JoeAlterio.com » sketchblog

Call Me Ahab

Joe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:55:00 +0000

Self-portrait for the ‘About’ section of my new site. I find self-portraits to be awfully pretentious (I suppose by their nature), but I’ve never been able to do one of myself and feel good about it. I think this comes close enough, either because I need to hide behind on eyepatch, or because this is basically an exact replica of my dream-self.

Call Me Ahab
Originally uploaded by JoeAlterio

I’m not thrilled about the line work, but I think for a slapdash color job, the quick color work is a pretty good approximation of that those heavy, yellowed clouds that make their appearance in most baroque oil paintings of the day.

Sketchblog 6/3/07

Joe — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 03:21:00 +0000

After all that rigamarole over the past few months, I finally see nothing but wall-to-wall drawing on the horizon, and that, to use a tautological dialect that hasn’t been seen on these pages in many months, is a right hearty sight for these salty eyes, me hearties. Above is a sampling of the new Robots and Monsters additions, with more on the way. Below is an avatar from a project that I just finished, which I’m OK with, considering what They-Who-Shall -Not-Be-Named asked for (don’t ask). I’m not usually a fan of this type of made-for-Wacom, GI Joe coloration. I think it looks weak and cheeseball normally, but it’s passable here. And with more jobs being worked on, a new episode of TBV in the works, and a super-secret project nearing completion, I’m thinking that for the next couple of weeks, this blog is going to be nothing but drawings, drawings, drawings. w00t!

Sketchblog 1/25/06

Joe — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:47:00 +0000

Penciled while listening to Elvis Costello and Devo, and inked mostly while watching a goddamn debacle of a football game. I love cross hatching, but I need to get better at it, and at inking in general. I feel so comfrtable with a pencil now that I when try to do with a pen, it gets all screwed up (see the hands is this sketch, which, when I drew them looked perfect, but now look like some kind of strange Lobsterman appendage.) Some guys have got it down, other don’t. Also, I need me a hat like that.

(Click to enlarge)

Sketchblog 1/15/06

Joe — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:06:00 +0000

I’m making a logo for my friend Dan’s film company, called “8th Wonder Films” : here’s a few of the ones that I think are more successful. I’ll keep you updated with which one he finaly goes with.

I’m kinda hung up on Black and Orange these days, as you can see. But the real hot color this year is gonna be Cyan. It will be to 2007 what Lime Green was to 1999. Just watch. You heard it here first.

Sketchblog 12/15/06

Joe — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:23:00 +0000

Back at it after a brief visit back to Beantown. Great to see everyone back home. Ups and downs, strikes and gutters. You know how it goes.

Today’s sketchblog date is a little disingenuous, because I actually did this work back in October, but I’m, busy working on Episode Three, and while it’s not ready yet, I wanted to put something up on here. Consider this the first entry – over the past three months, I’ve had three (!) gigs in which I was hired to draw robots – in what is the clearest sign that I am becoming “That Robot Guy”. *sigh*

Blue Flavor wanted a cool, accessible spokesman for it’s work, and because of their heavy expterise in the web and usability, a robot seemed like a great idea. Their sloagna was ‘We Speak People’, and the notion of that coming out of a robots mouth struck everyone as humorous. On top of that, they’re all comic book nerds at heart (aren’t we all?), and so the possibility of using comic art to appeal to their clients excited both of us. Below is some intial sketches, finishing off with the finals they went for. I’ll be doing an actual comic for them later, too. Dude! Comics for money! Sweet!

Oh, and Rebholz, this post is for you, sucka.

Click on images to enlarge.

Sketchblog 12/3/06

Joe — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 06:27:00 +0000

One of favorite films of all time is Carol Reed’s The Third Man. Not only is the story by Graham Greene great, but Joe Cotton and Orson Wells really hit it out of the park. Luckily for me, it also has some great character actors that mug pretty well for a sketchbook below, both by friends of mine, and added to my ever expanding link list at right:

• I worked with Dennis in LA, where we both escaped teaching animation to kids with our sanity barely intact. He’s got an easy way with the pencil that drives me up the wall with jealousy.

• Matt Glaser’s sports and politics blog, The Zong, is like a poke in the eye with a Tootsie pop: it still hurts, goddammit, but somewhere, somehow, you can’t help but want a little more of that sweet, sweet center.