Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Jack Frost

This is just a quick blog post to fulfill my obsessive need to upload holiday related images to the mass public. I have a picture I drew for a holiday character design challenge (via Design-A-Character on Deviantart). My choice was Jack Frost, because Jack Frost is awesome.

I have a very specific mental image of Mr. Frost, so I pulled reference from the Russian Grandfather Frost, as well as Finnish knitting patterns, in order to try to get this character across. Hopefully you like, and if not you can just look at the picture for the snow hares and the bluejay. Yay cute animals!

Have a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday! :)

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Mudbox

I haven't posted for a month. Shocking this is not, but I should probably remedy the situation, so I'm going to quickly upload some screencaps of my first attempts at using Mudbox (a digital sculpting tool). Feel free to guffaw at the following images.

First attempt (at which point I almost gave up until I found the wax tool):

Second attempt (at which point I tried sculpting more than just the face):

Project work:

Olmec statue -

Other statue (based on concept sketch by Zach Figgins) -

And because my hand is twitching from re-edging those darned statues so they don't look like mush, I think I'll end my blog post with this nonsequiter thought: Rise of the Guardians is awesome, and you should go watch it. :)

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween!

For those of you who celebrate, here's a quick lil' something for you (and my fellow Samurai 7 fans!):

Here's hoping you have a good night out, and hopefully you get more candy than Kyuzo. :)

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Call Me Ahab

Because no one embodies conflict better than the main crazy man himself, Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. If anyone recalls, I uploaded some sketches of conflict scenarios a while ago. Well, we had to do some story beats based on one of those images, so I chose the picture of the boat in a storm. My beats quickly turned into Ahab vs. the White Whale, and I had fun working on their epic battle. I even tried to add tone to the boards, though whether I succeeded or not is a matter of opinion. :D

At any rate, I thought I would upload my favorite panels. The first one is, by all definitions, not really a good story beat. At all. But it was really fun to draw, so I have no regrets. (Ahab's design is based on the actor from the movie, in case anyone was curious) The second one is the final showdown between ol' Ahab and the whale.

One of these days I'll get around to uploading full sets of beats and stuff, but for now I'm content to let you all wonder who wins.

Spoiler: It's not the ship.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Conflict of Interest

Just a quick upload of an assignment from a week or two ago dealing with conflict. We had to do two sketches, each portraying a different type of conflict (man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. God, man vs. nature). This was my take on the assignment:

Man vs. Man (or Man vs. Nature, depending on how you see it) - When Hair Attacks!:

And Man vs. Nature:

Despite its glaring flaws and such, I had alot of fun working on the second one. Why? Well, because I like boats. :D That's really the only reason.

Alright, now I need to go deal with the conflict of Homework vs. Student, so adieu!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Scribbles and Bits 2

The unwarranted sequel! Alright, here is another quick upload of a sketch that I did for a character design assignment. Our mission: to design four characters based on an underlying theme. I did the seven deadly sins, though these characters only fall prey to the sins, instead of personifying them.

I think my handwriting is legible, but just in case, they are (from left to right): Envy, Sloth, Wrath, and Pride. :)

Friday, October 5, 2012

Scribbles and Bits

For your viewing pleasure, two quick drawings that I did for an assignment revolving around environments. No narrowly dodging backgrounds for me this time!

Normal character in a strange place:

Strange character in a normal place:

The first one was sort of a joke. I was like, "Hey man, give me a strange environment!" And someone shouted back, "Candyland!" So Candyland I drew. Complete with obligatory kid in a giant set of braces/retainer who shouldn't be eating any of that sugary goodness. (Consequently, that kid was based on my siblings, all of whom had beautifully brace-ful smiles for several years)

The second one spawned from my sudden desire to draw a centaur rodeo clown. I think you can tell that I had way more fun drawing the centaur than the rodeo background that I was supposed to be focusing on.

And after that bit of silliness, we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Sketch Lag?

The post is a lie.

Okay, so this here is a quick blog entry just to prove that I am, in fact, alive. I'll admit, my updating has been about as fast as a game of Starcraft over a dial-up connection, but I blame school. Because that's the best excuse a student has when procrastination rears its ugly head.

Here, for your viewing glory, is a very quick pic of Ness from Super Smash Brothers (and Earthbound):

Ness: allowing me to single-handedly give people "PK THUNDER!" migraines for most of my gaming career. Seriously, until I figure out the rest of his moves in Brawl, that's pretty much the only move I can consistently get to work. :D

Anyway, this post is a lie, so I should stop typing and allow you to go back to your daily dabblings.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Gotta Sketch 'Em All!

