Where to Buy Hellbound 2 Limited Edition

http://hellboundinboston.blogspot.com/p/hellbound2.html

http://hellboundinboston.blogspot.com/2011/10/buy-hellbound-2-limited-art-edition.html

There are only 25 of these limited edition box sets ever produced. Each box is crafted in hand made paper, made by Boston Paper Collective. The cover art is silk screened and the box is hand folded. The limited edition is 104 pages hand bound within handmade paper covers in two books within the box. The stories are printed in black digitally on Butcher White 50 lb paper.

Contributing artists are:
Nathan Kitler and Jerel Dye, Clayton McCormack, John Hilliard, Joshua Hoaglund, JL Bell and Andy Wong, Caitlin Plovnick, Ansis Purins, Gabriel Robinson, Patrick Flaherty and EJ Barnes, Logan Faerber, Gregery Miller, and Lindsay Moore and Alex Cormack. The book also features illustrations by the artists Bob Flynn, Erik Heumiller, Carl Tsui, Nate Furman, Cherry Ogata, Laurel Leake, Jesse Lonergan and Roho.

Hellbound2 interview for Mt Auburn Night

Interview
See you there my friends!

Cambridge local press announcement

exterior view of Vancouver Art Gallery

There was a huge surrealism exhibit going on in the gallery. I was able to see some old favorites and add some new ones.

Pics are not allowed inside. This poster of the painting in the gallery is the only clue to what lies awaiting on the interior walls. The actual painting is rather small, like a lot of surrealist art. Cutting edge work for it's day it would be quite common today.

Vancouver Art Gallery

I had 45 minutes to check out the Vancouver Art gallery today. Mayari fell asleep in the stroller. So I sketched out some Haida and Tsimshian sculptures.

Vancouver

Vancouver is amazing. This is a very international city, with influences of USA, Aisa, India, Brazil, There is a strong creative force here it is literally creating Canada in real time each step you take down the street. I feel like I am walking thru the set of Bladerunner. Grainville St. is a lit up promenade full of shopping resturaunts, and clubs. There is old school neon signage mixed with wirless technology. The people on the streets are not afraid to dress up/dress down or kiss in public. I feel a bit like I am walking thru a Robert Burns comic book at times. I have mainly been confined to the city itself, but you can see mountain ranges direcly across from the convention center. Nature is very close to this urban space, the element of water is particularly strong in the climate.

A single picture does not do justice to how lively the city is day or night. There is even radical cuisine, we ate some sushi with ketchup on it. There was a huge fireworks event Saturday night, the streets were packed with everyone that was out to see the event. There were skateboarding contests during the day.

There is art everywhere here. Artisans and Street artists setup and selling.
This is a manhole cover. With a Northwest Pacific Style frog and tadpole theme.

On Friday I was lucky enough to see the Bill Reid Gallery of North West Coast Art. 639 Hornby St. Mayari is pretty well behaved in Museums. I could spend more time looking, but she needs to move on. The gallery had the cast gold version of "a depiction of the Haida creation story, where Raven opens an oyster shell on the beach to find the first Humans."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Reid

Bill Reid's art work is outstanding. I have always wanted to see his work in person. He created amazing sculpture and jewelery. I was introduced to his work thru my father who is also a sculptor,metal smith.

http://theravenscall.ca/en/art

There are still four days left here for us. Tomorrow Mayari and I are going whale watching. Then a conference party at night with Momma.

Painting

These are two ink and white out paintings. I created these this weekend.

Mt Auburn Night will be published in Hellbound 2 The Boston Comics Roundtable Horror Anthology

http://www.bostoncomicsroundtable.com/

http://hellbound.riverbirdcomics.com/p/submissions.html

I am excited to post that my Mt Auburn Night will be published in Hellbound 2, from Boston Comics Roundtable. I have been posting updates to Mt Auburn Night on this blog since I started it in March. I am really excited to work with Boston Comics Roundtable. Their comics are solid good work, and they are in comic shops throughout the metro Boston area and New England. Check them out, read the comics.

http://riverbirdcomics.com/

Teaching Maya at Harvard Extension School in the Fall 2011 Term.

