Stage Fright

Making art makes you vulnerable, kind of like being on stage. You try to envision the audience naked but then look down and realize you're the one who's stripped of all disguises. You put your art out there and you let the world take a peek inside your head - hoping to connect with another human being. Sometimes no one gets it though, and that's when you realize how strange you are...or how bad your market yourself.

Challenge of Balance

There comes a time during every semester when my brain crashes much like a computer. An overload of relevant and irrelevant information flood the mushy folds of my knowledge bulb until I can't sort out red from Cheerios or mustard from Lord of the Rings. It usually doesn't happen THIS soon into a semester, but it does occur eventually. As an intelligent reader, you've probably already picked up on my befuddled thought process as I spew incoherence from my finger tips. I almost don't even remember what I came here for...

Oh, wait, I remember now. I was feeling embarrassed about doing poorly in school as compared to my normal standards. You know, it's really not that big of a deal. I mean, yes, it IS a big deal (nearly a $100K deal!), but there is still time to fix things. I've only had a couple of slow weeks and there are about nine or ten to go. The only way to do better is to be positive!

*cough*...and stop procrastinating till the last minute *cough**cough**hack**cough*
*clears throat* Whoa, sorry about that! I've been sick the past couple of days.


Alright, so after all that gibberish I just threw up, this is what I really came here for - to share a drawing I did for fun instead of the homework I should have been doing.



Am I happy with the drawing? Kinda.
Could I have made it look better? Yes.
Was it worth putting off homework for? I think so.

I've been in a creative rut for a long while now. Every day I become more and more self-conscious about my abilities and less confident that I can do anything properly. The longer I go without drawing "just for fun," the worse it gets. Yes, homework is important, but when I forget to draw for myself, I forget the point of studying to be an artist at all.

...But from now on I need better timing for my therapeutic drawing sessions. Homework gets done from now on. No more excuses.

Storyboarding is Fun

I know I say this all the time, but it's been way too long since my last post! I'm getting worse and worse about keeping up with the ol' blog. There are just too many sites to keep up with these days - too too many. Oh well, it keeps me on my toes (when I remember to update said sites!).

Anyway, just wanted to post the first half of my storyboard homework while I'm thinking about it. We had to analyze a commercial and break down each shot into a storyboard. Fun stuff! The actual commercial can be viewed here.

On a side note, I think I start a ton of paragraphs with the word "Anyway." It has a nice flow, but I should probably looking into extending my vocabulary to give you, the reader, a more diversified and literary experience. Just a thought.

ANYHOW (you like how I did that?), here is the storyboard:

Playing with Flash

Just wanted to whip up a quick update since I haven't in forever. School is out for the summer, I passed all my classes with acceptable grades (yay!), and I have been feverishly searching for a job. Actually, "feverishly" isn't exactly the right word to describe my search - desperate yet laid back seems more accurate. Kind of an oxymoron, yeah, but pretty much the only way I can describe it.

Lately I have been having weird dreams starring people from my high school days in odd situations. The first dream in this "series" conveyed a strange mixture of emotions including regret, contentment, and doom. You wouldn't think those feelings would work together harmoniously, but they really did. I don't remember much of the dream now, but I was in one of the top floors of a building about ten stories high with two or three people from high school. It was night and we were all about to die. The building was collapsing or a nuclear explosion was imminent, I don't remember which one. I think it was the nuclear thing. The room reminded me of an old chemistry lab. There was a guitar and small amp plugged in to the wall by the beakers. We all took turns playing and reminiscing and gazing into each others eyes with regret. There was regret for the things we did in the past, but mostly for the things we didn't do. I think the most regret we had was not being able save ourselves, though. It was pretty intense!

Just last night I had a similar dream with another group of high school friends from a whole different phase of my life. This dream uprooted feelings of longing and invisibility that I haven't experienced in forever. No one was doomed to die in this manifestation of my subconscious, but I was so expendable I might as well have been.

Anyway, all these dreams stirred up some emotions I haven' felt in a while and have been strangely enjoyable. I actually felt like drawing today thanks to the overflow. I started drawing a gal trying to listen through a door and ended up with the following interactive flash...thing. I couldn't figure out how to draw her arm/hand so I just took it off and had fun with her hair. Click on the hair thumbnails under the girl to change her do.

Thanks for listening to my crazy dream stories! I was really wanting to tell someone and I feel better now, even if it's just my screen that I'm typing to. :)

(it cuts off some of the file, so you can check it out here for the full thing)

Final Stretch

These last couple weeks of the semester are going to be brutal. So much to do...definitely not enough time to finish everything. I've had my fair share of set-backs throughout semester and can't wait for summer break so I can focus on freelance. My brain is about fried and needs to recuperate. :)

Okay now random pictures:

Speed painting to loosen up and pretty much relax. He was bald but now he looks kind of like a monk or something.



Earthbound. Dnuobhtrae. Moonside is twisted and scary but I like it.

Vote if you like funny bunnies!

As you may know, I have been reluctant to submit my apparel designs anywhere other than Teefury, but that is finally starting to change. I still check Teefury every day because I love love LOVE the community and tees, but that doesn't mean I have to limit my artistic growth or success! I'm excited to say that I've been working harder than ever to get designs printed and work my way out of this debt monster I seem to have fallen into. Yay for being productive!

Speaking of productive, if you're interested in an inspiration article on the subject you should hope over to Jimiyo's blog!

Alright, so now to the necessary evil: shameless self-promotion. I've just submitted a revamped version of "Don't come in! I'm naked!" to Threadless in hopes of getting it printed. You might remember it from a previous post. It's much more muted now, very subtle coloring with a slight pop of color. I really like the change. Hopefully the design will be approved within the next day or so. When it is, you can vote and help make it a tee!

