More artists

Samuel Michlap: I feel like I've posted his work before, but even so, his art is worth posting again.

Jeff Turley: Really appealing work with a variety of styles.

Pedro Sanchez: Has a truly unique and interesting style.

Zaruhi Galstian: Does some really appealing and expressive character designs.

Hadi Tabasi: Just fun.

Cory Loftis: My new favorite artist. So, so versatile.

Brittney Lee: I can't say how much I love Brittney's art. Her designs and compositions have all the charm of a Pixar movie and the finesse of an artsy French film.

Tatevik Avakyan: Again, super fun characters.

Tom Humber: One of those amazing artists who can do just about anything.

Artists to check out

I haven't shared links for a while now. Here are some that aren't in my sidebar---in my mind, these are the best of the best out there:

Justin Gerard: If you aren't familiar with his work, you need to be. His latest series for the Hobbit are some of the finest examples of how to handle comlex composition that I've seen in illustration.

Dave Guertin and Greg Baldwin: Two artists from Insomniac. The energy in their drawings never ceases to amaze me.

Erwin Madrid: Great style, lighting, and composition.

Jason Seiler: The most amazing caricature artist since Sebastian Kruger decided to get all serious on us.

Annette Marnat: Beautiful, fluid lines.

Mike Lee: Has awesome designs and a great handle on values.

Ben Caldwell: Has a fantastic sense of design. The Wizard of Oz picture I'm working on was actually inspired one of his drawings.

I have more, I'll post them next week.

Old art, updated

I've been wanting to finish this picture for a long time now.

Tin Man

I wanted months ago to do the Wizard of Oz as an Avalanche topic, but everyone was busy, so I tried it out on my class instead. I had a suspicion that I was overtaxing my class, work-hour-wise, so I decided to do the assignment to test how much time it would take. I limited myself to one hour per week of time they were working on it, to compensate for differences in speed and experience. So here's how it progressed, hour-by-hour.
Hour 1:












Hour 2:












Hour 3:












Hour 4:













Hour 5:












Last Hour:












At this point, I'd used up the allocated amount. Since that Time I've spent a little more time on it. This represents about 2 hours of work:












I have one more version I'm still improving on---I'll post it when I find time to put those last finishing touches on it.

For my past, present, and future students:

You should read this. It's true for my classes too. Except for the part about teaching acting, because I don't do that.

Redwoods

My wife and I just got back from an anniversary trip (8 years!) to the Redwoods in California. That place is amazing. I got all inspired and felt the itch to draw but never got the chance. I drew this after we got home. I'm probably going to do a more, but I felt like I needed to post something new, so here you go.

Living Dead Published

Remember the book I did the cover for? Now you can buy it, here:

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Dead-Reapers-Oliver-Church/dp/0578001608/ref=sr_1_50?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240328333&sr=1-50

Want to preview it before buying? Read the first ten chapters, here.

(Also, please note that I didn't actually design the cover---so the tangents/strange overlaps with the title aren't my fault)

Bolt enemy minion

The last of the Bolt stuff I did. This was one of those do-a-bunch-of-drawings-and-cobble-together-your-favorite-parts type of designs. Not always the best way to go, but it got approved so I won't complain.

More Bolt

BOLT Game

I took a couple weeks off from my current project a while back to do a few concepts for the Bolt team. One of the tasks was to do a few action shots to sell the idea of certain game sequences. There wasn't any concept done for the levels yet so I was just making everything up. Here's the first two. Hopefully the shots are self-explanatory.

Old forest

My environment painting/design skills have improved a ton since I did this two years ago. Unfortunately, I can't show any of the environments I'm doing at work now, and I don't have any time at the moment to paint anything new. But at least this way I've got something "new" to post.

Link

This isn't done, but it's been two weeks or more since I posted last so it's time to post whether I'm ready or not.

I was on vacation at my in-law's house, and I asked my nephew what he wanted me to draw. He chose Link from Zelda, so I did this.

In other news, my wife found video evidence that babies and maggots are virtually indistinguishable from one another. If you have kids, you already knew this was true.

Friday Figure Drawing

I had fun this morning, which doesn't always result in the best quality, but at least I'm encouraged to try more often.

Who Wants a Puzzle?

I've received various requests for the ability to order the children's book puzzle, so if you want one, here's what you do:



E-mail artsammich (at gmail dot com) with your mailing address.


I'll calculate shipping and give you a total amount.


Send a check or money order for the amount I give. When I figure out how to get my paypal account set up right, I'll include that info here.


I'll arrange for a puzzle to be delivered to your address.





