deviant art

Deviant Login Shop  Join deviantART for FREE Take the Tour
May the Fourth be with you and Happy Star Wars Day to all! I present to you my celebratory gift for this year's happiest day of the year -- STAR WARS DAY -- A humble offering of Teaser Trailer 2 for my motion comic, "Panic Over Muunilinst"! Hope you guys dig it!



ALSO you people need to check out Chris D's freaking teaser image for his upcoming comic. IT'S GONNA BE SO GOOD. DO IT RIGHT NOW



Enjoy the "holiday", guys!
  • Listening to: "ARC Trooper Suite" - Dave Lajara
So :iconthaxos: is my 1,000th watcher! Huzzah!

Just wanted to take a quick opportunity to thank all one thousand of you for being a constant source of love, support, and inspiration!!

AND FOR THE LOVE OF CRAP, THE COMMISSIONS I OWE ARE COMING. Did a quick dump today, more on the way this week, FINALLY!

How are all of you doing in the meantime?? I feel like I never get to talk with any of you anymore thanks to this absurd schedule I've agreed to. ;)
  • Listening to: "ARC Trooper Suite" - Dave Lajara


Hey, all! Just wanted to share some love with my buddy Chad! Dude is looking to gain a little more attention, and I know if you guys dig my stuff, you will LOVE his.

:iconchad73:

Chad's also accepting commissions at this time, and as soon as my next paycheck clears, I myself am hitting him up. You should too! You can find details for his commission rates here:

[link]
  • Listening to: "ARC Trooper Suite" - Dave Lajara


Be sure to change the settings to HD before watching!

One year ago, my friends and followers here on DeviantArt encouraged the silly notion of turning a short original 8 page comic into a motion comic. I cannot describe just how incredible the experience was. World class voice acting, a humbling degree of positive responses, overwhelming amounts of external promotion, and the most satisfying of all -- the chance to fulfill my vision as an artist.

During the four months of production time of TSOD, there were many times my excitement and fatigue got the best of me and I thought "I can't wait to finish this." A week after completing it, I was already disappointed to not be working on it anymore.

"The Siren of Dathomir" was my love letter to Star Wars. Now, "Panic Over Muunilinst" is my love letter to the Star Wars community. I've said before that if you guys will continue to view me and my work, I will keep producing it. You guys said you wanted more motion comics, more Star Wars, and much to my delight, more Captain Fordo. Well, you got it. I genuinely hope you will enjoy where I take the character over the next two motion comics. While still a very blatant homage to the Micro-series, I'm going to take this character to some possibly surprising places. We established that Fordo was a free thinker in TSOD, but soon we are going to see what that actually means.

I'd like to give a quick special mention to Karl LaClair & Jason Hunt for their stellar voice acting in the trailer, as well as David "MEEQ" Lajara for his AMAZING rendition of the "ARC Trooper Suite," which you'll be hearing a lot more of in the full motion comic! Finally, a quick shoutout to Chris Duhaze (aka :iconchrispydee:for his awesome trooper design for one of Red Mist squad's newest members, Crispy.

I hope you'll join me and my favorite ARC Captain in 2013, when he and his Red Mist squad take to the skies of Muunilinst, and deal with some horrific shit.
  • Listening to: "ARC Trooper Suite" - Dave Lajara
Hey, all! Decided to extend the contest by a week! Normally I do reminders and have just been swamped. So I figured I'd throw in another week! :) Awesome stuff so far, all!!



What better way to celebrate the world-premiere teaser trailer tomorrow night than with a contest?! Want to help design a zombie Clone Trooper (AKA Death Trooper) for my motion comic, "Panic Over Muunilinst?" I could use all the help I can get, so now's the time! For the record, the top 3 designs will win a pretty awesome prize, I think - An AWESOME action figure by Hasbro that comes with all the accessories to have a Phase I OR Phase II Captain Fordo! This is easily my favorite figure of all time! :D But first, the rules!

