Tito's Jams

Her Favorite Animal is the Leopard

2011-12-21T16:20:00.000-05:00

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 pos t:

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

2011-11-30T18:34:00.001-05:00

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!

2011-11-26T11:16:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-21T13:15:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-18T18:00:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-05T02:24:00.000-04:00

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

2011-11-01T00:50:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween Everybody!

Taffetas Studies

2011-10-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-26T16:39:00.003-04:00

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

2011-10-18T10:32:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-15T01:48:00.000-04:00

So I draw

Ruud Request

2011-10-12T19:17:00.002-04:00

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.

Summer 2011 - Internship, post-grad employment, stolen car

2011-09-26T18:53:00.001-04:00

What a crazy Summer this has been for me! As many people know, I've happily spent the first few months of my post-grad time interning at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, MO. It was an awesome experience working in such a creative, multi-talented environment of writers, illustrators, sculptors, designers, and animators.

Mostly, I spent my time both at work and outside of work glued to my computer screen as I had a lot of side projects going on in addition to my time at Hallmark. I had to learn the hard way that taking on more than you can chew is sometimes a very bad idea, especially in the working world where going to work half-conscious from an all-nighter just won't fly. Still, I managed to get a lot done this Summer even if I was stretched thin between my side projects and my 8-5.

I was fairly surprised when I was offered the job of Multimedia Designer II at the company. To be honest, I was constantly humbled all Summer at the sheer talent of the workers there, and although I possess animation skills not yet supersaturated there, it's hard to imagine me living up to those high standards of art direction and design! Ultimately, I'm excited for the challenge.

It also took a lot of consideration to fully decide whether or not it was something I wanted. A lot of my peers are either in California or New York right now and I needed to do a lot of soul searching as to whether or not I should try to join them.

It made me think of my time at SCAD. I walked in the graduation ceremony in June and was honored with an outstanding achievement award!
I do think I did a pretty good job in school, although I'm not sure outstanding is the word I'd use! I could have done better with my education- used my resources more, planned out my classes better, and the like. I did take school pretty seriously and I loved it though because I was learning constantly. Over all I'm honored to have received the award.

I think the downfall I see in myself was that I didn't really know the direction I wanted to go with my art skills when I entered art school, and even now I'm torn between so many interests that I really can't sit down and master anything. I think if I could go back though, I'd focus more on storyboard and illustration, but then I guess I'd lose my animation skills which I do hold very dear.

In the end, I realized this is probably how it's supposed to be that I'm going to be working in a place that will help train me in what I've missed out on while still working with the skills I loved learning from the start. I'm excited to expand my horizons and take a step out of my comfort zone.

Though, it really was the people who sold me on the idea of working at the company. Everyone in the Hallmark community is so talented, humble, and unique. The creativity in the building is amazing! For instance, On the last day of my internship I got a little party and hand-made presents! I was really touched.

My car, hot-wired.

Besides that, the only other really big thing to mention is that my car was stolen from my apartment's parking lot two days before I was supposed to go home to Virginia! On a list of not-fun experiences I'd say this would be near the top, although it does give me some stories to tell and everything turned out alright at the end. We got the car back and I managed to drive safely home to Virginia (only after a grueling waiting period of getting my car fixed from the burglar's damages, of course). I'll be starting my job at Hallmark in January and until then I'll be spending my time tying up some loose ends. All the while, there'll be a lot of new personal art coming up which I'm excited to tackle and a lot to be done for Taffetas!

All in all, thank you everyone who generally supports me and my artwork, especially my good friends and family. Without all the encouragement I receive daily I do not think I would be where I am today- doing so many cool things and going to work in a place where I get to do my hobby for a living. I am really lucky and thankful for what I have and I hope to continue working hard to make my art and animation something to be proud of! I love you all <3

The Taffetas Banner

2011-09-16T14:11:00.000-04:00

Here's the beginning of a lot of new art coming up for The Taffetas pitch project! This one is going to be our new banner for the production blog.

As usual, our production method consisted of Jess and I coming up with the concept together (in this case, the concept was Jess's), me drawing it (now with shading and color scheme ideas), and Jess finalizing it in our line less vector style in illustrator. She then does the graphic design, and both of us work on touching it up.


Original Drawing

Yesenia and I spent a great deal of the Summer revising the concept for our story as well as coming up with solutions for how to better pitch the show. We sought out people whose skills we trusted for critique and advice and we got a lot of good ideas from it.


Our 2011 pitch package

We had a great story and pitch before but I'm excited for it to be even better now. The new banner will be up soon on the production blog, and you can take a look at more photos of our 2011 ad and pitch package work HERE, or read what we have in store for 2012 HERE.

Run Jess Run work

2011-09-06T03:00:00.000-04:00

This quarter I had the pleasure again of helping my good friend Yesenia Carrero on her Run Jess Run project. I have worked on it previously as an animator for the ending sequence , and the talented Dana Corrigan is responsible for the fabulous in-game animations. This time around, Jess spent her time re-vamping the concept of the game- the look of each level, the villains, and the game as a whole. I helped by creating the two mock illustrations above under Yesenia's art direction and creating concepts for some of the villains, as seen below.

The last of these two is a shout-out to Dana Corrigan's character Cain from her pitch, Fate Saga.

Elena

2011-08-19T23:45:00.003-04:00

I'm hoping to make a brand-new villain concept lineup based on some new ideas Yesenia and I have come up with these last few weeks for our baby, The Taffetas. There's a lot of cool new characters I hope people will find a fondness for.

Here's one of the first completed ones (Yesenia might go through and vector the work in our actual awesome Taffeta style, but my end is done for the time being). This is of Elena, the young teenage siren girl with the power of persuasion over people of the opposite sex. She's supposed to be reminiscent of an angler fish. I made her look more young (and cute) than previously depicted.

Other than that, I've just been busy with Hallmark and some other ( non-Taffetas ) side projects I do when I go home, neither of which I get to show any artwork from yet.

