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.

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."

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

shaved ice

Available in Red and Blue.

Business Cards!

Right now, I'm working out a business card design which can hopefully be tied into resume and website. I also have to throw together a few signs for the Summer Festival which is in a few days!

I placed an order for 1000 business cards for 18 bucks. Really excited for this. 

dogs

sleeping puddles

octodude

I don't have a name for him so Octodude it is. I doodled this guy at Sunny Shah's art show and felt like painting him.

canyon

I have appropriately named this file holyfuck.psd.
Working from imagination- no ref whatsoever, so I'm pretty happy with this.

Update woohoo

I am really happy with this progress. Plan on making a gif for this one like I did for the teapot still life.

bottle doodle

Drew this at friend's birthday and he asked to keep it. Wine bottle in paper bag.

Legend of Korra plate extensions

Seth assigned me to do plate extensions of some Korra screenshots. Originals within box.

Some pugz I drew in class yesterday.

My dad's girlfriend's dog Bindi has a tumor and he asked me to paint a picture of her with her dog.

Still working on this.

Speedpainting Collabs

Yesterday I participated in a collaborative speedpainting activity with a few friends. We started off with this image and had to do something with it, either inspired by in some way or painted over or whatever, for 20 minutes, flatten it, and save it to DropBox. Next person does something more to the file, flattens and saves it, and so on. The theme was underworld. 

Original

Cody's base

Molly's base

My base

Seth's base

Sunny's base