My Work in Progress

Creating Cameos

2012-01-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

Last summer I volunteered for what turned out to be artist Renae De Liz's most excellent Womanthology comic book project. By contributing, I hoped to gain some practical experience as a comic book artist (a long-time dream of mine), while at the same time create art for a great cause. It turned out to be so much more than that!

Cameos
One of my creative tasks for the Womanthology: Heroic project was doing cameos of a few of the Kickstarter contributors. My writing partner, Kimberly Komatsu, wrote the script to a wonderful short story called "The Aviator and the Elephant". It had multiple characters which meant I could do more than one cameo.

I ended up doing six.

In order to capture the individual look of each of the contributors, I did a variety of sketches for each subject using the photo(s) they submitted, and then did some more sketches of them in character and in costume in the same poses (or close to) for the story panels. Some of the cameos were in two panels, but most were in only one. Here are some of the preliminary panel thumbnails and sketches I did for the cameos:

After all of that, I did final pencils of each of the cameo panels along with the other panels for each page, in no particular order and without text (FYI, there were 4 pages for the story with a total of 35 panels):

And then I scanned the final pencils, patched them together and inked/colored/painted the pages digitally in Photoshop. Here are the final color panels of the cameos (again, without text):

More about my interesting, always fun and challenging experiences, and what I learned about creating comics while working on Womanthology in a later post. :)

Eowyn and Nazgûl sketchings

2011-04-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

Over on the ArtOrder blog, a new art challenge:
review the scene (of Eowyn fighting the Nazgul) in the book, and create your own interpretation of that scene.

I managed to pick up a copy of the LoTR trilogy at the nearby used bookstore and did a bit of re-reading of various scenes to tweak my memory last week. And during this week's storms, tornadoes and power outages, I came up with a bunch of possibilities with my little thumbnail sketches, some of which I posted below. I started with various abstract shapes to explore layouts, and then added a bit of gestural figures in the next stage of my thumbnail sketches. I've posted one of the three scenes I'm developing further at the top; I still haven't firmly decided which of my favorites to go final and color.

You can see many more entries, sketches and color versions in progress from other artists from digital to traditional over on the ArtOrder forums, here.

My intention is to do a watercolour version of the final scene I select, with some minor digital enhancements as necessary. The project is due on May 15th...

A Tale of Two Dragons: work in progress

2011-04-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

Two dragons, but with two different art briefs: one is for middle grade and the other is for adult. But both illustrations introduce the main characters of the story, and provide a hint of the setting of the story worlds.

I've posted one of the initial rough sketches and layout I was most satisfied with before I started considering colors... The figure above is the image I posted in my Friday Faces page on Facebook as I began detailing more of the figure and costume.
More progress posts later during the week! :)

Whimsical Imp

2011-04-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

This week's Friday Faces was a quick color sketch of an imaginary creature. Initial rough was sketched with blue pencil, and the final was colored in Photoshop 7 using one of the basic brushes.

First Day

2011-03-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

This one started out as a Friday Faces random sketch, but I really like the narrative that's going on here so I'll be taking this one further over the next few days. Exploring, painting, adding in a background maybe, adding in some extra arms... :)

The Hunter

2011-03-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

I seem to be posting everywhere but my sketchblog lately; I'll have to remedy that.

Juggling projects as usual, but I also started up a new weekly sketch practice for myself to work on lighting, speed-painting, and other areas in my illustration artwork that I feel still "needs improvement". I'm calling it "Friday Faces" and plan on posting a new one of those images every week as I have been doing on my Facebook page.

The above image is a concept I did in Photoshop 7 last Friday. A speed-painting practice sketch (for me any detailed illustration under 20 hours is really fast as opposed to product design concepts where I might do 3-10 a day or per week depending on complexity, etc.); took about 6 hours to do including research, sketching and coloring in PS.

Winter in progress

2010-12-29T11:17:00.000-08:00

This is a small section of a much larger illustration that I'm drawing at the moment. One of several versions of the rough layout is posted below. Seemed appropriate that this week's Illustration Friday topic was also "Winter" since that is the theme of this illustration as well. I intend to have a majority of the detailed pencil completed by this evening. This will be finished as a watercolor project rather than digital. :)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T15:09:00.000-08:00

Wishing all my sketchblog visitors happy holidays and a Merry Christmas! :)

Initial rough sketches for this Santa Claus illustration were developed when I was an in-house illustrator and product designer for a novelty company a few years ago. I've posted some early concept sketches for the scene below. The artwork posted above had been cropped and trimmed especially for use on an ornament (rotating sphere); but the art was also used for other products as well (banners, outdoor holiday display, etc).

Experimenting with a Dragon Rider

2010-12-17T15:31:00.000-08:00

Color version of my first ACEO card. I was interested in doing some miniature painting (the cards are 2.5 x 3.5 inches) and creating these as traditional work rather than digital. Used a transparent watercolor wash first over my detailed HB pencil drawing, and then went over that with my new Caran d'Ache colored pencils. Some areas got a bit muddier than I'd anticipated, but for the most part I like it. I have three more to play with in between some other projects I'm working on lately.

Penguins of Leng, version 2

2010-12-08T08:25:00.001-08:00

Updated version of my "Penguins of Leng" illustration inspired by Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness", revised after receiving some helpful comments via the ArtOrder forum and from my online critique group of fantasy illustrators. Have some additional work-in-progress posts for other projects I've been working on coming up in the next couple of weeks before Christmas... :)

Promotional Art for Fantasy Illustration

2010-11-01T06:48:00.000-07:00

I'll be attending IlluxCon 3 next week -- yay! In preparation, I've updated and finished some artwork I'll be taking with me as promotional pieces for the art show. These two are a couple of illustrations that will definitely be there with me. Wish me luck! :)

Unkind Mermaids and Other Stuff

2010-10-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

One of several mermaids I've been drawing in Photoshop 7 with my wacom tablet for yet another fantasy illustration project. Still need to add ornaments to her hair and a few other tweaks and fixes which I'll get to when I go to color.

I'm also working on some "miniature" pencil drawings (they're about 3.5 x2.25 inches each) for a series of fantasy illustrations I want to finish up with watercolors. Should be fun!

A little at a time...

2010-10-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

Just a wee bit of progress on one of several dragon themed illustrations I've been working on in between those pesky other projects. :)

I happened to be thinking about this painting (in particular, how I'm going to do the hilly tree side) while I was driving around taking care of errands; and was so focused on that after seeing a vista that would suit the scene perfectly...I almost crashed my car. D'oh! That was not my best moment. Needless to say, I won't be doing that again...!!

Lovecraft Creatures: Penguins of Leng

2010-10-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

The above is the final concept art that I did for the latest Art Order challenge.The initial rough sketches and lineart are below. A nice break and something quite different from other projects I'm working on at the moment. :) Here's the quote from H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" that I referenced while I developed these particular penguins:

“Suddenly a bulky white shape loomed up ahead of us, and we flashed on the second torch…This white, waddling thing was fully six feet high, yet we seemed to realize at once that it was not one of those others…We were indeed clutched for an instant by primitive dread almost sharper than the worst of our reasoned fears regarding those others. Then came a flash of anticlimax as the white shape sidled into a lateral archway to our left to join two others of its kind which had summoned it in raucous tones. For it was only a penguin—albeit of a huge, unknown species larger than the greatest of the known king penguins, and monstrous in its combined albinism and virtual eyelessness.”

You can view other artists' interpretations, from student to professional, of various creatures from the stories of Lovecraft on the Art Order forums, here.

More Dragon progress

2010-09-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

Back to this particular dragon illustration finally after a brief hiatus to work on another different fantasy project (or two). I'll be refocusing on this one mostly for the next week while I do some major digital painting with it.

Things that go bump...

2010-09-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

The recent Art Order challenge was to come up with a concept for a "log monster". I'd actually forgotten about it until I read a brief mention about it on Friday via my FB network. Came up with some sketches on Saturday, and colored the above on Sunday. It was a good way to spend the weekend. :)

See other WIP's and final concepts via the Art Order blog. Once there, recent challenges are posted on the right column (you might have to scroll down a bit to see all the links).

Dragon: Progress Crop

2010-09-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's another dragon -- surprise!

This is a close-up sketch of one of several dragon illustrations I've been developing over the last few weeks. Should have the color final in the next two weeks, if all goes according to schedule. :)

Illustration Friday: Star Gazing

2010-08-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

A quick concept developed for this week's IF topic "Star Gazing." Inspired by memories of summertime star gazing dreams. :)

Original sketch posted below; final art above was completed in Photoshop.

More Dragons -- The Sentries

2010-08-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a small version of the rather larger detailed sketch I was just starting to scan the other day. It's from the same "world" as the "Artegal Portrait" I had posted previously; both were inspired from the YA novel "Voices of Dragons" by Carrie Vaughn.

Still have a bit of cleanup to do, and most likely some cutting and pasting as well before I call the layout final and proceed to color. This one will be rather fun to paint, too; based on the descriptions from the book -- one bright green, one red and one somewhat brown dragon about to launch off a cliff somewhere in Montana...or something like that. Hopefully I'll have some time to work on it over the weekend, but I do have some other items to revisit first before I get back to finishing this one.

Acrylics: "Lap Dragons" progress

2010-08-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

Started this small acrylic painting last weekend, in the hopes of getting in some traditional art practice at least once a week (in addition to the watercolors I already do) -- it's been entirely too long since I've done any traditional painting on canvas. Believe it or not, I still had one of my old paint tackle boxes from twenty years ago or so...a few of the brushes were still good, but most of the paint was either dried up or separated. But not all!

At the moment, the painting is very much in the rough stage. I'm experimenting for now, applying some of the techniques I've learned from the artist group I belong to locally, as well as from my observations of other artists I appreciate, deciding what I like and don't like or doesn't work for me, I suppose. On the other hand, I'm also applying some of the digital painting skills I've been using when I work in Photoshop, at least in how I work with applying color, strangely enough. I'll post some more progress next week.

I'm somehow not surprised to find myself a little too often wanting to go for CTRL "Z"....not to mention "cut and drag" or "cut and paste"; however, this is not Photoshop. :)

A Bit of Dragon

2010-08-04T20:38:00.001-07:00

Here's a detailed view from a sketch I've been working on for a larger illustration. Actual size of the full image with various dragons is about 14x17 inches. The artwork was inspired from the same story as the "Artegal" dragon portrait image that I posted previously, however these dragons are supposed to be older and rather larger. I'll post the color and final sketch once I've finished it all.

A Dragon Portrait: Artegal

2010-05-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

Took a short break today from the projects and did a quick portrait of Artegal the dragon as inspired from Carrie Vaughn's recent YA book, Voices of Dragons. As always, color above and the original sketch below. :)

Here's the initial sketch on one of my 9x12 Strathmore Drawing Pad 400 series with my favorite blue pencil (before Photoshop clean-up).

SCBWI-AR Conference

2010-04-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

I'll be attending a regional Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Spring conference this weekend -- Yay!

Mutation Nation: Zebrupine or "Spiny Ass"

2010-04-11T17:25:00.001-07:00

I participated in my second ArtOrder Challenge by creating a quick concept for the topic "Mutation Nation" Path 1 (Gene Splicing). Above is the color final, below is the original sketch.

Sneak Peek: Painting in Progress

2010-03-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

I know it will take me about another week and quite possibly longer to finalize this particular digital painting, ("The Mountain") since I'm working on a couple of other personal projects and the book projects and wrapping up a product design project as well (not to mention those pesky taxes) -- so I've posted a sneak peek detail up above.

I'm just about ready to post this painting in the small fantasy illustrator group I belong to so that I can get some constructive feedback and recommendations on lighting and composition. "Kelpie's Rider" is getting a major overall with the composition so that's on a brief painting hiatus while I revise the underdrawing for that, but I will continue painting on "The Mountain" and "Gorgon's Daughter" in addition to developing my book projects....

My SCBWI regional conference is at the end of next month -- whee! :)

Gorgon's Daughter: painting progress

2010-03-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

Did more work on this illustration yesterday, the one I've been calling "Gorgon's Daughter". Still in the middle of revising the left arm (especially the hand), finishing the skirt and further developing the background. Much more fine-tuning to go before I call this one final!

Kelpie's Rider: color progress

2010-03-03T05:54:00.001-08:00

Another update on this particular illustration. Added mermaids, but then took them away again to rethink their addition to the composition. Working on other things at the moment, but should have some more time with this over the next few days.

Kelpie's Rider: progress

2010-02-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

Here is one of several new personal works I'm developing this year, as a way to improve my digital painting skills outside of my usual cute and cheery children's book illustrations and product concept art projects; and as a way to have some new fantasy art and/or urban fairy tale illustrations.

I started working last week on this illustration I'm calling "Kelpie's Rider" from a quick drawing I did back in 2007 and originally posted about here. This is the near final under drawing I'll be painting over. Decided last night, after some consideration and recalling the story that inspired this concept in the first place, to add in a few of the mermaids and some other underwater elements, but in a somewhat subliminal fashion. I want the viewer's attention to be mostly directed to the Kelpie and his rider.

A Happy Chameleon

2010-02-22T15:18:00.000-08:00

Been keeping busy -- yay!

In the meantime, here is another "before and after" illustration I did. The concept drawing was originally scanned from my sketchbook and shown in an earlier blog post here.

Illustration Friday: "Muddy"

2010-02-11T19:08:00.001-08:00

This week's IF topic is "Muddy" from the following quote:
Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear. ~ Lao-tzu

Original sketch is below. The color version above was completed in Photoshop 7. A muddy topic with muddy colors. :)

Winter Projects

2010-02-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

Here is one of several illustrations that I am working on at the moment. This one happens to be a WIP of a new fantasy digital painting based on a rough sketch and color concept I had done last year.

Other February winter projects currently in progress from my "to-be-completed" list include:
- a new picture book which I'm sending out at the end of February as part of my agent review package (writing/illustrating). At the top of my goals list this year is to start a partnership with an art rep for children's book publication...
- I also have an ongoing comic book experiment (pencils, ink, color) which is in the draft stages.
- two fantasy-related illustrations -- one with a rather testy wyvern, and one urban fairy tale with hints of Baba Yaga.

And as always there are various digital and traditional illustrations and paintings either personal or client related that I'll be scheduling here and there.

But let's not forget the online portfolio updates... :)

Happy Halloween 2009!

2009-10-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy, busy! Still keeping my head to the drawing board -- for the most part wrapping up client projects, but that doesn't mean I'm also not working to get further along on my own various story projects and the portfolio updates (yay!).

To celebrate the day, I posted a quick Halloween concept -- as always, initial sketch is below and the color version at the top. Have a hauntingly happy All Hallow's Eve! :)

Dragon in the Rough

2009-07-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

More character sketchings. The little group below is maybe a Selkie trying to protect a trio of water nymphs...or maybe they're mermaids; I haven't decided yet. Need to fix the Selkie tail; I haven't drawn a seal in a long while (hmm...not since high school I think) and didn't have a reference when I was sketching these, obviously -- ha. And another dragon attempt. Just keeping busy between other things for work.

More Sketchings: Fearful Fairies

2009-07-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of characters from "Some of My Favorite Things": Fairies and Fairy Tales. The rough sketches are part of an illustration that I've been working on for the past week, in-between other things (as usual). However, there's a Monday deadline for this particular little project so I'll be posting more stuff from this...eventually. :)

Quirky Chameleon

2009-07-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

A different kind of character sketch, one from a series that I'm developing. I'll post the color version once I've had a chance to finish it. I seem to be surprisingly busy this week. Probably a good thing. :)

Tomorrow will be a focused day of drawing. The weather is supposed to be a bit stormy which is when I usually keep the computer shut off, and I have enough projects going on that will keep me sharpening my pencils at the drawing board. Don't like those power surges from lightening strikes, although I love a good and noisy thunderstorm. The nearby mountains make the thunder seem even louder here than in Texas, although I miss watching the rolling clouds approaching -- too many trees here crowd the sky. But I do like listening to them whisper when the wind blows, and the shade is definitely appreciated from the hot summer sun. Interesting creatures hide there, too; I sometimes see them on my daily walks. I'll have to post a few of the sketches that I've done of them...one day.

IF: Hollow

2009-07-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

I'd hoped to color the above sketch that I did for this week's IF "Hollow", but unfortunately work has kept me too busy to do that. However, I plan on getting back to it as soon as I have some free time again. :)

Artist in Retreat

2009-06-20T14:17:00.001-07:00

I moved at the end of May to a location that I am currently calling my "Artist's Retreat", and that is where I settled in as of June 1st. Everything is still very green. I'm also surrounded by trees of all sorts, mostly pine and oak with a scattering of dogwood. The new environment is already being reflected in the art that I'm doing. The digitally colored illustration I posted above was inspired by the little tree-covered court in front of my new home; and includes a glimpse of one of the white-tailed deer that I see now and then in the late afternoon, early evening. The original blue pencil sketch that I did in my little black sketchbook is posted below.

Fairy Tale Progress: Puss in Boots

2009-03-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Spent a few hours yesterday and today sketching up and finishing a character concept for this week's CHOW over on conceptart.org. Below is the line-art in pencil; the above is the "final" colored in Photoshop.

Gorgon: coloring in progress

2009-03-09T16:25:00.001-07:00

Here is an update to one of the sketches that I originally did for a conceptart CHOW topic a few months ago (see, I told you there was opportunity for inspiration). Medusa, in case you can't tell. At this stage, I'd just erased her mouth in order to fix it a bit as I thought her upper lip was too short. I'm in the process of finalizing it so this is definitely an early "progress" image. It's also been posted in my CA sketchbook to hopefully get some feedback. :)

Character Design Concepts

2009-03-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

One of my updated portfolio sections is for character design concepts. I've been pulling together various concepts that I've worked on for CHOW over on conceptart.org, even if I didn't have time to participate due to other projects. There's always a nice variation of character topics to be get inspired from in the community activities over on CA. I'm also adding characters from some of the concepts developed for picture books or other stories to show a good range of my character art development.

In any case, I'll be including a selection of initial sketches and turnarounds of various characters that I post, and then the final color concepts in that section of the Concept Art portfolio category. Much like what's included for a character sheet when developing characters from a comic book script. Which reminds me...back to work!

More sketchings

2009-03-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

Studies of a character in progress. The plan is to finish this up over the weekend and then do the final selections of images for my updated portfolio.

I'm also in search of an art agent to work with me to expand my client list in childrens book publishing, and possibly additional companies that contract for product concept art development -- need to broaden my illustration and concept art markets!

Tree Studies

2009-02-20T16:43:00.000-08:00

Did some tree "life studies" and a few quick sketches based on photos; and then scanned the drawings and put them on various layers in Photoshop...and eventually came up with this layout. This was one of the preliminary comps I did for the illustration I'm currently working on for "Winter's Daughter".

Kitten Studies

2009-02-18T06:49:00.000-08:00

Some sketch studies of kittens I did for an illustration that I've been working on this week. My website is almost done (yeah, when it's work for myself I seldom make my own arbitrarily set deadlines...sigh) and will still be re-launching this week, although I didn't hit Monday.

Mouse Studies

2009-02-12T16:05:00.000-08:00

I like mice. These three sketches are from a couple sets of mouse studies I did today. Pencil and Photoshop.

Queen Titania: Bits and Pieces

2009-02-08T16:11:00.000-08:00

Here are a few sketches of my "Queen Titania" illustration in progress for CHOW 146. I just read that there has been a one day extension -- yay! I might actually have something to post for the CHOW Final Burning rather than holding off and posting in the CA Finally Finished section.

The rough layout posted below was finally sketched on paper after much internal sketching in my head. I just quickly put it all on paper in a rather rough layout sketch so I wouldn't forget the various groupings and characters I wanted to include to tell my story of Queen Titania since I was also working on a few other things this past week. The top drawing and the "fox and hounds" at the bottom are some of the final bits I'm still wrapping up before pulling all of the elements together and coloring them in Photoshop...

For the final drawings I'm working with a 2H pencil to do a quick overall layout, then go to an HB pencil for detail, and finishing up with a 4B pencil for outlining.

Extra-curricular for the Week

2009-02-02T18:02:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of preliminary sketch explorations for this week's creative extra-curricular activity: CHOW 146 -- Queen Titania.

Having a bit of buggy-ness with the revised code in my website update...hope to have that fixed in the next few days while I continue to work on a few other items on my studio "to-do" list.

Illustration Friday: Climbing

2009-01-29T20:33:00.000-08:00

This past week's Illustration Friday word was "climbing".

At first I thought about sketching one of the many kinds of climbing that I've done when I was a kid (mostly trees). But likely because I did some concepts based on McCaffrey's Pern last month, I was inspired to do a quick illustration of Menolly (from the book Dragonsong) climbing up the cliffs in order to rescue the fire lizard clutch from the sudden high tides covering the small beach below.

And here's the original sketch I did before coloring in Photoshop 7:
(sketching - about 1/2 hr.; painting - 1 hr)

Random sketchings for the New Year

2009-01-19T18:47:00.000-08:00

I've posted a few rough sketches from my sketchbook done in the past month.

I've been in the middle of artwork for an upcoming SCBWI local meeting to pull together a promotional dummy book for critique and review. It's been awhile since I've gone so I'm looking forward to checking it all out again and meeting some of the local childrens book writers (and hopefully, illustrators!). I've also been rather busy creating some new administrative forms for my "illustration studio" using the Art Office book as a guideline, as I've been recreating the forms in Illustrator, with much customizing targeted to my own use and the type of projects that I currently do rather than focusing on gallery work: book illustration, product design concept art (specializing in Christmas) and so on.

Of course, I have various other creative projects going on as usual...and, once again, it's past time to update that online portfolio/website of mine -- the deadline is January 31! :)

Concept Art and Massive Black 2009 Workshop: Dallas!

2009-01-17T14:18:00.001-08:00

I just posted this over on the Dallas Sketchgroup blog, but it's totally worth posting about twice! :) Four days of art and creativity immersion -- can't wait!! Here's the announcement that was posted yesterday over on the CA website:

ConceptArt.Org International Art and Design Workshop:
DALLAS TEXAS - March 28-31 2009

The next workshop is coming hard and fast. Are you ready? We are.

Conceptart.org and Massive Black have put together a stellar list of instructors, great sponsors, and a fresh program covering aspects from the games, toy, film, and fine art industries. The venue is beautiful. We are right next door to a gorgeous museum full of world class art, and have more planned than ever before. When I say we have more planned, I am saying we are pulling out all the stops. Art, jobs, culture, music, performers, training, and even more will be happening. We have a great list of sponsors including Google, SMU, the Guildhall, ReelFX, the prestigious AFI film festival, Corel and many others. This is going to be a big show with more art than ever before.

Time is short. Much to do. The official announcement will come this week and all info will be released then.

Tuition is 600 bucks and we will have an early bird offer which includes free downloads, cheaper tuition, and more. All the info will come this next week. Start getting ready folks...we are going to Dallas and will be shaking the art world from the top to bottom.

We chose Dallas as it is central to everyone here in the US and is a very affordable city to travel to. Of course, the local sponsors are world class too. This is going to be a great show.

The Shanghai show is still in the works but has been moved to late 2009 in order for us to find addtional sponsors. Dallas will be the only workshop we do in North America in 2009.

See you all soon!!

Figure Drawing: January Dallas Dr. Sketchy

2009-01-04T10:14:00.000-08:00

More people showed up at the January Dallas Dr. Sketchy meeting. Yay! And, oh well, that's what I was afraid of -- I'm glad I got there early to pick my table as it was much more crowded than the last meeting I attended. It may mean a change of venue if it gets even more popular. Parking is easy to find at the current location since there's a public garage just across the street. And, it gives me the random opportunity to get to know the downtown Dallas Arts district a bit better I suppose, heh.

We had two great models again this session. "Hansel" was a particularly awesome model since he showed up costumed as "town crier" and then kept up that character the entire time with some rather hilarious poses. There were multiple requests for Hansel to come back and model again for us, too. The other model, Ginger, a burlesque dancer, complimented Hansel's character when they shared poses for the drawing group. My only slight unhappiness with her was that she kept changing her upper body poses (tilting her head differently, repositioning her shoulders, and so on) and expression in the longer poses. Hard not to do, I know! I've posted a few of my sketches from this and a previous session. I mostly used a combination of Conte crayons and charcoal for the gestures and 10 minute sketches, adding Sharpie markers for the longer 20 minute drawings. I also took a few photos this session for my image morgue.

It was good to meet other people involved in the DFW art community, too; it was a nice mix of gallery, hobby and professional artists. Hard at times to make myself talk without stuttering since I'm rather shy, definitely introverted, and get extremely nervous in large groups. Yeah, I hate giving presentations, too; but have managed to force myself as needed. One of my ongoing resolutions, ha. In any case, I'm looking forward to attending the next sessions as my work schedule allows. Drawing from live models rather than from my own imagination or photo images is a really nice change of pace, and I can definitely see that I could use the practice!

Happy New Year -- 2009!

2009-01-01T18:22:00.000-08:00

For some reason, this new year resonates to me as being the year of The Fool...which is why I came up with the above quick illustration (original pencil sketch posted below) based on the following fortune-telling tarot card description:

"The Fool is considered to be a card of infinite possibilities. The bag on the staff has all that is needed to do or become anything, one only has to stop and unpack. While the Fool is on the path to a brand new beginning, it also comes with a little bark of warning: stop daydreaming and watch your step, lest you fall and end up looking like a fool."

Sounds like good advice, eh? Well, we'll see how it goes...

'Tis the Season

2008-12-29T14:33:00.000-08:00

Took a picture of the Clementines I like to get this time of year. They just happened to be delivered the day I finally checked with the produce guy about them at my local grocery store. Hilarious! He even took me out back to get a box from the unopened crate flats cause I didn't believe him at first, heh. The white bowl is one that I picked up a few years ago just for holding the Clementines. Delicious!

Had a rather nice and quiet Christmas with my family this past week. The weather when I left home had highs in the mid-twenties along with a bit of ice and snow which mid-week turned into foggy mornings; however, my return home ended with highs in the mid-eighties. That's Texas weather for ya! Thank goodness, I didn't have all the travel problems that too many other people did travelling during Christmas vacation.

Even with the economy tanking as much as it has, I have to say I'm looking forward to the coming New Year. I've been gathering together my list of creative goals for next year as a 100% freelance artist since I'm no longer working as an in-house staff artist, too. I've got all kinds of enterprising professional strategies! Wish me luck!

EOW Progress: Menolly's Dragon Stones Cove concept

2008-12-15T15:05:00.000-08:00

I'm sad to say that I wasn't able to make the deadline for the EOW #100 challenge. There are some other artists that did finish and they've posted their most excellent work in the final burning thread on conceptart website here.

However, being such a fan of Anne McCaffrey's early Dragonriders of Pern books, I'm determined to finish all five of my own concepts when I have some more time once again after the holidays. I did get close to being happy with the above concept, and I may just revisit it again in the next year to do a tighter print-ready illustration of "Menolly's Dragon Stones" featured in the book, "Dragonsong".

