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!

REKIRA 2022 Teaser Poster!

 Today is the 31st Anniversary of the creation of what would eventually become my original kaiju creation, Rekira! In honor of this, with the project still in production, here's a new teaser poster I assembled over a month ago. Assembled in Flash. Rekira, of course, was done with Blender and FireAlpaca.

Dynamic Heralds Design Extras

 Some new designs related to the Dynamic Heralds, the protagonist superhero team in my original project, Rekira the Super-Monster.

First up is a speculation design: WHAT IF... the Dynamic Heralds wore matching suits? This is what it would look like. Naturally, the Super Sentai influence is still there, though I also imagined not only the Fantastic Four and early X-Men (both by Jack "The King" Kirby), but also the Beatles and the Monkees (the latter became a superhero team called the Monkeemen, with matching costumes/capes).

And next, here's something that will actually be used; the Heralds have special work uniforms (the Olympus Elite Staff uniforms) at their tech-industrial workplace/default residence, Olympus Tower (underneath which is their secret command center). This is influenced by the Beatles' Pierre Cardin suits, the blue uniforms of the Science Special Search Party (Science Patrol) from Ultraman, as well as something Wes Anderson could create if he did a 1960s-style sci-fi movie!

Dengekid - Style Experiment

 Here's a sketch I did on February 8 of Dengekid, drawn in a style reminiscent of Bruce Timm! (There's also a vague Tatsuo Yoshida and Jiro Kuwata style to him as well.) Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca.

 

Therma-Gal - Style Experiment

 Here's a sketch I did nearly a week ago of Therma-Gal, drawn in a style reminiscent of Bruce Timm or Dan DeCarlo! Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca.

 

Mysti-Girl - Style Experiment

Here's a sketch I did tonight of Mysti-Girl, drawn in a style reminiscent of Bruce Timm or Dan DeCarlo! Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca.