HammersonLand

Merry Xmas & Crappy New Year

2011-12-23T14:16:00.000-08:00

My official Christmas card for this year:

An early, embryonal version of the same drawing:

A Xmas card from the vault... one of my favorites, with new colors and some subtle improvements:

If you're a Grinch in heart, this one's for you:

In the end, here's a Lucky Rabbit and Miserable Mouse. It's a birthday gift for Tara:

Seasons Greetings and best wishes for 2012 from me and miss AntRat (my collaborator and partner in these artistic crimes).

Fat Bastard

2011-11-19T11:12:00.001-08:00

Garfield and his pals - a birthday gift for a little cousin who adores this fat lazy orange bastard :)
I tried to be faithful to the original look of main characters (perhaps this could pass as an official cover for a Garfield comic book), while still doing them in my style, with enough of my own idiosyncrasies and odd bits.

Garfield (C) Jim Davis / Paws Inc.

It's them again!

2011-10-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

Skadi x2

2011-09-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

A double portion of Skadi fan art!
Actually, I'm cheating... these are two versions of (nearly) the same drawing, and they're both interesting in a different way. The first one has full and detailed backgrounds, plus an extra character. I'd perhaps give a slight nod of preference to the other version with Skadi alone, because I like the way the character stands out on a simple and less cluttered background. Plus, the lack of her sidekick Diseasoid might imply that she's actually eating his meat :)

Skadi and Diseasoid (C) Katie Rice & Luke Cormican /Dumm Comics

Fox & Rabbit

2011-08-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

An art-trade/commission from a friend and fan at deviantART.
This drawing went through various changes and permutations (though the main idea remained the same since the beginning). Here's the final version:

Woo Hoo

2011-07-21T14:04:00.000-07:00

My Favourite Duck:

Just a quick drawing, straight from memory, without a reference. It was made for a Looney Tunes themed art jam at deviantART. A different version of this drawing can be seen here.

Refreshed

2011-06-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

A Radio Picture

2011-06-02T06:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a commission for RyeBread Radio, a Chicago-based Performing Arts radio show. A show host, Akeem Lawanson has contacted me recently upon a recommendation from one of their listeners, to do a caricature illustration of all three RyeBread Radio members. And the final result is...

Version 2:

These are funny guys, and I enjoyed doing this illustration very much. If you want to find more about RyeBread Radio and listen to their shows, check these two links:
Webtalkradio.net RyeBread Radio

And speaking of commissions... here's a brand new music video / short film by Ivan Perić and me. We've been asked to make a video for song "Aerial Assasins" by Grof Bakula feat. Da Commission.
First, here's the shorter 4-minute version for TV broadcast:

And this is the whole epic 10-minute monster, with special intro (the music used for the first half is "Kult of Red Pyramid: Half-life"):

If you have fast internet connection, I recommend you to watch both videos in HD quality. The shooting and editing of this video was really enjoyable experience (though occasionally a little bit frustrating), and it was a good training for our next feature length project. Also, during the last month, our feature film from 2010 called "The Place Where The Last Man Died" received a nomination for the best foreign film at Swansea Bay Film Festival. It was also screened at SFeraKon, Croatia's annual Science Fiction festival.

Old Friends

2011-05-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

Beside the sorry subject matter, this is a mix of traditional inking and digital color. If you want to see how the "traditional" part of the picture looks like (before all the Photoshop color and trickery was added), take a look here.

A Hard Day's Night

2011-05-16T23:12:00.000-07:00

And he's been working like a dog...

From now on, you can also follow me on Tumblr. I'm going to post there some sketches, works in progress, finished artwork (often in some alternate versions compared to the blog updates), stills from my new movie projects, etc. It's still under construction, but already worth checking out.

Revenge Of The Easter Egg

2011-04-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

Here's some kind of sequel (or evil twin) to my Easter drawing from the last year. This time, the roles have been reversed, with peculiar and amusing results:

Many thanks to wonderful Miss AntRat for her sharp eye and great advice... and for bringing some brighter colors into my artistic world :)

Regarding the news about "The Place Where The Last Man Died" - the film has been successfully shown on several festivals in Croatia and around the world, with more screenings to come soon. Also, a very good and perceptive review (in English) was published three weeks ago on the popular Strange Kids Club website:
Trailer Terrors: The Place Where the Last Man Died (2010).

Untitled

2011-03-28T22:48:00.000-07:00

Moon Cat for Marina

Scribble & Skarfy for Nico

And Cactus Kid for everybody else. Enjoy!

AntRat

2011-02-13T00:26:00.000-08:00

When You're Strange

2011-01-31T12:17:00.000-08:00

Hello there! Anybody still watching this blog? I guess it's a right time for the monthly update:

Looks like some belated Halloween drawing, but that's an ILL-ustration I created for the Strange Kid Anthology, a collection of horror-themed short comics and artwork. This exciting project is initiated by Rondal Scott III, the curator of Strange Kids Club website and creator of Strange Kid character. This book will contain contributions from numerous cool artists (myself included), and it should be out for sale in mid-March so don't miss it. And in the meantime go ahead and visit the Strange Kids Club website: http://www.strangekidsclub.com/

Now some news about "The Place Where The Last Man Died". The film has been selected into the competition program at Swansea Bay Film Festival in UK, and it is going to be screened there in May (the exact date and time is not known at the moment). I'll keep you updated about this, and all the next screenings at the festivals around the world. And here's the cast and main crew of the film, unmasked:

(from left to right: Marko Kapitanovic, Tea Radic, Ivan Peric, Nada Hunjak, yours truly, Mirko Gabelica)
We recently formed together a small production company called "Dream Division". The fact that we took our first official group photo on a sinking ship doesn't have any symbolic meaning (except that it looks cool). You'll see and hear more from us...