Intern Show Presentation

2011-08-06T01:09:00.016-04:00

Today was the annual creative intern show at Hallmark HQ in Kansas City, MO. Every year at Hallmark, the creative interns show off the work they have done over the Summer. It is mainly for the interns who are leaving in about a week (I and a few of other interns will be there until September), and it is a treat to see what everyone else has done during their time at Hallmark.

I spent 3 days on my presentation including an all-nighter that rendered me pretty useless today (having been out of SCAD for a few weeks now, I've grown much less tolerant of them). I'm pretty proud of the concept though. I used my usual cat-screaming branding to help save some time with looking for fonts, theme, and color choices. Essentially since I am primarily digital, the centerpiece of my presentation is a 21" mac that just displays a close-up the cat's face looking around. Physical word bubbles floating out from the computer direct the user to do 3 things: click the cat's face (to see my digital work), take a business card, or look through a process book/sketchbook I made from my work this Summer.

Click His Face! - the interactive portion of my presentation, his face fills the whole screen of the computer and when idling he just looks around in a loop until clicked.

(You need Flash Player to see this)

I think you can see the inspiration from some of my past works both in illustration and animation for this one (most notably my recent Taffetas animations), and it is kind of exciting for me to see how I was able to re-use old ideas with a new concept to make something unique.

I'm not sure what all I can show right now on my blog as far as the work I've been doing there at Hallmark since nothing has gone live yet, so I'll play it on the safe side and only post the stuff I know won't get me in trouble, a few simple things from the sketchbook in my presentation :).

Lastly, this presentation would not have come together if it weren't for my amazing friend, Yesenia Carrero, who stayed up until the early hours of the morning to help me out a great deal with the Actionscript for the presentation as well as had my back with printing the physical material.

More than anything though her encouragement of me and my abilities really takes the cake. As an artist I have a fairly fragile ego, and while I think I take critiques well and have a fair bit of self-motivation, I can be really down about myself and my work sometimes. I had a particularly rough time this week with that and Jess was a good enough friend to patiently remind me of my strengths and give me the encouragement I needed.

Another Taffetas Sketch

2011-07-23T23:44:00.002-04:00

Veil and Gem Being Silly

More on the way, just gotta scan and clean up...
I'll get to it later this week maybe

Finally, Drawing for Fun!

2011-07-16T20:46:00.003-04:00

Baby Veil

Veil was a pretty quiet but sensitive kid. Growing up, he would seem almost too well-behaved, sitting up straight in a chair, out of the way and quiet, and always remembering his "please" and "Thank yous". In moments where he thought no one was watching he might sometimes take comfort in softer things like plushies or blankets, or engage in more childish behavior like swinging his feet around from where he sat.

Rafe and AlexArt Trade with Megan Miller of her wonderful characters Rafe and Alex. Essentially, Rafe is an assassin robot gone rogue who relies on a young, human mechanic, Alex,to see that he is always functional and operating. The two form a close bond together after many thrilling and action-packed adventures together and begin to like, you know, worry about each other and stuff. She drew me Veil and Gemini in return!

Mind Katalyst Opening Intro

2011-07-04T13:01:00.012-04:00

Here is the ~45 sec. animation I did from concept to animation for Mind Katalyst, LLC., an up-and-coming digital education company in the Winter and Spring of 2011. James Dalby did a wonderful job on the post-production score and sound effects.

Character design work I did for the short

Taffetas Poster Work

2011-06-26T19:43:00.005-04:00

Well, today was the last day to vote for the online reader's poll of the Animation Magazine contest! Jess and I won't know how we did with the competition until mid-July so we'll just have to wait and see. I'm so thankful for each and every person who helped out and voted and spread the word. As I have said, this contest is not Yesenia's and my only opportunity, but it is a fairly good one and we are excited to be participating.

In the meantime, here's some behind-the-scenes stuff of the poster we did.

After many concepts, thumbnails, and a few rough sketches, we narrowed our choices down to one poster.... which then later split into two posters because we freaked out near the end and our first poster wasn't good enough auuugh, so we tried to see if we could fix it (shown above), quickly grew frustrated with lack of sleep and a disappearing sense of self-worth, and went with a slightly altered version of our original poster.

Veil Animation Test

2011-06-21T02:13:00.000-04:00

You need Flash Player to view this test!

Check it out on DEVIANTART | TAFFETAS BLOG

Ultimately, I found some problems with the puppet and "rig" for Veil, but that's what these tests are all about : ) ! I was so anxious ALL week to get to this animation, though, but I had a lot of priorities and little stresses here and there that made it difficult for me to get to actually get to this one thing that I wanted to do (this animation!).

But ah, that's just how it goes sometimes. I really hope everyone likes this one, I see a few minor edits I can do here and there which I might implement later today or tomorrow, but ultimately this test is complete!

Please Vote!

2011-06-20T23:35:00.002-04:00

Please Vote For The Taffetas

Hello Everyone!

We have been given the wonderful opportunity to enter the annual Animation Magazine Pitch Party Contest for 2011! If we win, we will get ad space in their magazine, have our pitch reviewed by higher executives within the animation industry, and even a chance to pitch to an executive of our choice.

We can also win some ad space by placing the ONLINE READER'S POLL part of the contest, where readers online can offer a vote for the ad of their choosing.

Therefore, we would greatly appreciate everyone's help in this. Please spare a few minutes to offer us a vote and tell everyone you know to do the same!

To vote you have to click on our ad (illustration above), scroll to the bottom of your page, enter your e-mail address (only used to send you a receipt of your vote), and click SUBMIT!

Remember: every. single. vote. counts, yours included! : )

It's True

2011-04-29T23:34:00.012-04:00

All I do is work on Taffetas

(and sometimes go shopping for groceries)

I am very glad I decided to focus this quarter on Taffetas. I am not only producing sketches, animations, animatics, and other general artwork all the time for this project,but I am also going to constant meetings, networking opportunities, pitches, and writing so~many~e-mails~ every day (which is my least favorite part of the job, to be honest- I'd rather be drawing, animating, or creating! Though I do *love* the amazing artists I get to meet and keep in contact with).

In general,This project pretty much feels like two classes rolled into one. Not that I am complaining, I love this project and we keep seeming to snowball in our success - though sometimes I wish I had the time to play Portal II : ).

