Spiritomb Redesign

Lately I've been sharpening my drawing skills in Photoshop with a series of character redesigns. Here is the first.

Illustration Before Bed

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Here's a quick little something I started. My apologies for the low res version, no hi res till I'm done. Posting then passing out.

I cannot stop listening to Strung out - Bar9 Song is seriously stupid.

Day 2

The Chemical Brothers show was definitely a hard act to follow. But the second day of North Coast Festival turned out to be a BLAST! The first set I decided to check out was Layedback Luke. I knew nothing about him and had never even heard the name before but the boy threw down some serious bass. I was waiting for Benga's set to start but Luke's wobble lured me in and his drums kept me there.

Luke did a great job getting me hype and I was ready for Benga to tear it up. But as the crew was setting up for the next performer I noticed a guy that looked a whole lot like Daedalus and sure enough it was.

Eventually he informed the crowd that Benga was unable to make it to the states and that he has been brought in super last minute to supply the crowd with the bass they were seeking. As sad as I am that I didn't get to see Benga perform I am thankful that Daedalus was there to entertain. He even opened up with my homie Lorn's tune Army of Fear!

Daedalous drops Lorn- Army of Fear at Northcoast Festival from Mike DuPree on Vimeo.

After Daedalous filled the bass quota for the evening I worked my way over to check out Jay Electronica's performance. In my post listing my most anticipated artists I said that I thought Jay would be the surprise of the show. Boy was I wrong. He did more talking than rapping and had a very poor sense of how to control a crowd.

Securing a Front Row Spot for De La Soul from Mike DuPree on Vimeo.

BUT after leaving his stage 20 minutes into his show I set myself up for a real treat. Front row De La Soul!

Unfortunately I don't really have any concrete documentation of the De La show. I was too busy having fun. I had forgotten how much fun good hip hop shows were. I even got to shake up with Posdenus when he came down to the crowd. I think I can say that the De La show was the most fun I had all weekend. They even brought out Dres from Black Sheep!! Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. After De La exited the stage we mustered the last of our innerfunk and worked our way over the the stage to catch Boys Noize.

Somewhere in the midst of the blinding light on stage Boys Noize switched off and Moby took over! I can't believe that he got me to dance that much when I was so worn out from De La. I know I stated previously that Boys Noize knew how to throw a party but Moby illustrated an even greater command over the forces of body movin'.

Day 3 was short and sweet. I'll post up soon.

Day 1

These are some pics from the Chemical Brothers show last night. It was beyond words. Sick tunes. Sick Visuals. Crazy crowd. This was my first show of this scale and i must say it shattered my expectations.

Chemical Brothers Rock North Coast Festival Chicago from Mike DuPree on Vimeo.

North Coast Festival Sept 3-5!

North Coast Festival, the closing event of the summer that I have been waiting for, is finally here! With the pathetic line up for Lalapalooza it's nice to see that there is a music festival in Chicago with a desirable line up. There are many others performing but the following are the artists I am looking most forward to!

BENGA

Benga is one of my favorite dubstep artists and is the only artist of the genre performing at North Coast.He is one of the first dubstep artists that I found and remains at the top of my list. I'm still recovering from the heart attack I suffered at the DJ Krush show when he dropped Benga's tune 'Roller'

CHEMICAL BROTHERS

This is the world famous duo that ushered me into the world that is electronic music. I have been waiting many years to see these guys. I was so excited when I saw them headlining the festival that I just stopped reading the flyer immediately. Star Guitar is in heavy rotation when I'm working, I LOVE that song.

FLYING LOTUS

I remember back when Fly Lo only had 3,000 plays on last FM, 1,500 of which were split between my friend Leonard and myself. With out a doubt Flying Lotus has now become a huge name in the global music scene. His unique sound is worthy of much praise despite his recent slump in my opinion. Can't wait!! Rickshaw is SUCH a sick song!

JAY ELECTRONICA

I honestly hardly know anything about this dude, but every song I've caught wind of has been righteous. It is very nice, and rare, to find a spot on MC in the sudden swarm of bubble gum crack head rappers that have taken over this country. I think Jay will be the X factor of the whole festival.

BOYS NOIZE

I have listened to his studio album Oi Oi Oi quite a bit over the past few years. However, I've had the opportunity to seem him live about four or five times now and for what ever reason I have always passed. But from what I've heard the kid knows how to throw a party so I'm eagerly awaiting. This guys Fiest remix is probably one of my favorite remixes in my iTunes.

The Chemical Brothers!!

Findings in the Field!

So remember all those posts I used to make way back when I used to go draw in the Field Museum? Well I'm still doing the drawing. I just haven't been doing the posting. I was in the museum today for about four hours and walked in with a blank page and walked out with this.

Went back to the Field to work on my newest study. I spent a little too much time in one spot. Gotta move around the piece more!

Sculpt Changes

Haven't be able to work on the project as much as I'd like to due to unsuccessful job hunting but I've decided to make some changes to my pisspoor designs.

Edited the post for a more updated multiangle view of the sculpt.

Extrusion

Finally extruded the body suit from the original mesh. I've actually never made a fully clothed figure before, as I tend to stick primarily to machines, but the process was pretty painless. Originally i was just going to make the outer most suits. However, I've been listening to the Inception soundtrack nonstop and Han Zimmer really has transformed my ideas of what i want this animation to communicate. Therefore I require a little more detail. The tacky linework was is going away. I was just practicing.

Captain Leonard.....IN 3D

Hopefully this time around this post will go through. This is the current version of the Captain Leo model. He's still a tad bulk. I'll be posting more updates soon.

Captain Leonard

Progress

Here are some pics from my ongoing project. I have decided to combine all of my various works into one larger more ambitious piece. So.. here are the fruits of my labor thus far!