i've done a few little doodles here and there of the wee vampire. i'm not too thrilled about this one, came out a little bland compared to the groovy little sketches done in the margins of some meeting notes. i want to see if i can finish those and post them up someday.
i don't yet have one at home, but they installed one for me to use at work. it's wonderful! it's the kind of moment that calls for a choreographed musical number.
this is a lunchtime memory sketch. saw this kid heading to school yesterday morning.
i was listening to a book on tape, or a series of books i believe, a few weeks ago. it's a rather iconic figure, but i thought i'd take a slightly different approach. see if you can tell who i meant it to be. i'll not take offense if you can't tell, i have been quite terrible lately. oh and this is almost a month old. i'm awful.
not a human of course, but a cintiq. i drew this on my good friend brandon's cintiq. i lust after one. perhaps one day enough to stop playing so much warcraft and work towards getting one for myself. wouldn't that be something? yes it would. this was probably about 20 minutes or so. not that i find myself to be amazing, but working on a cintiq gives me delusions of super powers. i will now be open to taking contributions for a cintiq fund. you know where i live. oh, and here's the inspiration/source photo.
while not quite summer, it was unseasonably warm the last couple of days. it was in the 60s yesterday i believe, so it's like a mini summer in january. going outside with out a coat, all the windows in the house are open. it's rather delicious. tell me again why we moved away from the land of perpetual summer... i forget. trying to get back into the working... groove... slot... rut... thing after the bliss of the do-nothing holidays. here's the morning warmup... although in truth i got warmed up earlier making fancy drawings on the back conference room whiteboard for an upcoming Important Meeting. incidentally, my drawin' shoulder is killing me. can't seem to figure out why.
oh, here's the source URL
i probably should have gone much more crusty on him now that i look at it. scaled down it doesn't look as wrinkly as i thought it would. oh well. overall i'm sort of pleased.
who it is?
reference i used
i don't remember when it was that i started hating the christmas, but i do. corporate greed, tradition, holiday music, seasonal cookies, the shame of gift reciprocity, and the artificial imposition of family gathering to participate in all the above. it all rubs me the wrong way.
IGN Article
here's a preview of the latest game i worked on. it's encouraging. i doodled a santa clause, but it was on a postit. i have no scanner accesses here. sorry. right now i'm painting a government building visitor lobby sort of thing. slightly above drawing stairs.
morning warmup before i have to paint pipes and hand rails. weeeeeeeee
source
it's one of those days that the clocks stop and nothing good comes out of my fingers. in an effort to kickstart myself so i could draw cinderblocks and rails, i did this quick kinda self-portrait. i probably don't have such a cromagnon brow, but it's funny lookin.
sigh. back to drawing stairs.
i'm sure that at the last moment of lucidity at my annihilation all my shitty drawings will be there... mocking me as that dark night tightens its drowning noose.
i'm drawing hallways at work. it could be worse. actually, the most horrifying thing about today (besides this sorry excuse for a doodle) was that i used the last of my soda funds for a tasty and cold dew. now i am quite popless.
all told, if these are the worst things that have happened to me lately, i'm a very fortunate little artist, am i not?
oh, and the source: --clickish--
i didn't so much copy this one as i gave it a good stare to begin with, then closed the window out and tried to draw the thing from memory. holy crap i just saw her left hand again and realized that it is horribly the wrong size. wow i'm awesome. i'll file this one under "want to die."
in my original plan, the bricks were going to look cooler. in fact, the whole background just let me down. i really should have tried harder. yeah, i suck.
i'm behind the times, i know. this weekend i finally put god mode on god of war to bed. the first god of war that is. it's mostly useless, but the game had been calling me names. at night, that lidless red eye stared at me. it watched me undress and mocked my doughy bellies. when i had my back turned, i swear the game was stealing my cookies. i draw the line at violating my cookie stash. sigh, if only i really did have a cookie stash. why are cookies so satisfying? is it the crunchy? the sugar injection? i don't know, but i'm working myself into a cookie frenzy.
i wonder why kratos never slipped in the puddles of blood he left everywhere he went. not very badass, i suppose. i'd love to have gotten that animation assignment though. especially since he's so top heavy. also, has anyone noticed that his blades are tethered to his wrists much like a toddler might have a balloon or even mittens hobbled? one can then perhaps understand kratos' uncontrollable and irrational rage problems. oh how the wee tikes must have tormented the poor kid for showing up to school with his mittens attached to giant chains burned into his wrists. perhaps the olympians should have had a god of counseling that could have helped the nascent diety. but then how would they sell a sequel? god of recovering rageaholics just doesn't have the same appeal. i don't suppose a group therapy minigame would hold the same excitement as repeatedly slamming some irritating horse demi-god's head in the door he had been guarding.
