Ninja Weasels

BWD launch

2012-01-01T23:28:00.005-05:00

Well, I've been completely quiet here for some time now. To some degree, this is because I've been haunting Tumblr more these days with my sillier doodles. Another big timesink has been the Four Kingdoms webcomic, which incidentally launched today. Hence, this post.

The comic's official title is now "Beyond the Western Deep." It'll follow the adventures of Quinlan the squirrel (and his best buddy Dakkan the otter) as they're drawn into a political crisis in the already unstable world of the Four Kingdoms.

This is my first stab at doing a webcomic, so I hope to learn all kinds of awesome things along the way. It will update daily this week as a sort of launch party, and then settle into a weekly Saturday update schedule.

TMNT?! What a surprise!

2011-04-25T03:40:00.006-04:00

I think there's something about ink that makes me want to draw ninja turtles.

I also found a cute way to draw 'em while I was sketching around, haha.

...It was a little while before I could get them out of my system.

"Rider" storyboard

2011-04-14T07:54:00.004-04:00

Been working on my boarding - here's a short story!

Click on the link, then the SWF, and you can navigate with your arrow keys (or the buttons provided)!

Any and all critique y'all may have is welcome!

Cats and violence

2011-03-04T15:54:00.003-05:00

It's what I do, right?

Sketchbook page of our 15-pound cat, Lily. I bought an inkbrush to try, and I'm loving it. Toned with watercolor and gouache.

The event log from my current game of Dwarf Fortress: adventure mode. I'm playing a dwarf covered in shields (not shown) and weapons, and yet I slew the leader of goblin bandits by throwing a giant cockroach I found in a cave.

This game is ridiculous and I love it.

Some random arts!

2011-02-17T18:02:00.006-05:00

I realize it's been some time since I posted, so let's throw some drawings around!

A tribute to Mr. Brian Jacques, the man who shaped my childhood and taste in fiction. He died of a heart attack on the 5th.

In which I biff crocodilian anatomy. My excuse is I didn't have internet (and thus reference) at the time, but I guess it's kinda cool anyway.

Attempting to learn how to use watercolors again. This time I come armed with paints that are dark/rich enough to allow actual value contrast.

Aaand some more Mossflower boards, of a pretty short scene. It's a warmup for a much longer scene that will probably take me months to finish. >:)

bzzzzZZZZZ

2011-01-25T02:57:00.004-05:00

Warning: Another stupid late-night drawing idea incoming!

So, yeah.

It's a dragon breathing BEES.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer...

2010-12-24T23:04:00.006-05:00

...had a grandson with the same condition he did. Just in the hooves.

This is such a late-night drawing, but it made me chuckle enough to want to color it. Merry Christmas!

2010-11-18T16:38:00.002-05:00

I wish I could draw airplanes the way this guy can. So much life and appeal in objects that are completely inorganic!

I also wish I could read French.

storyboardin' critters

2010-11-15T14:05:00.006-05:00

Well, for a bit now I've been working with a group of Redwall fans who want to try to make a fan-created, feature-length version of Mossflower, which is hands-down my favorite book in the entire series. I do have lurking doubts at our ability to pull out a finished product, but right now this is the best side-project ever for me.

And why is that, you ask?

The answer is STORYBOARDS! :D

The group setting provides excellent motivation to do regular boards, which is helping me practice not-sucking. I also get to teach a lot, since pretty much everyone is younger than me and hasn't really done this before. So even though it's me drawing the stuff I always like to draw, it's been good for me on tons of levels.

Here is a scene I recently finished - the first real scene in the film. As with all "finished" things, I have located a bajillion flaws already. Perhaps my buddies who read this blog can help locate a few more, haha!

some scifi?!

2010-10-20T13:36:00.003-04:00

I got Mass Effect as a birthday present, and enjoyed it quite a bit! Every time I saw a krogan, I wanted to draw it. This may very well be my first real attempt at scifi, haha. I discovered that guns are about the most unnatural thing for me to draw, especially futuristic ones. It kinda makes me want to practice and learn how.

Oh, and this fella has been around for a few weeks. It's another boreal owl design. I'm still derping around with drawings of some other species, so hopefully I can post those soon X)

some ssssSSSssSssewing fun!

2010-09-22T14:30:00.008-04:00

I've been playing around with another cool game this summer, and that game is Minecraft. You might have heard of it - over the past month, it's virtually exploded with popularity as well-known gaming and Youtube sources have pimped it. And it is a pretty fun game, for reasons I'll let you look up yourself.

Because I've been doing a lot of freelance illustration work lately, I've been eager to find a project OFF the computer to tackle. Eventually I want to make my own stuffed Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon, but I haven't made a plush of any kind since I was about 10 years old. So I thought I'd practice on something simple.

Which is where Minecraft comes in.

If Minecraft has a poster child, it is this thing:

It may look like the most terrifying cactus you've ever seen, but this is one of the game's monsters. Known as a Creeper, it makes absolutely no sound until it's RIGHT next to you, which is when you hear a "*tch* sssSSSsssSSS...", followed by a BOOM if you don't get out of the blast radius fast enough. This is very good at hurting you and damaging things you've built.

How cute! Let's make a stuffed animal out of it! :V

Many fans of the game like to joke that the Creeper only wants a hug, but when it comes over to you it realizes it has no arms and explodes out of frustration. I'd love to get a picture of a small child hugging this plush, but I'm worried that all children will probably be terrified of him. X)

boreal owls!

2010-09-16T22:31:00.005-04:00

Something I've been itching to do lately is play with designing owls. There are some really different, interesting kinds begging to be caricatured. So, I started off with the Boreal Owl and its bumpy head.

Hooters gotta hoot!

2010-09-09T00:05:00.002-04:00

Not long ago, I stumbled unexpectedly into the fact that owls are awesome and amazing amounts of fun to draw.

Check out the Striped Owl. They are gorgeous birds. I went kinda nuts and drew a whole ton of them.

