCHUP MANIA/DETROIT7/THE BEACHES
Read my review of the whole night here:
***coming soon***

SCANDAL: band pic by Jeff Katin

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c44/teelamotu/omake/?action=view&current=DSC01904.jpg

MAMI guitarist of SCANDAL: pic by Chris Para

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c44/teelamotu/omake/?action=view&current=DSC00141.jpg

SCANDAL official English website:
http://www.scandal-4.com/home_en.html

Top Secret #2 ~STINKOR vs. TEELA

2008-04-27T16:40:00.008-04:00

Smell what's in JafariStew's kitchen??? P-U!! just like the joke... it STINKS!!
ahh... I never get tired of lame stink jokes...LOL!!

Here's 2 MOTU favorites of mine, battling in the courtyards of the Royal Palace...
This was the 1st image requested for a "top secret project" on He-Man.Org. This request was for artwork of STINKOR vs. TEELA. The premise was for Stinkor to be winning in the image by restrainig Teela with a weapon @ the Royal Palace, instead I took some artistic liberty & made it more befitting of the character. Here we have STINKOR (1 of my group of friend's legendary mascots) using his "STINK" to floor TEELA instead, & thus made it more of a tribute to "The Stench Of Evil" oldskool mini-comic!! This picture was worked on in several steps over a period of weeks, by originally drawing the 2 characters, layering in the stink, & then some manipulation on the bkgd. I'm pleased with the result as I think it's a befitting tribute, & still different from the original that featured Stinkor & He-man. STINKOR is based on the 4H Staction, & TEELA the 4H Micro-bust.

This will most likely conclude my exclusive MOTU 200X art ;_; as my future MOTU art works will be based on the upcoming NEW adult collector's line "Masters Of The Universe Classics!!" ...starting in Fall 2008 ...sure to be a hit, & the new current favorite of Masters fans worldwide... ^_- stay tooned...

NYCC 2008 photo ...NEW! MOTU CLASSICS King Grayskull!!

2008-04-22T22:04:00.004-04:00

Looks like my brother & I made the front page of He-Man.Org with our pictures of the exclusive King Grayskull from the new Masters of The Universe Classics line!!...
A proud day for us both!!
Photos by Chris & Randy Para: http://www.he-man.org/ (April 22nd update)

Top Secret #1 ~BASHASAURUS

2008-03-30T22:19:00.003-04:00

2008 Image of the classic MOTU Vehicle BASHASAURUS & my claim to MOTU fame Mastergirl TEELA... The reason why I did this image is top secret (for now) but this 2007 project shall be relvealed in the near future... BASHASUARUS was always one fo my fave classic MOTU vehicles as a kid & it was a pleasure rendering it from a photo reference. Teela was drawn using my traditional techniques & color choice was made based on the 4H color scheme used on the TEELA micro-bust exclusive from 2006...

SNAKE EYES ~25th Cards 2008 project!!

2008-02-24T19:01:00.010-05:00

Hi! As mentioned previously, I plan on doing some Joe-Art for 2008, & came up with the concept of doing "animated style character design cards." Basically if I was designing a Joe cartoon, how I would make them look, based on the current toyline, then placed on a collectable type card. I would like to do one character a month represented from the 25th line (only characters in the current toyline), & will try my best to do that, time provided. It's a good challenge for myself & hopefully you will enjoy my take on the characters. I started off with Hasbro's #1 Joe... Snake Eyes!!
1st up, here's the original SE from the 25th Joe 5-pack...

Much like Hasbro, I love recolors, so here is 2 more versions of SE from the 25th, "Comic Colors" from the wave 1 comic packs, and "Black" from wave 5!!

Yo Joe!!

TOP 10 Of 2007

2008-01-13T13:49:00.004-05:00

In no particular order (but alphabetical), here is my personal favorite stuff in 2007.

AVATAR The Last Airbender: Truly one of the greatest animated series ever created, the "Boomerang gang" delivered another solid season in "Book 3: Fire" of incredable storytelling, breathtaking animation, & character growth, that few series of any type can boast. It is amazing to see such quality be put into an animated series of this type & the realism of the characters turmoil, & parallel word to are own make it even better. There has not been a cartoon on THIS good in years, & many of the best don't even touch it in terms of quality & freshness... This is the one series that I can't recommend enough to all ages. Truly one of the TV masterpieces of the decade.
*Avatar art on the left by by Deviant artist arriku*

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA: This movie ended up being my favorite "under the radar" hit of the year. It was the one movie I went to see on a whim (rather than very planned out) & it had more charm, depth, & warmth than most family films even touch. Walden Media is one of Disney's best new projects & I look forward to their future films... AnnaSophia Robb was perfect as Leslie Burke, & even though I liked a lot of films in 07 (like Pan's Labyrinth, 300, Harry Potter 5, Pirates 3, & Transformers) ...this film had so little expected yet delivered on so many levels of great storytelling, superb acting, & difficult subject matter with a innocence that was required..."Terabithia" will be one film I continue to cherish always.

...now in "Comic Colors!!"

GI JOE: If you know me on a personal level, you know I am crazy about the new G.I. Joe "25th Anniversary" line. I total homage with updated sculpts to the original ARAH 80's line. Hasbro finally did something breakthrough again with Joe that made me fall in love with the battle against Cobra all over again. I go on mad-hunts looking for the latest figures with Randy all the time... the figs are hard to find with strong sales & collectable, and trust me, we love it!! Not to mention so much new product is always coming out which makes me even more anxious & excited about th eproperty, as I always am reciving new information. Much like TF's in 2007 Hasbro is bulding this classic line to get fans on board right before the Big-Budget Movie expected for 2009, and most likely a follow up animation... ans I for one, can't wait...

Olivia Munn Is Baroness - Every10Mins.com

GRINDHOUSE MOVIES ON DVD: Finally, all the B-film, exploitation, howlers, schlock, & martial arts 1 can muster from the 60's, 70's, & 80's is coming out on DVD thanks to great companies like BCI, Blue Underground, Severin, Retro Seduction & Blue Underground. Truly a guilty pleasure, grindhouse fans are seeing the jems of yesterday restored to their full uncut glory & making the rounds at Amazon & Bestbuy to add to your obscure but awesome collections! Movies from your childhood, sticky floor theatres, or cable movie channels are finally coming out from the vaults & are being uncompramised & priced for keeps!!

GO!GO!7188: In 2007, J-Rock band GOGO struck back by launching 2 tours in the US, the 1st with the "Japan Nite" ensemble in the Spring, then with their own tour in the Summer of 2007 just months later!! They performed brilliantly (Yuu's vocals... @_@) & were so kind to their fans by making fun live content & delivering solid shows from their discography. For a favorite band of mine that I thought I would never see, or have a t-shirt of, nevermind have them come to my area twice, was defiantely my best J-rock experience of 2007, with meeting the girls & getting autographs as additional frosting!!... Couple that with a new more retro album, harking more toward's their early works, and the fact that "569" also included a DVD release featuring "Japan Nite" footage, & you have IMO 2007's "band of the year" by a landslide, as this act did more for me than I ever imagined possible in 2007!!

JULIANNE HOUGH: I have never taken to a celebrity like 2-time DWTS champion Julianne Hough... Her presence on DWTS Season 4 (with Apollo) & Season 5 (with Helio) made each & every week of the show a "must watch" for me. She deserved the final win both times, & I voted for her with a vengeance!! A gorgeous girl oozing with talent, humour, & personality had me seeing the perfect TV girl again in a long time. Couple that with her future on DWTS, as well as singing & acting & I am sure she will be making herself more well-known in 2008!! I never get tired of her & am always interested in what is new, & her newfound fame has made that easy with her legions of fans...It is rare that you have a chance to see celebs in person , & I saw this angel live in July & will be venturing to see her again this February...I can't wait!

J-ROCK: 2007 was a strong year for many bands on the Japanese music scene... In the US, many tours hit the US like Japan Nite, Jrock Revolution, Dir En Grey's live tour & more... It also marked the return of my beloved X Japan, something I never thought would ever happen. IAnd 2007 also saw oldskool bands like The Brilliant Green, Luna Sea & D'erlanger return...Couple that with strong works from fan-faves Abingdon Boys School, The Gazette, Galneryus, Hizaki Grace Project, L'Arc ~en~Ciel, Nightmare, Rentrer en Soi, Taia, & Versailles...it made for the perfect year of this ever increasing in popularity here in the US genre!!

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: Although MOTU has been a kind of a quiet franchise in 2007, it offered alot in so many ways. With the success of the 07 Transformers Movie, Masters was green-lit to hit the big screen for a big budget movie in the future... 2 more waves of the artistically perfect Stactions + exclusives were released to the awe of collectors. There is still nothing more satisfying as a collector than putting a new one of these on my shelf. A new classic styled prototype He-man was revealed at SDCC which could mean some more "big things" for the franchise... And as always, the wonderful art community & He-Man.org friends & family is a part of my daily life. Here's to some hopeful annoucements concerning the brand in 2008!!

