June 19, 2012 · 11:34 am

Father Time

FATHER TIME

 

The time I allowed to share with my father was One year, Seven months and four days.

He got to hear my first words, see my first steps… and change my diapers.

He’d already seen these small miracles three times before me.

At the time of his passing, my mother was coming due with another bundle of joy and he was looking to see it all again a fifth time.

The laughter, the tears, feedings, which lead to vomit occasionally, and always more diapers.

My mother tells me they wanted TEN KIDS, I couldn’t imagine having nine siblings,

But I can only imagine a life where I would be allowed more father time.

Memories of my father aren’t really memories of my own-

But retellings of the things he did, the things he said and the things he allowed.

I was still an infant when I had to face life without him but I’m sure I smile his reflection

I’m sure I speak as he spoke, only with New York regional slang as opposed to a DC metro twang

My father’s passing made him loom larger than most fathers; my mother said he was a martyr

Said he was in paradise with Allah looking down on us

Said don’t do such and such, you wouldn’t want to disappoint your father

I don’t mean to blaspheme but in my mind, my father stood shoulder to shoulder with God

Watching my deeds on earth from a cloud high in the heavens

He and the Angels would casually chat up my playground antics.

He’d talk to the Prophets about how well I recited the fatiha, how straight I stood in prayer.

 

When he saw trouble coming my way he’d lend me strength

Or yell at the devil in the fire of hell to get him his ages of off my back,

But as I got closer to his age

When I went to prom, I compared myself to his photograph of him at his prom

Was I taller? Was I as strong? Did I have more style?

Was I as smart?

Do I measure up to a man I can’t remember?

Do I measure up to a Legend?

He was like Paul Bunyon, Jesus, Malcolm, Hercules, and Bruce Lee.

I never got to see his faults, I only knew him in his glory,

He was a Black Belt in Karate, He a soldier in the Army.

He was a father, He was a husband,

He was an Imam, leader of Muslim Community in the nation’s capital.

To All his siblings he was a favorite brother, always ready with a joke.

To my mother he was ideal man.

But when I visit his resting place, I can only find his grave because he’s two headstones down from my aunt.

This is the Father Time I’m allowed now.

The short time we shared was valuable; any time you have to share with your father is just as precious.

Let him know that it is.

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June 6, 2012 · 12:09 pm

Project CBRunway Round 4: Breakfast Club

This is from Round 4  of Comic Book Resources Project CBRunway. The theme for the week was John Hughes’ classic teen film from the 80s,”The Breakfast Club.”

We had to make the archetypical characters, the Brain, The Princess, The Basket-case, the Jock and the Criminal, into Super Heros. After selecting a number between one and five I was assigned the Jock,  Andrew Clark, played by Emilio Estevez. The character he played was an athlete on the wrestling team in detention because he duct taped some poor saps butt cheeks together.

He looks capable of juvenile evil.

So my approach was to give him the basic super hero strongman look and add a few touches from the movie. He has typical wrestling gear, a mask and his varsity jacket from the film. Here’s the inked drawing.

And the final colored image.

As the Gym Class Hero, Andrew Clark dons his varsity jacket and wrestling uniform to take down the bullies and creeps at Shermer High School redeeming himself for having once been a locker room bully. He asked the “Brain” to soak his costume in “chemical X” to make them more durable, the treads on his wrestling boots are reenforced with a metallic rubber to help him keep his ground and his mask is worn under his headgear, because it looks a little less silly that way. His belt is a novelty belt he got on line, a replica of the championship belt from his favorite pro wrestling company and his fingerless gloves are padded to protect his knuckles, and not leave bruises on wrongdoers.

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April 27, 2012 · 9:21 am

Project CBRunway 7: Round 2 – Gender Bender

It’s been a while between posts, life crept up on me and spun me around for a loop. But I think I can manage this once a week again. Anyway here’s a treat. A two for one shot in the Comic Book Resources, Project CBRunway competition. First up, CBRunway : Round 2 – Gender Bender. In this round I had to swap power sets for two comic book characters, the challenge being the characters are of different genders. One has to be male, the other female. I went with Doctor Doom and Black Canary. It made sense in my head, but the end result wasn’t a voter favorite. Such is life.

The trick was to have the characters switch power sets and costumed identities yet retain the essence of who they are. With Black Canary, I really liked her ponytail look in Birds of Prey. For some reason it made me think of a dominatrix. So I went with that, since she’s not a doctor of any kind. I looked into fetish gear and decided a mask made of leather straps said, “ooh, kinky.” Changed the color scheme of her costume to resemble Doom’s signature look and  added some thigh high boots with leather straps and came up with this.