This fall I will be the instructor for Intro to Maya at Harvard Extension School.
http://www.extension.harvard.edu/courses/12982

Course Description:

This course is an introduction to Maya 2011. Maya is an industry standard 3-dimensional (3-D) software used to create animated films, video games, medical visualizations, and special effects for films. The objective of the course is to familiarize students with the fundamentals of a 3-D working environment using Maya 2011. The course develops skills in four elementary 3-D software topics: interface, objects, hierarchy, and animation. These four topics translate into most 3-D software packages and provide a foundation for using 3-D software. Topics include Maya interface, modeling, 3-D animation, textures, lighting, and rendering. Prerequisite: familiarity with Adobe Photoshop, Mac OS X. (4 credits)

Wednesdays beginning Aug. 31, 5:30-7:30 pm.

I am thrilled and honored to be the instructor for this course. Working on the course plan is getting me excited to teach. My goal is to have all the students comfortable with core concepts for Maya. I want beginner students to feel like they will get an enhanced first course for Maya with an experienced instructor. Also I have worked with students who have previous experience in a 3d Package and they are great to work with. The past three years I was the Teaching Assistant for Tereza Flaxman when she taught this course. The students in this course are motivated and fun to work with.

I may use this blog to post some maya tutorials.

G is for Guitar

Coloring Book page # G

This is modeled from a Guitar that Mayari and I bought in LA last year when we attended SIGGRAPH 2010.

This photo was taken at La Plaza park across the street from Union Station in Los Angeles CA. Mayari saw the guitars and had to have it. The guitars for sale all had cool hand painted designs on them.

Where? Here:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=la+train+union+station&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

T is for Truck

The modern day workhorse,wagon,toy. For the coloring book series.

Thanks to DiggerFanJSB for posting the vid on youtube.

P is for Penguin

P is for penguin. Penguins are Iconic.

They have been around for millions of years. Imagine a 5-foot tall 36 million year old penguin. They are examples of elegant design and evolutionary efficiency.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/inkayacu-perus-giant-fossil-penguin-and-the-stories-its-feathers-tell/


Making this coloring book page led me to wondering why penguins are so mainstream in animation. They always seem to have a presence in entertainment. I started to think that it is because of their shape may be easier to animate. Their shape and contour is one step more complex than the basic flower sack animators use for practice. Their black and white contrast makes them easier to color. Google could not answer my question.

For example:

Penguins of Madagascar(My personal favorite in terms of style and character attitude)
Happy feet(CG Musical mo-cap of an outcast dancing penguin)
March of the Penguins(Documentary)
321 Penguins (CG space penguins on Qubo cable channel)
The Penguin (Batman Villain)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_%28comics%29
Surf's Up (CG surfing penguins)
Mr Popper's Penguins Starring Jim Carry
The Linux Icon is a Penguin
NHL Hockey team Mascot
There is a penguin meme
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/socially-awkward-penguin#.TcY9WbKTgbQ

Chilly Willy himself is a Penguin




Bugs bunny gets owned by the skating penguin by bringing him to Antarctica mistakenly in an effort to bring him home only to realize he is from Hoboken NJ.


Full Version(with a cameo of Humphrey Bogart)



Mary Poppins seems to get it right. She gets the penguins to serve her lunch.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin

Thanks to the you tube users who posted these
dotHackNETSLUM,AlexValve,mromro,heliomrdias,GrahamCracker22

Comic Con Boston 2011

Comicon Boston 2011 was great. I had half a day there Saturday to browse, collect, see some old friends and meet new ones.

Highlights of the day for me were seeing Matt Smith and Craig Rousseau fellow alumni from U Mass Dartmouth. They each had artist's booths where they sold their comics.