And barn owls. I like how their silhouettes looks headless when they fly.

Now I suppose it's time to play around in some other styles for these critters. What fun! X)

vacation snippets

2010-09-03T13:57:00.003-04:00

I've been trying something new lately - since I'm so bad at keeping written journals, I got a nice blank whitepaper book and have been attempting a sketch journal. Results are mixed so far, but I kept a pretty close travel journal during my family's recent vacation. Here are a couple of my favorites from the trip:

Them dorfs!

2010-08-06T10:23:00.013-04:00

Lately I've been filling the little cracks in my time with a fun little game called Dwarf Fortress. It's an ASCII game *kinda* like Sim City, but a lot grittier and Fun (which is the fanbase's code word for losing). You manage a group of alcohol-soaked dwarves as they strike the earth and try to carve a fortress out of the landscape. Wildlife and enemy sieges provide opposition for your dwarves, and traps and levers allow for really creative mechanisms in the game (some people have actually built computers and calculators within the game).

The game is ridiculously detailed - it generates a world and simulates erosion and some history before it even gets to your dwarves and their adventure. It tracks battle damage down to individual fingers and toes (and further in later versions than the one I play). It also has a very steep learning curve (a big step is getting past where all you see is alphabet soup!)

Here we have "Jim Craig" the dwarf in sorry shape. The attacking hydra (green H) is dead, but Jim is now missing his right arm at the shoulder. Fortunately all his other bits are white (healthy) rather than yellow (broken) or red (mangled).

Anyways, because of the limited graphics, I almost think the game encourages you to look deeper to find a story, which is why I love it so much. These are some doodles I've done lately, inspired by dwarfy shenanigans.

My Captain of the Guard is an awesome she-dwarf who runs around with two swords and leaves goblins in many pieces when they cross her. And no, her name is not a Ninja Turtles reference. X)

Miners make great temporary military dwarves when a problem arises, because their mining skill determines how deadly their pick is in battle.

One of the staples of the dwarven diet is the "plump helmet," a purple mushroom of some kind. You can brew booze out of it, eat it raw, or stew 'em up.

The game also has a roguelike mode called Adventure Mode, where you take a single dwarf/human/elf and travel the full world that's been generated. Having fantastic weaponry like this fella's ☼adamantine battle axe☼ helps... though often a wielded wolf corpse is just as deadly. People have one-hit KO'd enemies by throwing mud in this game. It's awesome.

best of zoo - July 2010

2010-07-06T21:47:00.008-04:00

Finally got to the zoo, after far too long. This time, the Columbus Zoo!

I'd forgotten how much bigger this zoo was than Hogle - we were rushing at the end just to get to all the animals we wanted to draw!

I did the whole thing with a brush pen, except at the end where I switched to a chisel-tipped pen. The watercolors were all added after we got home, because I felt like experimenting.

black swans and a parrot-like bird, from the (South Asian) "Islands" area.

Komodo dragon, from the same area.

Okapi, from the African Forest area.

A big lazy lion. There were also some half-grown cubs, with spots still on their legs and bellies.

And at long last, the brand-new Polar Frontier exhibit. This is the first time I've been able to see polar bears live. The filtration system had some minor glitch, so the underwater viewing area wasn't open, but the two bears in there gave me plenty of sketching material.

Good ol' brown bears and a couple bison. Such awesome animals.

This I found amusing because these fish are completely native to the area, and yet, during a zoo trip, I took some of our precious time to sketch them. Oh well.

Mouse Guard!

2010-06-25T01:43:00.002-04:00

Again I am up late doodling around. But I have some words to say, too!

This week, Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard #2 came out. The Legends of the Guard series is a chance for some other artists and writers to get to play around in David Petersen's Mouse Guard world by doing some short stories. And it so happens that the first story in the #2 issue, "Potential," was written by my buddy Alex Kain, who happens to also be the writer for our Four Kingdoms project. The sweet art was done by Sean Rubin. So if you like Mouse Guard, I'd advise you check it out! Here's a site with some nice preview images.

Which brings me to the doodle, which is of Kenzie from the main series. :)

silly late-night painting time

2010-06-24T10:29:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been doing some digital painting whenever I can't get to sleep. Just some fun playing around with light and pre-existing characters.

You should look up photos of sewers sometime. Apparently there's a whole group of people who like to explore and photograph them. It's surprisingly awesome.

This is actually a Redwall character, but one that only gets mentioned offhand as a long-dead ruler. With a name like Bluestripe, I figured he would be awesome. And a fan of warpaint.

main characters and thumbnails!

2010-06-16T21:44:00.003-04:00

These two are going to be the main guys in my comic. Randy is a greenie fresh from flight training. He comes into conflict with "Red," who is pretty much the viewpoint character of the story. Red has lost his best friend in a recent mission, and when Randy gets assigned to his buddy's old bunk, he has a lot of trouble dealing with that. We're also going to see another (maybe both) of the other guys in their flight, who still need to be designed. I'll probably just grab 'em from the other concept sheet I drew; they don't figure into the story much.

I do have the whole thing thumbnailed out. For a "short" story, 19 pages is an awful lot. However, I'm going to be doing pretty simple coloring, so it should be manageable. Jury's still out on how much color will make it into the thing.

And for some more fanart derpiness, have a silly pinup I did of the black Heavy Weapons Guy I designed. Clearly I need to go back and study anatomy again, but the painting was fun. And retro-style propaganda is also fun.

Tally ho!

2010-06-08T13:45:00.004-04:00

Lately I've been thinking about comics and stories in way too big'n'epic ways. While my griffin story has already been outlined and will indeed require tons of time to tell properly, I have some other ideas I've been throwing around. And I worry that I'm automatically trying to make THEM epic, long-format stories.

Which, ultimately, leads me to fear that I'll never get ANYTHING done.

