My Journey

The Finished High King

2012-02-01T22:52:00.001-08:00

Quite pleased with how this turned out.

Taran, Closer

2012-01-31T12:15:00.000-08:00

A bit more separation between the FG and BG, and some special effects added to the magic sword.

More....intensity!

2012-01-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

Added back in some of those highlights, and slapped a bit of texturing onto things to make them look less plastic.

High King cover in progress

2012-01-29T22:29:00.001-08:00

Need to add back in some highlights to increase the tonal range...but it's not due until Wed at 4:30, so I have time still :)

Pop Surrealism sketches

2012-01-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

Sketches for the next 2 pop surrealism assignments.

High King inks

2012-01-28T19:27:00.001-08:00

Here is the inked version of my comic cover for "The High King"

Silhouettes for 20,000 Leagues

2012-01-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

Here are my initial silhouettes for Capt. Nemo and the Nautilus.

High King - tight pencils

2012-01-24T23:19:00.001-08:00

Pencils for the Lloyd Alexander's High King comic book cover I'm working on.

2012-01-22T21:38:00.000-08:00

The first of three encounters between my two chosen archetypes. Pen on bristol, coloured in Photoshop.

Individual Archetype Characters

2012-01-15T21:52:00.000-08:00

Character Lineup

2012-01-14T20:46:00.001-08:00

The 2 archetypes from my Pop Surrealism project. Pen and copic marker.

Environment speed painting

2012-01-06T11:13:00.000-08:00

Quickie based on a photo I took in Puerto Rico.

Back from Vacation, playing with a quick study

2012-01-02T12:01:00.001-08:00

Approx. 45 mins.

warm up still life

2011-12-10T10:32:00.001-08:00

about 10 minutes...then the urge to drink my coffee became too strong :)

Poster for "Illustrating the Commentary"

2011-12-06T09:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, I got annoyed at those "Make art, not war" shirts, so I figured I'd return to the source, Sun Tzu...if it's good enough for an ancient Chinese master, should be good enough for everyone, right?

Obviously, done as a Chinese propaganda poster. Photoshop.

Alien Mountain Goat

2011-12-05T15:02:00.001-08:00

For the Madrid short story, another of the 3 illustrations in progress. Approx. 45 mins.

Ok, here's the last one before I submit for the anthology.

2011-12-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

I have until Friday to fix it for class, but the anthology entry is due now ;) I got some great suggestions, some of them I couldn't implement in the time I have, but I'll keep them in mind for the next painting. It's been a good experience overall, I think it's a bit *too* Impressionist for me to be totally comfortable with it, but the last couple have been a bit too tight, so the pendulum swing is probably a good thing.

the end?

2011-12-04T11:28:00.001-08:00

Reaching the kill-point on this one, gotta move on to other illustrations.

another day of work on the Madrid painting...

2011-12-03T20:16:00.000-08:00

Got some great advice and help from my friend Simon, and spent most of the day playing with this one.

tightening up Madrid painting

2011-12-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

Oh, and working on the spot for the same project:

...and we add colour

2011-12-01T11:52:00.001-08:00

Up-rezed to the final size, began resolving colour and forms. Gave a little attention to the helmet.

Probably a bit under 2 more hours spent working

2011-11-30T14:08:00.000-08:00

Increased the resolution and began figuring out what things are actually going to look like. The figure and his gear in the FG are still obviously unresolved.

The Madrid, Lost sketches

2011-11-30T10:38:00.000-08:00

Thumbnails done, moving on to try some basic lighting and mods to the thumbnail I picked. Still fast, and using the advantages of photoshop to prototype and change things rapidly.

Personal Project - The Madrid, Lost thumbnails

2011-11-27T10:20:00.000-08:00

Choosing my long-standing project, "The Madrid, Lost" to use for my final self-generated story for Narrative Illustration. Here are a page of thumbnails...as you can see, I do pretty rough thumbs, but they do help focus my ideas and give me a sense of direction.

Take a Stand for Kids Reading, cont.

2011-11-23T10:18:00.000-08:00

This came together relatively quickly this morning, still more to do, but going to take a break for a bit and work on other projects.

Illustrating the Commentary - Take a Stand!

