Matthew Skiff

Alex Ross is probably one of the biggest comic book artists working today. However, calling him a comic book artist is kind of an understatement, he does things in a little bit of a different way. His final result isn’t something that is inked over pencil’s and colored on a computer, he does things a bit more traditional. Alex Ross is a comic book painter, and every single piece he has done is nothing short of a masterpiece. Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross is basically a showcase of all the work he has done for DC Comics, told from his mouth and put into book for by Chip Kidd and Geoff Spear. The Book even has a forward from M. Night Shyamalan (Ross did the concept art for Unbreakable).

This book is a very interesting read, not only does it tell some important stories and show some amazing sketches behind Alex Ross’ biggest and most important DC paintings and stories, but is also gives some background into who Ross is and how he got started is art. It’s amazing to read about his mother, and it even shows some of her paintings, and it’s obvious where he got his artistic talent from. There are even pages showcasing artwork and projects Ross did as a kid, and it’s very interesting to see. When reading this, I almost compare myself to what he was doing when he was a kid, and I wonder how many of us “artists” did the same things as well.

Everything in this book is beautifully representing. It is a fairly large “coffee table” book, and all the images look amazing and colorful. There is some art in here that I have never seen before. There is also a ton of behind the scenes sketches and notes for each piece and it’s awesome to see the process behind it all, it’s obvious it takes a lot of work to do what he does. The book starts out with the main 3 DC characters; Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman and how he went about designing each of these characters as well as some of the more famous pieces he has done with them. It also goes into a bunch of smaller characters as well, pretty much everything you would want to know is in this book.

There is even more behind the scenes stuff behind one of my all time favorite comic books, Kingdom Come that was only touched upon in a lot of the collected editions. The book even goes as far as showing how he designed a lot of the toys that were based off of his art, this is truly an amazing book for not only Alex Ross fans, but also comic book and art fans in general. If this kinda thing peaks your interest, I would suggest tracking it down!

No, the title is not spelled wrong, Kevin Eastman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Artobiography is one of the most interesting and inspiring books I have ever read. I picked this book up when it first came out and have read it cover to cover multiple times. If you don’t know, TMNT is one my favorite things about my past and a HUGE contributing factor as to how I got to be doing what I am doing now. However, this book skips most of the stuff I loved when I was a kid (namely the cartoon and the movies, although it does mention them) and talks about the basis for all those things, The original Mirage comic book.

The book begins with talking about the beginning of how the original Ninja Turtle idea came to be, and how the two creators, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, developed such an iconic story and characters that are still relevant today. It’s incredibly interesting how the book is laid out, and shows pretty much the entire process of creating an independent comic book through the sketches, drawings and paintings of Kevin Eastman.

This book is incredibly inspiring, and gave me a lot of insight into a part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that I didn’t really know much about. The art in here is top notch, and I love how it’s mixed with both the black and white drawings from the comic books, as well as the colorful paintings used for the comci covers, posters and a lot more. Kevin goes into heavy detail with pretty much every issue that he was a part of, and it also includes art from other artists like Peter Laird, Simon Bisley and others that contributed to the comic book.

An amazing read, like I said earlier, I have read this so many times and I think I am about to go read it again! You can pick it up here!

It’s no secret by now that most of the influences in all aspects of my life come from my childhood. One of the biggest parts of my childhood was TV. I watched so much TV that I should be a fat and lazy pieces of crap. Thankfully to having a high metabolism, I am skinnier than hell! Anyways, when it came to watching TV on the weekends, all the local channels would stop airing their cartoons and shows by 10 or 11am! There was nothing to watch after that, at least there wasn’t until we got cable! After that, a whole new world opened up to me, and I was introduced to Nickelodeon. Once X-Men was finished over on Fox Kids, I would immediately flip it over to Nickelodeon and enjoy a whole weekend’s worth of television awesomeness.

Right after I flipped it over, it would usually be some kind of game show. It usually was something like Wild and Crazy Kids, Legends of the Hidden Temple or GUTS. This is one of the things that made Nickelodeon stand out from the crowd, they had amazing game shows. Others that I loved besides the one’s I mentioned were Nick Arcade, Finder’s Keepers, Double Dare, What Would You Do and Figure It Out. These shows weren’t dumbed down for kids either, some of the shows were actually pretty challenging. I recall not seeing many people actually win the final challenge on Legends of the Hidden Temple. Most of these shows had awesome tasks, that I wish I could have done back then, and a lot of it involved that awesome green slime that Nickelodeon is known for. What the heck happened to stuff like this? It’s not around anymore!

