matt crotts illustrates

done

2010-09-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

it doesn't look like i'll be using this blog anymore. but i'll still be posting, of a sort, on my new website, www.mattcrotts.com. i'll still keep this site up for links (i'll run through them periodically to make sure they're still working), but you'll have to go to the above site if you'd like to see what i'm working on personally from here on out.

(i know this is cheesy, but) thanks blogger, for 4 great years!

new website ... and some pixelish trees

2010-09-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

i'm moving away from my old website, and also from this blog. instead, i'll be updating everything within a newly-formattted www.mattcrotts.com.

until that's up (it's just down to techincal difficulties now), here's a bit of work i've been doing for a pixel-ish map of miami, to be interacted with in a new hospital down there.

another collage: frontier

2010-08-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

exploring the concept of 'frontier' for a woven image forum assignment.

for me, 'frontier' is just another term for the state of my life post graduation, and this piece is my exploration of that.

kawaii new york!

2010-08-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

working on a public school in new york with predominantly hispanic students. it's the most relaxing art i've worked on in a while, notably because it's all vector and very, very cute.

someone made a joke at work that the style looked like the cheap packaging that you might find on virtually anything in japan, from caution signs to freeze-dried squid packaging. this was the result of that joke.

comic project (?)

2010-07-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

sketched this thing out as the preliminary thought process for a comic i'd like to get started on, if i can find the time. things are going to close up real fast in the next few days so i'm trying to keep up a momentum with this project so that i can justify not completely forgetting about it when things get hectic. hopefully then, once work calms down a bit, i can get to work on this.

who knows when that will be, but if i can get enough together to make a story worth posting, i'll definitely do that!

dystopic / euphoric

2010-07-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

the first two collages i think i've ever made. i found it enormously interesting to pick up other people's disposable collateral and make new (redeemed?) interest from them. i also enjoyed taping / pasting refuse from the collage process onto the composition. collages are fantastic opportunities for exploring texture.

these two collages are companion pieces, the first addressing profit-motivated industrial modernity (a little expected, i know). but the second is a conceptual alternative to that complicated issue.

approx. 5" x 8" each, tape, adhesive, string, paper, vellum and bark on board (hard-covers from one book)

octopus coloring book (last octopost, i promise)

2010-06-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

couldn't find another way to post this, so here goes. what a long-term project this was! hopefully another bread-and-butter project like this will come down the pipeline soon ...

octopus ... done and done

2010-06-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

not only am i finally done with the octopus project, but so is the shop! had the opportunity to snap some pictures just before it got put in giant custom shipping crate for the next trade show (the shipping charge was about as much as i have in the bank).

it amounts to a huge wooden aquarium-ish box, as you can see, with interactive wheel devices on the front to manipulate the characters within the scene. the octopus moves by himself, as you may be able to tell in the photos. there is a front panel of glass that has been taken off to remove glare in the photo.

you can just barely see in the above photo the filtered light that's more apparent in person ... two overlapped sections of shower door panels does a real convincing job of mimicking underwater light effects (quite possibly my favorite touch to the whole project, if you can't tell)

almost every creature in the scene had a unique movement it would make when one of the wheels was turned - the eel rocked back and forth, the small purple fish swam in one direction and then cut back to the opposite way, the seahorse family rose up and down in a wavelike formation ... etc.

also the ceiling panel was a great final touch - almost completely reflective, it gave the amazing illusion that a water's surface makes when seen from below.

anyone with a passing knowledge of this blog knows that this was my favorite project at creative arts, inc., and i must say now is probably the best project we've ever produced here! if this doesn't sell some library or hospital somewhere to invest in our product, i don't know what will.

Toy Story 3 Storybook art

2010-06-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

A little over a month ago I was blessed and honored to work for Inman Art Studios, an outsource artwork provider for The Walk Disney Co. for Toy Story 3 Storybook illustration! A mouthful of a project, but legally I can't say it any other way .. heh.

