Contemplating a Cheese Poof

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

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

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.

 

 

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

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

KUNG FU PANDA 2 art - See the Movie!

 

 

 

 

  

 

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

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

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.