The Deadliest Game and K3loid

I'm pretty excited at the moment - I've just finished work on the comic pages for my new Dr Grordbort book (the third one) and it's been a mammoth undertaking.
It's meant I've neglected the blog of course, as I've been head down, illustrating, writing, and generally forging away at what seemed like a small project when I started, but actually took (as any creator of comics and books will attest) a colossal amount of effort.
I can't wait to see it in print, but that'll be months away yet.

In the meantime, two shorts have surfaced that I had a little to do with.

Firstly, a teaser has been released for the Media Design schools amazing, 'The Deadliest Game'.
The full short should be out soonish, and I saw it in Wellington at it's premiere here at the Roxy last week.
It's a stunning achievement and still blows my mind that it was created by students - when I was a student, I made flip-book ninja's decapitate each other in my maths books.
I DIDN'T CREATE VISUAL EFFECTS HEAVY SHORT FILMS!
I have to say that I had next to zero to do with it's creation, but am exceptionally proud to have it represent the DrG world I've spent these last several years developing.

The Deadliest Games Teaser here!

Secondly, but by no means secondly, is K3loid from the amazing guys at Big Lazy Robot in Spain.
Famed for their work on The Gift, these guys have outdone themselves again.
JJ at BLR contacted me what seems like ages ago, to contribute design to the short, and I was intrigued from the start.
It looks absolutely incredible, and in this teaser, features Aaron Becks' work as shown on his blog.

K3loid teaser here

Diplodorkus - Redux

Ho! Long time no post.
Back with an oldie that I've just given a little digital dust off.
I've always wanted to do a book based these 'Dino's meet World War Gone' illustrations, but they looked a bit creaky to me, so I've started to rework them in my spare moments.
Hope you like.
I'm off to Utopiales in Nantes, France next week - if you're going, please come and say hi.

Dr Grordbort's Pomsons ship

 

I almost never show off my Dr G world here on the blog. I like to keep my personal work and my Dr G work separate (even though they are really one and the same) for some reason that I can't quite even make sense of myself...
So breaking tradition, and wanting to put some imagery up here again for a change, and simply because I was so excited to see my Pomsons finally leaving Weta with their shiny new paint-jobs, I thought I'd share them here too.
If you want a bit more info, head on over to the Dr G website.

Purse

All my art energy these days is going into finishing my next Dr. G book and Team Fortress 2, so no new personal art to show (it's like a video game - I have a certain amount of points to spend on art each week. A substantially larger amount is spent on finding funny pictures of cats and a larger amount again is used levelling up my beer gut)
But, and it is a very big butt, I do have a new song to share.
Why's it called Purse you ask? Because I like the word purse. I like saying it. I like typing it.
There I've said it - it's out. Purse. Pursey pursey purse purse.

Dum Dum

New song! This is the first half decent recording of a song I've had in my head and fingers for a while now.
Boy the drums were a workout!

Herpa

Many moons ago, I played in bands. All very noisy, all very loud.
One band, the Goat Rapists, or Ghidrah as we called ourselves publicly, toured all around New Zealand in my shitty, rusty old Mitsubishi Sigma.

Me, Christian Pearce and Brian Holloway, jammed drums, amps and all into that much loved tin can.

Heady days... we played with The Melvins once, and Fugazi.

Ian MacKaye walked past us after the Fugazi show and said, 'good show' or something to that effect, but I interpreted it as "You smoked hobo dicks'

Good times.

Anyoldways, plz enjoy this new musak what I wrote the other day.

Jerg

I've been recording some more music lately.
This is the equivalent of a rough sketch I guess - quick, scribbly and fun.
Hope you like.

Unscripted

Unscripted starts tomorrow - come along if you live in Wellington. There's gonna be a ton of great art there and even some of my coloured scribblings. Just in case things got too classy.

Oh yeah, I should clarify, that despite what the linked article says below, I am not Weta's lead concept artist (although I was for District 9). Weta design  doesn't really have leads except sometimes by project.
There are a ton of incredible concept artists here and I would never lead any of them. Except to the pub. To have a beer. A VPA preferably.

Some information about a thing!

Some more information pertaining to previously mentioned thing!

Utopiales 2011

This year I've been invited to attend the Utopiales Science Fiction Festival in Nantes, France (birthplace of Jules Verne, Bruce Lee and Winston Churchill).
I was also asked to do the art for this years poster as my Dr Grordbort's Exceptional Exhibition will be held there.

I can tell you that I was not just a little bit stoked to be asked as previous artists have included James Gurney, Enki Bilal and Moebius.
I should have shat my pants thinking about having to live up to those godly man-god god artists, but you know what? I just downed 15 single-malt whiskeys and a line of horse-strength amphetamine and set about falling asleep at my wacom.

