Art by Katy Hargrove

quick camels

2012-01-26T00:52:00.001-08:00

Emerald City Comicon is coming up pretty quick. I just began scanning in all my sketchbooks tonight. Whew... It's a lot of stuff! Hope to have it all scanned, cleaned, and ready for print this month.

Really looking forward to the convention this year. A bunch of us from the Sketchwich group decided to join forces in an omega booth this time! Some of the nicest most talented kids around trapped for three days in a giant party box.

Human Sculpt

2012-01-19T13:29:00.000-08:00

A bit over an hour sculpting in Zbrush. Trying to get better at the humans!

No day like a snow day...

2012-01-18T23:52:00.000-08:00

..to enter random contests!

I submitted to the 2012 Eustace Tilley Contest.

Click the image to go to the entry page.

For the large version right click and view image in a new window for more pigeony detail.

These aren't from today, but my neighborhood has been having lots of fun in the snow over the last few days. Definitely aren't used to the stuff over here, so novel!

Howling Brothers

2012-01-12T00:42:00.000-08:00

I eat a chicken every hour!

Another doe-eyed sea thing!

2012-01-12T00:11:00.000-08:00

wolfie

2012-01-11T00:29:00.001-08:00

Getting there.

Been trying to get my brain to flip positive and negative shapes without thinking so much about it. When I relax I can get some pretty neat stuff to happen. I need to make some time to get my hands deeper in the idea. Mess around more with real ink and paper, and plan a bit beforehand.

Blanket Thief

2012-01-04T23:32:00.000-08:00

Drunk mermaid kidnapped by Octopus!

2012-01-03T00:16:00.001-08:00

Feelin angly and dangly

2012-01-02T23:31:00.001-08:00

I always have this thought about an angler fish enamored with his own light. Kind of a carrot before the horse scenario. He eventually chomps it and his belly lights up and growls. Everything goes dim and it's implied he starves to death later. Or maybe it lights up while he sleeps attracting little things to eat. He lives by accidentally eating these creatures while trying to devour the light himself.

snow

2012-01-01T21:17:00.000-08:00

Sea Hoss

2012-01-01T11:50:00.001-08:00

humans

2011-12-30T22:48:00.001-08:00

old dudes

2011-12-29T00:02:00.001-08:00

This song kinda made this whole movie for me.

humans

2011-12-28T23:32:00.001-08:00

humans

2011-12-28T12:43:00.001-08:00

swimmin'

2011-12-26T23:54:00.001-08:00

Mo' ocean

2011-12-26T01:27:00.001-08:00

dragons

2011-12-26T00:31:00.001-08:00

This lady is the best thing in the universe live.

Boom dadada!

human

2011-12-21T23:27:00.001-08:00

filter feeders

2011-12-21T00:53:00.000-08:00

Well not really, just fun with filters!

humans

2011-12-21T00:24:00.000-08:00

Time Thieves

2011-12-20T01:18:00.000-08:00

The lyrics "shake that thing" are awesome if you are thinking about quaking ruins and a ridiculous chase. Perhaps when the gods dance the creatures below are summoned to conflict and adventure.
Tell me, can you done know yo destiny?

Compelled to share...for clap clap clap snap...

A little alone time

2011-12-18T23:42:00.000-08:00

I've been knocked out for a number of days. While not enjoyable, I did catch up on lots of reading and Inuyasha episodes. Kings in Disguise and Perelandra were a couple I read through and really enjoyed.

My imagination gets the best of me when I'm alone for extended lengths of time. It always feels like little creatures are nearby. Something moving about just out of sight. Keeping to those lines of vision at the edge of the eye. Plays of light perhaps, or something sinister. That can be scary to think about, but then, I'm never bored either. I think I'd take the mystery over boredom given a choice.

more things that taste of the ocean

2011-12-18T22:09:00.000-08:00

What goes better with oceanic creatures than lemon and butter?

Perhaps saxophone, bikinis, and khaki chorus lines!
(I'm fairly certain these people are in their underpants and not bikinis at all...)

