I had plans for today, Readers. It involved long, intelligent thoughts about Akira and George Takei. But that went out the window thanks to the epic storm last night.

One, the storms that have hit the Ohio valley in the past two nights have rendered my brain not very thinky at all, especially when we have what seems to me to be a rather new, particularly interesting alarm in the nearby area. The thing about these alarms is that they aren’t actually unpleasant to the ears, which is a nice change– your tornado warnings come with a bit of a pleasant chime, rather than a wailing, screeching thing– but also have this haunting, ethereal sound to them that made me think that it wasn’t so much a tornado as an alien invasion. It did not, however, sound like a Close Encounter of a Third Kind, and Cincinnati had no spaceships hovering above it this morning, just rain clouds, so I guess my epic alien adventure will have to wait.

Of course, for a less alarming (ugh, terrible pun there, but resistance was futile!) alien encounter, why not draw what would make that noise? What kinds of Extreme Worlds would those aliens come from?

In the meantime, live long and prosper.

P.S. This is what happens when I have lack of sleep: too many sci-fi references to television and movies to count.

Check out these awesome fan-made opening credits for the upcoming X-Men: First Class movie. Thanks to Collider.com for the tip!

X-Men: First Class Title Sequence from Joe D! on Vimeo.

Over on Facebook, we’re offering a chance to win a copy of Graff 2. We’re really excited about this hitting the shelves and even more  excited about the chance to give it away to one lucky reader.

Graff 2

Are you interested? It’s super-easy to enter: just drop us a comment on our Facebook that contains a link or URL to one of your favorite sites on the internet for something art or comic related. Have a great source for news or quotes? We want it. Love a particular webcomic? We want that, too! A rising star with an amazing style? Amazing Spiderman tattoos? Funny cat macros? If you think we want it, you guessed right. Hey, who doesn’t love cat macros?

I’m going to set a deadline, too– the contest will run through May. It’s a long time, but think about all the resources we can come up with!

So come on, share with us, because as we all know, sharing is caring, right?

Don’t want to wait until May 31? I don’t blame you. Check out the original Graff, for some awesome know-how, and get a sneak preview of Graff 2 by scrolling down in this blog. Or you can subscribe to our RSS feed, and have it come right to you.

Letter manipulation is a cornerstone of graffiti art. To create your own alphabet, you want to study the form and shape of each letter, then slowly push and stretch it to reconfigure it with your own style. Here, graffiti artist Scape Martinez shows us how to create a radical letter. They tend to be thick, with very little dependence on arrows and extensions. Follow along to to create a radical e.



1 Sketch the Letter
Sketch a basic letter e, lowercase and thick.



2 Stretch It Out
Stretch the letter out, elongating it to create more of an egg shape. The trick is to think outside the box. Challenge the notion as to what an e can be.



3 Tilt the Letter
Tilt the e forward while still keeping the basic integrity of the letter.



4 Remove a Section
Remove a section of the lower hook part of the e. (If it weren’t for the bar going across the letter, it would now look like a lowercase c.)



5 Drop the Crossbar
Drop the crossbar down so that it almost touches the lower mouth of the letter.



6 Modify the Negative Space
Look for the negative spaces in and around your letterform. Shrink down the opening of the e and line it up with the lower opening of the letter.



7 Step Outside the Box
Begin thinking about the type of flow or movement that can be added to the letter as a motif. This ink sketch details some movement that would add a lot to the development of this e. Use it as a guide to transform what you’ve already done.



8 Combine Style and Form to Finish  the Letter
Take the previous two forms and combine them. Keep the form and body of the basic letter, but take direction from the ink sketch, picking up the twists and turns and morphing them into the style. Drastically change the line weight all around the letter.

……

I’ve been watching the film adaptation of Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, on Netflix this week which has me thinking about art traditionally used as a form of worship. There’s a great scene where the artist creating the gargoyles talks about how the stone speaks to him about what it wants to be. It’s a great scene about divine inspiration.

Of course, if you’re looking for some inspiration, why not have a look at this Livestream channel? Angelic Visions artist Angela Sasser has posted some awesome videos. It may not be gargoyles, but there is some great content, including a time lapse video of some of Angela’s amazing art as she created it, and a tutorial about making a leather Carnivale mask.

And then you should check out Angelic Visions, where you can learn from 20 tutorials on how to bring your own divine, beautiful angels to life. You’ll be inspired.

Angela is on Facebook, and so is Impact Books!

IMPACT author Buddy Scalera gives the lowdown on his newest book, Creating Comics From Start to Finish. Check out his interview with Jazma Online.

Click on the images below to learn more about Buddy’s Comic Artist’s Photo Reference series.

Sign up for Chuck Lukacs’s mailing list and get a NEW chance every few months to win ORIGINAL prints or collectible Magic: The Gathering cards. Not only that, each time, Chuck will also give a small amount to one of the charities (like this one) listed on his website.

Chuck Lukacs is the author of Fantasy Genesis, the first “how to draw”/fantasy art idea generation game/book of its kind and co-author of Wreaking Havoc, the no holds barred guide to drawing and painting fantasy warriors and weaponry that he did along with fellow IMPACTers Jim Pavelec and Chris Seaman.

Keep creating!

Mona

Click on the pictures to find out more!

Been wondering what Arnold Schwarzenegger has been up to since his “governating” days came to an end? (Yeah, we haven’t really either….) But, wait, they haven’t ended! Earlier this week Schwarzenegger announced in an Entertainment Weekly interview that he’s teaming up with Stan Lee to create a new animated TV series and comic book called The Governator. The story will feature Schwarzenegger as himself and a superhero alter-ego and is slated for release next year.

Aie, aie, aie….

Mary