THE OFFICE: By far my favorite TV (live) show for 2007, "The Office" had me hooked in 2 episodes. So much so that I immediately bought seasons 1-3 on DVD so that my family & friends would be caught up for Season 4's premiere. This show is hilarious, & is the perfect counter-balance for my other fan favorite comedy "Scrubs." The adventures of Michael Scott (his smallness, lovable mishaps, & overboardness as potrayed by Steve Carrell) & his funny suboridinates are a welcome laugh each & every week
& have an amazing REALNESS to them. Working in an office environment myself, I can't help but relate to the characters & the humourous, yet daily instances that they potray...this show has made myself & the others with me laugh so hard sometimes we have had to pause the DVD just because we couldn't stop laughing...

TRANSFORMERS: To me, 2007 was the biggest year for TF's since the 84-86 saga (& even much bigger than Beast Wars at it's peak), it was quite possibly the biggest year for Transformers ever. Actually, it was."Classics" started the year off on the right foot, & is quite possibly the best TF toy line in history. The quiet (& not so quiet) steam building of fandom for the ultimate TF experience for the mainstream, "The Movie" in 2007 was the momentum for it all, hitting quite effictively in the middle of the year. BOTCON was AWESOME in 07, & I don't think they could have had more desirable exclusives, or put on a better show with having Peter Cullen, Stan Bush (with an extremely fun concert), & David Kaye as their headliners. I really enjoyed my 2nd experience with Botcon, & it riveled my original 1997 experience, then BEAT it. I think with Hasbro giving us so much postive information, like when we thought "Classics" were over, they were actually coming back as "Universe"... A sneak-peak at "Animated", & a chance to see the new Movie (before release), the real Optimus Truck from the film, Pepsi Prime & the "Games Of Deception" Box+, they really catered to fans in a way that I have never seen before, the dinner party/concert was killer, & reminded me why I go to Anime Cons to this day. And even if you had to wait to the initial release of the Movie, it didn't faulter as a mainstream success, I personally enjoyed it very much & I find it SO interesting that people now, who knew nothing 6 months ago about TF's, can realate because they now know who Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are. Kids were excited about TF's in a new way, so much so that stores were constantly empty of product, something that (as a whole) I have not seen (ever) for TF's. The year winded it's way down (in a good way, minus bare shelves) & Animated premiered, featuring what seems to be a new positive direction for the franchise & to maitain high interest in the brand. Hasbro took some INCREDIBLE risks this year, by NOT doing what they HAD been doing. "Classics" was a safe & steady bet, what many fans have wanted for years, following that up with a Blockbuster/radically different looking Movie that fortunately was a major success, was a huge gamble for them (imagine if it bombed??). Then follow THAT by another completely different non-anime, western-style cartoon headed by CN (so it actually gets a good timeslot) was another bold move that looks to be another major pay off for them come 2008. This formula worked in spades for them, & they are currently USING THE SAME formula with GI Joe, (25th classic style figures, Big Budget Movie in 2009, most likely followed up with an animated series...& my guess is the con will be in RI that year too. ^_-) It was an AMAZING year for TF History & one that will always stand as a "Staple Year" for how lucrative & innovative it was. Now I can truly call 2007, the year for "Transformers!!"

*2007 Honorable metion goes to WOTC Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures...The Minis game was a favorite of mine for about the 1st 6 months of this year, but with a change of the game going to 2.0, & most of what I have & learned going out the window... I have pretty much lost my current interest in THAT aspect of the franchise... Although I will always love D&D & it's vast universe on many different levels (history, cartoon etc.)...

LIGHT SPINNER (Character Design)

2007-12-24T12:43:00.003-05:00

Created for He-Man.Org's "MOTU Redesign Challange #79"... "Light Spinner" is the original name of the trecherous Horde Sorceress "Shadow Weaver." Featured in the classic POP Filmation series & in the comics, Light Spinner was a fun take of how Shadow Weaver started off before her journey to the dark arts. The design for her came to me at work, & I was actually thinking along the lines of the anime "Burst Angel" with this design. As you can see, anime/videogames/manga does have some pull on my design asthetic, particularly years ago, & still always creeps in today! ^_- I have been a big anime fan for a long long time, so it will always be an influence on me. I also looked at Harem Girl costumes for influence on this... When I was designing her color scheme, (and as mentioned on the Org) the character "Riku" came to my mind too, as the Final Fantasy series has some minor pull on me, but it was a non-intentional, more "after the fact," & I think it's great if this design has a little Final Fantasy flavor... It's that wiley blonde hair, & Riku is adorable so it's all good... In the end, here's my take on Light Spinner, (I did Casta... so I figured I had to do her friend & rival )... complete with bio!!
Hope she does well in the fan-vote!!

I came up with the "Magic Rune self-mutalation" bit to show she's a bit... well... distrurbed...
...And on that note Merry CHRIStmas!!
***UPDATE*** she came in 1st in her poll & 2nd overall!!

VARIABLE CASTASPELLA

2007-12-09T14:23:00.000-05:00

Hi! Those of you who are familar with my art here on the Blog or past & present MOTU sites know that much like Mattel (& Hasbro), I love to do variant color versions of my works. So I thought I would go all 4H "7th Kingdom" on my recent CASTASPELLA re-design, & came up with 5 new (+1 the original) different color varients! Here's a little info on each of the color concepts...

~Filmation Version:

Just like the title implies, the "Filmation version" is based on the blue & yellow scheme Filmation used to portray the "Barbarella" look-a-like sorceress in the original POP animated series. This scheme looks very 1990's X-Men to me (blue/yellow)... not that there is anything wrong with that! ^_- So far over on the Org this seems to be the most popular color design, probably due to the nostalgia factor, or the complimentary colors. This was the 2nd most obvious recolor for me, & the 1st one executed after the original in the series. Makes good sense seeing that the original toy & Filmation version's colors differed so greatly, that this scheme would make a perfect repaint. With it's seeming popularity over the other varient colors, it makes me wonder how this version would have placed if THIS was my "original entry" in the contest? ...hmmm. ^_-

***of note***: this is the first retooled design as I changed the side mid-drift openings to become solid with the leotard.

~Julianne Hough version (aka Dance version):

This scheme was my 2nd conception for the color variation as my original Castaspella was based on DWTS fan-favorite (and Chris favorite) Julianne Hough as an inspiration & model! I had always planned on doing this recolor in some shape or form since Julianne so strongly influenced the original. Not only for her stunning looks, but also the 2-time DWTS champ's "Cha Cha Cha" dress for Season 5 as a basis for the outfit's design. I have plenty of references for the dancing angel in photographs & have been anxious to do an interpretation of her in my art (and will be...). For furthur realism & practice on capturing her beauty for myself, I used her features, body, & costuming to give a certain realism to my Casta's redesign... she's is the hottest girl on the planet for me in 2007, so it only seemed natural to gravitate towards her for some real-life inspiration! One of my reference pictures for the art is shown below...

***of note***this was the 1st version retooled to have the legs changed to match Julianne's bare legs & feature no leggings that the original had. In the end it's prolly my favorite version!

~Christmas Special version:

The Filmation "He-Man & She-Ra X-mas Special" will always be one of the most memorable for me in the 2 series history. It featured alot of the new toys & also was a stand-alone hit that for me... seemed to really end the series. Alot of these versions I come up with when my mind wonders at work... so thinking of possible varients for the series, coupled with the X-mas Season vastly approaching, & most importantly, the X-mas special, I came up with this "Holiday Flavored" coloration that is kind of like when Prince Adam is in the Santa outfit complete with white hair. She is exactly the same as the "Filmation version" with different colors & the 3rd of the series, 4th overall.

~Horde Gothic version:

This was another version I came up with while daydreaming at work... what if Castaspella was Evil? Had gone to The Horde? Or became a Zombie? Or just decided to get her "Goth" on. LOL! I figured the design around her center jewel would easily transcribe to a faux Horde symbol given the right colors, the leotard could become a corset, & I could modify her leggings to become a hot set of tight red pants that a girl had on at our X-mas party @ work, only this time make them "blood red'... I also though the white skin & red eyes would furthur the effect of being Gothic/Evil/Vampyric...& I think it was pretty successful... Hordak inspired colors... friends watching me work on this model seemed to lean towards it, & overall I thought the "dark take" might end up being the most popular of the recolors on the Boards... but that "Filmation" version seems to be the reigning Queen!

~Magician version:

My brother Brian gave me this idea while watching me create the "Horde Gothic" version. He had mentioned that he would have liked the Horde version to have leggings, like a Magician's Assistant... this made sense to me when I thought about it the next day. The Horde version was going to be the last in the series, but I also wanted an even number as that would better replacate the (many versions) I was trying to imply, like would be seen in the 200X Devilman Fewture figures or with the aforementioned 4H "7th Kingdom" having many varients.
I came up with a "Zatanna" (the female magician from Batman) inspired version based on the 1990's animated series. Different enough from the Horde version, & this one still featured the black hair, but no leggings/pants & (a 1st) no shoulder straps. In the end I think it has a nice modern Magician/Assistant or Superheroine feel, & one of the most original in the series... Although, I may take a stab at this version again someday, as when I showed the finished design to Brian who had conceived it in the 1st place, he said "that's not what I meant at all." ...LOL!

