Tim Sparvero's work and thoughts

Kei from Dirty Pair

2012-01-25T12:00:00.001-08:00

some new fanart!

New illustration published

2012-01-24T16:50:00.000-08:00

RIGHT OVER HERE!

Sailor Mercury

2011-12-06T14:56:00.001-08:00

New drawings

2011-11-28T15:39:00.001-08:00

Rediscovering oneself, the constant rebirth of the comic artist.

2011-09-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

This is an extra long, long blog, a lot of which is not streamlined. My appologies if some thoughts are a bit redundant or overdrawn.

This week I have been looking through old work back from when I was in highschool. My work from this time period had two very distinct styles, before and after reading "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way." Before I read this book my work had a very organic look to it; things were very loose; people would bend and backgrounds/objects would look almost abstract. Near the point where I got the Marvel book, my style had evolved to a point where i used solid lines (In the past everything was sketchy). So there was a confidence about my drawings. At the time I was very frustrated becasue what I did was not as "good" as the things I saw in magazines, on tv and in comics/manga. So wishing not to be left behind, i took the Marvel book and copied, copied, copied. I copied almost every drawing in the book; I copied the techniques; i tried to teach myself to ink, to lay out pages, to do everything. I tried so hard to bring structure to my work that I ended up killing all the personality I had built up, all the fun parts of my drawing. My new work, while it was technically better, was a bit stiff and was definetally not as fun to draw. It looked very nice, even by my standards now I am impressed I was able to make what I made at that age. This is the very first example in my life of what I call a personal rebirth as a person and as an artist.

The years past, I took drawing classes, examined my work over and over and over. I tried and tried to become that which I loved the most. My influences were always too impressive for me to ever get near. I felt stuck, and felt my work was going nowhere. The next time thins changed was back in 2001. I remember this clearly becasue at the time I had been stuck in my technical rut for so long, I felt as if I was doomed to forever walk the mediocre artist path. But at this time I began a project that lasted me a good 5 years of my life. A very long fan work titled "Bass: Rebirth of Amp." This was a Megaman themed comic that i started as a fun project and eventually turned into a massive, 300 page black and white giant. I began drawing the comic with an extreme cautiousness; working slowly on each page; taking a week at a time if needed to finish each one. Then one day I was hit with the realization that the comic was slowly evolving into something very, very stylized. I made the choice to take a risk and dive back into the less technical, and more stylized art I had done as a child and teenager. This reulted in a comic with a lot of personality. To this day I count this work as my first real success as an artist. Without realizing it, I had again been reborn; with my whole outlook on art and life changed.

Even though I had experienced this sort of reimagining of myself twice now, I still did not understand it. I still believed that I was reaching for some imaginary top of the cliff. I worked like crazy, made several comics besides my Megaman work. These were my first ever original stories put into print. The first did fairly well, selling a few copies (how many I don't recall) however the second was criticezed by friends and a few people I knew because of some mistakes I had made in the layout and printing. At this point in my life (around 2006) I had just been accepted into art school (School of Visual Arts). There is one point in particular I remember from this time, that shaped my mentallity going into school, and many years after that. A few words of "advice" from a "professional" who felt I did not meet up to their standards. "It takes a certain amount of work to become GOOD. You have to think of yourself as being on a sort of scale and the more you work the closer you will get to being GOOD. When you are GOOD, then you are ready for the professional world." and of course the delightful "Just don't quit your day job" remark. So with this in mind, I threw out all of my past achievements, my work and all that, and believed I was on this sort of scale below my peers. This was possibly the WORST thing that has ever happened to me as an artist. Not only did the previously mentioned individual damage my ego, they also managed to destroy any sort of belief I had, that I was on the right track to getting what I ultimately wanted, a career as an artist. This was the third time I had changed my whole way of thinking about my life and art, due to some sort of life event.