But for now, Strange Kid wants to have the final word:

Xmas Dragon

2010-12-25T13:30:00.001-08:00

Место на котором умер последний человек

2010-10-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

... also known as "The Place Where The Last Man Died".

That's a title of the new feature-length film by Ivan Perić and me, currently in the final stages of post-production. This film belongs to the elusive genre of dystopian science-fiction horror drama, and that's the only info I'm going to reveal by now. The premiere should be expected in November or early December, and in the meantime here are few screenshots and first teaser/trailer:

UPDATE: The film has been selected into the finals of "42.Revija HFS" film festival in Samobor, Croatia, and it will be shown there between 26 and 28th of November. Also, the date of premiere is set to 22nd of November in Split (Croatia).
And since you've seen the teaser, now you can check out the new trailer (again appropriately atmospheric and creepy):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1c2ICOL-YI

Sorry, no drawings this time :)

KittyLand

2010-09-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

Meow! Here's the last piece from the brief cat-themed series of artwork.
This one was inspired by the amazing Katie Rice (who's celebrating her birthday today), and also by Kim Deitch, a brilliant and still somewhat under-appreciated cartoonist and comic artist. I've been revisiting his work recently with great pleasure.

Welcome To The Machine

2010-09-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

We Live In Your Garbage Can

2010-08-26T12:20:00.000-07:00

Poverty makes strange bedfellows... They may look like a happy family, but I guess they'll finish up eating each other in the end :)

Some more of the same... a variation on the theme, with a little bit different stylistic approach. Both pictures have some merit and individual qualities, I hope.

Stimpy's Laboratory

2010-07-20T14:01:00.001-07:00

"Hey Reeeen, will you help me try out my new invention?"

Another piece of Ren & Stimpy fan-art, probably the last one for some time. It was my contribution to The Autumn Society's gallery show dedicated to the '90s pop culture (cartoons, movies, tv, music, etc). And ironically, R&S is probably the most emblematic and quintessential cartoon series of that decade, though it spiritually belongs to some other more distant decades of the 20th century (the golden age of animation).

And here's another R&S drawing from few months ago, a birthday gift (not much appreciated, to say the least):

The Eight of Wands

2010-07-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here's something I made in early April, and completely forgot to upload on this lonesome blog. It's my contribution to Super Punch Tarot Deck, a cool initiative by John Struan from the popular Super Punch blog. A large number of artists were invited to participate in creation of this deck, and each of them was assigned to do one Tarot card in his/her own personal style. This is my contribution... The Eight of Wands:

According to various interpretations, this card symbolizes the swiftness, initiative, movement and transformation, journey (both physical and spiritual), and a quick boost of strong energy. It is usually associated with the element of fire, the zodiac sign of Sagittarius and planet Mercury. The drawing itself was created rather quickly and spontaneously (very much in accordance with the card meaning). I was experimenting with ultra-saturated colors and a very strong, grainy texture. Perhaps I went too far in both directions :)

A Fistful of Mice

2010-06-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

Attention please! Your screen has just been infested by yellow and blue mice! No need to call the exterminator, these are perfectly harmless little creatures. Click on the picture to observe them more closely.

Well, this is something a bit different from my usual drawings. It's a model sheet for a short cartoon that I'm doing together with my colleagues from the animation course. The characters (still nameless) are created by Mario Petkovic, and I took the challenge to refine his design and also to try drawing in a simpler and flatter style that I haven't used for many years. The result is charming, I think...
Beside studying and learning animation, I've been totally occupied with something else, a very special and secret project that's still going on... you'll read more about it when it's right time to tell the news. Until then, enjoy the occasional and irregular updates & posts.

It Wasn't The Airplanes...

2010-04-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

... it was Beauty killed the Beast!

Or maybe it's alcohol :)

So, this is a "Kitty Kong" drawing from two weeks ago, made as a birthday gift for Marina. She's a good friend and very talented Croatian artist. She likes cats... especially gargantuan sized ones.

Return of the Easter Bunny

2010-04-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

Here's the freshly colorized and improved version of my previous Easter Bunny drawing. The original was made in sepiatone because back then I haven't found any appropriate color scheme that would enhance the picture instead of ruining it. I think this new attempt with soft and limited color palette is quite successful.

Hard Times

2010-03-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

Use the Force

2010-03-10T08:38:00.000-08:00

Here's something from last year that I completely forgot to post here. A friend from deviantART asked me to draw a caricature portrait of him. I guess he still feels regret for sending me the photo of himself in a Star Wars T-shirt as the reference :)
The cartoon version of Yoda was based on a drawing from Clone Wars.

As some of you have already noticed, I'm trying various new widgets, hacks and tricks to refresh this blog a little bit. Blogger has introduced lately a number of new features, and among them is the possibility of creating the static pages. I'll play with these features during the next few days, so don't worry about the broken links, errors or pages under construction. It will be all sorted out by the end of the week.

It's... Adventure Time

2010-03-06T13:53:00.000-08:00

I was invited to participate in the upcoming Autumn Society of Philadelphia's gallery show and tribute book dedicated to "The Adventure Time with Finn and Jake". If you haven't already heard about it, "The Adventure Time" is a cool and promising new series that's going to be premiered on Cartoon Network in April.

For more info and artwork (both the tribute and original art for the show), take a look at the official Adventure Time blog at Frederator website.

Also don't miss the amazing Adventure Time pieces by my pals and frighteningly talented cartoonists Tara and Zach

Going GaGa

2010-02-16T13:58:00.000-08:00

Yeah, that's her... the latest corruptor of today's youth :)
Not my cup of tea, but certainly an interesting personality. She seems to have more talent and creativity than our average pop "divas" and "princesses" of today. One thing in particular that caught my attention is the curious and not too hidden symbolism and iconography that's constantly present in all of her music videos and public appearances.