~Original Toy version:

I talked in great detail about the influences & why I chose my design based on the toy version of Castapella for this contest in the previous blog entry. Here is the original drawing, in it's original toy-inspired colors, & I am happy to say, still remains one of the most popular of the seires!! Hope you enjoyed this little insight into my creative process, & as always there will be more to come... ^_-

Scarlett Avatar ~G.I.Joe 25th

2007-12-02T14:08:00.000-05:00

Hi!
Those who know me best know that I am recently addicted to collecting the new line of 25th Anniversary G.I. Joes... The figures are awesome, I have been collecting them since their initial release this summer after being impressed with online previews earlier this year... These wonderful sculpts with more articulation really are a innovative way to get me back into a childhood favorite of mine (being right in there with Masters Of The Universe & Transformers)... So, after many unfruitful trips to retailers, (including some early mornings at TRU) back on Halloween day I was finally able to complete my collection of 5-packs & single figure waves 1-3 for both myself & brother Randy. With my renewed interest in the franchise (and an approved big-budget movie in 2009), I signed up on a couple Joe Boards (the HISSTANK rocks! ...I am aka Steel Brigade), & of course I have to make a custom avatar for people to recognize me with as I have posted often as of late. So after a couple months of being faceless I finally got crackin' & did this Scarlett avatar. ^_^ She has always been one of my favorites since childhood, (along with Duke, Cobra Commander, Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow) But I always like to draw the females, so I figured a good way to start with G.I. Joe in my art was an opening avatar with Scarlett!!

I have been thinking about how I would handle G.I. Joe's art style if I was to direct the art for a new animation for it, & one of the things that always seemed in the forefront for my ideas was a subdued color pallett as exampled here. I like the look of the new "Spectacular Spider-Man" (cheeks74) animated series coming up as well as some of the similar art styles & colors found on some of the current Deviant Art galleries I glance at. I always picture the military to be drab & I think Joes should evoke that realism & you will see that in my future Joe works. There is a pretty good chance that G.I. Joe will be my new flavor for a card-format style series in 2008 (like D&D was for me for a while before the fall of the original DDM game in 2007)... As I am hot on the property again & the 25th figures would provide for a different (n0n-sword & sorcerey/fanatsy) element among what is prodominatly my fantasy-inspired work. Basically the best of both worlds with something else I love sounds like a good way to approach the art I create & for this blog in 2008!!

Scarlett's hair & face loosely based on Julianne Hough for modeling...

CASTASPELLA (Character Design)

2007-11-23T18:21:00.000-05:00

BLACK FRIDAY... Black Magic Friday? White Magic Friday? Anyway you look at it today is Black Friday & I decided to cook something MAGICAL up for my pal Predabot's hosted "MOTU redesign challange #78" over on HE-MAN.ORG since he was nice enough to ask me to participate. Although the charcter on the classic Filmation POP series had an odd vocal styling, I always thought both the animation & toy design had a nice & pretty feel to it.. Almost like something from the cult-camp classic "Barbarella." My design is heavily based on the actual 80's toy. I used 2 models for it, most notibably my all-star favorite celebrity dancer Julianne Hough, as she just might be the hottest chick on the planet for me right now, with her adorable face & atheletic build, ^_- as well as a nude model for some of the upper torso posing. To imitate the "circle structure" on her back I devised a more anime-inspired hexagram, to immitate the look of the clunky toy version to something more soft & delicate ...& fashioned her costume to be something more like a dancer would wear.. So her face, hair-style, revealing dress-style, & legs are all based on Julianne Hough from DWTS. But her upper body build is based on the other model. I am hoping to do well in this contest & I appreciated the opportunity. Bio for Castaspella is in the "stylized hypnotic" card format I did the illustration in. All in all I think I acheived a fresh look for the mage, made her a bit younger in my take, & still captured a retro element so she would fit into the MOTU/POP universe. Feedback is always welcomed.

photobucket link:
http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c44/teelamotu/?action=view&current=Castaspellacharadesign72.jpg

***UPDATE***: My entry placed 1st in her division & 3rd in the Finals! Thanks Orgers!!

ALSO... He-Man.Org member "HORDAKS HENCHMAN" plans on doing a custom figure of my CASTASPELLA design!! ^_^ (He was also the one who created that cool CATRA custom off my design shown here on the blog), I will keep the site updated with pics & info as this custom figure progresses!!

MOTU VS. THE HORDE classic art done by me in 1986!!

2007-10-31T20:25:00.001-04:00

Hi, my brothers (Randy, Brian) & I had done some fall-cleaning a couple weeks back & stumbled across this piece of Classic MOTU Art that I had done as a child waaay back in 1986!! A big surprise to me was the inclusion of the infamous "FEARLESS PHOTOG!!"
SETTING: THE FRIGHT ZONE!!
FIGURES from left to right: Grizzlor, Hordak, Roboto, Buzz-Off (captured), FEARLESS PHOTOG (!) (tangled in tree), & Flying Fists He-Man...
AT THE SLIMEPIT: Modulok (blacked-out), Leech, Sy-Klone (trapped), & finally Mantenna.

photobucket link:
http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c44/teelamotu/?action=view&current=MOTUVSTHEHORDE198672.jpg

Here is some history about the piece:
1. A professional trend that I still use today is of course drawing from models. With the case of MOTU I draw from the figures/stactions. This was even true back when I was a child drawing this piece. As you can see everyone but the non-produced Photog is drawn from the toys. I must have used the illustration from Mattel as my reference for him.

2. As a child I always drew entirely in PEN!! So this piece (like my others growing up) was done in ONE TAKE with no erasing!! I used to like the dark lines that pens created as a child because pencil seemed too soft...and I wanted the bold lines that I would see in cartoons & comics. So this piece was completely done with ball-point blue pen, with no erasing!!

3. I must have been pretty excited about "Fearless Photog" as a boy because for me to include a toy I didn't have in my art is pretty unique to this piece!! For those of you not familiar with "Fearless Photog," he was the winning entry for the "Create A Character" contest way back in 1986 by Mattel for the MOTU line. The (then) 11-year-old boy who created him was Nathan Bitner. In the end, Nathan did recieve some prizes from Mattel but the character was never actually produced. -_-

4. This piece is LARGE. 18w X 12h ... on heavy stock paper, clumsily folded & yellowed from age, & scanned in sections! Even though I drew MOTU often as a boy, this maybe the oldest piece I have still available.

Thanks for looking, as I was excited about sharing this on the art blog, because for me this is truly a piece of MY personal Masters Of The Universe History!!
~JafariStew

*update* this picture shows up as the 18th most popular image in Google for Sy-Klone, thanks to my brothers for showing me this one!! ^_-

BIRTHDAY POST ~BERSERK TEASER POSTER!!

2007-09-05T20:00:00.000-04:00

Hi!
It's my B-day!! (Sept.5th) YAY!! And I like to celebrate by giving something to my fans that have given me so much! And that is in the form of art! So here is a new TEASER "Grindhouse-Style" poster for my upcoming MOTU: BERSERK story! Some of you are aware I have been working on my "Sexy-Jungle-Romp" starring Teela for sometime, & I am still working on it... ~_~
But in the meantime, I thought a movie poster in the style of the Prehistoric Hammer-films that inspired it would be a fun way to celebrate! So I present the teaser poster for MOTU: BERSERK!!

more info on this project here:
http://jafaristew.blogspot.com/2006/11/motu-renegade-stories-berserk-sneak.html

LIDDA!!

2007-09-03T16:23:00.002-04:00

Lidda...
The Iconic Wise-Cracking Halfling Adventurer from the stories of D&D.
...& one of my absolute favorites!
I really appreicated her interpretation in the direct-to-video interactive DVD adventure "Scourge Of Worlds"... She was by far the best character, & had some really funny lines! ^_^ You should check out the special edition, it's a great DVD & one of the best D&D things done for media, & it will create a fun afternoon as you make the choices the adventurers take... My friends & I had a good time with this one & that is why Lidda was done for my ~Mini-A-Month series. After seeing "Scourge" I had made up my mind that I was going to do an image of Lidda, Regdar, & Mialee, & here is the first of the 3, presented in my card format before the final composition which will be featured on this blog in the future.
Oh Yeah, Did I mention Lidda ROCKS? ^_-

Labor Day is LIDDA Day?!?!

Original Miniature of "LIDDA" can be seen here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mg/20040617a
If you missed out on LYRANDAR SKYFIRE CAPTAIN Please See Below!!:
http://jafaristew.blogspot.com/2007/07/unhallowed-cards-3-mini-month.html

***UPDATE*** My Lidda illustration is the #1 picture in GOOGLE's image search 2008!!

YUU & ME

2007-08-12T17:06:00.000-04:00

GO!GO!7188 Pulp ~Summer Grind Version...

