To Prove that I'm Not Dead.....

....since it's been (GACK) two months and change since the LAST post, I give you a little thingie from the class I'm teaching at LCAD.

Back in October (is it already nearly December? Really?) I was given the opportunity to do another demo at the Laguna College of Art and Design. I decided to try something that was one-fifth instruction, four-fifths participation; I called it Design-0-Matic. Games often go through multiple incarnations between the Blue Sky phase and production. It boggles me how often this is true, but I swear to Vishnu it's the truth. Well, that's what we did over the space of an hour and change--take a game concept through five different iterations in ten-minute increments. I acted as the Art Director and divided the students into Character, Creature and Vehicle groups. Every ten minutes you were expected to crank out a few designs based on the reference I provided. At the end of this period you'd hand your sketch over to the person on your right, take the design from the person on your left, place that in front of you and, with a fresh piece of paper, re-interpret that design based on the new reference I put on-screen. We went from a gritty FPS concept to a fighting game, a sci-fi adventure game, an open-world/mmo hybrid and finally a fantasy adventure game riffing off Shadow of the Colossus. Sound insane? It was, but it was also a ton of fun. Big massive thanks to Jason Scheier for sticking around and sketching with the Vehicle crew!

I used the work from that session as the basis for a school assignment in my Digital Painting class. The painting above came from an online session a few weeks ago. This and more such stuff will show up at the blog, and soon! I still have about a hundred pieces of art to post. (It was a productive session.)

http://design-0-matic.blogspot.com/

Enjoy, have a wonderful Turkey Day, and I will see you on the far side of our communal tryptophan-induced coma.

More Still Life for Thee.

Here's one from the 9/13 class session.  DS Lite, baby. Painter in your pocket.

Still Life with DS.

Last night was a great class session. I cranked out a little study on my DS. My hope is that the students will post their work to their blogs. (Hint hint. I know some of you read this. Post 'em so the world can see 'em! :D)

Did a little tweaking in PS, got some of the lines a little tighter, that's about it. Did I mention how good it feels to be painting again? Exercises, that is. This kind of work equals calisthenics for painters. Now to make this a habit again so I get my chops back.

What are you lookin' at?

Shooting Star

Maybe something beautiful beyond words. Maybe something nobody else can see. That doesn't automatically make you crazy. Or maybe it's better to say certain kinds of crazy are good for the soul.
We're born porous to the wonders in the art of everyday life, a gift that's generally beaten out of us by the time we're adults.

Stop to appreciate the light between the leaves.

Give yourself the latitude to draw something ugly.

Write some bad poetry straight from the heart and give it to a person who matters to you.

The world will always be full of wonders but you're not a permanent resident. Enjoy what's given you and don't be afraid to be worthy of more. Maybe.....maybe there's only one shot at this game. Make it count.

Oh SHUSH.

What, YOU again?

Inner demons rarely get banished forever. You get better at muzzling them, that's all. That's enough. They're a part of you. Maybe your hands aren't obeying your will as you think they ought; you don't solve the problem by cutting them off. Figure out what's making them misbehave and face it. Reshape it. Transform it. The relationship between the you is a two-way street, I don't care what he says.

Every once in a while, when your circumstances call up old sheet music, those demons reappear, reduced in volume but still pungent as cat breath and ready to enact the same old stage play.

You get to say "no." Truly.

Friday: back to presenting some personal art.

Oh Happy Friday, my Brethren.

Something provoked me into posting some of these old concept roughs. I don't feel the connection to this stressed-out little stones that I used to. That's tap-dancing in the right direction. Anthem Blue Cross doesn't cover bolts through your head.

They get me on an artistic altitude, though. Something tells me I'll be doing a second pass on these ideas eventually.

The Last of Paris?

Oh, probably, but you never know. I still have a few that might get seen here. I've got plenty of Prague pictures to post, though. Watch this space!

EDIT: dern mah faulty memory. New image added, old one excised.

What the hell, another Monday in Paris!

Though it's a month after the last post and I'm still not in Paris, dammitall.

Monday in Paris...

More Paris, Because I Can.

If it's Wednesday, This Must Be....

Paris.

Time for a few more shots.

Pictures, that is. Photographs.

Ant on the Road

Back from France, Paris and Lyon, with photos in tow. Enjoy!

The Rescue.

Coming to SoCal was, as the saying goes, a "learning experience". I have indeed learned much since moving here. Wildfires are scary, for instance, especially when they're burning towards you and all you hold dear. Corporate culture and grade school still have much in common; there's another. Endless sunshine is not as great as it sounds. I remain capable of making a living at art, even here, where the competition is as fierce as it gets and the cost of living puts the "dick" in ridiculous.

Ever notice how sometimes you notice growth because someone else points it out, apropos of nothing, and other times you recognize it because you simply don't have feelings, or attitudes, or inhibitions you once had?

We are constantly urged to go, go, GO in this culture. Yet you can't bring about substantive change in yourself unless you're willing to stop, take a deep breath and look into the places that scare you. Intentional change is pretty much the best there is.

I've proven to myself that I can keep up. That's probably the single greatest revelation to come from my stints at Carbine, Meteor and Red 5. Okay. So I can keep up. That had as much to do with personal growth, if not more, than any art skills I gained. Now I want to get back to growing as an ARTIST.





I've got about a million paintings and drawings to go. Let's get going already.

VIVA, NUEVO SCANNER!

It's Thursday. Time for an update.

Got a brand-new Epson Perfection V700 Photo scanner today. Finally I can start scanning and uploading the efforts of the past year! The nice lady above was a model at Glen Vilppu's head class from last fall. Good good stuff. Here she is again:



Huzzah Technology!

A New Year, And....

Screw you, big giant bullet shell bomb thing. Seriously, screw you. I used to wish you'd just go away. Then I thought maybe I'd bury you so deep I'd forget you ever existed. You got to run the show for a while. I found you again, on a proving ground of my own choosing. Now I know you're a part of me. I accept that. One of these days you'll get the love you need. But I'm done with being afraid of your shadow. It's high time you were afraid of mine.

Hang around up there all you want. We both know that's the worst you can manage.