Rules:
- MUST be a zombie!
- Phase II armor. Unhelmetted Clones encouraged as well!
- Phase I Clones not eligible.
- Both digital and traditional designs welcome!
- MUST be uploaded to YOUR DeviantArt gallery!
- MUST MUST MUST be YOUR original design!
- Gore is accepted, but in moderation please!
- Republic Commandos, ARC Troopers, etc, are eligible, but you MUST also submit a standard Phase II Clone design for each "Special" Clone design.
- MUST be submitted to THIS JOURNAL in the comments ON OR BEFORE 12 AM (Eastern Time) April 7th, 2013.

-----------------------------------------
PRIZES:

Top 10 Designs:
- 1(x) POM-themed Personal Sketch Card featuring Captain Fordo!
- Your design featured in "Panic Over Muunilinst"!

Top 3 Designs:
- 1(x) Sealed "ARC Trooper Commander (Fordo)" Hasbro Vintage Collection Star Wars figure!
- 1(x) POM-themed Personal Sketch Card featuring Captain Fordo!
- Your design featured in "Panic Over Muunilinst"!

Grand Prize:
- 2(x) POM-themed Official 501st Celebration VI Sketch Cards!
- 1(x) Sealed "ARC Trooper Commander (Fordo)" Hasbro Vintage Collection Star Wars figure!
- 1(x) POM-themed Personal Sketch Card featuring Captain Fordo!
- Your design featured in "Panic Over Muunilinst", THAT WILL KILL A MEMBER OF FORDO'S ELITE TEAM, the "Red Mist" Squad!
- One more possible prize TBD!

------------------------------------------

Entries to date:


Two more that for some reason can't be thumbnailed!
[link]
[link]
:iconnemonus: brought this to my attention a few days ago. :iconpenguinpuffypants: posted a journal that hit me right in the heart. I wrote about the tragedy in Connecticut last week, without really knowing how to react to it, until I read that journal. I'll copy and past it here, but will also link directly so you can reply if you wish. Some may feel like it doesn't seem like much, but I believe it is a great step toward making the day one of remembrance of those affected, and NOT about the killer (who, let's face it, WANTED the attention). I will be contributing, and I ask that this holiday season, if you are able, to do the same. If it can contribute even a small amount of healing to anyone involved, then we will have done a great thing.


A Call To Artists

"I haven't been on Deviantart in what feels like a decade (though it's only been a few months...yearish), but recent events have inspired me to get online and make a call out to artists of all ilk. From any artist, amateur to professional, self-taught to educated, hobbyist and the like. To painters, doodlers, writers and poets. I'd like to make a call for something that needs attention to be remembered. Whether you're American, Canadian, African, Mexican, French, Russian. It matters not your age, your race, the color of your skin or your hair. Your social status, religious beliefs, rich/poor, it matters not. I'm calling out to all of you and I hope you all hear me and will take into account what I say.

Here in the United States just a few days ago there was a massacre of twenty children and six adults. As custom to any media American, the victims are laid wayside while the assailant is painted a martyr and will be remembered for years to come until the next monster comes around to topple his reign. It happened with Columbine and Virgina Tech. It happens daily in the Middle East and every part of the world. Children are hurt by people that should be showing them the way, guiding them down a path to a healthy and intellectually sound adulthood. Instead they are hurt, broken and murdered.

My spark to do something good in this world may have come from a tragedy that happened in the US, but for me it is beyond that. The massacre of the twenty children may not affect you, you may be living in Europe or Asia, but in a small way, it affects the world. It sends out ripples and makes you think, there's a small possibility that this could happen to me as rare as it might be. It takes one small moment to change the world, it may not be instantaneous but it's effects will eventually be felt world-wide. This is no longer about the children in the US. It's about ALL of them. All the children lost because one adult made a single terrible choice, it's about the children of the future who will be hurt by one single adult, and it's about the children still suffering.

My call is for any artist that feels any inclination to do something about it. Whether it be to show their anger, to show that they will take a step to change the world around them, or that there still is a glimmer of hope left within humanity. Children ARE our future, and if we don't take steps to guide them and teach them right, then we only breed more hate and hurt. You don't have to be a parent to understand this, you don't need the word of God to make this make sense, you don't need a fancy degree or work with children directly to understand that they are innocent and they NEED adults to do right by them.