maybe i should shut up and start my day already.
yeah, here's the fruit of my lunch. not the fruit that i ate for lunch. in fact, i did not eat fruit for lunch. lunch was fairly dull. that is, it wasn't very interesting until some co-workers started to discuss their favorite bad horror films. my favorite part was when one fellow referred to one of the characters as tom petty. the other fellow cried, "no!" in anguish. amusements!
anyway, here's the little sketch that i started with. i doodled this quite a while ago. i can't say i'm entirely happy with how it turned out. i always lose something from doodle to what could almost be called, "painting." i suppose that could could be eliminated by what one might call "time," and perhaps even something as elusive as "practice." mind you these are all over-exaggerated air quotes. 
so i need to work on my hands, therefore, here i am, working on hands. i grabbed some stock photos of hands and did a quick sketch from that, which i then turned into cartoony hands.
there was a tornado warning last night. we were in its path at one point. i don't think it ever touched down though. at one point the warning said that it was on the tollway. it may not be funny to anyone else but me... but i think that's a rather hilarious situation... if properly cartoonified. a tornado stopping to rummage in its pockets for correct change. yeah, that's probably only funny to me.
i'm sittin on top of the world." it's a slow and ponderous song, but that's what i'm hearing right now, so that's the title of my post. i don't have to tell you... but i will, that it's been a busy couple of months. the same old story though, the time is there, but i hardly could be bothered to make good use of it. here's something i started in march of all things. finished it this morning. i would not call it "good" or even "barely tolerable." i might just call it a blight on my blurry eyeballs. as per my standard operating procedure, i didn't think about a background until much later. well that's not true. i had an idea for a background, but my awesome failure at painting made it rather infeasible. so there you have it.
a little bit sullen
another interminable day lurches and belches into commencement. can i sleep now? i'd sleep for a year or five if i could.
interestingly enough, it seems that when one looks at something, it is difficult for one to perceive that something's objective reality. what we see is a reflection of what has formed us from the womb to the very moment of observation. what we see is not what we are looking at, but rather what we understand it to be. we are always looking for interpretation, representation, significance, meaning, understanding. ultimately our sight and the associated brain mechanisms that process the visual stimuli are the product of such a protracted evolutionary process that by their very nature they are optimised for one thing and one thing only, to keep us alive. in order for the information around us to do us any good, we must identify, organise, catagorise, and pass judgment on countless pieces of information every second that our eyes are open. this function is so significant that the brain continues to preform the same functions even when we're unconscious, pulling from its vast network of neurons already primed with memories and understanding. the brain tireless runs its fingers over the cobwebs of our life, sifting, reliving, recompiling and reinforcing. when we look at something, we don't see it; we see what we think it is.
what i'm saying may seem rather dense, but that's because i don't really know anything about philosophy or anything else that would help me clarify my thoughts. I'm positive greater minds than me have bent their faculties at these questions and come up with much more articulate and thorough musings than my feeble clutches at the straws of understanding.
anyway, what i'm trying to say is that i feel sullen and oppressed by heavy thoughts this morning and that feeling came out in my drawing. so there's that. i had best be about my work already.
here's today's inspiration
I started this on the 30th. which is sometime in the past, as i understand it. it came out ok. not nearly as awesome as i was trying to make it. i tried a monochromatic underpainting, then tried glazing in some color... but it didn't quite work as i had hoped. oh well. it's ok. looking at it now, she looks like her left breast is ridiculously smaller than the right. oh yah, i'm awesome. i'll be in the car.
damn i wish i had soda monies.
lunch time sketch. the inspiration
the more i listen to the new shins album, the more i like it. i don't have much to say today other than to complain about the wicked pains shooting through my neck regions. i would blame my pillow, but really i've been suffering the abuse of pillows for many years now. i often wake with the hateful daggers of having either slept too long in one position, or settling into the perfect position to misalign my vertebrae. quite sad really. regardless, i went to the gym at dawn's wincing threshold with the intent to allow torrents of sweat to cascade from my shorn head. leaving the gym in such a condition was much too unpleasant. i hate getting into my car as a human sweat sprinkler.
and there you have it. can i get a nap now?
