BobRivard.com

Big update in the color section.

I added a bunch of Chaotic TCG and Dinosaur King card illustrations to the color gallery. Both of those properties are handled by 4Kids Entertainment. I think the majority of these were done in the latter part of 2009, but recently got word that it’d be okay to put these up publicly. I have more Chaotic and DK cards on the hdd, but doubt they’re worth showing — They were either rushed or done when I really just didn’t feel like working, which always makes for a garbage end product.

That’s the problem with doing illustrations for a living. That creative process is fun and rewarding, but can also be exhausting and that creative mojo isn’t always there. Of course, you can’t expect clients to only offer you work when you’re in the mood, just doesn’t happen that way.

More color-oriented work going on at the moment, but that stuff probably won’t make its way here for another couple of months, at the earliest.

Until the next update… And happy V-day (wife made me cookies).

-Bob

Yeah, we’re gonna do Zuda, right in the A — this sketch has something to do with that.

Yesterday I played the new Batman: Arkham on PC a little bit. Wasn’t necessarily a game I had been anxiously waiting on, but I like The Bats and the combat style of the game looked like fun. The eye candy isn’t bad and the gameplay is enjoyable for a while. But, just like most other 3rd person adventure games, it gets old after a while. The most recent similarity I can think of would be Assassin’s Creed. Plenty of fun climbing buildings, jumping across rooftops and silently killing people for a while, but then it just gets repetitive because that’s ALL there is to do. With games like this, there’s also not much reason to replay after you’ve beaten it, which really diminishes the value for me. And I understand that in order to keep these action/adventure games somewhat fast paced and easy to get into, you can’t bog it down with too much depth. So, for what the game is, it’s pretty good, but I guess I’m just not a huge fan of the genre.

Anyway, I did mention the graphics in the game being pretty nice to look at, just like my wife, but the character modeling on Batman has him looking like a roid freak, a real hulk of a Batman, also like my wife. Really, he’s built like a tank. I know Batman is a muscular chap, but I think he could’ve looked a little better if he was slimmed down just a bit.

So yeah, here’s a quick sketch I just did, along with a shot of Batman from the game.

(Update: Brendan has a much more in-depth and entertaining review of the game on his blog here.)

A few Captain America sketches I did for a buddy of mine, John Rauch, who’s putting together some coloring tutorials at Digital Webbing. John’s lending his color talents over at Marvel these days so giving him one of their characters to use in his example seemed appropriate. Besides, I’ve never drawn this guy so figured I’d take a shot at it. Maybe they’ll stick the two of us on an Avengers book

Seriously though, if you’re interested in checking out John’s process on this just head over to Digital Webbing and take a look. Cary Nord also has some basic drawing lessons going on in the same section that are worth checking out.

You can also check out more of John’s work here. Not that he needs a plug or anything.

I’m disabling comments throughout the entire site due to the disgusting amount of spam I get to delete anytime I log into the backend. The shit is unreal, and it’s always pure garbage… Even if I allowed the spam comments to make it through to the site, I can’t even imagine somebody actually clicking on the mess of nonsense links in the post. Even if you were a 6 year old, mentally retarded roll of toilet paper that’s been living off small amounts of nail polish, you’d still have enough sense not to give this rubbish a second look.

So, because 90% of the spam I get doesn’t seem to be some form of guerilla advertising for a product, service, or even a scam, I’m going to assume that it’s posted solely to waste my time whenever I go through my comment queue. And in that case, if you’re a spammer, if you’re here to post some nonsense, whatever country you’re from, whoever you work for… Fuck you. And please, take that personally.

Over the past year I did a few things for Upper Deck’s All Star Vinyl figure collection. One of those things was designing this Donovan McNabb statue. My job here was to give the sculptor something to work from, as well as provide a finished color illustration for the packaging.

This McNabb should be available in stores this month, from what I was told. And I think it’s an exclusive item at Toys R Us. So, rabid Eagle’s fans, go hit up them Toys R Us.

Here are a few sketches I did as a try-out for a little character design gig. The guy wanted a western looking succubus (without a cowboy hat), so I whipped these 3 out and sent them over.

It was evident that the client liked these and wanted more as we corresponded a bit and negotiated a rate, but it seemed that I just could not go low enough. And trust me, my final offer was very low - any lower and the job would’ve hardly been worth my time.

And I don’t fault the client one bit, if he can get professional work for pennies, why wouldn’t he save his money and go for that. What bothers me is that there are guys out there, apparently of professional caliber, that are undercutting like crazy. I don’t know if they’re younger and living at home, if they just do this as a hobby, or if they’re simply desperate for work, but it makes it difficult for those of us that do this for a living to actually make any real money. It’s unfortunate, but you just move on to the next job.

The rare beast, chesnark: part cheetah, part shark, with the tongue, fangs and venom of a black mamba snake. Why would such a fiercely horrifying beast need venom? Just in case… just in case.

Some of my latest shit. Just playing around and trying a few new half-assed techniques in Photoshop. What a god damn blast!

To all .5 of you who may visit the site regularly (or any newcomers) - I’m going through a bit of a redesign. Trying to keep it simple but tight with the Wordpress CMS - seems to be suitable for me. It looks clean and it’s god damn easy to update and use.

I’ve just found a gallery script, got it installed and it appears to be working. So content should be here shortly (I know you’re all waiting patiently).

Also, I do plan on putting some tutorials up. So anyone stopping by who might have a request, let me know (via comment or email) - you’ll be doing me a favor. And lastly, if anyone knows of any decent screen capture software (for creating video tutorials in Photoshop/Painter) I’d appreciate the lead there as well.

-Bob