I've been drawing!....Seriously.

I just haven't been posting! I'm not in the habit.
My friend Gene got onto me about posting because he's seen some of my work and said, "Ok dude. You need to be posting this stuff. All of this stuff. This is cool!"

So I will.

But I've also been reading a few blogs and websites too. I'll post the links to these later.

Without further ado, more art!

So, I'm working on a graphic novel project called The Legends of Basiliea, and it's made a lot of progress over the past few months. The books I've been reading, advice and feedback I've gotten, and everyone's input at this stage I've been so appreciative of.



These are some cover designs I've cooked up over the past while. Most of them arn't complete as you can see. But they're something I can work off of.



Cover of Issue 2 as it stands. "Your house is burning". A few things need to be changed and worked out. But the essence of this picture is the same. We've got our main characters standing in front of a burning house. Ivan, the guy in front is going to hold a torch, not a sword. :P
In the background is Indira (the girl), and Devin (the guy). All three are mercenaries and these first few issues go completely wrong for them.



And here we have this guy. Big bad looking dude. I don't have a name for him, but he's called a Seethe. Seethes were once Matalla, a race of silver-mask wearing gods who preside over the universe's ecosystem. Their mask is their main source of of power and energy that's called their Glory. Seethes are created when their Glory consumes them and takes over their whole body, giving them a slowing silver appearance.

Needless to say they're a major part of the graphic novel project.

Gene wants to model this dude here. So I need to give him a really good name. Any ideas? Dunno if he's an ally or enemy at this point. So feel free to bring some names.

With all this drawing, I need to get back in the habit of writing. So I'll be making time for that soon. I just need to get into a habit and routine and I'll be fine. And actually be more productive.

Laterz

Celibrate Freedom Concert!

So I'm going to this concert Saturday with a group of strangers.
Yeah, sounds strange, but they're my friend George's friends, so they're probably pretty cool.

The concert's going to be in Plano of all places, down the street from my college. Waking up at 7 in the morning isn't so bad when Big Daddy Weave is opening...Or so I hear. I've never heard of the guys, but it's nothing a little Myspace link can't fix. They're actually pretty decent. I won't mind listening to them or their album actually.

Some other bands who'll be there are:

Leeland	Early Evening
Lincoln Brewster	Early Evening
Newsboys	Early Evening
Mark Schultz	Evening
Kirk Franklin	Evening
Jeremy Camp	Late Evening

Most everyone else I haven't heard of before, kinda like Big Daddy Weave. And I'll just be pleasantly surprised by their music. The Afters and Sanctus Real will be there too.

So hanging out with strangers is pretty cool, just getting to meet some new people is awesome. But keeping up with 'em is even better.

Best of all:

It's free to go.

Yeah.

Free.

Absolutely.

That's what I said too.

If you want to go, you can go to the main site, click tickets, and pick one up from the listed locations or just print one out.


Later!

Edit: The date said yesterday @ 11:15ish. I'm still figuring this system out. @_@

Concept Design

What a fun term. It can be used to describe all sorts of things! Conceptual design!

An awesome excuse for not knowing what the heck we're drawing!
lol j/k

Just a robot concept for my friend Adam. He's a writer by trade and manager by profression. He'll be fine. But he's asked me to design the robots for a story he's working on.

So this is a warm-up.

June 11th Excercises.

Last one tonight, I promise.

So this is a storyboard I did based on Raphael's School of Athens, circa 1510-1511.
I needed it to be modern, so I added a subway. Why not, right?
The third picture has a reflective surface in it using one of the train's windows.

I probably should finish it. I was having a lot of fun with it before I had to go. These were actually done Thursday afternoon. I drew a lot more than just this that Thursday, but I'll post that tomorrow.

And yeah I did draw today. I'll post it tomorrow too. It's kinda late now.

My next assignment is to finish three sketches of my choice. So fully rendered drawings on comic art board. I've got two weeks, more like a week and a half now. Too much Red Faction 2: Guerrillas did me in. lol.

If you wanna see it finished, let me know. I can probably finish it real quick.

