My journey to a million drawings...

Wow. I guess it's time to post something...

2010-11-20T20:13:00.001-08:00

So... this past Tuesday, I came home to find my front door bashed in. I went inside my place to find that I am no longer a proud owner of a Playstation3 or an XBox360. After further investigation, I also noticed that I no longer had my Intos3, my 30" monitor... and my LAPTOP!!! SERIOUSLY!? WHO DOES THAT?! Front doors don't protect us anymore?! Sigh... I was thinking that entire time..."Hmm, well it could be worse... they could've shat over everything, and ripped up all my clothes... "

Then I realized... I don't have renters insurance... and I didn't back up ANYTHING that was in my laptop. I was working on a new book, and I had about a hundred or so paintings that I was working on (okay, maybe a dozen, but a hundred sounds more epic)... ALL GONE. FOREVER.

So... if anything, I implore you guys, back up your stuff... and for GOODNESS SAKES, have RENTERS INSURANCE. Okay, a post wouldn't be complete without some drawings, so here they are... (at least what I have on me... )

The first three were drawn from photo ref from the CharacterDesigns.com photoset. Great great resource! I had a blast doing them. BTW, these are photos taken from my iPhone, so I apologize for their lack of clarity. And, does anyone else think that the HDR function really blows? I certainly do...

Coffee Shop Girl memory drawing

Yoko Figure Drawing Gestures 3-5 minutes

Yoko long pose

These two images are scrap concepts that I thought were fun.

And this last image was a drawing I did really quick for my friend Casey. She needed Halloween decor.

Well, I guess that's all for now! I hope everyone is doing well! And don't forget to back up your stuff!!!

Woohoo! I'm back in Salt Lake City! ... wait a second...

2009-04-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Last Thursday I got back from the Concept Art workshop that was held in Dallas Texas. Man! I had a blast! I learned tons... and met a lot of awesome fellow artists. You could all check Phil Holland's mini website (http://www.artbyphil.com/phfx/photography/2009_Reverie_Main) And check out all the madness that happened in four days. It was AWESOME!! Thanks Phil for taking all those pictures!

Giant high fives out to Nonie, Jake, AJ, Jordan, Deanne, Adale, Keikai, Bobby Chiu & Kei Acedera, all the massive Black dudes (especially you Rich), and Tom SKULLS. You guys ROCK!

Okay... well, I don't have much to post... but here they are:

This one's a couple a sketches of Lipa. One of the models that posed for us at the workshop. Freaking great model. She didn't move... AT ALL. Thanks Lipa.

And this one's from life drawing last Saturday of Jodie. I learned a lot from this one. And I'm trying to be a lot more aware of my edges. I'm having a lot of fun with figure drawing... and I've noticed it has helped a ton with what I do at work.

Oh yeah! I printed out a sketchbook! I only printed out one because: 1) its mostly for me to archive and log a little bit of my artistic progression... 2) has a lot of things that was inspired by work stuff... 3) and probably the biggest reason: my mom always wanted me to be legit and publish something.

Here's the cover (Thanks Tom!):

In the coming months or *cough* years *cough*... I hope to "level up" and print out a LVL. 2 Sketchbook. And when I get to sketchbook level 5 or 6... I'll have one open to the public. :)

Well, I guess that's all for updates for now. Cheers!

Sorry... I've been REALLY busy... Life Drawing post:

2009-03-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I haven't been able to tear myself away from work lately to do some personal stuff; the only thing I really have to show for the lost time are some life drawings. I haven't life drawn for about 3+ years (about the time I started working for the mouse... ) and I figured it was about time. So about a few months ago I picked it back up... and MAN, I had a blast! I know these aren't the best life drawings, AND I need a better scanner (or get better Photoshop skills)... But it was really fun doing these. I'm posting them because Tom Scholes said I shouldn't be so shy with my stuff, so here they are in all their glory(and lack there of...)!!!