So this WWII idea, I think I'll commit to getting a story *out.* Get some characters worked out, and throw them into the war. First mission, perhaps. And if I like it, I can always do more and think about story arcs and whatever. :d

Of course, I'll have to bang out some good characters/designs first. These guys are just an experiment in drawing different-looking dudes that fit the 1940s-military-flyer look. I'll be playing with some styles, too.

Let's do this thing.

FACEPALM

2010-06-07T20:55:00.005-04:00

There have been talks of a live-action TMNT film reboot movie since Nickelodeon gained rights to the franchise last year. Now I hear they're thinking of a 2012 release... and Michael Bay is reportedly going to be involved.

That is all.

Thunderbolt!

2010-06-02T11:27:00.000-04:00

And old artbug has resurfaced as of late - a desire to draw a comic about WWII fighter pilots. So my Memorial weekend was (appropriately) spent devouring the subject in text and Youtube form. Who knows if I'll get a story worked out before the bug goes dormant again, but at least I can gather resources and practice drawing difficult things like AIRPLANES.

These were referenced from photos, except when otherwise noted.

More nerdery, I'm afraid. :T

2010-05-28T01:25:00.004-04:00

Recently I've been drawing some of my friends' original TF2 characters, because OpenCanvas is such a fun sketching/painting tool. The practice I'm getting out of this is rad and useful, even if the subject matter still makes me a hopeless nerd.

Michelle and I got to draw together the other night thanks to OC's networking feature. We gave each other shapes to turn into characters. This is some kinda of undersea volcano monster.

shameless fanart time!

2010-05-27T02:11:00.001-04:00

Yep.

more griffin story!

2010-05-01T02:41:00.006-04:00

Yup! Still working on this thing-that-might-hopefully-become-a-comic-or-something. I actually just had a major breakthrough on some huge story problems recently, which drove me to draw all kinds of concepty things for it. And then tonight I decided to have some me-time and play around in Photoshop with them. Here's a couple images - more to follow later (sketches are all scanned, I just want to splash some color on more of 'em!)

Did a quick paintup of a major location in the story, as well as a tiny little map of the island/small continent/whatever the story all takes place on. There are also tons of little notes everywhere, but the fog is covering up some of 'em.

Some further notes on the city and its inhabitants.

Olympics III

2010-03-06T15:46:00.000-05:00

And here's the last of 'em! I ran out of steam near the end so I only watched the very last events, though I did draw Dakkan playing hockey on some printer paper for kicks. Otter playing hockey, it almost works. :V

Olympics II

2010-03-04T23:49:00.000-05:00

Part two!

Olympics I

2010-03-02T10:02:00.004-05:00

I make it no secret - I LOVE the Olympics. I love watching almost every single event I can, and I love rooting for American (and my other pet favorite countries') athletes as they strive for medals. This is something I can't adequately explain, but I love 'em anyway.

On the list of "why the Olympics are awesome" are the opportunities it presents for gesture sketching. Like in life, you don't have a pause button. Sometimes you have replays and can cheat a little, but you've got all these great dynamic things going on and it's great.

So I'm going to put my Olympic sketchbook pages over the next few posts, uncensored for suckitude. How exciting. :P

Pink Tiger Loves You

2010-02-15T07:26:00.001-05:00

The original idea was something along the lines of "Hey, let's combine Valentine's Day with the Chinese New Year! It's the Year of the Tiger after all, which is awesome."

I ended up drawing diabetes instead.

Oh well.

When life gives me blizzards...

2010-02-13T03:26:00.006-05:00

...I make snow tigers.

Snow is really hard to work with! At least, with heavy gloves and a little garden shovel.

This next one is just a pretty tree in pretty lighting. For Ohio, anyway.

Gonna get some sketch-type arts up here soon.

Long Time No See!

2010-02-06T23:54:00.000-05:00

I've been pretty awful about updating this thing lately, huh?

Well, let's change this.

Improvement!

2009-09-24T22:16:00.004-04:00

I'm still working on that comic, but I made a breakthrough in coloring and thought maybe y'all would want to see.

The top panel was done earlier this year. Somehow I thought it was looking pretty good. Can't imagine why - it's overwhelmingly Pure Green, flat, boring, what have you. Even the character's costume and fur color seem doomed to blend into the background.

Several months of practicing digital painting in my personal work later, we get this second attempt on the bottom. I'm much happier with it - it implies an actual mood and time of day, while doing it with a much more appealing and realistic color scheme.

Yay practice! Maybe someday I will be good at this, after all. :)

* Want to see the full pages, with a more detailed explanation? Check out my corresponding post at the production blog for our comic!

more summer sketchbook!

2009-09-17T21:27:00.002-04:00

My last bishopric was fun to draw.

FHE trip to the Bean - live reptile show!

stupid fanart time!

2009-09-04T15:48:00.007-04:00

Team Fortress 2 + Lackadaisy. What is wrong with me. :|

Especially since I have seen "furry" versions of TF2 characters in fanart before and they invariably freak me out. They just look wrong as wolves or tigers or whatever. Perhaps it's because I'm seeing the character crossover more than the species change here?

On the other hand, I had all kinds of fun painting this. :B

sketchbook update!

2009-08-29T03:30:00.000-04:00

I'll start off with this drawing I made of the Hinckley building while waiting for the fireworks on July 4. Yay... not avoiding drawing architecture!

The rest of these are my favorites from the two zoo trips I took in August. They have FOSSA (pronounced "foosa") as the temp exhibit now, you guys. They are like a mix between cougars and weasels and they are AWESOME.

fossa

baby giraffe and cheetah

birds and a sloth

The little jubilant "me" in there is happy because I'd never seen the red panda awake before.

This tiger knows he is a fine beast.

100th post?

2009-08-21T15:50:00.001-04:00

That's a lot of posts! It's so crazy!

And it's been forever since my last post, geez. Wanna see the holdup?