2011-11-22T09:53:00.000-08:00

My 3rd assignment for class is to create a spread in which I make an argument for or against something...in my case, "Kids reading books is a good thing." I have several older friends with children that are basically illiterate from not being encouraged to read when they were growing up. I know I'm a bit old-school, there were no XBoxes when I was young, but I read constantly, and it's one of the reasons I have been as successful and happy in life as I have.

Anyway, here are my initial thumbnail drawings and starting quick sketch.

The Princess nears her end.

2011-11-21T13:57:00.000-08:00

The Princess comes to life.

2011-11-20T12:30:00.000-08:00

And just for fun, checking out the B&W graphic composition.

Princess of Mars

2011-11-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

Doing a book cover illustration for Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Princess of Mars"...Here are my first two roughs. Entire project will be in Photoshop.

test...

2011-11-06T05:31:00.000-08:00

Based on some presentations I've seen at IlluxCon, I wanted to try to reduce my last Conan painting to 2 colours to see if it's still readable. I'm moderately happy with it :)

Calendar project

2011-10-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

Here are the 5 watercolour paintings from my Editorial Assignment. They are all 12"x12" on cold press illustration board.

Final inspiration piece.

2011-10-28T15:38:00.001-07:00

Assignment for my "Illustrating the Commentary" class, based on a quote from "Joe vs. the Volcano"

"My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake, and they live in a state of constant, total amazement."

2 more quick Conan updates.

2011-10-27T09:57:00.001-07:00

Based on crits from yesterday, I removed the torch and played with the contrast a bit...which required some more webs to balance things out. Also touched up the ruby and his hand. Should be one more update - it's due tomorrow.

Conan today

2011-10-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

First I fixed the anatomy a bit, based on a reference photo I took of myself.

Then I pushed the contrast a lot.

Then I continued to tighten things up more.

Conan progress

2011-10-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Spent a little over 2 hours work on this this morning.

Conan again...

2011-10-24T15:58:00.001-07:00

More lighting, fixing anatomy, general rendering.

Conan in process

2011-10-24T11:33:00.000-07:00

For my Illustrating the Narrative short story project, I chose "Conan and the Elephant Tower". I'm going to be doing a full page and a spot illustration, but I'm starting on the full page first. Photoshop.

After the initial thumbnail sketch, I began to lay in a bit of texture and lighting.

Commentary progress - next step

2011-10-23T22:04:00.001-07:00

This may be the end, depends if I come up with something else cool to do to it before Friday *and* have the time to do it ;)

2nd Commentary Assignment - In Progress

2011-10-21T23:06:00.000-07:00

Decided to go with a 3D piece for this one, to break it up a bit.

Ok, unless I see something blatant..

2011-10-04T10:42:00.001-07:00

or hear back from someone I trust with suggestions, I think I'm throwing in the towel on this one.

Occupy Wall St. nearing the end?

2011-10-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm getting to where I think this is close - I don't want to over-render it, but I want it to read properly without using a lot of contour lines.

Occupy Wall St. tightening

2011-10-02T19:58:00.001-07:00

Next steps for "Occupy Wall St."

2011-10-02T15:59:00.001-07:00

I tightened up the drawing, and added watercolour and metal textures to the image.

Initial sketch for "Occupy Wall St"

2011-10-01T12:47:00.001-07:00

Doing this 100% digital, which I haven't done in a LONG time...

Richard Feynman Biography

2011-10-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

Here are the 4 finished pieces for my Editorial Illustration assignment where we had to choose a biography and do 4 images based on it. I chose the physicist Richard Feynman and the book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman."

Final Critnight piece

2011-10-01T12:33:00.001-07:00

This is what I emailed to the organizers, so I guess I'm done ;)

Dr. Fell

2011-09-30T07:34:00.001-07:00

I do not like thee, Dr. Fell
The reasons why I cannot tell
But this I know, and know full well
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell

creeping yet closer ;)

2011-09-28T14:17:00.001-07:00

Tightened up the grenades, brightened the bandana and pushed the background further back.

more random 3d-ery

2011-09-25T23:00:00.001-07:00

Just messing around ;)

Almost the end

2011-09-25T17:32:00.001-07:00

Maybe one or two more updates left before next Saturday....

Sunday at lunchtime

2011-09-25T11:35:00.001-07:00

Nearing the end of this sucker. I should really repaint the marine's hand, and detail the lemurs' hands a bit too.

EOD...

2011-09-24T17:51:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow is the last day I have budgeted for time to work on this, so I guess we're nearing the end ;)

Lemurs and Heads...

