Mariachi-Dachi, and BATTLECATTLE

figured i'd post something and breathe some fresh life into the blog.


all content, ideas, and secret projects slightly revealed are © ME. (previous sentence typed mostly so i can sleep tonight. easy to get paranoid over stuff like that for me.. heh..)
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so. i took this ridiculously sweet comic book appreciation class taught by Jared Greenleaf. i swear he was like Morpheus, chucking red pills all over the place.. GOOD stuff. can't get enough of it now..

here's a style test for a potential 10pg short story comic (for my BFA project) of a Mariachi Band stuck in Ancient Japan.
i already have 6 pages roughed out, and almost ready to ink/color... just need to do some more research and development stuff..

for the moment, i'm calling it "Mariachi-Dachi."





next up is what i promised to show last post.. the more i think/talk about this, the more excited i get (even toying with the idea of doing this first instead of Mariachi-Dachi.)

SO. what do you get when you throw extraterrestrial encounters, forged WEAPONS, and irritable livestock together with a dash of He-man, and a LARGE helping of REVENGE?? there's only one possible answer, and that answer is BATTLECATTLE.


to be epically and VENGEFULLY continued...

*edit - i googled "battlecattle" the other night, and found out that a card game already exists with the same name (though it has a space between "battle" and "cattle") and the vision and content is COMPLETELY different. on this site
they even use the text "moo-ve" written and hyphenated like i did in my background.. i honestly thought i had been copied, and freaked out for a second. haha... obviously they have a WEBSITE, and didn't create all the content they have over night. that would just be ridiculous. just figured i'd document this, so nobody thinks i'm ripping THEM off. i honestly had never heard of the card game before.

BATTLECATTLE came from an inability i had trying to design this cow, shown in this post
to get the juices flowing and expel my frustration, i just started sketching hardcore cow stuff - and battlecattle was born. also, Stephanie saw/named the sketch the same day i drew it, and i thought the name was just too awesome to pass up.


also, here's a good 20pg sketch dump from my 60pg sketch book i did while taking Ryan Woodward's most excellent gesture drawing class. things got kind of tricky with a couple weeks left of class, since i was offered (and TOOK) an internship opportunity with Disney Interactive/Avalanche studios as a concept artist (started June 1st). Too many awesome guys over there... LOTS to learn, and having FUN!

so yeah. here's some of my favorites that i'm thinking about painting up or something..























so there you go. more stuff on the way.
also, you guys prefer daily updates? or rather prefer me doing nothing for MONTHS and then sporadically dump pictures into the blog? or some kind of balance in between? it's easy for me to get frustrated with doods i'm stalking online when they don't update stuff, so i thought i'd check in with a you guys and get some feedback. (leaning towards a daily or weekly thing myself..)

up next, that other stuff i said i was gonna post but didn't - plus some stuff i didn't say i wouldn't post, but will.

kay bye.

more stuff

lots a pitchaz.... finally getting some of this up here, just barely getting other stuff up here. will get around to getting more stuff up later. deal? deal.

ALSO - in case you haven't noticed, i sort of recently made one of those fancy portfolio site thingies... got a link to the right, or you can click these conveniently hyper-linked words i'm typing in this sentence. gonna make some little changes, like having some cool kinda welcome image, and stuff.. but still open to any feedback if you feel the need to give any. thanks!!

now picture time.
first up, characters from character design class (taught by this really cool guy). FUN!! the character line-up was for my final.
i designed characters based off their descriptions in Sky Island... except the crab dude, he's totally made up.

"Tiny Trot"

"Cap'n Bill Wheedles"

"Button Bright"

and lastly, "The Crab-Mobile"

also decided i'd finally post more stuff i did for work

these were my favorites from a scottish family history course i did. already posted the course cover in this post.





stuff's changed, and now we no longer put the lesson titles and all that good stuff in our images (except course covers, hurray!!)... which is cool... but i kinda still miss it. anyways, here's some of my favorites of this leadership psychology course. ended up liking quite a few... heh.

and i should do a little back story with the follwoing two images: originally, i thought it would be cool if a bunch of people at an office were pretending to be in Lord of the Rings-esque situations using office supplies and stuff to display leadership. an example below is what i had in mind.



i had all sorts of stuff planned out, with like, camping out in the cafeteria... battling the copy machine, and stuff.. and mind you, all this epic LOTR stuff would be happening in their imagination. the idea was enjoyed by all.... and then the instructor who teaches the course shot it down. so i had to tone everything down, but it was still lots of fun coming up with other solutions..









stay tuned for the BOWLING COURSE i just did. only satisfied with like, 2 or 3 images, so that's all you'll get outta me.

also making an appearance in my next post will be................ BATTLECATTLE. seriously, BATTLECATTLE! i scanned him, he's on my computer, and soon. SOON, you shall see him in all his battle cattle GLORY!!! i'm so excited, i don't even care if you're not. the end.

kay bye.

what the comic books???

----questionnaire for graphic novel appreciation class i'm taking at BYU-----

1. Outside of school and your comics, have you written any fiction or non-fiction? Do you like to read prose fiction or non-fiction?

I've written down lots of ideas/concepts for fiction... maybe a little bit of non-fiction. I'd have to look, but it’s mostly fiction.

Prose fiction is usually where it's at for me, but I've read some pretty sweet non-fiction as well.

