Under Fire

Under Fire (Unofficial Fan Art), by Brandon A. Miltgen, 2014

This one was tricky for me. Once I’d stared at those lines and saw a super hero in there, I knew it would be a Captain America fan art piece. The trouble came ultimately with meshing an invented physique with reference and fitting it all to Joe’s line constraints (the hands and face are from reference of me; but the rest of him is obviously very stylized). It was a very fun exercise conceptually and very worth doing. But I think I’d be a little more careful in the setup phase if I could go back and do it all over again 😉 Happy Tuesday, Illustration Timers!

Here’s a look at Joe’s challenge lines overlaid on my drawing efforts.

Jackal

Jan21

Brando here. My power animal is a jackal, the African black-backed kind to be precise. My coworkers and I were discussing what the new Illustration Time drawing challenge should be and power animal was the decision. I initially suggested that my power animal should be Yoda or Gandalf, but Joe and Adrianne wouldn’t let me be so cheeky. So, after some thought, I realized why a jackal is so powerfully perfect for me.

The black-backed jackal is much more than your average wild dog. He’s actually very family-centered. In fact, my wife and I watched a BBC special on mammals that featured the family life of jackals. A jackal pair mates for life. When the two have pups, while the mommy jackal does the nursing, the daddy jackal faithfully secures food for mommy. As the pups grow, daddy-jackal plays with the pups and expands his efforts to bring food back for the whole family.

I’m a family man, sharing with my jackal friend those very same characteristics. Taking care of my family is very important to me. My wife does the hardest work there is—staying at home to nurture our growing children (we have four pups). My job is to earn the money our family needs and play with the pups. It’s becoming very rare now for a mom to stay home while a dad is the sole breadwinner, but my wife and I believe it’s best for our family right now (pups grow fast and need lots of love; time flies when they’re young and you can’t get it back).

It is a very joyful life to have a family and it’s also a part of my faith. I recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity. Go jackals!

If you’d like to see how I developed this one in my cutesy style, head on over to my blog, Drawing Faith 🙂

Glass Peacock

Dec10

There’s a track on Savage Sister‘s self-titled album called Glass Peacock. The title of the song (as well as their awesome sound) inspired me to make this piece. But as I delved further into creating it, I found some deeper meaning. If you head on over to my personal blog, Drawing Faith (click here), you can read about the fuller symbolism of it and see the process that went into making the artwork (I threw down a color variant there for it as well). Below is a link to the song for all you art appreciators who dig listening while looking:

Eye of the Tiger

Nov21

While I was working up Ding. Ding. my sweet wife said something like, “If you get to be a boxer, what do I get to be?” She followed that up a little later with the sentiment, “I want to be a tigress.” My sweet wife is surely one hot tigress. Not just for my attraction to her, she keeps our home working, our kids alive, and my sanity intact—she’s basically a super hero, with the eye of the tiger. So this is a companion piece to go with my self portrait. Tomorrow we welcome our 4th baby into the world. She’s ready for it with super-heroic intensity as usual. Love you, honey!

Ding. Ding.

Nov18

I found out a little late that November 1st was Self Portrait Day. It’s been a long time since I’ve drawn a picture that’s an obvious attempt at me. I’m no boxer (although I loved my martial arts studies as a younger man), but this is an expression of some big ticket happenings about to explode onto my scene. My wife and I are expecting our 4th baby this Friday (lil’ Jack Fable is on his way), hence the “Round 4.” The scripture is a slightly modified sentiment from the Book of Mormon—about being able to handle the crazy mess of life with one’s faith firm in Christ. Being a good dad is a challenge indeed. You have to be on your game, because there’s a lot to distract one away from what’s most important in life these days. The “Ding. Ding.” is a reference to Apollo Creed from the Rocky films, expressing that I’m up for it and in it to win it. Daddy life can be tough business (if you’re doing it right), but it’s so very worth it, and very often it’s a hoot. The dividends of love that you get from all of the work involved are a wonderful investment, not only in your kids but yourself too—it’s the best training for your spirit that you can get. This post may be a little personal, but hey, it’s a self-portrait.

Paris Fairy

Oct21

Some sweet cryptid entries have checked in already. I just got mine done this evening for my sweet lil’ daughter. She loves fairies and she loves Paris (and fairies do fit the general cryptid definition we’ve got going). So I give you the Paris Fairy (it’s supposed to be pronounced with authentic Frenchiness: Pear-ee Fair-ee). If you review my daughter’s cryptid drawings I think you’ll now be able to recognize her Paris Fairy effort too 😉

It’s my turn to pick the next challenge which I’ll be announcing very soon. Illustrators beware: it will be a challenge indeed… Mwuhahahaha… Mwuhahahahahahahahhahahaha!

Stolen Identity

Oct11

Stolen Identity (Unofficial Tron Fan Art), by Brandon A. Miltgen, 2013

Tron made a huge impact on me as a kid. My dad showed my bro and I the movie, we had the glow-in-the-dark action figures (made of colored, clear plastic mind you), and we even listened to the vinyl record of Wendy Carlos‘ score for the film (I still listen to it). It’s more than nostalgia to me—it even influences my design work today. Something about the simplicity of shape, line, and color used in that movie has kind of seeped into a lot of the art I’ve made over the years. And when I listen to that soundtrack (or the Daft Punk follow up from 2012, also amazing) I feel like I’m on the grid while I do my design work—it enhances reality for me. So this is my ode to Tron—a fighting program who just caught someone else’s identity disc (a play on the whole identity theft idea). It kind of hints at the truth behind the yin-yang too—we all hold close to our hearts a way of being, but there’s always the opposite color of choice flying at us, ready to be caught. Happy Friday.

If you really want to geek out the way I do when I work on things like this, play the music link below as you view my piece. There’s often a sound-scape fueling my creativity as I lay down my shapes and pull vectors.

Savage Sister

Oct4

Brando here with some more fan art, this time for a musical group I’ve been digging. Here at the ‘Zone we have a lot of different talents hanging out in-house. Our newest edition happens to play bass in a band called Savage Sister. After sampling their sounds, my wife and I immediately bought their album last weekend. They classify their sound as “dream pop/shoegaze/dreamwave” and I have to say it’s some sweet sound. You should check them out. Their mascot is an unassuming girl with a war bonnet and goggles (shown below). I took her and passed her through the Brandon-filter as a tribute. Hope you like it, Savage Sister 🙂

http://savagesister.bandcamp.com/

Star Wars Challenge : Darth Brawl

Sep28

Just finished this challenge! As you know for this Star Wars challenge all got a name of someone and secretly were able to work on a piece for them illustrating them as a Star Wars character.

It really turned out to be a lot of fun, and I realize this isn’t my normal style but it was a new learning experience.

Brandon guessed it from the start he knew I had him. Hahaha. He is the sweetest guy, very kind and brotherly. Inside he is like a youthful Yoda, but I know he likes Darth Maul very much. So I decided to illustrate him as Darth Brawl!!! Scourge of the galaxy.

He really is great. And not at all scary.