Having fun with martial arts poster design this week. Old sketch from a few months prior. Wasn’t sure what to do with it. Decided to turn this into a print. If interested in having one of these on your wall feel free to contact me at: theartistandthefighter@gmail.com
Size is 11 x 17 and priced at $20 per print.
It’s been a while since I updated anything here. Been so busy working, keeping this blog up and running is another job entirely.
Been doing more poster-related artwork lately. Been diving back into graphic design and picking up some things from watching tutorials. Sure miss my graphic design education. I’m not at all interested in stuff like web designing, but print is definitely something I love. Call me old school, but I still like the feeling of buying something like a book or comic, and holding it in my hands. There’s a more direct contact one has with the physical object as oppose to the digital object. I like online comics, but love the printed ones even more.
Back to work for me. Catch you all on the next post 🙂
-S
From the octagon to the Money Fight, Notorious sure knows how to entertain. I don’t think I’ve watched a fight with him where I was bored. Even his antics outside of sports combat is insanely hilarious (re; his IG response to Max Holloway defeating Aldo in their rematch). He’s a rare one, isn’t he? Yeah, the detractors might call him a hype job, but he is seriously the greatest one man show on earth. He’s the only fighter I know who people worry about what he says, wears, writes, where he’ll be, and do next. He can lose fights and his fans still love him and he gains more fans! It’s nutty.
Fights like these have very small margin of errors. One slight misstep and the opponent gets the best of you. Panel 6 shows that one little misstep and how it cost Cody the win. Also, note the stepping back with accompanied with a right hook, leaving Cody wide open for TJ’s right hook.
What you expect are always the things you place great importance on. In a fight, that can become your downfall.
The variables are plenty so you work with what you know. But what about the X-Factor?
Ah, and that is why fights are so exciting. The unpredictability of it all. It is chaos manifested.
No one expected Rose Namajunas to win. Ask around and you pretty much get a large percentage of people placing their bets on Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Just check the cheat sheet to see why:
But there’s always that X-factor. What was it? Rose’s left hand. Well, it wasn’t just a left hand. It was a left hand that came from tons of practice involving proper footwork, distance, timing, etc. No one expected it.
DIAGRAM A: Early on in the fight. Rose leads with a fake right to land a right. Note Rose’s composure when Joanna puts pressure on her.
DIAGRAM B: Amazing footwork. Rose’s shift in footwork here is beautiful. Here she is once again faking with the right.
DIAGRAM C: Sealing the deal. No one expected this would happen. Not even Rose, as she mentioned in a post fight interview. Haha.
And this is why I love martial art. The subtleties make all the difference…and it’s usually the stuff we don’t expect.
-S
There is so much to extract from last night’s UFC 217 that you could write an entire book on the whole field of unarmed combat from each of the fights last night. It was a star-studded event from the Numajunes vs Joanna fight to the grand finale that was Bisping vs. GSP. In the next coming weeks I feel like writing some analysis of each fights, and more so with the fight between “Wonderboy” Stephen Thompson and Jorge Masvidal. If you ever wanted to see the grand epic version of Karate vs. Muay Thai, well, that was it.
But I’m gonna go with a more passionate philosophical prose today. Something about UFC 217 got me really inspired. There was an energy in the air, something I can’t quite put my finger on exactly, but from the first fight on (Johny Hendricks vs Paulo Costa) I knew UFC 217 was going to be a very special one.
These superfights weren’t about the personalities and the drama (okay Garbrandt and Dillashaw’s fight was clouded in it), it was about the unique fighting styles each of these fighters were bringing into the Octagon against each other. Namajunes’ agility and speed against the aggressive power house, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Thompson’s point Karate style against Masvidal’s Muay Thai style, Gardbrandt’s speed and power against Tillashaw’s odd striking techniques – all showed on that night that MMA is a sport that requires fighters to have high fight IQ and Olympian-level athleticism. Street brawlers need not apply.
In fact, MMA isn’t a sport. No, Meryl Streep, MMA IS AN ART.
And because it’s an art it’s one of the reasons why I’ve loved being in martial arts since I was a kid. Fighting requires endurance, strength, strong mental acumen, focus, practicing, studying fundamentals, and mastering specific techniques. These things run parallel to the approaches of the visual artist. The artist can learn the physical skills to sharpen his techniques, but living as an artist, he/she needs the endurance and strength to survive in a world that isn’t always looking out for the artist.
