Moleskin books

I've recently been getting into drawing on the covers of moleskin books.  It's an idea I saw first on DeviantArt, then all over Etsy.  I thought they all looked pretty damn cool honestly, so figured I'd try my hand. 

My first was a greek themed one which sold quite quickly! So I decided to draw up another one, which is this one here:

"Open Murder"

This was the second moleskin book I sold!  And since this one went the same day I had put it up for sale, I started working on a third...

"They Cannot Be Stopped"

One hundred and twenty some-odd zombies present in my third moleskin book.  THIS was super fun to do. And guess what? It sold right away as well!  These things are amazing! I'm glad people like these 'cause I'm having a shit-ton of fun drawing them up 

And it's neat to see how people handle these.  I spray all of these and treat them so they don't fade or wear quickly.  Then I tuck them into a plastic sleeve.  The first buyer said he's never going to open his book. :D

The second started using it for his notes in his business. 

And the third.. I'm not quite sure.  I think he'll use it.  But either way, whether they use it or not, I'm just happy they like these books.

So?  That means more on the way. 

New Stuff! Commissions and sketches. Nice. Nice.

Let's see... just a couple of commissions and a clean sketch I worked on here!

First up......

A commission I did for my friend (and tattoo artist) Cynthia!  She asked for a logo or some sort of pin-up for her shop so I did the best I could with this one! Even individually drew her tattoos and pasted them on. Took a while!

A commission for my cousin Anna in Toronto.  She wanted herself done up as the newer, Anna Hathaway version of Catwoman.

And then Rosalyn, another character in homage to the Capcom Succubus characters. Love 'em :)

Character work

Aaaaand then some character sketches. 

Sort of... a redesign of my character Empusa from my comic.

And then this! I did up another character of mine, Inada, in only three.... four? colours, to match with an old picture of Streex I did.

....tah-dah?

New Commission work!

Been a while! So first, onto the commissions :)

First, my old buddy from High School, Nick, asked me to paint his portrait for him. And I did! :)

Next, my friend Kathleen commission this painting of 'Ziggy Stardust', a horse she was helping take care of with her friend, Kaileen. Sadly, Ziggy passed on after a long, long battle of trying to get healthy.

But I bet he's having the best time right now.

And finally, a commission for Tiffany and her now husband, Mike!

This was a surprise to him-- a total 6 month surprise!  She asked me a long time ago to do this, then contacted me finally again a week before they were married. Safe to say they loved it! And I was more than happy to do it for them.

'Feathered by Leanne'

A logo commission I did for Leanne! 

All I really needed to draw was the feather, colour it, and she provided the font and adjusted it to where it is now!

 If you would like me to try a hand at a logo, the minimum is $50! 

 This was a $30 logo, simply because all I drew and painted was the feather! And Leanne did the font, 'cause she's quite Photoshop capable. :) Thank-you Leanne!

"Drawing Water" Greek themed Book Cover

'cause surprise! I'm Greek and I've (don't think...) done anything Greek themed before.

So I had this moleskin book for sale that I drew on, so I apologize for the image being so 'advertise'y. 

But hey, I sold the book within 4 hours :) And more to come! 

A zombie themed book is up next. Who doesn't like zoms?

Sydney

This was a bit of a special commission piece for Adam of his dog and best friend Sydney, who passed away.

I took a while on this piece 'cause.. well it sucks losing your best friend, be it animal, human or otherwise. I know what it's like.

So I wanted to make sure this was done with a lot of care. Not that I don't with my other commissions or pieces, of course! But ... you understand :D

Thank-you so much Adam, it was an honour to paint this for you.

"Ivy"

‎"Ivy"

My harlequin character from my comic. She's nothing special, more of a character that pops in and out once in a while to lighten the mood. Though she's -really- weird.

Entertainer, tumbler, magician, hostess, high wire, animal taming; she pretty much does it all on her own. Lots of dangerous acts like sword swallowing and knife throwing which she seems to survive (and thrive on).

Each of her masks also seems to bring out a different personality in her. When she doesn't have one on, she's weird enough, but if she slips one over her face, her demeanor changes.

And I'm considering her talking in rhymes. But that might be too cliche' :P but, fuck it.

Artwork and character © Gus Kosmopoulos 2012.

