Art of Zachary Knoles - Blog

Moving Day, 2010 Edition

2010-01-01T17:41:00.001-08:00

Happy new year! It's 2010, a new year, and I've got a new design and a new blog. This blog will remain up as an archive, but for everything new, please redirect your browser (or RSS reader, or iPhone, or virtual reality chip) to:

www.artofzacharyknoles.com

The Antitype (Xenogears)

2009-12-12T18:04:00.001-08:00

New painting, a piece of Xenogears fan art, if anyone out there remembers that game.

There's also a sort of sappy personal story behind this, if you'll permit me.

This is a special painting for me, because it was the one that got me back into doing traditional painting. I started working on this one about a year ago, at the end of 2008. Now, since then, I've actually managed to finish a bunch of other traditional paintings before this one, but before I started this, pretty much all of my work was purely digital. Before this piece, the last time I'd done any traditional painting was 2005.

It didn't occur to me how much I missed painting until I saw, of all things, a post on Penny Arcade showcasing some paintings that Gabe had started doing. The paintings themselves were pretty great, but he also wrote this in his post:

This latest piece is the first in a series I plan on doing based on my favorite games. I sat down and made a list yesterday of all the games I've really loved over the years and I plan on trying to do paintings based on as many of them as I can. The list has stuff like Zelda, Rez, Kingdom Hearts and Bioshock on it, plus lots more.

Strange as it seems, that's what inspired me. Just the whole idea of painting something fun. Somehow, in the previous three years, I'd been so serious when it came to making art (anyone who's been through art school maybe knows what I'm talking about) that it didn't occur to me that I was allowed to have fun.

And so I started this painting. And now a year and five other paintings later, it's finally finished.

Here's hoping I can keep it up.

December 2nd Watercolors, Part 2

2009-12-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

The remaining four paintings from last week's life drawing set. Sketched in pencil during the live poses, then finished in watercolor later at home. Originals available for purchase.

Cogswell Dec 2

2009-12-07T17:28:00.000-08:00

Last week was the last Cogswell session of 2009, and one of the better sets I've had in a while. Below are the five best sketches of the night, each one a 2-min or 5-min pose. Each of these is also available for purchase at my Etsy store.

I've also got another four as well, that only got as far as pencil drawings during the session, and I've been working on these at home. I'll post them later in the week when they're all finished.

In the meantime, enjoy!

More Original Watercolors

2009-12-03T12:37:00.000-08:00

More original art from recent life drawing sessions. Enjoy.

(click here to buy the original)

(click here to buy the original)

(click here to buy the original)

Crimson Dress Timelapse

2009-11-23T11:34:00.001-08:00

Another timelapse film, from the latest painting. Enjoy!

Illustration & Design

2009-11-18T22:48:00.001-08:00

With the focus of this site shifting increasingly in the direction of the fine arts, I've been needing a new place for all of my actual production work. Well, today my professional portfolio finally has a proper home with the completion of my new portfolio site, Zachary Knoles Illustration & Design.

Over there, you'll find my professional art: illustration, backgrounds, design, storyboards, etc. Back over here will be my personal work: paintings, short films, and this blog. Maybe it seems like an arbitrary division, to split my work thusly into two sites. But there is a reason. With one site now clearly marked as "the portfolio," the other one can be used for whatever I want. I find that freedom comforting.

Woman in the Crimson Red Dress

2009-11-11T09:22:00.001-08:00

Latest painting. Was going for something like that old pulp paperback cover feel. Or something like that.

You can actually see the original thumbnail for this one way back in this post, second from the right. The pose changed along the way, that thumbnail was just for the colors. Sometimes that's all it takes, for me to want to take something to a finish.

Teal Nude Timelapse Video

2009-11-09T11:58:00.001-08:00

I mentioned a couple weeks ago when I posted my latest painting that I'd been shooting timelapse footage of my painting process. I'm happy to say the footage did not come out terrible, and in fact looks pretty great.

You can see the finished painting here.