this is how i spent my evening.
inspired by a little squirrel we saw sunday after brunch.
yes, i brunched.
also, i need to animate more. much more.
one of my favorite films for breakfast today! looking at it, i think i should have brought the round of his cheek bones down further, especially under his right eye. also, he shouldn't be scowling so much. the menace of the line was actually stronger because of the lack of a scowl. mr. lee actually raised his eyebrows more at the end, communicating the threat of the moment from a place that didn't really need the help of a physically angry expression. also i should have made the finger more exaggerated... and the silhouette could be pushed to be better and clearer. his pucker on the "oooo" of the line doesn't look tight enough. i would push that forward more and squeeze it in more i think.
source
being that it's friday, i thought i'd do a horrible sketch. i also desperately want some cookies. i don't see that happening though. i'll have to settle for some water instead. now i get to move on to modeling road signs and wee posts. how could i ever want to put that off?
last night i was sketching some buildings. "buildings for what?" one might ask if anyone read my blog. i'm recreating a town from a video game i played as a young whelp in the frozen tundras of idaho. i'll put those up when i get home tonight. or tomorrow when i awaken from my television induced stupor.
this is moses. not that moses. i've recently joined the mudbox bandwagon, and there are treats on that bandwagon my friends. treats of great deliciousness. since this is my first foray into the delicious world of the digital sculpting, i started with a cartoony situation which is a character i was already doing for a friend (that's moses, but obviously not that moses). normally, i wouldn't put a bunch of muscle detail and stuff, but i figured, "why not? this is after all mostly practice." i'm sure i'll do a more realistic sort of anatomy study. or i might just watch television until my brain froths out my ears. right now i'm going to bed.
you'll notice that the models are "faceted" which means they're not smooth shaded. that's how i've been working, and i forget to turn on the smooth shade before i do a screen grab. it may be a good idea to model with smooth on though as i find that i get too noodley trying to grab individual vertices and push them around into pleasing topology. i don't know if that's defeating the purpose of sculpting in mudbox or if it is indeed a good idea.
if you're wondering why his body is all blocky and his faces isn't, well that's how subdivision surfaces work... i won't try to explain that here. all i'll say is that i've been noodling the face longer, so it's more finished and subsequently has been subdivided more than the body. i just started pushing around the body tonight, so i haven't gone any deeper than level0.
i intend to take him back to maya and animate him, but i still haven't decided if i'll model him nudish and put some clothes on him in maya, perhaps fiddle around with cloth (yikes), or mudbox up another version of him with clothes on. we'll see about that eventually, but for now i'll do his torso as if it were nude, and perhaps he'll have a really tight shirt on. or i may just through out all this detail for the animated version. who knows? i sure don't.
so every now and then you'll get a song that's like cocaine for your brain. i don't know if there is some sort of magical combination of melody, lyrics and other crazy tonal elements that fits your cerebral tumblers and unlocks a rush of dopamine. all i know is that occasionally i run into something that i can listen to literally over and over, and then i play it two or three more times. this is the case with several songs by the shins. there aren't many artists i can say that about. this song from their new album, "turn on me," really does me in. i lack the musical appreciation 101 credits to properly explain what it is about the song that resonates with me. it may have started the other night when i passed out on the couch (not very unusual at all). consciousness was seeping back in just as the shins took the stage on the david letterman show. that was the song that they played. it may have had something to do with the state of half-sleeping delirium or maybe it's just the greatest song i've heard in the longest time, i can't say. it is great and i think i may listen to it again.
sure, the darks are muted, but that why i experiment. overall it probably needs better contrast. originally i had thought of just doing a flat treatment with sharp shadows... i may have gotten carried away in rendering. especially considering this was during lunch.
i laugh at just about anything. i'm not really sure why. i don't think it's always for the same reason as everyone else. there's just something absurd about most things.
you may recognize this from a series of photos of apes and monkeys. i don't remember the name of the photographer, but that's what i drew this from. that's from what i drew it.
sometimes i do wee drawings on postit notes. little scraps that are about 3.5 inches square. here are a few of the not so crappy ones
remember what i told you about world of warcraft? here's a blood elf as further evidence that i need to stop.
yeti the kid
i like squirrels. you know that. i know that. we all know that.
surprised. this i pulled out of a magazine. i first took a quick glance, went back to work for awhile and then drew what i remembered. it was pretty bad. this is from the second glance.
this was drawn while actually looking at the image in the magazine.
