Uhhhh, did I cover my bases there? Well Happy Holidays everyone. It's just a happy time of year in my opinion, wheather you're celebrating something or not. It's been a great year for my now wife and I, with our marriage and now honeymoon to New Zealand in a few weeks. Woohoo!
Just saw Bebel Gilberto tonight with my wife. She was awesome...kinda like a laid back Alanis Morrisette. It's all Bossa Nova music and oh so lively.
What's better to combine my two loves (my cat Tuna and Michael Jackson) for a tribute. It's really sad he passed. It eerily mirrored Health Ledger and Elvis. It was the first thing I saw as I exited the plane in Wisconsin. Not the way I was hoping to kick off my birthday, but that's life. Obviously there's a million different things that could be said about the man. Either way, it's generally nicer to remember the good times and the fact that he was human...no matter how bizarre. I think I'll dedicate the rest of this month's blog pics to Michael Jackson inspired images.
I've been noodling with something else the past few nights that I don't have clear direction on but I'll post it here eventually. In the meantime, here's an older sketch I did with a sharpie marker that might be cool to further develop down the road. Yay, now it's bed time!
For about two months now I've been volunteering with the Gorilla Foundation here in the Bay area. It's the home of Koko the female gorilla who can communicate in over 1000 signs of American Sign Language. It's a very special project started by Dr. Penny Patterson while she was working on her doctorate at Stanford University. Anyway, they recently had a bbq for all volunteers as a thank you. One of the fun things we did was an egg toss competition. It came down myself, my wife, and one other pair. We were pretty far apart at that point and Sarah, my wife, threw the egg, and I had to run forward to catch it. The egg was heading straight for my chest area and as I caught it...well, you guessed it, all over me. Good times!
I was curious how far an image could be pixelated before becoming unrecognizable. I laid each color in here, square by square toying with this thought. Right now it looks like Lego Joker, but still noticeable. It can obviously be pushed a lot further, but that of course wouldn't have been as tortuous to make.
I watched 'Drag Me to Hell' tonight......meh, I miss Evil Dead. I've had the pleasure of meeting Bruce Campbell twice, and believe he's a true talent and is highly underrated. Either way, thought I'd throw a quick sketch together of the ol' Evil Dead days. It's a little boring on different levels, but as usual, I'm tired.
I was wondering a lot about Zebras and their black and white patterns. Generally speaking animals are built and given a specific look for a purpose. You'd assume the pattern of the zebra is to help is blend into the grasses and sometimes wooded background, but what about their color. They're primarily in an environment filled with browns and greens, so wouldn't black and white just stand out, and say "Come get me"? Well after playing with many colors for this image and not deciding what to use (so I just posted them all), I realized that it's not the color so much as the stripes and pattern become confusing and make it look more like brush and grass. In the end of course, predators use more than just their sight...especially at night. So keep your eyes peeled Zebras!
Well I didn't know where this was going when I started, but here we go...a bird relieving itself in the city. I've unfortunately been under that once or twice.
Ever just feel like something's missing? Feel paranoid everyone's laughing at you? Well, sometimes it's true.
"Everybody hates Hurley"?! No way! Lost has been quite a rollercoaster. In my humble opinion it started off very strong but "lost" steam a bit in the middle seasons (4 in particular). This last season I thought started out weak and got more interesting as it went on. It's definitely built on anticipation and mystery which are its strongest points. I look forward to the final season to see what happens. It's a long time to wait, but lots of time to do 'Lost' art dedications ;)
I had the same expression on my face as I made this Buffalo. My sketch tonight was going to be something entirely different, then I tried something else which I didn't like, then by the time I came up with this I was way too frustrated and tired....but it was a fun way to play with shapes!
Just wanted to try a different approach using vector art. Sloppy pointalism/realism/cartoonish/blah.
A little known cousin of the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. Every animal will have its defense if corned ya know.
Tonight I went to a book signing of a former instructor and friend Leuyen Pham, who is a very talented illustrator. She started out as an artist at Dreamworks and now works as a freelance children's book illustrator. Check out her stuff here. So anyways for her latest project, she teamed up with actress Julianne Moore to create two children's books titled Freckleface Strawberry and Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully. Julianne was there too to do a reading of the book and along with Leuyen did a book signing afterward. Both are very nice people and I'm very happy for their successes.
Well I did this quick gesture sketch for an Ostrich painting, and ended up liking it. So yeah....maybe later I'll do a "complete" painting.
There's said to be hierarchy amongst Emperor Penguins, one that all the others follow, but no one wants to follow you when you're a inconsiderate smart ass.
I thought it was time I throw back in some of my cartoon friends using Flash.
Looking similar to dogs, hyenas are more closely related to cats. As the human population continues to grow on Earth, in Africa they come into more contact with them. The Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania actually leave their dead to hyenas.
Here's one of my early successes in digital painting when I was starting out with it. I've learned a lot and have come a long with it, but sometimes it's nice to look back and see what's worked along the way too.
