Crabby Aliens & Impatient Balrogs

The new issue of Edge (video game culture magazine) is out on the shelves now! Pick up a copy to see some new illustrations that I did a few weeks ago for an article on Modding- A slang for "modifying"- when gamers change the appearance of their characters or various parts of the environment.

I did a feature spread illustration depicting a medieval scene on the left side with a knight being sucked through a portal into another world full of space marines and crabby aliens on a distant planet.

I'll post some interiors and sketches later on...

Thanks to the guys at Edge for giving me such a fun project to work on!

Ahoy Mateys!

Avast ye scurvy sea dogs! A fun children's activity book I illustrated back in January has finally set sail! Now I am a Pirate helps your little scallywags talk, dress and eat like a real sea faring pirate! As a life long fanatic of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride, this was a perfect project!

It's available on Amazon in the UK and the US (and many other places).

Get yer land-lubbing hands on a copy before you end up in Davy Jones' Locker!

Um, yarrrr.

Science? Fiction!

Pick up this month's Empire Magazine for some brand new Blecha artwork. I was super thrilled to get an email from the art editor to design a mad scientist type for a article about bad science in movies. Empire is my favorite magazine so it was quite the privilege! The scientist slowly becomes more and more enraged as he presents movies that are the worst offenders against the laws of science!

Sir Fartsalot vs The Dragon

Sir Fartsalot

I just wrapped up a cartoon for Penguin Books to promote their launch of their Sir Fartsalot book series. "Sir Fartsalot vs The Dragon" is a cartoon featuring ol' Sir Fartsalot and his quest to slay a dastardly dragon.

The book, "Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger" by Kevin Bolger was released last month. You can read more about it at the Sir Fartslaot Website.

I was encouraged to put my own spin on the Sir Farts design and the characters in his smelly world. It was a lot of fun designing the Dragon and tirelessly researching perfect fart SFX.

Voices were generously done by super talented ol' chum, Brad Mossman.

Check it out-


Sir Fartsalot vs The Dragon from Aaron Blecha on Vimeo.

The Fiery- Tempered Dragon

The Peasantry

Dragon Design Sketches

Illustrator Spotlight

I've just been chosen for an Artist Spotlight on the awesome illustration site, IllustrationMundo! You can critique my art, gawk at my ugly mug and read what I ate for breakfast when I was a kid. Very flattering that Nate and IM gang dig my monstrous creations. Check it out here-

Aaron Blecha Illustrator Spotlight

Besides my link, check out the rest of the site for a wealth of illustration diversity and talent.

Become a Fan!

I've just started a Fan page for my Illustration work on Facebook. If you are on the internets and also a member of the Facebooks, why not join us? It's a very happy place.

See the page and become a Fan by clicking HERE!

Grunts, Goblins & Zombies

I recently worked on a super fun illustration project for an article in the video game magazine, Edge. The article "Artificial Idiocy" explained how games could improve with smarter enemy AI. I got to create three sprawling illustrations- smart goblins planning their next attack with high tech weaponry, dumb soldiers shooting each other, and dumber zombies just being dumb zombies.

I've included two of the illustrations plus two spot illos from throughout the article.

Edge is an extremely well designed magazine and an interesting read even if you aren't into gaming. Great game concept art and nice layouts. Pick up a June issue today.

50 Ways Green Series

The Covers

For the past six months I've had the opportunity to illustrate and design a series of books, titled 50 Ways Greener Series by Kyle Cathie Publishing. The series is written by Siân Berry, the Green Party's candidate for London mayor. There are four books in the series- 50 Ways to... Be a Greener Shopper, Greener Travel, Save Water & Energy, and Make Your House & Garden Greener. All are full of incredibly useful information to save you money around the house and help save the environment along the way. It was a fun project for such a worthwhile subject matter.

The books are published now and out on shelves everywhere. Pick one (or four) up today!

Here's a few sample illustrations from throughout the series. See more in the Portfolio section on my site by clicking HERE!

Steaming Broccoli is HealthiestAvoid Traffic Congestion by Biking to Work

Give Someone a Ticket to an Event or a Dinner Gift Certificate

Best Way to Kill Slugs is with Beer

Trees not sure about the whole Carbon Neutral Thing

Website Redesign!

I've spent the last week or so updating my dusty, crusty, moldy, out-of-date website. I've given it a complete redesign and added a lot of new work. Sadly ol' MonsterSquid has been buried for now, but he may crawl his way out of his shallow grave in the distant future.