I was lucky enough to attend GO!GO!7188's first solo USA tour & reworked my previous art for the "Pulp/Japan Nite" image to reflect Yuu's new outfit with a new background to reinterpret the orange & black theme of the new tour merchandise.
SHOWTIME: 8.7.07 7:30 Peelander Z/GO!GO!7188
Much to my surprise, GOGO is back 5 months after the Japan Nite tour, this time on their own terms! The day kicked-off with the unfortunate circumstance of my good friend Jeff's gf Jamie being sick & the 2 of them not being able to attend because of it. -_- Jeff's a good man & wanted to take care of her, & was kind enough to take us to the train in New Haven, & pick us up & let us crash at his lair anyway. ^_- With his great directions Mike & I hit the train, subway, & the Knitting factory 2 hours early, & I can tell you the line was already formed!! @_@ We landed about 10th in line. It was very structured & on time for any venue. Smart boys that we are... we went staright for the dealers table stage-left upon entering where new shirts & cd's were sold. Upon our entering I immediately spotted my #1 girl YUU (singer/guitarist) standing by the table, fanboy that I am I rushed over to her & asked if I could take my picture with her, she kindly agreed so I wrapped my arm around her waist & had Mike take a snap. followed by me taking one of him & her. It was a DREAM come true. @_@ One of my top 5 J-Rock bands of all time & I get a pic with my #1 mastergirl! Who could ask for more! We grabbed some new shirts & headed towards the front of the stage on YUU's future side. The show opened up with the performance-punk-act Peelander Z, which was very entertaining with their sentai-style outfits & crowd "on stage/off stage" participation. About 10 minutes later GOGO came out plugged in & we were off!! They ripped through a 15+ set of classics from their newest hit & as far back to their orignal debut material. There was a cute interaction with the band that sparred AKKO's new Kiss-egg collection from a NYC toyshop & YUU's love for Crispy Creme dounuts, plus some extended versions of songs played flawlessly. Faves of mine included their cover of "Cutie Honey" as well as the surf-rock anthem "Aa Seishun"... They did 1 encore that included the fan-fave "C7," & were very kind to their adoring NYC fans. When the show concluded MK & I hung out to see if we could score some autographs & you bet we did. I spotted AKKO immediately in the tix hall & tracked her down to sign my "Best Of GO!GO!" CD (she drew a dog & signed her name + bass)... I gave her my sharpie so she could sign more autopgraphs for "un-pened" fans & she thanked me & patted my shoulder. ^_- MK & I immediately tracked down YUU for an autograph in the art gallery/sales room & thanked her & she thanked us...by far one of the BEST show experiences I have ever had with some truly unique experiences, (like meeting the band!!), & I can't say enough positive things about one of my all-time favorite bands GO!GO!7188!!

YUU passionately singing with many complicated inflections in her voice...GO!GO!7188..the whole band...AKKO (bass)/YUU (guitar)/TURKEY (drums)

YUU rocking out!!
YUU's custom Fender Telecaster after the show!!
AKKO signs autographs for fans...w/my sharpie...
YUU & ME!!
Before the concert @ the Tokyo Alice Art Gallery...She is much smaller than I am but I am leaning way down for the picture ^_-...

*Wicked Pictures taken by Chris Para & Mike Kingman, special thanks to Jeff Katin*

Here's some footage of the awesome show from an AKKO fan on YouTube...
Manatsu no Dance Hall...

Band Introduction + Cutie Honey...

BOTCON 2007 ~Art Blog 1 Year Anniversary Post!

2007-07-31T00:00:00.000-04:00

WELCOME! My art blog has been open for 1 year now & I thank you for visting, I have made some great friends along the way as well as some future prospects, & I am proud to say I hope we have many more years together as I will be consistant with updating this at LEAST once a month with more art & the stories behind the creations that I bring you! It's been wonderful having you here & I look forward to our future adventures together... To celebrate the anniversary of year 1, here is a portrait of the Classics Version of OPTIMUS PRIME!!!

Not since 1997 have me and my Peeps been to BOTCON, & I am proud to say that 2007 marked our 10 Year Anniversary & return to the greatest Transformer Con in history! Based in Hasbro's home town of Providence RI made it an easy 1 hour trip for us to go, & for a wonderful time at the local covention center & mall. I did this portrait of "Classics Version Optimus Prime" to celebrate one of my childhood heroes & a toyline that has been with me since it's conception in 1984 as well as the 1 year anniversary of this blog. My brothers (one known as the infamous PoweredConvoy) & I have been fans & collectors all these years but have only been able to venture out to one BotCon (in NY) before this summer (Con was held June 28-July 1) & it was nice to be at a smaller convention & close to home as opposed to the trek we are used to for Anime Cons & the like. We were there to meet the guests & pick up the wonderful exclusive collectables for the superb TF Classics line (& more) which offered some of the best figures to date in TF history. We had a chance to see the "Real Optimus Prime Truck" from the 2007 TF Movie in PERSON, this thing was unbelievably gorgeous, if you haven't seen the new TF Movie, ya should, it's great fun & a fresh take on the franchise & made the "Robots in Disguise" larger than life with action packed excitement!To say we met some truly wonderful people is an understatement. We had a chance to get an autograph from TF Legend voice actor Peter Cullen, who voiced both Optimus Prime in the original animated series as well as in the new TF 2007 Movie. The line was long with dedicated fans & even being there early we were lucky enough to be some of the last of that session to get Peter's graces. He was kind enough to sign 2 items. I had him sign my original CS Optimus Prime & the USA release of the 80's Dungeons & Dragons TV Series DVD Box... Much to my surprise Peter did a "Venger Voice-Over" for me and said "THERE IS NO ESCAPE mwahaha ha ha ha!!!" it was amazing...as I thanked him & walked away, he gave me an additional thrill & introduced me to the audience as I was leaving... "Christopher Para Ladies & Gentlemen..." so yeah, having one of the leading movie trailer voice-overs "sign you off" makes you feel like a celeb, what a moment!

Stan Bush was the other reason we had a very special time at BOTCON. Known best for his work on TFTM OST singing the songs "The Touch" & "Dare" is just some of the highlights of this amazing AOR rockers legendary discography.

He put on an amazing concert on the night of the Awards Party for Botcon's premium members, with Hasbro's stellar 80's cover band "The Cusaks." The show included brand new songs like the hot 2007 TF reworked anthem "Til All Are One", ripping melodic new songs "I'll Never Fall" & "I Got A Thing For You" from Stan's incredible 2007 release "In This Life" & the classic TF movie song "Dare", & closed with the new recording of "The Touch"(2007) also from his new release...much to the crowd's suprise, Stan later covered "The Summer of 69" & "Everybody's Working For The Weekend"... Stan was available for autographs all weekend & was very gracious to his guests, being a long time fan I had plenty for him to sign. ^_- We also got to sit & chat with Stan about his career on Sunday on his final panel, he answered all of our questions & was a real class act to his fandom.

REVIEW: STAN BUSH - In This Life
http://www.stanbush.com/
Want to listen to one of the best CD's of 2007, then checkout Stan Bush's official website & order a copy of "In This Life"... as a long-time fan with radio experience I can tell you it is his most electrifying release to date! All of the songs are well-crafted melodic hard rock with hooks that will have you playing the CD again & again. Songs like "I'll Never Fall" & "In This Life" are some of his best anthems to date & should be the new standard for arena rock. Original ventures like the Spanish-flavored ballad "Southern Rain" & the more commercial neo-classically inspired melody of "Waiting For You" are some of Stan's most inspired works yet. Each song sounds like it belongs with the rest of the album & flows from hard rock to power ballads effortlessly with a lyrical focus on the positive aspects of life & getting through those tough times. This album has some of the best moments in his discography like the exciting guitar riffs & solos, keyboard accents, & soaring vocals on songs like "This Moment" or 1 of Stan's new USA exclusive tracks, the sensational TF anthem "Til All Are One", which is a absolute crunching theme & one of my all-time favorite songs in his career. The CD also includes a brand new 2007 recording of Stan's biggest hit "The Touch" which sounds like a fresh take on a true classic. This new CD has a crisp look with some amazing art sure to grab Metal fans & AOR fans alike. I think this is Stan's best release to date & listening will give you a unique experience in your CD library as the 2007 album your friends need to hear.
---------------------------------
Good times with good friends...
I also had a chance to meet & get an autograph from David Kaye who was very comical, & personable ("where you from?") & voiced Megatron since Beast Wars till the present & will be voicing Optimus Prime in the new CN "TF Animated" series. Other fun moments included the Hasbro Panel, where it was revealed that we will be getting more "Classics" figures! And of course the Awards Party, where we got an incredible concert, a bag of very cool free swag including a TF 80's t-shirt, 2007 Movie Poster, & Movie Bumblebee "BEE-OTCH" air freshner. What was also funny was that one of Hasbro's Lead Girl Rep's, the now infamous red-headed siren Vickie, was all over our table & wouldn't give us a break, she wanted us 4 boys out on that dance floor & she wouldn't give up, too funny from a good-looking Hasbro girl with some mean moves...in the end she won. ^_-
http://www.botcon.com/
might post some pics of my mighty swag later in the week...stay tuned...

Unhallowed Cards 3 ~A Mini-A-Month

2007-07-30T18:51:00.000-04:00

*UPDATED!! 9.3.07*
Lyrandar Skyfire Captain... A very useful piece for us fans of "Chaotic Good", I know I liked having him on my team. Not a great looking Mini but I tried to do him justice as he has a very LOTR feel to him. This was the last drawing I did for my "Unhallowed Composition" presented here for the 1st time in the D&D ~AMAM Card format I have been working with. I fully plan on finishing the comp... possibly around Halloween time. With DDM 1.0 coming to an end, (as it was annouced in August 2007), I don't how many more of these DDM cards I will actually be doing as I am not sure of my future just yet with the game. The good news is I'm optimistic about the up-and-coming 2.0... And I also have a few drawings of DDM 1.0 that are already completed, & I promise to finish those up ^_- ....plus most of my favorite minis I have never drawn, so I may just get inspired sometime to draw them... Jafari-style!!

