Friday, December 28, 2012

All work and no play make jack a dull boy...

  Well, we all survived the Mayan Apocalypse.  I'm feeling pretty good, its like the 6th or 7th end of the world that I have managed to go through unruffled.  Seriously though, if elected officials had as much research done on them as these half-baked end of the world type scenarios, capital hill would be a much more efficient place.

don_turtlePie  Twinkies are no more, so the twinkie wiener sandwich is now an extinct culinary delight.  I think that is what the Mayans were talking about, the death of hostess. On a plus, all of the hostess news helped me remember an old TMNT treat, turtle pies. I am sure they were as delicious as they look.








  Currently, I'm working at a studio that converts regular movies into 3D extravaganzas! The work is great even if its not as exciting as building the shots from scratch like standard effects projects.  I'm working 12 to 14 hour days, 6 days a week so there is pretty much no movement on any projects of mine...at all. But on the plus side I am able to get my name into the credits of Jurassic Park.

  I did get ten days off for Christmas, so naturally there was a lot of sleep and wasting time involved.  I got some fun nerd gear, the high points being a stuffed Fozzie the bear from Mom and Karla, a beautiful Calabash pipe from Marshall and a couple of old ninja turtle masks from Rachel.

xmas 2012 haul
 During our time off, we went to Rachels grandparents in Houston since we hadnt seen them for a few years and, well, why not?  I cant say that Houston has been particularly astounding to me, but I have had a good time hanging out with her family. Her grandmother immediately won me over (again) by giving me a Donatello Pez dispenser and Real Ghostbusters StayPuft Marshmallow man from her random toy collection. Rachel decided to learn how to quilt from her Grandmother and in a moment of stupidity I challenged her by saying I would make a quilt as well.  It was a bluff designed to push her to finished product but I just aimed the barrel at my foot and pulled the trigger because it meant there was another project I would like to finish in 2013. Naturally, the patterns I found were TMNT and Doctor Who inspired.

donatello quilt 493TARDIS_Quilt_by_EHyde


Jim ButcherMy current obsession is autographed books, spurned on by meeting the incredible Jim Butcher at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in Redondo Beach, LA.  Since then I've gotten a couple Orson Scott Card, Palahniuk and shortly a few random authors from the urban paranormal fiction section. Butcher was signing copies of the new Dresden Files book entitled Cold Days.  If you aren't a Dresden Files fan, then I assume you ended up on this page because you were surfing for porn and one of my tags somehow was pulled into your query.  Anyhow, I asked him the important questions such as 'Who would play Molly Carpenter in a movie?' and 'Is Macs Pub a real place and if so can I have the address.'  I did not agree with his answer for the first question (silly creators thinking they know what their characters look like) and the answer to the second was 'No, so no.'

Groundbreaking investigative journalism.  I missed my calling.

  LFM hasnt moved in nearly two months.  Check out the last strip...it was leading in to actual story elements!  Naturally, thats when we stopped putting out fresh material.

LFM_10


  Anywho, hope you all had a great Christmas and have a wonderful New Year!

xmasportrait

  Remember, you still have a couple days to try and cram in those resolutions from last year, so get to work!

i have the long arms, so i take the pictures

Monday, November 5, 2012

its monday morning, so that must mean I am trying to do stuff i should done this weekend.

Hiya,
  Just wanted to post a couple of new Looking For More strips that we have got up.  I should have posted this one here on Halloween, but it was up on the lookingformore site and thats the important bit.   The new place I am working at is a fan of 70+ hour weeks and only having Sunday as a day off, so havent had a lot of time to keep caught up on much.  Had a good couple of nights with friends for Halloween, going home for Thanksgiving here in a few so thats all a delight.  Got to have a casual conversation with Al Yankovic on Sunday (he goes to our church) and so the 10 year old nerd in me has been living on that high for the past 24 hours.  Plus, as a perk of working with movies, I got to see 10 minutes of an upcoming Sci fi epic based on a tv show from the 60's.  You know the one.  I'm pretty excited for the whole movie as this section looked pretty incredible.

