Colton Balske

MOVING BLOGS

2011-10-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

Hey sorry I've been gone for awhile, Two years of college sort of got in the way, good news though I got a new blog (with blogger) at balskeart.blogspot.com

Burt

2011-04-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

Say hello to Burt, he's dead, has been for sometime, not sure how we know his name is Burt, we only met him after he died and he is unable to speak.

No Jokes

2011-03-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

This is my newest style change, well more like amount-of-details-I-wish-to-draw-in-one-portrait change, anyways, just some practice for future commissions.

Violence is Everywhere

2011-03-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

This was a project for my publication design class, it's for a fictional art collective called "Art and Issues" We needed to pick an issue and use expressive type to convey the message. My message was stop hasslin' video game violence and worry about the real world stuff, also there's no substantial link between violent games and violent kids, at least that's what the newspaper said.

Into the Evil Beast

2011-03-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

It has been some time since I had posted anything, since I have been beaten to death by school, since I will be redesigning this blog soon, I figured I put up something a little more recent than December 2010, this is a piece for a gallery show at the end of the week, the theme is "inspired by music" this is essentially inspired by EVERY Dragonforce song I have ever heard.

Gamer Health

2010-12-10T10:25:00.000-08:00

This was a spot illustration for a school assignment, it's featured with an add about a healthy lifestyle being unhealthy for you, it's not a very serious article.

Bed Monster

2010-11-22T12:50:00.000-08:00

There is no such thing as bogeymen only giant monsters.

Fred and Fred 11

2010-11-22T12:49:00.001-08:00

Two creepy little guys just shooting the breeze

Fred and Fred 10

2010-11-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

Two creepy little guys just shooting the breeze

Mud Puddle

2010-11-15T18:57:00.001-08:00

A self promo type mark illustration originally intended as the header of this blog, perhaps I will use it again some day.

Thanks for Knife

2010-11-13T10:19:00.001-08:00

A simple thank you card for a class mate

Two Face

2010-11-11T18:29:00.001-08:00

This was a piece I was selling as a poster at the Central Canada Comic Con, an idea for two face's gang of thugs.

On the Moon

2010-11-10T05:36:00.001-08:00

Darn moon and its anti-gravity.

Fred and Fred 09

2010-11-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

Two creepy little guys just shooting the breeze

Robot Paintings

2010-11-08T07:26:00.000-08:00

A series of three small watercolors featuring robots and nature

King Ghidora

2010-11-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

The mighty three headed dragon from Japan!

Monster Trucker

2010-11-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

One bad ass monster trucker, yo

Fred and Fred 08

2010-11-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Two creepy little guys just shooting the breeze.

Donor Poster

2010-10-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

This is a older project that I found while looking through old files. One of my only design jobs that features my illustration

Fred and Fred 07

2010-10-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

Two creepy little guys just shooting the breeze. More of them at my deviant art

Watercolor cards 2

2010-10-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

Three more fun little cartoons I painted for fun.

Watercolor cards 1

2010-10-29T07:21:00.001-07:00

A few little cartoon watercolors I did just for fun

Blackgate

2010-10-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

Batman and various villains from blackgate and other places

Comic Con Sketchcards

2010-10-28T07:55:00.001-07:00

These cards are being auctioned off at the Central Canada Comic Con this weekend

What have we done...

2010-10-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

What were the scientists of Lab 09 trying to do? Did they succeed or were they just brutally murdered by their own creation?

Manitoba Life

2010-10-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

This was another college illustration assignment, I did the image in watercolor and the text in illustration, there are some little things I'm not happy with in it, but overall it turned out well.

Bedbug infestation

2010-10-18T13:54:00.001-07:00

This is a project for my college illustration class. It appears that this mad has some very large bedbug problems.

It followed me home

2010-10-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

This started as a sketchbook assignment and I brought it to digital. Sometimes not just dogs follow you home.

Furlits!

2010-09-10T04:44:00.000-07:00

Little creatures I invented for the purpose of decorating my portfolio, but I found they didn't exactly represent me very well, I still love them and will find a use for them in the future.

package illustration

2010-09-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't had an opportunity to finish any projects or sort any out, but this is an illustration I did for a college project. We had to design an e-newsletter based on an article, I found an article on package design websites and this is the picture I did for it.