This sort of thing (either for the good or the bad) continued to happen, and still happens to me to a small degree today. My ideas of who I am as a person and as an artist are continuously being reborn. Thankfully now, that I am out of my teenage years, past my early 20's and moving along as an adult, I have found a strong sense of self worth and firm artistic principles to adhere too. I still have times of being reborn, finding I lack in some areas, or finding I was doing things right all along, however I have been able to now adopt an attitude of "I am the one who decides if my work is good or bad, not an outside individual." In particular i like to remember a saying from one of my instructors in college, Sal Amendola, that "your work has value, economic, spiritual, emotional... ect ect." Sal had an understanding of more than just the technical aspects of comics, he understood the spirit of creativity and of being an artist.

So after a lot of work and personal searching I have realized several things about these artistic rebirths.

*A person usually gets bored with their work when they have nothing to challenge them, this is the best time to work even harder; most likely you are about to come upon some artistic breakthrough.

*Experimenting and going outside your comfort zone is VITAL. By doing this, you will find so many things you would not discover otherwise.

*Making mistakes is ok. Make as many mistakes as you need in order to find a way to make something work for you.

*You alone are the sole judge of your work. Others may say things or tell you "facts" about your work or things about art in general, but in the end you are the one who decides what is ok and what isn't.

*Popularity does not equal skill. Just because you do not have millions of fans, does not mean you are a failure as an artist. Keep in mind the things you have done right.

*You will always change and grow as an artist. All artists change. Change shows an artist is not trapped; embrace change, learn from it. Your artwork will shine from the changes you allow.

*Get advice from people you trust. Don't be like me when I was younger and believe anybody with their name on a book knows better than you. Go to someone you know will give you good, helpful advice. Just because someone acts sincere doesn't mean they are. Just becasue someone acts tough or nasty, doesn't mean they know about art. Big words, or bad attitudes do not equal comic smarts.

*Art is subjective. This is a big cliche, but it is true. What one person, country, race, time period, artist believes is all based on TASTE. As human beings we have a large number of experiences throughout our life that shape what we like, what we believe in, what we work for. These experiences build up what we feel looks good, or makes us happy. As a culture we have shared experiences that we all love. We have art we all believe is "good." Sometimes when a person goes against what is believed to be correct by a culture or perhaps, a very well known artist in a culture; that person is criticized and told their work is no good. Try to remember, everyone is born, lives and dies someday. Enjoy what you draw, don't ruin your fun becasue of a person (or multiple people's) attitudes about your work.

*Be proud of yourself, but at the same time, never injure another artist's love of what they do. You should have high self esteem, you may ever view yourself as a god, but if you cannot treat your fellow artists with respect you don't deserve any. Remember you are only one out of millions of others who do this art thing.

Right now I try to approach my art remembering all this stuff, the experiences good and bad, the changes, the successful and unsuccessful days. This has resulted in a much more balanced approach to my art and my life in general. I see art now the way the universe was seen in Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix manga, as a never ending circle where each person is an integral part of a huge infinite whole. This way even the most unskilled artist can see themself as important, and as having the potential of going beyond what they are. And even the most skilled artist can see themself improving if they wish to; growing to something they were not before. Art is about change, growth, being reborn all the time. The more you do this, the more you will learn. You are never too old or young to learn more about art. This is what makes art so fun, the enjoyment of knowing there is always something new to discover, something out there you can find that will make you happy.

New publication

2011-07-19T17:59:00.000-07:00

HERE!

More art

2011-07-01T10:19:00.001-07:00

New drawing

2011-05-16T12:21:00.001-07:00

Published work

2011-05-10T15:38:00.001-07:00

Got something published here!

Scroll down to the large info graphic.

Megaman Legends 3

2011-04-22T09:43:00.001-07:00

Go vote!Vote for megaman's new design!

