Show and Tell

At work, we've been doing a major update of our Showrooms (Dallas, Hong Kong, and New York) for the new product offerings we have for this year. Which basically means teaming with the marketing department and our showroom designers to create art boards with product designs and concepts, sets for product placement, and whatever else they think will help "Show and Sell" our products to the vendors and other specialty buyers.

I was able to finally get a glimpse of the Dallas Showroom today when one of the product managers let me in to see some of my totally cool product samples...based on designs by yours truly. Very nice to see. Different then the usual Halloween stuff, but in a most excellent way. I'm already planning on buying a few. :D And if they sell well, like most everyone that has seen these samples thinks they will, then yippee!! I get to design a full line of products similar to these that will make a hauntingly happy halloween family of design. But happy in a creepy way. heh.

Halloween product designs are the most fun...mostly.

I'm still somewhat confused about what gets sold when, though. And when is it all finally at the retail level available for consumers. Depending on the season, and license and vendor...it could be this year or 2007. Once I figure it all out, I'll post my mathematical formula. heh.

And then, for the vendor shows...I get to be a model and wear a couple of costumes. Joy. Yes, I'm dreading it in a nightmarishly hilarious fashion. Somehow, I can tell that these pictures will haunt me in a slap happy way one fine day in the future....

Meanwhile at the Home Studio....
I'm slowly getting adjusted to my new schedule. Which means working some later hours on my home computer, but that is the only way I'm going to improve. Practice! So, for one of my homework projects, I'm finalizing an illustration project to help me learn the latest Painter and Photoshop techniques. I'm planning on COMPLETING (yes, that is key...have too many projects that are always "Works in Progress") a digital illustration each month. This is in addition to my other 2D and 3D projects, but is manageable. Specially since I'm cutting back on my social budget until I get my new job. Gives me more time to update the old portfolios, finish up those projects and take that next step to be a visual development artist in the animation industry.

Here's the current state of my WIP "The Storybook Dragon". I've also included a detail image of the dragon's head and the Reader. As the days go by, I'll post some more progress shots of this and my other projects.

Strangely enough, my inspiration for the dragon is actually one of my rat snakes, Ghost. When I'm sitting here at the computer, especially in the warm afternoons, he likes to get himself in a comfortable spot in his tank and watch me.

Silly snake.