I never know what to say when I hear bad news. Ryan August has apparently passed away after being involved in a car crash. Ryan is best known for producing “I Want Your Skull“, which released some great issues, featuring great artists and their skull work. I have to say that it was honestly cool to have someone who shared the passion for skulls that I do, and I loved getting his books. Ryan was also kind enough to feature my airbrush skull work in the past.

Ryan leaves behind his wife Sarah and his son Declan. They have indicated in a thread at gigposters.com that they are accepting donations at ryanaugustdonation[at]gmail.com

His passing is unexpected and tragic.

RIP brother.

I have always loved painting toys. In an interview over at Toytoons.com I was quoted saying “I have always liked having cool things for my desk, and that usually meant toys. Everyone I think is naturally attracted to toys no matter what, and even more so when they are eye catching or different. I think the major attraction is no matter what they are always fun.” That still stands true for me. The Munny platform by Kidrobot I have always loved, and thankfully people have enjoyed my work. My last collection was completely sold…all original pieces. Fun pieces that I enjoyed doing, that got snapped up by collectors. All were signed under my moniker ‘Pain’. So check out Kidrobot to get a Munny to customize for your very own, and for this month they will give you one for free. I will be starting my “Lucky 13″ Munny collection soon. and you can reserve your one of thirteen 7″ Munny toys that I will be painting. Reserve is on a first come first serve basis. $213 reserves you part of this collection, or $2013 will make you the exclusive owner of this collection, that quite possibly will be my last.

Japanese artist, Haroshi has perfected a very unique way of using broken skateboards as a sculptural medium. Inspired from wooden mosaics, dots and pixels these artworks are brilliantly executed from concept to exhibition. Like traditional methods of building wooden Great Buddha statues, Haroshi has painstakingly chosen, stacked, cut, shaven and polished these recycled skate decks.

Haroshi get bonus points for this cool skull

What can I say I like Frank Kozik’s smoking Labbits. I have always enjoyed doing painting custom toys for people. What can I say toys are fun, so I naturally when there is a new animated short featuring the mOngers I have to watch, and share.

Frank Frazetta, an illustrator whose vivid colors and striking brushstrokes conjured up fantastic worlds of musclebound heroes fighting with broad swords and battle axes to defend helpless women from horrible beasts, died on Monday in Fort Myers, Fla. He was 82.

The death, caused by a stroke, was confirmed by Rob Pistella and Steve Ferzoco, his business managers. In a telephone interview, Mr. Pistella said that Mr. Frazetta, who had a history of strokes, had returned from a Mother’s Day dinner with his family on Sunday night and fell ill. Emergency medical services were called and Mr. Frazetta was rushed to the hospital, where he died.

After working on daily comic strips like “Buck Rogers,” “Flash Gordon” and “Li’l Abner,” Mr. Frazetta moved onto comic books in the 1950s. He drew the movie poster for “What’s New Pussycat?” in 1964, and hit his stride executing detailed illustrations of pulp heroes like Conan the Barbarian and John Carter of Mars for their comic magazines and books. His realistic renderings of otherwordly scenarios (and barely clad women) made him the ideal candidate to illustrate the album covers for popular heavy metal albums like Molly Hatchet’s “Flirtin’ With Disaster” and Nazareth’s “Expect No Mercy.”

In November, Wired.com reported, Mr. Frazetta’s cover artwork for the paperback reissue of “Conan the Conqueror” by Robert E. Howard sold to an unnamed collector for $1 million.

Just thought I would post a little comic strip that I found amusing. I find it amusing, because it does ring true. For both customers, and clients.

Word of Wheels rolled into town, and for me it meant that I was on the way to the Stampede grounds to check out what it had to offer. I wasn’t there to get an autograph form the Fonz, or meet Rich Franklin, but rather check out what was going on in the paint side of things. World of Wheels I have always found to have better motorcycles showing than I ever see at the Motorcycle show. Kinda ironic that really what is a car show has a better motorcycle show than the motorcycle show. Anyway I digress. Some great airbrush work at the show from guys live Dave @ Monkeyshine, Blake from Cross-eyed, among others…

Show here are some pics from the show….enjoy!

Well with San Francisco a couple weeks anticipation for the announcement of the iTablet from Apple builds. It is believed that will unveil it’s new table device on January 26th, or January 27th. The general belief is that the iTablet will be released in March.

Now for me this has actually put off my purchase of my next computer. Why? Essentially as an artist I have always wanted a portable sketchpad, and a good way to draw on a computer. For the past few years, I have accomplished this by using a Wacom Cintiq, which has increased my workflow substantially. Now the appeal of the iTablet is the portability, and the potential to do this anywhere. Rather than taking a sketchbook to client meetings, this device would become the hub of my work.