LFM_9
 

LFM_Halloween

Friday, October 12, 2012

Looking for more, the legend continues.

For that long time reader out there, you may recognize the title 'Looking for more'.  It was a webcomic that my good buddy Tyler Rhoads started penning back in 2008.  He asked me to draw it as I think i was the only kid he knew at the time who could draw things with recognizable things.  I said sure, cuz how hard can drawing cartoons be?

It sucks you guys.

It launched me on my path to become a better artist, became the impetus to starting this blog and in an odd sort of way makes me feel a more complete person now.

Of course, up until long Comic Con conversations this summer (four years after we decided to start the strip in a weekly fashion) the sketches for the first couple strips lay discarded and dusty in the back rooms of my hard drive.  A few months later and issue 8 just hit the web, hot and fresh.  Its hard to draw decent cartoon figures that show true emotion.  I salute Mr. Shultz and Mr. Davis for creating such icons and leave an offering at the alter of Mr. Watterson for the most impressive and emotional 5 color comic strip in history.

You can see my art style on the characters changing as the strip progresses even thus far, so its hard telling what these guys will look like a year from now.  But enjoy...or dont...but saturate your eye holes with em.


LFM1_flat


LFM2

LFM3


LFM_4

LFM_5

LFM_6

LFM_7

LFM_8

Thursday, October 11, 2012

The dr and the girl who waited.

Since I was a little Clarvae, my favorite television show has been Doctor Who. It aired friday nights from ten to midnight on PBS (Channel 19 if you are a KC kid).  It was the one night of the week I could stay up till I couldnt stay awake.  Mom would make a giant bowl of popcorn and would sit and croquet while Dad and Karla would sit for two hours adventuring around space and time inside the TARDIS.  I watched the entire run from Partick Troughton thru Sylvester McCoy that way and it is still one of the most profound memories.  I had dreams of the old control room and (since I was also a Ghostbusters fanatic) of chasing ghosts with my proton pack through the Cloister room.  Another profound memory was of my frustration at trying to talk about this incredible show with the kids on the playground and them not having any idea what I was going on about.

These newer Who's are wonderful even though I am slightly annoyed that its such a phenomenon now that its no longer a select group of nerds talking about sonic screwdrivers but the most commonly seen cosplay at the past several comic book conventions I've gone to. Yeah, thats right. I went hipster on Doctor Who cuz I was into it when it was still really obscure...in the states.

Sigh.

Anyhow, the girl who waited and The 11th done by the talented Chris Uminga.


DrandAmy_ChrisUminga

Monday, October 8, 2012

Every peach of a couple of months still has its pit.

Four days after my last post I got work (after far to long of a dry spell) at a new effects studio.  The place is called Pixel Magic.  All in all I can safely say its hard to meet a better group of folks and a studio with such good atmosphere.  It was small and cozy, worked on three upcoming films and got to know AfterEffects a little better.
 Actually, that brings me to a point I'd like to mention. I've been using AfterEffects in some form or another since 1999.  Like any relationship, we have had our ups and downs, discoveries and arguments.  Sure, there are a few sexier compositing programs out there (I swear I'm not thinking of Nuke when I am comping in you, AE) but it gets the job done and we are comfortably happy with one another.  So it always offends me just slightly when someone says its hard to find a studio that uses AE.  But I've been in LA for a little bit now and here is the thing...EVERYWHERE I have been uses AE.  Sure, it may not be the primary comping program but it is used just the same.
  So don't listen to the haters who say its Nuke or nothin.

Back to Pixel Magic.  I met a few folks there who I highly recommend you try to work with.  Great people, brimming with positive attitudes and can play Call of Duty like it was their job (which I do consider it a healthy component.) Check out their pages when you get a chance.

Praven Mahtani                           Fabian Jimenez                                   Melissa Quintas
Brad Moylan                                  Evan James                                      Chris Keith

Chris worked on Tron and Superman 4, which puts him in a place of respect in my pantheon even if he wouldnt know what to do with himself there.  Brad is a fellow kid from Missouri makin his way into the credit sequence, so full blown props for that.  And thanks to the whole group of them I have seen every installment of 'To Catch a predator'.  I'll tell you more about that over a Mikes hard Lemonade.

