Gloppy Xmas

I'll see you next year!

jungle 2

jungle

quick heads

Sketch Club FTW

I've been drawing tonight a bit in Jim's Sketch Club App. It's very fun! If you have an Ipad I recommend blowing the two bucks on it. Each of these took about half an hour. Not bad for no pressure sensitivity.

everything I drew this weekend

I draw A LOT more than I ever post. I hate the process of scanning images out of sketchbooks. Hate it. This is everything from this weekend, unedited except for a contrast balance and cleaning up the crummy grey seams in the middle of the sketchbook. Unedited life drawing is intimidating to show, but there you go.

Don't know how closely anyone out there follows this thing, but you may have noticed I don't draw so many creatures anymore. I've been trying to push at my weak points, people, landscapes, buuuuildings...yuck...
Though, I've actually liked the process so far. I have a long way to go, but drawing thumbnails, doing some life drawing, and making caricatures of people has become surprisingly invigorating and not as frustrating as I'd imagined. I want to stop saying, oh I don't draw that, I don't like those things. Learning can be a pain, but it also makes me more interested in things too, very cool. I'm so happy and lucky to have lots of teachers and motivated artists around me!

The life drawing from these images happened at the Gage's annual art jam, which is one of the coolest things ever. The second coolest thing ever is meeting people there and stumbling upon awesome artwork. I got to watch Peter draw a bit which was a fantastic experience. Check out his blog here: http://happybrush.blogspot.com/
Thanks for introducing me Dave!

heads

ladies

How I spent my CTN Animation Expo

Firstly,
I'm going to mention that my main purpose in going to CTN was to see the Illusionist. However, I didn't get to see it because Jorge and I had such an excellent afternoon it was much more important to throw up in my friends yard. Later I ate the most delicious cold grilled cheese sandwich I have ever eaten. Why is debauchery so much fun?

Secondly, having missed the Illusionist and sparing some poor audience member the trouble of buying a new set of clothes,

I loved this convention.

It was ridiculously inspiring, enlightening, exciting, and generally quite glorious. Every person I met was an absolute wonder. I am so grateful to Tina Price and everyone else involved in putting this convention together. Everybody was there, students, teachers, animators, designers, sculptors, voice actors, business dudes, everyone! The air itself was electric with positivity and enthusiasm, completely contagious enthusiasm that I've never been around before. There were talks and demonstrations running all day but I often found myself just sitting in the lobby of the hotel drawing, scribbling away, the need to draw in that kind of energy was impossible to resist.

I wish I had a better brain. I've already forgotten so many details. Things I can remember, highlights I suppose, could be these.
Watching Micheal Defeo sculpt with a plastic fork and knife and having an opportunity to ask questions as he sculpted, damn cool. Actually talking to Damon Bard and Mike Roush. Paling around with David, Peter, Jorge and Jackie. Meeting Theresa and Jamie. Talking to so many wonderful concept artists and animators face to face while picking up sketchbooks and prints, (sometimes picking up two copies!) and being able to express to them how fantastic I think their work is. The exposure to so much art, varied art, that carries the kinds of feelings and attention to life that I love. Drawing and sharing ideas. All fantastic. For the most part, I was really comfortable and talked to people, total stranger people, a bunch. So much fun!

The worst part of my time at CTN was still a wonderful event. I had some warning, but still got caught off guard when Peter asked me to show my sketchbook. It was passed around a small group of people I truly admire. I was grateful for the opportunity, but completely terrified and had to do everything I could find in myself to keep from running. I would have liked to talk a bit, but fumbling for words and failing, I seized up and mostly looked at my hands and thought about how curly my toes were. Everyone was quite kind to me and I still feel really happy. Just wish I could have been, you know, cool.

Afterwards I went with Peter and David to go see Jean Giraud talk. A small part of me very happy to have escaped the emotional discomfort I was in. I wasn't super familiar with Moebius, I mainly know about him because of my friends Doug and Andrew. Small words, but that guy is amazing. I imagine Matt Barrett will be like Moebius when he is very old, a little wobbly but quite full of awesome. Afterwards there was an LA style party for the talk where people could go and speak to Jean directly. I considered it, but you know, I wouldn't have been good to talk to at that point. I was still quite shelled from earlier and instead just enjoyed the surroundings and did an okay job of calming down a little. I did some more drawing and felt really pleased.

I am going again next year, but it seems so far away.

Thanks so much everybody, you made this time for me very special and I hope you had a blast too.

Heads

CTN Animation Expo

I'll be in LA this Thursday for the CTN Animation Expo. I'm not sure what to expect really, but I am very much looking forward to it. It will be exciting to watch The Illusionist at last and maybe find some new artists work to fall in love with. Many of the panels listed seem like they will be very informative and wonderful. Just a few days left, but so hard to wait!

Hope to see you there!

quickie

Happy Halloween!

We had a bunch of fun at work today!

I had a blast making my mask again this year too. :)

heads

quickie

parrots

Monster Home

8x8
Pencil, Marker, Charcoal, Acrylic

sketches

sketches and WIP painting

Sketchbooks now for sale online!

My 2009 sketchbook Rawr! Dos is now available for purchase online at Indy Planet. The sketchbook consists of 148 pages of black and white illustrations and costs 15 bucks.

Rawr!Dos at Indy Plantet

sketches on ATCs

Ink, water, and pen sketches. Shown slightly larger than actual size.

Bird Heads

hummingbird

Mountain Nyala

Learn to be an art ninja with Tom Scholes!

Daisho Workshop with Tom Scholes

Homeboy and coworker Tom Scholes is having a fabulous workshop in Vancouver, Canada. Tom is one of the best painters I know, so head over if you have the chance!

Guild Wars 2 Models

Some ambient creatures I worked on for Guild Wars 2.

ink elephants

Influence Map

Even though it was fun, I was a bit frustrated making this map. There are so many artists and groups and things beyond art that factor into what I really love and what pushes me. Especially at work. So much of who I am as a person and an artist is formed by the people who surround me day to day and night to night, they are the ones who inspire me the most, teach me, bring me peace, and being me joy.

In the end I decided to group my strongest influences presently and the strongest influences of the past, moving generally from older to newer. Damn, there is so much I left out it's not even funny. It is interesting to see that 2D is so predominant, even though I'm a sculptor by trade.

I can't believe Godzilla didn't make it in... ;_;

Licky

5x5 watercolor and pencil

Bonkers?!

Posting all those lynx/bobcat designs reminded me of a show I'd forgotten about.

Anyone else remember Bonkers? I don't remember liking it a ton as a show, but I watched it a bunch because the animation was pretty awesome sometimes and I liked the characters. Something about that set of Disney tv shows really appealed to me. I think because the animation was a little more off the wall than the movies. Finding a safe place somewhere between Disney and Looney Tunes that I like.

I wish I knew more about the people and places that put together Darkwing Duck, Shnookums and Meat/Pith Possum, Aladdin, and Goof Troop. Other shows were also really good too, like Freakazoid, Animaniacs, Tazmania, and Eek the Cat. I feel like there was about a ten year period of really neat stuff on tv, that might have been kicked off a little with Duck Tails.

So much interesting history that I just don't know how to come by. Is is too soon to feel nostalgic?

batch eight gatos!