The Artwork of Jacob Thompson

NOT THE BEES!!!

2012-01-31T12:34:00.001-08:00

This semester I'm taking sequential arts as my studio elective. I really want to build up a portfolio of my comics and eventually start a new blog dedicated to them. This class will definitely help me get some more work done. Here is my first piece from the class, a comic based on a true, unfortunate incident from my childhood. Enjoy!

Little Miss Rock Star

2012-01-23T20:12:00.000-08:00

I'm currently in the planning stages for my second senior thesis. It will be a picture book dealing with nursery rhyme characters and Heavy Metal rock music. I'll post more info as development progresses, but heres a character design!

AND ON A SIDE NOTE!

If you want to see more of my work, I have a shiny new website, JACOBDRAWS.COM! Take a look!

Thanks for your support

-Jacob T.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2011-11-25T12:14:00.001-08:00

Kitchen of THE FUTURE!

2011-10-10T13:54:00.000-07:00

This is a kitchen design for a potential CGI\Live Action Movie adaption of classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon, The Jetsons. It's bound to happen some day.

Mr. Kerfluffles finds a Robot

2011-10-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

UNISEX

2011-10-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

Frost Caution Death Scythe!

2011-10-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

Frost Caution Death Scythe is a fictional metal band created to dominate the world with their own brand of ferocious, face melting, METAL! The concept started off as a joke between me and a few friends and ended up as the main focus of my Junior thesis. I designed the band members, created the album cover for the band's debut, "VEXATION NATION", made a tour poster, a band logo, and even an attempt at their music. Special thanks to Amanda Christensen, Greg Murphy, and Rachael Hunt for being the catalyst of this insanity. |m| >.< |m|

Attack of the Auto-tunes!

2011-05-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

For my book illustration final, I had to create my own memorable children's book character. I decided on U-genia, an opera singing robot that's on a mission to bring real music back to the world. For the final illustration, I had to show my character interacting with one of my classmates characters. I decided to incorporate Ray Lennon (created by artist Meen Choi) who is a blind rock star with super powers. Together, Ray and U-genia must find a way to defeat an army of androids known as the Auto-tunes. Using U-genia as a guitar amp, Ray tries to create a sound loud enough to stop the androids once and for all!

Book Cover Concepts

2011-04-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of book covers concepts for the fictional titles, The Golden End and The Sinking of the Memory.

Fantasy Art: Best of the Best

2011-03-31T22:25:00.000-07:00

Best of the Best

Acrylics on Bristol

For Fantasy art, we had to illustrate a common theme in editorial illustration using fantastical elements. I chose to illustrate the theme, "Best of the Best" using knights and monsters. I had a lot of fun with this piece. Its always rewarding to go back to traditional medium after using photoshop for an extended period of time.

Words on Wheels and Party at the Funeral Home

2011-03-15T16:11:00.000-07:00

Illustration for the Words on Wheels competition. Overall, I'm pleased with how it turned out. Poetry credit goes to 7th grader, Kevin Tyson! Thank you for writing such a fun poem.

Illustration about funeral homes in Florida hosting other events. I tried to imagine what a funeral home children's birthday party would be like. Here is the article this was inspired by...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2011-01-19-weddingsandfunerals19_ST_N.htm

Dr. Ooze and the Wicked Pageant Girl of the West!

2011-03-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

Dr. Ooze is ready to see you now. Enter his office at your own risk.

This is my concept for a new version of the Wizard of Oz. In this version, the Wicked Witch of the West is a bratty, child pageant contestant who wants Dorothy's ruby slippers because they match her new dress. Instead of flying monkeys, she has an evil army of winged hover moms who will do anything to please her.

Meet the Hipster Loner

2011-03-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

Often found eating alone in the dining hall.

Loves cats.

The natural habitat of the hipster loner, his bedroom.

Project inspired by "The Hipster Handbook" by Bret Nicely

New! Fantasy Art and Book Illustrations

2011-02-14T21:37:00.000-08:00

This is what Unicorns do in their spare time.

Its the Wicked Witch of the West (wild west style!)

Cantankerous Clowns Carrying Cats

First Acrylic paint illustration I've done in a while.

