My blog has been sorely neglected - here are three of my newer Comic Con pieces to make up for a bit of the soreness:

New work is always fresh up on http://www.facebook.com/dustinreschdotcom

Doctor Horrible portrait series for Denver Comic Con!

I've finally finished the other two pieces for my Doctor Horrible series, that will be alongside my Marvel/Avengers paintings at my booth at Denver Comic Con. 

First, and among everyone's favorites that have seen it so far (cause her hair is so coppery, I think), is Felicia Day as Penny, the only actually altruistic hero of the story.  http://feliciaday.com

Next is the always cheesy-on-the-outside Captain Hammer, played by the One True Captain, Nathan Fillion.  The hammer isn't his fists.

Last (but actually first) is Doctor Horrible himself.  I painted this one about three years ago, and it's always been one of my personal favorites - so I'm happy that I finally created him some friends and nemeses to keep him company.

Purchase or download the excellent superhero musical extravaganza here http://drhorrible.com/ or find it out there on the internets to watch if you must, it will be one of the more entertaining 45 minutes you'll ever spend. 

Wacom... SMASH! (Hulk & Loki for Comic Con 2013)

I've been pounding on this thing for weeks... I have a few more pieces planned to get done and printed before the Denver Comic Con (http://www.denvercomiccon.com/2013/dustin-resch/ ) but this is the most ambitious, and the one that was the toughest to get through (cityscapes are not my friend).  I'm pretty thrilled with the final result, and it's printing really nicely too.  Prints will be for sale at the convention!
  Enjoy!

UPDATE:  a quick process GIF to see some of the steps:
(click to enlarge)

ILL 602: Concept, Technique & Illustration

I just finished submitting all of my final revisions for my illustration class projects.
The instructor (the inimitable George Pitcher) gave us till the end of the semester to do a
final round of alterations, and I'm pretty darn pleased with the semester's output.

Project 1, Book Illustration: Collecting From The Clown

Project 2, Children's Book: Benjamin Bear

Project 2, Children's Book: Chef Crocodile

Project 3, Song Illustration (Album Cover): The Dangling Conversation

Project 4, Advertising Illustration: Hawaiian Tropic

God of Thunder!

I did a painting of Thor and his little hammer, as a gift for Brooke for our anniversary.  Here's the painting, and a little process GIF so you can see a quick blurry version of how it comes together.

ZOMBIE BUS OMNIBUS

IT'S OVER!  My final assignment for Drawing From Imagination.  We had two choices of "storyline" to use for our final illustration.  Obviously I had no choice whatsoever...

---

Complete an illustration, 12 inches x 16 inchesor larger, to accompany one of the passages below. Your image must be as realistic as you can make it and very detailed.
Grades will depend on:

• Narrative.
• Drama.
• Imagination.
• Proportion.
• Drawing.
• Value.
• Accurate perspective.
• Reflection plotting.
• Shadow plotting.

It is your responsibility to ensure that your illustration demonstrates ALL you have learned during this course.
The Passages
Your illustration will accompany one of the passages below. The choice of which passage to use is entirely up to you.

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White set the seven dwarves to work spring-cleaning their tiny cottage. There was a lot to be done. The dwarves swept the floor, polished the windows, washed the linen, and made the beds. There were seven of everything and everything was half its usual size. Meanwhile Snow White prepared a delicious feast for her seven little hosts.
Later that night, when they had finished supper and every dwarf was round, full, and contented Snow White danced with the seven dwarves to the jolly strains of the fiddle. The little men stood no higher than her waist.
No one noticed the ugly old hag watching them from the window.

2. School Trip

Miss Blake dragged herself out of the twisted school bus, stumbled across the waterlogged street and collapsed. Her thoughts were snarled by the collision. What was that decaying, faltering thing she had swerved to avoid a minute earlier… and where was everyone from the town, and why had no one come out to help?