You can’t mention Nickelodeon without mentioning their awesome cartoons. Doug, Rugrats, Aaahh!! Real Monsters, Ren and Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, Hey Arnold, Kablam! and I am probably forgetting a lot more, but those are the ones I liked! These shows were all great, and sometimes pretty strange. I go back and re-watch some of these shows and wonder how some of the stuff was allowed on a kids network! It’s amazing to me how Nickelodeon wasn’t afraid to go into different and weird territories. This was a time, not just at Nickelodeon, were there were so many amazing cartoons kids could watch. Nick still makes a few good cartoons like Spongebob, Fairly Odd Parents and Avatar, and that’s about the only good thing Nick has going for them these days!

All of these other things I have discussed above would be great for any kids network, but I really think that it was Nickelodeon’s live shows that really made it one of the best kid’s networks ever. There were shows like The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, All That, Salute Your Shorts, Hey Dude!, Land of the Lost, Space Cases, and even the girly shows like Clarissa Explains it All, and The Secret World of Alex Mac were all amazing. These shows were groundbreaking. If you go back and watch Pete and Pete over again, you will still be able to see how amazing that show is, and it hasn’t lost it’s charm at all. Even certain episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark? are somewhat scary. Nickelodeon didn’t dumb down their shows at all, and pushed the limits of what you could do with a kid’s television show. They even had a special block on saturday nights called SNICK that every single kid would watch, ever saturday. It was an amazing time for these kids of shows, and it’s sad to see the state that Nickelodeon is in right now.

I know people always say that the shows they watched when they were a kid were better, but have you seen the crap Nick is putting out? They are taking the crapy Disney “Tween” approach and have almost completely forgotten the kid of shows that made them what they are today. I’m just glad I was able to experience something like this when I was a kid. Although it’s not 100% evident in my art and designs, this is what I grew up on and Nickelodeon had a huge impact on me and continues to have and impact on me. I’m gald that you can get some of these shows on DVD or even through iTunes, but I wont be happy until I can own all of these shows.

Dance Party Massacre just released their new Summer 2010 line and I was fortunate enough to be part of their collection again, for not one, but two designs. This release they worked with a bunch of different artists who each brought their own unique style to the collection. Normally DPM is about simplicity mixed with Horror, but you will notice that this season it is a little bit different, but it still has that Dance Party Massacre feel to it!

The designs that I did for this season are “The Horror Club” in Green/Black, Purple and Female flavors. I also got to do another design just for the ladies, “Killer Heels” on a black V-Neck. There are other awesome clothing items that you can find on their online store. I personally love the Rebel Without a Cause. Even tho Dance Party Massacre is relatively small, they keep putting out great products each season and trying new things as well. This season they put out a lookbook and a video to accompany the release.

The line dropped tonight, so go grab some shirts before they are all gone!

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My friends over at Creepstreet has just released their new line for Summer 2010 titled “Satan’ is Waitin’”. With each new season they keep putting out better and better designs and products. I must stay that the Death From Above might be one of the best designs that has been put out recently. Other favorites include the simple Satan is Watin’, the hilarious Boob Beach, and the awesome Vanilla Morricey shirt, because who doesn’t love the Iceman, Morricey and glow in the dark? And for you ladies, these are a must…and grab yourself a tank top or summer shirt while you are at it. Creepstreet is one of my personal favorite streetwear brands right now and I’m glad to see they keep pumping out great stuff! Go get some!

Looking at the kind of designs I am doing now, it’s hard to remember where I first started out. I, by no means do I think that I am the worlds best illustrator…I have a long way to go, but it’s hard to deny the fact that drawing every day can help anyone get better at their craft. For the past 2 years I have pretty much done nothing but draw and design every single day. Sure there are some days when I don’t, you gotta take a break sometime or else you will get burt out. However, the majority of my time has spent doing a job that I feel lucky to do each day.

This is the kind of junk that I was doing at the beginning. Now, at the time I thought I was doing a great job at this whole Illustration thing, but I look back on a lot of these designs and wonder how I even got started doing what I’m doing. Flashy bright colors, poorly drawn characters and anatomy, and no detail whatsoever. I guess I am writing this to say, that every artist has to start from somewhere, and if what you are doing right now isn’t the best, keep practicing and drawing all the time and you will get better. I can only hope to look back at the designs I am doing right now and thinking how terrible they are…or were.

My friends over at 410 BC just posted an interview I did  with them. They are one of my favorite clients to work for and really took a chance on me when I was first starting out. They continue to put out great shirts, and it’s no question that they will with that tradition. You can read the interview here!

