New Art Cards, a contest,and NEWS!

New Art

There hasn't been a lot of art lately, so here are four, count 'em FOUR, new art cards.  With Halloween around the corner, it was time for Bru to put on the ol' costume.  Let me know which one you like in the comments below:

 

Contest

Two contests, to be precise! 1 here and 1 on Facebook
The prize: 1 signed 8 x 10 print of all 4 art cards above AND a special SUPER-VILLAIN Bruin art card.
How to win the first contest:  In the comments below vote for your favorite card from the ones above.  You can vote only once.  If I get TWENTY FIVE votes or more before October 31, I will randomly select a name. I must be able to contact you via email and get a valid mailing address my November 2.
How to win the second contest: Follow Coffee Bruin on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/CoffeeBruin).  Encourage your friends and family to follow and LIKE Coffee Bruin on Facebook.  I am currently at 67 friends.  When I hit 100 friends I will go through ALL of the names and randomly select a name.
Really, this couldn't be easier... Share the Bear!  Win a Print!

Headlines

I have lots of news so I'll keep it brief and share it (and more art) through out the next few weeks.

The Wilkesboro Open Air Market has its final day TODAY October 18.  Phyllis and I will be out there so please come join us one last time.

But don't worry, Coffee Bruin Studios is back in action NEXT WEEK at the new Benton Hall Artisan Market!  This is Wilkes County's regional indoor market. It runs every Saturday from 9:00am  til 1:00pm.

Wilkes Minicon is now officially Happening.  For more information, please check out WilkesMiniCon.com
You might also note that it is a WordPress site.  That means THIS site is very close to migration to WordPress and then ComicPress.

Hickory Comic Con wrap up / Morganton Comic Con coming soon.  Yeah... I really DO have a lot to say about this and a lot of pictures to share, but that will have to wait.  Next post

Jay and Eddie's Comic Book Show really needs it's own blog post.  Hell they need their own website.  And store.  I did their show this Spring it was my first solo show as an artist and it was AMAZING.  The guys are back  November 23rd.  I'm going to be there.  You should be there.  Really, YOU SHOULD BE THERE.

Whew, that was a lot.  To recap:

1. Artcards
2. Contests ("You like me! You, really, really like me! Right? Please?")
3. Open Air Market finished - moving to Benton Hall
4. Check out WilkesMiniCon.com
5. Even more con news

Don't forget to vote!

The Crossover Blog Post

Richard Belzer rocks the world

Faithful followers of food and art - this is a crossover post.  By "Crossover" I don't mean a Crossover SUV, or a crossover pass; I'm talking about a crossover blog post.  Today's post will be in both My Taste Of The Day and Coffee Bruin!

There have been plenty of great crossovers.  I remember when the show Homicide, Life on the Street crossed over with Law and Order.  (In fact, that's why Detective Munch is now on Law and Order SVU.)

So why the crossover and what are we going to do?  Over the past few years, I have had THOUSANDS of you read My Taste Of The Day and many of you have shared your ideas and requests.  I want to keep catering to you and continue to give you content while I build up readership with content, comics, and art at Coffee Bruin.  THESE ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE GOALS!

Presenting the great Cookbook Challenge!

Here's the plan:  I am looking for comments with 2 - 3 ingredients but NOT RECIPES!  Think Iron Chef.  If I choose your comment for the challenge I will develop a recipe from your ingredients, draw cover art for the recipe, and include it in a forth-coming cookbook. If I can get 25-30 comments, I'll start a Kickstarter campaign to get this published and all of the included commenters will get a hard copy of the cookbook if it is successful.  Stretch goal?  I'll make videos of some of these recipes and post them on YouTube.

There you have it folks Art meets Food.  So let's get this Bear drawing and Cooking!

The Walking Dead and Art Commissions

Do you like zombies, ghouls, and ghosts?  I can't say I'm a fan.  So when a horror flick comes out my wife grabs her horror movie buddy, my daughter, and they will watch it.  Meanwhile, I'll be in the other room (or the other county) doing something else.

Last weekend, AMC had a special marathon of the Walking Dead Season 3.  In preparation, starting on Friday, my wife watched all of Seasons 1 and 2.  Then she watched the marathon.  By Sunday night, she had seen all of it.  And I had been commissioned to do the following piece:

This is 9 x 12 sepia ink on card stock.  Prints of this piece are available.

