Extracurricular activities

Sketchcrawl at Disneyland

2012-01-21T19:07:00.001-08:00

Still thinking about winter

2012-01-14T14:03:00.001-08:00

An experiment with crumpled paper texture.

Revisiting the Past

2012-01-07T12:11:00.000-08:00

Another quick sketch to start off the year! This is very different than everything else I've been posting and I wanted to revisit the sort of work I was doing before graduating from Art Center.

Paging Winter

2011-12-30T10:03:00.000-08:00

It's been unseasonably warm in Los Angeles this holiday season & the local mountains look like they could use a bit of snow. I can't wait for a few big storms next year and it's off to Mammoth and Big Bear for me.

Hope everyone's having a great holiday season and here's looking forward to a great 2012.

Season's Greetings!

2011-12-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a rough few weeks at work, but it's great to finally get some time off. Dreamworks gives us a week off at Christmas and I plan to put it to good use - catching up on sleep, planning my upcoming Visual Development class at CDA, finishing up various projects and getting ready for 2012.

Drive!

2011-12-17T16:13:00.000-08:00

Here' a doodle I did at work this week. Been playing with color/light as well as abstracting shape. Hope everyone's have a good holiday season and I'm looking forward to spending some time relaxing with family.

What if... - The Bear Parade!

2011-12-08T11:05:00.001-08:00

The Bear Parade!

I did these watercolors for a show opening at Gallery Nucleus this Saturday. It's the off-shoot of the micro shows done at Disney Animation and it features some pretty awesome artists. I'll be there along with my wife. Stop by and say hello.

You can get more details on Nucleus' website - http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/exhibition/300

What If...
Opening Reception / Dec 10, 7:00PM - 11:00PM

Gallery Nucleus - 210 East Main St, Alhambra CA 9180

Here they are framed. Just to give you an idea of what they'll look like at the gallery. And I believe they'll be selling for the affordable price of $50 a piece.

Sketches for the Parade. I always love these more than the finals. They always seem to have more life, more spark and energy.

I do tons of overlays and then I transfer my drawing to watercolor paper via saral transfer paper(do people still do that in this age of photoshop?).

Response to the cards has been super positive. This was my dining room table last Tuesday and in the first week we sent nearly 100 sets of Zoom Zoo alphabet cards.If this keeps up, we're going to do a second printing early next year and I'm planning some fun surprises for the 2nd edition.

They were also featured on -

Notcot - Zoom Zoo by Mike Yamada- 11.29.11

Ohdeedoh - "Zoom Zoo ABC Flash Cards From Mika Yamama" (they spelled my name wrong)

Brand Spanking New Online Store & More

2011-12-01T10:47:00.001-08:00

NEW ONLINE STORE
If you missed me at CTN and you're looking to get your hands on a set of my alphabet cards or perhaps a print, you can find them both at my new online store -
Extracurricular Activities L.A. - http://www.eca-la.com

Her'e are a few sketches I've done on cards. The top one is an original that's going to go up on the store.

Also I have 10 of these small watercolor tag sketch paintings that you could randomly win if you make an order from the store during the month of December.

I've also setup a site just to house all my ZoomZOO art in one place - http://www.ZoomZOO.net

The long awaited Raffle Winners & Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T23:12:00.000-08:00

I spent a crazy busy weekend at the CTN expo with my wife. It was my first convention and as soon as each day was over we'd go home to drink a bit of tea and sleep. It was a lot of fun and it was great being able to meet everyone that came by. I can't wait for our next convention.

Photo ~~stolen~~ borrowed from Jason Scheier.

MENTORING!!!
I just joined Motivarti as a mentor for their spring term. Its the perfect program if you'd like personalized art, industry and career guidance. I'm only accepting 3 mentees and thanks to skype and email, you can be pretty much anywhere. Please visit - http://motivarti.org/mentorship-program/mike-yamada/ - if you're interested and want to learn more/apply.

ONLINE STORE COMING SOON!
I know a few of you we unable to make it to the convention and we will be launching an online store that will sell our cards/books, prints, greeting cards, stickers and more! All of this will be announced next MONDAY. Just a bit of paint and some tweaks to make it operational.