Total painting time was about 19 hours. The footage was shot with a Canon PowerShot A570 IS running CHDK firmware, using Ultra Intervalometer to take a picture about every five seconds. The unedited footage ran almost nine minutes, so I actually had to speed up the footage even further to bring it down to the four minutes it is now. In this final version, each second represents a little less than five minutes of painting time.

Also, my goodness, I have terrible posture.

Original Art for Sale

2009-11-06T10:34:00.000-08:00

I have an announcement! I'm putting several of my original pieces up for sale on Etsy. Ten watercolor paintings from recent life drawing sessions are available in the store right now. Some of them are the ones I posted in the blog last week, and some of them are on view below. If you've ever wanted to own an original piece of artwork by me, now's your chance.

You can visit my store at this link:
zacharyknoles.etsy.com

Five of the pieces available for sale:

(click here to buy the original)

(click here to buy the original)

(click here to buy the original)

(click here to buy the original)

(click here to buy the original)

Speed Drawing

2009-10-26T17:52:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things about Cogswell's life drawing sessions are the short poses. At Cogswell, five minutes is considered a long pose. The warm-ups are ten-second poses. Ten seconds. I've never been at another drawing session that does it this way, but it's great. When the models know they won't have to hold a pose for very long, they all seem much more willing to give us more difficult poses. And with less time, our pencils get looser, and our drawings get better.

That's the idea, at least. It doesn't happen that way all the time, and sometimes it makes me feel utterly exhausted to draw that fast for three hours straight. But more often than not I get some real gems out of these sessions, and even when I don't, it's more fun this way.

Some of my favorites from my last two sessions:

Teal Nude

2009-10-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

New painting, acrylic on canvas panel, 11"x14".

I'm doing a bit of a fun experiment. For the last couple paintings, I've been shooting timelapse photos of my painting sessions, with the intention of being able to show the entire process of how I make a painting. Also so that I might look back at what I did and learn from it.

This one here is the first painting where I've recorded the entire process from beginning to end (I have footage for other paintings, but they all start at some point in the middle).

So hopefully I'll be posting a timelapse video of this painting soon, provided the footage didn't come out terrible!

Bye-Bye Bin Laden in the Mercury News

2009-10-24T11:05:00.001-07:00

Our film got a nice write-up in the Mercury News last week. The full article is online at the Mercury News website.

Roll Initiative

2009-10-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

The last several posts are the result of a new system of warm-up exercises, which I shamefully stole from my fellow artist Geoffrey Stone. It's very simple. First you start with a list. Fill it with all manner of drawing exercises. Assign each one a number, one through however many you have. Then, when it's time for your warm-up exercise, take your list, look over it very carefully, and roll the dice.

Whatever the dice say, that's your exercise. Now go do it.

I love this system. For me, the worst part of having lists like these is actually picking one. Making a decision always feels like such an investment, like there are so many choices, I'd better have a good reason for picking this one over the others. Most of the time I end up not doing any of them. But now that's not a problem. The dice make my decision for me.

My list is below, for anyone who's curious. (Extra nerdy detail: some of these also have secondary rolls from other lists, and one of them even requires me to roll again from the same list. Yes I do enjoy this a little too much.)

DRAWING EXERCISES
(roll D12)

1 - SKETCH OUTDOORS FROM LIFE
2 - NOIR SKETCHES
3 - COSTUME REFERENCE
4 - FIGURE SKETCHES FROM REFERENCE
5 - FIGURE SKETCHES FROM MY HEAD
6 - SELF-PORTRAIT
7 - COLOR SCHEMES
8 - SONG SKETCHES
9 - FAN ART
10 - ARTIST STUDIES
11 - AMBER'S CHOICE
12 - PIXEL ART FREE SKETCH

Nightgown in Three Colors

2009-10-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

Drawn first in ink with a brush pen, then scanned into Photoshop where I added several variations of color.

Pixel Self Portrait

2009-10-23T15:00:00.001-07:00

Pixel Suit

2009-10-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

Not Today

2009-10-19T18:22:00.001-07:00

Grown-up life is harder than I thought

2009-09-30T18:16:00.001-07:00

I buy a lot of books from used bookstores, which means I take a chance on a lot of books I've never heard of. Most of the time I get burned, but every now and then I find something good.

