Creation : The State of Art

Cecaelia

2010-07-06T22:15:00.004-04:00

Worked a few more hours on my little octopus love, had a serious talk with Illustrator about our relationship, we decided to just take things slow so that neither of us gets in over our head, but we really seem to be cliquing together.

I also (because I love themes) created four color schemes. Still have no idea where I'll put these to be printed on shirts or what color shirt they'll end up on or anything of the sort. Any suggestions from the peanut gallery would be helpful.

Cecaelia (Progress)

2010-07-03T23:12:00.003-04:00

Been awhile since I posted anything here, it's been awhile since I've done anything of substance for myself.

Anyway, I'm working on a new Tshirt design and teaching myself Illustrator, which is getting progressively easier once I get used to its own little cantankerocities.

Obviously not finished, its been a slow process and a long night. Hoping to finish it tomorrow. :)

-J

Caricatures

2010-01-25T21:18:00.002-05:00

Mostly because I don't want to drown this blog in caricatures, I'm making a seperate blog for it, leaving this for my sketches and digital art.

I also need something to update until I get my new laptop.

When I can do digital art. And update my MOTHER BLIPPING COMIC. GOD DANG.

Anyone want to loan me 2000 dead presidents?

http://facialentrepreneur.blogspot.com/

Its a very. VERY. subtle Henry Rollins joke.

It's the best name I could come up with for someone in the business of selling faces.

-J

California Teaser

2009-12-29T16:01:00.003-05:00

Just a sketch I whipped up of the characters for the comic idea I wrote earlier.

Have I ever mentioned that I always wanted to do a Western?

Dang yes, Cowboys.

Sigh of Relief

2009-12-29T12:13:00.002-05:00

So now that I have finished school, and taken full advantage of sleeping and lazing about on my days off for the last full week, I've decided its time to get back into art.

Really, I noticed that I've been playing Borderlands for like, 120 hours and I almost died of shame.

I feel like I'm opening new doors in my life and I'm excited and what I'll find. I'm starting TWO new comics, and I spent this morning writing the first one. It will be eleven "issues" long, and when I get a few pages done I will create a new blog for it. Or post it here. I haven't decided yet.

Elliminno P is also in dire need of some updating, I'm going to get to work on that, too.

I'm also looking into getting my own .com name and moving my blogs to wordpress, which is apparently infinitely better and more malleable to my needs. I'll check it out first, of course.

Stay tuned, I think 2010 holds some EXCELLENT things for me, art wise.

Sequa Club update

2009-12-03T10:46:00.000-05:00

My comic work for the Sequential Art Club, so far.

I've been completely bogged down between work and preparing for graduation. There's actually one more page missing from this that needs to be laid out - I can take care of it Saturday and hopefully have some of it inked. But I kind of like keeping the ending from you. I'm definitely a bit more excited about it now that its actually happening instead of hanging over my head like a Sword of Damocles.

Just the gestures - for me this is 70% of the work, getting things to look cool in the frame. Sorry if its hard to read, obviously I'll fix that later.

Afro Noir

2009-11-18T10:51:00.002-05:00

Just something I did to get used to working with my tablet. I have to do a panel for the comic club's poster, I think I'll submit this. Its very....submittable.

I think she's saying "Bang."

Caricatures

2009-09-21T20:43:00.003-04:00

Had a run of interesting guests this week, so I thought I'd share a little bit. I think my "style" is starting to show through, but I'm not quite there yet. Today was my 26th day at work.

This was a very friendly lady who wanted to be drawn on a mule. A mule that was very, very specifically described to me.

I drew Mouse one day while I was bored and alone. The pic of her is actually like, two weeks later than the drawing.

Working with John one day he told me about his superhero alter ego, the Neighborhood Watchman, so I drew this while he was at lunch.

This couple wanted to be drawn as pirates the day after Talk Like a Pirate Day (which they apparently did not know about.) The guy got rushed because I was trying to beat the rain and I finished in just the nick of time. I wish I could have done more though.

This is probably the best black people drawing I've done. They're hard to color because there are sixty four different shades of black people, and I have three brown sticks. And they ALWAYS notice if the shade is off. The guy and (their?) kids loved it, the woman was not impressed, but she was kind of a bitch.

Looking back, most of these are actually from the last week. I hope this week is as interesting.

And maybe busier.

-J

Book Pics

2009-09-18T22:09:00.003-04:00

Just some sample pics of my book.

I'm still excited about it. This is going to be a good week.

For those of you interested in getting a copy - if there are any of you left: I am putting together a package that includes the book, my finished demo reel and business card (I have no idea what to do with 100 business cards and I figure this will kill about 10 of them if I'm lucky), there is also a blank page in the front and back of the book that I will draw on for everyone getting one. The book ended up being 35$, so that's my asking price. It will also take about 2 weeks to get to me, so allow another week for delivery to you. Unless you know me personally, then I guess you'll get it when you see me.

Which might actually take longer, ha ha.

Get in touch with me if you're interested.

Thanks for all your support, guys.

Hopefully this will be the first of many editions. :)

-J

Inklings Arrived

2009-09-18T12:39:00.002-04:00

My first copy of Inklings arrived today. I cannot express how TOTALLY AWESOME it is to be holding a book that YOU MADE. Oh its like Christmas morning before I started getting clothes!

Its in great condition and everything is cropped properly, I'll post pictures later tonight when I re-hook up my laptop.

OH THIS IS SO COOL.

-J

Demo Reel + Flash and Music

2009-09-17T16:58:00.003-04:00

For all intensive purposes, this is DONE.

My friend Daniel specially crafted the first two songs used for my demo reel, the second two are off the media drive and are just placeholders for now (but the last one syncs up in some pretty awesome ways, I might just keep it)

AND FINALLY THE FLASH WORKS.

Just need to drop in some gibberish for the girls' dialogue.

Awesome. Something's going right today.

-J

Demo Reel Update

2009-09-11T08:33:00.002-04:00

Just got back from Kris's, didn't sleep last night, coughing today, figured I'd take the day off.