It's my storyboard from Ryan's class this past semester! 8|

It took so freakin' long to post because as I timed it out in video form, I noticed more and more things that were wrong with it. Which made me less and less motivated to finish, but eventually I decided I'd just post it and move on. I'll have to suck less on my next one, though I did do better at pulling out the camera this time. *sigh*

Also I have a sketch page of the little hurt snail I took in a week or so ago. His shell is thickening back up, actually, so I can release him before I leave for Ohio on Sunday. And stop snickering, Jake and Anthony, I can hear you from here. >:|

That's all for now, though I do tend to catch up on all my summer sketching now that I've finally thrown out that storyboard as promised. Looks like all my dA links broke too somehow, dagnabbit.

Animals, for realz

2009-05-13T18:37:00.005-04:00

Even more zoo drawings!! What a surprise!! I am going to post my boards from the final in Ryan's class soon. Really. :P

a weird observation that came to me today

2009-04-30T18:34:00.002-04:00

We watched bits of Young Frankenstein today in Cynthia's animation class. And every time Gene Wilder smiled, I kept getting weirded out.

Here's why:

Breakdancing!

2009-04-09T18:53:00.004-04:00

Stubbs the armadillo, gettin' down wit' it! ...What do you mean it's not awesome?

EDIT: Ew, Blogger Video. Just ew.

Here, check out this link for better visuals, even if they do come without the appropriate music.

John Held's Lackadaisy!

2009-04-02T16:13:00.003-04:00

So I decided it'd be fun to draw Lackadaisy characters in John Held Jr.'s style, since he was popular during the '20s and that's when the comic takes place.

Not a perfect representation, but fun to draw nonetheless.

shrug?

2009-03-31T15:00:00.000-04:00

I don't even know where this came from.

I can make tiny little lines with my new brush pen. It's awesome.

First zoo trip of the season!

2009-03-27T01:31:00.005-04:00

A couple critters

2009-03-20T04:41:00.002-04:00

This has been a full week, so Wednesday night I finally made time to play in Photoshop.

This dude is a forest shaman. He knows all kinds of um... arboreal secrets. And he can probably sic trees on you too, so I'd watch my step. Unless you have some of those baby carrots on hand - then he'd probably love you forever.

I don't even know what to call this thing. But he sure likes to kick that ball around.

Dancin'

2009-03-15T21:22:00.002-04:00

Recently my ward had a Formalish Dance Thing.

I went mainly for the food and sketching, because both are more fun than dancing.

ranting comic

2009-02-26T16:33:00.003-05:00

Yay rude people in church.

This is pretty much all that happens if you make me mad... unless you do a spectacularly good job of it.

incoherent snarling

2009-02-25T02:49:00.002-05:00

We did Batman boards for Ryan's class, which was fun and awesome.

Also, this thing showed up in my sketchbook a couple weeks ago. I don't know why I drew it, but it was fun.

COMICS

2009-02-24T00:38:00.003-05:00

I'll post some art next time. I'm not this time because I don't want to distract from...

THIS

Just click on the .swf file when it loads, and use the arrow keys to navigate. It really inspires me to try something like that... in a cool, McCloudian kinda way. (there are some swears)

It also has a FOLLOWUP ... which gets bonus points for making fun of Twilight.

Enjoy. :)

Gestures

2009-02-16T00:15:00.002-05:00

Finally got back on the gesture train - these are from a couple weeks ago.

Advertising boards - Trunk Monkey

2009-02-11T04:08:00.004-05:00

Done for Ryan's class.

Yayy sap :D

I went for cute because the trunk monkey concept seems to invite slapstick humor... wanted to try a different angle. But now I feel like I have to redeem myself with something hardcore. Good thing the Batman storyboard assignment is next.

Ready... FIGHT

2009-02-09T07:49:00.004-05:00

This was done a while ago. I don't think I'd ever watch cage matches or mixed martial arts fights on my own, but they do provide a good opportunity to do 1) gestures, and 2) muscles, both of which I'm always open to.

I believe we have a birthday boy here somewhere...

2009-02-06T00:49:00.004-05:00

So! Here's the story.

I drew this like last week, when Michelle ~~told~~ reminded me your birthday was coming up.

And then for the next few days, you were always in the lab, which is the only opportunity I had to do any Photochopping.

Which is why this is late.

Jerk. ;)

More sketchbooking

2009-01-26T11:00:00.001-05:00

This week I went to the Bean again. I wanted to try drawing from life by first blocking the silhouette in marker, then using a white pencil to define form.

I liked the way these turned out, but I cheated by putting outlines in after I was done. And I also went on an otter binge, because I've ever seen their stuffed otter before.

Here I did it the way I wanted. And you see, Laura, I do failtastic drawings all the time. I just don't usually put them on my blog. (but as these actually show what I was trying to do here... I have no choice)

And Saturday evening I sketched mountains in the twilight drizzle - same method, basically. I love how the air clears out when it rains.

Character Design Final... and stuff

2009-01-22T03:22:00.003-05:00

And here was my final lineup. I wasn't nearly as pleased with them as I wanted to be, but I suppose they're fun enough.

Hero

Villain

Comic sidekick

Love interest

Environment
(had to turn in another too, but it blew chunks so I'm leaving it out)

And as a bonus...

Memory sketches of my cats. 'Cos them cats is fun to draw.

Agni Kai!

2009-01-12T22:49:00.005-05:00

This started as a "love note" exchange (done at a church function every Sunday) and, while it stayed weekly for a while, rapidly got out of hand. What we ended up with is something incredibly geeky and criminally ~~insane~~ fun - an agni kai (or fire duel) between our two zodiac characters.

Me = fire tiger snake of Justice
Michelle - fire rabbit lion snake

Before you click any images, I recommend you open this music in a new tab (for atmosphere):

OK. Go.

Travels, 08-09

2009-01-07T18:45:00.004-05:00

Done in the airports as I flew from Utah to Ohio and back this Christmas break.