Also I can't self-promote with the art, but I can encourage you to go out and purchase the book when it gets in stores! I'll post when I find out it's available.

another classic literature portrait

2010-06-11T13:40:00.001-07:00

daniel defoe, author of robinson crusoe.

i'm still obsessed with the scratchboard tool in painter, and am still thankfully finding ways to weasel it into assignments at work.

octopus ... coloring book!

2010-05-25T12:08:00.001-07:00

i get to illustrate a coloring book for creative arts inc. as a companion to the 3d wood art. coloring books were never among my dream jobs, but this has actually been a really exciting project from the get-go. will probably post the whole thing (it's only 8 pages) at a later date.

graffiti art - applied

2010-04-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

we got to redo my graffiti art and put it onto a table and chairs for a trade show. so fun! and it's even good sittin'.

dragon design

2010-04-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

took this sucker off the blog until i made the final. thanks to kendra for the crit - i made many untold adjustments to meet some complicated specs, and now i think it's where it needs to be.

the center of the dragon will be made out of intersecting dimensional 'scales' - that's a whole other project to figure out!

glad i could put together something akin to the octopus - i'm hoping this means there'll be more to come along this vein from creative arts!

constructing ...

2010-04-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

yes! i'm so pumped about this finally getting fabricated that i thought i'd show a sneak peek. all the characters and sea floor elements are printed on wood and the open ocean background is on clear plastic. it's getting put into a huge aquarium-like display, and i'm told there'll be rippling blue lights overhead. so exciting!

retro space time

2010-03-12T13:19:00.000-08:00

time to do panels with that 50s flair. watch out for more to come!

singles ministry design

2010-03-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

working on a slide (slides?) for my Church in st. pete. this one's probably still a work in progress, but i'm already really liking another chance to do some creative meshing of type.

when i'm not drawing 'cartoons' ...

2010-03-05T08:29:00.001-08:00

... i'm doing 'adult art' like this. it's for creative arts' client, the state college of florida, who is renovating their campus with large art murals.

forest clock art

2010-03-01T14:06:00.001-08:00

i already want to redo this one, but i think it's got some good moments. especially the salamander, though that's just personal taste.

i'll try and get photos of the final grandfather clock up for viewing as well!

portrait time

2010-02-25T13:04:00.000-08:00

'the wonderful wizard of oz''s author, frank baum
laura ingalls wilder, the author of 'little house on the prairie'
kenneth grahame, who wrote 'the wind in the willows'
gertrude chandler warner ... boxcar children, anyone?
rudyard kipling: jungle book, rikki tikki tavi ...
frances hodgson burnett, of 'a little princess' and 'secret garden' fame.
i forgot who this guy is.

having to do a ton of classic children's and young adult authors. time to break out the digital pen nib! i wonder if this counts as a brandes ill media influence. hopefully they'll make up for my awful penguin pen-and-ink assignment

collaging

2010-02-08T13:03:00.000-08:00

using the textures i put together for a creative arts project, i put together a comp during waiting-to-save sessions.

octo-conclusion!

2010-02-05T13:57:00.000-08:00

i think we're finally done! there might be another fish or two added later, and maybe i might have to do a little atmospheric tweaking, but i think i'm finally at the point where i can unveil the
art for the octopus' garden aquarium set here at creative arts inc!

what a crazy time it's been finishing this thing! we're telling ourselves that we'll see no end to the re-application of the art for projects down the line, which makes the back-breaking time spent a little less painful.

next stop (i hope), the trendy americana mural!

octo-rama

2010-01-25T14:12:00.000-08:00

change of plans at creative arts inc - the octopus is getting a more spacious garden, and getting rid of those drab curtains. still going to be a highly interactive display, nonetheless! more on that later

cardinals v2.0

2010-01-22T13:38:00.000-08:00

sometimes i think i'm getting paid here to redo my same portfolio, only slightly better. all the same, though, i could paint birds - especially cardinals and blue jays - all day long!

in progress with more octopus's garden art

2010-01-20T10:09:00.000-08:00

a second, supplementary panel is being made at creative arts inc. for the octopus's garden dimensional panel. got to play around with a bit of sketching this morning on what that would look like.

urban library art

2010-01-19T14:01:00.000-08:00

a different stroke? my supervisor josh and i worked on this piece over the past couple days. he does a lot of art along the urban vein, so under his direction i really got to learn the language and method of graffiti art and such. much fun!

tennessee library

2009-12-22T14:08:00.001-08:00

part of a mural i'm dong for a tennessee library, focusing on classic american literature.

craigg.