CTNX 2011 Wrap Up

2011-11-29T23:10:00.001-08:00

Not only was the convention a success, but the entire trip to Burbank was awesome!
One of the happiest most exhausting trips ever.

Quick highlights:
Getting drunk at the Oakland airport at 9 in the morning. Trevor and I sampled California Kings at the vino volo kiosk.
Taking a tour of Disney Animation for the first time ever and not turning into a puddle.(Thanks Bobby!)
Hitting up the Princess Brunch at Disneyland with some of the best people I know!
I'm torn between Enchanted Tiki Room and Toy Story Midway Mania for my favorite attraction of ALL TIME.
Wearing shorts! (It's been cold Seattle.)
Chickening out of saying hi to James Gurney.
Hanging out by the fire pits at the pool after midnight.
Meeting tons of new people and making new best friends.
Watching my rental car's keys fly to Seattle without me.

CTN this year was even better than CTN last year, and I loved last year. The main difference is I had a table this time around, shared with my friend Trevor. While that meant a lot of chaos pre show, and the inability to go to all the awesome talks during most of it, it also meant just hanging out and talking to all kinds of neat people and loads of doodling all day for three days.

I'm not sure I can express the concentration of art at CTN correctly. It overwhelms me. I'm a big dork for animation, and everybody is there! Showing off the latest and greatest, often work you'll never see anywhere else. I saw so many personal sketchbooks and portfolios, wonderful work all around. I only saw one demo and one talk, but they were perfect and exciting and energetic. Florian Satzinger was out in the Atrium drawing, and after the floor closed I saw Michael Defeo talk about sculpting with traditional and computerized processes, staying on model etc, the good stuff. Hopefully some of the other talks will go online, because I would love to see them.

On the conventioneer side, I really packed my half of the table with stuff. While I only brought down the two sketchbooks I've made, I also talked a couple of friends into giving me some of their work to sell. One of the things I enjoyed most was selling their works. I get gleeful when I see people getting excited about art. One of my favorites was selling a sketchbook of Matt's to Jake Parker. I'm so familiar with Matt's stuff, that when I saw Jake's I had this moment of familiarity that was hard to put into words. His stuff is way different, but way similar if that makes any sense.

There were a number of people I ended up being too shy to talk to. Mostly I wasn't shy, but it gets the best of me still! I was really happy Trevor was my table buddy, it made being chatty easier. Strength in numbers? A few of the people I chickened out on were James Gurney, Terryl Whitlatch, Andreas Deja, and Pascal Campion(Pascal is possibly the most wonderful person on earth).

After the show each day there would be the chaos of herding friends and new acquaintances into finding food and hangout time. Which always managed to sort itself out. Inevitably turning into a late night indeed. I loved walking through the hotel at any time, day or night, and seeing all the people mingling and having a great time. The animation students in the lounge working away constantly were awesome. I love their drive!

I think the thing that surprises me is how many people from games are at CTN considering there is almost zero games presence. Almost everything is film, tv, and commercial animation industry. Which I think is fine, but I'm still surprised. I mean, games are about 1/3 animation, more in some. I wonder if there would ever be a similar game arts convention? :) I'd go!

serpents tigers and such

2011-11-26T14:03:00.001-08:00

squirrel!

2011-11-26T13:45:00.001-08:00

...I mean, Chipmunk!

CTNX Demo

2011-11-21T18:42:00.001-08:00

It can be hard to invent new things. Sometimes you just find yourself stuck. I have a lot of exercises that can help break out of this. One of my favorites is shape games. Any shapes will do. Below I've drawn a page of simple line shapes. These could be anything though. Someone suggested placing tracing paper over magazines and using all those shapes and values to draw on. I think that is a fantastic idea!

Begin filling the page with an idea in mind. Horses, houses, rockets, samurai, rocket samurai... I went with the concept of a horse in my mind, because they are challenging and I like them. You'll notice yourself placing details in the shapes you put down, but try breaking out of that and also using the space between shapes and also merging shapes together. Hopefully you just ended up with a silly mess and only spent a minute or two drawing down ideas. Don't worry about appearances. The feeling and idea is most important right now. Don't be overly concerned with rendering or accuracy.