This was how I found Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee, a novel I'd never heard of, and it turned out to be the best novel I've read all year. It's not at all the kind of thing I would normally read, but it's amazing (and, for a 560 page novel, an incredibly fast read). I wish I could easily describe what it's about, but it's an awkward sort of novel to summarize in a compact, elevator pitch description ("sprawling modern day Victorian novel featuring Korean-Americans from all walks of life and every rung of the class ladder, poised at the edge of what-do-we-do-with-our-lives and finding their way in mid-1990s Manhattan" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue).

There's an interview with the author (4 parts on YouTube) that does a much better job of describing the novel than anything I could say. So I'll only add that although the book has nothing to do with being an artist (except possibly for protagonist Casey Han's love of making hats), reading it I somehow felt as if it was describing exactly the same trials and pains and pressures that I feel as an artist.

There are probably other books that do exactly the same thing, but Free Food for Millionaires does it really damn well.

Also while in Seattle...

2009-09-26T23:06:00.000-07:00

...we saw an exhibition of particular artist at the Seattle Art Museum, and attended a certain interactive entertainment themed nerd convention.

Public Market

2009-09-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

My wife and I went to Seattle a couple weeks ago, and I did this sketch from the window of our hotel. (I know, it's what every artist draws in Seattle, this or the Space Needle.) Below is a photo of the same view.

All-Talking, All-Dancing, All-Singing Taliban

2009-09-23T10:40:00.001-07:00

Hey, it looks like Bye-Bye Bin Laden just got a pretty awesome review from KGO Radio's Ronn Owens and film critic Tim Sika, who calls it "the film with an all-talking, all-dancing, all-singing Taliban," which is a better tagline than we could ever come up with.

Check out the audio of the review!

Incidentally, Bye-Bye Bin Laden is out today! Go buy it now on the Cinequest website!

Femme Fatale Animated

2009-07-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

And that wraps it up for all my previously unposted Sketch Noir drawings! Enjoy this quick little animation (done from this initial sketch).

New Noir

2009-07-06T23:21:00.000-07:00

After a hiatus, Sketch Noir is back to being updated. I'll post the rest of what I have over the next week or so until there aren't any left, and then I'll wrap it all up with a short animation of one of the sketches. After that, updates will be more intermittent, whenever I have more drawings to post. Enjoy.

Painting Comps

2009-07-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

Some of these are for the paintings I just posted, while some others are for paintings I haven't done yet. For the last two, I used their color palette in this painting, but I still want to make them each into paintings of their own.

New Paintings

2009-07-03T20:44:00.000-07:00

All found in the new Paintings section, which now replaces the Sketchbook. It didn't really make sense to have a "Sketchbook" section if I've also got a blog, and then it turned out I needed a place for these new paintings. Anyway, everything that was in there can be found somewhere in this blog, so nothing's lost.

I've also got a deviantART gallery up now, so if any of you have dA accounts, you can follow me on there: acebullet.deviantart.com

Bye-Bye Bin Laden

2009-03-24T19:29:00.001-07:00

Bye-Bye Bin Laden, the feature film I worked on last year, is screening this Saturday @ 8:30pm at the South Beach International Animation Festival. If any of you happen to be in Miami and don't mind being reminded that George W. Bush was president for the last eight years, come check it out and let us know what you think.

Kimono preview

2009-01-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

Kimono Color Studies

2008-12-23T23:47:00.001-08:00

Sketch Noir is Live

2008-12-11T22:11:00.000-08:00

Sketch Noir now has its first entry.

The New Design

2008-12-08T01:05:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the newly redesigned Art of Zachary Knoles!

It was finally time to update the old portfolio, time enough, really, that a complete overhaul was in order. And along with the new design comes a new look (and URL) for the blog -- which I promise I will endeavor not to neglect in the coming days/weeks/months.

