Rage Bear Group Show

My buddy Marvin Chow is graduating from Cal State Fullerton's Masters program in illustration. Part of his final is to coordinate a art show. His show will include a bunch of artists illustrating Rage Bear, a videogame Marv created.

Rage Bear is a super angry abomination that devours his entire universe. He becomes so full - he explodes! The explosion is what we humans would later call the Big Bang.

Satan Is Calling

Drawing tonight while traveling.
I'm not sure if it was my intention to make the person next to me uncomfortable, but after the flames were introduced into this piece - all conversation stopped.

Les Miserables and Sketches

February 2013

Then there's this freaking turkey-cat I have to live with.

May 2013

A Solider's Mind

I wish I could hide these thumbnails, I don't want anyone getting eyeballed at work. Sorry :/

December 2012

Grand Theft Auto Brutality

GTA inspired cartoon violence.

January 2013

26 Hour Dr.Sketchy Drawathon

There's this sketch club called Dr. Sketchy. They're a hip group of people that hire beautiful models to pose a few times a month. They put on an annual event where you hold up in a room for 26 hours straight and draw. It's as crazy as it sounds.
Here's two drawings I did during that insanity.

January 2013

Winter Vacation 2012

While I hung out with my creative nephew, Colin, we drew lions together.

In the morning, my Dad would open his mail inquiringly.

My sister's overweight,chihuahua Henry has grown paranoid and angry in his age. If I didn't love him, we would no longer be friends.

I watched Yo Gabba Gabba for the first time with my friend Tim's 2 year old son, Logan. I have never had such an attentive audience like I did as I drew Plex and Muno.

Digital Painting Self Portraits

Digital painting self portrait portraits cgi self portrait painting self portrait on ipad sketchbook pro stylus

Shark Animation

This was the first project I had the privilege to art direct.
When the client proposed the idea, it was supposed to be a simple, 5 second intro for a toy commercial. The action opens on a shark swimming towards the camera. Jaws open wide. Right before he devours the screen a red cage engulfs him. Then it would cut to a live action toy shark being pulled out of the water.
The piece was short and simple. It seemed like a perfect moment to use stop motion animation! I love directing stop motion. It consumes me and is a really enjoyable process. I pulled out the crumply sketch paper and began figuring out the wire skeleton for the shark puppet. I built miniature models to test the tail and was experimenting on how to achieve practical caustics. These are all things that make stop motion so much fun - the problem solving.

The storyboards were simple and I was busy away figuring out the technical details. The client on the other hand was a little uneasy with the look and timing of the animation. We've only shown them rough storyboards. I didn't have much time before a phone meeting and I started getting nervous they weren't sold on the stop motion idea. I quickly animated a animatic to give the look and tone of the animation. We were thinking about using pieces of metal or ear rings for the small fish because we didn't want any other toy conflicting with the shark (legal stuff). Here's what I whipped together:

I know the bubbles are hideous, but quality had to suffer for the sake of speed. Thankfully it worked! The client was really happy, they took it to their meeting and everything was signed off on.

And then, like with every project, a wrench was thrown in. The client was so happy they wanted even more animation! The idea completely changed to a complex, 4 shot scene. The new scene included the toy playset as well. The action is of the shark inside of a water filled elevator. The elevator is falling down a shaft with a car driving in circles around the shaft. The shark bursts out of the elevator and eats the car.

Sadly, the new action was too much for a stop motion budget. The idea had to be abandoned. But! Adaptability is the name of the game. Just in case of this scenario, the shark was already being modeled in the computer for 3D animation.

Since this was the first project I was leading, I had the control to do dailies. I literally had a cut of the shark to show every morning in the studio. Everyone gave feedback, things I would never have thought of. Besides the fact I was working with such talented people executing their jobs to the best of their abilities, it was their input and ideas in the dailies that allowed us to keep packing in more and more to the scene.

I've talked it up way to much and it most likely won't seem impressive now, but I am proud of this one.

Naked morning

Skeuomorphism.

Bar Drawing

Drawing my friend Adam while we discuss simple things.

Judgement

This Commander of the Knights lives within the Terrorroh story. He was a soldier under the "Good King." His last battle was a fool's errand. He helplessly watched his men die around him by his ruler's command. His pain and torment is more than psychological, there's a festering wound within that armor. He will be the last solider to return to the Kingdom.

The King cannot find forgiveness in man but hopefully he will find Judgement!

I still play with action figures

They are just 2D now.

Human's Beast

Discipline, moderation and will power may sometimes feel impossible. It's a skill that some learn and many have learned in the past. It's a battle worth fighting for and one that can be won!

Edgar Payne Exhibit at PCMA

Landscape sketches done from Edgar Payne. His color, composition and mark making are great.

Tangential Love

Terrorroh

This is a story about a godless King. He desired to be a great ruler. In order for his Kingdom to prosper, he chose to sacrifice the people closest to him. After his Kingdom found peace, he began to search for peace within himself. Unfortunately, he didn't have a God to ask for forgiveness. God is merciful while man is spiteful and holds grudges. When he cast the mirror of judgement on himself, the only thing he saw was contempt and disdain. This story is a tragic one.

Muscle Memory is funny that way

Read in pirates voice:

"This is a story of a man. He was once a poor boy that slept in a small bed with a beautiful girl. Eventually his greed lost him everything on his quest for wealth. Through the perils of darkness he became a rich man that now sleeps in a big bed with his earned treasure. His riches do give him hope for true happiness but the price he paid was the understanding of real suffering.

This story has nothing to do with money."

Horsey drawwling

I went sketching at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena today. The Norton Simon is one of my favorite museums. It's small but with a great collection of Degas, a few Rembrandt's, Picasso's and a Ruebens I like a lot. This sketch is from one of many sculptures by Edgar Degas.