Mai Hiro’s Susan Lee at Redefine Arts Gallery

I recently had the opportunity to attend Mai Hiro’s first gallery event of 2013. The event was held at Orlando’s very fine City Arts building, inside of the Redefine Arts Gallery, and showcased a character called Mr. Smiling, created by Mai Hiro artist, Susan Lee.

The art showcased by Susan Lee featured her character Mr. Smiling and all of his imaginative adventures. Through thick ink and bright colors, the character appeared in each one of her paintings and drawings. Lee also designed pop art of France’s Eiffel Tower, which was very appealing to the eye. With free boba tea given by Chewy Boba Company, toy designer Nakanari in attendance, and Bluemotion Production filming and providing camera work, the opening reception to the event was a big success.

If Disney Princesses Were Jedi Knights

Ariel dual-wields a pair of blue lightsabers under the sea, Rapunzel rocks short hair with an exceptionally long Padawan braid, and Snow White makes one hell of a bad-ass Sith in these illustrations by Ralph Sevelius.

(Source: nerdapproved.com)

Cast of Parks & Recreation as Justice League Members

Illustrator Vick Trola decided to merge all of the Justice League with the cast of Parks & Recreation for a pretty rad piece of pop. These prints are for sale at Trola’s Etsy shop here. Personally, I would’ve went with Batman for Ben, but it still works.

Check it: More Parks & Rec on Albotas
Buy it: Season 1 of Parks & Recreation

DC Comics Illustrations by Eric Dufresne

These awesome grid-type illustrations were created by Eric Dufresne. The geometric style and shapes are used here to create super colorful versions of Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Robin, and Catwoman. 

Check it: More DC Comics on Albotas
Buy it: The DC Comics Encyclopedia

Things I Bought At MegaCon: Day 3

Yo, I’m not gonna lie right now, I’m pretty fucking broke and upset with myself. I walked into the convention with $80 in my wallet and I don’t know where half of it went. This article isn’t helping me, either. This listing things I bought thing was a stupid idea.

First four rows of photos, comics: Obviously. I walked into this booth and say signs that read “Batman issues, 6 issues for $5.” Then I turned around and read “Marvel annual issues, 6 for $5.” Then I turned to the right and read four more signs along the same lines as the first two. Then I looked down and shit was literally oozing from my pant legs from excitement.

Most comic booths have a lot of shit they need to get rid of on Sunday night. Mainly because 1. They want last minute profit, and 2. They don’t want to carry boxes of shit that won’t sell back to their trucks. Usually on the final days of conventions, these booths do deep discounts on single issues/trade paper backs to lift some of that weight off. I would’ve been in heaven today if I hadn’t decided to spend all my fucking money on Friday and Saturday and saved it for comics today.

But I got some good steals. I spent $13 total for that stack of comics I got. The dealer sold me the comics at half price, meaning I was getting about 6 issues of random Batman, X-Men, Maxx, and other stuff for $2.50. Solid steals. I got the first issue of Ren & Stimpy and a couple of issues of Batman’s Knightfall storyline.

Fifth row, buttons: I don’t know what to say other than I really spent $5 on some fucking buttons.

Sixth row, the only thing I can say that was 100% worth it: a commission piece of Waka Flocka Flame. I asked this dude named Josh Hoye if he did commissions. He said yeah. I asked him if he could do something not really con-related. He said yeah. I said can you draw Waka Flocka Flame for me and ink it? He said yeah. So $30 later, here it is.

Friday I spent $76. Yesterday I spent $78. Today I spent $48. Tally that up and I spent a total of…$202…

But wait. Let’s count the food I paid for ($10 pizzas from Papa Johns that were less than 11 inches), parking, drinks, and change to hand to friends when they needed an extra buck or two. Now the total comes to about…

Three-hundred-fucking-dollars-are-you-fucking-kidding-me. I spent $300 at MegaCon. What the fuck.

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Things I Bought At MegaCon: Day 2

Continuing on the track of posting about shit I bought at this year’s MegaCon, here’s my day 2 purchases. Like I said before, I’m really going to spend all my money on Sunday, so I spent a lot of time today going around the artist alley and seeing what I could find. Didn’t spend as much yesterday, but I am happy with the buys.