Check out that messy page. Anything stick out? Are there any drawings you find yourself responding to? Anything making you smile inside? I really like the little guy on the bottom left. He's got a good feeling coming off of him. Since I'm responding fairly strongly I decided to isolate him from the herd.

I just squished him up in the corner of the page as reference. Now I'm going to use that drawing as a jumping off point to refine the idea a bit. I feel like this guy looks super happy, maybe slightly proud. I begin a new drawing and push the shape into a proudly held head on a swooping body, trying to exaggerate more. I think the high rear end is funny and keep that, also making it heavier so I feel it more visually. I'm starting to really like this guy, but think I can push it further. I take that second drawing and squish him up in the top right.

I start over again. Now I'm trying to exaggerate that second drawing a lot more if possible. It's better to go too far than too short. You can always go back, but if you can't reach further then you're kinda stuck where you are.

Keep things loose and quick, don't hesitate. Stop worrying about line quality and just run with your ideas.

I think I'm really starting to like this guy. He seems like a very proud animal, maybe he thinks he is beautiful. I begin pushing away from broad feelings and more towards snippits of story and defined personality traits.

I put my sketches on a layer and turn down the opacity. I throw a layer on top and begin drawing in specific details around my sketch. I think about texture and temperature and sounds and smells and movements. Even if I'm not really drawing down all of those things, if I feel them as I draw a little more energy is retained in the drawing. Like I'm drawing the moment before all of that happens.

I colored a little bit during the demo, but was very unhappy with what I ended up with. I think I will color this horsey monster later and talk through that too.

quick horse head in Zbrush

2011-11-12T03:03:00.001-08:00

About 45 min.

And yes more music!

Neato Hopalong Dragon sculpt!

2011-11-11T15:32:00.001-08:00

Jose Linares made a really fun sculpt of one of my drawings. Check it out!

http://www.jmlinaresblog.com/2011/07/dragon-new-lr-setup.html

breaking yourself

2011-11-10T00:06:00.000-08:00

I'll be doing a demo at CTN next Saturday, Nov. 19th beginning at 2pm at the Atrium station.

I'm thinking of going over some of the things I do to break out and stay fresh when designing critters. I play lots of shape games with myself and friends. Quick reflex, random train of thought doodling. Usually leads to some really fun results and also helps loosen up the shoulders for some legit drawing.

The basics are, draw random shapes and intersecting shapes. The best is if other people can draw the shapes for you! (I left this image at scale in case anyone wants to draw into it.)

Then take a basic idea, in this case "horse" and do your best to put the details and symbols of that word into the shapes. The thing is you can not hesitate! It's about brainstorming and allowing the shapes and lines to influence you immediately. If you end up with a page of nonsense that is great.

Then pick out from the chaos the ideas which seem the most appealing. Those will be your base influence as you go into a more thought out design. For this horse I used the bottom right idea above. I delete everything else so it isn't distracting me from the one idea and begin refining it into a new drawing.

Ideally I'd draw at least three drawings from the single idea exploring different ways it could have been pushed further. Usually the first one out, like this guy, is a bit conservative and has too many of the shapes that I've trained myself to draw. I want to break my own training and make something new happen. That's the exciting stuff!

Along those lines, I'm very excited about next week. I'm really hoping anyone who comes by to watch will ask some questions too!

bitey

2011-11-06T20:37:00.000-08:00

I like the critter, but am a little disappointed in the coloration. Keep on practicing!

Sea Toitles

2011-11-05T00:05:00.000-07:00

Quick sketches and some less quick color practice.

Oh dread... I'm becoming a hipster...

octopi

2011-11-02T00:30:00.001-07:00

Flipped the head around a bit to turn it into a "nose". The idea of tentacles is so long and curly I have a hard time tearing away from that notion to simplify. I'd love to make those squiggly lines just fill a page.

More weird mermaid

2011-10-31T01:34:00.000-07:00

Just chillin' on the beach, turnin' bodies cold with my bald eagle. Sup baby bird friends!