Updated my demo reel with cleaner boards and better timing. I completely forgot about this for three weeks while I was working on my book and other stuff. Not fun. But at least this time I thought ahead and SAVED THE AFTER EFFECTS PROJECT FILE.

I still need music implemented, but at least now I know what I'm going to do. I think the dialogue will be done with gibberish-a-la-Sims. And I think the baseball scene will have a old sounding rag to it - it feels kind of vaudeville to me, but that could just be the lack of sleep talking. The boxing scene will have punch out cover music and the "flash placeholder" will be my Cat and Mouse animation whenever I figure out how to make flash and after effects play nice.

Updating again with music (AND FLASH? CAN I FINALLY BE FINISHED WITH THIS THING?) hopefully next Wednesday.

On a side note, I freaking hate cats.

-J

INKLINGS HAS BEEN FINISHED

2009-09-03T17:37:00.002-04:00

I just put the finishing touches on "INKLINGS" 2009 edition.

If you wanted one, get in touch with me soon. The cost will be 35$ with shipping and everything, and will take 2-5 days to deliver. I'm leaving orders open through September because I have been extremely hard to get ahold of lately.

I'm placing the order for my copy tomorrow. I hope it comes out okay.

-J

August Ender

2009-08-31T21:07:00.004-04:00

Last day of August, 14th Day in Caricatures, thought I'd conclude the month with my drawings today, especially since I had a run of interesting customers.

The boy started making silly faces, and I told him I'd draw him that way if he could hold it. So I did. And the grandmother laughed so hard while I was drawing it she actually started crying. Likeness is better on the girl, but she wasn't as much fun.

This couple watched me draw the kids and wanted to get one done (which means they like my style, I think.) The guy was in the navy and wanted to be on a boat fishing. The girl liked the anchor in one of the display drawings, so I gave her an anchor. They were pretty pleased, but I felt it was a little rushed because they wanted to ride a few more rides before close.

I'm also trying to really push exaggeration in my drawings. Who better to practice on than oneself? Thankfully, I have plenty of angles to play with. No one really seems to care for this drawing though. I like it.
On to more people that I drew just to keep myself sane in an empty park. This girl was actually walking around with her hand on her hip and an umbrella. (There was no rain today) She kind of reminded me of one of the girls I drew previously, but I think I like this one better.

I decided to draw pretty girls today. I think if you can exaggerate and caricature the pretty people (and still make them pretty), then the average and unblessed become that much better. This girl smiled at me and she had awesome cheeks. But I had two customers in the middle of drawing her and I couldn't remember her clothes or colors. Theme park in Florida, the given attire is a pretty educated guess. I didn't notice until I uploaded that I forgot to put shadow on one of her eyelids, this has since been remedied.

Makes me think of pokemon.

This girl first caught my eye because I noticed only one of her boobs jiggled. Which sounds really pig headed of me, but she had an interesting walk that made only one jiggle. It was fascinating, I tell you! And then I looked at her face and I KNEW I would have to put it on paper.

I told Marlon today I wanted to be one of "the greats". I don't really know about all that, I just want to have a style that stands out from everyone else. In a good way. I want people and co-workers to be like "Yes, I want a Jared caricature."

I've given myself a year to get that good. That leaves 11 months. Let's see what happens.

-J

Caricatures

2009-08-30T20:51:00.005-04:00

Just updating with some caricatures from the last week or two.

I have been there a total of 13 days as of today.

Caricature of the legendary Jurassica Park for her going away present. I tried to make the head more dinosaury. Practicing on friends and coworkers is great because you can really push the exaggeration without worrying about losing the sale, and you also don't have some **** of a mom squawking from behind you about how you messed up her baby. I'm going to miss Jessica. Soy triste.

These were some girls I drew. They were pretty happy with the sketch, I think its all right. The freckled girl had neat teeth, the other girl had a good headshape.

My first redhead! This kid's family was more happy with the sketch than he was. Apparently he plays football and his jersey is purple. Hm.

This was a sweet little girl whose mom just kind of ditched her while I did the drawing. She really tilted her head at a 45 degree angle the entire time. It was a little creepy.

Just a drawing I did of myself. Eh.

The rest of these weren't actually sitting infront of me. The park has been pretty *ridiculously* slow, so I've gotten in the habit of finding interesting looking people that walk by to draw to hopefully reel in a potential customer. It doesn't usually work, but I get some interesting drawings. And color practice.

This is one of my favorites. This lady looked freaky as hell. She was all eyes and teeth. And she was REAL EXCITED about riding "The Scorpion" Also, she had pretty awesome cellulite happening on her thighs.

I was just sitting minding my own business when this kid came up stabbing me in the side with a feather asking me if it tickled. He talked to me for a little bit while his mom was in the bathroom and after he left I drew him.

These girls weren't actually together, they were in separate parties, just both had obnoxiously large sunglasses on. The first girl I wanted to draw because she had a mile high forehead, and as fate would have it, her painfully average dad was the one who wanted to be drawn. Damn. The second girl had kind of a box head.

I drew this today. I thought they were the archetype of "American".

That's all for now. Do you guys even care about my caricatures? Should I keep uploading them, or make a seperate blog? Or is one art blog enough?

-J

Every Extend

2009-08-29T21:37:00.002-04:00

So, more or less to all of you who have been inquiring about getting a copy of my book:

Since I'm still not finished laying it all out because I havent had time to work on it and therefore can't actually give you an accurate estimate of the price, I'm going to just extend it to the end of September. I have to have my hard copy by the end of this week, so I'll definitely know the price soon, I only have about 6 more pages to put together, which involve getting a scanner that effing works.

And "working" entails not being connected to one of those inferior Mac machines.

You know, I have actually gotten in the habit of skipping class once a week just to have a day off (and not telling anyone about it, I apologize), and I'm STILL too tired to do anything except sleep. Even when I go out and do something, I find myself falling asleep on my friends.

Not literally on them.

But thank you all of you who want to support me by getting a copy of my first printed sketch and concept book.

I'm going to bed.

-J

Inklings

2009-08-21T23:37:00.005-04:00

I just got the greatest idea ever.

Or maybe the worst idea ever.

