2 New pieces. Abruptly.

Hi all. I just wanted to these 2 recent pieces up on here to make myself feel better about neglecting this blog. I've been quite busy lately, and while I have tons to show and lots to talk about, I just can't make the time for it at the moment. I've made business cards, postcards, envelopes, tearsheets, resumes, artist statement, a NEW WEBSITE, and in the process of hand-making a new portfolio book, but just can't plop down here and spread it all out for you. After graduation, I swear (which is still like 3 weeks...).

Anywho, these two pieces were made in the last 3 days, and are intended to fill some gaps in my portfolio.

This one was for a conceptual editorial example:



It's based on the rising popularity of cloud computing, the idea that at any given moment, on any given device, you can access your needed files on a everpresent "cloud" network. You've probably seen the commercials some companies have about it. I really want to get published in Wired magazine. I find its blend of geekery with sophisticated design sense to be just perfect, and I hope this piece tickles their fancy. I chose the subject matter with them specifically in mind.

This next piece was to exemplify design and hand lettering:



I love drawing instruments, and think this really shows other facets of my style (and I used PURPLE. That hardly ever happens!) At first I wanted to do a gig poster for a band, but couldn't settle on anything and didn't want to get so specific. Soooo I just got sophisticated instead. I'm going to give a huge nod to Disney's "Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom" here as it was my major inspiration. You should totally check it out if you've never seen it.

Anyway, g'bye everybody. Enjoy!

Winter comes to a close

Another post, and another instance of my blog neglect. Yet again, I have tons of stuff to plop into this post that should have been steadily posted over the past 3 weeks or so. I spoke of upcoming projects in the last entry, and they're all done now! I'll just get down to business, then.

In Digital Cel class, I completed my lip sync animation as well as a 15 second animated spot for the SCAD animation department for my final project. I feel that every assignment is an amazing springboard to more and more understanding of Flash and how applicable this work is to my illustration. I feel so much more well-rounded as a commercial artist. Let's hope that means lots of jobs in the future! Here are the two animations:





Fun Fun.

Illustration Portfolio class just wrapped up as well, and there are 2 more pieces to show. The characters from before have been completed, as well as the background/layout incorporating them. I'm very satisfied with these pieces. I surprised myself with how dense and detailed the saloon piece ended up. I spent much longer on it than the average artwork, and I think it shows. I also feel like I made another landmark in my journey to nail a style that comes second nature. Things seemed to flow from my hand more than ever. Hope that makes sense.











In other news, the Society of Illustrators NY 2011 Student Competition was exciting enough, but things got even better. I was surprised when two of my pieces were selected a few weeks ago, as I didn't see it coming nor would I expect to be recognized by the reputable face for american illustration. That being said, imagine how floored I was to be casually informed by my professor that my piece...



was awarded a $1000 scholarship by SOI NY. I haven't been given official details yet, just an assured 'you got it' from the faculty. As much as I wish I could fork over that money for anything of my choosing (Cintiq monitor....droooool), I must remind myself that that money will be food, gas, and supplies for survival for the next few months. I'm feeling so much encouragement recently, but hoping it's not a fluke! I'm negative like that.

Regardless, it's been a wonderful close to a BUSY quarter. Just one more left before I begin real life. Cross your fingers for me.

This here be a biggun'

I have so much stuff to slap on this post that I really don't know how to organize it. I suppose I'll try to do them in order, by class, and in an orderly fashion. Since my last post, I've completed 2 pieces for Illustration Portfolio (and a third in progress), and 2 flash animations for digital cel class.

ILLU Portfolio project 1:

I decided that this piece would be exemplary for the advertising/poster design side my work could suit. I took a step back and looked at my portfolio and noticed a distinct lack of animals. My first instinct was for a zoo poster of a whole butt-load of animals, y'know, for practice. As you can see by the final piece, I decided to focus it just a bit. Due to my close proximity to it, I chose Zoo Atlanta. I hear another panda was just born there...but I decided on a lion. Apologies for the lack of progress work. The files seem to have vanished, and the only other copies are on the school network, which is crapped out at the moment. Here is the final piece.


Digitally colored over scanned sketch.

ILLU Portfolio project 2:

Another avenue for illustration I'm highly interested in pursuing is children's books. So, for my second assignment, I decided to create a double page spread for one. Now it's not a fleshed out story, just imagery I found suitable for a Kellan Stover children's book. I was working on this assignment at the same time as the first flash assignment (read below) so they went hand in hand and the inspiration and designs really were compatible. I was in medieval mode.

Here are my thumbs. They're sloppy and mostly for my brain to decipher and not others. Apologies.





Once again, I don't have all the files, or I would show you the comp sketch I settled on, but I took the imagery in the thumb of the rider on the hilly path and ironed it out compositionally and color-wise and came up with this final piece:



It's still simple, but it's the most involved piece I've created in a while.