First row, left photo: Issac from Dead Space commission photo watercolor: My girlfriend’s been on a huge Dead Space kick for the last two months and while we decided to go up and down the huge artist alley,  she thought it’d be a great idea to find someone to illustrate something for her. She got this awesome Issac Clarke watercolor done by artist Ashley Lanni for a mere $30. Bargain, really, considering most artists in the alley do work for $50+ and have limitations of what to draw. Lanni did a great job drawing Issac after Googling him and working on the picture in under two hours.

First row, right photo: Brad Goodman Simpsons Figure: I went to the convention with Simpsons merch specifically on my buying list and this was really all I could find action figure wise. Picked it up for $5, which I thought was a huge steal. Figure goes for $3.99 on Amazon, so thankfully I didn’t get ripped off and technically could’ve paid less money on the figure, but it would’ve been more for shipping.

Second row, Adventure Time #4 variant: I thought about how hard it is to come across some of the variants after picking up issue #1 of the series yesterday at Boom’s booth for $10, so I returned and picked this cover up. Scott C. drew it. Also bought this issue for $10. It’s running for about $16 on Amazon.

Third row, RAK Graphics trading cards: This guy had a neat booth of his own work to sell off in a damn cool way. The booth was for RAK Graphics and the seller sold trading cards of whatever character he had drawn up in his own style for a buck each. I spent $1 for each of these character cards, so in total I spent $8.

Forth/Fifth rows, original art prints from artist Peter Nguyen: These prints were from an artist in the Artist Alley named Peter Nguyen. I’m fucking impressed. My dollars were spent wisely here — I got these three original prints for $25. He also signed all three of them. I’m framing them this week.

Today is the final day of attending the convention. I’ll be buying a lot of comics (I hope!) and picking up a commission piece I asked for yesterday. It’s a surprise. I’ll reveal it tonight…

Anyway, total I spent today: roughly $78. Total so far: $154.

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A Little Bit on Josh Taylor

Josh Taylor is a multi-talented artist who paints and illustrates beautiful pictures of destruction, creation, and warped perceptions of pop culture. Really enjoy his style and his use of colors, especially what he can do on wood with acrylic and ink. Check out Josh Taylor’s website here, along with a gallery of his work. Buy prints from the artist here at his online shop.

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Daily Graffiti

Giant slobbering sidewalk chalk art of Lickitung from Pokémon. Gross, man.

• Daily Graffiti archives
• Share your pics on our Geek Graffiti Flickr group

The Art of Lara Gradeill

French artist, Lara Gradeill, beautifully illustrated these images for her sexy new series that includes vampires and vixens. She combines both traditional and digital art to create bold creations like those above. Check her shop here, on Behance.

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‘Star Wars’ Prints Inspired By Old Japanese Paintings

Or are they old Japanese paintings inspired by Star Wars o.O?

These limited edition prints, titled “Oriental Wars,” are available now from FlabSlab. Only 100 were made and interested buyers can shoot an email to mastermind@flabsab.com.

(Source: spankystokes.com)

Unevolved Pokémon Cosplaying As Their Final Forms Is The Cutest Shit We’ve Ever Seen

Seriously considering a tattoo of that Squirtle cosplaying as a Blastoise. These are the handywork of the talented Birdy Chu. Check out more over on his Tumblr.

(Source: geekologie.com)

50 Years of Avengers Minimal Poster

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers, artist Michael Mateyko created this minimalistic poster for April’s Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. This poster starts from the original Avengers from 1963 and dates to present day 2013. It can be purchased from Society6.

Check it: More of The Avengers on Albotas
Buy it: The Avengers (Blu-ray)

Powerpuff Girls Kick Kaiju Ass

These super sexy Powerpuff Girls prints are being sold on The Neat Shop for $50 a pop. Simple and super clean, the 17” x 11” prints are limited to 25 pieces each and are definitely worth every penny you might be able to toss. Just look at those kaiju monsters taking those punches.

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My New Favorite Illustratiors: Shotopop

These illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, and they were made by a team of visual artists named Shotopop, who really grasp the concept of painting dreams. Those interested in purchasing items from Shotopop can click here and buy some prints via Clickforart.

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