For now, the cost is $32+shipping. I'll update that if I find a place that will make them for less.



If anyone is curious to see the original drawings by my kids, check them out here.

Also, a pig:

Christnas Gift

Our family teamed up for a sort of unique idea for Christmas presents this year: custom puzzles based on our kid's favorite books. My two older boys (ages 6 and 3) drew everything: characters, trees, rocks, mountains, grass. It's unfortunate that I didn't have more time to spend on the painting---a few spare hours spread over a couple weeks wasn't enough to make this picture what it could have been. That being said, I'm still proud of it because it makes a pretty good puzzle. The differences in texture and color are just enough to keep the puzzle challenging but not too frustrating.

In case you're curious, the books referenced here are Horton Hatches an Egg, A Woggle of Witches, The Funny Thing, The Monster and the Tailor, The Runaway Bunny, Gregory the Terrible Eater, Pearl and the Amazing Bone, The Gunnywolf, and What's in Fox's Sack?

Fat Old Man

As a kid I wasn't sure what to think of Santa. I fully supported the idea of a magic guy that distributes presents in the middle of the night. Honestly, that act alone would make me think anyone was awesome. I think that's why I could turn a blind eye to his alleged violations of children's privacy, cookie engorgement, and kissing random kids' moms. And yet I couldn't help but feel nervous any time I was supposed to sit on his lap. Maybe I wasn't so okay with everything after all. Thanks Santa, I'll take the presents, but let's just keep our distance, okay?

Someone requested I post some work-in-progress versions of a painting, so here you go. I was also going to describe why I did things this way, also, but it didn't make any sense so I deleted it. Sorry.

Aquarius

I've heard people complain before about the accuracy of Wikipedia articles. Then when I did some research for the current Avalanche topic, I finally discovered what people are talking about. Wikipedia lies. Aquarius is some cool being of watery power, not some dumb urn-sloshing doofus. I am not in denial.

Thanksgiving Villain

Happy Thanksgiving! This one isn't done, but I'm posting it anyway. Maybe it's the holiday spirit, but I'm actually glad I never had time to work on it: I have a good job that keeps me busy, and having a family beats being lonely and prolific any day. A few other things that I'm grateful for:

- Growing up in the 80's. I don't think you can comprehend that there was a time in history when people thought He-man was cool without having experienced it yourself.

- My polarized sunglasses, and the endless entertainment they provide as I'm driving because I can tilt my head side to side and make the sky disappear.

- Flour. Think about how many cookies there wouldn't be without that stuff.

- Words like, "pronto," e.g. "Get me two cups of flour, pronto!"

- British TV dramas based on books from the 1800s. Either they're good because they're really good (even if you're embarrassed to admit it), like the A&E Pride and Prejudice, or they're good because they're really bad, like the one my wife and I just watched: "Doctor Lydgate!" "Rosamond! I was just. . .er, looking for Mr. Chaucerberry." "Oh. He's gone to market." "Oh. Er. . .good day." *weeping* "Rosamond, what on earth is wrong?" "I'm so very sad, Dr. Lydgate. Is there never to be anything between us?" (He sweeps her into his arms and kisses her.) "Oh Dr. Lydgate, I'm so very happy!"

- Which brings up the another important thing to be thankful for: British accents. Without British accents Monty Python would be a miserable failure, and you wouldn't hear nearly as many condescending remarks about how much better the British version of "The Office" is. Also, a large portion of the United States believes European politics are superior because, as we have learned from BBC dramas, the entirety of Europe speaks in an English accent.

- Also, dental floss.

- Except when it is wielded by those ladies (hygienists?) that do all the cleaning at dentists. Ow.

Trippy

I just took my family on a several-day trip to southern California, the beach, and Disneyland. It was fun, but best of all, it was cheap---3 tanks of gas (hybrid), free Disneyland (compliments of work), hotel=wife's brother's house, parking fees at beach or in L.A., and picnic meals or food provided by my sister-in-law. I honestly think the whole trip only cost us a couple hundred dollars.

Aside from ornery kids, the drive is always one of my favorite parts of a trip. I especially like looking at the constantly-changing scenery.

I think I saw this scene, only more beautiful, driving through southern Utah and Arizona in the morning (we started driving before dawn). I started this from memory the next day on my laptop, but I haven't had the time to finish it off like I want to. I want to post something before people decide to never come back here, though, so here it is.

Pajama Gladiator Post-Mortem

Nicktoons Network has Pajama Gladiator posted up for a day so people can vote on it. Hurry and watch it before they take it down.

