tuggboat

Meat Men

2012-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Up until a few weeks ago I had done a really great job avoiding any form of televised "mixed martial arts." But then I found myself stuck at a bar during a match. It was like watching a meat train plow through a Red Cross blood drive.

I just wish I could unsee it...

The Amazing Tuggboat (issue #1)

2012-01-12T14:49:00.000-08:00

Dear Marvel Comics,
If you ever want to wrap up the Spider-man franchise, but you don't know how... I think I may have some pretty good ideas.

Love,
Nick

Tuggboat (The Comic)

2012-01-08T01:49:00.000-08:00

So, I recently discovered that I love making comics. This year, I'm gonna try to make a couple comics a month and post them here. Here's the first one! It's based on a real thing that happened to me in the matter of 5 min. It was a terrible day...

Can't Sleep...

2011-12-13T04:45:00.000-08:00

4am sketchbook.

goodnight.

Sketchbook

2011-12-05T14:51:00.001-08:00

I had a page of disembodied heads in my sketchbook. So last night I tied them all together into one drawing.

This is not art.

2011-11-26T23:51:00.001-08:00

If a video game can't be art, can this comic about video games be art?

You Know The Drill...

2011-11-20T18:25:00.001-08:00

So, once again, one of my extremely talented friends (Jonas of Klifton Filente) just put the finishing touches on a new album. And, once again, I was lucky enough to contribute by making the album cover.

Album Cover

I've been listening to this album for the past month, and I just can't get sick of it. Jonas has really out done himself. Below I included the original illustration as well as the album itself.

Original Illustration

<p>&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://kliftonfilente.bandcamp.com/album/breaking-the-clouds"&amp;amp;gt;Breaking the Clouds by Klifton Filente&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;</p>

Selling Out

2011-11-19T15:53:00.001-08:00

Last week I posted a painting from the art show that Owen Evans and I had back in May. I sold a few pieces at that show, but ever since the show's end, I've had a stack of framed artwork just sitting in my house. So instead of letting all my paintings collect dust, I thought I'd put them up here to sell. I made a little pull down paypal store over on the right side of the blog. Check it out!

"Ghost City" $100 - 8x10

"Business Monsters" ~~$40 - two 5x7~~ SOLD

"Dinoghosts" $35 - ~~three 4x6~~ SOLD

"Knife Fight" $40 - 8x10

"Cultist B-Ballers" $60 - 8x10

"Pumpkin Smoke" $25 - 4x6

"Halloween Bat" ~~$30 - 8x10~~ SOLD

If you see a piece that you like, but it's too pricey, I can make a print of it for you for $10. Just let me know.

Birth of the Cosmos

2011-11-09T12:31:00.000-08:00

Today is famed astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, and author, Carl Sagan's birthday. So, I figured now would be the perfect opportunity for me to share a Sagan themed painting I did for my art show back in May.

"Starr-man and the Cosmos" $120 - 9x12

Happy 25th Birthday Link

2011-11-06T16:02:00.000-08:00

"The Legend of Zelda" is 25 years old this year. And just like I did for Mario's birthday last year, I made a stupid drawing to commemorate the occasion.

Adding Watercolor

2011-10-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

I've been adding some watercolor to my sketchbook lately. Here's a little drawing/painting from said sketchbook.

Spirit Pokemon

2011-10-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

Last week I set out on a life affirming journey through the world in search of my spirit pokemon. This comic explains exactly what happened. Sort of.

Sock Monkey

2011-09-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a commissioned piece I did for my friend Steph.

"Sock Monkey"

Humblebees

2011-09-23T16:47:00.000-07:00

I don't know what I'd do if my friend's didn't want art for their bands. I'd probably wind up just laying around, watching movies and getting nothing done. Well, in this case the friend is Dan Weiss and the band is The Yellow Dress. They just finished putting the final touches on their fantastic new album, "Humblebees," and Dan asked me to do the artwork for it...

Front

Back

Lets put some class back into this blog

2011-08-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the dip in posts. To make it up to you, how about some super classy pictures of real/fake animals? Sounds good!

"Dapper Owl"

"Dapper Skeleton"

"Pikasmooth"

HAKAS!

2011-07-18T04:15:00.001-07:00

I think I'll just let this one speak for it's self...

The Balloons - "Pop" Music

2011-07-07T01:03:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty busy with various visual projects, so it's nice to get to post something musical for a change. Matt and I have been constantly moving over the past couple of years, so it's been hard to sit down and actually record as a band. But now that we're both living in Seattle with no signs of moving again in the near future, we've gotten back into the swing of things.

