Snow

I know this is a bit late for this year, but is it too early for 2013?

A Curious Demo (from Nucleus)

In October, we did a demo at Gallery Nucleus where we talked about our process for our book, the concept behinds and met some cool people.

Here's the piece I worked on for those 2ish hours which is appearing in the companion book to Curiosities, Curiosities Jr. It's what we called a "conspiracy room." One of those rooms you see in movies and tv shows with news clippings, photos and lots of string connecting things together. In this case, he also pinned a few more mundane things.

Curio Jr - the Beast is hungry

Here's an excerpt from Curiosities Jr - a short children's story we called "The Beast is Hungry." Enjoy!

Announcing - Curiosities Jr!

Hey everyone, we've been a bit quiet since we've been finishing up work on not one book but two! This is the companion book that we did as part of our kickstarter. We had such great support from out backers that we wanted to give back something special. This additional book is included FREE to our all our backers who pledged over $50.

It's 48 pages full of a new story and includes comics, a children's book & more than a few odd ancestors.

It will be available for order early next year.

Snow

Being in LA you don't see much snow this time of year, but I'm hearing it is in the local mountains.

Visual Development class Demo

This is our demo from our Visual Development class last night. We try to keep things down to an hour which is a fun challenge each time. Vicky acted as the art director and gave me notes as I progressed with the painting. This is from our class project which is a retelling of Pinocchio set in Tibet. This shows the god Shinje, the tibetan god of death confronting Pinocchio & Gepatto.

CTN pt 2

As mentioned in the last post we're going to be at this weekend's CTN Expo! It was our first show ever and we're really glad to go back and see everyone again. If you'd like to find us, refer to the above map. We're also do a talk, a demo and a portfolio review session! So check out the schedule to know when and where to find us.

And lastly we leave you with another look at part of the CTN talent hunt map! 

SCHEDULE -

"Branding and you" @ Parlor 125 on Saturday Nov, 17 4:30-5:15
Vehicle design and painting @ the Atrium on Saturday Nov, 17 1-1:45
Portfolio Reviews @ Disney [booth B-26] on TBA

CTN!

We're going to be at CTN Expo this weekend! It's a gathering of all sorts of talented artists from the field of animation. So stay tuned for more info. Here's an illustrated we did for their talent hunt. Its a sort of scavenger hunt where you collect the signatures of artists to be entered to win prizes!

Tibet

We had the great fortune to go on a trip to Tibet and finally had some time to try to capture the colors and the environments in a few paintings. We spent a lot of time driving and we'd stop to see great vistas like this one.

UP NEXT: CTN!
In a little under Two Weeks from now, you can catch us at CTN! It's a convention bringing together artists from animation and it's being held in Burbank,CA. Stay tuned for our booth number and more info

Butterflies

Thanks to all who turned out to our gallery show/workshop/book signing on Saturday. It was a lot of fun meeting everyone and showing how we approached the art for the book.

If you weren't able to make it, don't fret. The show will be up for few more weeks and we have a few advance copies of our book, Curiosities left over from our signing! Get them while they last! - http://ow.ly/eR57j

If you're a Kickstarter backer, we anticipate sending order in December/January. Our main shipment of books arrived in a month and the prequel books will land shortly after that.

Aunt Lucy

Aunt Lucy has a wig for every occasion. Perhaps this is the one she'll be wearing at our gallery show on Saturday.

Curiosities Workshop, Gallery Show, & Book Signing!

Come one, come all! To the Curiosities Exhibit at the Gallery Nucleus!
Celebrating the release of a brand new book created using stunning COLOR PRINT technology.

With illustrations by the illustrious Victoria Ying and Mike Yamada
and prose by the prosaic Jonathan Ying

Details of this Spectacular Event below:

Q&A Workshop! See how the book was made at 3-6PM
Get a ticket! - http://ow.ly/eIgCt

Art Exhibition! See stunning Curiosities themed artwork at 7-10PM

Costume Contest! Be judged based on your appearance! FOR FABULOUS PRIZES! at 8:30PM

A Spooky new Cover!

We thought we'd share the updated cover to our book, Curiosities. Right before going to print we had the time to work on the cover. So as of right now, 100 copies are being air-shipped to us for our gallery show and the remainder are crossing the ocean in a boat. We're working hard on all the kickstarter extras and our gallery show coming up on the 27th (more on that tomorrow!).

