man's best friend...

My brother will be playing in the rose parade this year so when he's not practicing with the marching band, he's at home, where on occasion, my dog and his trumpet harmonize.

a la mode-storytelling

The inspiration for this illustration actually came from my composition teacher. She sent us an e-mail about why she had not attended class and she ended the email with, "Had hot coco last night by candle light, wearing four layers of clothes, hats and gloves, cats gathered around while we read Winnie the Pooh. Fun!" 

The message was so very descriptive that once I heard it, I instantly started visualizing what that must have been like, so here is my vision.

quick update....

I made some more progress...

Some relatives came to visit and brought some tamales and champurrado...Good Times! :)

Seasons Greetings...

I think we'd all be lucky if we could find this type of tranquility, especially around this time of the year.

On a positive note....I can't wait for some apple pie and vanilla ice cream! :D

Happy Holidays!!

time to get back to the same routine...

I took a bit of a much-needed break these past two weeks. I officially finished my semester last saturday and after all the studying for finals, prepping portfolios, and doing extra credit work, I just need to rest my brain and especially, my eyes. Since then, however, I did manage to get my hands on a Kindle Fire and its totally sweet! Once I found out that it had sketchbook mobile, I knew I had to try it out and it works great. If you're looking for sketching on the go and an iPad is way too much, then the kindle fire is a good choice.
(Then again, an old fashioned pen and sketchpad is good too, I just wanted a change of pace! )

Here are my first attempts using the fire. (I hadn't drawn in a while, so I wanted to loosen up a bit.)

Here's the illustration that I mentioned in my last point.

I'll explain the idea behind this when I finish it.

warm v. cool

Here are the two other illustrations I completed...I'm working on another one to try to keep my productivity level up. I made so much work this semester that going back to slacking off just isn't an option anymore. I'm proud of what I got to complete and only hope that I get better and faster with time.

One of the things I always try to remember is to stay "creatively productive''....its something Charles Zembillas would always say.

a big catch..

Here's a watercolor piece that I had a lot of fun doing...I found working in watercolor more relaxing than most of the stuff I've been doing this semester.

"Loosey Goosey baby, Loosey Goosey...."

I recently got Weezer's Pinkerton (deluxe edition), which has a lot of awesome b-sides, and I discoverd this awesome song that I just can't stop listening to....The awesome part is that it has female lead vocals and it has rivers singing back-up...the voices mix very nicely...(catchy rhythm + sweet vocals = replay button) The lead singer is Rachel Haden...I've never heard of her before this, but I just can't get enough of her voice.

and another..

I had my crit today and everything went smoothly.We each posted up all the work we've done this whole semester....the walls were all filled with great artwork..there are so many good artist in my class...but, one of the coolest things that I noticed in everyone's work was the improvement. A lot of the students work dramatically improved, including mine. This has been one of the best semesters I've had at CSUN by far and the most rewarding. I still have a couple of finals left, but I'm almost done!!! :)

just a couple of misfits...

Here are the two main characters for another illustration I'm finishing up. I decided to take on some extra credit for my composition class, which is why I'm working on so many illustrations.

I also saw rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer the other day and when I head the elf and rudolph singing their "misfits" song, I burst out laughing...Rudolph and Hermey must be a couple of bada$$es.... they have their own theme song and all. :)

camping under the oak tree...

Here is the final version of the piece I posted a while back. I tried out a lot of different options and I think this version fits best. One of the awesome things about camping is waking up early mornings. You don't realize how cold mornings can be when you wake up in a tent and not in your cozy home. When I would wake up very early and sun wasn't completely shining yet, I would wait for the rays to hit me and I would instantly feel the heat. It kinda hard to describe but you instantly feel warm and energized at the same time...its great!

tall trees...revisited

Here is the finished piece. I redrew it, but I thought it would be cool to include my first attempt as the background. I feel pretty good about it, but would appreciate any critiques. I might be able to change a few things before I present it on Tuesday. 

crit me please! :)

"Captain. All ships ready for warp."

some development...I'll post a WIP of the actual illustration soon....I'm working on a lot of different illustrations for my class and I'll try to post them as I finish them.

"that's an alien brotha, believe it!"

I just finished watching Attack the Block and it was actually pretty good. I didn't think that I would like it this much before watching it , but it was great. The soundtrack is awesome too! 

Trying to not give too much away, there are these alien creatures in the film that are completely pitch black except for their mouth.... I felt inspired to try to draw one.

I couldn't figure out what type of anatomy the creature had because the body is literally pitch black, but I think I got the jist of it.