The old URL (acebullet.blogspot.com) will now be home to Sketch Noir, where I'll be posting a series of black and white sketches and comics along the same line as my original Ace Bullet short. The first entry there will be coming in the next couple of days.

As for this blog, I'm not quite sure, exactly, what I want to use it for (more drawings? more writing? pictures of my cat?) -- I just know I want to post more, and more often. So let's start there and see where it takes us.

SF Animation Festival

2008-11-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

Saw three feature-length independent animated films this weekend at the San Francisco Animation Festival.

This film is an absolute delight and deserves to have the distribution it may never get.

This film is the best Bill Plympton movie yet.

And this is the best animated film of the year.

October Surprise

2008-10-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

She said yes!

Cogswell Session, 7/10

2008-07-15T00:35:00.000-07:00

I finally made it to figure drawing! These last few months have been busy, to say the least. I'm glad I finally have time again -- I've missed this.

Cogswell Session, 4/16

2008-04-17T23:13:00.000-07:00

I don't often make it to these sessions on time (I get off work at exactly the same time the session begins), so I usually miss the warm-up set. At Cogswell, this set is a furious sprint of 10-second poses, followed by slightly longer 20-second poses, and finally a series of luxuriously long (or so they seem) 1-minute poses.

Anyway, this week I made it on time, and I thought the resulting pages made for a pretty interesting visual progression:

Below are also the best of the rest of the session's drawings, featuring about an equal dose of brush and watercolor, as I fitfully attempt to capture this model's unusually stunning poses.

Cogswell Figures and Cafe Sketches

2008-04-12T21:19:00.001-07:00

I've only just this week discovered the wonderful Cafe Borrone in Menlo Park, which, in addition to having great food and lots of people to sketch, also happens to be located between two independent bookstores -- Kepler's Books & Magazines (for your regular book shopping), and Feldman's Books (for your rare/used/out-of-print book needs).

Let's just say I'll be making this a regular stop during my lunch breaks.

Also, drawings from this week's Cogswell session. This time, the model brought a couple of musical instruments and actually played while modeling. First a guitar, and then later an alto saxophone:

Cogswell Session, 4/02

2008-04-03T00:03:00.001-07:00

Figure drawing at Cogswell. For some reason, I insist on painting these little watercolor sketches, even though the longest poses are only five minutes. Halfway through the session, Dave put a light on the model -- I don't know if he was going to anyway, or if he was secretly taking pity on me.

Though, what I really need is a way to instantly dry the page between poses, so that I can start on a new drawing without fear of messing up the previous one!

Cogswell Session, 3/26

2008-03-27T22:40:00.001-07:00

Drawings from yesterday's figure drawing session at Cogswell. Most of these with a Japanese calligraphy brush (1-2 minute poses), and then a couple of watercolors (5 minute poses).

Blue and Yellow

2008-03-23T00:12:00.001-07:00

Nobody will fix me

2008-03-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

This lonely broken utility box dangles from a wire near the telephone pole outside my office. It looks dangerous, but apparently it's been like this for over a year, so I guess it won't start any fires.

Coffee coffee coffee

2008-03-13T00:45:00.000-07:00

Another one today, from a Starbucks.

More BART Sketches

2008-03-11T21:38:00.000-07:00

For a fleeting couple of days, my daily commute was to San Francisco and back. In that time, I did a lot of sketching of people on the train, or people waiting for their trains. Now, sadly, I'm back to a driving commute and have to settle for people in coffee shops (as in the third drawing).

BART People

2008-02-12T19:07:00.001-08:00

Sketches on the BART train.

Green Coat

2008-02-11T00:29:00.001-08:00

Another watercolor sketch from my Stanford visit.

Stanford students

2008-02-08T15:01:00.001-08:00

Sketches of students from a visit to Stanford University, earlier this week. These were drawn with a Japanese calligraphy brush, and then watercolor.

Sepia Watercolors

2008-02-05T21:57:00.000-08:00

A couple recent watercolor sketches:

Halo Dudes

2008-01-10T18:29:00.001-08:00

This started as a speed painting, and then I just kept adding more details.

