Back to the History Museum

It was another nice Saturday so we stopped by the Natural History Museum again for a little last-minute studying.

Later at dinner my wife and I did a little jam sketch.

Sweet'N Low and Other News

The two commercial spots for Sweet'N Low that we made last month are now on the air!  I was Animation Director and also provided the animatics on these.  These were quite a lot of fun to make, a very expressive style.  Each spot is 15 seconds and drawn in Flash.  The  animation crew included my wife AZURE, Pasquale Ricotta, and myself.  Produced at Nathan Love, Inc. 

Cloud-Rainbow:

Sun-Moon:

The shorts have been starting to generate some press, today they were featured on Motionographer:

http://motionographer.com/2011/11/15/nathan-love-for-sweet-n-low/

And on MediaPost:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/162158/sweetn-low-launches-animated-tv-spots.html

In other news, both my wife and I will be included in Art For Hope, a digital art anthology sponsored by Autodesk and VIZ Media, the proceeds of which go in support of the continuing disaster relief in Japan.  It's a really fantastic project that debuts the first week of December.  My wife's piece will be featured at the launch premiere in Las Vegas at the Autodesk Creative Studio Event.

http://www.sketchbooknews.com/news/creative-studio-art-exhibit.html

More details on how you can get the Art For Hope anthology coming soon!

Natural History Birds

My wife and I stopped by the Natural History Museum this afternoon.  It was only an hour before closing but we managed to find a place to sit and sketch a bunch of hawks.

Random stuff from the sketchbook.  It's a slow build-up to get back to sketching for myself outside of work this year.  Coming up are a couple of commercials that I just finished and a brand new demo-reel!

Storyboarding Doodles

I watched Double Indemnity and Orson Welles's The Stranger today, both great films.  I'm warming up for some new storyboards so I started doodling around in Sketchbook Pro to find striking framing devices.  I paid attention to the way both Wilder and Welles built their compositions.  The two films are on opposite ends of the film noir visual spectrum.  Double Indemnity is high-key, filmed largely in gray washes.  The high tones are soft and Wilder often allows his leads' faces to fall into dim shadow.  It's a film about moral ambiguity and the cinematography never pushes the audiences' emotion too far one way or the other.  The Stranger plays on the extreme edge of light and dark.  There is no ambiguity about the personality of Welles's Nazi war criminal, and the low-key lighting leaves almost no room for middle tones.  The backgrounds of each film follow suit, Welles's film favors abstract patterns of shadow, while Wilder populates his shots with set dressing. 

The top two panels are right out of The Stranger.  The bottom ones are just me messing around, searching for interesting scenarios in single shots.  I'll be posting more as I continue my warm ups!
 

On the Subway

 

Flipping through some seldom-used sketchbooks I found a whole bunch of studies from when I rode the subway into work in the mornings that I never scanned.  The speedboat moose was there too who's to say it wasn't?

Getting Back Into Practice

Back in July three major productions I was working on for the better part of a year or more came to a close.  Afterward we took the month off for a much-needed break in Japan and then over to the west coast.  Now that we're back in the city and I've started a new production I've realized that it's been a while since I've sketched purely for fun or study.  For the people who actually read this blog I'm sorry that the new updates have been few and far between lately.  I have to start giving myself assignments to get back into the right mindset.  We'll start with dogs!

New Boards

Some new boards I've been kicking around for an old project.  There's a few more pages in the works!  These were done in Sketchbook Pro.  I wanted to focus on staying loose and energetic with the drawings. 

Japan and iPad

I got myself an iPad last month and have been playing around with Sketchbook Pro.  Using the stylus is an interesting challenge for me.  Here's a few sketches from when we were in Japan.

This last one was my first sketch using the iPad back in May.

An All-Times Food!

It's been a LONG stretch since the last post. This doodle is about 3 months old as well. Work lately has caused a big backlog in my sketch posts. I will try to get back to a more regular posting schedule this summer!

ASIFA Drawing Session WINTER/SPRING 2011 #2

Tonight's batch! I'm pleased with the 1 minute sketches this round. Click for larger images.

1-3 minutes:

4 minutes:

5 minutes:

From the Sketchbook

ASIFA Drawing Session WINTER 2011 #1

Gesture drawing class is back in session!

1-3 minutes:

4 minutes:

5 minutes:

Cottleston Pie

He's not exactly Sesame Street, but Rowlf's been on my mind since I drew the Counting Count. Rowlf singing "Cottleston Pie" on the Muppet Show is easily one of my very favorite moments on television. Click to make bigger!

