X.R.SYZiz

mannnnnnnn....  that whole christmas/new year's break was pretty awesome, wasn't it!!?  i could toooootally go for another one.  like, right now.

anyway - here are some exercises from work.  first one, we were given a photo of a (somewhat) mad scientist and were supposed to just go wherever the photo took us.  second one was to create some heavy duty mech or vehicle from a household appliance OR create a heavy duty household appliance.  i call this one, "the j0nny"  heh heh..

i've always wondered why it seems like the life of my drawings get sucked out of them as soon i start trying to paint them, and about a little less than a year ago i think i finally figured it out.  just felt like blogging it for whatever random reason just now..  here we go:

design bias or design hierarchy. (it's called design "bias" because, we all like and are bias towards different things - and are bias of different things at different times.  think of it as having a hierarchy of things you value most in making a particular picture at a particular time.)

like life, you can't do/have EVERYTHING all at once.  and who really wants EVERYTHING?..  think about how cluttered and awful your life would be.  you've gotta find your purpose/goals, prioritize your desires, and decide which things you like doing (and the things you don't) will get you where you want to be.  your bias can change depending on the need.  it's fine.

if i don't make a clear decision, all kinds of design principles might sneak in and compete with each other for being the most important thing...  and i might not even like which one ends up winning...  i might even HATE it.

so in these exercises, i was also balancing what i love doing with other things i like to do, but down-play ones that compete so i don't ruin my picture (in my eyes.)  in my case, i like to let my lines do the talking instead of the paint - too much paint (or even color/value for that matter) overpowers the lines and makes them less important.....  BUT THAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART FOR ME!!  no matter how awesome you're lineweight, or gesture, or sketchy... whatever.  as soon as the value/color/rendering of your image starts going up, your lines start to take a back seat.  if you're cool with that - DO IT.  it's kinda fun thinking about who you want to win in a design principles sanctioned street fight.  form vs. shape...  line vs. color..  value vs. story?? and color could really go up against form or shape or anybody else.  you've just gotta decide which one you're bias towards so you can help throw the match, rig the fight, and be happy with who wins.  think about how dumb cheering equally for two teams playing against each other is. 

i almost just typed that CONTRAST was the same thing, but now that i think about it..   BIAS helps me think about what i want happening, and what i like vs. what i'm down playing..  so  for now, in my mind...  contrast is really just how two fighters relate being placed next to each other, and bias is deciding how the fight goes between them rather than just letting it happen.
[/thinking]

hope your holidays were as awesome as mine!  what's up 2012?  how you been??  you can totally hang out with me.  i think we're gonna be pretty awesome friends.  i've got skyward sword at my house whenever you wanna come by and play.  promise.

more things i did

so...  the titles i'm coming up with for these blog posts keep getting more and more creative...  i'm okay with that.. heh. 

anyway.  finals are done, and it's time to take a break kind of.  been painting a lot, and i think it's finally starting to show.  random sketches and maybe a sneak peak of some mariachi-dachi character designs on the way.  soon as 2012 hits, gotta start cranking on that project...  estimated (what's left of) existing social interaction should drop by a large percentage.  finished comic book = i graduate from school.  who woulda thought... 

here's some stuff i did this semester..  starting with my two favorite plein air gouache paintings for some class..

 

 

 

really had fun with this last one..  when back to my dragonball roots a little - felt really good.  wouldn't take much to turn that giant into krillin.  

Troll Mantis

so.  here's a 30 - 45 minute exercise from work.
norwegian troll + some kind of animal, but still in that norwegian-esque style.  i picked praying mantis.. kinda fun! first couple attempts were awful though..  heh.

so...  two posts almost back to back!??  I'M ON FIRE!!! 


ps - speaking of things half something/half MANTIS...  you should check out MAN MANTIS.  unless you don't like cool music.  then don't.  no pressure.  i love saying this guy's name, by the way...  i mean come on.  MAN MANTIS!! heh.


while on the subject of music...  apparently there's this POLISH version of nujabes, CHANGING. PEOPLE'S. LIVES.  one song at a time.  KONDOR...  love this guy's stuff.
kay, i'm done.
...for now.

gallery stuff and squiggles

 

 so, i'm taking this plein air class right?  we're painting the provo tabernacle next to Window Box Gallery, right?  One thing led to another, and now we're all in part of this show there, and the opening social will be  during the Friday Night Gallery Stroll, December 2, 2011 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.  you can come if you want.  you can also by my picture if you want...  cause it'll be for sale.  cool huh?

