FANTASTIC TIGER TALES

Lido Beach

2011-09-13T23:52:00.001-04:00

Lido beach, Sarasota; pencil on multimedia paper, 6"sq. Mild digital tomfoolery.

Fireflies

2011-08-18T23:36:00.002-04:00

Sketchbook page; cleaned up a bit in Photoshop. I just watched Poltergeist, in case you can't tell. 80's effects rule y'all.

Also- I've now left Montclair NJ for Sarasota FL, where I'll be teaching Drawing for Animators at RCAD starting Monday, August 22nd.

Imaginary Beings

2011-06-13T11:10:00.000-04:00

When not sketching environments or people, we all also sketched beasts from Borges's The Book of Imaginary Beings. Seeing everyone's different take on a base concept is always fun; it's a great exercise. Here are scans of a couple of mine. Perhaps I'll clean them up a bit and add color / rendering as time permits.

HUMBABA

Humbaba, a giant from the epic of Gilgamesh, is described as having brassy scales, vulture talons, lion's paws, the horns of a bull, and the head of a serpent on the end of his tail and "generative organ". He defends the forest from Enkidu and Gilgamesh.

T'AO T'IEH (饕餮)

The T'ao-T'ieh (Taotie,饕餮) is a beast from Chinese mythology, described as having the giant head of a dragon, tiger, or person atop two bodies, with a shared set of forearms. The T'ao-T'ieh was also described as an "ogre-mask", inspired by the "devil of symmetry". It serves as a warning against self-indulgence. (Fitting to have sketched this while in Amsterdam.)

Vacation Sketches

2011-06-08T10:47:00.001-04:00

I recently visited Europe for a couple of weeks with Stephanie Intelisano. We wandered through England, Prague, Paris, Geneva, and Amsterdam, where we stayed with Ben Sprout. It was excellent to spend time away from the computer, hunching over my sketchbook instead. I enjoyed Prague and Amsterdam the most (though touring CERN in Geneva was awesome for me personally). It's a shame we didn't have more time to sketch while in the Czech Republic, but our schedule kept us on the move.

In addition to the environment sketching and figure drawing session, we all also drew creatures from The Book of Imaginary Beings, which I'll include in a separate post.

20 Rue Gerando, Paris

Sacré-Cœur, Paris

Indian Plaza, Geneva

Vondelpark, Amsterdam


view from Amstel Centrum, Amsterdam

view from Ben's Bar, Amsterdam

figure drawing, Amsterdam

Peacock

2011-05-13T13:47:00.003-04:00

I stopped by GCA last night to visit Scott Waddell, and I took the opportunity to sketch a bit while there. The model had an excellent peacock feather tattoo that spiraled down her arm; the drawing does it little justice. I sincerely enjoyed her tousled lesbieber haircut too.

Graphite / white watercolor pencil on recycled paper, mild digital tomfoolery.

The Saturday Sessions

2011-04-25T13:01:00.001-04:00

I've been getting together with the inimitable Dorian Vallejo for figure painting over the past few Saturdays. Also in attendance were the highly-skilled Jacques Bredy (also a fantastic vegan cook!), Richard Scarpa, and several other NJ & NY-based artists.

Here are the results of a couple of my efforts. Each was a 5-6 hour pose, oils on gessoed/acrylic-toned illustration board, ~10"x16". I felt rusty, but it was great fun; I hope to keep it up.

Megaman - Elecman Redesign; update!

2011-04-23T12:13:00.001-04:00

The Elecman redesign I did a while back was recently selected for inclusion in the upcoming UDON Megaman Tribute book. I had to fit it into a portrait composition (rather than a landscape), but hopefully it retains some of the original energy & looks ok.

Cheers y'all, back to it!

DROWIN'

2011-02-28T21:10:00.001-05:00

...AIN'T EASY BUT IT SURE IS FUN

Piece initially done for a show in Jersey City; prints on fine art paper are available without text. Email me or comment below if interested.

As a side note, after years of using the same laptop to make art, I finally got around to calibrating the monitor. Oof, what a difference! I've always tried to check my images against other screens, but having a reliable primary display is hugely helpful. So, even if you're a cheapskate like me, I'd strongly suggest making the investment.

Egg Temple / Env. Process

2011-01-29T14:10:00.011-05:00

I was recently invited down to the Ringling College of Art and Design for an environment painting demo and to visit a few classes. It was a great experience, and I saw some very impressive work from the students there. I feel like I learned a lot too... a big lesson was that it's harder than it looks to answer questions from a live audience and paint competently at the same time. For the person who asked about my favorite food, it's actually kale... not eggs.