2011-09-24T15:38:00.001-07:00

Couple of more hours into it.

When Lemurs attack..

2011-09-24T10:48:00.001-07:00

Starting to work on the fur.

Jungle Crit Night - Starting on the soldier

2011-09-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

Jungle initial background roughed in

2011-09-22T11:13:00.001-07:00

Here's the jungle with some very rough impressionistic background added in.

crit night jungle watercolour scanned

2011-09-22T09:37:00.001-07:00

Now to start playing with it in Photoshop.

and another render...

2011-09-18T15:56:00.001-07:00

This is fun :)

Next steps in crit night

2011-09-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

So first I pencilled, and then did a very very initial inking. I'm planning on painting over all the lines eventually, so not that worried about them. I then created a value painting using my cool grey Copic marker set.

From there, I applied very simple watercolour washes over the entire image to give the base colours. Because the paint is transparent, the values from the markers are largely maintained through this step.

doinking around with 3D again

2011-09-18T10:04:00.001-07:00

Running the new computer through its paces with some rendering. Nothing terribly time consuming to setup, but it's kinda blowing my mind how much faster this thing is than the computer I was making my 3D comic on back in 2006-2007. This render would have taken at least 2 hours back then...

rough 3d sketch for my crit-night piece

2011-09-15T19:31:00.001-07:00

Just laying in humanoids and getting a sense of perspective. Going to make my natives really short, they only come up to the humans' knees.

digital self portrait

2011-09-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook pro, approx. 15 minutes.

Another environment study

2011-09-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

It's a...brick, house...it's mighty mighty....yeah yeah.

Pen and watercolour on hotpress watercolour paper.

watercolour shack

2011-09-04T00:05:00.001-07:00

Did the linework in a cafe in Portland, then painted it tonight when I got back to Vancouver. Pen and watercolour on watercolour paper.

Painting dump

2011-08-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

"All Along the Watchtower" - What if Walt Disney illustrated Bob Dylan songs?

Routine Patrol?

Dweller in the Ruins

Firaxe Final

2011-08-25T11:05:00.001-07:00

Here's the version I submitted.

Firaxe V

2011-08-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

Coming into to the home stretch - I'm headed to Seattle for PAX on Friday morning, and this is due Sunday at midnight, so I think I'll be submitting my entry tomorrow evening. It's been a fun process, and there'll probably be *one* more update, but we're nearing the end. This started out as a pencil sketch, then was inked with rapidograph, then painted with acrylic inks. From there I scanned it and adjusted it pretty significantly in Photoshop.

Firaxe part IV

2011-08-22T23:17:00.001-07:00

Did some more tweaking today, made the front guy a fair bit bigger and adjusted his backpack and some of the shadows.

Mermaid Sisters

2011-08-21T22:29:00.001-07:00

Something a bit more cartoony...and not terribly safe for work...

Rat Creature Attack!

2011-08-21T09:47:00.001-07:00

Jeff Smith's Bone fan art. Pen and acrylic ink on illustration board.

Mermaid 'O the Deep

2011-08-20T01:46:00.001-07:00

Pen and acrylic ink on watercolour paper.

my submission for the Muddy Colors blog online crit.

2011-08-19T00:20:00.000-07:00

Encounter with a Storm Giant

2011-08-18T18:14:00.001-07:00

Pen and acrylic ink on illustration board.

Firaxe part III

2011-08-17T15:19:00.001-07:00

Adjusted some things in photoshop, and added more reflection to the glass of the helmet.

Githyanki Assassin

2011-08-16T15:46:00.001-07:00

Pen and acrylic ink on illustration board.

Merrow Teacher

2011-08-14T09:47:00.001-07:00

Pen and acrylic ink on illustration board.

Next steps on Fireaxe

2011-08-12T18:16:00.000-07:00

Here's after some more painting...

2011-08-12T10:39:00.001-07:00

Took my painting into photoshop, gave it a bit more room around the edges and played with some digital painting on top of the ink work. It may be subtle, but I think it's better...

Art Order Challenge - Sci Fi Book cover

2011-08-10T18:53:00.000-07:00

Here's my work in progress for the challenge to illustrate the cover of the book "Fireaxe". Acrylic ink on illustration board.

Mermaid

2011-07-29T23:58:00.001-07:00

Here's a mermaid I whipped out this evening after dinner.

