Waiting for an oil change

Two things you may run into on the sidewalks of LA

guy waiting

people

people at the laundromat, and a wheel

people at the OSH outdoor store

Painting

I have lots to learn, but I'm enjoying the process. He was inspired by a bad guy in a 70's James Bond film that I caught on TV the other night.

Drawing

Comic Con!

I had the pleasure of attending Comic Con this last weekend. I didn't know what to expect, but within 10 minutes of entering the convention center doors, I met Bill Plympton and got an autographed copy of his Dog Days DVD. Needless to say, it was very cool. I got to meet a lot of VERY talented artists and even some famous folks. Here are some of the nice artists who signed my sketchbooks

Bill Plympton

Ronnie Del Carmen

John Kricfalusi

Kei Acedera

Bobby Chiu

So it turns out that the monkey animation test I did, got me the job! But....I can't put it up on my blog, nor anything I'm working on for awhile. The project is hush hush for now, but I assure you it has been a lot of fun to work on. Here are a couple o f people waiting for their food at a restaurant up the street.

sketch update

Some of these are from a nearby coffee shop, where I was sitting there looking around for someone to draw and realized that I had sat down across from Michael Strahan. Unfortunately, he was a quick mover and didn't stick around long enough for me to get a sketch of him. Though there were some good candidates that day; birds, young people, old people, people carrying boxes, shopping bags, etc...
I find it a lot easier to draw people here in LA than anywhere else. Most people have on the 'big city blinders' and don't pay much attention to the people around them. I think it's an adaptation to being surrounded by people, everywhere, all day. Whatever the reason, it makes it easier to draw them because they don't notice, or care. There are definitely a lot of interesting looking people here, and you don't have to go far to see them. I can walk outside my door and draw the cleaning lady or walk outside my building and draw people walking their dogs or the building painters across the street, Or the mechanics on the corner....
With all of this at my disposal, I guess I should be drawing more!

Next Post:
I did an animation test recently for a job with a cool monkey rig built in flash. It was a lot of fun, it should be up in a few days.

girls

some new stuff

Background

I was going through some old boxes that I haven't looked through in a while and came across a few gems from college. I found this background study I did for a class where I was experimenting painting on cells. This was a study taken from an episode of Samurai Jack. It was done with chalk pastels and for some reason, I just really like the feel of the chalk and the mix of colors. Another gem in the boxes, was a VHS tape with my first hand-drawn animation attempts on it. At some point, I'll transfer this amazing(ha) animation to digital format and post it on here for everyone's amusement, including my own.

Ed from Intervention

straight ahead animation on the DS

I just started drawing mike wazowski and 500 or 600 frames later, this is what I came up with. fun excersize with a simple character, i guess. i don't know if i'll ever get around to finishing it but it was fun to animate. it could use some in-betweens and music...

character designs ideas...

I was going for "sexy"...

ladies at the laundr-o-mat

mopping, sweeping, eating, putting on make-up, playing video games and watching their "stories" on the spanish channel... these are just a few. I had a lot of time to kill waiting for our laundry, so there are more laundry lady drawings where this came from.

Intervention Guy

This guy is from an episode of intervention last night. I think he had more problems than his 'addicted' wife.

Some Drawings

Waiting for the bus, riding the bus, shopping at the outlet mall and getting my oil changed...

Hand Gestures

Hand Gestures
I came across this today and had to pass it along. This is an amazing video analysis of hand shapes and gestures. She (Emily Maynes) goes through lots of gestures and variations. It's very interesting how doing the same gesture but at different heights or distances can mean so many different things.

Wrapping up...

The blog has been quiet lately, partly because of moving, partly because of learning and adjusting, but mostly because of the project I'm wrapping up on at the end of this month. As some of you may know, the movie is called Drag Me To Hell and it has been a great experience for me. I've learned an incredible amount in a short period of time and I'm excited to see something I've worked on in theaters. I have a new-found respect for movies and their creators. The process is very interesting to me and it seems that I learn something new almost everyday. This film is close to wrapping up, but I'm still in the thick of it working on some final shots. One of my shots will be unmissable if you watch the movie (hint: it involves an anvil)

But the Quest is still going strong! I'm still drawing and animating in my free time, just haven't found time to scan and organize for the blog, hopefully I will remedy that soon.

The Steel Dragon (aka the city bus, or how I learned to draw on bumpy roads....sort of)

As in all quests, there has to be a dragon, and this quest is no different. Fortunately, this one feeds on compressed natural gas and quarters. So I summon the dragon a few times a week to get me to work. These are some other local folks getting to and from work on Metro line 14.

...sorry for the bad drawings, i'm a little rusty... more to come from the bus...