"We want to make a world that is seen through a dirty plane of glass."
-The Brothers Quay

Never let an art teacher tell you old is not an aesthetic
Fascinating article on the Brothers Quay


Doug Chiang has an update and a couple of new images for the next Robota trailer.
And I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but be sure to check out Chiang's and Orson Scott Card's Robota book.
www.dchiang.com


And here is a quick image I did for an Atlanta Star Wars club

Okay in the past couple of months, I've been near tornados, in the middle of a hurricane and now an earthquake.

My friends in California will think I'm crazy, but a 4.5 earthquake for 30 seconds is pretty scary.

It started with a boom, a growing rumbling, things falling off my shelves, my trashcan fell over, Christmas tree shaking., the whole apartment shaking. I ran outside. I thought my furnace was about to explode. And then I realized it wasn't just my house. But for those first few seconds I had no idea what was going on and that was scary.

Okay I don't normally post these silly quizzes on my blog, but this one cracked me up. ..I'm not that depressed ...really.....


As if you were born into a world of tears, you
always tend to look at the darker things in
life. Inside you crave attention yet push away
society, and you're a hopeless romantic. Drawn
to things like the occult and mysteries, you
spend your time daydreaming


What Type of Soul Do You Have ?
brought to you by Quizilla

And on a serious note.
Save the Red Pandas!


Something needs to change over at the National Zoo.
23 animals have died because of neglect.
The Washington Post has an interesting sad article
here

Yes all roads lead to Star Wars. It's kind of odd really, Kevin Bacon should feel jealous. I know when I google the oddest things, inevitably I'm linked to Star Wars.

While looking up Photoshop techniques, I came across this.
Photoshop 'exists because of Star Wars'


I must admit the first time I heard about the Hilton sisters I thought people were referring to The Hilton Sisters.
The musical Siamese twins that did sideshows and vaudeville in the late 20's and 30's.
They appeared in Todd Browning's masterpiece movie Freaks. And yes, I can even make a Star Wars connection here. One of the freaks was legless and walked on his hands and has often been said to be an influence on the design of R2-D2

The Goodyear Blimps crashes!



A stunning image of the young Myrna Loy

Rabbit Rabbit

It's interesting when times are tough you really find out who your true friends are. Who sticks by you through all your egocentric behavior, supporting you, and then who abandons you. I know I haven't been the best of friends lately, but thank you all who have been there for me, supporting me....thanks

Here are some interesting links:

The soon to be classic ..I think,
Jojo in the Stars



Hanging Corpse Admired as Sculpture on Campus (that about says it all, but click here for the full story)



And Angelie Jolie in Alexander the Great...drinking diet coke.

First my site crashes, then my computer crashes, and then my brain crashes.
Regrouping....

Nov. 19th 1581
Ivan The Terrible Kills his son.
Nov. 19th 1703
The Man in the Iron Mask dies in the Bastille.
Nov. 19th 1954
Sammy Davis Jr. looses his eye in an automobile accident.
Nov. 19th 1965
Pop-Tarts are created on this day!

Of course, I tell people to email me and then my site and my email goes down.
For commisions or comments email me at
Nekokaiju@aol.com
until further notice.

If you have emailed me at Paul@nekokaiju.com in the last week, please try again at my aol address. Sorry.

As you may have noticed, I have decided to update my blog more often. Unlike LiveJournal, I don't have a comments section, so send me an email sometime. Just so I know that someone is reading this, thanks.

Fascinating Harry Potter "book" binding by
Artomic.


Read on Dark Horizons, that Ridley Scott is looking into doing a film version of Monty Python alumni; Terry Jones story His Dark Materials, could be interesting. (wow, what a run on sentence.)

Also read somewhere that "Moo kari makka?” is how you greet people in Osaka. It means: “How are you doing, making money?” Glad I don't live in Osaka right now.

Here is a detail of some clouds I'm working on for an avation print.



I've heard that if you sing someone lyrics it will stop running around in your head, I wonder if it works by posting them.

"There's a club if you'd like to go
you could meet somebody who really loves you
so you go, and you stand on your own
and you leave on your own
and you go home, and you cry
and you want to die

When you say it's gonna happen "now"
well, when exactly do you mean?
see I've already waited too long
and all my hope is gone

You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way?
I am human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does"
-The Smiths


My Magic Cookie story coming tomorrow.