Dinah Lance as Dominatrix Doom

For Doom I had to think what it would mean for Him to have a sonic scream. So I modified his mask so his mouth looked like a speaker that would amplify 
the scream to Black Bolt levels. Well, close to it. Doom needs his hood, so I kept that modified the color scheme of his tunic to make him a Wiz Khalifa fan. (ie. Black and Yellow) I kept his armor because I Imagine like his mask it’s seared onto his flesh. I could be wrong, though.

Victor Von Doom as Black Canary

For those of you who hate it and say it’s not very “Doom” like, let’s just say he’s a Doombot.
 

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April 4, 2012 · 5:06 pm

Project CBRunway 7: Round 1- The Purple Haze

I may have mentioned that I am a member of the forums on Comic Book Resources. There’s an annual  Super Hero design/redesign competition on the Artist and Writer Showcase section of the forums called Project CBRunway and this is the 7th “season.”  I’ve participated in the competition a few times and it’s something I look forward to every year. This year hopeful participants had to submit basic costume designs for a hero and villain based on ourselves using a basic template model sheet. I went with the basic themes of positivity and negativity because these are drives and attitudes we all share, but when the mood shifts too far in one direction, you aren’t behaving like your normal self. First I got to work on the positive aspects using the mathematical symbol for plus(+) as an insignia and using bright colors, baby blue, white and yellow to show a positive attitude. And I used the minus(-) sign for the villain and inverted the colors on the computer to come up with that color scheme.  Anyway, here’s my submission.

Mas y Minus

Private Positive and Negatory. Great, right?

MattBib, the moderator of this section of the forums acts as Tim Gunn and gives us wild ideas for our weekly challenges. For the first challenge he came up with the name “Sounds of the Silver-Age” wherein the contestants had to pick an iconic Recording Artist from the 1960s and give that person a super hero costume from the silver-age era of comic books. Comic Book scholars and collectors understand the silver-age to be the period between the late 1950s to the early 1970s. In this period comic fans were introduced to the updated versions of the Flash and the Green Lantern over at DC Comics and Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four… well let’s say just about all the really popular characters over at Marvel Comics.

TM & (C) DC Comics

The Flash went from Jay Garrick to Barry Allen, Green Lantern from Alan Scott to Hal Jordan.

TM & (C) Marvel Comics

This Explosion of Characters came from what Stan Lee likes to call the Marvel Age of comics.

That’s what comics looked like in the Silver-Age, and as for the Music Icon from the 60s, I chose Jimi Hendrix. His look lends itself to the fantastic automatically. His dress was that of a gypsy pirate, with an attitude to match. Hopefully I don’t have to give him too much of an introduction, I’m guessing enough of you are experienced.

To distill Jimi to his most memorable visual components there were a few details I wanted to keep in mind, the Afro, The Bandana, The Goatee and the Vest. There are pictures out there where he doesn’t don the vest or bandana/headband, but in my head that’s what he always wore. A lot of fans say that he was known to keep a tab of LSD in his bandana for storage, but he would occasionally wind up tripping as his sweat dissolved the tab(s) leading the substance to seep into his system through his pores. As with many of the other contestants, I went to the his catalogue of songs for inspiration for his costumed identity. He’s got so many songs that would be great super hero names, Little Wing, Dolly Dagger, Stone Free, Night Bird Flying and Voodoo Child. For a while I was set on Voodoo Child. The lyrics to the first verse sound epic:

“…Well I’ll stand up next to a mountain, and I chop it down with the edge of my hand- Well I’ll pick up all the pieces and make an island, I might even raise a little sand- ‘Cause I’m a Voodoo Child, Lord knows I’m a Voodoo Child…”

With that bravado and cockiness as fuel I began sketching out his look. I tried bell bottom pants for him and frilly cuffs for his shirt sleeves but that was still saying Rock Star and not Super Hero. The one thing from his signature look that I could borrow from to make him a super hero was his bandana. I just rolled the headband down over his eyes and added some goggle lenses and boom, Super Hero. But nothing really came to me though that said Voodoo child and the Internet wasn’t working so well, so researching the symbolism of Voodoo wasn’t going to work out. Also I couldn’t get  the Marvel character Brother Voodoo out of my head. Below are some rough ideas/sketches.