Anyway! My process always changes a little from piece to piece, but here's the basic breakdown that I went over:


B&W thumbnail sketches... I tend to do a lot of these. Trying to establish major value relationships; foreground/ mid/ background.

Quick 3D blockout of geometric shapes to speed perspective and establish lighting direction. Particularly useful for interiors or angular subjects. Rendered out of Maya / mental ray on "Preview Final Gather".

Grid texture to serve as a guide for impending texture placement. The 3D isn't critical for this particular image, but I feel it's important to show the step.

Building off the B&W base, I throw in photo textures, noise brushes, etc... adding visual density while describing surface textures. Working over whole image, I try to integrate the 3D, photos, & painted portions. I start painting details where needed.

In a top-most layer set, I add atmospheric effects layers (screen layer light flare, curve adjustment, color adjustment, etc). Through the whole process, I try to keep my background, mid ground, and foreground separated into layer sets too. I'll flatten the individual sets as I go through, but I try to maintain these 3 basic divisions. It gives me a bit of wiggle room in case the art director has me change something.

Add/adjust details (can take a while), keep pushing depth, add post effects (adjustment layers, a few gradients)... & done!

If anything needs further explanation, please comment below. Also, if anyone has suggestions on how to improve the workflow, I'd love to hear them. Thanks for reading, and a big thanks to Ringling for having me visit!

Calm your fury, o mighty lord!

2011-01-08T17:36:00.012-05:00

My attempt at redesigning the opening fight of Princess Mononoke with a Plains Indian theme, done for a Miyazaki-related illustration challenge over at CGHub. Check out the other finals here: http://cghub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5040

Bella

2010-11-05T13:20:00.002-04:00

Fun little experiment in materials... done as a wedding gift for Michael & Tamra Sanford; approx 8'x10', oil, acrylic, screen print, + colored pencil on translucent vellum over clover paper.

Dragon Magazine # 392

2010-11-03T21:19:00.001-04:00

Here are a few pieces I recently did for Wizards of the Coast, appearing in the October issue of Dragon Magazine. It was some fun work; I feel like I learned quite a bit with them.

AND EVERYTHING WAS OK.

2010-10-22T20:44:00.003-04:00

Sorry that I've been absent lately; things have been a bit crazy on my end. I finished a handful of freelance for Wizards of the Coast, left Kaos Studios, went trilobite hunting, attended NY Comic Con, had a mini freakout, and started with 4mm Games. Things are settling down now though, so I should be able to update with semi-regularity again. Cheers y'all.

Megaman - Elecman Redesign

2010-08-09T22:39:00.006-04:00

Redesign of good ol' Elecman from the Megaman Series... Done for a Character Redesign exercise over at CGHub. Head over to the thread to check out some excellent work!
http://cghub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3549


THE FEARSOME ORIGINAL

Homefront Concept Art

2010-08-06T22:46:00.000-04:00

I recently got clearance from THQ | Kaos to begin showing a few (of the many) concepts that were done for Homefront. Let me whisk you away to a wonderful world of dispair!

So, just to provide a bit of context... We find ourselves in a near-future post-peak oil America, crumbling from within, invaded from without by the nefarious North Koreans. Antics ensue.

Maxwell's Demon

2010-06-07T23:01:00.003-04:00

Semi-random commuting sketch... one in a series of physics monsters.

And here's some background:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell's_demon

Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment created by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell to "show that the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics has only a statistical certainty." The thought experiment demonstrates Maxwell's point by describing how to violate the 2nd Law. In the experiment an imaginary container is divided into two parts by an insulated wall, with a door that can be opened and closed by what came to be called "Maxwell's Demon". The hypothetical demon is able to let only the "hot" molecules of gas flow through to a favored side of the chamber, causing that side to appear to spontaneously heat up while the other side cools down.

Foot study

2010-06-02T22:33:00.002-04:00

Amidst my morning rush, I forgot my large drawing pad for this evening's class at GCA. I tried to make the most of things by doing a smallish foot study- they had been giving me trouble. I need to practice that crazy atelier-style graphite rendering technique. The contours got a little out of hand too. Patience...

I'm in this class 5 nights a week for the rest of the month; combined with the day job, it's pretty intense, but it's excellent practice. I can feel myself slouching more and more from the lack of physical exercise though. My kingdom for an extra 4 hours a day...

Angry Treeman, pt. 2

2010-05-25T00:20:00.002-04:00

Update from below.
D:

Pencil / White Gouche on moleskin, digital color adjustment.

Good morning!

2010-05-14T22:42:00.005-04:00

Screwing around with http://www.apophysis.org/; fun little program.