I issue a challenge to anyone to create something from the heart for the kids that are still suffering, to the lost and to the parents as well. I will be making a space somewhere to post up anything submitted to the public and any so inclined to send me something physical I would like to make a collective book to send to the families of this massacre. I don't care what it is so long as the context is appropriate and not harmful. It doesn't need to be beautiful, so long as it's from the heart. I welcome letters, poetry, short stories, small comics, illustrations anything.

I implore you to share this with anyone you know, anyone that would be interested, through journals on deviantart, tumblr, twitter, reddit, facebook, I don't care. The more people we get involved the bigger our impact. This isn't about personal fame or glory, this is about showing that there is still a shred of humanity left in us all, that we aren't a completely desensitized collective and that we still know what the word compassion means.

If you have any questions or concerns or would like more information or would like to help in this endeavor, my name is Candice Hernandez, you can contact me through personal message here on deviantart, through comments, my personal e-mail is candicechernandez@gmail.com.

Art is the purest form of expression and through us all we can make a change, no matter how miniscule it may seem. Please show your support for the kids, those still here and those that were lost to us.

Stop glorifying the monsters and remember the innocent."

[link]
Hey, guys! I hope you're all doing well.

Last year, I posted a journal about dealing with "holiday blues" and many of you responded. As you probably know, lots of folks suffer this time of year for a variety of reasons. Depression and stress are very real threats to many folks' well-being in the Christmas season. So, I just wanted to invite any of you guys to vent about your holiday blues, if you have any! Between commercial/consumer pressure, financial pressure, loneliness, and all types of unexplainable depression

Some past years have been rough to me. For a long time, I felt quite lonely (especially during the holidays), and it took a very, very long time for me to be happy and comfortable with just being alone! So believe me, I can relate to the blues this time of year. Though there are plenty of situations I can't relate to, I'm still happy to just listen and offer moral support.

Anyway, you guys treat me so well, I just wanted to post this so you guys could let out anything bothering you. I didn't respond much in the last journal about Connecticut, because it just felt better off not doing so. But I'll be acknowledging everything that ends up here. If you need to talk, let's talk! Or you could send me a note if you'd rather it be private. I love you guys and am here for you.

In the meantime, I'm working hard on the PoM trailer, as well as getting back to your commissions. Thanks so much for your patience as always!
I'd just like to offer my condolences to anyone affected by the tragedy in Connecticut today. I can't think of anything more sinister than murdering innocent children in cold blood. My sister and girlfriend are both teachers, and I can't help but wonder "What if it was their school?" For those of you that believe in prayer, please say one for the 28 innocent people that won't get to see tomorrow. Many of them had their entire lives ahead of them.

If any of you guys have anything to say, I absolutely welcome it, but I simply ask that we leave politics out of it. There's a day to express anger and debate stances on prevention, but today should be a day of mourning and respect for the souls lost. Thanks in advance.


Sunday December 30th, at 9 PM Eastern Time, I'll FINALLY get to debut the teaser trailer to POM! The sequel to my unofficial motion comic will be arriving in 2013, but I wanted to close out this year with a bang. I hope you'll all join me in my excitement and watch the trailer that Sunday! It'll be on YouTube as well as, this time, Vimeo as well. I'm extremely excited to lift the veil on some of the stuff that's been going on behind the scenes. It reveals quite a bit about the story, characters, and one other subtle surprise that I'm sure many of you Micro-Series fans will dig!

If you're a Facebook user, be sure to join the event!
[link]
HUZZAH! SWGF cards have finally landed!



Go check em out!

[link]
Hey all and Happy early Thanksgiving! I'm about to run out the door for a long weekend with my girlfriend, and spend the holidays there with her on Long Island. I wanted to jump in quickly and wish you all a great holiday before I left!

So sorry I haven't been answering comments as much and often as I used to! But I do read them all and save them to answer when I do have time! Replies coming soon! haha If you comment, I WILL read and reply! Thanks for all of your support! <3

And thanks so much for your patience on the commissions. Working on some really cool new stuff for James Arnold Taylor's one-man show "Talking To Myself" again while trying to bang out all of your stuff! I think you'll all be happy with the stuff that's on the horizon!