 

also, for the same class, now that it's getting kinda too cold to be painting outside, we're doing stuff based on some of the studies we did.  you''ll notice that part of downtown provo is making a cameo in this one.  also, i'm ripping off the white mage a little (kind of a lot actually..) cause i think it would make for a sweet hoodie design.. heh.

 also, here are some results from playing "squiggles."  squiggles is where you get somebody to make some crazy line on your paper, without the line crossing over itself (because then it becomes a "scribble"..  and i wasn't playing "scribbles") and then you turn it into something.  i like to add the extra challenge of asking them if they want me to do a human, animal, environment or vehicle...  just so i don't go for the easiest solution.  pretty fun stuff.

 and here's me playing squiggles with myself, where i'll just lightly kinda do some random squiggles/lines without any purpose, until i can see something cool... and then i go for it.

 so yeah..  inktober didn't really happen for me..  but i'm okay with that.  been trying to juggle homework, work, freelance work, and graduating all at the same time... next year man.  next year.

remember Mariachi-Dachi???  well i certainly do.  i've now got a solid script in the works (my brother Kyle's been helping me out a lot with it too!!) - almost done actually.  got the mariachi band all figured out, the main bad guy, and some side characters.  i may put up some of the designs later, but once i start knocking out panels beginning of january, i'll let you in on some sneak peeks before it all gets finished/printed, and i graduate, and disappear from the internet forever, or something like that.  or something completely opposite like that.  whatevs.

BIC DOODLZ

computer died (again...) two and a half weeks and almost $300 later, we're back in business!!

speaking of business, i've been happily doodling at work/school/wherever else i can when i'm stuck in a room with someone else talking, with my weapon of choice (the bic pen.)

speaking of bic pens, did you know that most english speaking countries (including australia) call bics biros??  it's true.  turns out some french dude (bich) bought the patent from some hungarian dude (biro - who i believe was moved from his native country to escape religious persecution with his brother) when he saw the pen in argentina, and later started selling them in america.


speaking of... america?  it's already 12 days since INKTOBER started....  all over the world actually.
gotta play catch up, and bust out some INK and some TOBER.  you'll see...  TOMORROW.

Forever Famicom DLC 2

SO.  Forever Famicom DLC 2 is available to stream/download as of TODAY!!  love it. 
figured it was cool to post the stuff i had the opportunity to work on for the project. 

digital cover

dvd cover 

(the idea was to make it look like a some megaman video game box.  particular used this one as inspiration.)

dvd insert

 (in physical dvd, it has the liner notes - thankyou's and credits)

poster

(low-res version.  if you want it bigger, gonna have to buy one)

some of the original sketches

and while i'm showing you sketches that will probably never be used/see the light of day again, for a second i was going to be doing the covers for the Japan releases of Forever Famicom too, but the label decided to go with a different artist in the end.  that's just how the game is played - no hurt feelings.  so here's some sketches for that.

they wanted more... cutesy 8-bit stuff, which i definitely tried.  but i also thought i'd throw a classic RPG fight kinda thing at them to see if they'd bite. heh..

anyway - always a pleasure to work with K-Murdock and Random.  I think we're all like minded enough, at least when it comes to video games, that they trust me to just kinda do my thing - so thanks guys!

SWEEP THE LEG!!

  
so.  blog posts.  happening more often.  see??  i have a plan to start doing this at least weekly, but i'm slowly working my way into it.  you'll see.  anyways, here's me finally getting around to posting probably the last thing i'll ever do for BYU IS.  i haven't been working there for the past 3 months (kinda miss it,) and instead interning over at Avalanche in SLC (learning A LOT, having fun.)  more on that later, perhaps.  picture time!

 

totally ripped off "The Karate Kid" for the course cover

intro to physics

lesson 1: newton's 3rd law

lesson 2: kinematic motion

lesson 3: linear motion

lesson 4: circular motion

lesson 5: power and energy

lesson 6: momentum

lesson 7: thermodynamics (originally i had a guy shooting a hadouken..  which didn't make the cut for some reason... heh)

also, here's what i'm comfortable with showing you of the hideously fast and awful job i did on a bowling course just before the physics one.  couldn't help blatently throwing in some big lebowski characters..  just seemed like the right thing to do.  thanks John Goodman and Jeff Bridges, i couldn't have done it without you.