Friday, December 30, 2011

Cosmos Dragons

Here are two sketches of Cosmos Dragons from my Zheph Skyre series. I know I have already shown a newer drawing of the top one, but I must look back at my own progress.

As you can see, the top one is a Star Dragon. It is a panther's head combined with a Mexican Walking Fish. I looked up strange fish on Google and this actually intrigued me.

The bottom one is an evil Galactic Dragon. I combined the head of a baboon with a horned beetle. I'm not sure why I haven't used more insects for my dragon combinations, but I should have. It maybe weird looking, but I like it.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Roller Blading

I was just roller skating with my cousin today at Roll on America. I got a deal on admission due to the holiday, and it was my Christmas gift to him. It was fun, even though it took some to get used to it again since I haven't been in years, and the skates must be really old since it is impossible to come to a stop. Next time I'll do roller blades because those are faster and easier to brake with.

I was just thinking how interesting it would be to animate characters on roller blades much like snowboarding. I think of Anime I like to watch like Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion and Eureka Seven, which have giant robots that roller blade and fly as if they were riding snowboards. It's interesting what you can use in real life to base in artwork and animation.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Sketchings Storage

I had received a very nice 3 ring binder with many empty pages in it from my godparents/ Uncle Bruce and Aunt Jane for Christmas. I was wondering at 1st what it was for, since I don't take pictures that often. They told me I can use it to store my sketches.

I realized that is a wonderful idea. I have a portfolio to store pictures of my best artwork, but having a case for the numerous sketches that came before it and have helped me develop my ideas is a good idea. Artists' sketches prove useful even to other people down the line.

I recall my teachers have told me to keep my sketches, but they never told me in what. Not all sketchbooks are secure, and they are more likely to tear over time. I also have had the tendency to take pages out of the sketchbooks in order to scan the images, but just simply placing the pages back into the sketchbook is no good. Having them in a secure place, like how comic book fanatics keep their most prized graphic novels in sealed plastic and organized, is a very wise idea that I suggest to other artists as well.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Shadow Dragons

Here are 2 early sketches of two different shadows dragons for my series Zheph Skyre.

The top sketch incorporates a leopard and a Komodo dragon and a leopard. It's a little weird to try to make something of the element "shadow" not look evil, but I think I have the right idea.

The bottom sketch incorporates a raven and a goat. I was having difficulty with combining these two animals' heads together, but I finally have a good concept I actually like.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas Art and Music

First of all, houses should try to keep it simple if they decorate their houses. Unless if they have a lot of lights that work together, too many decorations can just make a house look cheap and clashing.



I have a limited list of songs I like for Christmas these days. Most seem way too cheery, have nothing really to do with Christmas, or what it truly means. Does Frosty the Snowman, Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, or Grandma got Run Over by a Reindeer help people feel closer to one another on this holiday? I think Carol of the Bells, songs that incorporate Jesus, and songs that are more calm are better suited for the holiday spirit. I do like the funny songs out there that complain about the horrors that surround Christmas.

Most of the cutesie Christmas artowork you might find does not work for me. Again, it should be simple and it can still look great.



Merry Christmas! Happy Hanuka! Happy Holidays to everyone!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Metal Dragons

Here are two sketches of metal dragons from my series Zheph Skyre.

The one on the top is a good dragon called an Armored Dragon. I based it's head on an armadillo and a turtle.

The one on the bottom is an evil dragon called a Quicksilver Dragon. I based it on a snake and a vampire bat.

I'm sorry if I forgot to post something yesterday. It has been busy this holiday season, so it should go more smoothly afterwards.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Electricity Dragons

 Here are two old sketches I drew of an evil and a good electric dragon from my novel series. They were both drawn before I began to use real animals to base my dragons on, but I plan to base the top one on a wolf and a ram while the bottom one will be based on a fox and a kangaroo. The one on the top is a Thunder Dragon and the bottom sketch that I colored in is a Lightning Dragon.
These two dragons are important to my story because the evil dragon is the 1st dragon the audience will be introduced to, and a Lightning Dragon will become one of the main characters . I don't want to spoil too much, so I'll leave it on that for now.