When I awoke, a wondrous artwork had manifest. I  popped it in an envelope and sent it promptly to Mr Utopiales (who lives at the summit of Mount Utopiale where the festival is held each year) . Upon receipt of the work, he immediately wrote back asking for a refund of his payment.

I have not replied as I spent all the money. He does not know where I live and I will attend the event under a pseudonym.

If you live in France and are not a representative of Mr Utopiales, I look forward to meeting you there!

VPA - Venusian Pale Ale

 

And a VPA! The Dr G Wellington on a Plate is gonna be great!
Thanks Garage Project!

Lord Cockswain's Courage Porter Beer

Made by new Wellington brewers, Garage Project.
Brewed especially for the Dr Grordbort's Wellington on a Plate event next week at the Roxy.
Om Nom! I can't wait to drink this thing!

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities - out now

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities is out now and getting great reviews.
Very proud to have my work in there amongst so many 'actually' talented writers and artists.

Contributors include Holly Black, Greg Broadmore (this one's me), Ted Chiang, John Coulthart, Rikki Ducornet, Amal El-Mohtar, Minister Faust, Jeffrey Ford, Lev Grossman, N.K. Jemisin, Caitlin R. Kiernan, China Mieville, Mike Mignola, Michael Moorcock, Alan Moore, Garth Nix, Naomi Novik, James A. Owen, Helen Oyeyemi, J.K. Potter, Cherie Priest, Ekaterina Sedia, Jan Svankmajer, Rachel Swirsky, Carrie Vaughn, Jake von Slatt, Tad Williams, Charles Yu, and many more.

I have my copy and it looks fantastic - and you don't have to believe me, check what at least one other human said:
“The narrative scope and stellar assemblage of writers and illustrators…makes this a book that will be absolutely cherished by fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk afficionados alike.” – Paul Goat Allen, B&N Book Club
Based on this purely anecdotal evidence, I am concluding that this book is great.


Via Amazon
Check out more at the fantastic Jeff VanderMeer blog

Oh yeah, San Diego Comic Con is in a couple short weeks! I'll be there at the Weta Stand in the Darkhorse booth - something exciting is coming for Dr Grordbort fans as well as fans of things that are rad - can't wait to reveal it!
If you're there, come by and say hello.

Problem with Ships - Redux-ux-ux...

Oh, a redux of an older piece - and now with 50% more brushstrokes! For free!
No no, take them, they're yours.

What won't be free however is the limited edition print coming soon at Eyeball Kicks .
For that, I will be charging huge wads of caaaaaaash-money.
Don't have huge wads of cash money? Well get off my blog you smelly hobo/student!

Nah nah, it's all good. You're alright with me.
Just have a bath already.

The Old Sketch Books part 12 - being the last.

We come to the end, for the time being at least, of this incursion into my dark, dank and sketchy sketch book past.
I will have to dig up some more, and if I ever find any that don't make me wretch hairballs I will post them.
Until then, enjoy some nudes and a woman in night vision goggles who thinks she is riding a bike but is not - just like the famous internet cat, but with the ability to see in low-light.

The Old Sketch Books part 11

Judge Dredd - I fucking love Judge Dredd.
I am gay for him to the max.
Does anyone still say 'to the max'? Well they should do.

The top right and bottom right pic were me roughing out ideas for a piece of fan art that I was going to do - a more realistic sci-fi Judge Dredd. Not that Judge Dredd needs any improvement whatsoever.
For my take I was going to keep all the same motifs and signature elements but make him feel as if he were a real future cop with all the necessary equipment.
I might come back to it when I get a spare moment.

The Old Sketch Books part 10

Naked men with boxing gloves and baseball bats.
Completely normal.

The Old Sketch Books part 9

Well at least one of these subjects has their bloody clothes on.

If you will, please turn your attention and note the bottom right thumbnail sketch - that was for this old illustration.
Pow! You have just inadvertently learned a fact that is of no use to anyone at all.
Quickly, down a whiskey and un-learn it pronto!

The Old Sketch Books part 8

More nudie bits - drawing nudes is a default setting I spose.
Dinosaurs are the other default setting - I think they are built into my hand because my brain doesn't need to be involved usually.
That's true of most of my art I guess...

Did I just pwn myself?
High five, me!
*sound of one hand slapping*

YO!

The Old Sketch Books part 7

Less said the better really.
Actually, I will say that none of these drawings are from life, so that perhaps excuses the questionable anatomy a little. No?
I do like life drawing, but I've never published any of those. I far prefer to draw from the old brain sack, but a good bit of life drawing is always a nice change.
Maybe I'll put some up sometime if I ask myself nicely.