Regardless, I am so ecstatic with where the project is going though, and I have to say, I thrive off of positive artistic energy like the kind that has come through in the support and success of this project.

Gemini turnaround

Taffetas Sketchbook 07 + Upcoming Test Animation Boards

2011-04-25T11:22:00.005-04:00

Taffetas Sketchbook 07

Oops! Didn't have this one set to automatically upload on the blog. This was the sketch for The Taffetas poster, which was then colored and graphic design-ed by the amazing Yesenia Carrero for our new 3-D poster Ad Campaign, "The Birth of Something Beautiful". You can see the final result, as well as what we're looking for for the project, HERE.

New Taffetas Boards

I'll probably be animating this one myself because I'd really like to do it, however there will be more assignments on the way for CHARACTER ANIMATORS as we test out our puppets and just try to have little scenes and animations to really wow people and strengthen our pitch. I am also in need of assistance from an EFFECTS ANIMATOR for this one and many of the other tests for Gemini's flowy hair, so feel free to contact me and co-creator Yesenia Carrero at ycarre20@student.scad.edu if you're interested in helping out.

Gemini Animation Test

2011-04-19T15:53:00.006-04:00

You need Flash Player to view this test!

View it on the Blog | My Deviantart

I can't believe I never posted this one to my blog! :) Better late than never.

This is the first mock animation I did about a week or so ago for my and Yesenia Carrero's project The Taffetas. I'm so thrilled to report the success and kindness this little blink animation has received and it makes me excited because I think it will help to show what we're going for the show. I plan to get started on another promotional test animation this week with the animatic and get some animators (SFX and CHAR) on board to help me out.

Gemini turnaround > Photoshop
Gemini Puppet> Illustrator (created by the amazing Yesenia Carrero)
Animation > Flash
Compositing/Effects> After Effects

Veil Turnaround

2011-04-16T12:06:00.002-04:00

View it on the blog | My Deviantart

Taffetas & Hallmark : I'm so excited I can't sleep

2011-04-08T01:01:00.007-04:00

Here's the turnaround for Gemini Taffeta I did last weekend!

The absolutely amazing Yesenia Carrero is vectoring the turnaround now which will double as our base puppets for Gemini. Might I say: goodness, that girl is A-mazing! The vectored version makes my sketch version cry in shame - Jess is able to add just little small nuances to the final vectors, little fixes and nudges here and there, that really bring the character to life. I can't wait to start animation!

Might I add, Jess is a brilliant designer, illustrator, friend, and co-worker. She and I are co-directors/creators/producers of Taffetas and I wouldn't want to have it any other way! You should totally check out her newly updated website.

Likewise, I would really like to stop and say thank you to everyone who has been supportive of me and my artistic endeavors. It means a lot because I live, eat, and breathe this stuff.

And on a super-exciting note, I am 1 of 17 interns that will be going to Hallmark's annual Summer internship this year (we were selected out of almost 1,000 applicants from around the country!) ! I think I was told I am also the only animator this year, so that's pretty exciting (though a tad nerve-racking).

I'm so excited because I know I'm going to learn a lot and meet a lot of awesome creative-types. I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity.

So, yes, in short: thanks everyone!

The Taffetas Sketchbook Page 04

2011-04-05T05:00:00.002-04:00

Taffetas Sketchbook Page 04: Meet Elena

Elena is a young siren who can seem very sweet and innocent, but ultimately acts as such out of a possessive need to be liked and cared for. Should you befriend this young lady out of pity you will find yourself getting more than you bargained for. She identifies herself and finds worth and comfort only through the people whose company she keeps. She seeks out the popular, talented, and prestigious, especially if they are male, since she seems to hold a certain special sway over them in particular.

If you like Elena you might be interested in offering us your talents! We need a costume designer for her and are still looking for voices for nearly all of our cast, including, of course, Elena. Contact Yesenia Carrero at ycarre20@student.scad.edu if interested!

VIEW THIS ON THE TAFFETAS BLOG | MY DEVIANTART

The Siren : Thank You to All New Taffetas Supporters!

2011-04-04T18:32:00.007-04:00

VIEW THE PRODUCTION BLOG HERE

I was going to wait to upload this one after the sketchbook page upload due out tomorrow which has this image in it but unshaded, but since Jess and I are really pleasantly surprised at the sudden DA/FA support for our web-based animated series pitch, The Taffetas, today thanks to the amazing fyuvix (Brianna Alexendar) and `Katmomma and whoever else I'm missing, that we thought I should just go ahead and put this one up for anyone watching my account or the blog.

Jess and I are really excited at all the talent being offered to us. It's always a pleasant surprise how much people believe in the project and it really keeps us going :).

About the image:
This drawing features one of our antagonists, Elena.

Elena is a young siren who can seem very sweet and innocent, but ultimately acts as such out of a possessive need to be liked and cared for. Should you befriend this young lady out of pity you will find yourself getting more than you bargained for. She identifies herself and finds worth and comfort only through the people whose company she keeps. She seeks out the popular, talented, and prestigious, especially if they are male, since she seems to hold a certain special sway over them in particular.

If you like Elena you might be interested in offering us your talents! We need a costume designer for her and are still looking for voices for nearly all of our cast, including, of course, Elena. There are plenty of more job openings too if you look at the blog! Contact Yesenia Carrero at ycarre20@student.scad.edu

2011-03-29T07:00:00.002-04:00

To kick off 10 more weeks of Taffetas, here's an inked and colored 2-page spread I did from the sketchbook for you to enjoy!

Check it out on The Taffetas Blog or My Deviantart!

Thank You Pics : Jon and Whit

2011-03-23T08:22:00.003-04:00

These are thank you pics for Jon and Whitney Ponikvar, my and Jess's good friends who really came to my and Jess's aid this quarter, offering their amazing talents to both Test Flight and Taffetas. You can check out Jon's webcomic, Peter and Company.

These will be sent out as thank you cards made by the amazing Jess Carrero, along with some Savannah Bee Honey (mmmmm). I hope they enjoy!

Taffetas Sketchbook Page 01

2011-03-22T12:41:00.003-04:00

Cross-posted on The Taffetas blog and my deviantart !

