The kind folks at Risen Magazine came across my work, and were nice enough to interview me about my work a few months ago for their November / December Issue. You can check out a PDF of the interview and spread below.
LINK: Jon Keegan Interview in Risen Magazine (PDF 1.2mb)
You can see more of my work at jonkeegan.com.
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So here we are at the official beginning of the next-gen console war. The Xbox 360 is having its first birthday this week, today Ninetndo has unleashed the Wii on the masses, and those who survived drive-bys, armed heists and the slim inventory on Friday may have a PS3 in their hands.
I just want to put down my thoughts as to where I think the major players stand as of today.
With a full year head-start (although a tight launch), the 360 has been in plentiful supply for most of 2006. It currently sells for $299 for the gimped sans-hard drive version and $399 for the proper 20gb HD version.
MS has a huge hit on their hands with Epic's Gears of War, which is the first game to knock Halo 2 from the top of the Xbox Live Most Played list (no small feat). That fact that Halo 2 (an orginal Xbox title) was until this week the most played game on Xbox Live speaks to a lack of a killer app for the 360, for all the time it has been out. Gears of War (GoW) is an impressive, truly next-gen gaming experience, to be sure. I loved the campaign, and the multiplayer is tons of fun. Call of Duty 2 and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (also excellent) were the only other titles to really come close to GoW's success till now. I would have hoped that there would have been more must-have titles on shelves by now, but there are some hugely anticipated titles coming down there wire. Among them are Capcom's surprisingly slick Lost Planet, Bioware's Mass Effect, Rockstar's GTA4 and of course MS's own
Recent breakdowns of the latest component prices, put MS actually making money on each console sold, which bucks the current trend in video game economics.
Xbox Live continues to be refined and expanded, with the recently announced HD movie rental downloads, and other video content for sale. Xbox Live Arcade has had several hits on their hands, and MS has been experimenting and tweaking the pricing for small game purchases and microtransactions over the year. They have a very solid platform in place, and have rolled out six major revisions to the network in its 4 year lifespan. It will be hard for the other consoles to just catch up with what MS has put together here.
The PS3 is out, though in extremely limited numbers. Fetching upwards of $2,500 per console on eBay, it's probably going to be March or so before you will be able to walk into a store and drop $599 on the full 60gb PS3 ($499 for the 20GB version).
Sony will sell tons of these no doubt, and the number one position is theirs to lose. The challenge for them is that since the last generation (Xbox/PS2/Gamecube), the game software market has changed. Sony used to have exclusive platform-selling franchises that fueled their brand loyalty (think Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear, etc). But by the end of the last cycle, game developers were making version of their games for all the consoles, and started to move away from the exclusivity deals of the past. MS announced that Grand Theft Auto 4 is going to land on the 360 next fall, (likely on the PS3 as well at the same time) with exclusive episodic content via Xbox Live. Ubisoft's much anticipated Assasin's Creed will be hitting both the PS3 and the 360. Personally, the only titles I'd be pining for is whatever comes next from the minds behind Shadow of the Colossus and Ico. Those were some of the best titles on the platform (with Katamari Damacy a close second).
Their online network does not charge you to play online, which a nice contrast to Xbox Live, but the proof will be in the pudding as to whether the network will be free of cheats and exploits.
Sony is reportedly losing up to $250 per console sold at launch, due to the high cost of the new BluRay high-def DVD player and the Cell processor. This is no small point. Sony has had a devastating year with an expensive laptop battery recall, and the delay of the PS3 launch is going to hurt them a lot, as they wont feel the full benefit of the holiday season with so few consoles in the pipeline. If BluRay flops, or any other nasty surprises hit Sony, it could get very, very ugly.
As for the reaction to Sony's launch titles, Resistance: Fall of Man has been getting good reviews, but people cant help but saying that it doesn't look quite as nice as Gears of War. Of course, the games coming out this time next year will surely improve in quality, but right now, there is no "must have" system seller that will make people NEED a PS3.
Regarding the BluRay (or HD-DVD for that matter), I think Sony and the other electronics manufacturers are in for an unpleasant surprise when it comes to their next gen DVD formats. As more ways become available to download HD content (satellite, cable, internet) and with HD DVR's out there already, the prospect of shelling out for an expensive new player, and new discs to buy becomes far less attractive. Sure it's nice that the PS3 comes with a BluRay player, but does that translate into Sony dominating a new format for the next 10 years? Hardly, and I think when you consider that regular DVD's look pretty damn nice on most HD sets under 50", I 'll be t that people are in no rush to upgrade their DVD libraries.
Nintendo is definitely in a better place this time around with their innovative $249 Wii console. It truly offers an alternative path forward in what the gaming experience can be like. I can't wait to get my hands one and try out the feel of the controller. I'm sure plenty of coolness will come out on the Wii during it's lifespan, though I don't seeing it as being at the forefront of the battle. It will certainly eat into some of Sony's share, as you can pick up a Wii, and a 360 for less than the cost of a full PS3. Parents aren't gonna be plopping down $600 so easily, and kids will have a better chance of getting a Wii for Christmas, as they will be in good supply right from launch. Also worth noting is how Nintendo's DS TROUNCED Sony's PSP in the handheld market and outsells it by 3 to 1 according to NPD's September sales stats. Nintendo also probably has the best chance at growing their potential market past the regular gamers, and out into the rest of the general public.
