Sketchy Sketches

I'm Ron f*****g Swanson!

2012-02-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

i've been getting into Parks and Recreation lately.

And for some reason, I found the sight of Ron Swanson suffering

from a hernia one of the funniest things i'd seen in a while....

so i guess pain amuses me. gawd, i need help. o_O

The Drawing Club: Gentleman Steampunk!

2012-02-01T23:50:00.000-08:00

a rather memorable session from The Drawing Club last week. all i can say is that steampunk + moustache = fun for the whole family! oh, and the last set are from the same pose -- just trying to get that crotch as dynamic as possible. ;)

Turn and face the strange B-B-Bane!!!

2012-01-24T20:50:00.000-08:00

...don't wanna be a broken bat. time can't change me, but bane can change wayne.

shy guy

2011-12-21T23:58:00.000-08:00

Nora

2011-12-13T22:14:00.000-08:00

Never knew much about Mr. Freeze before, but I became a big fan
after seeing his story in the animated series. such great and timeless
stuff back then.

prismacolor + copy paper = instant gesture drawing!

2011-12-05T00:47:00.000-08:00

some sketches from Mark McDonnell's last gesture drawing class for 2011. Oddly enough, I had the same model from the last figure drawing session at Nucleus. Coincidence? or did the Illuminati just strike again?! @_@

Pirate Gestures

2011-11-28T01:04:00.001-08:00

i've been totally backlogged on posting these, but here are some gestures from Mark McDonnell's class with John Tucker as the model.

doodles

2011-11-22T23:54:00.000-08:00

some preliminary doodles on a project that I'm working on with a friend that involves a boy, a a bag and a girl. that sounds ominous, but really it's not....for now.

Two Face

2011-11-14T01:43:00.000-08:00

i often feel that he's either constantly constipated or just extremely frustrated that his silver dollar won't fit in a vending machine.

bathroom break!

2011-11-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

snikt!!

2011-10-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

running time 1:52

fisticuffs starts happening around the :46 mark.

been working off and on this animatic, which was for an assignment

to flesh out a fight scene from the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

basically just the first and 2nd to last shot were the only ones from

the movie itself.

i'll probably tweak it some more, but i'm bored of it for now. :|

Sexy Sartorialist

2011-08-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

some doodles from the sites Sexy People and The Sartorialist.

Wolvie & Sabie: Best Friends Forever!

2011-07-29T00:14:00.000-07:00

some character studies for a sequence i'm trying to board out in Jay Oliva's class.

Out of Sight

2011-07-19T23:39:00.000-07:00

Just a little doodle based on this cute Taiwanese student film that I saw. I wanted to start chanting Taiwan! but it doesn't quite have the same douche-baggery ring as yelling USA! USA! USA!!

2011-07-11T16:07:00.000-07:00

Drawing Club - Centurion

2011-07-07T23:46:00.000-07:00

some more Drawing Club sketches. this is also the first time i have ever drawn a live centurion. so i guess that takes care of my bucket list........actually, now that i think of it, i should probably have more than one item on it.

Cover My Eyes

2011-06-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

I've been binging on La Roux lately, and in particular, their song "Cover My Eyes." It's one of those tunes that I didn't notice at first, but somehow it crept up and into my mind. Anyhow, I had a gesture drawing that reminded me of the song so I re-worked it a bit. You can check out the song here or listen to a live version here as well.

The Drawing Club - Hunchback

2011-06-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

Some sketches I did at the Drawing Club earlier this year. I usually go when the Guild's Gesture Drawing class isn't in session. I'll eventually get around to posting my other sojourns from there unless the God of Procrastination smites me down, and i end up just twiddling my thumbs instead.

the woods

2011-06-13T03:07:00.000-07:00

some random doodle - working small and loose actually makes environment stuff fun for once. hooray, i say.

redux

2011-06-05T23:35:00.000-07:00

was redoing this sketch from a previous drawing that i had done.

