Jim's Doodles

Love is in the Air

2012-01-26T14:31:00.000-08:00

I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while.

Remember, kids: any one of your zits could turn into one of these things.

Originally, the head monster was going to be some sort of smiley thing, but then when I was hunting for photoreference (by which I mean googling the word "horrified"), I came across this horrified-looking pug.

Perhaps the phrase "horrified-looking pug" is redundant.

It was at that moment I realized I couldn't just make it a parasite, it had to be a Pugasite.

Valentine's - right around the corner

2012-01-26T14:08:00.000-08:00

And you know me, nothing says romance quite like like a cannibalistic entomology joke.

The last time I did Valentine's illustrations was in 2010, and I fondly recall that being one of my best Valentine's days ever. I've recently decided that Valentine's day works best when you make it not about yourself; also, it helps if your significant other at the time adopts the same mindset.
The idea now is that I'm going to print up about 100 of these things, cut and paste them into tiny 2 inch cards, and give them out to everyone that I know, regardless of their gender, attractiveness, or personal hygiene.
I'm recycle a couple illustrations from last time, including a favorite that managed to make the dating.failblog homepage. I also decided the Lonely Dinosaur would be a fitting addition to this year's lineup.

Mer-guy

2011-10-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

I did a few new things on this one. First, I thought it would be really cool if I put some caustic lighting effects on the bust, then while I was painting the arm, I thought it would be cool if he had scaly, iridescent skin, which meant that I was now working with a full spectrum of color, rather than the analogous desaturated color schemes that I'm used to using.

This is what happens when I'm trying to be like Jordu Schell.

Rodents Of Unusual Size

2011-10-10T12:24:00.001-07:00

2011-10-10T12:05:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking that the banner needs changing,

Here's the new one.

and here's the old one, just for the record.

for those of you who have ever wondered who that fu manchu-toting wierdo is, it's Sean Connery. I used this image of him to complete more than half of my assignments for my photoshop class.
Google Zardoz for more lulz.

self-portrait time

2011-10-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

more homeless portraiture

2011-10-02T17:34:00.000-07:00

source

Homeless People

2011-08-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

I came across an awesome series of photos by Lee Jeffries and I added them to my ever growing collection of reference photos, and I decided to actually do a digital painting of one of them. It feels great to pick up a tablet again.

Grand Moff Tarkin

2011-08-15T08:56:00.001-07:00

After successfully making a really big sword, I decided that I needed a bigger challenge, so I thought I would go for a face, so here's that one guy from star wars.

sculpture by Jordu Schell. Check out his other stuff for great justice.

Note to self: make sure that the eyes point in the same direction.

He sees what you did there. And there.

my first big sword

2011-08-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

I've recently been reading a bunch of Berserk (great manga, it's like a continuous nightmare). For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the main character wields a really big sword.

At the same time, I decided that I would finally figure out how to do some 3D modeling, and I thought I would do something simple, like a giant sword.

seriously. it's a big sword

The bat signal

2011-06-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

You were probably wondering what a care bears-batman mashup would look like. Well, wonder no more.

your wish is my command

2011-06-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

If you're on eHarmony and looking for a cat on a rainbow with a bowtie in a basket, then you're in luck. I'm the guy who can make all your dreams come true.

Why they really died off

2011-05-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

Lack of cuddling skills. For those of you familiar with the procreative process, you will agree that snuggling is a very important part of it. Sorry, Rex.

Dino

2011-05-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

happy mother's day

2011-05-07T16:39:00.001-07:00

sketchbook dump

2011-05-06T09:09:00.001-07:00

A Winner is Me

2011-04-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

I went to Naked Lunch today, hosted by Powerhouse Animation. It's a figure drawing session that happens every month, and it always ends with all the artists showing off their favorite page of work, and then the model chooses his/her favorite. In the past, Paul Richards had continual reign of supremacy until he got a job in California with Blizzard.
Today, I took the prize. Here are the winning pages for your viewing pleasure.

I suddenly like painting on cardboard

2011-04-09T18:41:00.001-07:00

I'm on an angry primate rampage

2011-04-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

I recently read Our Inner Ape by Franz de Waal, and it was an amazing book that made me think I was an expert primatologist after having read it.
And now, as one of the world's leading self-proclaimed primatologists, I present you with some sketches of angry primates.
Also, remind me never to get a pet mandrill, no matter how colorful they might appear in the pet shop.

