For the handful of you left who AREN'T sick of hearing about this shirt yet, one of my daily web-stops EMPTEES has selected ZOMBAMA: BRAINS as their "Tee of the Day" for today! Emptees is "a place where the world’s best designers and tee enthusiasts can come together on common ground to show off, talk about, and love tees", and I use it as a great source of inspiration and promotion. A lot of professional tee designers (and hopeful professionals) post there, and it's a very well-constructed site with a nice "voting" system, artist info and links to where you can buy each design, if it's on sale, or vote for it at whatever respective t-shirt site it's up for voting at (Threadless, Teextile, etc.).
Thanks, Emptees-folk!
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4 comments:
hello, jared.
after catching up on CHEEKS blog, and reading your enraged reaction to a comment i made,(back to that in a shake)i thought i'd check out your stuff, hoping that it sucked big time. but, damn, it doesn't - it's stunning!
you DO know a helluva lot about eye-popping composition, that's for sure.
i still think cheeks pic was a good un, i wasn't kissing ass, sometimes i like 'quiet' moments, and unusual/less orthodox shots/angles. and this had that kinda attraction, and i felt it led the eye thru the picture with the details, the monitors, his face, etc. and i think the drama WAS in the questions you may be asking.
sometimes i like the obvious(which 90% of comic are), sometimes i like a little mystery and teasing.
and, i WAS NOT throwing a personal insult at YOU, however much you might've read it that way. if i was, i would've had the balls to address you personally.
it was just a partly humorous 'knock' at the proliferation and of 'sok!pow!' covers on the racks, but mostly my personal opinion on the lack of imagination at MARVEL and in the minds of most of their readers, i ain't got a clue as to what you read.
maybe i should've took the time to express it more seriously, but i was having a quick break, just surfing the net, checking a few pics, leaving a few words.
sorry you took it that way, and sorry you felt compelled to give me a verbal kick.
art is 'horses for courses'. we see what we see, or want to see. and today, looking at the cover again, i still think it works, but not in a traditional 'fists-comin-at-y' way.
...and the t-shirt is a beaut.
Shane --
First of all, thanks for checking out my work and for the kind words.
Second, I don't recall being "enraged", though it's sometimes hard to discern tone and mood through email/blog posts/message board comments. I was responding probably harshly to what I perceived was an assumption that my disliking for Cheeks' cover stemmed from some juvenile longing for guns and T&A or whatever. I realize the need for understated composition in art, but I simply didn't feel that the cover of a comic book based on such a wildly successful action/adventure animated movie that is supposed to be attracting the attention of kids (whom the comic industry desperately needs) was at all an appropriate place for it. I was approaching it from the point of view of my 8-13 year old self and how a cover like that would not have even caught my eye on a shelf. I'm sure the addition of the logo and it's recognition factor might have helped, but all I had to go on was what Cheeks provided and I found it to be extremely lacking given what I felt it needed to deliver and the heights of dynamism which I know he is capable of.
I can be quite argumentative when it comes to conveying my opinions, at times.
Now then -- your work is amazing. I didn't realize you were "that" Shane Oakley when responding to your post. Actually, I had seen your art before, but didn't really know the artist responsible until now. I believe I first noticed your work on one of the covers to ZOMBIE TALES, right? Anyway, it's really great stuff -- I love that you play around with high-contrast, low detail art. It sometimes takes more effort to know what to leave out than simply going to default and cramming detail in wherever you can (that's why I really can't stand George Perez' art, though he's quite the fan favorite). I look forward to tracking down as much of your work as possible.
Thanks again for the comments, and feel free to swing the critical hammer at any of my stuff you feel deserves it -- I don't get enough critical feedback, and an artist needs it to grow.
jared - lets do a 'virtual' handshake.
i get where you're coming from.
it doesn't help that i'm not really a superhero fan, other than the odd comic or two(usually cus i'm a fan of the artist or writer; grant morrison, skottie young, joss whedon, for instance).
but yeah, i can understand targeting an audience, and how a comic has to 'fight' for space. but that's the problem, this force fed idea of what makes a good cover/comic.
and my generalized and scornful comments about MARVEL(something most of my blog-readers are familiar with)and people who worship them, comes from my weariness with the straight-tween-the-eyes 'hard sell' mentality, helping bludgeon kids into more numbness, where they'll never appreciate subtleties.
no expert, don't have kids, but like yourself, i can still connect with me as a kid. and i think i would've liked it, i would've thought it amusing and odd. but i grew up in an earlier time, in the UK, with different interests and influences.
but i agree, CHEEKS can and has done some truly dynamic stuff, but, i found this one refreshing, but i'm always drawn to his more sedate art. personal tastes, agen.
though, you wouldn't think i have SUBTLE in my vocabulary, looking at the horror covers/strips i've done. but, even with some of that ZOMBIE stuff, i could've drawn blood and gut-munching, but i left that to other folk.
i'm buzzed you dig what i do. i'm really hoping i can get to the point where i've eliminated ALL detail, and editors pay me for blank pages!
george perez - hard to believe he was one of my boyhood faves, but that's the immaturity of thinking that more lines makes better art.
i'll be back to visit, and will happily offer a critique, but only if the bad outweighs the good.
Hi Brosef!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCx832hQt0A
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