Lunch Break Sketchin'

Nothing too fancy to update with, just two quick portraits done over lunch break at work.

The first is a portrait of Mortimer Stränge, a guide from Boston's Ghosts and Gravestones Tour. Be sure to check it out if your in town, I had a swell time!



The second is just a scaggy Joan Crawfordish sketch from a secret project I'm starting up with my partner in crime....more things to come in the future.

Busy but Learning!

It's been a busy, but amazing past few months! Back in February I came into an exciting opportunity to work for Harmonix. So far it has been not only a blast, but also a chance to learn some new techniques.

The past couple of months I've been using my lunch and after work hours to teach myself 3DS max and other software at the company. I only have this one little sample, but I've already gotten a little bit better since I made it a few weeks ago. I hope to post up more like this along with some of the 2D designs I've been drawing on the T. I've filled quite a few sketchbooks up with pictures of the crazy people who inhabit my daily commute , andI'll try to get some of those pages scanned soon.

Happy New Year!

Here's the full view and detail shot of the christmas card image I put together for my mom this year. I took the liberty of cleaning up some of the yard trash/broken cars of course. I was also experimenting with a new set of watercolor brushes for photoshop, and I've been really pleased with the results so far.



This piece is still in progress. I'm trying to study more from film to get a stronger sense of color and layout. The final version will have a much punchier/interesting foreground. I'll be posting that up soon!

More Sketchyness

Here's the last batch of the recent backgrounds I've been whipping up for my portfolio. There was a problem mailing it out this week when it was sent to the wrong zip-code, but the status is finally at "delivered" so I can breath a sigh of relief!

Shall we Dance?

I made some composition/value thumbnails while watching some of my favorite Fred Astaire films. I'll definitely be doing this kind of exercise again in the near future.





And here are a few tree sketches to show shape and variety.

Full Steam Ahead! Backgrounds HO!

I have a bad habit of only wanting to show fully finished colored images. So I'm trying to let loose a bit and post more sketches.
The color study of the aerial farm came from the plane ride back from California. I'm not a big fan of planes, but the impressive scenery outweighed the terror for most of the flight this time.

I've also changed around the look of the blog to better match my portfolio, and added a gallery section. Right now the coding is a little messed up so the images have been displaying washed out, but I'll be fixing that shortly.

Back From CTN Expo 2009!

I'm back from Burbank where I attended the CTN Expo this weekend. It was easily the greatest convention I have ever attended. With industry professionals everywhere you looked, and like-minded peers passing around business cards, you couldn't ask for a more creative atmosphere! I was lucky enough to be selected for a series of private interviews, and on top of that I had several of my favorite artists give me helpful critiques on my current portfolio. I'll be posting more (with pictures) soon of some of the highlights of the event, but for now I need to kick my art making into full gear! One of the interviews I had was very promising if I can deliver some fresh sketches of backgrounds before the start of december. I'll keep you posted if this opportunity goes somewhere!



Here's a quick composition done in about 20 minutes using a similar color scheme from an N.C Wyeth painting.



Another 20 minute composition, playing with brushes and angles.