Plaid Klaus - Freelance Illustration Artist

Cloud Avengers: Website Traffic

2012-01-25T08:55:00.000-08:00

Can your website handle a sudden spike in activity? When LoveBooks, an online retailer of custom books, made their first national television appearance, their site wasn’t ready to handle the ensuing traffic and crashed. When their second national television appearance rolled around, they had Managed Cloud on their side and traffic flowed smoothly. Today, the Cloud Avengers help a marketing team discover the cloud to handle activity spikes and enable the team to launch campaigns faster without worrying about potential traffic jams.

Cloud Avengers: Broken Images

2012-01-24T12:08:00.001-08:00

Those tasked with managing a businesses’ website know that even when something small looks amiss on the site, you’ll hear about it in triplicate from everyone – the CEO all the way down to the janitor. Reduce the risk of hearing about site anomalies, like broken images, slow load times, and shopping cart hiccups, with cloud-based services to host your entire site or to offload elements, like file hosting or load balancing. By moving pieces of your website operation to the cloud, you can decrease strain on your local hardware resources and access on-demand compute power to cover campaigns or traffic spikes. Follow Karen as she gets a break from broken images on her company’s website from the Cloud Avengers.

Cloud Avengers: Server Closet

2012-01-20T09:34:00.000-08:00

Another Comic in the Cloud Avengers' series for Rackspace

What will you do when your server needs outgrow your server room? Before you start knocking out walls to make more room, the Cloud Avengers are here to help you make the move to cloud. By transferring functions like website hosting, business email, and file storage to the cloud, you save space, cut power consumption, and mitigate risk in the event of an on-site disaster. And most importantly, fewer servers means less on-site hardware to manage, so you can get back to strategic, high-value IT initiatives instead of keeping the servers humming. Click image below for larger version. Stay tuned next week!

Cloud Avengers: comic #1

2012-01-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

This cartoon was one of a series I've created for Rackspace Hosting. Great project, here is the write up Lizetta Staplefoote made for the cartoon:

Dealing with unrealistic demands to move at the speed of light without the resources or support you need? Never fear. Call on Cloud Avengers, a team of superheroes wielding the power of cloud computing to alleviate common business challenges. In this edition, we find Cloud Speed using Cloud Files to save the day for a stressed out IT pro. Look for more adventures from Cloud Speed and the whole Cloud Avengers team enabling businesses with the power of cloud.

Above Top Secret: Issue 01 - Page 01 (pencils)

2012-01-18T21:56:00.000-08:00

I'm starting a new series that I'm really excited about. It's supposed to release in the spring, it's called, "Above Top Secret." I'm going for a Film Noir feel for the first issue, it starts off with as a detective story that soon turns into much more. So, if you think you'd be into it, stay tuned for more updates, I just really wanted to post the pencils of the first page!

Rupert Murdock

2012-01-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

Congrats Rupert, you've just become a "plaid" leader! Here is my caricature of Rupert Murdoch. He got the go ahead, due to a little CNN report about Rupert Murdock setting up a twitter account for the new year and he started following our plaid twitter account for Google's CEO (thinking it was the real dude). In any case, as of now, Plaid_Page is one of the 5 people Rupert Murdoch is following on twitter. We picked up about 4,000 new follows for that account due to the report and incident. A similar story happened when Dmitry Medvedev opened his first twitter account. People heard he started an account and a couple thousand people found our Plaid_Medvedev account. Anyway, pretty neat, more crazy global internet randomness. If you want to follow more about the Plaid Avenger stuff I work on go to our website or follow the Plaid Avenger on twitter.

Peace friends, enjoy!

3d character model

2011-12-04T21:27:00.001-08:00

Untitled from Klaus Shmidheiser on Vimeo.