You can vote by clicking the image below:








Okay, now it's time to be productive on HOMEWORK! :D
Have an awesome day/night!

The Froggy and the Fly

This is what I'm turning in for homework RIGHT NOW!....or well..right after I finish posting this post. Ahhh I still have homework to finish! Gotta run! Enjoy!

The Exchange of Power

Sky and earth, light and dark, good and evil. ...Yin and yang?

There is always balance.

I am sick with a sore throat and a runny nose. I guess it was time to balance out all the good luck and health I have had for so long! So I happily take on this sickness (but I'll still complain to Dustin like a baby, ha ha).

HomeworkHomeworkHomework!

What do you want first...the good news or the bad news?

The bad news, huh?

Well, even if you don't want the bad news first, you're getting it! I've always been one to save the best for last.

Okay, the bad news:
The list of projects I need to do aside from school is overflowing! OVERFLOWING I say!! Off the paper and onto the FLOOR kind of overflowing! Yeah, it's pretty scary when that happens, especially when the list of stuff to do for school is starting to boil over as well. So yeah, bad news is I am a slow-poke and all progress on non-school related things has come to a screeching halt. Sorry!

Alrighty, now the GOOD new!

Was there good news? After spewing about the bad news I kind of forgot.

Oh yeah, the good news is that I should be able to buckle down and get lots and lots of school work done very soon. At the beginning of the semester, I found it very hard to start any homework due to the dread of opening giant programs and being consumed by them, but now I am wielding knowledge! Yes, this knowledge helps me open programs without fear or dread and instead makes them bend to my will. So now that I have acquired some guts I should be able to have even more fun animating! Yay!

You know what that means, right? That means I'll be able to get to non-school related projects one of these days...hopefully soon! Double-yay!

Okay, enough of that crazy-ness. Here is what you've been waiting for (or not). My homework for the week! If the animation looks funky that's because it is. This was me animating before I was wielding knowledge and guts. They will become much more awesome in the future.

More ASL Kitties

Just playing with color. Don't mind me.

I'll have to say I like the blue boy and pinky idea for shirts, but the hot pink/blue cat would be a nifty looking sticker.

ASL Kitty 2?

Trying to figure out how to color it better. I'm not doing too well. I should probably get back to homework as the weekend will be over before I know it! Ah time, how you elude me.

ASL Kitty Loves You!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day! I've always been one to procrastinate...I hope you can forgive me.

Ball 'N' Tail

Sorry I have not been posting lately, but school has been KER-A-ZEEE! To make it up to you, here's my most recent homework assignment! We are studying the wave principle in 3D character animation and the tail was suppose to be practice.

This is me doing my homework

I am enrolled in a "Developing Story" class where I learn to write screenplays and all that lovely stuff. Our first assignment is to come up with a story premise based on a word we pick from an environment and I somehow ended up picking "Sleep." The environment was a Red Cross Shelter in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. How I ended up thinking of sleep, I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, it turns out putting my ideas into a story premise is harder than it should be. Here is a taste of how my attempts have been going:

When a search and rescue crew finds a sleeping child on the banks of a Louisiana marsh, unreal things begin to happen. With every step they take to extract the girl from the hurricane scared earth...grass and bunnies sprout from under their feet and sunshine rays spout from their eyeballs.

Needless to say, it could use some work.

And last but not least...I can't make a post without a picture so here you go. The Universe or a galaxy or a dragon....or all three! Take from it what you will.

Stay Fresh

Another study from www.jamesvandermemes.com
(My previous one may or may not be on my Facebook Fan Page. I can't remember if I posted it or not! Oh, memory...why do you leave me so often?)

I used the van der pire gif

Yes, I know it doesn't look much like him, but hey, it was fun and who doesn't like a little exaggeration? That's the beauty of art! You don't have to make things look like they do in real life. In fact, it's more interesting if you don't. Put your own spin on the stuff of this world!

...Played with halftones for once. Learned a lot! Thanks go to vandermemes for the hilarious expressions and ;jimiyo for the immensely helpful tuts and resources!

(Oh, and by the way...I checked to see if I posted the previous study from a van der memes gif. Turns out I posted it on facebook AND here....and deviantart, too..probably. I totally forgot it was the old man drawing I did a week or so ago. Ahhhh haha I feel silly for forgetting so quick. Don't worry though, I will be ok. I think.)

Finally Finished Something

There are so many different ways i could have taken this design but this is what I settled on. I might add some distress marks or texture, but this is basically it.

Color Dump

It looks like a bucket of color took a dump on my canvas...multiple times.

Color is my biggest challenge so I'm trying to really study it here before I decide on a final combo for the design.

Life Drawing Morph

So I am trying to get back into the drawing groove and sketch from life more often(or from pictures since I don't get out much!). This drawing started out as a sketch of "Dramatic Dawson" from James Van Der Memes, but somehow morphed into this weird old man.

Busy and Loving it

Things have been going great the last couple of months. I had the chance to visit my awesome family thanks to my amazing sister, spend a couple of weeks with friends, eat lots of good holiday food, and spread lots of jolly-ness everywhere. Now that the holiday buzz has finally quieted down, I can concentrate on real-life responsibilities! Yay!

Or not so yay.

Okay, maybe kind of yay.

I like feeling productive.

Oh, and my new year resolution is to get a design printed at Teefury!

Anyway, since settling back down into my place of residence I have been bombarded with freelance gigs...and I love it! I'm a bit behind on a couple of side projects, but I'll get to them eventually; hopefully before school starts up again. Anyway, here is a CD Cover I just finished for an awesome musician in Ireland, Malcolm Sean Urquhart of "The Lost Gecko." He liked a drawing I did previously so I was able to finish quickly.

You should definitely check out his stuff:
http://soundcloud.com/malcolmsean