Her Favorite Animal is the Leopard

 

Here is the leading image I did for Taffetas co-producer Yesenia Carrero's post on research which goes live today! This was a fun image, although very much a trial to complete as Yesenia and I are busy moving to Kansas City together (she also got a job at Hallmark!).

Anyway, I thought would be fun to show my process again like my last post:

Thumbnail Sketch > Undersketch > Clothes > Rough Sketch > Lines and Flats > Shading

 Gemini's outfit was inspired by Lucas Didelot's original clothing design crossed with this awesome sweater I found on google. I tried to make the picture a little more festive (it being that time of year) without getting out of character or making it feel forced just for the holiday.

Gemini in the Rain - Process

Here is another lead image for our newest Taffeta's Post on what Yesenia and I learned so far about Character Creation.  I wanted to draw our character, Gemini, being sad and pouty since I usually draw her smiling so much.

I also thought it might be interesting to see my process here on the blog:

Gesture > Rough Sketch > Lineart > Flats

 

 

Then it's just shading and detailing into the final image!

Usually it takes a few hours to go from thumbnail sketch to completion for a single character drawing and I use reference images and resources like colour lovers to inspire me along the way.

Onward!

I created this image for the first of our upcoming posts to The Taffetas blog, this one in particular is a conversational update on our progress so far. I'm pretty proud of both image and post, so take a gander. We'll be updating on Wednesdays for a while.

I managed to color and shade the image while traveling by train to be with my family for the birth of my niece, Isabelle!

Sketch Dump

These are some close-ups of my figure studies for Taffetas

Did I mention I love drawing hands? (reference from stock photos)

 

A character named Bianca from my friend's story, Fate Saga

 Also, I'm writing some neat posts for The Taffetas production blog!

Hallmark E-Card Sketches

Here's the concept work I sketched for the mini e-card I created at Hallmark Cards this Summer! I loved working there, and I'm fortunate to start my full-time position soon!

Taffetas progression WIPs and silly sketches

Part of our Taffetas flow-chart

Things are going pretty good for Taffetas research. I finished some books relevant to our new pitch and our upcoming indie-production of the first episode(s) in a frantic attempt to better myself as a producer, director, concept artist, animator, etc. so as to live up to my expectations for the project. It's a tough thing getting through because I find myself sometimes procrastinating out of sheer fear of the task that lies before me (not the reading, but the responsibilities I have to making Taffetas a success and true to our artistic vision!).

 

All the while, Yesenia and I have also been researching mythology and pitching and are slowly working our way through finalizing details on Season 1 for our pitch book which has been an unexpected snag in my original let's-get-this-done-in-a-month schedule. We have a pretty nifty thing going on though in that we are basing the story of Taffetas to the hero's journey, but told through an interpersonal tale, from the female perspective.

 Also there's kissing.

 Meanwhile, I've started up a small 5 second animation challenge where I'm pushing myself in Flash with some slightly tweaked, personally untested methods of how I usually go about animating. In the end, this animation will also be my ID and icon for my updated Deviantart presence.

 I'm also trying to finish that forest sprite sketch to a cleaned up illustration...

Oct 31st Sketches

 

Happy Halloween Everybody!

Taffetas Studies

 My pal Yesenia Carrero and I have been at work studying up on mythology, independently producing animation, and pitching for the last few days. We still have quite a lot of books to get through before we're done.

It's driving me crazy not really drawing anything for the project since feel like we're stagnating somehow, even though I know this writing/research part is of the utmost importance. So here's the drawings I've been doing in the down-time, some studies, practice and silly sketches so that I'll be ready to go when the concept art portion hits.

Elena Sketches

Exploring the siren character Elena for my and Yesenia's series pitch, The Taffetas. I'll get down to the nitty-gritty with extensive silhouette and outfit studies and stuff in a bit, but for now I play.

The Taffetas Once More

If you read The Taffetas production blog, you're probably aware of the revamping our story and pitch presentation is undergoing. I'm thrilled as this means a ton of new art for me to do. The above image is something I just finished off yesterday. It's our new Veil and Gemini couple picture which Yesenia is vectoring in our style. I like how it came out, and I love their outfits. I finally made veil's feet bigger which is something I've been meaning to do for a long time.

I went through a lot of rough sketches and thumbnails for this image, in the end it came down to two rough poses, both of which I inked and colored although the one I choose to show today is by the far the better one.

 

A taste of some of the sketch work- rough poses and Yesenia's help with possible fashion choices

As usual, I'm super excited for Taffetas and I feel great about the direction we're headed. I'm especially happy to finally be caught up with our e-mails for the project, which took all weekend. I feel like a weight has been lifted, and now we can really be more efficient in our correspondence with crew members and supporters once more. 

Not to mention our slick new e-mail template designed by Yesenia Carrero.

We've also got a lot good things going for us which I am very grateful for. We've almost reached 300 likes on our facebook page which is fantastic! I really think we could reach 500 by the end of next year and this is all before we've even started production on the project! Wow. 

I'm so surprised and honored by how much support we get for this project. It's really touching and confirms my belief that this is going to be something big.

 

In closing, here's a drawing of baby Veil (or their son Licorice, really).

Can't Sleep

 

  

So I draw

Ruud Request

A few weeks ago I held a visitor contest on my deviantart, offering up 1 free drawing for the person who nabbed my 50,000th pageview. I had two winners in the end, the talented composer/sound designer James Dalby and one of my art-peer idols, Ruud Hendricks.

The latter's request is the one I chose to do first and just finished today. He requested a romantic picture of him and his girlfriend (or their avatars, at least). It was an honor for me because I really idolize both his and his girlfriend's work as designers and artists. You can learn about their self-run studio here.

Also, on a related tangent, On October 2nd I received a Daily Deviation (a special feature) on devianart.com with my Veil Taffeta test animation. I am so grateful, as this is not only my second DD but The Taffeta's second DD as well (the first one belonging to The Birth of Something Beautiful). With over 1,000 favorites, 30+ likes to The Taffetas facebook, and 300 new watchers to my deviantart I couldn't be more thrilled. I'm always so taken aback by how much support the Taffetas work receives, which makes me excited for more great work to come.