Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Lemme spitball for a sec.

Reflecting on my art career, it reflects a lot of my other jobs and life in general. Living by the motto, "doing a lot with very little" is something that's been ingrained by upbringing, necessity, and inventiveness. I've been in companies where resources were tight and we had to wear many hats. Had to pull off projects that typically used 5 to 10 times the manpower. Work within very tight budgets and timelines of clients. There have been plenty of experiences where we made the conventionally impossible, possible and beautiful.

This doesn't just extend to *how* I do work though, but also what kind of work. I try to look for stuff in terms of simple shapes & make the most out of them. Create "a lot with a little" in terms of composition, color, storytelling, construction, etc.

Some may think that simpler design and illustration *is* simpler than something ornate. I'd argue it's just a different outlook - both require a lot of thought & effort, but the results are highly contrasted. But that's another part of what makes art beautiful - so many ways to get to so many different results. And even if two people take the same exact approaches, it can still end up with very different results.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

So, I've had my mind on comics for a while.

Specifically, a comic idea that originated with Minecraft. But then it grew into something with its own characters, motivations, etc. etc.

This was done to 1) see how I fared at doing a comic page (because most of my life it's been character designs, one sheet illustrations, icons, etc.) and 2) give a nod to the story's Minecraft origins.

I'm a little nervous about sharing this stuff. I'm always glad to get constructive criticism, but my worry comes from newness. Doing about any other kind of illustration is something I have experience with. Stuff like this? It's like I'm learning to walk all over!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Made this while cooling down from today's projects.

I'm not entirely sure if I like it or not - on one hand, it's my first time playing with a lot of brushes, and it's been a while since I've tried to break out of some shapes/habits I adopt when just doodling.

On the other hand...? Not convinced I like how it looks. But it's good practice and there are some things I learned while doing it.


Thursday, July 11, 2013

OK, dust this thing off, move this over here, and...

*ahem*

Hey folks! It's been a while!

I'm still making art, and I'm still all over the internet. Cases in point:

My dA page
A new(ish) Facebook page!
Now on Tumblr!
And always on Twitter!

Cool stuff I've done lately:
  • Work featured in Udon's Tribute books (3 out of 4 so far!), with the most recent one (a WoW book) out this month!
  • Designed backgrounds - from buildings and props to entire environments - for two iOS games from The Playforge (found here and here!)
  • Made cool commissions ranging from work for an artist's comic (Misfortune High), to stuff in videogames, and so on
  • Currently working with Timbuktoons on a project

I'm trying to fold this blog back into the circle of places that I check/update, although I could really do with finding a way to consolidate all these info dumps. Other than that, what are plans with this blog?

Not really sure - I use dA for general art posts, twitter to chat with other artists, tumblr for quick sketch/progress/wip dumps & share inspiring stuff, and facebook as just a fb "face" online...so...what could blogger do that the other formats can't?

Long form posting for one. So maybe stuff about art theory? Try to wrangle out the "why" of what I do? Not really sure...

One thing is for certain - I don't like the notion of letting these things languish, so I'll try to keep this page active.