More EOW: Benden Weyr -- Just Add Dragons

2008-12-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

More progress during the day, about another hour or so between other projects. I'm feeling pretty happy with it, maybe too many clouds...hmm. In any case, I will still be putting final touches to this one and the others over the weekend to wrap it all up for the EOW challenge. You know, little final things like ledges and "dragons" and people and such.

EOW Progress: Benden Weyr concept

2008-12-11T20:17:00.001-08:00

This concept-in-progress of Pern's Benden Weyr is still very much in the early coloring stage. Also currently missing the various peoples and the dragons which will all be added at the end. Just a couple more days to get it and the others completed for the EOW challenge -- in between the paying projects that also have deadlines next week, d'oh!

But, that's part of the fun, too.

More EOW: The Mountain Progress

2008-12-09T13:39:00.000-08:00

It's been alot of fun pulling this image from my head into Photoshop after visualizing this particular scene from the book for so many years. Still in progress, after about an hour of coloring before the storms hit last night. :)

EOW Progress: The Mountain concept

2008-12-08T09:37:00.001-08:00

Just found out this morning that there's been a change to the deadline for the ConceptArt.org EOW challenge -- yay! Even a few extra days will help me juggle these concepts in and around my job projects for a bit more polish.

Meanwhile, I've posted a progress shot from one of my Pern epic environment concepts: "The Mountain". I plan on posting a series of progress images here and on my CA sketchbook once I've finished them all. Lots to do yet for this, but you can see that I've done a quick pass on the background imagery, potential lighting and palette.

You can see the original thumbnail sketch for this here. OK, back to work!

Latest Environment Thumb...

2008-12-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

I went back and forth about determining that final EOW concept scene -- whether to go with Ruatha Hold during a celebration or Gather of some kind, or maybe some other scene related to Landing and AIVAS. Finally decided to float above both of those and go with a key scene from "All the Weyrs of Pern" -- the Yokohama spaceship.

The two images I posted will likely be merged somehow for the final environment concept so that just the edge of Pern and the Yokohama is showing and there will still be a view into the bridge where Ruth is floating and gazing down through the window at Pern and the Southern Continent so far below...

Another Quick Thumb...

2008-11-28T16:18:00.000-08:00

I decided to include Half-Circle Sea Hold as one of my selected environments for the EOW challenge. Here's the quick thumbnail sketch that I did the other evening (took a break from all art yesterday to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends -- yay! -- still feel full from all the lovely foods....mmm.). Anyways, I've already decided on some layout changes to this one to better frame the Sea Hold docking cavern; and of course, will be including people to help show scale and context (particularly for those unfamiliar with the various Pern locales).

Some Quick Thumbs...

2008-11-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

Here are some quick environment thumbnail sketches I did for my EOW epic last night. I've already rethought the layout on two of them. :) I might end up doing a bowl-side view from the Hatching Caverns instead of the current aerial view...well, we'll see. I've been thinking that I may end up doing interior scenes for the final two environments, too. I'll decide tonight for sure. Time is running out!

It's Gonna Be Epic!

2008-11-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

Had just a bit of that nostalgia feeling while doing some minor research today for the current ConceptArt.org Environment of the Week (EOW) challenge. It's the 100th challenge, so the topic has been appropriately selected as "Epic", and for my epic series narrative selection: Anne McCaffrey's Pern. Yup -- that's my not-so-great first acrylic painting posted above that I did in high school some 20 + years ago -- totally inspired by those dragons, that world, and Michael Whelan's interpretation of the same. Now, I've got to come up with something completely different! And, also still not in the direction that Tony DiTerlizzi went with his Pern version. :) The challenge deadline is December 9th to give us all enough time to come up with concept art that meets the following criteria:

Come up with an epic narrative (my pick, "Pern")
Your epic saga of choice is going to be pitched as an RPG
You create 5 different environment concepts from this narrative
The art must be cohesive (in other words they all need to be from the same artist style, same world and be visually designed)
Presentation of your five Enviros and the design of the layout and titling counts!
As does a consideration of the possible player demographic of your game.

In any case, this project will give me a great opportunity to rapidly develop some additional environment concepts which I've been lacking in my portfolio. Sketches I have plenty of, heh. This rather topsy-turvy year has somewhat allowed me to continue to revise and update my online portfolio to include more of the kinds of artwork and project opportunities that I would like to be working on all (or at least most) of the time, rather than the extremely varied art and design projects that I've done in the past just so I could pay the bills. :)

Anyways, as a long-time fan of the original Dragonriders of Pern I'll enjoy pulling out a few of those visuals that have been stuck in my head for so many years from reading and re-reading the two series (Dragonriders of Pern and the Harper Hall trilogy) from elementary school through college. Ok, alright -- I admit I still re-read the Harper books every now and again (and, nope -- I don't plan to read the new ones).

Introducing Norbert

2008-11-05T19:15:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is a drawing of Norbert. Where did I meet him? Well, I had a dream about him the other night. Not entirely sure what made me imagine this kind of a character since I haven't been drawing any dinosaurs or reptiles of any sort lately. My more recent projects involved creating art about Christmas, crystals, canids, and comics...but no reptiles. Hmm. And, just how do I know his name is Norbert -- well, in that dream I asked the safari guide what he called him (this was a rather convoluted dream), but he hadn't given the creature a name; so in honor of Hagrid's baby dragon (you know the one...from Harry Potter) I had decided to call him Norbert.

He's a juvenile of his kind of whatever they are. I don't remember that part if I ever knew. And as a juvenile he's actually about the size of a camel which is rather bigger than a large dog. When we were "introduced"...I remember I had my back turned to the tent opening (I was unpacking my bag on the cot), felt somebody nudge me on the back, and when I turned around I just about freaked out because of all of Norbert's rather large sharp and many teeth right in my face (!) but luckily he just wanted to be petted.

The guide also told me that Norbert had kind of adopted the tourist group as his own herd. This turned out to be a good thing because the adult versions of Norbert weren't quite as friendly although they were happy to see us...as dinner. I do remember seeing an adult checking us out when we were walking along the river, but I didn't see the entire body...just the rather large head floating alongside, about the size of a mid-size car, and later the large and vicious claws when he reached out to grab some "food" that happened to be walking along the riverbank. I think that, like the hippopotamus, the adult versions of Norbert tend to spend most of the day floating in the water and, then like the Nile crocodiles...they reach out suddenly to snatch their prey whether above, below, or beside the river. But, they do have those rather long and sturdy legs, like the dinosaurs...so I imagine they could still trot right on out of the water if they felt like it...or were hungry enough.

Yeah, this dream had an edge of nightmare about it. But, Norbert was sweet. I'd like to write about him in one of my stories some day. :)

International Self-Portrait Day

2008-11-01T20:56:00.001-07:00

It's International Self-Portrait Day over on the ConceptArt forums. Above was my quick contribution for this year. Yeah, no pink in the hair. For now. Posted the initial pencil sketch below, which was colored in PS7 as usual and posted above. Hmm...about an hour coloring.

In other news...keeping rather busy with freelance. Lots of creative juggling.

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-31T14:58:00.000-07:00

Many wishes for Happy Halloween fun scares and tasty treats!
The usual before and after sketches: pencil line-art below, color version (in PS7) above.

Almost Fall Fairy

2008-10-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

We're supposed to finally get a real cool front in the next couple of days, dropping the temperature (at least at night) to 40F for a few days. That will be lovely. So, in tribute to the cooling weather and the Fall season, here's this year's Fall Fairy sketch. :)

Sketch

2008-10-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit busy...all kinds of creative stuff going on. I'll post more about that later. Anyways, here's a quick sketch from the sketchbook. I'll post a quick color version later. :)

Orphan Works: Proposed Legislation Adversely Affecting Artists' Copyrights Just Won't Die

2008-10-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

I read this post over on the SCBWI board today and it pretty much states what I'm thinking, too:

"I've been contacting my representatives all week -- I hope they're not sick of hearing from me yet.

I find it especially disturbing the way this is being done.

First it was "hotlined" on Friday evening and passed in the Senate.

Next, first thing Tuesday morning a statement was issued to Wired magazine online by a lobbyist that the bill was dead for this legislative session. That article quickly spread around the blogosphere and a collective sigh was heard. Not that I'm big into conspiracy theories but I do have to wonder exactly who's side that lobbyist was working for.

The IPA was an organization that did not take the bait and continued to urge action on the part of independent creatives.

Now the vote is being cast just as the first VP debate is going on.

This legislation, as currently written, has always been and continues to be a sledgehammer approach to a problem that requires a scalpel solution."

And then received another email today from the Illustrators' Partnership of America that's definitely worth sharing:

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS' PARTNERSHIP

Orphan Works: "We Are Our Work"
Voices from the SBA Roundtable

10.3.08

Tell Congress that corporation lobbyists don't speak for us.
Here's where they can go to hear the real voices of artists.

"I fought for the rights of Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster. Others made millions while Superman's creators lived in near poverty. Jerry was a clerk and Joe was a legally blind man who lived in his brother's apartment, slept on a cot and worked as a messenger.

"I met and fought for their small remaining rights when they both turned only 60 years old...The battle took months and the settlement was meager, but it let the men live the remaining years of their lives with dignity.