These are the first sketches I'll be keeping up with from now on for The Taffetas project in order to raise interest and show a bit more about the show without having to be super-refined.

Small Flash Videos

2011-03-17T15:36:00.006-04:00

Hey guys!

Well, it's spring break for me right now but work hasn't ended. Taffetas, Test Flight, and my internship at Mind Catalys t still keep me plenty busy; though, since I don't have school to worry about, I am enjoying some time to myself to get some much-needed R&R as well.

Anyway, I thought I'd finally do something I've been meaning to do, which is upload to this blog some smaller Flash work I do between my three main projects. They're not amazing by any means, but they were all made in under a day, and I'm pretty excited and proud of the fact I can animate some decent, fully colored work in that small of a time frame if I have to.

Anger Management for the Gods - Introduction to World Mythology Final Assignment.

Puppets/Text: Yesenia Carrero, Animation: Tracy MacLauchlan and Dana Corrigan, Post Production: Dana Corrigan

Dibble Dabble Character Animations - Small character animations made for Flash-based website (they're like buttons, the animations play when you click them)

Puppets: Yesenia Carrero Animation: Tracy MacLauchlan
More information HERE .

Run Jess Run Introduction Animatic - Animatic for the introduction sequence of a game created by Yesenia Carrero. Not completed because of time constraints

Concept: Yesenia Carrero Animatic: Tracy MacLauchlan

Run Jess Run Ending Animation - Ending character animation for Flash-based game

Concept & character design: Yesenia carrero Puppet: Dana Corrigan Animation: Tracy MacLauchlan (Run cycle by Dana Corrigan)

2011-03-15T00:45:00.011-04:00

This was drawn as a thank you to a really awesome and popular deviantartist that was kind enough to draw Jess and I some Veil and Gemini fanart! The random but welcome gift inspired me with all kinds of excited energy and so I decided to draw her some fanart right back. They're a beetle and a leech who are a couple, and really I just wanted an excuse to draw the leech's little tail.

Also, yes, it's finals! I just got through with The Taffetas pitch and wrapping everything up for that for a bit, and I have another class down too, with just one more critique to go tomorrow. I won't lie and tell you I'm not really, really nervous about it, as is typical for me, but I think I should do okay.

Anyway, I'll update this here blog with more information about Test Flight and Taffetas soon!

New Veil drawings

2011-03-06T11:03:00.006-05:00

http://thetaffetas.blogspot.com/

For the upcoming pitch to Nancy Spears, I've gone back and drawn these two images to show Veil's likability some more. Some people had trouble seeing his appeal in our practice pitches because I didn't draw him very sympathetic this quarter, for some reason!

Jess has said that we ride a fine line with Veil when pitching since one of the points of his character is that he IS unlikeable at first, being aloof, snarky, uptight, scary-looking,etc. However, once you really get to know him, you see he's actually a pretty good guy.

I'm still unsure about this one.

but either case here's the rough sketch, in case anyone finds this kind of thing ineteresting!

Taffetas Mock Screen Shot Sketch 01

2011-02-22T16:30:00.002-05:00

I've got to say, it's beyond enjoyable to be working on Test Flight and Taffetas this quarter!

Two Projects

2011-02-20T20:45:00.000-05:00

Testflight2011.blogspot.com

Here's the finalized puppet (WELL, I see a few things to fix...) for Jonathon Lawson for my film, Test Flight. I thought I had completed the puppets when I uploaded them a while ago, but I decided about three days ago they weren't good enough and went back into them to add and fix some things, both in the how puppets work, and also some visual details (as you can see, Jonathon's looking a bit better than he was before!).

Please check out the blog if you haven't, as well. I had a big lecture and demo on Friday (which I sort of worried way too much over, as usual), and I re-recorded my lecture on Saturday and uploaded it to the blog for all to see (I start off a little awkward but I think I get better at is as the videos progress, hopefully it will be interesting for everyone!).

TheTaffetas.blogspot.com

Here's a new page on my portfolio flatbook featuring the character expressions I have done for The Taffetas pitch project. It's one of my personal favorite pages when it's printed (isn't it funny how print can sometimes transform your work?).

I'm really loving Taffetas so far. Doors have been opening up for Jess and I thanks to this project, and it's so exciting to have people really believe in our idea. I think Taffetas would do great if given the chance, but it's really awesome that there are a lot of other people who think that, too.We've been receiving a lot of awesome work back from people lately, so be sure to check the blog to see what's up!

More More Taffetas Work

2011-02-13T16:17:00.005-05:00

"Crow" the cross-dressing bat-man and Cypress the adopted son.

More Taffetas Work

2011-02-12T23:57:00.005-05:00

Tom Wooley, the anti-conservation sunflower (and the Taffeta's lawyer), and Elena, the young siren.

This almost wraps up all the little side characters and such I have to do. This is an animated soap opera so we have a lot of characters, even though in our pitch we're just going to try to focus on Veil and Gemini.

Busy Week

2011-02-11T06:00:00.001-05:00

here's the puppets so far for Test Flight! You can see some of the technical tests I did with them on the blog and more will be added soon. I'm always a little nervous people will be turned off by the puppet-style of the film, but I'm hoping they'll come to like it for it's ease-of-use and time-saving nature. It also doesn't have to be of poor quality if it's a puppet animation, you know? Just look at My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic!

I've only seen the first episode because I'm too busy to watch TV ): but I really want to watch more (love the Byzantine/Medeival art prologue)!

Here's something I whipped up over the weekend for my portfolio to the Hallmark Internship! It's something I've wanted to complete for a while and this gave me a nice excuse to finally just do it :).

Here is one of the first Veil expressions I drew to have come back from cleanup and coloring by the amazing Yesenia Carrero for our pitch project. I totally love it and wanted to share.