The recent Doodle United theme was, can you guess? Pokemon! And as a long time fan of the games (and the TCG, much to my mother's chagrin), I was more than happy to stay up late in order to make time to complete the challenge. Despite having other work that I probably should have put more time into instead. :)

I've always been a collector, so Pokemon was right up my alley with it's "Gotta Catch Them All" catchphrase. Needless to say, I was a huge fan of quite a few original Pokemon, so I had to pick and choose only a handful of favorites for this challenge. I went with Charmander (my first Pokemon card), Charizard, Scyther, Arbok, Arcanine, and Cubone. If you look closely, I bet Pokefans will find a flaw in one of the designs that I was too time-crunched to fix. :) That same time-crunch led me to slap on shading and leave it backgroundless because, well, I just didn't have time to finish. Oh well. I hope you enjoy anyway!

Saturday, July 28, 2012

"Lonely" - Illustration Friday

BAM!! Another Illustration Friday in the bag. Because that's how I roll.

And ironically (considering my blog title), this is the first Illustration Friday I've done completely in ink. Okay, okay, there's some white and black colored pencil in there, but it's MOSTLY ink. And I won't lie, my main motivation for this one is that I really, really wanted to play with my ink markers. And I wanted to do something a little different than I usually do. So without so much as one pencil line sketched in for composition, I just dove right in and inked this bugger purely blank slate (on some of the weirdest paper I had lying around). I don't know how I feel about the background, and in hindsight I should have continued that row of tombstones further, and I probably shouldn't have tried to Van Gogh the stuff furthest away from the subject (like the end of the scarf). But I still had fun doing this, so I regret nothing!

Hopefully this portrays "lonely":

Monday, July 23, 2012

"Carry" - Illustration Friday

Whew, actually remembered to do it this week. Here is my entry for the Illustration Friday theme "carry". It's a pretty simple idea, what with a dad getting mobbed by his kids and all, but for some reason I really liked how the inked image turned out. Traditional inks, digital colors. And of course, my trademark background avoidance (because nothing can encourage my current throbbing headache like trying to do a background). Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Here Comes the Thunder!

Thunder Fro, to be precise. With the power of weather science and really big metal gloves backing her up, this is one super being you shouldn't mess with.

And she is also a super being that I probably should have uploaded several weeks ago. But since I have the power of procrastination, a prompt upload was highly improbable.

A quick explanation: For Project Superhero we were all given two words from which to randomly generate a hero of some kind. My words were "thunder" and "fro". When all heroes were created and ready to defeat all villainy, we had a tournament to see which hero conquers all. The winner was not mine, but a larger-than-life lady still took home the gold. :) And despite her defeat, Thunder Fro is still ready to rumble. (Punny? Indubitably so.)

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Will you stay a while?

Because the longer you stay here looking at my immensely interesting blog, the more my need for attention is sated.

Alrighty, now to the focal point of this entry. I have in my possession, for your viewing pleasure, a project image from a month or two ago (back when I was still experiencing The Great Project Time Crunch). The assignment: create a movie poster for my Junior Project (a year long short film project). My film is called The Carnival of Wonders, which hit a lot of major snags and so was not finished at the end of the year. However, I did get to make this snazzy little poster for it, which I think captures the entire idea behind my story.

This version of the poster was actually my second attempt at a movie poster, as the first one had me hitting my head against a wall while the project deadline was creeping up on me. I think I scrapped the original a day or two before this was due and completely redid it. I'm glad I did, because despite its flaws I really like this poster.

Note that the tagline and the post title are the same. Oh ho what cleverness!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Shiny - Illustration Friday

Look, another blog update in the same month! I smell conspiracy...

My submission for this week's Illustration Friday (Theme: Shiny):

Originally I was going to do something else for my submission (a picture of Perseus vs. Medusa), but I decided I didn't like it, thus effectively scrapping my first submission in favor of something a little more classic. Dragons anyone?

I'm just glad it turned out. I haven't drawn anything with four legs for a LONG time (ironic, considering that the sum of my artistic subjects used to fall under the category of "wolves" and "dragons"). Also, I forced myself to play with color. Was I successful? Probably not, but maybe someday I'll get the hang of it. I'm just glad I finished this thing, since I sort of slapped it together last minute.