Hmmm, none of these really say "VOODOO CHILD."

Voodoo Child wasn’t working out for me as a character and I didn’t have much time to work because the deadline for this challenge was creeping up on me. For some reason I considered Purple Haze. Time was working against me, so I threw together a quick simple cartoony sketch on some Borden and Riley vellum paper without a solid character model and design to work from. As simple as it was I really liked it. I was watching Adventure Time so that world of mirth and excitement may have slipped in and made me feel good about everything. It’s kind of like what I’d imagine an LSD trip to feel like. So from the sketch it was scanning time, soon to be followed by some coloring in PhotoShop. Here are the results.

Exhibit C. In my defense I wanted an excuse to give him red eyes.

When working on a character with a purple color scheme, avoid using red.GARISH!!!

I could have gone down the coloring road all night, but it was late and I had to  get this in on time for the voting thread to go up.  To me A was too much like the Wonder Twins. B was a step in the right direction and C was a step in the wrong direction, ugh.  D although it’s basically a simple color swap of A really made things pop for me. It’s what I went with for the challenge. Check out the Project CBRunway: Challenge 1 voting thread and check out the other entries as well. If you’re inclined to vote I won’t stop you. The voting poll allows you to vote for multiple designs so no pressure.

And just for my Ungowa Soul Power visitors here’s a slightly modified image of  Jimi Hendrix, The Purple Haze.

The Purple Haze

Acting Funny, But I Don't Know Why?!? Excuse Me As I Kiss The Sky.

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March 17, 2012 · 1:44 am

Pull Pile Podcast – Design

At my good friend Rah Unique’s (@rah_unique) recommendation I began following the Pull Pile Podcast on Twitter and Facebook. Okay for the uninitiated a pull pile (or pull list) is a list of comic books that collectors subscribe to at their Comic Book Store. Most of you may remember being able to pick up comics at your local candy shop, super market, news stand  or 7/11. That distribution model is long gone, Comics are primarily found in specialty Direct Market and Hobby stores. So the podcast is about the new releases the two hosts pick up every Wednesday, the day new releases of comic books are sold. They also discuss films and television series and other related media.

So the hosts of the Pull Pile Podcast  The Head and Winthrop Chesterton wanted to create a new identity and presence online with a new logo and some original artwork. They reached out to their fan-base and followers on various social media platforms. I answered the call and they got in touch with me and told me what they needed. Here’s what they had a friend put together to give me a rough idea for what design challenges I had to meet.

  

The great thing about this is that these guys knew what they wanted and were able to clearly demonstrate what they needed from me. So I pretty much hopped on this as soon as I could, because although I hadn’t met them personally I felt like these were kindred spirits, I saw their tweets, listened to their podcast and there was even some interaction online. They use the hashtag #letstalkcomics to ask fans questions about comics, the characters, the creators and the industry in general. So as I said there was already a bond, a sense of fellowship. So I showed them some roughs that I worked on in Adobe Illustrator.

       

I started with the familiar old DC Comics logo as inspiration. Then I modified it to a series of Ps with the number three taking up residence in the curve of the letter P. Being comic fans they went with the DC bullet, and the masthead was a simple design with layered bold letters reminiscent of the silver-age of comic books, which is around the late 50s/early 60s, where the Justice League of America formed and The X-Men, Avengers, Spider-Man and other well known characters were first introduced or revamped.

I was told to move forward with these designs and gave them a swatch of these designs with different color schemes. Here are a few that they liked.

 

I used the banner on their podcast as inspiration for a few color schemes. They really seemed to appreciate that.

With that done it was on to the illustrations and the mock comic book cover. The characters were definitely interesting and fun to draw, one has no face, like The Question and the other, an over large cranium, like Megamind. I feel a bit longwinded at this point, so I’ll just show the final product. I know bandwith is a little crazy in some places and too many images can slow ya down, so here you go.

I put the comic on a bed of classics and maybe spent too much time rendering the headphones, but I like the work and more importantly so did Winthtrop and The Head.

And that my friends is that.

Hopefully I get more (paid) work in the future to showcase, it was fun and I wish these guys all the success in the world. If you’re a fan of comics follow them on twitter, listen to the podcast and tell ’em @Countbaqula sent you.