2011-02-04T10:27:00.014-05:00

Here's rough sketches for some of the antagonists from The Taffetas pitch. From left to right we have Luke the cult leader, Gabardine Taffeta the jerk, Lace Taffeta the baby-eater, a demon-like creature from Gemini's island, Kristina the whore, and Matthew the sadist (who is not facing us intentionally).

compare and contrast Lace and Gabardine from a few years ago (the ones at the very end)

2011-02-03T00:56:00.005-05:00

Well, it's been a little over a week since I updated this blog. Things are going to be a little slow here for a while, I imagine, as I'm super busy with my film, Test Flight, Jess's and my pitch to WB, The Taffetas, among other projects. But here's some sketchbook-like things I've scrounged up in the meantime:

Here's a sneak peek at the puppet for Mabel for my film, Test Flight (http://tesflight2011.blogspot.com/). This is actually an outdated screenshot as a few things have been tweaked now.

hand studies for an animation I'm making for my internship

Study sketches I did today for Luke, one of the main antagonists from The Taffetas. We're going for a very James "Jimmy" Jones feel (the cult leader of Jonestown). I kind of like it because we technically have a world of monsters and magical creatures (in a modern-ish setting), and things get serious because of something/someone very real and human. We also have a pretty cool idea for his big sunglasses in that we hope to often show them reflecting whatever he's looking at, but there's always something off in the reflection that is more telling of his mental/emotional state than what he is actually seeing. So it's like his glasses are not really reflecting the real world back to us, but the world as perceived by this man. I think it should be really fun to play around with, especially with this lineless, texture-based style we're going for. I hope to illustrate the idea myself sometime.

here's a line up of our main Taffeta family, excluding Licorice Taffeta. We're changing Cypress Taffeta (the red-head) though to be an 11-13 year old boy.

some studies I did in photoshop for Ronnie, the Golem character. There's more on paper but, you know :)

Veil Poses

2011-01-21T15:06:00.004-05:00

http://thetaffetas.blogspot.com/

Here's some poses for Veil I did for the pitch to WB. I'm still getting used to Veil's lankiness, but I like where he is here in these drawings. Jess and I like to joke that he is like a spaghetti noodle to Gemini's meatball-like form.

2011-01-19T00:46:00.004-05:00

Here's some Gemini poses I drew for the pitch of The Taffetas to the WB. I have to have Veil done by Friday, so stay tuned!

Speaking of which, Check out the amazing blog Yesenia (that's Jess) made for our pitch to WB:

http://thetaffetas.blogspot.com/

Keep it on file, we'll be updating with more information soon!

Final Poster

2011-01-18T17:22:00.006-05:00

Came out a bit differently than what I was expecting, but the other way just wasn't working. This represents some quick changes to my film that will be had as well- the butterflies now won't have the monarch patterns so as not to be as eclectic, and I think I'll change the colors a bit to be less saturated and hopefully more appealing (I've always envisioned my work very super-saturated, but lately I am seeing why I should go a less eye-hurting route). Over all, they're not fixes that overhaul the entire film, but I think help a lot.

Thanks a ton to my good friend Yesenia Carrero, who helped me so much despite having her own work to do, going so far as to vector most of the character in illustrator for me and taking the time to offer a lot of great suggestions about the poster and my film as a whole. Thank you girl!

TEST FLIGHT information

2011-01-17T12:35:00.006-05:00

Hello everyone, here's the link to the blog for my film:

ttp://testflight2011.blogspot.com/

This week I will be attending the senior soiree here at SCAD-Savannah to hopefully gain some animators, layout artists, etc. for my film so it can be the best it can be! Thank you to the individuals who offered their amazing talents up for the composer position based on my brief post the other night. I was surprised to find more people read this blog than I think, but I am very grateful for it.

If you're a SCAD student planning to attend this event, please stop by my booth! I will have food for you.

Thank you everyone!

THE TAFFETAS pitch to WB

2011-01-17T12:24:00.005-05:00

Alright everyone, here's what's up: My good friend Yesenia Carrero and I have the wonderful opportunity to pitch a series idea to Warner Bros. in three months, and we've decided to pitch The Taffetas, a web-show aimed at women 25-39.

This is 1/2 of posters that will soon be plastered around SCAD-Savannah looking for help (the text was originally "cover our asses", but we got worried we wouldn't be allowed to say bad words to 20-something college kids). Yesenia is responsible for the brilliant coloring, design, and typography while I did the sketch and came up with the concept.

We need some costume designers, layout, concept artists, and possibly flash animators.

We're also looking for any girls and women out there just willing to listen to our pitch as we begin to refine it. We're doing a lot of research for our demographic and we really think we're hitting the nail on the head with the characters and story, but we need to be able to communicate this in a way that really gets interest in a few short minutes. Therefore, we need to test this out on as many people around or at our target audience.

If you have any questions about this, please contact Yesenia Carrero rather than myself at ycarre20@student.scad.edu

TEST FLIGHT poster WIP

2011-01-15T23:58:00.003-05:00

Here's a WIP of a help-wanted poster for my student film, Test Flight. I'm looking for a composer, sound designer, layout artist, and 2/D-Flash animators.

2011-01-15T23:36:00.002-05:00

Here's a sketch I'll have to finish at a later date, of Cain from Dana Corrigan's Fate Saga , which I'm the color designer and an animator for.

Ladies that is INDECENT

2011-01-15T08:57:00.008-05:00

Jess will be coloring it and making it into a fun little set of two posters to advertise for help wanted. More information later this weekend : )

Aubrey and Jonathon Commission

2011-01-07T08:45:00.006-05:00

Here's a sketch commission I did for a patron on DeviantArt. I really spent some time trying come up with some sort of (simple) composition

Lace Taffeta

2010-12-27T11:54:00.002-05:00

This is Lace Taffeta, my character Veil's mother.

His father remembers her as a saint.

Season's Greetings

2010-12-25T14:00:00.002-05:00

Here's a fun little collaboration Jess and I did a day or two ago, with the final result at the top and our original sketch at the bottom. Happy Holidays everyone!

Lace Sketch

2010-12-19T08:55:00.005-05:00

Think I'll clean up and ink this one and see it to full completion later tonight or tomorrow evening, but I'm in conflict whether it's good enough to do so or not. There are some weird things going on, but I don't think the weird things are all too blaring, or even matter. I'm afraid of re-drawing it and losing some of the life (as I'll already lose some in the inking process). Soooooooo we shall see.