I showed it to Rad Sechrist, and i remember him telling me i had to drop the horizon line to make it more dynamic. Maybe i'll keep reworking this sketch and in a 100 years from now the umpteenth version of this drawing will be so dynamic it'll make your eyes bleed!

Bridesmaids

2011-06-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

These are some illustrations I drew for my friend as a gift to her bridesmaids.

There's actually 4 images for each bridesmaid, but I just put up a random sampling of them here. Incidentally, my friend got married at the same location as the engagement party from the movie Bridesmaids!! Sadly, I did not see Kristin Wiig or Ellie Kemper there, but I swore I felt their comedic spirit guiding over the procession. :P

2011-05-18T01:03:00.001-07:00

figure drawings

2011-05-14T01:47:00.000-07:00

some figure drawings from Nucleus this past week. was actually timely in posting these, but i never got around to posting all my gesture drawings from the previous term before this term ended. i am ashamed, and will will probably commit seppuku if i get bored.

background

2011-05-04T22:55:00.001-07:00

and old background that i dusted off and tweaked a bit. what it is, i'm not exactly sure...

stare off

2011-04-24T17:41:00.000-07:00

simple pleasures

2011-04-21T23:13:00.000-07:00

Raphael!!

2011-04-16T00:09:00.000-07:00

edit - tweaked the image a bit.

shopping

2011-04-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

Islander Gesture Drawings

2011-04-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

Saw this model on Dave Pimentel's blog, and then I remembered

I had drawn that guy, too. From Mark McDonnell's class last term as well.

Rube Goldberg in the Jungle Animatic

2011-04-07T19:32:00.000-07:00

some old boards that i decided to clean up. still working out

the kinks though, so this post might disappear. ha!

running time - 1:23

Mo' Gesture Drawings

2011-03-29T00:49:00.000-07:00

some more gesture drawings from last term with Mark McDonnell.

Hopefully, I'll get around to posting stuff from this term before class ends. :P

night

2011-03-22T01:27:00.000-07:00

The Elephant's Child: How the Elephant Got His Trunk

2011-03-13T21:53:00.001-07:00

These are some images from an e-book I illustrated for the Barnes and Noble nookcolor a few months ago. It's based off the old Rudyard Kipling story about how a baby elephant got his trunk, and there's also some great audio narration on it, too. It showed up briefly in the NYTimes video review of the nookcolor (woo-hoo!), and you can also get an idea of how the audio narration sounds here.

so if you have a nookcolor, you can download the book for free HERE!!! (you can also get it via the nook kids app for the ipad or just check it out at a Barnes and Noble bookstore.)

...and now back to more mindless doodles. :P

tall guy wearing short shorts.

2011-03-10T18:50:00.000-08:00

environment sketch

2011-03-07T20:50:00.000-08:00

random sketch that kinda reminds me of the "world of goo" game in retrospect.

Masked Man gesture drawings

2011-03-07T18:27:00.000-08:00

i'm finally getting around to posting my gesture drawings from last semester so i can start posting from this semester. These were from Mark McDonnell's gesture drawing class at the animation guild. 180 bucks for 12 classes. take it, i say! take it!!

2011-03-04T01:12:00.000-08:00

gettin' a head start on the afterlife!

Sketch Crawl 30

2011-02-13T23:49:00.001-08:00

some doodles and a photo from Sketch Crawl 30 at the Museum of Natural History. the turnout was awesome! however, the dinosaur exhibit was closed so I ended up drawing mostly the backs of people and birds. sooo many, many dead soulless birds...

winter...

2011-02-07T23:48:00.000-08:00

batman plays the blues...

2011-02-06T22:28:00.001-08:00

mailman

2011-01-26T02:39:00.001-08:00

i didn't have any reference while sketching this out, so i think it slightly deviated from the typical mailman. :\

Scientific Confessions with Dr. Bruce Greenwood

2011-01-19T23:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!!

2010-12-23T16:58:00.000-08:00

Gesture Drawings

2010-11-08T01:00:00.000-08:00

despite arriving late, the model had a whole bunch of costumes which made him fun, fun, fun to draw.

random action

2010-11-04T04:09:00.000-07:00

found some old MK boards, and decided to flesh them out a bit.

hands!