Regardless, I'm following my gut. This time, I'm doing something for me. I'm getting a book printed of all of my sketches, designs, characters, et cetera. There will be a number of finished illustrations, concept pieces and storyboard layouts, but for the most part it will be nasty, dirty, gritty sketch work because I can't think of anything else that better describes my art style or creative process. The book will be called "Inklings", a double play on the word "ink" and the meaning of "idea" because I am just too gosh darn clever for my own good.

A lot of things I've never shown anyone, and some personal things will be included.

So far the book will be about 30 pages, hard cover and full color. My guesstimate of the cost is around 30$ with shipping. I will let you know if this needs to be adjusted, but I'm not planning on making a profit off of these, just pay whatever the production and shipping are and you can have one. I figure its the least I can do for my friends and family (though, the thought of my family actually seeing my artwork leads me to believe I'll only be further ostracized).

I'm placing the order by this next weekend (Aug 30). If anyone wants one, let me know. This is the only time I'm offering and I'm only offering because everyone I know seems interested in getting one. I just have two weeks to have a finished printed version in my hands for class and so time is kind of an issue. Unfortunately, I'm strapped for cash (I thought I was getting paid this week) so if you want one, I kind of need the cash in hand before I order it. I do have paypal if that is convenient for you, if you wish to use that, contact me and I'll send you my info.

I'll post some sample pages up this week.

-J

Queens

2009-08-19T20:59:00.002-04:00

More sketches for Jenn's tattoo I did in the last half hour or so.

Er.

A sketch for Jenn's tattoo, and some doodles.

I can't focus lately. It feels like my mind has been scrambled.

Like eggs.

I hate eggs.

/Spirit Reference.

-J

Print Portfolio

2009-08-19T20:50:00.004-04:00

Ha ha, epic whoops. I didn't read the assignment for today, actually I was supposed to have the print portion of my portfolio all laid out and ready to go.

Chalk one up for not paying attention to directions.

Well, here it is anyway. The best I have that isn't animated. Five whole pages. What a downer. I tried to arrange them by category and in a way that flowed and made the best use of the room on the page. But there's so little I have that is nice and polished and something that could probably land me a job doing something.

I mean, I have a HUGE body of work; gigs of character designs, planned illustrations...

...They're just all sketches. Not really print portfolio material.

I am not having fun anymore.

-J

Final Flatbook Layout

2009-08-19T11:15:00.001-04:00

I need a day off. I feel like I've been run into the ground. I want some me time. And I've had a cough for the last two weeks that isn't going away.

Anyway, here's my final flatbook layout page. Just some minor tweaks.

Going back to bed.

-J

Julian

2009-08-15T09:48:00.007-04:00

Drawing I did in class yesterday of one of my colleagues, Julian. The guy is pretty cool, and he's excellent in the 3D realm. You can see his stuff here.

Julian is constantly reminding me of how much of a nerd I am.

-J

Day Five

2009-08-11T19:54:00.002-04:00

Today the park was mostly dead and I had printed off some pictures of my favorite celebrities to practice with - I think they came out really well. I want to do another Rollins though and really emphasize the mouth. My printer is pretty shitty so I'm going to print off some images at school tomorrow on the nice laser printer. I spent nearly all day trying to get Lucy right, and my new friend AJ helped me out a bit, then showed me some tips for coloring.

Hee hee, she looks topless.

Bruce Lee
Tom Waits
Henry Rollins
Audrey Hepburn
Lucy Liu

Day Four

2009-08-11T19:50:00.002-04:00

Marlon did most of my "training" and helping me learn to draw facial features better. Yesterday he gave me my color sticks, so to show my gratitude I ruined his image.

Then I got to draw a really cute Dutch girl.

And then just for fun I drew Gwen. I love that girl's face.

Day Three

2009-08-11T19:49:00.003-04:00

LOOK AT THAT FREAKING HIPSTER. To this day that is my favorite drawing I've done from a live model. Oh my gosh, just look at him.

Day Two

2009-08-11T19:45:00.003-04:00

Day two, got a little better. That last girl looked straight up like a horse. And the first guy had a really interesting head going on. The second one was just some black kid, lol.

Day One

2009-08-11T19:39:00.004-04:00

So this is the first time in A WEEK I have been both home and awake at the same time. I'm taking a short breather to update my blog and my comic (hopefully with three or four strips) and then this whole mess starts all over again bright and early tomorrow morning.

I've been working at caricatures now for five whole days, here's my work progression so far. :)

These are from my first day. My training was pretty much "Hey, you know the parts of the face? Excellent. Start drawing people.

That old man was my favorite. His scowly smile was so awesome. And he wasn't even offended that I suck, he just wanted to sit down in the shade.

Demo Reel Demo

2009-08-07T11:24:00.002-04:00

Just a pacing test for my demo reel. It's actually shorter than I imagined (this is good). I have some areas I need to trim so it should come out to just under a minute. Sorry the boards are so rough, they should still be mostly readable (possible exception of the boxing scene) and I had some issues with flash and after effects not playing nice so for now its just a placeholder. The dialogue runs fast - sorry. This should be fixed when I match it up to audio, dialogue without audio seems to drag so I ended up cutting it too short. Like I said, just a first pass.

I need ideas for an "inbetweener", something to breakup where one character's segment ends and another's begins, as well as ideas for what to use as audio. I've got quite an extensive collection of instrumentals - the problem becomes finding one that spans the beats of two action scenes, a father-son short story and a dialogue scene.

Any suggestions?

Krishna also suggested adding another flash animation to the beginning - leading and ending with my best works. Also going to ask for Brandon's input.

All feedback welcome.

-J

Fat Brush

2009-08-01T13:01:00.003-04:00

It's August.

I've decided that much like every other male artist, I love drawing women.

Going to Orlando for the weekend, start work Monday at 9 am. :)

Colored Characters

2009-07-31T10:29:00.002-04:00

Krishna gave a spiel about how rampant internet piracy of artwork is, ergo uglification watermarks.

Updating from class again, colored these this morning. These are the characters I'm making animatics for on my demo reel.

Feedback?