Buckie

2011-12-02T22:54:00.000-08:00

Israel and Iranian Nuclear Polocies

2011-11-29T13:15:00.000-08:00

Sketchbook - 2011: November

2011-11-28T11:26:00.001-08:00

The Good News

2011-11-28T08:43:00.001-08:00

U.S. Budget Crisis

2011-11-28T07:27:00.001-08:00

Listening Book: Children's Illustrations

2011-11-03T13:50:00.001-07:00

These are some illustrations I did for a Children's Book published by Mascot Books

Ashfaq Kayani

2011-10-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

Official Stats

Name: Ashfaq Parvez Kayani
Country: Pakistan
Official Title: Chief of Army Staff
Government: Newly established democracy
Years Left in Office: Indefinite
Education: Army colleges in Pakistan & US
Age: 59 (born April 15, 1952)

Luckily, the Office Just Isn’t What It Used To Be

2011-10-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

Here is an infographic for Dell I illustrated/designed, it appeared on their infographic page, you can check that out here:

The Evolving Workforce

Sketchbook - 2011: October 01

2011-10-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

October has been a crazy month, I've tried to keep a steady sketchbook of non-comissioned work. Here is what I've got so far, less than I hoped, but hope you enjoy!

Sketchbook - 2011: September

2011-10-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

So, I've decided to start uploading my sketches from my sketchbook each month. Out of the 100 pages in my sketchbook last month, these were the only ones not related to any professional work (wish I could show a lot of the other sketches I've been working on). I'll try to keep up the trend and upload another batch next month. Also, I hope to just do some more sketches next month that are non-work related just for kicks!

Boris Tadić

2011-09-25T17:09:00.001-07:00

President of Serbia

Official Stats

Name: Boris Tadić
Country: Serbia
Official Title: President
Government: Newly established democracy
Years Left in Office: To 2013; no re-election possible
Education: PhD in Clinical Psychology
Age: 53 (born January 15, 1958)

Ban Ki-Moon

2011-09-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

Ban Ki-moon

Secretary-General of UN

Official Stats

Name: Ban Ki-moon
Country: UN
Official Title: Secretary-General
Government: Global Governance
Years Left in Office: To 2011; re-election possible
Education: BA in International, MS in Public Administration
Age: 67 (born June 12, 1944)

Julia Gillard - Prime Minister of Australia

2011-09-23T20:34:00.001-07:00

Official Stats

Name: Julia Gillard
Country: Australia
Official Title: Prime Minister
Government: Well-established democracy
Years Left in Office: Indefinite: no term limits
Education: BA, Bachelor of Law
Age: 50 (born September 28, 1961)

Network Security Agent

2011-09-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

Here is some concept art I was commissioned to create a "Network Security Agent". I wanted it to look futuristic and sharp and like a secure defender. I decided to pull heavily from Tron to get that slick futuristic feel. The other driving force for the concept piece was a heavily shielded police guard (S.W.A.T gear style). I had a blast doing it, I'll post some colors as those develop as well!

Recep Erdoğan

2011-09-21T21:22:00.001-07:00

Recep Erdoğan

Prime Minister of Turkey

Official Stats

Name: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Country: Turkey
Official Title: Prime Minister
Government: Established democracy
Years Left in Office: Indefinite: no term limits
Education: BA in Management
Age: 57 (born February 26, 1954)

Hybrid Infographic

2011-09-12T09:59:00.001-07:00

I forgot to post this a while ago, it was a really fun infographic I created for Rackspace Hosting. I actually had a lot of fun playing with concepts for this piece and it became an enjoyable piece. I was really happy with the end result and feel it broke a complex technological concept into a simple digestible narrative. The infographic appeared on the Rackspace Cloud blog

Here

Band Members

2011-09-06T20:39:00.001-07:00

Some fun little characters for a college rock band called, "Monkey Bandits"

Carl Jones

2011-08-31T07:39:00.001-07:00

Here is a character for a cartoon I'm designing around an old folks home. I'm thinking about modeling this guy in 3D as well. He is one of two main characters. I'll outline some more details in future postings for this cartoon (as it develops).