Updates of Old Work and some New Stuff

2011-02-14T21:26:00.000-08:00

Star Wars Inspired Concept Art

Random Character Designs

Updated Christmas card

Updated "Is America Islamophobic?" illustration

Ninjas and Bunnies

2011-01-20T15:32:00.001-08:00

These were all part of my seeing color final. I created a story about three warriors who must defeat each other in combat to become the next Emperor of their world. I wanted to keep working from still lives, so I made clay figures of all the characters and set up scenes using various objects from my dorm. I then digitally painted the images in PS. I included a few photos of my still life set up to show the process.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

2010-12-25T20:05:00.000-08:00

Hope you all have a happy holidays! Heres a Christmas card I made. Yes, even my Christmas cards are somewhat creepy. This is second attempt at combining a charcoal drawing with photoshop flat colors (the first being Sad Pastries). Overall, I'm pleased with how it came out. I'm going to keep playing around with this method.

Peking House

2010-12-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

For concepts, we had to create a mural/banner design for any building of our choice. I decided to create artwork for the Chinese restaurant, Peking House, in the inner harbor of Baltimore. The characters in the mural are based off the Monkey King and and Lung Wang the Dragon King from Chinese folklore. Overall, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Mindless Self Indulgence: Tight

2010-11-27T23:54:00.000-08:00

Original Cover

Anybody remember that band Mindless Self Indulgence? They were never exactly "mainstream" but everyone who shopped at Hot Topic knew about them. They played Industrial, electronica, alternative punk rock(?) and had crazy live shows. Well, if so, you might enjoy this post.

For this assignment, I created my own version of their first album, "Tight". I loved this band so much back in my awkward middle school years, I had to pay tribute. I created this cover thinking to myself, "What would the middle school me want to see?" and this is the result....

And yes, I painted all of those kittens in the background.

Environment Concept Art

2010-11-27T23:36:00.000-08:00

This is a piece of concept art I did for Advanced Character Design. We had to create an environment associated with the character we were assigned a few weeks back. My character is Susanoo the Japanese storm god who according to Japanese folklore was banished from heaven for being a jerk to his sister. I put his house on a boulder balanced on a mountain top to show the extreme measures Susanoo has taken to avoid interacting with the locals. After a series of events, Susanoo has a change of heart and ends up saving a village from an evil eight headed dragon named Orochi.

Crash Bandicoot and Sad Pastries

2010-10-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

For Concepts class, we had to create our own version of a favorite video game cover. I grew up on Playstation 1 games such as Gran Turismo, Spyro the Dragon, and my favorite, Crash Bandicoot. I decided to redo the cover for the first Crash Bandicoot game, where he must save his furry girlfriend, Tawnya Bandicoot, from the clutches of his evil creator, Dr. Neo Cortex. I can remember as a child always going back and re-playing the boss stages of the game. Crash's developer's at the time, Naughty Dog, did a great job giving each boss character their own unique personality and look. They even went to the trouble of giving the player background information on the characters in the game booklet. Because of this, I decided to make the new game cover have a greater emphasis on these characters while still making Crash the focal point.

Original Naughty Dog Cover from 1996

My Cover

This is another piece I did for Concepts, where I illustrated the phrase "Sweet Sorrow".

Some really sad doughnuts.

Susanoo the Storm God Final

2010-10-20T22:49:00.001-07:00

For advanced character design I had to create a final concept for the character, Susanoo the Storm God. Here is the final design.

Seeing Color pt. 2

2010-10-20T22:28:00.001-07:00

Heres some more in class and homework pieces from Seeing Color.

Converse Ad

2010-10-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

For Concepts we had to create a a comprehensive rough draft for a NY Times Advertisement. I chose to make mine about Converse shoes. If I were to ever make a final draft of this, I would use a higher quality photo of my shoe laces and the drawings would be a lot more rendered.

What TIME is it?

2010-10-07T11:16:00.001-07:00

Time magazine cover time! So for concepts we had to design our own Time magazine cover for the article, "Is America Islamophobic?". This is a rhetorical question people.

since 911, people of the Islamic faith have been feared and discriminated against time and time again. With all the controversy over the Islamic community center being built near ground zero, this issue has finally started being addressed. I only hope things will improve in my lifetime.