I wonder if mermaids turn into blobs like deep sea fish do when pulled to the surface? Gross.

Can I have that back?

2011-10-29T01:22:00.000-07:00

Aw yeah its on! Gonna eat at Ariel's Grotto down in Cali.

Man. I bet astronauts are real happy there are no space mermaids.

I love this song.

Hey this one is great too!

Zbrush seahorse

2011-10-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

Sculpting the little green seahorse guy. Trying the new dynamesh feature out tonight. About 40 minutes.

quick mermaid

2011-10-26T00:00:00.001-07:00

Trying to decide on eating breakfast with Princesses or Mermaids. Also, drawing old timey diving suit guy makes me need to watch these!

Okay, Now I'm just getting silly nostalgic for my favorite theme songs. I have a HUGE soft spot for 60s music, especially theme music. Also, also, I miss the friendly super heroes. Everything is so serious these days.

quick color seahorse

2011-10-24T00:47:00.000-07:00

seahorsies and crabs

2011-10-21T23:59:00.001-07:00

quickies

2011-10-19T23:47:00.001-07:00

CTN Expo 2011

2011-10-19T23:05:00.000-07:00

I went to CTN last year and had pretty much the best time ever!

This year I will be on the show floor with my homie Trevor at table T-73 selling sketchbooks and drawing fun stuff in em. Feeling somewhat intimidated, but mostly excited!

LA are you ready to par-tay? Wooo!

'notha quickie

2011-10-17T23:27:00.000-07:00

quickie

2011-10-17T10:14:00.001-07:00

Geek Girl Con pics

2011-10-17T00:21:00.000-07:00

Photos from last weekends Geek Girl Con via Kraken Studios!

http://krakenstudios.blogspot.com/2011/10/geek-girl-con-2011-precious-memories.html

There were lots of really cool costumes. Trevor caught some of the gems on camera. The MST3K was my favorite.

quick clean crab

2011-10-16T23:51:00.001-07:00

jumped over the lazy dog!

quick crab sketches

2011-10-16T22:57:00.001-07:00

final corgi painting

2011-10-15T00:03:00.001-07:00

18 x 24 acrylic

There are a few ideas I didn't execute fully on this image, but I think I'm happy enough with where it turned out. I'll try to use some of the things I've learned on the next one!

quickie

2011-10-11T22:32:00.001-07:00

I got my computer back and I'm really excited about making some art at home again!

I had a fantastic time at Geek Girl Con over the weekend. It's wonderfully run and I loved the smaller convention crowd. Thanks for getting me involved Kelly and Trevor!

Logo Sculpt P1

2011-10-06T19:12:00.001-07:00

30 min sculpt so far.

digging through old files

2011-09-27T14:28:00.001-07:00

I think this is from about five years back.There are still things I like about the image.

yet more painting WIP

2011-09-25T21:41:00.001-07:00

Weekend shenanigans

2011-09-21T00:33:00.000-07:00

More painting progress.

Hmmm...

Splitter splatter!

Even really old glow sticks still function. The insides smell like burning tires, yuck.

Failed attempts at hotdog whistles.

Me n Susan were able to make slide whistle effects, but the sounds weren't terribly whistley. More of a hoarse raspberry than anything else.

Made loads of dumplings!

I prefer the texture of these "ghost brain" style dumplings. All styles were yummy!

Final CTN flyer!

2011-09-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

Me n' Trevor Howell will be headed to CTN this November!

quick digital color comp

2011-09-13T01:04:00.000-07:00

Trying to figure out what my lighting and colors might be. I think I should try to knock back the light in the BG, maybe cool it off too. The dogs should stand out a bit better if I do that. Also, in case you are wondering, this was tossed together on the Ipad using Sketchclub.

Corgi Dragon Underpainting

2011-09-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here are my first steps into painting the corgi dragon image. I'm laying in washes to define tones. Trying to separate color areas a little bit with cool and warm browns. Pushing down with purple in the darkest areas. Mostly using a wet sponge at this point with some light brush work around smaller details.