Over the past couple of months we've been putting together this EP. These songs have been in various demo states for a while, so it's nice to have finalized versions. You can download it here at our bandcamp, or listen to it below.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://balloonsisfun.bandcamp.com/album/pop-music"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;Pop&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; Music by The Balloons&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

(Oh yeah, that's me singing on "Loops" and we changed our band name. I guess I forgot to mention that.)

Animation!

2011-07-03T05:02:00.001-07:00

I couldn't sleep, so I gave animation a try...

It's based on this little design I did of a robot a while ago. I wanna try and make a comic out of this guy... eventually.

Happy (late) Birthday Mario

2011-06-27T02:24:00.000-07:00

On September 13th last year, the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES turned 25. To honor our Japan-born, Italian friend I decided to do a little watercolor painting for the special day. Mario's seen better days, but come on, 25 years of princess saving's gonna put a few wrinkles on anyone's face.

I know that this is a little late. I'd been meaning to post it for about 9 months now, but I sorta forgot. Sorry Mario. I love you.

Bros and Cons

2011-05-17T03:08:00.000-07:00

This Friday (May 20th @ 6pm) is the opening of Owen Evans' and my art show, "Bros and Cons." If you're in the Phoenix area, you should stop by The Trunks Space, say hi, and then check out all the artwork that might be about death, but that's OK, because it'll still make you feel good. Also, I'm flying back to Phoenix for this, and if you come out it'll make it feel like I didn't waste all that money on a plane ticket when I could have been paying off student loans.

Here's a section from a bigger piece as a preview:

T-shirts!

2011-04-25T18:11:00.000-07:00

After the earthquake last year in Haiti my mom and brother went down there with a group from their church to help rebuild an orphanage that was destroyed. While they were there they spent all their down time playing games and flying kites with the kids. In that time my mom fell in love with three amazing kids; Michelove her brother Moise, and their 3 year old sister Sophonie. My mom's talked about adopting for years now, so it was no surprise to me that that's exactly what she and my dad had in mind.
After getting a chance to go to Haiti and meet the kids last summer, I wanted to do something to help out my parents with the adoption. So my family and I came up with a plan to design and sell t shirts to raise money. Here they are:

You can buy them directly from the side bar on the right. They're $18 a piece, and all the proceeds go towards the adoption.

Funny Button Art Shows

2011-04-06T01:06:00.000-07:00

I live in Washington now. I don't know if I mentioned that yet. Anyway, here in Washington there's a house venue called The Funny Button, and at every show there's an impromptu, collaborative art exhibition that gets made and put up about an hour before everything starts. Each art show has a theme that usually gets decided on a few days prior, but you aren't allowed to make anything until the day of the event. Now that that's explained, here are a few of the things I've made for the past couple shows.

The theme of the show for the first three was "Having a Good Time."

These next two were for the theme "Golden Oldies"

These little art shows are a ton of fun, so you'll probably see more of these in the future.

Math the DVD

2011-03-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's some more Math the Band art:

This is the cover for Math the Band's archival DVD, "The Blunder Years" that should be coming out pretty soon. It's gonna be a gift for their fans who donated to help them raise money to record their next album. They're going all out on this next one, it's gonna be awesome.

There are a few things on the horizon, so check back in the coming months. Some of those things may be t-shirts, some may be art shows... We'll just have to see.

$2 Drawings Around the World

2011-02-26T14:19:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more $2 drawings. All three of these drawings are gonna end up in countries I've never been to.

David asked, "Can you please draw for me Miss Marple as a cat?"
So I did.

Fahd asked me to send these portraits of him and his friend to both of their houses. They live on separate continents! How could I say no to such a magical friendship?

The .gif of the Magi

2011-01-25T04:07:00.001-08:00

After my last .gif post, I decided that posting them all at once like that might have been a little much, so I'll take it slow from now on starting with this:

This came from a conversation my friend Alex and I had while walking home late one night. For some reason we started talking about The Beatles, and that got us talking about Paul McCartney's second band, Wings. We then started wondering: What if Sir Paul McCartney was knighted not for his work with The Beatles, but specifically for his work with Wings? That lead the conversation in a strange direction that ultimately ended up with that image up there. I completely understand if you wanna leave.

