Happy Holidays Everyone

Everything is alright!! School is done for the semester; and I have only one more to go! My internship at Cartoon Network Studios is done; and I had a fantastic time! I leave for a winter vacation in Hawaii; my favorite warm and sunny place! Yep, everything is alright!!

Take Care Everyone
Happy Holidays

Amazonians

To the Future

It is an exciting time to be alive. I look forward to the future.

Happy

Happy Holiday season everyone. I feel pretty good. I love the fall, my family is doing well, and school is nearly over. Yep, I'm happy.

Watercolor Paintings

Found some watercolor paintings recently that I forgot about. I did the three on the bottom for my friend Steve's prospective video game project called Rakugaki Shodown. The top one was just for fun.

I learned a lot in the making of these about the nature and use of watercolor. The medium, like all mediums, has a learning curve. But I love the look and feel of the finished product. Although I think I'm going to try and learn the digital mediums of photoshop and painter; there is nothing like painting with traditional materials.

Keep on Pushing
Later

Mermaid

Hello everyone. I've been sketching a bit while watching Disney's The Little Mermaid lately. It bring back nice memories of when I was young.

Enjoy

The Ruff Stuff

So very tired... (I wish I had a way to make more time in the day for sleep, drawing just for fun, oh and playing video games. Ah, that would be nice. I guess everyone makes the same wish haha. Well, we in America gained an hour today, but I want more. More!!!)

Anyway, here are some ruff sketches that I need to find the time to develop futher.

take care everyone. ...I hear a bed calling me.

Fun with Sharpies and ink

Hey kids!! Lets have fun with sharpies and ink!! Yep, these were done mostly on my downtime, while I'm interning at Cartoon Network. The top three are in ink and come from the bottom sharpie sketches. I'm really into the sharpies lately, although I usually have a large assortment of pens on me. I think I like the sharpies because they force me to be loose and quick.
All of this was inspired by the Metal Gear comic done by Ashley Wood. The style of the comic is very sketchy and I love it. Then I went back to look at the original artbooks for the Metal Gear series by that genius Yoji Shinkawa. Shinkawa's work is simply stunning.

til next time
Later.

Odin

My plan is to update the blog weekly, but you know how it is when you make plans. Well for this week, I return to my youth. This illustration is of Odin, Lord of the Norse Gods. Odin is shown here with his animal friends; the two ravens Huginn and Muninn, two wolves Geri and Freki are messengers and information bringers. I didn't add his eight legged horse Sleipnir who I did sketch but seemed to disrupt the composition.
I think I like Odin the most of all the gods I read about, because he was kind of a nut, and went to great lengths to obtain knowledge. He gave up an eye to sip knowledge from Mimir's well, and then he hanged himself from the Yggdrasil (cosmic tree) to gain even more wisdom. Yeah, the stories are strange, but are awsome reads. I think the reason I love reading mythical stories is because they boil down what it is to be human, plus they usually very strange, interesting and unique stories. Truly timeless reading. Well I think I geeked myself enough for tonight. Enjoy.
Later.

Return to Mars

Here are the redesigns of my little character named Mars. I posted the old version on ACME animation web site and got some fantastic visual feedback from James Lopez, a very talented animator. His notes on character design were simple, clear and spot on, and helped me to develop Mars into the better, more likeable version. The bottom is the master sheet of the early version, and the top is the redesign. I really like the character and hope to do more with him in the future.

Monster Month

Hello again, here are some designs and textures I did for Special Studies Animation at Cal State Fullerton. The project was that a group of us would make a game commercial that involves a cave and a scary monster that is part man, part scorpion, and part poodle. The project was interesting in many ways. Including that we had to work together, and play to our strengths, all in a way that is more true to how real world works. Cooperation was hard for some, but meeting tight deadlines even harder as we had only a month to try to get this done.
My designs for the monster, on the bottom are the early rounds, while the top the more final version. For coloring the character, the top three on the left were done in watercolor on plain copy paper. Then I scaned them in and with multiplying layers, I created the other color versions. On the textures I gathered reference to get an idea of what I wanted, then again painted the textures in watercolor on watercolor paper because the paper has a texture. Then scan them in and use multiply and some photo compositing to make some of the textures read. So this has been an interesting month. Boy am I tired, but very pleased with the results, and I didn't even know I could do textures. Wow, a new trick!