I'm a proud little painter

2011-04-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

As part of a series of puzzles that are being sold to promote capybara wellness, a couple of my paintings were used to make great jigsaw greatness. You can check out the full array of them here.

Pugs are strange creatures

2011-02-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

Sam Nielson's blog has a couple of posts dedicated to pugs, and it seems like I keep seeing them all over the internet. I decided that I should try my hand at all the pugginess, and that my mom needed to have this on her fridge.

capybara heaven

2011-01-20T08:13:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't follow the happenings in the world of giant rodents, Caplin Rous, the world's most famous capybara, died a couple weeks ago. Here he is, eating his celestial Popsicle.

Hello again, internet.

2011-01-16T18:34:00.001-08:00

I'm doing more postcards for mom this year, so I'll have to stop being all lazy about posting.

stuff I've done lately

2010-09-26T10:48:00.001-07:00

Redo: Joe Olson's Snowman.

2010-08-27T19:39:00.001-07:00

things you haven't seen yet.

2010-08-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

2010-06-23T05:55:00.000-07:00

Speed Painting: fat guy

2010-06-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

I was showing a friend of mine how to do stuff with Corel Painter, so I grabbed a random picture from my image library and painted on top of it. This one is from Stephen Silver of Kim Possible fame. Go to imaginismstudios.com to check out more of his stuff.

I'm not dead, just employed

2010-06-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

I managed to land a pretty sweet gig as a photoshop wizard for Apple, and that's changed my life pretty dramatically. I'm no longer drawing furiously in an attempt to make myself more employable. If I can continue doing my same line of work, I'd be perfectly happy working for apple for the next few decades.
Here are a couple of illustrational things that I've done for apple.

My latest schtick: Tea Painting

2010-06-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

My work has a couple of machines in our break rooms that dispense free coffee for everyone who needs a morning buzz. They also dispense hot chocolate and hot water for brewing. I wanted to take advantage of these things, but I don't drink coffee and I'm anti-empty calories at this point in life, so I've recently become a connoisseur of herbal teas.
It didn't take long before I decided that it would be cool to paint with tea, so I made myself a pretty sweet palette of tea paints.

occlusion lighting

2010-04-17T12:49:00.001-07:00

Sam Nielson did a really cool post on theartcenter.blogspot.com where he showed what his pieces look like when he paints the occlusion shadows by itself. I thought it looked really cool and I wanted to give it a try. the picture of the grumpy jedi is his, and the gnome is mine.

There's a really old bridge in my neighborhood.

2010-03-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

and I kept on driving by it thinking, "that would be really cool to draw." So I drew it.

another redo

2010-03-15T13:14:00.001-07:00

2010-03-08T07:20:00.000-08:00

Sunday Painting: Random Building in San Antonio

2010-03-07T10:49:00.000-08:00

For those of you who visit my blog pretty often, this is a very rare sight: linear perspective.

manufacturing portfolio pieces

2010-03-02T20:17:00.000-08:00

I've recently realized that drawing from photographs is not cheating. As a result, I've been spending a bit of time in front of my computer with a giant pad of paper and a conte crayon recently.

Figure drawing

2010-02-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to make my stuff look more good.

Jim's coloring book

2010-02-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

Lat night, my sketchbook and I were playing games at a friend's house and one of the people there had a set of colored pencils, so I drew a few pictures that she colored. They all turned out pretty well, so I thought I would share them with all you true believers.

Posemaniacs.com

2010-02-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

it rocks my want-to-go-figure-drawing-but-too-lazy-to-get-out-of-the-house socks.

Getting Pumped for V-day

2010-02-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

Historically, Valentine's day and I haven't been on the best terms. The holiday seems to have an unfortunate tendency to coincide with breakups, defacing injuries, and other tragic events. I realized not too long ago that I was probably going to spend yet another Valentine's being just as single as ever, so I decided that instead of whining about it, I would make super awesome valentine's day cards and then give them out to everyone I know.

I didn't like this one, so I decided to redo it, but then I decided I liked it again.