$2 Drawings and Things To Come

2011-01-24T15:19:00.000-08:00

I've got a lot on my plate all of the sudden, so it's time to get down to work. Last week Edgar Wright (director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World) saw my Scott Pilgrim Criterion mock-up and honored me by posting a link to this very blog:

Thanks to him, I've gotten some more $2 Drawing requests. As of now, they're all (3) finished and on their way to their new homes. Here's the first of the new batch:

Hayden asked for a picture of He-Man. I just assumed he meant "He-Man fantasizing about the junk food that he'll never be able to eat if he wants to keep that ridiculous physique."

I'll post the other 2 in a couple days. I want them to get to the people who paid for them before I put them up here.

There's some new and exciting Math the Band projects going on, so expect to see some artwork for that and a few other things in the future.

Scott Pilgrim vs. World Criterion Collection

2011-01-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

Every year that I attend art school is punctuated with a Christmas full of hand-made gifts. As much as I'd like to say that I think they're just more personal; the real reason for the hand-made gifts is that I'm broke. It's just that simple. This Christmas I gave all my like minded friends some (faux) Criterion Collection blu-ray box art for one of my (and their) favorite movies: "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World."

(click to enlarge)

Here's the cover image without the Criterion Collection markings:

Feel free to download and print the image. You have my blessing. Merry Christmas?

"Clean" Music Video

2011-01-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

Here it is! The music video I directed for Hello the Mind Control's song, "Clean."

The video is an homage to the music video for Eddie Murphy's 1985 number 1 jam, "Party all the Time." Like Eddie Murphy in the original video, Tyler Broderick is on his way to the studio to record his hit single with none other than the "super freak" himself, Rick James. (played by Matt Kimball) After joining up with the rest of Hello the Mind Control, the band and Rick create something better than music. They create magic!

The video was a ton of fun to shoot, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Thank you everyone who came out partied all the time.

Hello the Mind Control is: Tyler Broderick, Quinn Scribner, Brianna Johnson, Alex Cardwell, and Mitchell Keaney.

Cast:
Tyler Broderick - Himself
Hello The Mind Control - Themselves
Rick James-like Producer - Matt Kimball
Jal, The Audio Engineer - Jalipaz Nelson

Party Animals!:
-Alex Benson
-Patrick Sexton
-Edgerton Lunt
-Lauren Kohl
-Kyle Daniels
-Alyssa McAlister
-Connor Gadek
-Megan Kimball
-Allen Harsted

Party All The Time!

2011-01-05T01:04:00.000-08:00

Last week my friends Tyler and Brianna asked me to direct the music video for their band Hello the Mind Control's song, "Clean." The video was an idea that Tyler and my friend/bandmate Matt had a while ago. We've talked about making it in the past, but never really got around to shooting it. That changed today, because we finally got everyone together for a couple hours to make their absurd idea a reality. Now, there's still a lot of work left to be done on it, but I had so much fun today that I just had to post this cast photo here. The video should be done in a couple weeks!

Thanks to everyone for coming out and dancing!!

Get Off My Lawn (New Math The Band Artwork)

2010-12-15T17:52:00.000-08:00

The time has come for new Math the Band artwork! This is the art for their upcoming 7", "Get Off My Lawn."

front

back

Check out some of the other stuff Math the Band has for sale here.

1 More Flyer, 2 More Ghosts

2010-12-15T00:16:00.000-08:00

Here's the second of the two flyers I've been working on this week. This one's for an amazing show at the Trunk Space featuring Phoenix veterans, "Andrew Jackson Jihad" and my new favorite band, "ROAR." Don't miss it!

Go to the show and make sure you pick up ROAR's "I Can't Handle Change" EP. You'll thank me.

Get Ready For Some New Flyers

2010-12-10T00:15:00.000-08:00

The fall semester is over, so now I can get back to making things for people instead of school. Here's one of two flyers I'm working on right now.

If you're in San Francisco on the 29th you should go to this show. And if you aren't, than it's time to round up some friends and snacks and make a trip out there to see The Yellow Dress. You'll be happy, and it'll make you and your friends better people.

PS. This isn't the last of the ghosts.

Zelda Portraits

2010-12-01T01:17:00.000-08:00

Maybe you knew this, and maybe you didn't, but I'm a big Legend of Zelda fan. So in honor of something I like, and some people I like, I made these portraits of me and some friends as Zelda characters. Enjoy. If you want to.

Me as Tingle.

Matt as a Goron.

Alex as Makar.

Adam as Link.

Mustache

2010-11-29T22:55:00.000-08:00

This was made to remind me of what I look like in those moments when I think, "Maybe I should get rid of my mustache." This way I won't be surprised.

Jeff Goldblum's Essence. In Handmade Notebook Form.

