Jason Claus

Bicycle Sticker Designs

2011-12-14T14:28:00.000-08:00

Chickadee Vector Illustration

2011-06-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge

GTA vs. 8-bit life

2011-06-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

Album cover for That Boy D. Check it out on Itunes

Logo Prototypes

2011-05-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

For a maintenance supply business and a plumbing supply business

Freshen Up

2011-05-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time I was paid to paint a human

skull with toothpaste and toothbrush.
Sometimes Craigslist is amazing.

Dickensian Hobo Fishing

2011-04-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

More foolery from the The Drawing Club

The Patriot

2011-02-11T07:53:00.000-08:00

A Pixelated Life II

2011-01-21T17:04:00.000-08:00

I took my friend Dennis Legree's hand drawn illo that we're using for his album art and pixelified it the best I knew how in Illustrator. It was tedious copy/dragging little squares around, but I'm happy with the finished product. If anyone reading knows a better way to do this PLEASE let me know. Check out That Boy D 's music here .

A Pixelated Life

2011-01-10T10:09:00.000-08:00

Chupy

Chupy's Egg

Pegajoso

My dream job would be to translate the world into pixel blocks

Maleficent

2011-01-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

Maleficent inspired costume at The Drawing Club

Arabian Nights

2010-12-16T12:58:00.000-08:00

Black Bird

2010-12-02T15:59:00.000-08:00

I'm really sick today. Being sick gets really boring so I did a drawing in bed.

Pro Ninja Ball Alternate Logo

2010-12-02T09:57:00.000-08:00

The Welshly Arms

2010-11-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

The Professors Roger & Virginia Klarven

Fashion Rendering

2010-11-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

Vector Illustration

Click to enlarge

The Mad Professor

2010-10-22T09:27:00.000-07:00

Thursday at The Drawing Club . The model actually brought a theremin with him.

Belly Dancer

2010-10-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

Charcoal on newsprint

Costumed model session at The Drawing Club

2010-09-29T07:49:00.000-07:00

Yakuza!!!

2010-09-21T19:35:00.001-07:00

Inks On Colored Paper

The Incredible Trump

2010-09-20T21:38:00.000-07:00

Traditional & Digital Media

PNBA

2010-09-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

Garage Land Productions

2010-09-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

Vector Illustration

Tokyo Candy

2010-08-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

14"x18", Acrylic

some gallery work I've been doing...

Isometric Inkwell Logo Design

2010-08-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

Adelita

2010-08-15T18:16:00.000-07:00

18x24 Poster

DVD Insert

DVD Rear

Free Paper Toy!

2010-08-12T13:31:00.000-07:00

Paper Toy Design

You can download the template here

Gary Oldman

2010-08-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

The Shirt Is Coming

2010-07-31T23:31:00.000-07:00

Day of Alliteration

2010-07-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

sparkly jelly roller pen. Too bad you can't see the sparkle.

On my day off today, I remembered when I was in 5th grade and we had a project in which the class had to go through the alphabet and come up with sentences using alliteration and then illustrate them with crayons. Self- loathing settled in as I couldn't come up with good sentences. I only recall one sentence from that project. I was so exasperated with "K" that I grabbed a dictionary, pulled random words from the page and came up with "Kermit Karate-chopped the Kaolin K-mart". Wow.

Comic-Con 2010

2010-07-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Comic-Con. It was pretty fun. I missed the Tron Legacy review show which was disappointing. It was hard not to spend all my money at Stuart Ng's booth. He has an amazing collection of out of print and rare fine art & illustration books.

Henchman 21 & 24 with Dr. Girlfriend holding my Henchman 24 figure

A group of Steam Punks and Gumby... naturally.

Joel McHale!

Enjoying a pedicab ride like a real dandy. Chop chop boy!

2011 Subaru WRX with an awesome illo by Nathan Fox. I want one! 0-60 in 3.5 seconds!

Adelita At The Drawing Club

2010-07-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

My beautiful wife Alejandra posed this morning at The Drawing Club and did an amazing job. Life is more exciting with a revolutionary minded person around the house.

Who Says You Have To Leave The Nest?

2010-07-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

Santa Barbara Landscape

2010-07-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

I bought a french easel a month ago because I wanted to do some plein air painting in Lake Tahoe, but I had a hard time finding a good spot on the lake and then when I found a spot it started raining. Here's one I did of a trip to Santa Barbara. We stayed at this amazing resort called Bacara which normally would be way too rich for my blood. There was this neat little lagoon with a orange train bridge in the background.