Fat and Goofy: The Secret to Artistic Happiness

2010-01-27T12:35:00.000-08:00

For all you true believers who might be interested in learning what my process for digital painting is like, here's a quicky on one of two approaches that I usually take. This approach is remarkably similar to Adam Ford's.

Step 1: Draw something. I'm using the fine point pen from Corel Painter 9 for this drawing, but I'm pretty sure there are other brushes better suited for sketching; I just haven't found any yet.

Step 2: Base colors. Here's where you nail down your silhouette. Keep it all one color, because if you want to change the skin color later on (which I did), all you'll have to do is experiment around with the paint bucket tool until you find the skin tone that's right for you.

Step 3: on a soft light layer, I put a desaturated green on his beard growth area, yellow across the forehead, and a rosy pink color on his cheeks, which I really wanted to play up on this one.

Step 4: on a multiply layer, I put down a light yellow color everywhere I wanted to show direct sunlight. By the time this step is over, the image should be able to read well even after you take away the lines.

Step 5: Another screen layer with a desaturated cyan midtone. After I finished this, I took the opacity of the layer down to 37% or so so that the ambient lighting wouldn't be overpowering.

Step 6: slap in some occlusion shadows on a multiply layer. For this, I painted using a straight black but set the the opacity of my brush really low, about 10%.

This is what it looks like when I put all the layers together. After this point, I flattened the image and worked out some things like soft and hard edges, subsurface scattering along the core shadows and in the ear, and then I decided that he needed freckles.

Merry Christmas, One and All

2009-12-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

For one of my figure drawing sessions at work this month, we had Santa model for us, and I decided that it would be great to bring out my gouache paint set and make a postcard out of it

Our Santa is a pretty cool guy, the kind you would drink a beer with, If you were a beer-drinking kinda guy.

This is the staff of Cordovan School of the Arts.

Shane Lewis

2009-12-18T11:58:00.000-08:00

I've been copying Shane Lewis lately. His blog can be seen at http://stlewis.blogspot.com/
The frog on the top is my demo for a class in which I taught some five year-olds how to watercolor a Shane Lewis frog. I had a bit too much water when I was painting the eye, which resulted in a happy mistake that made lit look like a crying frog.

redesigning the Manos characters

2009-12-08T15:13:00.001-08:00

Attempting to Impress Employers

2009-11-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

Card Game Illustration

2009-11-20T12:25:00.000-08:00

Lately I've gotten back into playing Cardmaster Conflict (cardmasterconflict.com for those of you interested in a new online hobby) and I suddenly realized after playing the game for five years that I could do some illustration for the site. I emailed one of the admins and they wasted no time in letting me help out with their new expansion set that's coming out.
The biggest challenge that I've found with illustrating for them is that the final images are all 123 by 50 pixels when they appear on screen during gameplay, which is an odd aspect ration to start off with, and then really low resolution, which means that I have to be extremely conscientious about my composition.

Stuff you haven't seen yet.

2009-11-17T15:45:00.000-08:00

Oaktopus

2009-11-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine requested an Oaktopus to put on his band's flyers. I decided to go with a Mignola-esque inked look for it, and then I decided I liked the image enough to color it, and then I decided to try out Corel Painter's watercolor functions, which I had never put enough effort into to get it to work well, but I have to say that I really like it now that I've given it a second chance.

The Master is Ready for his Closeup

2009-11-11T13:22:00.001-08:00

Dailies (the plural form of Daily)

2009-11-11T07:57:00.000-08:00

Remember how I posted the drawings of my first three days drawing MMA fighter Frank Shamrock? Neither do I. That's because I've realized how much I don't really enjoy scanning tons of images, but I just wanted to let all you true believers know that I've still been drawing the same picture every day for a month.
This month I've been doing a full body picture of a model dressed up as a spy. I've been using it as an excuse to emulate a bunch of different artists that specialize in drawing attractive females.
Original photo of the spy girl can be seen here.

The Master's Chamber

2009-11-03T21:14:00.000-08:00

In my quest to come up with a plot for a video game adaptation of the worst movie of all time, I decided that it would be cool if the Master and his wives lived right on the mouth of hell, which happens to be a floating island. I've got 15 days until the huge portfolio review, and I'm hoping that some of this stuff I'm making will appeal to art directors enough to land some job offers.