these are cartoons of the wee chihuahua that runs our lives. i drew them for my brother in law that is in navy boot camp. i don't know why that's the only thing i can think to draw for him.
the aforementioned navy bootcamper. he'll be doing some sort of flag dance at his graduation ceremony. so here's how i think it'll kinda go down. i hope they do it do some crazy disco song. i have a feeling i'll be disappointed in that hope. one last drawing.
who could it be? any guesses?
i get up really early in the morning in order to go to the gym without impacting my afternoon, which is very vital to my slackering lifestyle. i'm sure i need to go to bed earlier to compensate for waking up early. since that would make total sense, i'm not going to do that. instead, i'll just try and power through the afternoon. maybe i'll have some yogurt too.
oh, and here's what i was doing while falling asleep. this is the troll in some warrior gear. it might not look epic, but let me tell you! it's not. the next profession blizz should roll out should be leaf crafting. leaf is the new epic.
it may not look like me, but this is me as juice. you can tell from my crooked teeth, super nose and horrendous snoring. it doesn't make any sense, but sleeping juice boxes drool out their straws, where they keep their juices, not in their mouth, which is only used for talking and not eating, making saliva unnecessary. not that i'm the kind of person that would think about things like that.
i was going to post some progress i made on the troll's wardrobe from my last post, but photonchop conspired with the network drive to make my file explode. luckily, i had a backup copy, so i only lost the stuff i did today and not the whole thing, which may have led to my own head exploding. i refuse to accept any sort of personal responsibility, as is my prerogative as a citizen of these fine united states. this is clearly a case of negligent software developers and hardware engineers grossly failing to foresee each and every possible problem that could ever arise and make provisions for said problems. i suppose i'll actually have to set aside some time this weekend to get some drawing in between all the strenuous channel changing and mouse clicking.
every now and then i'll think that a nice steamy bowl of maltomeal is a good idea. i quickly remember though that i should use maple syrup instead of water to make it because that's just how much syrup i feel i need to dump into the paste to make it palatable. later, i'll have to pull out the sandblaster to separate the cereal from the bowl too.
oh yeah, the troll's full body, round 1.
it would seem from the evidence that i spend a good deal of time thinking about world of warcraft, not to mention the obscene amount of time i waste actually playing the thing. i figured the best way to make that work for me is to parlay it into something more productive... like drawing silly characters inspired by it.
i fiddled around quite a bit trying to get a good handle on how to construct the head. a good and funny shape eluded me for a long time because i had to integrate the tusks in there. i still don't know how he'd do alot of mouth shapes, but they would be funny. i was inspired a bit by the head of american dad's roger. i haven't actually looked at roger's head in a while, so i'm hoping it isn't too derivative.
next thing i need to tackle is a full body sort of thing. i imagine he has very long floppy feet, and it makes me giggle inside to visualize them flapping about as he walks. if all goes well, i hope to build this guy in 3d and animate him. i do believe it would amuse me greatly. i'll probably be playing wow though.
i need to work more on my painterly stuff, this is kinda sad even for a lunch time speed thing.
this is lomoe. it seems like he's looking at something very close.
just a quick doodle. another of my amibitions is to make a cadre of characters and creatures as might appear in a role playing game, just all groovy and cartoony. who knows, i may even take them into 3D.
by the way, if you've ever spent any time around cows, you'll know that 1. they're dumber than posts and 2. they can jam their tongue into their nostrils. not just a wee touch, but a full on Jammed On Up There.
and a cleaned up 
version
First of all, small utility programs such as one that might come with your monitor should not presume to think that they're the only programs that might utilize hotkeys. I hit a command in my ancient JPG compressing software, and my monitor rotated its display by 90 degrees. NO! bad little utility, that's not your hotkey.
I finally did some work on Lomoe's head today. I've been spending quite a bit of time, perhaps too much, trying to get the topology efficient and flexible for the crazy deformation i'm planning on putting him through. Sometimes i forget why i'm reworking him. 
So in the mornings before I start work, I like to eat my peanut butter and jelly and work on a little cartoon zombie warrior, Brickface. It's slow going... I took a long hiatus where I guess I'd drag myself into work, punch myself in the face for 30 minutes before working and made no progress on the little bugger. Right now I'm back on it though and working on his blend shapes. This image shows his cheek bulge shape, great for puke faces. I can imagine all kinds of great stuff for him to vomit, being a zombie... little bits of brains, toes, maybe even an entire cat. Fun!
