En Plein Air

Went to Kafka's with Karla and Seth for the first time in a while. We sat outside and draw whatever interested us. I picked this sunny hill on somebody's property. It looked much better before I painted it, but was salvaged by the addition of the thick pen and the gouache highlights. Also drew some people in Kafka's before we left to go outside and painted them when we got back. 

Teal House

Here's a thing I finished up today.
Took longer than I would've liked, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I went around on a sunny day a few  months ago and took pictures of some houses on my street that caught my eye. Planning to do a few more of these soon.

finished house

some progress shots

In other news, I just finished a summer class and have a bit of time off before the next one. I'm heading down to Redmond tomorrow to visit Mike and I'll have some downtime while he's at Microsoft, so I'm hoping to do some more of these if possible.

Character for Wind Waker

For our final assignment in Professional Applications, we got to work with art director Michael Stribling on a character design related project. We had to create a character(s) or class or creature for an existing videogame, using established design language to create something unique yet cohesive.

I chose the 2003 game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, memorable for its cel-shaded style, bright colors, and expressive characters. My character is a scavenger and a fighter, collecting bits of armor from fallen foes. She is supposed to be slightly older than Link, also on a journey to rescue the kidnapped girls imprisoned in the Forsaken Fortress. I wanted her to be cute, but slightly menacing, so I gave her an oversized helmet and spear.

end result

character in screenshot

original sketch

first pass

second pass

Portfolio for class

Today I last-minute printed my portfolio stuff for Jaime's class. I took longer than anticipated to leave the house thanks to being distracted by Mad Men.

There was a tiny complication at the print shop due to language barriers but things worked out. I accidentally printed the postcard mailer too big because I forgot to double check the template I made, but it looks alright anyways. The prints aren't the best quality and my colors shifted some but altogether, the work looks pretty good.

I feel a bit narcissistic with having my face all over my stuff and it's strange to present my work under such a coherent brand. The complete package consists of the printed portfolio in this black velcro box, an oversized postcard mailer, an envelope containing mini prints, stickers and a business card, and a leave behind novelty package containing 3 buttons and some more stickers. Despite the print quality, I'm happy overall.

still life painting

Feeling kinda in a slump today so I pecked away at this painting so I wouldn't feel completely unproductive.
We're wrapping up the semester shortly and there's still quite a bit to be done. Final Professional Applications project was assigned- a character design to fit into an existing game world. I wish we'd been told sooner, but I also wish many other things. We have a final portfolio presentation in Jaime's class on Tuesday so I need to find a place to print up my stuff- really hoping I don't end up at Kinkos...

On another note, I've been keeping myself busy with schoolwork and researching game design and related topics. I have a few pieces to upload at some point.

BASIL

Last semester in Game Illustration, I created a character, Basil the red panda. Basil ended up as the star of the final project, a side scrolling flash game built in an incredibly frustrating and broken engine. Despite the struggles, I had alot of fun with it, and the end result wasn't too bad, all things considered. 

mockup screenshot with partial UI and character sketch in environment

full color character concept 

finished sprite sheet of Basil

 

attempt at a finished illustration, in progress

input and editing from +Seth Rutledge. Thanks, Seth!

decided on a landscape composition in the end

Been a while

I haven't done an update in a while. Been pretty busy with school and life things- so much going on. This semester, classes are focused on self marketing and working with art directors on specific projects, so useful assignments for once. In the self marketing class, we have to put together a professional portfolio as well as make business cards. As I already had cards made last summer, I was given an alternative assignment- a novelty leave behind. This is the mockup for my novelty item, a pouch of buttons to go with the business cards.

In the other class with art directors, the first project was a decorative postage stamp led by illustrator Nancy Stahl. They were meant to be with a cause or charity in mind and I went with food/seed diversity to promote eating a variety of fruits and vegetables rather than relying on Monsanto sanctioned single species produce.
I'm not sure how well that comes across in the finished piece, but I'm happy with the art part of the project. (Attached is a crappy lo-res version until I find my flash drive, it has since been improved)

 
In other news, ECCC 2013 is rapidly approaching. I am scrambling to make a few new pieces for prints. I do have buttons and cards this time around, as well as quite a few artist trading cards to sell. My tablemate +Karla Monterrosa just booked us a room at the Green Tortoise Hostel, and if all goes in our favor, we'll have a private room without the hassle of disturbing others or being disturbed- sleep is important! We'll be there under the guise of Lionfish Republic once again and you can find us at booth K-23/24.

