I'll Wail Your Smoke

It's my inner angst. Haha! No it is not. I am hilarious!

"Wailing Smoke" is a commission!

Up and Coming...

Sketches for an upcoming project. That is all.

Not Harry's Gryphon

It's been ages since anyone asked me to do anything in plain ol' graphite. God, it felt good. You hear me computer? It felt. Good.

This is an illustration for an exceedingly ambitious individual working on his own fun macarbe tabletop game. We call this a gryphon, but I don't think its related to the one in Harry Potter.

that guy, in coffeeshops, writing a book.

I'm hurling these ideas around right now for a book called Rememberlands that I'm soon going to shamelessly hurl at Scholasitc's Graphix imprint. It also may have found its way, expensively, in the mail to Pixar.

That is a spring-loaded VW Bug, yes. I'm calling it the VW "Hopper" and you can't stop me. Unless you are Volkswagen.

Wow, look at those... inks.

These are from a HOT minute back. I never posted them for a few reasons... the cheesy model strut, my obvious hard-on for manga styling regardless of actual content, my equally obvious penchant for boys with hair and rad jackets.

But man, lookit them... inks.

Process Process

Sometimes, as an "artist" in some niche, you lose touch. You kind of forget what the rest of the world sees when they look at what you're doing. It's like being in a fishbowl, in the dark, in the museum of Modern Art, listening to Bjork.

These simple sketches are just progress work for a character. For a lot of animation groups, the steps leading up to a finalized design are, well, important. These "action shots" of Kenzie help explore her range and her physicality. If there's anybody out there that likes to nitpick acting, go ahead and do it.

A Lot Going On Here

Sculpting is awesome, guys. It's like the best thing ever. Anyway, this one was quite the endeavor and parts of it really pleased me and other parts fell short. It's a perfect metaphor for life, or something.

The goal was to create an engaging but evolutionarily believable animal. I enjoy a more animated look, so the combination got me something like a very, very texturally detailed cartoon character.

This is one that looks better in Real Life. It turned out there was no way to shoot this without getting his head in front of that very crowded turtle shell. I took that into account when making Trojan (scroll down or see right) who photographs beautifully. A lot of times, simpler is better.
The Hildyfoo (yes) plants a garden in his shell as an adolescent. He uses it to impress the ladies, in hopes that when he grows up to be a big island they will live there. Mmm, nature.

The sculpt is of him hunting materials for his garden. The surprise rat in the tree is just bonus.