"You know what they cared about most? They cared about having their names once again associated with their character, Superman! Why? Because it was what they were as people. They were their work. Why do we have copyright law? Because we wish to protect people and their creations, even if they are 'hard to locate.'"

--"Orphaned Works Legislation," by Neal Adams, Artist

For this and more written statements you can use as talking points
Go to: Orphan Works: "We Are Our Work":
http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/2008/10/orphan-works-we-are-our-work.html

The SBA Roundtable is the only forum so far conducted by the government to consider the economic impact of the Orphan Works Act on creators.

These are the real voices of the creative community.
Tell Congress not to accept substitutes!

- Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Board of the Illustrators' Partnership

Please post or forward this message immediately to any interested party.

_______________________________________________________________

For news and information:
Illustrators' Partnership Orphan Works Blog: http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/

Over 75 organizations oppose this bill, representing over half a million creators.

U.S. Creators and the image-making public can email Congress through the Capwiz site: http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/ 2 minutes is all it takes to tell the U.S. Congress to uphold copyright protection for the world's artists.

INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS please fax these 4 U.S. State Agencies and appeal to your home representatives for intervention. http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00267

CALL CONGRESS: 1-800-828-0498. Tell the U.S. Capitol Switchboard Operator "I would like to leave a message for Congressperson __________ that I oppose the Orphan Works Act." The switchboard operator will patch you through to the lawmaker's office and often take a message which also gets passed on to the lawmaker. Once you're put through tell your Representative the message again.

If you received our mail as a forwarded message, and wish to be added to our mailing list, email us at: illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com Place "Add Name" in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area. Illustrators, photographers, fine artists, songwriters, musicians, and countless licensing firms all believe this bill will harm their small businesses.

STOP THE U.S. ORPHAN WORKS ACT NOW.

Little Girl Lost sketch

2008-09-03T18:53:00.001-07:00

A quick sketch and Photoshop coloring job to test some brushes I modified. Before sketch (blue pencil as usual posted below) and after (posted above) with quick coloring in Photoshop.

Pencil in Progress

2008-08-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

One of my rough pencil explorations for a sequential art project I'm in the middle of developing. Something different than the stuff I usually do (you know -- cute, sweet, and probably something with lots of Christmas sprinkles), so it's becoming a fun challenge and giving me the opportunity to stretch my skills in a direction that I've been really wanting to do. I'm enjoying it. :)

Mermaid variation

2008-08-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

One of the early sketches for a small project I'm doing.

Illustration Friday: Canned

2008-07-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

Initial sketch for the latest Illustration Friday project, "Canned".

Sketches

2008-07-29T18:37:00.000-07:00

Nothing to say at the moment, other than I'm keeping busy. Here are a few recent doodles from the sketchbook.

Pixie Dixie photos

2008-07-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

Working on a bit of this and that...but either can't post it just yet, or it has to wait till later this week or next (personal illustration art -- more adventure bits and pieces, of course!). In the meantime, here are a couple of quick photos that I took of my mousie, Pixie Dixie. She has to be the friendliest mouse that I've ever had the chance to meet. You can see just a bit of my cat, Tabby, in the bottom photo: patches of orange and gray stripes from her right flank.

Twilight Flight

2008-06-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

A sketched environment with the usual col-erase blue pencil (not non-photo or non-repro blue). One of several I'm playing around with in between working on other things. I'll post more later.

Practice and other Oddities

2008-06-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

The top post is one of the scenes from an animation short that I started working on when I went back to school, and then put away on the shelf, so to say, until I found time to work on it again. The elements were built of various watercolour paintings that I cut up in Photoshop, and then composited in Combustion (with some nice Z-space) with some of the set animated there as well. I've been thinking about this old project rather alot lately. For some reason, I'm always most interested in working on my projects when I have actual paying projects that I should be spending every minute on. Ah, well.

More male portrait sketch practice. I don't create many illustrations of male characters, particularly human males, in most of my personal artwork. For me, it's simply more interesting to create a different female character (generally human) because in some fashion it is another aspect of myself that I am actually drawing. In my own little mind, I live that character as I draw it...I know what my character is thinking as well as its motivation for whatever pose or moment that I choose to capture them in. Hmm. I guess I'm trying to say I like to draw my characters from the inside out, which is why I find it more of a chore, er, I mean a challenge to draw men. Plus, the human female form is much easier to draw what with all those nice curves. :) In the face, too. And then there's always the possibility of using my own self as a reference if I need one.

Breaking in the Sketchbook

2008-06-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

Today's sketches include some random bits that I did in my new sketchbook, (some with a reference, some not) along with a quick rough sketch of an idea I had for Illustration Friday's topic, "Forgotten" (posted above) that I'm not gonna have time to finish before Friday. I'd like to work on it another time, though. They're all drawn with the usual blue pencil although I did a bit of experimenting with my scanner and Photoshop color settings when I exported them for web posting which is why they're all variations of blue to dark gray.

The story behind it -- well, actually there are 2 stories. My first story thought was based on some childhood memories that I had from when I was about 6, and some of my experiences during the interesting traveling we did around Europe one summer. The other was a thought about that little toddler that was forgotten at the Vancouver airport when his parents were so tired and overwhelmed that they didn't realize that they'd left him behind. And, I wondered: what if it wasn't just days that it took the parents to retrieve their forgotten child; what if it was years? Like if they were traveling interplanetary rather than from one continent to another on Earth. So, my illustration story is about a forgotten child in a spaceport.

Ran out to get a new Strathmore (now Canson) Field sketchbook (my current fave) at the closest art supply store...and the pickings were mighty slim. The art supply section was considerably downsized to what seems to be a mere 10 ft square section. I'll have to start doing my art supply purchasing online like I did whilst working in-house. Just means that I need to plan my purchases, and buy bulk when possible. And if I run out of 2-H pencils, micron pens, drawing and marker pads, vellum, bristol, etc...I need to remember that the nearest stocked arts supply stores will be about 10-20 miles away. I won't even talk about the fact that the nearest comic book store is even further away these days. Sigh.

Crazy.
So later this afternoon I went ahead and did some online ordering since it takes about a week to get here with ground shipping; ordered a couple of pads of Denril Vellum (one of the things I'd hoped to pick up at the art supply store today) among other items (like a couple more sketchbooks which were about half the price). I really like Denril Vellum for tight line-work, particularly when I'm tracing over my tight pencils on my lightbox in order to get clear sharp lines with Micron inks for the final art (before scanning and coloring on the computer). It's a method I picked up years ago when I was doing multimedia artwork -- creating characters and scenes which were colored in Macromind Director and/or Studio 8 and then animated in Director (by me) and assembled in Authorware by the team of programmers. Like I said, it was a while ago. :)

Variations on a theme

2008-06-08T19:22:00.000-07:00

After drawing a left foot when I should have sketched a right (d'oh!); I thought I maybe needed to do a bit more figure drawing practice. Plus, I wanted to do some experimenting with costumes. So I paged through a few mags I had around and looked at some stills and video of fashion shows online.

The above sketches are a minor sampling of the scribbling I did today in my sketchbook. And, it looks like I need to get another sketchbook -- I finished up that particular one with these.

Pixie Dixie

2008-06-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

My most recent pet mouse, Pixie Dixie. At the moment, my only pet mouse, but one is plenty. She's a really sweet little mousie. When she sees me (I've had her about 2 weeks now) she'll stretch out, walk around her cage a bit, and then reach up for me to pick her up. I'll put my hand down into her little 5 gallon aquarium, and let her hop up into my palm. She'll wrap her little tail around a finger and squeak or chitter at me. I wonder sometimes what she's trying to say. I only keep her out for a little bit before putting her back in the tank -- it's much safer there...I have a couple of cats, too. :)

I get a batch of mice about once a month to feed my two snakes, Copper (corn snake) and Ghost (a Texas rat snake). Since I've had those guys about 18 years (I really didn't think they'd live that long, so I must be doing something right), that's a lot of mice that I've seen. Which is why I rescue one or two once in awhile. Guilty conscious, don't you know. Although, since I'm not a vegetarian I'm not feeling really that guilty...I eat meat, too.

Although except for sashimi, my meat is always cooked.

sketchbook: faces

2008-06-06T21:24:00.000-07:00

Some random faces from my current sketchbook. Spent about 15-20 minutes sketching each one with my Sanford Col-erase blue pencil. I felt that I needed some practice doing realistic portraits versus my usual somewhat stylized quick sketches of made-up people.

Me Now

2008-05-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well, here's the "After" or I should call it "Me -- Now" sketch that accompanies the previous "Teen -- Me" post. :)

The Dreadful Teen Years

2008-05-27T18:23:00.000-07:00

Happened to read about the "Teen Meme" off of a couple of artist's blogs I regularly read last week, and had thought about doing one of my own...so I started mentally sketching something. And then today read over on Lines and Colors that there was actually a starting point and a collection of links. Very cool.

My own teen years were not a favorite time period. I confess that I tried to forget about it as much as possible. But I remembered enough to do the above quick sketch and some commentary.

Think that I'll do my "Imaginary Inner Teen-Self" for my next sketch, heh. Quite a bit different.