Darth Maul with Thai Headdress

Fascinating online gallery, the sculptures of Isabel De Obaldia




Rest in Peace Rerun, your red beret will be missed.

Green Vader, and yes he goes with Grumpy Obi and Angry Luke. I am making my version of the cover of Marvel Comics Star Wars #1



I find myself also asking, Why is Vader green?

A lot going on right now. Big news on the horizon. More in depth post soon.
But here is a taste!


A doodle for my upcoming online comic. A nostalgic Science Fiction cliffhanger for nostalgic prices, just 10 cents weekly!

Stay Tuned.

Just got back from the nighttime harvest parade. It's sponsored by the farm bureau so there were lots of people in cow suits, chicken suits, and pig suits. Very odd. I was expecting someone to come by and hit them over the head for food. Then it started to rain...Little did I know, they make plastic rain covers for Shriner Fezs. And one last thought, If your school mascot is a bluish purple bulldog, it still
looks like Barney even without a dinosaur tail.

Anyone see KillBill already? Send me an email, I really liked to hear some opinions about it. Hopefully I'll see it soon.

And here is grumpy Obi-Wan, He goes with the angry Luke sketch I showed a couple of days ago. And yes, I know his eyes need some work.

Well I know I keep promising it, but I'll have a recap of my trip to Baltimore and Atlanta this weekend, plus some thoughts on the business of showing my portfolio.

Recently I did a photomanip teaser for a friends website, click Halloweengirl.net

to see it.

The other night saw an episode of NOVA on the death of the Red Baron. It rekindled in me all sorts of excitement about early aviation. It'll be interesting to see where this all leads.

Along with NekoKaiju, Moxnix, The Tarot Project, and numerous little projects, a few of you might know I'm working on a 30's type pulp serial proposal for Bitpass


Okay that article has a registration, if you don't feel like dealing with that, just go to www.bitpass.com to understand what I'm talking about.

Anyway, what made me mention that was, I came across this great 50's/60's pulp site. Very exciting, nice animation trailer. I hope I can come close to the quality and adventure of
Daring Planet!

Picture of the security at a Rugby match in the UK. Looks right out of Gilliam's Brazil....

And I thought the origami x-wings at Dragon*Con were cool, check out this origami yoda at destroy all monsters.com


Luke sketch for a Star Wars painting I'm working on. I'd like to give the final to my friend Luke who inspired me. If you are reading this blog, send me an email.

I know around this time of year, you are thinking about how Chamberlain brought "Peace in our Time" by appeasing a dictator and sacrificing the Sudetenland.
Well okay maybe that's just me.
Even if you are not, check out these photos by Czech photographer Vilem Kriz

And sadly, goodbye George Plimpton

Almost recovered from sickness, tornados, hurricanes etc.. will post soon.

Meanwhile, more Star Wars graphitti spotted, this time on the streets of
London



A little history of the Electrolux. Includes my pet, the Model L 1968
Electrolux

I have a teaser up for my new website.
NekoKaiju.com


Opening on Halloween.
It's a pretty big graphic, so click on the link and then go make some tea and come back a couple of minutes of later relaxed...it should have loaded by then.

Feeling a little under the weather....better update soon.

Museum removes
'killer' Christ icon
Piece of art's 'energy field' allegedly causing death of staff

Dragon*Con report and a new sketch coming tomorrow morning

Dragon*Con: Day 3

Sunday was a pretty quiet day for Dragon*Con.
went to a panel on the audio drama Rise of Nobility. (Created by former Moisture Farmers).
Then went to a slideshow on Paleolithic art
by William Stout
The big winners of the Masquerade event (hosted by Sulu and Checkov)
were these giant engineered creatures from Where The Wild Things Are and PacMan....it was
chaotic costume craziness
too tired to write.... I'll have a D*C recap soon.

The second day of Dragon*Con began with a voice over the intercom
"Will the large green creature by the doorway please move his tail out of the flow of traffic"
The surrealism was just beginning. Shortly there after a biker gang of Klingons on Harleys rode by, their biker babes, showing off their saggital crests, some must have had implants.
Then marching down the road, in cadence, a squad of Cobra commandos. Ready to kick some Gi-Joe butt. It made me wonder about the pc-ness of reenacting a terrorism group, no matter how fictional, but boy did they look cool! So I guess that's what really cancels out any political conflicts...fascist fashion.
Then it was back to work, meeting with art directors. All very positive. Very exciting. Even my White Wolf portfolio review went well, despite me being very nervous, waiting in a line with many others struggling to break in.
I also ran into some people that post on the Conceptart.org forums, nice to put some faces to the names.
The rest of the day consisted of the usual, showing my portfolio, having conversations with Barbie Jedi, and the hilarious Mr. Star Wars contest(with it's wonderful judges). Yup, the usual.

oh by the way, It was cool meeting you Smitty. send me an email some time.