The source is a Halo 3 screenshot, snapped at just the right moment in the grenade-throwing animation so that it looks like two guys (in full space marine body armor) shouting, "WHAT'S UP, FELLAS! Master Chief in da HOUSE!"

Metroid Prime

2007-12-30T19:04:00.000-08:00

I've been playing a lot of Metroid Prime this week. I never played this one when it first came out, but even though it's now half a decade old, it's still fantastic.

Self-portrait

2007-12-23T12:03:00.001-08:00

I haven't drawn a self-portrait for a while, thought I'd give one a go.

December Scraps

2007-12-16T19:11:00.000-08:00

Another busy week, more sketches.

Trilby-Obsessed

2007-12-09T22:47:00.000-08:00

I've been sick all week. As such, I've been finding all kinds of ways to waste time in between naps. I downloaded the new game Trilby: The Art of Theft, from the creator of the fantastic Ch zo Myt hos, which I love. I exhausted Trilby so thoroughly, unlocking every costume and even completing the seven-heist mission with the cream suit, that I really had no more left to play. I then downloaded the creator's other action-oriented series, 1213 (pronounced "Twelve-Thirteen"), and in short order completed those games, too. Now I've basically played his entire library of games and I have nothing left to do but work on my cough.

Here are sketches from this week, along with some from a few weeks ago.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2007-12-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

Alright, alright! Here's a new post already. What, a single update every six months isn't enough for you?

Joking aside, things have been busy. The film is in its final, long overdue stages, and we're pushing hard to finish. I'll post some artwork from that soon. Also, I have a new job. So you can imagine, between that and the film -- busy.

Anyway, here are some sketches from the Thanksgiving weekend, visiting with family and friends:

Harry Potter Weekend!

2007-07-22T22:31:00.001-07:00

It's Harry Potter weekend! With the release of the seventh book, a few of us got together this Sunday for waffles, swimming, and marathon Harry Potter reading.

Sadly, I haven't been following the series (though, as they're now all released, I suppose I could read them straight through, no waiting!), so rather than read book seven, I did the next best thing -- draw sketches of people reading book seven:

End of Semester Panoramas

2007-05-28T01:41:00.001-07:00

A couple of panoramic photos to mark the end of the semester. I can hardly believe it ... this is the last time I'll be able to say that. After all these years, it makes me a little sad. I guess, in that sense, these photos also mark the end of my time at San Jose State University. I actually kinda miss it already.

From last Thursday, the end-of-the-year Shrunkenheadman picnic.

And from three weeks ago, the BFA Animation/Illustration Gallery 2007.

Berkeley Sketches

2007-05-28T01:04:00.000-07:00

Visited Berkeley with friends this weekend, and came back with an enormous Andrew Wyeth book and a couple pages of sketches.

While we're at it, here's an older drawing of the same friends, from a housewarming party back in March:

The Departed Speedpaints

2007-05-22T01:13:00.001-07:00

A few of my friends have been doing speedpaintings from screenshots of movies. I think it's a pretty great way to study films more closely. So here are a couple of speedpaints I did tonight from The Departed, which has some absolutely stunning shots throughout.

I think this is actually an over-the-shoulder shot, with the cell phone as the point-of-view character. Not only that, notice how the shot is oriented so that the phone is higher in the frame than Matt Damon's face--meaning the cell phone is actually in a dominant position here.

This shot is only on screen for about ten frames, inbetween other shots that aren't quite as disorienting. The effect is so subliminal, you probably don't remember the shot even being there. But you feel it.

Last Week of Classes

2007-05-20T23:14:00.000-07:00

A few sketches from last Friday's maquette class, the last meeting of the semester!

This one could easily be a companion to another drawing I posted earlier.

Five Months in 2007

2007-05-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

A long overdue sketchdump of drawings from the last five months. Enjoy!

ADAA Semifinals

2007-05-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

Awesome news: Ace Bullet, P.I. was accepted into the semifinal round of the 2007 Adobe Design Achievement Awards! See the official list of semifinalists at the ADAA website.

