The Black Swan

I wish I could have gotten this piece done before the film premiered, but it just wasn't possible. I actually HAVE YET to see this film, but I was so intrigued and mesmerized by the trailer, I had to do an illustration. I mainly wanted to base the imagery on the idea of professions that push human beings beyond their own capacity.

The whole idea of the Black/White swan being played by the same ballerina, having dual personalities, is such a beautiful concept!

Halloween Animation

I apologize for the lack of illustration updates here! Holiday season means I get bogged down with a bunch of stuff at the 'ole job on top of finding gifts for family/friends. I also have a new holiday postcard being printed as we speak.



Here's a lil animation I did a few months ago for Halloween. Back-story: I work full-time creating art assets and Flash animations for a game on Facebook. This was a wraith/banshee art asset that you can obtain for yourself in the game during October. This is what eats up most of my time but I still somehow manage to go home every night and draw. I think animation has definitely opened up a bunch of new ways of thinking for me!

Dr. Sketchy's

I attended a Dr. Sketchy's drawing session earlier today. Our model, Talia, is usually an aerial artist (think Cirque du Soleil) but was dressed up similar to a Victorian Harlequin tonight. Unfortunately it was incredibly crowded and my standing position (with a bar stool to lean against no less) meant I didn't get a very good view of her feet at times. Here's a few of the sketches that came out of it anyhow. I apologize for the quality; they were done on newsprint paper and I just sorta leaned over 'em with a camera. Enjoy!

Work Shirt

Super quick design I came up with for my company. Sadly, it didn't win the competition, so it'll just find a home as an unused design here. Enjoy!

Digital Artist Magazine

A few weeks ago (maybe it's months?) I was asked to show a Photoshop tutorial for Imagine Publishing's Digital Artist Magazine. They requested an image with a boy, attempting to fly a kite, or with a strange contraption (the magazine said it was housing too many pieces with a female as the main component). The task was to explain what "makes successful concept art" without going into the physical step-by-step process of Photoshop tips. It was more about good composition, lighting, researching clothing, etc. Anyhoo, if you purchase the magazine, you can see the step-by-step process through screen shots. But you can view the final product here:


Enjoy!

EXPOSÉ 8

I was contacted a few months ago to be informed that my illustration, Duck 'n Cover would be included in the very awesome EXPOSÉ 8 put out by Ballistic Publishing. SUPER EXCITING! I'm still baffled as to how it got in there, I figure they like choosing more...rendered images over the flat-color look, but HEY. I'm not complainin'!! Here's how it appears in the book:


They asked that I take a photo with it for the site and to shed light on what the artists look like. They requested that each artist go somewhere famous, and important to them. SO. Here's me, with the great view from the roof of my apartment, overlooking the side of San Francisco that generally gets neglected (because it doesn't include the Bay).



Enjoy!

Chicks In Crisis

I was contacted by Alison Leaf from Pixar to contribute to her Mother Hen Project which will have a charity art auction for Chicks in Crisis. This is my contribution piece! It focuses on the notion that both children and adults do things together that can take us by unexpected surprise.

If you live in the San Francisco/Novato area, the auction will take place:

November 20th
The Galleria

135 Tunstead Avenue
San Anselmo, CA
4-8pm

Come out and help raise funds for Chicks In Crisis who helps facilitate the placement of an average of 30 babies per year in open adoptions!

Alabama Social Studies

Two illustrations I've done for Pearson Publishing, out of a set of six. These will be used in 4th and 5th grade Social studies books; these illustrating the Creek War of the early 1800s (also known as the Red Stick War). Apparently they'll also end up being animated some when they're viewed on a website. Kids these days don't just get illustrated text-books, but they're animated to boot! We really live in the future.

Apologies for the lack of updates, more to come soon!

MCGINNIS! - sketch

...Did I seriously just sit down and sketch...Terry... McGinnis real fast?

From Batman Beyond? Okay. So... there's a story that comes behind this. It wasn't just, 'oh I'll scribble Terry from Batman Beyond randomly." No no. A friend of mine commissioned me for a Batman illustration (which I still intend to do) and his rule was it could be anything 'from the Batman comic time-line.'

Understand that the majority of my knowledge for Batman comes from the awesome Batman: The Animated Series from the early 90s (where they didn't even NEED to put the title of the show in the intro, it was THAT good of an opening sequence animation). I did dabble in a bit of the comics but found I couldn't handle the hilarity of them from the 1960s and 70s (like the Batman papa-spank thing). Or his strange relationships with all of his Robins. I do still love Batman though. Which is why I read up on the current DC timeline (I am majorly geeking out here). And that led into a co-worker asking me, 'HEY, remember the Batman Beyond opening? That was the best ever!' and suddenly I was immersed in Wikipedia and found all these crazy cross-overs and things and discovered every Robin (all...3? No wait, now there's 4) has basically gone insane at one point. But now I'm all caught up in the Batman world up to 2010 within the span of two days...aiya.

However, today I found myself looking up an episode of the Justice League cartoon because Terry McGinnis appears in it as an older adult and I cringed at his facial design. I finally settled: lets give a small nod of the head to the younger Terry because he looked great and why oh why did they have to mess with his face...

...Or because I think I secretly had a crush on him. And I really should have no excuse as Batman Beyond came out when I was well into the midst of High School...

WIP - Drain

Just a piece I'm in the middle of. I have a ton of work I'm doing, I swear! I'm just not able to post any of it until it gets published, probably in October and then further on. 'Til then, enjoy this sketch.

I like the idea that someone can become so despondent, their very skin turns on them.