So There Was This Goose At The Park...

2010-07-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a long time, I've been busy on storyboard projects. Remember 10 years ago when the internet was fun and people actually went to your blog and posted comments even when it sucked? So there was this goose at the park and he gave me the weirdest look... ...

Chupy Settles Down

2010-05-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

Cabaret Girl

2010-05-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

Cabaret art from The Drawing Club

Guy The Canary

2010-05-15T00:13:00.000-07:00

We lost our little canary Guy today. Somehow he got sick and died at the vet. They are funny little birds and I always loved sketching him when I was in the living room. I picked him him out from the rest because he was bigger than the other canaries in the cage at the pet store and he didn't seem to fit in with the others. He

looked lost. He wasn't a very talented singer, truth be told, but we'll miss him and I don't think we'll be getting another little bird. They're too fragile

Anouncing The Opening Of The BRC Gallery

2010-04-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Please visit my new pet project, The BRC Gallery. It's something I've been meaning to do for ten years, and I finally got around to making it happen this weekend partly to get my mind off certain things and to relieve some stress with a little comic relief.

Puchunguito, Chupy,& Gordo

2010-04-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

The mini comic is almost done! Will be on sale soon!

Hardboiled... ... and softboiled

2010-04-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

More Drawing Club action. Don't smoke, it's not good.

The Hillbilly

2010-04-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

If only he could break the cycle of poverty and moonshine abuse. More fun from The Drawing Club

Happy Life Joy Times

2010-03-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

This is a T-shirt design. Lots of anchor points! Spot the Datsun?

Snoot

2010-03-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

I miss this sleeping pom. Great dog. Some horrible person stole her from the yard a couple of years ago. I keep fiddling with this illustration in memoriam

The Spirit

2010-03-19T18:06:00.000-07:00

Andy Flaster doesn't have the ideal physique for a super hero but he does have the greatest nose of any model.

Update

2010-01-29T19:14:00.001-08:00

a guy I know

I know it looks glamorous, but it's business as usual at Scaryghost Studios.

I Love A New Sketchbook

2009-12-11T19:19:00.001-08:00

It's fun living with a Mexican Revolutionary

Topanga Trail

On Getting Better

2009-12-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

This is really great advice for anyone working at becoming an artist. I've never heard anyone express this idea better. I really struggled for years trying to get over the hump of mediocrity and felt like I was the only one who was unhappy with their work because it seemed to me that everyone around me was either really good or really bad and the bad ones were oblivious of how bad they really were at their craft. It's really hard to become a great artist if you have "good taste". I was never happy with what I made for a couple of years but I kept working at it and eventually got to a point in my craft where my work started to look professional. Those hump years were tough though, lot's of self-loathing.

Too Much Photoshop

2009-10-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

I've been working in Photoshop so much recently that I started to feel guilty for not getting out the paper and pencils.

Sargent Master Copy

2009-05-03T22:58:00.001-07:00

For practice and fun. I haven't been able to get to a workshop recently so...

Pink Flamingo

2009-04-29T14:41:00.000-07:00

This was sold at a silent auction raising money for the SCV Food Pantry

The Fat Lady Sings

2009-04-19T10:43:00.001-07:00

Jee Teo

2009-03-29T20:18:00.001-07:00

Son of Pacoima

2009-03-27T17:44:00.001-07:00

Terabithia Theme

2009-03-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

Stuff from the Drawing Club with my favorite model, Daniella Traub

The Admirals of Lake Balboa

2009-03-15T15:07:00.001-07:00

Sketch of some guys navigating the murky, reclaimed waters of Lake Balboa. One of the guys had a RC Spanish Galleon that terrorized the wigeons and coots.

