220 posts
Latest Posts by austineustice - Page 6
Airline Colors
I’ve been flying more than usual lately. Sitting in airports, you get a good look at airline branding. For as much money as they must put into the marketing and collateral of their brand, so little of it stands apart from its competitors. I suppose this makes sense when all they’re really trying to do is appeal to the largest audience possible, and this will always involve snoozers design. I had to go a bit out of the way to try to find airlines that didn’t use only red, white and blue (thanks Lufthansa). Feels good to return to some more "studies."
Signature Woes
I changed my signature about a year ago. It was a big deal and I’m still coming to grips with how it deteriorates under pressure or time constraints. Time constraints here mostly mean impatience, because I can’t remember the last time I was given a certain amount of time to make my signature happen. Anybody with signature woes knows what I mean when I say pressure. It has to look good.
Beemo Playing Pong
Adventure Time is never too far from my mind when doodling. BMO killing some down time.
St. Valentino & His Corpse Army
Hey folks, today is Halloween. I was looking around my music library and found an old Valentine’s Day mix I made, and boy, it’s got some pretty dark stuff in there for that holiday. It’s all about zombies and lady snatching. SO, I thought it would be perfect to unleash this thing on the day of ghouls. It is a mix of some fine songs with a narration of the young Victor Valentine’s life, written by me and voiced expertly by a computer. Follow Victor on his quest to find a woman, crossing the fields of Chick Chick Chick, swimming the sea Fortuna and scaling the cliffs of Gabeldor. Witness his downward spiral into darkness and evil - and hope against hope he comes out the other end with that he most desires. Enjoy!
Is that Scarface?
It should be known that I occasionally play video games, and with winter coming, several activities see a significant boost in activity, namely: cooking, eating, sitting, and video gaming. I’m way behind on games and decided not to try to play anything too new until I catch up. I had a copy of Red Dead Redemption at my house, so I popped that in, knowing full well that I don’t care for many Rockstar (game studio, not quality of game) games or how awfully they treat their hardworking development teams (after the completion of at least 2 games I know of, Rockstar decided to fire the entire team before bonuses and profit-sharing kicked in. Classy). Anyway, I played some of this mostly janky, un-amusing game to find that the only real plus is the horse physics. Horse riding is excellent which is good, because you will be doing it for hours and hours. Won’t last too much longer on this one, especially since the now 7-year-old Resident Evil 4 has been released on Xbox 360. So much video game jargon in this post, I apologize, but also, expect more.
During my time in the wild west, I think I met Tony Montana. Image captured offscreen from Red Dead Redemption - then cleaned up, colored, texted and all around prettied up.
I needed to make a Down For Maintenance page, which isn’t a fun thing, so I made a fun one. I like everyone’s pants and hair situation here.
Dream JRNL #1
It is not a necessary evil, but an ever-present one: the abbreviated vocabulary used when texting. Like typos, you must be ever vigilant in a time of incredibly disposable communication. There are moments however, when typos happen; usually in those rushed or half-focused texts. For the past few months, I’ve been doing this thing where I will wake up and punch out a text with an autonomous thumb. I scarcely remember doing this in the morning but am always amused by them. So far, nothing bad has happened, so I haven’t switched to another form of alarm system that doesn’t have MMS capabilities. I actually don’t know what MMS stands for, I just know that it stands for something that means texting. Here is an example of one of these dream texts. Funny how just a little typo makes you look insane…
Batman Moods: Heartbreak
About a year ago, I did a one-off drawing of Batman. I really liked it and only recently realized I could do more if I wanted! So, this will mark the reboot/kickstart of the Batman Moods series. First up, a broken hearted Dark Knight. Bruce Wayne seems like a tough playboy with stuff figured out, but you know that guy must have gotten his gut busted by a batlady at some point.
A new mix for the season. The previous soul mix was pretty great, but this one folks, phew. I also got pretty obsessive (shocker) about sweetening these old vinyl rips, seeing as though they were flat as all get out. Nothing fancy other than that, just ten excellent soul songs from the 60s & 70s. Please enjoy.