Here's a list of some of the things I'm thankful for in 2012. [link]

But more importantly, I want to know what YOU'RE thankful for this Thanksgiving! I MUST KNOW! =)
Between November 15th (Today!) and December 15th, ALL sketch cards will be on sale for HALF PRICE. This is so that A) I'll be finished with my current commissions by then and B) I can finish them all in time to get them to you before the holidays, should any of them be gifts! I'll be working on all my remaining commissions before these, but I encourage you to order sooner rather than later to avoid any issues with bad shipping timing before the holidays!

So just to clarify, digital AND traditional sketch cards are typically $30 USD, but between those dates ONLY, I'm chopping them by 50% to encourage you guys to commission me for gifts for friends and loved ones this holiday! But feel free to commission for yourself as well! haha

****I will not be taking any digital cinematic illustration commissions during this time. I can't afford to discount those as they simply take too long and I already undercharge for them! haha

Anyway, here is a look at my sketch cards!

Traditional


Digital



***ALSO*** I have 6 blanks available for my Marvel Beginnings III set still available. If you'd like to commission officially licensed Marvel art by my and reserve one or more of those blanks, message me with what you want! The commission price for those will be more than $15, but will still be on sale depending what you want!

And don't forget to glance over my Etsy store to see some officially licensed art for sale as well! My highest-costing cards on there have also been reduced to a new sale price as well! You can see which ones in their titles containing "SALE" in them!
[link]
I'm loving Halo 4. Who else is loving it?
Okay, so I know I'm COMPLETELY late to the party on this one. Cut me some slack, I had no power for a week! hahaha Have lots to catch up on. Anyway, feel free to ignore this if you've already weighed in 100 times, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Here are mine:

I think everyone is going to win here. There seem to be two camps of people: The people who are diehard fans no matter what, and the people that feel like this is a terrible idea (with a small third party fraction of people in between).

I think this is great news for everyone involved. This is why. So the people who are against this are, mostly, people that hated the prequels and don't want to see their beloved Star Wars milked again. These are the same people proclaiming "George Lucas raped my childhood" for the last decade. You all know them well. Heck, you might even BE one of them. But they're wrong to be upset right now. Think about it. George SOLD his rights to the franchise. He will have ZERO creative control over these films. He'll be an creative consultant, sure, but won't be the dude to make any of the decisions. He won't be directing, and he sure as hell can't get rid of anyone that disagrees with him! This was the main complaint many people have with George's control over his vision. And it's no longer in the cards. If anything, these films will be more like "The Empire Strikes Back" for that reason!

And for the die hard fans...We're getting more Star Wars! What's to be upset about?!

So weigh in, what do you think about Disney/Lucasfilm!?
I'm excited to announce that I finally got off my lazy butt and put together an Etsy store, where you can purchase original artwork! I'm also working on my very first print, to be on sale there as well!!! Keep in mind, just like my commissions, that the payment method is PayPal. I am also contemplating putting the recent Ford/Siren traditional piece on there!

Anyway, I hope you'll take a few minutes to check it out!

[link]
EDIT: Power's back up!!! :D

Original post:
Hey, guys! Just wanted to pop in and thank everyone for the messages and notes checking in on me. My family, friends, and loved ones are all safe, with minor property damage for the most part. Compared to all the loss of life, and entire homes and neighborhoods being destroyed in the wake of the storm, we are counting our blessings.

Right now I am charging all my electronics at a friend's house, because we have been without power since Monday night. We have no electricity, wifi, hot water, or cellular service. Everything went at once. So even though I live in the suburbs, we are totally cut off from the rest of the world. A scary lesson in learning just how dependent on technology we are. We do, however, have running cold water and working gas. So it isnt too barbaric! Haha but humbling to say the least. And it's starting to get quite chilly as well. We are being told it will probably not come back on until next thursday the latest. That will make it a ten day wait of no power.

I will be answering all the notes and messages once I get power back and have the time to dedicate to them, as always, but just wanted to post this to assure you all that I am fine. Thank you all so much for caring enough to reach out! It means so much to me. You guys are the best. So sorry for the wait on those who commissioned me. It goes without saying that its killing me not being able to do anything digitally, or even get the reference I need to do my few traditional pieces that were commissioned. Sitting around with so much work on my plate while I do nothing didnt work well, so I did some personal traditional pieces to hopefully sell and make back some of the money I am technically losing this week. Will show those off once I can!

