New Years Update

Well, it's been a little while, hasn't it?  I swear I'm not dead.

The last year has been good to me -- after working at Legendary for a little while, I was lucky enough to get invited into the Local 800 Art Director's guild as a senior illustrator.  Basically this opens up a lot of doors and lets me take jobs on all of the big film productions as a concept artist.  I am extremely flattered and humbled to be considered eligible to work among some of the most talented artists in the entire world.

I would like to extend a big thanks especially to Tim Flattery for recommending me and my production designer Tom Meyer for making this all happen.  It would not have been possible without them and my life has changed tremendously for the better because of it.

The year has definitely had its share of ups and downs. Transferring from my cushy studio job to the lifestyle of a full-time freelancer has been scary to say the least, but I think I'm definitely better for it...  I think I've worked the hardest this year since leaving school.  I've made a lot of new friends, burned a bridge or two, and generally had some of the worst and best days of my career this year.

The future looks to be both intensely scary and amazingly exciting.  I'm hopeful and confident that the best is yet to come.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by.

Legendary Pictures

It is with a little bit of a heavy heart that I leave my second family over at Sony Santa Monica, but I have recently started a new gig over at Legendary Pictures / Warner Brothers features.

The job may or may not be long term, but either way my future is looking exciting.  Thank you all very much for the support you have given me, it really does mean a lot.

New work on the way (when I have time to breathe).

Revisiting an Old Friend

People really seem to like this character I developed for my Legend redesign project from a while ago, so I decided to take him further...

I may tweak the final paintover a little more, but its far enough along to show.  Thanks again to Bryan for some major anatomical help, and some great suggestions.  The sculpt wouldn't have come out as well as it did without his help...

Turntable coming soon!

Thanks again for looking!

Yeti Round II

Playing with some new rendering techniques in zbrush:

Detail:

Turnaround:

Wendigo Round II

So a Wendigo is a spirit from Algonquian Native American mythology.  It possesses humans transforming them into disgusting flesh-hungry giants.  Those possessed have an insatiable cannibalistic appetite.

Thanks so much again to Bryan who gave me a bunch of tips (more planar!  exaggerate!) on how to improve this guy, and even did a quick sculpt-over when I was stuck.

More on the way!

Keeping that momentum going

Here's what I did with my superbowl weekend:

A Yeti and a Wendigo, respectively.  Both in progress -- I'll post the finishes when they're done.

... and some more finished stuff

See, I told you I'd have some new stuff up!  This is a character I have been developing for my second independent study with my good friend Bryan Wynia.  An "Atlantian Prince": basically an undiscovered race of fishlike people that lives deep in the ocean.

I tried to actually sculpt out the transparent brain cavity (and brain -- went through several iterations of that) instead of just painting it.  Here's the color turnaround without all of the flashy materials and paintover:

Since this process is still kind of new to me, I thought I'd share some development.  Here's an earlier sculpt of the still unposed character:

And some early pose/expression testing:

Some paintovers to figure out some more subtle aspects of my design:

Thanks for looking!  New(er) work on the way!