ASIFA life drawing started last week!

Skeleton Studies

Took an impromptu trip to the museum today. We only had a couple of hours this time around but with luck we'll be able to make it back soon.

Movie Faces

I wonder if tomorrow will be a snow day!

Some doodling while my wife and I watch movies.

Trying to focus on the clothes the characters wear. In the MST3K episode Girl's Town, the main character wears this awesome and strange half dress/overall. Is that a thing people wore, or did they make it up for the movie?

Looking forward to starting up the animal anatomy studies again this year. A trip to the Natural History Museum is in order!

Ah Ah Ah!

Approaching nearly a whole year working for Sesame Workshop, and it's been such a great and unexpected experience. As a life-long Henson fan it's been a joy to work with these characters every day, and now as I see everything coming together I'm humbled by the scope of it. It's still a shock to see my work on all the finished projects. Sometimes I forget that I'm actually drawing these guys for a reason and not just because it's so much fun. I'm grateful for the team that

Anyway good ol' Count von Count is one of my favorite characters and he's one that I don't get to work with too much, so share and enjoy! I might try my hand at some more Muppets that don't come my way too often, depending on how much people would like to see them.

GigaCon 2011 was such a great time. The con itself started to grow and I'm excited to see how it progresses. My storyboarding lecture seemed to go over reasonably well despite some initial technical difficulties, and the sketchbooks turned out really nice. The highlight of the con though was getting to meet and hang out with all the fantastic guests. Thanks guys for some of the most fun conversations I've had in a long time.

Sketchbook Vol. 2 will soon be available to purchase on this site! Stay tuned for details!

My posting has slowed down a little in the past few months, but I have a bunch of new posts lined up.

Sandwich War

Also coming to GigaCon 2011 (click for the GigaCon website).

Watercolor prints available in 12x16" photo matte paper or in letter-sized watercolor paper. This year the con has expanded enormously with some great guest artists coming in from all around the country. Come on down and stop by our table. If for some reason you can't make it, the prints and sketchbooks will soon be available for sale on this here site right here!

Testing, testing

A new year, a brand new sketchpad to fill up. 

From Sketchbook Vol. 2

Back and ready to go in the new year!  Here's a little something that can be found in the new Sketchbook Vol. 2, which debuts this week at GigaCon 2011.

Sketchbook Vol. 2 Coming Soon!

Coming in 2011!  My Sketchbook Vol. 2 featuring sketches from throughout 2010.  Vol. 2 kicks the crap out of Vol. 1, and it's more than twice the size, which gives it even more legroom to kick with.  42 pages of doodles and sundry others, including many previously unreleased drawings.  There will be a limited printing available for GigaCon 2011 in January, and a larger printing soon after.  If you can't pick it up at GigaCon you will soon be able to buy it online, right here even!

Kitty Kitty

Pre-watercolor pencils. 

Pie Time

This is an older illustration that I decided to clean up and ink.  I have no explanation for this scene.

Coming Soon

Triple post today. Here's the rough pencils for a new painting!

A Sketchy Day

I'm working overtime to put a brand new 2010 sketchbook together for the printers!  Ive got two weeks to finish it.  The wife and I have tables at GigaCon 2011 in Washington DC this January.  We'll have prints, chat, and shiny shiny new sketchbooks.  Azure will also have her line of fine knitware (you want to click on it) on sale which is great because you will leave warmer than you arrived.

More info coming soon!

ASIFA Drawing Session FALL 2010 #6

Decent session last week, I only stayed for the first half though so I didn't get a chance to try out the brown paper sketchbook this time. These are 1-3 minute poses, still using the side of the pencil. Click the image for a larger version.

Quizibuck

Bit of a new look for the blog, I've added an Illustration page and a Sketches page that I'm slowly updating. That way you won't need to sift through the back posts so much!

I had a little less of a sketch-heavy weekend than I originally hoped, but I do enjoy this cheerful fella.

An older sketch from my watercolor book that I decided to refine a little.

SANDSTORM

Watched Joel and the Bots riff on Hercules Against the Moon Men tonight and let the pencil wander where it wanted. 

Here's a random pen sketch from earlier this week, hanging out in a cool bakery of muffins and magic. 

We may actually have a free day this weekend (crazy!) and I'm looking forward to breaking out the paints.  Hope to get some new illustrations done in time for January!

From the Sketchbook 2

When I'm forming a new idea I let my mind and my pencil wander. Here's a few recent full pages on nonsense from the sketchbook.