2011-09-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

We've got the Plush Charr for sale on the Penny Arcade site for anyone who needs to squeeze an angry kitty man.

Check out Charrlie here!

http://store.penny-arcade.com/products/charr-plush

Corgi and Dragon Sketch

2011-09-05T00:26:00.000-07:00

Working on a painting. Getting my pencils down before adding tones.

-Pencil on Masonite-

some humans

2011-09-03T00:18:00.000-07:00

shameless self promotion

2011-08-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

Working on a title/logo/thingy for add placement. Graphic design definitely isn't my strong suit, but I feel pretty happy with my Florida color palette. Comments anyone? I'm wondering if it reads clearly.

(just added a few tweaks based on your comments! Thanks much!)

Mr. Potato Final

2011-08-29T17:37:00.001-07:00

quick flamingo heads

2011-08-22T19:04:00.001-07:00

Guild Wars 2 at Gamescom

2011-08-20T05:19:00.000-07:00

I'm currently playing GW2 during the Gamescom convention in Germany. Staying up all night for five nights to make the game a great experience for our fans over there. We just released a new video featuring in game footage of GW2. I'm feeling really great about our game and am very excited as we get closer and closer to launch.

I really love this picture of Rytlock with a plush version of himself on his shoulder. It doesn't hurt that I helped design him either. :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/6059407472/

Kotaku had us up on their front page tonight! Rad. Here is their coverage of the undead dragon battle:
http://kotaku.com/5832826/watch-this-epic-guild-wars-2-dragon-fight

You can watch events at our booth at Gamescom here:
http://www.guildwars2live.com/

Check out how packed the GW2 booth is. It's like this every day. Crazy socks! Wish I was there for real. :D

Women in the Video Game Industry

2011-08-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

I will be speaking with Ree Soesbee at the Women in the Video Game Industry event this coming Thursday evening for GeekGirlCon. Admission is free, but you need to register for a ticket on their site.

Space is limited.

Mr. Potato Part 2

2011-08-01T20:45:00.001-07:00

Mr. Potato Part 1

2011-07-28T19:28:00.001-07:00

flamingo sculpt

2011-07-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

I'm still not jiving on the shape of the beak. There is something about the crook of it that is hard to capture, this bird has a bit of a dodo's proportions. I may draw a few flamingo heads and go back to this later and adjust things. I often need to get a feel for the line work before the sculpture makes sense to me. It gives me a rough draft in my head of what I want to do.

Ipad sketch in Sketch Club

2011-07-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

30 min fossa head in zbrush

2011-07-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

random doodles

2011-07-18T00:50:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have all these neat little hits of information about composition and character and light in my head and hands, but still haven't quite figured out how to bring it all together. I want to express more complete feelings and ideas.

On another note, the new Harry Potter movie was awesome! I really liked the dragon. It felt quite real and had great attention to character.

Comic-Con San Diego!

2011-07-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

I'll be at the San Diego Comic-Con next week representing Guild Wars 2 at NCSoft booth 5345. It's in the upper left of this map: Floor Show Map

I always have a blast at SDCC and am looking forward to meeting some of you!

sphinx creatures

2011-07-16T18:40:00.000-07:00

quick mini skietches

2011-06-30T00:14:00.000-07:00

I sliced up a mini moleskin into three smaller sketchbooks.

Haven't drawn much lately, but had some fun last night people watching.

Giant Puppets Save the World photos

2011-06-28T00:52:00.001-07:00

Click to see images from Giant Puppets Save the World!

messing with textures

2011-06-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

Popped CS5 open for a little bit... It's so cool! A lot has been added since CS2.

CTN-X 2011

2011-06-06T23:32:00.000-07:00

Okay! Well, for a change of pace, this year I'll be participating in my first out of state convention artist table. I've teamed up with my yet to be announced ultra super secret table buddy to participate in CTN-X 2011. I'll post more info as it comes, but check out the CTN-X website if you aren't yet familiar with this amazing convention. I attended last years and had pretty much the best time ever! If you are into animation it's got the most amazing talks, demos, and audience I've ever hung out with. Check the link and find out why I'm intimidated!

harpy diem

2011-06-06T23:19:00.001-07:00

couple of human heads

2011-06-05T23:24:00.000-07:00

I'm going to Seoul, Korea soon

2011-05-24T00:10:00.000-07:00

Anyone out there have interesting ideas about things to do in or around Seoul?

