Munnys can't look up

It took me a while, but I finally took some nice shots of my latest Mini Munny creation, "Shaun of the Dead." I'm pretty happy with the way he turned out. I really wanted to capture that smug, bad-ass look that Simon Pegg is giving on the SOTD poster. Speaking of Simon Pegg, his brilliant BBC series "Spaced" finally comes out on DVD in the US in July!

Anyway, you can see more pics of my Shaun Munny over at my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hefnatron/sets/72157603873704662/

Summer movies have started!

Ahhh...I love this time of year! The weather finally begins to warm up and the local theaters are ruled by the mighty summer movies to entertain us!

This is the cover for our annual Summer Movie Preview at the Salt Lake Tribune that came out last Friday. I had an absolute blast illustrating and putting the section together!

Major kudos to anyone who can figure out what classic comic book cover I'm paying homage to. Double major kudos to anyone who can find the Green Lantern reference!

"Fräulein Ravenwood, let me show you what I am used to..."

Here's another Indy inspired drawing I just completed. I've always thought it was one of the most tense and scary moments from "Raiders." Seriously, how much would it hurt to have a hot poker to the eyes? *shiver*

Poor Marion -- thank god Indy came back.

Nothing like a good cigar...

Despite the fact that the main image is a piece of stock art, I'm pretty proud of this week's cover for IN Utah this week. I think it looks pretty classy!

The Calm Before the Adventure

It started out as doodles on my weekly budget at work yesterday, then I decided to put the elements together. I'm started to get excited for the new Indy movie, so I've been doodling Indy and company a lot lately. Here I depicted a nice, quiet moment with Indy and Short Round.

Raiders of the Lost Munny

Another Mini Munny creation I recently completed is of one of my favorite heroes, Indiana Jones. I decided to depict him in a scene from "Raiders" (my favorite film of all time). He's holding an "Idol Munny" I made from a Munny zipper pull. I also created a base, which is based off of the floor from the temple in the opening scene of the movie. More picks of him can be found at my Flicker site here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hefnatron/sets/72157603873704662/

I'm currently finishing up 2 more Mini Munny creations that I will post about in the near future!

Hints as to who they are: One "Aims to misbehave" and the other is a "Slice of fried gold!"

Lil' Leonidis

I've had him done for a couple of months and I can't believe I haven't posted him on here yet! It's my second custom Mini Munny--Leonidis from the movie "300." I made him for my wife for Valentine's Day and she absolutely loved it!

Check out more images of him on my Flicker site here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hefnatron/sets/72157603873704662/

Beard-Be-Gone!

I recently shaved down the beard that I've had for several months. It started out as "scruff" in the summer (came in handy when I was Dr. House for Halloween) and when November came around, I decided to let it grow out full.
When I was shaving it, thought I would have a little fun and gave myself rock-a-billy sideburns for all of 30 minutes. My wife didn't approve of them.

R.I.P.: "Blain's Rock-a-Billy Sideburns, March 20, 2008 7:40 A.M. - 8:10 A.M."

She did however fondly approve of me keeping a goatee! Here's a pic of me after I got done shaving:

Utah Press Association award!

Last week I was surprised to find out that I won first place in the Feature Page Design category in the annual Utah Press Association awards!

For my win, I got this snazzy plaque!!!:



Unfortunately, I don't know which page I won for. If I were to bet, it was probably for this page:

Then again, it could also be for this page:

...and I can't remember what my third entry was. Oh well.

My dogs Blaze and Zorro think the plaque is really cool too.

Big thanks to the judges and to the UPA!

Zartan's Not-So-Sunny Disposition

Did this drawing for a G.I. JOE contest over on the Channel Frederator RAW site.
For those not-in-the-know on JOE, Zartan has a nasty allergy to the sun that causes him to become weak and turn blue-ish green.

Spidey...MAN!

Found a sketch of Spider-Man I did about 6 months ago and decided to finish him up!

For all the comic geeks, the background is based off of the background on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man # 50 --the "Spider-Man No More" issue.

2-D becomes 3-D

This is the illustration that I did that was on the front of our wedding invitation and below is a wedding picture of Nikki and I that her parents took. It turned out to be a really awesome day!!!--even without the swords!

Vista vs. Leopard

Recent illustration I did for an article talking about the pros and cons of Vista and Leopard OSX for Macs. I was a little bias on which operating system had the upper hand in the illo...

Married and Hefnatron Munny comes home

Geez it's been a while! The most exciting thing that has happened in the last few months was getting married to my fiance Nicole!

Also, my Hefnatron Munny Mobile ended it's run at the Munny show that was at Mechanized Records and is now at home among my robot collection.

It started out as a Munny Mobile kit from Kid Robot.

It took 3 to 4 days (including all day Saturday and Sunday sessions) to complete it. It's mixed media with everything from plexi-glass to Dr. Pepper cans. It was a blast making it!

* pun intended ;)

His helmet was stifling...

About a month ago, I did a sketch of Leonidis, the Spartan General in my "Egghead" style at the request of my fiance. I decided to take a small break (a whole day!) from a couple of other projects do a quick painting of him. I thought it would be fun to emulate a little bit of the style of Frank Miller and Lynn Varley for the piece, like in their graphic novel "300."

It was fun studying their artwork closely and trying to figure out what techniques they used to achieve their looks (watercolor washes, inking). Any good artist can learn by trying to draw or paint in the same styles of other well known artists. They can take what they learn, add them to thier arsenal of techniques and apply it to their work in their own style.

My fiance, the flu and Ms. Pac-Man

Wow! Where did March go?!?!

Sorry it's been a while. It's been a pretty eventfull month. My fiance Nicole finally got to move in with me (YAY!), then I got the flu (but not from her ).

The flu hit me pretty hard, so unfortunately, my studio was neglected for about 2 weeks. I did whip out a quick painting before I got sick though:

The idea for this Ms. Pac-Man Pin-up painting has been floating around in my sketchbook for about a year now and a contest at Ain't It Cool News.com gave me the excuse to bust it out into a full fledged painting. My painting was one of five other paintings that were picked as the winners!

You can read all about it here!!! : http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32034

Also, Kotaku featured an article about the contest: http://kotaku.com/gaming/8+bit/aint-it-cool-8+bit-art-247588.php

Other than that, the first Femnauts painting is ALLLLLLMOST finished and will be unveiled next week!

I've also been working on background paintings for "Maria" and will hopefully be posting another sneak peek sometime in the near future, so STAY TUNED!!!....

Progress is going great on the first "Femnaut" painting! Below is another progression shot of the face of my fiance, Nicole. Still got some work to do before it's done, but it's getting there! Should be done pretty soon!

Hello everyone!
I've recently over-hauled my website, so I've decided to start fresh with the blog!
I've started a new series of paintings called "Femnauts." It's a series based on the great pinup art of the 40's, 50's and 60's from artists like George Petty, Gil Elvgren, and Alberto Vargas. The paintings will explore the strength and beauty of women in the traditional pin-up fashion, but set in a mod-space theme.

This is a progression shot of the first painting from about a week ago:
This first painting is based on my fiance, Nicole. Next is the most recent progression shot, a close-up of her raygun!



I've still got some work to do on the skin, face and background, so keep checking back for the finished painting very soon!!!

Im still in the need of models to help get the series up to speed and keep it going! If you think you've got the right stuff to be a Femnaut, drop me a line!--- hefnatron (at) hotmail.com