What is art:

2011-03-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

Art is

1. Doing what you want and not what others want.
2. Taking something that has been done over and over and making it new and interesting.
3. Doing what you want regardless if you get attention for it or not.
4. Breaking all the rules and still making something that looks great.
5. Making something incredible with very little resources.
6. Doing something when you don't make any money off of it (or lose money from it).
7. Knowing everything possible about the type of art you do.
8. Being able to create in different styles when the need arises.
9. Believing failure is not real, and is, in reality, just you trying different approaches to something. People's reactions do not mean something is a failure, only that they react badly to it.
10. Being open minded about style, content and ideas.
11. Seeing something in another person's point of view.
12. Doing something, then redoing it to make it better.
13. Accepting that mistakes are always there and help us learn what to change to make ourselves better.
14. Realizing that perfection is unattainable for us but, in appearance, has been obtained by others.
15. Knowing that discipline and hard work are the keys to creating good art.
16. Knowing that sometimes being spontaneous creates better work than careful planning does.
17. Knowing sometimes what you do will not be understood.
18. Experimenting with materials, styles and ways of working constantly till something amazing is born.
19. Understanding that being what you want is more important that achievments.
20. Working at night with the radio on till 6 am, then sleeping till 3 pm the next day... repeat each day.

Some more photoshop art (Cutey Honey)

2011-03-08T16:42:00.000-08:00

Graphic Novel for sale!

2011-02-25T09:20:00.000-08:00

The first part of my comic Infinity Roads is now for sale in graphic novel format! 100 pages, color. If you woulld like one go here to purchase.

BUY ONE HERE!

There's a hurricane tonight, Bubblegum Crisis

2011-02-09T13:40:00.001-08:00

Some new sketch cards

2011-01-25T17:05:00.000-08:00

Sketches

2011-01-11T12:23:00.001-08:00

Done by me and my girlfriend when I went to visit her this weekend.

Strange Aeons 3

2010-12-06T15:24:00.000-08:00

I have a ten page story published in here

http://strange-aeons.com/

and another 8 page in the following issue coming soon.

Drawing faster

2010-11-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

Somehow over the period of the past 5 months I have managed to change the way I put a pencil onto paper. Things have been coming out faster than ever. It is probably a combination of continued practice everyday mixed with me trying a new style that involves making pictures without any sort of underdrawing.

Unfortunetally it hasn't come to the point yet where I can sit down and pencil 12 pages in an hour, but the pencilling iv'e been doing has been a lot quicker. My drawing overall has gotten faster, and a lot faster. I'm hoping eventually this WILL lead to an ability to sit down, think of something, and draw it with little or no need for corrections or sketching. Since I was young (probably around 13-15) i've always wanted to draw this way, with no need for tedious underdrawings, shapes, sketchy lines, or building blocks. This ability hopefully will progress with more practice and patience. Wish me luck...

More doodles!

2010-10-25T11:35:00.001-07:00

Doodles

2010-10-23T06:16:00.001-07:00

Comic cover

2010-09-21T15:18:00.001-07:00

Came out nicely. : )

Sad news

2010-08-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

Sad news

It appears Satoshi Kon, director of one of my favorite movies "Paprika" has passed away unexpectedly. I'm very upset about this and send my condolances to his family and other fans... He was only 47, very very unfortunate.

more drawings

2010-08-10T13:18:00.001-07:00

Some more fun with negative space

Some new drawings...

2010-08-02T12:06:00.001-07:00

Ashlynn's Dreams

2010-07-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

My good friend Julie Gilbert just published her new book "Ashlynn's Dreams." It is available on Amazon for purchase or to preview. I recommend giving it a shot, something fun and interesting to read on a night off!

GET IT HERE

Pen drawing

2010-07-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

Astral, done with a ballpoint pen. This picture ended the pens life lol.

amp

2010-07-12T11:12:00.001-07:00

Done in Painter X, with the ink tool. The ink tool behaves strangely, although it resembles ink at times, it seems to me more like scratchboard. But not a bad set of tools. Makes for some interesting experimentation.