2009-12-22T14:04:00.000-08:00

friend, onetime roommate, one of our flash cartoon's shining characters (and contributors), and all-around bro.

shirt so white

2009-12-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

a couple friends and i are trying to put together a relatively short and random flash animation. it's about one of us who walks into a run-down old grocery store in his job interview whites, and gets accosted by a florida cracker about his clothing care and management skills.

here's a couple concept tests from what we've come up with so far.

keeping with this pen nib thing

2009-12-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

been drawing a lot from old animators with that nice fluid line - the ones that that have great styles for inking with nibs - and then trying to watercolor and ink it using my own ideas. this one's from sandro cleuzo, an aminator with disney since ol' tarzan.and here's some of my own style's take on the sort of nib linework motion that i've learned from all that master copying. every time i pick this technique up i like it even more! there'll probably be lots more of this sort of watercolor/nib stuff in the near future - i think it's basically going to be all i'm doing for a little while.

thanksgiving watercolor

2009-12-03T14:28:00.000-08:00

had an opportunity to do some watercolor with one of my cousins over thanksgiving vacation. she was bashful and wouldn't break out those guns that i know she has, but i really enjoyed sharing that time to paint with her.

world of adventure panels

2009-12-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

i've gotten to design a large series of panels at creative arts inc. for a north carolina library. they'll be routed and frosted and side-lit and all sorts of interesting things. thought i'd show a few!

more sketchin'

2009-11-24T13:06:00.000-08:00

been sketching for ideas for a short comic. there was an idea i was tossing around for a period about a kind-hearted dominican friar, based on a haiku i once had to do a school assignment for back in the day. the creepy alien baby thing is explained below.

while working the other day, i was listening to various alien conspiracies online, largely surrounding the ones involving globe-spanning illusions set up by freemasons. it just made me want to draw aliens!

got tony fucile's 'let's do nothing!' book, and was sketching my version of one of the main characters. he's a pixar concept illustrator, and i suspect he designed violet from the incredibles. i hope he doesn't mind!

portrait studies

2009-11-17T14:10:00.001-08:00

went figure drawing with a friend last saturday, and got some portrait studies in. first time i've gotten to draw a beard in a formal figure session! finally. makes me want to go read some more tolstoy.

the garden background

2009-11-11T11:49:00.000-08:00

as i was working on the various layers that are going to make up the octopus's garden dimensional installation, i thought it'd be fun to post the background piece at it currently stands, complete with the rough, messy parts that are outside the cutlines but are ok to leave in my work painting.

octopus's garden

2009-11-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

doing some sketches a garden of an octopus, for a hospital display case. thought i'd show some! sure, there's only one expression a bunch of animals can make for kids in a hospital, but it's good drawing and painting practice just the same.

new stuff from the sketchbook

2009-11-02T13:58:00.001-08:00

drawing to keep myself focused during a particularly wonderful but dense sermon at church, i apparently considered such imagery as tropical islands, a redesigned madeleine, hampton pig and that nerdy girl from the cartoon 'recess', one of my younger cousins (ghosted in with ink from the previous page) and kind-hearted warriors with rooster feathers on their helmets.

breathing out all the frustration, regeret and generalized angst from previous relationships (and finally finding in grace the strength to move on!). speaking of frustration, pen nibs are horrible to a person who uses a stylus all day at work, but they're horrible in a very, very good way.