2010-11-22T22:53:00.000-08:00

I teamed up with my friend, Tiffany Parker, to create these nifty Jeff Goldblum note books. Each notebook was cut, pressed and hand sewn by Tiffany, I drew the portrait of Mr. Goldblum, and together we screen printed the image onto each notebook. We're gonna make some more and sell them, If you want one let me know, and I'll see what I can do.

Which Harry Potter Character Are You.

2010-11-18T18:35:00.000-08:00

Nick got: Wharf?

The .gif That Keeps on .giffing

2010-11-12T11:53:00.000-08:00

It's no secret, to some of you, that I love making animated .gif files. It's a great way to spend time doing something stupid instead of doing something worth while. So here are a few the .gif's I've made recently. They're my .gif to you.

"Chairman of the Board"

"The Walrus and the Wiener"

"XD: X-treme Dogs" (Use whenever someone uses XD as an emoticon.)

"XP: X-treme Puppies" (Use whenever someone uses XP as an emoticon.)

"Math Stevens"

Videos!?!

2010-09-21T01:37:00.000-07:00

So the other day, out of boredom, I was looking through all the videos that were taking up space on my camera. I decided to move it all over to my external hard drive, and do something with some of it. This is that something:

So is this:

I've made a huge mistake...

2010-09-13T23:52:00.000-07:00

So the first batch of $2 drawings are out in the world, either finding there way to their new homes, or settling in on someone's wall. But until now I forgot about the whole, "post it on my blog for everyone to see." So if you guys could scan and email me the drawings, that'd be awesome. Until then, here's a drawing that my friend Brianna came up with. It's pretty self-explanatory...

"Crocs wearing Crocs™"

$2 Drawings!!

2010-08-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

It's official, I've sold out... To you!! (laugh track)
Starting this very moment, you can commission me to draw you whatever you want. And I'll do it.

For $2 here's what you get:
- A drawing of your choosing on a 6x4 index card.
- A personalized message on the back of the card.
- The joy that comes with knowing that you helped Nick pay off his debt from art school with arts. cool. (laugh track)
- A few weeks later I'll post our collaboration here for the whole world to see (unless you don't want me to)

If that sounds good to you, then go ahead and click the "buy now" button on the right, and send me an email at: tuggboat1138@gmail.com with:
- Your name
- Your mailing address
- And a description of what you want me to draw.

What else are you gonna spend your money on? Charity? (click play)

Balloons is Fun!?! Teaser

2010-08-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

As all 5 of you probably know, I'm in a band. 4 of you know that we're called Balloons is Fun!?! and 1 of you can tolerate us. That being said, watch the teaser trailer for our new album, "Baby Teeth." I promise you that you'll probably like it. Maybe.

I can't seem to get this formatting thing down. So if it's all messed up click here.

More Band Art

2010-06-02T02:47:00.000-07:00

Here's some more band art...

Math the Band:

cover.

back.

Hello the Mind Control:

Balloons is Fun!?!

2010-04-14T17:19:00.001-07:00

Here's a picture I made the other day.

Better Times Than These (a music video I directed)

2010-01-29T13:36:00.000-08:00

The other day I directed a music video for my good friend Matt Kimball. The song's called "Better Times Than These" and here's the video:

(video URL)*

You can download the single for the song here.
A very special thanks to Kyle Daniels, who played Matt's panda masked assistant.

*If the video is acting up, just click the link below.

Eedis

2009-09-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

"Eedis"

I had completely forgotten about this picture until last month when I found my old sketchbook. I think it was drawn from an image in a National Geographic. I found a few other forgotten pictures that I'll scan later.

Activity Adventure Quest (show/mishap)

2009-09-16T00:35:00.000-07:00

Last week I payed the price of having a messy desk. I was scanning a drawing when the paper tray on my printer flipped down and knocked over a bottle of water onto my computer and a can of coke onto my Charles Manson Maze. Luckily the little rubber keyboard guard saved my computer's life, but the Charles Manson Maze wasn't so lucky. The little instruction card got completely ruined, and the maze itself has a brown stain on it. Looking at it now that its dry and flattened it doesn't look too bad. The coke completely missed the paint and ink. It's a watercolor painting, so I don't really need to say how bad it could have been. I think it'll be OK, plus I already scanned it, so it'll look fine in the Activity Adventure Quest book.

That reminds me! If you live in the Phoenix area you should come down to the Trunk Space on Friday for the book release party. I'll be there, and you can look for the brown stain on my painting!

