My sisters wedding was last weekend. Of course it had to be in Vegas. It was a beautiful, sunny 108 degrees of the driest heat I have ever wittnessed. I lived through 2 army tours in the desert and it wasnt this dry. I swear the city is creating an electrical field that pulls all of the moisture out of the air to make you come inside the nice air conditioned casinos. Once your inside, they hand you a free refreshing drink of whatever makes you want to gamble all your money away. I really dont like Vegas. Sadly ALL of my family lives there including my new inlaws who are the coolest peole in the world. So I forsee many trips to hell in the coming years. Regarless of location, the wedding was great. The rasta preacher was amazing and had us all laughing. The reception was also fantastic. We have a new DJ in the family and he is awesome. Lots of great food and dancing. I got a ton of incriminating photos and video as well. To everyones surprise, my father actually managed to stay sober long enough to give a toast to the bride and groom. Bravo dad!
Congrats to my sister Christi and her new husband Mandel. May your previously troubled souls be forever joined to clense the wounded hearts and minds which make us proud to witness your adventurous conquest to become one with the perceived prospect of holy matramonial bliss from the heavens above… tacos for everyone!
Let me just add an appropriate image to commemorate this special occation.
Shadow Dragon Ninja Octopus! (sketch group theme)
So… Sunday night is normaly family movie night where we order pizza or we make something that we can all eat in the living room and hang out. We have been talking about making a short film using our flip cams so we have been watching the Pixar shorts to get some cool ideas flowing. Since we were already on the Pixar kick, tonight I (that is myself) suggested we watch Finding Nemo for family movie night. The wife (that is Liz) says “wait a sec! We have some free pay per veiw coupons that are expiring soon so we can watch something for free.” Then I say, “We own Nemo so that is also free… and we know it doesnt suck.” Im not one to avoid checking for new things so we flip through the amazing PPV family section. We soon realize it consists of 12 bad movies that we have already seen and something new called Percy Jackson and The Olympians. None of us have seen it and its from the director of the first Harry Potter so we decide to check it out…
Needless to say, my life is forever changed by this unparraleled experience. I dont think I will ever be able to enjoy other movies quite the same way again. Uma Thurman as Medusa, Pierce Brosnan as a centar, Rosario Dawson with hell hounds! Need I go on? If you or anyone you know have not witnessed the relentless barage upon the senses that is Percy Jackson, run dont walk to your couch and perchase this pay per view enigma before its too late!
This is just absurd… These themes are so insane but damn they are fun. I didnt realize before this that I had no idea what a walrus realy looks like. Their hands… or… flipper things are so odd. I still dont understand how the hell they can even move. Then trying to come up with a time machine that his big ass would fit in brought back memories of me squeezing into a Bradley back in my Army days. It turned out more like a Fisher Price wagon, but whatever.
This was the other sketch I did for this theme:
I havent updated in a while. I swear its not because everything I have sketched in the past month has been facing left… well… at least thats not the only reason. I got sick, then Deathspank came out, then the kids with their playing, then Limbo came out, then the wife and her more time together thing, then Starcraft came out, then I had to get a haircut, etc. It was a busy July… I guess I should post something.
The theme for this sketch group was Organic Biplane with a Rhyno bonus creature… obviously. =)
With this post I have come to the realization that I default to drawing characters facing left… I swear the next thing I draw will be facing right! (or I will just mirror it before posting) =)
Well this is a ‘Desert Gatorman’. This was probrably the most successful sketchgroup so far. There were a lot of people with great ideas that turned out fantastic. I was surprised to see so much variety in gator styles. We will be setting up the site for the sketch group this week so people can check out the different craziness.
Cloudizle attack!
I never knew llama had 2 Ls… thats odd.
This was the theme for sketch group last week. I couldnt think of a good idea so I decided to make him a ‘keeper of pieces’. I had so much fun drawing him, I decided to ink him afterwards. I have become such a digital drone, I almost forgot how fun it is to work with a real pen on… whats that rectangle white stuff… ah yes, paper.
On an unrelated note, ckeck out 3D Dot Game Heroes for the PS3. Its an amazing throw back to classic 8 bit action games like the first Zelda. If your an old school gamer you will love its style and sense of humor and you can make your own 3D sprite…ish characters! Awesome stuff!
http://www.destructoid.com/review-3d-dot-game-heroes-171436.phtml
This was the random topic for sketch group last week. This was a lot of fun to draw because we spent the whole time laughting at the cowboy reference pictures we had to work from. The best one was an Asian guy wearing what looked like a Canadian mounty hat and some spiked leather arm bands… WTF!? Then we found some crazy pics of monster salamanders. Google ‘giant salamander’ if you want to see what Im talking about. Scary and… homehow cute at the same time. :)
Frogs have such crazy hands. I tried to imagine what it would look like to see one holding a gun. I was going to draw one of those stick horse pole things but Haga was sitting directly across from me mumbling off the most random absurd comments about ‘Edison who invented space’ so I ran out of time due to multiple histerical laugh attacks. He is so out of control… in a good way. =)
This was the theme of our regular Monday evening sketch group. KG is doing an awesome job changing up the topics. Its great to see artists that I work with evey day coming up with ideas that are way out of their comfort zone. Im trying to avoid erasing or undoing in Photoshop so I want to get in the same mindset with a pencil. Keep it loose and incorporate your mistakes into the sketch. Its a challenge, but its always fun and it keeps me out of detail mode.
Sketch groups are fun and great practice. If your not in one, start it up! Or if you have access to a sketch group and just refuse to use it, you suk! Thats right, Im calling you out Platnum Pat! =)
Im getting back into speed painting for practice. For this one I referenced some mountain pics I took from our snow trip last month. The focus was shapes, values and time management. I set the timer for 1 hr. Once I had a blockout with nice clear shapes and decent composition, I looked up at the clock and it says 20 min. “Sweet! I still have 40 min to make it look cool!” says me. So I start pushing around diagonal snow shapes to break up the vertical stones and trees, pushing contrast in the foreground, etc. All good stuff. But at some point the detail switch in my head flips on and speed paintings arch nemesis, noodler guy shows up to crash the party. I hear the BEEP! and instantly snap out of the zone. “Oh shit, times up…” I hesitate for a moment and then struggle to put the pen down. I take a deep breath then zoom out… FAIL. The shapes and values started blending back together. I got hung up on details and ran out of time which ended up hurting the final image. In retrospect I should have saved an iteration at 20 min to show the difference. With another 10 min, I could greatly improve this image with a lighting and base snow fixing pass. Sometimes its just better to fail and leave it to remind yourself what not to do next time. =)