Fear the dragon. That is all.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Hurry! - Illustration Friday

I have been monumentally busy for the past week or two, so this will be a very quick blog post. This week's Illustration Friday theme is Hurry!, so I did a hurried (see what I did there?) little picture to submit for Friday (after which my scanner happily ate the colors...) :

Why is there a little kid about to be eaten by Pacman, you ask? I have no idea! Your guess is as good as mine. (Though I have a sneaking suspicion that his choice of wardrobe color may have something to do with it.) :)

Visit Illustration Friday here.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Excuse of the Day: I wore a red shirt!

Star Trek: It gives me a foolproof excuse to explain why this blog (and various other e-tidbits) have not been updated recently. By no means does the fact that it is now summer factor into my lack of internet presence, that would just be silly! It makes far more sense that I wore a red shirt and am now just one more transporter malfunction statistic to be added to Starfleet records. But if you don't like that excuse, I still blame Star Trek for my procrastination. Why? Because TNG has been playing nonstop on my computer for the past several days, and it shows no signs of stopping!

I have, however, decided to temporarily break radio silence to upload some of the drawings I have littering my harddrive right now. I'll be brief, because I'd rather not let those pesky Romulans know my coordinates, so here you go:

A banner for the facebook group, Doodle United:

A Doodle United submission for the theme "Zombie" (I really don't like zombies, so I kind of slapped this one together as fast as I could...):

And last but not least, a really dorky fanart I did of Shriek and Riddler (from Batman Beyond and Batman, respectively). Unless you know these characters, this won't make sense, and even if it did it probably isn't funny to anyone but me:

Alright, I think that's enough for today. I have a lot more where that came from, but I'll upload it all whenever I get around to it. Please enjoy these scribbles, and remember: Wearing a red shirt is hazardous for your health and your blog.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Perchance to Draw

What do you get when you cross numerous projects with lack of time? My schedule! Okay, okay, it's not as bad as all that, but for the past few weeks I have noticed a dramatic increase in deadlines. For some reason they like to show up right before summer as one final obstacle to blissful laziness. I'm currently in hiding, but I know those deadlines will find me eventually, so I have to update this blog quickly, before they follow the scent of procrastination to my location.

First, a quick blurb about recent events in my life: A few weeks ago I had the privilege of going to a lecture by Mark Kennedy, one of the many talented story board artists of Disney (his projects include Tarzan, Treasure Planet, and Tangled). He talked about the storyboarding process, as well as how to be a better storyboarder. It was a purely awesome lecture, and I thank Mr. Kennedy for taking the time to give us a look at the creative process behind Disney films. If you feel like clicking the link below, you can go check out his blog:
Mark Kennedy's blog

Also in recent events, I got to go see NASA in Texas. I think I spent most of the time in the gift shop, drooling over the replica shuttles and the flight jackets. Sadly, all in a galaxy far, far away as far as price is concerned. But at least we got to buy out the petrified marshmallows. I mean space ice cream. (Because the word "space" instantly makes things edible!)

So, for those of you who haven't already left this blog in search of more interesting things to do, I do have a picture for you! It is one of my favorite panels from the project that has been eating up every ounce of my free time for the past several weeks (a six page graphic novel, with the topic of "Strange Companion"). It involves pirates, so you know it has to be awesome.

Who are these pirates? Why are they being smacked by a giant goldfish? HA! As if I'd tell you. But in the off chance you're interested to know, there is a chance that this will be released in an anthology of comics for free somewhere on the interwebs. If that happens, I'll let you know.

And, though I would love to spend even more time jabbering on about the no doubt riveting events in my life, I'm afraid that the deadlines have almost found me. I need to pretend to be busy to throw them off the scent. Adieu!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Fluid - Oasis

Fluid. What is the first thing you think of when you hear that word? Well, if you participate in Illustration Friday, it means a quickly approaching deadline and hours spent in deep contemplation over what exactly the word "fluid" (in all of its potentially disturbing glory) means to you. And if you should happen to meet that looming deadline, it also probably brings to mind visions of pageview spikes and comments galore. You know, because we of the artistic persuasion don't like our art getting a little attention. ;)

My first interpretation of the word "fluid" was actually for fluid movement. But because I'm not nearly creative enough to come up with an image for that, I defaulted to my second interpretation: water. (I know, I'm super original) I did a quick sketch in my sketchbook of the first image that came to mind when I thought "water", scanned it in, and went to town. Here is the finished product:

It has problems, I'll admit, but because it is the first thing I've actually been able to have fun working on in a while I still like it. In fact, since I did it on Thursday, I had to rush through a lot of it, so I'm pretty happy with how it turned out all considering.