Picturesque Sunset Reveals Park Slope Rooftop Deathmatch Cage
There was a lovely sunset the other night here in NYC. Stuck out the window of my third floor apartment, I got quite a view of the cotton candy sundown. It was very peaceful and a bit sad because it is the end of summer, and days of warmth and people living outside are numbered. As I reflected on this change, from out to in, blue to gray, green to brow-HOLY CRUD, THAT LOOKS LIKE A DEATHRINK! There it was, on the horizon, a shoddy looking cage, constructed of chainlink fence with some sort of hide stretched across the top. My roommate suggested it may be for pigeons. This is no aviary, it is a place for dandy Park Slope men to reconnect with their primal roots, I am sure of it. I plan on keeping an eye on this and I will keep you all posted!
NYC Century Bike Tour 2011
Last Sunday I participated in the 22nd annual NYC Century Bike Tour. It is a 100 mile tour of New York City, including Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Manhattan. The one hundred milers (the group myself and my two friends Jon [middle] and Sean [right] were in) started at 6.30 am Sunday morning. Regarding that last statement and the description of this event that follows, I should probably remind you this is all for fun, I was not forced to do this, even paid a small fee to do so.
Hopped up on coffee and cutting through the (super) brisk darkness towards the start line at Prospect Park (2 blocks from my apartment and my home base for all things cycling and outdoor leisure), the day seemed ripe for some long distance riding. The goal was a touch over my previous longest 90 miles completed across Long Island earlier this summer - so it seemed ‘feasible-challenging’. Upon arrival at the start, we quickly realized our visual preparedness ranked in the lowest of categories. These people were ready to ride, in all ways. Sweet spandex, jerseys, sleek helmets and cycling shoes as far as the eye could see. We got our race bibs and affixed them to our woefully heavy cotton thermals and sweatshirts and mounted up.
Once on the road, things fell into place pretty easily. I was quite surprised at the level of camaraderie amongst the group, and in fact, it seemed many of the hundreds of riders knew each other, asking if the other was ‘going next Saturday’ - ‘Ah, no, but next next Saturday, yes’. Riders ahead would signal when a turn was coming up, or point down to a pothole. This was a pleasant surprise, as riding in NYC is typically a You VS Everyone Ever situation. They even broke the law together. Alright, I run red lights occasionally, especially those above dual one-way intersections, but this was something else. They rode through with such entitled energy it took a while to even understand my distaste for it. All in all, riding with so many people was disconcerting, containing more bravado than I’m comfortable with.
I won’t bore any casual readers with an in-depth breakdown of my bicycle issues, but I can say it was falling apart often and with great success. Until, that is, a mechanic at one of the rest stops not only fixed my loose bottom bracket, overly tight cups and spindle, but also learned me how many other errors I’d committed when putting this bicycle together. As humbly as I think I’ve ever taken criticism, I tried to soak up everything this Man of Bicycles was telling me. You see, I rode the newest addition to my stable, an Italian touring bike with a racing spirit. Sorry, it’s just, I really like this bicycle, and it’s about the nicest thing I could have ever hoped for or afforded; so the Man of Bicycles was speaking of things I really wanted to hear.
About 15 miles in, my ankle started acting funny. Writing this now, 3 days later, it is still quite swollen and a stiffly stifferson. There was something about how I was riding and the shoes/pedals I was riding with that created a perfect storm of anti-ankledness. My pals faired pretty well, Jon suffering from a similar ankle-hurt and Sean getting understandably ragged by mile 70. There were so many excellent things to see, things I’d never have seen otherwise, despite having lived in the city for 2 years now.
TOP THREE THINGS THAT HAPPENED (by time):
1. A large black woman crossing the street yelled “Oh God, more cyclists! OH I SEE!” She was very animated and excellent.
2. We turned onto a street called Force Tube Ave. I think I was the only one to find this very excellent, because when I commented out loud ‘Yeah, a right on FORCE TUBE AVENUE’, no response was forthcoming.
3. We rode directly passed the World’s Fair grounds in Queens. The globe and whatever that decrepit mess of metal and disks on towers is, were both excellent.
The Brooklyn and Queens leg was fantastic, with much riding along the shore. As you might expect, it all turned a bit sour when we hit the Bronx. I’ve cycled up the west side and into the Bronx a few times now, and have never really had a bad time, and am always amazed by Van Cortlandt Park, but this was just plain awful. I’ll risk sounding like an awful snob by saying the roads are a touch ‘not smooth at all’. This does bring demographics into the discussion however. I’d say the average age of rider was a touch over 40. Cycling, in this capacity, is typically a middle-upper class affair; explaining all the rather pricey bicycles. I’m still not quite sure whether it’s the sport or the kind of event that accounted for the age of rider.
