The inspiration for this piece came from, well, Buzz Lightyear. I’ve just always wondered how he’d look in my style, so I decided to find out!

The shading style is new for me, but I’m really happy with how it turned out, and I’m planning on applying it to more drawings in the coming weeks. Check out my Deviantart gallery for the full size.

Er… I mean, I’ve been really busy… that’s why.

Anywho, short update since my last post. Business has been good, and has kept me fairly busy, and therefore I haven’t been keeping up with the art for the past few months. Since this is basically my art blog, there hasn’t been a thing worth posting since Anime Evolution last year. Everything else has pretty much been “work for hire” type stuff or graphic design in nature, so I just haven’t had the opportunity to update everyone on the goings on.

On top of that, I’ve also recently gotten engaged and that’s kept me pretty busy as well. Along with my podcast, Frontlines: The Clone Wars Podcast, and heading to Star Wars: Celebration V in August, I’ve been swamped.

But that’s all about to change!

You see, recently I’ve gotten in with a pretty awesome group called Cloudscape. I met them while on a work assignment for Anime Evolution (I headed up a project to design their Skytrain posters this year, along with two other designers). We were doing a photoshoot of the Cloudscape crew for one of the posters, and I thought to myself, “Self, this is the type of group we’ve been searching for! They just hang out and draw, and then work together to publish awesome comics!” So I resolved to join their clan and become a contributing member over time.

Well, that time came pretty quickly, as the second time I hung out with them, my creative juices went on overload, and I produced three awesome drawings! The best of which I’ve colored and you can find in the portfolio section. Also, you can see the lineart of four drawings I’ve done with the group below.

But these peeps don’t just sit around and draw. Like I said, they produce awesome comics together! But those of you who know my art style know I’m not much of a sequential artist (comic draw’r for the layman). But then, prompted by their weekly Comic Battle and delirium brought on by extremely hot temperatures, I mades me a comic!

So, long story short; I haven’t drawn anything in a while, but now I’m a drawin’ machine! So sit back, make sure your seats and tray tables are in their upright and locked positions, and punch in the coordinates to the navicomputer, cuz it’s gonna be a heckuvaride!

Illustrations of the party so far...

Of course, even that font of inspiration has it’s limits. Sometimes the well just runs dry. I’ve heard from other artists that I’m just being dramatic, and that I’m not trying hard enough, and all sorts of other platitudes. But the truth is that for some of us, there’s an ethereal substance that we draw from to create, and sometimes, we use that substance up faster than we generate it.

As you can see, I’ve been thinking about this a great deal in the past few weeks. And in common fashion, as I mused about my predicament, along comes the perfect insight. If you’re an artist who has ever found themselves in the position I’m in, then watch this video, and hopefully it will help you as it’s helped me, to understand just a little more about where that urge (or lack thereof) to create comes from.

That being said, there are a couple of prints left over from the show, so if you were sad you couldn’t get to the con to get them, just message me if you want either the $10.00 Dragonball Z print or the $15.00 Sonic the Hedgehog print and if you want both prints, you can get them both for $20.00! That’s a steal!

Anyways, thanks again to everyone who came out to support me! As well, don’t forget to check out my Deviantart gallery for more art!

-Mike

Hope you like ‘em! See you all there!