Gone...

2010-08-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

This is what I do when I go out :)

Mashed Potato Head

2010-08-19T13:20:00.001-07:00

A T-shirt design for Split-reason.com,looks like someone had it in for the guy.

John Lennon

2010-08-16T19:28:00.000-07:00

This was a watercolor portrait for my girlfriend. She LOVES this man.

Wizard of Oz

2010-08-14T12:16:00.001-07:00

My take on the classic Wizard of Oz cast, my favorite is the scarecrow.

Mighty Muggs

2010-08-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

V and Sweet tooth two random characters that will never become actual mighty muggs

Megagalaga

2010-08-13T14:01:00.001-07:00

This is a T-shirt design I submitted to split reason. When the Galagas call in for help from Godzilla's most feared foe.

Fred and Fred 6

2010-08-12T13:12:00.001-07:00

Batman cards

2010-08-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

completed sketchcards ready for sale, if I had means of producing them and a buying audience.

Crawlies

2010-08-11T22:42:00.001-07:00

An unfinished blog banner. I'm not sure if I'm going to use it yet, but I'll use it for something. There's not a lot of variation in the creatures to use as as a spot illustration, cropping it and using as texture may be the solution.

Having Cereal

2010-08-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is a cute little comic I made for "kids" it doesn't make any sense, which is what kinds love. I'm working on more of these.

Fred and Fred 5

2010-08-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

Lamplighter

2010-08-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

This is a design for a toy that I created, I may or may not send it to be made.

Fred and Fred 4

2010-07-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

Kamarians

2010-07-28T14:23:00.003-07:00

This is another older piece, about 3 or 4 years now but it's still one of my favorites, based on a little known race in the Star Wars universe.

Tangent

2010-07-18T07:54:00.000-07:00

This was another older project I found that I really liked. The creature on the left is my version of a lovecraftian monster. Not really too much else to say about it I guess.

Card House

2010-07-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

This was originally a sketch for my college sketchbook that I took to digital. his grumpy old man was making a card house and them he went and knocked the darn thing over.

Lightbulb Robot

2010-07-12T09:20:00.000-07:00

This cute er... BIG guy was a piece I did last year. I was sorting old files and came across him and felt it was a lot better than the current stuff I'm doing, so I'm including it here. The idea I had was there's two entities in one body the large dopey one controls the body and the intelligent one sits in the chest and tells the dopey one how stupid he is. In this case wasting time changing light bulbs.

In the Face

2010-07-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

This is the logo is for my and my friend's youtube channel for our Freedom Force videos

Leech in a Glass 8

2010-07-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

guys with guns

2010-07-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

On top of my millions of other ideas, I have been planning a series of short comics based on me and my friend bad ass alter egos that would never work or exist, this is my first, his name is Matt.

Leech in a Glass 7

2010-06-29T16:46:00.001-07:00

Roald Dahl Tribute

2010-06-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

These are a few warm up sketches I did a little while ago, just when a sudden notion struck me to do stylized versions of the insects from James and the Giant Peach

Leech in a Glass 6

2010-06-05T09:05:00.001-07:00

WAR MASTERS

2010-05-31T22:48:00.000-07:00

This is a new table top papercraft game I am currently working on. I may decided to make a separate website or blog for it where anyone can picture up the layouts to make their own but I suppose i should finish it first.

Leech in a Glass 5

2010-05-31T09:33:00.000-07:00

Comic Heroes

2010-05-27T16:17:00.000-07:00

This is a piece I have been working on for a friend of mine of her and her room mate as super heroes. What their super hero names are escape me but I'll probably need them to finish this up :S.

Alphabetbook

2010-05-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

This was one of my final projects for college, it was for my typography class. We had to create an alphabet book using different things to convey each letter in a unique way. For mine I chose robots in the context of a children's book. I did a total of 26 completely vectored illustrations. I'll be fixing it up and trying to send it off to a publisher

Leech in a Glass 4

2010-05-25T11:35:00.001-07:00

Fred and Fred 3

2010-05-24T14:21:00.000-07:00

Postcards!