All but the last few were drawn at a figure drawing session up at the University of Utah (and they have some "interesting" fellas there that host it. So please pardon the lack of diversity.) Enjoy!

These are a combination of 5-10min gestures and long poses:

Oh and that last one was a drawing from a photo. It's really hard getting a naturally lit, tasteful pose... that's still a high quality photograph to use as life drawing reference. If anyone has any tips on life drawing reference... please let me know!

R'war!!!

2008-11-10T20:12:00.000-08:00

... says the forest spirit.

Here's a quick sketch of a Totoro monster that I did at one of our company "all hands" meeting. It was just a quick sketch... but I had fun doing it. And he looks like he's having fun being on top of that tree.

Yup.

I had fun in CA this past week!!! It was good to be back... even just to visit.

2008-10-23T18:36:00.000-07:00

So... I went to visit LA to take my niece and nephews out to Disneyland (where I purchased something AWESOME!!!) and visit some friends. While I was there, I found some boxes in my friends garage with some of my old stuff from CalArts inside. And in one of those boxes I found this:

A sketch that John Ripa did for me while he visited my animation class! This drawing was squished between my Illusion of Life book and my Richard Williams book. Its in a banged up state... but man, I totally thought I lost this thing! What a find! (FYI: John Ripa was the supervising animator on young and baby tarzan. He also studied under Glene Keane... And is also one of the most inspirational speakers I've ever met.)

He did this drawing in a couple of minutes -but this very drawing has inspired me for the next couple of years that I was at school. Its pretty incredible when you're a student and someone that you look up to offers you a hand. Thanks John. I hope that one day I'm worthy enough to pay it forward.

Okay! Now some of my drawings!
(wow, maybe I should STARTED with mine...)

So this first one was drawn at draw night. Haha, and Alan Tew has an awesome post on what exactly happened that night. I didn't clean this image up at all, so that I can show you guys the parts that I was having trouble with. And it's the legs. And at draw nights, I'm trying to take advantage of drawing with other great artists and asking them to do a "draw over". So this time Alan took a sheet of paper and sketched over it.

And man... I learned a lot. There's so much that I learned from watching him sketch it out, rather than looking at the finished sketch. Thanks man. And the following day, my officemate Dave McClellan offered to do a sketch over:

Here I learned that the shoulder looked a bit off with my sketch. And so Dave suggested some alternate solutions. Mark Behm also pointed out that the shoulder looked questionable on my last post. So I'll be paying extra attention on the shoulders of the drawings to come. Thanks for the crit Mark! Its so great seeing other people's takes on the same sketch. Thanks Dave. I hope to revise my drawing with the paint up.

And now, back to my "Chic's and Monsters" theme!

I actually did this sketch a few draw nights ago. And this time I asked Ryan Ottley to do a sketch over. Unfortunately, I don't have that drawing at my desk to scan in, so I'm going to have to edit that in later. But he's a total Badass. I learned A TON from the way he approaches sketching. Thanks Ryan.

And last but not least... the thing that a purchased from Disneyland:

Donald Duck as Darth Maul!!!!

Isn't it AWESOME?! It stands 16" high and weighs appox. 15 pounds. There's only 600 made and I bought one of the last ones! (*cough* actually I bought 2... I'm gonna sell the other one at xmas time :) )

Hope everyone's doing well and staying warm!

Ahhh! I'm 29 today!!!

2008-09-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

Today's my Burfday. And what's the fist thing I do? Post up a sketch! Does anyone else feel the ever-looming pressure of the age 30? Like when you were young... did you dream by the time you reached 25, you would've gotten your superpowers and would've saved the world a few times already?

Haha, well here's a sketch with a theme I'm tossing around: Chicks with bad-ass monsters. Hopefully I'll get to drawing more on this theme on our tuesday night draw nights. Painted version will come soon. (Maybe not too soon...)

Man.. I suck at posting. Can you believe that posting regularly was my new years resolution?