RAFFLE WINNERS
And I'm sure you've been all dying to know the winners of the raffle. So here they are -

Winner of a set of ZOOM ZOO CARDS

Winner of a ZOOM ZOO MINI PRINT

Thanks to everyone that entered and hopefully we'll be able to do another raffle come time soon! If you won, I'll be sending you an email shortly asking for where you want me to send your prizes.

HAPPY (CATS)THANKSGIVING!

CTN Expo 2011 :: Table T-45 :: 3 days left in Giveaway!

2011-11-15T09:30:00.000-08:00

This upcoming weekend (Nov 18-20) is the annual CTN Animation Expo. If you aren't familiar with it, imagine a comic con centered around the art and craft of animation. It's being held at the Burbank Marriott directly across from Bob Hope Airport. You can find more information about attending on their website.

I will be sharing booth duties at table T-45 with my talented wife. We're going to have copies of our latest projects - Freckles and Zoom Zoo - along with prints, pins, originals & more. Stop by to say hi and peruse our wares. It's always fun to meet new people and connect faces with names.

We're also doing a few events at the show. You can find them listed on the above flyer or you can follow our twitters for up to date information.
@michaelyamada
@victoriaying

GIVEAWAY! 3 Days Left!

Don't forget about the Zoom Zoo Card giveaway. It continues and the competition is fierce.

I can't believe the positive response. I'm adding a second prize - a small set of prints I'm going to be selling at CTN.

There are TWO way to enter.

1) Comment on my blog from now until November 18th

2) Tweet about it! Use @michaelyamada and mention #zoomzoo for a second chance!

Each entry will boost your chances!

Alphabet Card Raffle & a Print

2011-11-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

I've been working late nights and early mornings to make a few prints to sell at the CTN expo. Here's an except of one I'm still spending some time on. I'm big fan of swiss designer Max Huber and trying to capture a bit of the spirit of his work.

I've also received the entire shipment of the alphabet cards and they're now occupying a majority of my dining room.

To celebrate the arrival of my cards and my inevitable sleep deprived lead up to CTN, I decided it would be fun to give away a set here. You have ~~one~~ TWO ways to enter to win a free set of Zoom Zoo Cards-

Leave a comment on my blog from today - November 7th - until the first day of CTN - November 18th (quick! you have 11 days!)
Now a second way to WIN. Tweet about it! Use @michaelyamada and Mention the #ZoomZoo Giveaway for a second chance!

The Winner will be announced November 19th.

ps. I'm still slowly working on some of the originals from the prior giveaway. Patience young padawan.

EDIT : Added a second way to win.

Kamen Rider doing a wheelie

2011-11-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

I was invited to be part of a show celebrating the anniversary of two epic Japanese shows - Kamen Rider and Super Sentai(you probably know them as Power Rangers). Stop by tomorrow to check out the show and Chris Mitchell's really awesome store - Q POP.

Find more info on the show below or on the store's website - http://qpopshop.com/main/?page_id=17

Q Pop, Anime Jungle and the JACCC invite you to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Kamen Rider and the 35th Anniversary of the Super Sentai series(Power Rangers) creation!!

Over 150 local and international artists will pay visual tribute to some of the most famous pop culture icons in Japanese history and their creator, manga god Ishimori Shotaro.

Opening Reception: Nov. 5, 2011 7PM-10PM

Where:

Q POP
128 Astronaut E S Onizuka St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: (213) 687-7767

Japanese American Cultural and Community Center
244 S. San Pedro Street, Suite 505
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: (213) 628-2725

Our next project - A Cabinet of ...

2011-10-31T10:34:00.000-07:00

In the lazy days after my wife and I wrapped up our individual projects for CTN, we had a great idea for a collaborative project. We're hoping to involve lots of other artists - friends, heroes, legends - and create something really fun.

Here's a quick teaser image I did exploring the world. It makes for a great Halloween piece & it will be ready to share a year from today.

WIP - work in progress

2011-10-29T16:48:00.000-07:00

It always seems to be a busy week since I got back from the honeymoon. Here are a few things that are in progress and I'm hoping to finish up tomorrow.

Make sure to check back on Monday for announcing a new project!