2010-05-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

I just received my printed cards from Staples today, they turned out darker than I planned but that seems to always happen, so I guess that something I should work on in the future, also I thought they were going to print on actual card stock instead of cheap photo paper.

Fred and Fred 2

2010-05-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

Character Design

2010-05-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

This guys is a character concept I'm working on for a series I'm developing called Spring heeled Jack.

Tourism Watercolors

2010-05-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

This is another college project I did this year after visiting several locations in Winnipeg I choose 2 sketches and 2 photos from the trip and creature four watercolors. These are my favorite two I did and I didn't scan the others before I mounted them.

Leech in a Glass 3

2010-05-18T09:42:00.001-07:00

Fred and Fred

2010-05-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

This is an intro to a comic strip series I'll be feature on here

Batman Sketchcards

2010-05-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

In honor of my favorite superhero, I decided to do a series of sketch cards based on the villains of Batman. I included some of my favorites like Scarface, scarecrow and Black mask. Most of the cards I did in pencil and ink, I also did a few in watercolor, and three extra larger paintings (that were failed attempts at cards).

Raven and Squirrel

2010-05-15T08:20:00.000-07:00

During my last month of college our group went to Chicago for a week to relax and study art and architecture there. The students that couldn't go stayed here in Winnipeg and did sketches around the city. This piece is of a slightly disturbing exhibit that has fascinated me since I was a kid. Its on natural decomposers of the forest featuring a variety of flesh eating insects and fungi, thankfully not many people find this display as it is tucked away in a dark corner of the Manitoba museum.

Leech in a glass 2

2010-05-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

This is the second comic in the series.

Pixie Postcards

2010-05-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

I used two species of sprite creatures I imagined up to create two unique postcards that I plan to send off to anyone who wants one. After sketching them on watercolor paper I painted them and fix them up in photoshop. If people like them enough I might do a few more and create a series.

Little Birdie

2010-05-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

This painting was originally the VERY last sketchbook assignment I did for my first year of college, I decided that instead of half-assing one I would do something a bit more developed. The idea behind the painting is the first signs of spring, since the Yellow warbler is considered a spring bird, I choose to render a super cute version of one and paint it. The lines are done with ball point pen, just in-case you need to know (They work well with watercolors as ballpoint ink is not water soluble). After I got it back I framed it and am going to give it to my girlfriend.

Skateboard Design

2010-05-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

Second year graphic design students do a skateboard project for illustration class. In our first year we had a sketchbook assignment where we were supposed to plan ahead for it. This was my design involving puppets it's called "cut your strings".

Leech in a Glass

2010-05-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Leech in a glass are little comic strips I filled my first semester college sketchbook with in order to pass some time (In the end they go me bonus marks!). I made eight in total and will be posting them once a week, or so.

Driving with Thomas

2010-05-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

This short comic took me two days of labor but was all worth it. With that said its very sloppy and hastily done, but its depicting an inside joke between tom and I and our group of friends. You see Thomas is a crazy guy and a crazy driver, he can find his way around traffic like no one else I know. We all thought it be hilarious if his car had gadgets to help him do that and this is one of them. MATURE LANGUAGE WARNING!!

Tarot Card

2010-05-13T08:36:00.001-07:00

I can't say this project was recent but not that long ago the blog Super punch started doing a call for illustrators to create a deck of unique tarot cards. Though I wasn't one of the artists chosen for a main card I sent a design in anyway and it was posted. The hermit represents withdrawal or hastiness.

Cubeecraft posts

2010-03-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

Even though it hasn't happened recently I have been fortunate enough to have a couple of my designs posted a few months ago on Cubeecraft. One of them being my own creation titled Furlit and the other a papercraft of the puppet Billy from the saw movies. You can check them out and download them to make yourself at cubeecraft.com.

Bruce

2010-02-02T06:23:00.000-08:00

While awake at 12:30 last night, I decided to instead of going to sleep, to try and work on a fiction portrait with my bamboo tablet. I like how it turned out, but I could have used the sleep.

I'm Back

2010-01-07T06:48:00.000-08:00

Since I have been off this blog for almost a year and this is the only form of website I currently own I figured I should try to put up some new work. I managed to find time over my Christmas break to finish this piece. Its from a short story I wrote involving a baker and his Frankenstein like gingerbread man.