Banshee

monster month sketches

2011-10-01T13:38:00.001-07:00

Sketches and in process White Dog and Cujo for Monster Month.

Monster Month!!!

2011-10-01T11:25:00.001-07:00

So its October which means its officially MONSTER MONTH!! My friend Tait and I have created a blog dedicated to makin a monster a day through the month of Oct. and it's open to anyone! Feel free to submit your monster drawings/creations through the month of Oct. Here's the monster No. 1: Gremlins.

Linus got a bad "Pawgress" Report from the groomers

2011-09-16T14:50:00.001-07:00

And then later tried to destroy it.

post SPX or 'Im still thirsty'

2011-09-15T23:46:00.000-07:00

Another pet portrait, my friend Coleman's dog is such a sweet heart. And my goodness was SPX fun. All sorts of mischief and wonder. It was great to get together.

SPX 2011!!!

2011-09-05T18:20:00.001-07:00

I'll be at SPX this weekend!!! Sellin art, lil Mr. Easters, pins, and the book. Stop by the NBM table and lets hang out!

WOOOPS

2011-09-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

So I've been pretty bad... not posting in almost a year. Heres a doodle of me an linus in apology. And if your a tumble weed I've got a new art tumblr HERE.

New Years Tumble Weve

2010-12-31T12:06:00.000-08:00

Another year, where do they all go?

BEARDTIME

2010-12-28T15:35:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I wish I had a beard... but mostly I dont.

This was a reject Jim Henson sketch for A Tale of Sand Archaia Comics is putting out in the near future. Pooped a little orangey red background in there, no reason. This was a little too animated (and probably sloppy) than what they were looking for at the time, but I'm excited to see the finished stuff!

Christmas Time

2010-12-25T19:52:00.001-08:00

It's Christmas?

Well Merry Christmas.

Here's some other unrelated items:

An in progress page for Darla Dare and the Amazing Globonauts (art © me , story © Sam Lewis) More to come on that REAL soon...

And a small army of resin Mr.Easter figurines... really small actually, I only made 8 or so and broke most of them :-/ But in the coming weeks I hope to make another edition and if you're interested in owning one send me and email (brooklyn.a.a@gmail.com) otherwise hopefully they'll be available online soon.

Merry Christmas from me, Dog Linus, Mr.Easter, Tesana, and the Low Country!

FALLTIME

2010-10-18T22:41:00.001-07:00

Happy fall y'all.

I havnt been around, here's a drawing of Linus in apology.

Hows everyone's October and what should I be for Halloween?

Love always
Brooke.

Darla Dare and the Amazing Globonauts

2010-08-11T19:27:00.001-07:00

Flat colors for Crash Banton and Moo Rang, the courageous pilot and noble mechanic of the interstellar Globehopper!

More to come from the outer ring... by the way I have a huge crush on Crash.. I could just draw him all day long.

Darla Dare and the Amazing Globonauts (c) Sam Lewis

Art (c) ME (Brooke A Allen)

Status: MIA

2010-08-08T22:03:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting! I know! "WHY !?", you ask!? I've just been real busy.

The real world closes in a little more every day as the end of the quarter grows nigh and I'm not totally sure I'm qualified for life in the wild just yet... or ever. But in the mean time here's a bizarre drawing I did in class... its a dandy lion and its scary.

Also, I'm making no promises, but I'm working on some Mr. Easter figures for (hopefully) SPX... but we'll see what happens! Here he is in progress:

2010-07-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

CRASH BANTON character design for Darla Dare written by Sam Lewis and illustrated by yours truly...

More characters to come!

Flat Colors:

Line Art:

Until next time, GOD SPEED SPACE CADET!

Signing Mr.Easters!

2010-06-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

Poster designed by Kevin Panetta

July fourth if you’re in the DC area and wanna hang whilst I personalize your copy of A Home for Mr. Easter with loving care then swing by Big Planet Comics in Vienna, VA!!!

There will be pins and other goodies up for grabs so swing by if you're in the area and have a gay ol' time.

I'll be takin' the train from Georgia to Virginia, I love adventure!!