2010-08-30T18:22:00.001-07:00

these were some hand studies based off a super sweet handout I got in Rad Sechrist's class. one day Hands, i will learn your secret power and destroy you. >:|

garfield

2010-08-29T12:15:00.001-07:00

it's been a really long time since I've looked at a Garfield comic,

but I was flipping through my old Garfield Treasury book,

and this comic stuck with me for some reason.

not sure if i relate to Odie, Garfield or both.

2010-08-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

fight!

2010-08-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

version 1.5

feet

2010-07-29T03:17:00.000-07:00

he's self-conscious about people staring at his feet.

coughercise

2010-07-27T03:32:00.000-07:00

an inadvertent benefit of coughing my lungs out is the slight appearance of a one pack. take that, regular exercise!!

karaoke

2010-07-20T01:22:00.001-07:00

i'm into drawing batman lately for some reason.

swim

2010-07-17T23:48:00.000-07:00

dinosaurs

2010-07-17T00:45:00.000-07:00

wedding tree

2010-07-10T13:35:00.001-07:00

i made this illustration for my sister's wedding. She found this idea online where instead of a guest book, people would leave their thumb prints on the tree and sign their name next to it. I did a mock-up of thumb prints to see how it would look. hopefully the real deal turns out well!

batman

2010-06-09T02:40:00.000-07:00

Beowulf's a dick

2010-05-31T19:08:00.001-07:00

Grendel just wanted a handshake.

Lightning Liam

2010-05-29T01:10:00.000-07:00

he's a ghetto super hero who channels the mighty power of lightning with a helmet made from a colander and a broken umbrella.

Vonnegut Quote

2010-05-26T23:14:00.001-07:00

"There are two sorts of artists, one not being in the least superior to the other. But one responds to the history of his or her art so far, and the other responds to life itself."

I came across that quote while reading Kurt Vonnegut's "A Man without a Country" although he credits it to his friend Saul Steinberg. So it's not really Vonnegut's quote that I like, but since Steinberg never wrote some sweet books, tough luck to him.

And since this is more or less an art blog, here's a sketch of Vonnegut reading from his book. Therefore it's like he's reading this quote to you, but not really because he's dead and this is just a drawing.

gesture drawings - the waitress

2010-05-06T04:59:00.001-07:00

some more gesture drawings, and a doodle of a viking opera singer.

oh, and I added SOUND to the animatic in the previous post down below!!

Trash Day Animatic

2010-04-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

running time - 4:21 sec

*UPDATE* - I added sound! feel the cinematic quadrovision!!

finally got around to putting this into animatic form. it involves that little ninja dude from my previous post, a trash bag and some lawn ornaments...yeah.

more gesture drawings

2010-04-13T22:51:00.000-07:00

i think the theme was Hunter S. Thompson. i've never read his books or seen his movie, but i have seen him shoot assault rifles with Conan while drinking vast quantities of liquor.

running test

2010-04-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

short run sequence from the bug-eyed ninja story. Sometimes when I work on boards, I'll kinda act out bits of it to make sure the motion feels right.

However, I realized that when you do this at the library, you end up looking like an insane person.

environment sketch

2010-04-05T00:47:00.000-07:00

some random place with water and some blimps. i also feel there's a million

compositional/design problems in this so feel free to let me know...or not.

bug eyes

2010-04-02T23:16:00.000-07:00

a rough from a story i'm boarding out. it's weird how an offhanded sketch of a few seconds brings me more satisfaction than some other drawing that i labor over repeatedly.

red panda!

