The Weapon Index

Dangerheart

2010-06-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

Design. Or something.

You're invited

2010-06-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

Designing stuffs.

Link Painting

2010-05-26T11:31:00.000-07:00

Painting practice.

All CS4

-Matty

Bill Goats Gruff

2010-05-10T11:25:00.001-07:00

This was for a contest that I never entered because I'm crazy lazy and finished today; read: 5 months too late.

It was a contest to illustrate any fairytale, so I drew the Billy Goats Gruff as Italian gangsters.

Photoshop and hurled feces; many hours.

Website update

2009-09-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's been a while!

Hey, how many posts do I start that with?

The website has been updated and has Pizza Jockeys in it's entirety there for your viewing pleasure.

I've been busy working at my job as well as working with the GR8 for the ArtPrize competition.

Exciting stuff, yes?

Why, yes it is. I would like to thank you for caring in advance, even if you don't.

Yours,
Matt G

Pizza Jockeys Episode II is LIVE!

2009-05-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

That's right; after months of deliberation; Episode II can be seen...

...right here:

on Newgrounds

...and here:

on YouTube

-Matt G

A(n) Update

2009-03-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

So this is where the pickle poppers take all the credit for stopping Tundra.

That's Susie Newsie making sure the news gets delivered...and that you eat your poppers.

And that YOU EAT THEM NOW.

-Matt G

"You and I are through, professionally..."

2009-02-12T19:08:00.000-08:00

So this needs to be a t-shirt.

I will see if I can get it on at least one, and spread the awesomeness.

I photoshopped this together, but the image of Bale is probably copyrighted to hell, so I can't mass-produce it and sell it.

Poop. I want to get rich quickly and easily.

-Matt G

Website....it LIVES!

2009-02-08T14:21:00.000-08:00

So finally, ArtWeapon is live.

Go. Check it out. Be merry.

Charlevoix Ballroom is on its way. As is PJ Ep. II.

More to come.

-Matt G

Is the storm over?

2009-01-28T17:48:00.000-08:00

Hardly.

I must say that this has proven to be one crazy New Year so far. The internship is going as well as can be expected for one branded with the nickname "Buttermoose", but in that vein; it will be that much harder to forget me once it come time for me to (God-willing) work at this place I've become so fond of so quickly.

What else has happened? Oh yeah:

Congrats to the new prez, fah sho.

Um...oh right: To the man who stole all the crap from my car and left me to deal with Geek Squad and their incompetency: Thanks a ton, you rapscallion.

-Matt G

Cumulative

2008-12-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

So the semester has come to an end and the grades I have received harken back to my senior year of high school: It basically looks like I stopped trying.

I can fortunately live with myself, for to the untrained eye, it may APPEAR as though I gave up, but on the contrary! I worked my bum off this semester and my work shall blow the socks off of my teachers...when it actually gets done.

Yes, the major issue of my descending grades was that I didn't finish anything. I just completed my website, and now need only to upload it to the world wide webz, and Pizza Jockeys II has become the world's biggest time suck, but I have a feeling it will be well worth it.

I'm delaying the website because, for now, this blog is hard enough for a man of my attention span to update on a semi-regular basis and also because I'm poor but ALSO...(drumroll)

I have just become an intern at Biggs-Gilmore in Kalamazoo!

I am beyond stoked for this and I can't wait to learn a crap-load of stuff from professionals in the field.

The City That Ate Me is still in the works, but the biggest problem has been manipulating ComicPress so that I can make it look like something other than a toilet bowl after a New Year's party.

More to come!

-Matty

Hell, MI Fan art stuff

2008-12-23T00:17:00.000-08:00

So I did this for mister Workhorse Illustration himself, Mr. Scott E Fresh, and his stellar comic Hell, MI.

Sorry it took so long, yo.

Better late than never, I say!

-Matty

Taking on another epic endeavor...

2008-11-10T10:48:00.000-08:00

I've decided it's time.

If you've ever had it in your head to start a new project, or you've had an idea floating around in your head for so long you think it's just another ghostly haunting of a pipe dream that will never come to fruition, then you know that there are times when inspiration comes from the strangest sources.

My friend and ex-gradeschool "cartoonist" rival Megan Gedris has a couple of stunningly well-written webcomics (also in print) that keep that small hope in me of making it big in the art industry while still hailing from Grand Rapids a reality.

Her comic that I follow most religiously, YU+ME, in my opinion, has "cult-phenomenon" written all over it. Given that she has printed editions and shirts and all that available, I'd say she's definitely giving her fans what they want. Were I a rich man, I'd buy some myself; but I DO have a commemoritive autographed edition of Lesbian Pirates from Outerspace, so when the shit hits the fan and she's making millions and being stalked by fanatics the world over

, I shall reap the benefits of having been her arch-rival in 5th grade.