About the drawing... well, it's not completely successful. It features some neat Photoshop experiments, and also few not so pretty mistakes. Hope you like it.
Kali also posted a really cool Lady Gaga drawing today, be sure to check it out.

Tweelight

2010-02-05T09:09:00.000-08:00

Is this the face of a real vampire?!?

I don't think so...
Anyway, I was requested to do a caricature of Twilight stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, so I forced myself (in a maneer of Lodovico treatment) to watch the movie and get more acquainted with my subjects. Well, as expected, the movie was boring piece of crap, but I enjoyed doing this caricature. Believe it or not, these are the ONLY facial expressions that our protagonists are making during the whole 120 minutes.

And now, some REAL badass vampires!

2010

2010-01-02T12:19:00.000-08:00

Xmasssss

2009-12-24T10:29:00.001-08:00

My Xmas card from 2008 was appreciated by lot of people, and I decided to follow the similar path for this year. So here's an official Hammerson's Christmas card, in five different flavors. Enjoy!

Plus, a special bonus Xmas drawing :)

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, etc. etc.

My Favorite Barbarian

2009-12-10T13:07:00.001-08:00

Majority of my readers already know everything about Skadi, a great webcomic created by Katie Rice and Luke Cormican. And those poor ignorant souls who haven't yet seen Skadi can redeem themselves with a visit to Dumm Comics. There's a new Skadi episode every Thursday, plus many other excellent comics and stuff.

This is such a fun character to draw, and I already made one Skadi drawing last year. Here's a recent attempt with a different take on Skadi and Diseasoid, and it's partly inspired by Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer paintings. The initial sketch was almost a direct parody, with Skadi standing on a big pile of skulls and bones. Sadly I had to remove that part in the final drawing, because it looked too cluttered, and the characters stand out better with this simpler background.

And now, a big question... has anybody attempted to move a blog from Blogger to Wordpress? I like the idea of having this blog on my own domain and web server. Also, Wordpress platform offers much bigger possibilities of customization and redesign, in comparison to Blogger. Essentially, I want to transfer this blog and keep the posts, comments, viewers, backlinks, pagerank, etc. It's not impossible, and I found few articles that deal with the technical details, but I'd also love to hear if anybody had direct experience of moving his/her blog to Wordpress. Any help is much appreciated.

Going Home

2009-11-24T14:12:00.000-08:00

I saw District 9 in cinema two months ago, knowing very little info in advance, beside the fact that it was produced by Peter Jackson. The movie caught me by surprise and quickly became one of my favorites among the recent production. I love these alien creatures ("prawns"), they are a rare example of totally believable CGI characters in a live action movie. They're also very tough to draw, with complex and detailed anatomy.
This is a drawing from few weeks ago, with new color added today. Most of it was made from memory, with lot of guessing and improvisation. Naturally, there are many mistakes (also some rather lousy construction, of the little alien in particular). I think now I can do a better job with these characters, so I may return to them some other time.

District 9 (C) Sony Pictures Entertainment / Neill Blomkamp

And if any of you happen to be in Split, Croatia during this weekend (27-29th of November), you can find me at the 41th movie festival of Croatian Film Club's Association (HFS). Two short films by Ivan Perić and me have been selected in the competition finals, and these are among our most experimental and f*cked up works so far ("A Film for Me" and "Hiroshima").

Also, our first feature length movie, a 75-minute art trash comedy "Romeo & Julio" was completed after six months of hard work and madness. It was successfully premiered in front of the largest crowd seen in the recent history of the local cinematheque. The film is quickly becoming a real cult item, and what's even better, it opened the door to a new and really big movie project that will start with production next year. I'm not allowed to give any details, you'll hear more when it's finished (probably late 2010 or early 2011).

Who Killed Roger Rabbit?

2009-08-16T04:15:00.000-07:00

She's not bad... she's just drawn that way! :)

This is my submission for Jessica Rabbit Art Jam at deviantART.

Sweet Poison

2009-07-20T08:24:00.000-07:00

Poison Ivy in one of her rare moments of calm and serenity.

Poison Ivy (C) DC Comics

For a slightly different approach to the same character and motif, check my older piece of Poison Ivy fan art from 2007.

The Be-Boop Variations

2009-07-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some drawings made during the preparation for my last month's big Betty Boop picture (currently exhibited at the "Golden Age of Comics and Animation" art show in Philadelphia).
These sketches were drawn with lot of improvisation and mostly without reference, so they're not strictly on-model. Most of today's Betty Boop merchandise is too much on-model anyway, and I prefer to explore various different ways to draw miss Boop. It's such a funny and flexible character, and her early pre-code films (from 1930-34) are among the best and most imaginative cartoons ever made. This is just a small selection of my BB sketches... I'll post more of them some other time.

Betty Boop (C) King Features Syndicate, Inc. / Fleischer Studios, Inc.

On another subject... I'm working on a new live action film right now, and this time it's a real feature (approximately 75 minutes long). Also I'm re-editing and completely upgrading last year's film Embrace of the Blue. All these activities are occupying most of my already meager free time, so the blog updates are going to be sporadic and occasional during this period.

Boop-Oop-A-Doop

2009-06-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

Betty Boop picture for The Autumn Society of Philadelphia's upcoming "Golden Age of Comics and Animation" art show.

Night On The Bald Mountain

2009-06-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

Here's my favorite Disney villain, Chernabog from "Fantasia" (segment "Night On Bald Mountain"). This drawing was completed under three hours and made from the memory, without any reference, except that I watched "Fantasia" the night before.

The left wrist definitely needs to be corrected or redrawn in a different position, because it doesn't look right to me. Otherwise, I'm quite pleased with this picture.

And, today's the third anniversary of HammersonLand. It all started here, three years ago, and perhaps I should have wasted my free time in a better way... :)

Guess Who?

2009-05-31T11:11:00.000-07:00

Can you identify the people on these caricatures?

