Zombies like brains

I've been going through the old projects file and am reworking and getting up to snuff some designs I'm not thrilled with yet. So first off I'm redoing a bird character from an Alice in Wonderland-type project. He's based on my favorite bird the Kakapo, this fat, flightless, defenseless and severely endangered parrot from New Zealand. Finley is the white rabbit character, full of nervous energy and quick to jump to the worst conclusion possible. Here's some sketches and a test painting of the guy:

Just for reference, this is what an actual Kakapo looks like. They look terribly huggable:

Hello, hello!

I've been absent for a long time, and for that I feel very guilty--I did an internship at Disney Interactive over the summer, and that along with some freelance kept me pretty busy. And also, I'm just really horrible at updating. Sorry! But now I have a bit more freetime, and a surplus of work to post--I'm taking Dave Colman's Animal Character Design class at LAFAA, and I have some sketches I've been meaning to post from it. For now, here's a girl character that I did for the purposes of getting some practice at rendering. Cool beans! I still feel like I lost the fun sketchiness that the original drawing had so I still need some practice in that arena.

Finally, the semester is over! I don't think I'm alone in saying that this spring semester was brutal, but a cloud of bad luck seemed to be stalking me, starting with our cat running away, coming back injured, and requiring medical treatment and one of those ridiculous pet head cones, and ending with a completey-not-my-fault car accident which the other driver is fighting liability on...I think I need better good luck charms. Regardless, I'm happyhappyhappy that classes are over, and a big congrats to all the newly-grads!


This was an image done for my style class--it's a forest based on an Oboe motif. I really wanted to include ducks, but they just refused to fit in with the rest of the painting. Ah well.

Daikokuya Praises

I just went to the best ramen place in LA--Daikokuya--twice in one week after months of abstinence. I'm celebrating my joy of savory broth and melt-in-your-mouth strips
of pork with some life drawing stuff from last term. Yay!

These were mostly done in Bob Kato's drawing workshop up at Art Center...I'm hoping to get out to his Drawing Club when I have some time and no Thursday classes for once.


























Gah, I just realized these were a lot of off-kilter life drawings to post at once--forgive!

Updately

Bejeezus--John Nevarez linked my blog, and I'll take that as a good good sign I should update...I've been away for quite awhile, and I can't offer any excuses for lack of updates--I've been working, but just haven't had the gumption to post much.

I'm 7th term at Art Center this Spring, and these are being done as a class project. The characters are the pirate crew of an airship based in the Arctic, and a child they've accidentally taken on as a captive.

Landscapin'

I'm taking Rohb Ruppel's digital landscape painting class this term. This has been a surprise class--some of it has been a struggle but I'm actually starting to enjoy the whole process. Above, some homework from the past couple of weeks. The first two are from photo ref, and the other three are from life (the middle one being the cleanest part of my fabulously messy room).

Storyboard Colour Keyes

Some colour keys from my final project for storyboarding last semester. The story is a little convoluted but it's mildly based on a "deal with the devil" story, where a little demon has escaped from the hellish zones, been free to wander the world for years in human guise, and is finally called back to her home. I think the final boards clocked in at around 120 panels, but it wasn't enough to fully tell the story--at least i have the premise to develop a little more in the future.