Originals for CTN Expo

2011-10-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's less than a month to CTN. The bulk shipment of my alphabet cards should arrive in the upcoming week and I have all sorts of things keeping me busy. One idea I had was to convert leftover tags from my wedding into small(and affordable) pieces of original art. Look for these at CTN or on my store when that goes live next month.

He has a gun!

2011-10-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

I'm a few days back from my honeymoon and I'm totally not ready to head back to work. I realized not too long ago I needed to do my post for the week. I'm a bit rusty after a few weeks off of painting and I was trying a few new things I saw on Robh Ruppel's blog. I tried a bit of Robh's painting with the line tool and i integrated that with a few smudge brushes I use. Seems to work pretty well, especially in the pool areas.

I'm thinking a secret agent rabbit has some potential. Maybe Richard Scarry meets James Bond and Yuki 7.

Hitched!

2011-10-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the past! By now I should be married and having a good time somewhere tropical. I didn't want to miss my weekly art post so I spent some extra time to whip up a piece for this week and scheduled it to post.

Incoming Zoom Zoo

2011-09-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I received an advance order box of my Zoom Zoo Flash Cards! It's really amazing seeing your work in such a real way. I've been working on setting up a website and a storefront to make web sales, but both still need some more work before they go live.

If you're one of the lucky few that work at Dreamworks, there is a small "comic convention" happening there on October 12th. I'm going to be off on my honeymoon, but my sister will be there selling packs of the cards, sets of pins, and perhaps a few originals. If you don't happen to work there, I'm going to be selling at the CTN expo in Burbank, CA and web sales should also go live around then as well.

Some pics of the cards and their unboxing as well as a set of pins (there will be more than 3 animals. they're all random).

Wedding flipbook back cover

2011-09-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

I'm getting married this upcoming Saturday and that has been consuming a lot of my attention. There obviously hasn't been much time for art with small wedding related things popping up. One of the fun things we're planning to have at our reception is a flipbook booth. Here's the illustration I did for the back of the flip book.

Tiger Tree

2011-09-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

Another quick sketch for this week. Inspired by the big cat paintings on Clio's blog - http://cliobablio.tumblr.com/

Hopefully will have time something more involved next week.

They took my wheels!

2011-09-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

It's been another busy week and I realized today that I forgot to update the blog. This is a sketch painting I've been playing with for the better part of 3 years. I'm guaranteed to repaint the whole thing each year. I finally thought I should share even though I'm planning to work on it some more.

AI Weekend Demo

2011-08-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of speaking before the students at the Art Institute of Inland Empire. You couldn't have asked for a better audience and I wish them all the best in their studies.

At the end of the talk, I had time for a quick demo and I wanted to share it here. I saved out a few steps, although not as many as I would have liked. I have a very similar step by step painting demo that I will hopefully be able to finish soon.

Late night Cat Party

2011-08-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with my process and how to create finished images quickly. It's a sort of holy grail for artists everywhere. I'm very happy with the subtle variation in color in the bottle, but over I'm not quite sold on the over-all look. It's a bit "filtery" to me even though I didn't use any.

We own two cats and the older one (pictured here) has a fondness for waking us up by vomiting. I always imagine that she's boozing it up while the humans are sleeping.

Study for a Painting

2011-08-16T10:34:00.000-07:00

Since I finished with the cards, I've been working on the paintings for the raffle winners and catching up on all the things I neglected during the month I was working on the cards. This is a study for one of the raffle paintings. Enjoy!

Raffle Winners!!! Zoom Zoo in progress!!

2011-08-09T23:25:00.000-07:00

I finished my alphabet card project Monday night at 12:30am(technically tuesday) and prompt sent it off to the printers in China. I'm very proud of the fact that the entire project took one month from start to finish. However, it very much seemed like Parkinson's Law was in full effect - "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." I intended to wrap up the whole project a week ago and instead I worked all the way up to my deadline.

On to the raffle winners!

If you're any of the people listed below send me an email with where you want your prize shipped.

I'm going to start on them tomorrow and hopefully you will receive them within the month. If you have any requests, I'd be happy to consider them.

If you didn't win, don't worry. I have more things in the works I am planning something when my alphabet cards come in. Keep watching here or follow my twitter if you want updates.

Many thanks to the random number generator on

http://www.mathgoodies.com/calculators/random_no_custom.html

Extra Bonus Round Raffle. Let's get to 400.

