Sorry guys, making the Tumblr switch + comics

Sadly it has finally happened, blogspot has felt like a ghost town for the past year and even though I am not a huge fan of the interface, I am making the Tumblr switch. You can find me here at: http://kirkmanbrandon.tumblr.com/
Also I decided to post the first 7 pages of the comic I've been working on. I figured I wanted to have something up since CAKE is this week. Please tell me what you think, I've been putting a lot of time into it:

I might still update this blog with a few post here and there but I think for the most part I'll be using my Tumblr now for sketch and quick updates, slowly switching over to it completely if I start enjoying it a bit more.

And Alas, I leave you with what I am listening to (possibly for the last time):

Bernard Kornblum from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

For the second week I have decided to illustrate Bernard Kornblum for Alphabooks from a personal favorite, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. The book is a fictional time piece retelling of the golden age of comics and the two men who helped forged it. In the earlier chapters Bernard Kornblum helps tutor Josef Kavalier in the ways of magic tricks and escape arts until Josef has to escape himself from Prague during it's Nazi occupancy. The character is intensely interesting and a great father like figure to Josef. He is also reminiscent of a much older and more bearded Harry Houdini.

Cool book, you should read it.

Starting Alphabooks with a little Cloud Atlas

So in the wake of Alphabeasts, Andrew Neal has started a new alphabetical illustration project called Alphabooks (http://alphabooks.tumblr.com/). It's the same concept as before, going through the alphabet and illustrating each letter to a theme, this time it happens to be characters from books and stories. Seeing as how Alphabeasts kept me on the ball for illustrating weekly, I was more than excited to jump on this project.

To start off I went with Adam Ewing, the first character of six from the novel "The Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell. They are all interlinked in a very interesting way and essentially Adam Ewing is the building block of the thread. He's an American Notary on a trip to the Chatham islands in the 1850's who befriends a sociopath by the name of Dr. Henry Goose. READ THE BOOK, IT'S THE BEST.

Oblivion

Been a week since I got back from Austin and man, am I slumming around. I drew quite a bit while out there but I've been in a funk I need to get out of. It's hard to keep drawing when you're your own cheerleader and not a good one at that. Anyways, DOODLES DOODLES DOODLES:

Also expect this drawing to get colored and made into a series of illustrations called "Goblin Nouveau"

I finished coloring that one illustration I was doing for a friend, just need to print the sucker up now. I really like how it turned out but I need to get producing more than a few illustrations a month, a few a week would be nice if I can make that drive.

It's been a bit since I posted what I am listening to so here is some Grimes. You will like Grimes or you will really like Grimes, THANK YOU

I Can Do That opening tomorrow

I am pretty excited for this show I am going to be in, I could spend a few lines trying to describe it but the Chicagoist has an excellent write up on it including my own piece ANTI- being the header to it. I am quite happy about that fact.
http://chicagoist.com/2012/04/05/new_exhibit_i_can_do_that_lets_you.php
Hopefully it's a huge turn out and everyone participates in a little art procreation.

Also I forgot to upload my finished illustration of Jesse Pinkman so here you go:

As well as some fun doodles:

Z is for Zmeu

For the last letter of Alphabeasts we're going all out Zmeu

The Zmeu was a good choice for the last Alphabeasts because damn, it's described as being everything big and bad. He's a beast from Romanian mythology, usually looking to be hunted down by some lucky knight-errant when he's not off stealing maidens to do what ever a Zmeu does with maidens. A Zmeu can be anything from a dragon to Balaur and is always described as being a fantastical giant of differing origins. Since it seems he's a shape-shifting giant of sorts, I decided to go the bizarre route for what his true form would look like. Also decided to make it extra flavorful for colors again this week since I really enjoyed the design and vibrancy of the Xiuhcoatl.

Y is for Yali

My Alphabeasts for this week: Yali

Going back to the mythological monsters of Hinduism this week with the Yali. They're one of the those interesting miss match creatures that seemed to be made up of a million parts. The body of a lion, the nose of an elephant, the stance of a human and a head that's part dog and part reptile. I did my best to work this all in but I don't know if I enjoy the finished results as much as other creatures I've rendered, still better than having nothing for this week. Don't worry, Z is already done and pretty fantastic. Maybe I should start getting around to finishing A through L.

Also here's a few more of those Game of Throne quick sketches:



and hey, it's been a while since I posted any music! Here is that:

Daniel Rossen's new EP is just so full of beauty and amazing song construction it's going to ruin the next few songs I listen to that are not this.

X is for Xiuhcoatl

My Alphabeast this week: Xiuhcoatl

Time for a good ol' Aztecan god. His name translates to turquoise serpent and is known as an embodiment of the dry season. For some reason I couldn't get the idea of cardboard out of my mind, the driest thing of things, so I tried to incorporate that with a texture. It's fun to go apeshit with colors, I should do that more often.

W is for White Walker

My Alphabeast this week: the White Walkers

So we're only 12 days away from the second season of Game of Thrones and I decided to start doing a doodle a day of the characters until we get there. In order to stay on track I realized for W I could do the White Walkers so now everyone is happy! EVERYONE!

Here are the others so far:
Brienne

The Hound

and I should have a few more post for each day in the next week or two. And yes, I am huge dumb nerd.