She sent out a letter on DeviantArt notifying everyone that she would publish their illustrated stories under her company's name if they met the given criteria. This is where the aforementioned inspiration/kick in the pants came from. I said to myself, "Good grief! This girl's got three comics that I KNOW about and now she's helping other people kickstart THEIR dreams with her award-winning good fortune? I am a pathetic excuse for a working artist."

Such is the nature of art; you surround yourself with creative people not to compare yourself and feel like crap about your own work, but to feed off eachother's drive and energy and always strive for self-betterment.

And that's it! I'm making a comic of my own; or "graphic novella" if you will. And here's the logo!

That's all you get.

Until next time.

-Matt G

Getting Animated

2008-10-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to use the old method of drawing distorted images to achieve motion without having to draw a crap-ton of frames. This is a 'meh' example of high distortion, but it works pretty well in full motion. Trouble is, it goes by so fast, you barely see it; so here it is...in STILLFRAME.

Oh Tundra; what have you gotten yourself into THIS time?

Here goes nothing...

2008-10-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

I'm goin' for the gusto. I just made the decision to do all backgrounds for episode II in Photoshop. Here is my first attempt.

I imported it into my Flash storyboard, and it actually looked alright.

One small step to upping the game, people! One small step at a time!

-Matt G

Many Things

2008-10-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

First things first; if you haven't seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, you totally need to. It's a web series made by Joss Whedon, who happens to be the man.

As usual, I'm still going a little nuts because of schoolwork, but there are more silver linings to these dark, ominous clouds than there is actual ...dark cloud. Hmm... What I mean to say is that things are working out in spite of themselves.

For instance, my digital portfolio class (the product of which shall become the big brother of this trusty blog) is basically causing me to reinvent the entire image of ArtWeapon.com, but like a sword being tempered in the hottest of infernos, my creativity merely gets stronger and sharper with trial and experience.

The storyboards for PJ Ep II are done and divided into their proper scenes, and only now do I realize I forgot to record several lines of crucial yelps and screams. It's always the little stuff that slips by.

Work all day and ya work all night
Work ma fingers to tha bone and whuddya git?

Boney fingers...

-Matt G

Sinners

2008-10-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

I just watched this.

Lord have mercy.

...sweet divine mercy.

-Matt G

Painting is Hard

2008-10-01T02:39:00.000-07:00

Behold Tundra the terrible.

This is gonna be the first image of the second episode of Pizza Jockeys. For the intro, I'm going to have an 'ethereal' recap of the previous episode made up of echoing screams of "integral" plot points accompanied by an array of paintings.

I just watched Punk'd for the first time ever. Take THAT celebrities.

-Matt G

Breaking it all down

2008-09-28T23:32:00.000-07:00

When I started this semester, I had this goal of animating

1) Pizza Jockeys Episode 2
2) The trailer for my new project called Garden
3) and Chicken Wings.

Two out of three ain't bad, I'd say.

I've actually finished the boards for PJ2, but that's also when I realized that it would be a huge undertaking, especially including the rewrite I made at the last minute. I've convinced myself it'll be completely worth it, though if it's not I'll just blame my dog.

The initial recording phase went...less than desirably, thanks in no small part to my sudden bouts of nerve-induced insomnia. I don't think I've ever tried harder to sleep than last week Wednesday, except maybe that one time in 6th grade when I had a Mountain Dew in the middle of the afternoon only to come to the startling conclusion that I'd never had caffeine before.

The worst is over though, I think. It's probably just stress from school, which happens to everyone who's a senior in college and human, combined with my whack-attack 2nd shift job. I can't complain: I get paid to watch movies and do homework. No, we don't have any openings.

If you've ever not been able to sleep, you know that your body just won't shut down, you can't focus, you definitely are NOT inspired and your only hope is that you've prayed hard enough for a nice long infomercial about Time Life's latest oldies collection to lull you to sleep. I ended up making an omelet, running around my back yard and punching the grass in futility. I'm okay now, really.

Anyways, I've started writing a song for my Audio Seminar II class and am pleased to say that Kanye West better watch his rear views for Commander Keen of Honeybees Join the Bomb Squad fame. It's funny how all the knowledge about different programs and music theory and uh...art theory come full circle right when you need them most. No, I'm no pro at the whole 'hit-maker' thing, but I'm just now starting to grasp what it is that tricks the ear into being interested in a certain songs for about 3 to 4 minutes. Miles High was finally posted at Newgrounds after about 2 1/2 weeks. Freakin' A. Better late than never, I s'pose.