Space Zoo: Pages 2 & 3

2011-08-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

Here are two updates on a project that has been on the back burner a LONG time (almost a year ago I started this project). I finally got some time to move it forward, hopefully I can regain some momentum on it. Here are the colors for pages 2-3, hope everyone gets a kick out of some updated comic pages!

Trinidad Character Concept

2011-08-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

This character was designed for a companies social push on "free give aways." They wanted a character who "gives away prizes". It's fun, they're encouraging a bunch of kids to submit there art for prizes. The webpage can be found here.

A Distant Star: Leon

2011-08-10T05:20:00.000-07:00

Leon is an alien who is stranded on Earth, far away from his home planet and is trying to find a way back. In the mean time he is doing his best to blend in.

RED-9

2011-08-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

Red 9 is a new character for an upcoming comic I'm working on called, "N.Y.S.P." (New York Space Police). Red-9 is an private detective.

Happy SysAdminDay Rackspace Infographic!

2011-08-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

This project was really fun to work on. We tried to show a fun day schedule in the life of a System Admin, and it ended up being a pretty good project with some great feedback on the site. The blog post can be found here:
http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/blog/2011/07/29/happy-sysadminday/

Openstack Timeline Infographic

2011-07-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun with this infographic for Rackspace's openstack 1 year anniversary. They wanted to use an image showing "kenetic motion," which seemed like an appropriate theme for the openstack project. In any case, I went with the idea of a rube goldberg machine and had a lot of fun with the illustration! Thought I'd post it here, and attach a link to the blog article on it:

http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/blog/2011/07/19/happy-1st-birthday-openstack/

Seal Team 6 Character Designs

2011-06-23T11:32:00.001-07:00

I meant to post these a while back. I am still coloring the final page for, "The Untold Tale of Undead Osama" its hard to fit it in around my freelance work, but I hope to post maybe in the next two weeks. For now, enjoy these concept drawings of the "Seal Team 6" Members!

#1: Charlie Sheen (Tiger Seal)

#2: Leon

#3: The Scottish Mark

#4: Bubbs

#5: Boom
#6: Wild Man:

Rumplestiltskin

2011-06-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Actors Theater of Blacksburg is putting on a play of Rumpelstiltskin. I illustrated their posters for the play which runs next week (June 23-27 2011). I had some fun with this one. I knew from the start I wanted Rumpelstiltskin to be sitting on top of the spindle, but I had to work out the composition to have it's full impact. I went through a few sketches and the client ended up liking the one with the figures large and in the foreground.

Here are two original sketches for the posters design

Cloud Security

2011-06-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

This illustration was one of a series of illustrations I created for a Rackspace Cloud article on "Tips for Security in the Cloud". The illustrations were used for an infographic and poster. You can read the full article here:

Blog Article

Seal Team 6: Undead Osama pt.4

2011-06-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

Seal Team 6 is in trouble, they need their leader, "The Tiger Seal," Charlie Sheen! Things are about to get interesting! Let me know what you guys think of the new page.

JLA Locker Room

2011-05-31T18:42:00.001-07:00

Ever wonder how supers really get so fit?

The Darkest Side of the Force

2011-05-31T18:40:00.000-07:00

I had the though, what if you were a Jedi and then just became lazy. This would be the true dark side of the force, because you'd never have to move again.

Seal Team 6: Undead Osama pt.3

2011-05-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

The story takes a turn, the team is in trouble, there is only one hope..."Tiger Seal" the leader of Team Seal 6. Will Osama's evil revived carcass defeat the world's greatest strike force? Stay tuned for the rest of the story!

Seal Team 6: Undead Osama pt.2

2011-05-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

The story continues! Just so you viewers know, there is going to be a special guest appearance in the final pages form an unsuspecting hero. The team leader for Seal Team 6 is someone you should know very well (star the speculation and feel free to guess with your comments below.