• The King Of Cool

• The other King Of Cool

• The King Of Tennis

Coming soon: a new blog dedicated exclusively to celebrity caricatures. More info about it next month, in one of the following posts.

P.S. Comments moderation has been enabled again, and it's going to stay that way thanks to mr.Ed from Taiwan who dumped a large number of spam garbage all over my blog couple of weeks ago.

Hit Me With Your Laser Beam

2009-05-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

Forget about new Star Trek movie, this is the real hard hitting Sci-Fi adventure! :)

Partially inspired by Ralph Bakshi and comics from the legendary Heavy Metal magazine. Also I tried to make it look like a scene from some obscure '70s adult cartoon.

On a completely unrelated note, "A Film For You" by Ivan Peric and me was shown earlier today on Youngsters Film Festival in Belgrade (Serbia). I'll keep you informed about the other festival showings in the future, and give you the latest news on our current movie project.

The Voice

2009-05-04T14:00:00.001-07:00

I haven't made any celebrity caricatures for a long time, and it used to be my speciality. So, here's a quick one... I think you can all recognize who's on the picture :)

Destroy all Humans - part 2

2009-04-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

If the swine influenza doesn't kill us all, these dudes will exterminate the whole human race in just few hours:

It's another painting done for the mysterious cartoon project. Check this post for more info.

And now something completely different (or is it?)

As weird as it seems, that's a birthday card for the amazing and inimitable Marlo Meekins. If you dig long enough through this blog, you'll find two more portraits of Marlo.

And speaking of birthdays, today's mine ;)

Practice Makes Perfect

2009-04-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

Three Women

2009-04-16T14:19:00.000-07:00

• Alien woman
Her latest album was telepathically transmited non stop into the brains of 10 billion fans across the Milky Way. The suicide rate has quadrupled afterwards :)

• Wonder Woman for Kristen
I think I made few anatomy and construction errors on this one (the right arm and wrist looks weird). Can anybody help or give some advice how to fix it?

• Black Magic Woman
Don't piss her off, she might transform you into pet food :)

Actually, that's a portrait of Marina Coric, a friend and talented Croatian artist. Last month she had a big exhibition in her hometown Zadar where over 100 works have been shown. Take a look at her deviantART page and write her some nice comments.

• Special bonus: Barbarian Woman

I already shown this one on DeviantART few days ago and thought that people would enjoy seeing it here too. Pat McMichael posted his wonderful black & white fan art of Skadi (a popular character from Dumm Comics) and challenged all of his artist friends to color it. These are my color versions, and be sure to check Pat's original b&w drawing here.

Free Your Mind

2009-03-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

Magic Carpet Ride

2009-03-06T13:59:00.000-08:00

A Ren & Stimpy drawing originally made as the birthday gift for a good friend of mine. It turned out nicely, though I'm not pleased with Stimpy's nose (it's floating, doesn't look like it's connected to his head). The background is a modified version of the space drawing from last month's post.

Ren & Stimpy (C) John K. , Nickelodeon

Now, some latest news about the recently finished movie by Ivan Perić and me. It's called "A film for you" (or "Film za tebe" in Croatian), and I already posted some info about it, last December.

The film was successfully premiered on 17th January, and last weekend we received the note that it's been selected into the finals of the 18th edition of "Dani hrvatskog filma" ("Days of Croatian film") - Croatia's leading festival dedicated to the short and medium length films. That's a great success and breakthrough that will surely give a boost to our next projects. The festival will take place in Zagreb between 17th and 21th of March, and it's gonna be a really cool experience to see our film cheered (or booed) by a very large audience.

Click here to watch the trailer. It doesn't contain spoilers, and it makes the film look less weird than it really is. The film is essentially a love story gone wrong, and it's told with an unusual and experimental structure, in two parts that are both distinct and also interconnected in an interesting way.
If you're curious to take a look behind the scene and witness some of the serious work, fun and party atmosphere on our movie set, check the photo gallery and "the making of" video.

And now, here's the DVD box and cover for this movie, designed by me:

Also, my DVD cover for our previous movie called "Embrace Of The Blue":

This film has also been selected for an upcoming festival (RAF film festival in Zagreb, scheduled between 29th March and 4th April).

And by the way, the next movie project that starts in April is going to be nothing less than an adaptation of William Shakespeare's immortal tragedy ;)

Destroy all humans!!!

2009-02-21T08:02:00.000-08:00

A piece of artwork made for the secret and mysterious Project Alpha:

Well, let's take off at least some parts of the mystery. This is going to be an animated music video. More precisely, a fast paced funny cartoon in a classic style, with space/sci-fi thematics. It's currently in the storyboard and development stage, and I'm a part of the team that consists of six artists. It's strictly an internet collaboration, and we are soon going to need more people to help us with animation, inking and cleanup. Anybody interested in joining us can leave a comment here.

And now, let's take a better look...

... oh no!! Turn out the lights, please!!

Thank you.

Valentoon

2009-02-12T14:34:00.000-08:00

Time is the substance of which I am made

2009-02-12T02:35:00.000-08:00

Here's something different from my usual cartoon stuff, though it was made as a concept art & background artwork for a cartoon :)

Every picture has been created and painted entirely in Photoshop, starting from the black canvas. I was experimenting with various new techniques and tricks to get realistic (and slightly stylized) outer space landscapes.

Girls & Guns

2008-12-31T09:57:00.000-08:00

Last update in 2008. The first drawing was a submission for Mini-Komix publisher. I was asked to do a piece of artwork for their "Super Sexy Sketchbook" which has the theme of Fembots & Space Gals.

Xmas

2008-12-23T06:21:00.000-08:00

Santa's too drunk to perform his duty this year, so here's a replacement:

Merry Xmas & Happy New Year!

