AFTER THE SPLICE

Heard Vic Chestnutt play in the 90's at the old Knitting Factory.

His live acoustic performance of his austere song, Swelters etched into memory.

Vic Chestnutt, no longer amongst the millions.

PODCAST REVIEW

Podcaster and pal Jimmy Aquino covers my recent WHAT IF in the very entertaining Comic News Insider Episode 236 . Jimmy and co-host Joe Gonzalez even do some harmonizin'

Check out the rest of the episode, they cover some direct to cable film called Avatar, the Complete Alice in Wonderland and 30 Days of Night/Wormwood artist Ben Templesmith stops by.

WEEKLY DIALOGUE

Was sent this link (NSFW) - I don't know how many conversations I've had that sounds like this. Great job!

KILL THE DEMON

Preview of my WHAT IF special can be seen here.

Available this Wednesday at all fine comic shop establishments.

"What If special based on the seminal early 80s Daredevil run by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson!

By Karl Bollers (WOLVERINE: HUNGER) and Rafael Kayanan"

Portion from ComicsBulletin.com's review by Dave Wallace:

I probably would have given the issue a score of 3 bullets had it not been for the excellent artwork of Rafael Kayanan, which is strong enough to push it just above the average rating. The opening pages are particularly arresting, with a wonderfully moody close-up of Elektra that's followed by an explosive action shot of a wounded helicarrier, before giving way to some slightly more restrained flashback sequences. Even in these quieter scenes, however, Kayanan finds a way to make the pages visually interesting, with strong design elements in the artwork (for example, the page in which Stick disarms Elektra), a great use of light and colour (as seen in the montage page that shows Elektra training with Nick Fury) and some delicate handling of occasionally disturbing imagery (such as the aftermath of the massacre in the Kingpin's HQ, or the scene in which Elektra discovers the Advocate's "gallery").

KALI

Pipe Hitters Union is known for their line of military-centric apparel. Most of the customers are male but we've since had numerous inquiries for a women's line of shirts. Last summer I woke up very early in the morning with this image in mind. It sat in the hard drive for several months while I kept busy finishing another project.



Got a chance to return to it this week and finished it on the Cintiq and CS. Using one solid brush at 9 pixels.

DRIZZT

SAMURAI: HEAVEN AND EARTH

This pin-up image was published in the Samurai TPB written by Ron Marz, story illustrated by Luke Ross with color by Jason Keith.

It's a historical epic in the tradition of Lone Wolf and Cub and Alexander Dumas' The Three Musketeers.
A lone samurai sworn to reunite with the love of his life leading him to Paris, crossing blades with the greatest swordsman ever known.

RETRO GOGGLES

THESE TABIS WERE MADE FOR WALKING

Elektra isn't wearing the open toed Bujinkan shoes but she is walkin'.

Digital study for December issue of What If.

CONQUISTADORES

Sketch for a work in progress OGN.

70s ZINE ART

The faceless hooded character with flute was an inked drawing I did as a freshman in high school. Rest of the collage are by a variety of artists.

Ink Stains Issue 4

Article by Ken Meyer Jr. covering the amateur publication by the late Capt. David Heath Jr. from the 70's and early 80's devoted to SF/Fantasy comic art. Gilbert Hernandez, Dan Clowes, and many others who currently work as professionals graced the pages of such small run publications.

"Rafael Kayanan was not really associated with any one fanzine… he was all over the place, if in small quantities. He got his start in fandom like many of us, myself included, through Alan Light’s The Buyer’s Guide..."

MILITARY TIMES FEATURE

GEARSCOUT LINK

"The R&D is the child of two tomahawk titans. Rafael Kayanan of Sayoc Tactical Group and Daniel Winkler an accomplished bladesmith. "

" No other weapon of the same size can generate as much force with a short stroke in an enclosed space. Period. If a bad guy gets in your entry stack, you can’t shoot him without endangering your teammates; and a knife is a slow kill. If you really want to get someone off your teammate in a hurry, there’s nothing deadlier than the spike of a tomahawk to the head. Small and short might not look as cool, but they do the bloody job a confined space. " Rob Curtis, Military Times

BATMAN

CINTIQ SCREEN

iphone pic of my Cintiq screen... working on several pages at once.
You can see a partial shot of panel one before it is placed into the full page.
I created a custom brush for those little dudes on the Helicarrier.
All digital issue for upcoming What if:: Daredevil/Elektra for Marvel.

TONES

Before and after shot of double page spread for upcoming Elektra/Daredevil WHAT IF.

You can see how the tones fit into the mix.

INTUITIVE WARRIOR

On the right is a link to Michael Jaco's book The INTUITIVE WARRIOR. I rarely promote books on this blog, but I first met MIke when he was training edged weapons with us as a great representative of the elite Navy SEALs. He also shared with our group some of his philosophy and outlook on the warrior mindset. The best way to understand where Mike is coming from is to read a bit about the man and his experience first hand. This book is highly recommended. What you think it takes to be a SEAL will be changed once you read where he is coming from.

Just check out some of the chapter headings:

Higher States of Consciousness
Tapping Into the Higher Self
Martial Arts as Means for Awakening the Warrior Within
Love, and its Opposite Fear

Not what most military themed books cover right?
Thank me later.

DANTE BLOG

Quick reminder that a link on the right directs you to my other blog about Dante's Inferno.

SOLOMON KANE TRAILER

This was one that got away on the sword choreography end of things. Regardless, director Michael Bassett did what looks like a fine job on one of my favorite Robert E. Howard characters.

After the film does its thing, perhaps I'll post the quick demo we shot in the snowy hills of Pennsylvania.

MOMENT OF SILENCE

Originally published by Marvel Comics in 2001 for the 9-11 benefit book - A Moment of Silence.
Digital color by Steve Busccellato.

