I was listening to, The Black Guy Who Tips, one of my favorite podcasts and they had a panel discussion that was about , Black Twitter. The article they cited said that Black Twitter tended to be “irresponsible” and “dangerous.” So I fired up Illustrator and got to designing a graphic.
Dangerous
I could get angry and dust off my soapbox, but I figured, why not try to make a buck. #capitalism.
Filed under Adobe Illustrator, Art, pop culture
This was designed for a special friend of mine. She had to do a presentation for a job interview based on training new personnel in a college advising on how to deal with dissatisfied students. She told me she wanted to present playing cards with her acronym D.E.A.L., which I hope is self explanatory by looking at the card above.
Filed under Adobe Illustrator, Art, graphics, logos
Working in Garageband lately to record, so I decided to work on creating a piece of music. I was listening to some Rick Ro$$ for track inspiration, decided that some heavy bass drums, horns, violins and church bells were the way to go. Have a listen.
In my boneheadedness, I believed I was recording into a SHURE SM-57 mic through a Digidesign MBox 2 Pro for the last few months. That was not the case, at all, I was recording into my computers built in mic. That’s ok for skype and taking notes, but, I’m trying to have vocals that start strong. So, I downloaded the driver for it and that changed things quite a bit. Anyway, now that I squared that away I laid out this track that I was performing as an opener, when I used to perform. So, here we go. It’s called, “What Up Y’all? (It’s A.B.)”I recorded a song called “Franklin Richards” over the track by sTERRYo aka Soem aka TK Lawrence of Sight Beyond Light, the Dub Pistols and the Hardy Boys. The track is lost to time, but hopefully when I repurposed the beat I created a timeless track.
https://soundcloud.com/abdowell/what-up-yall-remix
I also came up with some artwork for it based on the “Keep Calm and Carry On.” posters that were really popular 3 years ago.
Filed under Art, Entertainment, logos, music
So I recorded something for the first time in many years. My lady got me into listening to Podcasts, and in particular one called Get Up On This hosted by Jensen Karp (@GetUpOnJensen ), a former rapper that went by the name Hot Karl, and Matthew Robinson @MrMattRobinson ) a screen-writer and all around reasonable fellow. Get Up On This is basically about Jensen and a guest telling the audience three things that display the best taste in music, art , fashion and other aspects of culture; while Matthew is given one pick along the same lines. They have a spin-off show called Get Up Off This, where Matt is the host and he tells the audience what to stop doing. They have a standing request for theme song submissions, so this is what I recorded.
https://soundcloud.com/abdowell/get-up-off-this-final-mix
What you getting mad at me for? (Get Up Off This!)
Nobody’s doing that anymore. (You suckers)
What you getting mad at me for? (Get Up Off This!)
Nobody’s doing that anymore.
Ladies and gentlemen (Hello) What up and hey Stupids
Here to Spread the Love For free like OK Cupid
Usually we introduce you to exclusives
But now we telling you it ain’t cool & don’t do it
You Rockin’ Ed Hardy and cuff your jeans
But wanna get props, homie fuck your dreams
You think the best movie is Shawshank Redemption
Matty says Try Harder, but it’s all right with Jensen
So before you go out and waste your pay-stubs
Let these two cats here update your taste-buds
Dudes got good advice, but take it with a grain of salt
And if you wanna be lame (fuckers) it ain’t they’re fault
Giving you a chance to cut your losses
The name of this podcast is Get Up Off This
Before we close we get jokes from their twitter folks
But for the love of God, please, no mo Brita jokes
This is a podcast, within a podcast
You can find it every Tuesday on Smodcast
We gonna outlast, this is a mash up
It’s going down son, so get your ass up (off this)
Get your ass up (off this)
Get your ass up (off this)
It’s going down, so get your ass up (off this)
Get your ass up, get your monkey ass up (off this)
Ok so I saw this movie one Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Talked to friends about it and listened to a few podcasts and there were a few things that really stood out from this melange of Iron Man 3 experiences. I loved this movie otherwise I’m an idiot that loves to spend money on things I hate. While I love it, I can still see it’s flaws and similarities to other films.