House Sitting

2010-12-16T22:26:00.009-05:00

Currently, my friend Jess and I find ourselves back in good 'ol Savannah, GA... but without school. We're house sitting for someone (the sweet dog we're looking after drawn above). I can tell you, the experience is amazing. Jess and I get up around 7:30 AM, have a quaint breakfast, go outside to admire a beautiful oceanic view and walk the dog, and come back inside to work until 6 PM (with a nice break for lunch in there, too, of course!). After 6 is whatever-the-heck-you-want-to-do-but-it-shouldn't-be-more-work time.

It's been an enlightening experience trying to work to a more traditional schedule. A more structured, healthy routine and a change of scenery in combination with a lack of internet on the work machines means so much more productivity in the day, and I'm happy to report a decent amount of progress on my work.

Next week I plan to be starting work back up for my own senior film, as well. I'm finally feeling re-invigorated for it after a while of being a little morose and apprehensive.

Here's the first of hopefully a few more studies/sketches for an illustration idea I've had in my head for weeks now. It's of Lace, Veil's mother (that is not Veil in her arms, however).

Sapphire head! I based her more off the really cool model I was talking about in an earlier post and changed her colors and ears. I like where she is going- she is still pretty without being stereotypically so. I definitely wanted to make her look a little bit more ethnic, as I imagine her society to be sort of Indian. Compare this image to the one in THIS POST !

I made this when I made the images from THIS POST , but it got buried in my USB drive. I like this one a lot because of the colors, it really inspires me to do something similar in color scheme... like a cool, lineless byzantine-inspired work.

Pomp Fiction (pompfiction.net) Commission

2010-12-15T19:29:00.006-05:00

Adobe Illustrator

(if you like what you see, I'm always open for commissions. Feel free to contact me at any time! I offer varying prices for art in most any style I'm known to do)

Little Drawn Sapphire... Pose Ideas/Reference

2010-12-06T01:00:00.006-05:00

Admittedly I need to dress her better to her personality (right now it just seems kinda like something I'd wear, ehhh), but I did these for my friend who is going to be taking reference stock art for me from a real model who has this character's body type. I hardly draw this character but I feel as though I probably will be doing more of her now that she's on the brain.

The second page is just quick gestures to help the model and photographer get an idea of what to do.

Also, I promise there's more to her than just what's presented here (really, there is!), it's just the other things are unnecessary information for the photo shoot.

Silly Sketches

2010-12-05T14:03:00.004-05:00

Jess's character Damien. He is a jerk who is vegan only in social situations.

Charmander

This one is a little old...I did it some time last quarter and forgot about it

2010-12-03T16:33:00.000-05:00

This is a quick sketch for a nice girl on DeviantArt who decided to draw Veil and Gemini! I thought I'd return the favor and draw her something too.

2010-12-03T00:48:00.008-05:00

These were not meant to viewed sequentially, but I suppose they do strangely fit. To my credit, I was going to add clothes to the bottom one there, but I'm not quite happy with the poses yet so I was trying to render out their forms.

Here are some fun sketches I did while at Jess's house! It was a blast to spend time with her and her family, and I couldn't have had a better time.

Here's an awesome picture one of Jess's many talented cousins, Christian, drew for me! It's of me and I absolutely adore it! I think he captured my likeness very well in this cartoon/anime form. I sincerely hope he keeps drawing, because there's a lot of potential in his work- it's not just me he captured so well, but he manages to show a lot of personality in all of his character drawings, which is really half the battle.

Here's some sketches I did for pompfiction! The creator was kind enough to commission me!

2010-12-02T10:29:00.010-05:00

My Dearest Companion
edited image based off some critique

The process of finding the right carplane for my film. The colors aren't really final, though.

Merry Christmas, I Got You This Whale Pillow

2010-11-28T21:18:00.008-05:00

Here's a fun sketch I did on Jess's cintiq while hanging out at her house! I have been visiting her for this past Thanksgiving weekend and I have to say it has been a blast, but more on that in a later post.

Anyway, Jess helped me with the colors and textures on this one! Thanks girl!

Also, be sure to check out our DeviantART accounts if you have one:
mine >> [X]
hers >> [X]

TEST FLIGHT storyboards

2010-11-18T12:12:00.002-05:00

Here's some storyboards I made for my animatic for my film, TEST FLIGHT, for class. I can't say I'm really all that happy with the animatic right now, but I do feel like I'm going in the right direction...so there's hope. I just hope I can get it right...

Revisits

2010-11-10T11:08:00.000-05:00

TEST FLIGHT Character Sheets

2010-11-07T23:52:00.005-05:00

Here's part of what I've been working on all weekend. These were certainly a challenge and I've gone through various stages of liking them and not-liking them.

I might add a little more detail to Mabel (hair lines, a ring around the skirt), but if I do I'll update here!

sketch revisit

2010-11-05T00:24:00.003-04:00

Despite what it might seem, this was actually done for class. I'm staying on target!

More TEST FLIGHT concept sketches

2010-11-04T02:34:00.006-04:00

Here's some rough concept sketches I did last night and today for my film, Test Flight! Keep in mind those background ones take me a while to do because a lot of it is trial-and-error stuff, so I know they're kind of unrefined and a bit sloppy right now, but I had to figure out the colors (still working on it) as well as the method and style in parts.
I hope you all like!

TEST FLIGHT rough concept work

2010-11-02T16:09:00.005-04:00

Here's a bit of the rough/early concept work I've been doing for my Senior Film, TEST FLIGHT up until this point. What's left for me now is to finalize these designs (characters, car, color schemes, poster, etc), do some scene mock-ups, and most of all, clean up my storyboards so they're far more presentable than they are now (this is the part I am most apprehensive about since I do not even know for sure about my visual storytelling . . .). I do not know how I am going to get it all done in time, but here's hoping.

really quick rough sketch for the poster design (I'll be using it to promote the film around SCAD and (please dear lord) pick up animators for the film).

Jonathon Lawson

Mabel Lawson

Mabel took forever to get to the point where she is in the above pictures...she started as this.

A shot from my thumbnail animatic. It wouldn't be a Tracy MacLauchlan film without a crying baby animal.