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March 11, 2012 · 5:12 pm

A.B. Do Well – Logo

I’m still going through the missing files I have to replace. The logo I’m posting today is the one I used as a solo rapper. A.B. Do Well was the name I went by, and occasionally still use when in the company of those that remember and respect the name. Not a huge group of people, but definitely a sincere group. The name A.B. Do Well was a combination of things, it was a play on my actual name and a mission statement. A.B. is Abdul-Baqi, the name my mother gave me. It’s Arabic and Islamic, Al-Baqi is one of the 99 attributes of Allah, it means The Eternal/Enduring. Abdul is a title in arabic meaning (devout) servant or slave of God. So my first name translates to The Servant of the Eternal (God). Do Well is my intention and/or practice of making sure I put my best into all of my endeavors. Whatever I do the goal is to do it well. A.B. Do Well when pronounced all together sounds an awful lot like Abdul. That was the thought process behind the stage name way back when I was 19 or 20.

As for the logo I was keeping with the esoteric/mystical theme from the group Sight Beyond Light. For that I took the initials from the group name, SBL, and fashioned them into the All Seeing Eye, which is usually associated with the Eye of Horus and typically is a symbol for the sun. It also alludes to the Third Eye, which is a symbol for higher understanding and enlightenment.  For A.B. Do Well I borrowed the symbol of the Masons, a very widely known fraternal order that is for some reason considered a secret society. Their symbol is the compass and the square, tools for designing and architecture. The roots of the Masons is in building, generally with stones. But the compass and the square to me represent taking the long view and exercising proper and precise planning to achieve wondrous and dynamic goals that leave an indelible mark on society.  That’s a great symbol and philosophy to adopt. A but lofty, but if you don’t dream big, you don’t achieve big. Anyway, here’s a pic of the recreated A.B. Do Well logo.

Nice and simple, but I didn’t use the square because I was saying I had a more rounded view. YOu know how it is, you think you know everything at 20. More than people that have been around long enough to know better. More than ancient orders that have had centuries to think and plan. But like I said, lofty.

I was thinking this is a little to basic and played around with a nice new image based on a more modern logo for the Masons.

I kind of wish I played around more with the logo when I first created it. I’m really liking the update. I guess I have an excuse to start rapping again. This logo shows some growth and refinement. Pretty slick.

Well I’m sure I’ll have another lost logo up soon. Until then, Peace, be well and Do Well.

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March 8, 2012 · 6:23 pm

P & Q Video and Back Story

I made a bunch of iMovie videos for some of my old songs to put on Youtube a few months back. They’re on my video page here, if you haven’t seen ’em check ’em out, they’re fun low budget takes on the songs I barely had money to record.

But anyways, I fully intended to make one for P & Q back then too. The chorus talked about  the if P then Q theory of logic learned in basic algebra, or Sequential One,and I wanted to use the text book Sub-Conscious and I used when we were in high school. A book pretty much every high school student in New York City used since the late 80s. Integrated Mathematics, Course I. I couldn’t find an image for the book online for the life of me, but mysteriously I found it yesterday. I only looked for it because my friend Rah Unique (@rah_unique) tweeted that he was now playing the song using the hash tag #NP, and he shouted me out @countbaqula. So, I found it and it’s very low resolution, but it was enough to make a mock book cover for the song.

 I took this and made this:

I may have gone a little to crazy trying to distress and age the book, but I was a man possessed. I was so happy to finally get a basic image that I played around with it for hours. After making the cover it was time to go ahead and make the video. And there it is below, for you viewing pleasure.

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March 2, 2012 · 2:52 pm

Low Tech Records

Not much to say here, this was the logo I came up with for Low Tech Records,the indie record label my rap group, Sight Beyond Light. We used it to press up our first single, New Beginning b/w Illusions; that I  spoke about in the last post, and a few other projects. Sub-Conscious released his first full length album, Lyric Lovers Deluxe, on Low Tech Records. I made a little promo album for Sight Beyond Light titled Vanishing Point of View and later pressed up A.B. Conversations, my solo project as A.B. Do Well that was sold hand-to-hand for the most part. I put a few up on CD-Baby, but like only a few I also had some up at a few digital retailers, they’re now closed though. But I still have a Myspace page up as A.B. Do Well. I don’t look at that page much, but you can.

So I think I’ll tackle the A.B. Do Well logo next time around. See you then, if not sooner. I’ve been working on on pages for The Stunning Beeboy and set up a different site for a web-comic. I know you all are on pins and needles, anxiously awaiting his debut, don’t worry he’ll bee here soon.(see what I did there?)

