Pasadena Workshop June 15!

This will be a thorough and intensive workshop for designing compelling animation and game environments. Saturday June 15, 2-7 pm. Enroll online at Concept Design Academy.

See you there!

Shrek Village

This one is from a ways back, 2005 I think. We needed a take on a traditional medieval village. It's a collaboration, Henrik Tamm did the layout and I painted it.

Acrylic Study

Location Styling

Quicksketch

I do enjoy the challenge of quicksketch drawing. Hopefully the face reads passably here because the goal was to do the entire profile with 1 stroke only. It's done by varying the pressure on the flat side of a compressed charcoal stick.

More Location Design

Location Design

Self taught version of my online class special sale!

If you've been interested in my online entertainment design class but haven't been able to get into the sold out sessions or if you're on a tight budget you'll be glad to know that the self study version is available at $100 off the regular price until April 26th, 2013 @ 3:00am.  Don't miss out!

If you'd like to study portrait drawing with me in self taught format, that's available too! click here for the portrait drawing class.

Location Design

PIB Desert Location

A team effort with production designer Guillaume Aretos.

From The Legend of Puss in Boots

Jungle Falls

SiDEBAR Interview

My interview with the gang over at SiDEBAR has just been released. You can listen to it here and check out their many artist interviews at sidebarnation.com

Class demo, gouache on illustration board.
This painting is available on the Original Art for Sale page.

Compressed charcoal on Rives paper, 15"x 22".

Sketchbook

 Sketchbook quicky from a while back.

Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas

Background scene painting, Photoshop. (2001)

Location study, photoshop, art rage.

Charcoal on Rives lightweight paper.

And a reminder, my new 9 week online class: Drawing the Portrait in Charcoal begins January 21, you can study with me from anywhere in the world, enrollment is limited, sign up today!

Keeping the Dream Alive...

The resolution that I have always kept: an extra study a day, every day until the sun goes out.

Merry Christmas!

This is a painting I did for the DreamWorks Christmas Special Shrek the Halls, it's meant to set up the look of the lighting and color for the moment when Shrek tells the Night Before Christmas story.

Online Portrait Drawing Course!

Study portrait drawing with me from anywhere in the world! My new online class is Drawing the Portrait in Charcoal. It begins January 21, enrollment is limited, sign up today! Hosted by the great people at LAAFA!



I've done my best to make this class the strongest such class on the market, it includes nine fully illustrated,  jam packed audio/video lectures, twelve video drawing demonstrations showing a wide variety of subjects, techniques and materials, and weekly homework assignments that will build on themselves to teach you a clearer, better way to work from life.

I'll work with you personally each week, you'll get a full audio/video critique of your work where I'll talk through with you what's working in your drawing and what can be improved and I'll draw over your image to give you a personalized demonstration for every assignment you turn in. And there's a built in grace period at the end for you to wrap up any incomplete assignments and still get full critique feedback.

This class is designed to show you how to make drawing cease to be a source of frustration and become a pleasure, I'm looking forward to working with you.

Coming Soon: Online Portrait Drawing Class!

Next week we'll officially announce my upcoming online, 9 week portrait drawing class which will begin in late January.
Keep an eye out, we'll start taking enrollments at the time of the announcement and I'd be thrilled to have you join in. So if you'd like to see and hear everything I know about portrait drawing including a live recorded demo of this drawing and numerous others, check back here or at the LAAFA website for more info.
(you'll also see that I have a 2 1/2 hr charcoal portrait demonstration currently available through LAAFA).

El Dorado

This is a painting for The Road to El Dorado done in acrylics on Crescent #100 illustration board. Below is my initial sketch, as you can see I got overly excited about the contrasts and needed to back off in the final to make it a proper character moment. The last image is the final frame as it appears in the movie.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is a table setting I put together for one of the Shrek projects.

A little help from the blogosphere please...