A long story made slightly shorter, we weaved our way through Manhattan traffic at rush hour after having bicycled 90+ miles, went over the tourist filled (I held back there, because I always refer to the Brooklyn bridge as Euro-filled, but that is a bit insensitive, as many Asians are also clogging up the bridge that would be beautiful if it weren’t for Everyone Ever being on it Always) Brooklyn Bridge, and made it into Prospect Park as the sun was doing that excellent but saddening diagonal ray thing it does in early fall. We gathered up our sweet free shirts and less sweet free waterbottles and headed home to eat copious amounts of food and talk of how much more tired we were than the other and how badly we’d feel in the morning. What ended up being 107 miles was most excellent. I’m looking forward to my 2nd annual century ride next September.
Post Project Scatter
Just finished up a big push for the Regulation Room new rule. Whenever I have some strict deadlines and a bunch of work, both my real and digital desktop are the first to suffer. Keanu and the Swaze helped me power through though. Now, to clean up those files!
I’ve been a bit busy with Regulation Room stuff and summer stuff like bicycling and getting real panicky about the warmth and sunshine almost being over. I drew some people’s heads in pixelart for the RegRoom team members page which’ll be in the next version that is launching real soon.
TV - Adventure Time
I’ve been at my Home home in Maryland the past few weeks. I’ve been doing a whole lot of bicycling (they have hills here, real hills) and catching up on some design work. Being that there isn’t a whole lot of night life (not something I take much advantage of in NYC when I’m there but it’s nice to pretend I would), I’ve also been catching up on some television. I was completely unaware of one of the awesomest animated things ever made: Adventure Time. Completely hooked. Extra funny, some awesome character design, and moments of great stretchy animation. To a lesser extent, I’ve been playing some cell phone games too, one being Sword & Sorcery. And now, these two things combined.
Rejected Tracks - The Sloest
This is one of many ‘rejected tracks’ in the Prescription Strength Hugs (my music-making moniker) archive. I recently stumbled upon this one and am not sure why it got axed, as I quite like it. Dug it out and illustrated the instrumentation and lyrics (which I typically hate displaying, but again, kind of liked them). Please enjoy.
Night Before Le Tour
The Tour de France begins tomorrow. This will be the first year I watch with any interest. I recently read the book It’s All About the Bike and it got me seriously into the idea of long tours. Learning about how these multi-day races began and what those first competitors suffered through made me look with a pretty critical eye on the modern Tour de France - with its teams of mechanics, daily massages and limit per day. In the old days (some hundred years ago), these men would ride as long as they possibly could (in extreme cases, up to three days without getting off the bike). They were often drugged up and half-crazed and some people died, so I suppose this had to be addressed at some point. Learning a little more about the course I’ve decided the daily set stages and all the pampering of the riders at each day’s finish line does not detract from the challenge of what must be an excruciating 3 weeks. So, I’m pretty excited to see some serious bicycling. I think also, they pee on the bike. Here is what I imagine each competitor will be dreaming tonight.
Phone Pixels
Remember those many months in which all I did was pixel art? I hardly remembered, but this week I re-engaged in a project that is exclusively pixel art. It’s an incredibly different kind of illustration. If you fight its natural blockish restrictions, it can feel like having ten thousand spoons when all you need, really, is a knife. But in this case, I figured out spoons were just right.
My Year In Bicycles
I’d say my cycling enthusiasm level is now “avid.” It’s been about a year of serious riding for me (or since I was convinced to take my roommate’s 80s Schwinn road bike after he left for another coast of America). The bike was impossibly small for me and he’d kept anything related to comfort free of what he called the bi-cycle (top right). I believe the frame was 51cm, with a plastic seat (I have to call them saddles now that I’m avid), and awful, bare drop handlebars. These words may mean little to you - simply put, the bike was a pain in the ass. And hands. And back. But, I speak of the bike in an ungrateful tone, which is completely the opposite tone I’d like to be speaking of it in. The bicycle was my entry into the mania that now permeates my everyday life. I returned the borrowed mountain bike (top left) I’d had for several years (having ridden it a handful of times [which was also far too small for me]) and set out every late-spring day on that little red beast to try to get my confidence up riding in the city. I’m getting ahead of myself however, I had to ride every day just to learn how to deal with something so foreign. The first time on a road bike is extremely unnerving and seems wrong - the way a lot of things you’ve never done and go against your basic human understanding of ‘how the world should work’ feel wrong. Two skinny inline wheels should not stay upright, especially when adding a skittery, lanky 140 pounder on top. Once you’ve given into the magical psuedo-science keeping a paper thin bike upright, you have to deal next with the posture a classic road bike thrusts you into. Riding on the top of drop bars is not comfortable, especially for a person with wide shoulders and lanky arms (me, I’ve already mentioned my lank) - but what’s worse is the leap of faith you must take to enter the lower part of the curved drop handlebar. If flashes of your face grating against the sidewalk don’t instantly pop into your mind, you’re a brave person with a brain problem.