Monday, December 19, 2011

DeviantArt

These are some sketches from my Zheph Skyre series I made a few years ago. They are all either important characters in the story except for one dragon. I might talk about each one of them later. I edited them a while ago and posted them on Deviant Art.
I used to like Deviant Art a while ago a lot more than I do now. It used to be one of the only ways I could display my artwork, but now I prefer my own website for my professional work. Sure on my website I can't have people leave comments, but it just looks more personal and unique.
Besides that, Deviant Art is mostly just good for a select few artists, and I believe those artists pay for the better service. I don't want to pay for an online service to display my artwork unless I can have complete freedom with the appearance.

I've realized that DeviantArt isn't the best site to show artwork on. A lot of the artwork is amateur, sexual, or fan art. I do like to draw fan art from time to time, but I truly love to be original. Also, sexual art can only help get artists jobs with very few companies.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Culinary Arts

I don't know how many artists or designers like to cook, bake or prepare food, but I do like it myself. I'm not so into it that I watch Rachael Ray or the Food Network, but I still enjoy it. I recently made three batches of a deviled eggs recipe that included fresh tuna, scallions, curry, parsley, and olive oil. Some parts of cooking is a little boring, like mincing ingredients instead of just cutting them, but it is worth it in the end. I received compliments on how good it was today at the party I served it at.

I have also made home made chocolates before, but I have keep having to improve my technique. I have the double boiling system down, but I've just been experimenting with what I've been putting inside them and how I have been filling them. I found out some easier, faster ways of making certain flavors of chocolates, like orange cream, mint cream, raspberry creme, and peanut butter. I still have to figure out how to develop my caramel chocolates.

There are plenty of other dishes I am capable to making, like this shrimp and Ramen stir fry recipe I've made before. Mostly I find cooking to be simple, as nowadays people can just search for recipes online, find the ingredients, and follow the directions. The internet has removed the need for cook books. However, I like when I can make small changes here and there to the recipes. It makes cooking feel more like artwork when I have the freedom to add or take away certain ingredients.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Netheus


This is an early sketch of Netheus from my Zheph Skyre series. There is no simple explanation for this character...

Netheus started off as a lifeless invention created by Zheph. He was a large steam powered armored suit that he can pilot with various weapons and gadgets. Zheph was trying to make something that would protect him from whatever the city could throw at him, something that would show just how ignorant the city has been, and something that could make him seem larger than his actual short size. Zheph is really uneasy about being shorter than Vanessa.

Zheph had been working on this invention for years and was nearly completed by the beginning of my first book. It wasn't until certain circumstances that forced Zheph to try to come up with a way to make his suit even more powerful. Certainly it was powerful compared to anything in Corthon, but he witnessed something dreadful from the outside world that made him uneasy. The suit's weapons weren't powerful enough, it wasn't fast enough, and it couldn't fly high nor long enough for him to face this particular challenge. He ends up stressing over trying to improve his invention, but he just can't figure out the technology yet.

He ends up finding a spell written on a scroll to enchant the thing with life, which he is skeptical at first, but he realizes he is out of options. Zheph uses the spell and it makes Netheus come to life as a creature. Zheph wasn't expecting that and now can't figure out what to do with him. Seeing how Zheph is now responsible for Netheus, he takes him with him to face this challenge.

I was thinking of making Netheus into a sphinx, as I had not included that species in my story at all, and he seems to represent a sphinx most of the time. I decided this armored form will only appear when Zheph is joined up with him. As you can see, Netheus's main weapons are two blades on each arm. They can be used like Wolverine's claws or they can turn and slash in the opposite direction as if they became one blade.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Earth Dragons


Here are another two sketches of Earth Dragons from my Zheph Skyre series.

The top earth dragon is based on the combination of an elephant and an ox. At first I just wanted to make the trunk a hard horn. but than I realized if this creature were real, it would have problems with its hard tusks as well. I decided to switch things around. The trunk would become a hard horn while the tusks would actually become side trunks. I know it might be odd, but I think it would give the creature more options of what it can do.