-J

My.....Girl

2009-07-29T00:24:00.002-04:00

Just some drawings before bed. Listening to Beck. :)

Finalized Cards and Flatbook Pages

2009-07-28T22:58:00.006-04:00

Finalized versions of my business card and flatbook layout pages. The class voted pretty much unanimously on this design and I decided to go with it because it also promoted my comic. :D It was also suggested making a back for the cards to display my information so it doesn't seem cluttered.

Krishna liked the color scheme of my first design (the orange and gray, my favorite color scheme because I'm colorblind and in love with ugly things) and said I should experiment with it on this design. I think I like the blue more, though the orange fits more with the name "cieloyellow".

Input?

-J

edit: lol, forgot to take off the safe margins. Ah well, you get the picture.

Bratwurst

2009-07-28T17:34:00.003-04:00

I think I'm going to retry my 100 characters in 100 days idea.

Really.

And then at the end of the 3 and a half months, make a book of all of them. It'd be kind of cool.

This is Sir Bratwurst, proud knight, slayer of dragons, rescuer of damsels, keeper of chivalrous ways.

He looks like the chaotic good type, doesn't he?

-J

Demo Reel Characters

2009-07-24T18:11:00.004-04:00

So as most of you know, the demo reel thing has been putting me under a ton of stress. Let me explain, my strongest elements are character design and storyboarding. Now, go google some character design and storyboarding demo reels.

The art on some of them is FANTASTIC. B-U-T, they're all boring. No matter how good the work may be, its hard to present it in a fashion where it doesn't start to seem to drag on, which brings the whole presentation down. On the way home today, an idea struck me. Instead of showing a long sequence of storyboards coupled with character turn arounds, process sheets, expression sheets, action shots, blah blah blah, I'd just combine them. I think I'm going to illustrate a character (or two) on the screen from sketch to color, then cut to an animatic of a 10-ish second sequence of that character in some sort of action - not just fighting or high impact stuff, talking and gesturing is also important in storyboards to telegraph emotions and stuff. Rinse and repeat with new characters to show the variety of styles I can draw in.

What do you guys think?

I started designing some characters for it today, got them inked and everything.

The girls are drawn in a fashion similar to what I normally do. The boy is a more "American" style drawing, and the two boxer guys demonstrate some different body types.

Colors soon.

Layouts

2009-07-21T23:58:00.003-04:00

Layouts for my personalized flatbook pages for my portfolio - again, just drafts for tomorrow. Krishna provided a stock layout - I didn't change the text but I guess that's pretty obvious. Looking back, I think I like the comic font, especially for the one where I use my comic character, I think if I go that route I'll keep it and change the fonts on the others.

They obviously match up to the business cards.

Comment and critique, please.

I'm going to bed, here's to a better tomorrow. I'm eating lunch with Kris at least.

-J

Business Cards

2009-07-21T22:45:00.002-04:00

So this is what I've come up with. Didn't use the frogs at all, which is a little depressing because I spent the majority of my week trying to figure out a way to incorperate them. But, half way through the second one, a the thought occured to use my little comic self in the designs - you know, because I write a comic as well. And comics are tied in to Storyboarding AND Character Design / Concept Art. Genius, pure unadulterated genius.

And...the whole logo thing kind of got lost somewhere in me trying to design a neat business card. Oh well, the intent was there.

These are just drafts for class tomorrow, but I open it to everyone: which do you like better and what should I change or fix?

Comment / Critique Please.

-J

Logo Concepts

2009-07-21T18:35:00.005-04:00

Ugh, sketches for my "logo design". The image of the three legged frog has been important to me for almost ten years, so I really thought I'd go with that. But it's just not working out, so I started sketching things for the "Cielo" name I've started and I really like the one with the cloud on the bottom image. I might combine it with the graffiti writing in the top image (ignore everything else in that picture).

Non-Traditional Women

2009-07-21T17:25:00.002-04:00

I am struggling so much with this logo design thing, I have no idea what I'm doing, and on top of some personal issues that have arisen in the last week, I honestly feel like its finals week and this is just the first week.

Anyway, I forced myself to draw some characters to keep myself from going insane. A princess, her over-protective robot maid and an old swamp hag witch bitch.

I'm uploading what I have for my logo design tonight, I have a few pages, but nothing significant.

Ugh, I am so sorry about my comic, I just need to get things sorted out first.

-J

Bunny

2009-07-19T21:16:00.003-04:00

Haven't been home much since Thursday, took some time out to draw some bunnies. I'm in a really bad mood too, so I don't know if the comic will happen tonight. I know, I'm behind. Jess wants to do a guest strip though, that'd be pretty cool.

I can't believe I didn't make a single magician or Alice in Wonderland reference. I dont think the little vampire guy is really doing it for me.

Did you know that bunnies evolved from stegosauruses? I have it under good authority that they did.

-J

Brand Identity Crisis

2009-07-15T11:01:00.004-04:00

So I am currently in Krishna's class and he's discussing creating business cards and a final portfolio and website and all that other stuff that, in all honesty, scares me. Our first project is to create a logo, a brand identity for ourselves and - hah - a "process blog" which I suppose is what this will service as.

Logo, identity, how am I supposed to create these things when I don't even know who I am as a human being much less as an artist.

I suppose I should get to figuring that out.

This week is going to be...trying.

-J

Draw Day

2009-07-14T22:25:00.003-04:00

Just some drawings from yesterday's drawing day with the guys. John bought us fancy mustaches that we wore most of the day but they just made me sneeze, so I put it in my book. The third pic involves a story where Shawn stared down a guy who had the gall to make some snide remark about us in Gamestop, along with my rendition of the face that Daniel made all day. I had INTENDED to start the day early but Murphy's Law saw to it that we didn't even all get together until about 5, but that was plenty of time to have fun and chill out at Mema's Alaskan Taco.

If I havent said it yet in this blog, that is the best place on the planet. Period.

-J

Inqy

2009-07-07T20:10:00.001-04:00

I don't really like doing this kind of thing, but if anyone deserves it, it's Inqy. No one I've met at school has inspired me to try to improve my craft as much as she did, and there was no other student I really envied as much as her.

http://inqy.deviantart.com/

Today just kind of generally sucks.