Chalchihuites Framed

2009-02-28T12:48:00.001-08:00

20x24, acrylic on canvas

The last painting in the Chalchihuites series is still for sale, but this one is framed. It's a really nice dark grey custom frame. Feel free to email me or leave a comment if you are interested in purchasing it or have any questions.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

2009-02-25T18:44:00.001-08:00

Do you remember your high score on Frogger? Do you care? I hated Frogger as a kid. I was two years old when it came out in 1981. I could never really get into the classic arcade games like Pac-man and Asteroids which were all about getting points. My first love was princess Zelda. When I first heard of her Legend, her plight from my friend next door in 1987, I knew I had to save her. Zelda didn’t care about how many Octoroks I wasted, how many points I could push- she just needed a good, hard saving. For about the next ten years, like many of my friends, I dedicated my life to the eradication of digital evil doers. Gannon, Dr. Wiley, M. Bison, and King Koopa were all on the hit list. The rescuing of digital damsels, saving the world from the threat of some pixelated madman in the newest home console game felt important to me. I wanted to get to the end, to see the final screen shot which was almost always anti-climactic and disappointing. It was just me against the machine- beat the level, beat the boss, get the girl.

For classic arcade gamers it was all about the score. Games like Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, and Dig-Dug seemingly went on forever with no final foe or ultimate objective, other than racking up as many points as you could. Players spent hours trying to figure out ways to get as many points out of a level possible before advancing to the next stage. In the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, viewers are introduced to the best classic video game players in the world. The story follows Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe. Billy is a cocky, middle-aged businessman who has held the world record score for Donkey Kong and other classic arcade games for over 20 years. Billy is idolized in the classic gaming world. The challenger to Billy’s Donkey Kong score, Steve Wiebe, was recently let go from his job and decides to devote himself to mastering the game. Steve is a humble, if not feckless character who quickly tops Billy’s score. The film focuses on the tit for tat struggle of these two players to retain the high score for Donkey Kong, which is considered to be the one of the most difficult arcade classics. But because the recognition of Steve Weibe’s accomplishment is aided by one of Billy Mitchells arch rivals, no joke, a certain Mr. Awesome (A.K.A Roy Shildt), the score is discredited by the recognized scorekeeping authority. Now to borrow from the cliché; do you know why the competition is so fierce in Donkey Kong? Because the stakes are so low… or so it seems.

I decided I needed to play some Donkey Kong. I’ve been playing video games for twenty years. It can’t be that hard. I mean, I’m sure I could get at least 2/3 of the high score. No. The game is a menace. It’s awful. I wanted to smash the screen in. Seven dollars and two hours in, I barely managed to get to the fourth level. I realized that even if someone coached me for weeks and showed me all the stupid little tricks, I would never be half as good as the pros. The game requires ridiculous hand-eye coordination. It’s just like any athletic or creative talent in life. You can’t teach someone to be the fastest runner in the world, you can’t teach someone to be a classical music virtuoso, and you can’t teach someone to get a Donkey Kong kill screen.

The idea of a documentary about a bunch of middle-aged guys, vying for a high score in a video game may seem pretty nerdy and pathetic to most people. In reality, it makes for some really interesting drama. Billy Mitchell traces his confidence in life and success in business back to his record-breaking arcade days. He’s recognized as the first person to perfect Pac-man. He’s had the world record in Donkey Kong for over 20 years. He desperately wants to hold on to that recognition. He’s idolized by gaming geeks the world over. Steve Wiebe is a guy who always ends up in second place. For once, he wants to be this best at something. No matter how you look at video games, the film is a touching look at one guy struggling to be number one for once in his life and another guy trying to hold on to his dubious reputation. Mixed in among the dueling duo are some of the most bizarre characters ever seen in a documentary or a David Lynch movie for that matter.

Sketching

2009-02-19T08:21:00.001-08:00

I used to want to be a writer. I tried to keep journals when I was younger, but I found that often I couldn't even squeeze out a single sentence about my day. So I decided I was going to be a writer and an artist, but the words were hard in coming and the pictures weren't worth keeping. When I couldn't afford art classes or didn't have the time, I always pushed myself to go out sketching a couple times a week or go to a figure drawing workshop. I went sketching when my social life was non existent, when I was depressed, whenever I didn't no what else to do with myself. Therefore, the sketchbook and ink pen have a special place in my heart. My favorite place to sketch was the Pasadena Plaza Mall before it was renovated 10 years ago. During its last days, it was a surreal place; dim yellow lighting, dirty burgundy carpet, nearly devoid of people. When I think of it now it doesn't seem real. My head is so foggy these days, I still can't write, so I'm satisfied to let my sketchbooks be my journals now, to keep track of time, to remember where I was when I was drawing that person or place, if just a bit.