You can see the original "Lyrandar SkyFire Captain" Miniature here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mg/un

Unhallowed Cards 2 ~A-Mini-A-Month

2007-06-17T17:49:00.000-04:00

Hi!
Here is part 2 of my new personal project for D&D Minatures "A-Mini-A-Month."
This time featuring the "Dwarf Battlerager" from Unhallowed. This was the 1st image I colored for this project (3rd drawn) & he was actually a Chaotic swap suggested by my brother Brian for the "Cormyrean War Wizard" to have the complete Chaotic Good gel for the combined final "Unhallowed" image (still planned). In the meantime enjoy the "Dwarf Battlerager" as the AMAM card version!

This repaint of the "Vampire Hunter" (based on the actual repaint of the VH that was made) , is dedicated to my champion DDM friend Erik Nelson, who has given me & my peeps so much help & time in both the teaching of the game, as well as with beefing-up our collections. He helped to influence me & my friends collecting, as well as definately starting the DDM game with his kindness in helping a group of us see what an enjoyable experience DDM can be. I can't thank him enough... he actually gave me the following mini for my collection! Thanks Erik, this one's for you!

Introducing: D&D: A-MINI-A-MONTH! ~Unhallowed

2007-05-28T10:54:00.000-04:00

Hi!
I came up with this concept of a new art challenge for myself in some of my rare spare-time ...doing at least one art piece of a D&D Mini every month... Thus "A-Mini-A-Month" was born. ^_^ Showcasing at least one of my faveorite D&D Minatures from the 100's to choose from in a character illustration card-style format... once a month. So I developed a card that looks a bit like the official WOTC card's but will be colorizing them different to what I think is a better colored background for the Mini I am presenting. The Mini will be in full color & my drawing interpretation of the actual Minature game piece itself. I think it will keep the blog fresh, challenge myself to work on these inbetween my other ongoing art projects, as well as get to deliver some illustrations of some of my faveorite Minis which may not appear in some of my illustrations otherwise that appear here on this blog. These first 2 where created for a bigger "Unhallowed" illustration (with background) that will probably appear on the blog later, but for now my Mini-A-Month starts off with 2 of my faveorite Uncommons from the Unhallowed series... Vampire Hunter & Cleric Of Sune!

See the minatures the art is based on here at the official Miniature gallery of Unhallowed, DDM's 1st series release of 2007...
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mg/un

TEELA Avatar Mania!!!

2007-04-30T17:30:00.000-04:00

Some Art filler for the fans! (Kind of like a live album in a discography... ^_-) as I have been working on several projects which none are quite ready yet, but will be soon... ^_^

Here's some of my Avatar's I created for the MOTU forums, etc. all using my #1 Master Girl Teela!
This 1st one I created in 2005 when I posted my 1st artwork on He-Man.Org. I felt I needed an Avatar to express my art when people saw me for the 1st time & Teela was the perfect choice! It is a mix of Classic & 200X Teela...so I'm celebrating both old & new skool...basically you have 200X Teela in Classic Teela's outfit, the actual Avatar differs slightly from this image as there is a flat pale yellow packground rather than the strong yellow of the Eternian sky used in some of my imagery (based on the 200X Animation color palette). This is the full version of the image. I use this pic as my Teela "template" for her hair & face porprtions & still use a version of this basic Avatar today...

The following Teela Avatars were all created in 2006...
This next avatar was made as a promotion for the "MOTU BERSERK" Illustrated Story, I specifically drew it for the sadly now defunct "Grayskull Chronicles" website to generate some interest, & it certainly did! The final avatar was cropped to titalate the viewer... ^_- Although this scantily clad Teela will not be the final version. Neither will the other version seen in a preview in this blog as I am currently still working on this Jungle Girl Adventure project at this time ...although I promise the final version will be something very similar! ^_-) Anyways the fans seem to enjoy the sexy romp that awaits & this was a great way to see what the hardcore art fanbase thought, & thankfully they liked it! ^_-

This Teela Avatar was made for He-Man.Org as an update taken from my "King Of Castle Grayskull" work with a new background, & remains currently unused...
This final Teela Avatar was created for this blog (as a profile image) recolored off of the SD Art Collection featuring 200X Teela in "classic colors"
More ALL NEW art to come so stay tooned!!!...

GO!GO!7188 Pulp ~artblog exclusive

2007-03-27T00:02:00.000-04:00

I was lucky enough to attend one of my all-time faveorite Japanese bands GO!GO!7188 (go go nana ichi hatchi hatchi) very 1st USA performance on 3.11.07 at the Knitting Factory in NYC with my pals Jeff & Mike! This piece is a tribute to GOGO & my fave girl, Yuu, setup like a "pulp style" cover or t-shirt, & inspired by the 60's & 70's exploitation film grindhouse-style surf-rock that seems to fuel GOGO's wonderful music!

The show itself was called "Japan Nite US Tour 2007" & was made up of 6 bands, the only one (even with our vast knowledge ^_^) which we were really familiar with was GOGO as we are longtime fans, but it also featured some REALLY nice surprises, like the marching rock band "Asakusa Jinta", Okinawa Jpop band "HY", & all girl-brass aces "Pistol Valve..." There was also some nice moments by the loud alt rockers "The Emeralds," & the wacky punk-inspired "The 50 Kaitenz." We had an awesome time, Jeff took a TON of pics, & treasured cd's & coveted t-shirts were bought by all!

Anyone who knows me well enough, (or was @ the concert for that matter) knows what a GOGO fanatic I am as well as that I have a major crush on lead singer/guitarist oober cute shortstuff Yuu, so I made sure I got as close as I could and spent the show about 3 feet away from her & her gorgeous axe! *heart*
Being this close to Yuu made my my night ultra sweet & absolutely unforgettable as they ran through a barrage of my fave GOGO surf-rock songs from their earliest days to their current hits!

*wicked pictures taken by Jeff Katin*

http://www.breast.co.jp/gogo7188/
http://sxsw-asia.com/JapanNite2007/tourdate.html

Leslie ~Queen of Terabithia

2007-03-05T17:48:00.001-05:00

A special dedication image to Leslie Burke, Queen of Terabithia...

Ever since I've seen the film "Bridge To Terabithia," & become quite enchanted with it, I've felt the need to do some artwork based on my faveorite character... Leslie, here she is leading you away from the troubles of day-to-day, & into a magic land ready to capture your imagination, while making you strong enough to confront your greatest fears!...
Since the movie is based on a book, the image is presented as a "breaking the frame" book cover...

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA - PAN'S LABYRINTH ~MOVIES January - February 2007

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA
From time to time I like to take a moment away from my artwork gallery & mention some artistic things that I find inspiring or that I just really enjoy, & events, movies, & music are in that catagory... so I'm gonna do a little fanlove here for 2 movies I saw these past 2 months that really blew my doors off...At first I thought Pan's Labyrinth was going to be "the movie to beat" this year when I saw it in January (& I am still with high hopes for fan faveorites like Spider-Man 3 / Transformers / 300 etc. possibly taking the #1 spot for me as "Best Film of 2007.") ...I also think in taking an overview of the year as a whole it seems that 2007 will easily be one of the best movie years we've had in recent times ... But then sometimes a movie shows up like this one & it just hits me... hard... although I never expected it to...never mind having it possibly be the BEST film of 2007!
That brings me to this FANTASTIC family film that way surpasses anything in depth, emotion, & real-life types of stuff with a mix of fantasy & imagination than I have seen in years... I highly recommend seeing "BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA"... The cast is sensational & the movie is brilliant! It's the first time I had seen this type of subject matter handled in such a realistic way for a young cast & even though the fantasy element is what drew me to see the movie, the movie ended up being so much more than that & I can't praise it enough for how refreshing, charming, & what an emotional experience it was. So ya, I loved it...
"KEEP YOUR MIND WIDE OPEN..." One of the major reasons why I loved the film so much was for starlet AnnaSophia Robb, who played "Leslie" in the film... a quirky, fashion savy student writer, & basically summed up why we need more artistic, creative imaginative, free-spirited people in this world, who are able to take you away from the day-to-day, and invigorate your passion & mind. I know everyone who I went to see the film with adored her & she took us on an emotional rollercoaster ride. She was basically the girl-next-door us artsy-types wish we had growing up next to us when we were in our youths...
So go see the film & find out exactly what I'm talking about, it's definately a bonified classic in my opinion... ^_-
PAN'S LABYRINTH
So...I've seen quite a few films already for being so early in 2007 but the other STAND-OUT feature I saw (so far) this year was the dark & somewhat disturbing "Pan's Labyrinth." definately a hard film to watch & like BTT, the fantasy aspect was only a smaller part of a bigger story. This film is astonishingly beautiful, & also very emotional & violent, so it's defianetly for the 16 & up crowd. The film is presented in it's original Spanish dialogue with English subtitles (which I vastly perfer) and has a haunting soundtrack that you will immediately recognize upon hearing it again. This film is more about war (& growing up inside of one) than the mystical elements, but presents both aspects in a solidly frightful way & will defiantely be a film you won't forget, although I can't recommend it to everyone like BTT, (although with the multiple academy awards it just won, I'm sure it will reach a broader audience) I can recommend it for those with an open mind & a love for indie-house foreign films that break all the normal stereotypical boundries... brave films that make bold statements, instead of being the usual types of films that we are bombarded with & get immune to... so if it sounds like your kinda movie... do yourself a favor & check it out... it ROX!