How does an automobile know what flying is

2010-10-24T02:17:00.007-04:00

My senior film will have a flying model T in it. In my mind it is more plane-like than balloon-like (though balloon-like= easier to animate, nice silhouette). I guess I just gotta keep tweaking it.

2010-10-21T02:09:00.004-04:00

A quick sketch, approx. 45 minutes (according to my friend Jess who watched me draw this).

Animation Process

2010-10-16T21:44:00.007-04:00

Hey, check out the process Dana Corrigan's Fate Saga takes to get completed. This is from a scene I animated!

Cleaned up Rough Animation (fire by Zelda!)

Clean Up/Line Work (by Dana Corrigan)

Colors and Shading
(Color Design (color choices, color effects, etc. are chosen by me to be the canon for the film's visual))

I hear the background is now being worked on to integrate it with the 2D elements better and I'm really excited to see the final result.

Life Sketch to Unwind

2010-10-15T23:03:00.006-04:00

Actually, this one is just referenced from a free stock image on DA, but I gotta practice somehow if I don't make it to real life drawing. This is because my life is busy with a lot of work and school as of late. I love everything I'm working on though, so life isn't so bad!

My Dearest Companion

2010-10-06T13:39:00.004-04:00

One of many little style experiments I hope to do. I am tired of my usual drawing style and am looking for something more from myself.

2010-10-05T10:06:00.008-04:00

Readers of this blog for a while might remember a weird phase I went through where I drew lots of non-clothed figures from imagination (I was learning anatomy and could not/would not draw clothes), and my character Veil was kind of buff and silly.

Now adays this version of the character has returned under the name Baby-Tomato Suede.

I'm not going to explain further, really.

Fambly

2010-09-26T03:15:00.015-04:00

I've been (slowly) learning how to use Illustrator while simultaneously experimenting with a new style that works well with it.

I'm excited where my style could go from here, really. I love how working with such flat shapes emphasizes silhouette, line-of-action and color.

2010-09-20T17:00:00.001-04:00

One thing I sometimes to try to think about in my work - story wise, character wise, drawing wise- is how to make it delicate.

I remember a Don Bluth interview where he said they tried to make the design of Mrs. Brisby of The Secret of Nihm seem very delicate to make the trials before her seem all the more implausible for her to conquer, which would then make the audience feel more apprehension about her safety throughout the story. I think about it often, because I like the small innocence that can be found in a lot of things in life. There's a sort of beauty in these qualities and, when used in your work, can cause an instant, compelling desire- an idea of preciousness- that wells up in the viewer to see the thing that possesses these qualities remain intact. Again, it doesn't have to be a character, of course. It can be a situation, a type of line weight in your work, a gesture, a note in your music, etc.

This one has nothing to do with being delicate, though.

some sketches to unwind

2010-09-04T01:09:00.005-04:00

This is Veil's mommy!

In other news: I'll be at SCAD in about a week for my senior year...

The thought feels a little like this : /

A Friendly Reminder

2010-08-28T00:55:00.002-04:00

Jess drew the one in yellow, I did the one in blue and added the words.

Night!

2010-08-26T01:00:00.006-04:00

Malachi, Dana's character, and Gemini, Jess's character, used to date before Veil came along. Personally, I think Gem left him because there was just no way their relationship could work- with their hair combined, the drains in their house would never be clear again!

Malachi really ought to get contacts

Also, some older dinky doodle jpegs...whynot:

A bit busy

2010-08-24T02:05:00.009-04:00

Man, this Summer is just flying by! Words cannot describe how fortunate I have felt this Summer for my family, friends, and some of the opportunities I have been given.

I just got back from a week-long vacation up in the mountains where I attended Whitney Ponikvar's (or Whitney Vest, but Pon-ik-var now!) wedding. The wedding was absolutely gorgeous and despite some scary moments on the actual wedding day, it all came together in the end and two of the nicest, most awesome people I know get to live happily-ever-after together!

As sort of a pre-wedding gift, Jess, Whitney, and I drew Jon Ponikvar (that is, THE Jonathon Ponikvar) some drawings based off of his comic, Peter and Company. Here's my contribution, you can also see what the others did on his site.

and finally, I drew this about 3 weeks ago when I fell ill and it made me feel so much better:

Bat!Veil and Pomeranian!Gemini have a...bat/pomeranian chihuahua-looking son? In either case, the one of little Licorice in a blankey is inspired by one of my favorite things ever-- bats in blankies. (start about 1:10)

2010-07-26T12:54:00.018-04:00

A sketchy comic scene for my amazingly talented friend Dana for drawing me some awesome pictures recently! I got a little addicted to drawing this one and probably spent more time on it than I should have, and although it didn't come out all too amazing, Dana likes it, so that's all that matters.

(also..veil looks way too short in the top panel there. I wanted him to be bending down and possibly crouching, but it just looks like he's short, lol)

I'm a nerd...

2010-07-23T23:40:00.003-04:00

Did some nerd drawing to decompress and take a break for a lil' bit since today's been one of THOSE days, drawing wise, and nothing is more frustrating!

Jess is amazing!

2010-07-19T01:22:00.008-04:00

So recently my friend Jess started doing that character expression meme going around DeviantArt and I thought I'd join in (I'll be slowly working on it just in my free time to relax). Well, one quick sketch in particular seemed to win the day (seriously don't judge me entirely on this...I was planning to clean up later):

If you don't enjoy this you either know what a good drawing really is or are simply too masculine to admit that you enjoy it.

So you know what that amazing girl did? She did this:

Jess is amazing.
(also, the mac-starry-sky background is a bit of an inside joke)

We're really excited how well our collaborations seem to work out and are even more excited to find that we each dislike doing what the other enjoys (Jess dislikes sketching but loves inking/clean up, I dislike inking/clean up and love sketching). We're making plans to possibly do a comic and I couldn't be more excited. I've often spoken of how much I adore Jess's style- it's quirky and unique and lots of fun to look at. It makes me so happy she sometimes finds it in her heart to color some of my drawings!

Stay tuned!

