That's it for 2010!

Well, that's it for me, I'll be back in 2011.  Over the next month or so, I'll be making some minor changes to the blog, and explain a bit more when I 're-open' in January.

But for now, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

Theme Park Review - Australia Tour 2011 03

And here's the final.  I just love that shark, I'm pretty sure I'm going to use him again someday...
This is one of those images that would really benefit from the full on rendering, shading, highlights, etc., but oh well, it's still pretty fun.

And of course, the label tag for the front of the shirt.


Well, another big Thank You to Robb and Elissa at the site; that's it for the 2011 Theme Park Review Tours T-Shirts - I hope everyone has fun!!!


Check them out at www.themeparkreview.com!

Theme Park Review - Australia Tour 2011 02

Here's the line art for these critters...and additional work on the coaster car.  We're in Australia all right, so you're gonna get the Road Warrior's car to drive around in!

I can't tell you how much it pleases me to have a Great White riding around in Mad Max's car.  So anyways, there's the flat color, final tomorrow...

Check them out at www.themeparkreview.com!

Theme Park Review - Australia Tour 2011 01

This is a fun one for me...I like Aussie animals, and I love me some Great Whites.  So this theme was critters in a Sydney Opera House and Bridge influenced Coaster/Background.  A series of quick sketches led to the drawing...

...but what kind of coaster car to make it?  Hmm...

Check them out at www.themeparkreview.com!

Theme Park Review - Road to Cedar Point 2011 Bonus

Here is the original idea I had for the trip.  No-Prize* to anybody who gets the reference, leave your answer in the comments section!

Check them out at www.themeparkreview.com!

*I guess that's a double-old reference in today's post...I'm old now.

Theme Park Review - Road to Cedar Point 2011 03

The final, in all it's Hilly Glory.  I think this one is going to look pretty good on a black shirt.

Again, the label/tag for front of the shirt.  There was an alternate design, that I'll post as a bonus tomorrow...

Check them out at www.themeparkreview.com!

Theme Park Review - Road to Cedar Point 2011 02

And the colors...

Check them out at www.themeparkreview.com!

Theme Park Review - Road to Cedar Point 2011 01

Here's the sketch for this tour...

...and here's the line art.  There are, I believe, other stops along the way, but the name of the tour is Road to Cedar Point, in Ohio.  So, some rolling plains, with a Roller Tour Bus making it's way towards it's destination.

Check them out at www.themeparkreview.com!

Theme Park Review - Japan Tour 2011 02

This is the final image for the tour shirt, with the front of the shirt tag attached at the bottom.  This is one where I really wish I had more of a palette to work with; these shirts already exceed the limitations just by me adding the shading, but this one could have been cra-zay, with different lighting effects, around the buildings and with the neon...oh well.

You work with what you got, and it's tough to beat a rampaging monster coming down your street!

Check them out at www.themeparkreview.com!

Theme Park Review - Japan Tour 2011 01

Robb liked my quasi-Godzilla from a few years back, and asked me to reprise him for the upcoming two-part Japan Tour.  Godzilla and a Bullet Train, I think was the request.  Some quick sketches to get started with...

...and then the tightened up drawing to go to digital.

Check them out at www.themeparkreview.com!

Theme Park Review - Northeast USA Tour 2011 02

And here is the final image - all the locations weren't set at the time of the final, so I set up a text layer for Robb to just type in the final locales.  To tease him about the lack of iconic areas, I just typed in "Completely Unremarkable" - but I'm sure it's going to be an outstanding trip, as usual.

This is the lapel design for the front of the shirt

Check them out at www.themeparkreview.com!