Villains

2009-07-02T14:08:00.004-04:00

Been working on some character designs lately and did a page of villains. This is actually about half the page, but I can't bring myself to be interested in inking the other four, simply because they're just not as interesting as the first four. Ah well.

Left the sketch lines in to show the process. Also, I think it looks cool.

-J

Typical Pleasure Model

2009-06-23T01:39:00.003-04:00

I dont usually do this kind of thing. I kind of really lost interest in the coloring, but the "end result" looked kind of cool, so I saved it.

Props to anyone who gets the name reference.

-J

005 737 5423!

2009-06-22T16:39:00.002-04:00

I asked my friend Sara for some themes for characters, see if you can guess what she gave me.

I've been really wanting to do a page of boxers recently, I think the release of Punch Out on the Wii has my listening to remixes of the original Punch Out music too much. I also have a Little Mac cardboard standee that looks at me menacingly when I sleep.

I did the whole page in a little over an hour. I think I'll clean some of them up and make real art out of them. R. Vark and Pineapple Man are my favorites. :D

-J

School's Out for Summer

2009-06-19T16:33:00.003-04:00

Okay, so I survived my finals without too many all-nighters, granted I really wish I had spent more time on my finals.

Three things before I commence the celebrations.

1. I got a twitter (I know...) but I was convinced by Krishna, who uses it to keep up with the art world and float tutorials, influential names, and job opportunities around. I intend to incorporate it into my artistic endeavors...somehow. http://twitter.com/cieloyellow

2. Shower. NEED.

3. Update my comic. :D

Here's to 21 days of personal art exploration!

(And a potential slip n slide covered in chocolate pudding.)

Pro Crastination

2009-06-14T23:47:00.003-04:00

Things I have done this weekend:

Watched Madagascar 2.
Watched Gladiator.
Watched Tekkonkinkreet for like, the billionth time.
Played the Wii.
Watched Scrubs.
Watched Megas XLR.
Ate Klondike Bars.
Talked with Laura until like 1am.
Played Sims 2.
Talked with Alex for a few hours on the phone.
Completely rediscovered Third-Eye Blind.
Got Rootbeer Float.
Watched Repo! the Genetic Opera.

Things I have NOT done this weekend:

My Flash final.
Update my comic.

Guess which one is due tomorrow at noon? Guys, I seriously need this break. I am completely burnt out on school.

Hat

2009-06-11T15:58:00.003-04:00

Just a quick pic of me in my new favorite hat. Took about 45 minutes.

This has nothing to do with my finals or my internship I should be working on.

The eyes are too big and now that I noticed it, its going to bother me.

Comic Going Strong...

2009-06-03T12:48:00.007-04:00

Updating from school. (Hee hee, this always makes me feel a little sneaky. Nevermind that everyone else in the class is on myspace/facebook/twitter.)

I don't think anyone realizes how EXTREMELY EXCITED I am about my webcomic project, ELLIMINNO-P. I have like, the next several comics drawn and ready to update. There's just one problem. I've been so excited the last few updates have been at or near midnight, which kind of ruins it for the whole day because then I've already updated for that day. So, starting tonight, I'm going to update them that NIGHT. That way, if something cool happens, I can still make a comic about it and upload it the same day instead of all the cool comics starting out "So yesterday...." Technically this is good news, since that means that my readers are getting an extra comic this week. Wooo 8 day weeks.

A cute girl just walked passed me. She's been in my classes for two years. She always smells like some kind of soap. Maybe I'll talk to her today. :)

Someone else smells STRONGLY of peanut butter.

--1:23 pm --

I JUST found out I have portfolio review. Friday.

Well, at least today isn't boring.

Awesome Day

2009-06-01T22:29:00.004-04:00

This is Laura, my newest friend. I drew her during class. Last night, Laura and I went out for icecream that we threw on the ground and then sat in the wal-mart parking lot and discussed incredibly unimportant things until two in the morning.

Laura loves my car in ways that are probably a little disturbing. I love listening to Laura talk.

This is the run cycle I made in class today in flash. It took 3 hours and I need to pad the frames to slow it down a little and the avi format makes it look like foot. But damn, I feel awesome about it. Straight-on birds-eye run cycle in extreme perspective. I am a f#cking genius.

Elliminno

2009-05-31T11:55:00.003-04:00

I think I've finally decided what to do about the webcomic situation.

I've decided I'm going to make it more a "slice of life" kind of comic. A record of my memoirs, because I have all of these stories and memories and significant thoughts. The things I always talk about with my friends when we're together, all the inside jokes, stuff like that.

That, and I'm looking to at least join the sequential art club next quarter, and hopefully they will mandate I update at *least* once a week.

~~Hopefully I'll have at least the first comic up this week.~~

FIRST COMIC IS UP!! Please comment and tell me what you think!

Newton Shirt

2009-05-28T13:23:00.004-04:00

Quick update for now: Thought of a cool idea for a shirt yesterday - cool meaning obscure and no one is going to truly "get" it. Don't let the math scare you off - its just a simple equation proving that objects of different masses fall at the same rate! So Don't Panic!

Anyway, *I* like it, and *I* would wear it, so you should too!

Naughty Bits

2009-05-27T22:17:00.003-04:00

Went to the modeling session tonight at school because I heard the model was a fox. Probably the best looking model we've had (I've heard some real horror stories). She was really cute, true, but she didn't have any interesting features. Her nose and feet were typical and those are some of my favorite features to draw, but I liked her hands and she did have nice hip bones from certain angles ;)

Ha, listen to me, talking like that two hours wasn't the most visually appealing two hours in my entire week.

All of these were done on an 8 x 11 page in no. 2 ticonderoga pencil, cropped, auto leveled and resized onto one page for your viewing convenience.

All done in 5 or 10 minutes, except the laying down one at the top was 15.

Katawa Shoujo

2009-05-18T14:09:00.007-04:00

Its been a looooong time since I've done real fanart or anything deliberately anime.