Hanging out in SLC airport...
from SLC to Cincinnatti...
from Cincinnatti to CMH, in a puddle-jumper airplane.
Return trip (CMH-Cincy), tried to capture the awesome lighting scheme above the clouds... with only limited success. It was beautiful in real life.
I will be posting my final images for last semester's character design class, but not right now. :P

Animation studio 2 final

2008-12-18T02:53:00.002-05:00

There are still a few inbetweens (at the end, mostly) that I wish I had time to do, but my character design final is beckoning and this is Good Enough. This time tomorrow, I will be watching me some Avatar and eating the things I avoided tonight because I was afraid they'd put me to sleep.

Mountains! And a little storyboard thing!

2008-12-09T20:57:00.004-05:00

Painted this when I got home from work today. You can click on it to make it bigger, but... well, one day I will paint things that look just as good full size as they do as thumbnails. ;)

Also, I finally finished a side project that's been going on since summer before last. Had I not lost use of my computer this April it probably would have already been done, but I recovered my files last week and was able to finish at last.

It's based on a book series I was reading at the time but should be fairly easy to understand without knowing much about anything at all. It just means the 8-13 year olds who read the series have really enjoyed it on Youtube thus far. :S

Also I would like to note that I planned this long before I even set foot near the Kites project. D:

sings I want to break free-ee...

2008-12-04T21:17:00.004-05:00

This is what happens when cleanup in Flash starts to melt my brain (and my throat starts to hurt) at work.

And then I stayed extra to finish what I was supposed to be working on, but I figure I needed the animation break. For sanity's sake, of course.

EDIT 12-12-08: now with a better bow at the end!

Character Design - emulation

2008-12-03T01:58:00.006-05:00

This week I tried to draw like

Juanjo Guarnido

Claire Wendling

Mike Mignola

I also got called out on not really getting out of my comfort zone on this one. Which, seeing as two of these are existing characters of my own that I tried to throw into other styles, is true. Oops. At least the drawings themselves went over really well in class. *shrug*

I may play around some more and resubmit some attempts at things that I'm not comfy with. Like Wendling-girls. But we'll see how much time I have for that.

Juanjo practice

2008-11-25T22:50:00.003-05:00

I guess that's enough practice. Time to come up with an original character for the actual assignment...

Sketchbook Cover + football

2008-11-24T18:27:00.004-05:00

My sketchbook had a boring brown cover. So I fixed it. Had to process the heck out of it so the colors would look like they do on the real thing, but at least I got it close.

And below, sketches from this year's ill-fated installation of the BYU-Utah rivalry. Well... "ill-fated" if you're a BYU fan. At least Ohio State stomped the snot out of Michigan, which is why Brutus has any basis to comfort Cosmo in the bottom right.

The last batch of animals!

2008-11-19T21:22:00.003-05:00

And so ends my favorite unit in Character Design class.

The categories:

Human/Animal (horse)

Farm Animals/Equine (either works - donkey)

Bears

Next assignment - emulation! I know I'd like to take a crack at Claire Wendling and Juanjo Guarnido, but I'm not sure yet who my third will be. Maybe Mignola or somebody else who's cool like that.

more animals! and sketchbook stuff!

2008-11-13T02:15:00.003-05:00

The next batch!
In the CAT category...

a lynx! At least, that's how he started out. I was encouraged to try to break free of my own conventions, but this looks kinda like maybe one of my cats had a baby with one of Michel Gagne's rabbits.

And in the DINOSAUR category...

Pachycephalosaurus! With a Tootsie Pop! This is pretty much Rachel-style all the way... though I did really like the way the shapes on his head/neck/spikes ended up flowing together.

For the FOREST ANIMAL category...

badger badger badger badger
I felt the most successful in breaking out of my regular approach with this. I had a vague idea of a posture/shape I wanted to fit the badger into and started with that. Though my original mental image way way more heroic and epic than this goofy fella. :)

Halloween sketching on campus. The sketchy dudes in the upper left were riding unicycles with carved pumpkins over their heads.

Church. I was advised to draw more environments instead of all characters in my sketchbook, so I tried it out. Too bad I got that suggestion right as it's starting to get hard to draw outside.

These were doodle pages showing my original direction for the CAT assignment, which is saturated in Rachel's Normal Approach. I wanted to do Pallas' Cat, because that thing is made of FUN shapes and I had a blast drawing it the last time I went to the zoo. I also explored lynx in my style as well - wanted to play up their big paws, thick legs, and big ol' noses. :)

The end.

Animal character designs

2008-11-05T15:42:00.003-05:00

Here's the two that were due today - "flying animal" and "ocean animal."

Sometimes I wonder how often this is a true story.

2008-11-02T14:10:00.000-05:00

Zootastic!

2008-11-01T14:20:00.005-04:00

Abbey and I went to the zoo last Saturday - and then these pages happened.
And yes, I am a terrible copycat. Whatever, brown paper is fun.

And suddenly about here the scans got really weird and contrasty. Sorry about that.

Animation WIP

2008-10-21T13:25:00.002-04:00

Watch me make Milt Kahl spin in his grave! :D

Heroes/Villains

2008-10-20T18:55:00.004-04:00

These are the rest of 'em. Ryan thought these were very successful, which gave me warm fuzzies.
Pyroman: His passion for saving people is only second to his passion for watching (and causing) burning things. Ryan wanted to see this dude in color; I'll probably post an updated version sometime in the future.

The Puppy Punter has allergies. Which would make her acting out understandable... if there were no pills that could help her deal with it less violently.

This is the Owl... but with slightly sexier shading.

More character design work - heroes

2008-10-16T20:26:00.003-04:00

Threaten her little kidlings and you'll get a cyber beatdown.
You don't have to be rich to be a superhero... the evildoers may take you a little less seriously because of your lack of spandex, though. Their loss.

A Self-Centered Post

2008-10-08T21:17:00.006-04:00

because it's my birthday today!

