King Thoron

(Concept art created by Josh Frost)

Another quick collaboration...this time on "King Thoron - a dark king with a lust for power!!!" He is in a little story Josh has been working on for sometime.

I took the first concept and began painting the head and crown. Unfortunately, I misplaced my Wacom tablet and used the good ol'......mouse!

After finding my tablet, I continued painting in the robe and background colors. I didn't know much more on King Thoron's history, so I treated this more like a character concept page. It's a little dull, but it helped give some life to the design.

4-shoe NDS Series completed

Here's the final addition to my shoe illustration series. Thanks for the comments, great questions, and for checking out the progress every other day.

Here's the 3rd addition to the 4-shoe NDS series.

Here's the second shoe illustration for my 4 shoe NDS series. I almost went with a solid background but decided to go with a soft pillowy feel to compliment this pink flat. Have a good weekend everyone!

Decided to work on a short 4-shoe illustration series on the Nintendo DS. I have no idea why I chose a boot as a first attempt?! LOL. I had fun working on the shiny leather but had difficulties on choosing a background color.

I normally don't draw vehicles, but here's a random car sketch while hanging out with friends over dinner in the East Bay.

Created during a late night dinner at an outside cafe in San Jose, Mexico. The winds started picking up so I had to eat & draw fast. (20 minute sketch).

Cabo San Lucas - Done during our wait to board the whale watching boat. Due to the bright outside light that day, I stayed in a shaded area to complete. (35 minute sketch)

Finally trouble shooted the "save" issue on my NDS and....just in time. Here's a quick "Colors" sketch 15 minutes before boarding the plane.

Wildlife Museum - Walnut Creek, Ca.

Boards

I recently got clearance to show these storyboards I worked on several months back for a small start-up company in Seattle. The project has been put on halt until further notice. because of a few story re-writes. These boards are in connection with the Hero character that I painted back in September. I was just happy to be able to contribute to a scene. Back in the pre-viz stage, we were hoping for this to become an animated music video with original music and sfx. I still wouldn't mind if this ended up as an animated short.

The 3 colored panels were completed by 2 other artist.

Colors

Finally giving the program "Colors" a try on my Nintendo DS. Unfortunately, my R4 card does not have an automatic DLDI patch so the save option did not work :(

Thus, the crappy photo of the NDS screen. Yuk!

Once I figure out how to patch this darn
thing and save images, I'll be sure to share.

The WOZ

Sorry for the 2 weeks of not posting...I caught that cold bug, practically lost my voice and I'm almost fully recovered. I ended up missing the San Francisco Sketchcrawl event....I heard there may have been a new attendance record of 100+ !

But for now, how bout some photos from MacWorld?

I was invited by the Axitotron Team to help promote the coolest Mac product.....No, not the "Macbook Wheel".....but the new MODBOOK PRO! The first and only Mac tablet.(photo courtesy of famous photographer, SigthorMarkkuson)

Unveiled on Tuesday was the new 17" Modbook PRO with new "Synergy Touch". In other words you'll soon be able to use a stylus and finger touch - AT THE SAME TIME!

(photo property of Axiotron)

But I didn't demo on that.....that was tucked away safely in a protective bullet-proof glass case. LOL. I demo'd drawing in Photoshop & Sketchbook Express on the latest Modbook.
Yeah, that's me cheesing while drawing quick landscape thumbnails for customers. Photo courtesy of story artist Jim Mitchell.

So why is there a crowd developing behind me? And only one little kid pretending to watch me, while listening to her headphones? It's because of this guy....

Here's Steve! No, not that one....the other Apple co-founder - Steve Wozniak (now an Axiotron Board of Advisor). This photo was just after the announcement of Axiotron's latest products and technologies (as mentioned above).

