Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's a few days late for Christmas but I figured I'd post it for the holiday season.

Sorry, it's been so long. After moving twice, changing jobs, and doing a ton of freelance I haven't had much time to do my own stuff. This one didn't come as easy as the last and I didn't enjoy it as much. But hey, it's something.

This one came together relatively quick compared to my usual illos. I enjoy the freedom of digital painting because of the ability to experiment without fear. Any critiques are welcome.

A little work in progress. After seeing "How to Train Your Pet Dragon", I couldn't wait to draw again. Besides being a wonderful story it was artistically inspiring. I'm planning on taking this one to final color.

Stream

Last night I did a "stream of consciousness" drawing. That's where I don't think about it and just draw whatever flows off the pencil. When I'm completely blocked this is a good way to loosen up. It's also much easier to draw after a day of storyboarding. I like it when my day job serves as a warm up session:)

Threw this one together for valentine's day. Artistic ability always comes through in a pinch. (Especially with us procrastinators) I wanted to mess with it some more but my wife said, if I posted it, I had to leave it alone:)

Monsters, Girls, Superheroes

My favorite things to draw in no particular order are: monsters, girls, and superheroes. Look at most of the animated industry artists and you'll find I'm not alone. I do not enjoy drawing backgrounds. I have to force myself to care about the environment. In my experience I've found that most artists like one or the other and usually specialize. There are some though, that excel at both - I hate those people:)

Inspiration

Okay, this needs to be shared. I just came across a blog that I completely "geeked out" over. Rad Sechrist is a board artist at Dreamworks and gives a mountain of information and trade secrets on how he draws and storyboards. I couldn't stop reading it. It was like crack cocaine for artists. I think it's a true gift to be able to draw but to be able to break it down so that others can learn is priceless. Check it out: Rad How To

Random

Drawrings

I'm doing some story/ situational sketches just as a fun exercise. These are just a couple images that came out as I allowed my imagination to roam. (They don't have anything to do with each other.) I know I'm not saying anything very original here but I figured I'd start off easy.

Dad (final)

Been working on some freelance so I had to take a blog hiatus for a while. Here's the final version of the earlier post titled "Dad".

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.