Matt writes the saga of Barbarian Lord, a cornucopia of raven food for your consciousness. Buy it because it will keep trolls from nesting under your tool shed.
http://www.barbarianlord.com/

Craig is a freelance artist for Marvel. He is an accomplished Illustrator with his own title to boot. He has a long list of mainstream comics he has worked on.
He also has a good blog with some sweet costume pix from the conference.
http://blog.perhapanauts.com/2011/05/boston-report-part-1.html
http://www.craigrousseau.com/

Non Alum I met include some cool people at Boston Comics Round table. I also met Ansis Purins whose comic cracks me up. Zombre is awesome,I purchased a print from Ansis. He also received a grant to work on his comic,congrats.
http://www.ansis.tv/

I found some cool toy creators at comicon. I wish I had a bunch of these little guys with their mix and match components.
http://callgrim.com/

I purchased a Tim Sale sketch book last minute and I am pleased with it. http://www.timsale1.com/

I also was able to watch Neil Adams give an interview.
http://www.nealadams.com/

L is for Lion and B is for Ball

L is for Lion.

B is for Ball.

Here are two more alphabet coloring pages for you kids out there. I have been using Mayari's toys for reference on a few of these drawings. The Lion toy I used for reference was posed with twinning on the legs. It creates a stiff power pose. Not a very animated pose. It would be tough to change weight from a position like this, making it a very static pose. Probably why it works for a child's toy. It wont tip over. I stuck with it and feel that it went in a romanticized direction of a lion. Reminding me of medieval tapestry. I am trying not to get too stuck to realism. I left behind the details in the mane to create my own. I think a little weight shift of the pose would help this as a 2d drawing. I need to do some life studies of lions. I don't always like the way I draw them.

The ball was tougher to draw than I planned. I erased and erased then redrew the entire thing a few times. It was far more of a draftsmanship exercise.

Mt Auburn Night Pages 0-6

Here is a recap of the Mt Auburn Night Graphic novel pages I have posted on this blog.

I converted pages 0 through 6 to be easily readable on an smart phone or tablet. I need to create a html page to center the image then I need to add a share button on the bottom of the page. Please share this comic with your friends if you like it. Test it on your tablet or smart phone.

http://joshua-hoaglund.com/MtAuburnNight/MtAuburnNight_P0-P6.jpg

Mt Auburn Night Page 6

Page 6 of my Graphic Novel Mt Auburn night.

I'm doing some experiments with this for the Ipod. I may post an Ipod/Tablet version of all these pages so the reader can catchup with the story all in one format.

R is for Ravens J is for Jaguar

At Sticklestad, Fitting to a battle field there are ravens. Huggin and Muggin, Odin's Ravens. Their names mean Thought and Memory. They are made of steel and mounted on a wall outside of the main building.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn

J is for Jaguar

Here is another coloring book page for anyone. Just print this out and fit to page in your printer settings. There are sixteen more letters to create. I have ideas for a few of the 16 remaining letters. I feel working on this project is productive for Mayari's learning how to write. She is writing her name on her own now, and is able to spell a few other words. I have a plan for these when the Alphabet coloring pages are done, I will animate the letters to the alphabet song somehow. I would like to take coloring Mayari has made on them and use that as the color for the animation. Also another end goal for this project is to have a coloring book on 8x11 paper printed on both sides.

Sticklestad Norway Part_5

King Olaf was not so kind a saint. I found historical allegations of forced conversions to Christianity and torture. Along with intolerance of non-Christians, local Pagan kings, farming society. King Olaf aimed to spread Christianity through Norway. Olaf wanted to be King and was martyred, one year after his death he became the Patron Saint of Norway. Sticklestad is where the battle took place. Probably politics as usual back in 1030.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_II_of_Norway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stiklestad

There was a re-creation of a viking long house on the site. It was built directly into a hill. With one entrance below the building supported by stone masonry.