HERE IS MY NEW PRICING FOR COMMISSIONS!  If you will be attending either JayAndEddies in Winston Salem on 7/20 or RobCon in Bristol on 7/27 and PRE-ORDER you will get a 20% discount!

Pre-order by emailing me at Denis@CoffeeBruin.com

The Two-for-One Special

Greetings all you wonderful Coffee Bruin fans out there!  More art today, a 2-for-1 special in fact!

I am showing two new prints today.  Both are examples of my playing with layering.  In both cases, I have hand drawn and/or inked several layers and then digitally merged the layers into a final product.

These prints (see down below) are available in 8x10 and art card size.  If you would like a copy of either print, please email me at Denis@CoffeeBruin.com

More Con News...

I'm finalizing details for an appearance at the Jay and Eddie's Comic Book Show in Winston Salem on July 20.  More news on that in the next few days.

In the meantime, be sure to stop by the Wilkesboro Open Air Market on Friday.  We're selling lots of paracord bracelets and jewelry, and I'm also doing more and more requests like this Adventure Time one from last week:

Print #1: The Joker!

I like the fact you can see the brush strokes on this piece.  To me it gives the picture even more of a psychotic feel.

Print #2: Bunny 10

This piece was digitally inked after going through several iterations (and two heads).  My son really likes Ben 10, so I thought I'd play around with the concept a little.  The background was fun to make as well.  It's a circuit board superimposed on a NASA/JPL photo of a galaxy cluster (very cool!).

1st and Ten

With a comic name "Coffee Bruin" One would think I am a Chicago Bears fan.  One would be wrong.  I am a die-hard Miami Dolphins fan and have been all my life.  As I have been known to say, I will support the Fins whether they are 16-0 or 0-16.

While I do apologize to my fans outside of the USA, The following piece is very US-centric.

Please Mr. and Ms. Lawyers, don't sue me... THIS IS FAN ART!

I had a friend's son ask me to draw Sponge Bob Squarepants and Patrick in Patriots uniforms.  This was extremely hard for me to do.  Not as an artist, but as a Dolphins fan.

We will never forget

So I have a chip on my shoulder after all these years.

If you would like a print of today's piece with YOUR favorite team, Pro, college, or even high school, please email me at Denis@coffeebruin.com

Superman in Raleigh, NC

Hello all!  I hope you all have had a good weekend.  This is the big weekend for the reboot of the Superman franchise with "Man of Steel".  I just came back from seeing it and will review it in a later post.

With Superman out this weekend and Ironman 3 a few weeks ago, I have changed a sign that I usually post at the open air market from this

to this

With that in mind, I drew a special piece to kick it off.  Last weekend, as I mentioned in a prior post was HeroesCon in Charlotte.  At the same time in the same convention center was the NC State Republican convention.  This was attended my many high profile members of the GOP including the governor of the state, Pat McCrory.

I have two rules here.  I don't discuss politics, and I don't discuss religion.  That being said, I will bend the first rule a little.  Governor McCrory was in Wilkesboro this Saturday, so my special piece was in his honor.

After his speech, he had a brief meet and greet at which point I was able to present him with the picture.  Pat had a good laugh and signed the piece for me.  Is it my best piece?  No.  But I like the shadowing on the tie, and it is the only piece I have signed by a sitting governor of a state in the US.

Same Bat time? No, same Adventure Time!

The retooling of the site is progressing slowly.  I've got a lot of ideas on paper, but I sure could use someone with more experience in Word Press and the Comic Press add-in.  All in good time though.

A quick note, be sure to check me out on Twitter and Facebook and head over to MyTatseOfTheDay.com, there just might be some exciting non-comic related news over there.

-Denis

Headlines

While I'm putting together my recap from HeroesCon I thought I share this gem from today's local paper.  It MAY have been altered slightly, but I'm not admitting to anything.

HeroesCon Day 0

With just a few hours before we start, I am still awake, touching up things before my first con experience from THE OTHER SIDE.  Yes, in case you are wondering, I am nervous.  This is A BIG CON.  200,000 square feet of exhibition space, I have 6 square feet thanks to some wonderful friends.  We have sunk a lot of hard work over the past few weeks into this, and I still don't know if we are completely ready.  It's probably just butterflies.  I get this way before a big speech in Toastmasters too.

Wish us luck!

So if you are within a few hours of Charlotte this weekend, please stop by.  HeroesCon is incredible and this year is twice the size!

