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.