The bottom earth dragon is based on the combination of a rhinoceros and a warthog. I decided recently that the tusks from the warthog would have to replace the usual whiskers I normally give dragons. I know the bottom one looks a little like Deathwing from Blizzard's World of Warcraft, but I have seen the close up details of that dragons and there are some major differences between the two. Deathwing's lower jaw has metal armor on it, Deathwing doesn't have the horns and tusks my dragon has, the colors will be different, and the rest of the body of my dragon won't look like Deathwing at all from some of my later sketches. I admit that I do like WoW, but I have not had the time to play it recently.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

WAM Student Gallery


The Worcester Art Museum has a variety of classes offered for people of all ages in almost any medium. These classes can sometimes be used for college credit, and some of these classes end up traveling abroad! I myself have taken a comic book class, a tablet drawing class, and a class for marketing my artwork all at the Worcester Art Museum. It is only a coincident that Andy Fish was my teacher in all three classes...

Well, the Worcester Art Museum displays the artwork of its students from time to time. I could not get a certain printed in time to display from my tablet drawing class, but I was at least able to bring in a good number of my business cards. I designed them myself and had them printed via Over Night Prints.com, which is a very good printing site for numerous uses. You can see up above that I used the elemental star from my website for my logo, and I used the wings along the corners. I was suggested to not use a border for my card design, and I should have my own email address through my own website. I will keep the border, though I will re-size it a little bit in order to fit the website's card size, and I will get my own email address after I run out of these cards. It is a good idea to order a large number to start out with.

There are plenty of good pieces on display in the education wing of the museum. Check out Elizabeth Swallow's sculpture, Bob Cardoza's and Richard Leguex's paintings. Even the children's works are impressive.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Light Dragons & Snowboarding

Here are two sketches of an good and evil light dragon that will appear in the Zheph Skyre series. The good dragon's head is based on a horse and a lion fish. The evil dragon's head is based on a crane and a horned lizard.

For the longest period of time, I was going to make just one species of dragons for the element of light that were good, and one species of dragons for darkness/shadow that were evil. It wasn't limited to just dragons but for all other species and human wizards in my series. Light = Good and Shadow = Evil.

I came to a conclusion with the help of a previous girlfriend that I shouldn't necessarily do that. If the other elements have good and evil within them, than darkness and light should as well. People generally judge with their eyes most of the time. In movies and comic books, most of the time the heroes have been depicted in one image while the villains have been depicted in the opposite. More modern stories have shown that appearances can be deceiving. I won't even just limit one species to be entirely good and one species to be entirely evil. Humans have a choice and so would any intelligent being.

Besides, I thought of some instances where light could mean something negative, like the atom bomb, and shadow can mean something good, like nighttime when everyone sleeps and dreams.

An instance where light and darkness can each be used as an element for good or evil is Legend of Dragoon.

On a side note, I went to Mt. Wachusett today and went snowboarding. I had a blast. I am only mentioning this because it might influence some animations I make in the future.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Been Busy with Portfolio

I'm sorry I didn't post anything yesterday. I've been really busy with trying to fix my portfolio website lately.

I know that the animations that make up the buttons on my website are a little lacking, so I've been improving them. In turn, I will also improve the opening and include a skip button that will allow the viewers to enter my website without watching the intro if they want to.

There will also be new content available soon. Mostly there will be new images, but there will also be a new animation soon.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Water Dragons 2

Here is a drawing of two water dragons I drew. I began to color them in Photoshop and already they are beginning to look awesome!

For their full bodies I wanted them to be underwater creatures, but I wanted to keep wings of some sort on them. That way, they can at least fly a little bit when they come out of the water and they won't appear too much like the Loch Ness Monster.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Rock Critic Idea

This is a sketch for an online cartoon series I had in mind. I love the website That Guy With the Glasses with the numerous funny videos of people reviewing subject matter of my interests. A good number of them are really funny, and they even have crossovers with other critics which can get ridiculous.

I was just thinking of something I might want to review if I could ever find the time and passion to review. I realized on the website that I had seen a critic for pop music and a critic for rap music, but there was no critic for rock music. That seemed entirely unfair to me as I like rock music and don't care much for pop or rap.

