Story Builders in this months Family Fun

Press! The old mac set is in this months Family Fun.

Kingdom Opener

Here's the title page with sample text for an iphone project Ive been working on with the gang at Imagineers. Excited to see it come together!

Map published in MSW Destinations

My map was picked up and featured with quite a few other lovely maps in this months MSW Destinations.

SW Central Park

Got a quick one in the other night with my painting buddy bajel. I recall it was a mild Fall late afternoon (which is "evening" out here since it gets dark at around 4). Im guessing all these leaves are totally gone by now... :(

Plein Air or Yankees Parade?

Met up with NatelBagel and went and painted the firehouse down the street. Yankees victory parade was close by and lots of revelers were on hand.

SE Corner C Park

Was getting dark and bumped into a painting group at this spot and set up a few trees behind them to try and get a quick one in- they stopped over and said hello- even though I was rushing as fast as possible to get something on my board, I think I showed them all my bad painting habits- not scraping my palette every night, using a brush to mix my colors instead of the knife, etc etc. Slightly embarrassing, but I admit it- I have some horrible habits when it comes to painting, as you can see from my muddy colors...

Not so sunny set

This is officially my 3rd Fall on the East Coast and by far its the longest and most colorful of the past three. Still lots of leaves left...

Genesis Climber Mospeda

"Mospeda Complete Artworks" has been enthusiastically added to the Last Outpost art book review-
...which can easily be found by clicking here.

I found the book I never knew I had always wanted the other day.
Packed full of character sheets, mechanical and interior designs, concepts and backgrounds for both Earth and Invid forces. So much stuff I had never seen before!!!
Awesome book.

Fall magnificence

No shortage of scenes to paint this month...

My 2009 Crush

Its getting towards the end of the year and I figured its time for me to reveal my 2009 crush. And there she is, my rig, the red, sometimes three speed, free spirit. I have been loving this bike all year. Here is the set up along with a detailed shot of my custom, tech, security system. I just lock the whole thing up down on the street no problem.

Im sitting in a car

...through the tues morning parking restriction. There is the Hudson- theres gonna be ice floating by out there soon...

Barn Side

This is the barn sides. Kids! Print this out and fold the paper in half for a taste of story builders. We actually had to cut the roof portion due to some logistic issues, which were actually kind of interesting if your into die cuts and manufacturing.

Story Builders Art

One of two pages of Story Builder art I will post- Just like two sides of a coin- each diecut panle has a different bit of art on each side.

Story Builders!!

Super excited to announce that the Story Builders line of playsets I worked on with the great guys over at Sprig Toys has been released and is out on store shelves! The packaging looks really great and I'm honored to be associated with such a fantastic, smart company like Sprig, "Where kids power the fun!"

Kate Spade Showroom

For the second season in a row, the very lovely and charming ladies at the Kate Spade office asked me to return to paint the latest graphic theme on their showroom wall. I snapped a couple pics of the showroom before all the dress forms and displays were installed. Hopefully I can get a hold of some shots of the completed room and post them soon. I thought their concept of roller coasters and Coney Island fun was very timely.

Kingdom Teaser

I've had the unique opportunity to contribute backgrounds to the fine folks at Imagineer Games on their upcoming iphone project, "Kingdom". Hope to share these on my blog in the near future.

Map of Home

Gads! its been a longtime since I last posted and even longer since Ive been home to SC.
Sigh.

NYC Highline!

Im really excited the highline park is finally open. Lots to see up there-

Wave running

Surf Nazi 2

Surf Nazis

one day it got too crowded and it was never the same again.

Farewell Kwai Chang Caine

Besides fly in the Tiger Squandron of Cosmo Zero fighters with Derek Wildstar, what I wanted most when I was a little kid was to get to grow up in a Shaolin Monastary like Kwai Kai Chang. It was with some sadness to hear David Carradine passed away, farewell Kwai Chang Caine.

project 11:52

I participated in Kyle Cameron's 11:52 project the other morning.
What were you doing at exactly 11:52 am?
I was sketching- actually I was sketching while baby sitting my car from the NYPT (New York Police Parking Police). One of the most exceptionally ruthless city departments I have ever encountered.

Happy Birthday Last Outpost Art Blog!

Today marks the 3rd year of posts to the Last Outpost! Happy Birthday! This third year, one of my favorite numbers, will be commemorated with a repost of my very first post- looks like I was just getting back from an amazing trip to Italy! The little town of Treviso we stayed in remaining one of my favorite places in the entire world.

