Art Jumble revamp

This is not new, but I haven't blogged about it so here it goes:

The brief history in Art Jumble designs

(I couldn't find a screen shot of what AJ looked like when we first started it (from Week 1-7), but I'll keep searching for it though.)

(First design > 8-28-2006)

The first design of Art Jumble was a very dark green color, as in you were posting images and text on a dark background with white text. It was truly very boring, bland, and looked like any other Blogger.com blog. It was hard of the eyes too.



(Redesign #1 > date: 10-22-2006)

Redesign #1 was much needed and was created for Week 8 of Art Jumble. This design or lack there of really set the tone of AJ as it looks today. Posting on white was a cleaner look (and easier to read obviously) also to make it more fun looking, a doodle was created by Gary Ham and AT-Eagle font headers were created. We stayed with this design until mid-2007.



(Redesign #2 > created: 6-18-2007)

Redesign #2 made the blog wider to give it some breathing room. I even experimented having a 3 column layout for a couple of days (no one liked that though, ha). A Flash top banner was introduced with this design, showing a blue character Greg Ham created called Arthur (anyone who's been with AJ for a while knows who I'm talking about). The basics of Redesign #1 followed through, just with a little more dynamics. This design stuck for a while though only adjusting the side column information at most.



(Redesign #3 > date: 2-9-2009)

Redesign #3 was updated earlier this year. Again with the dynamics of Flash, I souped up the header to have three modules - Artist spotlight, Submit a Topic, and introduced comic jumble (a Flash comic reader). Hopefully it looks a little better and people like it.

Overall, Art Jumble started with less than 10 folks that all worked at the same place of employment, since then AJ has grown to have over 350+ members from people all over the world. AJ hosts some great posts, artists, illustrators, and designers. For all those involved in posting show some amazing skills.

I'm thrilled to have been involved with AJ from the very beginning - I hope people share the same love I have for community blogs.

Thanks for reading - now visit and be amazed: http://artjumble.blogspot.com

Booty sauce!

Molly (my daughter - 2.5) out of the blue said booty sauce and she thought it was hilarious - it was so funny!

I know she knows what a booty is and what a sauce is - but the fact that she put the words together and knew that it sounded funny is awesome.

Apparently, it's her way of saying bullshit, ha.

(Source: Urban dictionary)

New look...

Well, I'm working on a new look and it's under construction for the most part. But please stay tuned, I got some neat things planned.

Also, I've used this blog primarily in the past as an illustration blog - but now I'm going to be using it as a news / design / family / photo / illustration / thought blog (an everything blog or in short, just a normal blog, ha). Plus I promise to post to it more, when I have time and all.

K, stay tuned...

comic jumble™

comic jumble

comic jumble™
is a base for everyone to view Art Jumble anthologies, self-published comics, and web comics for FREE!

You can join in on the fun too! If you have a comic or graphic novel created, what better way to get the word out, than to display it here!


This is what I worked from to create CJ. Just figuring out the flow of things from screen to screen, checking things off as I went. I have other checklists and thumbnail drawings but this is where it all started.

Enjoy!

Look what my wife can do! Plush dolls, yay!

broken heart

red butterface

Experimenting with the brush pen...

Little Miss Muffet

CAKE v1 amp.az Article...

Here's a local article from amp.az about CAKE v1, check it out:

http://amp.az/home/ViewPost/1997


Also, this story was run in the Saturday (7-5-08) in the Arizona Republic.

CAKE at Red Hot Robot!

If your in the Phoenix, AZ area - stop by and pickup CAKE volume one. All the artists will be there, so we'll all be a signing copies and just hanging out.

Red Hot Robot - http://www.redhotrobot.net
14 W. Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ

CAKE, Volume One

(advanced copies)

You sure do got a purdy mouth...

Lenny "Rubba-Lip" Palazzano

2007-2008; anthologies & graphic novels...

I haven't posted here in since September 2007, sweet! I'll try to keep this so called "blog" updated whenever possible.

There's actually a good reason for me not updating.