2010-03-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

i was once tasked with stealing a red panda. this is about as far as i got.

animatic

2010-03-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

animatic form of the previous storyboard.

still having trouble rendering out stuff properly

with premiere in the correct aspect ratio. blogger

doesn't seem really friendly towards h.264 either.

samurai storyboards

2010-03-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

Testing out how things come out on blogger of some rough storyboards that i'm working on. not much going on so far, but there should be lots of fighting! yay! random aside; i hate when the docking tabs on photoshop wig out, and then your whole interface gets messed up.

sketchy sketch

2010-03-22T00:05:00.000-07:00

guess i'm trying to work in a more direct manner.

not sure what this is about or if i'll even like it tomorrow.

Black Dynamite!!

2010-03-16T23:29:00.000-07:00

Figured I should plug this movie I storyboarded since it's now out on DVD. I didn't have much time so most of the boards are at the level of glorified stick figures. Still it was fun figuring out some of the action scenes including the movie's final showdown. So if you like blaxploitation flicks, crazy kung-fu action, and a guy in a donut suit getting shot to death - this is your film!!

I actually got my name in the credits so yay to that, too.

order now! even though it has no benefit to me monetarily. hah.

gesture drawings

2010-03-16T00:43:00.001-07:00

Some stuff from my gesture drawing class, which is quite fun.

i think all poses should be 3 minutes or less. all hail the sharpie!!

characters

2010-03-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

rough character line up of a story i'm working on.

snowboarding lesson # 1

2010-03-02T16:22:00.000-08:00

wear sunblock on your face, unless you want to look like a walking matchstick.

environment

2010-02-22T02:45:00.000-08:00

Piece that I've been struggling with for a bit. It's part of this Odysseus/Cyclops storyline that I'm working on. It's supposed to be the pathway leading to the Cyclops' cave. The little cherry tree is where the Cyclops Polythemus fell in love with the sea nymph Galetea. I wanted ruined statues of the gods littering the foreground - thrown from Polythemus' perch where they once stood before he was heartbroken over Galetea. The current composition doesn't fit the narrative purposes as well, but i'm ok with it visually...for now.

spoon man!

2010-02-14T02:34:00.000-08:00

working backwards from a sequence I roughly storyboarded, and then
i realized i should probably figure out a design for the characters.
so here's a WIP of one of them. i got tired shading it, and need to fix
certain things like that spoon which doesn't look like a spoon.
oh, and legs on large men are hard to draw.
still need to figure that out... and shoes - gah, i hate drawing shoes.

more drawing club sketches

2010-02-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

i think these were from around Halloween hence the psycho nurse theme.

environment sketch

2010-01-31T23:17:00.000-08:00

trying to get little huts and houses in the foreground, but haven't figured out an
economical way of implementing it.

drawing club sketches

2010-01-25T14:13:00.000-08:00

some marker sketches from the past year.

Volt Urchin

2010-01-06T22:42:00.000-08:00

Some concept art I did for Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier which should be out in stores now.

some stuff i've been working on...

2009-12-21T14:11:00.001-08:00

kitty sketches

2009-10-05T13:23:00.001-07:00

duck goose

...or at least working on getting their likenesses.

environment sketch

2008-11-26T22:32:00.001-08:00

Running!

2008-09-24T10:22:00.001-07:00

Thing Revisted

2008-08-05T13:51:00.000-07:00

This is a "thing" like creature I did in my creature design class. I'm
thinking of coloring it a more pasty white color - so it resembles larvae
a bit more. Its basic function it to shoot its tentacles into a host and then
live inside while feeding of the host. It can also reformulate the host's anatomy
into weird weapons and stuff like in the film. When the host no longer provides
any nutrients for the creature, it bursts out of the body and searches for a new
victim.

Thought on The Dark Knight

2008-07-21T00:57:00.001-07:00

I just saw The Dark Knight which I found to be incredibly intense and excellent, though I did feel Harvey Dent's character arc was a bit rushed. However, I really enjoyed this one scene where, as best as I can remember, the Joker sticks his head out of a cop car like a dog in the breeze, and the sound nearly goes to this ominous silence. I recall seeing this shot in the trailer and thinking it was very cool, but for some reason, the way the sound dropped in the actual film brought it to another level.