URUSEI YATSURA for 1$

2010-06-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

Animeigo has a sale. The first UY dvd is only 1$ plus a few shipping. I paid 4$ total for it. UY is a classic and I really can't wait to get this in the mail... Anyone who likes old anime might like this too... (they have a wonderful selection of other great stuff as well)

http://www.animeigo.com/

Maetel

2010-06-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

From Galaxy Express 999, my favorite character from an amazing series. Done with the usual Speedball ink with white paint. original sketch done with a ball point pen.

New illustration publication

2010-06-08T11:22:00.001-07:00

In print too. check it out : )HERE

How many comic panels are too many...

2010-05-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with this on and off, how many panels can you do before something gets too crowded or becomes so abstract it is no longer stylized the same way as the rest of the book? In the comic I write, the most I was able to pull off was 8 panels. (examples below)

These two were pretty successful, I like the first more than the second. I've seen books with 9 panel grids and even more... I'd love to hear some opinions on this sort of thing. Can I do more than 8 panels without things falling apart or becomming a puzzle? If 9, 10 ,12 , 15 panels are doable what would be the sort of scene, scenes for this? (I'm not going to do it just to do it, there has to be a reason behind it of course) Can a page say, with all sillouettes work ok in this comic? Will very small drawings work ok? (especially since a majority of the pages in this story have larger images. I'd love to hear some opinions

Tim

Happy Summer 2

2010-05-02T19:33:00.001-07:00

Happy summer everyone! :D

happy summer

2010-04-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

Tsuruga City shopping center Galaxy Express Statues

2010-04-10T12:52:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest things i've ever seen, it's in my life goals to visit this place.

HERE

Apparently this rail port is a significant place in Japan, which uses the statues to commemorate the port's 100th anniversary.

Amp drawing

2010-04-08T00:20:00.001-07:00

Done for HERE

Strange Aeons

2010-03-20T01:30:00.000-07:00

I am proud to give a shout out for

Strange Aeons Magazine

I have a 10 page horror comic published here, and am very happy with how it looks. check it out folks, good stuff.

Mirmaid

2010-02-28T02:01:00.001-08:00

Done with a brush on some leftover bristol board

Evil

2010-02-25T00:35:00.000-08:00

Pretty Creepy is you ask me...

Can we go out for coffee sometime

2010-02-19T21:43:00.000-08:00

Mountain painting

2010-02-06T21:52:00.001-08:00

Done in Painter X, reference taken from HERE

MORE Miranda drawings

2010-02-02T01:07:00.000-08:00

More street fighter dress up, One as Chun LI, one as Cammy and one as Rainbow Mika. Cool stuff

Miranda drawings

2010-02-01T01:10:00.001-08:00

Experimenting with styles and characters... I drew these while digging through the "Udon's Art of Capcom" book, a favorite of mine.

Frank Belknap Long from "The Space Eaters" 1928

2010-01-17T01:09:00.001-08:00

"If a man wishes to write ghostly stories and actually convey a sensation of horror, he must believe in everything -- and anything. By anything i mean the horror that transcends everything, that is more terrible and impossible than everything. He must believe there are things from outer space that can reach down and fasten themselves on us with a malevolence that can utterly destroy us -- our bodies as well as our minds."

Frank Belknap Long from "The Space Eaters" 1928

Fish

2010-01-07T00:39:00.001-08:00

Done for fun

Megaman Legends Contest

2009-11-30T00:30:00.000-08:00

For The Megaman Legends Club

Gift for purpleangelwings

2009-11-17T10:55:00.001-08:00

for my friend: purpleangelwings

Art trade

2009-11-04T21:38:00.001-08:00

For a friend's art trade, came out kinda cute, ball point pen

Realistic Miranda

2009-10-29T00:57:00.000-07:00

Rockman Perfect Memories Winner

2009-10-08T00:53:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough to win second place in the "content" category here. http://forum.rockmanpm.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=55101de007a053cf28f0204f28398ca8&topic=2689.0