I'm currently eyeballing a couple of art supply stores and some tea shops. I'm wondering about neat things to try eating and fun bars to go to.

Also there is a puppet theater and an animation museum in Chuncheon that I'm curious if it is worth the trip to check out. Nami island sounds pretty as well and a hike would be fantastic.

This just in, Chuncheon hosts the International Mime Festival!!!

Clay form for paper mache

2011-05-23T00:45:00.000-07:00

I spent a good portion of today making this clay sculpt of an owl. It's about 2 feet tall.

Now that the sculpt is done this guy will be covered in saran wrap and we will duplicate him several times using paper mache. This is a great technique for making very light, durable, and CHEAP replicas. While putting down the mache you can use butter knives and things to really press in crisp details. Just remember to let your clay become somewhat hard(not dry hard) before mache-ing it or you will squish your sculpture.

Come make Giant Puppets!

2011-05-22T00:13:00.000-07:00

Toni and Sarah make giant puppets and are fun teachers of their art. They have free classes running from the Powerhouse in Fremont on puppet making over the next month. If you have the slightest interest in puppets you should drop by and learn some fun new things about making giant living creations.

Check out updates and progress of their ensemble for this year's Solstice Parade and Folklife Fair in Seattle.

http://giantpuppetssavetheworld.com

Also, we sure could use a few volunteers to be puppeteers during the parade to fly giant birds, wolves, and tree creatures. Drop on by the Powerhouse any weekend or evening during the next month to check out the parade ensembles under development, and better yet, raise your hand and volunteer when you do drop by!

Fremont Powerhouse Location

doodling

2011-05-21T01:22:00.000-07:00

I've got clay imbedded under my nails and a well of ink by my side. Feels damn good.

Moleskin seems to handle india and sumi ink and water very well. My Lamy bleeds through it fairly easily, but not too much using Pelican ink. Markers eat straight through a page and bleed into the next like acid. Is it the alcohol in the marker or my blood?

The sun shone brightly all week and I'm glad for it.

critters

2011-05-13T22:32:00.000-07:00

birds

2011-05-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

Amiskwia plush creature

2011-05-08T00:51:00.000-07:00

Matt's been getting me pumped about the Burgess Shale fossils. We have PLANS! Well, vague plans... Which will lead to ridiculousness.

In the meantime, I made a first pass at a plush Amiskwia sewing pattern. The photo gallery shows the whole process from concept to finish. :( My sewing machine "broke" just before I attached it's tail and whiskers, so they are crudely stuck on there. I'm sewing machine retarded and gave up trying to solve the problem pretty fast.

I used felt to make this creature and that was not wise. He's kinda stiff and the fabric didn't expand like I was planning, so he is a skinny little thing. Poor starving Amiskwia!

Eddy the Plesiosaur

2011-05-08T00:42:00.000-07:00

This creature was made from the same pattern set as the earlier dinosaur post. With a few additions. I think I spent around 20 hours on him. I am not so fast with the crochet.

fun song

2011-05-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

Heard this song at life drawing today and DUG it. Surprised to find out it was the Kinks!

Seattle keeps pretending like winter is finally over and then pulling the wool over my eyes. The plants are into it, but it's still cold. I've been drawing plenty lately, but most of it has been work related doodling. You'll see the results eventually in GW2. I'll try to get some not so secret work up here soon, maybe even today.

I'm trying to live like summer is here even if the weather is faking me out. Tea, beer, buddies. Getting outside and keeping the brain and body busy. Remembering to take naps in a sunny spot, but not letting all the light go to waste.

A simple, surprisingly entertaining board game is Hopla. I picked this up a couple weeks back and LOVE it.

Smashing eggs, like in old country!