Shy and Shoulder

Oh, hey!

A little bit of de-stress sketching between commission work! Getting busy.  But no complaining, whatosever!  

So here's one of the sketches I kinda 'finished' up.

Also! I might try to add more 'content' to this webpage... feature other peoples' artwork, maybe would up a music video or two.  I'm not sure! I know I'm going to redesign this place a bit... add some more 'updated' content.

We'll see.

Also.... I'll be releasing the introduction to my comic in September.  Decided to try and make it a serious venture. For once.

A few new things. . .

Sorry I've been lacking in updates! I've been super busy! Sooo.. here's a few :)

Random Kitsune girl character sketch in action.

A commission done for Jaimie-Lyn!  Thank-you so much!

A painting for Amanda :D

Meathook CD design cover commission!

And just a character design and me messing with inks.  I wanna redo her now that I *think* i've an idea of what she looks like...

Samara's Tantrums

 A more updated drawing/sketch of my character, Samara! 

 She's the main character in my comic book, both demon and angel in one. but early on, she doesn't know exactly what she is. Early in her ages (I think this'll be... 9-11?) if her emotions get out of control, or if she's part of a high stress situation, she could explode into one of two forms-- an angel, or a demon. Both are rather terrifying in their own right. 

 If you think she looks fucked up now, wait 'till you see her older designs. :D 

 Samara and artwork © Gus Kosmopoulos 2012

Gorgon's Ilk

Believe she's done. I may put in a background digitally, paint something in, but I like the clean look Medusa's great (x500) grandaughter. Only one or so in every generation of family developed the snakes in their hair, the rest more of the quality's of Medusa's sisters. ... I haven't decided if she can turn you to stone, yet. Or on a name yet. Pencil crayons, white acrylic.

John Snow and Ghost

A painting of John Snow and his dire wolf Ghost from A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) that was commissioned to me by my friend Bert!

This took just over a month to do. There were a lot of things I didn't understand how to do when I first approached this piece.  Many of my pieces don't have backgrounds, so I've been trying to do them more with my pieces.  So after a lot of practice, a lot of research, new brush making, experimenting, getting textures, taking photos of new textures, learning how to fade things out and making it look a bit painterly, photo ref... finally finished it to my liking.  

Thanks a lot, Bert!

The Beta 58's

The Beta 58's of Kingston, Ontario recently commissioned me to do their new logo to promote their EP, Big City Ruckus.  They just wanted one tone, and a kind of city/tour theme to it, so.. here we are!

Mistakes

Personal piece. 'Cause sometimes, I'm a big idiot.

Liquorbox Hellride

A commission from the band Liquorbox, old friends of mine here!

They're starting to climb up in the world, singing country, rockabilly and dirty ol' western tunes and Justin (singer) was wicked enough to commission me to do a drawing for them to appear on posters, shirts, etc.

He didn't want anything as detailed as some of my full stuff, so I went easy on it, especially with the colours. A lot of colour can sure cost a lot for printing out t-shirts

If you're curious, go and check them out!

$10-20 Fan-art Original Pieces

heyhey!

I've decided (not my idea) to try and sell these original head shot pieces on coloured paper. They're of various characters from fandoms, be it comics, video games, movies, novels, etc. Pretty much anything.

After this first eight set (3 of which are shown, I'll update more as I go), I'm going to take requests on the rest of the coloured papers, see what people want.

So far (shown here) I've:

Sterling Archer (Archer)
Sage (Xtreme X-Men run)
Bayonetta (video game Bayonetta) <-- SOLD!

Will post the others when I scan them!

Work in progress...

No, I'm fine. But once in a while, you've got to draw it out. And I've been feeling it for months now, so wanted to pull out some frustration. Also! I designed some new character on the back of a receipt and used her here for this picture.

She's no name yet, but her story and everything else will come with the finished product.

I'll probably ink and colour this digitally. Only a portion of this piece sooo far..

artwork and character © Gus Kosmopoulos 2012. Please do not copy or redistribute without permission.

Chuck Schuldiner - Father of Death Metal

Chuck Schuldiner - May 13, 1967 – December 13, 2001

Ol' Chuck here was the creator of death metal (the best kind of metal, BTW). He was the starting force and guitarist for Mantas and Death, and pioneered this wonderful genre for many years.

