The Art of Charles Zembillas daily blog.
On March 20 2027 there's going to be a great event. The 1st Crash Bandi-Con will take place in Grapevine Texas (Dallas area).
This will be very special as both Joe Pearson and myself will be in attendance. Joe and I are the root of the Bandicoot. :)
For details follow this link to the Bandi-Con's site ... https://crashbandicon.com/
This event is sponsored by Retro World Series. They have lots of experience in organizing gamer get togethers. I
I hope to meet many fans there. :)
Celebrating the New Year with Coco Bandicoot. Crash will be 30 this year. Wishing you a terrific 2026!
It is my traditional to create a Christmas greeting for all the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon fans. You are great fans and I am appreciative of the love you have for these characters. So ... Merry Christmas you guys! Cheers and I wish you many wonderful things. Thank you for following my blog over these many years.
I've been meaning to post this for a while now. Recently I accepted a commission to create a poster for the 30th anniversary of PlayStation. The client is in Italy and has produced a documentary called "PlayStation Impact". This is what I came up with for them.
It is my tradition to create art at Christmastime for the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon fans. I believe they are the greatest video game fans in the world. This is my way of saying hello and thanks. You guys are fantastic. Have a very Merry Christmas!
Howdy folks! Hanging out and having fun putting together some short videos showcasing art demos I've done in the past. Taking a thematic approach. Click on the image below to watch it on YouTube. It's a little less than a minute long.
Hello there! I created this in 2019. It's a portrait of Spyro the Dragon painted in acrylics while jamming at my school. At the time I posted this on my blog. After each phase I scanned the image and have recently edited the pictures in a time lapse video with music. It's interesting to see the metamorphosis starting with the pencil sketch on to the final work. The video is a minute long. Click on the image to watch it on YouTube. Thank you and I hope you enjoy it.
This is a commissioned illustration I created in May 2021. It's for the Molly Heady-Carroll's "Zenibeasts" project which debuted on YouTube a few days ago. This was the art for the board game and is now being used to promote the video. Molly has been a long term student and has completed an animated pilot for her fun project which is doing very well view wise. I recommend watching it as it's very enjoyable and only a couple of minutes. You can see it at this link ...
Zenibeasts: Kaiju Cutie - YouTube
Hello friends! It's a happy month for Happy Meals at McDonald's as Crash Bandicoot is featured for December. Imagine my joy! This is at least the second time and maybe the third that Crash has been on Happy Meals for kids. Spyro the Dragon is also in this latest nationwide campaign. Here's a video of the commercial ...
The Animation Academy is a school I launched 25 years ago today.
Things get sinister in the latest episode of Montgomery Thump and Timbuk Too! Follow the link to the Canvas section of Webtoon Comics to see what's up.
If you're new to the series you can start from the beginning and get caught up...
https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/montgomery-thump-and-timbuk-too/list?title_no=690071
These drawings are from the original development of the character that would become Spyro.
It had been a little more than 2 weeks since I started to create the very first concepts for Insomniac Games. I was in the process of refining and defining. Insomniac was very excited about the character and the images I was coming up with. At this point in the creation of Spyro I was directed to really push his expressions.
This is the way it works. You dig and explore through concept sketches then as the character emerges a commitment is made towards the final design. Once you've nailed the look then you test it out and see how it functions through expressions and action / attitude posing as the personality emerges.
Note for historians and archivists: The pages are sequential but they're numbered incorrectly.
Intrigue plus a new character gets fired up! The next chapter of Montgomery Thump is on Webtoon Canvas. Lots more content on the way in days ahead. Follow the link.
https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/montgomery-thump-and-timbuk-too/list?title_no=690071
These are pages from the development of Spyro the Dragon on this day Jan 23 in 1997.
I contracted with Insomniac Games to own my original art once it was used for production. It was a groundbreaking contract back then. Thus I have the unique opportunity to showcase these images.
There are 103 pages total that I created for this project. The pages here are numbers 41 through 44. They were misnumbered by someone at the company.
Spyro was really cracking the shell at this point. Insomniac was very excited. They knew they had a winner. Spyro continued to improve with the next round of sketches which I'll feature in a few days.
It was 25 years ago at this time in January 1997 when I was at Universal Studios developing a special character for a video game project. This is a commission I finished earlier today of Spyro. Blue pencil and ball point pen on paper.
I've published the first 3 chapters of my independent project online. Here's the link. Lots more content on the way. New chapters each Wednesday.
January 19 2022 marks the 24th anniversary of my school's (The Animation Academy) very first class in the back room of the Coral Cafe in Burbank in 1998.
I'll be marking the occasion by publishing my first independent project. I've been developing it for over 40 years going all the way back to its inception in 1981.
This is the project that started the school.