Hi all,
I'm getting ready to record demonstrations for a portrait drawing online class I'll be putting out early next year.

Any suggestions on what kind of personal video camera will give me nice, clean recordings?

I hear that a simple HD flip can do a good job under good lighting conditions and that's an affordable option but I'm very open to suggestions

Thanks!

PIB Comp

This is a comp for the grand finale shot of the Puss in Boots Short "Puss in Boots and the Three Diablos".

Online Class 2nd Term

The second term of my online class has just opened beginning April 15!
We have a limited number of spots, first come first served, sign up today!
Full again, I do appreciate your interest in this class. We may be able to take on more students for the April class at a later date so do go to the link and get on the waiting list if you're interested. We'll also run the class again for you in July and October.

My New Online Class!

Study Concept Art with me from anywhere in the world! My new online class is Concept Art for Entertainment: Designing with Color And Light. Begins January 10, enrollment is limited, sign up today! Hosted by the great people over at Schoolism!
Thanks for the overwhelming response everyone, the class sold out in the first day! I welcome you to sign up for the following term, go ahead and click the link, there's a window to leave your email address to be notified.

Townscape painting for The Legend of Puss in Boots. We spent a lot of time on a lot of different versions trying to find the right look for Puss in Boot's hometown. This one gets close but there were more tweaks as the show went through final production.

Happy Halloween!

This is a color and lighting painting for a DreamWorks Halloween short called "The Pig Who Cried Werewolf".

Shark Tale Color Roughs

Watercolor/Gouache Workshop This Saturday

Here's a reminder that my "Painting in watercolor and gouache" workshop is this coming this Saturday, October 20, 12-8pm. To enroll contact LAAFA.
This painting is watercolor with a few touches of gouache on Arches watercolor paper, 15"x20".

Autumn in Shrek's world

A village scene I did for one of the Shrek projects.

Painting in Watercolor and Gouache Workshop!

Fundamentals and advanced techniques for creating dynamic images with traditional gouache and watercolor media.
Saturday October 20th, 12-8pm at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art.  Enroll now online or call (877) MY-LAAFA (695-2232)

The workshop will include:

12-2:30pm: Slideshow presentation illustrating the materials, process and approach for successful painting with water based media.

3-5pm: Instructor demonstration from a costumed model.

5-6pm: Dinner break.

6-8pm: Student painting time from a costumed model with instructor feedback.

See you there! 

Another one from the archives, this is a scene I painted for Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas somewhere around 2001, photoshop.

Road to El Dorado

This is a background painting I did for The Road to El Dorado back in the day. I've added some close-ups below.

New Charcoal Step by Step

It's been refreshing to use my rare free time to get back to charcoal drawing during the last couple of months. This drawing is compressed charcoal on rives paper and is roughly life size. It was completed in about an hour and a half.











Close-up.

My portrait demo on sale now!

The sale price for my video demonstration is on for just a couple more days (goes back to regular price Sept 1), buy now if you're interested!



Here's the final drawing from the video.




This last image is a value analysis that I hope those of you interested in portrait drawing will find helpful: it has a noise reduction filter laid over it to remove detail and texture leaving only the value structure. It's nerve wracking to do a live demo like this one, the video crew won't come back another day if you wreck the portrait being filmed so you have to have some ideas about holding the drawing together. My idea is to carefully keep the value structure organized and grouped for a naturalistic lighting effect that is believable and clear, and that lends strength to the composition. I hope you enjoy the video.

My Portrait Drawing Video is Here!

I'm excited to announce that my portrait drawing video is now available for pre-sale! Order before the end of August to get the sale price, it will come online for download the middle of September, complete info and description are here.

Portrait in Charcoal

I'll be on the theme of portrait drawing in my posts for the next couple of weeks, and if you're in the LA area come on out to my Workshop this Saturday, August 18th where I'll show you how this is done.


This one is done with charcoal and white nupastel on strathmore 500 series charcoal paper.