Some "behind the scenes" for PNC:

Minature town set for Act 3.

Green screen shooting of kids.

Goose costume before added feathers and sewing on head.

Drummer's drum set with cymbal.

Pogo stick for the leaping Lord. Un-used because the Lord was the same size as the pogo.

Drumsticks and feet for the leaping Lord Pogo stick trick.

Working twisted lamppost.

Head to the calling bird, as worn by it's maker: Jason Villegas.

Partridge head/body , made by me.

Swan wings as worn by it's maker: Kara.

One of my spots has gone LIVE

So I've been working on various spots for Dancing Diablo as of late, as you may know from my DNA (more to come soon).

One of the first to be completed that I helped on from start to finish has finally gone live. It is the PNC Winter Numberland in which PNC Bank calculates the price of christmas based on the song of "the 12 days of christmas" (which happens to be my favorite xmas song). It was a really fun, cool, interesting piece with great Art Design. The shoot (which happened the day after halloween) ended up being just as much fun as creating all the great pieces. Notice the purple lamppost on the right, that was life size and it really took a lamp in it. Too bad it died on the trip to the shoot and back to the studio... I wanted to keep it and take it home with me. Next time.

What I've been up to: Evolution of DNA

I've been working at an animation studio that has a client that asked for a model of DNA. We thought first to make it out of paper as such:

But i don't think it really worked. Didn't say DNA. So we went another route, cutting out small slivers into each strip of paper before folding it, so it looked as such:

But the client didn't like that one. They wanted it to look more realistic (if a model of DNA can ever truly be realistic). And so after thinking it over much I remembered how cutting cardboard on a diagonal and twisting it, it would stay twisted, I made this:

I think it is the best one... and so did the client.

This is what I have been up to lately. Working with a studio that allows me to make things, build things and paint things. I haven't really been drawing much, but I've been a whole lot more creative than I have been in a while. I did have to do a series of basic illustrations as a child, and construction of a man running (this I will be throwing into iMovie? or Final Cut Express? later and making an animatic of).

I so much more to show, but this is a teaser for now. Enjoy.

Found Art

I was on my way home late last night and as I was exiting my local
subway station I found this. 2 young girls looked at it, laughed and
said diresively "someone was really bored" and walked out without
another glance. My instict as you could tell was to capture it, since
I was fairly certain that this morning it would not be there. Either
through "vandalism" or through an MTA "cleanning" crew.
This brought a smile to my face after a long day, and I was saddened
at the young girls' indefference.

Color Gestures

Here are some of the color sketches from that same drawing night, with the same model. The reddish one I put up because I liked the way the hips came out.

Tomorrow more class, so this friday more drawings.

Enjoy.

2 In 1 week, WOW!

So Life drawing started up again this week, and I got some interesting poses done. Our model was a flamboyant dancer with an awesome kimono and a hot pink jacket. His poses switched from overly pretzely to static and simple. The first 2 are during the one minute poses and I made myself draw in pen so that I couldn't cheat: just draw what you see quickly. The pencil ones are from the 2 minutes, when I felt I had warmed up some. Later I may post up some color sketches from the longer 3-5 minute poses, but for now enjoy these.

Its been interesting to see how I develop as an artist lately. Trying my hand back at painting, seeing the things I make by hand come to life and actually taking time to develop stories that occur to me as I go about my day. I've also begun to notice age playing a part in it. It's sad to say that though I may have lost some of my youthful vigor, I feel the final outcome of the few pieces that I do produce are of a much better quality than before. Besides, I am no longer obsessed with this hollywood/stylized ideal of what it is to be an artist. Most of my pretensions, I am happy to say, have been lost along with my youth. I sound like I think I'm and old hag, but I definitely don't feel like a kid anymore. What can you do? Your only as old as you think you are...

It's been a while, but welcome to October!

So I never meant to ignore the Blog for so long, but a lot has happened in these past weeks. I won't bore you with the details, just give a small glimpse of one of the last actually scannable images I did in my sketchbook. 

I sat outside in the large patio of a german style beer hall drinking oktoberfest, and chatting with friends. All artists of course so after about a third of the way through out first mug (litre sized mugs at that), we all whipped them out and started sketching. Its amazing how we can't seem to go more than a couple of minutes before someone starts drawing. 

I'm getting to like the thinness of my sketchbook pages. There is something nice about the ghost images that drawings on the other side of the page leave. I think it's freeing me to do looser drawings... since they won't look great anyway with random lines/colors running through them, that it doesn't matter how nice/well placed my drawings are. And the yellow color of the pages lets me believe that this can be some exotic travel journal from a bygone era. Or I'm just feeling a bit fanciful today. Who knows?

Enjoy. More to come as always.