My friend William the Pleaser showed me this game, a dating sim called Katawa Shoujo (Crippled Girl) where you date disabled girls.

Of course, loving all things that are a blatant affront to the norm, I dive right in, and was more than pleasantly surprised and how well written and tasteful the game is. It's not so much a game as a visual novel though, granted the experience of playing the first act demo was enjoyable. I can't wait for the full version to be released.

So charmed was I, that I in fact did a picture of my favorite characters from the game. It's yet unfinished because I have to keep plugging away on my school work, but I plan to tack on a background and send it to the game's forums. Emi is the short girl who is an athletics and health freak. She is the legless track star (I know), and her friend is Rin, the philosophical weird artist girl who lacks arms (I know). I'm particularly attracted to Rin's character, and I don't know if its because I love drawing feet or if its because she's the artist girl.)

(Ugh, I hope that didn't make me sound like a geek.)

I refuse to draw anime less-than/greater-than noses.
What does anyone else think?

Edit: Sidenote, I find screen resolutions bigger than my own a serious offense to my ego.

Orange Colored Jive

2009-05-14T13:56:00.003-04:00

Just a sketch page from this morning, I feel productive today.

Eye H8 Break Fist

2009-05-13T09:10:00.005-04:00

Today's not appearing to be a good day, I'm going to have to give it a stern talking to to shape it up.

Monday one of my favorite professors - Krishna - was talking about how he missed sponsoring the sequential art club which keeps failing from lack of student involvement. Then he made a passing comment that maybe I should try to lead it next quarter. I was quick to decline at first, but I can't stop thinking about it. If nothing else, the two sponsors are my absolute favorite people at the school - the other one being Brandon McKinney who is my internship mentor for storyboarding. I have a few cool ideas for what to do with the club, but I don't know if I'm leader material - I'm pretty sure I'm not. But if nothing else, maybe it'll force me to work on LMNO-P, my little abandoned comic project.

Yesterday I got all the audio knocked out for my flash project, and I've started animating. Really, the only part I'm dreading is doing the backgrounds. I am so not an environment person that it isn't funny. It's not even that I can't draw them, I just get bored with them and lose interest.

I was out last Friday when my group finished the zombie insurance commercial we did, I might see if they mind if I post it. I should be able to get a copy today. It's my story, afterall. And I'm a zombie in it, and totally the best actor. I do this Nosferatu hand opening door thing and it's probably my favorite part in my head. When I actually see it, I'm sure I'll like it less.

Bang Bang

2009-05-11T12:43:00.004-04:00

Uploading from school because the internet's out at home - ironic that, the day I finally do something worth updating with, and the internet goes belly up.

Well, whatever. I designed this character ideally as part of a bigger project, but since I barely have time to eat and breathe anymore, I doubt I'll be able to keep up with it as I intend to. Ideally, its supposed to be 100 characters in 100 days, but it'll probably be 100 character in 100 lifetimes with the way I get around to things. C'est la Vie.

I dont know, thought the pose was cool. She looks snarky. I like to think she's pretty happy and laid back and likes bright colors and being pretty, but in social situations she can be a cold hard bitch. I don't think she has any weird powers, which is a deviation from the norm for me. Hell, she's not even deformed, with the exception of the extreme perspective on her finger.

Also, I made that gun up. It is a large pistol laser shooter thingie. Pew pew.

Substance!

2009-05-07T14:31:00.002-04:00

NEW SHIRT ADDED!

Nothing special, but it is pretty freaking adorable.

I accomplished something today :D

(Besides being stood up for a date.)

Midterms

2009-05-04T11:09:00.002-04:00

Keyframes DONE.

40 minutes before they're due.

That took SO LONG. Thankfully the animating part won't be quite as drawn out.

I can't focus lately. I bet you couldn't tell by the VAST QUANTITY of non-updates this thing has had. I thought it was because I wasn't sleeping for days at the time, but now I sleep, and I sleep good, I just sleep too much. Or I shirk off my duties to go dick around with my friends - which to me is always considered time well spent.

Internship is going really well, except for the fact that in 6 more weeks I need to have 90 hours racked up and I have.....16. So, 74 hours, 6 weeks, that's like....12 hours a week, roughly? Actually, that's not too bad.

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends ended yesterday. The last episode was nothing less than fantastic, exactly what I expected of that show, but I'm a little sad to see it go because it was one of the better shows. I don't really think it had a bad episode. Also got into Santogold / Santigold yesterday. Good music, check it out.

I'm feeling nostalgic today, so I'll probably end up drawing something eventually. I also have to give a class presentation on my internship on Friday, so I'll see if there's anything I can upload from that too.

Oak out, smell ya later!

Oh My God

2009-04-27T10:19:00.002-04:00

Oh my God

Oh my God

Oh my God

One frame of my animation is averaging about an hour to do. And that's without background. I am in the process of learning a valuable lesson: my style does NOT transfer well into flash.

Thankfully all the voice work is done, so I don't have that to worry about.

At least when it does get done, it'll look bad ass. :D

I want to cry.

Excuses

2009-04-17T21:57:00.002-04:00

I have been awake for at least 3 days, minus a lucky nap here or there. If it weren't for various alarms I have set, I wouldn't know if it was day or night, much less which day or night.

I have actually done a ton of drawing, but its all been for my internship and I don't know exactly what's good to post about and what isn't. Suffice it to say, I'm having a blast and that's good because its about the only thing I've found enjoyable lately. My demo reel class is going slowly because it requires a lot of focus that I just don't have. I can't sleep, my trains of thought - when I have them - are broken and scattered and I can't sit still. I'm doing the audio for it Sunday, Jess and John have agreed to be my main characters for me.

My other two classes are both compositing and video editing classes. I guess its unfair to say I hate them since I've been to both of them once (last Friday was Good Friday and this Wednesday the school septic tank asploded all over everywhere.) but I am not looking forward to either of them. I have to make a 60 second commercial about some fictional project. We were discussing breakfast cereals and somehow the phrase "chocolate covered clusterfucks" got brought up and while, yes, that is possibly the greatest gift given to man since fire, I don't think I want it in my portfolio. Someone also came up with doing a stop motion art project, and theoretically, that sounds fantastic, but I'm positive it won't come out as planned.