Summer-Time

We just got back from a long trip across Asia and been starting to get back in the swing of things. Here's something I did to shake off the cobwebs.

Vehicle Sketch

Just a quick vehicle sketch. It's been a while since I've gotten to do something like this.

Pennsylvania

A few weeks ago we attended a wedding on the other side of the country in Pennsylvania. We had a 2 hour drive up the middle of the state and we were treated to some great scenery on the side of the highway. I remember lots of farm houses, barns and open fields.

Los Angeles

Here's another colab between me and my wife. We both have spent our whole life in LA and been looking forward to depicting it as one of our city posters.

The Attic

I was that kid that was was always peeking into the attic or the basement and wondering what interesting and scary things that lurked there. I've always wanted to do a story and this is a bit of exploration.

Also if you are in Los Angeles and looking for something to do this weekend, come and visit our booth at Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo. See our newest Prints & the local debut of our latest book. So stop on by booth 828 this weekend.

Pier

Another painting from our last book - Quarter Past.

Sci-Fi House

A painting from our last published book - Quarter Past!

Quick

We've been uber busy - work, books, and all sorts of things. But I should be crawling out of my cave some time next week. But before then here's something to feed the blog this week.

Sketch

I've been in a weird sort of mood since we wrapped up our last book.

It's cold at work

Another CDA Demo

CDA class demo

Demo from a few weeks ago.

BREAKING NEWS! We have two booths at comic con!

Coming to Comic Con? Well, due to unusual circumstances, we are now spread across two booths! Find us at both booth 5017 and Small Press N-02! See you there!

San Diego Comic Con!

We are just days away from the San Diego Comic Convention and we are going to be part of it! Having a table at SDCC really means a lot to us. It's what sparked our adventure in creating our own projects & self-publishing.

Our kickstarter is nearing the end of it's run. If you'd like to save $5 off our next book and get a few free extras - bookmark, prequel book - hop on over there and support us. http://kck.st/PlcsnN

We will have a table in the Small Press area at booth N-02. We have a giant banner(8 feet tall!) emblazoned with both our names as well as our company "Extracurricular Activities." You can't miss it! If you are going to be attending, stop by and say hello. We love meeting new people and seeing old friends. We're going to have all sorts of convention only goodies - pins, prints, and maybe if you ask nicely, we can show you a few pages of Curiosities.

As you know we've been doing City Posters. Well, we did one for comic con! It's an exclusive for this show, so stop by and check it out.

We also made these for fun. We've heard about bingo at conventions and thought we go all out and make a card for San Diego. So print out your copy and join the fun! PS. Click for a hi-res version for printing.

A Most Curious Insect

One day we happened across the most curious of insects. They're available at our kickstarter - http://kck.st/PlcsnN

Curiosities Bookplate

We're nearing halfway on our kickstarter and time has been flying past! Here's our Kickstarter exclusive bookplate. They're limited to 500 and each of them will be signed & numbered by us. There's even a handy spot to write your name!

Check it out and our exclusive kickstarter print - http://kck.st/PlcsnN

Our other new book!

 

"Quarter Past" is our new limited edition art book we will be debuting at San Diego Comic Con. It is a selection of both of our art over the past year - explorations in photoshop, paint, and mixed media. There are even a few hints of some of our future projects hidden in there. Due to the low print run, we're not planning to sell this online, but if you really want one and you can't it to the show, we are offering it as a reward on our kickstarter - http://www.eca-la.com/fund

Softcover: 42 Pages
limited edition of 300
Dimensions: 7"x8.5"

Speaking of Comic Con, we're going to be attending for the first time as exhibitors. We're going to be in the Small Press Pavilion which is near Sideshow Collectibles and between entrances B1 & B2. We're going to have our new book, zoom zoos and our dwindling supply of Freckles. Plus we're going to have some great new prints. So please stop on by and see what we've been up to.

(large map at the bottom)
ECA- the art of Mike Yamada & Victoria Ying
Small Press Pavilion
N-02
Between Lobby B1 & B2

The Lion Tamer

THE LION TAMER

Uncle Samuel was a Lion Tamer.
He was a little too good at his job.

Here's a WIP look at another spread/exclusive print for our kickstarter book project - Curiosities! I wish I could make my job go as smoothly as this guy.

Pre-order our book now and save $5 off the cover price! - http://www.eca-la.com/fund

Help Us on KICKSTARTER!