Here's my entry:

Megaman Legends

2009-10-04T23:38:00.000-07:00

Done for the new contest on the megaman-legends-club. The theme this time was "Alternative Art Style", aka Draw something besides the usual capcom imitation style, or anime look for this. I chose to base my work off of the comic works of Jae Lee, an artist i first noticed back in the early 2000's who used to work on Transformers and GI Joe. You may know him from his illustrated version of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" and his Hyper Realistic work. I usually dislike Photo Realism in Comics, However Mr Lee's work is fascinating to me, in that it combines photographic realism with very very dark blacks and interesting compositions. His work is very evil looking and different from the numerous other photo realism comics currently being made. As for the coloring, that was done on a whim. The colors are a bit strange, however i like them. This entire picture is an experiment. Overall I believe the results are decent. It was a fun project though..

Oh and thank you to Marcus J. Ranum for the stock photos i used for references.

Cutey Honey drawing

2009-09-30T20:39:00.000-07:00

Painting and colored pencil experiment

2009-09-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

Done based off of the photomanipulation drawings on the back of Luca Turilli's "Prophet of the Last Eclipse" one of the my favorite cds suggested to me by my good friend Essai many years ago. This was just done as an experiment, and I think turned out very nicely. Sorry about the glare, my scanner seems to scan colored pencil strangely...

Acrylic paint, pencil, pen and colored pencils

Being good at being imperfect.

2009-08-31T13:10:00.000-07:00

To a comic artist, being perfect is a must, at least in my mind. Since the beginning of my senior year I have been producing a comic project for web publication, and eventually printing into book form. While in school I had the freedom to work and work on the first 33 pages of this project without any contraints or feelings of fear, there was no website at the time, there was no weekly deadline. Everything was to be done by the end of the school year.

This, unfortunetally, created a difficult situation, when I begin to work on something with safety nets such as the ones I had in school, I find it difficult to adapt once the nets are taken away, as they were when I graduated and began to do the comic as a weekly, color sci-fi adventure. So far things have gone decent, I have managed to crank out 24 pages just in time to keep up with the now depleted 33 I drew for my senior portfolio. But, just as with my original story, there are errors, not BIG GLARING errors, but small things. A panel I don't like, a black section that is not black enough, borders messed up, ink or white out in places it shouldn't be, normal things that happen during page production under a deadline. During the school year I just passed these these kind of things off as normal mistakes, that I would get back to later on, which I did.

I spent a few days repairing pages I didn't like during the last week of classes. This procedure turned out to be a very good investment, and dramatically increased the presentation of my work. Now facing the completion of another 24 pages, I am having trouble accepting the fact that there are errors and things are not perfect "The first time around." However making perfect pages is nearly impossible, due to the fact that I am human and DO make mistakes. Even making 5 pages perfect on the first go is near impossible. I have no idea where I got this crazy idea.

It has been a while since i've been in school, and as I said earlier, there is no safety net, no brilliant instructor pointing these little things out to me. Perhaps the transition between having an instructor to assist in pointing out errors and finding errors on my own creates this tension? This could mark the beginning of one's journey to being a self contained professional. It is my responsibility to not only make the pages, but to ensure that they are done to the best of my ability, if not the first time then during the revision period. Somehow I forgot this in the period of 4-5 months since I finished my degree.

My revision process was something that was both helpful and practical. It did not involve redoing entire sections of the comic or tossing pages. Usually it involved going through each page and cleaning up messy lines, whiting out mistakes, darkening blacks and occasionally redesigning a panel or two (perhaps becasue of an unwise storytelling decision or just bad lettering). For some reason I have been thinking I could go without these steps and just consider my pages "done". I kept saying to myself "You don't have time for revisions now, just make more pages" and just kept drawing. The pages I've done are some of the best i've ever made, but STILL regardless of that, they need some cleanup and revision, there is even one panel I hate and want to redesign. So while driving to work today I asked myself, "Why am I being so upset about not being perfect? and second, why don't I just take the time to go back and do some repairs?" The realization that the world won't end because I made mistakes on my comic hit me and I decided to continue the process I invented for myself last year, lesson learned.