Similarities to assorted Batman movies.
1. Nerd Scientist Becomes Sexy Bad Ass
Aldridge Killian(Guy Pearce) in the beginning is really reminiscent of Jim Carey in Batman Forever , where they were goofy geeky scientists that were not socially acceptable and then transform into slick and devious business-men .
2. Antagonizing Twist.
In Batman Begins, Ra’s al Ghul is thought to be Ken Watanabe for most of the film, but turns out to be Liam Neesen. We were led to believe The Mandarin was the head of this terrorist organization but it turns out not the exotic asian, but the suave european. This happens in the Dark Knight Rises as well where we think Bane is the brains behind the operation, but it turns out to be Miranda Tate the business partner and eventual lover of Bruce Wayne. The difference here is that Bane is actually a physical threat that literally cripples Batman.
3. The Clean Slate as a Thing.
The Dark Knight Rises shows that Selina Kyle is willing to work with terrorists to have her criminal record expunged by using the Clean Slate, a program or virus that for some reason is being developed by Wayne Enterprises. Tony’s Clean Slate is different, but it’s also powerful leverage in the film because it gets him back in Pepper Pott’s Good graces. As he destroys all of his armors and cuts down on his distractions. Not a big deal but something I noticed.
4. Exploding House.
Bruce Wayne’s mansion gets destroyed by his enemies and he has to crawl out the wreckage in Batman Begins. Tony’s house is also obliterated by his enemies. His enemies that represent a terrorist threat. Bruce Wayne needs to lift a wooden plank off of his chest, Tony Stark has to lift a huge structure of of himself, using his strength too, this AI he developed.
Filed under Entertainment, film review, hollywood, photoshop, pop culture, Uncategorized
It’s probably being made, RIGHT NOW!!!
Filed under comedy, Entertainment, graphics, hollywood, photoshop, pop culture
So my girly girl got me a wacom tablet for my birthday. I’ve been getting familiar with it, and decided to try out some painting skills I haven’t flexed in many a year. It’s a pic of the Recluse. Just not going to forget that guy. Anywho, here we go.
Filed under Art, Comics, the recluse
I had an idea for a character on the way to see Stallone’s new shoot ’em up, Bullet to the Head. It was for a character that was simpler than other characters and stories I’ve been developing. It was an insect based character, I just love those. Anyway the character’s theme is based on roaches, filthy disgusting roaches. He’s a pest to the criminal underworld.
The idea here is to do one page stories akin to the old Hostess snack ads from the 70s and 80s.
The comics would feature a villain of the week an we catch the action just as it’s about to get resolved. For the first issue I have the hero fighting a squid themed villain, Carl O’Marley, PHD. The Roach is trapped and has to find a way to escape. That’s all I thought about going in before laying out the action in a thumbnail.
After I lay out he basic action I drew it, inked it, then in the Marvel Way added the dialog. And there we have the first installment below. 
The following images show the thought process for framing the second installment of The Red Roach. As in the case of the first strip, I just thought of a basic situation and laid out some interesting ideas for images based on the characters I wanted to use. This time I used the Pigeon as the antagonist. She’s just your basic winged flyer, bust so is the Red Roach. Again I start with the basic idea of them flying and I have to find a way to resolve it in a few panels. I decided I’d rather not have him hit a woman, so she had to crash into a wall.
Here are few flight and collision studies for the Pigeon.
Below is the finished product for the second installment.
You can go ahead and follow the Red Roach and his continuing adventures here at theredroach.wordpress.com.
Filed under Art, Comics, Entertainment, graphics, The Red Roach
The Recluse is another child of my brain. I’m switching gears from Beeboy, to do a tighter character piece. Straight forward story telling, not the overwhelming multi-media nightmare that Beeboy was becoming in my mind. The Recluse is going to have a leaner cast and just be a twist on a familiar character. Her’es a logo I think fits the mood I’m trying to set. Simple, eh?
I’ve done a few logos for the media company before, this one is just tighter to me. I’d believe in anything that this graphic was representing. Yay me!!!
Ungowa Soul Power 