Strong enough for a Manos but made for a Womanos

2009-10-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

Here we are: Valley Lodge. It's just like in the movie, except with supernatural stuff going on. My idea was that the motel can travel through time and space in order to aid the Master in his quest to pick up chicks.

The Master Would Approve: Manos Character Sheets

2009-10-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

I love terrible movies, and the most terrible movie of all is "Manos" The Hands of Fate. IMDB rated #1 worst movie of all time, I highly suggest looking it up on wikipedia for some guaranteed lulz. After watching the MST3k version of this movie one too many times, I started to think "if this movie had a plot, what would it be?" and then "how would I turn it into a freakishly sweet video game?"
I've got a gigantic portfolio review coming up on Thursday, Nov. 19, so I decided that in order to beef up my portfolio in the next month, I'll be doing all the concept art for this game during the next month. Also, my apologies to any fans of the film upset by the absence of Torgo. I promise that he's on the way later.

Yarr!!!

2009-10-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

Caricature gig.

2009-10-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

I've got myself a caricature gig coming up later tonight and I spent some time whipping up some examples that will hopefully convince people that they should spend ten bucks to have me draw them. I'm a wee bit nervous, but altogether, pretty darn hopeful.

Imaginism Fan Art Contest

2009-10-07T07:34:00.000-07:00

If there's any artist in the world that I could be, it would definitely be Bobby Chiu, the awesome dude who did the line art for this piece.
Original can be seen at http://imaginism.deviantart.com/art/Making-Friends-134826135

Conference Weekend

2009-10-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was General Conference, which means an excuse to draw one of my favorite subject matters: old people! I also used this as an opportunity to do some portraiture of my friend Casey, who's in the process of having me convince her to like me as much as I do.
I decided it would be a really bad thing if I came over to her house and drew her badly, so in the week prior to me drawing her, I did a few hours of practicing attractive female portraits, and I think the practice paid off.

Daily Frank Shamrock: Day 1, 2, and 3.

2009-09-25T15:52:00.000-07:00

I decided this month, I would choose a subject that lends itself to awesome stylization so that I'll be able to focus on different interpretations of the subject along with how much better I can draw it on day 30 than on day 1. Consequently, I decided to take the photorealistic approach for days 1-3 as I went from line art to value to color.

busting out the big newsprint pads

2009-09-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

I recently got a part-time gig teaching art at Cordovan School of the Arts. It's a lot of fun showing kids how to do stuff like paint a watercolor sunset with a rhino's silhouette in front of it and trying to explain things like why construction lines are necessary and why you shouldn't draw them sharpie-dark.
One of the perks is that I get to do some free figure drawing every week, and I finally decided to buy myself a big newsprint pad, some Conte crayons, and nupastel sticks. It feels good to be drawing like this again, and I think after going through a sketchbook per month for the last nine months, I'm excited to pump out some portfolio pieces.

Sometimes I just can't contain my excitement.

2009-09-22T15:01:00.001-07:00

Daily Fuentes

2009-09-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

I decided it would be cool to draw the same picture every day for a month, so I printed off a picture of Daisy Fuentes, my first celebrity crush as a teenager and I've been drawing that same picture every day for the past 30 days, and I have to say it's been a pretty cool experience that's really helped me out in the "drawing attractive females" department.
I've decided to do the same thing for the next month, except I'm going to the opposite end of the spectrum and drawing MMA fighter Frank Shamrock, who looks like he's taken many blows to the face during his cage fighting career.

thumbnails from a crowded room

2009-09-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

experimenting with compositions and stuff

Hey Man, Slow Down

2009-09-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

I've recently rediscovered the joys of taking your time when drawing. I decided to stop trying to work stylized for a while and just try to get good likenesses.

Sunday Painting: Ugly Christmas Tree Ornament

2009-09-14T13:36:00.000-07:00

Last year, I was at Hobby Lobby with my mom, looking through the clearance isles and laughing at the failures of interior decoration, when we found the grand daddy of bad design, a Christmas ornament of an unusually dark-skinned Indian with green and red war paint who was fondly caressing his horse, who had a large red circle painted around each eye. We had a good laugh at it and were about to buy it, but then the lines were too long, so we just put it back.
I went back to the store later and bought it as a cheap gag gift for my mom, who later took it to work and showed it off to her coworkers, who smiled and nodded.
When I went off to school, my parents started playing a little game with the Indian. My mom wants to hang it on the fridge, but my dad hates it and thinks it's the ugliest thing ever, so anytime my dad sees it on the fridge, he hides it somewhere where it will get found several weeks later.
I decided upon a great way to settle this: I would make an actual-sized painting of it on a postcard. That way, my dad would still have to look at the indian, even when the original was hidden away under a car seat or in a less-used pocket of my mother's purse.

the front side was done in gauche, and the back was prismacolor.