Theme Park Review - Northeast USA Tour 2011 01

A little early, but it's time for Theme Park Review Tour T-Shirt designs!  Robb and Elissa from Theme Park Review have again enlisted me to come up with some artwork for the tours, we start off with the Northeast USA Tour.  They had some locations set, but not in any places that have a significant icon to build an image around, so we decided to go more graphic, and do a Wonder Woman-esque 'logo shooting at you' type of design.  With stars...like WW.  The funny thing is, it's branded a USA trip, yet there's a Canadian location in the mix, so I thought I'd try to work in a maple leaf to acknowledge our brothers and sisters up North.

And so here is the final line art...colors tomorrow.

Check them out at www.themeparkreview.com!

Mickey...Epic?

Epic Mickey comes out today, here's some OLD art that was inspired by the project that was going on back in my Disney Interactive days.  I'd say these sketches were done in the middle of 2004.

Even if the game turns out to be not so epic, getting it made sure took forever...

Who watched Transformers : Prime on Friday!?!

Good times.

OK, Transfans.  I know I teased that I would post concepts that Hasbro, Inc. hired me to come up with the provide inspiration for the show.  And a couple weeks ago, knowing the premiere was coming up, I submitted a list of characters for release; the ones that I did work on, and that I had seen final images released either on Hub World or in the teasers, from Hasbro Studios; the actual production team, with character designer Jose Lopez.

All denied release.

Sorry folks.   None sorrier than myself, I've been waiting to add those images to my portfolio for over a year, but I guess for now they remain in the archives.  It was framed to me that those images may be possibly used for additional inspiration for other/future projects, and need to be remain unpublished, or if they ever decide to do a 'Making of', or another bitchin' Ark type book from Forster/Sorenson, based around Transformers : Prime - any way they want to do it, Hasbro, Inc. wants to be the one to first release those images, or not at all.  Hopefully some of that work will come out sooner than later, though I have NO IDEA how or when...

Disappointment, cont'd...

...and I'll take the opportunity to let everyone know I was not invited back to work on any Transformers games from Activision.  Daniel Suarez, who hired me in the first place for TF1, and brought me back for RotF, had moved on to run the Call of Duty franchise - the Transformers franchise changed hands internally, and I got lost in the shuffle, I guess.  And despite the awesome Mr. Suarez (buy his new game!) continuing the advocate for me over the spring and summer to land a booking on any upcoming Transformers games over the summer, I wasn't able to make any headway.

Of course, business is business, but I hoped all the efforts I had put into the first two games+ would leverage me into a least some consideration for a position, but it didn't work out that way this time.  So who knows when I'll get the chance to create more Transformers video game characters, but I thought I'd leave you with an image I have been wanting to do for some time, kind of a character lineup:

 That's 19 unique characters, 1 movie-ized G1 character in Shockwave, and 3 G1 DLC characters.  Six characters made it out of Game Canon and got action figures and appeared in IDW Comics!  I hope I get to add to it one day...

She-Wolves! Look Out!

Here's a preview of the painting I'm contributing the Eat Your Art Out IV show held at Meltdown Comics, 02/26/11 in Hollywood, CA.  It will be a part of an auction to raise money for the Angel City Derby Girls, who, and I quote;

'(We) are a group of dedicated women athletes who have come together in a grass-roots effort to organize a democratic, DIY, member-driven and operated Los Angeles Flat Track Roller Derby League that abides by WFTDA rules and regulations in regards to the game of Roller Derby. We are building a strong league of highly skilled athletes who are prepared to compete in interleague/interstate WFTDA competitions.'

They, and the national league they are a part of, are complete and total badasses.  Who wouldn't want to help them out?  It's either that, or a skate over your foot and a knock to the nuts.

Anyways, back to the drawing above - the theme this year is Dark and Mysterious Origins of Nursery Rhymes, and after doing some research, all the best ones resulted in a king or queen getting their heads chopped off, which wasn't really inspiring me.  So I went to other way, and picked the wimpiest and most common rhyme, with the origin story literally being the content of the words - no mysterious origin here, for Mary Had a Little Lamb.