a sketch from one of the first assignments i got at work, when i was asked to design a series of interesting, stylized dolls that reflected an overview of florida history. this one was after the project already moved on, but i was still interested enough in the possibilities to keep sketching, presumably during a break. heh - i think, looking back on it, that i was still trying to shrug off the intense influences that the illustrious sarah mensinga had on my work while still in school. i must say she tought me a lot about cute/articulate mixtures in character design!

i've been reading marvel illustrator scotty young's comic of 'the wonderful wizard of oz' (based excusively on the under-appreciated century-old book by l. frank baum. this watercolor and pencil sketch is from me taking on my interpretation of the guard at the gate of the emerald city. it was mentioned later to me that 'how the grinch stole christmas' has a who or two that might look a lot like this. i looked it up and am relieved to say that the resemblance is not as much as i was led to assume. i'm continually reminded of just how hard it is to sketch something original within my own personal catalog of imagery, much less something original within the greater sphere of contemporary imagination today!

forest fantasmagoria

2009-10-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

in the middle of designing a series of panels that act as a dimensional mural for a pennsylvania private school's 'story time' library nook. the the back panels act as a single image inset within five frames of the back wall, and, on the other side of the story time nook and set between a chest-high bookshelf and the ceiling, the foreground elements that you see in front of the white bars. they'll be acting as something of a scenic frame for the background mural, which you see, on framed within the other, as you walk into this section of the library. we might make the foreground frame out of a series of cutouts, to put the dimension further.

the client is asking for a fresh take on beatrix potter, with their campus scenery - including the native wildlife and that bridge in the background. obviously there's tons of tonal and value-related issues to still be balanced out - especially given the fact that it's approx. 12' wide! - but i wanted to share a work in progress, and show the new directions the company's allowing me to take.

doodle ditty

2009-10-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

getting back into personal work. tons of ideas, lots of sketches - even got a (short!) comic in the works. just wanted to say 'hi' to those that are still stopping in - they'll be a lot more on the way in the near future!

more everglades

2009-09-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

the everglades painting with more work on it, from the still-unfinished hospital projects. wish i was working on personal stuff so that i could share some of that instead for once, but work work is the next best thing.

enjoy that labor day weekend of yours!

up to my neck in forest animals

2009-08-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

it's been a wild week trying to get this giant forest animal project together, but i'm finally at the point where i think i can move on from a few of them. bear with the backgrounds; they are in various states of disrepair:

they're going to be printing on these little wood cutouts, and then inset into a forest narrative scene within the tower of this grandfather clock thing, where they'll wobble or something when the clock strikes every quarter of an hour. at least, that's what they're telling me.

next to post will prob be the background, though i'm a bit worried about coming through with it the way i'm attempting to come through with these animals. only He knows!

library project out the way

2009-08-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

well, i'm learning that you always have to hold your breath on these things, but i'm being moved on to something else, so i guess that means it's basically there. juggling all these fixed iconic characters and and their media and mixing them with original characters and having it all look somewhat cohesive was a huge navigational nightmare! there's another one of these that goes on a second wall, but it's even more hectic and less interesting. but now i get to go work on my pet project!

now it's off to coordinating a modest but exciting ikea list. all in all a good day!

library project

2009-08-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

until i get to finish the forest animal project, i've been assigned a library project for a school in nyc. this is one of those times when you get to be very thankful for copyrights, because i am required to take my own interpretations of the characters that disney has touched (there will be some scholastic book characters that are for better or for worse contractually 'allowed' to be lifted straight out of their books).

sorry about the similar looks of the wooden boy here and the bunny below. kind of embarassing but that's just how these sneak peaks panned out :/

interestingly enough, the assignment originally involved the 'terrible yellow eyes' monster from 'where the wild things are'. i was having trouble not snubbing my nose at the blog that i'm not good enough to contribute to, so i'm now glad that none of maurice sendak's characters will be in the final pieces.

a sketch of things to come

2009-08-02T20:31:00.000-07:00

this a teensy sketch from the gargantuan project i've been given at work - one to populate a forest of smiling woodland creatures. the narrative and function of it all will be easier to post on once it's finished, but i'm as excited about it as i am about any personal work, so i guess i just wanted to warn ahead of time that i'll be posting progress on this. crits on those process posts encouraged!