People tell me they like my landscapes.

2009-08-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

And I usually smile and nod. I think it's really rude/insulting to tell someone they're wrong when they give you a compliment, but seriously, landscapes don't have overbites, facial hair, funny-shaped faces, or any of the other elements from my sketchbooks that I think is fun. Yeah, I don't get it, but I'm glad you like them.

Figure Drawing, again.

2009-08-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook

2009-08-26T10:13:00.001-07:00

One of the things I really enjoy doing is finding someone at church with an interesting face and then drawing them week after week. In my last ward, I had Brother Wright, who looks like his name ought to have have been something like Otto von Liechtenstein. In this ward, I have Steve Nabours, who, when I first saw him, had hair that looked like it had been dyed red by a cool-aid packet. The next week I saw him, he had shaved his head completely bald, and then the week after that, he had facial hair as long as the hair on his head. It was about at that time I realized that He would be hands down the most fun face to draw at church.

We're no strangers to love.

2009-08-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

You know the rules and so do I.

Yes, friends, it's another tribute to the internet, and I'm surprised that I didn't think of this one earlier. I was going for a muppets feel, but I think I might have ended up with a textured Simpsons feel. Either way, fun times.

Paintover.

2009-08-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

I've just been informed that my stuff is not yet at the level where companies would be interested in hiring me, so it's time for me to do some portfolio overhauling, and I decided that it would be a good idea to do a paintover of some of my portfolio pieces.
I seem to have a personal pride cycle that repeats itself on a yearly basis where I start to feel like I'm hot stuff and then someone has to deliver the news to me that my self-concept is entirely inaccurate. A lot of times, a feeling of overwhelming inferiority can be a very strong motivator.

Figure Drawing

2009-08-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

All apologies to my parents, who sent me to BYU just so I wouldn't have to draw naked people in my figure drawing classes, but I found out about some open figure drawing classes in Austin and I just had to go.
Here's a 30-minute pose.

Making stuff again.

2009-08-09T10:57:00.001-07:00

Here's a painting based off a doodle I did while at work. Enjoy.

Floating Cat Heads Looking Down From Heaven

2009-07-25T15:38:00.000-07:00

Half of what I do for a living at the moment is inventing creative ways of selling seeds via series of themed gardens, such as the musical instruments garden, the superheroes garden, or in today's example, the pet memorial garden. My instructions for this one was to to make a kitty looking down from Heaven. I immediately conjured up the most efficient method: Ceiling Cat.

My boss takes one look at it and says, "What the [obscenity] is this!? Did Heaven open its zipper or something?"
Yeah, that one didn't fly too well. Apparently, fissures in the sky weren't going to cut it, so I went to work making the best-looking cat looking down from Heaven my Photoshop skills could muster. My boss and I agreed that it would just be more effective to do a bunch of cats sitting on clouds, but I decided that since I already had a disembodied cat head floating in the clouds, there was only one logical way to proceed with the situation.
From there, I decided that this idea was worth puting more time and effort into. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Apocalypse Cat.

Pew Pew.

trying to get good at landscapes.

2009-07-12T17:02:00.001-07:00

I had my first official meeting with the plein air group today, and I must admit that I've got some growing to do. I feel a bit overwhelmed any time I try to paint trees, and I think that my inked thumbnail sketches turn out cooler than the painting, half the time.

My Saturday was cooler than yours.

2009-07-11T16:58:00.001-07:00

I started it out by going to the birthday party for a 100 lb rodent that refuses to be hand fed anything that is less tasty that blueberries, and followed that up with a visit to downtown Austin, where I got to draw hobos. It was truly a sketchbook adventure.