2011-04-25T00:19:00.000-07:00

Spent a good portion of today eating halva and dyeing eggs at Tsveta's place. So many bad egg puns were made I'm surprised no one was hurt. She introduced us to the custom of smashing eggs to see who will be the healthiest and happiest in the coming year. Weilding Tsevta's blue pig egg James smashed my skull egg and my furry speckled rainbow egg, and proceeded to smash Matt's spaceship egg, then also smashed Tsveta's Russian egg. I wonder if they have to split the bounty at all?

Later I rolled up into a ball in Tsveta's nest chair and sleepily played Pokemon White while falling into a halva coma. Some sun came out and I felt so happy.

life drawings

2011-04-22T22:29:00.000-07:00

Took a few photos of some recent large life drawings.

-charcoal and newsprint-

A monster post!

2011-04-16T01:46:00.000-07:00

I've been scrubbing my computers in a vain attempt to tidy up my files. I found a big folder of Guild Wars model shots from a number of years back and decided to post them just for the pun. Also, stumbling across these guys made me feel very sentimental and songs like Memories began floating into my brain.

Anyway, this is my day job!

Note that game models often go through multiple hands, so not all of these were 100% my work alone. I believe a couple were variants I worked on, but I'm forgetting who did what. Barry Sundt, Xia Taptara, Shawn Sharp, Jason Wiggin, Billy Wardlaw, and Jason Juan were partners in crime on the Guild Wars creature modeling team.

For instance, I think Billy did the initial model for this rock elemental and I went in and created the snowy variant here.

Centrosaurus tweaks

2011-04-13T01:09:00.000-07:00

I gave him a more prominent back ridge, beak, skin roll around the horn, and some cheek definition.The little bits are so engrossing...

Centrosaurus in crochet!

2011-04-12T00:35:00.000-07:00

I made a few adjustments to a pattern I bought from WolfDreamer on Etsy. The main change was just ornamental surface stitching to accent the bodylines and leg joins. Also I sharpened the nose into a beak and put the legs in more of a walking pose. Little things that adjust the personality. I wanted him to seem a bit rough and tumble. I've been carrying him around all weekend and feel a bit attached. Before I assembled his parts I had a lot of fun placing them all over. I toyed with the idea of giving him only front legs and tying red yarn off the back end of his body, like battle damage. Maybe next time... :)
Also, I thought he was going to be an Einiosaurus, but I didn't get the hood right.

I learned to knit a few years ago, but have really taken a shine to crochet. It's much easier as far as I'm concerned and you can make crazy fun random things quickly.

a little sex and some life drawing

2011-04-10T00:47:00.000-07:00

girl heads

2011-04-09T00:19:00.000-07:00

more goats

2011-04-05T00:43:00.000-07:00

Predictably, these turn into dragons.

I find Carl Sagan awesome and soothing

2011-04-05T00:40:00.000-07:00

You can watch Cosmos on Hulu and Netflix, yo.

Riddle Me This, Internet.

2011-04-01T21:26:00.000-07:00

I really really want to know if the animator(s) on Rabbit worked on Darkwing Duck. The movement is so familiar. Maybe it's just the side teeth peeping through, but I got a hunch about it!

goats and buildings

2011-03-30T23:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, more goats. Plus a bit of my nonsense art notes. Sometimes I learn things, or think I learn things, sometimes I remember things, often I think I know something and then it changes on me. Funny how that works. Writing down notes helps me track where I am and where I've been. The truths of the now always change the truths of the past. Often frustrating and often intriguing!

I am watchin' Baccano!

goats and dandelions

2011-03-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

I bought a Zebra G Nib off Matt last week and have been LOVING it. It's a nib that doesn't catch on paper, no splattering!, and holds lots of ink. It doesn't get quite as fat a line as I like, but still has a wide range of line width. I turned some dandelions into dragons and enjoyed making some hoary looking goats.

Sword and Sorcery is out! Wooo!

2011-03-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for this game for so long. I may not sleep tonight. I may need to make fan art. I will destroy you BEAR!

BUY IT!!!