Hello everyone! We need your help to get our project printed so we've launched a campaign on Kickstarter. Our project is an illustrated storybook about two kids inheriting an odd old house with generations of accumulated wonder - A Cabinet of Curiosities.  

Here's our project on Kickstarter! 

To Thank everyone for supporting us, we're offering our books at a discount and a few exclusives(prints,books,etc).

We're also going to host a few contests giving away books so check back in for that!

Please head on over there to check out a few new pages of art and to learn more about the story. We're providing all sorts of  incentives and I'm sure there's something that you'll like. We're going all out - we're going to have a gallery show & workshop at Gallery Nucleus on October 20th of this year. Just in time for Halloween.

Class demo

I spend Thursday nights teaching a visual development class with my wife at the Concept Design Academy in Pasadena. It's a lot of fun and I can't ask for a better person to be partnered up with than Vicky. This week we talked a bit about focus - editing & contrast. I'm hoping to put together a few stages of the painting to share some process for next week. So check back!

Curiosities - Eyes from all over

Another page from our upcoming book - Curiosities : An Illustrated History of Ancestral Oddity.

Check back next week for more pages & a big announcement!

Curiosities - The Knitting Court

Here's a work in progress page from our upcoming book which now has a subtitle - Curiosities - An Illustrated History of Ancestral Oddity. We all have oddballs in our families, but it's probably nothing like those in our story.

Text by the amazing Jonathan Ying, now road tripping around America. Here it is a bit larger and easier to read - 

THE KNITTING COURT

Aunt Lacey was a knitting queen.
The best knitter of things you’d ever have seen.

Every day and night she’d knit.
Until she had a perfect fit.

In this little room at the end of the hall.
She knit a sweater for the fall.

In this little knit room with it’s little knit door
Her balls of yarn would litter the floor

She knit the bed and chair with ease.
She’d knit whatever you darn well please.

She broke her foot and knit a cast
She knit a ship’s sail on a mast.

She knit a cat, she knit a dog
She knit a bird, she knit a frog

Aunt Lacey was a knitting queen.
The best knitter of things you’d ever have seen.

She could knit most everything.
But she never found her knitting king.

Announcing - Curiosities - Our new Book!

We've been pretty busy the last few months putting together our next book project - Curiosities. It's a fun mash-up of all sorts of things we love. As we have doing, this is a collaborative project between my wife and I. It's been loads of fun and we've been pushing ourselves to create the best project possible.

Check back next monday to see more teasers from the book and to learn about the project.

Ice Station - Dreamworks

I'm cutting it close this week(with just 15 minutes to spare)!

Summer has arrived in LA and it's hot outside and freezing cold inside. Lots of people paint/draw their outfits, but I'm painted/drew what my outfit should be. Can't wait for my regulation issue Dreamworks Parka arrives!

Dragoon

A spark of an idea for a story... perhaps a comic. As if I didn't have enough to do already.

CalArts Demo

For the past two weeks, my wife and I were substitute teaching the Visual Development class at CalArts. We had a lot of fun and spent a lot of time wondering how our lives would have been different if we had gone to school there. I spent a lot of time geeking out over CalArts - A-113, the sublevel, etc.


We're also continuing teaching our Visual Development class at the Concept Design Academy. If you are interested in our class, you can find out more about applying here - http://conceptdesignacad.blogspot.com/2012/05/cda-summer-2012-enrollment-starts-now.html

She said Hang Gliders

When I finish a painting I always show my wife and ask her opinion. This time she said something was missing... a focal point. I asked for a suggestion and the first one was "hang gliders." So hang gliders it is.

 

Dead Zero

Another collab with my wife. This time for a new compilation of art and comics from those talented guys at Disney Animation.

Sketchy Landscape

We've been busy - only time for a sketch this week.

I've been playing with process a lot and seeing what photoshop is capable of. This is mostly custom shapes with some lasso tool and a few brushes.

Cry havoc and let slip the... Cats of War

I really want to make a silly video game based on this idea, but I'm pretty sure it would only amuse me and perhaps my cat.

If you'd like a copy of your own, find it over on our store > ECA-LA

Happy Easter!

What a week! We finished up Emerald City Con and had a blast. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us.

We're hard at work on some really exciting projects and can't wait to finish them up so we can ship them off to the printers.