Let's turn back time - through my work last year, our entire department got a free ride and hotel stay to attend San Diego for Comic-Con 2007, sweet huh? During lunch one of those days, my friend Robert Islas and I we're discussing how easy it would be to create a book with everyone in our department in it - we'd all create some illustrated stories & put it all together - get a booth at Comic-con next year - it'd be fun, right?

Well... we did and it's done! It's in China being printed right now. It's called CAKE Volume 1 and it's an anthology of 176 pages, 10 artists and 11 stories presented by Art Jumble.

I went in on this not knowing where to even start; I've never made a book before. Everything was approached logically from creating a project schedule to creating templates for the book format, meetings, yadda, yadda...

All in all, it was made in a little over 5 months. It'll be here in mid-May and we also have a booth at Comic-Con 2008! Please check out everything here: http://the-cake-anthology.com.

I'm currently planning CAKE, Volume 2 with Greg Ham. It's probably going to be twice as big as the first volume because we've invited several artists from Art Jumble that live all around the world to join in on the fun. It should be neat, please stay tuned for that!



Anthologies of 2007-2008

Because of CAKE, Volume 1 - I've done a lot of research about everything you need to know when making a book. Obviously, we are not the first people to create an anthology - so here's a list of anthologies that ROCK and/or are going to ROCK around Comic-Con 2008 week:


Flight, Volume 5
coming out July 22nd (Comic-Con week)



Flight Explorer, Volume 1




Out of Picture, Volume 1

Blue Sky Studios artists



Out of Picture, Volume 2
coming out June 3rd



Popgun, Volume 1



Popgun, Volume 2




Graphic Novels of 2007-2008

These are just a few well known graphic novels, there are a lot of them out there. These two come to mind because of their moods they set, action and just good old storytelling:

Bone, Volumes 1-7

(9 part series; volumes 8 & 9 are come out later this year)

I'm very excited that BONE is being turned into a movie (Warner Brothers). Jeff creates some great work and his paced story telling and inking skills are awesome!



Amulet, Volume 1
(5 part series; volume 2 comes out later this year)

I think Kazu is a robot - I'm not sure if he sleeps. Amulet got picked up by Warner Brothers too - these are very exciting times for Kazu. He has a deal with Scholastic for the first two books of Amulet, if they sell (which they will), Kazu will get to make the other three.

Chelsea the fortune teller...

Super old Pitt brush pen doodles...

robber guy...

I don't know - I wouldn't trust this guy...

My Mona Lisa...

Typical Goth guy...







In school I was afraid of guys like this; long hair, black makeup around the eyes not sure if they ate flies but I wasn't willing to find out - very weird = yes...

My imaginary friend Wilbert the peli-can't...?

This is Wilbert, he's one of many imaginary friends.

bunnies...

Anna and Sasha...

Anna and Sasha are some of the main (lady) characters from a story I'm making for a new anthology book series coming out next year. Sasha is a lhasa apso with modified hair, in case you were wondering.

Queen of England, during the 50's...

Seven Deadly Sins: Lust


Greg's Beef & Raw-bite...

If this had a 'b' card, it would be called 'Slim Jim'.


Robert is my friend, lol...

Some viking dude...

Begging for food, again?

But you just ate...

DINO-HAUL®

A 'U-Haul' for cavemen AND cave women...

Aliens and Robots...

"Me love to eat robots..."
1 of 5
(Monday)

"Hello..."
2 of 5
(Tuesday)

"Ah yeah, over here..."
3 of 5
(Wednesday)

"..."
4 of 5
(Thursday)

"These aliens are quite scrumptious..."
5 of 5
(Saturday)

Finally done... :) May I suggest to never create/post 5 Art Jumble pieces in a week - you'll go crazy, like me (no sleep). Looking back at this series as a whole - it could use some beautifying, more mountainous background elements, clouds, more dead robots (for #1), etc. (I was focusing in on the characters a lot). But overall I'm happy with it - it tells a story and that's the main thing.