LifeDrawing Pastel Man

I really enjoy Life Drawing. I think getting really good at it would take a life time, and because of that I truly respect the Masters. One day I would like to be really good, but until then. So I did this piece at my Jr. College, after a battle with pastel I ended the class with this.

Macross Homage Challenge

So I was lounging with a couple of friends bout a week ago. We were coming up with crazy ideas for an extremely over the top Flash animation project based on the Japanese Giant Robot genre. So, I did this sketch of the chibi guy in the Macross Flightsuit in sharpy on an index card( I do love Macross/Robotech). So, my buddy Steve takes a look and makes the Macross Homage Challenge. And so it began...
We had a week to complete the challenge, but I procrastinate and did it this weekend. I like the sketchy first drawing. Overall not bad, but I would have liked to be looser and more stylized and with more action. Ah well, better luck next time.
I still like the little sketch on the index card.

Kaze

Named this character Kaze because his father is a wind god, and I first drew the character when I was in Japan, and the name seemed to fit. He is another character from the Myth Project. He sides with the Dev Nation to fight against the Empire.
Anyway, bottom is the ruff sketch, to get the basic idea. I knew I wanted the character to have an eclectic style of dress with a hint of the far east. Then I build on the ruff in the tight pencil stage and try to define the character in more detail. Finally, I make an inking of the tight pencil while still making minor changes. So, until next time...

LifeDrawing

Oni

Character design for an Oni. An oni is a monster from Japanese myth, but I wanted to use them as a race of beings for my Myth Project. In process, I started with the naked drawing to get the anatomy, body shape, and position. Then I traced the figure and added clothing. Then I inked the figure. I just really like the idea of a rather large beast man with a horn. Of course, thinking about the Oni as a race of beings is great fun. Where do they live, what do they eat, what do they do for fun are all interesting questions to think about. Creating backstory to a character is part of the fun of drawing. Until next time...

Japanese Family

Hello everyone, well here is the project that started my summer. I had this concept of a Japanese family where everyone in the family has an identifiable shape. It all took me some doing, researching Japan, drawing shapes to see what works, and in coloring, I wanted to try to get better at photoshop. Overall, I'm pleased; I feel like this is my first real attempt at character design where I follow through to the end. It was alot of fun. However, I think I could have pushed some aspects of the design, ah well, I'll get it one day. Just gotta keep drawing.

On process, each image shows the steps I usually go through nowadays. Rough sketch, that I scan in and blow-up, and print-out. Then I cleanup the rough, this is usually the most fun because sometimes even with a rough I'm not sure what will appear. Then I rescan and cleanup alittle more; blow-up the image again, and print again. Then I ink the characters by hand and rescan and clean up once again. In this phase I try to clean it well, mostly because I try to ink fast and usually make many mistakes. Then finally, I added color and there it is. Well, enjoy...

Mars the Martian

Mars is the name of this little guy I sketched for my animation class. Mars is a little martian who came to Earth in the 1950's because of his love of cowboy westerns. His only mission is to meet his idols that he loves to watch, while at the same time act out his fantasy of being a cowboy. His wild imagination, curiosity and interest; in what to him are strange Earth objects and culture, leads to his grand adventure. So here are some cleaned up designs. Until next time...

Knights of Sol (Myth Project)

Some characters from my personal project titled Knights of Sol. Myth the character from the last post gets to meet these two characters, who are Knight Captians. Of the character on bottom I was trying out costume designs. Of the female I like her design which came about after only one sketch, which usually never happens. I usually need to draw a character over and over just to get a design I like. Of my process, about the female captian, the red pencel drawing is a cleanup drawing based off my rough sketch. In the cleaned up drawing I try to get it as close to the final image as possible. However in the inking I added detail. Until next time...