First up, my zodiac conglomeration: Fire Tiger, born in hour of the Snake, who is also Libra, = FIRE TIGER SNAKE OF JUSTICE. (sue me for the copout - inanimate objects aren't fun to incorporate into a design) This fella exists because of Michelle, and we have been having a healthy note/comic battle for several weeks now. Ask me about it if you want to see it.

Also, my self-caricature (and wacky expressions) for character design class. Ryan liked it (while pointing out that my eyes are bigger and my ears higher on my head), so it can't suck too bad?

Still, the expressions are kinda terrifying. When we were taking reference photos Monday, Ryan kept telling me to emote more. My face doesn't stretch all that much - I think most of my real expressions are eye-dependent.

schoolwork update

2008-10-02T13:53:00.004-04:00

Here's some of the stuff I've done in Character Design so far. I haven't got my silhouettes back from Ryan (didn't get a chance to scan the whiteout versions) so they won't be included here.

SHAPE DRAWINGS

NATURE ELEMENTS (rocks/trees/clouds)
CARICATURE
Next assignment is self-caricature (and then applying a bunch of expressions to that
design). Should be... interesting.

Click on the image for animation WIP!

2008-09-26T21:56:00.004-04:00

See that link on the side of my blog that says "Lackadaisy"? If you've never been there, the above animation will not be nearly as enjoyable to you. And you have my pity for that. :'|

This is also a WIP, so feel free to critique. The final is due next Thursday (Oct. 2) but I'd love to improve anything I can before then.

OK, I lied.

2008-09-08T20:37:00.003-04:00

I implied that I would only post once today, but this couldn't wait.

Let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time there was an animation student. That student was pleased to find that he could enroll in an advanced animation class, taught by a new faculty member who specialized in character animation. He went to the class and was able to get into it with ease. It was generally exciting and spent the entire class with an expression of childlike joy pasted on his face. The glee was oozing so much out of every pore that after class he went to the department meeting and hugged half the people who showed up.

And his classmate thought this was amusing indeed and decided to document the event with a poor likeness:

Zoo + killed sketchbook

2008-09-08T20:14:00.004-04:00

Yup, I killed a sketchbook. July 22-August 25, probably my fastest sketchbook killing ever. So! While I have a lot of crap piled up to scan and post, today I will start by offering the last page of my old sketchbook along with my "best of zoo August 2008" collector's JPEGs. :P

And on to the zoo! :D

And then a page of memory sketches from afterwards.

Avatar @ Comic Con

2008-08-15T19:54:00.002-04:00

I hope you already knew Michelle and I are nerds.

Fun with white Prismacolor, and more!

2008-08-14T00:33:00.006-04:00

Jake's awesomeness made me want to play with white pencil on toned paper.

Or on this case, white pencil on whitish paper that's been marker'd black.

Nothing too special, but it was fun. Lightning on the savannah! :O

And here's some Comic-Con drawred stuff I haven't blog'd yet!

I picked up a copy of Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, finally. And then threw some Redwall characters into the Mouse Guard style because it's really fun to draw. Yeah, I'm cool. :P

This saber is ticked off because RAWR faces are also fun to draw.

I purchased a water brush a couple weeks ago. This was part of my "hrm, what can I do with this thing?" playtime.

2008-07-31T15:09:00.002-04:00

I did draw at Comic Con. A lot. I also passed out only one of my books, because I didn't think it was enough up to par... and I kinda regret having given that one out.

But at least I have a starting point now!

Unfortunately, I have scanned pretty much nothing from my Comic Con sketchbook yet. So I will leave you with a doodle of Super Monkey.

Comic Con shirts

2008-07-19T01:44:00.002-04:00

And now to try and get a portfolio together in time! Huzzah!

Sour Cheetah

2008-07-15T17:45:00.001-04:00

Continuing to familiarize myself with Flash. This fella looks pretty grumpy.

Kung Fu Panda update: I LOVE drawing Tai Lung. The end.

Otters Abound!

2008-07-08T14:25:00.002-04:00

Just some style playing with a favorite subject.

I'm rereading The Taggerung. Otters are so great.

More from the Bean!

2008-07-05T20:20:00.007-04:00

Having acquired the Art of Kung Fu Panda book, I am also working on copying Nicolas Marlet's drawings, to get a feel for why they rock so hard. Po is easy and fun to draw, but Tigress is unexpectedly difficult (mainly the head, where I run into my usual difficulties with drawing females... and also trying to fit all the stripes on her face and still have it resemble the character). That makes it all the more fun, of course... yay challenge.

Fiery Fangs of Justice!!!

2008-06-30T15:30:00.005-04:00

We're coming up with superhero versions of ourselves at work, and I was having the hardest time coming up with anything.

Until I threw rationality out the window and stopped avoiding the Obvious as far as the type of power I'd have. And stopped being afraid to be totally ridiculous.

And then I threw some random Latinish things together into a name.

So I give you:

And then I decided that I need to learn to paint better in Photoshop. Oh well.

EDIT: Oh yes! Stats!

*Strengths: Long attack range, high damage factor (imagine being bitten by FIRE), bonus damage vs. Grass types :P
*Weaknesses: Attacks ineffective underwater or in rainstorms. Costume subject to ridicule from the unenlightened.

Only Mostly Dead

2008-06-25T17:36:00.003-04:00

My laptop has been randomly working every so often during the past week. Last night I was bummed because my family went back home, so (Rippy being cooperative and all) I drowned my sorrows in Photoshop.

This was what happened. I was trying to recreate an awesome lighting scheme I saw a few weeks ago, but exaggerated everything. Not sure if the exaggeration worked, but it felt so good.

This monstrosity was a warm-up drawing at work. I tried to come up with the most disgustingly cute thing possible. Anthony said it put Lisa Frank to shame, so maybe it was a bit successful.

I also have some new sketchbook fun, but that will have to wait until I get to a scanner.

Tales from the Bean

2008-06-16T17:41:00.003-04:00

Leaping Leopard! This fella is awesome! I clearly have stayed away from the Bean too long! Mounts with... gesture?!