it's been a long time working on this woodland project, but after many scratches it's finally feeling like a professional and coherent thematic work, as well as one that actually is original enough and borne of my own interests that it, well, doesn't feel like work. hooray for un-work!

suncoast mural backgrounds

2009-07-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

they look strangely empty, but they're going to eventually be some of the backgrounds for a bunch of paintings that will be composed on top for some elevator landing displays at the all children's hospital outside of tampa.

i got started on these back in april when i first started talking to creative arts, and they're finally getting to the point where they're mostly print-ready! this working for public institutions thing a looong process ...

more florida

2009-07-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

another bit for a composition that's being used for a children's hospital. personally, i'd never want to swim anywhere near here as a kid, but that's what the client ordered!

nuts!

2009-07-10T12:15:00.000-07:00

a piece i was working on to sell my boss on a style in which to represent some forest animals for a grandfather-esque clock we're doing, along with some pop-up book-like displays for a hospital trade show.

maybe i'll get to the non-squirrel elements later. still, it was fun enough to show now.

if you work for public interests in the state of florida ...

2009-06-29T14:10:00.000-07:00

... then you're likely to deal with lots of beachy subject matter. the real work is making it interesting!

lot of other things in the works, including the full project to which these are only teensy pieces, but i'll be holding off on them until they get the thumbs up of approval.

what i'm doing at creative arts

2009-06-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

lots of projects already, and i've only been here for a little over a week! this is a sample of the things i've done so far - it's a box where you pull levers and things and a ton of objects spin in fun ways around a clear cylindrical column in the center. it and a long list of other projects will be made on site and installed in the all children's hospital in lakeland, florida.

i'm starting to really miss making personal art as well, though a week of this has been incredibly inspiring.. time to build that monster of a personal computer ...

poster ditty

2009-04-27T18:12:00.001-07:00

change of pace - a graphic design job! just kind of put it together, using my usual tricks and all, and after seeing the gic show last friday i am reminded of how much i like graphic design

carters time!

2009-04-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

they're almost here, and i ain't got much for them ... yet.

coraline says ... hire me!

2009-04-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

a thank you card for laika. for some reason i like the in prog as much as the final, so i kept them both up.

anything could happen tomorrow. we'll see ...

bathroom stuff

2009-04-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

... someone's been lookin at coraline work.! but in my own way, or at least, that was the goal.

color thumb - florida spring

2009-04-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

doing a series of these. here's one! keeps me thinking about those simple shapes that are so important

the '09 senior illustration poster

2009-04-03T13:21:00.000-07:00

so i didn't think we could officially post this, until i hear word that it's on someone's blog, and i discover that that blog turns out to be jessica willett's! well, if my co-designer can post it (and we've been giving the posters out for a couple weeks now) then i'm sure it's no problem for me to post as well.

textures ...

2009-03-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

the top has a bit of a narrative - it's a wall study for the scenes involving the foreign planet's social and environmental collapse.

and yes, that's alien blood. hopefully it's both goofy and violent looking, so that it's just kind of ... sad. like a sad clown, which is what they are.

the bottom needs no description, save that it was fun to paint. kind of like painting clouds, in a way ... just wisps and curves.

hansel & gretel!

2009-03-22T22:25:00.000-07:00

thinking about coraline and last year's pixar story internship assignment that i overheard about.

these kids look like they're already too thin to be eaten, but then again, that's why they get fattened up, right?

hannah gets a scholarship!

