Take An Online Summer Class With Me!

Hey everyone, I will be back again at CGMA teaching Dynamic Sketching 1! If you are interested in taking this class with me then you should now registration for summer session is officially open so grab your seats while they are still hot! Here is the registration link so sign up now.

Also, here are some demos from my class this term.

Looking forward to meeting some of you in class!


Best,
Patrick

My visit to the Boys and Girls Club

Last week Kevin Staniec and I did a presentation and book signing for the Boys and Girls Club of Laguna Beach. We talked about the process of creating stories and how we made How To Catch A Cloud. It was a ton of fun and I ended up doing a drawing demo for the kids. Afterwards, some of the coordinators told us a few of the kids were writing stories and drawing comic book frames. That is total inspiration for me! Here are a few photos from the event.

We asked the kids for a few key words and premise for the demo. The words they gave me were giraffe, cop, and ferrari and the cop was stopping the giraffe from getting a ferrari. I had never drawn a ferrari before so I had to look it up real quick for reference, it ended up looking like a porsche but hey, they enjoyed it nonetheless......lol! Here is the demo I did for them.

Makeup Sketch Friday

I messed up and missed sketch Friday...what a bonehead move. To make up for it here I'm including the sketch I intended the post as well as a few creature design demos I completed for my students last week.

Here is the belated Sketch Friday sketch.

Take a look at these creature sketches to make up for missing a post.

When drawing creatures from your imagination you may not understand its entire anatomy and structure because you're just trying to make something look cool. How do you make it feel believable without breaking down and getting caught up with every tiny bone and muscle? All of these creatures started out as ball point pen sketches, each one no bigger than 2"x3". I decided to do a painting demo for my students focusing on how to break things down into simple forms so that it's easier to understand and paint in the form. Here are a handful of close-ups:

Remember, when all else fails, just make things easier on yourself and keep it simple.

Spacing Out

This a demo I created for students during one of my classes. We were using a random character generator to come up with ideas and the one that popped up for me was something along the lines of...

One-Eyed, Space Monkey with Bus

I created a back story that a Russian, monkey-cosmonaut was trapped in a derelict space station for years and is called upon to help save the world. An accident caused nukes on the space station to countdown for a launch toward major U. S. cities. So other space monkeys trapped in the station are then released to help Ivan seek and disarm the nukes.

Random I know but it helped me to create the image.

DEMOS AND SKETCHES

Some of these are demos that I give to my students in class; others are just studies and sketches that I do when I get a chance to flee my cave.

THE TURN

Doing turnarounds is a real pain in the butt, however, it is part of the production process wether it be for animation or gaming. Everyone I know hates doing them and most teachers I have met hate teaching it. As a teacher I always try to pass things down to my students that I wish I had been told in school so instead of avoiding it I integrate it into my class curriculum. Every term I ask the students to take one of their characters and do a 5-point turnaround. Nowadays for games and animation most orthographies (turnarounds) can be pretty simple because of how good the 3D artists have become.

Nevertheless, what I tell my students is that if you can visualize your character in ever angle possible and are able to communicate that idea clearly to the next person in production, that makes you a more effective designer. Also, if you can do a 5-point turnaround a 3-point is cakewalk.

Below are turnaround demos from my class, the second one has some notes that I gave my students and hopefully will benefit some of you out there.

Best of luck.

By the way, I demo the turnaround 4 times a year and I still don't like doing it....lol.

GHOSTBUSTERS WINSTON TAKE 2

So this is a demo I did for my students on costume design.

I did a version in class but wasn't feeling it so I went home and redid the costume after putting a little bit more thought to it. I also had some time to put some reference together for it here:

The above images were taken from Air and Space Museum in D.C. The main feel I was going for this guy was blue collared worker on break from a long shift. Most of my reference was from pilot jumpsuits and I added in another mix of cut lines from some Scandinavian outfits. When getting reference I try not to jump around too much because then my designs start to feel too piecy and not cohesive. So this design was  about 80% flight suits with 20% Scandinavian costume design. 

FINAL IMAGE

NOTES FOR MY STUDENTS

I will most likely do another costume pass on this, still not fully satisfied with it but artists never are...picky buggers!

-Patrick

SLACKING

I just wanted to let you all know I will be in a group art show in Fullerton on July 7th. It is a tribute and contemporary take on Norman Rockwell classics. Here is the info:

Thursday, July 7 . 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Muckenthaler Cultural Center
1201 West Malvern Avenue, Fullerton, CA 92833

AMERICAN NOSTALGIA
Contemporary Artists and Illustrators Reinterpret the Traditional Themes of Norman Rockwell.

More than thirty years after his death, iconic American artist Norman Rockwell’s art is still enormously popular. This invitational group exhibition examines the enduring themes represented in the art of Norman Rockwell–patriotism, family and the American ideal–through the works of 40 contemporary artists and illustrators.

For more information please visit www.ismcommunity.org/americannostalgia

Here is a sneak peak at one of the pieces I will have in the show:

Sorry I can;t show more, but if you want to see the whole thing come to the show and not only will you see mine but a ton of other wonderful art!

Lastly, here is a mini art dump of some sketches and demos this term.

Long Beach Aquarium

Travel Town



Creature demo for class-underwater creature that patrols Atlantis



Initial phase of character demo-Don Quijote redesign.
I plan on taking another pass on these before color.



Hopefully that makes up for the absence enjoy and come to the show!
Remember to RSVP on the link above!

COLOR DEMOS

Been super busy with work and freelance, managed to do a quick character concept tonight, its actually a paintover for one of my students but I just really pushed it closer to something more finished. In these color demos the main thing I am trying to do is create colors that support the design and feel I am trying to communicate to the viewers. Hopefully it worked.

Wicked Witch


Disgruntled Knight.


Time for sleep but more to come.

And dang it is super windy today in California!

Evil Step Mother

Or something like that, this was classroom demo on lighting and setting up your value patterns. I will probably add color to it next but I just wanted to make sure my values work first. I do not always do a black and white render first, but this approach helps me to resolve my design before I add the finishing touches of color.

In case you were wondering, so far I have spent about of 2-3 hours on this. That includes the lineart phase of it as well.

I will try and post more soon, however, I have been really busy with a lot of freelance as of late. As they say when it rains it pours. Takes away time from posting but its good so I can pay bills and have internet!