A Couple Overdue Sketches

Comic Strips

It's been a very busy past couple of weeks, and my posting has been suffering for it. Let's make up some lost time here with a big post.

I just completed a commission of a bunch of physics-themed black-and-white comic strips. It was a quick project and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I had to do a bit of quantum physics research to come up with the material, which was more enjoyable than I thought. It was especially fun coming up with the signatures of me imaginary cartoonists. Some of the jokes had to be a bit cheesy, but I had a lot of fun coming up with them. Azure assisted inks on five of the pen-inked strips. She also did the awesome Chaz Addams tone washes on two of them!

Doodles

I've been asked to bring some more cartoony, less-realstic work into my portfolio. I've started some free-form doodling to try to loosen up.

Back From SDCC

Back from the con inspired to get back to work. I'll try write a comprehensive account if I can find the time. I'm excited to be drawing some comic pages again. With luck Andrew and I will have something ready for Emerald City Con. I'm still searching for him, but Doc Flamingo's starting to come together in these sketches.


Joint sketch with Pedro.


I've been missing the ASIFA sessions lately because of work. But I managed to make it to the tail-end of the last session and get some practice with the brush pen.

Animation Demo Reel JULY 2009

We're in the middle of the Conic-Con and it's been a blast. Here's my most currently edited animation demo reel.
Run Time: 1:38 minutes
Media: 2D Flash animation, pencil, stop-motion, 3D Maya

Rendering #4

Number Four in the series. Started the new Maya animation today. The focus of this one is camera placement and secondary motion. Updates to follow.

Rendering #3

I'm enjoying this new sketchbook. Life drawing class starts today. I have much still to learn.

Rendering #2 -- Refined

I wasn't quite happy with #2 yesterday so I went back and pushed the values more.

Rendering

--Edit-- See above post for finished #2 piece.

Gots me a new brand new sketchbook. Working from a pose photo book in lieu of this season's life-drawing sessions.

A Finished First Run-Cycle

The completed Maya run-cycle. I took some great advice from animator Dave Strandquest and tried to put a little more gravity and secondary motion into the run.

Holding Pattern

Last weekend we packed up and moved into the new place. We won't be getting cable and internet until July 14, when the cable company finally decides to come by and plug the converter box into the wall. In the meantime, updates will be spotty at best, but I'm working on a much more complicated Maya animation, and a few other Flash pieces besides.

I haven't been able to draw much since I left Brooklyn three weeks ago, but I plan to get back into the swing of things this weekend once the mountain of stuff is moved off my drawing table and the area surrounding it.

More posts (hopefully) soon!

Maya: A Second

Gave a run cycle a try. Here's it from the front:



The side:



And in the round:



The journey continues.

I've been in the process of moving these past couple of weeks so I haven't been able to post any drawings lately. We finish the move next week so once I get my drawing table and scanner back I should have new things to post soon!

Flash Painting

Experiment with painting and illustration completely in Flash. It was a new process of discovery and adventure. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Maya: A Beginning

My very first attempt at animating in Maya, or anything 3D at all for that matter. I had a two day crash course and mostly learned the buttons by feel. I ended up treating the program with a very 2D sensibility, by ignoring all the helpful tools and doing things the hard way. I post this with the intent of kicking the shit out of it with a brand new 3D walk in the next week.

ASIFA Pose Sessions #8

The last few model sessions. This week's was the last one of the season, so I will have to make it to the Met, the Natural History Museum, and the zoo more often now. I'd like to find a model session where I can do a nice long pose study. As it is, these sketches are 1-5 minute poses.

At the Met

Tried a few pen sketches at the Met last weekend. It's been a while since I've tried a long-term study. Since I started working in animation I've found myself working more heavily in gesture. My rendering is something I want to improve this year. I'll be back to the Met with a large pad and charcoal soon.

Museum of Natural History Trip #3

Trip number three, this time with my buddy Kyle who's in town from Cleveland. Ballpoint pen sketches, brush pen, and one lonely pencil sketch.

ASIFA Pose Sessions #7

I haven't posted these for a while. One-five minute poses. The past two or three times I wasn't too pleased with my sketches, but I think I'm getting back on track with last night's sketching here. Haha, I'm less pleased with the scans I made of them. Last year I was able to draw the models' faces in time before they switched poses. I'm either trying to be more careful, or more selective, or something, but I just don't seem to have the time to work on the faces these past half-dozen sessions.

I've been working all week on designs that I can't post here for some time. Hopefully I'll be able to post something nice soon.

Turkey-Tarako Comics Blog

I've set up a new blog along with my girlfriend. It's called Turkey-Tarako Comics and is devoted mostly to bizarre jam-comics that we come up with in various public places. I always carry a pen and my mind is always filled with strange dancing puppet-dinosaurs and things, so they naturally come out if I'm sitting around and there's a piece of paper handy. Once I pass the pen to AZ, the pagr gets even stranger. So now there's a little blog to showcase them. Check it out!

Here's a sample:

And another:

Turkey-Tarako Comics! Enjoy!

Horse Studies

I'm trying to learn how to draw horses as reference for a project. This is the first time I've ever tried to draw a horse in earnest, so I thought I'd record my transition from the not-good-at-all to the not-very-bad. The black and white pencil are my first attempts, while the color pencils are the second.

Doc Flamingo

Here are some (very) preliminary sketches of a new comic Doc Flamingo that my friend Andrew Pearson is scripting and I will be illustrating. We're hoping to have a 12-page mini out in time for San Diego this year.

© All rights reserved.

Museum of Natural History Day

Last weekend Maasa, Natalie, and I went back to the Natural History Museum to sketch the animals. It was enough fun I think I'm going to make it a regular excursion from now on.

An Indian lion and Sumatran rhinoceros.

Rhino and Malaysian wild dog.

African lion and lioness. I know I exaggerated the lion on the left's face a little, but I couldn't really help myself since every single family that walked by the exhibit as I was sketching would scream, "Look, it's Mufasa!"

I've spent much of the past two years absorbed in figuring out the subtleties of the well-placed contour line. It's refreshing to start fleshing out planes again.

Petticoat a la Olan Mills

Did a few touch-ups to this one.

I tried to fix some small placement problems with Sheila. Very minor changes. Here's the original:

Fair Play Storyboards

Boards from a personal project I started working on before I was called in for Speed Racer and Petticoat. I'd like to start working on it again now that I have some free time.

Dino Surprise Boards

Storyboards from another project I worked on before working on Speed Racer.

More Concept Art

Here's Petticoat looking a little more competent than usual.

It's been a while since I inked anything so I spent a lot of time practicing brush lines. When I finished the illustration, my practice page ended up looking kind of cool in its own right:



A couple more concept drawings left to go.

A Few Cartoons