2. Would you say you have a good awareness of the history of American comics?

Sort of. I know a few of the major players, and am somewhat familiar with style changes and history, but when it comes down to it - not really.

3. Off the top of your head, could you name 5 artists who worked in comics before 1980? Do you have a favorite?

I could probably, but it’s kinda hard... I’m quite partial to Winsor McKay(sp?) only because I played the NES videogame based on his comic growing up (Little Nemo: Dream Master)

4. Could you name 5 artists who work or worked in newspaper comics?

Nope, but I could totally name a bunch of newspaper comics I like.

5. Could you name any contemporary cartoonists from Europe? Do you have a favorite?

A few. Fabian Schlaga is my favorite.. he’s mostly been a colorist on more indie-type stuff, but he’s one of my favorites.

6. Could you name any contemporary manga artists from Japan? Do you have a favorite?

Totally can. My favorite at the moment is between Eichira Oda and Masashi Kishimoto.. (this is excluding Akira Toriyama, even though I think he’s recently done some work)

7. Do you read European comics?

Mmmmm... not really. I know OF European comics, and comic people who are European, and am familiar with some of their work, but don't really read any of it. Sorry European comics.

8. Do you read any manga?

I used too... I’ve been meaning to catch up on Naruto for about a year.

9. Do you regularly draw in a sketchbook or write in a journal?

Yes on the sketchbook, no on the journal. I mostly just take quick notes off and on instead, but I guess that still counts as a journal… so yes on that too, sorta.

10. Would you say you have a good working ability to drawing with brush and ink? If so, how long have you used a brush? What types?

I would. I started playing with watercolors in high school, and once I came to BYU I was able to experiment with bristle and synthetic brushes for oil, acrylic, and gouache. I’ve started to experiment more with niji, and pentel brush pens just because they seem more practical to me.

11. Which magazines or websites do you regularly read in order to get comics news?

Word of finger from professionals I blog-stalk, and follow through deviantart.

12. Which magazines or websites do you regularly read in order to get news of current events?

I don't. Occasionally I'll run into current events accidentally through hap-hazard internet surfing. Sometimes I'll feel guilty about how ignorant I am of current events, and will then browse the links provided by my firefox internet browser.

13. Do you go to comic book conventions or festivals? If so--which ones?

Nope. I was planning to go to the San Diego comic con not too long ago, but I let some things (school) get in the way.

14. Have you ever sat through a portfolio review with a professional editor? If so, could you briefly sum up their message for you?

I’m pretty sure I haven’t.

15. Have you ever had your work published? If so, where?

Yes. A highschool newspaper, The Daily Chronicle, Deadmen Tell No Tales (issue3,) Forever Famicom album cover. I think that’s it.

16. How long have you been drawing?

Since before I started kindergarten.

17. Do you like to go to museums? Do you have any favorite "fine" artists, either living or dead? Film directors?

I like going to cool museums... Can’t think of any “fine” artists off the top of my head that I’m really into, but I definitely appreciate cool fine art when I see it. Favorite film directors = Stephen Chow, Guy Ritchie, Guillermo del Toro, and a few others I can’t think of at the moment.

18. Would you think it could be useful or beneficial to watch a film or films as a group and discuss it afterwards as it may relate to comics? Do you have a recommendation for such a film?

I would. Comics influence movies, movies influence comics. It makes sense. I also think there's a lot of similar story telling devices they both share. I don’t have any specific recommendations, but it might be interesting to watch clips of films that were based on comics and analyze if/why they were successful or not.

19. What ethnographic background do you have and how confident are you in acting as an expert of resource of that background?

I grew up in a predominantly white suburban residential area in South Jordan, Utah, so I like to think I’m somewhat of an expert on that kind of background. I also served a mission in the north of France and southern Belgium, so I’m a little familiar with the cultures going on over there among other things.

20. What comic or book or movie have you read/seen at least 5 times? And 10 times?

5 = (comic) Sharknife, Peng! (book)Maniac Magee (movie)Scott Pilgrim, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Kung Fu Panda, Time Bandits, Goonies, The Last Starfighter, the first live-action ninja turtle’s movie, Home Alone… I think I’ll stop there.

10=(comic) Dragonball, Naruto, Hellboy (book)ummm… don’t think I’ve got any (movie)ummm… probably Monty Python and the Holy Grail (after so many sleepovers, it adds up), and maybe Shaolin Soccer.

I drew JACK (as in "and the Beanstalk")

i should have drawn a picture of Jack squatting, just as a special tribute for that idiom.. but i digress.

HERE is a bunch of concept art i've been doing in a sweet class, taught by the one and only Jake Parker (who also happens to be THE man, and all around awesome drawer of stuff) where we're basically redesigning Jack and The Beanstalk. We have a huge list of characters, props, environments, story moments and stuff that we choose from, and take them all through quick passes to final.

so WATCH as the quality of these designs go from better to worse, as i am posting them grouped, but in reverse chronological order. lots of fun.

first up, Jack. prop is one of the Giant's butter-knives i thought would be cool for him to use as a huge sword.

just figuring out some props to go with Jack





The Giant






The Village (jack's house is WAY in the back on the hill as it starts to slope down)



Jack about to climb the beanstalk, leaving home for the first time




Jack's House






The Beanstalk (missing a few steps on this one... I'll scan them in and update later)



Jack's room




The Cow(will update steps leading up to cow later..)