Here Comes Lego Santa Claus, Here Comes Lego Santa Claus, Right Down Lego Santa Claus Lane...

Yay! I finally have a Lego Santa Claus in my collection! And it's all thanks to the amazing Ron R. from Ron's Random Stuff. He hosted a little give-away last week, to help get himself and everyone else in the holiday spirit, and so he sent me this little jolly old elf. I've been slowly building a collection of toy Santa's for a few years now, adding a new St. Nick to the display every Christmas, and I had been dying to get a Lego one. Now he's here and he's even cuter than I imagined.

Ron sent along a couple of other cool items including these brilliant little vending machine monster finger puppets. He did a little right up about these rubbery creepazoids a while back and I'm completely in love with them and their gruesome little faces...

But the real surprises came in the form of these two smashed pennies from the Buffalo Zoo!

I'm an avid smashed penny collector and love getting ones from friends around the country to places I hope to one day visit. These two would make excellent showcase pieces on an episode of Penny Hunter.

Anyway, I can't thank you enough, Ron! I, for one, am now fully into the Christmas spirit.

HO-HO-HORDE!

My Monster Mash-Up T-Shirt Design!

The other day, I stumbled onto this t-shirt design...

...(which is by an artist known as Raz and was originally available for order at Shirtpunch) that totally reminded me of another old t-shirt design I did back when I was with my old company. This is yet another design that didn't make the cut, but it was designed during one of our mad dashes to knock out a ton of potential designs for a Halloween program.

The two ideas are super similar, but the styles are completely different. Here's mine...

Looking at the two together, mine looks pretty cartoony. I guess that's what I was going for because if my memory serves me, I think this program was supposed to be for younger kids. Maybe it was too scary for that age-group and too cartoony for an older age group and that's why it never got produced. Now that I'm looking at it, I really hate the orange glow I added, and that "distress" filter was something they always made up add. It looks misplaced here, though.

Either way, I love that people can come up with such similar ides independently and execute them in such a different way.

Here's the original sketch I made for this design...

Now that I look at it, I guess I technically squeezed in an extra monster with the Mummy bandages. ;)

So, there's that. Just thought I'd share. 

Classic Monster Luchador Masks!

I did these for my boss for his birthday. Just thought I'd share. There's nothing like getting down to some good old fashioned drawing with markers on paper. Enjoy...

Halloween Monster Party! The Monster Mash!

Halloween Monster Party! The Bloodsucker Banquet!

Halloween Monster Party! The Werewolf Wedding Crash!

Halloween Monster Party! The Gillman Gala!

Halloween Monster Party! The Mummy Masquerade!

Attack of the Mini Monsters!

I love monsters. I really do. And I always have. So, it's often very difficult for me to pass up a bucket full of miniature monsters without digging through to make sure I have found one of each different creepoid before plunking down the moola to take the miniature horrors home.

These diminutive dreadfuls were found in one of those "Educational Toy Stores" (you know the kind; lots of Playmobil and science fair kits), on one of my trips, but for the life of me, I can't exactly remember which trip, since it was so long ago. I had originally picked these guys up when I was designing a boardgame called "Monster Planet", which I never did get around to finishing, so they've sat in a box for over a year now.

Time for them to be seen, I say.

These figures (which may be some sort of Japanese Godzilla-type monsters, I'm not sure) are really, really, tiny. Only about the size of a D&D Miniature, and each one could use a nickel for a stand. I think this is why I love these little guys so much; they seem to pack so much black and green menace (with those piercing crimson eyes!) into such a tiny package.

Like I said, I have no idea what the origin of these creatures may be, so I decided to give them all names. Let's meet them...

Above is Sphinctor. If his tentacles don't get you, his gas-spewing orifices will!

Next, we have The Noggin - the brains of the operation. His intelligence is matched only by his penchant for evil deeds.

This is Bubbles. He's a hugger.

The Pincher makes sure that no one is safe from his welt-raising ouchies. Don't think he's scary? Have you ever imagined being pinched to death? Yeah... it takes a loooooooong time.

Oh no! It's Roboticus Rex! Part machine! Part Monster! He's a slow mover, but beware his crushing grip!

This one is called Earz. Don't... make... a... sound.

Blur-face! So named because the picture I took turned out crappy! Oh, the horror!

And finally, we wrap things up with The Smoocher. He may seem like a lover, but he's really... A KILLER!

So, that's it for this week's rather silly post. I'll try to take things more seriously next week. or maybe I won't. It's my blog and I can do what I want with it.

Thanks for reading!

Food Frights!

Another idea for a line that I came up with at my old job was a series of t-shirts with accompanying toys that were sort of what you'd get if plastic toy food had babies with a bunch of Madballs. This was our "gross out" line that we ended up calling "Food Fright".

Sadly, the idea was so great that they immediately took it away from me and gave it to another guy!

Oh well... Here's the logo that I came up with that was eventually used as the hangtag for the shirts...

