Speedy

Done as an example for the female protagonist assignment in my Character Design/Vis Dev class.

Protagonist exercise

Another assignment I did along with the students. I do wish I had more time to spend on the monster even though the focus was the kid. Maybe someday if I paint it up I'll fix his design.

Grandpa's stories

Another assignment example I did for my character design class. I would have liked to work on the grandfather's facial expression a bit, but the time limit is part of the fun of doing these along with the class. These were based on a New Zealand reptile called a Tuatara.

Monstare

I just realized that in my crazy schedule the last month, I never took the time to announce officially my change in jobs. I decided to leave Disney and teach at BYU full-time. This semester they have me teaching digital painting for animation, character design, and gesture drawing. BYU has a great animation program and the students are very talented so I'm excited to see what kinds of things we can do there.

I have no idea if the students are getting anything out of my character design class but at least I've been having fun doing the assignments with them. This assignment was to design a monster that was both scary and had a personality. This idea was based on the criteria we had on an unreleased project I worked on at Disney/Avalanche several years back.

Caricature for character design class

I'm teaching a character design class at BYU now. The first assignment is on caricature, which I think I've talked about on this blog as great exercise for character designers. I don't consider myself a strong caricature artist but I really love it anyway.

Based on this guy, here: http://earthsworld.com/mars/2012/120526_fun_center/120526_fun_center_0028.jpg
I think my guy ended up a bit more squarish than this guy feels but I wanted to communicate how solid his face and neck feel.

In other news, Schoolism is having a sale on Self-taught classes, here's the flyer:

"Lighting for Story and Concept Art" class open for registration

They officially announce the class on Monday, so if you want a guaranteed spot you might want to sign up now rather than later in case it sells out.

Boo Bird

I used to go with some friends to draw at Barnes and Noble once a week. We had a reunion tonight, where I drew this. I started with inking a drawing and added color later. Using real ink is always a scary prospect, because you have to make decisions with the lines and live with them (at least until you scan and fix them later).

Citadel

A demonstration I did for the surface design lesson in my upcoming Schoolism class. This class has been so much fun to prepare!

Macawfish

Gravey

Curly Viking

Announcements

Some of you may have noticed that my Schoolism class has changed names from "Advanced Lighting" to "Fundamentals of Lighting." (If you don't know about the class and want to learn more about it, look here)

It's still an advanced class: in fact it's the same as the old class in every way, but I felt like the name change was necessary because I'm working on a second class that will be offered later this year at Schoolism. This class will be called "Lighting for Story and Concept Art" and you can see more info on it here.

I see these two classes as being companions to each other; they essentially contain all the knowledge I draw upon when painting my concepts and illustrations. If you're wanting to take both classes I'd recommend taking "Fundamentals of Lighting" first, because that talks about the technical aspects of light and surface, while "Lighting for Story and Concept Art" focuses on using that technical knowledge of light sources and surface to tell stories and communicate ideas.

I painted this image in a demonstration for the lecture on value from the new class. I'll have more work to post from this class in the weeks and months to come, so stay tuned!

Color exercises

A couple of workaday morning exercises.

Disney Infinity 2.0

This is what I've been working on. I'm not sure when or if I'll be cleared to show concept work, but I figure it's safe to show stuff they've posted online. I contributed concept for Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and Black Widow.

Backlighting

Done for a morning exercise at work.

Schoolism Spring sale

Spring sale for my class and the other Schoolism teachers! Also, they used my art on the flyer, which I wholeheartedly approve of.

Cowgirl

Trying to emulate an artist I really like. 5 brownie points to the person who guesses correctly (Avalanche concept artists excluded. No brownie points for you!)

Psychology

Trying stuff with color

A watercolor pencil doodle I did during a meeting

Something from a morning exercise at work. The drawing was from reference but the lighting and colors are made up.

Sketch

Emperor Mollusk

Cover art for a European print of Emperor Mollusk vs. The Sinister Brain by A. Lee Martinez.

I originally wanted to him in an exoskeleton suit like he wears in the book with a much less empowered true body, but that idea died. Still, I can show my explorations for that here. I like the pure melodrama of the right design.

This time with Peter

I decided to add Peter into the scene. I think it helps.

Grandfather's house

Too many irons in the fire

I've been working on a bunch of different things, and I can't seem to finish anything. One of these days I'm going to have a lot of new art to show, but for now you'll have to settle for cropped previews.

Water Troll

This is a really off-balance drawing, but I am starting to get more comfortable with these watercolor pencils.