Below is a detail pic of the door on the side of the Long house. This door is seen in the middle of the long house in the above picture.

There is a theater on site. Huge events are held here. Very kid friendly, it would take all day to go through every thing at Sticklestad during the busy season. This viking re-enactment area led into a replica modern Norwegian town. Some of the modern houses had peat roofs. Which are a very effective natural insulator.

Back at the Sticklestad main building there is a museum. In the lower level there is a slice of stone with an abstract neo-litic ship carving.

My next post will be of another coloring book page. I want to get back to posting more personal art. I only had time to work on personal projects on the flight back to Boston. I finished the ink on another letter's animal.

Helge Gravfelt_Bola_Reindeer_Part_4

The stone circle at Helge Gravfelt was a highlight, but the site over all was enigmatic. With the possibility of missing stones and little documentation. I am left only with my own ideas about the purpose of the site. With 10 stones in a circle, 9 going around a center stone. I feel the stones may represent the 9 months of gestation. That would unite with any burial mounds, to symbolize the cycle of life and death. Life,Death and the cycle of the seasons perhaps.

Here is a link to another site related to Helge Gravfelt. There are photos of the site in the summer from a megalith website.

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=24095


Bola Reindeer

This is "the" Reindeer carving. It is circa 6,000 years old. I was totally excited to view it. When we arrived at the site we walked down a path covered in snow which made walking difficult. Half way to the site I spotted tracks in the snow. They were reindeer tracks moving perpendicular to our direction of travel. Keeping alert for rouge reindeer we headed to the place where the carvings are. Unfortunately we didn't account that the amount of snow on the ground was a huge factor. The Reindeer carving was covered with approximately a foot of ice.

Here is a shot of the overall site. Beneath the ice and snow there is also a carving of a bear, a human on skis, and a goose.

http://www.bolarein.no/Engelsk.htm



Here is the link to the line drawings.

Despite the ice, back at the car we spotted live reindeer. They were roaming in a herd through a field across from the parking lot. We were searching for an image, something frozen. While there we saw the actual animal,as it has persisted for 6,000 years.

After Bola we headed south to Sticklestad. This is where the final battle of King Olaf was. It is an ancient battle field with a mock viking village, including a long house, Churches, facilities, gift shop, and a hotel.

Steinkjer Norway Presentation_Part 3

Eggevarmmen deserves more of a mention. Due to the rich history there and significant archeological finds. The finds include remains of a burial ship,all that was left were iron nails, 9th-10th century items, tools like swords, shield bosses, axes, scissors, equestrian items and jewelry.

The view overlooks water on two sides. Below is a modern day cemetery. Directly to the right in this photo is a viking barrow.

Helge Gravfelt and a viking stone circle.

This spot was one of the most amazing ones in the visit. There were 2 standing stones which were tall and thin. I imagine there were more and some of them were removed or fallen. The standing stones are relatively light in comparison to Stonehenge. Various mounds, scattered throughout community, and a stone circle with a center stone.

In the foreground is the stone circle, at the top of the mound is Steve Ford to give scale to the standing stones.

We continued onward to Bola after this site. Bola has one of the most famous carvings of the Neolithic ages of a life-size reindeer.

Steinkjer Norway Presentation_Part 2

The HiNT presentation is complete. I gave an hour long presentation Thrusday, on animation in video games. It was an overview on animation's connection with AI in games "Animation is the body language of video game AI" and the video game production pipeline. Then I covered daily work routine for game animators. It was quite a large room packed with people, mostly students from the local High school and Students at HiNT. I followed a presentation from Storm studios in Oslo. They are the largest VFX shop in Norway.
http://www.stormstudios.no/trollhunter/
Troll hunter looks so bad ass.

