Nice stache Crash

I wonder what classic Crash would like with some facial hair... Hmmm...

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Top Hat Teddy Bear

One of the things I encourage in my Visual Development class is experimentation and innovation with traditional mediums. This evening I worked on a composition that was partly a demo and partly just creating with my students while they were going the same. I came up with the sketch for this fellow with graphite pencil and then proceeded to add tone with markers. Once it was blocked in I picked up the pencils again to shade the image with gradients and texture. I started with an HB pencil then followed up with 2B and 4B and 6B to achieve rich darks. The higher the B number the darker the graphite. 

Afterwards when I scanned the drawing I used Photoshop to manipulate the color balance so that it looked as if it was done with blue pencil instead of gray markers and graphite.

It's been a little while since I was able to creatively engage with my students since much of my focus as of late has been on working directly with them on their own art. Feels good to have my own fun again.

Bringing classic sculptures to life

I remember as a kid I'd look at photos of sculptures from ancient times and wonder what they would look like in color as flesh and blood humans. I'd often imagine finding some way of tinting photos of these classic works to see them as living beings. Along came Photoshop and many years later I was able to pull it off in 2011 just for fun. Boy what a difference this made! Check out these images and you'll see what I was aiming at.

The mystery is solved for the Venus de Milo. Here she is in the form we know in plain lifeless marble followed by her color version as both a light and dark haired lady.

This is a statue of Zeus commonly known as Zeus Ostricolli. A very robust bust. Zeus was typically rendered with a magnificent mane of dark hair and a full flowing beard. Here's what the sculpture would look like in real life...

Next up is the statue of Apollo at Delphi. As god of the sun and the arts Apollo was a golden boy. Take a look at what this sculpture would be if it was a real person...

Last but certainly not least is Julius Ceasar himself. This bust is in the Vatican Museum in Rome and I'm happy to say that I laid eyes on the real deal when I was there several years ago. At this point in his life Ceasar was basking in his middle aged glory after the conquest of Gaul or modern day France and Belgium. This sculpture is considered to be a faithful rendition of what he actually looked like.

It was a great deal of fun to color these images. Hope you enjoyed viewing them as well.

Crash Bandicoot - Origin of Coco - Part 5

Here are a few more sketches from the development of Crash's little sister Coco Bandicoot. The drawings are dated May 6 1997. It was my third session working on Coco's design and personality. She still did not have a name at this point but she had a nice look and she had character. You can see how her final appearance was really taking form.

Color from Gray tone

This is a class demonstration I created in the first year of my school in 1998. I did it in the Visual Development class. Students were a bit baffled when I worked up the color version of this design. I started with a gray marker rendering of the composition. Afterwards I made a photocopy of the toned design and used color markers to bring the xeroxed image to full life. Helped to drive home the point that gray tones and color are strongly related to each other. You're in greater command of color when you learn to use your gray tones effectively.

J&K - The Road to Daxter - Part 4

Picking up on the design progress of Daxter from Jak and Daxter in 2000. These next sketches show a turning point in the development of the character. The first drawing below has potential for something. After this the direction on the emerging sidekick started to change. Here's some of the stronger designs during this period.

Moon over The Animation Academy Burbank

Thought I'd share something different with friends and followers. This is the conference room at my school The Animation Academy in Burbank California. Yes it is nice. It's even nicer than it appears in these photos. Chance Raspberry of The Simpsons was over the other night and we had a meeting at the conference room. It's the highest point in the Magnolia Park area in central Burbank. Kind of looks like an ancient temple. He took these shots during our meeting with his iPhone.

Here's another view of the January night sky with a full moon as our lamp. You can see the lights of downtown Burbank way off to the left along the horizon. The conference room is on the fourth floor of a three story building above the tree line.

Chance is a former student of the Academy and is one of many who've gone on to become stars in the biz. He's recently succeeded with a Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of his Little Billy project. We were having a strategy pow wow. The Academy is located at the geographical center of the capital of the animation industry. A great place to be. Wanted to share this beautiful view. Thanks for the photos Chance!

Original cover design concept - Crash Bandicoot

Hey hey Crash fans! Look what I found! This is the original concept sketch I provided for Naughty Dog when they requested something for the cover of the very first Crash Bandicoot game! This was faxed to ND on January 19, 1996. Coincidentally that's the date I conducted the first class of my school two years later. I remember doing a color version of this too but I don't have a copy. At least there's this. Compare it to the actual cover of the first game and you can see how the idea was retained. Add the image to the growing archive of Crash art history.

Theseus vs the Minotaur

Whenever I'm involved in a gargantuan body of work I battle with myself. Physically and psychologically it can be an intense conflict sticking with a daunting project until completion. Such was the case this evening as I finally won out and saw it through to the end. I'm preparing something special. My first character based franchise that comes entirely from me and not something I was hired or contracted to do. My own intellectual property which I'll be launching online soon. I was attempting to finish the initial content for it by the end of this month. I did so with an hour and 5 minutes left before February 2013 kicked in.

Needless to say I am happy relieved excited and very proud and looking forward to sharing it with the rest of humanity. If you like the projects I've done before I think you'll like this one. It's been a long and winding road with many setbacks traps and pitfalls but I didn't give up and saw it through in spite of the many years of obstacles I faced. There's still a lot to do but I have enough to get it going and start building a new character based franchise online!

The struggle to overcome myself and get all the artwork done was a fight between me and the monster inside. You can do it Charles against why are you trying just give up and relax and live a normal day like everyone else. While looking around for art to post on my next blog entry I happened across this. It reminded me metaphorically about this inner war. Winning out over the impossible. I came up with the original line drawing as a concept sketch in early 1985 while working with ABC TV in Hollywood. They were developing a Greek mythology special which they intended to animate. It didn't pan out but I had a chance to come up with some cool stuff at the time. This is Theseus vs the Minotaur.

At the time I intended to paint it as part of the presentation for the producers to pitch to the network executives but a change in management caused it to wrap up before it could get that far. Back then there was no such thing as Photoshop. Everything was done in traditional mediums such as acrylics. Twenty years later I got around to coloring the composition digitally when I was first learning the software. Here's the result with some Greek font text I included for a title as a cover piece in 2005.

  

There's no inner monster so great that it cannot be defeated. If you face the challenge and stick with it you'll be victorious. Don't give up no matter what you're facing. Use time effectively and make progress every day. You'll eventually experience the glory of a great accomplishment if you keep forging ahead and keep creating and never give up!

Foolin with Photoshop

Here's another example of something I doodled in Photoshop as I continued to explore it a few years ago in 2008. I used one brush and started with one color. I used colors I came up with during the painting process as my palette. The more I painted the more colors I had to choose from and modify. Before I knew it I had this unusual composition all the while sticking with that one brush. Fun exercise to work in color with no distinct visual goal in mind and then see what happens.