That's not all...the emmy award winning character designer and animator (Foster's Home of Imaginary Friends), Shannon Tindle demo'd some secrets to his character design process.Shannon currently work at Dreamworks

And I finally got to meet another awesome character designer and story artist (Kim Possible and Mighty B), Louie del Carmen. Here's Louie sharing some of his story board process using CS Bridge and Sketchbook Express. It was nice chopping it up with Louie in between demo's.Louie is currently works at Dreamworks

Awesome comic book artist (Beowulf, 30 days of night, Punks), Kody Chamberlain also did demo's throughout the week. Here's Kody taking some time to whip up a caricature. He's such a cool guy and always open to sharing ideas and techniques to his art.

I don't have anymore photos, but here's a couple links to the other awesome artist I was able to work with:

• Kevin Dalton, story artist - South Park Sudios (L.A.)
  
• Steph Labaris, Illustrator (Bay Area)
  
• Kevin Hueck, Illustrator (L.A.)
• Paul Lee, Phenominal portrait artist, illustrator, comic book artist (L.A.)
  

As for me....I've been dabbling in storyboards on a side project, but can't show just yet. Let me get clearance on another project that I boarded a few months back...see if I can share...I'd love some feedback. Thanks!

Are you ready?

Just received my "Galaxy Blue" Sketchcrawl shirt in the mail...just in time for this weekend's Sketchcrawl #21 Jam Session. Order yours here.

that's a wrap!

Here's the final illustration
(brush pen over watercolor)

You'll see I've included 2 human shaped forms along the top
of the trunk tree...as if they've been taken over and petrified.

Here's how it looks merged with the previous artist illustration

To see the next artist continue the project: Click Here

The 2008 Wrap Project

"As economics and boundaries (try to) rule the world, I want to make a gesture to all artists. Let's make a piece of artwork together, without the limitations of age, distance, expansive travel, galleries."

- Johanna Haagsman
(creator of the wrap project)

I stumbled across the wrap project back in August 2008 and admired the idea of creating a continuous, banner like, painting that would include artist from all over the world. 3 months later (mid November), I received an email from Johanna and was invited to submit an illustration based on the previous entry of artist, Lyden Masland. I had only 2 weeks to complete and Thanksgiving was just around the corner.

I've been practicing digital painting for a future gig, but decided to keep to the analog theme. Ideas came from several places and events:

• I was invited to an annual banzai show last month and was blown away by the 50 + banzai trees that were neatly pruned and shaped. We were also treated with a critique from an Italian banzai artist that trained for several years under an actual banzai master in Japan.

• I came across a recycled binder company in Seattle called "Sustainable Group". They've got a great variety of recycled products if you're thinking of another way to help the environment.

• I've been hooked to that new Animal Planet show, "Whale Wars". Have you seen it?
  

So a question came to mind...."As we've become accustomed to living comfortable lives with the excessive use of our resources, what if the roles were reversed, and nature fought back to take it all away from us?"

Hung out at Berkeley and came across this awesome car.
I don't draw much vehicles, but this one was waaaaay too
interesting to pass up.

Sketch done during dinner with friends.

Here's a layout sketch done for a short story written by my friend Ranier. Nothing solid yet, but hopefully this could turn into a comic book some day. This panel was for the opening scene....(can't say much yet) but it definitely has a zombie-ish feel.

Post-it

I recently joined a blog group called, "The Post-it Project". Started by the talented Andy Ristaino, he originally created this blog to share his doodles made at work. Now others can join in on the fun. Don't let those doodles go to waste!

A huge "Thank You" to those that took the time to
create and to send cards/e-cards over the holidays!

I've been TAGGED by 2 awesome artists:

Erwin Haya, aka "OneSickIndividual"
and
Debra Chow, aka "Flaring Nostrils"

1) Many have noticed I use watercolors a lot in my travel sketches and art work. I practically take my Winsor Newton watercolor travel set everywhere I go. However, I didn't always like this medium - I actually got a "D+" in my watercolor class in College!