2008-09-21T21:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Thanks for all the great comments and info on the cintiq! I think I'm going to save up and get the big one.

I was told by my good friend that I should do artwork on the side -that's just for me. I always knew I should... and lately I've been burning out... and I think the only way to get back to the joy of art is by finding my own reasons why I do it. I know that probably doesn't make sense for the rest of you artists because art is something that you'd be doing with or without reason... just because you're passionate about it. But for me... somewhere down the line, I've gotten a bit lost. So hopefully, by doing art for myself, I can find my way again.

Haha! Now with that said, here's a sketch of Chun Li that I did at one of our Tuesday drawing nights!

(Ballpoint on animation paper)

I didn't actually remember how she looked like, so I made up my version. So don't hate me Chun Li fans. And here's a paint up of the sketch. I changed a lot of things based on some feedback from my awesome co-workers.

(Interchanged between Painter and Photoshop)

This is my first colored piece. And "painting" is something that I'm having a hard time wraping around my head -but I'm having a lot of fun! Any feedback would be great. Ciao!

Ancient Offering... sorry it took too long

2008-03-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Thanks for all the great comments! Here's one of the sketches that I did at one our little coffee shop drawing nights. I wanted to do a little sepia tone over it, but its been awhile already. So here it is! Oh, and I really need to update my links here... there's a lot of people that I've met that I want to link. It's been a long time!!!

Oh, and one more thing... Has anyone tried out that new little Cintiq? I'm thinking about getting one. Please lemme know. Thanks!

Wow... is this thing still on???

2008-02-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!!! Well... its been awhile since my last post. Sorry for my LONG absence... but alas... lets try this again shall we? So, here's my first post of '08! (*cough* and '07.)

Cintiq... where have you been all my life...

2006-10-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

Okay... I've just confessed to my girlfriend... that I love the Cintiq more. The Cintiq is to the Intuos, as the Intuos is to the mouse. My fellow artists, if you haven't yet tried it, let me try to free your mind with my exact words when I first used it: "dude..." (draw, draw...) "DUDE..." (draw, undo, draw...)

Here's my first sketch(which now means a totally different thing when using the Cintiq) :

Okay, the sketch isn't that great... but I had a lot of fun doing it! Isn't that what drawing's all about???

*Edit: Okay, I corrected my misspelling of "Cintque". No one bothered to tell me?

The Power of Warmup Pages!

2006-10-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post these doodles. This first one is the first and only "lunch mark" a few fellas here at Avalanche had. (And they shall go nameless... if they're too afraid to show theirs.)

The setting of this place was great. It was an old sub shop underneath a building in downtown SLC. You could see the pipes for the building right above you. (what a genius I am, I didn't draw them)

This other one is one of the many warm up pages I have throughout the day. I notice the longer that I sit and try to answer some concept questions, the more and more stiff my drawings become. So, I take a break and try to visualize something that has a natural gesture; Or at least something that looks fun to draw...

UPDATE!!!

2006-10-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

Salutations! It's been awhile. I guess it's about time that I post something. My good buddy Ryan said that he's getting tired of clicking on my blog and seeing those nostrils. And so here's a piece that I've been fighting with. I'm still trying to comprehend "painting".

Here's the oringnal sketch (my first sketch in Painter):

I feel like it lost something. Let me know what you think. Don't be afraid to rip me a new one.

2006-07-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

Moving out to Utah has really helped me to focus more on getting further with my sketches. But I often wonder how it is back in LA. And if I were in LA... it would only be a 2 hour drive to the San Diego Comic-Con!!! Why oh Why didn't I go!!! ...Oh yeah... no money.

2006-07-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Hmm... Thats me. You like my nostrils???

Trying to learn values. I guess it's gonna take awhile.

2006-05-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Hello! Welcome to my Blog. I've been fighting it for awhile now, but I've finally succumbed to having my work posted online. Please feel free to email me or post random comments on any or all my posts. So grab a cup of Joe and enjoy!