ILLU Portfolio project 3 (in progress):

I thought I'd quickly throw up these black and white value character designs for my third project. The third and fourth project are intended to go hand in hand. For the third I am making a lineup of character to then occupy a scene, my fourth. I decided, since I want my day job to be animation (while moonlighting as a freelance illustrator), I should play up those strengths with some strong character design and animation layout work. I won't talk about it a lot now, since it's not done. But I will say that it is a western theme, and I'm really excited for it.



Dat's dem. Keep and eye out for when they get to be DOING STUFF in a LOCATION which may or may not be a SALOON!

Digital Cel Animation Project 2:

A flash assignment based on simple object animation set to 30 seconds of music. No frame by frame. Just simple tweens and 'cheat' effects. Our teacher gave us the option of working geometrically/abstract or narratively with characters. We all took the bait and went the narrative route. I did so because as soon as I heard '30 seconds of music' I immediately thought of 'Her Majesty' by The Beatles, and had the perfect idea. I'll just post it without further adieu, since the due date was quick and prelim work was unsubstantial.


(there are framerate issues in the beginning shot that wouldn't get fixed no matter how many times I uploaded it)

Digital Cel Animation Project 3:

A walk cycle. We were given a week for this. It seemed a shorter assignment time than normal, but I thought 'no biggy, I've done plenty walk cycles before'. It ended up kind of being a time suck because of how far I kept wanting to push it and being a perfectionist about it. But gladly it never ever got to be draining or boring. I loved every second of it. There really is something to be said about illustrations of yours really coming to life. It's something magical. You'll recognize the cowboy design from above. I designed him in tandem and he'll show up in both. I named him Slick just for fun. I found it really interesting finding a balance between motion tweens (arm rotation and body undulation, hat, etc.) and frame by frame (legs, hand rotation, pistol grab, etc.). Any obvious valley between them would stick out like a sore thumb, yet both were necessary for aesthetic and time reasons. Working on the background was just the cherry on top. Needless to say, I'm very happy with it. Check it out.



Next I'm working on a 15 second lip sync animation. I recorded my own audio and augmented the voice. It should be a blast. Stay tuned.

IN OTHER NEWS...

Toward the beginning of the quarter Caitlin and I were informed that our work had been selected to be in the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles' Illustration West 49 annual show. Even better, we had multiple pieces selected! We had to hustle to get them printed framed and shipped to LA quickly, but it all worked out and we hung at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra for a whole week! We'll also be on the SI-LA gallery page for years to come. In the nested image gallery, I'm 17 rows from the bottom. You'll recognize my three pieces! Here's my link on the Gallery Nucleus page. The pieces are no longer for sale (even though it says they still are) since the pieces are sitting at the package center back here in Savannah waiting for me to pick them up.

These are the three accepted pieces







If that wasn't enough, a special event was held to honor all of the students from the department who got work in. Believe it or not there were FOURTY NINE of us! We dominated the competition. The school with the second most entries has 9 times LESS! If there was ever a shining moment for our department since my time here it is now. I'm so happy to be involved in such a successful program. I think our professors realized this, and even the school's president did. I mean, we were served hors d' ouevres by caterers and drank soda from glass bottles with straws and cloth napkins. It was so neat. Here are some shots of Caitlin and I in the festivities that I stole from my professor, Mohamed Danawi's facebook page:







I came home from this event feeling so accomplished. But waiting for me in my inbox back home was another shocker. I had gotten two pieces into the Society of Illustrators NY 2011 Student Scholarship Competition! A jump from west to east coast. I'm still getting details on the competition, but from what I've read so far, SCAD's going to be taking the blow for me and printing, matting, framing, and shipping my work for me this time. Here's to the possibility of a monetary prize! I'm not holding my breath, though. The work I've seen alongside mine, from all across the country, is phenomenal. Just motivation to get even better! Here's the list of accepted SCAD students in the competition. The accepted pieces are the Died Young, Stayed Pretty poster from before as well as this:



I'll let you know how this pans out!

You'll also notice that I have a new portfolio site. I decided to drop the dreamweaver made, illustrative site style I've been using for the past 3 incarnations. It became a little gaudy and proved to be too much of a nuisance to update. I had to go in and replace slice images and a bunch of garbage you don't care about. I decided on a slightly generic template site, and tried to customize it as much as possible. It's certainly lacking the personality I would like, but it's proving functional, and it's not an eyesore. So it's doing its job. Really this is just a sign that I need to learn HTML and Flash webpage development. I'm sure I'll get to it some day.

