Burn

I've shared most of my thesis illustrations on this blog, but here is the last! This was created as a production painting for an original zombie apocalypse story called Sidge McDougal's Zombie Crisis. I've shared some other work on this project so if you'd like to see more Sidge, check out this post where I share Sidge's character design process. There's also this other production painting for the story you can check out. I'll definitely continue working on these designs and story in the future with the story's creators. Originally thought as a series of films, the concept has evolved to be a possible animated series. I'd love to hammer out more character designs and maybe even do some animated storyboards in the future.

a series of thumbnails exploring scenes and environments

value study along with color thumbnails

Typically, I like having lineart throughout my illustrations, but I decided to keep the lineart focused on the characters and keep the rest of the illustration loose and a bit painterly

the final production painting (I had previously went on a fun adventure to a vista point here in Oakland where you can see the whole bay... definitely was a vital reference. San Francisco is burning!!!)

our heroes look on, knowing this is only the beginning....

Vacation, Animation, and Graduation, oh my!

Happy Friday, Internets!

I got back from my two week vacation visiting my home, Chicago, earlier this week.

Skyline as seen from the Southside on I-55 in traffic, which I do not miss, and we were in quite a bit of it throughout the two weeks traveling from north to south.

It was a great time and I really feel that I re-charged my batteries: socially, mentally, and creatively. I'm ready to get back to drawing and work!

In that vein, I had my final review for my Masters in Illustration from Academy of Art University yesterday......

AND I PASSED!!

Oh, glorious day! I genuinely enjoyed the grad school experience, and it definitely strengthened my drawing and illustration skills by leaps and bounds. But I'm also ready to be done with academics and tackle the working world head on.

Now transitioning from there... I was an intern at Rooftop Comedy for the first three months of this year. I worked on some fun, short animations for an original web series and the program has officially gone live! You can check out all the videos here.

I wish there was a way to embed them, but I can't seem to find out how. So here's the list of the episodes I animated (with direct links to the episodes):

"Kids Say Some Weird Stuff"

"Have Kid, Will Travel"

"Nuclear Families are the Bomb"

"Dads are the Best People"

"Prickly Parenting Decisions"

"Parent-Kid Communication Fail"

"Those Special Mom Moments"

I had a blast working there and am going to be working on some of my own animations and interactive illustrations in the near future. First, to learn Flash and brush up on my After Effects!

Since I've finished my thesis completely, there's more work to share in the coming weeks. So keep checking back to my regularly scheduled posts each Wednesday and Friday for more illustrations!

Sidge McDougal's Zombie Crisis

I present to you some of the character design work for my final project in Character Design class...

We had the option of working on an original story or something for our thesis and I spent at least a good two days (that's a lot of time in summer semester) trying to figure out what I should do. Then it came to me one night as I lay in bed....

Sidge McDougal's Zombie Crisis!!!

This is an original concept formed from the brainstuffs of my boyfriend and friend. The premise involves a zombie apocalypse and the hero who steps forward to bash zombie brains. It's a pretty old concept of theirs, but one that stuck with me and that I wanted to see made. Henceforth, Sidge McDougal it is.

The designs still need some tweaking, but here is the main character, Sidge McDougal.

head studies

turnaround minus the bad back view.. that side view still needs work though...

And then one of the first antagonists, James Billy Johnson.

I still want to work on this project more and had a bunch of fun designing these characters. Once I develop them further I'll post some more. Time to really utilize the free time between semesters!

Sidge McDougal's Zombie Crisis was created by Jesus Gomez and John Prucha. The characters and concept all belongs to them.

Character Sketches

Really busy today so talk will be brief.

Here's some figure sketches from my Character Design class this past Monday!

Trying to push shape still, while also drawing poses and figures which I like.

There's far more bad than any good at all. But so is the way of getting better!

Have a great Wednesday!

In the Style of...

This week my summer semester at AAU started! This is my first semester of directed study (aka, working on mah thesis) so it should be productive. Well, it better be.

Today's post is a peek into one of my first assignments for a Character Design and Drawing for Animator's class. We were to draw 10 heads and 4 figures "in the style of" one of three given artists. I chose Shane Glines, or Cartoon Retro.

This was a pretty fun exercise and even though I don't necessarily think I've gotten his style down enough AT ALL, the observations I've been able to make while drawing in Glines' style have been great. He has beautiful shapes and lines, often put together in a way I don't normally think to do--straight lines into delicious curves? Why, yes!

First I sketched a couple directly from his to warm up and get a sense.

Then away to begin drawing heads!

That's right. I had to draw a man. Super difficult to do in his style, as whenever there are men they're SUPER simple and practically all straight lines. I tried to add some sexiness to my Glines' man in the style of his women. I think I need to re-work that butt-into-thigh a little bit tho... I like my men juicy but damn...

Now to refine and redraw for tomorrow's class!

Also, here are some of my favorite drawings of Cartoon Retro's which I've been staring at for well over four hours...

Sexy devil girl (he does quite a few of these @_@)

Chick sitting

Chick smoking

Now to eat some dinner and draw some more!