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February 26, 2012 · 1:45 pm

Sight Beyond Light

Well a while ago my external hard drive said I over worked it and just straight up quit on me. No two weeks notice or anything, super inconsiderate. But when it left it took all the old files I had on it, including the vector file of the logo for my former rap group, Sight Beyond Light. I waited a long time to recreate the image, but I finally did. I also through in the way it was laid out for the first single on Low Tech Records, our super unofficial record label. I mean the music was official, we just never registered it as a business. But that was in 2000.

Anyway, here’s the sticker/artwork for the first single. DJ Eclipse from Fat Beats and NYU Radios Hip-Hop Show, Halftime Radio, was super impressed with the professional presentation. I can’t take all the credit though, my band mate Blu Jemz(formerly JMS Inja) offered his input about the color scheme. Man those were the good old days. The four man crew was A.B. Do Well, that’s what I used to go by , Blu Jemz, Soem(he now goes by sTERRYo), and Sub-Conscious. We would be in the lab constantly. Soem and Blu Jemz made the beats for the most part, but our boys Rio Murray, Omari Toomer and Jon Abrahams also through their sound into the mix. Omari would lend vocals from time to time as well. Enough reminiscing, here’s the logo in question.

The all seeing eye, again I can’t take full credit at all because my brother came up with the initial sketch. I just vectorized it in Adobe Illustrator. Anyway here’s a little video I made for it way after the fact.

 

Also, I always wanted to go all Dark Side of the Moon with the logo, but other members of the band thought it was corny to rip off the Pink FLoyd album cover. I thought it would be so fitting and cool and at the time I’d just seen the Wizard of Oz Set to that album. There were moments when the synch up worked to amazing effect, but those moments were few and far between. Anyways, here’s my homage.

See that, that’s effing brilliant right there.

Well that’s one design file down. I don’t even want to guess how many there are to go, but I suppose the logo for the label is a must. I loved that old Low Tech Logo. Maybe I’ll have it up soon.

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February 23, 2012 · 6:26 pm

Big City Dare2Draw at MoCCA

I’m a frequent volunteer at MoCCA, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, located in the SOHO neighborhood of New York City. It’s a nice place to look at some original artwork from some of the greats in the Comic Book and Animation fields. The museum helps legitimize the art forms and gives enthusiasts a more high brow place to gather than the local comic book shop. I also attend the Big City Dare2Draw pretty regularly too, The Dare2Draw is interesting in that comic book artists gather to sketch models in action poses, and network. There is usually an informative panel discussion as well, with professionals giving their insight on the industry. Last night I participated in both events at the same time and it was pretty fantastic.

The Dare2Draw was held at MoCCA and I was there as a volunteer, setting up, moving walls and museum fixtures and more interestingly handling original artwork from Bob Kane the creator of Batman, Neal Adams one of the most brilliant artists in the industry, and the work of other artists that have been instrumental in the telling of Batman’s story since 1939. The pieces were delicately handled as the gallery space was moved so we could make room for all the artists to get a good view of the models.

The guests didn’t get to see the back breaking set-up, but here’s the view they did get.

Museum Manager Jack Walsh at the Swag Table.

The Museum got pretty full and it was just about time to get some figure drawing in. But before that Dare2Draw host, TJ Glenn, The Urban Swashbuckler, welcomed the artists to the event and made some announcements about future events and introduced the panelists and other special guests, including famed DC Comics artist, Kyle Baker. Baker, the seated gentleman taking off his jacket, is known for his work on the all ages Plastic Man series, and his gritty Hawkman segment in Wednesday Comics.

TJ Glenn says he dresses like this everyday.

Kyle Baker, Dares 2 Draw.

When the models arrived I stopped taking photos and started sketching. The figure drawing exercise is broken down into 3 secgments, the first is a series of ten poses with a two-minute duration, followed by four 5-minute poses and concluding with two 10-minute poses. I’m not showing all of the sketches, but here are a few of mine.




All in all it was a good time, even with the heavy lifting that followed the event. We had to move the walls back into place and store some dusty metal planks. But, you know when you can’t be philanthropical with money, do it with time and muscles. The next Dare2Draw is March 28. 2012 held at Different Directions at 417 West 57th St. MoCCA’s gallery hours are 12:00Pm until 5:00PM, Tuesday through Sunday. The MoCCA Art Festival is takes place April 28-29 at the 69th Regiment Armory, 68 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY.

Check their websites for upcoming events.

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
Big City Dare2Draw

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