A Little Tribute to One of the Greatest Days of My Life.

 This coming Tuesday (January 6) will be 35 years since one of the greatest days in my life (the details of which I'll post about one day)! Long story short, I went to NYC Creation Con for the 4th time, with my mother, and bought a couple of videos (including the first five episodes of Ultraman, in English; finally seeing an Ultra Series for the first time, after hearing/reading about it for so many years), watching samples of other videos (including The Space Giants and Kamen Rider Black), and to top it all off, bought the first issue of the short-lived Markalite (Summer 1990), one of my favorite magazines of all time! (And yes, named for the Markalite FAHP/Flying Atomic Heat Projector mecha from The Mysterians.) It's like much of my questions were answered, including learning the word "tokusatsu" (special effects) for the first time! And it was my gateway to tokusatsu fandom, after trying to find out more about my favorite Japanese sci-fi stuff for many years!

 Here are the two main human characters from Rekira the Super-Monster reenacting Markalite's influence on my life. Raitaro Hayama reflecting my teenage self from the time, and Verena Freston looking on with curiosity (because tokusatsu, at the time, was considered so weird and not worthy of mainstream attention). Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca (in a pencil style).

Happy New Year 2026!

 Tomorrow (January 2nd), Tsuburaya's Ultra Series franchise turns 60 (when Ultra Q premiered in 1966)! (And Spectreman turns 55; five years apart!) So my original kaiju, Rekira, gets his own silhouette in the style of the original 1966 Ultraman show! Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca.

 I picked a fine time to get into both the Ultra Series and tokusatsu fandom; January 6, 1991 (on the franchise's 25th Anniversary), 35 years ago this month, when I went to NYC Creation-Con and bought some stuff that changed my life... but that's another story. ;)

 Happy New Year!

Final Art of 2025!

 Here's my final work of 2025!

 Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca, here's the Olympus Key Staff (secretly the Dynamic Heralds), the main characters of my kaiju project, Rekira the Super-Monster, wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!

Self-portrait for my 50th year.

 So I finally turned 50 several months ago, and before the year is up, I decided to celebrate it with a quick cartoon self-portrait. I don't do self-portraits often, being fairly modest, but I finally decided to give it another try, only more up-to-date. :)

My final art of the year is coming up shortly!

Last CG work of 2025!

 I think I really nailed it this time. :)

 You may have seen them in some test footage I posted recently, but I recently completed updated versions of the main heroes of my original kaiju project, Rekira the Super-Monster! And with them, I did a second version of the reenactment of my last art of 2022 on Blender, and this time, I finally nailed it, for my last CG work of 2025.

 Once again, depicted are the main characters, the Olympus Key Staff (who secretly transform into the superhero team, the Dynamic Heralds), hanging out in a huge studio similar to the Rainbow Room from The Monkees! (It's the same exact one used in the previous version.)

Here's the original 2002 drawing for comparison:

And the first 3D version from 2023, which is not bad, but it's great to see how far I've come in my modeling skills.

 Either way, these deeply touch me. :) 

 I'll still be doing some drawn art by the end of the year, so stay tuned!

2025: The Year of the Snake (Happy New Year!)

 My first art of 2025 has Rekira, my original kaiju, celebrating the Year of the Snake (in a snakelike physique)!

Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca.

Rekira V3 Beta Complete!

Despite these difficult times, I still have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving:

-Mom and Sissy being in good health.
-My big brother Peter and his friend Panda had a great and safe two-week trip to Japan, and showed me all sorts of stuff!
-I went to two Galaxy-Cons this year and met wonderful guests.
-This is, to date, the best Godzilla Day I've ever had (the Godzilla Fest livestream, going to see Godzilla Minus One for the 4th time, and watching my Criterion Blu-Ray of the original 1954 film)!
-I'm making very good progress on my original kaiju project, Rekira the Super-Monster! And for Thanksgiving, I'm sharing a bit of it: I'm unveiling the final look for the eponymous monster, as completed in Blender! Assembled in FireAlpaca.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 70th Birthday, Godzilla!

 Today is the 70th Anniversary of my favorite character of all time (tied with Snoopy), Godzilla! This was a super-quick sketch that I did (on tablet in FireAlpaca) while watching Godzilla Fest.

Happy Chinese New Year 2024!

 So yesterday was the Lunar New Year! The Year of the Dragon. :)

So I thought I'd do another New Year's drawing featuring my original kaiju, Rekira, and I started on it yesterday. But because we got Chinese food for dinner (it was delicious!), and I got to spend a bit of time with my family (even watching some of the animated movie Wish Dragon, which was cute!), I was a bit delayed, but it was still worth it. It took several hours, but it's a gorgeous bit of art!

Here, the Dynamic Heralds, the superhero team from Rekira the Super-Monster, perform with a dragon dance pole puppet based on Rekira himself! A concept I thought up in the last few days.

Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca.

2024 - The Year of the (Dog) Dragon

 My first work of the year, and a convenient one: 2024 is the Chinese astrological year of the Dragon, and my original kaiju Rekira is, partly, a dragon (combined with a dog)!

Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca.

Dengekid into Dengeking

 The main (super)human protagonist of Rekira the Super-Monster, Herald 6/Dengekid, demonstrating his power to transform into his giant form, Dengeking!

Started on September 15th, finished today (October 26), done on tablet in FireAlpaca.

Happy 50th Anniversary to GODZILLA VS. MEGALON!

 Today has been the 50th Anniversary of my personal favorite Godzilla movie, Godzilla Vs. Megalon (Toho; 1973)! Not only one of the earliest Godzilla movies I ever saw, but also the first movie I was ever taken to see in the cinema, at the now-defunct Loew's Spooner Theater in the Bronx.

Here is my tribute drawing to said film.

Recreating one of the famous publicity photos from the film, here are (left to right): Rekira, Dengeking, Jet Jaguar, and Godzilla. The first two are original creations of mine, with inspiration drawn from the latter two. :)

Done today on tablet in FireAlpaca. Shared in full size!

And Awaaaay We Go! (Rekira's Jackie Gleason Tribute)

 Here's Rekira in a gag pose I've always wanted to draw him in! Here is my tribute to one of my favorite actors, Jackie Gleason, based on his iconic "And awaaaay we go!" pose.

Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca.

First Art of 2023!

 Happy New Year, everyone! Here's my first artwork of 2023!

I had wanted to do this for New Year's Day yesterday, but was busy with family at the time, but better to be just one night late than never (or any later)!

Here's the stars of Rekira the Super-Monster, the eponymous monster Rekira (right) shaking hands with the superhero Dengekid (a member of the superhero team, the Dynamic Heralds)! This year is the upcoming 50th Anniversary of my personal favorite Godzilla movie, and one of my favorite movies of all time, Godzilla Vs. Megalon (Toho; 1973), so this New Year's Day drawing is my tribute to that film with my characters.

Done on tablet in FireAlpaca.

Merry Rekira's Christmas 2022

 My Christmas present to all of you! Rekira shines the way again.

Done on tablet in FireAlpaca.

Some new Rekira art.

 A collection of recent artwork for my original kaiju, Rekira! All of these were done on tablet in FireAlpaca.

 Done on November 23rd (and finished on the 25th), here's a stylized 1950s-style "stencil" art of Rekira.

 Next is another illustration I did for fun. A pencil/watercolor-style Rekira illustration from earlier, September 29th.

 Finally, an even older illustration. A rough, abstract, silhouette-style ad poster of the Rekira project I have in production. Dated July 27, this one was done while my family and I were vacationing at a relative's home in Tampa, Florida.

November Rekira

 I've always wanted to draw my original kaiju, Rekira, in this style!

Here's Rekira with a "November" color scheme. The eruptive background evoking the feel of both autumn and the Thanksgiving season, and Rekira having an "American" palette (much like Election Day). Very warm colors for a progressively cold month. (And Fall-Winter is my favorite season!)

Inspired by the beautiful, colorful poster for Italian filmmaker Luigi Cozzi's bizarre 1977 re-edit of the 1954 Godzilla (from its 1956 US version), which was also featured on the cover of the first issue of the horror magazine Fangoria in 1979! It does have sort of an autumn November color scheme! Godzilla also has a great red/blue tint or sorts.

Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca (from the 18th to the 21st).

Remodeled Mysti-Girl and Dengekid!

 I have finished remodeling the Blender CG figures of Mysti-Girl and Dengekid, the superhero forms of Verena Freston and Raitaro Hayama, respectively! They look much better!

The helmets/goggles/masks/accessories are unchanged, but the bodysuits were completely redone, and look much smoother and more to my liking.

Remodeled Raitaro & Verena!

 I just recently finished remodeling my Blender figures of Raitaro Hayama and Verena Freston (two main characters from my original kaiju project, Rekira the Super-Monster), and are both much improved!

Raitaro's entire mouth was remodeled, and the facial expressions are much better, not to mention I redid his entire body from scratch, and it looks much better proportioned.

Verena, on the surface level, doesn't look too dissimilar from her previous model; the head/expressions are the same, but the body was entirely redone from scratch, and is far more refined. You wouldn't know that from the clothes she's wearing (which were slightly tweaked to accommodate the new body)! ;)

The 3 Main Characters of REKIRA THE SUPER-MONSTER, in full CGI!

 Here are the finished CG figures of the three main characters in my original kaiju project, Rekira the Super-Monster! I'm very excited to share them. Character portraits assembled in FireAlpaca.

You know, the more I think about it, with the "cartoon" look I was going for, these characters look like Rankin-Bass Animagic-style characters (which were crafted/animated in Japan)! Except that the subject matter is a bit more serious (although there will be, er... humor). ;)

The enigmatic Tatsuo Kongoji:

Raitaro Hayama (AKA: Herald 6/Dengekid):

Verena Freston (AKA: Herald 3/Mysti-Girl)

More characters to come as production progresses!