2011-08-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

Wow! 182 new Followers and 97 Comments last month. I'm doing the raffle tonight for the 4 pieces of art I promised. So if you haven't commented or followed the blog by then, now is your chance to sneak in.

We're really close to 400 followers. Right now its 18 more people. If we can get to 400 followers by August 9th, I will do a special bonus raffle for one additional piece of art selected from the follower list. It's really easy. Just click follow on the right side of the blog.

I'm still working away on the Alphabet Cards. I'm very very close, but still have a lot to do. In other news, I was hoping to do a kickstarter for the cards, but was sadly rejected with no reason. It's not the end of the world, but I was hoping for some help making the cards an affordable price.

ZOOM ZOO Alphabet Cards - I is for Iguana

2011-07-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

Here's another card for my alphabet flash card set. Iguana are one of my favorite animals and I'd love to have one as a pet. I tried to convince my fiance to let me adopt one from the local humane society, but she is a little freaked out by them.

Everything goes to the printers a week from tomorrow. There's still a lot to do, but its nice to see the project coming together. I'm going to try to do a few tweaks to the type - I want to add lowercase letters, but not sure if there is the space on all the cards. For those of you that asked, I'll be selling them online. I haven't worked out pricing, but it should be similar with Bill Pressing's "Intercontinental Cuties" playing card set.

In other news, just 6 days left in my original art raffle / giveaway. Leave a comment or follow me to enter. I'll announce winners on August 9th. Find the rules HERE.

Alphabet Car(d)s - my CTN project

2011-07-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak peek at what I'm working on for this year's CTN. I'm doing a set of animal/alphabet/automobile flash cards. Originally the idea started as doing a children's book and the idea evolved into flash cards. Everything is very much still in progress, but I want to share what I've been working hard on. I have exactly 2 weeks left until I need to deliver the final files so wish me luck.

Speaking of two weeks, only 2 weeks left in the original art raffle. Follow my blog or leave a comment to be entered.

How to train your dragon - OOP

2011-07-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

An old, incomplete painting from "How to Train your Dragon." In an earlier version of the story, the kids are taken to a training ground high up on the island and they spend the night in a rickety old cabin. I started this painting with a rough marker and pencil sketch to establish the design. I added rough color in photoshop using color balance and then painted and dropped a few textures on top.

Don't forget about the original art give away! Here are the copy/pasted rules from last week.

You have 2 ways to enter -

Be a follower of my blog by the first of next month (August 1, 2011)
Leave a comment on my blog during the month of July (quick! you have 3 weeks!)
2 winners will be selected out of each category.
Winners will be announced August 9th.

For more info on how to follow Click Click!
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=104226

Original Art Raffle! 200 Followers!

2011-07-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would make it to 200 followers, let alone 100. A big thank you to all of you.

So in celebration of that, I decided to raffle off 4 pieces of original art. You have 2 ways to enter -

Be a follower of my blog by the first of next month (August 1, 2011)
Leave a comment on my blog during the month of July (quick! you have 3 weeks!)

2 winners will be selected out of each category.
Winners will be announced August 9th.

For more info on how to follow Click Click!
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=104226

Thanks again everybody!

A small peek at what I'm up to. I'm insanely busy doing art in order to meet my printing deadline for the CTN expo. It's a lot of fun and pressure working on such a tight deadline.

Contemplating a Cheese Poof

2011-06-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

I'm getting married this fall and my fiancee has been dieting in preparation for her dressing sizing. She's doing a diet called South Beach which involves 2 weeks of cutting out all carbs and sugars. One of her favorite things are cheese poofs from trader joes and I saw her guiltily sneaking a few.

Extra-Extracurricular Activities - a supplemental sketchblog

2011-06-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

I just started a new blog on Tumblr for my daily moleskine sketches. I got in the habit of carrying around a tiny pocket sketchbook earlier this year and it's become second nature to start drawing in it. Thanks to the magic of the tumblr iphone app (get your act together blogger), I can upload my daily sketch right to the blog.

I'll be updating it daily and of course this blog once a week. You can find the new blog at - http://michaelyamada.tumblr.com

It's going to be a busy summer for me. I'm making plans to have a table at the CTN expo this November. Also, I'm doing some original art to give away when I reach 200 followers (we're almost there!). More details on that coming later.