2009-03-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

another year where i feel painfully aware of the fact that there are people that worked harder and with more talent than i, and i for some reason have a piece next to theirs.

yay for cassy piedra! i'm so happy for her - she deserves a superior award, and i'm sure she'll only be winning more and more from here on out.

check out the people who are just way too inspiring to be students!

another thesis piece (i think) finished

2009-03-12T00:12:00.000-07:00

a sneak peek of another thesis piece. this one got a little more matte-painter-y. another piece about clouds and mountains (probably because i'm trying real hard to get above that purple mountain piece). i hope it's finally out of my system :)

having to try and push through a number of pieces this spring break - see if i can get up to speed with thesis. also i've been putting off contacting a couple people that have mentioned that they wanted to talk - haven't felt very confident until i had finally gotten a better piece in my port than those darn purple mountains.

tulip study

2009-03-10T01:39:00.000-07:00

everything else is under wraps for the time being . . . (because it's thesis!)

back to some real fun

2009-02-27T23:25:00.000-08:00

so after an inspiring and rather focusing conversation with those for whom i have much respect at hallmark, i'm back to what really gets me going. it's been a little while since i've worked on my thesis (too long, in hindsight), but i'm already emptying my head of distracting thoughts related to industries for which i have no calling, and centering my creative pursuits on visual development - exclusively. at least, that's the new plan ;)

there'll be tons more to come, as i'm trying to figure out a strict regimen of development work that'll kick my thesis into a much higher gear - at least, that's also a part of the plan.

yay! excitement! focus! drive! passion!

freedom!

(product) red Christmas card!

2009-02-26T21:56:00.000-08:00

what i was able to put together during the hallmark workshop. the star is a diecut, showing the candle within.

what an experience! in a way, i've never experienced anything quite like this, and from a creative professional perspective it's been one of the greatest things i've ever been a part of in college. sounds silly, but it had a deep personal impact on my direction and calling, which i can now say isn't really related to greeting cards anymore.

time for concept art now! there's no other distraction (except for maybe carter's come april)! it's becoming clearer and clearer where i should be focusing.

typeface play, and some other stuff for hallmark

2009-02-23T21:59:00.000-08:00

haven't posted in awhile! feels funny.

above is some of the stuff i've been putting together for hallmark, and what they've had us work on so far after day one of the workshop (playing with 'illustrated type', and choosing some text to concept a card around - not shown).

this is so fun! i'm really hoping that this opportunity opens up a door or two - it feels more right, in a way, than concept art's been feeling so far this year.

my thesis char in society!

2009-02-15T20:46:00.000-08:00

thankssomuch to kendra, for letting me know! i confess i'm an absolute klutz with paying attention to announcements of this sort, like i should. this makes me feel a bit less stressed about putting my thesis together

greeting card

2009-02-14T21:56:00.000-08:00

knee-deep in hallmark-y attempts at making cards.

or maybe it's american greetings? it's probably ag. darn it, dunnick!

gear change!

2009-02-12T22:51:00.000-08:00

it's time for hallmark - at least for the next couple weeks. still have to finish up a couple things for dreamworks before i send them a 'just thinking about you' package, but for the most part i'm thinking graphically until early march.

it's like i can breathe stress-free! a much more relaxing aesthetic

some mountains, revisited

2009-02-11T23:49:00.000-08:00

i've been pushed from multiple people to try and explore illustration ideas from multiple angles, and i thought i'd take one of my pieces and relook at it from a different time of day. actually, in a way i think i like this better than the old piece - for some reason, this one looks a bit more hand-done than the other. better range of color too.

the tuóni of völuspá, facial expression exploration

2009-02-11T18:27:00.000-08:00

trying to really understand subtlety in expression, while using just a bit of squash n stretch.

in an unrelated note - check out the art of bolt. it's fantastic! i just got it in the mail the other day, and it's one of the best art investments i've made in a loong time ...

bush sketches

2009-02-10T19:11:00.000-08:00

sketching some bushes, after some fantastic inspiration from my new 'art of bolt' book i got in the mail today. more of this sort of stuff later, most likely

a tribute to erwin madrid

2009-02-07T00:41:00.001-08:00

my attempt at learning the visual language skills of erwin madrid, a guy who can just nail believable atmosphere with the some of the flattest graphic shapes around. i'm thinking of doing at least a piece for my portfolio from this graphic approach, if not a bit of my thesis (probably don't need to be experimenting this late in the game for thesis, though)

more thesis

2009-02-05T22:26:00.000-08:00

another teaser for my upcoming thesis. it's more and more becoming cloud-themed, which i'm fine with ;)

spec sheet

2009-02-05T22:22:00.000-08:00

trying out spec sheets. would like to make something a little more exhaustive, but i may be doing that for another project down the road instead.