Friday I taught a class that focused on game development. The students here are using Unity game engine to develop their own games. These students learn Maya in High School. They are well educated and they love video games. We worked on creating Idle animations, turning locomotion animations, I gave suggestions for creating efficient workflows for their animation. It was a chalenge for me since I had a short period of time with alot of work to look at.

There is also a budding visual effects/film producion program in progress at HiNT. The student work is of high quality. I saw some of this work at the presentation for Media day. The lectures here were in Norwegian so I just followed along.

Thank you Hint and Steinkjer for your hospitality.

Saturday Steve Ford and I went looking for Viking sites throughout the region.

Tingvold, is called a stone viking ship.
The shot above is of Tingvold, a Viking burial ground that is modeled after a ship situated just outside of Steinkjer.

This is Frostating which is where the old municipalities would meet to discuss policy, set laws. It's location dates back to 900AD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frostating

Here are some shots of Egge farm. This is where the Anual viking festival is held. There are some burial mounds, (barrows) and this shot is of an ancient standing stone in the church graveyard.




Further back from the farm are the barrow mounds and they overlook the bay below.

Modern day Vikings from Scandinavia come to particpate in mock viking battles here during the Viking festival in July.

http://www.steinkjer-turist.com/?tema_id=255&tema_art_id=&lng=en

We were able to visit three other sites which I will also post pics.

Thanks Steve.

R is for Rhino C is for Car N is for Norway

These are Coloring book pages, for you to download and print out. I print these out for Mayari to color them. Use fit to page in your printer settings.

N is for Norway

I am going to Norway this week. I am going to give a presentation about animation in video games. As well as giving a presentation I will be teaching a workshop and reviewing student portfolios. I'm excited! This is my second time in Norway. This time I am going to Nord-Trondelag University College in Steinkjer. As an added bonus there are some Bronze age rock carvings there that I really want to see.

Cat Gif update

This is an update on the cat gif I posted. I started it in the Non sequitur post. It is really fun working with animation on this. I haven't done much hand keyed work, this is still a work in progress. I'll keep updating it.

This started as a doodle while drawing with Mayari my 3 yr old Daughter.

I worked on these drawings thinking about extinction of mountain lions in the New England states. It was a recent item in the news how researchers could not find any breeding big cats in New England Despite people saying that they have seen them.
I'm not into conspiracy theory that there are secret hide away cougars in the Northeast. The science is probably right, and we humans made the cougar extinct. I don't want to be attacked by one. As we have learned from Red Dead Redemption and National Geographic, and News frpm California cougars kill people. I don't want a cougar to attack my little girl on a walk thru the woods. However I feel lesser for the loss in New England.

Mt Auburn Night Inked Pages

Mt Auburn Night Graphic Novel Work in progress. This is a shot of the first version of the graphic novel. I edited this and did a complete re-layout.
Here is shot of 7 inked in pages. I shot these side by side to get an idea how they looked.
All of this inked in work was used to rebuild version 2. I still redrew and added pages where ever the story needed.

Chowder is the guest cat on the right. The skull model I used is on the shelf to the left.

Pin-ups

These are stained glass roundel panels inspired by emblematic imagery. I looked at a lot of imagery related to this in my career as a glass artist. I used these as learning panels where I usually practiced new techniques in glass painting.

I used some fused glass that I made in the borders.

The tiles are "bad girls" since one is smoking and the other is trailing a roll of toilet paper around.(top panel) I wanted to do a series of "bad boys" Then a series of "bad boys and girls". Then the plan was to do bad people maybe featuring 7 deadly sins in humorous ways.

This series would have been nice if it were a site specific piece, maybe in an entry way to a night club. These two studies are small and I still have them if anyone in interested in buying them.

Mt Auburn Night Page 5

This is page 5 which is probably one of the pages that has gone through the most changes. There are still some things I am planning on polishing on all these pages. I am not sure what looks best in terms of the gutter lines. Those white border edges between frames may need an outline.

Page 4 Mt Auburn Night

Here is a page 4 preview for my graphic novel.