sketches for queen/prince designs

Rough sketches for the very flamboyant and wicked queen of an African-influenced fantasy story.

Viz Dev Kitchen

Our first Viz Dev project: create a kitchen for the short story "The Ordinary Son" by Ron Carlson. We took some liberties with the kitchen, seeing as the family never used the kitchen, didn't own furniture or a fridge. Here we have the younger genius brother making his mathematical ramblings on butcher paper, while the ordinary son tries to read to make himself genius. I wanted the eye to wander between the two of them. Drawn with pens, gesso and pencil. I've never felt both so happy (because I've never drawn anything like this) and unhappy (because I can't achieve the level I want to) with a piece before. And so the semester begins!

Windows/Doors/Saltshakers

The Spring semester has begun. A lot of my work is going into Visual Development (or advanced illustration). At this point we're doing studies of windows and doors. And salt shakers. (to the left) Next we're designing a 1960's kitchen to go alongside a story.

I'm also working on a music video project, designing sets that are going to be built in the next couple weeks. Doing some more work in art direction for films, and getting a kick out of it. The documentary is moving along on the backburner. I'm making some side cash doing graphic design work. Glory Boy Days is almost completed filming.

Two new pieces, one ink, guache and collage, the other guache, watercolor and ink.

Since December I've been working in the art department for upcoming indie film Glory Boy Days. It's been a great experience seeing how the look of a fim is generated, from our Art Director Erik Otto's initial color swatches for the different characters, to actually going out and finding/buying the colors of cloth, weird lamps, posters, clothing, etc for a scene. Every little prop and detail has to be thought out, and while the average viewer won't notice it, it has to be there for the right feel for the movie. You can see some of my production photos that I've been snapping (no unauthorized photography, right) on flickr.

I'm longing for summer, when I had time to sit around coffee shops in SF and paint all day!

One more week of classes, then I'll have my pencil tests for my new short film ready to show, images of my latest works, and other good stuff. I also want to start a new, winter sketchbook, so that should be all kinds of good.

'till then, no sleep!

One bit for the latest illustration...

Figure Drawing

Figure drawing... beautiful new model to SHM. Playing with pencil and watercolor.

"Hello, this is Jamaica, broadcasting from San Jose..."

(shot taken from our weekly (Halloween Edition!) tele-broadcasts with ACME, where we present work over the air, get critiques and talk to Disney, Dreamworks and Pixar artists. Highly, highly professional.)

   

Two pieces for Barron's class, based on the mother and the Misfit from Flannery O'Conner's short story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find". The mother is done in a 1940's ad/candid style, while the Misfit is done in a woodcut motif, looking at Barry Moser for inspiration.

Kitty/Rat Sketches

These are some of my early character sketches for my next film. They're designed in the style of Preston Blair and 1940's cartoons, as instructed by John K, but they're kinda slutty and sleazy and are going to take turns hitting on eachother in a little dive bar. More to come!

What Barron's teaching me

You'll regret it if you do it, you'll regret it if you don't.

Rhinos!

So after 2 years in illustration school, I think I'm finally learning construction. Yes, they've tried to teach it to me up till now. I've studied Vilppu, I've taken anatomy. It's made its way into my drawings but not strongly enough. But now I'm studying Weatherly's animal drawings and Preston Blaire's lessons and it's finally working for me. I've been doing enough animation lately that I'm realizing my original tactic of making my illustrations move is just too unreliable. The solution? Construction!

But aren't rhinos cute? I have this thing about their butts, but I'll tell you more about that later.

For those who may not have seen: photos from Ottawa!

I'm learning to do something new. Some things never change, I have the same characters flooding my brain, same wonky perspective and such, but I feel like things are starting to come together a little better. Still gotta learn more about layout, viz dev, lighting, contrast, character design... but, you know, that's what I'm here to do.

Ottawa Sketches!!

Lots of time spent in airports, meeting tons of awesome animators, eating lots of Canadian pizza and fries, meeting some heroes, and lots and lots of drunken dancing. Oh yes, and animation screenings. Lots of those, too.

I'm off to Ottawa!

Today I saw on John K's blog that it was Katie Rice's birthday, and I had to draw something for her. John K's been influencing me with his cartoons from a young age (probably too young), and Katie has been total inspiration over the past year, so I guess it's finally time to crawl out from my rock and introduce myself. Hi Katie! Hi John!

Also, my friend Wilfred took a wide-angle night shot of my workspace. check it out.

+ I created an account over at 1001 Journals.

bits

Under the direction of Barron Storey, I'm putting together a collection of 'bits' around the subject of women through history who've been writers and artists goign against rules of their time. That's a very broad topic but I chose to center it around Colette, beat female writers, and women comic artists. Here's the latest:


'In the shadow of Jack Karouac'


'Vintage Colette'


'Alison Bechdel'

... Fun Home lead me to discover Colette's writing, and around that time I was roaming the library and got involved in some beat writing. So... it all ties together, loosely. Speaking of tying, I started a new sketchbook:

This summer I've developed an obsession for Colette and her life and writing, and now I'm using her as a subject for my first assignment in Barron Storey's class. Here's some shots of the progress I made on this portrait last night. (click for larger)


Gesso, ink, gouache on cardboard.