Check it out HERE!

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Imagine- Children's Literature Festival

Over the past two months I've been working with South Bank Centre in London designing, illustrating and animating characters (farting dogs and belching horses) for the Children's Literature Festival this week. It's been a lot of fun creating characters based on the Chinese calender and then pitting them together in a race towards the finish line.

The characters are based on a show at the festival called Animal Olympics by Francesca Beard. The entire event takes place from 14th- 22nd of February.

See a short of the animation and learn more about it here at IMAGINE.

See you there!

Poster design by Gaelle Lochner

This (Not So) Little Piggy...

One of many characters I've created for an upcoming London event.... more of his friends and details later....

WebbliWorld!

Extreme Makeover

The Waste Receptacle Edition

Happy Holidays! Sorry for the two month delay in posting on this crusty blog.

Here's some character designs and accompanying animation I worked on a few months back for a nicely designed kid's website called WebbliWorld. The site and all of its inhabitants were designed by the all-mighty Aardman Animation. (Wallace & Grommit, Chicken Run)

It was fun working with such a cool existing style and putting my own spin on some new characters. It was for a game titled- Wiji's Polar Peril- that teaches kids about global warming effects on the world and what they can do to help out. Zap that stinky trashcan and turn it it into a recycling bin!

Vile & Vicious Varmits

Here's a sneak peek for our next book, Vile & Vicious Varmits of the Northwoods. It's sort of a sequel to our last book- A Field Guide to Midwest Monsters. It's been over two years since the last one but we are hoping to get this one out for summer of 2008. It's been difficult collaborating with my good friend and immensely talented monster-maker, Jason Felix, over many time zones and the Atlantic Ocean. But it's the time of year for monsters and a good time to get the furry ball rolling once again.

I'll keep you up to date with any new Varmit news! This one will be bigger and better (in color!) than the last.

Here's a sample spread-

Going to the Chapel....

We're getting married August 28th in Florence! Here's the invite cover illustration.

See you when we get back in late in September!

Bonsters!

The Bonsters

Hey hey! Here's some little characters I designed a while for a kid's website. Pick your favorite one, dress 'em up and customize dance moves for him to cut some serious rug.

See them here. The site is going through Beta testing now, but you can sign up and play Dr. Frankenstein.

Frank meets Fred

"roar."

Some of my animation has a one-second, blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in the newest episode on Channel Frederator. It's actually inserted into the newest adventure of the Sparkle Friends- a hilarious cartoon straight outta New Zealand. It's put together by the talented guys at Mukpuddy Animation.

The Muks asked for Flash animators to submit anything they had laying around to put into an episode. So I dug up an old drawing I had of Frankenstein lurking around and quickly animated a black and white short of him being zapped. He now resides on the Sparkle Friend's boob tube while the kids are arguing about what channel to watch.

You can see just the Frank short HERE.

You can see the whole Channel Frederator episode HERE.

Thanks to the Mukpuddy gang- hopefully we can work further together in the future! Check out the rest of their stuff- it's totally rad/awesome.

Below is the original sketch and colored version of Frank.

Uncle Abominable

Uncle Abominable

"Hey dudes! Whaddap?
How about an ice cream cone?
I gots vanilla, n' chocolate n'... vanilla....
How 'bout one? Huh? They're nice n' cold.

What's that?
You're hiking Mount Everest right now?
N' yer freezing cold?
You can't feel yer toes n' yer boogers have turned to icicles?

Aww, sorry 'bout that... but how's about a Dilly Bar?"

The Corpse Corps!

Meet Rex Cadaver, Rip, Mortis, Wormrot and Rigor. Five undead mobsters otherwise know as the Corpse Corps! I designed these guys a year or so ago (you just can smell their moldy undies) but they've resurfaced over at ZombieDollar$- a great website run by Nik Holmes.

ZombieDollar$ offers "a final resting place for all those zombie pics creatives seem to have shambling around their folios". So drag your cadaver over there and check it out. Maybe you have a lonely zombie that needs a place to rest his bones?

Monstersquid Reel

Click the image below to view my
Animation & Design Reel-Animation & Design by Aaron Blecha
Music by Gnarls Barkley

All characters are copyrighted. Reel for demo purposes only.

Boogie Monster

Boog Aloo
Likes- back hair on girls, talcum powder
Dislikes- soggy cardboard, wearing sandals w/socks


Some previous versions of Boog