It reminded me in some ways of that scene in The Village where the people are fleeing the monsters in the beginning. In it, Joaquin Phoenix goes to rescue Bryce Dallas Howard. As he grabs her by the hand, the shot goes to slow motion and James Newton Howard's score envelops the scene. That perfect combination of the slow-motion, the music and the Caravaggio like lighting of the scene gave it this gorgeous romantic quality.

But ultimately, I'm not quite sure why scenes like those move me so much -- perhaps the lack of dialog and chatter brings a scene to a higher level of emotional purity?

Frog Dude

2008-05-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

not sure if it really is a frog. i think the hair was inspired by the James Woods character from
Surf's Up.

Squiddish monster

2008-05-21T20:38:00.001-07:00

Idea was some parasitic squid monster that is slowly fusing its body with this fisherman.
His eyes have moved into the squid's tentacles and the nostrils are now in place of the eyes.

dino sketch

2008-05-19T20:56:00.001-07:00

he's grumpy...

Character Designs

2008-04-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

Some random characters I threw together.

The Acornless Squirrel

2008-01-11T20:22:00.000-08:00

This is a storyboard sequence that I first drew up in Francis Glebas' storyboard class at Gnomon and just recently cleaned up. It involves a squirrel that tries to get a giant acorn, but is thwarted by an unexpected obstacle.

Cyclops on the Chase!

2007-06-05T11:39:00.001-07:00

I should probably add the sheep that the soldiers snuck away on,
but that won't be until a later image...yeah.

Rabbit

2007-05-20T15:54:00.000-07:00

My friend sent me the link to this short film. It's a bit morbid, but has some
nice cut-out animation to it, and it feels like something from the Grimm Fairy Tales. Actually, it might be an old story - if anyone cares to enlighten me that would be great.

The film-maker is Run Wrake who apparently did some U2 stuff before - yay!
You can check out his site here. http://www.runwrake.com/

why don't we do it in the road?

2007-05-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

i've been thinking of making an animatic/music video of the Beatles
song "why don't we do it in the road?"
here are some sketches i've been playing with.
hopefully this will be fun and quick to do.

what a strange, short song.

New Yorker Cartoon

2007-04-18T11:47:00.000-07:00

In light of all the penguins films and documentaries, I thought this old New Yorker cartoon was funny.

Cyclops Looking Down

2007-04-13T15:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot I did of the Cyclops spying on Odysseus and his men
as they arrive onto the Cyclops' island.

Angry, Angry Huckabees

2007-03-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

My friend just told me about this clip where director David O. Russell
and Lily Tomlin have this total freak out fight on the set of "I Heart Huckabees."
It's just strange seeing sugar-coated Hollywood in a very nasty and real light. Both parties may have been responsible for this dispute. However, I also read that David O. Russell got in a fight with George Clooney on the set of "3 Kings." After reading about that, it makes me wonder how such a humane film could be made by such a ruthless punk.Though I wonder if the pressures of making a film would cause an average person to go bonkers like that. I actually did see the director at the Screenwriting Expo interviewing Oliver Stone and Russell seemed like a very calm, decent guy. But if I ever meet him, I'll know to pack a shiv in my pocket just in case....:| NSFW, btw.

Here's the Clooney Interview:

PLAYBOY: What made you want to do that movie?

CLOONEY: David Russell wrote as good a script as I've ever read. I fought to get it. He wanted a lot of other actors before me. They went to Mel and to Nic Cage. I wanted to work on this movie. David is in many ways a genius, though I learned that he's not a genius when it comes to people skills.

PLAYBOY: Did you learn about that the hard way?

CLOONEY: I did. He yelled and screamed at people all day, from day one.

PLAYBOY: Did he yell at you?