A Film For You

2008-12-23T06:04:00.000-08:00

Just one month after the premiere of "Embrace of the Blue", here comes another movie by Ivan Peric and me. This one is exploring similar themes as the previous film (love, madness, alienation, loneliness), but in a totally different style. It's very much an experiment, a story told in two ways through two separate (and yet interconnected) movies shown consecutively. Beside being a love story, it's also a comment about the filmmaking process and creative frustration. There's another important element, a total surprise that I won't spoil here.

The film was shot in a 500-year old house owned by Suncica Perisin Tomljanovic, a young and very talented Croatian painter. She's the main protagonist together with Marko P.Kapitanovic (our regular player), and that's her artwork visible in nearly every scene.

Trailer and "making of" documentary are going to be finished by the end of the year, and a public showing is planned for mid-January. I'll update this post with the links and some additional info. In the meantime, here are several artsy wide-angle screenshots filled with heavy and mysterious symbolism:

Everything But A Kitchen Sink

2008-11-23T14:02:00.000-08:00

"Are you going to update your blog soon? Almost an entire month passed without new artwork!"

Well, I've been very busy but if you insist, I'll make an update right now.

"Good! Tell me first, what happened with the spamming problem mentioned in your previous post?"

I reported the case to the Google help center, and haven't received any more spam mail from my "fake" address since then. Now, if any of you receive an e-mail that comes from my address, and involves your credit card number, prince of Nigeria, free Viagra, Rolex, 20 million $ or the last Irish midget, throw it into the wastebasket.

"Hey, and what happened at the gala premiere of that movie you worked on?"

It was great! The movie was well received, and the audience was quiet and attentive for the entire 20 minutes. Nobody left before the end, or threw any garbage to the screen, so I guess that's a fine success. A very positive review was published in one of the leading Croatian newspapers last Tuesday, and you can read it here.

Also, check out this "making of" documentary with goofs, outtakes, mistakes and weirdness that went on during the shooting of our post-apocalyptic poetic drama. I don't appear there because I was behind the camera, but my voice can be heard occasionally.

In case you missed the trailer, here it is again. The whole film won't be on Youtube because it will participate on few movie festivals.

"Are you going to continue with your movie career?"

Yes, in fact there's a new movie in preparation, and it will be finished around Christmas time. Can't reveal much about it right now, it's going to be a very cool experiment, in totally different style from the last movie. You'll hear more about it next month.

"That's all fine, but show us some drawings! That's why everybody's coming here."

OK. Here's some Ren & Stimpy fanart. Couple of drawings have been the birthday presents for friends.

Another piece of fanart, this time it's one-eyed spinach eating sailor.

"Do you have anything new that isn't fanart?"

Yes! Remember the Odd Couple drawing from two years ago? Here's another picture in the similar manner. Where does it takes place? Underwater, or in open space? Is it a love scene?

"It looks more like some alien porn to me. Now what about caricatures? You built your reputation as a destroyer of innocent faces."

Sure. Here's a Björk caricature. Never tried to draw her before, though I'm a big fan.

The same drawing in its original form, without Photoshop colouring and textures:

"Not bad, perhaps too cutesy. Got anything stronger?"

How about an updated version of my Charles Manson caricature? If you thought the original version posted in January wasn't creepy enough... take this!

"I haven't seen any comics from you for a long time. You're getting lazy..."

Nothing new at the moment. Here's some funny old crap from 2002, never shown on this blog before. It's in Croatian, and I'd translate it if I'm not so lazy... maybe in few days, if I get enough requests.

"One last question... where's the kitchen sink?"

Aaaahhhhh, f*#% off!!!!!!

Hacked!

2008-11-09T04:51:00.000-08:00

Sorry, no pictures in this update.
Several days ago, my blog was attacked and heavily spammed so I had to activate the comments moderation to prevent any similar accident from happening. And today I discovered that my e-mail address (the Gmail account) has been hijacked and used for sending the spam garbage around. When I inspected my spam folder, I found several stupid e-mail messages that allegedly came from my own e-mail address. So, if any of you has received a "suspicious" message that came from my address, please forgive me. It's a fake and wasn't really sent by me. That's a case of identity theft!

Pumpkins

2008-10-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! See you at Christmas.

Coming soon

2008-10-19T10:01:00.001-07:00

This Autumn, only in the crummiest joints... I beg your pardon, best cinemas in your town! Don't miss it!

This is not the latest Harry Potter movie, it's a film project that occupied me since late August. I was the assistant director, director of photography, and worked on the editing, sound and color correction/effects. The movie is called "Embrace Of The Blue" (original Croatian title "Zagrljaj modrine" sounds much more poetic).

The film was made by just five of us, members of the Kino Klub Split. We were risking our asses, shooting on some extreme locations: the old abandoned (haunted) house and a huge half-demolished factory. We were nearly killed, poisoned, electrocuted, burned alive and arrested, but the final result was worth the risk (I hope). It's our second film together, we learned a lot about moviemaking and got a tremendous experience that will help us on our future projects.

Check out this exclusive trailer! We don't give away the best parts in the trailer, so none of the most important scenes is revealed. Still, you'll get some better idea about the movie:

If you have a fast internet connection, go to this direct link and select "high quality" option. Just a warning - Youtube is sometimes ruining the final montage of very quick shots, depending on your internet connection or Youtube server overload.

The whole 20-minute movie won't be available on the net for a certain time because we're planning to enlist it for some festivals. The world premiere is scheduled for November 15th.

And while the movie took couple of months to finish, the poster shown above was made in just one day. Here's also an early, different version of the poster, in my opinion inferior to the final one, but still interesting to see.

...