Illustration Friday: Wide

2008-05-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

Possibly not the most comfortable way to travel far and wide, but certainly would be one of the most interesting -- held securely in the massive claws of a flying dragon. Above is the color concept, and just below is the final pencil.

The initial sketch is posted at the bottom. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how the right wing should be properly drawn when I started sketching, so I did a smaller thumbnail to help me. In any case, I think what I ended up with works fine. If (or when) I do a more finished version, though, I think I'll do a quick sculpey of the dragon first so I can see how the wings should be positioned. All in all about four hours total of creative fun!

More Progress

2008-05-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a coloring progress of a previous sketch. I'm kind of liking the sepia-tone look of it. Has almost a watercolour wash feel with it, too; although it's all Photoshop.

And here is a sketch in progress as inspired by a recent EOW for a Woodland House Mouse...how could I resist drawing a story for a mouse. :)

For Illustration Friday: Electricity

2008-05-15T22:42:00.000-07:00

My initial sketch (below) and the color version for the Illustration Friday project, "Electricity".

My Wild Hunt

2008-05-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

A progress shot of one my mini-projects whilst I continue my own Wild Hunt for full-time creative employment. A 4-hour detailed sketch at this point as posted in the above sketch. In the meantime, in addition to that pursuit -- I'm doing some freelancing and, as always...still updating the online portfolio.

Undersea

2008-04-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

A progress shot of the line-art for "Buried Treasure". I did a very light sketch of the overall character first going right to left (can see the light sketch in the face area of this particular image), and then reworked and fine-tuned with darker line-work and shading going from left to right. I'm also building elements separately for the scene because I have additional plans for bits and pieces along with the final illustration that I'm currently painting.

I'll post some more progress shots later...

In other news... Had a phone interview today and am doing an art test for another company...curious to see how that goes this time; different role, different product. :)

Rejected!

2008-04-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

Thank you for the interest you have expressed in our art position. We were very fortunate to review your recent application. However, at this time, we are pursuing other candidates based on the best match with the requirements of the job. Please check back to our website www."_____".com. We are frequently adding positions that may be of relevance to you and your background. Once again, we appreciate your interest in "_____". We wish you continued success in your search and the development of your career.

Sincerely, "_____" Recruiting

Yay! I finally received my first official rejection email/letter after sending out 19 resume and sample art submissions to various companies for a new full-time creative position -- that I've been applying to since the first week of April. Breaking into a new industry isn't easy, that's for sure. Some of the companies I applied to would likely be excellent experiences in understanding the development pipeline, but may not prove to have long-term creative interest for me (...for various reasons) and therefore great for short-term contract opportunities. A few job openings (less than 5) were actually referred to me by people that either currently work at the companies that I applied to, or know people who do so that's hopefully a plus. Only about 30 more submissions to go and then maybe a decent nibble like in this example. :)

Meanwhile, I'm updating my website with new art including an unofficial re-launch at the end of this month (always takes longer than I plan to debug and update while I multi-task on other items: job-hunting, networking, developing projects, etc.) with additional section updates throughout the month of May. At this time, the main art sections I'm creating include:
- Concept Art
- Illustration
- Sequential Art
- Sketches

with a quad of information sections:
- Homepage/brief introduction
- Resume
- About Me
- Resource Links

I've also been contacting people that I've worked with in the past to let them know that I'm available for freelance or local in-house contract work developing concept art and/or children's book illustration.

However, I'm avoiding web design and development like the plague -- it literally makes me ill. Hmm...maybe that's why it's taking so long to get my website updated...ha. And maybe that's why these two snippets in the Eric Canette interview from the Character Design blog, had me in complete agreement:

"...From Peter Chung I learned to not work on projects that don’t inspire me; projects that don’t do anything to make me want to jump out of bed, drive an hour into work, jockey a drafting table, day in and day out. It does nothing for the soul."

and

"...Also, always, ALWAYS think long term. For example, sure you could probably do a job that will pay ridiculously well financially, but if all is causes you is stress loss of sleep, then I don’t know how much that will do for you when all it just takes away from your mental health you know? Those are the things you need to consider before taking on projects. But the reality is, when you’re first starting out, you may not have that luxury, but once you’re e in there, once you have some notches on your belt, I believe it’s worth considering the points that I’ve just mentioned."

---------------------------------------------
Some rough preliminary sketches of an illustration that I'm working on, called "Buried Treasure". Final image size should be about 14" x 20".

Thumbnails.

Initial layout rough.

Orphan Works and related Hoopla

2008-04-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

Hoopla: Noun, informal.

1. Boisterous, jovial commotion or excitement.
2. Extravagant publicity: The new sedan was introduced to the public with much hoopla.
Talk intended to mislead or confuse.

I've been reading plenty of postings and commentary in the last couple of days about the potential Orphan Works legislation that first caught my attention back in March '08. Mark Simon's article over on AWN was definitely a "wake-up call", although maybe a bit shriller than most. I'm still not entirely sure what all is going on and what it could mean as regards to commercial and/or private copyrights for my artwork, or even how it could affect the way I post my artwork (and other images) on the internet; particularly since most of the legalize documentation is not something I read over and study on a daily basis (ha -- hardly). Is there a new bill regarding this up before the 2008 Congress? I've read both "yes" and "no". Most recently: hearings, definitely.

Whatever the case, I'm glad that it's finally on my radar, considering that the initial bill hearing occured back in 2005 and I'd never heard a peep about it till March of 2008.

If you're interested in checking out some of the additional resources that I've been reading in the last few days, here are some of the links (other links are also in my previous post):

1. Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists (IPA)
2. Six Misconceptions About Orphaned Works
3. Orphan Works blog
4. Bill Could Worsen Problem of Orphan Works
5. Status of 2008 Orphan Works legislation
6. Public Knowledge: Orphan Works articles
7. Flickr Strips Copyright Metadata
8. Countering the FUD about the "Orphan Works" copyright bill
9. Orphan Works Legislation: Round Two
10.Creative Commons sued for deception

Orphan Works: Artists' Copyrights Issue

2008-04-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

I'm actually almost afraid to post any more artwork online...and that includes launching my new website and portfolio after reading various articles and discussions about this bill that may soon be law here in the United States.

What is it? It's called the Orphan Works bill.

I initially found out about this new legislation that is going before Congress over on CGTalk, in this thread here. After doing some research of my own, I was concerned enough that I posted the same information over on ConceptArt as well, in order to, hopefully, get some of the professional artists on that board to post their comments and discuss how they thought it might affect our work practices.

Didn't get all of the discussion that I'd hoped for, but on April 10, Mark Simon posted an article called, "Mind Your Business: You Will Lose All The Rights to Your Own Art" on AWN (Animation World Network) about the Orphan Law legislation that I thought was an excellent simplification of some of the issues and certainly made it rather clear how this could affect anyone that was posting any images on the internet, not just the creatives who develop art and earn a living from it.

Here are some of my favorite points:
1. "...If the Orphan Works legislation passes, you and I and all creatives will lose virtually all the rights to not only our future work but to everything we've created over the past 34 years, unless we register it with the new, untested and privately run (by the friends and cronies of the U.S. government) registries. Even then, there is no guarantee that someone wishing to steal your personal creations won't successfully call your work an orphan work, and then legally use it for free."

2. "...However, an Orphan Works bill is also in the works in Europe. I was speaking recently with Roger Dean, the famed artist of the Yes album covers, and he is greatly concerned with what will happen if Orphan Works bills become law. "This will devastate the livelihood of artists, photographers and designers in a number of ways," Dean says. "That at the behest of a few hugely rich corporations who got rich by selling art that they played no part in the making of, the U.S. and U.K. governments are changing the copyright laws to protect the infringer instead of the creator. This is unjust, culturally destructive and commercial lunacy. This will not just hurt millions of artists around the world..."

3. "...Photos on the internet could be orphaned. With tens of millions of photos shared online with services like Flickr, Shutterfly and Snapfish, there is a huge opportunity for unauthorized use of your photos... legally. You could see photos you take of your family and kids, or of a family vacation, used in a magazine or newspaper without your permission or payment to you. You would have to pay to register your photos, all of them, in every new registry in order to protect them. Say the average person takes 300 photos per year (I take a lot more than that). If a registry only charges $5 per image, that is a whopping $1,500 to protect your photos that are protected automatically under the current laws. If there are three registries, protecting your images could cost an amazing $4,500. Not to mention the time it would take to register every photo you take. Plus, you will also have to place your copyright sign on every photo.

That's not including all your art, sketches, paintings, 3D models, animations, etc. Do you really have all that extra time and money? Plus, even if you do register, the people stealing your work can still claim it was orphaned and, unless you fight them, they win. Even if you win, you may not make back your legal fees.

It gets even better. Anyone can submit images, including your images. They would then be excused from any liability for infringement (also known as THEFT) unless the legitimate rights owner (you) responds within a certain period of time to grant or deny permission to use your work...."

4. There are many, many other problems with the Orphan Works legislation. As a creator, YOU MUST understand what is going on. For additional information on Orphan Works developments, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists.

This is not something that is going to go away easily. We need to be vocal NOW!