Empire Grape

2010-04-13T12:18:00.001-04:00

For my friend and colleague, Bagger 43.

Angry Treeman

2010-04-09T00:06:00.002-04:00

I took a tumble off of my bike this evening, and may have slightly busted my left wrist.
I had gone jogging on a nearby track, and by the time I went to leave, it had started getting pretty dark. As I left the parking lot and rounded a turn, I hit a decidedly sharp speedbump (think: 20ft wide construction helmet) and wiped out.
Limited motion, swelling, etc. I'll probably have to hit up the doctor tomorrow.

This kinda sucks because it's my drawing hand. Gr.

Here's a sketch I did during my new Montclair commute.
Pencil on paper / digital silliness.

Sketch Dump

2010-03-13T14:10:00.003-05:00

Just dropping off a handful of sketches... the figure drawings are from Jersey City Art School. Come out and draw- Thursday Nights, 7:30-10:00!

Demon's Daughter

2010-02-08T12:45:00.000-05:00

A ~30 min doodle done for the good folks over at SKETCH A DAY; the theme was "Demon's Daughter". Btw, I'm sorry for not having updated in the month of January... I hate going this long without posting anything, but I've been busy with freelance, traveling, and scheming. I should have some decent stuff to show in the next few months, as my NDAs clear. ;D

Krampus

2009-12-16T01:02:00.005-05:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus

I still might try to make a scary version as well...

*Update* Here's a nastier version.

Vampire Portrait

2009-12-14T13:39:00.017-05:00

Screwing around in Photoshop... the text should roughly translate to "I have been lurking."

Stephanie and I have started watching True Blood; it's better than Twilight, but I still don't quite understand this obsession with sexy vampires. I'd much rather see them play up the "ageless parasite" angle, but I suppose sex sells better than biological curiosities. Ho hum. I always was a bit of a sexless nerd.

Speaking of which, some of their scenarios remind me of old X-Files at times. This is a good thing. (I'm looking at you, poisonous minotaur.)

Hurakan, step by step

2009-12-06T07:37:00.023-05:00

I recently jumped into one of the challenges over at ArtOrder.blogspot.com. The objective was to design a character starting with silhouette, go to detail, then color, and ultimately work up to a book cover, using a provided template. The specifics and requirements of the challenge are here: http://artorder.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-challenge.html

The character being addressed is the Mayan god of wind, storm, and fire: Hurakan.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huracan

And off we go!

1. Character Silhouettes

2. Character Thumbnails

3. B&W Character Detail, Book Cover Thumbnails

4. Character Color Rough, B&W Book Cover Detail

5. Final Character, Book Cover Color Rough

6. Final Book Cover + Art

And here's the cleaned-up version without the template and required formatting...

Apologies to Mr. Sendak... Pt. 2

2009-11-09T23:28:00.006-05:00

I worked up that Max sketch from before; here he is... I tried to make him half cute/half scary; not sure how well that comes across.

I really need to get a better monitor at home; things look good from here, but they'll sometimes be rather garish on a different screen. I guess that'll always be a peril of digital work. If anyone has any suggestions though, I'm game.

I have heard talk of Cintiqs becoming a new industry standard for concept work, but I'm still not sold on having one at home yet. Hopefully Wacom (or someone) will release an updated version within a year or so; that I could probably go for.

*UPDATE!*
Cory Godbey, from Terrible Yellow Eyes, added this piece to his blog. Thanks for the honor!

Dragon Rider

2009-11-03T21:26:00.006-05:00

Yeah, that guy would probably be pretty chilly up there. But, as everyone knows, that's how you have to play it to find the best dragons.

I've been looking at a lot of Kekai Kotaki recently...

There's an upcoming small works show at LITM that I was thinking to submit this to, in the form of a little giclee print.

Apologies to Mr. Sendak...

2009-10-26T23:18:00.021-04:00

My stab at a couple of Where the Wild Things Are redesigns... Carol/Moishe as an armored knight and Max as a crazed wolfboy squire of sorts.

I caught the movie over the weekend and thought it was pretty good, though it was rather sad and probably not great for little kids. This didn't dissuade several parents from keeping their screaming babies inside the theater throughout. Gr...

Anyway. It had some fantastic visuals; it's worth checking out.

Also! I was inspired by the amazing artists here: http://www.terribleyelloweyes.com/

Self Portrait, Sept. 2009

2009-09-26T17:58:00.005-04:00

Self portrait done this afternoon- graphite in front of bathroom mirror. I'm not sure why I tend to hold my head like that... maybe it's mild scoliosis, maybe I just sleep weird. *shrug*

Figure dump

2009-08-23T17:15:00.016-04:00

Portrait from GCA;
sketches from 58 Gallery
and Spring Studio.

