Not much to say about this one: It’s YODA!! I’m trying out some new things with my style recently, streamlining a bit, less hatching and relying more on the strength of the drawing rather than the rendering to get the point across. I think that this pic kind of shows that pretty well.
Hola!
Look it’s still Wednesday! Woot! Didn’t get much time for sketching today, except during my office’s Mandatory Benefits Meeting (bluh). So, here’s what I did instead of listening to the insurance guy drone on and on. Enjoy!
BTW, I’ve uploaded some new t-shirts to my MySorti and Redbubble stores. You should check them out:
http://www.mysoti.com/mysoti/designer/monkeyminion or www.redbubble.com/people/monkeyminion
MySoti’s prices are lower than Redbubble’s, but I haven’t had a chance to evaluate their printing quality, yet.
Yo Dudes and Dudettes!
I’m sorry I forgot to post this up yesterday. Got bogged down with work, and barely got online at all! But, I’m here now!
This is one of my sketch cards from the upcoming “Essence of Fairyland” trading card set from SadLittles . All told, I’m doing 25. As you can see, I have a slightly different take on the idea of fairies. 
YAY! New stuff!
Been a few weeks since I posted last. I apologize. The holidays/end of the year rush have been keeping me on my toes. In the next year, I’m hoping to change some things, though.
First up, I plan to post at least every week if not more. I’d like to start doing a sketch-a-day kind of deal where I can do a post about a sketch I did over my lunch break, or some preliminaries of whatever project I happen to be working on. I’m hoping that this constant sketching and drawing will help me to more easily define a style. I’ll take some suggestions over my twitter account periodically as to what I should draw for your amusement. I plan to start this on January 11, 2010. I’ll make announcements on my twitter and facebook fan page as it comes closer to time.
Second, this year, I hope to start my very own Ustream artcast. I’ve got the account, and I’ve downloaded Camtwist so feasibly I could do digital work and stream it, but I know a lot of people are more interested in my sketch cards and hand drawn art, so I need a camera for that. Perhaps, I’ll run a sale later to get myself a camera? (Wink, nudge)
While I’ve got ya here, I may as well show you this. A little bit of a step-by-step on how I created a recent commission.
Now that you’ve seen that, here’s the final image:
WOO!
Also, just wanted to let you know, Ashlie (the other, less public half of MMP) has gotten our Etsy page up and running! Be sure to go over there and let her know that you appreciate her hard work by buying something or adding us to your favorites! www.etsy.com/shop/monkeyminion
OK, I just heard the news, so I figured I’d share:
Monkey Minion Press (that’s me, folks) has just been accepted as a Small Press exhibitor at next summer’s San Diego Comicon!!! HOW FREAKIN’ COOL IS THAT?! I seriously squee’d when I got the news last night.
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Whassup everybody, so glad you’re here. It’s Dane-i-o puttin’ the flow back in your ear.
So this past weekend was the Portland Comic Book Show. This was my second year in attendance as an artist, and I just got 2 words: AWE. SOME. The show was straight up great. Even for me coming into the show with less than 2 hours sleep beforehand, it was a great show. People came, they were excited to be there, & they wanted what we were selling (and more besides, I had to promise to get a Supergirl print made LOL). I did a few sketches, and took part in my first Jam sketch (with Ron Randall & Randy Emberlin, no less!), and drew my first Alien xenomorph (on the jam). That was pretty cool for me. Hopefully I didn’t bring down the overall quality of the piece too much. 
Met some crazy MST3K fans, too, which was super-sweet. Great show, great fans. I’m already looking forward to next year.
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The march to 10,000.
So, it looks like I am SLOWLY creeping up on 10,000 page views on my deviant art page. Crazy. It’s kinda weird how it works, and I still don’t know how it happens. But anyway, 10,000. It’s kind of a big number, but not to important. However, 10,001? Now, that’s an important number. (Not really, but pretend, ok?) So, here’s what’s gonna happen. I’m going to have a contest for the 10,001st pageview. If you open my page and see that you are the 10,001st viewer, take a screenshot and send it to me via note. That person will win a custom Personal Sketch Card commission from me of whatever character you choose (preferably characters with an established look, if you have your own character and have pics, that’ll work, but I’m not designing a character from whole cloth).
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Well, that’s it for now.
D
Hey all,
Just about caught up and I have a little time to myself, so I wanna give it to you. So, I figured I’d open up some sketch card commissions. Yay!
I’m opening 10 slots. I have to ask that we keep it to single cards for this one (read: No puzzles), just so I can get them done in a reasonable time frame. To clarify: you can order up to 3 cards, but not as a puzzle set because I’d like to get these done and out by Christmas.