No one is perfect with their art and there is no shame in mistakes. You would think i'd know that after how many years of doing this. There is also no shame in ADMITTING to making mistakes. Trying to make pages perfect on the first try is a good goal but will not always happen. The fact that I feel I should be perfect says something about my self esteem. Hopefully in the future I will slow down and remember to go back and give my pages the attention they deserve.

Tim Sparvero

Sakura....

2009-08-23T00:12:00.001-07:00

I pity whoever is going to get hit

Painting

2009-08-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

Based on the concept work by Warhammer artist John Blanche. I really love his work and was hoping to try at my own version of it. Done on 11 by 17 drawing paper with red white and green acrylic, with ball point pen and ebony pencil.

illustration publication

2009-07-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

My illustration

About half way down, the "Habitat Size and Diet", the illustration ran in print last week and is online now

Samus

2009-05-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

For a good friend

Infinity Roads page 2.

2009-05-21T21:06:00.001-07:00

Site INFINITY ROADS

More to come monday!

Webcomic Launch is TODAY

2009-05-17T21:00:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, this entry is to announce the launch of my new webcomic Infinity Roads. Check it out here: INFINITY ROADS

This will update every Monday and Friday with new comics.

Please feel free to leave comments there and interact. Thanks a lot for reading!

Tim S.

Graduation Day

2009-05-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

Overall things have gone well.

For those of you who don't know, today I graduated from the New York School of Visual Arts Cartooning Program. I'm very proud to say this has been a part of my life for the past three years, however, in the future I plan to still be involved with the school and the people I have come to know. Hopefully this will only be a first step and not a end of the road, as which happens with many college graduates I know. (perhaps they lose contact with college pals, forget their major, or dreams they worked so hard for, or just become comfortable in life, and decide to stop improving themselves.)
I hope this will just be the opening to a path of new opportunities to work more, with the ultimate goal being to be published.
Again, however, my goal has changed since it's first conception. Originally my goal was to just have my work published in my own series of books. NOW, the goal is that, but it been expanded to include me wanting to try some different types of work for say, companies or small press magazines. In addition, I wish to include my friends in this endeavor. I can't see being successful or becoming famous without the company of my best friends from SVA and other parts of life. I would really like now to have my work published in books alongside my friends. This is one of the many things SVA has brought to my life.
Artists, even comic artists, are in a state of constant growth and change. I believe SVA has given me new tools to make those changes, and see what comes of them. Let's see where this goes, for everyone.

Tim S.

Infinity Roads, new comic Cover,

2009-05-04T23:48:00.000-07:00

Done for the web comic, (which might I add is also in mini comic format now)

Miranda Stars

2009-03-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

Done in Paintchat

2009-03-02T21:49:00.000-08:00

An idea for my next Comic Scroll book.

Music and Ice Cream

2009-02-28T00:05:00.001-08:00

spiral....

2009-02-20T12:15:00.000-08:00

Astral ink drawing

2009-01-27T22:21:00.000-08:00

Done a while ago, ink and white paint on bristol

Sonnet of the Stars

2009-01-10T15:53:00.000-08:00

Painter, Harley Quinn

2009-01-03T23:35:00.000-08:00

This was a painter sketch done for a good friend, i was happy how it came out.

Painter Astral

2009-01-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

Miranda, paintchat

2009-01-01T19:21:00.001-08:00

Paintchat, Sakura

2008-12-26T18:17:00.000-08:00

Perspective

2008-12-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

SNOW

2008-12-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

Looks like we will be getting around 4-6 inches today. I've had to clean my car off 2 times now, and it's not going to let up before the evening. It's gonna be a long drive home today <_<

Cartoon Allies

2008-12-15T22:04:00.001-08:00

Done for the SVA cartooning club. I hope they use it! lol

Astral

2008-12-08T23:06:00.000-08:00

Done in Mechanical pencil.