Cartoon Rhinos always drive Rocket Cars

2011-06-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

Started this yesterday and finished up at lunch today. This is most definitely not Kung Fu Panda 2, but I'll throw up a post next week taking you through my design process for one of the locations. And that will be it for panda. I promise.

Ok. I lied. This is the last of the Kung Fu Panda art. I promise.

2011-06-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

This should be the last of the KFP2 art. I was preparing for a lecture for an Art Center entertainment class and ended up find a few more images that I could post. I'm surprised that it's been 4 weeks of KFP art. So this is it. The complete last of it... except maybe the lecture that I'm putting together.... but then hopefully, that is it.

Return of the Kung Fu Panda - last of the art

2011-06-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

I think this is the last of the art that anyone would be interested to look at versus postering weird boring production orthos and other tidbits. These lead off with 2 boards of ideas that I pitched for the final battle sequence in the movie. They knew that there was going to be a huge showdown, but where and how was up for grabs. I took a lot of inspiration from a sequence in the movie Hero - where the season begin to change during a battle - and some of the crazy fight sequences from both Naruto anime. I pitched what I called the most expensive sequence ever. I had an idea involving Po and Shen fighting on a fiery out of control boat speeding down a river as it rains and it eventually turns to snow. Obviously they didn't do that, but some of it did stick.

Kung Fu Panda 2 art Strikes Back - Part 2

2011-05-31T10:31:00.001-07:00

KUNG FU PANDA 2 art - See the Movie!

2011-05-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

The art department on Kung Fu Panda has been done for a few months and I miss it dearly. I was given great opportunities by art director Tang Heng and production designer Ramone Zibach to tackle many of the large design projects in the movie - the interiors of peacock's fortress, the fireworks factory, etc - as well as work on parts of the movie making process that I little experience in. My favorite memory was pitching ideas for the final battle. I had ideas for a harbor/water showdown inspired heavily by stylized action sequence in naruto and the movie hero. Tang always wanted things to be as pushed as possible and I dreamed up what I called the most expensive(and probably impossible) sequence ever. Surprisingly they went for a lot of my ideas and I'm glad to see them as part of the movie.

KFP2 opens today. Go see it. I'd love to be able to work on the next one. More KFP art coming next week.

Sketchbook Doodle & First page of KFP2 Artbook

2011-05-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

Posting early since I'm going to be away from the computer for the rest of the week. This time just a quick sketchbook drawing hit with some color in photoshop. I've always been fascinated with drawing rickety old structures with weird tech.

I found out this morning that the artbook for Kung Fu Panda 2 has been available for a week or so. I had a chance to look through it today and saw that I got the first page inside the book. I have a big post of work I did for the movie next week, but here's that first image. Pick up the book at amazon and see KFP2 when it opens on the 26th

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in san francisco

2011-05-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

Sketches from my trip to San Francisco(and a few from this week) to see a friend leaving the country and to take some engagement photos. I didn't realize how hard it was to sketches in a moving vehicle, especially with a brush pen. I have half a dozen sketches I started but couldn't complete. I don't know how everyone gets those amazing bus and train drawings.

An experiment

2011-05-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

I'm actually posting during the week for once. I've been experimenting with colored pencils and other mediums in my sketchbook. It's a lot of fun working traditionally with tools that I haven't used since high school art class. Unfortunately I only had a few colors and would have liked more.

Sketchbook stuff

2011-04-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

Some more daily sketchbook drawings. I've been busy, but its a nice change of pace to do one of these during a break. I've been think of trying out some different pens even though I like how the brush pen makes me slow down and think through the drawing.

Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.

2011-04-23T22:44:00.000-07:00

I've been having fun drawing a lot of cars these past few weeks for work and freelance. It is one of those rare coincidences where get to do what you enjoy. I'm a big fan of Back to the Future and have been trying to sneak the car into one of these projects. I did a few sketches for fun and had the time to paint one up.

Flat Out

2011-04-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

Been keeping busy with wedding plans, orthos at work and getting back in shape after injuring my knee playing soccer. We've been having some great weather in LA and its making me look forward to summer.