CLOONEY: At me often --- and at someone daily. He'd throw off his headset and scream, "Today the sound department flicked me!" For me, it came to a head a couple of times. Once, he went after a camera-car driver who I knew from high school. I had nothing to do with his getting his job, but David began yelling and screaming at him and embarrassing him in front of everybody. I told him, "You can yell and scream and even fire him, but what you can't do is humiliate him in front of people. Not on my set, if I have any say about it." Another time he screamed at the script supervisor and made her cry. I wrote him a letter and said, "Look, I don't know why you do this. You've written a brilliant script, and I think you're a good director. Let's not have a set like this. I don't like it and I don't work well like this." I'm not one of those actors who likes things in disarray. He read the letter and we started all over again. But later, we were three weeks behind schedule, which puts some pressure on you, and he was in a bad mood. These army kids, who were working as extras, were supposed to tackle us. There were three helicopters in the air and 300 extras on the set. It was a tense time, and a little dangerous, too. David wanted one of the extras to grab me and throw me down. This kid was a little nervous about it, and David walked up to him and grabbed him. He pushed him onto the ground. He kicked him and screamed, "Do you want to be in this *beep* movie? Then throw him to the *beep* ground!" The second assistant director came up and said, "You don't do that, David. You want them to do something, you tell me." David grabbed his walkie-talkie and threw it on the ground. He screamed, "Shut the *beep* up! *beep* you," and the AD goes, *beep* you! I quit." He walked off.

It was a dangerous time. I'd sent him this letter. I was trying to make things work, so I went over and put my arm around him. I said, "David, it's a big day. But you can't shove, push or humiliate people who aren't allowed to defend themselves." He turned on me and said, "Why don't you just worry about your *beep* act? You're being a dick. You want to hit me? You want to hit me? Come on, pussy, hit me." I'm looking at him like he's out of his mind. Then he started banging me on the head with his head. He goes, "Hit me, you pussy. Hit me." Then he got me by the throat and I went nuts. Waldo, my buddy, one of the boys, grabbed me by the waist to get me to let go of him. I had him by the throat. I was going to kill him. Kill him. Finally, he apologized, but I walked away. By then the Warner Bros. guys were freaking out. David sort of pouted through the rest of the shoot and we finished the movie, but it was truly, without exception, the worst experience of my life.

PLAYBOY: Did you resolve things? Would you ever work with him again?

CLOONEY: Life's too short.

Cyclops Animatic!

2007-03-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

So this is a short animatic I made of Odysseus and his men
stumbling upon the Cyclops cave. They're famished so they're
feasting upon this roasting goat when suddenly they hear a sound..
I've been interested in this story since reading a paperback version of the adventures of Odysseus - i forget the author's name. Anyhow, the animatic is pretty standard stuff right now, but i want to see where
I can push it visually and content wise. I always like taking a simple/hokey
situation and seeing if I can make it more complex and grand.

Here are some quick concept pieces I did of Odysseus and the Cyclops, too.
Pretty sure it will change in time though.

U2 In A Little While Animatic

2007-03-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

This has been on YouTube for awhile now, but I figure
I should put something on this blog, so here I go
posting an animatic I made for a U2 Song called "In a Little While"
from their album "All That You Can't Leave Behind."

Eventually, I will get this completed, but what shape or form, who knows?

Here be the lyrics:

"In A Little While"

In a little while
Surely you'll be mine
In a little while I'll be there

In a little while
This hurt will hurt no more
I'll be home, love

When the night takes a deep breath
And the daylight has no end
If I crawl, if I come crawling home
Will you be there

In a little while
I won't be blown by every breeze
Friday night running
To Sunday on my knees

That girl, that girl
She's mine
And I've known her since

Since she was a little girl
With Spanish eyes
Oh, when I saw her
In a pram they pushed her by

My, how you've grown
Well it's been
It's been a little while

Slow down my bleeding heart
A man dreams one day to fly
A man takes a rocketship into the skies
He lives on star that's dying in the night
And follows in the trail
The scatter of light

Turn it on
Turn it on
You turn me on

Slow down my bleeding heart
Slowly, slowly love
Slow down my bleeding heart
Slowly, slowly love
Slow down my beating heart
Slowly, slowly love

bear and tree

2007-03-08T15:11:00.000-08:00

2006-12-07T23:25:00.000-08:00

sketch done on my tablet pc