Memorial day at the beach

Spent a lovely Memorial Day Weekend at an equally lovely beach. Found some time to break out the DS for a quick color sketch of one of the many coves we lazily spent our mornings and afternoons at.

Warm Wednesday Night Long Pose

Oil on a 9x12 board and a couple hours
For all you workshop/figure painting junkies, I made yet another gallery where these quickstudies can all live. Eventually I will make a button for the right hand column, but for now you can access it by clicking here. Happy Spring!

My early brush with Fame: Bianca Majorie

Im not sure what brought up this long lost memory, but the other morning it all popped into my head. I couldnt of been any older than 7, and I recall this woman named Bianca who lived down the street from us that my parents had become friends with. I clearly remember her face, her little house in Santa Cruz, and a handful of paintings propped against the wall. I also remember hearing how she had worked at Disney and with what I recall as some bitterness, she had developed the character Dumbo.
I was having a hard time sleeping that morning so I got up and did a little research, and yup, there she was, Bianca Majorie, the first woman to be hired by Walt to the Story department at Disney in the '30's. All of you in the business understand what a monumental achievement it is to make it into the story department, and for a woman in the 1930s to be brought into such a male dominated industry should clearly indicate what a Titan she must have been. Im happy that I was able to find out about her, but still its disappointing nothing what so ever is mentioned about her in my Disney Animation Studios "Story" Archive Book or much at all anywhere, even though she seems to be truly a monumental and historical figure of the Animation industry. One touching and profound quote of hers does remain though in regards to the Elmer the Elephant story; "that usefulness is more important than beauty ... that things that are not decorative may be extremely useful and should be cherished for that reason."

David Lyle Show

My talented friend Dave Lyle is having an art opening tomorrow April 30th at the George Billis Gallery 511 W 25th Street NYC.
His show runs till May 23.
Check it out!

Easy reference

Been busy finalizing some work for the good kids at Sprig Toys, and had to run uptown for some interior reference at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So lucky to have that resource close at hand!

Welcome!

dillon marie tung was born under the very auspicious sign of the ox earlier this year.
welcome!

I Miss My S4

I sure do miss my S4.
So much fun to have a really fast car...

Grand Tetons DS

Its been a long while since I sketched with the DS Lite. Still a really fun tool.

Guitar rough

Rough guitar player. I absolutely cant wait to see this band all together in one place.

Friday Beers

beeer.

Rodent Preview

Sneak peak.
This was a test/practice run for a rodent band Im managing.
6x8 oil on paper

Toy Fair

I've been working on some playset prototypes for the fine folks of Sprig Toys and they were kind enough to give me a guest pass to this years Toy Fair. Had a really great time- my favorite booths being; TWH Collectibles, who make scale nearly functioning diecast models of some really really large mining and excavating cranes, shovels, draglines, loaders and a variety of other bits of large equipment. Amazing stuff. My other three favorites were the Bruder booth, Playmobile (the jaques cousteau looking marine playsets made me want to get in the bathtub again), and of course, Sprig Toys.
Had a great time and met some fantastic people. Quite a different vibe than the comic show I had gone to the week earlier. Heres an image of one of the twh toys. The nice lady at he booth left me with the impression that since these are scale replicas, its what companies like P&H Mining, La Tourneau, Bucyrus etc use to sell the actual product. The toys/models were really impressive, I can see how those buyers and execs for the actual mining companies would be salivating and ready to drop millions for this stuff. Sign me up!

Cafe Colombe Characters

a page of Cafe Colombe customers. small tables, great coffee.

sketchbook

spent an evening with new friends and their sketchbooks, and I promised myself to do more sketchbook work. There are also some new sketches from my monday night quickstudies group here or via the fancy link to the right.

New gallery

Ive opened up access to some art I did for the Madagascar 2 project in my madagascar2 gallery which can be found to the right- or by clicking here

neglect

An old friend reminded me how Ive neglected my plein aire gallery this year. I will start to fill it back up.

While were at it

while Im digging around in my archives I have a few more things to post... for posterity- these are a few more old minigolf ideas from a past project-

Old goodies

Its 2009 and Im pretty sure its safe to post a few of these mini golf concepts from a past project- Mostly I would get a render of the fairway and the hole from the game designer and then I would paint in the setting according to what environment it belonged to- and pass the concept off to the modeler.

Monday night quick poses

found a nice quickstudies group and gave the modbook a go.