Meet the Creeper

2010-09-23T12:00:00.001-07:00

This semester I'm also taking Advanced Character Design with illustrator Sean Murray. My group has to create characters for a fictional animated film based on the Japanese myth "Yamata No Orochi". For the first few weeks of class, we've just been turning in thumbnail sketches for minor characters (like villagers, demons, animals, etc.). Out of all my thumbnails, Sean liked the one of the village creep the best. Here are a few sketches from that class as well as the colored version of my village creep character.

Freedom!

2010-09-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

Cover

Spot

For our first Concepts assignment, I had to illustrate the cover and two spot illustrations for this review of John Franzen's new book, "Freedom". For the amount of time I had, I like how the cover and first spot turned out.

Seeing Color (Double Rainbow All the Way)

2010-09-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post, I'm taking a class this semester called Seeing Color. As you probably guessed its a color observation course where we have draw complex color scenarios. Here are a few projects I've done so far. All of them were done in soft pastel on Rives BFK paper.

All Apologies

2010-09-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Jacob's Blog,

I would like to make a formal apology for neglecting to update you for the past few months. Please take this still life of colorful fruits and vegetables as my way of saying sorry. I will make an effort to update you more frequently in the future and I hope we can still be friends.

Sincerely,

Jacob Thompson

Soft Pastel on Rives BFK paper

Okay, so the colorful fruits and vegetables was actually just a class assignment for Seeing Color, but I will seriously try to update this blog a lot more frequently this year. I spent my summer doing a lot of sketching and figure studies. I also did a few small projects for family members like this Acrylic painting of my grandmother's house.

Acrylics on Canvas

How The Crocodile Got Its Skin

2010-05-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

For my illustration 2 final, I Illustrated an African fable about how the Crocodile got its skin. I drew all the pictures by hand then applied color in photoshop. Overall, I'm pleased with the results. The crocodile originally had a smooth golden skin, and it stayed that way because the crocodile would spend all day in the muddy waters and only come out at night. All the other animals would come and admire it's beautiful golden skin.
The crocodile became very proud of its skin and started coming out of the water to bask in the other animals' admiration, even while the sun was shining. He bagan thinking he was better than the other animals and started bossing them around. The other animals became bored with his change in attitude and fewer and fewer started showing up to look at his skin.
But each day that the crocodile exposed his skin to the sun it would get uglier and bumpier and thicker, and was soon transformed into what looked like bulging armor.
Crocodile never recovered from the humiliating shame and even today will disappear from view when others approach, with only his eyes and nostrils above the surface of the water.

Text courtesy of http://www.gateway-africa.com/.

Rocket Power! Black Metal Style

2010-04-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

For this illustration 2 assignment we had to design our own skateboard deck and t-shirt for a fictional Pro Skateboarder. The theme of my design is "Heavy Metal Space Pyramid" and the skateboarder is Mario Vargus. I decided to include singer, King Diamond of the band, Mercyful Fate on my board primarily because of how over the top his appearance is. You can't get much more HEAVY METAL than him. (fun fact: If you've ever seen the movie Clerks 2, Jay and Silent Bob are rocking out to King Diamond's song, "Welcome Home" in multiple scenes!). I wanted this to look like poster art you might find on a heavy metal show advertisement so I went for a lot of loud colors and stereotypical "heavy metal" imagery.

Drawing From the Tablet.... WITH COLOR!

2010-04-29T20:35:00.000-07:00

After spring break, my Drawing from the Tablet teachers started to let us use color in our homework assignments! This hasn't made my digital painting skills any better, but look how colorful everything is now!

Radio Lab: War of The Worlds

2010-03-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is my illustration for Radio LAb's podcast on the original War of the Worlds radio broadcast. This podcast described how most of the chaos caused by War of the Worlds was out of fear of a Nazi invasion during WW2. The colors on this gave me a really hard time and I ended up with 8 different versions. These two are the ones I liked the most.

Finally Starting to Understand this Photoshop thing...

