Layout (underdrawing)

So its the start of a new quarter! For most of the break I didnt really do much in terms of animation, design or Illustration. Instead, I was painting and posting on my other blog. I was feeling like my drawings were becoming a little too tight so I spent the last week loosening up. Anyhow, the above drawing is my latest project. I also did some character designs in the beginning of the week that I may post later. I will be painting this in Photoshop... stay tuned.

New Blog

I started a new blog where I will post some of my more non-traditional/abstract work...check it out!

Illustration Friday: Clutter

Well... its been a while, but I have been keeping myself busy with drawing. Here is something I did as my first submission for Illustration Friday. The subject is "Clutter"... quite appropriate since it describes exactly how I have been feeling of late. Drawn in col-erase pencil and refined in pen and ink, painted in Photoshop.

L.A.

Last week I took a trip down to L.A. for Siggraph 2008. I was a student volunteer this year... perhaps the only year I will be able to do it since I will have graduated by this time next year. The conference was pretty intense... way too many things to look at and sooo little time, but I did manage to make my way to a few booths of note. Laika had an awesome booth that showcased some stop motion sets and puppets for their upcoming film "Coraline". I also checked out the Walt Disney Animation Studios booth where I got a ticket to show my portfolio reel. I got some excellent feedback on my work and I met some great people there... very exciting.

Of course Siggraph wasn't the only thing I did when I was there. I reconnected with old friends and made some new ones. I attended the annual AM Siggraph Industry party and had ball hanging out with AM classmates and mentors... some of which traveled from as far away as Sweden to be there. The cherry on top came at the end of my trip. A few of my friends and I were invited to take a tour of Walt Disney Animation Studios by our mutual mentor Mike Belzer (aka nicest guy on earth!). The picture above is from the end of our tour (I am in the light shirt next to Mike...right below the A). All in all, I had a really good time... it really put everything into perspective... it made me look forward to the upcoming job search.

I should have a few drawings up soon... also I hope to post more work from here on in as I continue to prepare my portfolio and reel.

Portrait of a "henpecked husband"

This is a portrait of my rendition of a youngish Rip Van Winkle (click to see it larger). The facial features changed a tiny bit from the last (un-rendered) sketch below, but I really like how he turned out. I painted this in Photoshop and used techniques similar to Oil Painting including a glaze made up of three overlay layers of primary Red, Blue and Yellow at varying opacities.

The next step in my little character design challenge is to develop the body characteristics which I have already started to do in my sketchbook. I am hoping to paint the final full body design in the same sort of Dutch/Flemish painterly style.

Van Winkle Beast

So I took the first two concepts (at the top of the page) from my last post and mashed them up to create this sketch:

I further refined the features which resulted in this sketch:

I didn't do much rendering on this one... I had some plans to make it all purty like. I've finished the final face design... it should be up in my next post.

Van Winkle Faces

These are a few facial development drawings I did for good ol' Rip. I picked four of the thumbnail sketches from my previous post and developed the facial features a bit more. Now I'll most likely pick one or mash all four of them up into some weird Van Winkle beast! This little project has been really fun for me... its actually been keeping me from my studies...UH OH! Next week, I'll be at Siggraph in LA helping to keep that convention machine well oiled. I'm sure to find some interesting tech geeks to draw.

Van Winkle Sketches

This is a little character design challenge that I am taking on... One of my favorite short stories from childhood, Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving. I own a copy Illustrated by Golden Age Illustrator Arthur Rackham. I haven't paged through it for a while and I am intentionally keeping my eyes off it so I can develop my own take on the character. These are ten thumbnail variations on a young Rip Van Winkle... More to come.

Hipsters and Geeks

And I mean that in a good way:) When you sketch around San Francisco, you get a lot of mileage in terms of the different hairstyles, body types and fashions... there is almost too much to take in at once. These two caught my attention yesterday.

Girl

A bit of a departure from the usual rough sketches... I'm getting back into character design. I may color her in later.

Mendocino

Carmela and I went on a road trip to the little hamlet of Mendocino on Monday. By chance, we happened upon an open orchestra rehearsal for their upcoming music festival... it was an unexpected treat and luckily I had my sketchbook.

Saving Totoro's Forest

Recently I added a section for my "current obsession". Last week it was that awesome Fleet Foxes Video (not to mention the whole album). This week its the Totoro Forest Project. You can click above to find out more about this awesome effort by artists around the globe and also browse their galleries to look at the many different interpretations of one of Miyazaki's most memorable characters.