Seal Team 6: Undead Osama pt.1

2011-05-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

With all the conspiracy theories roaming around the internet about Osama Bin Laden's death, I thought it would be fun to do an action story about, "The Real Story." The untold tale of the undead Osama. This is a 4 part story, which begins with Team Seal 6 stationed in the middle of the Pacific ocean standing gaurd over Osama's lifeless body which has sunk deep into the depths of the sea. So, for all of you out there who want the "real" story of what happened with Osama, here is the cartoon documentary of what really happened!

Plaid Klaus

2011-05-07T10:30:00.001-07:00

Here is my newest Avatar Illustration. I'm redesigning my website (a little bit), and this will be my homepage illustration. I'm trying to play around and have more fun with my illustrations.

Alien Bandito - Colors

2011-05-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

Here are the final colors for this bad alien bandito! He is one heck of an outlaw. Thorax, aka, the alien bandito, is a hired smuggler. His main shipping method is using high speed planet leapers (a type of sports cruising space ship) and simply outrunning any law enforcement, taking refuge on the dark sides of planets moons.

Alien Bandito Face Shot

2011-05-06T21:48:00.000-07:00

So, here is a continuation of the Alien Bandito. I'm still creating a background story for him in my head as I draw, which I will try to post along with the colors tomorrow. I've finished the inks on the other concept sketch I posted earlier today. So stay tuned on Saturday afternoon for updates (hopefully). More on the character to come!

Alien Bandito

2011-05-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

I just love mashing genres together. In fact, it is one of my favorite things to do. In fact, recently I've been obsessing over robots, space, cowboys and mafia themes. I'm developing an idea for a comic that is on the tip of my tongue, but the details are still being "mushed" around in my brains cerebral cortex. In any case, I'm going to ink and color this concept for sure, but for now, enjoy the sketch!

Ninja Pencil

2011-04-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

Just testing out a new technique where I do the linework in Flash. Not sure how I feel about it. It creates really clean lines, but almost too clean.

However, part of me likes how perfect the line weight is. I think there are times where I could see this technique being advantageous.

Let me know what you guys think.

Discount Infestation Illustration

2011-04-16T20:50:00.001-07:00

This was a fun little illustration I was commissioned to do recently. I had some fun working on the piece, it was really silly. In any case, thought I'd post it up here because there was no non-disclosure on it.

Dominance War V - God of the Sea ( 3D w.i.p 01)

2011-04-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

This is my entry for Dominance War so far. It's still really early in development. I'm hoping to take the body into Mudbox soon and model the characters gun. The 2D concept can be found here:

http://plaidklaus.blogspot.com/2011/04/dominance-war-v-god-of-sea.html

Dominance War V: God of the Sea

2011-04-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

I've decided to take my concept for Dominance War in a new direction. I realized i needed to go more toon/humorous with my character. It just suits my personality to make if funny. SO, I gave the "God of the Sea" a receding hair line and a strap of "ninja throwing star fish" along with a "jelly fish shooting gun". Yeah, pretty sweet. Chip in with your own ideas to add to this character I'd love to hear what you guys think!

Space Boy - 3D Low Poly Character Model

2011-03-30T22:18:00.000-07:00

Space Boy - 3D Low Poly Model from Klaus Shmidheiser on Vimeo.

Here is the latest 3d character model I've been working on. I'm developing it for a possible iPhone game that my brother wants to create. Check out the video turntable, and click through the images below. Enjoy!

Retro Futuristic Robot Detective

2011-03-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

I wanted to sketch this concept up for a while. It is a character for yet another idea I had for a comic that is far too complicated to go into detail in this one blog post. So for now, just enjoy the art!

I'll probably go into more detail on the plot in future posts as I develop the storyline.

Dominance War V: God of the Sea - Poseidon

2011-03-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

I'm developing a concept for this years Dominance War challenge. There are 2D and 3D entries, this year I'm entering the 3D category. I wanted to start with a strong concept, so I'm first going to develop a painted concept piece to use as my reference for developing the character in 3D.