A sketch a day keeps the...

2011-04-09T23:49:00.000-07:00

One of my big new year's resolutions I made was "to do more art." I kind of split that into a few different little goals inside of that to make it easier to keep doing. One was to post weekly on my blog and one of the others was to do a sketch a day. I've been carrying a small moleskine notebook in my pocket for the past few years to keep lists, ideas, and notes. This year I started actually sketching in them. I've filled three since the start of this year and been thinking of starting a new blog to hold all those sketches. Here's a few that I scanned.

Bee Movie Production Artwork

2011-04-02T21:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a rough week. I've been fighting being sick and haven't had the energy to do much of anything. Here is some work I had sitting on my hard drive. Bee Movie was my second project at Dreamworks. I'm not sure how many people remember the movie, but it was a project produced in cooperation with Jerry Seinfeld. I didn't get the opportunity to do much artwork due to how the art department was run and the assignments I was given. I spent much of my time doing graphic design for objects populating the world - posters, signs, food packaging, street signs. Here are the few things I actually got to design/draw.

Interior of a Truck -

Bee Vehicles -

Limo Interior -

Pig & Wolf win the race

2011-03-26T23:26:00.000-07:00

Things have calmed down about a day or two ago and I've been catching up with all the things I've missed the past few weeks - laundry, cleaning, netflix, art. I have a fondness for old(1950-1980's) automobile racing, particularly F1. I wanted to do something relating to that world and also wanted to play around with some photo processing that I've been researching. I have a few more ideas for these guys. Hopefully we'll see them again.

Don't forget to feed the meter

2011-03-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

These past few weeks I thought I was busy, but life has upped the ante and formed a perfect storm of sorts. I was seriously contemplating foregoing posting this week, but felt bad about breaking my new years resolution. So here you go. This is something I started thursday night and didn't really have time to complete. I had(have?) a grand plan for this piece and hopefully I can carry them out when things calm down in a week or so.

This Morning

2011-03-12T16:28:00.000-08:00

Saw this cat interaction this morning by the bedroom door. It's been a busy week and haven't had a lot of time to do anything of my own. Finally had some time today and threw this together so I would have something to post this week.

Kung Fu Panda 2 : Prelude to an Art Post

2011-03-04T22:55:00.000-08:00

IF IT WAS A DARK PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA -
rejected poster concept. I really liked this one, but it didn't make the cut.

You can consider this a teaser/trailer to the larger KFP2 art post coming in May.

I ended my run on KFP2 just a few short months ago, and most everyone is still cranking to finish. I had a great experience on the movie and was allowed to do work outside my comfort zone. I learned a lot and would kill for a chance to work on any possible sequel.

Here is the latest trailer that premiered today before Rango -
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/kungfupanda2/

I worked on color keys for a few of the sequences in the trailer as well as providing some design work. Here's three I pulled out of a hat. Don't forget to go see the movie when it comes out in May!

That's a negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full

2011-02-26T17:58:00.000-08:00

Another quick painted sketch. I spent a lot of time using photoshop filters to make something unfinished look more complete. It's nice to get the time to paint a little. I've spent a few weeks refining a location design in maya and starting to a bit crazy from the lack of art in my life.

Happy V-day

2011-02-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

After a few weeks of posting last minute, I decided to sit down and try to get it done early in the week. This is a valentine's day card I painted for my girlfriend. She has an extremely grumpy and lazy cat who I thought would make a great cupid.

Blogging is hard business

2011-02-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

It's been only a few weeks and I can't believe how hard it to to keep on top of posting on this blog. Usually it's friday night and I realize I've forgotten and i spent the night sifting through my hard drive to find something that isn't too embarrassing to share. I'm not sure how some people are able to do it everyday or even every twice a week. Show-offs.

Here are a few quick WIP/quick sketches I like to do at work when I take a break. For some reason my default brain-off relaxation painting/sketching topic are space ships.

Sci-Fi Blob pt2 - A mech walker inspired from the work on Scott Robertson's blog. A pretty terrible design, but it was fun to noodle around and play with the painting. I would love to have the time to fix the design and finish painting it.

Sci-Fi Blobs - More experiments in process that ended up being some sort of sci-fi space ship shapes. Played with line tool, custom shapes and a few other things. Not quite a workable process but was it was fun doing these during short breaks at work..