This brings me to a new component of the blog that I want to start putting in.  I'm going to call it 'Life in the 401st' due to the Springfield area code being 417 and the primary in my neck of the valley is 818.  I sometimes avoid posting since I do not have any new art to put up, but considering my professional life is a compositor and I wanted to find a blog with the sort of questions a new kid in a bad part of town might want to know if they should decide to move to LA to make bad shots look good.


The Perks of being a Wallflower.

Rachel and I went and saw Looper last week.  If you havent seen it yet, go tomorrow.  Its one of the best sci fi films I have ever seen and thats saying something.  It was so good I went and bought a Looper style pocket watch.  Go.

Yesterday we went to see Dredd (second best film shot in 3D ever) and Perks of being a Wallflower (PBW) to celebrate our 4 year anniversary. I've been lucky and so far all or the movies that I have worked on and have went to see have had my name in the credits (more on that in a future 401st article), but I've never been bright enough to document it.  So here is the credits from PBW.

Perks Of Being A Wallflower Credits
This movie was really good. Teen angsty, but well made and dealing with serious topics in a manner that if I was young would have found insightful and inspiring.  No self involved teens thinking the world will end if the sparkly dude with the neolithic brow doesnt pay attention to them.  Real topics, real problems, interesting characters and Emma Watson with an american accent.  Hard to ask for more from a teen dramedy. It even has Paul Rudd as the English teacher everyone is supposed to love.  Which now that I think about it, the vast majority of my favorite teachers from high school were English teachers, so maybe there is something to that.  Or maybe its just hard to bond over trig and physics.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

San Diego Comic Con 2012 wrap up

IMG_3250


This was the first time I ever went to the nerd Mecca known as San Diego Comic Con. When I was originally creating this post there was going to be lots of pictures of celebrities and going nuts on how awesome the panels were but with a little distance from it I realize that wasn't the part of the convention that I will remember long term.  I mean, dont get me wrong. Bumping into Andy Serkis or some of the folks from Supernatural out on the convention floor was pretty cool. But still.

 I've wanted to go to the San Diego Comic Con for as long as I can remember.  It was a dream and while living in Missouri it seemed almost unreachable (dream bigger, darlings).  Once I moved to LA and it was a short (2.5 hour) drive I had built it up in my head to be overwhelming.

 And it was overwhelming. Giant transformers, huge sculptures, bright lights and people. There were SO many people.  Nothing I had been to, concerts or otherwise, prepared me for the sheer throng of people in an enclosed space.  There were the perfunctory (emphasis on funk) unwashed fanboys, the scantily clad cos-play girls, and the nerds.  But I wasn't expecting all of the people that were there for the TV shows and movies.  I realize now that more than anything thats what comic con's focus has become.  There is a lot of money behind film production, its how I earn my keep so I cant begrudge that.  But I didn't think about all of the people that would be there to get an interview, to see a couple minutes of footage that would be online in a week or were just there just for work.  There were publicists and executives and little underlings everywhere taking up space and saving seats. If they took out everyone that wasn't there due to fandom there would have been another 100,000 tickets available for those unwashed fanboys and half naked girls with pink hair.

 Another complaint of mine is that even after the success of the Avengers, the world continually underestimates the cult of Joss Whedon.  They put the 10 year Firefly reunion in a large room, but not the biggest.  The show that got that space happened to be involved with one of the people that bought a booth inside.  So instead there was a literal 2 mile line that had more than the rooms capacity standing in it by 2am the night before.  Joss was a cool guy though.  He walked down the line, drunk off his ass, at 3am signing autographs and talking to folks.

Speaking of lines.  You spend a lot of time in them.  Like 6 hours a day to see the big panels.  Or slightly less time for crap freebies.

Now, the actual highlights.