Here is the sketch as it stands, I'll post some painted versions later. Sorry I haven't been posting art more often, I've been busy trying to keep a good pace with the new Plaid comic, as well as keeping on top of my freelance work.

As always hit me up on twitter if you would like to buy this sketch ($15 includes shipping).

Charlie Sheen vs. The Trolls

2011-03-08T13:39:00.000-08:00

Who's winning...Charlie Sheen. The dude has over 300,000 unique viewers on his first Ustream show all via a twitter campaign! He's selling ads on for 6 figures...how much did he have to pay to advertise his Ustream?....hmm...nothing.

Call him manic, crazy, whatever you want. The dude is doing his own thing, free of the networks (whatever it is, it's still developing) and he appears to be gettting attention, and paying the bills.

Anyway, for now, I'm in Sheen's corner. I want to see what the Warlock does, it's going to be interesting to watch this battle unfold!

Lunchtime Fun

2011-03-08T11:58:00.001-08:00

Ali Abdullah Saleh

2011-03-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

Ali Abdullah Saleh:

President of Yemen

This dude had such an interesting presence to capture. He didn't have any extreme features to exaggerate, but he had an overall subtle anger that was always present.

Teodoro Mbasogo

2011-03-04T15:04:00.000-08:00

Another World Leader, and one of the Dirty Dozen Dictators, Teodoro Mbasogo. He is the President of Equatorial Guinea.

Alexander Lukashenko

2011-03-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Here is a caricature of Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus. With the success of Gadaffi's caricature being used in protests in Libya, Egypt and Japan, we figured we should help protesters around the world fight the worst dictators in the world. We are developing a "Dirty Dozen" page on the Plaid Avenger website with the 12 worst dictators, with a button where protesters can download a high res image to put on posters and voice their message under the image. I'll link on the Dirty Dozen page on the blog once it's active. I still have 4 more dictators to draw (7 already have been illustrated).

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and congratulations on my art appearing around the world, it is very excited, and I was honored the activists used my art to protest.

My Art in Libya

2011-02-21T13:35:00.000-08:00

The internet is so great. My Illustration of Gadaffi is being used in Libyan protests! I saw this on Yahoo news and to my surprise, my caricature is famous! God bless the internet. Hopefully, that caricature will help liberate their people's!

Just so you can tell this is not photoshoped! Here it is on YAHOO!

Space Zoo - P.I.G.S. (colors)

2011-02-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

P.I.G.S. (POLICE, INFANTRY and GESTAPO SERVICES):
a group of organized intergalactic mercenaries in high community standing; P.I.G.S. has replaced standard armies across the universe, supplying cloned cannon fodder for revolutions and dictatorships alike so that governments and insurgents around the cosmos don’t actually have to build an army the old fashioned way – the only thing they need is cash

Sketch up

2011-02-06T23:03:00.000-08:00

Was watching some movies and sketching. I dug the was this sketch turned out, so I thought I'd post for viewers enjoyment. Hope you guys dig.

Space Zoo - P.I.G.S.

2011-02-06T22:57:00.000-08:00

Photoshop Tip of the Week: Isolating Layers

2011-02-02T07:52:00.000-08:00

This video just shows a few ways I've used the Layer isolation ability in Photoshop by pressing Option+L-Click on the eyeball next to the layer you want to isolate. It comes in very handy when you need to inspect just one of many layers.

Old Man: Turntable

2011-01-24T21:42:00.000-08:00

So I threw down some textures on this character today, and rendered out a turntable. He's really starting to grow on me. I'm going to keep working on some little details here and there to get this character to a finalized state, and hopefully move on to a new character soon!

Old Man

2011-01-23T14:02:00.000-08:00

Had a blast modeling this character with some free time I had in the past two nights. Can't wait to finish the mode and put some texture on it. Who knows, maybe I'll rig him up in the end as well!

