Samurai Jack

Favorite cartoon network animated series from creator Genndy Tartakovsky.  I love how it tells stories through action not words. 

The temptation of Jesus



The latest clay model I did was from the Bible, Luke 4: 1 - 30.  This was when the devil tempted Jesus for forty days.  This model was different from the other ones simply because I had two characters to model.  And the poses were more dynamic with them interacting with each other.  This is one that I love to keep working on slowly.  To really get as much detail as possibly in there as well as not wanting to deal with cracks that come from baking.  I did this one with a brand new set of steel craving tools, and with a more expense clay called Super Sculpey firm. 

"The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.  And he said to him,  "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.  So if you worship me, it will all be yours."

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only."

UPDATES COMING

With taking care of things with the family and looking at getting a second job I’ve been really busy.  I plan on posting a lot more content in the coming weeks on the progress on "Legacy of Pog" as well as a new project that is going to have a real serious tone to it.  As well as trying to look into getting a YouTube channel so I can start putting up animations and motion graphic work.  As always thanks for checking up on the posts.

Peace.......... 

Morg ("The Legacy Of Pog")

Once a powerful race of telepaths, for reasons unclear they were wiped out a long time ago.  The collected essence of the species has manifested into a single spiritual entity, that exists somewhere between this world and the next.  They possess a mysteries artifact that seems to be the last reminding thing of their species.  The reason for why they are here is still unclear.       

This one is still being fleshed out, but I like were its headed.  Morg is a character that really challenges the protagonist mentally and spiritually throughout the story.  I defiantly wanted to design him to have a strong presence whenever he appears in the story.  He has more insight than others to most of the events that take place in the story.  And has a way of invoking a feeling of despair and panic whenever he’s around.

3 year old Concept art (Concept Art)

Just more of my old Photoshop work from a couple of years ago.  Once I start up a new one I'll go step by step from start to finish.  Until then here’s some more of my work.  I don't claim to be the best at this stuff so please don't hesitate to critique.



Shadow Of The Colossus

Favorite game of all time, amazing visuals, gameplay, music and atmosphere makes this the game to point to if you ever need proof that video games can be art.

Backgrounds (Concept Art)

Here are some old digital paintings from back in the day that I did practicing different brush techniques.



Lions story

Always looking for opportunities to do illustrations for children stories, this was an old sample of some of the work I could do that I sent to a potential employer. 

Kasumi (The Legacy of Pog)

Kasumi is the next character I want to highlight from the series.  A Kulsura warrior, who design was heavily influenced by old Native American culture with a little bit of Asian mixed in.  The head dress is the distinct characteristic of this race, with each piece having a story behind it.    

   

One of the oldest races on the planet, they have a long history with the Progen, both good and bad.  They are extremely crafty in terms of their surroundings.  They can make a tool out of anything, hunt anything and have a better connection to the animals on the planet than any other race or tribe.  I have a mini back story; I’m going to do about how she got her weapon, which is less dramatic than the story she tells.  Other than that she is going to be a character that I can play with more in terms of emotions.  Pog is a little more reserved with facial expressions, Kasumi is a character that lets it all hang out.    

Thanks for reading until next post......

Peace

clay maquettes

I like looking at how much detail other artists can achieve with their clay Marquette’s.  And when I see stuff like this it reminds me of what I can do if I plan my projects better.

Clay Logo

This was the second model I did using the same formula.  Only this time I feel that the wire and aluminum foil underneath could have been tighter connected to the wood.  The good thing about this one was having made this from my logo; I had a more solid idea of what I was working toward.  Another thing to note is I used wood splinters for the areas with hair sticking out, and made it so it could hold a pencil. 

Pealicon on the beach (Fine art)

I worked on this for my mom's birthday present, which was inspired from a picture of my honeymoon in Vero Beach, Florida.  I enjoyed drawing this one because of the way the composition is a little bit tilted makes it look really interesting.

"The Legacy of Pog"

Within the first week of attending the Art Institute of Washington I meet a friend that had some of the same passion and drive in doing character design and stories.  One of the stories was going to be a collaboration between two of our characters under one title.  Since then I've had this really interesting character that was born out of all the concept art that was done.  Not since a couple of years ago have I finally made him the center piece of one really epic story that I've been working on.

I wanted a story about alien races but I wanted to bring it down to a more primal, super nautral level.  Where not everything is known in the universe and primative races inhabit a handfull of planets in a small solar system. 

I've been working on his look for several years with him having the alias The Green Guy.  Now having meshed together a couple of stories, with really strong character design and art direction, feel that now’s the time to start promoting some of my work leading up to the story “The Legacy of Pog"

Heres a quick break down of the lead character so far:

I wanted him to have this primal look to him, at the same time he had to give off this feeling of gentleness. 

I took the idea of a little green alien and worked off that as a start for the design.  Since off spring and descendants is a big part of the story I came up with the name of his race being called Progen.  His exoskeleton is a defineing feauture of his race, it protects major organs and is his main offensive tool.  I modeled alot of him from a frog in terms of legs and feet.  I wanted him to move like a spring in terms of jumping and running.  Other key features is despite the fact that they are really durable and strong, they are slow healers.  To heal from any wound takes awhile because the body produces this stone like substance that covers and protects the damaged area, until it heals, some times immolbizing the Progen while recovering. 

More to come soon.............

Heavenly sword (Inspiration)

I saw this more as art than a game.  From the art style to the way everything flowed it was poetry in motion.

