Two art books that came out this past month that every artist should have:



James Jean: ProcessRecess and Pulp Hope

Both are beautiful, inspiring crazy books.

It's the third week of BFA already, we're working on a project for Robert Browning's "The Last Duchess" and I'm putting together 5 environment/visual development/story illustrations for next week. Currently it's a mass of reference pictures, rapid sketches and thumbnails (see desktop). I'm studying James Jean's work and learning how to take my raw scratchy pencil drawings into fine, clean-lined illustrations. I'm not sure how to deal with color... I think I'm going to stick with gouache and acrylic for the most part, there's not quite enough time to experiment with Photoshop this week.

Yesterday I went to the premier of Glory Boy Days, the movie I worked on the art department for last winter, and it was an amazing turn-out, everyone who worked on it was there, driving from San Francisco, flying from LA, bringing our family and loved ones, and we all got to wait on the sidewalk outside the theater for three hours because of technical difficulties, and then got to see 10 minutes of the film before the audio went out completely. Still, despite the premiere being a bust, we talked about those 10 minutes for half of dinner afterwards, and it was great to see everyone all together. (optimism,optimism)

Illustrating, illustrating, more on that later.

4th of July

A date on 4th of July... watercolor, gouache and ink.

Set Design

Over the past month I got a job designing sets and just finished the process of designing a set in Sketchup, then working with clients to get the look they want, and then seeing the set built and shot. One of the greatest, weirdest experiences I've had:

The Summer Set

A follow-up to my last post, the 3-part summer beach series is finished! This was my way to get back into the swing of directing myself through a project outside of the classroom or freelance environment. It's a completely different feeling, and, I think, very fulfilling.

My website's gone through some updates, I've uploaded some new images and now four of my comics are available to read online!

cut-out beach scenes

This summer I'm focusing on doing a series of illustrations for more of an all ages audience, dealing with innocense and curious emotions, set in beach environments reflecting my stay in santa cruz. First came a series of sketches, which then led me to start building the scenes and characters piece-by-piece, drawing and painting on different sheets of watercolor paper and then collaging them together. Here's alligator boy without his background, and the first finished piece.

Al's Monumental World of Popsicles

Our last assignment in Visual Development was to design interesting popsicles, and I came up with a set of popsicle shapes and flavors based on monuments like the Taj Mahal, Mayan Temples, Easter Island Heads, Buddha Statues and the like. Then, we developed the character who would sell them and the cart s/he'd sell them out of. I came up with Al, a retired high school History teacher who, after his wife's death, decided he wanted to benefit the community by educating the children about the multicultural world through treats. Despite his great aspirations, the kids don't listen to his lectures and only want the ice cream, but he continues to hand-make the popsicles and sell them out of his ultra-tacky cart. He's extremely sad and lonely, and only seems to feel ebtter when selling his creations. His daughter, Gertrude, is 15, entering puberty, and mortified by her father. A daddy's girl her entire life, she still feels an obligation to him, and will sometimes run the cart during the summer, but she's dedicated herself to her social life: boys, short skirts, and stuffing her bra. Al, of course, is completely terrified of the boys she gets attention from, and usually scares them away with voodoo-popsicles. Al and Gertrude share an uncomfortable, awkard bond that I don't think we've seen the last of yet.

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!