This was a commission portrait for my friend Ian Steward, ex-Meathook guitarist (and he's way, way fucking good at guitar. Makes me want to give up). Chuck's his favourite guitarist. Portrait from a photo he provided, with a texture thrown over top. grid system on the guitar 'cause it was a dink. Painted side by side with the picture in Photoshop CS5.

Thanks for the music, Chuck.

Current Commission List

I'm writing down this current commission list as a good reminder to myself, and to show some clients what my schedule is like, and what I am working on currently. So!

here we go, in no particular order:

[] - Jim Snow and Ghost Portrait - Bert
[] - Portrait of his two children - James
[] - Chuck Schulinder portrait - Ian
[] - Candy Store web design - Scott
[] - Wedding Tree guest book - Melissa
[] - Niece portrait - Lisa
[] - Album cover - Brian (pending approval)
[] - Alex Grey eye tattoo - Laura
[] - Prints - Anna (sent)
[] - Prints - Jerry
[] - daughter portrait - Dale
[] - Liquorbox comic pinup - Liquorbox

I've also a commission pricing list if you're interested! You can check it out here, it's more organizied:

-->Commission Pricing List

The Silmarillion: Of Fingolfin and Morgoth

A commission my friend Joe asked me to do for him. It's something I've never really done or approached, but this was reaaaaaal fun to do and experiment with.

No under drawing, just straight into Photoshop and painted. And I think if I work anymore on it and continue being nitpicky, I'll go nuts. used a combination of a rock texture with brushes from http://thundercake.deviantart.com for the background. Could of tightened some rocks a bit..

But yeah, if any of you have read the Silmarillion, you'll know this showdown between Fingolfin and Morgoth. I tried to do what I could to represent them well. Hopefully!

Morgoth and Fingolfin are © J.R.R. Tolkien 2012, all rights reserved. I believe that's right.

Artwork by me.

Thanks, Joe!

See? I draw more than a few pinup girls.

Bliss

Title in the works.

8x10 painting I did using acrylics mostly, spray paint (base), marker and india ink.

Not sure if I'm happy with it yet, but hey!

Sereana

A gift portrait for a beautiful girl who for some reason happens to like me. I'm happy she liked it. One of my best portraits so far.

Leigh's Skull

My friend Leigh had commissioned me to do a valentines day picture for his girlfriend. He just had a loose idea, naming 'Strung Out' as an inspirational idea, so I started thinking of ideas and thought, 'why not try some skull illusion art?' I've always wanted to. So I pitched the idea to him and he loved it.

Skull illusion are is by no means my idea, and has been around for a very long time now. However, I have to say I'm directly influenced by this guys stuff:

Monavx <-- amazing artist, and definitely better at it than me. :D

I did this digitally, but next time I think I'll try it traditionally. My hand is way steadier.

Tremont Park Island Tattoo

This was a commission of the an island called Tremont Park Island located within the Thousand Island's here in the St. Lawrence's mouth. His family spent a lot of time at three of the cottages, and I believe this was for a family member to preserve some memories.

I used a brush as an example for the trees and shrubberies, but drew in the graphics for the trees myself/copied pasted etc.

Demon Water

The last of my little 'aquatic' series, or... whatever you might wanna call that.

This one was on a piece of 30x24 piece of craft paper, so it reaaaally sucked trying to figure out how to get this. I tried to take a picture of it as best I could, but the colours are really muted and a bit messed in comparison to real life. :/

Oh well. Demon girl, oddly happy with what she's doing.

Artwork done and © Gus Kosmopoulos, 2012. Please do not copy or redistribute without permission.

Again... more vibrant in person. :P

Mind of My Own

‎'Misery' is a character from my comic (with all the other characters). Tried to include little subtleties in this one.

Her tale has always been a sad one in the comic for years. I've been trying to figure out little stories and everything to mix in with the main plot. And when I make characters, I can't help but come up with a back story.

But this'll be the third and last of the 'Misery' series. She's been sad long enough, taken enough of me (whenever I feel rough, she takes the abuse from me.. and that's just not fair), so you will see her happy in the next picture! and it'll probably be the last you see of Misery.

She'll be turned into Hope.

based off of 'Mind of my Own' by Strung Out.

Artwork done entirely in Photoshop CS5 with a Graphire 4.