Sketch Group

Dropped by the sketch group today after teaching class, was really burnt from working all day but I managed to knock out this sketch in about 1/2 an hour. Pretty happy with how it turned out and I might flesh it out more this week.

UNUSED IDEAS

Every artist has worked for a company where they were super excited at the project and then it either gets canceled or goes in a totally different direction. This has happened to me numerous times so I am not a stranger to it. Here is such a case, below are some cover comps that I did a few years ago for ZOOM comics for their Disney line. Unfortunately, I did not get any further than the stages you see below.


Finally, the good thing about having an annual zoo pass is being able to go anytime of the week. Today while doing errands I decided to stop by and do some sketching, maybe for just an hour. I was fortunate that I went today because the rhino was actual out and about. I took some shots and got in some really good study time. It was rather warm today but like the animals I stuck to the shade and tried to stay cool while drawing. Good times.

First hour of sketching.


I was about to head out, but decided to turn around and look for the rhino, thankfully listening to my gut proved rewarding. Second hour of drawing.


Also, the dang hippo wasn't in the water for the first time...amazing!

STUDY TIME

I went to the Page Museum today with some students. It was an impromptu field trip but a lot of fun. I forgot how liberating and satisfying it is to draw from life. Getting away from the computer screen is something we tend to forget to do but so vital. I was happy to see a lot of my students drawing on paper instead of staring at a computer screen which is something we all do day in and day out.

I cannot wait to do this again and hope my students start to venture out more, part of art is experiencing life and getting out there but with technology these days we end up chained to a computer desk. Rise up and fight the chains, go out and draw, have fun, get some sunlight and hang out with friends. You need this balance in your artistic life so you do not burn out.

Anyways, enough ranting, here are my sketches from the day, all from life on location.

HARRY LOVES LISA

Last year I worked on character designs and storyboards for a pitch project. The project was TVLAND's Harry Loves Lisa. and the pitch was for the show intro. It was going to be animated similar to the old Bewitched or I Dream of Genie intros. Unfortunately, the company I worked for didn't get the project, not to be biased but I think it would have rocked.

Anyways, here are the sketches and final designs and boards I knocked out during my 4 days of work at the company.

Here are the initial sketches showing my first take on Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna. I started looking at clips from the show to get their different expressions, I then took screen caps and started to do quick studies.




This is a size comparison chart, I was working on them separately so I had to make sure I was understanding the right scale between them.

These are the final character sheets showing size comparison and expressions all completed in Photoshop. They wanted a night and day shot so I did a quick background behind the characters just to add some mood.


Lastly, these were the boards for the intro showing Harry, Lisa, their kids and dog. I always enjoy working on these projects, its different and it is a blast working on Hollywood types!

Thanks for looking.

SPIKE DEADLIEST WARRIOR PROMO 1

Last year I was asked to do some storyboarding for a series of promotional commercials for Spike TV's Deadliest Warrior. Here are my storyboards for the 1st promo. I did a ton of drawings for this spot and there are 2 more sequences I will put together and post later on. For now, you can check out the boards I did below.



And here is the actual promo that aired on TV. They stuck pretty close to my boards which is always cool.

There was one sequence where the German guy had a flame thrower and shot flame towards camera but to safety issues it was scrapped...bummer.

VAMPIRE ILLUSTRATIONS

So before my trip to China last year I was asked to do some illustrations with a super fast turnaround. I basically had about 3 days for 2 full color illustrations. These types of jobs are the most stressful to do but they are also fun because of that time challenge. The genre was also another challenge, Vampires. Now if you have visited my blog regularly you will notice how most of my art work is very lighthearted and whimsical so stepping into a darker genre is always a welcomed experienced.

As an artist, you have your voice, your own art that you love to do and it keeps that passion alive so that you keep pushing forward year after year wanting to make new and better art. However, there are also bills to pay and to be successful in that world you almost have to be a chameleon and have the ability to change for the needs of a client.

Anyways, without further adieu here are the 2 illustrations I did for the Role Playing Book: Danse Macabre for White Wolf Publishing.


Images below copyright 2011 White Wolf Publishing


First one is titled Atrocity:


This one was titled Apocolypse:

Thanks for looking, more to come!

MEGA MAN TRIBUTE AND PROCESS SHOTS

EDIT*****

Piece was chosen and will be in the Tribute Book that will be on sale at the San Diego Comicon this summer.



This was my submission for the Mega Man Tribute art book that is coming out at this year's Comicon. Unfortunately, my piece was not chosen for the book which is cool because that means I can finally post it on my blog. I completed this piece back in January and it took me about 3 days from concept to finish.

\Here are some process shots below, on the left is the basic positive and negative shape breakup for my composition. As you can see I am not detailing anything in this phase just trying to create a frenetic feeling.

I scan it into Photoshop and then as you can see on the right I work on the design elements in Photoshop.

Next I print it out and to a final pencil lineart drawing.



Next, I do a quick value block in mainly as a mask to isolate areas to apply different effects to.
Afterward, I do some glazes of color on the image, similar to traditional media. Once I have the local colors in place I figure out where out my major light sources are coming from so I can be consistent with my lighting scenarios.

This is followed by some finer rendering. I started with traces 0f Mega Man and worked my way down to the other characters.


Enjoy, Ill post more soon.

-Patrick