The Old Sketch Books part 6

Ha ha! An original Cockswain sketch. I never turned this into a painting an I'm not sure why.
Obviously he became part of the Dr Grordbort's world and never ended up shooting a dinosaur.
Which is a crying, crying shame.
I did other comics many years ago with another Great White Hunter hunting a T-Rex, and I guess this may have been from that period.
I call it my 'unemployed shmuck' period.

The Old Sketch Books part 5

Ok, these pages are a bit strange I admit.
The robotic sketch on the left became Beerbot.
Not sure why the girl is watering her arse, and don't even ask about the wang stretcher.

The Old Sketch Books part 4

Some more oldies! Relatively speaking of course.
On a geological scale, these illustrations might have well as happened two nano-seconds ago. Damn, I am quick compared to plate tectonics and erosion!
These must be from around 99 - 00, because on the page next to these I refer to a new console known then as the 'Dolphin'. Bonus nerd points for guessing what that was.

The Old Sketch Books part 3

These two pages are separated in time quite a bit.
The excavators are from my 'excavator' period, which was about 1999.
In truth this period continues today as well as preceding that year, but that was the year I drew the most of them at least.
The wrestlers were drawn on an  aeroplane in Mexico in 2007, so quite recent.
I did not see any Mexican wrestlers in Mexico, but I wanted to imagine that I did, hence the drawing.

The Old Sketch Books part 2

Nudes. Love to draw em'.
Good skill to have when you've got no masturbatory material at hand.
I didn't mean that, that was a joke.
I have never masturbated to one of my own drawings. That would be weird.
Oh god, I've done it once ok! It was before the internet! Jeez, get off my back already.

The Old Sketch Books part 1

Lately, I've been so busy that the poor old blog has started to suffer.
Undernourished as it were, and needing of a little quasi-artistic nutrition, I thought I'd fill it's horrible little hunger hole with some delicious scraps from my past.
Over the next couple of weeks, I wheel out for your bemusement some creaky old drawings from my sketch books of old.
Most of these drawings date back to 1997-2000 and come from years before I started at Weta (where I learned most of what I know today as an artist).
So my apologies for their creakiness, but I got a smile from seeing em' and thought that you might do too.

Looking at these little Heihachi Mishima doodles I can see that his design influenced me to some degree with Lord Cockswain.

A sneaky peak at the next from Dr. Grordbort

 **UPDATE!** Sneak peak posted on DrGrordbort.com

Holy Lord Crappington!

No, no, wait, it's Lord Cockswain.

Lately, I've been pretty snowed by all things Grordbort and there's some exciting stuff in the pipeline (I'm not sure where this proverbial pipe is but I guess it is under my house. I should have a look for it sometime - it's apparently full of lots of neat things).

I can't reveal much of what's to come just yet, but I can say that I'm working on a new Dr. G book.

I'm going to show a sneak peak at the first full colour page this weekend via Dr. Grordbort's.com but for now please enjoy this tiny pencil sketch of the infamous human wrecking ball and aristocratic moron.

FOT and Angus

FOT and Angus is one of the most brilliant animations I have seen in a good long while.

I laughed myself silly until a tiny sprinkle of pee came out and it was during this dribble that I realised I needed to do some fan art of the lovable little FOT. 

First bit of art I've done in ages and I hope it makes up a little for the incessant self-pimping of late.

If you haven't seen them, then please go watch the animations. I think they're greeeaaat!

The Steampunk Bible

Dr. Grordbort's is featured in Jeff VanderMeers amazing new book,  The Steampunk Bible - check it out!
Looks like all kinds of fancy as shit!

THE STEAMPUNK BIBLE

Weta Artists Rally For Japan

Karim Sahai from Weta Digital is putting together an incredible, highly limited set of prints from various Weta artists and all profits go to assisting the tsunami and earthquake relief efforts in Japan. There will only be 3 sets, so follow up quick.

Details follow:

"A group of artists from Weta Digital and Weta Workshop have produced a series of thirteen beautiful limited edition fine art prints and are donating all proceeds from their sale to the earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Japan.

These 33x48cm prints are individually signed and numbered by every artist; and are presented in a gorgeous black portfolio box.The stunning prints were made using the finest colour pigments and archival baryta paper. Only 3 prints of each image were made. 

Here is your chance to own a very unique memento from your Weta contemporaries.
It is also an opportunity to turn our best asset  - our creativity -  into compassion, selflessness.

These very limited edition fine art prints are now available for purchase for $950 per portfolio.

To order one of the only three series of prints and assist the recovery efforts in Japan, please email karim at wetafx dot co dot nz

Thank you.

Karim Sahai"

The participating Weta Digital and Weta Workshop artists are:
Greg Broadmore, concept artist * Julian Bryant, compositor * Myriam Catrin, texture artist * Mark Gee, lighting technical directorKen Gimpelson, lighting technical director * Robin Hollander, compositor * Miae Kang, lighting technical director
Dmitri Krasnokoutski, shader writer * Laure Lacroix, texture artist * Paul Redican, compositor
Marcus Schoo, software developer * Malino Suzuki, motion editor * Masaya Suzuki, texture artist.