These were fun, but I feel I should focus on doing more finished work sometimes.

Manticore

2009-08-03T13:15:00.003-04:00

5"x7", oil & acrylic on panel.

Little piece for a group show at LITM in Jersey City. The theme was "blue"; this is what I came up with. It's fun to work on something light and open-ended like this.

The opening is from 7-10pm tomorrow, August 4th; the show should be up until the end of the month. Check it out if you're in the area!

http://www.litm.com/art.html

Big Sur

2009-07-09T20:14:00.006-04:00

Watercolor sketch from Big Sur, CA.

As a side note, I fed a crow part of a scone, and he hung out with me while I painted.

JULIA

2009-06-23T20:39:00.004-04:00

Another portrait study from GCA, desperately in need of a coat of varnish. Threw some digital silliness on top for the hell of it.

Scribbles, pt.4

2009-06-23T00:55:00.007-04:00

more old-school randomness...

Sunday sketch, pt. 2

2009-06-15T00:10:00.007-04:00

le jardin

WIND

2009-06-14T17:35:00.002-04:00

Assuredly, dear madame, we hear naught but the wind.

Crap Weather

2009-06-09T23:19:00.003-04:00

crap weather.

Scribbles, pt.3

2009-06-04T22:49:00.008-04:00

one more page o' sketches...

Scribbles, pt. 2

2009-06-02T23:17:00.007-04:00

a few more miscellaneous sketches...

Scribbles

2009-05-28T01:01:00.008-04:00

stuff I did sitting in front of the tv tonight... i was thinking to use the jogging girl as part of a short project.

Moldy Golden Oldie

2009-05-08T19:47:00.008-04:00

Self-Portrait from November 2004; I haven't done one of these in a while.

Oil on panel, approx. 30 x 40cm

Beetleboy / big B

2009-04-29T15:32:00.007-04:00

I saw a fantastic presentation on Bouguereau yesterday afternoon over at the Grand Central Academy of Art... The speaker, Greydon Parrish, went over big B's working process, which consisted of the following steps:

1 Thumbnails / Gestures
2 Sketch- graphite or charcoal w/ chalk (generally from life, looked to be about 10-15 min.)
3 Color sketches in oil (small - around 4"x5")
4 Oil Studies (heads, hands, and other problematic areas, moderate to life-sized)
5 Cartoon (life-sized, contour lines, ready for transfer)
6 Scrubbed in oils on smooth surface (light ground, loosely roughed with bristle brush, directly to full color- no b&w underpaint)
7 Render Selectively ( focus to turn form and focus the detail on areas of import)
8 ???
9 PROFIT!!!

Listed like this, the notes don't reveal anything surprising. It's just a nice, logical way of working, and the man was thorough with everything he did. A lot of the interest for me was in looking at examples of the various stages, and there was something magical about actually seeing Bouguereau's thumbnail sketches.

One quote of Greydon's also stood out to me: "With all of this work, it would be odd that he wasn't right."

We all just need to paint more.

Also, here's part of a thing I was working on for Dominance War; I believe the deadline is still May 11th. I don't include it here in an attempt to relate to Bouguereau, I just dislike posts without artwork.

Imperatrix

2009-03-03T10:55:00.007-05:00

Portrait of a General for the Dominance War VI Mini challenge.

Portrait Class

2009-02-16T16:22:00.007-05:00

Head study from Waddell's class @ the Grand Central Academy. I'm using masonite for the next one; the weave of this linen kept getting in the way.

brain analysis / imaging

2009-02-12T11:25:00.016-05:00

Hm, interesting.

http://www.takefreetime.com/2009/02/scientists-extract-images-directly-from.html

It appears that the scientists were only able to replicate the image that's currently being received in the visual cortex, so the bit about reading dreams still seems a little far-fetched. Definitely excited to see what comes of this, though. Science!

running treebeast; color!

2009-02-10T14:37:00.008-05:00

Trying a friendlier palette than I normally work with.
:D

:D

:D

Ghost!

2009-01-30T19:58:00.003-05:00

running treebeast; linework

2009-01-19T16:03:00.009-05:00

the girl has a leash attached to the treebeast; i haven't put the collar in yet.

started in pencil, cleaned in photoshop. determining color currently.

treeman

2009-01-05T14:37:00.003-05:00

pencil & white gouache on lined paper, mild digital tomfoolery over top

Robot in the city

2008-12-09T00:48:00.002-05:00

an oldie; just touched it up.