Congrats also to fellow SJSU entrant John-Paul Balmet and company for getting their film Journey: A Short Vignette into the semifinals, as well.

Ace Bullet, P.I.

2007-02-24T00:04:00.000-08:00

Tonight saw the premiere of my new film, Ace Bullet, P.I., at the SJSU 15-Second Animated Film Festival! Thanks to everyone who came out! If you couldn't make it, or if you just want to see it again, here it is, in all its noir-soaked glory:

This is what Christmas means to me

2006-12-24T13:48:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Neil Gaiman @ San Jose

2006-11-26T13:13:00.000-08:00

Neil Gaiman doing a reading at San Jose, about a week and a half ago. The way I drew him, he kinda looks more like Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop -- but that's what his hair was doing. All over the place.

The writing at the bottom is part of something he said regarding Good Omens: "When we wrote it, we were just two guys no one had ever heard of. We had no idea it would go on to sell millions of copies. Or that it would be translated into fourteen other languages. Or that young ladies all over the world would be writing pornography involving the main characters."

Barry Yougrau's "Creek"

2006-11-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

Drawings from a recent project in BFA, after a story called "Creek" by Barry Yougrau. Initially drawn in the style of Edward Gorey, though I think there's a lot of Lyonel Feininger influence in there too.

Sketchbook Animation

2006-11-12T01:35:00.000-08:00

Today's post is an experiment of sorts. About a month ago, I posted this page of watercolor sketches, painted from photographs by Albert Arthur Allen. Just for fun, I wondered what those drawings might look like animated.

The result is this two-second "sketchbook animation." It's not an acting test or a funny gag or a film with a beginning, middle, and end. It's just something I felt like animating. It's like something I'd draw in my sketchbook, except animated.

Click to play the movie (3.56 MB)

Last Drawings of October

2006-11-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

A veritable potluck of sketches. Here's what found residence in my sketchbook in the last weeks of October.

Also:

Nerf Movie

2006-10-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

The final product of project number one in my Maya class. Nerf fans enjoy:

Click to play movie at 320x240
Or download the 640x480 large version (76.7 MB).

The gun featured in this clip is the N-STRIKE Nite Finder, which unbelievably only costs $5.99.

More October Watercolors

2006-10-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

I'm making an effort to spend more time drawing in my sketchbook. I always forget how theraputic it can be, even if sometimes I'm just pushing paint around. It's probably the one place where I can draw whatever I want and not care what anybody thinks. Except for you, nameless occasional reader of this blog. You are my everything.

Anyway, here are some sketches from the last couple days.

From photographs by Albert Arthur Allen. Mostly from the 1920s.

The SJSU tower.

The intersection at 4th and San Fernando, as seen from the 6th floor of the Martin Luther King Library.

Early October Watercolor Sketches

2006-10-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted any actual sketchbook pages. Here are some from today and last Saturday:

The indie film I worked on premiered last Saturday at the Mill Valley Film Festival. I drew storyboards for the film way back in early pre-production, before they'd even had a complete cast. And now after over a year, we finally get to see the finished product! Pretty satisfying feeling.

Sketches during class. "Week 8" refers to this being the eighth week of classes.

Last stop, the Fremont BART station. I was a little early picking Amber up from BART, so I sketched this out real quick and then painted it later at home.

doodle at seven stories high

2006-10-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

I was at the library on campus researching our current project in BFA when I found a seat in the corner of the building with this great view. I couldn't resist.

Drawn from the 7th floor of the Martin Luther King Library at SJSU. The gigantic linked image is half the actual size I was drawing.

Heart of Darkness Color Comps

2006-09-24T23:55:00.000-07:00

More Heart of Darkness. This week, color comps for many of the black and white thumbnails posted last week.

The Sepulchral City:

Kurtz Station:

And Kurtz's Intended's Drawing-Room:

Heart of Darkness

2006-09-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

So I've been pretty busy lately, what with school having finally started. As a result, I haven't got much in the way of sketchbook drawings. Instead, here are some thumbnails from the project I've been working on in class, based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

More July Watercolors

2006-07-31T18:44:00.000-07:00

More sketches of the analog variety, hanging out with friends.