Skull Girls Art Process (Inspiration)

I love the style and animation of Skull Girls, so when I saw this video I knew I had to add it to the list.


Return to form

Before I went to the Art Institute of Washington, before the Japanese animation, and before I even knew what Photoshop was, I would do nothing but work on Fine Art and Still Life’s.  Even receiving a couple of awards for some of the work I’ve done in high school using only a pencil and my thumb to blend and shade.  Fine art is what I fell in love with first as an artist, and is what I am most comfortable doing.  Seeing something and being able to break it down to just shadows and highlights is what I love to do.  So I wanted to post a recent picture I did of my daughter, for my wife's birthday present.  I plan on doing one a week so any tips or critiques please post them in the comments. 

Could have made it a little darker to get more of a dramatic contrast like the original photo

Inspiration

Inspiration is something that I think is essential to have if you’re an artist.  What’s interesting about inspiration is that you can get it from anything, a picture, person, landscape, music etc... 

What I want to do is simply make a running list week by week of things and people that inspire me to do what I do.

The first source of inspiration is no other than my favorite artist, ALEX ROSS

my first serious clay maquette

A couple of years ago when I was trying to make a conceptart.org profile, I started getting inspired by all the extraordinary clay model work I saw on the site.  Professionals and amateurs alike posting all of these models on the form really blow me away with the detail of their creations.  The amount of money, time and planning it takes just to make and construct one was really interesting.  Drawing inspiration from the site I started practicing and investing money into tools.

Super sculpey firm - better than regular super sculpey 

Pasta machine - for blending colors and sculpey together

Detailing tools - wooden sculpting tools work really well when starting out

Armature wire - is wire that you braid that becomes the skeleton of your model

Aluminum foil - used to wrap around the wire after you form the skeleton of your model

Plumbers glue - great for sealing the wire together, and fixing cracks

Youtube - to see how its done



What I found in making this one was that the most important part of any model is the structure underneath the clay.  Making sure everything is as tight as possible, can stand and support weight.  Too much aluminum foil and you limit the amount of clay that can go in specific areas.  If the wire is not strong enough the whole thing can start to fall apart.  The one thing I learned from this one was to not overdo it.  Having tried to paint it and failing I primed it and sprayed it again with a solid color.  Doing this several times started to take away from the overall detail I had put into it.  That and I found that there is a cracking problem I need to address somehow after baking it.  Once I have money to buy more clay, I will do a more up to date Marquette with a step by step guide documenting my process.

Here’s some pictures of the process I went through with my first one.

                                                

Trying to drill a hole in one of the hands lead to me accidently breaking the hand in half.  That’s were the plumbers glue comes in handy.

At this point I already painted it about two times and did not like the results.  So I went with a golden brown finish and left it at that.  All in all what I took away from this one was to have a solid plan of what I want to do from the start.

 

The Sleeper Has Awaken

Welcome to the blog, not sure if I like the blog title or not but I can play with that later.  Well never been one to write this much about myself but I tend to take art personally, not sure if that’s good or bad yet.  For those of you who have been around me, already know that I’m a real quiet and humble person.  Mostly because I like to sit back and go through life at a slow pace, to absorb information and inspiration from others around me.  Always been the kind of guy more interested in how another artist or animator works and thinks in terms of his or her own thought process when designing and creating.

The reason for a blog now is that I feel that it’s time to really refocus myself in terms of being an artist. I’ve always looked at art being more than a way to express yourself, but kind of like a journal of where you’ve been in life and the experience’s that influence your art style and ideas.  I loved going to the Art Institute of Washington and having that feeling of wanting to hang out with people who had the same passion for making characters, stories and artwork that I did.  I was always the kid that was good at drawing, when I was in 3^rd grade I already know what I wanted to do in life.  Knowing you have the edge in doing something better than someone else at an early age really shapes what you focus on growing up.

The self-esteem started going down for me after being dealt some bad hands in my career, the fire in me started to go away.  All the job interviews not working out, to me feeling lost in the fact that I didn’t know what I wanted to do anymore were really starting to mess with my head.  Then I’ve started having this competitive feeling again after some conversations with friends and my family.  All of a sudden this sickening feeling of realizing that I’m throwing away all my potential hit me.  And then one day I woke up and came to the realization that the only person stopping me was myself.

So I plan on using the blog to really open up my mind creatively, for all to see my though process in creating characters, clay modeling, animations, comics you name it.  And to really show how much work an artist puts into making that character or animation look good.  For those who have worked with me before know that art brings out the kid in me.  So if you happen to follow me you can look forward to some interesting posts of me jumping around from drawing, animating, making clay models to painting.  I have big plans on doing some things never done before, that I'm holding pretty close to the chest, but before I can get there I need to get myself back in the game.    

THE RICHEST PLACE IN THE WORLD!

If I were to ask you, ‘‘Where is the richest place in the world?’’ I am sure that some would say the mint in Washington, D.C. Others would say Fort Knox, and others would say the gold and diamond mines that populate the African continent. But all would be wrong.

The richest place in the world is the graveyard! That’s right, the graveyard. In it lie all the people who had great ideas that would have made them wealthy, but they listened instead to some negative person who used the word ‘‘can’t’’ and they believed them. Then they took those great ideas with them to their graves! Their best song . . . unsung! Their best invention . . . undone! Their best book . . . unwritten!