COLORS! dump

2008-12-07T23:07:00.009-05:00

just dumping some images from the COLORS! program for the DS.
http://colors.collectingsmiles.com/

Gobletscope

2008-12-05T17:54:00.003-05:00

Wasting time at the end of the day...

Portrait Class

2008-12-03T22:28:00.006-05:00

portrait from the waddell class at the grand central academy of art. need some work on my color.

figure drawing dump

2008-12-03T22:08:00.020-05:00

sketches from the society of illustrators sketch night

wake up, america.

2008-11-04T21:40:00.007-05:00

shipsies

2008-10-06T02:38:00.012-04:00

sketch for scale: astronaut -- med. work ship -- small freighter

i've got hot chip stuck in my head from seeing them play over the weekend, and i'm worried i've got boneitis- my jaw popped the other morning.

Quickly, to the Academy!

2008-10-05T23:59:00.011-04:00

a terrible photo of my painting from michael grimaldi's class some months ago at the art students' league; i'm enrolled in a class with scott waddell at the grand central academy currently. it seems promising.

life drawing

2008-09-25T23:19:00.006-04:00

sketch from tonight's class over at the grand central academy of art; didn't quite have time to finish. i'm feeling rusty.

hime

2008-09-04T00:37:00.006-04:00

Abyssal Eel-whale

2008-09-02T01:00:00.005-04:00

Female Europan Abyssal Eel-Whale.

She is venting excess phosphorescent bacteria, which excites her light-sensitive dorsal parasites.

Another Green Eno

2008-08-18T23:51:00.009-04:00

Well, I still can't find the files I needed, but I found this. It's another Brian Eno image from a few months back.

Paranoid Birdman

2008-08-18T22:26:00.009-04:00

Hm. It's possible that I may have lost a bit of work to a hard drive crash. It happened over a year ago, but I'm just now noticing what went missing. Yeah, I'm really on top of things. Maybe I should tech up with a solid state drive. Better yet, let's have some cloud computing, dammit. I'm tired of this crap.

These machines, they break my heart.

And yes, I like birdmen.

ANDERSON SILVA

2008-07-31T00:23:00.008-04:00

Greenwood Cemetery

2008-07-28T21:59:00.005-04:00

Went landscape painting on Sunday at the Green-Wood Cemetery; ended up getting rained on.

old bay

2008-07-26T17:18:00.002-04:00

making some shrimp tonight.

dark knight

2008-07-18T01:15:00.001-04:00

Space Barbarian

2008-07-10T21:47:00.007-04:00

Right-Handed space barbarian / pirate in ship-raiding uniform; customized gear includes: solar hair tassles, GENEmod & Quikflash swords, M314 explosives, anti-grav hand and knee pads, medkit, flex ceramic knife, remote detonator, mini-hydro power system, ship's wheel trophies, etc.

Another Green World

2008-06-18T19:27:00.005-04:00

Going through another phase where I listen to a lot of Brian Eno.

I should probably lay off drawing / painting skulls for a while; people are gonna think I'm morbidly depressed or something.

Sunday Monster, on a Friday

2008-06-13T22:33:00.002-04:00

Aristotle

2008-06-10T01:36:00.004-04:00

i caught "the universe" on the history channel tonight. i never
realized how cool aristotle was in the overall scheme of things.

RIEN

2008-05-26T00:38:00.001-04:00

2008-04-17T21:22:00.004-04:00

Proteus:
(From Wikipedia)

In Greek mythology, Proteus is an early sea-god, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea"[1], whose name suggests the "first", as protogonos is the "primordial" or the "firstborn". He became the son of Poseidon in the Olympian theogony (Odyssey iv. 432), or of Nereus and Doris, or of Oceanus and a Naiad, and was made the herdsman of Poseidon's seals, the great bull seal at the center of the harem. He can foretell the future, but, in a mytheme familiar from several cultures, will change his shape to avoid having to; he will answer only to someone who is capable of capturing him. From this feature of Proteus comes the adjective protean, with the general meaning of "versatile", "mutable", "capable of assuming many forms": "Protean" has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptability.

2008-04-14T22:26:00.004-04:00

tuesday figure drawing sessions @ the society of illustrators.

skull

2008-03-31T23:50:00.004-04:00

darkeinstein

2008-03-28T00:59:00.000-04:00

invoker / void

stored here for the dominance war competition, which i plan on not completing. hopefully i'll get my act together to actually finish a cool image of this dude, though.

start it up!

2008-03-25T09:48:00.001-04:00

i recently got a new laptop, and in the interest of new things, i thought i'd try to post my doodles from time to time.