GRAPHIC DESIGN ~ J-ROCK CD Covers

2007-02-25T16:10:00.000-05:00

I don't often post my graphic design work here but it is my artblog, & GD is art so...
Every year I host J-Rock (Japanese rock music) events & this past February was one of them in which I designed 12+ covers for a collection.
Featured artists were GALNERYUS, ANNA TSUCHIYA, & MUCC! ^_^
I'm presenting 2 here:
The 1st one is for the buzz-rock group KETCHUP MANIA & is a spoof on the classic Heinz label...

The 2nd is for the disbanded Visual Rock cosplay group PSYCHO LE CEMU & is a reversable cover based on a a "Graphic-T" series...

GRAYSKULL RANGER

2007-01-21T20:50:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: WINNER!
results - 104 voters - 10 submissions
#1 JafariStew: 48 (46.15%)
#2 Osgood: 19 (18.27%)
#3 Bootleg: 12 (11.54%)
#4 cacci: 6 (5.77%)
#5 TIE - Mister Andersen & heftysmurf76: 5 (4.81%)
#6 TIE - ben & SlyVenom: 3 (2.88%)
#7 Monikasvo: 2 (1.92%)
#8 Irian: 1 (0.96%)

Congrats to all the participants on some excellent entries! And a special thanx to all the Orgers who voted for me! I really appreciate it! ^_^

Created for the "MOTU redesign challenge #71: Female Ranger prototype" contest on He-Man.Org...(1.2007)
This was an interesting challenge because it was based on a design of a never-released prototype of a figure for the original 1980's MOTU line. The figure had 2 designs, one that resembled a female Native-American, & one that resebled a female barabairian with a very Frazetta influenced style. Being a big fan of MOTU, Rangers (from D&D), and the female-form, I had to give this one a try.

I went for a backstory envolving my Ranger being a descendant of the GREEN GODDESS, & then keeping with a ranger-style attire, added an element of mystery, goth, & a minor touch of Native American.
I tried to include what looks like maybe had a bit of influence on the 4H's "Jungle Attack He-Man's" bow (shown here in the proto-sketches) as the Ranger weapon of choice...
Hope you like her!!!

BLOOD WAR ~ D&D Minis - 1st Art of 2007

2007-01-15T18:08:00.000-05:00

Hey there!
I just finished my latest fanart work from the most recently released line of D&D Minis entitled "Blood War"... It features the 2 Chaotic Evil minis "Doomguard" & "Skeletal Reaper" before a skirmish!... check it out & PLEASE let me know what you think! Thanks!!!

If your unfamiliar with "Blood War" or DDM in general, here's the official gallery of all 60 "Blood War" minis, you can see the "Doomguard" & "Skeletal Reaper" minis that this artwork is based on.
Thanks again!

Blood War gallery:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mg/bw
Official DDM page:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/minis

***This picture was actually created before the DDC "Prelude" piece, but was finished afterwards due to me wanting to have the "Prelude" piece in time for the DDC USA DVD release...***

2006 J-ROCK MUSIC MOMENTS:

On a side note, unrelated to my art...2006 was a heck of year, being a J-rocker, (Otakon proved to be one of the best 2 I have ever been to, since 1st attending in 1997), and when thinking of 2006, I can't help but think of my most cherished moment. The chance I had of being 1 of the last 15 (of literally 100's of people behind me waiting in line) who got to meet Yoshiki of X -Japan & Violet UK fame ...(my musical idol!!!) ... I can't thank Yoshiki himself & Otakon enough for this" once in a life time moment" that I will always remember...

It was also great having my brother Brain, and best pals Mike & Jared to share that experience with... ^_^
Otakon also managed to bring one of my all-time faveorite Visual-Kei bands, MUCC, to perform live & later, meet the band for autographs, by far one of thr most J-Rockin' moments of my life...MUCC was by far my pick for "band of the year..."

***UPDATE!*** I'm proud to annouce that my brother Brian, & friends Jared, Mike, & I... all made it on ...(in several scenes mind you)... MUCC'S final 2006 single release "Horizont" (CD single + DVD limited edition UPCI-9510 / 2006.11.08) DVD from Otakon this summer of 2006 & are featured in several clips, most notable the autograph line! How awesome is that, we are NOW part of MUCC's offical discography!

My faveorite ALBUMS of 2006, in no particular order:

1. MUCC - gokusai & 6
2. HYDE - faith
3. DUEL JEWEL - visions ep + singles
4. ANNA TSUCHIYA - strip me
5. MERRY - peep show
6. HIGH & MIGHTY COLOR - gouon progressive
7. GO!GO! 7188 - parade
8. MOVE - grid
9. THE PILLOWS - my foot
10. LAREINE - imperial concerto

Special mention to GAZETTE, TOMMY HEAVENLY6, & HIDEKI for having some of the BEST singles this year! And EVANESCENCE for my fave USA album...

D&D ~DDC "Prelude to Rogull - DVD Commemorative Art"

2006-12-04T23:48:00.000-05:00

Hi! In order to commemorate the stellar DVD issue of the Classic Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, released today by the fine people at BCI, I did this DDC artwork, showcasing the 6 kids, on a rescue mission to find Uni, who has been kidnapped by the Red Dragon Rogull!!!
Featuring Hank, Presto, Shiela, Bobby, Diana, & Eric, in one of their many battles in the realm, this one is dedicated to all the Dungeons & Dragons Animated Series fans out there, as well as BCI for releasing one of the best series of the 80's on DVD and going above & beyond to make it the best DVD release of the year! And of course to my Family & Friends who will be running out to buy the DVD set with me today as well as my online gang at Helix Town Square, all of you are the best DDC fandom out there!

"...Where are we?"

..."There is NO escape from the Realm of Dungeons & Dragons..."

***Check out my good friend Sealgirl's fantastic page dedicated to the Animated Realm of Dungeons & Dragons! Tons of stuff for DDC fans to have fun for HOURS!!!***
http://www.thevirtualrealm.co.uk/

MOTU RENEGADE STORIES: BERSERK!!! ~Sneak Preview~

2006-11-12T13:31:00.000-05:00

To help celebrate a year of fanart at He-Man.Org, I wanted to thank my viewers by showing them a SNEAK PREVIEW of one of my future illustrated stories for 2007!

Here is some of the ROUGH character designs for MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE RENEGADE STORIES: BERSERK!

Enjoy the preview for this ALL-OUT JUNGLE ROMP & tell me what you think!

STORY PREMISE:
Set shortly after Hordak's reign on Eternia, a defeat delivered by none other than his former apprentice Skeletor, the Evil Warriors are at it again, and a battle in the sky leads the Masters chasing Skeletor & his minions to the Berserker Islands where are story begins to unfold...

Bear in mind that these are rough preview character designs based on the action figures and creative license & are subject to some changes before the illustrated story is released. Thanks!

D&D ~ DDC "A Way Home..." HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2006-10-27T22:07:00.000-04:00

While working on an avatar of Sheila from the Classic Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon, I started undertaking a MUCH larger image for the background, which in turn led to this more modern type of imagery of the classic theme to the show...the kids finding a way home. For oldskool fans of one of the most incredible cartoons of the 80's, in almost every episode our young heroes are faced with the option of sacrafice, to help themselves or another, and the option they usually have to sacrafice is the portal leading home... to Earth... away from the D&D Realm...
This image I created shows one of my faveorite character's, Sheila, facing that sacrafice and hesitating before stepping into the portal that leads to the Carnival that the children entered the realm from.

Check out the DDC on DVD coming December 5th 2006 in the USA from BCI (the company that released the award-winning He-Man, She-Ra, Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, etc.) it promises to be one of the best DVD animation releases EVER with TONS of amazing extras including a hardcoverd book by WOTC making all of the DDC characters playable in the actual D&D game as well as a radio-style drama of the final unmade episode "Requiem!"
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=6453
BCI Master of DVD Documentaries Andy Mangles:
http://www.andymangels.com/
wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_%28TV_series%29

Filmation style TEELA for JUKKA

2006-10-27T21:23:00.000-04:00

On Oct. 25th, a dear online friend of mine from Finland, Jukka, celebrated his birthday. It is a long standing tradition that Jukka has recieved art from He-Man.Org on his special day orchestrated by his friend Mikko. This past September, Mikko asked specifically of me to draw a Filmation (classic) Style Teela, seeing that she's possibly Jukka's all-time faveorite and knowing that both he & I are such big fans, he though this would be perfect. Developing a great friendship with Jukka over the past year, I was happy to contribute! What was AMAZING was so did a very large handful of the talented artists at He-Man.Org, ALL drawing Filmation/Classic Teela, showing one of the best support projects I have ever seen for any member ever (all unknown that the others were doing this) and definately the most art I have ever seen made for any specific individual! AWESOME!
I'm sure Jukka now knows how valued he is by his friends in the community!
Jukka was also nice enough to create a picture of Teela for me on my birthday making it an extra special event...he knows what this boy likes to see and I loved the picture he did for me.
I decided to do a Filmation Teela that still expressed her trademark look, but with a bit of my own personal style. I also decided that I wanted the pic to compliment both the artwork of Teela that Jukka created for me, as well as the one I did for myself on my birthday, thus a back-view of our fave MOTU girl, in Filmation colors, facing the opposite direction of my b-day piece, with a classic Filmation-style colored sky...

to check out the birthday thread & some of the other amazing art for Jukka at He-Man.Org copy & paste...
http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/showthread.php?t=142969
To see Jukka's art for my birthday, view his wonderful Teela by copying & pasteing all of the following as one!
http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c44/teelamotu/omake/
?action=view&current=jafari_birthdaybyJUKKA.jpg
&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1

BIRTHDAY POST ~CLASSIC TEELA!!!~

2006-09-05T21:38:00.000-04:00

Today's my BIRTHDAY!!! YAY!!!
I thought I would help celebrate with the .Org community by creating some new art for today & making this Art Blog PUBLIC!

