Crash and turn

Hello there everyone and a special greeting to the many Crash Bandicoot fans who frequent my blog. As I've mentioned previously my schedule and free time have been caught up with a lot of different things that pull me away from creative productivity lately. But I did have a chance this evening to punch out this 4 pose turn of Crash in the classic mode with some minor design variations. It was done as practice and also as a class demo on how to do a character rotation. Best regards to all and thanks for checking in. Hope you're doing well. 

Crashing in...

Hello friends! It's a busy time and I have my hands full with the growth of my school. It's all good only it takes me away from posting as much as I would like. It also takes me away from drawing and art in general but I'm working on it! Meanwhile here's what I came up with a few days ago while helping a student understand how to draw straight ahead with a ball point pen.

Wish it could be more but at least it's something new and I'm keeping my Crash chops up. As always thank you for checking in and I'll be following up again soon.

Monster heads

Hello everybody! Fighting for opportunities to get some art done and here's what I came up this week as a class demo. Things are really picking up at my school and it's taking a lot of my time in a good way. Still I'm determined to turn the corner and get into a full time creative mode. Hope you are experiencing happiness in life and thanks for continuing to check in with my blog. I've got more art on the way.

Spy vs Spy

Another little window presented itself for some in-class sketching as one of my students in the advanced session of Character Design suggested a James Bond-ish type of subject for a demo. 

I followed it up in the next session with a female version of a secret agent kind of character where you're not certain if she's just an attractive lady who's interested or maybe she's something more.

Put the two together and you have a story in the works...

Scootin' ArtShark

Here's a sneak peek at the next ArtShark for the upcoming email newsletter for my school in Burbank along with a look at how the graphics developed. ArtShark is the long standing mascot for the Academy.

How it will look on the header...

Here is the reverse process starting with the final colored design...

Flat color with colored line and no dimensional shading...

The line was colored after the flat color was added to the image...

The final line drawing was scanned and cleaned up digitally in Photoshop...

It began with the original concept sketch...

Getting in the groove / new drawings

After a long and unintentional break from drawing I'm happy to say that I had a chance to do something new this past week. I asked a student what they would have me come up with in the advanced character design class as a demo. She suggested a young boy elfin type of character that was evil but could trick you into thinking he's good, done in my Jak and Daxter style. So here's the result...

  

Earlier in the first level character design class I did this simple head rotation as a demo and also for personal practice. It's healthy for professional character designers to keep their chops up when it comes to basic skills and rotations are a part of that.

Feels really good to get creative again.

Lost / auctioned Crash drawing comes home

The saga of the lost then found then auctioned Crash Bandicoot drawings concludes with a strange but true ending. At least for one of the three from Project A / BC that took place a few weeks ago. First it was mailed to the UK, then it wound up in Brazil for more than 3 months, then it finally made it to the UK where it was auctioned by the Worthing Boys Club.

As it turned out, the winning bidder as fate would have it was a student at my school The Animation Academy in Burbank, who was in attendance in June 2012 when I created the drawing as a class demonstration. Nearly 3 years later the student returned to take another class. Lo and behold, he brought the drawing with him, now framed and under glass, to the very place where it came into being in the first place!

I wouldn't have believed it myself but here's the proof. Things sure do have a mysterious way of working out sometimes...

Vote 'Crash' for Super Smash Brothers

From a follower of this blog...

... theres this thing in Smash Bros were you can vote which video game character can be in Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS i thought that maybe you can spread the word in voting Crash Bandioot in Smash Bros in your blog or wherever or maybe you like to vote for him as well and tell when he should be in Smash.

I know it might be unlikely to let him be in the game but at least can try I guess?

Here's the site in which you can vote for Crash https://cp.nintendo.co.jp/us/

Thank you for sharing this and I'm happy to pass it along.

I voted by the way and the reason for wanting this character to be in the Super Smash Bros? He's Crash Bandicoot!

If you like you can click on the link and vote for Crash.

https://cp.nintendo.co.jp/us/

Back in the saddle again

Hello all you beautiful people who happen to be reading this. Sorry for the extended absence. I do indeed apologize. Sometimes ya just gotta deal with the inevitable things of life. And thanks for your continued visits. I appreciate your taking the time to check in during this period.

I've started creating again and will be back shortly to share what I'm coming up with. Meantime I also want to tell the Crash fans out there about some chatter I've been hearing on the street that Sony may be planning a Crash Bandicoot movie. Or at least talking about it among themselves. Heard it from a couple of sources this past week so who knows? Time will tell.

Anyway it's great to get creative again and  I'm looking forward to posting very soon.

Project A / BC - Auction 3 in progress

Hello there everyone!

The third and last auction of an original Crash Bandicoot drawing I came up with is now up and running through this Sunday, Easter Sunday by the way, April 5 2015.

This is the third drawing from the series that was lost in the mail and spent 3 months in Brazil before making it to the UK and the Worthing Boys Club which is managing the auction. Project A / BC which you can read about below.

Here's the link to the auction.

This drawing is very special because it's the first time I started drawing Crash again after a very long hiatus. It was created on June 13 2012.

Proceeds will benefit both my school The Animation Academy in Burbank California and The Worthing Boys Club in West Sussex UK.

Thanks for checking in and to all those who participated in the auctions so far thank you for helping to make them a success!

Charles Zembillas