V is for Víðópnir

My alphabeast this week: Víðópnir

Here's an interesting one; a giant thunder chicken from Nordic mythology that guards the world tree. It was described as being a giant rooster that takes the colors of lightning and is seen as a symbol of returning life. I figured with all these descriptions it'd be fun to draw and go nuts with the colors WHICH I DID! enjoy.

U is for UWAN!

My alphabeasts this week: UWAN!

UWAN! UWAN!

UWAN!

UWAN!!!

T is for Tsukumogami

My alphabeasts this week: Tsukumogami, what a name!

Something this crazy could only come from Japanese Mythology. Basically a Tsukumogami is an intimate object that has been around for a 100 years and happens to gain sentience. In old Japanese legends it was said that if an object survived for that long it would gain self awareness and turn into a trickster spirit of sorts. Fun little guys and it can be anything! So I naturally chose a clothes dresser, who doesn't love dressers?

I was listening to the Mother 3 sound track when I did this since it seemed so oddly fitting.

S is for Sylvan

My alphabeasts this week: Sylvan

Sylvans are a fun concept. Basically they come from early English mythology and their seen as these wood inhabitants made from elements of the forest themselves. For some reason he came out looking like the main character of some 90's Nintendo platformer but I actually like that. Race on, you crazy little Sylvan.

R is for Redcap

My Alphabeasts this week:Redcap

I cheated a bit this week considering a Red Cap is just a goblin of sorts but it's history is pretty unique, coming from England. It gets the name from it's hat, which it must keep red with the blood of it's victims. If his hat ever dries out, he'll die. Its' kind of like a Kappa clause if you think about it.

Q is for Qliphoth

My alphabeast this week: Qliphoth


The Qliphoth is a fun little husk spirit from Jewish mysticism who is made up of impure forces and evil intentions. Because this is such a broad idea I had a lot of fun liberties with this one. Seems like it'd be a bit of downer to hang out with, not to mention the whole evil thing going on.

P is for Pishacha

My Alphabeasts for this week: Pishacha

Pretty straight forward, they are flesh eating demons from Hindu mythology. They love darkness, possessing people and even have their own language. It is said they can cause many forms of insanity in humans from their possessions and that certain Mantras can drive them out.

It's funny that so many cultures used to believe forms of madness were brought on by possessions from ghost and demons. It'd be nice if things were that simple and a few words could drive out such things. I guess it is nice that most mental illness don't eat your flesh on the flip side of that spectrum.

O is for Ouroboros!

My Alphabeasts for the day: an Ouroboros!

A fun creature to tackle, a snake beasts from ancient Egyptian times. It's described as an odd snake god who ascended from the chaos waters of Egypt and that it would constantly renew itself and die each day. Since then it has become a famous symbol for infinity represented by a snake continually eating it's own tail.

I decided to go with a playful, corpsey kind of feel.

Alphabeast: N if for Nephilim

I decided to start participating in this Alphabeasts project (http://alphabeasts.tumblr.com/) starting with the letter N so I drew a Nephilim:

I thought a Nephilim would be fun to draw because they're very ambiguous in both description and shape. Nephilims are old mythical creatures found in the older testaments of the Bible before the flood. They were supposedly descended from god (Described as "Sons of God") but born by a women so in way they are seen as half angels. Never properly described other than sometimes being giants and sometimes looking human, I thought it be fun to tackle it.

Looking forward to O next week so expect a post for Alpabeasts each Monday.

Also a dump of sketchs I forgot to post before the year ended.

and now I just got to color this one:

Space Dust #2

So we have entered 2012 and the world has not sadly blown up, as most people have said when starting out entries like this. That aside, each year I like to do a semi-loose not really overly comprehensive listing of the 6 albums I enjoyed the most over the year. So without further ado, here is a list of that with words, pictures and numbers!

6 great albums to put into your ears from 2011:

St. Vincent - Strange Mercy

A damn sexy album about self destruction, worry and madness. All set to amazingly rough guitar riffs, insane drumming and odd distortions that work together swimmingly. There is just too much to love here and after 3 solidly good albums, I look forward to her next outing.

Memory Tapes - Player Piano

Clunky, strange and flawed, I am still surprised how much this album grew on me. It has a very dark, slow electronic sound to it but with each listen I found myself more entranced by it. It lives in it's own weird, odd universe that I've come to appreciate and highly enjoy.

Washed Out - Within and Without

Perfect fuck music. A++

Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo

Essentially it does sound like another Super Furry Animals album (which is great in it's own right) but Gruff Rhys does a fine job of putting his own nostalgic spin on it. It plays like a lost pop album from the 70's smashed together with a more modern sound. Also to be noted that the track Christopher Columbus is one of the most amazing songs I've heard in awhile.

Omodaka - Sanosa

Not many things earn the saying, "This shit cray" but this shit cray. Over the top electronic beats taped up with chip tunes and a geisha style singer; it is honestly a delightful train wreck of music that is super enjoyable and super bizarre. It might be grating to a few but something about it's hyperactive existence is insanely lovable.

Destroyer - Kaput

Dan Bejar is a lot like Gruff Rhys to me. Both of them are part of bigger bands I enjoy as much as their personal work and both of them put out amazing solo albums this year. Sultry saxophones mixed with synthesizers and dance tracks should be horrible, or even worse, ironic, but on this album it is tactfully executed and amazingly lush. This album got the most plays out of me this year, considering it was released in January but it never left my playlist. A perfect album and amazing last track.