Here's my sign to help direct you:

If you can't make it, look for information over the next few days for ordering via Amazon and/or Comixology.

Mini-comic SNEAK PREVIEW

Debuting at Heroes Con will be the first issue of Thirteen Seconds to Midnight!

Here's a sneak preview of issue 1: The Devil Went Down to Georgia

Stop by Artist Alley - AA421 to pick up your copy!

Commissions for Heroes Con

Art Cards!  4x6!  8x10! Get your Art Cards here!

Commission Pricing for Heroes Con

Art Cards:
B/W - $ 3.00
Color (Marker) - $ 5.00

4 x 6: (limited availability)
B/W - $ 10.00
Color (Marker) - $ 12.00

8 x 10:  (limited availability)
B/W - $ 20.00
Color (Marker) - $ 25.00
Watercolor - $50.00

E-mail me directly at Denis@CoffeeBruin.com

Free delivery inside the US if you will not be attending Heroes Con.

STOP THE PRESSES - we've got news!

Hello to all my bear loving friends out there.  I've got news!

Site retooling

This site is getting ready to go through a MAJOR restructuring as Coffee Bruin the webcomic becomes COFFEE BRUIN STUDIOS. I'll have links to an Etsy shop, a place for requesting commissions, and more.

The Comic will resume with a new format and focus.

Webcomic refocus?

Yes!  With the refocus I will be shifting to a simpler black and white three panel format that should allow for more bruin and less pain-in-the-butt.  There are also several other projects in the works including "Turtle and Snail" and "Thirteen Seconds to Midnight" which will be making their appearances here.

Leaving Blogger

Blogger was always a temporary home.  As I finally get WordPress and then ComicPress up and running I will  make the conversion.  I still recommend Blogger for the beginning blogger, but for this project it is woefully under-powered.

Coffee Bruin on the Prowl!

That's right, the Coffee Bruin is out of his cave and has been spotted in many different places lately.

Through September, Coffee Bruin Studios will be at the WIlkesboro, NC Open Air Market every Friday (with some rare exceptions).  You can find them on Facebook here.

This coming weekend (June 7 - 9) is Heroes Con in Charlotte.  Coffee Bruin will makes it's first con appearance!  The wonderful people at Think Weasel are letting us share space (table AA421).

Upcoming Con Schedule

• June 7- 9 - HeroesCon, Charlotte NC (Table AA-421)
• July 27 - RobCon, Bristol, TN (confirmed!)
• August 23 - 25 - Intervention, Rockville, MD (attending only, find me for a free pencil sketch!)
• September 6 - 8 - Outside Con 26, Burns, TN (tentative)
• September 21 - Asheville Compic Expo, Asheville, NC (tentative)
• more to come

If you are organizing a Comic Book Convention in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, or the Washington, D.C. area and you are interested in having Coffee Bruin Studios attend, please email me at Denis@CoffeeBruin.com

Thirteen Seconds to Midnight

Check out the new mini-comic, "Thirteen Seconds to Midnight #1: The Devil Went Down to Georgia".  This is a Con EXCLUSIVE for Heroes Con.  It's a retelling of the classic song, with a twist.

Lot's more to come including pictures from Heroes Con - but THAT is for another post....

Coffee Bruin will be at the Wilkesboro Open Air Market Friday, April 19 at it's kickoff event, Woofstock '13! I will have the comic on display as well as other arts and crafts. Check outhttp://www.visitnc.com/events/view/45839/wilkesboro-open-air-market for more information!

006: Wake up!

Hibernating... whose bright idea was it to start this comic on January 1st anyway?  Oh yeah, mine.  The past month or so has been filled with a lot of excitement around the household.  In addition to celebrating birthdays and a 20th anniversary, my daughter tried to break her ankle.  This has meant Momma Bear and Poppa Bear have been driving College Bear to her classes every day.  It's a good thing that the university is only 35 minutes away.

There will be a couple of changes to the comic.  The biggest one is the style.  As I have been drawing this character he has been evolving, so have the other characters.  My notebook is full of Bru and the others, but because of all the work it takes to edit the images digitally I am going to eliminate that step.  This means less backgrounds and photo-manipulation and more actual comics.  Give me your feedback as you see the changes.

I actually do have some small storylines that are sketched out, but as this is only the sixth comic, I haven't built enough backstory for them.

and here's a little bonus art from the notebook:

More on Friday!