Also I did an interview for Jazma so if you're bored and at a loss of reading material... then there is that.

And the reviews have continued to be real positive and sweet and I appreciate all of them!

Anywho, can't wait to escape Georgia where everyday I open my door and know exactly what its like living on the face of the sun...

Brooklyn Gremsley: 1,000 Deaths 1,000 More

2010-05-29T00:37:00.000-07:00

(fig. 1A)

A little more process work and unfinished pages from Brooklyn Gremsley. The first 6 or so pages basically explore her unusual talent for escaping death. She reflects on several different animals that she's had the pleasure of being eaten alive by, but this is her first time down the gullet of a gator.

... girl just can't catch a break...

P.s. "Mr. Grin" sends his love, y'all (see fig. 1A above).

I'll be sure to post these when they're finished... but in the mean time, here they are.

And here's a tiny sculpy Liny... he was not part of my final... but shhh.

Kids with Guns!

2010-05-17T00:13:00.000-07:00

Some unfinished illustrations for my friend William Casey's senior film Liam and Ben... which consists mainly of kids with guns battling some pretty nasty veggie monsters and learning to get along... but i know all you heard was kids with guns, so HERE THEY ARE.

Cant think of a better SOUNDTRACK... after all kids with guns and Savannah ( C-PORT) kinda go hand in hand.

p.s. I do so miss Bear Face and the good times

P.P.S SCIENCE RULES!

Don't Worry, it's my Birthday

2010-05-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

It's true. Fear not, I've become 22.
Here's my African Art notes for today!:

I left the SCAD equestiran team one up to you, dear reader, to finish.
I have nothing against the equestrian department, I consider it a privilege to go to a school where some major in comics and others major in ponies... maybe SCAD should be called Mrs. Paula Wallace's School for Imaginary Careers in ... whatever.

I did none of those things in reality... just in spirit. (well... except turn super saiyan level 200 billion. That did happen over breakfast).
Over all Birthday Day 2010 has been a total success, I've aged a year and had a good time doing it.
SOUNDTRACK OF THE DAY!!

OH p.s. I WANT A PIGLET to name Prickle.

Goodbye Bear Face

2010-05-09T04:13:00.000-07:00

My doggie Tess the Bear Faced Terror died Friday.
Heart attacks shouldn't happen to puppy dogs, little loyal spirits should be allowed to live forever.

She's sorely missed.

p.s. Im never going to die. It doesn't look like much fun.

Tough

2010-05-04T00:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a bad year for the things I love...

heres an armadillo

p.s. I CRASHED ANOTHER ONE!
Brooke= 2 Macs = 0

Backgrounds, Boards, and Brooklyn ... oh my.

2010-05-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

Aesop backgrounds: 3 of different entrances to Aesop's cave and the other a part of Dr.Stoatenstien's lab. ...in the middle is a doodle of my dog LINUS who's diet consists of children and has nothing to do with Aesop.

... some of these are out of sequence because pieces are missing... but maybe you wont actually try to read it

and Im still working on Brooklyn...
It kinda feels like that last picture

Working on this comic is making me notice more and more my love/hate relationship with crocodilians, I fear them and yet all I wanna do is poke them with sticks from a safe distance ...

Brooklyn Gremsley

2010-04-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here she is, my senior project still on the slab. Twelve 22x30 gouache and watercolor painted pages due at the end of the quarter.... why on earth would I do this to myself you ask? Because deep down inside is an evil self deprecating Brooke Allen who never passes up a chance to self sabotage... curse her.

So heres a little process, if you've got time to kill and you're curious about what on earth I was thinkin when I made A Home for Mr.Easter you can see my post on process HERE.

more to come from the lil studio of horrors.

CITRUS CEL 2010 STUDENT DESIGN IN CHARACTER AWARD GOES TO:

2010-04-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

AESOP LAMB OF VENGEANCE!!!!!

I know some of this is redundant, but these were the Aesop designs that got displayed (and ultimately won!!!!) at Citrus Cel this year.

Next step: get these sheeps in motion!

