west coast to east coast...

The time for change is upon me everyone! During GDC, I met some good people from Vicious Cycle, and later contacted them about concept artist positions. Last week, I flew out to Raleigh-Durham and interviewed. And just this week, I accepted a position there! Yay! Its going to be a big change, but I'm really looking forward to it! I've never been to Raleigh, but everything I saw there, it looked like a great place to be. I'm going to miss San Francisco, but I'll be back to visit and soak up everything I'm taking for granted here. Speaking of which, I'm gonna have to eat at all my favorite places before I go!

Its no joke!... its an update!

Hey everyone! I've been bad and neglecting my blog, trying hard to keep it up. But getting a few freelance gigs has kept me busy, thanks Ryan! Working on somethings that I can hopefully show soon. Until then, I found time to finish something extra. Some sketches and thumbs for this are under the 'sketchbook' section of my website, but heres the main image!

Busy month!

Well, its been a busy month and it always seems to be for February. Near the end of January, I got news of a few animation studios seeking artist positions that I know I could fill. Exciting no? But! At the same time, the Gamer's Developer Conference coming to town. I joined up with a startup, Three Little Pigs Studios to provide them with environment concepts. And, WonderCon was right after GDC! So, my busy month started and I never stopped working until now!

In the middle of preparations, Carolina got me back for my birthday. Ooohh.. so evil. For her bday, I got her up Sunday early (8am, hey... its the weekend) to a BART station to surprise her with all our friends I could get into a van. I had a longer list, but dam vans only fit so many people. Anyway, it worked and we all had a great day in wine country. I guess it went so well, Carolina had to surprise me too. Ooohh.. so evil. As she took me out south to Santa Cruz boardwalk for the day, we had a great time. Beaches, seafood, rides, and arcade Mario Kart. Cool time. After the long drive back, I got a big surprise at home! When I first walked in, I swore I sniffed a pizza. An odd smell for our place and I saw the door to our bedroom closed. With that info, the thought entered my mind. There are people in the dark waiting to surprise me. Yay! Now mind you, I figured this out like I figure out Bruce Willis was dead in 6th Sense, a second before the wedding rings dropped. Some psychic powers I have eh? Anyway, it was a great time to see to many great friends. Thanks for stopping by everyone!

So, I finished my portfolio in time for GDC and hit the conference the first day open at the job pavilion. All of which turned out really solid leads. Sadly, they were mostly all out of town. And, I mean waaaay out of town. Seattle, Vegas, east coast, Canada, and Iceland. Yes, Iceland, which I think would be really cool. <--- no pun intended It was an good experience, there I was really able to gauge my skill level and I found myself at a good spot. I was surprised at the amount of awkward job seekers as well. So many people dress too casually, had poorly laid out their portfolios, and a bit short on their personal/social skills. But I guess thats why we're into gaming. A social hobby without being truly social? Nevertheless, things are looking brighter.

After GDC that same week, we hit WonderCon and enjoyed ourselves there. We saw the previews for 10,000BC movie. Ah... no. Also, we saw Get Smart preview. Which I was unsold on until I saw Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway there. Both really cool people and funny. From what I saw, they really will do the show justice and make it their own. Oddly enough, there was more attention to Steve Carell than to the beautiful, Anne Hathaway. Only at comic-con eh? We also saw previews for the new Clone Wars... AWESOME! Except, I'm not too into the character style. I think I'll get used to it. And finally we saw Wall*E clips. Oh so cool and pretty, up there with Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, and Incredibles.

And... to finish the month off, I was able to finish send work into the animation studios and finish quite a few sketches for Three Little Pigs. And then I was surprised to get some really cool freelance work for MOLI! Thanks Ryan! Sweet news! Its been a busy month and looking to be steadily that way for a while. Whoo hooo! Oh oh... here are some of the sketches for Three Little Pigs. Enjoy!

New work....

Been working like a busy bee these days. Its been good and I've been enjoying it a lot. Staying focused isn't so hard when its something you really love to do. Here is the work I recently finished up and I have to admit, it was a lot of fun to do!

So, what I did was a overall illustration. The idea was a creature in New York. After doing some research, I decided to do something away from Times Square and Central Park. I originally wanted to make it cutting across the Washington Bridge, but I didn't want to hide half of the creature in water. Thus, a compromise near the pier...

First I needed to figure out a creature. I know I didn't want a dinosaur or anything "Godzilla" like...


So, I decided on a "cthulhu" type beast from HP Lovecraft's work. Sure, its been done before, but there are so many variants to work on and its fun. Next, I worked on some comps...


After a little bit of work, I settled on no2 comp, the upper right one with a little bit of tweaking. I started on the final a couple a of days ago and here is the finish! So, thats it for now folks, more to come!!

Finishing tech

Happy New Year everyone! I hope yours was a good one, mine was... painful. All I can say is thank you to Johnny and Glenn's most generious and kind hospitality, and to Caro's kind and loving nurturing ways. I love you guys.

Here is some new pieces to round off the tech-ish theme I've been working on. A set of environment shots of a underground base. I really liked doing things like this, tech and tech associated enviroments, but, of course, not every project is tech based. So, look for more fantasy based work to come! Meanwhile, enjoy!

More tech...

Happy New Year and Merry post-Christmas!

I've been keeping busy working and making new pieces for my portfolio during the holidays. One of the things I've started to do is participate in 'Industrial Design of the Week' over at conceptart.org. The past week's theme was main battle tank, so I figure now was a good a time as any to start up. I barely made the deadline, but after getting some very good critques from the other artists, I took more time to rework it into something thats MAIN BATTLE TANK! HUH!

This time around I dropped in my process from quick thumbnails, to exploration passes in three-quarter views into the final render.

KOOZA!

Continuing the night life excursions that we set before knowing our current unemployment dilemma, Cirque Du Soleil's Kooza has come to town! And, of course, Carolina and I have tickets. Not just nose bleeds mind you, oh no. But Carolina was able to score second row! Sweet huh? I think so!

Now, I have never been to any Cirque Du Soleil show. I have heard of it, but it wasn't something I really wanted to see. My parents took me to various circuses when I was younger. But, nothing too fancy, Ringing Brothers? I don't remember, but I guess says why I never got into it. However, I do love the idea of circuses. Trapeze, cannons, high wire acts, and a ringmaster. Big tents, popcorn, and acrobatics! What more could you ask for?

The show is a visual and exciting experience. It takes everything you expect from circuses, but adding in wonderfully eccentric costumes and momentous set designs. When we sat down, we took time to look around and take in what was already there. Soon, clowns (not the scary kind) entered the audience and kept us entertained with silly skits and acts. Leaf blowers into people's popcorn boxes and audience members wearing a tutu on stage. And as these acts started to wear thin, the show started when the The Trickster/ringmaster popping out from a box opened from our endearing actor, The Innocent. With the Tricksters magical wand he started all the acts:


The contortion act with three young ladies was simply amazing. They twisted and moved with grace on a small stage rotating around, which gave everyone a great view of the contortionists movements. Seeing this on 'Ripley's Believe or Not' is one thing, but live is another. Watching them twist and contort their bodies was... shocking, but beautiful. The poses they would hold was pure performance art at its best.

The trapeze act, by 17 year old Darya Vintilova was very cool to see, amazing solo act in the air. It was just fun to see and immediately surpassed what you expect from a trapeze performance.

The high wire act was excellent, considering we watched everything from a very unique perspective in our second row seats. Four men walked with ease 30-35 feet up in the air on a wire. Leaping over one another and landing was a feat without safety wire hooked on. Once, the performer almost fell off, but caught himself on the wire and pulls himself up. While you could say it was intentional to build tension, to me, it only made for a better act. Something about not being perfect in your performance adds to the performance?

The juggling act is a shiny high energy performance that comes at your a little bit silly at first, but the way the juggler goes on and on, you forget how silly it seems and just enjoy how skilled his is with pins, balls, and rings. You get to see a rhythm in a flurry of spinning objects flipping all over the stage. Its quite an act I loved watching.

My favorite act was the Wheel of Death. Yes, the Wheel of Death. Two circular cages attached by a set of bars rotating in the air with two men running and jumping with confidence and swagger. Our great seats, again, gave us a greater appreciation of the act. Watching their jumps from inside and outside the cages was scary but amazing too. I flinched every time it seemed they would fall unto the hard stage below. The best part was their attitude that nothing will go wrong. It made it all the more fun to see.


The remaining show was great to see too. The troupe of acrobats, jumpers, and dancers were highly entertaining. They carried themselves so well and smiled at everything, they seemed to really enjoy their jobs. The only scary part was when a dancing pair didn't catch the other during a series of flips. The woman cracked hard on the floor, I wonder if the man survived the night, for she could have killed with her eyes the moment she got back up! The teeterboard was a great way to end the acts with high energy and fun. Everything winded down with the Trickster and troupe waving goodbye to the Innocent and us. Cirque Du Soleil is certainly worth your time and money if you have the opportunity to go.

KOOZA!!