CTN-X

Props to all the fine artists that came and displayed their work at the CTN-X animation expo this past weekend. Also, thanks to all those that took the time to look at my work and give me some feedback. Some of those guys had some serious lines and a lot of wannabe's (myself included) drooling all over them to get a critique. A few of those artists that looked at my work were Bill Presing, Lou Romano, Eric Favela, and Paul Briggs. Getting this professional level of feedback on your artwork in one day is unheard of and, to me, invaluable.

Other highlights were: shaking hands with Don Bluth, watching a demo by Peter DeSeve and Mike Mignola, and meeting a lot of new and old friends. Some of my favorite artists that came and displayed their work were: Brittney Lee, Bill Robinson, Micheal Daley, Pascal Campion, Saud Boksmati, and Lubomir Arsov. (there are just far too many to name) If they put this on again next year, I'm there.

Dad

Here's my current work in progress. It is a subject that hit me the other day and I just had to get it out. Color soon to come.

Phase three...

This appears to be pretty close to done. It's taken me a long time and I've been staring at it for far too long. My next step is going to be to put it aside for a few weeks and come back to it to see if I can push it a little further or if there's any glaring issues with it. Enjoy.

phase two...

Here's my first color pass. As I tighten up the painting some of these preliminary color choices will start to look awkward. This is a good starting point but is not written in stone. Any critiques at this point are welcome. I will make a few more color tweaks and then I will start to refine. The inspiration for this piece came from spending many hours on I-30 on the way into Dallas. This is the scene I would imagine.

Q-ball sketch

Here's how my digital paintings begin. This is a rough b & w layout for my next illustration. Sometimes I start with a detailed drawing and other times I work this way. As much as I love to draw, I find that the detailed drawing seems to slow the painting down. (unless I'm keeping my line work) I spend a lot of time covering up or working around the lines. This method allows me to see silhouette's quickly and not get bogged down with details too early.

Bowbegonizor 2

Here's the updated version of the earlier post. I'm working on a series of these while I try to get published.

Medallion Man and the Q-ball

This is a painting I did for a story I wrote about five years ago. I'm dusting it off and going to see if I can't make a children's book out of it. More to come from this story and others in the works.

Happy M-Day!

My wife asked me to do a drawing for our M-Day cards.  I wasn't sure that this was ever going to get done given our hectic lives right now.  I sat down the other night with a moment to draw and decided to take a crack at it. This is what came out.  I started with a loose sketch in Sketchbook Pro and painted some monochromatic values.  I then brought it into Photoshop where I converted the values into color and cleaned up the painting.  (I got a couple of random comments from companies because I spelled out M-day)

Bowbegonizor

I did this illustration a few years ago.  It's a watercolor wash with pastel and a digital touch up.   It was going to be the cover for a children's book I wrote.   I'm thinking about making some revisions to the story and reviving it.  It's called the Texas Bowbegonizor (Bo-beggin-eye-zer).  Inspired by a story my Dad used to tell me.  It's mainly an excuse to draw a bunch of creatures.

dino designs

These are a few designs I did for my company. They didn't make the cut because they skewed to a younger audience. My favorite is the parasaurolophus (duck-bill dino). I'd love to see him animated.

I know I haven't posted in a while. This is a little freelance I've been working on. It's a postcard mailer for an AC company. They wanted me to invent a superhero for them. I had fun with this one.