Well the first day of Dragon*Con is upon us. It started out by sharing an elevator with David Carradine. In complete silence. All I could think of saying was something about grasshoppers. Fortunately, I held my tongue.
And then off to show my portfolio. Lots of positive coments...
Lots of potential future jobs. An extremely productive day. I waited in line to see and thank Larry Elmore for all the years of enjoying his art for Dungeons &Dragons and beyond. After telling him how he's influenced me and all the fantasies of dragons he helped create in my mind, he basically told me to shut up and show him my art (though this was said very politely)
I obliged and then he proceeded to compliment me on my images.He liked my dragon, my female pilot, but was floored by my Salome piece. For a fanboy, who grew up looking at his art since he was ten years old, it doesn't get much better than that.
The rest of the day was great also. Met Brom, what a nice guy.
Greg Horn, who does digital work for Marvel, was impressed on how organic my work looks
and talked to Dan Brereton about Nightmare Before Christmas.

Other than the girls in latex school outfits and acccidentally bumping into Lou Ferrigno and worried about geting him angry, not much else happened. But it was a good day. Now it's off to see Voltaire...

On the road to Dragon*Con!

Interesting graffiti artist, Check out Chetrooper (the tshirt in the thread section would make a great gift...;) and DJ-D2 (at least that's what I call him)

Here is a link to a 14th month calendar with various portraits of Tori Amos, by artists David Mack, Ken Myer, Christopher Moeller, Dave Dorman, Tony DiTerlizzi, and more.... 100% of the proceeds from the calendar will benefit RAINN and the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

Ever wonder what happened to that baby from the Nirvana album cover? No, he didn't drown.
Click Below...

More of a doodle than a sketch.... female shaman with antler and tusks headdress.






here's a link to some wedding headdresses from Glasgow. Now you can celebrate that special day with emu feathers in your hair. When you think love ....think emu.




http://www.headdress.co.uk/

Be careful with bacon, because you never know who will see the art
that you made in AFO.

Okay, A big post this time....I'm going to try to update more frequently.
Also you may have noticed I've swayed a little bit from just talking about my career. I realized I didn't just want to write about that...So my journal is evolving. I'll still talk about art and influences, but I'll also mention interesting and odd things along the way

First up is the origin of the name NekoKaiju. It's origins actually date way back to the mid 80's. It's now the name of my studios and a future self published comic. This should clear it up.
Neko

Kaiju

Well, maybe not...I'll talk more about this later


VW is giving away iPods with the NewBeetle, might be more appropriate though with the new
iCar


I'm now doing some freelance work for Pheonix Rising Games,
stay tuned for details

When I was very young I went to a very hokey science fiction convention. My parents dropped me off and I spent most of the day in a room smaller then my apartment. Strangely that convention has influenced the way I think of fantasy art even to this day. There, I was first introduced to the anime movie Vampire Hunter D and that led me to look up the works of Yoshitaka Amano.
But the room was small and after a couple of hours of pacing I wandered out into the hallway. There at a table was a beautiful woman with long braided hair sitting at a desk. No one else seemed to pay attention to her. But she wasn't a figment of my imagination. She was real. And she was the first comic book artist I had ever seen work. Sort of haphazardly she drew with what appeared to be an ordinary pencil on a very large board (before then I thought comics were drawn at their original size) I watched her for awhile, mesmerized that a woman was drawing comics. I had never met a girl who even liked comics let alone wanted to create them. (I know this sounds terrible, but remember I was very young). Her drawings were beautiful. And I bought the first issue of her comic book. I told her I was going to be a comic book artist someday. She smiled and was very nice and told me just to keep practicing. I studied that comic for years, practicing how she drew hair...yes hair. I was amazed by her approach. And even to this day I think of her work when I'm doing lighting in hair.