I decided to do the little known, (and oft told in hushed tones) story of the after school walk home, and how a pack of wolves came upon Mary and her Lamb, and tore them apart and ate them.  And because it's for ACDG, I wanted to incorporate a Derby theme...

I wanted to throw this up now, to plant the seeds of awareness of the event across the internets, but I probably won't get to the painting until Christmas break, and then I'll start posting about it again, when the event gets nearer.

Derby Girl! Look Out!

Rolling Thunder!

Wampas! Look out!

Not especially great drawings, but kind of fun...

The Wizard of Oz - Render 03

It's getting there!  I have the initial pencil pass with the bricks done, and I also re-sprayed the ruby slippers, and finally got the color I was looking for.  Still looks like I barely did anything since the last update, but hours were spent on this over the weekend!

TFA Ironhide 06

Bam!  Indestructible!

TFA Ironhide 05

Boom!  Final!

TFA Ironhide 04

Here's the flats for ol' Ironhide...onto the finish, with color and line balancing, shading, highlights, and f/x!

TFA Ironhide 03

Line art for TFA Ironhide.  One person made a comment in response to TFA or Rendered.  That person wins, TFA it is!  Plus a bonus, I'll do an alt color with that silver indestructible color as well...

TFA Ironhide 02

Here's a couple angles for Ironhides alt mode, plus a couple of false starts!

And now here is the composition I've had in my head for quite awhile, I just couldn't find it with the G1 version...hopefully this one will help me go back to that, but for now, I'll continue on with this one...

TFA Ironhide 01

I'm still kind of struggling with that Ironhide image that's been laying around now for months.  A friend of mine sent me an Animated Ironhide toy, and I play with it all the time, make him fight other toys - it's great!  So that kind of reinvigorated the idea, but I wanted to try my hand at an TFAnimated version of the scene.

And even then I'm not sure where to go with it, finish it in my animated style, colored line art, shading etc., or do the TFA style, but finish it in the fully rendered style I use for my work?

Any opinions from TF fans?  I'm checking into the idea of getting a table at BotCon 2011, and if I land one, it would be a print for sale - Animated?  Rendered?  Both?

Hmmmmm....

Anyways, tomorrow the Alt mode, plus the rough composition.

The Wizard of Oz - Render 02

A loooooooong overdue update to the Oz painting - the first pass pencils almost done, still working on the bricks and the slippers...I'm hoping to have this thing finished by the weekend, at last!

Halloween 2010 Punkinface.

Happy Halloween!

Vampire.

And not that glittery kind, either.

Some Zombies.

And none too fresh, either.

Devyil-Cats - Final

And this concludes the Kitty Cherub Chronicles.

Let's fill up the rest of this week with zombies and monsters and sh*t, shall we?

Devyil-Cats - Flats

...ooh, just in time for Halloween Week!  The final tomorrow...

Devyil-Cats - Inks

Buttercats - Final

Here's the final...I felt the balance was off a little, due to the wings of the fairy, so I zoomed it in a bit, recropping it.

Here's the original framing:

I don't know, I could go either way...

Buttercats - Flats

Sorry, a little late - I was still asleepin'...!

This one is a little complicated, lots going on here, but before it's done, I'll have it reflecting the color theories, and make it tie into a lot more with the green theme for this one.

Buttercats - Inks

I got no words...it's 4 AM, and I just finished working.  So here's this.

Mer-Kitties - Final

Ah, serenity.

Glub, glub...

Mer-Kitties - Flats

So this color theme is pretty blue, with a healthy dose of aqua green mixed in...but I have to be careful not to have too much green, as that is going to be the color theme for the fairy image, so the colors might change around a bit before I decide it's final.

Mer-Kitties - Inks

Sky Kitties - Final

Sky Kitties - Flats

And now, the color flats.  As I'm going along with these, I'm trying to give each one a strong color theme, and I'm going with Gold, on this one.

Still need to find the colors for the line work, highlights, shadows, and an overall overlay layer color to focus the characters a bit more...