Working portfolio.

2011-07-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

Goblin Matriarch Inks

2011-07-11T09:38:00.001-07:00

Haven't decided if I'm going to paint it yet or not...

hello Nurse!

2011-07-09T22:29:00.001-07:00

Shared this one with my friend Pakorn. I did very rough pencils, which he finished and inked, then I painted it.

Hockey Goblin

2011-07-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

Even the fair folk can be "True Canucks". Pen and acrylic ink on illustration board.

Street Elf

2011-07-08T17:03:00.001-07:00

Graduated to character sketches ;)

The Seer

2011-07-07T22:25:00.001-07:00

Something I came up with at JJ's tonight...

[edit] Added some cross-hatching, here's the difference:

This Faerie is Country Strong

2011-07-06T23:17:00.000-07:00

Not really sure what prompted me to draw a faerie in daisy dukes dancing on a beer can...but, hey, you go where they lead you sometimes.

Process of a Fairy Tale - The End

2011-07-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

Here is the final piece for my Grimm Fairy Tales entry.

Once again, pen and acrylic ink on hotpress watercolour paper.

process of a Fairy Tale pt4.

2011-06-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, took a lot of photos of this as I was working on the painting, hopefully you can see my process.

Process of a Fairy Tale pt3.

2011-06-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

Here is the pencil corrected and inked illustration.

New blog

2011-06-23T22:09:00.001-07:00

Here's a plug for my new blog, "I'm Snapping Daily", where I'll put up one photo a day.

http://imsnappingdaily.blogspot.com/

something a little different

2011-06-23T15:13:00.001-07:00

I had to create a proposal for a fine art project in my HUMN311 class...thought you might enjoy seeing how I'd do a non-illustrative project.

By applying techniques from one discipline to another, it is possible to create a break in our understanding of what is possible within a medium, and to open up new ways of thinking. To explore the nature of reality, time, trauma and awareness of catastrophic events, I propose to use the "bullet-time" cinematic technique to document the destruction via explosive force of a suburban home.

The bullet-time method of filming involves shooting many still-image cameras simultaneously from multiple angles of the subject, and then stitching them together to create a virtual fly-around, where the subject appears to be frozen in time and the observer is moving. According to Lister, “A sweeping arc of cameras surround an actor...and simultaneously shoot a single frame. A movie camera at each end of the arc records motion up to and after the 'snapshots' (155). Although The Matrix pioneered this technique in modern cinema, it has a much longer history. “We could even trace such multi-camera chronophotographic excursions as far back as the motion studies conducted in California in the 1870s by Eadweard Muybridge, 'the man who split the second' (Gillis 54). I will set 120 film cameras surrounding a family home in the suburbs, and then use explosives and special-effects techniques to blow it up violently and in as cinematic a manner as possible. This explosion will be shot by all cameras simultaneously at its peak, and the resulting still images will be converted into a five second movie that endlessly circles the devastation. Unlike the classic use of bullet-time, there will be no entry or exit from the event. I propose to increase the sense of unreality and tension by never allowing the viewer to resume a less controlled sequencing of events.

The resulting video will be shown concurrently on a bank of nine televisions set in a three by three stack on top of each other. All of the televisions will be slightly out of sync from one another. On each screen, a different scrolling news-style marquee ticker will be rolling on the bottom of the television. Although the explosion will loop in five second increments, the nine different marquees will each be five minutes long, and will rotate across all of the televisions, creating a total loop time of 45 minutes. The false headlines will be 50% related to the explosion, and the rest will be drawn from economic or military-styled news reporting. None of the text will describe the cause of the explosion, instead they will speak as if that information was common knowledge. This method of display will tie the event visually with the style of news reporting of the burning towers from 9/11 America. As a New Yorker during that time period, I was bombarded with the same repeating stock images of the World Trade Center for almost a year. It was an inescapable part of my life. According to Greenberg, this repetition is a common response to emotional events, and one I wish to draw attention to. “We know that one of the hardest aspects of trauma is how survivors may unwillingly repeat the scene” (32). Common wisdom suggests that confronting and expressing trauma helps to deal with the event, but the nature of film and cinema works against this. As has been discussed at length, the ability of film to freeze time creates an environment where the traumatic event is relived over and over again. Unlike with memory, the emotion retains its power and does not dull over time. “The unavoidability of the visual representations of the event drew repetition outward and made the very work of witnessing into the experience of trauma, as opposed to a mode of its therapy” (Saltzman 273).