Emily Running After some Balloons

2008-12-07T00:26:00.000-08:00

Aya

2008-12-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

From tenjo tenge, a show i havn't seen much of, but i love this character. I wish i had gotten her body proportions down better however... next time

Gift from a friend.

2008-12-02T17:46:00.001-08:00

Colored by my good friend
Rockman-Forti
from deviantart, thanks man!

2008-12-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

Sketches of my characters from my senior portfolio, Anthony, Miranda and Astral. These are sketchbook drawings, done so i can figure out how i want these guys to look in the final project.

sakura

2008-11-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

chun li

2008-11-26T22:38:00.001-08:00

God and Mind

2008-11-25T14:15:00.000-08:00

A great Xenogears fansite, made long long ago, probably when I was still 17 years old, this is probably a remnant of a lost era of video games. For me it's a nice memory of my past life in high school, when I used to come home every day and play this till i fell asleep. I still have the game but its been years since I was able to start a new game file. This website is wonderful and has a lot of stuff from the Xenogears experience. I recommend you go check it out.

Xenogears: God and Mind

If you are wondering what Xenogears is, it is not Xenosaga, it is the game which predates it, but comes after Xenosaga in both games universes. It's an old one but it's completely worth buying still.

The first time i played it through, it took me 90 hours over a period of say, 6 months. At the time I had never played a game over 15 hours, and this was amazing! This game really changed my life in a sense that I began trying to think deeper about the storyline and plots to my own comics. I also became deeply attached to the characters in this game. Overall really it inspired me to go for more than the usual forms of entertainment in everything. I felt that Xenogears had taught me to look beyond what a video game, TV show or a comic book could be. In order to create truly lasting work, I would have to make something that changed my viewers perceptions about the world, and changed their lives for the good. I would have to make a lasting impression on them, as the Xenogears game made on me.

Xenogears: God and Mind

Sonic the Hedgehog Selects.

2008-11-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

Volume two is now available!!! In addition, "Knuckles the Dark Legion" mini series has been re-released along with a slew of the first Knuckles books from the cut-short Knuckles the Echidna comic book series. I am so happy about this. The Sonic Super Specials are something I used to look forward to as a kid, even though i have a pile of them, this collection would be great, I really do prefer graphic novels to the monthly issues now. In addition the Sonic Archives have gone even further now. Sonic #194 just came out as well. Things are really looking up for this series, FINALLY.

My SVA Senior Portfolio

2008-11-14T14:07:00.000-08:00

My senior portfolio will be my science fiction/adventure story "Infinity Roads." This project has been worked on, on and off for the past year or two. I originally started it back in 2006, unfortunately due to lack of experience with printing technology and text layouts, it was not as successful as i had hoped. This new version will feature a 5 page wrap up of the original story and the conclusion to the story, which I have wanted to write for such a long time now. I really would like to pull off a 30-40 page book here, but let's see what happens. If it can be shorter that would work as well. Eventually I will put them together as a small graphic novel (maybe pocket size). and begin selling. In addition to that I will be releasing a graphic novel of my collective works since 2006 eventually. This is only about 50 pages into being done. All that scanning takes time, but this will be regular graphic novel size, probably ending around 150-200 pages. Both will be available next year! Look forward to it : )

TIM S.

2008-11-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

Sketch , done for fun. Anthony, Miranda, Emily and Astral

more artwork!

2008-11-05T23:11:00.001-08:00

Drawings

2008-11-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

From my Sketchbook, for fun , mostly done on the train

2008-10-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

Gift art is awsome

2008-10-12T22:09:00.001-07:00

Recently a good friend of mine JetZero graced me with this beauty

I think this is one of the best amp fan arts ive ever gotten before.