Whenever summer rolls around, I always kick it off with some of my favorite albums. These are the albums that I have been listening to for a few years…and some of them for even longer than that. Whenever I hear songs off of any of these albums, no matter what season it is, it always reminds me of summertime and all the fun I have had and will have.

There have been so many times where I have stayed up until 5am in the morning, ripping shots of cheap vodka and screaming every lyric to this album with all of my friends. I was first introduced to TBS when I went to a Blink 182 concert back in the day. They were the opening act, and after I heard them live, I was instantly sold and rushed out and got this CD and have been listening to it ever since. There is nothing better than when you get in a room with all of your friends and every single one of them is pouring their heart into singing to this album.

This is another album where I have stayed up very late, heavily intoxicated and singing my lungs out to this CD with all of my friends. Yes, of course Deja Entendu is probably Brand New’s best CD, but this has to be my favorite. It’s so emo, the lyrics in every song are so clever and sometimes very brutal. This CD was my first introduction into Brand New and it has only gotten better.

There are a lot of people out there that don’t like 30h3! There are also a lot of people out there that do, and I am in the latter. Being from Colorado, it’s almost mandatory to listen to their songs. This CD pretty much sums up my college experience. Every party I went to, every party I threw, this CD was always on the playlist and it got everyone in a good mood. 3oh3! is so corny, how can you not like them?

This is an album I can listen to year round, it never get’s old. Oddly enough, I was introduced to Santigold through snowboarding. Her husband, Trevor Andrew (or Trouble as he likes to be called) is a professional snowboarder, and some of her songs have been featured in several snowboard videos. However, she has a few songs that play in the background of those Bud Light Lime commercials. Anyways, this CD has slowly crept into my summer playlist because it’s so upbeat and bouncy.

This is the CD i associate with the best summer of my entire life. I’m not going to really elaborate as to why it was the best summer of my life, but those that know, know. Anyways, this mixtape came out a few years back and I think it might be better than his debut CD. I remember sitting on the deck, grilling hamburgers and drinking beers in the hot sun to this CD. I wish I could go back in time and do it all over again…

I have been listening to this CD for years, probably since the day it came out. I remember being in elementary school and watching all the elaborate videos and singing all the cheesy lyrics that puffy and mace have. I still do those same things today, but now I have a better understanding of what they are talking about. People can hate on Puffy, but in the mid 90′s he was king and everyone had this CD in their collection.

Not only is this probably my favorite album to play during the summer, but it might be one of my favorite albums on my iTunes. A Tribe Called Quest has put out many classic albums in their day, but this is where you can find most of their bigger hits. If you are ever looking for something to throw in to play in the background of a party of a barbecue, this is the CD to play. It’ll get everyone moving and dancing by the 3rd song, I guarantee it!.

That’s all I have for now, I have a bunch more but didn’t really know what else to put…so if you are looking for some music to get you into the summer mood, check these out!

The fine folks over at Creepstreet just posted their video lookbook for the Spring/Summer season. There is a lot of good stuff this time around, the tanks alone are rad enough! You will be able to buy them soon at their online store, but for now you can grab some select shirts and colorways at Karmaloop and Punk.com. They recently had their Facebook page disabled too, so shoot Facebook a message and tell them to bring it back!

This new year has brought me a ton of amazing clients to work with. Some old, and some brand new! I’ve been able to do a ton of fun stuff, and the designs I am working on now are really REALLY fun! Here is a little sneak peek of some of the stuff I have been working on the past few months!

I love almost everything about breakfast. I love the types of foods you eat, the smells in brings to the kitchen…it’s all amazing. What I don’t like about breakfast is the time of the day when you usually eat it. A decent breakfast takes a lot of work, so I usually just grab a bowl of cereal in the morning and go about my day. Today I had a craving for some good breakfast, so I made this! Blueberry Pancakes, eggs, toast and a smoothie! The smoothie was the best part, I’ve been on a big health kick lately so i threw in some strawberries, raspberries, orange juice, a banana, milk and ice….it was amazing. When I was a kid I loved when my mom made breakfast for dinner, and it’s just as good now!

The fine Australian folks at TAKEN Clothing just put up an interview they did with me. They asked me some pretty cool questions…even about my crazy love for all things candy. Go take a look, and hopefully in the near future I’ll be able to work on some designs for them!

“When it came to my art, I went my own way and did not follow the trends.“ - Frank Frazetta

Today we lost a legend, Frank Frazetta. A huge inspiration to all of us who create art. He will be missed, but his inspiration will live on forever!