2010-03-02T23:05:00.000-08:00

This is my latest homework assignment for Drawing from the Tablet. We just had to draw a figure from observation in photoshop using only grayscale, hard brushes, and two layers. Everything else could be completely from imagination (although there really was a robot riding a dinosaur just chilling in my room at the time.) I'm finally starting to feel more comfortable working digitally and using my tablet. Now I just gotta work on digital painting with color....

Happy Valentines Day!.... In March!

2010-03-01T23:09:00.000-08:00

Due to the great snowpocalypse of 2010, my illustration 2 class is now behind schedule in terms of classwork. Because of this, our Valentines day assignment ended up being due in March. Our teacher gave us a few lines from a "Valentines Day Advice Column", and wanted us to illustrate one "do" and one "don't". I chose to illustrate, "Do make your significant other a valentine" and "Don't buy her Lingerie". The drawings were done in graphite and ink. The color was applied in photoshop.

A few Extra Portraits...

2010-03-01T22:58:00.000-08:00

Heres a few more in class and homework assignments from Portraiture. A few of them you may recognize...

Portraiture pt. 2: In Class Portraits

2010-03-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

Here are few portraits of the models from class. All were done in charcoal on RIVES BFK or Arches paper. I really missed working from observation with charcoal last semester. Its nice to go back to basics.

Portraiture pt. 1, Masterwork copies

2010-03-01T22:31:00.000-08:00

COPY

ORIGINAL

COPY

ORIGINAL

I'm taking portraiture with Mark Karnes this semester to give me a chance to work large and with more traditional drawing mediums (something thats not always practical with illustration). Our first few homework assignments were to copy masterworks.

2010-02-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

Drawing from the Tablet homework, DONE!

Zodiac Continued..

2010-02-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

Here is my 5'"x7" zodiac illustration, Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown (Leo and Aquarius).

Music Magazine Zodiac Illustrations

2010-02-13T15:28:00.000-08:00

Kanye West the Gemini

Ozzy Osbourne the Sagittarius

Kurt Cobain the Pisces

Lady Gaga the Scorpio

Elton John the Aries

Well, it appears the snowpocalypse has come to an end. That means its time to finish all the assignments that were supposed to be due this week. Today, I finally finished my music magazine zodiac illustrations. I decided to draw them all by hand with graphite and charcoal, then apply color in photoshop. Overall, I'm pleased with how they turned out. Wish me luck on my crit Monday!

2010-01-24T19:33:00.000-08:00

Woohoo, first artwork of 2010! We had to do a grayscale self portrait for Drawing From the Tablet. We could only use the standard hard brush tool, and eraser tool. We could also change opacity. This is still a work in progress, but its getting there.

I also posted my homework for Studio Drawing: Portraiture. I love drawing skulls.

Adventures of The Golden Oldie (Explicit Dialogue)

2010-01-23T20:26:00.000-08:00

This is my 4 page comic for Narrative Illustration. I created the characters, The Golden Oldie and Whippersnapper. One is an extremely arrogant, 85 year old woman who lost her husband in WW2 (as a result, she is racist towards anyone of Japanese descent). She must take her medication in order to keep her sanity. She is taken care of by her 17 year old grandson, who frequently becomes annoyed by her racist outbursts and stubbornness. I really enjoyed working on this project, and I'm currently planning a sequel.

DISCLAIMER: This comic does contain offensive language, and is purely fiction.

Tell Tale Heart

2010-01-23T20:21:00.000-08:00

Here are some of my illustrations for Edgar Allen Poe's Tell Tale Heart. These were all done digitally and for Narrative Illustration.

Johns Hopkins Samurai/ Malaysian Punishment

2010-01-22T22:00:00.000-08:00

Above is an illustration from an article about a Malaysian model who became the first woman sentenced to be caned for drinking alcohol. The medium is watercolor, markers, and ink pen. Here is the article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1207643/Muslim-model-woman-Malaysia-caned-caught-drinking-beer.html

Here are several illustrations for an article about the famous "Johns Hopkins Samurai". For those not familiar with the story, read this article. All pieces were done using ink pen, marker and watercolor.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2009-09-16/news/0909150076_1_samurai-sword-samurai-weapon-pontolillo

Narrative Sketches

2010-01-22T21:42:00.000-08:00

My favorite course of last semester was Narrative Illustration with John Fuqau. In this course we focused on illustrations for editorials, stories, articles, political cartoons, and comics. Over the course of the semester John would frequently gives us challenges where we would have a certain amount of time to illustrate a particular sentence or article in our sketchbooks. We also had to create illustrations for our own stories. Here are some random sketches.