Sounds great, but I am concerned. While I have waited for such a device and almost breaking down an buying modbook (a tablet mac from a third party), I think that the device even though touch sensitive will not likely be pen driven or pressure sensitive (allowing dagger strokes with my digital inking pen), or may not be powerful enough to run illustrator or Manga Studio, my two main illustrating programs. For an artist this device has the potential to be the keystone of a studio, or a potential to be an oversized iTunes App Store Nightmare, with little to offer.

So here is keeping my fingers crossed that the iTablet or iSlate will be the device that I have pined for for the past 4 years.

Every year the Calgary Motorcycle show rolls into town, and as much as I love bikes, I always debate if I should go or not. I always think it will be the same thing, local dealers blowing out previous year stock, the manufacturers showing off the latest models, and the wild card as always the customs.

This year there was actually very little that I saw that had some custom paint. I am not sure if it was the economy, or just that big choppers and their $30,000 plus price tag just makes it a really expensive cruiser, especially with makes like honda coming in with a chopper style bike at $15000.

Anyways the Revelation bike was probably the nicest bike at the show, the owner indicated that it took him three years to paint it, and I can say it was pretty impressive work.

Other choppers seemed to have the typical skull and fire themes to them. Don’t get me wrong, I love skulls and fire, I just miss stuff that is neat that I would never get painted myself, like lasts years peacock bike.

Of course being a big MotoGP fan I had to post a couple pictures of Rossi’s bike from the Yamaha booth.

Stencils, are a great tool in the arsenal of airbrush artists. But with so many stencils out there, where is your money best spent, so that you don’t buy something that will send the rest of eternity in a drawer? Pain Inc. gives you our top five stencils.

#5. True Fire by Mike Lavallee – Manufactured by Artool

This is obviously a big set of stencils to be used by artists in the creation of true flames, and seeing the success, style and skill behind the innovator of True Fire Mike Lavallee, it only makes sence that he would put together a good set to created the effect. Artool was nice to pack in a “semi” instructional video with the stencils, which is a nice touch. These stencils are also great curves for any project that requires some freehand shielding, and is by no reason limited strictly to flames.

While a good set it takes the bottom spot for a couple reasons. for one, you have to seperate the shields with an exacto knife, and sand the tabs down, which is a huge pain in the ass, and makes me wonder why when they were laser cutting these guys out, why they just didn’t cut them out completely. I am sure we could figure out which was the positive and which was the negative by the labels on the stencil. The other major disadvantace is cost, as they are sold as a set of 18 stencils in various sizes (3 sets – 3 different sizes) for approximately $150.

#4 Six Pack O’ Skulls by Scott MacKay – Manufactured by Devilbliss

I couldn’t help but put a set of skull templates in there. With so many skull stencils this selection was made on the basis of which stencils could be the most versatile. Scotts got the nod as it provides you with a great variety of head positions, they are not super crazy stylized, giving you a lot of artistic freedom to build upon a solid base human skull, and that he had the forethought to add other cool little things that could be used, even when your project has no call for some boneheads. The addition of things like broken glass, curves (for flames and more), bullet holes, and circles for things like rivets and eyeballs is a nice touch.

The disadvantage is that when packaged they broke them into two sets of six (essentiall 6 skulls of two different sizes), I wish they had just packaged like size heads in one set, rather than breaking them in half. I am still holding my breath for a mini-set that Scott had made up, but has yet to be sold as a commercial package. Again at $65 a set makes it a bit pricy, but considering you get 6 stencils in a set, overall a good deal.

This set will help speed up any project involving skulls in your shop.

#3 Super Shield by Andrea Mistretta – Manufactured by Artool
It’s simple. It’s inexpensive (approximately $15), and is probably the shield that I have used the most while painting. My only wish is that they had utilized the abundance of space in the middle of the shield a little more effectively, and maybe given me some more circles or even a couple of rectangles or lines.

#2 Match Makers by Michael Cacy – Manufactured by Artool

This set wins in the same way that Supershield does, with the additional plus is that because the stencils are four separate interlocking positive and negative shapes ideal for airbrushing hair, smoke, foliage and other unique effects.

#1 Pocket Grafx Link – by Scott MacKay

This set is the big winner in my top five, as set includes six template for all those little details you need to add into your work in a nice little carrying case about the size of a business card. The set has stencils for rivets, bolts, flames (curves), tears, ammo,bullet holes, and a good straight edge with circles. What makes the set a winner is the cost. You can pick this bad boy up for under $15, meaning the set will pay for itself the first time you ever have to use it in a project!