This time Vengeance was spelled right... but if you read any of the character bios there is a bounty of typos ... but I guess I was banking on no one would read it... D:

(story boards, animatics, and backgrounds to come!)

Good things and HORRIBLE EVIL NO GOOD THINGS OF FORLORN

2010-04-18T00:09:00.000-07:00

MoCCA:
MoCCA was fantastic and everything I had hoped it'd be!!!
NYC was amazing and it was an awesome experience sharing the NBM table with Greg Houston, Neil Kleid, and Ted Rall which I owe Terry Nantier big time for. I sold out of A Home for Mr. Easter and had a chance to get my feet wet signing/sketching in books (which is utterly horrifying). I also snagged a copy of Greg's blaxploitation meets the pope comic Vatican Hustle which is seven different shades of groovy and if you haven't read it already then there's no place in my good books for your kind.
Over all it was a great weekend that went very well....

Switching gears to things that DIDNT go so well:

If you've seen THIS then you've seen the face of satan breaking your dreams

My hard drive died and took everything with it to Mac Book Pro hell where I hope it's happy burning for the unforgivable sin of ruining my life!!!
And if you ask me why on earth I didn't back everything up I'll answer by killing you. So we'll just silently acknowledge that I am the worlds most heinously dumb human being and walk chin up into the future....

Here's some drawings of little nature things I did three years ago...

... BECAUSE THEY WERE THE LAST THINGS I BACKED UP

So all in all I learned my lesson: back up your files or gamble with the fates (and lose).

.... I like to believe that when apple tried to save my data it happened exactly like this:

Mr.Easter and ME at MoCCA!!!!

2010-04-08T12:17:00.001-07:00

Indescribable excitement ensues...NOW

Check this sweet poster by Dash Shaw... that I will certainly make a point to snatch

SO I'M GOIN TO MoCCA!! I'll be there helping push A Home for Mr.Easter into every hand humanly possible. In addition to that Terry of NBM has enlightened me that the first 25 people to enter the after party gets a free copy of the book which is awesome... or there could be 25 copies of A Home for Mr.Easter being used as drink coasters when I get there...which would ALSO BE AWESOME!!!

In addittion to signing Mr.Easters I'll have a ton of pins (see fig. below):

Also Mars Import will be carrying limited addition signed copies!

Awesome ad by Kevin Panetta.

Limited addition book plate!

And in other news I got some great reviews!!
(I'll be sure to send them all some thing nice).

Review from Avril Brown at Comics Waiting Room

Review from Lee Newman at TheOutHousers.com

Review from Blogcritics

I'm getting pretty pumped for that after party... getting fashionably plastered to cosmic Psychenaut jams provided by DJ PULPHOPE, stumbling back to the hotel room that I'm sharing with my parents and their 2 chihuahuas, and joyously vomiting off the rooftop garden while a choir of angels sing "Empire State of Mind"... at least thats how I dreamed it.

HOPE TO SEE YOU AT MoCCA!!!!

Ham on Rye

2010-04-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

Bukowski.
Not my favorite crusty ole bastard, but I did like Ham on Rye.

Dr. Stoatenstien and his gallery of MUNSTAHS

2010-03-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Dr. Stoatenstien, ex lab ferret turned evil biogenetical genius :

Some monsters:

to be continued....

Aesop Lamb of Vengeance

2010-03-24T22:50:00.001-07:00

I realize now... that vengeance is spelled wrong.... so very very wrong.

The tip of the iceberg of character designs and environments from last quarters pitch class... more to come. Get eager.

NO.13 to hell...

2010-02-12T23:23:00.000-08:00

Page one of three for the same vis 1 class. Super secret plans for this in the future...

Drawings of people I know, one of which is featured in the comic above, can you find him!? (secret hint: he's probably holding knives).

These are just a few things I really want to make a habit of:
drawing some one I know each day (see above) or a fictitious beast each day (see below) and back yard hog roasting...every so often (see bottom)

(super secret plans for this here boar warrior too)

i'll probably dedicate a post to a pig pickn' here soon but in the mean time :
So we threw this last fall in honor of Chris's birthday and it involved 60lbs of a whole hog being slow cooked over an open pit for 11 hours...oh and every one had to wear flannel... that seemed pretty necessary. Needless to say it was a lot of work and countless experts (with the exception of Andrew and Aileen over at Angel's BBQ who made all the difference) told us with out experience it would just be a disaster, but we figured it out, it was tasty, and it's high time we had another one... but next time NOT on a sunday for booze should have been a bigger part of the equation.