2) I've already mentioned in previous posts that I'm a big Star Wars nerd, and as a kid I've always wanted to meet George Lucas. Of all places, I met him for the first time at a Borders Bookstore. I was super nervous and really didn't want to bother him (LIAR!!!), but he was kind enough to sign a Star Wars: Episode III (making of) book for me.

3) I owned two Takara's Kronoform robot watches when I was a kid. Why two? I broke my first one and requested another one for my birthday. Did anyone else own one of these? (sound of crickets). Click here for commercial.

4) I wish I was a good chef. I tend to overcook my meals. Probably the reason why I favor thin crust pizza.

5) I've never finished filling up a single sketchbook. I tend to hop around different sizes. But...I'm 14 pages away from filling up my Fabriano Classic Artist's Journal (3 years in the making).

6) One day I will own a Cintiq or a snazzy Axiotron Modbook.

7) I hate doing bills!

(Exhaling) That took some effort to write up 7 silly facts about myself?! Now for the best part....tagging 7-9 other creative individuals. Alrighty....Let's keep the mo-jo flowing into the new year....drum roll please.

1.) Shou "life/shou" (USA)
2.) Bogar Chancay "Obramia" (Ecuador)
3.) John Hoffman "MonkeyFeather" (USA)
4.) Christina Dee (Canada)
5.) Willie Barronet "Rrramone" (USA)
6.) Pete Scully (USA)
7.) Nathan Baird "Labsquad" (USA)
8.) John Deckert (USA)
9.) AG "Preaque Art" (Singapore)

Quick lunch break sketch by the marina. It started raining and hailing.

lunch sketch dump

Quick digital doodle inspired by those biker gangs in "Akira". I decided to keep the palette to 3 tones with minimal details to keep the sketch loose and spontaneous.

Sausalito condos on a hill - cranking out a quick thumbnail during lunch.

I attended a demo at a local art store over the weekend. It was geared towards watercolor portraits. The instructor answered tons of questions but only had enough time to paint for an hour.

Here's a quick caricature sketch of the
live model in his snazzy velvet tux.(brush pen & grey marker)

Sausalito

Quick lunch break sketch near a small moat right off the freeway. There's usually a couple of ducks cruising the waters, but I was lucky enough to witness an egret fly in and hang out.

Visited Berkeley over the weekend for some lunch and grabbed some coffee at Peet's, just enjoying this warm weather...in November?!

Plug 2

I've been posting a lot of Star Wars sketches lately, but I wanted to share a unique illustration that I have on my wall. It's a Darth Vader that I commissioned story artist John Hoffman to create. John's one of the sickest illustrators I've met with an amazing character design style. Check out his blog to see some of his latest projects: www.monkeyfeather.blogspot.com

Now my Ralph McQuarrie post card illustrations don't feel so lonely. LOL.

The Dragon

Awhile back, I visited my parents in Seattle. We did a lot of walking, hiking and....eating......oh yeah and sketching. Notice the person wearing shorts and hoodie. It's Seattle! What was I thinking?
This sketch was done at the cemetary where the legendary Bruce Lee and his son, Brandon, were buried. It was somewhat exciting, yet a bit sad being there. But I was glad I took the time to pay my respects.

Star Wars sketch dump

Continuing on our trip around San Francisco, and I as the tour guide, Josh and I hung out at ILM (Industrial Light & Magic). After geeking out, we sat down to do some sketching. Josh was sketching a Wookie head shot, while I sketched the life-size Boba Fett on display

Inspired by our ILM visit, we decided to collaborate on an ARC trooper (Advance Recon Clone Trooper). Josh laid down a blue pencil sketch, I added a couple layers of watercolor for color & texture, Josh inked it, then I tweaked the whole thing in Photoshop. All that for one sketch? LOL. The process went rather quickly...less than an hour.

Josh has been requesting a Darth Vader sketch illustration ever since he saw my digital sketch back in May, so to his surprise he got his wish in exchange for his efforts in flying down to Cali to hang out with me and Olivia.

(Click here for the process)