In the event that any of you are art fans and were curious to know, it was done in Photoshop CS5. The initial sketch took about 15 to 30 minutes, while the actual digital part of it took (I'm guessing) about 5 1/2 to 6 hours.

I would also like to mention that the camel is dedicated to my mother. I think the two of them would get along quite well. :D

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

To Scribble or Not to Scribble

This is just a quick post so that I can pretend that I am motivated. By looking at it you sate my artistic need for attention.

Behold! The very quickly scribbled reference drawing that I did for an animation project. It is a kid, unnamed as of yet, who will be visiting a rather unusual Carnival. :) I may post more on that later, but for now:

I know. Your mind has been effectively blown by my reference image. You are welcome.

But seriously, the views are appreciated. :D

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Puppets from 2011's Past

As I was digging through piles and piles of old, dusty and forgotten bits of computer data today, I rediscovered some old puppets from early 2011. Sadly, being made up of nothing but 0s and 1s, these are not the type of puppet that you can wear on your hand (nor were they made out of old and somewhat questionably-colored socks). These are Toonboom puppets!
(Toonboom is an animation program, similar to Flash.

Despite not being made of socks, this type of puppet is fun to make. Sadly, I think my puppets are on par with sock puppets, but hopefully they still amaze and entertain

The Gypsy Puppet (first attempt at a digital puppet):



And her ship (my favorite part):



I also grabbed a screenshot of a puppet I made for a 49 hour animation competition (as the name implies, 49 hours to go from nothing to animated short). The theme? Public speech gone wrong. So we animated a little girl who shows off her pet monster. This is Sally:



As fun as sock puppets? Probably not. But digital puppets are still pretty fun. And a LOT less smelly.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Dueling Banjo Pigs

The first thing that you may be thinking is, "What on earth is a dueling banjo pig?" Well, I'm glad you ask! Dueling Banjo Pigs is a blog for anyone who likes to draw, or anyone who has an unholy obsession with either pigs or banjos. Anyone can submit a banjo pig, so you should go check it out:

Dueling Banjo Pigs
 
For one of my classes I did five sketches for potential banjo pigs, and I finaled two of them. One had to be a woodcut-style banjo pig, and the other one was any style. Because I normally do flat colors with lineart, I decided to try something different and did more of a cutout style for my second pig.

Woodcut Banjo Pig:


Detective Banjo Pig:


I'll be honest, I'm not really one for woodcut-style images, they aren't really my thing. I do, however, think that my second pig turned out kind of cool (albeit a bit too... blue?).

My pigs are dueling. With banjos. Are yours?

Scribbles, sketches, and lineart, OH MY!

Phew... Time to dust off my blog and start updating again. (Is it sad that when I read this blog title, the only image I have in my head is George Takei? Oh Sulu, where would Trek fans be without you! But I digress...)

My only excuse for not updating frequently, like a good little blogger should, is that the end of 2011 was brutal. And I do mean BRUTAL. The last few months of 2011 decided to chew me up, spit me out, and stomp me into the ground as far as sleep deprivation, projects, and time commitments go. Somehow I survived, but I'd be lying if I said that I was ready for 2012 to start my year back up again. Luckily I spent most of January drawing illustrations for a class on children's illustration. Drawing for two and a half weeks? Yes please!

The following is sort of a "how I did it" sort of thing. If you have an irrational fear of educational children's books, I suggest you stop reading now. If, however, you would like a crash course in the ABCs, written and signed, read on. (Yes, this book includes the sign language alphabet, so you should totally try out a few.) We only finished one spread out of 10 spreads (plus cover), so most of the pages are only in colored layout form.

Thumbnails:


Layout Sketches:



Layout Colors:
(For now I'm just going to put the colored layout for the finished spread)


Final:


And there you have it folks! My only regrets for this project are that a) my scanner decided it REALLY disliked the colors green and purple, so try as I might to fix the colors it still doesn't look quite right, and b) I didn't get to finish the rest of the pages. I'll probably try to finish these up at some point, but who knows when I'll be able to work on them again.

And for those who want to know, I used prismacolor, artmarker, and blick ink pens for the colors. Because nothing can make the people next to you cringe like the smell of 20 uncapped ink pens in an small, enclosed workspace! ;)