I'm finally reaching the point where I need to send out applications/feelers to possible employers. Caitlin and I plan on moving to Austin, TX, a creative mecca and all around perfect place to be right now, artistically and economically. As I said before, I really want to work for an animation studio by day. Preferably a flash/web/commercial studio, and one with a lot of the sensibilities my work has. Luckily, literally the best fit for me happens to be in Austin. Powerhouse Animation sits right off the MOPAC highway in Austin. I've watched the demo-reel, scoured the site over dozens of times, and finally sent a little how-do-you-do to the co-founder. While not a full application, just a simple inquiry on open positions, it proved fruitful. Mr. Bruce Tinnin emailed me back saying he liked the work of mine he saw and would like to see more animation (which won't prove to be difficult by the end of school). He said there may be a position open soon, and that I should get back to him in April if I don't hear from him until then. I'm stoked. It's by no means a hire, but it's a huge motivator to bust my ass to make SURE I can plop my butt in front of a cintiq monitor in their studio! MY DARNDEST!

I do believe that is everything I could possibly want to tell you at this moment. My fingers are just about to fall off if I type one mor.....Oh, there they go. I'm now typing this with my palms, as my fingers are gone. Bye bye illustration career. Well g'bye all.

A flash background

This quarter, I've started my most anticipated animation course so far. Digital Cell animation. It's basically a flash animation course where the goal is a visual style akin to 50s animation with limited/stylized animation in mind. Perfect for me, right? Right! Our first assignment was to create a background completely within flash (no fancy photoshop texturing here, folks) and incorporate a character into it. It was suggested that we keep in mind our final assignment, a 15 second commercial, and attempt to utilize this background later. So the short explanation is that my commercial will be for a pain reliever medicine, and creatures are probing the person's brain (in a peculiar sci-fi setting) causing the pain. A personified pill will play the hero and eliminate the villains. Sounds stupid, will be stupid, but hopefully entertaining.

A belated Christmas gift

You know, when I create time-sensitive artwork, I should probably treat them in a time-sensitive manner. I whipped this piece up in a hurry to get some original artwork to my girlfriend and her family for christmas, but never thought to post it here.

So let's just take a step back a week, pretend it's Christmas, and celebrate a goofy Santa:



I hope everyone had a great holiday and is super stoked for the new year! It's back to Savannah and classwork for me. Tata.

A minor dump

I'm not feeling very chatty so I'll just say here's a sketch submission for an article on Oysters (wasn't selected):



And here is the submission sketch and final artwork for an article about traveling spouses/parents in an upcoming issue of Baystate Parent.





The end of fall quarter draws near, and I can promise nothing but sporadic news and information until the winter break is upon me. Ta ta.

A little mo' content

Sorry for the long absense. On one hand I haven't been very busy, but on the other hand that means I didn't have anything to show you anyway. I didn't land the past two gigs in getting published class. Gladly the Colonel Windpipe character tided me over. Our class was recently approached by Colors magazine to create a few "portraits" of international heroes for their upcoming issue. It's an interesting concept, as the content for this issue is all user input on their website: http://lab.colorsmagazine.com/superheroes

We were to choose 2 heroes, and illustrate two literal or metaphorical portraits. I chose Evans Wadongo and Carlos Celdran. Evans is a young man from Kenya who has created a charity producing solar powered lanterns for impoverished villages, where their only light source at night is dangerous and costly kerosene lanterns. In a video interview, he admits to cutting one or two meals of his own per day to fund the project. This is what I illustrated:



It's not necessarily a portrait of Evans. I'd prefer it to just be seen as a Kenyan child, in the context of the article. The portrait is of his efforts to light up the night for those in need. Interestigly I sort of unknowingly poached a lot of this imagery from both my own previous work and the work of my friend Dan Woodling.

Mine (colors n' everything):


and Dan's wonderful concept piece for his senior animated film:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ5M9pw0CSiLaP0PC3hicrr9afCZtyZIiL2MmS6GB1xeMU4pYJYHd_V4BH8OT5EttjEmwbEkvNqThJgJmykCXywK_8p4OQKnSlrMSx6SdBD0-xASvCc1x8LeAxR3qzmSl08D1VdX6Zf3Uk/s1600/glowlybear.jpg

I'll take the easy way out and just call it inspiration. It must be, if I didn't notice until after I was finished, right?

Carlos Celdran is a lively tour guide in Manila, who was recently arrested for his protest display at a catholic service. A bill is currently in the works to increase the awareness of contraceptives throughout the country, which is struggling with population control. The church threatens excommunication for those responsible, as their stance on contraceptives is very, albeit irrational, clear and concise. Look it up, it's preatty interesting. This is what I illustrated:



It's a little bit like a political cartoon, as it's a little cutesied up and lighthearted, but I'm happy with it.

That's all for now. These will be submitted to Colors mag and we'll see if they get accepted. The magazine is known for its photos, and it's usually pretty serious business. I'm not very sure my playful stuff with be their cup of tea. Here's to hoping, though!