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.

christmas eve

broke out the nintendo ds for a christmas eve quick study out the back window.
probably my very first 'white christmas'.
hope everyones having a lovely holiday.
cheers!

Clarinetist

Christmas Clarinetist.
Oils on board 9x5

More rats

almost there.
were approaching the big finale of the year of the rat.

A Day Later

ahh, whata difference a day makes- these guys were a little more like what I was imagining yesterday.

Rats!

Marin Memories

I remember I went back to paint this spot again only to discover that hill of trees is now a hill of gray condos. Cant stop the progress.

Happy Birthday Lenny Rogers

Last Halloween my friend Alan dressed up as Kenny Rogers hypothetical washed up brother, Lenny (shown here on this card I made). He really cracked me up. Anyways- its actually Alan's Birthday today, so Happy Birthday to you Mr Alan Harris!
Oh by the way, Alan is a fantastic film maker- be sure to check out his shorts on;
www.collarsup.com

3 more of 1

one particular part looked right, so I offered a few more options of the one.

Frank-Gun-stein

I often get asked for new gun designs and being someone whos mom really frowned upon such subjects, Im always happy to oblige.

Fortress of Solitude

I wanted another shot of this secret spot I did earlier this week. This time I used photoshop instead of the ds. Anyhow, we all have that imagined fortress of solitude, and thats definitely mine.

Secret Spot

This weeks submission to the "colors" nintendo DS challenge.

Cloudy with chance of pumpkins

prepare for a deluge.

dog head concept

I dont have any actual photos of my Halloween outfit but it was something like this;
Fun project, super easy- Id like to build more one day... perhaps a whole pack of dogs in suits....

Head gear

A sneak peak of my Halloween "hat" on the work stand last night. Ill try and get another shot of it completed later today or tomorrow...

Happy Halloween!

Lots of people have been talking about really bringing Halloween back in 2008.
Have a great and safe Holiday you kids.

Sketchbook Review

This sketchbook review has been on deck for quite sometime-
check it out-
or Last Outpost Art Book Review link to the right.
Also, I posted a new sketchbook page of my very own, a child site I have definitely neglected over the past year...link to the right...

Bougareau Study with the Nintendo DS

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905)
Such an amazing Artist and a couple paintings up in the European section of the Met.
This and a few more sketches can be found in my Nintendo DS "Colors" Gallery here, or the link to the right.
Stay cool as cucumbers all you kids.

Soccer to 'em!

more soccer

workshop

I went out to Governors island last weekend with SCampbsos and the ferry over there docks underneath this awesome structure that I just couldnt help imagining as a workshop/studio, (one of my favorite things to fantasize about). Figured I sketch it out from my memory- since its all old tyme jules verney looking- I gave it a steampunk prop/pedestrian- still need to work out that robot a bit better but I sure would like to move into that overhead shop.

Soccer5

soccer4 rough

Soccer3

paint box opening

Rhode was laughing at me on the rapid complicated dance I have to preform when setting up my easel- Im sure everyone has their own individual way to do it, but this is the order I usually do it in.

Photo Backdrops

I had the unique opportunity to help a friend work on some large backdrops for a photoshoot. Had a really good time making these, as anyone could imagine- painting really big was super liberating. Fun project.

Soccer2

soccer

A rough for a soccer story Im working on.

Hand modeling

I picked up a fun little side job today being a hand model. If youve never modeled before, let me tell you, its a lot of waiting around. Luckily I had my modbook with me and some time to break out a couple quick color studies of a cake shoot they were working on.

Tekkon Kinkreet 2 Art Book Set

I finally wrote up a quick review for the amazing 2 volume set of art books for my favorite feature animated film of all time, Tekkon Kinkreet.
Checkout the Last Outpost Art Book Review to the right, or link here.

Modified Mac

Thanks for reminding me to mention this modbook Ive been sitting on for the last month or so. They tear off the screen of a 2.4 Ghz macbook and replace the keyboard and track pad with what essentially is 13 inch wacom cintiq digitizer- so basically its a slate style tablet running leopard with the 512 levels of pressure sensitivity and surface texture of the cintiq. Ive been using this program alias/autodesk made for tablet pc's called Sketchbook pro- its a really great sketch application, the interface is super simple- just a few tools which takes a minimal amount of screen space. When I take something beyond the sketch phase, I import to photoshop, but for sketching on site or on the couch the sketchbook pro program is way better. Ive used quite a few tablet pcs, but none of them have as good of an actual drawing surface (its usually slick and plastic-y feeling) and I can really tell the difference between the 256 levels of pressure of all the tablet pc's, and the 512 of this mac modbook. Its probably the most impressive thing the surface and screen sensitivity. Also, the modbook has an internal dvd/cd drive which is absent for the entire field of tablet pc's. I could care less about whats better- the macs or the pc's, but you know- I really like the latest leopard operating system- its clearly way better than Microsoft Vista which is terrible on my other tablet pc.
Some people think the modbook is heavy and gets really hot, well, its heavy and gets really hot but not any heavier than the macbook and not any hotter. I have had some issues where the cursor will jump to the apple icon all by itself- which is definitely a big problem people are having (and the company who does the modification doesnt seem to be able to do anything about it)- but it seems to have recently stopped jumping.
So that jumping cursor and the fact that I waited over a year to receive the actual modbook both leave me a bit sour on the transaction- at the same time, its a brilliant piece of hardware and Im really really happy with it.

At Met with my Modbook

Finally broke out the modbook for some on site sketching- it worked out great- so much more accurate than the little ds... still a little tough to sketch with it while standing but not that bad!

climbing

mmmm color.
5x7 oil on linen board
I like the linen- recommended

way up river sketch

4x7 oil on a piece of cardboard

early bird

Ive been getting up early and strapping the ole easle to my bike and headin out for a morning painting. Its light out, and of course nice and warm at 530 here! Fun.

mlrs

makin collages and editing/painting over the top with photochop.

hot rod in ds gallery

hot rods and more in the nintendo ds gallery link to right-