This legislation has been beaten or delayed for the past two years and they will keep trying until it passes. This is no time to be quiet and see what happens. What will happen depends on you. Send e-mails and call your congressmen. Ownership of your own creations depends on it.

Roger Dean sums this up well. "Where are the colleges and universities in all this? Has the whole world gone to sleep?"

Edit (some additional links with info):
1. From ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers)
2. Creative Commons Sued for Deception
3. OrphanWorks blog
4. Bill Could Worsen Problem of Orphan Works
5. March 13, 2008 Judiciary Hearing: "Hearing on Promoting the Use of Orphan Works: Balancing the Interests of Copyright Owners and Users" (video)
6. PDF of outline for above hearing

Milestones

2008-03-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

This past week I celebrated another birthday...whee. Yeah, it's that time of life when you're always turning 29...and will do so "ad infinitum". :)

My work friends were very sweet: from making a very delicious, very rich, home-made chocolate cake for me to share (although I did take a small second slice home with me, heh); treating me to lunch (yay, sushi!); to creating a poster birthday card for everyone to sign of my "mightiness". Ha. I was quite flattered. Even the Texas weather celebrated with a lovely Spring day filled with sunshine and near eighty degree temp. Especially nice since the following days have been much cooler and cloudy with some rain here and there.

Meanwhile, I've been keeping busy with my homework: from organizing my art files and setting goals and deadlines for my home illustration work (including the art mentioned previously being developed specifically for my new portfolio); to setting a sterner handle on my budget (I think everyone is doing some tightening there); to getting my taxes done (should have that finished after next weekend - bleh); to having a hella lotta fun doing my creative writing. :)

The DFW Writer's conference that I attended a last month provided a good bit of info to soak up, but no agent pitching from me just yet. If ever. :) I came back with several pages of notes, a better appreciation of the DFW writing community, and some homework. Part of that homework includes doing some recommended reading to help me build stronger, more interesting characters; to help me with developing dialogue for my characters (an area I feel a need to work on); and motivate me to "get my ass in gear" so that I finally finish my first novel manuscript and (possibly) send it out to the appropriate literary agent. Most of what I learned could also apply to my picture book stories and my other Tween or YA story, which is the graphic novel I've been developing. I also attended Sarah M.'s presentation on Graphic Novel development which pretty much affirmed some decisions I'd already made about the one I've been working on, but I also noted some additional points to consider for future projects.

Like anthologies. :)

But first, I need to finish what I've started as well as keep in mind some of the creative priorities that are key to my illustration and vis dev artist career: like finally updating my online portfolio, darn it!

I also have been getting a few newsletters from Holly Lisle that I signed up for about a month ago. Can't think at the moment how I found out about her postings; likely another writing blog that I was checking out from my notes. I like most of her books -- they're usually a fun read; and I'm looking forward to checking out a YA series that she's mentioned (saw the cover artwork in development on another artist's site which originally peaked my interest). I definitely appreciate that she takes the time to share some of her writing experiences and provide some good insights to her writing process, although not all of it is applicable to my stuff.

In any case, my novel is progressing quite nicely by this point. It's been seriously fun (and surprisingly addictive) to finally take my rough notes and outlines and bits of story, characters, world-building, conversation and narrative that I have been writing by hand in my spiral notebooks for the past several years (totally for my own amusement -- some of these notebooks have traveled with me quite a bit, too) and type them into a tighter format on my computer a few nights each week. It's actually somehow turning itself into a 60-90,000 word novel (not quite there yet, I'm only at about 6 delightful chapters typed in at the moment...hmm...about 30,000 words).

Even better, this one I'm writing up is really one out of several notebook stories or potential novels, in fact.

Still occasionally trying to decide if this particular novel is better presented as an eventual pair of books or if I should shoot for a trilogy...(eh, what's that about not counting ones chickens...). However, I'm only focusing on the one novel at the moment (I'm not counting my graphic novel, or the picture books as part of the notebook stories; they are quite a separate development). My sister has kindly accepted being my first reader and I expect she will be quite blunt about what she likes and doesn't like about it (or that needs improvement) -- she's my sister after all; it's lucky for me that we both enjoy some of the same genre reading. :)

My thought is to also include a few BW illustrations scattered throughout the book. They'll be some finished versions of the various thumbnails and sketches that I've done of specific elements, scenes and characters (and am still doing) as I've been writing my story. It's entirely possible, of course, that the only people that will ever see the finished product are my friends and family (or even just my sister and myself), but since this story was/is really written for my own enjoyment, I'm quite happy with that.

If, however, I do decide to take the next step once it's done and submit it to an agent for consideration and then, ideally, eventual publication...I'll let you all know. ;)

Fever Dreams and Rambles

2008-03-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

Don't have a cold or fever any more (not for the past month actually) and the cough is nearly gone at last - yay! At this point, it's probably a touch of allergies anyway... However, some of those fever dreams did linger with me and kept inspiring me, so above is another quick sketch from that. The final color version is in progress...

"..."

It can be somewhat disheartening to hear of the recent successes of some of the concept artists over on CA when it seems like you're sending your art out again and again, and hearing little if anything back. Is it bad to have a variety of different creative experiences? Is it because you don't have specific experience in game development or animation or whatever field you're trying to get your foot into? Is it because you don't personally know someone who works in the industry? Is it because you're not uber passionate about playing video games every free hour of the day but would rather focus on practicing your art or writing, or watch a movie or read a book, and just play games the odd hour or two once or twice a week?

Could be any of that, could be that they don't have an opening at the moment, could even be that the various styles of art that you've done for other jobs or what they saw from what you sent in your portfolio submission just don't fit with their current needs...ah, well. Try, try again.

I've been thinking that with all the rapid concept art I develop for the day job (some days more than others) and for my own little projects, it may help explain my almost reluctance (with a dash of procrastination, if I'm really honest about it) to work on the Fairy Tale illustrations I have on my list of "things to do". While I can and do get immediate satisfaction from the rough sketches and quick coloring of the personal concept artwork I do some evenings and weekends after the day job, it takes so much longer when I'm doing a tight illustration piece to finally reach the same level of satisfaction and see some real progress. A piece of concept art or spot art I can finish in an hour or two, at most four; I basically have to schedule a month or two to simply get one 11x17 illustration completed (that meets my standards)...for what would take a week or less if I was focused and working on it at the full-time day job...if I want the final finished illustration artwork for my new portfolio to solicate freelance work among other opportunities.

But, if I'm serious about my creative goals, that's what I simply will have to do.

After discovering another rather excellent site that posted info on upcoming books in the sci-fi fantasy and paranormal romance genres, along with a few astute comments about some cover designs that I also thought were rather sadly illustrated and unfortunately art directed, I decided to include some alternative concepts and a couple of cover illustration redos much like a couple of assignments I had back at university when I was studying illustration. Plus, once again, these will be some nice pieces that will fit well in my updated portfolio with the "Myths, Fairy Tales, and Legends" theme.

These past few weeks have also included some good progress on my first dummy picture book where I'm both the author and illustrator. I'll finally be submitting to various publishers in late spring. And then likely several months of waiting. Argh. The other picture book I'll continue developing once I've sent off the first, although I'll probably switch to focusing on the GN for the change of pace. The YA graphic novel remains another "work-in-progress" at this point as does my fantasy novel although I do write a page or two on that one almost every night. Some thumbnail sketches, too, as I mentioned previously, to help me visualise where this story is taking me.

Happy Birthday, Little Sister!

2008-02-27T23:08:00.000-08:00

A quick coloring job in PS (about an hour) of a sketch that I originally pencilled in the card I sent my sister for her birthday. The sketch was inspired by a photo of her wearing one of her favorite costumes: my sister does the RenFair thing and this particular costume is based on the ballgown from the movie, Labyrinth, a gift a couple of years ago from her loving hubby (who also sewed it).

I posted the coloring progress in Photoshop, since this blog of mine is my "work in progress" after all. :)

Fey Fragments

2008-02-04T23:42:00.000-08:00

Bits and pieces of sketches in addition to those I'll be working on over the next couple of months as I continue to whip my portfolio into shape. Some fever dreams I had this past week have been definite inspiration, heh.

I always forget how the flu keeps me exhausted for days, even weeks after I "feel better". Still have a bit of a cough and congestion.

Did squeeze in some writing over the weekend, but I'm not yet back on regular schedule for that. Disappointing. I'm surprised about how much I think about some of my characters every day, though; and keep up with the world building. On the plus side, it helps that I can sketch out and visualize specific areas and scenarios in my notebooks for the various bits I have ongoing. Kind of a bit of storyboarding with a slight nod to graphic novel pacing. Not only does it help me stay on track, but it makes me curious enough to keep exploring. Can't wait to finally read it all when I'm finally done. :)

My Black Hat

2008-01-30T22:08:00.000-08:00

Still recuperating from the flu/cold thing, but no fever so I went back to work today. Staying home and sleeping all day when I wasn't coughing my head off was getting a bit boring anyways. But tonight after work...I knew it -- I'm starting to feel congested, dammit.