Hey look, more steampunk

In my Game Illustration class, we're doing a class-wide reskinning of the card game Dominion with a post-apocalyptic steampunk spin. The card I chose/was assigned to was The Mafia/Mob (A group of citizens trying to exert influence through violence). I thought they'd be pretty tough with a big robot buddy, so I gave them one. Hopefully they come off as aggressive and intimidating as intended. This is one of the rare times where I have more than one figure in a composition so I should probably do more like this. Pretty happy with how it turned out. This is the 'tight sketch', final piece due on Thursday. 

Lots of things

Been very busy! I got into the illustration major at school which ended up being good and bad. Good because my degree will be worth a bit more to me and I get a better chance of getting into the classes I want, but bad because it delays my graduation. Oh well. 

I also got into the game design class I wanted. I thought we would be working in the genre of game art, but we're actually making games. Project 1 is a board game which I'll write more about later. Project 2 is a  card game, and the final project is a Flash sidescroller. I'm pretty excited about all this, though some of my classmates are disappointed in the class. I'm happy because I actually have something to focus on. I want to work on my board game beyond the bounds of the class and hopefully use it for my grad project. 

I started working on the characters yesterday. I hammered out some silhouettes and now rendering them out.

The Snob

The Collector 

Silhouettes - not labeled - The Gamer

D10 practice painting

School's back

Still trying to figure out my schedule.

Edit: I ended up with class on Thursday and Friday, both mornings, but Thursday is a 6 hour class.
I ended up getting into the Game Illustration class which is pretty cool because it actually has me focusing on things, and inspired me towards a topic I'm interested in. Class direction itself is a bit meh because the students are on different levels of understanding.

I also have Editorial Illustration with visiting artist Calef Brown. The critiques in this class are actually pretty helpful, and the one-on-one feedback is good. The overall skill level in the class is much higher than other illustration and general classes I've taken at Emily Carr. My friend Sinan is also in the class, so it's good to know someone there.

Unfortunately, class time isn't used effectively in either class. In Game Illustration, we've spent a bunch of class time playtesting eachother's games or playing published games to get a feel for their mechanics. This really shouldn't be done during class time, and I wish we were actually learning things, like maybe a lecture on game theory or something, or discussion of the gaming industry. Editorial has had a bunch of wasted time as well. Day one, class let out after about an hour. The past two classes weren't very productive either, as we waited for the teacher to come give individual feedback. There wasn't clear direction on what to work while we waited. The semester seems to generally be a letdown. I've already accepted that things are pretty crappy. The money has already been paid, and complaints to administration tend to result in responses like "if you don't like it, you can leave."

new hovernote banner

I made a new banner for the hovernote Facebook page. Speaking of, it's on version 1.3 now and includes exciting features like an improved settings panel, autosaving and recent notes list, and automatic bullets for making lists. Notes can also be collapsed to an icon for quickly hiding and bringing back notes without having to use the notification panel.

And in context:

On the note of Android, I also recently got a Nexus 7 tablet and it's really exciting and will save me from lugging my laptop around on days I don't really need to. Convenient too, since my phone's earpiece decided to stop working about a week ago, defeating just about all of the purpose of having a phone- at least the screen didn't break or anything...

foundation book entry

My contribution for a collaborative project my friend organized. We’re putting together an 8 page full color book based around the key locations incoming ECUAD students need to know.   Even if they don’t enjoy the activity, they’ve got a sweet little book filled with creative, original illustrations. 

The location I chose was the print card machine and here we have a new student, nervously trying to figure it out. 

birthday doodle

Business cards

Finally got my cards back from Jukebox and they look nice. I also acquired a working printer from Mike to replace the POS printer I got for free off someone's lawn last year. With my resume finally out of the way and business cards to boot, I guess it's about time I start actively applying for things. I'm a bit hesitant at the same time though, with school resuming in about a month. I don't want to potentially get hired only to tell them I won't be available full time, nor do I want to disclose something like that at the time of my application lest that deter me from employment. I'm only going to be taking classes Monday and Tuesday though, so I hope to come up with something, preferably a print shop.