More How to Train Your Dragon Art

2011-02-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some more sketches I dug up from my hard drive - mostly graphite tonals and mostly things that never made it anywhere close to the final movie. I had the misfortune of working on all the previous iterations of How to Train Your Dragon as well as working on things for the final movie that got cut. Sometimes if you squint you can see something I designed way off in the background of the movie drifting in and out of focus.

I'm planning to an art raffle away in the next few weeks - prints, original art, etc. Follow my blog and you'll be entered to win.

Follow the Dragons Tears - These drawings were from a sequence that ended up not making it. I was really proud of the work the layout department and everyone did on it. It involved a camera move and several rock outcroppings would parallax into the shape of a dragon, kind of like the sequence in The Road to Eldorado with the weeping statue/waterfall. These are both powdered graphite on animation paper. The top image was painted over a bit in ps.

Down the River - Nothing too special about this one. Hiccup was to fall in this river and wash away. Once again graphite on animation paper. I had some fun and hid some weird things at the bottom of the river - shopping carts, mob bosses with cement shoes, etc.

Olde Viking Shoppes - A sketch for some village shops. A blacksmith, a butcher and perhaps a candlestick maker?

Bridge to the Docks - My boss created some of the largest and most intricate drawings I had ever seen. I had the chance to try my hand at it and this was the second panel of the drawing. I was looking at the Asterix comics for tone and a sense of fun.

Back to Basics - I found these guys while I was digging around in folders. I did quite a few drawings like the top rock page (they were rejected because it looked a bit like a dog poop). I think they're a good reminder of thinking about the simple basic things - the top image with the grid/form overlay and the bottom with the plotted perspective. I take a lot of that for granted now that I have Maya.

Playing Catch-up

2011-01-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

I almost missed posting this week. Between being sick and starting a new project at work(the super-awesome "Me and My Shadow"), I neglected the blog and nearly forgot to put anything up this week. My Dad's birthday was this week and he likes cars. I got him a few Peter Egan books and did this quick watercolor of his favorite car - 1969 Porsche 911.

Check back later for some more "How to Train Your Dragon," art.

1969 Porsche 911 - It's been a long time since I've done anything remotely like this and I forgot how fun it was. I know I borked the proportions and I'm pretty sure my old tran viscom teachers would not be pleased with this, but I think I want to play around with doing this some more.

Bonus - I forgot to Post up dragons work earlier this week and felt bad about that. Here's another few sketches of the town. Originally it was conceived that each "class" of vikings would live in their own neighborhoods and have different types of houses.

Crazy Cat Person

2011-01-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up my family always had dogs and I always thought I was a dog person. That started changing when when I started dating my girlfriend who had a cat. A few years ago we ended up adopting another cat who firmly sold me on the idea of cats as a pet.

During my breaks at work, I do small little paintings like these to amuse myself and my girlfriend. Usually they revolve around a fantasy world where they are capable of doing anything or dramatizations of things in real life.

Snowboarding Cat - I still never got over the idea that cats were terrified of new places and wish they were more like dogs in that respect. Then again people never take their cats anywhere. How would you know they wouldn't like snow?

Shaved Butt - My girlfriend's cat is old and is uninterested in grooming herself. We took her to get partially shaved. A "Cat Brazilian" they called it.

The Party Cart - I thought he might want to help out during the christmas party. He also doesn't drink. Might be a good designated driver if he could reach the pedals.

How to train Your Dragon Art

2011-01-18T13:23:00.000-08:00

I spent nearly 4 years working on How to Train your Dragon. It was an amazing ride and I had the opportunity to work on almost every iteration the movie took. I worked on the movie as a designer and was lucky to be able to do most of my work traditionally. I spent a lot of the time doing large graphite sketches and layouts. I miss being able work traditionally, but not the powdered graphite that seemed to get everywhere. This week some smaller Dragons sketches. I'm going to post some person work on Friday and check back next Monday for some more work from Dragons.

TABLE - Sorting through drawings on the kitchen table. It gives you a good sense of how big these drawings are. There are a few that perfectly covered my 7 foot wide layout table. Also, I'm not drinking from 4 tea cups. I stored the drawings in a tube and they fought me the whole time; each of them trying to return to their rolled state. Unfortunately my scanner isn't working well for the larger stuff so I scanned a few smaller drawings this week.