Each card will be $20 fully colored, inked.
Email me at dane {@} monkeyminionpress.com to reserve your spot.
Thanks in advance to everyone!
samples:
P.S.
I still have copies of my 2009 sketchbook available.
$5 or $10 with a b/w Inked sketch in the back.
P.P.S.
¡¡¡
ORTLAND, PDX, PORTLANDIA!!!
November 11, 2009 is the next Portland Draw Night!! We’ll be meeting at the Original Hotcake & Steak House at 1002 SE Powell Blvd. in Portland. I’ll probably get there at about 5:30-ish. We’ll probably hang out until 9-ish. Swing on by, eat some hotcakes and draw some pictures. We’ll probably do some speed sketching, and hanging out.
here’s the facebook link:
[link]
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November 15 is the Annual PORTLAND COMIC BOOK SHOW ([link]) at the Memorial Coliseum here in Portland. I’ll be set up in the Artist’s Alley, taking commissions, selling art and just generally being awesome. You should come by, maybe I’ll share some awesomeness with you. 
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Also, I just submitted a proof of my book to the approval board at San Diego Comicon to get a table at SDCC 2010. I’m asking everyone to cross their fingers for me!
That’s it for this round. See you on the flip-mode!
Dane
Figured I’d post up some of my recent commissions:
This is a Silver Surfer Commission I did last week. This is a Sketch Card Commission and it measures 2.5″x3.5″. Drawn in Micron Pen and colored in Prismacolor markers.
The Rapahel card was done for my book that I take around to conventions. Mainly just because I wanted to. I may do the other 3 at some point in the future. The Phoenix was a commission I just finished. Both measure 2.5″x3.5″. Drawn in Micron Pen and colored in Prismacolor markers.
This is a piece I did as a promo card for the upcoming Legends & Lore card set from Sadlittles.com. I’m doing a few more base cards for the set and a slew of sketchcards, too. I’m really excited about this set. the entire premise of the set is to get artists to do their own spin on classic characters of fable and myth. There is some awesome work being done on this set. The promo set is available for purchase at sadlittles.com/store, and includes art by me, Nate Ohlendorf, Justin Vandemark, Rich Molinelli and more! Go Get It!
What’s new? Just finished with my cards for Rittenhouse Archives’ Wolverine: Origins card set. Whew! The most cards I’ve ever done on one set and ALL IN COLOR! Crazy! Now, I get to start on my base cards for the upcoming Legends and Lore card set from Sadlittles.com. Got one design down, just gotta throw it in the computer, and then do the next 4 (burly men in loincloths, anyone?). Then, I’ll get started on commissions I owe people. Got a few outstanding, but I should be able to whack them out – just gotta do it!
I’m going to try to make some updates to my site here in the next few weeks leading up to Emerald City Comicon. Mostly in the store section. Keep your eyes peeled!
So, welcome to the first post of Monkey Business, the blog about me and Monkey Minion Press, my illustration and design company. So let’s get busy!
Lots of new developments in the MMP world. But let’s start off with a little history first: Remember last year when I was helping Steve Rude with some photoshop coloring touch-up work? Well if you don’t, I just reminded you. Basically, what it was was that Steve was touching up the 20-some year old colors of his Nexus comic series for inclusion into the definitive printed verion of the stories in the Nexus Archives books from Dark Horse Comics. My job was to use photoshop to make the changes he needed made to the artwork. This included recoloring characters, pages and panels, making the effects more prominent, moving, deleting and rearranging word balloons, and so on, so forth.
So, why do I bring this up? Well, mainly because that gig has pretty much led directly to my new gig: doing color touch ups on Invincible for the new animated comic series coming out from MTV Mobile and GAIN Limited. Check this action out! (I would have embedded it, but apparently blogger can’t embed flash vids.:() This is super huge for me because I am a HUGE FAN of Invincible. I’ve been reading the series since issue #9 when Ryan Ottley started drawing it. I’m really excited about it. AHH!
Also, I’ll be doing sketch cards for the upcoming Marvel Masterpieces 3 set coming out of Upper Deck. I’m doing 75 cards, and hopefully I’ll get to do most of them in color. Gonna be sweet!
What else? Oh yeah! Since moving to PDX, we have hooked up with a great group of artists here and have been showing my work around, and I have a show of my artwork set up in September at a small gallery here in town. And of course, I found an artwalk to participate in, the Alberta Arts District Last Thursdays! I’ll be set up in front of This Place Blows a really cool little Glass Blowing Studio and Shop (This is also where my show will be in September).
So, I think that’s enough for now. Check back soon, because I hope to have more news!