Old People Sketches

2011-01-04T23:28:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a while since I just sat and sketched for the fun of it, which is really a shame. I was hanging out at a local hooka bar (She-Sha) with some good friends and finally just had some fun sketching some new ideas. Hope you enjoy!

Iran Enriches Uranium?

2010-12-22T12:33:00.000-08:00

This is just a silly editorial cartoon I felt like creating about all the buzz over the years about Iran enriching Uranium. I just decided to take it literally and be a little playful with the cartoon. Hope you dig.

New Caricature: Wade Hams (corporate toons)

2010-12-17T21:49:00.000-08:00

Wade Hams

Good chances are you will find at anytime, anywhere, tweeting. Some would say this is weird. Some even openly rag on him about it. Others are thankful the content he produces. Either way, tweeting is his sport. When he's not tweeting, he's giving back to the design community by creating free logos for lucky winners every Friday. Hands down, Wade likes to give back to the tech world, loves networking with equally tech-minded people, and as always, enjoys long walks on the beach.

for Corporate-toons

Space Zoo Issue 01: Pages 06-07 - pencils

2010-11-29T12:03:00.000-08:00

I'm switching back and forth from penciling, to inking to coloring. I'm trying to work in sets of 2-3 before going on to the next stage. Here are pages 6 and 7, I'm catching up to the number of roughs I've finished, so soon I may have to rough out a few more pages. Send your thoughts and enjoy the art!

Concept Art: Oozma

2010-11-21T14:11:00.001-08:00

OOZMA (FEMALE MUD MONSTER):

a shape-shifting pile of goo, OOZMA is the super feminist of the group; she has the ability to look like anyone she wants but she intentionally takes a more bloated form to support her less-attractive sisters; OOZMA is loud and continually tries to impose her will on the group, especially if she’s wresting control from a man

Space Zoo: Robot #35

2010-11-21T12:33:00.000-08:00

#35
EVENT STAFF
(ZOOKEEPER’S ROBOT INFANTRY):

OZ AZEEM’S expendable robot security force, built to mindlessly obey and explode, in that order, like the FOOT SOLDIERS from the old NINJA TURTLES cartoon; each have a unit number and “EVENT STAFF” painted across their chassis in stencil font

Concept Art: NU CTHULU - colors

2010-11-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

NU CTHULU (HORRIFIC SQUID GOD):

en elder god in training, NU CTHULU is the group’s lazy slacker heir-to-godly-power who’s tired of everyone telling him what to do, or what his destiny or true potential is; NU CTHULU possesses psychic fear magic made nearly impotent by a lack of focus and training and communicates entirely through telepathy

Gem & Ini

2010-11-20T22:54:00.000-08:00

GEM and INI (THE “GEMINI” HIVE MIND):
GEM (the female) and INI (the male)

share a psychic bond that goes beyond just brother and sister; they can see what each other sees and communicate with one another via closed circuit telepathy and are trained in ridiculous tag team combat; flipping the trope on its head, GEM is the hot-head and INI is the diplomat; not charter members of the team, GEM and INI join at a later date

Concept Art: Aqualung - Colors

2010-11-20T21:00:00.000-08:00

While coloring this piece I realized why I am so excited to do a space story. First of all, I love painting space in all its wonder. Secondly, the story is outrageous and since it takes place in space, it can go anywhere and everywhere.

I can't wait to explore all the different amazing character, planets and stories I will get to explore while illustrating "Space Zoo"

Space Zoo Issue 01: Page 02 - colors

2010-11-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

I choose to develop this page with a red/orangish and blue/purple complimentary scheme. I love coloring firelight at night-time, it gives the opportunity to really push complimentary colors and create great contrast.

Now, keep checking back for more updates, because in case you can't tell by the look on Uncle Henry's face in the last panel, sh*t is about to get serious.!