2008-09-21T00:52:00.000-07:00

The Great Gig In The Sky

2008-09-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

RIP Richard Wright (1943-2008), the founder member of Pink Floyd

Katie Rice Day

2008-09-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

Time has come for a traditional "Happy Birthday to Katie Rice" post :)

Here's Katie, as a cartoon character. This picture was inspired by the title cards for the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

And these are Skadi and Diseasoid, two popular creations by Katie Rice and Luke Cormican, in my interpretation:

Visit Dumm Comics website for more Skadi and other cool stuff. Also, don't forget to regularly check Funny Cute blog and enjoy in Katie's amazing artwork.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

2008-09-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

Say hello to Ren & Stimpy's dad, and wish him Happy Birthday!

Here are few other pieces of my Ren & Stimpy fan art from the last 10 months:

The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen in action:

A drawing from last year, for a dear friend who was feeling down that day. Works better than happy helmet:

A recent experiment gone wrong (note - it's only a part of the bigger picture):

Here's even more John K. / Spumco fan art for your enjoyment...
Various George Liquor expressions (all original, not copied from John's drawings):

The next few pictures were directly based on the original drawings by John and other Spumco artists. Most of them are taken from my learning & practice blog:

Check this post for even more George Liquor stuff and fan-art.

Yeah Baby Yeah

2008-09-07T13:11:00.000-07:00

The International Man of Mystery is here!

Shall we shag now, or shall we shag later?

Let's get shagged in 3D!

The Last Laugh

2008-08-22T06:39:00.001-07:00

Here's something made in the year 2003, an older comic from the depths of my dark and musty vault. All the characters are real, and the story is based on some true life situations (with healthy dose of poetic exaggeration, of course).
This is the original page in Croatian, so it shouldn't be any problem to understand it.

What, you haven't yet learned the language? OK, I'll forgive you this time, and provide an English translation. I changed and adapted big parts of the text, and it's probably not as funny as the original :)

More comics with the same bunch of weirdos:
Virtual Stupidity
Teleportation Trouble
Checkmate (Croatian version only)

Cute and Creepy - part 2

2008-08-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

Moonlight Warrior

2008-08-07T10:23:00.000-07:00

Two different color treatments of the same drawing (can't decide which one is better). It's a Birthday present for an extraordinary artist and a dear friend.
Click on each picture to see the large version.

No.9 Dream

2008-07-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

WTF?!? What does this picture mean? Where does it takes place? Was it just a dream?

I was doodling and warming up yesterday, in preparation for something else that I wanted to draw, when a quick absent-minded pencil sketch caught my attention. I immediately saw something cool in it, and just had to make a more elaborated version. The girl's face is little bit weird, with nose skewed towards one direction, and mouth towards another. It's a mistake from the original pencil sketch, and I kept it because it looks funny. I made more sketches of this whole scene, so expect the continuation in the following days. Could it possibly be a basis for some stream-of-consciousness cartoon or music video?

And speaking of music, the following songs were my soundtrack and big influence during the making of this picture:

Silver Apples: I Have Known Love
Stereolab: Super Falling Star
My Bloody Valentine: Lose My Breath
My Bloody Valentine: Sometimes
Moby: Natural Blues
Air: Once Upon a Time

All these songs have a peculiar dreamy atmosphere, and I just repeated them in a loop until the picture was finished.

Cute and Creepy

2008-07-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Here's something cute...

... and something creepy.

Pardon me... I think I mixed-up the captions above :)

Redhead

2008-07-08T12:03:00.001-07:00

Not finished yet?? Perhaps I'll do some additional work on the background. Anyway, I like the colors, but there's something wrong with girl's pose - it looks too awkward and unstable, at least to me.

A Symphony of Horror

2008-06-26T09:48:00.001-07:00

Here's in advance my Halloween picture for this year :)
Well, not really, but I was in the mood to do a funny horror drawing. It's dedicated to a dear friend who's a big fan of horror movies & memorabilia (and B-movies in general).

The main inspiration for this drawing were wonderfully creepy animated cartoons from the early '30s, especially those by Fleischer and Van Beuren studios, mixed with the Mad Magazine stuff from the '50s (and maybe a dash of EC comics too). Also, I tried to achieve a very particular color palette, a warm and slightly ancient look typical of the Technicolor cartoons, or the old printed illustrations from the first half of 20th century. Haven't quite achieved it here, but I'm pleased with the final effect.
I made one big mistake with the composition by putting the woman's face too close to the middle of the picture, and it's something that should be avoided whenever possible. Fortunately, it doesn't make much harm because the rest of the picture is completely asymetrical.

Even since the early childhood, I enjoyed doing this kind of detailed and complex pictures that contain a large number of characters or objects. It's always a great challenge to make every character clearly visible, and at the same time to make picture well organized as a whole. It's mostly achieved by careful selection of overlapping and negative space areas.
Here are two good examples of this type of picture among my older posts:

Beauty and the Sea Beasts
The Birth of Venus

And the really old one (from 11 years ago):
The Brain Destroyer
I didn't knew back then about the concept of negative space... and it's too obvious. Still, it looks cool ;)

Let The Sunshine In

2008-06-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

Ice Scream

2008-06-24T01:08:00.000-07:00

Anybody for refreshment? How about a demon-infested ice cream?

Or maybe you prefer a nice juicy bug for a dessert...

Sir Paul's Birthday

2008-06-24T00:44:00.000-07:00

Paul McCartney's head in cosmic soup...

and Paul McCartney's head in carrot soup!

What a long strange trip it's been...

2008-06-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

HammersonLand is 2 years old now! You don't believe me? Jump into the time-machine and witness the birth of HammersonLand. Then proceed carefully through the whole archive.

Or you can take a shortcut, and check some of my favorite stuff posted here so far:

Click on the thumbnails to see the large versions. I sneaked among them one drawing that haven't been posted yet. Can you spot it?

Also, don't miss to check my learning & practice blog. It is updated quite regularly, and I'm currently learning to draw the characters from John Kricfalusi's George Liquor cartoon universe. John has been my hero and a great source of inspiration for the last 13 years, and he's right now hiring people for his new project.
Here are few of the recent entries from my practice blog:

Some additional news and curiosities:

• My illustration is going to be published in one of the upcoming issues of the acclaimed Witch Hunter comic . My artwork has also been featured in the promotional postcards offered on the Monarch Comics (the publisher of Witch Hunter) booth at the NY Comic Con.