Visual Journalism

2010-01-22T19:38:00.000-08:00

Along with Illustration 1, I also took Visual Journalism with Warren Linn. This class was all about documenting the world around us in a sketchbook. We frequently took field trips to various sites around Baltimore City and drew our surroundings. This class was really beneficial to me because it required me to practice my observational drawing skills frequently. For the final project I edited a few of my favorite pages in photoshop.

Nicholas Cage Stole My Child

2010-01-22T18:16:00.000-08:00

The DVD Cover Art

The only spot illustration I like.

For our Illustration 1 final, we were each assigned a movie and were asked to design a dvd cover, booklet and interior spot illustrations for it. I was assigned the Coen Brother's film, Raising Arizona. I found the movie to be very enjoyable, but coming up with cover art for it was an entirely different experience. I didn't settle on a design I liked until the third week of brainstorming. The whole project was due the following week. I managed to complete the booklet art and spot illustrations by the deadline, but their quality was severely lacking when compared to the DVD cover.

Nasty Animals

2010-01-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

This was by far, the most enjoyable project of illustration 1 for me. We had to create four illustrations that demonstrate onomatopoeia. For my theme, I chose to illustrate the sounds of cartoon animals doing disgusting things. I took inspiration from artists like John Krifalusi, (creator of Ren and Stimpy) Jhonen Vasquez, and Robert Crumb.

On a side note, some of my High School friends might recognize that Hippo from my 11th grade English project on animation. Thats right kids, Its Darwin the Bulimic Hippo!

Tui Delai Gau

2010-01-22T16:43:00.000-08:00

This is my illustration of the Fijian mountain god, Tui Delai Gau. According to legend, this god is capable of removing his hands and sending them to fish. He can also remove his head and place it in the sky to watch over the Fijian people.

The modern day counterpart to Tui Delai Gau, a Father taking his son out on a fishing trip.

Sketches for Tui Delai Gau.

Move like Grand Master Flash

2010-01-22T16:22:00.000-08:00

For this assignment, we had to do an illustration of something we aren't good at illustrating with a medium we aren't good at using. I've always felt I need to show more movement in my work and I've never been pleased with my watercolor paintings. Upon learning this, Dan assigned me to do 3 illustrations of 80's break dancers. Two of the three had to be done in watercolor. I'm not really proud of the results, but it was definitely a learning experience. The piece on top was done in oil and chalk pastels.

Needs More Cowbell

2010-01-22T15:04:00.000-08:00

This is another piece from Daniel Krall's illustration 1 class. We had to make a portrait of our favorite celebrity, so I chose to draw the great Christopher Walken. Known for his versatility, Walken has starred in some of Hollywood's greatest films. My personal favorite roles would have to be his brief appearance in Pulp Fiction and the classic SNL sketch where he's producing Blue Oyster Cult's song, "Don't Fear the Reaper". Walken tends to play characters who aren't necessarily insane, but usually kind of "off". I tried to make his vacant expression and choice of bendy straw reflect this.

Baroness Illustrations

2010-01-22T14:17:00.000-08:00

Wanderlust

Grad

Isak

I've decided to make my first few posts all about the bizarre creations that spawned from Daniel Krall's Illustration 1 class. For better or worse, the majority of my work for this class was done digitally. I am nowhere near as comfortable with photoshop as I am with oil paint and dry mediums, but I wanted to challenge myself to try something new. My first piece is a visual response to the song, "Isak" by Georgian progressive metal band, Baroness. The song is epic, heavy, and repetitive, so I Illustrated a viking about to battle a huge robot.... it seemed like a good idea at the time. The other two illustrations correspond to the songs, "Wanderlust" and "Grad" off the same album. Both me and my teacher agree that "Isak" was the strongest of the series, but the combination of colored pencil and photoshop didn't work as well as I thought. For anyone interested, here is a clip of Baroness performing "Isak" live.