WELCOME!!! ^_^

A little known fact is it's not only my birthday but also HE-MAN'S birthday! The Filmation animated show started on Sept. 5th and it is this airdate that is now credited with He-Man's birthday!

And speaking of birthday's this image of classic TEELA started off in her birthday-suit! I drew it earlier this year but never put her leotard on, so she just stayed naked untill today!! I decided to finally finish this image the way I intended... with her atop Castle Grayskull's tower at sunset looking back at us the viewer for a private moment...
This also celebrated my 500th POST at He-Man.org!

500th POST CLASSIC TEELA B-DAY ART:

new updated sky 9.21.06

SD MOTU: BUZZ-OFF + SY-KLONE + MOSS-MAN

2006-09-05T21:26:00.000-04:00

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!!!

The SD MOTU thread proved to be very popular with the fans! Popular enough for me to continue on with doing more than the original 20 I started with.
I promised the fan-base that I would work on more SD characters inbetween my other projects & that's what I intend on doing!

What was funny is I could tell fans were getting anxious after a couple month delay, anxious enough that my friend "Thatman" started a thread asking when there would be MORE!!! LOL!

SO...Here's the 3 LASTEST characters!
SERIES 2 MOTU: batch 1
BUZZ-OFF! SY-KLONE! & MOSS-MAN (Mattel Flocked version)!!!

KING OF CASTLE GRAYSKULL (~mini-comic tribute~)

2006-09-05T20:47:00.000-04:00

On 7.01.06 I decided to tribute one of the amazing covers from the classic MOTU mini-comics in the updated 200X style.
The classic mini-comics helped to define MOTU, and I thought it would be a nice way to pay homage to the MOTU artists I grew up on!
I did a 200X version of one of my faveorite covers "King Of Castle Grayskull" by the talented Alfredo P. Alcala!
I set this up as an art challenge for other MOTU artists to try their hand at a cover tribute... and we ended up with some AMAZING WORK!!! Everyone who participated gave it 100% and I was so happy with the results in the end...maybe I'll do it again someday! ^_- There's a lot of great covers still waiting to be reinvisioned!
Here's KING OF CASTLE GRAYSKULL (one of the original 4 comic covers)!!!

And I did a "CLASSIC Colored Version" for "Grayskull Chronicles!"

Here's a close-up of TEELA from this piece...

And a close-up in "Classic Colors"...

SD: MOTU ~Super-Deformed Masters Of The Universe~

2006-08-28T19:39:00.000-04:00

By far my most popular Masters project to date has been my anime style "Super-Deformed Masters Of The Universe!!!" The idea was one I had early on in my Masters art mythology and I started working on them in batches of 4, 3, or 2 whenever I had a free drawing moment.
The project was to continue untill I had 10 Heroic & 10 Evil characters represented in the SD Universe. Although ideas for this type of represntation of Masters had been done in the past, I think the key to the success here was the fact that I had done SO MANY characters at once, rather than just 1 or 2. This way a lot of favorites could be represented. I took great care in studying how SD was done using everything from classic to modern anime, and even DS game design work to make sure these guys & girls all were crafted with an authentic SD look. I also made sure to do fan-faveorites as well as more obscure characters to keep it interesting. The 1st idea was to have them all lined up in a good vs evil mode, but that proved to be WAY to long a piece for display, so I piled them up more like a "Pocket Fighter" cover and the 1st final image was displayed on May 2nd 2006!

As positive feedback grew I decided to disassemble my work so everyone could see their faveorites individually as I drew them originally!
SERIES 1:
He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Teela, Stratos, Man-E-Faces:
Tri-Klops, Mer-Man, Evil-Lyn, Beast-Man, Skeletor:
Ram-Man, Mekaneck, Roboto, Snout Spout, Orko:
Stinkor, Clawful, Whiplash, Faker, Trap-Jaw:
Just for fun, I thought I would repaint these SD MOTU characters into some of the other colors MOTU History has given us for them... People seemed to like them, so I kept going!

SERIES 1.5
REPANTS:
Classic Colors He-Man, Serpent Claw Man-At-Arms, Snake Teela, Sky Strike Stratos, & Repaint Man-E-Faces:
Repaint Tri-Klops, Repaint Mer-Man, Classic Colors Evil-Lyn, Repaint Beast-Man, & Repaint (1) Skeletor:
A lot of fans asked when I was making their "faveorite" Master, and since this project was so well recieved, I replied that this was an "ongoing project" for me and I would eventually get to SDing all of the exisiting figures, stactions, & whatever future stactions the 4H can give us! And I plan on KEEPING that promise...
After these initial batches I did 3 more repaint schemes to advertise the upincoming SERIES 2 to give the fans a bit more varients before all "new" SD characters appeared, a fun promotional idea!
SERIES 1.5 continued
Spin-Blade Skeletor, Smash-Blade He-Man:
Faker (Anti-He-Man colors), Repaint Trap-Jaw:
Repaint Ram-Man, Repaint Mekaneck:
Series 2 will be coming up...stay tooned....

CATRA concept

2006-08-28T19:10:00.000-04:00

In January 2006, one of the most participated art contests of all time at He-man.Org was the CATRA (from POP) redesign thread. The goal was to update CATRA for the 200X line and see who had the best design which was voted on by fans/forum members. Seeing the calibur of artists that entered this contest, even being a newbie at the time, I could not resist! Redesigning the top SHE-RA villian was a great challenge! The end result was 20 amazing artist entries!!! I enetred the challenge on January 17th & placed in the top 5 with a 3 part voting system on this entry which is highly based on the classic 80's toy (rather than the cartoon) with my own personal touch.

The image proved more popular than I thought!!! I had recieved a request from expert fan-customizer "Hordaks Henchman" to create a figure based on my design! In order give a fellow artist a hand, I designed a "Character design sheet" for Catra featuring her front & back designs & help feature my "true vision" of the character... I made some minor tweeks here & there, and came up with this character sheet featured here:

The final toy has been customized by Hordak's Henchmen, here's a picture!!

The design has been commented on positively many times by fans and will even be featured in the current 2006 remake comic of "Secret Of The Sword!!!"

EVIL-LYN shhhhh...

2006-08-27T20:49:00.000-04:00

After drawing a concept head sketch of Evil-Lyn helmetless, and likeing the results of her J-Rock-esque haircut, I decided to go with a fully rendered piece! This artwork went through a lot of sizing and background rendering, all in all I think it turned out pretty hot with a "Dark Hemisphere" beach-like scene. I was complimented on both Lyn & her magic bursting from the ground, and that was great after all the work I put into it. My 2nd 2006 piece (after "New Legacy"dropped) posted on Feb. 13th.

200X EVIL-LYN coming in for the final blow, helmetless & featuring her dagger (never seen in animation but created for the 200X figure.)

NEW LEGACY

2006-08-26T13:45:00.000-04:00

In December of 2005, much to my surprise, I was asked to work on the illustrated fanfic that was currently running called MOTU: NEW LEGACY. What was surprising about this was at the time I only had 1 MOTU art posts at the time (Teela +Battlecat)!!! Impressed with this image the w40 asked me to do 3 images. The characters and basic scene where set for me, and then I ran with the art!
The art was placed in the chapter: New Legacy 1.5 - "The Horde: Part Two"...
The "New Legacy" series has finished now & is probably one of the best fan made story continuums to date. A lot of wonderful artists & writers worked on it, and I think it gave me a lot of early recognition on the boards right from the start! I thank the w40 for the opportunity!

LEGACY #3
This 1st image (in presntation only-order of creation is reversed) is by far the most popular and the original art, & has been requested for sale. One of my most USA comic inspired & heaviest inked pieces, GRIZZLOR vs. BUZZ-OFF remians a fan-faveorite today. The gigantic HORDE Huntsman GRIZZLOR leads a HORDE army to the hive of Andreenos and and wrecks the place! BUZZ-OFF one of the Heroic Masters & 2nd only to the the Andreenos Queen fends for his life as GRIZZLOR snatches his mighty axe (for his weapons collection) and prepares to push him through one of the connecting hyve's formations! This piece was worked on before the GRIZZLOR staction was released, but COLORED when I recieved the staction for X-mas! BUZZ-OFF is worked on directly from the figure and features his helmet that was never shown in the animated series. Thanks to my brother "Stonedar/Brian" for all his advice with these pieces, especially #2 & #3!