Fear and Loathing senior year

2010-02-09T23:44:00.000-08:00

Senior year and I'm just about ready to get in a vintage caddy with a trunk full of drugs and drive into oblivion... but since my wholesome upbringing and pet responsibilities would never allow me to do such a thing thank goodness I got assigned this script in Visual Storytelling I to pencil and vicariously live out my reckless fantasies. It's no small wonder that this is probably the tightest I have ever penciled in that class (and in my life), and although I know it'll only make my pages better in the long run, I still found every chance in that class to rebel and poop out a page of scribbled figures and half drawn environments... which is why my teacher hated me... and still does.

But hey... AT LEAST THERES THIS:

I plan on inkin' them on a rainy day.

Swamp Beasts

2010-01-31T17:14:00.000-08:00

So I guess drawing alligators is a secret love of mine...

probably because I fear them....

Villains

2010-01-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

It's an age old rule: your heros are only ever as good as your villains and so I thought it appropriate to dedicate a post to the opposition:

A shady pet store owner with an appropriate mustache ...

A washed up magician also sporting a sinister mustache...

A man of science who had it then lost it all...

A nazi bus driver...

A mean lady bully yukin' it up at the expense of the weak...

Big mean boys who play sports...

And the blind angry masses always out for blood...

Just an angry few out of Tesana's rouge gallery in A Home for Mr.Easter

We'll get to know them a little better in the near future...
specifically whenever I get my home work done... which is at the moment a very real villain.

p.s.
LOVIN' this song and you might too:

IM FINISHED!

2010-01-21T17:12:00.000-08:00

FINALLY the unveiling of a project that's been eating my life for a year: A Home for Mr. Easter! It's slated to come out in April and is being put out by NBM! woop woop!

I actually finished two days ago, but I have just recovered from an 18 hour sleep fest... which by the way really hurts waking up from, how do the bears do it every winter?

For pre orders and a preview click this here link: http://www.nbmpub.com/comingup/comapril.html

And for blog posts on the NBM blog you can get there this way:

http://nbmpub.com/blog/

I'm so tempted to write something on one of Trondheim's little nothings posts... but everything I think of seems dumb and screams fanboy, so I'll lay low and gather courage and cleverness for that day.

I'm planning on attending MoCCA and may be selling copies then, who knows, it's a world of possibilities!

THANKS EVERYONE FOR THE HELP and SUPPORT! You all helped me to the finish line and it wouldn't have happened with out you!

IM FINISHED!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1PYp-fsZOA

Race Bannon colored for action

2010-01-07T00:29:00.000-08:00

I'd fight frogmen on a ship wreck with Race Bannon... or go out to dinner...

Something Old Something New

2010-01-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

I know I shouldn't but I am...

Here's a character from a few years ago I used for the school newspaper with a shiny new design (for better or worse) that I've got secret plans for.... so secret at the moment I myself don't know.

AESOP LAMB of VENGEANCE -->

A vigilante lamb who speaks softly and carries a big stick...

Dream Boat Mondays...

2010-01-03T22:23:00.000-08:00

So with the start of the new year Chris and I are beginning Sexy Sundays and Dream Boat Mondays where we pick a theme, in this case Johnny Quest, and then we each choose a character that we in our heart of hearts know is far too sexy/dreamy to not have an illustration dedicated to their splendor.

Chris has Sundays and will honor the sabbath every week with his personal pick and I have the joy of uploading on Mondays with the ultimate goal to make mondays not suck quite so much.

So this week I picked Race Bannon, of course, and Ill post it officially in colored glory next monday when we get to see who Chris will award his sexy pick to... Dr. Zim perhaps? One can only hope.

Luberons

2009-12-20T00:34:00.001-08:00

For concept class we designed creatures, called luberons, for a fake expansion of Oblivion.