Happy Birthday, Caplin Rous

2009-07-10T19:41:00.001-07:00

Caplin Rous is one of the few rodents in the world with his own facebook/blogger/myspace accounts. Everytime I see him online, I always have this as a mental image, since I'm sure this is exactly what he looks like when he's on the internet. The only way this image could be anything less than perfectly accurate is if he's a rodent with a preference for Macs.

Tribute to the Internet: Chase the Hedgehog

2009-07-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

Chase the Hedgehog is the epitome of Deviantart fan artists, minus the creepy. Original art can be seen here or you can go here to gain a full understanding of this guy.

Here you go

2009-07-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

Bill Cosby, for all you true believers.

If you dance the night away, I will draw you...

2009-07-03T14:04:00.000-07:00

...And probably make your posterior unflatteringly large.

I've figure out that I can bring my sketchbook into dance clubs. consequently, my new sketchbook isn't lasting nearly as long as my previous one. Also, I've discovered that drawing people while they dance requires a whole new skill set.

Poolside Plein Air

2009-07-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

I just got invited to join http://pleinairpaintinggroup.blogspot.com , which was created by a few of the folks from Junction Point Studios. I discovered that this is a whole new way of painting for me, which is a polite way of me saying I'm no good at it. I also discovered that it's fun going outside to paint and getting strange looks from the lifegaurd, who undoubtedly was wondering what the heck I'm doing with a paint set at the neighborhood pool.

Sunday Painting: Viper

2009-06-28T10:21:00.001-07:00

Snakes are rather interesting creatures. Their bodies have some special modifications on account of the fact they swallow their prey whole. They have double-hinged jaws, allowing them to swallow things bigger than their heads, and their skulls are divided into several plates, allowing it to be flattened and distorted and not block their airways during swallowing.
Basically, this means their skulls have lots of intricate hard-to-draw parts, and they look cool.
Also, this was the first time I've ever used a paint brush to apply ink. That was pretty fun.

Happy Birthday, Dave

2009-06-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

It's good to have a friend who believes in me even it's hard for me to believe in myself.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-06-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

EXTREEEEME!

Sunday Painting: Bunkey is an Alien Entity

2009-06-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when I combine Bobby Chiu with M.R. Weaver.
Acrylic on postcard.

What Furries ought to be.

2009-06-13T14:58:00.001-07:00

when I first heard someone use the term "furries," this was the mental image I got, a meep from the original Quest for Glory. Unfortunately, it turns out that furries aren't creatures that live underneath rocks and give you magic scrolls and clumps of their hair upon request. They are something far more sinister.

Sunday Painting: Proboscis Monkey

2009-06-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

I've got church that starts at 2:00, so it leaves me with a tone of time in a house all to myself. It makes for the perfect time to do a painting. Here we have the most magnificent of creatures, the proboscis monkey. Part of my postcards for Mom series, done in acrylic.

I'm actually learning stuffs!

2009-06-04T19:31:00.000-07:00

I've had several bouts with 3d rendering programs, swearing that I'll learn to use them in attempt to get some phat employment, but each and every time I end up giving up on it after minutes of frustration. Here I have the farthest I've progressed on anything 3d-rendered. Behold its beauty.

What I did yesterday, what I did seven years ago.

2009-06-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

As of late, I've become a stylized digital painter, and I've been wondering if I can paint as well with traditional paint as I can with a computer program. I feel like I've done most of my learning about how to paint within the last year, with Corel painter, and never learned how to produce portfolio pieces with traditional media, and part of me feels like I need to go back and get some hands-on time with the old paint sets I bought as a freshman in college.
Also, for all you true believers, here's the masterpiece of my angsty teenage years - a portrait of Ellen Ginsberg, from back when I thought photorealism was the epitome of what an artist can achieve.

Tribute to the Internet: Hampster Dance

2009-05-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Postcard-sized acrylic on paper.

A Tribute to the Internet: Mark Gormley

2009-05-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

Little known fact: The guy's legal name is actually Vendetta Jones, he just uses the stage name Mark Gormley because it's the only name as intense as he is.

Also, sometimes a painting looks awesome halfway through.

Move over, Michael Bay.

2009-05-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

so the same guy who commissioned the self-portrait also asked me to do a painting of his facebook profile picture where he's jumping over a campfire holding a beer. I decided that in order to acheive a greater dramatic effect, I would have him jumping over an even bigger fire. That's just how creative I am.