1) I met a couple idols.  J.Michael Straczynski, whom second to Neil Gaiman I think is one of the best writers of our time, had a great panel, signed a couple books and was simply great to chat with.  Dave McKean, an incredible author who has done a number of illustrations in collaboration with Neil Gaiman, was every bit the delightful Englishman I expected him to be but far more down to earth and easy going than I would have thought.  I thank Mr. Rhoads for pointing him out to me as I probably would have passed him by unnoticed if not.

 I spent a good half hour talking with Dean Yeagle, who has been drawing beautiful women for 20 years and worked for Disney a good 30 years before that. Speaking of beautiful women, Chris Sanders was there showcasing some of his pretty ladies. While I did not get to chat, I did grab a print he was giving away showcasing a few production drawings for an upcoming project.

The number one favorite person I met, and wouldn't have even known was there if not for recognizing his signature on someones backpack, was Kevin Eastman.  He is one of the co-creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, one of the most treasured elements of my childhood.  I waited a long time, but it was worth it to get several books signed, an awesome quick sketch of Donatello and a chance to thank him.

2) I met some incredible people while waiting in line or just randomly while walking around San Diego whom I hope to see again next year.  Wearing your Comic-Con badge was an instant icebreaker for nerd and local alike.  We did not go anywhere without talking to someone about what we had seen that day, how crazy the costumes were, what their nerd obsession was.  It was awesome.  This is where nerds are the norm. I felt like I belonged to a large group, something I wished the young me could have felt.

3) Croce's was awesome.  Its rare that I would sit down at a restaurant that expensive and not feel at least a little bad about the bill, but the music was incredible and the food was glorious.  Add in attractive waitresses, good drinks and a celebrity sighting and its a no fail senario.

4) We ended up staying at a bed and breakfast due to us dropping the ball and not getting hotel reservations until the last minute (5 months in advance). Carole's Bed and Breakfast had a great staff, wonderful food and a vintage charm that was a fun juxtaposition (ha! way to use that art degree, son!) to the bleeding edge, overload that was the Con.

5) This is the year for doing.  I'm 31 now and it really feels like all those things I have been saying I will do are either going to happen or I might as well just give in to mediocrity.  Its one thing to have great plans but my follow through has blown.  There are far too many half finished projects on my hard drive and too many friends I have let down by not finishing what I started.  This trip was a good instigator to evaluate what I really wanted to be doing for the next twenty years and see that I was already late enough that getting there was going to be harder than it should have been.
 Mr. Rhoads, who was my compatriot at this event, is going though a similar period of evaluation in his life.  We reflected each others self disappointment which enabled us to make realizations through discussion spurned by the success stories we were sitting in awe of every day of Comic Con.  Those who had dreamed big, bled for and reached their goals, we sat by the thousands to pay homage and found ourselves lacking.

 So this year we try to change that.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Manticore Part2 Livestream

I went to ComicCon and have a big ole post to write up about it as well as some fun pics, but until then just check out another couple hours work on my Manticore on Livestream.
http://tinyurl.com/cd3ohbh

Well, okay.  One pic.

IMG_3076

Friday, July 6, 2012

Sketch Snatch, the work of Massimo Carnevale

The current artist that I am stupid excited over goes by the name Massimo Carnevale.  As with many recent artists I have discovered, its due to the postings from geektyrant.  This guy takes frames from movies and paints em up in a more artistic manner.  The energy of his line work and the simple rendering are exceptional.  From what little info I have been able to find, the guy does a lot of comic book covers and I think this loose, gestural work is what he does to wind down. Anyway, I highly suggest checking out all of his work over on his blog.


 I'm heading to San Diego Comic Con this year, so expect a few posts about that soon. Until then, keep on scribbling.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Before Nightwing

I'll only paint for an hour is a lie I often tell myself before bed.  However, this one only took 4 hours until I decided to stop so I have told myself worse lies.  I was wanting to knock out a quick anatomy study and figured making it into a superhero would make the process more entertaining for me.


You've got to respect a kid who wears bright yellow and green tights when his boss is all in black body armor.