Shadow Sick

2008-01-26T23:16:00.000-08:00

Evidently whatever strains of flu were in the flu vaccination that I got this past fall were no match for the variant that one of my co-workers brought back from China after Christmas. I have the flu. I feel like my body went through a meat tenderizer. I can't concentrate and I keep forgetting what I was about to do. I'm coughing so much that my voice is all hoarse and squeaky and I can't sing with my favorite songs. :( At least I'm not congested or all stuffed up. Maybe that's simply a later punishment just when I think I'm getting better...

I hate being sick.

Didn't feel up to coloring my hair today even though the pink is so faded only a few strands show on my bangs...so I did it with a quick sketch and Photoshop instead.

More Gabriella

2008-01-19T22:19:00.000-08:00

I keep thinking of Gabriella sitting in her late father's study, writing in her journal of the horrors she sees of the Black Death all around her. So, that's where I went with this quick sketch. I also made her a bit younger than the previous sketch.

------------------------------

While I was doing some research this afternoon, I ran across a bit of creative writing via the EOS Books blog to Wired that had me coming up with my own little six word stories, like this one:

Comforted, she slept. Hungry, he ate.

For some reason, I keep thinking of Goldilocks...as dinner.

Gabriella as The Italian Plague Doctor

2008-01-19T12:41:00.000-08:00

Interesting topic over on this week's CHOW: The Plague Doctor. To give the character more emotional context, the brief has the following account from a fictional character who was supposed to have lived during the time:

“My name is Gabriella. My father was a doctor, and I learned from him how to treat various maladies and to set bones and which herbs and mixtures and such would treat this illness or that.

“My father, he died two months ago from the Black Death. I did not know what to do, so I donned his mask, gown, his boots and stick and gloves, and try to care for those I can.

“I try to help. But they die anyway. So many. I bring the flowers and perfumes, the hot drinks, the blessed artifacts, leeches – I even smoke like a man now to ward the Death away from me! The laxatives do not seem to work, and I hate covering the poor souls in mercury and placing them in ovens to burn the disease out. They scream so….

“May god have mercy on our souls, for I do not believe anyone shall survive…”

Another nice little twist in the brief, while the account is supposed to be from Italy in the mid to late 1300's (or 14th century), the image the art director posted in the brief for the Plague Doctor is actually from the 17th century. Which sort of means the artists can be a bit creative with how they interpret the costume design.

The above is my initial quick rough sketch. I'll post some more explorations over the rest of the weekend. Since the due date for this exercise is tomorrow, it will have to be a quick series of studies and one color version picked for the final round. Although I may choose to do a tighter illustration later like for the Herald when I have more time to spend on it. We'll see.

Whatever...

2008-01-15T23:06:00.000-08:00

Well, I joined the Women in Toys non-profit organization today. I was a bit surprised (okay, disappointed) to note how long it's been since some areas were updated. My membership is for a year, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully, I'll get to meet some of the ladies at the Toy Fair next month.

Posted another quick random evening sketch, no relation to vacation...just my mood.

Small Steps

2008-01-13T22:59:00.000-08:00

Decided to enter the upcoming Spectrum 15 contest so I've been digging through last year's bits and pieces to see what 2-3 options I should send. Trying to think positive...like: Hey, you won the local middle school student competition with your sci-fi poster entry for "Reading - It's out of this World!" back in 1978...

Bah.

Meanwhile, I'm doing the internet rounds (I'm such a research whore) to seek out and find upcoming creative workshops for myself (preferably local) to improve on my art (tolerable) and writing skills (needs improvement). Unfortunately, it appears that everyone is picking the same weekend in February to hold their event which means I'm probably limited to one option. Although I'm already trying to figure out ways to attend at least two of them: the DFW Writer's Conference and the ConDFW (Peter S. Beagle!!! and Donato Giancola!!!). The North Texas chapter of SCBWI will be holding a critique for writers and illustrators that weekend as well; but it's something they do just about every other month so I can hold off on that one. I've attended several times before in prior years for some input and encouragement when I was still doing alot of internet and design consulting and trying to get back into children's illustration (educational or otherwise). Plus, there's the NYC Toy Fair which my Art Director mentioned he'd like me to attend this year...it would be my first visit (this after almost 4 years of developing product designs for toys and such) so I'm curious to see what it's all about.

I missed the Austin/Dallas Sketchgroup meet-up in Austin this past Saturday. But, I'm hoping to attend the next one which is supposed to be in the Dallas area. Hopefully, this time I can drag along some of the guys I work with as well to bring some additional flavor to the mix. :) In the meantime, it looks like there will be some, (maybe alot) of people getting together to be part of the 17th Worldwide Sketchcrawl on Saturday, January 19th. I think I may observe it quietly at home...whilst at work on my FTM&L portfolio projects. I have entirely too many sketches and fewer final pieces as it is. And most of my in-house art (that I like) I cannot post as of yet.

Posted some random sketches...which includes a couple of doodles from vacation:

Possibilities

2008-01-06T22:07:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I had a rather fantastic Christmas family vacation up in the Canadian Rockies at a nice little place called Chateau Lake Louise. If you ever have the chance to go (at least in winter), I highly recommend it! It's been rather a long time since I've been around that much snow at Christmas time (don't get that kind of stuff in Texas), I'd never been to Canada (another cool factor)...and I've never been skiing either, so it was great to finally do so. Snowed a bit every night and some nice little flurries now and again during the day, but we also had some nice clear days, too. The weather was pretty fantabulous, I think. A lovely international crowd from guests to staff, too. Plus so many fun things to do without having to leave for nearby Banff or Calgary: snowshoeing, ice skating, sleigh rides, singing Christmas Carols, attending an outdoor Nativity pageant (I stayed inside where it was warm and watched from the windows, heh), catching snowflakes on my tongue, breathing in that fresh mountain air, ice hockey, spending quality time with the family, spa massages, checking out the breakfast/dinner buffets and eating at excellent restaurants, checking out the cute Aussie and Canadian men (ha), walks along the frozen lake to see the glacier (before it all melts due to global warming)...plus alot of other activities that were available that I simply had no time for -- hey, this was a vacation after all! Took entirely too many photos but got a few good ones for my photo album as well as reference for potential Christmas design projects. The above photo is me sitting on one of the lakeside benches facing Lake Louise -- it just happens to be rather buried by about 3 feet of snow. As I understand, last year they finished the season with about 16 feet. D'oh! So here are few of my photos:

However, my time away on vacation (before, after and during) rather limited my computer work (like, not at all other than "the job"), so I chose not to stress about developing the CA Queen Medusa challenge in time for today's deadline. It looks like there are some interesting submissions coming in from all skill levels, too! Did manage to do a wee bit of sketching (see below) when it first started, but I don't want to rush the project, particularly since it's now for my own satisfaction and not for a client (i.e. no money). On a positive note, since it fits in well with my art theme of "Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends" for my portfolio update, I'll still work on it and finish it. And post my the progress here and in my CA sketchbook for instructive feedback, of course.

This next one is most likely the layout I'll develop -- the Young Queen transforming into the Medusa (Crete and Minoan costume influences) and stepping into her new reign as Character Concept Artist Muse with her Gorgon sisters guarding her back:

In other randomness, my poor tv finally died this past December....I knew it was about to go since it had been limping along earlier this summer with some odd color squiggles and occasional green screen oddities -- I bought it brand new in 1997 (?) after my college b/w tv croaked (yes, I didn't realize that Scully had red hair back then), so it's given me a pretty good long life I suppose. Funny, it just happened to die at a pivotal "fires from hell" scene while I was watching the 2nd Hellboy animation DVD, "Blood and Iron".... Hmm. Anyways, I've been shopping around for a new tv both online and in stores to see what I like, will most likely be getting an LCD that will somehow both fit in my tight budget (which has already had a shock when I saw how much the flat panels cost just for a screen size close to my old tv) and on my current tv stand/entertainment center. Interestingly enough, I've found that without the tv and not watching various shows as part of my daily or weekend schedule I seem to have more time in a day to do other things (reading, drawing, etc)...and that time isn't moving quite so rapidly somehow...or I'm getting stuff accomplished more quickly. Which is making my tv shopping drag on, too, since I'm not rushing to get a new one. Except that I'm wanting to desperately watch LOST when that starts up again, so I think that's probably my new tv purchase deadline, heh.

I'm also taking time this weekend to finalize my New Year's Resolutions list -- doing so seems to help me focus my efforts and work on key strategies (in other words, what is my method of attack to achieve my goal) when I actually write them down as opposed to just thinking about The Goals (creative and otherwise) in general. Yup, didn't meet my goals for 2007. In any case, here's an idea of what I'll be working on in the next year...in no particular order...er, the much more detailed adn final goals and strategies list (ForMyEyesOnly) will be posted on my home studio bulletin board.... :)

writing
submit story proposals
maintain the sketchbook(s)
update the portfolio(s)
tighten storyboard roughs
new freelance submissions
attend workshops (to learn, practice, network, and challenge myself, not teach)
maintain a regular exercise routine
practice the piano and flute
volunteer with the local humane society
consider possibilities (creative and otherwise -- ha)

Well, we'll see how it all goes this year!

"Happy New Year...Time for a new start, time to chase the monsters back with sound and fury."
- Marjorie M. Liu, Holidays Are Hell