This is what Christmas means to me

Merry Christmas!

Neil Gaiman @ San Jose

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"

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

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

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













Also:

Nerf Movie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vienna Teng in San Francisco

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

Painting Studies

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

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

Beach Portrait

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

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

Speedpaint: Amber Sleeping

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!

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

Anime Expo 2006

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