Meeting notes...

You try to look away, but you can't...

I know you all have seen this lady...

me...

I always draw myself skinnier than I really am, lol - it does a body good!

Some faces...

Messing around with a brush pen...


My good friend Roberto Islas...

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - Fizzy lifting drink room...

Oddly, Grandpa Joe and Charlie are the only ones to secretly, or at least discreetly, disobey Wonka by drinking the fizzy lifting drinks and cheerfully floating around in the bubbles. Soon, they are soaring upward into the silo and drifting dangerously near a giant fan that is making a corresponding Giant Sucking Sound.

Charlie: I'm going too high!
Joe: We're in trouble, Charlie!

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - Mr. Slugworth

This guy still creeps me out - but when I first saw this movie (years ago), Slugworth gave my nightmares... :(

James Byron Dean

I chose James Dean because he like many other famous people, he died at such a young age. Plus, there are some very scary facts about the Porsche 550 Spyder that he bought and what happened to certain parts of the vehicle afterwards, read: The curse of "Little Bastard" (scroll down)...

Also he didn't have a frohawk - I added it just because, lol...

The Horny Conan...?!?!

It was Conan all a long in that darn suit!
Very creepy if you ask me...

Cowboys and Indians

Going Crazy



This video was made for 'First Friday' a scene in Phoenix, AZ that supports all forms of art. This project however will be projected on the side of a building with a bunch of other videos for all to see...


Jedi Springer

What could be more ghetto than the show Jerry Springer? It's more white trashy than ghetto, but none the less...


Peanuts - The Great Pumpkin

This post was created for Art Jumble.

I grew up watching older and at that time current Charlie Brown cartoons. My favorite character was Linus, because he was really smart, and when Charlie was having trouble he'd go to Linus for wisdom.

My favorite cartoon of Peanuts was 'The Great Pumpkin', it's more of a movie though. The Great Pumpkin is a Santa Claus-like being that seems to exist only in the imagination of Linus. Every year, Linus sits in a pumpkin patch on Halloween night waiting for the Great Pumpkin to appear. In the movie (and in every comic strip) the Great Pumpkin fails to appear, and a humiliated but undefeated Linus vows to wait for him again the following Halloween, but not this time:

Sample comic of Charlie teasing Linus about The Great Pumpkin.

The Great Pumpkin

Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire

This post was created for Art Jumble.

Ok, get your scrollbar ready...


Johnny Cash - Ring Of Fire.mp3

Love is a burning thing
and it makes a fiery ring
bound by wild desire
I fell in to a ring of fire...

I fell in to a burning ring of fire
I went down, down, down
and the flames went higher.
And it burns, burns, burns
the ring of fire
the ring of fire.

The taste of love is sweet
when hearts like our's meet
I fell for you like a child
oh, but the fire went wild...

If you listen to the song, right away you'll know why the mariachi band is seen. My interpretation of the song is that he fell into a marriage and his wedding ring (the ring of fire) burns him because his marriage isn't going well.

Monster vs. Monster

Who will win?

Monster 1

or Monster 2?

Illustration for logo...

Above: Is a rejected concept, lol.

Below: Is the final logo, that Speedtech created, using the modified illustration.

This logo at first, from what I was told will go on sausages and cookies, hopefully not a sausage cookies, lol. But it'll be eventually put of loaves of bread and all kinds of bakery goodies.

A Monster with a Monster...

Animals in bee costumes...

Elephant...


Jordan the Red Wine Genie...



Jordan
will be leaving soon, but do not fear - just grab any Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon, preferably 2004 or older and open the cork…

At the start of this I wanted to do an Al Hirschfeld like drawing. But it quickly morphed into him being a genie with a wine bottle and him doing that unforgettable Jordan pose, with his arms up...

That Jordan, what a gangster.

Jordan and Mopeds...

For those of you who don't know, Jordan is apart of a moped group called the Moped Army. So based on his profile, I made this:
animation
(turn up your speakers)

(This is a screen shot of the animation)