The rain had finally stopped. She looked around her. The lifeless bodies of her students were scattered about the wreckage like rag dolls: some strewn across the asphalt, some hanging from windows, some hidden inside, but all were broken and still.
Was she the sole survivor? As the town clock struck twelve there was a shifting from inside the bus. She froze - the children! Miss Blake watched in terror as the ruined corpses of thirty eight year olds pulled themselves from the school bus and began to limp hungrily towards her…

Author Guy Christopher Moore

Went to a book signing for Christopher Moore's new objet d' literature, Sacre Bleu.  I have been working on a portrait of him, which was well-received.  It was a dignified affair, with high-minded discourse about art, and religion, and old ladies with green beans getting banged on a cafeteria table.

Ben Bailey - Process GIF

A quick animated GIF series showing the process of drawing and digitally painting Ben Bailey.

Comedian/Cabbie Ben Bailey - Friday the 13th Edition!

Did a picture of Ben Bailey, and Brooke and I went to see him do standup tonight.  He's an incredibly nice guy, and a damned funny standup comedian, in addition to his career as Mobile Game Show Host.

The lovely and talented Gilda Radner

I was showing my new Cintiq to my mom and dad on Christmas, and asked them for a suggestion of someone to draw.  They had just opened their Blues Brothers painting gift, and in that spirit suggested that I try drawing their SNL colleague Gilda Radner.  I worked on it for a couple of hours with them giving feedback and pushing the likeness, and then spent some more time finishing it up later.  I wanted to get one more finished piece up to wrap up 2011.  HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!

"I can always be distracted by love, but eventually I get horny for my creativity." - Gilda Radner

We're on a mission from SCMOD.

A little process video of the Blues Brothers painting - 8 1/2 hours of blood, sweat and tears compressed to 7 minutes of spastic fun.  Enjoy!

DO YOU SEE THE LIGHT?

YES!  YES!  JESUS H. TAP-DANCING CHRIST! I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!

This is a piece I've been wanting to do for a long, long time.  Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues, The Blues Brothers Rhythm & Blues Revue.  Painted this in a hurry as a Christmas gift for my mom and dad... and I'm super extremely pleased with the results.  The love affair with my Cintiq is far from over, and Dad helped me install it on a big robot arm mounted to my huge ancient steel Invincible desk, so now it's positionable and flexible and even more awesomable.  HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

What if the hurricane was Hurricane Ditka?

Here's my first finished painting on my new Wacom Cintiq.  It was meant to be!  Anyway - I've been wanting to paint Coach Ditka for a while, his face just cracks me up every time I see him.

In-Class Portrait Sketching Demo: Vin Diesel

This was the challenge from my students this week - he was a really challenging likeness to get at all, and i'm still not sure I REALLY got him, but I like the sketch anyway.  About 2 1/2 hours, Photoshop on a Cintiq tablet & projector/screen.

Sergeant Frank Drebin, Police Squad

My name is Sergeant Frank Drebin, Detective Lieutenant, Police Squad. There'd been a recent wave of gorgeous fashion models found naked and unconscious in laundromats on the West Side. Unfortunately, I was assigned to investigate holdups of neighborhood credit unions.


I started this portrait of Leslie Nielsen as a demo for my students in Advanced Drawing for Animators - i asked them for a suggestion for someone to caricature, and this was the first name I got.  Really had a blast working on this, he had such a great deadpan face and recognizable features.  I worked on it a few hours in class, and a few hours later in the week.  All told, a pretty quick monochrome Photoshop painting, 7 or 8 hours total.  Enjoy!

The New York City Conan Art Odyssey Extravaganza

(or: How I Had To Change My Underwear After Seeing This Giant Damn Painting)

(or: This Is How You Trick Your Friends Into Looking At Your Vacation Photos)

Sunday, October 30, 2011. Brooke and I went to NYC to see the NYCOCOMOCA gallery display of Conan O'Brien Fan Art at the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle (see previous blog posts for back story). I can honestly say that walking up to the front glass panels of that absurdly huge shiny skyscraper and seeing that absurdly huge shiny redheaded man with my name and signature sprawled across the bottom was one of the peak experiences of my whole life up to this point.

The gallery itself was really great - 50 pieces of Conan-related art in all sorts of media, from oils and acrylics to sculptures made of crochet yarn and one life-size statue made entirely of colored pencils:

In addition to the front of the building, my painting was used on all of the in-building signage (the bottom two floors are a very upscale shopping mall, and second floor center was the gallery exhibit)

It was also used as the image that was sent out in press releases, so it showed up
 in New York Magazine and Time Out New York.