Space Zoo Issue 01: Page 01 - colors

2010-11-19T13:12:00.001-08:00

So the goal of the colors on this page is to look like a moonlight night. The scene is set to be desaturated (you'll see why in coming pages). I'm experimenting with more texturing methods than I usually use, which I think really helps to set the scene and give it a tactile feel. Please give your feedback comments and thoughts!

Space Zoo Ink: Pages 1-2

2010-11-18T11:54:00.001-08:00

I finally had time to scan these inks in and clean them up. I'm loving working through this windy nighttime scene. I was able to turn the mood of the scene from an intense storm, to focusing on the looming enemy threat, by altering the lighting of the scene. Once the robots crash into the barn the lighting changes from an atmospheric moon lit scene to a sharply contrasting fire light.

Sherlock Holmes

2010-11-17T12:57:00.000-08:00

This was a personal cartoon someone commissioned for a friends christmas present. I Thought it was a pretty neat story. These two guys were traveling and they both randomly had silly Groucho glasses in their bags, so it has been a running gag between them ever since. In any case, this was a really fun cartoon to paint, hope everyone enjoys.

Space Zoo - Issue 01: Penciled Pages 1-5

2010-11-10T21:42:00.000-08:00

I finally had some solid time earlier this week to pencil out these final pages. I'm really excited about the way this comic is turning out and I can't wait to get on to inking & coloring. I know all you fans will love the story once you get a chance to see the final project. I'll keep posting updates as the comic develops.

Plaid Avenger - Wine Comic : Gigandos : FINAL

2010-11-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

Here is the two page spread all laid out and designed for the wonderful Mutineer Magazine (December/January Issue I believe). I took some to illustrate this map and add a wine glass. After everything was on the page and laid out it finally came together. Hope you all enjoy! (oh yeah, still need to put the website on the spread)

Also, here is a detail closeup on the illustrated map on the bottom right corner of the spread. I thought it turned out pretty cool, so I thought I would put a detailed image of it up on the blog as well:

Plaid Avenger - Wine Comic : Gigandos (colors)

2010-11-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

Here is the final Gigondas comic spread colors (as well as text). I can't wait to see this one printed up, I'll be sure to post when I get my copy and let all you Plaid Avenger fans know where to get your copy as well!

Warm-up Sketch: Circus Strong Man

2010-11-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here is my 5 min. warm-up sketch for the morning. Just needed to get ready for some comic pencils I'm working on today. I keep blending my cartoon style into my graphic novel style. Eventually they will completely meld into a perfect artistic balance. After that I can conquer the comic book world!

Plaid Avenger - Wine Comic : Gigandos (Inks)

2010-10-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

Just thought it might be time to post an update for the Gigondas wine spread. Now that the Inks are finished, I hope to finish up the colors sometime tonight or early tomorrow. On a side note, I just love drawing evil french guys.

Plaid Avenger - Wine Comic : Gigandos

2010-10-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

Here are the pencils for an upcoming comic I'm currently develop for Mutineer Magazine. This is actually a "redraw" of an earlier page spread I did for 16 Blocks about a year and a half ago. I wanted to vamp up the image because my style has grown so much since that last illustration and I wanted to produce a high quality image for this upcoming magazine. Hope you guys dig the pencils, I'll post the inks soon.

close up

Full Image

plaidklaus background

2010-10-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

I'm about 1/3 the way through the illustration for the banner for this site, but I wanted to post the colors on the first sections. This is my latest coloring technique where I color over the line art a bit more than in previous works.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Injunction Cartoon

2010-10-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

Here is the final cartoon illustration for the "don't ask, don't tell" injunction. Hope you guys dig the concept, pass it on to anyone you think will enjoy the cartoon! Contact me if you wish to use this in print or on the web! (to get a full res and unbranded version)

Military Operation: Closet Freedom

2010-10-13T20:00:00.001-07:00

I just felt I would do a cartoon in support of the recent news about the injunction of the "don't ask, don't tell policy"

"A federal judge issued a worldwide injunction Tuesday immediately stopping enforcement of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, suspending the 17-year-old ban on openly gay U.S. troops."