Leopards vs. Jaguars

If only I'd been able to fit the whole thing on the page. This fella rocks. And he was fun to shade.

I just love the motion and realism in that stupid stuffed lion!

And afterward I applied what I learned to a "leopard" I drew last week.

As a final, unrelated note... I've had the Kung Fu Panda score on loop on imeem for the past couple hours and am still loving it. 8)

And some dragony fun

2008-06-14T21:26:00.004-04:00

Colored my favorite doodle of Hiro after dailies this week. Photoshop withdrawal is harsh.

And after work today I doodled out a little animation of the awesome dragon.

Bears 'n' stuff

2008-06-13T19:38:00.004-04:00

This is a caricature of one of my coworkers. He actually has a very interesting face that'd I'd love to caricature for real... but this had to come first because one of the girls we work with commented that he looks like a polar bear. The resulting bear looks more like a brown bear than a polar bear, but everyone thought the likeness was pretty great.

And here's the whole sketch page. I was playing with leopards and other random animals. Oh, and Kobb thinks he can do kung fu too. Just brain drool I did while eating lunch the past couple days.

Watercolor + some other fun stuff

2008-06-09T21:48:00.007-04:00

He's green. And blue. 8|

Boringest coloring job ever. I miss being able to use my tablet. :(

In Which I Sketched At The Duck Pond

2008-06-02T21:12:00.003-04:00

Them baby ducks are cute.

Next time: my progress on trying not to suck at watercolors!

ZOOOOOO!

2008-05-17T22:11:00.003-04:00

Huzzah for zoo trips! Here are the sketch pages that resulted, in the order they were drawn. Only a couple truly horrible failures were Photoshopped out; the rest remains intact.

My favorite part of the learning experience was finally not failing really hard at the elephants and rhinos. Their facial structures have always eluded me... I also learned something very significant about elephant body shapes that I somehow have missed up to this point. :P

And without further stalling, the drawings!

Doodlin's!

2008-05-14T19:02:00.005-04:00

Some stuff happened in my sketchbook this week!

I got a job! So after my first day (Thursday) I doodled this up. 'Cos I felt like it, I guess. Commentary is always fun for me.

And church the following Sunday. I always hate it when I do a page in a sketchbook and the very first things I draw are the best.

The only bad thing about work is I get home tired... I haven't worked on my griffin comic in over a week, and I have only made slight progress on the other comic I'm working on.

Too bad days can't magically be 36 hours long.

The first 6!

2008-05-05T18:38:00.010-04:00

Pages of my griffin comic, that is. That's a full half of 'em!
I think I'm going to try to do it the traditional way - ink and paper all the way - mostly due to the fact that my computer is acting old and sick. Or something like that. So these are just the pencils... and in real life they're red. :P

2008-05-02T02:00:00.000-04:00

My first colored picture after my laptop's first Great Crash in April, and posted by request of some of my Avatarded friends.

Also, I kinda like how the water turned out. Colors look sorta wonky on this monitor (because Rippy's acting kinda dead again) though.

Also also, she actually looks kinda female. That's always an exciting accomplishment for me.

And thus began Spring

2008-04-30T16:13:00.004-04:00

As the process of moving often churns old things to the surface, I ended up flipping through my sketchbook from last winter semester this morning. I've been pretty discouraged about my abilities and progress as of late, to the point where I don't really believe people anymore when they compliment me on something I've done.

But at the very least, I know I draw a lot less clumsily than I did a year ago. And that makes me feel pretty good. I'm still moving forward.

(Moving forward, heh heh. *shot*)

And I don't know how much of this I should show, but this is some concept work from the "other comic" I've been working on. The one where someone way cooler than me is doing the actual writing. Just as a "Rachel has in fact been working lately" proof.

A dusty old feline scholar. I love his face but his outfit looks way too Redwally for our purposes.

A little character lineup - the three main heroes from the beginning, and the villain. We were able to fit my otter dude into the script - he's second from the left. Go Dakkan!

I do need to light a fire under my griffin pages though. Just to put into whatever portfolio I decide to take to Comic-Con. They'll be awesome, once I get started actually drawing them.

VICTOLY

2008-04-24T02:57:00.003-04:00

I may be headed for a B average for this semester *wince* but I was so happy to be done with finals that I did this when I came home.

Hooray Easytoon
Hooray animation
and hooray school ajourning for four months!

I'm sensing a theme here...

2008-04-18T14:05:00.004-04:00

Jed made me want to draw dinosaurs. So I finished off this semester's sketchbook with them... woo Deinonychus!

These were done without reference. You can totally tell.

So I did some skeleton studies. Bless Flickr.

*thumbs nose at exams... then picks up a binder of notes with a sigh of resignation*

Look! It's me in elementary school!

2008-04-16T20:54:00.001-04:00

see more crazy cat pics

Art will happen again soon. Blasted finals and my lack of motivation to study for them.

Life + gestures!

2008-04-10T14:43:00.004-04:00

This guy was helping direct people at the conference center Sunday afternoon. All of their "guest service" staff had hats. Some looked like elderly gangsters, some looked almost Amish. Innnnteresting.

Does anyone else go into complete tunnel vision when you're walking places? People will say hi to me and expect me to notice them. It always looks like maybe I'm a LITTLE DEAF or blind. And sometimes I'll notice them a hundred meters off and try not to stare at them the whole time.
Maybe I need help.

And these are the more successful drawings from the gesture session last night.

Fresh Air! Thumbnails!

2008-04-08T16:09:00.004-04:00

I'm in such a good mood today, even though I only slept 2.5 hours last night (and that because I didn't have the stamina for a proper all-nighter) and haven't eaten for a long time. Must be the sunshine and the fact that I learned I have a whole week to finish my English paper. Feels so good.

So what's in it for you are (hugely blown up) griffin comic thumbnails! Hooray!