• Another news... I've been attending the filmmaking class since the end of January, and last month our group has made a short live action movie (an 8-minute trash horror comedy). I was the assistant director, also involved in storyboarding, editing and sound design. It's been a great experience and lot of fun, and there are plans for some new projects and adventures in the world of cinema.

• A great new web site was launched last month:

Six extraordinary artists have united together, with a mission to entertain the world every working day of the week. Visit Dumm Comics web site for your daily dose of Dumm. You'll be a better, happier and healthier person.

• And speaking of comics... take a look at this amazing Fearless Fosdick story by Al Capp , posted at the wonderful ASIFA Hollywood archive web site. It's the greatest comic I've seen for this whole year (and longer).

That's all for today. Next update: who knows when?!?

Cage vs. Cave

2008-05-20T09:53:00.001-07:00

Who will win this celebrity deathmatch? Him?

Or maybe this guy?

Learning to draw...

2008-05-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

I just created another blog, dedicated to various drawing exercises, practicing and training. Take a look at
http://hammersonpractice.blogspot.com/

Currently, I'm learning to draw John Kricfalusi's immortal creation - George Liquor. Here are my inked and cleaned-up versions based on John's original drawings:

On my practice blog, I documented the whole saga with sketches and various attempts, both failed and successful. Check it out.

Happy Birthday to...

2008-04-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

• Marlo

• Kristen

• Coral

All of them celebrated their birthdays in April, and now it's my turn (27th April). Yes, it means that Hammerson is 252 years old (check my profile, if you don't believe). Happy Birthday to me! :)

And here are some of the Birthday drawings I received during the last two days:
• This is a terrific caricature of me, by Sean Worsham, an extraordinary artist and a great friend. My mighty pencil looks here like Excalibur :)

• Another superb artist made a portrait of my strange face. Kristen (yes, the same one from the drawing above) is a true master of funny drawings, and I'm honored to be her latest caricature victim :)

Of course, I'm much more handsome in the real life ;)

• Next, here's a beautiful drawing by a cartoonist superstar of the future, Kali Fontecchio:

• And finally, the amazing Jesse Oliver made a funny B-day card for me, with his characters Johnny and Adam:

Thanks to you pals, and to everybody else who sent me the birthday greetings.

They're going to kill me for this...

2008-04-20T03:30:00.000-07:00

These two charming young ladies are friends and colleagues from the movie-making class that I'm attending since early February. They are waiting for these portraits, to be sure whether they're going to kill me slowly, or just mutilate me in the most painful way :)

Next month, we're all together going to shoot a five minute live action film, about the drinking contest on the graveyard, interrupted by a bunch of hungry zombies. Probably not an Oscar-nomination material, but lot of fun neverthenless. I'll keep you updated on a progress.

Careycature

2008-04-17T09:13:00.001-07:00

Something old, something new

2008-04-15T14:06:00.001-07:00

This is not the happiest time in HammersonLand right now, and I wanted to make a longer break from blogging. Still, I can't let this month pass, without at least two updates. Here's the first one...

I've got dozens of sketches and half-finished drawings from the last few weeks, and currently too little time to properly complete any of them. So, I'm showing a combination of new crap, polished old turds, and a shiny unseen piece of shit :)

This one's new. The blue phase strikes again!

And here's the flesh-colored version. Pick your favorite flavor.

Does anybody remember the monster twins? You can see the black & white original here

Mr.Tarantino's chin-action:

And a real rarity for the end. I found it on the bottom of the drawer, I swear! It's something originally made in 2006, and completely forgotten until now. It's an old drawing, yet it doesn't look so bad with the new color added last weekend. I was thinking to draw the rest, but the disembodied head of Nicholas Cage on blue background has some special mystical and metaphysical quality, so I left it as it is.

A short break...

2008-03-30T00:13:00.000-07:00

Hammerson will return.

Gluperman returns

2008-03-26T14:04:00.001-07:00

Aaaggghhhh, again something from my archive. This comic was made in the year 2000 (why does this phrase still sounds futuristic to me?)
It's the first ever appearance of my stupid superhero. Check out his second and last appearance HERE.

This is the original version in Croatian. Click here to read the story in English. And in case you wondered, the closest English translation of Gluperman would be Stupidman, though it doesn't sound equally good, and doesn't rhyme with the name of a certain other superhero :)

Easter Bunny

2008-03-21T13:44:00.001-07:00

Disco Inferno

2008-03-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

A drawing based on a recent quick pencil sketch, inked and subjected to some bizarre Photoshop alchemy and experimentation.

The Flower Girl

2008-03-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

Here's little bit of the late 60s flower power psychedelia for you. I tried to make a warm and inviting portrait of a Spring Goddess, and also wanted to give it a slightly magical, haunting, and otherworldly quality. The line-work was completed in 45 minutes, and it was followed by an hour of Photoshop madness :)

Soundtrack and inspiration:

Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced?

The Kinks: The Village Green Preservation Society

Remixed and remastered - part 2

2008-03-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

I made several caricatures lately, but none of them satisfied my (high) standards of quality, so I won't show them! :)
Instead, here are two old caricatures - remixed, remastered and repackaged in the shiny new special edition. Caricatures were originally made in black & white and posted here last July. These are the new color versions I did quickly, just for fun and training in Photoshop. I think they're greatly improved over the original. The subject doesn't need (or deserve) any special presentation:

Note: the second picture is pure fiction. I was just trying to think up an extremely revolting celebrity couple, that fortunately doesn't exist in reality (otherwise the world would collapse...) If you need to see more of these two persons, check out this old post from 2006

Professor Eggman

2008-03-02T03:33:00.000-08:00

This monster is 11 pages long, and requires some patience. It's a real story, based on the real person, and I'd be in trouble if I say anything more. I drew it 4 years ago, and like always with my older works, this one has some drawing mistakes that are now making me wince. The only true lines of dialogue (in the penultimate panel) are translated to English. All the rest has remained from the original version in Croatian, including the idiotic sound effects, but you'll be able to completely understand the story. Just a little help: "DA" means YES, and "NE" means NO. That's your lesson in Croatian language for today.

