Monkey Business: How Magazine

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Hey everyone! Make sure you check out the latest issue of the Graphic Design magazine HOW, partly because it's got a great section on typography but MOSTLY because i'm in it! I was asked to do this ice cream label for Publix supermarkets earlier this year and it got chosen as one of 51 award winning in house designs of the year! It's a great honor and I have to thank Warren Dossey over at Publix for having the guts to try something different.




Death by Monkey!

I've got some crazy news to report soon so keep an eye out and keep checking in!

Grendel: Redux

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I'd been meaning to get back to messing with custom brushes in photoshop for a long time, after seeing Beowulf in 3-D last week ( great 3d effects, so so movie, not sold on full mocap movies yet but can see the potential) i whipped up this take on grendel as an experiment. It was so much fun creating textures and in PS, i highly recomend it. Still haven't been able to figure out how to customize brushes in Painter, if anyone knows any good tutorials please send a link my way!

Under Control

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Here are some sketches based on a dream I had last week...

Joan D

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Quickie sketch-O-rama post.The subject: Joann of Arc. This piece was an experiment in Photoshop and i'm pleased with the results, just trying out a bunch of wild techniques. hope you dig.

Character Design Blog Interview

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Hey everyone, make sure to check out the awesome Character Design Blog where you'll find an interview with yours truly, it's an awesome blog and an honor to be mentioned among such great artists! Check it out!

Click here for a direct link to my interview.

Ahab

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Captain Ahab

Hey everyone! Here is the final design I did for Captain Ahab or an upcoming Moby Dick themed edition of sketch-o-rama. My take on Ahab was to show him as a withered, ghostly, deranged gentleman.

I'm experimenting with leaving my sketchy line drawings visible in areas to retain some of the energy of the original sketch. I've been definitely influenced by the drawings of Alberto Giacometti. I think there is an energy to his line work that could easily lend itself to animation design. More to come, stay tuned.

Robot-chika

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Hey everyone,

Here's an image i did as an excuse to work in Painter again. If you read this blog at all you might have noticed i have a soft spot for all things robotic and female, perhaps it was premature exposure to Sorayama at a young age?

Shanna, The She Devil!

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Our latest Sketch-o-rama theme is hot chick, i decided i'd do a Shanna, the She Devil here's a bit more about her:

"Shanna the She-Devil is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. Originally created as a derivative of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (who was herself a female derivative of Tarzan), she later became the partner and wife of Ka-Zar, Marvel's own derivative of Tarzan. Created by Carole Seuling, Steve Gerber and George Tuska, she made her first appearance in Shanna the She-Devil #1 (Dec. 1972)."

Cthulhu Crunch!

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Here is my entry for the Cereal Killers book, here is a brief description:

"Kreepsville Industries presents Cereal Killers. A spooky, kooky coffin table cartoon art book featuring terrorfying takes on some of your favorite breakfast cereal's".

This project has a crazy amount of talented folks involved, i'm in great company! Special thanks To Dr. Von Kreep for letting me be a part of this book. Make sure to check out more spooky cereal goodness here.



Quick little mini mock up of the box:


Random Sketches

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Some Captain Ahab studies for a future sketch-o-rama post...


What can i say i've been reading World War Hulk, and so should you!

Platform!

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Here it is finally my Platform International Animation Festival Post! I got the opportunity to go thanks to American Greetings, I was able to go on a "Creative Recharge Grant" (thanks AGP!!!)

It was an amazingly informative and inspirational few days in Portland, Oregon, i met a slew of animators and film makers. I was blown away by the amount of talent and the level of quality of the films shown, and came back inspired and (appropriately enough ) creatively re-charged . Here are a few pics of my trip, i'll make the full album available on flickr soon also make sure to check out some of the other coverage of the festival at the following links:

Official Platform Site
Article about the festival on Animation World Network
Ward Jenkins Platform Flickr photoset




The Portland Center for the Arts



Some Platform Shwag: Note the Cartoon Network frisbee, a personal favorite :)


Portland is a beautiful city, tons of parks and very pedestrian/biker friendly.




Sweet drawing by Artist Illustrator James Jarvis, one of the guest speakers and designer of the awards trophy.

Special 35mm screening of Disney's "Snow White", hosted by famed animation historian John Canemaker, with special guest Marge Champion, the model for Snow White's movements and gestures.

Closing Night Party.

Smoosh live!!!
Me and Don Hertzfeld, animator creator of many short animated films, including the Academy-Award nominated cult favorite "Rejected". Don's latest film "Everything Will Be Ok" was one of the best films i saw at the festival, and won Best in Category at Platform, highly reccomended.
Thats it! Special thanks must go out to Ward Jenkins for allowing me to hang out with him and for poitning out who everyone was, also thanks to Amid Amidi for being cool and encouraging on my first animation festival experience!

Darth Talon!

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Here is my Sketch-o-rama entry for Darth Talon, it was fun drawing this bad girl, here is a little more on this cute chick:

Darth Talon was a Sith Lady in Darth Krayt's new Sith Order c. 137 ABY. She was a female Twi'lek of the red-skinned Lethan group. She had black Sith tattoos covering her body, head, and lekku. These tattoos were earned in ritual combat.

She was trained by a fellow Twi'lek Sith named Darth Ruyn, whom she killed on Krayt's command with a swift decapitating strike of her lightsaber.


What can i say I'm a sucker for a girl that enjoys tatoos and decapitations.

PS: I attended the Platform Animation Fest in Portland Oregon, expect a post with pics soon!

TEE-Shirts!!!

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My co-worker and friend Saxton Moore recently told me about a great site called
Bountee.com, it allows you to create t-shirts by uploading your own designs.The shirts are printed using a digital process that looks remarkably similar to silk screening, only there are no limits to how many colors you can use. Check out the Bountee banner on my sidebar to the left and buy a shirt!


The Vulture

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I am a huge film buff, i devour special features and am in awe of the amazing talents that go into making a feature film. I am an especially big fan of concept art, ever since i got my hands on the Return of the Jedi sketchbook as a kid i've been addicted to it. So this weeks theme for sketch-o-rama was to do our take on a classic Spiderman villain for a future installment of the Spiderman film franchise. I jumped all over the Vulture.

I chose to cast James Marsters in this role because he not only has the physical looks to match the character but he also has the charisma needed to play one of Spidey's classic villains. I also re-interpreted the character as a monsterous, tragic figure. In my version, the vulture undergoes a horrifying physical and mental transformation, ala' Seth Brundle in the Fly.

As always, there is more awesomness from my peers over at Sketch-O-Rama.

Shadow Walker

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Riff watches over us all!!! Did this in about an hour and half.

RoboCop: Redux

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Here is yet another Sketch-O-Rama entry...RoboCo...errrr...Chik!

I'm probably the only person that actually really likes RoboCop 2 better than part 1. I remember my parents telling me there was no way they were letting me see RoboCop 2 opening week because of how violent it was, luckily my neighbors hadn't read any reviews and took me along with their kids to see it! Score! I have fond memories of Phil Tippet stop motion robots beating the crap out of eachother...those were the days,,,


"Cain LIKE nuke....hhhmmm..."

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