Tattoos

2009-08-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

Tattoos are very personal for a lot of people, so that's why I was extremely honored when two of my friends asked me to design tattoos for them. Here are the pictures I made...

Tiffany's tattoo design:

Jayme's tattoo design:

I just sent Jayme's design to him yesterday, but Tiffany's is 100% done...

I was really nervous about how it was gonna turn out, but
Tiffany's tattoo artist, Sam Mcwilliams, did an amazing job.

-You can see more of Sam's work at sammcwilliams.com

Tiffany and Jayme are both incredible artists, and you can check out their work by clicking on their names.

Superfun 2.0/"Charles Manson Maze"

2009-08-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

There's another superfunactivitychallenge this year, so I decided to participate. With a "Charles Manson Maze":

You can see last years maze by scrolling down, or just click here.

More Math The Band Art

2009-05-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

Here's the tour poster, and the rest of the art I did for Math The Band's album, "Don't Worry".

Poster:

album back:

the first thing you see when you open the album:

flap 1:

flap 2:

Album Covers

2009-05-14T01:56:00.000-07:00

Here are 3 album covers and a poster I made for my band and 3 others.
Check out the music too.

Math The Band - "Don't Worry"

iji - "In Celebration"

(my band) Balloons is Fun!?! - "Fun."

and a flyer I made for the band Foxes.

I hope you love 'em.

Flickr

2008-12-14T20:44:00.000-08:00

this is a drawing of my hands (sort of). And...

...if you want to see an archive of my work without having to scroll through posts, you can check my Flickr page here!

thanks,
Nick

Album Covers!?!

2008-12-07T02:12:00.000-08:00

At the moment (well, not this exact moment) I'm working away at finishing up some art for a couple bands: iji, and Math The Band. Other than making FANTASTIC music, both bands are made up of equally great people, so its an honor to work with them.

I'm still putting the final touches on both album covers, but just a few days ago I finished the cover for Math The Bands' "Tour de Friends" EP, and I thought I'd share it here...

You can view the text-less version here

(check out both bands)

for the 2 people who look at this blog.

2008-10-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

Even though no one looks at my blog I feel compelled to put some "newer" pictures up here. The three of these were done for friends who asked me to do them a picture. It took me a while, but i got them done...

"Real Friends Stick With You No Matter What"
for Maura

"Jayme, What Happened?"
for Jayme

"Justin...why?"
for Justin

Super Fun!!

2008-03-15T21:17:00.001-07:00

i think this flyer explains what the "Super Fun Activity Challenge Book" is...

...so for the challenge i made a maze based around "The Sound Of Music" (not necessarily because i like the movie, but because it was the first thing that popped into my head when i read the word maze.) and here's my maze...

New Flyer!?!

2008-02-21T00:37:00.000-08:00

my band, "Balloons is Fun" is playing a show on February 26, so i made a flyer for the show!!

... i made the picture of the guys spooning first, as a stand alone piece, and turned it into the flyer with the magic of computers!!

heres the original...

"spoon-drawer"

its been a while...

2008-02-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

...but I'm still making stuffs

"Fight!!"

"Smoker..."

water colors from november '07

2007-11-22T12:52:00.001-08:00

"Business Batts"

"City Batts"

"Moth Stacks"

Thrifty Ice Cream

2007-11-22T12:38:00.001-08:00

(They Are supposed to be side to side with the first one on the left, but i couldn't get it to work)

More Stickers (for friends)!!

2007-10-14T20:15:00.001-07:00

self portrait and pictures for the asian babies

2007-10-14T19:58:00.001-07:00

"Growing Boys" august '07

2007-10-07T12:44:00.001-07:00

"Growing Boys"

"Growing boys" sketch

Drawings from 9/07

2007-10-06T19:01:00.001-07:00

"Rabi Snoop"

"Love Your Goat"

Stickers!?!

2007-10-06T18:55:00.001-07:00

three Final Friday Flyers

2007-10-06T18:47:00.001-07:00

Pigs!?!

2007-10-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

"Sending Gregory Back to Heaven (pt. 1-3)"

Some More Older Pieces

2007-10-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

"Cleaning the Ears of a Whale in my Father's House Slippers"

"Coral Head"

"Oil Rig"

"Canadian Whores"

Balloon Paintings from early '06

2007-10-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

"Three Thieves (balloon painting no. 3)"

"Self Portrait (balloon painting no. 5)"

"Happy Birthday Pavarotti (balloon painting no. 2)"

"Man from Pakistan (balloon painting no. 1)"

"Amputee (balloon painting no. 4)"