This is for my restart - especially if we end up taking our stuff separately to Comic-Con, I'd rather my story start from the beginning than be a vignette from the middle of the story. What was I thinking?

Also, to put all the fire stuff in the beginning in context, this is the main character's first day as an apprentice, and his master spends the first page blacksmithing in high-contrast firelight. Then he goes flying and runs into a buddy in the air.

The Raph/Leo Effect

2008-04-07T19:49:00.006-04:00

This is one of those spiels that gets bottled in my head and I have to either let it out somewhere or explode. And since I'm no good expressing myself verbally, I'll have to sully my blog with unprofessionalism. I'll just try to keep it concise. And yes Jake, this is totally your fault. :P

An interesting pattern I've found when I talk Ninja Turtles with people happens with those who've chosen Raphael as their favorite - almost invariably, they can't stand Leonardo. And usually for the same reasons their red-masked hero butts heads with him: they say he's bossy, pretentious, boring, self-righteous, teacher's pet... there's a list.

But for all the hostility, from fans and their Turtle alike, it's hilariously ironic that Leo and Raph are easily the most alike out of the brothers. In fact, their primary objective is even the same - protection. Cue my Leo defense.

Leonardo's number one priority is to protect his family - it's why he fell into the "leader" position to begin with. He has a natural air of command and a quick mind in battle as well as good judgment, and why would the position stuck unless Leo had earned his brothers' respect? Leo feels that the team's failures are his own, which leads him to try and run the team as well as he can without assuming he has more authority than Splinter. This puts a lot of pressure on him, and Leo has to act more mature than the average teenager to keep out the hordes of Foot ninja and maintain his family's safety. Splinter is proud of his student because Leonardo is the only Turtle that has embraced all aspects of his teachings (Donatello is distracted, Michelangelo is a bit of a slacker, and Raphael is primarily interested in the physical fitness/body-as-a-deadly-weapon side of things - screw the spiritual crap). However, Splinter is careful to keep Leo humble. This doesn't mean he's always successful - Leo isn't perfect and can tend to get a little proud, though Splinter, Raph, or a horde of ninjas will usually deflate that before long. He is also a perfectionist and Always Right, as well as at times being too focused on Staying On Guard to let loose, all of which are character flaws for sure... but I'd think he'd only be insufferable if he actually were perfect.

Raphael is all about protection as well, but his is a more emotionally-charged brand. While Leo is able to keep his brain functioning in "big picture" mode under stress, Raph goes to tunnel vision easily and impulsively throws himself into the fray. The quickest way to set him off is to threaten one of the other Turtles or even an innocent civilian - he's instantly on his way to beat the offender down, sai in hand. When he's working alone there's nothing wrong with this, otherwise Leo has to figuratively keep a tight hold on his leash so he doesn't jeopardize the battle plan just to defeat some peripherally important enemy. This annoys the heck out of Raph, first because he doesn't like being restricted, and second because he doesn't like being proved wrong, especially by his straight-laced brother. He is, however, a great beta to Leo's alpha - when not blinded by rage or some other strong emotion, Raph is a smart fighter and works well within the team in battle. In his 2003 cartoon incarnation, in fact, Raphael is always coming to his brothers' aid just as someone is about to nail them in the back, besides landing some good hits of his own. And whenever Leo is taken out of the picture through injury or capture, Raph is usually able to rise to leadership without too much trouble in an almost "scared straight" kind of way. But his most effective role is as Leo's right hand man, and he knows it. The only time this arrangement ever causes problems is when he gets prideful and refuses to put the family's welfare before his own.

So each has his strengths and flaws. Some people identify better with one than the other, and there's nothing wrong with that. But with the sheer pressure on Leonardo to be both a good brother and a good leader, I think it isn't fair to label him the way many do. He often gets stuck in business mode and has a hard time relaxing with the troops. It doesn't mean he thinks he's better than his brothers (I believe the remark he made to this effect in the 2007 movie was a product of frustration at Raphael's inability/unwillingness to understand where he was coming from, and it was an attempt to get some kind of reaction out of him in lieu of that desired understanding). It also doesn't mean Leo wants to make himself look better for Splinter. He respects Splinter as a sensei and father, and is very aware that he has much more to learn.

Anyways, the part that amuses me the most about friends of mine who hate Leonardo is... well, you could say I am Leonardo. Oldest child, perfectionist, expects a lot of self and beats self up for failure, bit of a goody two-shoes, maintains close friendship with parent, nitpicky and strongwilled... that's all me. Of course, perhaps the reason I'm palatable to these buddies of mine is there's also a healthy dash of Michelangelo in me, and we know from the comics at least that Raph and Mike get along pretty well.

But for those of you Leonardo haters who were first exposed to the turtles through the original cartoon or the 1990 movie, I can completely understand... those Leonardos are definitely boring, annoying, whiny and/or suckups, and his comebacks in the movie suck. The definitive Leo is better cobbled together from the 2003 'toon, 2007 movie, and the comics.

Anyways. If you ever had an irrational urge to talk Turtles with me, I could seriously go on for hours, especially if character analysis had anything to do with it. I already had so much crap I decided to edit out of this particular rant for all y'all's sanity, and look how long it got. 8|

More serious and valuable arty posts are indeed forthcoming - I went to general conference in person for the first time on Sunday, and drew some (possibly) post-worthy things along the way.

If I were clever this would be an elaborate April Fools' Day prank...

2008-04-01T03:22:00.005-04:00

...but I'm not, so it isn't. At least, I'm not at 1:30 AM when I just spent several hours working on a research paper. So no wit for you.

Instead, have the page I drew when Dr. Catmull talked to us, when I had been awake for 30+ hours and was a certifiable zombie.

Also, a picture of a couple of my friends. It's the first time I've drawn them as people, because I've been too afraid to fail at the likeness. So I'm a ninny. What else is new?

And this kind of thing is always fun to draw on Sundays when I'm trying to stay awake during sacrament meeting.