In the meantime, I truly hope all of you are safe and suffered minor to zero losses as well. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of you!

All the best,
- Joe
Hey, all! Hope all you east coasters are doing well! It's hectic here but so far so good. It's about to pick up to its peak, so it got me thinking I should upload the posters just in case we do lose power!

I promised to have them up on Halloween, so consider them an early "Happy Halloween" from me if you don't hear from me after this!!! :) Stay safe, all, and I hope you dig the posters!!

Hey all! Just wanted to pop in and wish all of you along the East Coast best wishes through Hurricane Sandy (what a bitch she is!). Yet to be seen how rough it's going to be once it hits here in New York, but the media, like most things, is blowing it out of proportion. Hopefully it won't be as bad as they say, but I hope you all stay safe and dry regardless!

Personally, I'm expecting an inevitable power outage as my neighborhood ALWAYS suffers them in hurricanes. In fact, I could probably sneeze near the power lines and they'd probably go out. But I feel good because a good friend of mine hooked me up with a great surge protector that doubles as a backup battery. So when my house loses power, I'll have a few minutes to back up and save the important files I might be working on, and even back them up to my hard drive. Very exciting to have that safety net. Luckily for me, there are no absurdly time sensitive projects on my plate -- Just long overdue commissions! So I hope those of you that are still waiting for yours will bear with me if I do lose power, especially the digital ones!

Yet of course, safety is more important than the annoying inconveniences of power outages. So I'll be hunkering down the next few days and playing things safe! We have not been asked to evacuate due to predicted floodings, but many people within a few blocks of my street have been. If the time comes and we need to go, we will!

For those wondering, here in New York, the rain and winds will be starting in a few hours from now, and will last well until Tuesday! Going to be a long one, for sure, but the really bad winds will show up sometime tomorrow night I believe. So I will most likely be around between now and then, unless the power lines get so nervous about going out that they pop and go out even sooner than they normally would. I know if I were a weak power line, I'd have performance anxiety issues as well.


Stay safe, guys!!!
Hey, all! I know, I know, it's still October. Hear me out. I figure if I tell people about it NOW, anyone interested can start saving up.

Here is the offer:
Between November 15th and December 15th, ALL sketch cards will be on sale for HALF PRICE. This is so that A) I'll be finished with my current commissions by then and B) I can finish them all in time to get them to you before the holidays, should any of them be gifts!

So just to clarify, digital AND traditional sketch cards are typically $30 USD, but between those dates ONLY, I'm chopping them by 50% to encourage you guys to commission me for gifts for friends and loved ones this holiday! But feel free to commission for yourself as well! haha

This includes BOTH digital AND traditional! I'll post a reminder journal on November 15th about it, but just wanted to throw you guys a heads-up about it a little early! I'm hoping to get as many as I can in this time to do some Christmas shopping of my own! haha So don't be shy if you're interested!!

****I will not be taking any digital cinematic illustration commissions during that time. I can't afford to discount those as they simply take too long and I already undercharge for them! haha

Anyway, here is a look at my sketch cards!

Traditional


Digital
Hey, all! I know, I know, it's still October. Hear me out. I figure if I tell people about it NOW, so anyone interested can start saving up.

Here is the offer:
Between November 15th and December 15th, ALL sketch cards will be on sale for HALF PRICE. This is so that A) I'll be finished with my current commissions by then and B) I can finish them all in time to get them to you before the holidays, should any of them be gifts!

So just to clarify, digital AND traditional sketch cards are typically $30 USD, but between those dates ONLY, I'm chopping them by 50% to encourage you guys to commission me for gifts for friends and loved ones this holiday! But feel free to commission for yourself as well! haha

This includes BOTH digital AND traditional! I'll post a reminder journal on November 15th about it, but just wanted to throw you guys a heads-up about it a little early! I'm hoping to get as many as I can in this time to do some Christmas shopping of my own! haha So don't be shy if you're interested!!

****I will not be taking any digital cinematic illustration commissions during that time. I can't afford to discount those as they simply take too long and I already undercharge for them! haha

Anyway, here is a look at my sketch cards!

Traditional


Digital

Journal History