In Conclusion
All in all, it's going to be a fascinating year watching these juggernauts duke it out. The best part of all this of course, is that the gaming consumer wins. Things to watch over the next year:
-How does the Sony online network hold up to cheats / hacks?
MS has spent a ton of time working on this, and I am doubtful Sony will be able to build as robust a network as MS has done. If the network can't deliver, game over. Online gaming is a MUST HAVE component that is useless when spoiled by cheaters.
- Will MS's HD video marketplace on Xbox Live take off? What will the pricing be?
If they hit a fair price (unlikely) they may have a killer feature that trumps the BluRay / HD-DVD.
- Will MS's XNA homebrew gaming kit yield any interesting indie games that take off?
If MS is able to tap into a pool of new innovative ideas from a new indie gaming community for deployment (and cash) on Xbox Live, they could really shift the direction of things to come...
- Will Nintendo's Wii controller be truly embraced by the major developers?
I fear that the major developers are going to just release ports on the Wii, with one or two things unique to the controller, as we're seeing in some of the announced titles so far. I hope people make games JUST for the Wii, that really make the controller worth it.
I 'll give an update in a few months to see where things stand.
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Here's a new sillkscreen based on a drawing from an old sketchbook...
See the original sketch on this montage: jonkeegan.com/illo.php?id=48
I regret having to print two base colors on this (white, then transparent yellow)...I think ill just stick to a tinted color for the face color next time, to keep it to two passes. More shirts to come!
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I was reading a good Rockwell book while researching this illo, and I'm convinced that he would have embraced the advent of the computer and digital photography with open arms.
]]> He would still be painting, but in his book he laments how the most exciting parts are the first few days when he's sketching and drawing--the rest of it just being a series of technical steps...Another funny bit was how he mentioned that his wife would often sit in his studio and read books to him, and how nice it was that they got to share so many stories together. He'd totally have his iPod jammed with audiobooks and podcasts...
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This ran in the Thursday Styles section of The New York Times. The story is about how today's young singles are finding frustration in their endless searches for a mate online, and turning to the age-old tradition of letting their parents help find them a match. You can view some of my other illustrations for The New York Times here on my site.
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I just completed two illustrations for The American Society for Engineering Education which will be running in their flagship magazine PRISM. Above are details of the cover image (left) and the accompanying interior full-page illo. The story is about how Texas is using an innovative partnership between the state and the high tech industry to lure (and better retain) college students into engineering studies. Continue reading to see the full drawings....
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I had a bit more time than usual to work these up, and I really think it paid off, as I was able to experiment with texture and lighting a bit more than I am used to on a shorter deadline. I had considered a round-up of engineering students, or a kind of cattle drive, but I rightly settled on the kitchy Texas-scale roadside cowboy beckoning students to study engineering there.
I also was excited to carry the idea through to the inside, imagining a fireside cowboy-cookout kind of engineering class in the desert at night. The contrast of the glowing laptops against the fire was the thing that convinced me to work this up.
The texture for the night sky is almost totally one of my trusty salt-on-the-watercolor scans from my growing hand-made texture library. A few dabs with a custom photoshop brush, and the Milky Way was glimmering over the blue desert landscape.
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I've been meaning to contribute to Illustration Friday since I heard about it, and this week I couldn't help but submit the one skyline I've looked at over and over again, the hazy summer header I created in Flash for our collaborative art site Invisibleman. Click to see a super-large version.
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I had a nice art-filled weekend, despite the torrential rains. I logged some serious time welded to my drafting table just playing around with some different materials that I don't often work with in my normal course of business. Really felt a nice loose freedom with a super-fat graphite pencil on vellum, which produced the above image, among many, many others...
Also, I saw some amazing art...
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My wife Julie introduced me to the work of one of her idols, Lee Mullican (at NYU's Grey Art Gallery). He had served as a Topologist in the Army, and aerial photography greatly inspired his amazing mystical paintings. See this show! There is so much of his work, and make sure you follow the exhibit downstairs, which has the above painting which will melt your rods and cones in short order.
Tom Burckhardt
FULL STOP, 2004-2005
We also visited the impressive Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, CT for the first time. Tom Burckhardt's "FULL STOP" is a fictional artist's studio lovingly recreated object-by-object in cardboard and india ink. It's a startling moment stepping into this space, and you feel a bit like you stepped into a cartoon.
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Just finished this drawing for The New York Times' Thursday Styles Section (June 8, 2006). The story was about how younger workers in their 20's and 30's are often passing on the standard two week vacations, in favor of longer vacations, in-between their frequent job-hopping.
Read on to see my sketch and my reference photo.
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Below is my original sketch. All-in-all a really fun job to work on, right up my alley. I had tons of great reference to use for the Thailand-through-the-portal part...I really enjoyed spending time in the scene...I think that is a crucial...you need to love the place you are going to be spending so many hours in...
Top Sketch: ProsParkSketch1.kmz - Google Earth Placemark
Bottom Sketch: ProsParkSketch2.kmz - Google Earth Placemark
The swatches above are from a few of the textures I worked up this week. They will be much more subtle when included in my work, sometimes only a tiny corner of one, but having a variety on hand is a valuable part of the illustrator's tool-belt.
]]>I just completed this illustration for The New York Times (Thurs. April 20th, Style section), dealing with women and A.C.L. (anterior cruciate ligament) knee injuries.
The reference came from Eadweard Muybridge's classic "The Human Figure in Motion", which is an invaluable resource for how the body moves.
I couldn't resist whipping up a quick animation of these nine frames from the illo.