That book was called A Distant Soil and I was watching her pencil and erase pages from the second issue. The book is still running today and a free preview of the entire first issue of A DISTANT SOIL is available at www.imagecomics.com. The artist Colleen Doran has a new book called Reign of the Zodiac. Check out an interview and a preview of the art at Comicon.com


It's interesting how such small things in your life can effect you forever....

Portrait from memory, in pencil and photoshop





A fascinating journal of a woman playing
Star Wars Galaxies

sketch coming tonight....

Okay this has nothing to do with art...except maybe the lesson that you need to be careful about logo design..
Northwest Airlines is now N.W.A

Too bad Eazy-E missed this...

No-Contact Jacket (right out of a William Gibson novel)

My old comic book teacher has a new book out. I thought the concept was amazing way back when the first issue came out. It's perfect...what does an artist do when he has only 6 pages of art and no script?;-) He creates an amazing, fun concept....read some interviews from Mark Waid among others
here...

and the official website here...
here......

The Baghdad Blogger is back. Salam Pax is now writing for the Guardian UK. A
POV
you never hear about in the US press.

Just promoting millaj.com.... a not so random Milla pic.
...forgive me. ......

Okay, every monday it is....
A work in progress



Approximately 666 days till this....

Haven't been wired for a couple of days....A tornado came into my life

Interesting article on the looting of Iraq’s National Museum of Antiquities

click here for the
July 20th sketch
(nudity)

Just a couple of things....

Well, I didn't realize it was a cliche, but this guy is one of the reasons I got interested in modern
graphic design.
Check out this interesting interview with Steven R. Gilmore over at XLR8R magazine. Lots of little tidbits about the beginnings of Nettwerk Records, I mean who would of thought that my grandfather and Cevin Key have something in common.... they both worked at Safeway.

SRG Interview

And while you are at it, visit Steven's site and see his amazing visuals .
srgdesign.com



Also if you haven't already, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly. It has a small blurb on probably my most anticipated upcoming movie (yes, perhaps even more anticipated than Episode III, sacrilege I know)
Mirror Mask, coming from those fine folks at Jim Henson Productions.
Written by Neil Gaiman, directed by Dave Mckean....really, enough said.

Ignore the previous posts… This Blog is now open.

So creating a website is sort of like moving into an apartment.
It takes awhile to get used to it, many sleepless nights. And you are always thinking about all the pictures you need to get up. I find myself rearranging things, never being satisfied. To make things worse this is a free site, kinda like a rental. You can’t paint the walls red, and the rental company gets mad if you start to build a grotto on the back porch. But you settle in and make the best of it, even if your neighbors think you are crazy and nobody comes and visits. To make things more complicated I have an addition, a place I’ll try not to neglect. I wanted this online journal to give you (who are you?) a view in how a starting illustrator begins his career. I’m not sure how exciting it will be, but I promise, to the faithful that return, at least one exclusive sketch a week. I’ll also have updates on all my projects and I’m sure random rambling about my cat, music, internet links and life in general. I’ll try to avoid the typical, “It's July7th and my life sucks” posts.

So what Projects are coming up?

-The big thing is preparing my full portfolio for DragonCon in August. I want this site to have all it’s links working and be my calling card for companies.
-The Tarot Project (I’ll talk about this soon)
-Neko Kaiju Studios, My self publishing venture coming Halloween 2004
-Various Freelance work (details coming soon)
- And more that I can’t think about right now, but you’ll hear about it first here.

Well that’s it, my first official post on the Sketch Journal. I know you are thinking, “hey where’s my sketch?”
Stay tuned… Every Sunday night.

I'll be officially opening this Blog on Monday July 7th. See you then.
test


The more I look at the fan art of The Patron, the more I think
Jonathan Winters snuck in there also.

So today I started to look at RPG art to see how I fit in with my peers. One of the companies I sent out submissions to, had an ink drawing of an interesting character that I decided to try my hand at.
Here's the original drawing over at Phoenix Rising Games.
http://pheonixgames.com/lances_art_preview.htm

The guy that attracted me was the guy on the far right.
I've added my version in the fan art section of the site.
Mines not as heavy and probably needs some extra chins.
Buddy(Herbie's Mechanic) Hackett died today and I think a little bit of him snuck in there. So here's to Buddy.

Well, this is my first adventure into the world of Blogs. Stay tuned for a weekly sketch and the struggles of a beginning illustrator.