Bunbuns!

Wowza!  I've managed two complete posts in one year!  A personal best!

I'll try to do better next year.  There are a few stories that I'm pretty keen on developing, one of which involves this little fellow below.  He's still fairly early in development, thus the sketchines, and he hasn't got a name yet, so we'll just call him Mr. Bunbun for now.  He works as a librarian/archivist at a library that's affiliated with a law firm.  He'd be more fond of his job if he could burrow beneath mountainous stacks of books to read than tend to fussy customers.  He tries his best to be meticulous about his job, but he's a very small rabbit in a very big library packed with very large books.

I am the best blogger....

...in all the land. My annual posts are all the rage with the kids these days.

Ahhhh I'm not making much sense right now.  You just caught me at the tail end of 2 days of AMAAAAAZING lectures of story and animation at the Pixar Masterclass in Chicago!  If you can shell out the money for tuition (and airfare if necessary) it will change how you tell and think about storytelling, acting, and human behavior.  Pretty lofty words for a 2 day lecture, but seriously.  Four years of schooling packed into an 8 hour day each.  It was intense.  It was gold!

I "whipped" up and revamped a few character studies the past few days in preparation for the class.  They seem so weak and BLAH now, after all that we covered, that I just want to trash them and apply everything that I've learned. Well ok that's too drastic; there are some salvageable bits in them.  But a TON to improve!  And there's no better feeling in the world than to have fresh eyes and actually know what you need to fix!  That you've got a road map as a guide to communicating better (through art anyway, words are still derpy) instead of just fluffy artsy fartsy "It's your art maannnnnn, create and you'll find your way!".  It wasn't just philosophy and theories, the Pixar artists gave you tools to strengthen your own style and ways of working.

Mmmmm my love for animation has been rekindled.  It's pretty daunting to dust off the pencil and light table and tackle animating again, but the itch is driving me up the wall!  I've gotta do SOMEthing, even a crappy walk cycle or a bouncing ball.  I think I'll take on the witch girl and go from there...

Monsters Monsters Everywhere

_Watercolor

Long time no see! So sorry for falling off the face of the earth. Real life got kinda busy, but now I'm here, posting more arts!

I was asked to submit some work to a charity gallery called Power In Numbers, curated by none other than Nucleus! They are the coolbeans mcGee, where all the cool kids hang out. The first watercolor isn't up just yet, though you can the see the second one on their site right now! Check it out here! I feel like a mouse amongst so many giants. The talent is crazy good!

Anyway, back to monsters again! Monsters being fuzzy and warm and monsters being helpful by eating tomato and bologna sandwiches.

Happy Bday mom!

_{Photoshop CS5}

My mom spent the majority of her childhood sneaking into her neighbor's yard and hanging out in their fruit trees, snacking away. A lot of her friends would do the same, but she was the only one wily enough to never get caught. :)

Tried pushing my color palette in a different direction (read: not throwing down every dang candy-colored hue in the world) aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I like where this is going. How about that.

"Mommy, where's Timmy...?"

Timmy's goin' for a ride, y'all!

A birthday gift for one of my besties! I...owe so many friends birthday gifts, it's sad. OR awesome that I have so many friends! Too many frieeennndddssssssss!

Brush Your Teefs

The little girl, Angie, who was featured in my first blog post makes another appearance! This time in color! I'm preparing a portfolio geared towards children's publishing (picture books, educational workbooks, magazines, etc.) showing little kids doing little kid things. Like brushing your teeth! That's very important, especially when you eat as much candy as Angie. This was originally a simple color comp for a watercolor illustration that got a little carried away.



Dalmatian sketches! One or two of these may make it to the watercolor stage. It'll be fun splashing down color against the white and black spindly little bodies.

GONNA KICK YO' FACE IN

_{Kung Fu Panda © Dreamworks Animation}

I've wanted to avoid falling into the fanart pit here, but some movies are simply too awesome to not pay tribute to! Kung Fu Panda came on t.v. last night, which got a friend and me started on some KFP doodles. I got Tigress and she got Po (who is so ADORABLY fat and roly poly!).

I was seriously all in Nico Marlet's* face, studying his way of designing, figuring out what details he'd include and how everything flows together to support one idea. A lot of my characters (and drawings in general) could use some focus, so this was a great exercise.


*_{If you don't know this guy, CHECK HIM OUT AND WORSHIP HIM. He's a designer's designer's designer!}