And here are my original concepts for the toys, which would have been the same kind of squishy foam that the old Madballs were made of, which is quite perfect for throwing at other people. (click the images to view monster sized)

Zombie Kid!

Here's a little quick illustration I did for a Halloween make-up kit. You may see it in store this year, so keep your eyes peeled! (And the doors boarded up...)

Chocolate Monsters!

One of the funnest things that I got to design at my old job are sticker packs! This is a sheet that I did for this odd little chocolate themed gift pack. NOM NOM NOM!

The Team Transylvania Toys That Never Were!

Yesterday, I posted some pics of some skateboard deck designs that I did that were going to be a part of this bigger brand called Team Transylvania, that would have included skateboards, t-shirts and toys.

I never really got past the concept stage for the toys, but we had planned this sort of Tech Deck/Art Vinyl kind of figure and mini skateboard combo. The figures would be all the main characters (Nashferatu, Frankengrind, Mummy Hawk, The Creature from the Empty Pool and whatever the werewolf's name was... I forget) and they'd all come with their own matching mini deck and matching carrying case.

But the sketch you see below is as far as that ever got...

(Click to see monster sized)

I think we talked about having magnets in their feet and in the decks so that they would just click onto the decks and ride off.

Such a cool idea, that will never be realized.

My Monster Skate Decks!

So, I know I don't post much here, but that's mostly because I've been working as a staff artist for a t-shirt and toy company for the past year, cranking out art on a daily basis, and I wasn't allowed to show this work while I'm employed by them but I can show it all off for "portfolio purposes" once I'm no longer with the company.

Well, as of May 4th, I'm officially laid off. Along with about six other artist and countless other staff. So, I've decided to say "screw it" and show off some of my hard work. Get ready for an art flood!

Today's pieces were posted here once already, but then I heard from a coworker that I could technically gert in trouble for showing them, so now I want to repost them because a) they're dope, b) the whole project got scrapped anyway, and c) that whole laid off thing.

So enjoy these skateboard deck designs I did for a line of monster/skate related toys and apparel we were calling Team Transylvania!

Oh, and don't worry about lil ol' me, I've already got a new job as an Art Director for a new company waiting for me. So I landed on my feet. In fact, you can see me and my art (all the stuff I've been doing with my new company) at this year's San Diego Comic Con! (Booth 5602)

3 Dimensional Boogorz!

A looooooooong while back, I posted a pic of some weird critters I came up with that I started to call "Boogorz", mostly because they were green and looked like something that would dwell inside a nose. Here they are again...

Well, I thought it would be fun to try and sculpt a few of them. I'm a crappy sculptor, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyhoodle, so after purchasing some cheap air-dry modeling clay and spending a half hour or so at the dining room table, this gruesome little bugger was born...

Isn't he cute? Like I said, my sculpting skills are rubbish, but they'll get better as I make more critters.

I'm thinking of a whole series of little uglies based on gross body stuff, all in little clans like the Boogorz, but made out of earwax and toejam and poo. Anyway. Just an idea. A very, very disgusting idea.

Random Toy Pic #6

BOOGORZ!

One day at work, we were trying to come up with some interesting ideas for plush toys for boys. We wanted something like Ugly Dolls, but not so cutie patootie. So I jumped on Illustrator and started making things with basic shapes and before I knew it, these snot-green monstrosities came out of my brain and the BOOGORZ were born!

Needless to say, they weren't used.

They look a lot like this cycloptic city-destroying monster I did back in school for the animated intro to The Super Danger Action Team, so I guess I wasn't done with making green nasties with staring orbs and chompy mouths. What can I say. I'm nothing if not devoted.

I named them Clampor, Tentaclon, Double Chomp, Huggor, Slugfang, Oculon and Sleech.

Aren't they the cutest?

RPG Book Illustrations!

Today's post involves a couple of pieces of artwork that I did for this locally published RPG book this past Spring. In this case, I was asked to draw various things that they needed for the book and was given a pretty fair amount of creative license to do the work in any style I wanted, so this was a pretty fun project.

The first thing they needed was this half goat half human creature decked out in adventuring gear. I love this piece because it represents a moment when I was trying out a new style and just running with it.

I was also asked to do some weird sea creature spot illustrations, which the art director didn't like at first, but I think they made it into the book anyway.

So there's today's artwork post! I'll see what else I can dig up.

Oh Snap! It's My Mutha Effin Art!

Hey people. It's me. Reis. The former High Priest of Geek and now just a lowly full time professional artist making his way in the world, not unlike David Banner, walking the roads of the world, helping those in need and turning green when he got mad. Except I don't help people in need. I just make art. But I do sometimes turn green when I get mad.

Anyhoodle, I decided to start up an art blog where I show off and talk about my art in a bald-faced, shameless display of narcissism and hubris.

So, here it is. I hope you all dig it.

Oh, and see those cute little monsters up there? Yeah. I drew those. Word.