A large part of my last job.

2009-05-14T17:02:00.000-07:00

good riddance.

Sketchbook Dump

2009-05-12T10:15:00.001-07:00

For the last three weeks, I've been working with a summer job where I was installing security alarms. It was a pretty bad experience and I'm glad to be done with it.
The silver lining in all of it is that I managed to fill somewhere around 50 pages of sketchbook during my downtime.

A rant, with doodle attached.

2009-04-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

There are a number of thing for which I don't understand the appeal: Coca-Cola, Napoleon Dynamite, text messaging. The list goes on and on, but today I'd like to talk a bit about the graduation ceremony.
I'm facing graduation this month and I've gotten quite a few letters/emails/phone calls from BYU telling me that I need to order my cap and gown. Why would I want to do that?
From what I remember of graduations past, the graduation ceremony involves:
1. Wearing what Hugh Nibley so lovingly refers to as "the robes of the false priesthood"
2. Waiting in lines. At least three of them
3. Listening to some guy with better grades than mine recite Robert Frost's The Road not Taken
4. Standing around afterward while a family member forces me to have pictures taken of me wearing an ill-fitting hat that keeps its distinctive square shape via a piece of cardboard placed in it.
5. Navigating my way through a crowd of girls who are hugging each other and crying because they'll never see each other again.
As if that weren't enough incentive to do something else on that specific Saturday morning, they're expecting me to spend $150 to rent unflattering cult garb for a day.
Well, academia, I appreciate the offer, but I'm going to have to pass on that one.

phase one of my evil plan

2009-04-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

What you are looking at right now is what's commonly known as a "commission," meaning someone paid me money to make this; cash money.
For any of you who are interested in knowing what phase two is, it involves employment. Somewhere along the line, phase five or six involves groupies and/or owning my own island.

A Redneck Zombie and His Dog.

2009-04-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

This one took quite a bit longer than I expected it to, and I think I might need to get it critiqued and then rework it.
Also, I have a header for the blog. Let me know what you think of it.

I did figure drawing today

2009-04-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

It's been at least a year since I last did any figure drawing and I decided that it's high time I got around to doing it again. While I like how it turned out, I decided that I've still got a while before I'm on par with the likes of Adam Ford or Jeff Hein.

Animal Skulls

2009-04-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

As a celebration of my last day at work tomorrow, I thought I'd post some sketches I did from my image library at work.
I've drawn maybe 50 or so of these skulls, and after drawing 20 or so, I realized that I wasn't just drawing, I was learning design from the greatest designer of all. The lost and found lines, the way nature punches holes in things, the elegant sweeping forms the zygomatic arches.
Yeah, anatomy's pretty awesome.
Also, bonus points for anyone who can correctly identify the animals in the last picture.

Attractive females are ... GO!!!

2009-04-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

I was looking through my sketchbook the other day and I did a quick tally - I found out that I had drawn 203 pictures of men, and 62 pictures of women. This came as quite a shock to my heterosexuality.
I decided that essentially, my aesthetic is that I have an interest in the bizarre and the unusual, and in order for a girl to look attractive, she has to actually look NORMAL, which to me is fairly boring. With that much being said, I decided that there has to be a way to draw attractive females and still have fun at the same time, so lately that's what I've been working on.
Here's my most successful attempt at making a non-boring attractive female. Modeled after Megan Magleby, whose blog can be seen at http://momasterpieces.blogspot.com/

Proboscis Monkey has a Sweet Ride

2009-04-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Proboscis Monkey: truly a primate that has nothing for which to compensate.

Somehow I decided it would be a good idea to take a photograph and create a character that would fit inside a photographic environment. And give it a furry texture. Yeah, this one was a huge headache trying to solve all those problems at the same time. I'm definitely not going to try to do that same thing anytime soon. Maybe in a year or two after I can paint like Feng Zhu.

a background worthy of such a majestic beast

2009-03-29T11:45:00.000-07:00

I was looking through http://paullasaine.blogspot.com/ earlier and I noticed that this guy has some mad skills, so I decided to emulate one of his paintings, and since I didn't like the clouds I had done for the fat centaur, I chose to just redo the background rather than make an entirely new painting.