Before Nightwing

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

After the Battle, Teela Girls of 80's animation part 2

This is the year for doing, so I am trying to wrap up old projects.  I started this painting a year ago when I was staying in a friends basement, discovered the work of Dave Rapoza and was 1500 miles away from home looking for work in a new city.

Then I barely touched it for 10 months.

While waiting for some visual effects to render out or to break up my day (and trying to get things done) I started putting more time into this piece.  The vast majority of its completion were done during late night pushes over the past few weeks.

DClaunch_Teela_AfterTheBattle


 This is my second piece in the series called Girls of 80's animation. Teela always had a special place in my heart.  I am sure that all of those hours spent as a child playing with the action figures and watching He-Man planted the seed of the predilection towards red heads, nice hips and women wearing fur topped boots I suffer from as an adult.

I didnt realize how long it had been since my first piece, Janine from the Real Ghostbusters, was posted up here.  I promise the next in the series will be up sooner than a year and a half.  To refresh your memory, here is Janine.

Janine_Pinup

The original intent was to create pin ups or each of these ladies.  However, after using several Gil Elvgens as my reference for Janine, I realized that copying an old school pinup was only creating a severely flat image.  Add to that a lack of experience with painting digitally and, well, there is a big jump in skill level between the two images.  I've been practicing.

For this I tried to focus more on realism and creating a portfolio piece that I could submit to gaming card companies.  I drifted away from the pinup angle and just tried to make her what her character was supposed to be.  A woman who, as the daughter of Man-At-Arms, never backed down from a fight and even bruised and bloody was as intimidating as she was attractive.

Let me know what you think!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Perodia Card 2

Here is a description of the project from one of the head honchos.


Perodia is a multi-media game universe in which humans and Elees (creatures based on the Periodic Table of Elements) live together in peace... most of the time...

MegaPickle Entertainment is a virtual studio which, since 2010, has been developing an RPG video game, alongside a supporting Trading Card Game which exists in both physical and virtual online forms. More than just fun and educational (thought it's both of those), Perodia inspires gamers to learn!

With no offense to Pokemon, imagine if all the Pokemon game stats that kids have memorized actually helped them improve their grades and ignited a passion for science, boys and girls alike!

Well that's what we've got, and we're trying to raise extra funding for additional priniting and marketing.

Perodia already has a US & Canada retail distribution deal with Canada's largest distributor of TCG games, with a target shipping date of September 2012 to coincide with the new school semester.

The following are links to our Youtube and Facebook pages :
a.YouTube: http://youtu.be/BKq9D1mcjKo
b. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PerodiaTCG

Please have a look at our project, and see if it moves you. We are very excited about it and would like to see it get the help that it needs.

Thank you very kindly!





Here is the second card I worked on, Frozeen.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Perodia Character art, Card 1

Here was my first assignment for the Perodia set, Helio.  He comes from a noble family.  Admittedly, he was designed by someone else in 3D, as I would never have come up with this design on my own.  I had been looking for an excuse to work on my digital painting abilities for years, and the chance to work on this card set with incredible ideals was perfect.  Although I have no kids yet, it seems that most of kids entertainment has strayed very far from the educational, moral instilling entertainment that I remembered as a kid (even GI Joe had 'knowledge is power' segment) and I wanted to bring it back. The entertaining way this card set easily teaches kids about chemistry was an remarkable idea, so I wanted to help out any way I could to see to its success.

Bear in mind, my paint skills are pretty rusty at the point I painted this guy.  Enjoy!



Also, check out the Perodia kickstarter to help this set make it through the final stages of production!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mpe/perodia-trading-card-game

Monday, June 4, 2012

The perks of being a wallflower poster


 I did cleanup effects on this flick and they finally put up a trailer. It looks good (although anything with Watson in it I am going to give the benefit of the doubt to). I was impressed with some of the subtle effects that some of my fellow compositors put into this. When you watch it, you wont know a frame of it was touched. Check out the trailer and lemme know what you think. The film stars Emma Watson (Harry Potter) and Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson), and it was directed by Stephen Chbosky who also wrote the 1999 novel that the film is based off of. The story follows a shy and unpopular naive outsider high school student "coping with first love (Watson), the suicide of his best friend, and his own mental illness while struggling to find a group of people with whom he belongs." It actually looks like a really good movie. It's also nice to see Watson in a role outside the world of Hogwarts. The movie also stars Nina Dobrev, Mae Whitman, Johnny Simmons, Sarah Ramos, Ezra Miller, Erin Wilhelmi, and Landon Pigg. The movie comes out on September 14th.