The website is coming along, slow but sure. I literally had to go back to the drawing board and re-teach myself for scratch how to digitally paint in Photoshop. I simply have an animator's mindset: get results quick. That does NOT work with painting. Hell, it doesn't work with animating either; it just feels faster I guess.

End of horribly long, late-night post.

-Matt G

More Chicken Wings and...a Song!

2008-09-13T15:22:00.001-07:00

So I submitted Chicken Wings to Newgrounds and Break after I re-adjusted the pre-loader and all that rot.

Also, I have a Myspace page for the tunes I make in my free time and for all the music you'll find in my animations and movies. You can find it here. If you're on Digg, be sure to digg it...not bury it.

-Matt G

Chicken Wings

2008-09-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

My new little squiggle-vision animation about a fat guy ordering fast food is now up and available for viewing on DeviantArt and Youtube (be sure to click "watch in high quality")!

Hope it makes you giggle.

-Matt G

Pizza Jockeys launches!

2008-09-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

After much ado, Pizza Jockeys Episode 1 has finally been completed and posted on YouTube and, most namely, NewGrounds, where it received Daily Second Place and a spot on the Front Page! You're welcome egoraptor, we kept that spot warm for you. Anyways, thanks for that all you wonderful internetters and here is once again.

In other news, I'm finally taking my digital portfolio class and so ArtWeapon.com should be coming to you very soon. I plan on keeping the blog; having done some research, I figure that's the best way to keep all fronts manned and secure.

Coming soon! Chicken Wings: A really silly story that my buddy Josh W. told me about some enormous fat guy that came into the Dominos where he worked and proceeded to choke on his own fat. I'll put that up on Newgrounds as well and we'll see what happens there, score-wise.

There's an interesting thing that happens when you post stuff on Newgrounds. With the help of my chum Rob, I carefully calculated which day, which hour, precisely which minute I should post my five minute wood-fired opus and decided on 5:30pm on a Friday. I sweated out six and a half hours, checking that site more times than I could count every two seconds to see if I would acquire the coveted Daily First spot on in the Flash Portal. I feared that the internet might be shut down from another terrorist attack and my prize would be lost in the ether for all of eternity, or no one would like it and I'd completely have to rethink my career options based solely on the opinions of a single web forum.

In the end it posted just fine to many good review and a shameless plug by another Newgrounds-er who apparently has a copy write on all footage of real pizza ...ever. I determined that even though I almost ripped my eyes out because I worked on PJ so long, I really don't have a choice but to make Episode 2 (well, Episode 1: Part 2, really) because I was genuinely surprised that people took a liking to the characters and story and the series in general. The team that heads up the site liked it enough to put it on the front page for a few days, and that gesture alone gives me the juice to soldier on and finish what I started.

More to come.

-Matt G

P.S. I was beat out for Daily First by hentai pr0n. I wouldn't have it any other way. Wait. Yes I would.

ArtWeapon.com COMING SOON!

2008-05-15T20:48:00.000-07:00

The official site has yet to be uploaded to the greatness that is the internet. This blog will be our temporary gallery/forum/general gathering grounds.

Contact info is as follows:

mattg@artweapon.com --> ilovegarages.deviantart.com
jasonheuser@gmail.com --> sharpwriter.deviantart.com

-Matt G

Lemme Git Those Digits

2008-05-10T20:49:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to get some pieces done for the Motor City Comic Con next week. This one's about not being able to escape time. CS3 and lots of mistakes to learn from along the way; hope you like it.

Couple New Things

2008-05-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

Just finished some old pieces that needed to just be colored and done with. Hope you dig.

For the Running Man, I used the coloring style that I'm comfortable with, but which is not really fun to do. It's more or less dropping colors in selected areas; tedious.

The Surfing...Man is something I had to get out of my system for the time being while learning the limitations of "speed-painting" techniques. Not as loose as I want it to be, but if I didn't get it done this instant, I'd never get it done at all.

-Matt G

School's Behind Us

2008-05-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

So begins the summertime! I have a few summertime classes, but they shouldn't be consuming anything more than time for about a month and a half.

What does that mean for little baby ArtWeapon? It means some creative breathing room! Lots of it! The Motor City Comic Con is upon us, and it's shaping up pretty well. Still need to pump out some table pieces and a rough sketch book...all in good time.

Had a caricature gig in Grandhaven the other day that went just swimmingly. Needed a reaffirmation of skills.

Since this is the first post and I'm just coming down off the junior year bullet train, I must leave you without a picture, but know that there will be many in the near future!

Thank God for summer and friends and art and music.