Vienna Teng in San Francisco

2006-07-31T16:00:00.000-07:00

Watercolor sketch from a concert last Thursday at the Great American Music Hall featuring Vienna Teng, whose music I very much enjoy.

Painting Studies

2006-07-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

A couple of digital painting studies from reference. Both using Painter 9.

Portrait study from deviantART stock (yellow-stock).

Figure study from deviantART stock (tracie76stock).

Friends at the Beach

2006-07-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

Another painting from the trip to the beach. Painted from reference in Painter 9.

Beach Portrait

2006-07-24T03:56:00.000-07:00

I was at the beach yesterday celebrating a multitude of friends' birthdays. Here's a portrait of one of my friends squinting at me. Painted from photo reference in Painter 9.

Staring out my window

2006-07-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

The view from outside my window. Started in Alias Sketchbook and finished in Adobe Photoshop.

Speedpaint: Amber Sleeping

2006-07-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

Last time I did Pow-Pow while she was sleeping on Amber's bed, this time I've got Amber sleeping on my bed. Logically, the next one should be me sleeping on Pow-Pow's bed.

Speedpaint: Pow-Pow!

2006-07-19T01:18:00.000-07:00

Speedpainting of my cat, Pow-Pow, sleeping. Painted in about half an hour, using Alias Sketchbook.

Anime Expo 2006

2006-07-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

Back from the long holiday weekend, which I spent at the Anime Expo in Anaheim, CA. The entire time, I was mostly hanging out with friends and sketching. Here are the highlights.

Day One

Registration took something like 3 1/2 hours, and I was pretty much sketching people the entire time. Many of these people are dressed up in costumes for characters I don't recognize.

Check out those two with their arms around each other. If you look back at page one, I drew them once, way at the beginning. Then about an hour later, when the line started doubling back on itself, there they were again, still all over each other. I think they were more into each other than anyone's ever been into anything.

Day Two

We were just sitting around in the Hilton lobby when we overheard these Metal Gear Solid cosplayers ranting about not being allowed to walk around with their weapons, and I just started writing down as much of it as I could.

Day Three

Day Four

June Sketchbook Variety Pack!

2006-06-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted drawings -- with all the moving, I haven't had access to a scanner until now. So here's a grab bag of sketches from June!

June 3 -- My last drawing of my old house. That's my cat Pow-Pow staring out the window from her kitty tree perch.

June 8 -- A couple of tiny landscape paintings, done with watercolor and white gouache.

June 15 -- Little figure paintings from a summer SHM life drawing session.

June 22 -- Sketches of people on BART.

June 23 -- Drawing out of my head, a dryad or some kind of forest creature.

June 25 -- Sketching from movies, 2046 and Alien.

Jimmy Rodent Video Game

2006-06-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

Now online -- the entire Jimmy Rodent Video Game short film I promised to post:

(13.6 megs, right-click to download)

We did this entire film in one night, as a "sketchbook animation" assignment. Geoff directed and I did the animation. Just about every image in the clip is lifted from one NES game or another, with the exception of Jimmy himself. And we did all the animation, unbelievably, in Adobe ImageReady, animating everything straight ahead, frame-by-frame, as an animated gif.

Sketches from Cafe 322

2006-05-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

Sketches from dinner tonight at Cafe 322 in Pasadena, where they had live music performed by the local musicians from Citrus College.

Coming Soon: Jimmy Rodent NES Game

2006-05-30T01:15:00.000-07:00

It was mentioned to me this weekend that there's some interest in the Jimmy Rodent video game animation Geoff and I did a year and a half ago. So for those who asked, don't worry -- I haven't forgotten. I'll convert and post it once all this end-of-internship and moving-up-from-L.A. stuff has settled down.

Coffee House Sketches

2006-05-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

Little watercolor paintings at local Pasadena coffee house, Bean Town.

Sketch I did on a napkin today at lunch.

Other Photos of E3

2006-05-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is the last of my E3 content, so after this, I'll resume my normal habits of posting sketches in my sketchblog.