BOATS - Some very very early boat sketches. I believe this was from my first week working on the movie. I had my own office. I was unofficially launched and was allowed to run wild and produce whatever I wanted. it was one of my happiest times at the studio.

Terrain Studies - Also from my first week on the project. We knew that we were looking for a stylized terrain. I wanted something crazy and sculptural. I was strangely (or not so strangely) influenced by the shape of crumpled paper.

Thor's day Thursday - Location studies from a location dropped from the final movie. Originally this was where the kids showed the village they had learned to train their dragon. It was a really cool concept. The environment was composed out of hexagonal rock shapes inspired from Giant's Causeway in Ireland.

Sci-Fi Space Business

2011-01-12T21:42:00.000-08:00

It is rare for me to get the opportunity to do any sci-fi art outside the random doodle (either in photoshop or in my sketchbook). It's a far cry from when I was studying at Art Center and dreamt of being hired to work on the second star wars trilogy. These days my personal sci-fi work tends to veer towards experiments in design and technique. Photoshop is a great sandbox to fine tune and push your designs in infinite directions. Here are a few things from both the computer and the sketchbook.

Check back next week for some double posting action. I will scan some "How to Train Your Dragon" artwork this weekend and post it on Tuesday and will follow up with some personal stuff on friday. I'm hoping to keep up this pace. Let's see how it goes.

Line Tool spaceshapes - Some experimenting in photoshop. I use the polygon lasso tool for the big masses, refine with eraser and brush and render form mostly with the line tool set to different opacity. It liberates you from the world of custom brushes that has taken over digital painting.

Not Quite a Helicopter - Rough sketches from a project that was not quite meant to be. It lives on in another interation and was fun to work on while it lasted.

For Fun - This is an old jpeg from an older sketchbook - probably circa 2004-5. I was very excited about some spaceship sketches I had seen in Scott Robertson's sketchbook and set out to do thumbnails for 500 unique spaceships. This is a small sampling of them. I'm hoping to find the book and update this post with better scans.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more

2010-12-02T16:11:00.000-08:00

It has been a long 2 years, 6 months, and 25 days since I posted. Perhaps if things do not work out as planned, the next post will come in the year 2014. However if my New Years resolution and my girlfriend have anything to say about it, you will be seeing updates on a regular basis. On the plus side, the 2 plus years of hording and hiding art provide a rich surplus of things to fill these internets. So enjoy and check back next week for another update. I'm thinking sci-fi or perhaps something from How to Train Your Dragon.

Animals in Cars - I was invited to participate in a Gallery Nucleus show and contributed these two pieces. I'm obsessed with cars and combined that with my favorite childhood illustrator Richard Scary. It was my first gallery show and I was amazed that the pieces had sold before I arrived at the opening.

More Animals in cars - Some color sketching in photoshop over a few loose pencil drawings. I'm hoping to have time to finish these and complete more. I'm imagining a world of these guys. could be a fun thing to see.

From the sketchbook - A few other pages with animals and vehicles. They need some way to get around. Plus they also really seem to enjoy snowboarding.

Heliciculture

2008-06-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy week for me and I already have run a few days late with an image. I thank you all for your comments and I will try to reply with answers over the weekend. Here's more from Flushed Away. A rare attempt at character design. I see him essentially as a chicken mcnugget with eyes.

Objects may be bigger than they appear

2008-06-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

More from "Flushed Away." This time it is a submarine built out of an old Messerschmidt car. Like all things, it took a bit of work to get it approved and it only appears in the movie for 30 seconds. Go figure.

One Small Step...

2008-05-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

I started on "Flushed Away" a month after I graduated Art Center and spent the next 3 years working on it alongside a lot of other great designers/artists(POV, Scott Wills, David James, Max Boas, et al). One of the highlights was the Jammy Dodger mark II, a late addition to the story which I ended up getting to pitch the final design to Jeffrey Katzenberg. It didn't quite work out properly in the film(it was designed as a hydrofoil so it would gradually rise out of the water but in the film it magically hovered once the skis deployed).