'ALIEN' STUDIES

Last week I had a chance to take a great class taught by a visiting CalArts teacher, John Mahoney. We basically spent the night studying and drawing from movies. The first night we spent looking at a scene from "Alien"...

BRUSHING OFF THE DUST...

I haven't been to a life drawing session in a while, so I was glad to go the other night to a session after work. Lucas has a bi-weekly session and I really would like to continue attending. Here's a couple samples from the night...

PREMIERE!

Check out CN tonight 9PM (E/P)!
(unlike the movie, the show is actually good!)

NOIR PRINT PROCESS

At the last minute I decided to make a print for Comic Con. I thought it would be fun to show a little bit of my process. So here it goes...

THUMBNAIL

First I start out with filling as many pages as I can with all kinds of ideas. I keep the drawings small and loose. Concentrating mainly on composition and shapes.

ROUGH SKETCH

After I find something that I think works, I take it and do a larger rough. Still keeping it loose and not getting concerned with detail. I'm just trying to hone in the shapes and perspective while exploring some tone too.

CLEANER ROUGH

Now I'm starting to define the piece more. Tightening up the shapes and getting more concerned with lines rather than tone. Still keeping it loose and full of energy, but refining the shapes and design. Each step is an evolution towards a better image. You lose things that didn't work and define those that do. You can see I didn't like the man's silhouette and I made an adjustment to hopefully improve it.

CLEAN UP SKETCH

Here's where I begin to think about detail and start to tighten things up for the final image. If I make any mistakes, I don't sweat it because I know I can make changes in Photoshop when I begin to do the tone.

FINAL TONE

Then I scan in my sketch and begin to paint in the tone in Photoshop using my Cintiq. This is a huge step and unfortunately I don't really have any 'in progress' versions of this. So you'll just have to do with the final. You'll notice I never stop evolving my piece, even at the very end. Take note on the sign. I wasn't buying the "Noir" sign and I decided to change it to a more appropriate 'hotel' sign instead.

It took me a weekend to put it together and I had a blast with it. Hopefully you dug seeing the different steps!

SKYWALKER AIRSHOW FOOTAGE!

A while back I mentioned that we got an impromptu air show during one of our lunch/soccer breaks. I thought the only way I'd ever capture the moment was in the sketch below. But luckily they've posted some footage on the web too! They've done some fancy editing with clips from other films, but you can tell the Ranch parts.

See I wasn't lying!

TOTORO FOREST AUCTION

I got to attend a great art auction over at Pixar Saturday night. A few of the artists there organized the event to raise money for the Totoro Forest Foundation, which help preserve the forest in Japan that inspired Hayao Miyazaki. There was A LOT of incredible work in the show! I even won a bid! I got a great piece by the talented Jay Shuster!...

I've been a fan of Jay's work ever since I saw his stuff in the Episode 1 and 2 "Art of" books.  I can't wait to hang it up at home. But first it's taking a trip to the Cartoon Art Museum in San Fran for a couple months. I feel like a high roller with a piece of art "on loan" to a museum! 

Thanks to everyone at Pixar for organizing a great event!

JERRY REED MEMORIES

While I was getting ready for work today I heard on the Today Show that Jerry Reed passed away. Whenever someone dies they usually play clips from their most memorable work. To my surprise they didn't play a clip from what I remember him best by...

CLONE WARS CARDS

A while back, I mentioned that I got to do some original sketch cards for Topps' Clone Wars cards. Well, with the movie just around the corner, they're released them to the stores! I got to do 66 cards in total and I thought that it would be fun to do a full set of playing cards. Here's a sneak peek at the entire set (each suit is a different theme)...

COMIC CON SKETCHES

COMIC CON WRAP UP

Thanks to everyone that stopped by the booth! I had a great time this year even though I was there only on Friday and Saturday. Next year, I'm planning on going all out and doing a large project. This year was just way to busy for me to focus. The print was a last minute addition. If you missed getting either my book or the print, check back soon. I'll make it so you can order them on the blog!

Here's a quick wrap up of my favorite things...

HENRY JONES AND JUNIOR

BAG LADY

(She made a dress out of a free give-away bag!)

CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW

(shopping at Ralph's)

CN'S BOOTH

CLONE WARS STORY PANEL

(Steward Lee, Vince Tuscano, Justin Mettam, Ben Price)

WALL-E

So I've seen this movie twice now, and it just keeps getting better and better. I loved this film. Half way thru the movie I had no idea what was going to happen next. And if you're a regular movie goer, you know that's a rare thing. Those Pixar guys just make good movies. Check out this cool interview with the director, Andrew Stanton...

ANDREW STANTON INTERVIEW

And for those of you that have seen the film...(possible spoliers)

BUY N LARGE WEBSITE

GO SEE IT NOW!

SFO AIRPORT SKETCHES

I took a quick trip down to LA for a friend's wedding and got to fill out a couple sketchbook pages while waiting to board and for my shuttle to arrive. Quick tone pass in Photoshop.

TRAILERS AND CARDS, OH MY!

Things are moving along great and the company is releasing some of our work to the public (which is really the only time I can talk about it). Lucasfilm has announced that our new show is going to premiere in theaters as a feature film on August 15 and then air as a half-hour TV series in the fall on Cartoon Network and TNT. They've released a couple trailers too!...


They even made a poster for theaters...
Lucasfilm has also announced that we've been asked by Topp's to create a series of 'Artist Sketch Cards' for their future 'Clone Wars' card series.

And I was lucky enough to get a stack of my own to do. 66 to be exact. It's a pretty cool idea, a kid can go buy a pack of cards and they just might get an original drawing out of it! Hopefully people will like what I did. I'll post a preview once I get the ok.

I'm in print!

PAGE O' P51's

JUST ANOTHER LUNCH AT THE RANCH

No joke. This actually happened at lunch today. We got a private airshow by a couple P51's during our soccer match. One of those moments in life you'll never forget. I love this job.

'MOM' TATTOO

LUCASFILM CO-WORKERS!

One of the things I like best about changing jobs is that I get to meet all kinds of new and talented artists. I've been fortunate to work with some amazing people in the past and here at Lucasfilm, it looks like my luck is going to continue. I've added some new links to my blog list. So if you have some free time and wanna get inspired, click on the links below!