On a semi-related note, I hate having partners. Really the only person I've met at school I trust to get things done is Megan, and that's really the only person I want to work with. I like plenty (a few) people, but I think Megan is the only one of them retentive enough to make sure nothing is going to go wrong at the last minute and if it does, have a backup.

I am in a group of four.

Including Megan, thankfully.

when she looks at me like that

2009-04-09T02:29:00.004-04:00

A lot on my mind, recently.

I started my internship. I don't know how much I can give away about what I'm working on, but I promise it is the single most awesome thing I've ever done with my life.

This quarter's "mythology" project is Black Beard. I'm a little jealous, I must admit. But then my instructor asked *me* for ideas for future mythological stories to do. I sent him a huuuuuge email. I feel knowledgeable.

I have gotten in the habit of sleeping 3 hours a night to increase my productivity.

Now I can't sleep, and I'm not productive.

This was the worst idea I've ever had.

OCD mandates I really do catch them all.

2009-03-31T11:55:00.004-04:00

And immediately, I fall right out of updating. xD

I got pokemon. I know what you're all thinking, but come on, the vast majority of you just won't admit you were into it back then. Or still are. I haven't played it since...middle school, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Yes, it is still just as addicting.

Both completely true stories.

That's not the reason I haven't been updating though, I've really been out of the house most of the day with friends. (Spring break and all, can't waste it)

Here's a sketch page though of some freaky shit.

Finals

2009-03-25T13:04:00.010-04:00

Finals are this week, thought I'd post some of the work I'm proud of. I did some action poses and an animatic for the characters I've been developing. Here's the final layout of the action poses, I was told I'm pretty good at these.

The names are stupid. I like them unnamed, but, whatever.

Back in midterms for that class though, we had to do basically the same thing - character design, turnarounds, poses, animatic, but for a theme that the professor chose. He chose "Theseus and the Minotaur", and I put my own twist on it which seems to be about the best project I've ever worked on, so I'm putting that on here too (mostly because I've always meant to anyway)

My designs for the characters. I made the minotaur fat and stupid with giant pancake nipples. I wanted him to come off as a simple creature that's been falsely given a bad stigma.

Theseus, on the other hand, became a bully. A big macho character who (being in Greece, bombarded with everyone else's epic adventures. Not pointing any fingers. Odysseus) is eager to have his own legend. So he set off to look (violently) for the first quest to come his way.

The Princess is a valley girl. But something I should explain, because none of my classmates (I refuse to use the term colleague for most of them) couldn't get it. In the story she gives Theseus a ball of twine to help him navigate his way through the labyrinth. I got a little (too?) creative with the idea and attached it to a comb in her hair. The reason being that, back in the dickities, women would give a lock of hair or a comb or something to their loved ones, and I tried to build off that whole idea. I think it's cool. Shoosh.

VIDEO TIME. I have to thank Shawn and Justin immensely for helping me with this, and we had a blast doing it.

----I will post it here ASAP. The blog does not allow files over 100M, and my version is 200 due to the fact that I used straight uncompressed audio. I'll have to resize the video or something, BUT FOR NOW: My professor actually liked it so much he put it on his personal website, so I'll just link to it.

Click Here, the scroll down to "Demo Reel Research", and the video is posted over my name. It will open in a new window.

I used the song at the end for my animation II final, (by "animation" my school means "3D", and I am TERRIBLE in that realm) which was lip syncing. I did not model the head, it is the autodesk default head. I did however rig it, skin it, and animate it, and really, I was quite proud of what came out. With the exception that at a few key points I completely forgot to animate the eyes. I'll fix and update that.

I have a character rigging class, but truth be told, it's nothing special to look at. Like I said, 3D work is not especially my strong suit.

My final class is a programming class for Maya. I made a clock I kind of like. What's cool about it is that I didn't animate the gears, I programmed them all to turn each other, and the hands of the clock.

I did model the clock.

It makes me want to play Castlevania

/ obscure geek reference.

T-Shirt Update

2009-03-20T18:22:00.004-04:00

This week has been awesome. My battle with the financial aid department finally climaxed and as I was preparing to withdraw from school, suddenly, everything fell into place. So now magically everything is fixed.

To celebrate, I made a shirt design for my Online Shirt Store check it out if you haven't and poke through there. I thought that since I hadn't loved it much lately, I would give it an update.

I'm in a really good mood and (for the first time in a few days) not swamped with work, so I may do some drawing tonight. I think my artist's block is going away. :)

Toasty!

2009-03-16T15:10:00.003-04:00

I haven't been really able to focus on school work lately, I've been kind of stressed out because while I was busy jumping through hoops to get a loan, classes filled up and now even if I'm able to pay for school, I can't register for classes. And when/if I go back, my tuition is going to hike up.

My parents have not been told yet, I think that's why I've been so out of character - its like the Sword of Damocles is dangling over my head and I'm just trying to enjoy as much of the feast as possible before it inevitably falls. I don't want them to be even more disappointed in me.

I digress. I wasn't able to focus, so I drew Guile in mid-gallop. Then my instructor put on Mortal Kombat, a most excellent choice. So I doodled some MK characters.

And down at the bottom are Rikimaru and Ayame from the Tenchu games.

I really should be doing my schoolwork.

But at least I'm drawing, right? Good figure study practice and all that radda.

Grease is the Way

2009-03-15T23:00:00.002-04:00

He's my token "bad guy" for my animation project. He's a greaser, totally. He's going to have a jacket full of knives to make the encounter more interesting.

As if the pompadour didn't make it as interesting as it could possibly be already.

I am tired. I may just doodle a bit and go on to bed.

Progress

2009-03-15T17:41:00.002-04:00

Last few days I haven't really been home much. One of my friends is visiting from Gainesville so I've spent the last two days more or less with him and some others. Yesterday we went to the Renaissance Festival and I thought it would be a pretty inspiring journey, but it really wasn't. I did, however get to eat a turkey leg and feel the manliest I've felt since the last time I actually wore the pants in a relationship (ha!).