A small selection from the box set:

The Roxy Cinema Mural

More info on my mural at Miramar's new Roxy Cinema soon, but in the meantime check out the Wellingtonista's article.
If you're in Wellington, make sure to come and check out our new cinema - it's a a doozy.
Photo copyright Tom Ackroyd

LINK

Runny the T-Rex

He likes to run.

Dr. Grordbort's Exceptional Exhibition goes to Switzerland.

Next stop, Switzerland!
The Dr Grordbort's Exceptional Exhibition will be at the amazing Maison d'Ailleurs - Switzerland's outstanding Science Fiction museum - home of one of the worlds best Jules Verne collections.

I will be there for the opening and if you're in the neighbourhood, I hope to see you!

Check out more at DrGrordborts.com here.

http://www.ailleurs.ch

Interview 2 on Character Design notes

Part 2 - thanks to Mike Corriero

LINKYDINK

Interview on Character Design Notes

Thanks to Mike Corriero for a fun interview!
Part two coming soon.

LINK

DrGrordborts.com relaunches!

 

After months of hard work, I'm pleased to finally reveal the re-launch of Dr. Grordbort's official website.
We started the website to showcase my Rayguns, books and dozens of other curios many years ago now, but after focusing my attention on bigger, longer term aspects of Dr.G  over the last year, it kinda fell out of my day to day focus.
No more!
DrGrordborts.com is back and better than ever.

The website is the result of a lot of hard work by amazing artist and graphic designer Hans Kleinenberg, and futuristic space coder Eli Thomas.

So please, hop over and enjoy the new site, and check out the new Dr Grordbort video, Onward to Victory, animated by Steve Lambert.

Keep checking back - we have some exciting news on the horizon!

DrGrordborts.com

Weta Auction in Support of the Christchurch Red Cross Earthquake Appeal.

We're having an auction at Weta - selling signed collectibles including one of my rayguns.
Proceeds go towards Red Cross relief efforts from the catastrophic quake that's hit Christchurch here in New Zealand.

Please check it out and share with any friends who may want to help.


LINK

You can also support directly via the Red Cross

UPDATE 8/4/11- the auctions closed yesterday and made a total of $13,855!

Thank you to everyone who spread the message and especially to those who bid.

The Bestiary of the Cosmos Part 3

The last in a short installment on the exotic creatures from Dr. Grordbort's Venus.

Check out more at DrGrordborts.com

The Bestiary of the Cosmos Part 2

More xenobiological oddities for your amusement!


Discover some scintillating scientific facts about them at DrGrordborts.com

It'll make your brain happy!

THE THACKERY T. LAMBSHEAD CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

The new book  The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities edited by   Ann & Jeff Vandermeer is due out soon and it's featured on IO9.

I've done four pieces for the book (one featured above of an automated nanny) which will be featured alongside art from Mike Mignola, Jan Svankmajer and others.

It's a compilation of short stories about an unearthed range of artifacts, curios, and keepsakes and is written by authors such as Alan Moore, China Miéville, Ted Chiang, Garth Nix, Naomi Novik and Michael Moorcock (amongst many others).

Shit - what a clever bunch of bastards to be in a book with!
I feel all smilish just thinking about it.

IO9 article

Preorder it on Amazon

Draw a Dinosaur Day

It was yesterday and it was great.

Link.

The Bestiary of the Cosmos Part 1

Here's a few space critters I've done over the years - most featured in my book Victory from Darkhorse and  on the Dr.G website DrGrordborts.com.

Alien design is one of my favourite things to do in concept design, and creating beasties for Dr. Grordbort's is the most satisfying of all.

If you haven't seen them before, check out our Dr. Grordbort's Bestiary of the Cosmos Weta collectibles sculpted by Jamie Beswarick

 Here, here and here!

More to come.

What is Love?...

It is what the robots will ask after all.

Lonelybot Print

Signed and limited to 30 prints, they're selling for about $150 NZD

Available at The Dowse Museum (as part of the White Cloud Worlds exhibition) and at Rebel Yell gallery in on K' Rd in Auckland.

I'm not sure if either venue is selling the print online so it may be just at the location.

Online sales coming soon.

Module - Angry Little Machine

Module has just released a new single - Angry Little Machine, and I did the artwork for it.

Super fun song and super fun to do artwork for.

This was one of those natural illustrations to do - Module's incredible music just makes these kinds of images pop into your head.

Thanks to Jeramiah for being a choice cunt - dude is permanently dialed to 11!

Buy the single here.