She posts here and there across various megaman sites, a bunch of her stuff can be found here
http://www.mmeras.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=348

2008-08-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

2008-08-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

Infinity Roads Part 2.

2008-08-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

Where is it and why isn't it done yet???? Infinity Roads 2 has been worked on slowly but surely over the past year or so. Luckily it is close to the end with around 17 pages penciled and almost 14 or so inked. I am trying to make this work really shine so this is the reason behind the delay. Anthony and Miranda, being thrown back into a real life version of their dream world are attempting to find the answers of how it can be true that a place they created in a dream exists in real life. The planet is populated my mechanical things (like the snake you see below) and mostly desolate, especially in the built up areas. This book will end right at the opening of the mystery and leaving room for the resolution in the next issue, which if i'm lucky won't take nearly as long as this one did....

2008-08-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

For Planet Lovecraft #3, due out in Oct if i'm not mistaken.

2008-08-19T09:53:00.001-07:00

New Art stuff

2008-08-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

Exploration of Mars

2008-06-17T14:26:00.000-07:00

In the last month or so the Mars lander "Phoenix" touched down at the Mars arctic, and has begun research. So far it has dug a small trench into the soil and come upon a white substance which is believed to be either ice or salt, both of which indicate the presence of water now or in the past. The two older Mars rovers are still functioning as well, long after they were supposed to shut down. I find the exploration of this planet fascinating, we know so little about it and it's so very far away from us. Still I'm surprised how little we can explore in the universe. Mars is far in human terms but as far as the sheer size of the universe, the distance is nothing.
During the late 70's the Voyager probes were launched to explore the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto. Now the Voyager 1 probe is leaving the confines of the suns effects in the solar system, and traveling at something near 38000 MPH. According to the probes website, it will continue to function till around 2025, when it will cease functioning completely. STILL , after more than 30 years it will barely leave the solar system and the sun's effects.
From my point of view many scientists act as if we have a strong fundamental knowledge of the Earth and a decent understanding of the universe. It is my personal believe that we know nothing. The universe can only be seen so far, what lies beyond that no one can tell. We have only explored 1% of the abyssal plane of the ocean on our own planet, and our space limitations are enormous, we can't even reach Mars without takes many many months and literally millions of dollars.
Then there are the "crazy" questions of multiple universes, the consistency of time over travel at high speeds (time travel?), black holes, and the understanding of reality. I've seen scientists quoted as saying the idea of multiple universes, time travel and other similar ideas as being ridiculous. Here I'm going to point to the story of Galileo and the Catholic Church at the time, who was ridiculed for saying the Sun was the center of the solar system. Because an idea sounds beyond the current possibility of existence, doesn't mean it is. People have to stop thinking their small vision of the universe as it is NOW is true and will be true forever. Because books, theories, television, the internet, says something does not mean it is a universal truth.
We really are so arrogant because of the small knowledge we have. There must be so much more driving things that can't be seen. We can't even tell right now if our little hole on Mars has water in it or not, nor do we know what's at the bottom of our own ocean.
Who knows what is beyond the edge of the universe as we see it. Maybe it would be better to stop thinking in a bubble, and get creative.... just an idea I've been driving to death in my head..

HP LOVECRAFT'S "MEMORY"

2008-06-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

here it is

New Artwork

2008-06-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

Poster for Animenext

2008-05-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008-05-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

Was very good. Harrison Ford can still play a good Dr Jones. Overall I really loved the movie and probably will go see it again. The best part was the mystery, not knowing what was going to happen or what the truth behind the artifacts in the movie, was what made it so great. Also the setting in Peru (I think it was Peru) made it even better, since where it was filmed was so amazing to look at. It had less computer effects that I expected, which was an added bonus for me, I was worried this movie would become another Star Wars Episode 1. Even though I had a good guess at what the plot was, it left enough hidden to keep me from getting bored...

so ... I say go see it now. You will have a great time!