LEGACY#2
The next piece features Battle Sound (silver) HE-MAN locked up in the HORDE prisons by his twin sister ADORA when she was force captain of the HORDE. Battle Sound (silver) HE-MAN is taken from the toy, & ADORA is a updated design by "Sha" in my own personal style. I wanted the chains appear strong enough to hold He-Man and the walls to appear "alive" like he was locked in the belly of a monster! Adora has been complimented on being beautiful by fans...

LEGACY #1
The final piece is a battle between TEELA & MANTENNA, FISTO & LEECH. Fighting in Sub-ternia, TEELA & FISTO'S deigns are from the 200X figures, MANTEENA from promo pics of the Staction, and LEECH was done from the 200X animated series images only! The piece was to invoke desperation between the Masters versus the new villians and has a underlying feature of father & daughter (unknown to the Masters themselves) battleing alongside each other!...

DEVILMAN 2002

2006-08-25T18:37:00.000-04:00

Brief History: Those of you who know me well are familiar with what a HUGE Devilman fan I am. In my opinion, Devilman is one of the BEST series ever in Japan and manga-ka Go Nagai's finest work. Although early Devilman TV (1972) strayed from the original manga, the OVA's of the late 80's and the OVA AMON (2000) where much more faithful to the original, it is upon reading the complex of the manga & newer anime features of tales of the demons from prehistoric times being frozen and dorment until Satan unleashed them in the present and only a person of a true heart combined with a demon could stop them, as well as new quality figures being produced... did my interest 1st grow. But in actuality it is more than just a story of the apocolypse of earth happening with a demon war, but also a tale of friendship, betrayal, & love. Those closest to me know that I have a VAST collection of Devilman manga, figures, & collectibles, everything from gashapon to bottlecaps to chess pieces, but one of my faveorites amongst these is the GIANT line made by FEWTURE toys at the turn of the century designed by Yasushi Nirasawa & sculpted by Toshimitsu Usui. An incredible line rich in detail of all variable colors, shapes, & sizes from demons to humans..(the Fewture line is also a favorite of the 4H.) Highly poseable and the most dynamic figure line to date, I have collected all of the individual figures and have used them as template for my Devilman art. I did a lot of "D-man" art in 2002-03 and will be doing more in the near fewture (future ^_^) but here are some of my 1st colored works in photoshop (ever) and the ones that have been featured on the fantastic Devilman sight "Plastic Devilman" for the past couple years.
http://plasticxo.neuf.fr/Plastic_Devilman/news.htm

My first piece was done on LARGE bristolboard (the biggest of the 4 pieces) and featured "WINGED DEVILMAN" & "MIKI." Background was Japanese city photoshop fun! Both characters are based on the Fewture figures. As with most of my art, I usually use figures for reference. This was originally created as part of a Devilman party... I gave out autographed color prints of this piece which I have seen framed in friends houses since!

Next up, a "Got Milk" tribute called "Got MIKI"... This picture is based on 2 designs. The characters look is from the wonderful Marmit (my favorite...^_^) MIKI figure & the item she's holding from the Fewture figure's (accessory) book entitled "Devilman Chronicles."
This is a fan-faveorite among my Devilman works & is inspired by one of my faveorite artists Masakazu Katsura... Miki is a tragic character...

Image three was pretty much by fan request but I love MICO too so it was easy to convince me! This piece was inspired by Noboteru Yuuki's work (my all-time favorite character designer) and I was lucky enough to meet him & tell him just that at OTAKON 2006! What a guy!
The piece features Fewture style MICO with her symbiotic Tollg in a fetal position, on the pavement, with some "devilish" graffiti...

My final entry for this segment features one of the varient colors of ZANN ("Rusty Copper version") the demon general from the Fewture line. This is a more classical anime inspired "commanding power pose" and also features some fun with photoshop terrian imaging!

Original excerpt from the Platic Devilman website:
"I have been drawing Devilman for about as long as I have been collecting the figures, being an artist it's only natural to express your appreciation for the story through your own interpretation with art. My inspiration is mainly from the figures, but I do take elements I like from the existing artwork that has been done (anime & manga), and particularly like Yu Kinutani's Amon manga work & Yasushi Nirasawa's Fewture works. My collection is called Devilman Chronicles (named after Fewture Miki's book) and is based on the existing toylines as well as the anime, manga & my own take on the characters. ^_^ This work is completely illustrated by me, and will show digitally colored and other visual medias to express my Devilman creations.

~ARIA~

2006-07-31T21:59:00.000-04:00

My second fanart post at He-Man.Org (11.23.05) was also Frank Frazetta inspired! Friendly debate insued for it's contents & charcter depiction, I tryed to get back to more of the original mini-comic barbaric/fanatasy roots that MOTU was based upon. In Roger Sweet's book "Mastering The Universe" he directly states that some of the earliest inspiration for the body size & look of the original fantasy MOTU was directly inspired by Frazetta art. So it seems natural to use MOTU's roots for my more epic/fantasy compositions! I also seemed to get some nice comments on Teela's lovely bottom! One of my faveorite parts of this piece is the sky! It is entirely rendered in photoshop (as only the figures and rock are drawn...) When asked to join Grayskull Chronicles by He-Salvo, I thought a nice way to introduce myself was to recolor this piece as a GSC exclusive with a "new sky" that my brother Brain had helped envision, giving it a darker presence. Thus the original version "Aria" takes place in the "Light Hemisphere", where the "Grayskull Chronicles exclusive version" takes place in the Skeletor's domain the "Dark Hemisphere" making the heroes seem even more desperate to escape... (which do you prefer?)
Here we have a battle where Tri-Klops has already defeated Teela and has blocked He-Man's first protective blow, we capture the moment of the 2 titans 2nd swing before impact! Beast-Man follows behind Tri-Klops for back-up and Teela looks at us the viewer as though we maybe another enemy in Skeletor's ranks waiting for our chance to strike!
The 2 different versions featured here:
Original...

...and Grayskull Chronicles exclusive "Dark Hemisphere" version...(this version also contains a few minor color tweeks as well as an updated coloration on Tri-Klop's sword!)

Visit the wonderful Masters Of The Universe site: GRAYSKULL CHRONICLES to see alot of wonderful fanart by some of the best MOTU fan artists out there!
http://www.grayskullchronicles.org/

FIRST MOTU WORK POSTED: TEELA + BATTLECAT

2006-07-31T21:09:00.000-04:00

Back on October 31st 2005, I posted my first MOTU fan art on He-Man.Org. I have to say the response I got was phenominal! I was so overwhelmed with how much positive feedback I recieved that I felt truly blessed. I made a vow to continue to make MOTU finished fanart every month since that time, and so far I have stuck to it! My earliest works were all very much Frazetta inspired, and so is a lot of my MOTU art today, the man is an incredible artist who really defined the genre, and I think the way he handles his fantasy art gives it an epic feel that I always find inspirational!
I am still learning a lot about coloring my own work in Photoshop & I find that the cel-shaded style I use more so in my current art is working out for me. Animation has always been my biggest influence so I tend to gravitate towards that style. I am influenced not only by the Anime of the 80's to current time, but just a lot of classic animation in general, the more realistic the animation, say like rotoscoped animation used by Disney, Filmation, or films like "Fire & Ice", the more endearing at times I find it. Same goes for anime that has a more "real" than "cutesy" look to it, something like "Perfect Blue" or "Gantz"
I also get a lot of input from my 2 brothers who are both talented artists in their own respect and I can't thank them enough for their input on just about every piece I create!
Some of the fanbase may still consider this their faveorite piece, and I am glad that I started off my journery into "offical MOTU fanart" the right way! I also find that this piece started off many great friendships that I have with the artist community members of He-Man.Org & Grayskull Chronicles, so I dedicate this piece to you, my friends.

Visit the site for ALL things Masters Of The Universe...HE-MAN.ORG!!! With the latest MOTU news, art, & more!
http://www.he-man.org/

EARLY MOTU ART: VS THE SNAKEMEN CD cover

2006-07-31T20:23:00.000-04:00

So let's start this off with a look to the past! This is my EARLIEST colored MOTU piece created specifically on 2.28.2004 for a CD cover for a music compilation I had made of Filmation & MYP music. This has never been posted on He-Man.Org, Grayskull Chronicles, or anywhere else. Featuring He-Man, Teela, & Man-At-Arms all in a VS. THE SNAKEMEN environment. Nice to see I think I've come a ways since this earlier more Anime inspired looking piece!

ORIGIN

2006-07-31T20:12:00.001-04:00

Hi!
Even though I'm not much for keeping a journal or blog, I did see this as a great way to showcase my art of the past, present & future, all in one place & it wouldn't have to be series specific! So consider it an ART BLOG, and if you enjoy my art then this is a new place to come and see what I am up to! Please let me know what ya think! I hope to show you art from all facets here, starting with my Masters Of The Universe art that you probably know me for, as well as some other faveorites I might be working on...(like art for Dungeons & Dragons or Devilman.)
This will also be the place where I post some updates on my Masters Of The Universe: Renegade ~ Illustrated Stories, as well as other unseen MOTU/artworks!

I don't know how often this site will be updated, but I'll do my best!
I hope you like my gallery!

So...sit back and enjoy how JafariStew is best served...COLD!

NOTE: The above image created by me is of the classic AD&D LJN figure... MERCION! (good cleric female - 8.27.06)...
...one of my faveorites!