Suffice it to say, I learned to ride the bicycle without too many issues - and through daily riding and an ever increasing interest in how the parts worked, I was well on the way to my present compulsion, need, and desire for all things bi-cycle. After taking the Schwinn to a bike shop and complaining of outrageous back pain, I was told the bicycle was about 4 sizes too small for me. They set me up on a monstrously large bike and it fit and was a revelation to my atrophying back. So I got a new bike (not pictured) and donated the Schwinn to a friend who still rides it lovingly to this day. My new bike was a low-end fixed gear that was promptly stolen after 3 months of use outside a bagel shop. I hope someone is enjoying it (or its various stripped-off parts) - I did, for the short time I rode it as it gave me a brief but thorough look into the world of fixies - a dangerously associative world I may not have escaped if my ride hadn’t gotten jacked. Despite thinking not all that highly of the New York fixed-gear order, I got another fixed-gear bicycle (bottom left) - but a nice, proper one. It was not long before I threw a freewheel on there though, and indulged myself a little coasting. The rest of My Year In Bicycles involves a lot of conversing with my old roommate who bequeathed the Schwinn to me about bicycle parts, trips we’ll take, and bicycles we need to buy. We’ve both begun a small collection at 2 a piece with a 5 bike plan in the works. My latest acquisition is an old French road bike (bottom right) from the mid 70s that I rescued from a Salvation Army and cleaned, painted and rebuilt as a fairly faithful restoration. I’ve begun training on this monster for a long trip myself and the Scwhinn’s original master are planning. I will always think very fondly of that little bicycle and the awfully wonderful time I had riding it.
On Mustaches
During May, my friend and I entered into a collaborative competition of mustaches. We both vowed to grow a stache and it turned out to be a good time because neither of us really needed to be seen by anybody potentially important for about the whole month*. The first few days were easy because I don’t like shaving and only do so every three days. After a week, it got pretty hard. Anyone with sparse facial hair will know the embarrassment and overall badlooks of a thin beard. It wasn’t for a few weeks that I could shave and have my face noticeably be-stached. Once this happened the hardtimes got worse, because I looked very much like a guy who is up to no good - but I powered through, growing the heck out of this rough stuff. I ended Mustache May with a serious fumanchu. Since the end of the month, though, I’ve been unable to shave it completely off. I even went so far as to allow myself a small soul-patch and it concerns me. I took inspiration from a French zombie movie where my darkened, Parisian doppelgänger had a superlative handlebar with flavor-saver. We’ll see where my facial hair takes me. For now, have a look at the evolution.
* we can argue about how you can meet someone important at any time, but this really was a long shot considering what we were doing and where we were.
Graphic Booklet: Sample Page
The comic is coming along. I have now entered the digital stage, which means less drawing outside and more late nights at a computer. But, I think it is looking good. These colors kind of came out of nowhere, as I was planning on a mostly black and white comic with orange as an accent. We’ll see how it shapes up - I’m still in the very early stages of inking/coloring. More soon.
Graphic Booklet: Rough Pages
The comic I’ve been working on is now completely written and roughly drawn/laid out. Here are two rough pages. The paper I used for the rough version is so thin I can erase from the other side of the page. This stems for a long-standing issue with commitment and drawings being worth good paper or not. Suffice to say, I’ll get over it for the final and get some non tissue paper. Expecting the whole thang to be complete by the end of the month!
“Let’s ghost some ghosts.”
Working on a character for a little iPhone game. This guy is tasked with putting ghosts to rest. He is the Ghost Ghoster.
Graphic Booklet: Male Emotions
Further character study for the graphic booklet’s male character. I needed to simplify my typical facial style to pull out the highs and lows I was looking for. Since the character has very little to say in the story, I needed a very expressive, cartoony body capable of movement aplenty.