Rows of Nintendo DS demo stations.

Seth in front of said DS stations.

WiiSports: Tennis two-player demo in the Nintendo booth.

I WANT TO WAKE UP TO THIS IN THE MORNING.

Okay, I lied. Square Enix did let me photograph these. Probably because they're SO ADORABLE.

Spore on EA's GIANT 360 DEGREE SCREEN.

Maneuvering through crowds.

Kyle is either yawning, or screaming. You decide.

Spread the word. Share the love. The love of ROCKING OUT.

Jeff looks surprised, but really he held this position for a full three seconds while I pointed the camera at him.

That's Seth staring off at something, and behind him, girls in bikinis.

Others have assured me that this title is an accurate description of the game.

E3 Panoramic Photos

2006-05-16T00:15:00.000-07:00

This is about as close as I was allowed to photograph at the Square Enix booth. They were adamant about not allowing photos in their booth.

That's fellow intern Jeff at the dead center of this shot.

The Wii at E3

2006-05-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

I've played the Wii, and now I realize what this console really is. It's not a virtual reality machine -- it's a Nintendo DS for your living room.

Really, it all makes sense now -- the stupid name, the remote control, the ridiculous lofty philosophy. If you imagine someone at Nintendo saying, "This stylus interface is pretty cool. Can we do this on our next console?" then the remote control isn't just innovative, it's the only logical choice.

Descriptions of the frenzy at the Nintendo booth are accurate. On the first day, we suffered a two hour wait outside the pavilion, followed by another half hour once we were inside, followed by a series of mini-lines for each of the demo stations.

They must have anticipated our anticipation, because during the first portion of our journey, key checkpoints were narrated by Nintendo spokespeople on vertical plasma screens, answering questions directly from the people in line. As a surreal bonus, the last of these guys was the guy who does the voice of Mario.

Once inside, the lines for the individual demo stations seemed to be exponentionally longer the more anticipated the game was. As such, my hands-on experience is limited to the games I was willing to wait in line for: WiiSports, WarioWare, Tony Hawk Downhill Jam, and Project H.A.M.M.E.R. (I stood briefly in line for Super Mario Galaxy until I realized the demos lasted ten minutes, and I still had four people in front of me.)

The WiiSports games offer a "virtual reality" of sorts, but it's really more accurate to call them "activities." In WiiSports: Tennis, swinging the remote makes your avatar swing his tennis racket, but running from side to side doesn't do anything; your character goes automatically to wherever the ball is. WiiSports: Baseball is little more than home run derby. Of course, it's likely that these are just stripped-down E3 demo versions, so maybe with the full game we'll get more.

My favorite of the WiiSports games was WiiSports: Airplane, which was very reminiscent of Pilotwings. With this one, you held the remote like it was the airplane, and made the plane dive, turn, climb by doing the same to the controller.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves is pure manic joy, just like all the other WarioWare games. Of all the Wii games, this one probably exhibits the most controller versatility, simply because you have no idea what the game is going to make you do.

Project H.A.M.M.E.R. was the only normal game I got to play (normal in the sense of being a standard 3rd-person action game), and while the game was only mildly interesting, what I'm fascinated by is how the remote will be used in these types of games -- not as a way to simulate reality, but to replace button-pushing with gestures.

These normal games (a category into which I would also place such games as Super Mario Galaxy and Legend of Zelda) use the "nunchuk" setup, with that analog pod in your left hand and the remote in your right. You'll still move the character around with an analog stick -- that's what the nunchuk pod in your left hand is for -- and with your right hand, you'll make your character do things by performing gestures with the remote. Swing the remote like a hammer to attack. Flick the remote forward to pass the ball.

If you think about it, this is no different from the control scheme we're all used to, except that gestures are a lot more intuitive than buttons.

That's what makes me say the Wii is a Nintendo DS for your living room. It's not going to change the world. It's not a completely new way to play games. It's just a better way.

Triple E

2006-05-13T21:13:00.000-07:00

Guess where I was this week:

More on this later.