Cafe's and Burger Joints

Here are a few of last weeks sketches. I am still going strong this week, although animation homework is keeping me busy. I try and sneak a few quick sketches on BART or during lunch. One thing I've been doing a lot is I take mental snapshots of interesting people I see on my way to work. I try and remember a prominent feature on their face and then with the passage of time and with the inability to erase ink... all kinds of interesting things happen. I'm learning to accept and even love my mistakes... it makes for fun drawing!

Junk Mail

You can shred it, you can burn it... OR you can use it as sketching scraps.

This guy was in my head all morning as I attempted to finish my animation on time... Needless to say it didn't go as planned. First (and ONLY) late work penalty of my AM career!

Mr. Threefingers

I sketched this guy out at work yesterday...(FYI I don't work at Pressworks, we just randomly have these notepads laying about). Anyway, I've been on a drawing kick lately... its great! It's almost easier for me to draw than not to draw, sorta like it was when I was a kid. Thats been missing for... I don't know... since I left college.

North Beach

Before work today, I took a stroll from Market Street to the North Beach area... this is one of the prime spots for me to do some sketching... there is so much going on.

I have a few more sketches I did today, plus a page or two more of sketches I did at the Legion Of Honor yesterday...so... more to come.

Kitchen Concept Now in Full Color!

Finally... took me long enough! Still could use a few tweaks here and there, but overall I am happy with it. I had a lot of fun playing round with brushes in Photoshop CS3.

Animationmentor Class 4: Advanced Acting

I was down to the wire on this one... Getting back into pixel pushing takes some getting used to. I had to readjust my work flow to animate facial, but I think I got the hang of it. This is a rough blocking pass for the facial animation. My mentor this quarter is David Gallagher of Blue Sky Animation Studios. He seems like a great mentor and I look forward to his critiques. I have to admit, I wasn't all too happy with my last mentor. I am hoping that he was brutally honest with me... I have a feeling I'll need to adjust some body animation in order to make it more cohesive.

New Sketchbook!

It was delivered to my door a few weeks ago and this is what I have filled it with so far...

I have about 200 pages left to fill. I finished my last book which was around 129 pages. I'll post more from my new book as I continue drawing. So far so good at the new job... its good to finally apply some of what I know in the workplace.

Also, today marks my return to AM! I got to meet a ton of new AM friends at the annual open house at HQ last friday... we also went to a screening of WALL-E. Of course I have no pictures of the event... next on the agenda; get a camera that is small enough to fit comfortably in my bag. It would at least be good to take reference photos.

I am feeling good... it seems that my creative block is lifting:)

Plen-air Sketch #1

It's been ages since I've done any plen-air work, so I decided to challenge myself this afternoon. It was mostly overcast until the last few minutes, which made it all the more bitter sweet that I had to go in to work afterwards (I'm on my final two weeks at Whole Foods:). Anyway, I'm going to try and get out and do this as much as possible so here is sketch #1; painted at the Oakland Rose Garden today 6/16/08.

Much Deserved Congratulations!

To my buddy Cristiano Seixas (above is a still from his short film "Is That All There Is?") and the rest of the flagship graduating MFA class at The Art Institute of California in San Francisco. These guys put in a lot of hard work and it shows in their final short films! I am happy to have been a part of that class if only for a few semesters. Cris, I'll see you at Siggraph in August:)

As for myself, I'll be starting up Animation Mentor again in July and also a new job at the Academy of Art University. Things are on the upswing!

New Year Sketches

Here are a few sketches that have been burning a hole in my book since January and February of this year. They are all drawn from specific locations in our apartment... mostly drawn quickly as I drank my coffee.

I haven't had much time to finish painting my kitchen set concept, but now that I am getting used to the work schedule I think I'll find the right balance of work and... well... WORK. I have stored tons of character ideas in the back of my head from observing my co-workers and all their quirks... time to put them down on paper!

The Kitchen

I've been on a three month interim break from pixel pushing. After being on the job hunt for a while I landed a position at the Whole Foods Market (literally) steps from where I live. I'll be working in the kitchen and cooking up all different kinds of food. I love cooking and I love Whole Foods so I think it will be a good fit.

Speaking of kitchens, the above is a quick environment concept I worked on about a week ago. It is now in the process of being painted in Photoshop. It is roughly based on the kitchen Carmela and I shared in our musty old basement apartment in St. Paul Minnesota way back in 2002 :)

Goodbye Ollie...

1912-2008

Untitled #1: 4"x 4" Watercolor and gouache on Arches hot-press.