The staff at Lead Dog Marketing and the gallery attendants were the most wonderful hosts, they made us feel like part of the family. Thanks again to Carter, Diana, Aly, Sarah, Joe, D.J., Austin, Karim (and everyone whose names are escaping me at the moment) and Brian from TBS as well.

On Halloween Night, we got to attend the first night of taping of Conan's week of NYC shows.

We waited a long time after to try to meet Conan, but it was just too crazy. We did, however, get to meet Andy Richter, and I gave him a sketch portrait I had hastily scribbled on the plane ride out there.

And we also got to meet La Bamba, who is way more talented in real life
than you get to see on the show - and a damn nice guy:

There was a 500-lb robotic, huggomatic Conan Loveseat at the exhibit, built by DeepLocal- I have to find the pic I got on there with La Bamba and Pierre, and scan it later... but here was a fun one with me and Brooke:

The exhibit still hasn't been shown on the Conan show - we went back there at least a dozen times hoping to meet Conan or get on TV. Finally the Thursday morning we were leaving, a remote crew came and shot some footage... of the gallery, of the front of the building, and a bit of an interview with me and some strange guy that was wandering through the exhibit. No way to know yet if they will ever use the footage.

Conan finally came to see the gallery a couple of hours after we left NYC to come home to Denver. It was terribly disappointing not to get to meet him. BUT - we met a wonderful staff member named Amanda outside the theater on Halloween, and gave her a couple of copies of my painting, to hopefully get a copy to Conan, and have him sign one for me. She really got the job done, and he wrote a very nice note on it for me!

"To Dustin - You have captured my inner sadness perfectly.
Thanks for sharing your incredible talent. Your friend, Conan."

It really was a wonderful trip, and we had a great time.
 I'm going to have to do more of this gallery stuff, it could get addictive!

NYCOCOMOCA - HOLY CRAP! Best blog post EVER.

Holy crap... I have some great big good news to share.

As many of you know, I painted a digital caricature of Conan O'Brien back on New Year's Day for a sort of open fan-art competition, where they displayed people's submissions on the show, between commercial breaks.  My piece was chosen and aired on Tuesday, May 17, 2011.  It was an incredible and important moment for me.

Yesterday (October 5) I was contacted by an agency on behalf of Conan's show, to let me know that in coordination with his upcoming week of NYC-filmed episodes (http://teamcoco.com/video/conan-coming-to-nyc), they are putting on a gallery show of Conan Fan Art at the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle in New York.  My piece was chosen as one of their favorite 50 to be exhibited at the event!  It will be printed and framed, and in this gallery show for 11 days starting October 24th. :O

Apparently the show's staff kinda liked my painting, as it was selected to appear on some of the signage advertising the show as well.  SO EVERYONE - watch the Conan show on TBS all week starting on Halloween, and you just might see my picture on the show again - but bigger this time!  I'll keep everyone posted as I find out more details, Brooke and I are definitely going to figure out a way to make the trip up there to see the display.

Here's the original piece again,  in case you haven't seen it, or just want another glimpse.

Like I said... holy crap.  NYCOCOMOCA for the win!  Somebody pinch me...

Heavy boots of lead - fills his victims full of dread.

Robert Downey, Jr.  as Tony Stark

Actually "finished" this a month ago, but held back sharing it because I thought I'd go back in and detail it more... but I think I'm ok with letting this one go.  I'm really pleased with it, pushed the exercise farther than normal with mechanical details, lighting, and suggested background.  I created this as a demonstration for Don Long's Advanced Drawing for Animation class at the Art Institute of Colorado.  Fun piece!

Holy Crap! Finally got it on the air!

I did a painting of Conan O'Brien, finished on New Year's Day actually... because they had announced they were going to use some fan-submitted art on the show, as interstitial graphics as they come back from commercial. I've been waiting all this time... he lost the beard... but finally, last night, GLORY GLORY HALLELUJAH his art is broadcasting on!

WATCH THE EPISODE!!
(ep 1093 segment 3, with Norm MacDonald and Joy Formidable)

Below is the original painting:

Animal Face Scribbles 2: Heffalump

Digital sketch, big damn elephant head.