The World Trade Center created a traumatic assault on the American Dream. With my project, I propose to take the same repetition and trauma and apply it to the notion of suburban safety and comfort. Suburbs are thought of in an almost timeless and static way. We often hear them called “slow”, or “sleepy”, and there is a level of security in that. By the use of bullet-time and false news reporting, I will take that emotional stasis and flip it to a physical one, while at the same time showing evidence of a massive and destructive change taking place. Like Muybridge's photos of a horse trotting gave the viewer the ability to finally understand the mechanics of it's motion (Solnitt 6), the continually frozen and rotating explosion will give the observer the ability to experience the mechanics of trauma and devastation. I propose to draw attention to the fact that in the same way it is hard to take Muybridge's horse photographs and emotionally “feel” the horse's movement, a frozen in time traumatic event can be mechanically understood without being emotionally controllable. As Campany mentions when he talks about Barthes, it is this freezing that causes a pensiveness, or “moment of anticipation when things are in the balance” (Campany 96). I'm hoping that this moment of anticipation can be heightened and made more apparent through the introduction of an even more explicit stilling of time.

The success of this project lies in the use of techniques from different disciplines, and how they tie together. The still photography of bullet-time is necessary to freeze time and give the desired sense of clarity to a cinematic event. The scrolling news ticker borrowed from mainstream television reporting creates a way for the viewer to enter the piece and attach it to reality without introducing temporality to the traumatic event itself. The bank of televisions used to display speaks to the voyeuristic ability of Western society to experience events everywhere, and is meant to represent the notion of an electronic stores front window. Additionally, the repetition of screens is a sculptural technique to increase importance. The installation will give observers a theoretical understanding of the explosion, without ever moving beyond, or seeing the cause. By applying the news headlines, the event will be grounded in a familiar mode of viewing disasters, but the use of the “bullet time” freezing will create a cognitive dissonance and a sense of unreality. I hope that it will give observers insight into how they think of disasters, and the mediums they are reported with.

Works Cited

Campany, David. Photography and Cinema. London: Reaktion, 2010. Print.
Gillis, Stacy. The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded. London: Wallflower, 2005. Print.
Greenberg, Judith. Trauma at Home: after 9/11. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 2003. Print.
Lister, Martin. New Media: a Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Saltzman, Lisa, and Eric M. Rosenberg. Trauma and Visuality in Modernity. Hanover: Dartmouth College, 2006. Print.
Solnit, Rebecca. River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West.
New York: Viking, 2003. Print.

Process of a Fairy Tale pt2.

2011-06-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

Pencils, and then some changes.

Here's the next version...

Process of a Fairy Tale pt1.

2011-06-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm working on the "Grimm's Fairy Tale" challenge over at The Art Order. I've chosen the story "The Seven Ravens", here are my initial drawings.

I started with thumbnails to work out what in the story I wanted to illustrate.

From there, I did a series of roughs, working through the composition a bit.

Then I did this very loose watercolour sketch...

After the sketch, I realized the composition would be better with the girl larger, so I did one more rough...

Finally, I played around with some ideas for the girl and the 7 ravens.

More to come....

...and a couple of quick warm-up paintings

2011-05-30T18:18:00.001-07:00

Not sure what you call a warm-up painting...it's not really a sketch, is it? Anyway, whipped out these two mermaids, each one took a total of about 5 minutes, so they're loose ;)

Rayne Longboard show at Kafka's

2011-05-30T18:04:00.001-07:00

Here's my entry for the minideck show sponsored by Rayne Longboards. Acrylic ink on bamboo.

Firestarter

2011-05-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

Ink on bristol board.

It's a Longshot

2011-05-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

I've got a confession, I love Longshot, he's still my favorite X-Men, and I still think that Gambit was a bad rip-off.

Pinup

2011-05-25T08:32:00.001-07:00

Did this over the weekend, was playing with very pale washes for skin tones...didn't have any photo ref, and I got a bit lost with what to do next.

Green Man

2011-05-16T00:15:00.001-07:00

Spent most of the weekend shooting still photography for a movie my wife was production manager on, but I did get a chance to draw and paint this in between the craziness. Acrylic ink on watercolour paper.