Sketches: Factory and Feast

I couldn't help posting these sketches and offer some sage advice from today. No mind-blowing drawings, but it's part of what I did today.
My mother-in-law took the family to a buffet tonight, where I met the gentleman in the sketch.

He had an entire plate full of steak and then several other plates as well. A "Wide Mouthed Bass" shirt he wore suited him I thought; he made a great character to sketch

Advice #1
Now, I'm not Mr. Universe but I need to say, if this drawing resembles you...Put down the FORK!

The second sketch is a nearby factory I did during lunch. I did it mostly to hone my marks; there is no forgiveness with a pen and line mistakes are obvious in architecture.

Advice #2
If you want to get better, use every minute available to improve- the commute, meal time, after hours, while your file is saving,etc. No one has enough time to do everything, so make the things you do accomplish meaningful- whether that's family, work, talents, or even relaxing.

See ya' soon.

Colored Expressions

What do you do to exercise your lighting muscles? Here's my weak attempt as promised. I am pleased to have flexed a few muscles but feel I could have tried to stretch more in regards to dynamic lighting. I used no reference for the lights.

Please let me know of any skill refining exercises you know of; continual growth, that's what life's all about.

Expression Sketches

I have been up late tonight working on color keys and needed something to relax. SILLY FACES! I like the hyper-extension of the features, but know I need to work on economy. I started to do color variations but started nodding, I'll try to post them before the end of the week.

Personal Project- Rough JUMBO development

Aloha friends-
For those who have wondered what's been cooking in my studio, I'll let you in a couple projects since they're not for any client. I'm posting a couple of animation backgrounds-still very rough- to keep myself motivated and to fish for feedback from my superiors PLEASE.

I'm developing a collection of backgrounds for my entertainment design portfolio with some much appreciated guidance from Lou Romano, and Glen Harmon- Thanks again guys. I hope to have 4 more backgrounds completed shortly.

These are from a story I'm developing based on the famous JUMBO elephant. I have childhood memories of the Jumbo monument in my dad's Canadian home town where Jumbo died. The historical and period research is there and I am getting into the paint.

I'm a only a few hours into these, and hoped that my fellows might steer me away from pending disasters.

I hope the backgrounds reflects the way a circus infuses a slow dusty town with life through color saturation and shape dynamics. I am also designing signage pieces for the story; here is circus paste-up banner where I tried to incorporate the shape of the elephant's trunk in the design. I've also tried to cluster the other circus characters into depending on how they relate to Jumbo-fear vs. fascination, trickery vs. apparent craft, etc.

IF Impossibility

If you could split your personality into various separate characters what would they look like? This impossible gathering is a triple self portrait- no not the monkey. Sometimes I take myself too seriously ( the guy in the middle) and fail enjoy life to it's fullest.

I sure wish I would have planned more for the background.

IF - Fleeting

Life is fleeting- from the nest to a final rest. This is a quick still life I'm working on to refine my digital painting techniques. I'm trying out some amazing Photoshop brushes from Chris Oatley, a generous and thorough illustrator. I'm learning as I go and there is always so much to learn! If any of you have pointers/suggestions I'd appreciate any feedback.

Enjoy

Plein Air & Plain Feet

For those of you who thought I was dead, your almost right. I'm working like a dog these days on development for a film project, it feels great. Here are a couple images to keep my 3 three rabid fans happy.

The first is a plein air sketch (1.5 hrs) of some clouds that couldn't hold pose for very long but were great to work with. I'm trying to really flex the ole' draw-quickly-from-life muscle lately and find that my reliance on reference has left me slightly atrophied. I'll post a few of those sketches soon.

The other is one of my favorite paintings, it's part of my How Beautiful Upon the Mount series based on Isaiah's theme. I'll post up the other pieces as soon as I can shoot them.

Here our first parents have made the decision to taste the forbidden fruit and be cast out of the Garden of Eden. An uphill climb for sure after leaving his presence, but a journey possible through Christ's mediation (the light area beyond the mountains).

Hope to put some more experiments up soon.