My personal view is that there is WAY too much effort spent worrying about someones sexuality. I'm much more interested in a person's personal character. Enjoy the cartoon everyone!

Comic Pencil Roughs: Space-Zoo - pages 4-5

2010-10-13T05:47:00.000-07:00

I meant to post these last week, I just got so wrapped up with other priorities that I never posted them to my blog. Here are the next two pages to the "Space Zoo" story. I'm currently half way through the next page spread, so I should be able to post that soon as well. This story is really going to be a sweet roller coaster!

New Concept Art: NU CTHULU

2010-10-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

HORRIFIC SQUID GOD

New Concept Art: Dorothy

2010-10-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a younger version of Dorothy with a more anime style eye. i'm trying to get a bit of the Power Puff Girl vibe.

Comic Pencil Roughs

2010-10-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to wet some comic fans appetites with some comic page roughs for the comic I'm currently producing with writer Jeremiah Allen! It's going to be a really great sci-fi quarky tale taking place across the galaxy in far off worlds and epic adventures. I am going to eventually release the first 6 (of 26) pages online for preview and I'll be sure to let everyone know how to get a print copy once it's released. Anyway, enjoy this very early preview!

Concept Art:

2010-10-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some more concepts for that upcoming top-secret (not that top-secret) comic. A bunch more crazy characters to come, can't wait until I can post some pages!

New Caricature: David Cameron

2010-10-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

The British Prime Minister. I eventually went off a video reference to really caricature his face, I wanted to go a bit cartoonish with him. He has this big forehead and the lower half of his face is a bit wide. Initially I gave him some very gaping british teeth, but in most of his photos you don't really catch his teeth, so I decided against it.

this caricature was made for the plaid avenger website

Concept Art: The Grit (colors)

2010-10-01T15:26:00.001-07:00

The Grit, such a fun character, I must state that again. A robot cowboy, I love combining two things that are already awesome and making it into something unbelievably cool. Also had fun adding in those crazy monster cacti in the background! Enjoy the new colors!

New Concept Art: Robot Unit #35

2010-10-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

This evil mad scientist has hundreds of types of droids, this is unit #35. He is one of many drones under the control so said mad scientist!

Pencil & Inking Time Capture

2010-10-01T08:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a time capture of my illustrating one of the "Future of the Cloud" Blog article illustrations! The song playing int the background is this AWESOME street musician in Vancouver, Andre. The dude sings from the heart, I hope to run into him when I visit the city later this month!

Concept Art: Aunt Em and Uncle Henry

2010-09-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Again, wish I could let you guys know the context, but it's too early to release details, but these two characters are going to be fun as hell to develop. These are some early mock ups of the two yokel characters. I sort of tried to mix Beverly Hill Billies with a more woodsy type persona.

Concept Art: The Grit

2010-09-29T20:10:00.001-07:00

I had some time to get back to the drawing board and I cranked out the inks to, "The Grit"

The Grit

Concept Art: The Grit

2010-09-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

Here is another concept for the new comic book project. The Grit is a western robot cowboy. He is a loner, much like "the man with no name." Since I love westerns and robots, this character is especially dear to my heart.

The Grit

Concept Art: Aqualung

2010-09-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

The Character now has a name, Aqualung.

Aqualung

Concept Art: Fishman

2010-09-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a new character concept for an upcoming comic projects I'm working on. The story is still under development, but I just wanted to post some concept art for various characters as they develop. I love to blend cartoon and graphic novel styles. I'm trying to mix Joe Mad with Bill Waterson, we'll see how that ends up.

New World Leader: Benjamin Netanyahu

2010-09-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister of Israel

Netanyahu looks like a cartoon already. The bottom half of his face is heavey and rounded, and he has that big nose bulging out from his face. I had to use this image as my reference for his curled upper lip.

this caricature was made for the plaid avenger website