DARE TO DREAM

CARDS ONLINE ARTICLE


Article and interview concerning the high demand for certain sketch cards, primarily focusing on a set I worked on in 2006 featuring the LORD OF THE RINGS. A collector is also interviewed describing the fun and passion of sketch cards. Written by Jon Doyle.

TEACHING EDGED WEAPONS

Changing it up a bit with a few out of sequence pics taken last year of a sword and dagger demo.

WHAT IF?

COMIC BOOK RESOURCES has an interview with Marvel editors, Chris Allo and Justin Gabrie. The above image is page one of my Elektra vs. Daredevil issue. Colors by Lovern Kindzierski.

I WAS ONE

"I was one of the horde that swarmed over the hills..."

RED LIKE JUNGLE BURNING BRIGHT

10 minute Rough Sketch

ORIGINAL COMIC AD 132 ROMAN SOLDIERS

132 Piece Roman Soldier Set

Posted using ShareThis

132 ROMAN SOLDIERS HOMAGE

PROMO CARD

Check out this animation by Kirk Demarias if you ever wondered about those comic book ads.

SO SPACED OUT

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Al Williamson's Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic



Although the whole book is very entertaining and informative, the last third of this book truly shines. It showcases Williamson's pen and ink brilliance. Excellent reproduction. I highly recommend any fan of solid pen and ink art to check this out. What is often overlooked is Williamson's compositions and how he achieves depth without any computer tool to assist him. He did it all with thick and thin india ink work. I recall seeing his Flash Gordon originals at Marvel back in 1994. They were oversized originals and only a few artists have the command of the medium so well that the art seemed to be printed right on the paper, as if a human hand was incapable of such masterful lines.

COLOR

CARBINE

COINCIDENCE

I was working on interior pencils for a comic which featured a backhoe prominently on the page. That afternoon I saw this right outside the production offices of Spider-Man Broadway. Took the right angle needed with my iphone and here's one of the roughs from it.

PANTHER

Rough utilizing a familiar tattoo and redesigning it with a tribal aesthetic.

R.I.P.

My heroes had the heart
To lose their lives out on a limb...

PURITAN

Pen and ink image that was up on an old site.

DIGITAL INKS

Finding the best virtual brush to make the lines appear as brush inked... Cintiq!!!

WORLDS of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS #6

Color cover art - This was released last year.

The R.A. Salvatore classic “Guenhwyvar” unveils the origin of the magical black panther that would become companion to the legendary drow hero, Drizzt Do’Urden, while in the Ravenloft tale “Caretaker,” the vampire lord Strahd von Zarovich demonstrates the nightmarish methods by which he maintains dominion over the cursed realm of Barovia.
- A double-sized monthly anthology exploring the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons!
- Adapting the works of best-selling authors R.A. Salvatore and P.N. Elrod, with scripts by Elrod and Mike O’Sullivan (G.I. Joe)
- Interior art by Juanfran Moyano (Dragonlance Legends) and Jerry Beck (Evil Ernie, Something Wicked), and cover art by Rafael Kayanan (Conan, Star Wars, Spider-Man) and Francis Tsai (Heroes for Hire, Marvel Adventures).

DRAGON's DAUGHTER

Attended the UFC 100 in Vegas and had the opportunity to meet Shannon Lee (Bruce's daughter).
The event was great and I hope to attend more soon.

UFC 100

Poster collage rough for the PHU booth at the UFC 100.

ULTIMA THULE

Found this on lulu.com, it was a cover I did for a magazine that is a "collection of Robert E. Howard ephemera, including a couple of Howard's letters to a publisher, rejection letters, the first attempt at listing the Howard books that were donated to Howard Payne University after his death, and more, this facsimile reprint of Glenn Lord's Ultima Thule was originally published by Joe Marek in 2000. This volume collects all of Glenn Lord's submissions to The Hyperborian League, an amatuer press association dedicated to weird fiction. 52 pages."

Available at ULTIMA THULE

TRANSFORMERS TWO

My brother Ricardo just uploaded 3D models that he created for the Transformers Two Game.
Check out all the cool stuff he makes here.:

KAYAN 3D

STEAM

Created a custom brush off of a tone pattern from an old Saldanas newspaper strip.
Actually it could have been any zip a tone pattern but the Saldanas strip was handy.

FLOAT TWO

Ten minute warmup testing the new MacPro4 Quad-Core Intel Xeon, after my G5 meltdown.

SPRING CLEANING

Spacetoys discovered in a crate.

U2 SPIDER-MAN

MELTDOWN

Long update delay should be nearing it's end. My Mac G5 melted down so am awaiting for the new Mac Pro towers to arrive in the studio!!! Old Mac gave four years of service - and will be heading to the Apple scrap heap in the sky or at least Tekserv.

Configured to meet new requirements of stronger graphics capabilities and video editing.

Thanks for checking in!

iPHONE SKETCH MASK

While sitting at the Union Square Starbucks, I saw this mask on a cover of a photo mag.

RAF MASHUP

SKATEBOARD ART

iPHONE SKETCH02

Another doodle while waiting for STAR TREK theater lights to go dark.

Barbarian:WIP 2009

Here's a digital painting that is in it's infancy. Just working out the rough forms. I drew directly on the Cintiq for the figure and weapons, then placed a scanned pencil drawing made with an old mechanical pencil behind.

I will add more as I continue and cleanup the figure. I wanted to capture the smile first and work from there after getting the general forms laid down.

iPHONE SKETCH

Messing around with the handy iphone app called Brushes. This allows me to sketch out an idea rather quickly without the mess.

DOODLES

PAINTER

This was done a few years back using Painter.

BITTER HEART

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter -- bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."
Stephen Crane, The Black Riders