more patterns

2009-02-01T21:30:00.000-08:00

i think i've found a good way to stay productive whenever i'm bored - making patterns. hopefully i can find some way of using these in my portfolio.

art sale stuff - a good ending!

2009-01-31T02:46:00.000-08:00

about a little more than half of these sold, plus a lot of prints! what a blessing!

another print

2009-01-28T20:43:00.000-08:00

forest animals!

thank you card for carter's

2009-01-28T18:07:00.000-08:00

we'll see if i can make carter's smile with a new portfolio come end of april!

trying a pattern

2009-01-27T22:28:00.000-08:00

it's funny, because i'm not thinking of the 14th when i think of february (or no more than i think of st. patrick's day or labor day) but here i go with these lovey dovey vector things. not sure why - it's definitely not in my head more than usual. guess i'm just pandering to this month's look.

a few more of these to come, i hope (though with more varied subject matter), and maybe i'll have something that looks something distantly like a hallmark workshop portfolio.

changing gears .. vector fun

2009-01-25T21:41:00.000-08:00

a quick thing i did to possibly get me into the hallmark workshop. i think i'm still in carters mode ...

more thesis

2009-01-19T22:58:00.000-08:00

i've recently found out that sirrus clouds are those ones that look really high up and are the most wispy. so i'm doing a piece that combine the sirrus with the cumulus nimbus (the cinematic ones), and now finally with a landscape below it. here's a bit of the sirrus.

i'm having having real trouble balancing the satisfaction of keeping my thesis something of a pleasurable secret (so people actually want to come see it), and just plain sharing. so this is what i've come up with, and i hope this fence-sitting will personally suffice until may.

a new direction

2009-01-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

so thesis has officially took a much more leasurely and hopefully more scenic detour. i'll be taking the advice that perez gave me this time last year and just focusing on making a solid piece each week for the various recruiters that are coming. don't need to be killing myself over a book - just need to be working on my portfolio, right?

the top one is a bit of a cloud piece i'm doing, for i'm told i should focus on doing more of those. the bottom one is a portion of an nyc char/env scene, based off ref from my trip at the beginning of jan (a lot more work left for that one - but i'm having so much fun painting it i thought i'd show some of it just the same)

more leaves

2009-01-17T00:24:00.000-08:00

having more fun with leaves! will go backwards now and explore silhouettes and graphic stuff for this guy

carters, day two

2009-01-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

leaf

2009-01-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

craig taped this huge amazing leaf to my door like back in october, and i thought i'd try and paint it. it was just too fun not to - and dreamworks is into leaves, right? next stop, park benches ;)

ps, this is my 200th post since i forgot my password to my old blog end of sophomore year. man. the time flies.

carter's workshop, day one

2009-01-15T20:13:00.001-08:00

oh, cuteness

thesis time!

2009-01-13T11:16:00.000-08:00

15 weeks, and 105 days.

158 pages.

that's 1.5 pages every day. for 3.5 months.

not including the cover.

mmm ... smells like stress. and fun. strun.

merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T21:20:00.000-08:00

some icons for a friend's wedding site that i made this past summer, always meant to post, but lost, until now. might try to add 'em to the ol' vector graphic portfolio, now that i've rediscovered them

oh yeah, and merry Christmas!!!