Things I did on the short:
- pitched the original story---a bit different from how it turned out, but I still feel happy that it was the project people picked
- worked with Joe Olson to do the majority of the character and environment pre-production art
- modeled the horned guy (didn't do the acid-purple surfaces)
- did surfaces for the "Cyclops" character in Renderman
- animated a couple scenes, including the "Cyclops freaks out scene" at the end of the battle

Things I learned from doing the short:
- No matter how much you contribute during pre-production or production, the folks that really matter are the post-production guys. This short never would have been done without those guys and they deserve all the credit in the world.
- The timing you get in the story boards/animatic is probably not tight enough for the final renders and animation. This thing felt really good at first, but now all I notice are the awkward gaps in the timing.
-Don't suggest a freeze-frame action montage unless you're willing to back it up with an example of how it should look. This is the most awkward part of the short, by far.
- Don't complain about the rigs on a student project, no matter how bad they are. Either help design them so they get them right, or shut up so you don't get the all-powerful rigging guy mad at you.
- It's hard to get people to see eye-to-eye on a group student project. Period.

In spite of all these problems, I think it turned out pretty good for a student short and I'm proud of it.

There's Always Room for Jell-O

Maybe I was an impressionable kid, but old Jell-O commercials seem to stand out as one of the most successful celebrity marketing schemes, ever. For me, Bill Cosby is still synonymous with Jell-O, even more so than his iconic role in The Cosby Show. If the world was taken over by jiggling jell-O people, our oceans filled with jello pudding and our trees replaced by pudding pops, Bill Cosby would be the rightful emperor of it all.

I did this for a themed party we had at our house tonight, "A Tribute to Jell-O." We're not Jell-O fanatics, it was just a funny idea my wife had when talking with some friends. Everyone was supposed to prepare a tribute to Jell-O, and we had everything from folk songs about heaving gelatin to autocad representations of favorite Jell-O recipes. This was my entry: a tribute to a unique dessert, and the man who gave Jell-O an unforgettable face.

How practice makes. . .pretty good.

You'd think after designing characters professionally for years, things would start to come naturally, right? Well, you're. . .probably right, actually. But I'm too thick-headed to learn that fast.

I started with this great mental image of a warty-necked (pronounced nekk-ed) witch. I always expect that when I have a good mental picture, drawing it will be easy. Unfortunately, there's a disconnect between the picture my imagination thinks is cool and the drawing that my eyes have to reluctantly accept as the best I can do. I drew this character about 12 times before she started to look okay, at best.

A few positive lessons I learned, though:

- Drawing the same character over and over seems to always help

- I've created a brush that allows me to procrastinate design decisions until the image is nearly finished. There's nothing like reinforcing bad habits.

- Chicken scratch drawings can be forgiven if nobody ever knows they existed. Oh, whoops.

- Witch hats look stupid if they are blowing the opposite way of travel (maybe that's why my son drew his witch flying backward?) Apparently my kids already have a better grasp of physics than I do.

Which witch?

Halloween has always been a favorite holiday, not because of costumes or candy, but because of the excuse to draw pictures of witches, pumpkins, and other spooky things. I have fond memories of drawing halloween pictures with my brothers and sisters and taping them up all over the house. Because I had eight siblings the crayon drawings basically became our new wallpaper.

This year I felt the urge to draw a witch for old times' sake. As I worked my six-year-old son came over and watched, then went off and drew his own witch. His turned out better than mine, so I painted that one instead. I didn't get to polish it like I wanted, but I'll post it anyway. I want to encourage my kids so someday they'll wallpaper my own house with Halloween drawings.

A few things to notice in his drawing:

- She's either got one messed up broom, or she's showing off by riding backwards standing tiptoe.

- Loopy side shoelaces

- That face!

- Should she be lifting the lantern with telekinesis instead? Ring lanterns could tax the old phalanges over time.

- Ball hands!!!! My new goal is to design every character with ball hands and askew fingers.

- The blue light on the top of her hat (he insisted). I guess so other witches don't crash into her? What's the lantern for then?

Friday drawing

Yeah, nothing special today, but I haven't posted for almost a week. In other news, the other night I watched a show on the Discovery Channel called "Explosions Gone Wrong." I don't think that one even needs commentary.

Monkey collaboration

My 3-year-old drew this monkey, and described to me the anatomy ("Dose are his kneees, and dose are his feet." "What are those four circles?" "His eaows." "He has four ears?" "Yess.").

So, I just had to make it a reality. I had to take a couple liberties, but for the most part it's pretty true to the source material. I'm also going to paint up a witch my 5-year-old drew, maybe in a couple days.