Also, the still frame they have as the holding frame in the video below looks way more provocative then the shot actually is. Swarmy.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

NEIL GAIMAN: Make good art

50. NEIL GAIMAN: Make good art

If you are an uber nerd, and if are reading this you probably are (or are my mother), then you know Neil Gaiman so I wont bore you with a bio.  He spoke at a graduations commencement speech as he tends to do around this time of year every year.  It was inspiring.  Here is art that this gentleman felt inspired to do. Click, read, make art.



PS-Here is the original speech.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Perodia kickstarter

I warned you that this storm was coming.

A  year ago I was lucky enough to score a place on the art team for a collectible trading card game. This is a card game similar to Pokemon but with one significant difference, ITS EDUCATIONAL! Yeah, thats right, instead of knowing charizords combat strength you have monsters fighting using combo attacks that teach kids about the periodic table and chemical equations. I spent a year creating artwork with no payment up front because I believe so much in the quality and purpose of this game. They've put together a kickstarter campaign to help them over the final production hurdles. Check out the page and even if you dont want to contribute, check out some of the coolness of that artwork at the beginning of the video. ;)

To further promote this game (and to show off a bit of work I am terribly proud of) I will be showing some of the card art over the next couple of months.  First up is the splash page art.  The top is the final cropped and logo'd version, followed by the unlogo'd version and then below that an earlier draft featuring a couple of the children characters that will be featured in various aspects of the game and storyline.  Enjoy!




Perodia Splash page artwork

Monday, May 14, 2012

Flea Market Weekends and Dead on the 101.


Things learned this weekend.
 1. Tow truck drivers are modern day philosphers.
 2. You can never have enough friends.
 3. You can only expect payment in kind.
 4. Firefighters and cops are woefully unhelpful out here, but random folk always surprise you.
5. My phone has learned to autocorrect/autofill tardi to TARDIS.
6. Fuel Pumps are far more expensive then it seems like they should be, but a truck needs one to run.
7. I need to know where the ice cream men get the Ninja Turtle ice cream treats.
8.  The Rose Bowl flea market is a place where people test drive new outfits.
9. One can never get enough done cuz there is always someone else far more interesting than you.

Also, I found these awesome insect women at the Flea market.  There was a Medusa in the set to, but she didnt strick me as cool.  Their only markings are CHINA as they are cheap rubber toys.  Anyone seen any more like these?

photo-40

Bonus info, Ninja Turtle Ice Cream Treats are awesome and the only way to wrap up a day in Pasadena.

photo-41
 Spotted at the fair in an unmanned booth, a rifle shaped, Chinese Film Camera.  Anyone have any idea what this is?  It was in a military crate, but that may have been just how they kept it and had no bearing on its use.

photo-42

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Tock the Watchdog, from the Phantom Tollbooth. 3.5 hour study

This is a study of Tock the Watchdog from the childrens book, the Phantom Tollbooth.  Its an incredible book.  I had read it as a child and remembered how unusual it was so I went back to reread it.  I'm not sure if I will make a series of characters from the book, but they are rife for study.

Check out the livestream in two parts here:   http://www.livestream.com/knightsend

Tock_3.5hrStudy

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Electric Dreams


This is my longest study at 6 hours. It’s a still from the Cyberpunk classic Blade Runner.  I did this one at work while waiting for client feedback on a couple of my shots, so there is no live stream to accompany it.  I am extremely happy with how it turned out.  One of my goals was to push my style towards an oil paint aesthetic and away from the super clean edge feel that many digital paintings suffer from.  Feedback is always appreciated!