cloud study

2008-12-13T13:37:00.000-08:00

playing around with clouds, based on what i've been seen up in the florida sky. it was particularly fun because i only looked at reference for color tones, and then just made up all the shapes and that sort of stuff. seeing how fun this was and how i didn't freak out about it like i do with characters and the like, i think i'm just going to narrow down and focus on environments for a good while

sketch

2008-12-12T14:54:00.000-08:00

playing around last day of fall semester. really trying to push the flat shapes. might put some fun clouds in behind later

why you should not pull an all-nighter

2008-12-10T02:53:00.000-08:00

ack! not entirely sure what happened here, except for the fact that i stayed in the labs from eight pm to six am making this. i think my brain was breaking down / having spasms by the end of it, which would explain the about 20 overlays i've put in various places.

need ... coffeee ...

environment for dreamworks

2008-12-07T23:22:00.000-08:00

using painter, because i figured out that the scratchboard tool works well for snow-capped mountains ;)

hannah's dream

2008-12-07T16:56:00.000-08:00

so at the beginning of the story, hannah, after recalling the day's 'disappointments', goes to bed and dreams that the world actually does evolve around her, and how much fun she thinks that might be. there's going to be a collage of sorts of all the styles used in the book to represent the dream, including straight-up digital paint, colored pencil, and even some illustrator shapes making up the backgrounds, all wrapped up in a high contrast / saturation palette.

drew this over thanksgiving break, and had fun playing out the idea that the adult version of herself she dreams up is actually just a woman's body with her face pasted on. i remember dreams of my own being pretty much the same!

hopefully this will add to the surreal quality of her dream (or maybe just blend in with my already younger style). but near the end of her dream things are interrupted by some nightmarish events, and she instantly flips back to childhood, so i hope this garish transition will remind the viewer that her face never changed.

cardinals for dreamworks, in prog

2008-12-06T15:25:00.000-08:00

have to rush out but i thought i'd share some of what i'm working on so far for dreamworks monday. hope to finish it tonight, and get on to some other stuff

self port, more or less done

2008-12-03T23:10:00.000-08:00

trying to relate my life to both the story of the flood and baptism, and the Dove of Peace with the Holy Spirit. more on the flood part, though (especially with all that drowning and needing God's Grace part) - for me it says more of the 'why' i needed baptism than just stating 'baptism'.

thinking visually about textures like stained glass, stone relief and flash photography.

puca process

2008-12-03T12:26:00.000-08:00

hallmark try

2008-12-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

will probably add a little more, but i thought i'd see if i can actually start making stuff specifically
for greeting card companies.

stuff for the carter's workshop

2008-11-30T17:22:00.000-08:00

a bunch of spots i did for carter's, done in a few different styles. i'll prob ask the opinion of a few people who already work there before turning these in, and see if things hold up

the visitor, redesigned (and with more detail)

2008-11-22T13:57:00.000-08:00

there's no more lolly-gagging - it's time to finally put to paper a final turn-around of these characters! here's what i've done so far of the font pose. also, a sketch of the ship.

puca!

2008-11-19T12:22:00.000-08:00

an assignment where we had to design a character from out of our ethnic background. i was pushing around half-hearted ideas until a friend told me about the puca, a mischievous shapeshifter who often appears as a rabbit if she decides to not be invisible in the first place, and must be placated if your crops are to have any good yield.

i think i'm just having fun drawing something cute in concept class for a change. i got almost all the concepting and final drawings done in only four hours, tip to tail, and by the time the labs closed at 2am, i was whistling back to my car. thanks God!

the party. rough

2008-11-16T21:28:00.001-08:00

so now that i've officially started paneling, i thought i'd post a bit of what's been done so far.

hannah goes through some panels untying the bow in her hair (below, far right), thinking back about the 'disappointing' birthday party she was just given.

because this is a memory scene backdropped on present time, i'm going to be using two techniques at once to differentiate (or that's the plan).

i apologize for the various inconsistencies, especially in the design of the girl. these will get sorted out in a later stage. right now, we'll just see where the opening act goes as i get those values and styles down

a rush job

2008-11-13T11:55:00.000-08:00

not completely done (had to just get it 'finished') but i thought i'd post, just the same

random happy

2008-11-11T23:08:00.000-08:00

thinking about winter and warm clothes and stuff ...