From left to right: a warrior (looks suspiciously like a digimon) a civilian, a shaman, and a chieftain.

FURIOUS FAUNA

2009-12-18T20:37:00.000-08:00

Eames Kitty Catalogue

2009-12-18T16:49:00.001-08:00

Christmas present for a friend AKA another excuse to draw a kitty.

France sketchs

2009-12-16T00:40:00.001-08:00

It's nearly been a year since having the good fortune to hang out in Lacoste France for a quarter and study art. Here's a few sketchs of my favorite places.

forest behind Le Chateau des Sade, Lacoste ball point pen

Pitot Garden and roof top, Lacoste (pencil)

Pathway leading to a residential garden (ballpoint pen)

Les Bories dry corbelled hut village just outside of Gordes. People lived in this little cave village with the one communal oven until the early 1900s. They had sheep, pigs, and farmed silk ... after checking them out first hand I derived with scientific precision : living there would get old really quick... unless of course you had a dinosaur for a pet in which case it would be fantastic. (on site watercolor sketch)

Lookit this tree! My teacher didnt much like this one, but its a nice reminder of one of my favorite trees in the village (ball point pen)

The Pitot Lounge, one of the most important rooms on campus because it was the only place with a vending machine and a promise of Wifi. (ball point pen)

Hey its the library which is a renovated bakery. The dome igloo shaped structure behind the chair was the oven original to the building (with just enough space between it and the walls to for kitties to sleep in the winter, thereby keeping rats and mice away from the bread).

The library was awesome... though the books were mostly in french.

(pencil sketch)

Rue du Four* Lacoste. This road went up to the library and down to the cafe. In the opposite direction it leads down to studio 4 and out of the village... and steep as the road seems... I swear it was steeper. (pencil)

Dogs of Lacoste

2009-12-14T23:39:00.001-08:00

Pomme and Bono, a shy old english sheep dog and a lovable terrier/ village crazy.

Trees!

2009-12-14T23:27:00.000-08:00

Here's some evergreen doodles for Matt Doering's Emma and Molly's Pet Yeti animation.

More to come on that!

GOOD GOUACHE!

2009-12-12T05:48:00.001-08:00

I apologize for the lame title of this post...

Gouache is fun! Heres a kitty fishing.

Here's a bell tower inspired by the one that rang every hour near my room in Lacoste.

I WANNA GO BACK TO LACOSTE!

Scientific Illustration... Adventures with Gaia!

2009-12-12T04:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick and rather sloppy insight into the construction of a scientific illustration, which is more or less an idealized representation of a subject to aid in identification: SO basically a picture from a field guide.

First you need to approach the subject like a sculptor: you need to realize the subject in a three dimensional space. Just like a sculptor you begin with a block, or a cube in our case, and construct with in it, moving from general to more specific forms (it's best to do this process on tracing paper and using different colored pencils helps keep things organized).

.... If you're like me and have a very loose and lazy style you'll soon discover two things:

- this is a job for impeccable draftsmanship and organization AKA the complete antithesis of yourself.

- the sheer complexity in design of even the smallest forms in nature

And so all in all its a fun challenge and I recommend trying it out... but being a little more organized then me. Your constructions should be really well drafted before moving on... if you look below obviously I fudged mine so I could just get down to drawing the final. :D

Final sulphur shelf AKA the chicken of the woods illustration done in black colored pencil on illustration board.If you really wanna try out the chicken of the woods this is a great site in particular to visit during your research, its informative and the end result in the kitchen looks pretty appetizing...well.. for a wild mushroom: http://www.wisconsinmycologicalsociety.org/1-seasonal-photos.htm

Rainbow Scarab Dung Beetle: North America's pretty little poo diggers.

Final illustration depicting orthographic views, size comparisons, habitat, life cycle and behavior... in other words all the information I could cram in there!

Gotta love dung beetles, unsung heroes in the war on poopy.

FIRST POST

2009-12-10T18:43:00.001-08:00

It's my first time and I'm all a twitter... but we gotta start some where:

Heres a doodle.