My idea was a jester who is cynical, angry, and possibly psychotic. I could see myself giving lists of my favorite rock songs of all time, reviewing some rock music that I really hate, and using video footage from downloaded music videos to help prove my point. There are plenty of jokes to be made.

However, I don't see myself doing this anytime soon, as I am more dedicated towards some other ideas I am trying out right now, and I don't think I have all of the necessary programs in order to make such videos. It's just a thought of mine.

Monday, December 5, 2011

11 Second Club

This was made by

I was just told yesterday from a coworker about this website called The 11 Second Club. It is a website that has a contest every month where they provide an audio clip that lasts 11 seconds and you have to animate it within a month. It can be done with 3D or 2D animation, but it must contain the audio and it must only contain appropriate visuals for all audiences.

For each month members can vote on each animation based on a 10 star rating. I myself joined this website and viewed quite a few animations for the month of November. There were quite a few animations that needed work, but some of them were really good.

The winners receive critiques from professional animators. That right there is a valuable prize! It may not be a job, but it could definably help when applying for a career in this field. And in the end, if you get a decent rating for your animation even if you don't win, you can use it online for your personal portfolio. It is a win win situation.

I will submit 2D animations, but I must practice a little more before I submit. Hopefully after I try out this competition, I can get my microphone on my computer to work and make animations entirely made by myself.

Friday, December 2, 2011

1st Friday Boston

(This image is owned by SoWa)

I visited 1st Friday in Boston at the SoWa Artists Guild of 450 Harrison Avenue and I really enjoyed it. I saw lots of colorful paintings, huge paintings that would take up an entire wall, photographs, vintage stuff, and sculptures of all shapes and sizes including ones entirely made from hanger wires. If you are into the Arts, I suggest you visit, and perhaps you'll find something that will define your home.

I went there as a suggestion from Andy Fish, who taught "How to Market Your Artwork in the 21st Century" at the Worcester Art Museum of which I partook in. I have a better understanding of what studios and galleries are and what they make. I am unsure if my style and preference for most of my artwork would belong in a gallery or require a studio space. However, I can definitely see the benefit in having both for other types of artists.

Here's a list of artists and galleries that intrigued me on Harrison Ave.

Brian Murphy: Totally Weird Sculpture
John Martino: Khaki Gallery
Chase Young Galley
Leslie Wilcox and Ellen Wetmore:  Boston Sculptors Gallery
Cove Gallery
Beth Dacey
nest
Anna Davis
Russ Gerard: Gurari Collections
Sandy Belock-Phippen
Sharon Whitham
The Biennial Project
Kingston Gallery
Maggie Carberry
Shepherd Print Studio
Jacqueline Barrett

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Soup2Nuts

Soup2Nuts is an award winning animation company in Watertown Massachusetts. It primarily uses Adobe Flash to produce such shows as "Word Girl", "Dr. Katz", and "Home Movies". Feel free to visit their website at http://www.soup2nuts.tv/index.html.

I have applied to this company not long after I went to college. They sent me tests in the form of flash files, but I did not get the jobs of animator or storyboard artist. I understand now that I did not fulfill the requirements. Even after I took their advice of getting a Wacom Tablet to draw on my computer and reading Richard Williams' "The Animator's Survival Kit", which is a book I highly recommend to aspiring animators, I still required more experience.

This company gave me a test scene that needed to be completed in a week, which I took advantage of, but told me that one animator could finish this scene in a day. I worked tirelessly on the tests each day, but didn't understand how anyone could pull off this workload in one day. After a class with Andy Fish in tablet drawing at the Worcester Art Museum I went back into flash to experiment more with the tablet. I found out my previous method was entirely flawed.

I thank Soup2Nuts and Andy Fish for all they taught me, and I am continuing to develop my animation skills. Why am I writing all of this? It is because I have always wanted to become an animator, and I suggest everyone as well to follow their dreams even in these hard times. I am going to apply to Soup2Nuts again after I work on some good quality animations that I will have posted on my website. I will make sure I can do what test they give me within the span of time they expect of me. If I don't get the job at Soup2Nuts, than I will search elsewhere, but I will still wish this company luck as they continue to give the world award winning animation.

I just want to let everyone know that life dreams are hard, but they are worth pursuing.