Sketchbook Dump

Sorry for the lack of posts, guys. I'm knee-deep in animation on Cars 2, which means I don't have a lot of time outside of work to draw. Fortunately, I've found time INSIDE work to do some sketching. Lots of work means long dailies, so I started bringing my sketchbook.

The Chades Challenge (Winter Wolfmen of Westeros) will be posted next Friday. Everyone is welcome to participate. Just send me a link to your blog, and I'll post your art.

Here's the first group of random sketches. Enjoy!

Puff, the magic dragon. Everett and I came up with this b-string X-man. He's still just a student at Xavier's school, and he's a bit of a stoner.

A skrang, from Earth Dawn. This guy was actually sketched at a gaming session a while back. I just figured, while I was at the scanner....

An orc, giving advice to all those animators still at work at midnight.
Dudes freaking out. I wonder if this is a subliminal expression of crunch-time stress. Or maybe I was just hungry.

And, of course, Batman villains. Aside from dinosaurs, Batman villains are probably among my most common default villains. Especially the ugly ones.

29 days...

Dr. Eustace Plebe

My Gamma World character is quickly becoming one of my favorite to draw. He's your run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic genetically engineered prescient super scientist whose best friend is a walking refrigerator. Needless to say, when it came time to do a birthday card for our GM, Ev, it was easy to choose which character would be popping out of the cake:

(Erick plays our robot Artech)

Ev's take on Dr. Plebe and his blobby pal, Grimm:

Last session we ran into some radiation-shooting butterflies, illustrated here by Chris Chua.

Dr. Plebe took one in the taint.

I even started working out some expressions for a model sheet in case I ever need to animate this ugly sucker.

Neutral/Sour

Surprise/Taint Burn

My gaming group, the Dandies, is filled with artists, so we're always churning character and story sketches out. You can check out the Dandies' gaming blog, Dungeons and Shenanigans, for more of our gaming art and geekdom.

"Dungeons and dragons...it's thirty minutes of fun packed into four hours."

-Victor Lane, Dandy

While I'm in total nerd-mode, I should mention that Spawn 200 comes out today. This comic was a huge influence on me as a kid. Aside from my dad and brother, both artists, Todd McFarlane was probably my earliest artistic hero.

I haven't followed Spawn for a while, but I think I'll pick this one up for old time's sake.

48 days...

Re-resolution

My New Year's resolution last year was to learn how to cook. Aside from a botched batch of chili and the occasional lumpy pancake, I didn't get that far. This year, however, I'm all over the kitchen. My girlfriend even invited me to her parents' for New Year's Eve to help them cook up some lobster.

This was our thank you card to her folks, letting them know that our little lobster pals made it safely to crustacean heaven.

If you guys have any recipe recommendations, send 'em in. If I try your dish out, I'll post the results.

50 days...
(remember to always check out the countdown links...this one's particularly good)

A Stroll Through Gamma World

A new year means a new campaign and the Dandies have kicked off 2011 with a romp through the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Gamma World. The game was DM'd by Everett Downing (left), but fueled by Lanesplitter's and Gordon Birsch.

Our pal Dovi gave us all electronic d20s for Christmas. They light up when you roll a natural 20. It's pretty sweet.


The party approaches a criminal outpost.

The best part about gaming with a bunch of artists is that you inevitably come out with some amazing character sketches. Here are a few from our first session:

The enigmatic conspiracy theorist Karnsen, played by Ross Dickenson. Sketch by me.

The gruff gelatinous mutant Grimm, played by Chris Chua. Sketch by Chris.

The genetically-engineered prescient, Dr. Eustace Plebe (aka "Slit"), played by yours truly. Sketch also by yours truly.

The cyrogenic super-computer Artech, played by Erick Tryzelaar. Sketch by Emma Coats.

53 days...

One Dream Studios Interview

A follow-up to the "How to draw Rex" tutorial I posted last week. The interviewer is my highschool friend Vic Jimenez of One Dream Studios, and we talk about the greatest animator of all time, the best animated feature of all time, and how to get into animation if you never made it to college.

Oh, and sorry about the blasphemy at the 1:13 mark, I get a little carried away talking about animation cycles.

53 days...

Happy New Year!

What better way to kickoff 2011 than with a bit of iPadimation? This was doodled on Animation Creator HD, a must-have for anyone with an iPad and a serious animation addiction.

My New Year's resolution is to finish all the projects I started in 2010 (and prior). For me, creation is impossible without inspiration, so I thought I'd share my top ten most inspiring discoveries of 2010. Now some of these aren't necessarily new, but they were new to me, so lay off.

1. Comic Con
2. Scuba-diving
3. Black Swan
4. Flogging Molly
5. Nerd Fighters
6. How to Boil Water
7. The Venture Bros
8. Red Letter Media
9. The Trip
10. The Jeff Lewis 5 Minute Comedy Hour

Honorable Mention: Twitter

55 days...