2-D final Shot 03

2010-07-18T16:43:00.009-04:00

(there's sound!)

I fixed this up earlier this Summer and just never posted it until now...I think it could still use some work like maybe an actual arc on the motion of his hands holding the book, but it's looking better than it was previously and I didn't even have to spend that long on the revisions! So anyway, hopefully I'll eventually get around to sprucing up the other two shots, as well :).

more quick drawings

2010-07-18T02:44:00.005-04:00

because that's all I do ever, lol.

Gemini, Jess's character, when she's angry!

SCYTHE'D. yeowch.

Here's a quick drawing of a possible idea for where I'm heading with the redesign of Crumpet, the little mouse girl from my personal story. . . she may be in my senior film as well, which is why I wanted to sketch her out .

Jess complained that I "never upload"

2010-07-11T21:26:00.010-04:00

So here are some quick doodles done in Flash this week...nothing too great, I tried not to spend a lot of time on these, seriously (it shows!):

Oh, Ye Of Little Faith

2010-06-28T12:53:00.012-04:00

This is for my friend Alison! Happy Birthday!

I played around with trying to do something interesting with something very limited. I hope it reads okay...

They are of our original characters. They are a cat and a unicorn, and they are friends (I know- what madness is this?!).

Orpheus Drawing

2010-06-24T01:59:00.013-04:00

I tried for the most of the day to add shading and detail, but just ended up going back to where I was yesterday with the simple lines and flats.

But anyway, as I'm on a self-imposed schedule this week, I'm out of time to work on this, but I hope it at least does the job!

Orpheus Movie Poster Sketch

2010-06-22T13:50:00.003-04:00

Hey all! So yesterday I sat down on worked on a request my brother gave to me earlier this month. I'm drawing out a scene from an Orpheus roleplay he's involved in with his friends! The premise is that the character (John) is projected in the spirit world as a ghost (as people are wont to do in this roleplay), and in the spirit world, John sees himself as a classic noir detective, with the fedora, trench coat, cigarettes and all. Suddenly, he sees an ominous sight-- a rift in reality appears before him, and within that tear is a horrifying scene of an army of specters (the sort of minion-ish bad guys of this game) lined up in formation , getting ready for some sort of battle.

Also there is a GHOST DOG.

I tried to stick close to Steven's original vision:

I love you, Steven.

Anyway, I'll be working on inking it and coloring it today (might bleed over into tomorrow though) since I showed this sketch to my brother already and he seems to like it! Then I've got another illustration to do, and then it's Dana's project for the rest of the week! :) I am glad to be kept so busy (and inspired!) this Summer.

Also, if you happen to be interested in WWII, miniatures, strategy-based games, and especially a combination of all 3, you should check out my brother's Flames of War blog! He is also extremely gifted with musical talent.

My Granddaughter

2010-06-21T14:32:00.002-04:00

"She takes after my side of the family."

Nerdage

2010-06-20T21:31:00.003-04:00

Main character color designs- Cain is a warm/red color scheme whereas Cyrus is a cold blue/violet (but with a red backpack because red is an important color in the film). Both red and violet help the characters stand out from (what will be) a mostly green/earth-toned world (with just bits of red and violet here and there to help add some balance)

So, before we get into the promised Nerdage, I'd like to direct your attention to Dana Corrigan's Fate Saga Thesis Blog. I am working on Dana's film as a color designer and animator (for which I am very honored and thankful for).

now for the NERDAGE:

"Congratulations!"

I think this is the first time I got everybody's height in relation to one another actually right (I am sooo bad at that). I've had trouble getting everyone's characters down, as well, but I think everyone here is pretty recognizable and true-to-character. So, all in all, I'm pretty happy with that, especially given the subject matter: it's Veil and Gemini's wedding day! They are now Mr. and Mrs. Taffeta!

Here is their child, Licorice Arthur Taffeta, at maybe 9-11 years of age (Veil and Gemini originally picked out the name Orion Arthur , which is pretty darn epic... but, well, things sort of went awry).

Dana's character Drax and Cotton, Veil's neice. Drax is a greedy little demon who usually tries to use people for his own gain but somehow unwittingly ends up making their lives better in the process.

He uses Cotton to sell products because she is incredibly adorable...

He also pays her in half-hearted hugs.

I wasn't going to post these here since they are literally some 30-second-or-so scribbles I did when I was bored, but I thought I should because Jess really outdid herself and colored herself a Veil and a Gemini, and the results are fantastic! :)

cute kissing meme

2010-06-11T21:12:00.012-04:00

second half: here
also:

veilxgem!

2010-06-11T17:28:00.004-04:00

Jess got a blog and she draws awesome, awesome things!

"Well..."

2010-06-09T23:30:00.011-04:00

Here is an image I drew today for Jon Ponikvar's webcomic, Peter and Company! Give it a read, it's a rare PG webcomic that's just comedic, cute, and sometimes a little somber.

and yes, I inked it. Sadly, there's just no getting around the clean look of inking...sigh...

2010-06-06T18:15:00.005-04:00

A drawing for my friend Jess, since it is her birthday today! I'm playing around with getting around the inking phase of drawing...because I loathe inking. I do think sort of just making a clean sketch line works...

I'm going to try to be good this summer and keep a digital sketchbook going, of drawings made from reference. I'm hoping I'll pick up some EXP along the way.

2010-06-03T10:18:00.005-04:00

Finals

2010-05-26T09:43:00.003-04:00

2-D character animation:

"Does anyone else have the heebejeebies? No! Good! So shut up!"

Frame by frame done in Flash. Really excited about it because I feel like I've finally hit a learning curve and can see some potential from here.

2-D production:

the animation only came out so-so but it has some interesting points, I think. On top of a time crunch, I was sort of seeing how far I could push limited animation- and I didn't really hit it, I think. Anyway, If you know me IRL and want to see it just ask, but don't be expecting much, haha :)

characters TSLM ameenals

2010-05-18T07:54:00.008-04:00

It's kind of exciting because I think I managed to do these pretty quickly at the end of a long night at Monty!

Jess told me I should post these (take 2)

2010-05-17T13:52:00.003-04:00

Baby Animals in Agony!