But wait, before I proceed, I've got an important question for you all! I've been thinking for some time to divide HammersonLand into two separate blogs. First blog would contain only my comics, comics-related stuff and nothing else. The second blog will have all the other content (caricatures, illustrations, cartoons, etc.) and essentially it will serve as my on-line portfolio, and it will be just like the regular HammersonLand, only without comics.
Do you like this idea, or you'd prefer to follow one blog like before, with all content mixed together? What do you think? Comment, please!

Now, go on and enjoy the comic...

Blue Girl

2008-02-27T07:30:00.001-08:00

My blue phase. Picasso had it too :)
It's a very quick drawing, just for fun and practice.

Kot’n Katie and Kali Kazoo

2008-02-24T14:49:00.000-08:00

Cartoon stuff

2008-02-19T07:54:00.001-08:00

Another day, another birthday :) This time it's Pedro Vargas , a friend and a terrific artist. He's currently working on his own animated cartoon, so wish him Happy Birthday and good luck on his mission. These are his own characters, and I hope I haven't butchered them too much.

Speaking of cartoons, I don't think I ever posted my Ren & Stimpy fan art. Here are two pieces (one of them was a special New Year greeting), and I'll put more R&S drawings in some other occasion.

And don't forget your daily visit to the blog of Ren & Stimpy's dad. It's one of internet's brightest spots, beside my blog of course :D

The Year of the Rat

2008-02-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

Love Gets You High

2008-02-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

Soundtrack and inspiration:

Richard Wagner: Tannhauser Overture / Siegfried Idyll / Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (Prelude and Hymn, Act I)

Al Green: The Definitive Greatest Hits

Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

And here's a nice and heartwarming Valentine's Day story...
Cupid Commando by David Gemmill .
David is mr.Grinch of Valentine's Day, and also one of my favorite cartoonist bloggers.

Cactus Love

2008-02-11T13:41:00.000-08:00

Soundtrack & inspiration:
Captain Beefheart: Safe as Milk / Lick My Decals Off Baby

Surprise, surprise!

2008-02-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

Be careful when you slice your birthday cake. It might contain a special magic ingredient - a birthday cake fairy :)

That's a birthday card for my friend Sean. I originally made it in color, but something didn't look right in that version. It was a first time after many months that I wasn't really able to hit the right color scheme. So, I tried with the sepiatone version, and the picture finally made sense. In fact, it increased the weird and surreal atmosphere.
So, here's to you Sean. And many happy returns!

Say Hello To My Little Friend

2008-02-05T14:01:00.001-08:00

The first Al Pacino caricature on HammersonLand. Probably not the last. I made a real mess of the poor guy :)

Über-nerd

2008-02-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

At the kind request from a sweet young lady, here's my self-portrait. But wait a minute, why it doesn't look like me at all? The reason is simple: this picture belongs to that weird and rare category of FAKE self-portraits :)

This is how people imagine me to look like... I took that description and made a more extreme version of it. The result: a portrait of a typically messy artist who lives and creates only in the state of total chaos around him. I know lot of people like that, especially among the artists and computer "experts". Since I'm some kind of both, I should be an uber-nerd too, but somehow I'm in many things a total opposite of the dude in the picture. Maybe I need to add some chaos in my life :)

Virtual Stupidity

2008-01-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

Here's some funny old crap... it's another of my early comics about two nerds and pseudo-scientists. It was drawn and colored in 2000, and it clearly displays all my drawing deficiencies of that time. I still find it entertaining, and worth showing to you. This one was co-written by a friend who in the meantime achieved a substantial career as a real scientist. I don't want to tarnish his reputation by mentioning his name, and he severed out all the connections with his past as a comic writer (and comic character) long time ago.

Click on the picture to see the original in Croatian, or click here to read it in English

And check my previous post that featured another of those old comics with the same characters.

Beauty and the Sea-Beasts

2008-01-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

Manson & Manson

2008-01-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

Manson & Manson - sounds like a lawyer office :)
This is a psycho-test. Who's your favorite Manson?
First, here's Marilyn. The scariest guy on planet Earth? Maybe not...

He's a nice and sensitive guy, especially when you compare him to Charlie:

Now, this is really scary! Don't look into his eyes!
Even I find this picture ugly and disturbing. Sorry...

Pleasant dreams, my friends! :)

Cosmic Dancer

2008-01-03T14:11:00.000-08:00

Soundtrack & inspiration: Stereolab: "Peng"

It was (not) a very good year...

2007-12-28T08:48:00.000-08:00

I guess this would be my last blog update in 2007, so let's finish off this weird year on a high note:

2007. was difficult and unusually stressful for me, but I'd prefer to remember it for the few really good things that happened. Also, I'd like to think that I made a gradual and definite improvement and progress with my artwork during the last 12 months. And while all those crappy New Year resolutions are usually broken and forgotten within first two weeks, I have intention to stick with few resolutions of my own.

So, to all the visitors of HammersonLand, especially the regular ones and those who are commenting:
I wish you a very happy, prosperous and successful New Year!
See ya in 2008! :)

Christmas with ELFIS

2007-12-17T04:34:00.000-08:00

Let me introduce Elfis - the king of Santa Rock, and his band of jolly Elves.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all the visitors of HammersonLand.

And don't forget to check this small gallery of my Christmas cards from previous years.