Finally got around to coloring my Heroine character, who still needs a name. Something bland or earthy, but not too obvious (ex. "Terra"). Speaking of, I don't even think my Hero has a name, does he? Well, names aren't a necessity for this project. I have to do the final character turnaround now, to be posted tonight.

The comic is really starting to flesh out. I've invented a ton of characters and some story arcs for it to go through, and Kent says he has a few more ideas I may want to implement. Maybe I can get another page done tomorrow or Tuesday. :D

C&C Welcome.

LMNO P

2009-03-11T19:22:00.002-04:00

Today I'm starting a big experiment, a web comic. It's something I've always wanted to do and never really had any motivation until today my friend Kent decided to give me that motivation.

It is called "Elliminno P" and its about a big anime/comic/sci-fi geek who goes on a quest to win the affections of his beloved "girl next door", Strawberry. Yes her name is really Strawberry.

I don't make many promises, but this is one thing I do promise. It will completely jump the shark and become more awesome and ridiculous than you can possibly imagine.

The first page is up. I'm testing the waters now, seeing what I really want to do with it. I think I'm going to change up the style a lot, but for now, there it is.

Explosive Quad Strength Girl

2009-03-11T14:35:00.004-04:00

I really liked the Chun Li sketch from yesterday, I think the posing was pretty rad, so I did a little coloring today to warm up and relax. It's been forever since I've actually poured time into coloring something, and my coloring style mirrors my drawing style - loose and sketchy. I wonder what my art would look like if I really tightened things up? I think drawing loosely gives more life to characters, but that could just be an excuse.

Anyway.

Sorry about the ugly watermarking, gotta proteck ya' neck, you know?

Maybe I'll add a background later, but probably not. I tend to shy away from environments because I suuuuuuuck at them. I know, the logic is outstanding. I think over break I'll do some environment studies. I have a neat book on all sorts of perspective (up to weird double fisheye nonsense!) that I've been meaning to study.

Next? The 'Gief, maybe?

Guttertrash!

2009-03-10T20:08:00.005-04:00

I spent most of the day finishing up a long over-due airbrushed hoodie for a friend, but had to come in early because I left the lid off the lacquer thinner and got a miserable headache.

I'm just now feeling well enough to do some drawing, so here's my favorite Street Fighter guys.

Zangief looks the best, after him all the others slowly started evolving back into my style. But I really really like the way the mighty manly Red Cyclone looks.

I have a bunch of ideas for hoodies I want to airbrush for myself, I hope the weather stays tolerable so I can start them.

Just a small update. Did a little drawing of myself and really liked it so I put it up. Nothing major, took all of about 11 minutes.

I wish I had cheeks.

Arrrgh

2009-03-09T15:12:00.006-04:00

I know, I'm disappointed with myself. It's been a week since I've updated. I don't know if I'll be in school next quarter because I can't secure a loan to pay for it, and I dread to think about after this quarter.

I've been airbrushing again, I like it a lot, but I really don't want to have to ask for my job back at Busch Gardens. I would prefer having an art job I didn't hate. But I would rather have a job I hated over a job that hated me like I currently seem to. I think the original point was I might be uploading more airbrush art, sorry I got distracted.

Anyway, furthering my animation project I have the outlines for the female character in my animation. She of course, will play the natural role of getting saved by the hero and rewarding him with a smooch.

I could have / should have colored it in class but my butt was asleep and I was tired because this daylight savings nonsense always throws me off for a couple of days, so I spent the last hour or so of class just doodling.

Apparently I was in a pac-man mood today.

I think I'm going to play Baroque. I think its a beautiful game, I don't care what anyone says.

Hero Boy

2009-03-02T13:58:00.004-05:00

Two in a row! So far so good! I've started working on my "capstone" animation for my portfolio, which is awesome cause it can be whatever I want it to be. In the next four weeks I have to have all the pre-vis work done, so here's some school work!

One of three character concepts for my final animatic in Demo Reel Research. He uses a yield sign as a weapon. It started as a stop sign because I thought a hero yelling "STOP!" and then hitting a bad guy with a stop sign would be funny, but I think the skull-x-ing sign is cleverer (See notation). I still have to do the damsel in distress and the big bad guy charcters this week. I'm debating on whether or not it would be worth the effort to upload my animatics and animations to the blog.

What do you mean he looks like me? That's not how I draw me! Oh God, have I become Stephanie Meyer?!

This blog didn't want to be friends with Twilight fans anyway.

Second Start

2009-03-01T13:55:00.004-05:00

I have already failed to update this thing daily, but fear not! I have excuses! February was just a terribly month for me, it's like Murphy's Law found me in a dark alley, cornered me, and beat the ever loving shit out of me.

But its not like I didn't have time to doodle, so I combined all of my sketches onto one* page for your viewing pleasure.

I'm rather fond of the old man picture. Most of the rest of the images are named after whatever VAST song I was listening to at the time, with the exception of Bunnie and Oxnard, being from an experiment I did where I tried to create characters around animal designs. That was a lot of fun to me, I think I'll do more of that.

*I said one page, but Hux and Flux Deluxe would not fit on the page without some serious surgery, so I put them up seperate. I kind of like these two as a duo, I might do something with them later on.

So here's to all of you, for believing in me the whole time like I know you did. Cheers.

Title and Opening Credits

2009-02-18T17:37:00.006-05:00

Starting an art blog, a serious one this time. I've been a long hiatus from drawing and I'm starting to get my feet wet again. I've even taken upon a new name for myself and completely abandoning my old one, including my deviantart account. I'm also nearing the last few quarters in school, and having a more professional place to display my work would be pretty good.

Let's start off with one of my favorite digital sketch pages.

This page is pretty important to me, especially that dinosaur's feet.

Lately I've gotten into character design. I try to come up with new characters every few days just for practice. Here's the first batch I did a few days ago, I'm particularly fond of Kuma.

And last and most recent, more character sketches. For these, I plucked a random Smashing Pumpkins song to draw inspiration from while inventing them, it was pretty fun, I think I'll do Ratatat next.

As always, comments and critiques welcome.