W.I.P.

initial thumbnail

first time in photoshop, changed the composition a little bit, but I really like how the lighting was turning out.

I felt that the background wasn't mixing together well so I changed things and ended up changing everything. Now I'm working on trying to get back to what I initially had in mind.

BTW, Happy Thanksgiving

Jack of the Lantern!

Here are some characters for an illustration that I kinda gave up on. I might end up finishing it during winter break.

 I've been printing my illustrations at Kinko's and I always get their brown paper bags to cover my artwork and I had a lot around my desk and decided to do some tonal drawing.

random doodles

Been busy this week working on final projects for my classes but here are two characters that popped in my head.

pre-Happy Birthday!

Here are two pieces I did when my family got our new dog... roughly a year ago (last December). He has become a prominent member of our family is its nice to have a dog again. I forgot I drew these, but I found them and decided to post them.

family Christmas card 2010

tall trees...

I took a break off homework and started messing around with some photoshop brushes.

Day of the Dead!

Here is the composition I just finished for my class, with some development work.

quick color

sketchbook pro, photoshop

monster campout...

Here is some development work for my next composition for school.

I was initially thinking about doing a scene about a boy scout camping trip, but my ideas have evolved and I now have two ideas but these are my initial drawings.

sketchbook pro

then there was color...

sketchbook pro, photoshop

cover your ears...

Here's a quickie about my brother and his sax...not trying to poke fun but its kind of hard to not get annoyed when he purposefully plays in you face....there's only so much headphones can do. I'll post a colored version soon.

sketchbook pro

more watercolor studies?

watercolor and gouache

 I noticed that I end a lot of my post titles with exclamation points and I don't really know why, so I decided to change things up a bit....I'll try to limit my exclamation usage to very EPIC POSTS! =)

Day and Night!

Here's a more recent piece.

watercolor and gouache

More Watercolors!

Here are my two favorite projects from last semester. One uses wet-in-wet technique, which is by far the most difficult technique I've learned but most fun. The other is a study in warm and cool color palettes.

wet-in-wet

warm and cool

Still Life!

Here's a still life that I'm particularly proud of. I don't do a lot of these (the recent watercolors I've done have been from photographs and not life) but you can really learn a lot about light and form by studying life.

Going Through the Motions!

Here's an abstract piece I did last semester about music and movement.

“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.”

The top is from last semester and the bottom one was done a couple of weeks ago.
 Quote by Stanley Horowitz

Sunset

Trying to get some work done on a composition when I came up with this.

Another One Bites the Dust!

Here's another one... tried to use less water and more paint.

Something new!

Here's a quick watercolor study I did this morning.

I want to get better at painting and I think using watercolor can help me out. I really like the medium and love what some really talented artists can do with it. (I also think it'll me become a better digital painter).

Post-poned Spring Cleaning (part 2)

Here are some Halloween inspired characters I did last Halloween.

some development

photoshop

sketchbook pro, photoshop

Here's some of the work I put into the composition from my last post. I also decided to throw in some drawings I did while watching The Mummy (1999)

"Third time's the charm"

Out of all the compositions I've done for my class so far, this one was the most difficult and confusing for me. However, I did have a fun time creating a lot of development work while I was still trying to figure out what look I was going for.... (my head was going in so many directions that I didn't know in which way to go). Ultimately, I'm glad I went with this composition as opposed to what I initially had in mind.

Post-poned Spring Cleaning!

I already finished my third composition for school but decided to post it on Halloween because it seems more fitting. Meanwhile, I've been looking through my computer and cleaning it up. I usually tend to leave URL addresses on my desktop to keep them and visit them later but my desktop was really cluttered. Here is some work that I made roughly a year ago during my second time taking character design. Looking back on it now, I remember being really proud about all the work I was creating.
                                                     

I'm still debating posting the work I have from my first semester taking character design..... I really don't know what I was thinking. Most of the work looks silly but I guess I was still learning.

P.S. My character design teacher was Charles Zembillas, (Designer of Spyro the Dragon, Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, among others). He is a really talented and motivated guy. There are few teachers at CSUN that I can say really taught me about art like he did. Almost every class, he would have a story to tell us about his past experiences as an artist, as well as a teacher. Going to his class was very inspiring...being in a classroom with like-minded people really motivated me to draw and try to get better. He would sit down with each student and talk about their work and give suggestions on how to improve it and always say something positive. In addition to being a teacher at CSUN, he also has his own private school. I highly recommend taking a class with him if you live in the Burbank or Los Angeles area. However, the last time I talked to him, he mentioned starting an online class where you can basically take the class from wherever you live.

Here is the info....The Animation Academy