June 10th's Art Excercises, pt2

Cool. I can type up here too.

So this batch of images consists of another scene I wanted to work out, but with the same elements. I took the setting from a Barnes & Nobles Starbucks I go to often. Drew this almost immediately after the 3 drawings of the business man.

The cube is a TransDimentional Flux Device that grants super powers to people for figuring it out....or some such coolness...probably not. Any takers?

Pictures!
1. The Setup
2. Exaggerated
3. Hyper-Exaggerated
4. Security Cam view.

Kinda my progression. #2 I guess would be good for a panel in a page.
#3 would be a better cover....I guess.
What do you think?

June 10th's Art Excercises, pt1

Alright. Show and tell time. I always loved that part of class, but I'd more like to see everyone else' stuff than mine. But I'm slowly getting outta the habit of that and enjoying seeing my stuff online.
Then I wake up the next morning and wonder why I put my stuff up. lol.

Anyways, this batch is from an exercise my art teacher had me do, based on another exercise we both did at Dallas Museum of Art.
Combine an element of classical art (14th - 17th centuryish) with a modern scene. Along with that scene, I had to give 3 variations, or three perspectives, of that one scene. An effect very similar to what you see in manga in their establishing shot/page. And for the kicker, one of those images must include a reflection.

Yeah.

So I tried, and honestly avoided the exercise until last Wednesday the 10th (my lessons are Thursdays), but I found the art history book of my teachers and used it.
So out came these few pictures.

From my point of view, they're not really classically inspired, just good examples of perspective. If something comes to mind, let me know.

I drew a lot of sketches, so these are part one.

Industry Giants '09

Well wow.
If you live in the Dallas Metroplex (or not), and heard about Industry Giants, I hope you went out. I had a great time last weekend.

Massive Black, Digital Domain, and Reel FX among others; a number of representatives from each company came to talk to us, both students and professionals, about the industry, how it works, and somehow staying afloat there. One of the keys to making it was community.

One of the seminar speakers was a guy named Jason Manley, founder of Massive Black and creator of ConceptArt.Org. Fitting the community theme as that is what ConceptArt promotes. It's kinda how you also get a job in the industry.
An Animation director says, "I know someone who does lighting real well. It's that guy who befriended us on Facebook, right? I saw his stuff there. Let's get him!" And that person happens to be you and you're in.

That's kinda how it works really. It's not anything cheap. You've just built a network of people, and those people happen to work for someone who works at Epic Games. It's the company's prerogative to bring people in who have a good sense of their job and who works well with a team, particularly their team.

So, what I received from those two days was to get out on the internet, post my stuff, and get a response. I'm competing not only against my classmates, but against the person in Boston who doesn't sleep because he wants to finish his Dominance War entry. I'm competing against the person in Japan who downing Red Bull (or the Japanese equivalent) and finishing up his graphic novel. I'm competing against the dude in London who's sleeping after a good day's work at completing his daily concepts and finished cover page.

So yeah. I've got a lot to learn, but I'll learn everything I can.
But in the meanwhile, I'll post what I have.

Also, I have friends on Blogspot! Didn't know that. Lol.
Going out and making friends never hurt either.

And some Shout Outs
A big shout out to Chris Hatala of Massive Black for giving me a personal 1hr tutorial of animation. Even if it was so simple, there was a ton of wisdom. He's got animation tutorials coming out on conceptart.org....sometime soon....Eventually. He's got everything (he showed me most of it), it's just being compiled into DVD format at the press I think.

And Michel Gagné
Guy who inspired me to continue to pursue my own creative endeavors. He's doing what he wants to creatively do, while doing freelance stuff on the side. The guy's got a lot of stuff going on. Working on the next best game, InsanelyTwistedShadowPlanet. It's a mixture between hand-drawn adventure goodness and "OMG THIS THING IS HUGE SHOOT IT!!!" action.
That and ton of graphic novels. One of which is Zed. Go check it out. Go go go.

Anyways, these conferences are worth it. If there's one in your area (that doesn't cost $500 to go on preorder mind you...unless you have the money) go to it. Well worth meeting some awesome people.