But you could say the parallels can be drawn between other sports like football or basketball. Fighting is as real as it gets. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the ring, in the octagon, or on the streets, the skills transfer. Fighting is human nature and to achieve our goals and dreams we have to fight for it. Anyone who’s ever made the decision to live a life that they want to live will know what that feels like. You feel a wall is in front of you. Traveling the path of an independent artist is not a path I’d like to tell many to take, but for those that have, it is the ultimate path of truth seeking. There is a dream they wish to pursue and on that path they’re met with criticisms, constant “no’s”, and told by others how things are supposed to work; yet they preserver and weather the storm. This isn’t easy. It’s one of the hardest things to do. But if you’ve ever stepped in the ring or displayed your art in public, you’re one brave person. And if you’re still doing art despite all the set backs you’ve endured, well, now you’re just a badass.
Watching fights like UFC 217 reminded me that in tough times the key is to keep moving. Roll with the punches. Yeah, you’ll get hit and it hurts like hell, but you’re still standing. It’s like what a coach said to me once after a guy folded me from a gut shot and I was going to call it a night:
“DON’T QUIT.”
So don’t quit. Get back in there and get to work!
Robin busting out them TKD supermoves.
Fantasy Retcon: Marc Kim was a Korean Tiger and when his parents were shot and killed, The Bat adopted him and showed him how to apply combat strategies to his acrobatic arsenal. Thus spawned our first TKD Robin!
Put together The Bat’s training regimen and these high flying super kicks, I imagine Robin’s fighting to look something like this:
Enter: TSUNAMI!
I picture this heavyweight nak muay as a cross between Mark Hunt and Saenchai. Big, powerful, and unbreakable, yet fast, nimble, and agile. A fighter like this is someone you wouldn’t want to stand toe-to-toe with in the ring!
The Super Samoan, “Mark Hunt” with his iron jaw.
Saenchai’s scissor kick.
-S
Dedicated all day today to doing my personal art and martial arts teaching. Whew. Finally. A day off from client work!
This Inktober 2017 Day 11 prompt, “Run”, is dedicated to one of the greatest cinematic underdogs of all time, Rocky Balboa.
Of all the Rocky movies I’ve seen, the first, second, and sixth film were my personal favorite as they were all set in a more realistic setting. The first film found Rocky losing, but the point wasn’t to win, but to completely “go the distance” and test his will against the elite prizefighter, Apollo Creed. The second film, though a bit more light-hearted in its finale, was a portrayal of a fighter’s life filled with frustration and toil. I’ll never forget the impact of the line Rocky utters when his pregnant wife, Adrian, asks why Rocky came home early from work: “I don’t know. I was… It was nobody’s fault. They were just cutting back. It was economics.” The proceeding films carried on with the sign of the times of the 80’s and 90’s and felt like martial arts b-movies – of course, there’s nothing wrong with that, but they clearly were more about capturing the zeitgeist of that era.
It wasn’t until 2006 where a more naturalize Rocky would return with the penultimate “Rocky Balboa”. The film had a few themes rolling around in regards to, ownership of one’s life, dealing with aging, dealing with grief and loss, and the freedom of one’s pursuit of a meaningful life. A lot of people remember the great scene where Rocky lectures to his son, Robert, the importance of being your own person and standing up for yourself against life’s challenges.
But for me one of the most memorable scenes is where Rocky fights to get his license to compete again. After completing a series of tests and told he passed, the commission takes it upon themselves to deny Rocky’s license. The veteran pugilists espouses a powerful rhetoric:
“I mean you shouldn’t be asking people to come down here and pay the freight on something they paid that still ain’t good enough. I mean you think that’s right? I mean maybe you’re doing your job, but why you gotta stop me from doing mine? ‘Cause if you’re willing to go through all the battling you gotta go through to get where you wanna get — Who’s got the right to stop you? I mean maybe some of you guys got something you never finished, something you really wanna do, something you never said to somebody — somethin’! — and you’re told “No,” even after you pay your dues? Who’s got the right to tell you that? Who? Nobody. It’s your right to listen to your gut. It ain’t nobody’s right to say “No” after you earned the right to be where you wanna be and do what you wanna do.”
The film “Creed” – a spinoff of the Rocky series chronicling the life of Apollo Creed’s son Adonis, has carried on the tradition and spirit of the Rocky films. It’s awesome to see Rocky taking on the Mickey role and mentoring the young pugilist. I’m excited to see how this Rocky universe expands with Adonis. “Creed” captured the spirit and tone of “Rocky” , “Rocky 2″, and Rocky Balboa”. Though dark and bleak at times, the heart and soul of these films is what makes them inspirational. The spirit of the films could be summed up with this great quote from “Rocky Balboa” where Rocky lectures to his son:
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”
Hell yeah!!
-Steve
The Art of The Fight 