BladeRunner_Femme

Monday, April 23, 2012

Cyber study

This was another inorganic subject study, this time only 2 hours, entitled 'Cyberman Contemplates.' You can check out the entire process (including me fighting with audio) on my livestream!  Thanks to Mr. Tyler Rhoads for the recommendation to paint a doctor who character.  The pipe was all my idea, thought it needed a little more chees..depth.  Enjoy!

Cyberman_Contemplates

http://livestre.am/1FFL2

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Master Chief study


Master Chief Neal, a 3 hour Halo action figure study.  Watch the progress in 3 parts due to a lot of crashing on Livestreams part.  I have never drawn a mech/robot/vehicle with any sort of attempt at accuracy before, so it took me a bit to get going.

http://www.livestream.com/knightsend

Master Chief Neal

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Livestreaming pure green evil

I livestreamed for the first time today.  Since most of the stuff I am working on has an NDA attached to it, I did a hour and a half warm up study from the first Leprechaun movie to celebrate St Patty's day.  Now to the corned beef supper and more painting!

Check out the livestream here if you are so inclined.

Watch live streaming video from knightsend at livestream.com

Wear your green, fellow Scribblers!  Drink in good health!

Leprechaun

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Shameless Braggart.

I updated my resume, LinkedIn and so on tonight.  The new bit of my resume that made me smile was this section in work experience:

Digital Compositor Look FX
2011 – Present (1 year) Santa Monica, Ca

Look Effects is a visual effects studio whose credits include Captain America, Black Swan and Green Lantern. My credits while working with the wonderful staff there include:

• The Muppets                                     Dir. James Bobin                          Walt Disney Pictures
• Underworld: Awakening                  Dir. Mårlind, Stein                        Screen Gems
• Red Hook Summer                           Dir. Spike Lee                            40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks
• Finder (Season 1)                                                                                 20th Century Fox
• Bones (Season7)                                                                                  20th Century Fox
• The Perks Of Being a Wallflower     Dir. S. Chbosky                       Summit Entertainment
• The Dictator                                      Dir. Larry Charles                    Four by Two films
• I, Alex Cross                                     Dir. Rob Cohen                       QED International
• Life of Pi                                           Dir. Ang Lee                          Rhythm and Hues/Fox Pictures



Moving out to LA was a terrifying experience that started with six months of crap, but this makes me feel like it was more than worth it in the end. As an added bit of bragging, my wife spent all night working as an background actress on the set of a major sitcom! I'll leave that for her to elucidate upon.

Keep scribbling, Geek Nation!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

30 minute study, Biutiful.

Again, I always shoot for a 10 minute study but had a feeling this one would take me longer.  I got some surprising results from throwing a texture layer on the trees once I had their shapes down.  I'm not happy with the figure (general issue) but I didnt want to get caught up on him.


Biutiful_30 min_Study

Sunday, February 26, 2012

45 minute study

It was supposed to be a 20 minute study, but I obviously need to work on my human form to be more efficient. True Grit still.

TrueGrit_PoseStudy_45min

Friday, February 24, 2012

10 minute speed paint study

Another in the daily practice.  10 minute still from The Shining.  Hopefully my hours will be short today so I can go home and get some other painting done.

shine

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Study -- 20 minute landscape

I'm trying to work in more studies into my daily routine in order to bolster my foundations.  Part of that will be working on speed painting in order to increase my overall effectiveness.  I obviously need to work on my speed since this was only supposed to be a 10 minute study and ended up at 20 minute.

20_min_2-21-12_WingedMigration

I've been using David Rapoza and Dan Warren's livestreams to listen too and add guidance to my studies.  They have created Bloodsport challenges designed to give people projects to add to their portfolio that are modeled after real world assignments.



 They've also set up a Deathline blog which is a long term goal strategy for freelance artists.  You post what your goals are, daily progress, socialization with other Deathline artists and a Significant Other system to have you set up with a fellow artist to act as a partner, critic and coach.



  Its a great idea, so I am hoping to be able to participate in some of their Bloodsport challenges (even if I dont complete them until after the turn in date).

Keep scribbling, Geek Nation!