You Can Come To My House And Chew Gum Anytime

2009-02-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

I am a Joaquin Phoenix fan... ... ... as of Wednesday night. I had to look him up to see which movies he had been in because I was sure I hadn't seen any of them and I was right. I heard "Walk The Line" was good, but I wasn't about to see a biopic about Johnny Cash because it become trendy for Fall Out Boy superfan to pretend that he likes his music. I am a Joaquin Phoenix fan because he walked away from a successful career at its peak, just to try something else. Of course the celeb worshipping zombie community is mocking his choice of a new career because they don't realize that some actors are actually creative people. Enter Dave Letterman. When Phoenix dared to come into the sanctum sanctorum of the Most High David Letterman unshaven, not particularly interested in cueing up clips from Joaquin's last movie and, CHEWING GUM on Dave's couch!!!! AHHH!!! the late night hack went into attack mode. How dare he not play ball and help me complete a series of asinine old man jokes and bad puns, after all Wikipedia defines my comedy as "ironic, and often absurd... heavily influenced by former Tonight Show hosts Steve Allen, Johnny Carson and Jack Parr". Doesn't Joaquin Phoenix realize how edgy I am?

Watch Conan. Good luck Joaquin.

And Another

2009-02-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

Some figure paintings for next week

Doodle To Survive

2009-01-31T18:31:00.001-08:00

I doodle to get through really boring/grating/awkward conversations.

Figure Day

2009-01-30T18:42:00.000-08:00

Back To Basics

2009-01-24T16:41:00.001-08:00

It's been a few years since I've done nudes. I used to try to get to a workshop once a week but it's hard to find a good one. Drawing larger than size has always been tough for me, but I think I did okay this time. Any crits?

From The Zoo

2009-01-14T23:28:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a series of illustrations from pictures I took at the L.A. Zoo. The Zoo itself is pretty underwhelming. The San Diego Zoo is huge with much more going on but it's 3 hours from where I live. If you'd like to buy prints of this or anything else just send me an email.

More Puchunguito

2009-01-11T21:13:00.001-08:00

Guard Owl

2009-01-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how bright an owl's eyes are when seen in person. Even in daylight, they glow.

Guy

2008-12-27T11:03:00.000-08:00

Cruella de Vil

2008-12-12T15:01:00.000-08:00

On The Tube To Trafalgar Square

2008-12-10T08:34:00.001-08:00

8x10, Acrylic on canvas

Tried something a bit different on this one. I wanted to keep the drawing loose and use textures(glass beads, sand, pearlescent medium), as well as areas of keyed up, saturated color. I was trying to capture the feeling of being on the tube late at night with the train shaking, fluorescent light flickering.

Puchunguito

2008-12-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

Here's the first three pages of a mini comic I'm working on. I'm using a paper notebook made from elephant poo. How green of me...

Chalchihuites, Zacatecas

2008-11-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

Ruins At Chalchihuites Acrylic, 20x24

Stone Calendar Acrylic, 18x24 SOLD

Entrance Acrylic, 18x24.

I just finished a small series of paintings from a trip I took last year to the beautiful town of Chalchihuites in Zacatecas, Mexico. There are several archaeolgical sites which are continually being excavated and researched in the area. The ruins depicted in my paintings are located directly on the Tropic of Cancer. Evidently the people who built the sites used them for astronomical calculations. Not much else is known about the ruins or the people who constructed them. Our guide said that the excavation was halted at the moment, because of a lack of funding. The surrounding country was stunning with some of the bluest skies I've ever seen.

All three of the above paintings are for sale. Please call or email me if you are interested, have any questions, or if you'd like to come by and see them as they look much better in person. Ideally, I would have used a 100mm macro lense to photograph the works, but I don't have one as of yet. If this is your first time to my site, i hope you enjoy the work and thanks for stopping by. Please feel free to leave comments.

-Jason

Tribes of Thailand

2008-11-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

I found some great books about Thailand and Nepalese notebook paper at a garage sale. I love drawing costumed models, but books with good costume photo reference are great to have around. I'm finishing a series of paintings this week from a trip I took to rural Mexico. They will be for sale, so please check back soon if you or anyone you know would be interested. Thanks.

No Time

2008-09-03T18:11:00.000-07:00

I've only had time for sketches. Hopefully I'll get some time soon for longer work. Hope you enjoy.

From The Sketch Book

2008-06-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

Fembots, Gynoids, Feminoids

2008-04-28T10:21:00.000-07:00