Be Awesome

Avery

2012-01-22T11:48:00.000-08:00

Portraits of children are hard. At least they are for me, they often look a little off and awkward. I'm always apprehensive when I try to do one but I think I was fairly successful here. I've also reached the point where I would much rather be painting something with oils than the computer. If only I could figure out how to photograph the finished paintings better. This is Oil paint on an 8x10 canvas.

Leia the Slaya!

2012-01-12T14:22:00.000-08:00

This is my 200th post! And it's the first of the year so I wanted to do something cool. I've been wanting to do a Frazetta inspired Princess Leia for a while and thought it a good way to kick off 2012.

My kid has really gotten into Star Wars lately but I've only let him watch the good ones (episodes 4,5, and 6). He has no idea the other three even exist. As a parent, what do I do? Let him find out on his own someday? Will he feel like I lied to him? Is it better to expose him to them at an early age? What if he actually likes them? Can I deal with that as a parent? I'll love him no matter what but how can I let him know they're wrong, without being too controlling? The things you don't consider when becoming a parent...

Watercolor Santa

2011-12-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

Just a quick watercolor sketch I did of Santa imparting some insightful words of wisdom.

Spectre Vesper

2011-12-08T07:16:00.001-08:00

My latest oil painting.

Peace, Be Still

2011-12-05T08:37:00.001-08:00

An illustration I did for the December 2011 Friend magazine.

Oldenburg Fantastik

2011-11-28T11:09:00.001-08:00

This is a cover I did for a book coming out in Europe, it was a lot of fun.

October Sketchbook

2011-11-01T13:26:00.001-07:00

2011 Pumpkin

2011-10-31T12:49:00.000-07:00

I actually used sculpting tools this year which didn't necessarily yield better results but it did go WAY faster which was fun. Hopefully I'll have more practice and time next year to get better at this.

Pumpkin Puppet

2011-10-28T15:14:00.000-07:00

Late at night when the pumpkins play,

And want to frighten the birds away,

They find their situation improving

As they make the scarecrow look like it's moving.

Undead Burial

2011-10-19T23:33:00.000-07:00

Haunted Hallway

2011-10-01T15:10:00.000-07:00

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!..."

Mr. Natural

2011-09-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

A birthday present for my father in law - Oil on board.

July and August Sketchbook

2011-09-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

Yep. That's literally it. I've had absolutely no time lately which is one of the reasons things have been a little dead around here lately. I've decided to keep my September and October clear since it's my most favorite and inspiring time of the year and just draw and paint creepy things nonstop so hopefully that livens things up a bit.

Color Boot Camp

2011-08-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I took part in Bill Perkin's Color Boot Camp workshop. It was an intense 3 days of basically nonstop painting and learning. I think I retained about .08% of what he was teaching but it was definitely worth the time and money. Above is a composite image of the more than 19 color studies we did at a size which I'm fairly comfortable they be viewed in. Even so, don't look too close and keep in mind that these were mostly all done in 40 minutes or less and intended as fast color studies, not finished pieces.

Sketch-Trade with Joe Olson

2011-07-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

Joe gave me the incredible 'Possom Monster about a year and a half ago or something and I just traded him the Old Bolo Tie Guy today. Sorry Joe, better late than never I guess.

Interesting Fact: Joe Olson is awesome.

Hands Off His Chest

2011-07-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

Tried a little different technique with this one. I'm not sure I like it but I had to post something this month and this was the only thing close to resembling something finished. I'm really busy right now so my blog might be a little empty until I catch up :(

June Sketchbook

2011-07-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

Heather

2011-06-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

My beautiful wife has been asking me to paint her an avatar. The first one I did she felt was too literal so I tried this approach, which isn't my usual style, but was a lot of fun and she seems to like it.

The Most Important Job

2011-06-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

An Illustration I did for the May 2011 edition of The Friend magazine.

May Sketchbook

2011-06-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

I'm never sure how to label my sketchbook posts so I've decided to just do it once a month, posting the highlights. Enjoy.

Mermaid

2011-05-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty much a huge fanboy of pirate movies and quite enjoyed the newest Pirates of the Caribbean (they could make a hundred of those movies and I'd still want more). I really liked the mermaids so I did a quick mermaid painting.

It's Alive! Digital Painting Tutorial

2011-05-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

I've been getting a lot of requests lately for a tutorial on my digital painting process so hopefully this post answers your questions. I use Corel Painter for any actual rendering and Adobe Photoshop for adjusting levels, color balance, etc. Digital brushes work better on large images so I never go below 3000 pixels in any direction with my originals. I use an Intuos 4 medium sized Wacom tablet.

1 - The first thing I do is a sketch which I scan and then paint in black and white using Painter. I find painting just the values extremely liberating. Getting the fundamental composition and lighting right in value before introducing color helps me keep the image more coherent. Plus it's just easier on my brain to be thinking of less things at once.

I have a tendency to paint dark, I captured the levels here in Photoshop (Image>Adjustments>Levels) and you can see how on the dark side they were (left) until I adjusted them, bringing a greater range of contrast to the portrait (right).

1 - paint image in value only.

2 - The big downside to painting in black and white is that it's hard to introduce color to the image without it feeling dead and grayish. I solve this with a tool called Gradient Map in Photoshop. With the B&W image open go to Image>Adjustments>Gradient Map. Click on the gradient to bring up another menu letting you edit it. Pick a color for your high, mid, and low tones, keeping in mind that under most normal lighting circumstances the mid tone will be the most saturated. This helps set an overall tone to the image. I wanted Frankenstein's monster's skin to feel dead so I went with a greenish hue for the mid tone with the dark going cooler and the light going warmer.

2 - add Gradient Map for base colors.

3 - Now I introduce color through a Color or Colorize layer. I have no idea what the actual difference is between these layer types. Colorize only exists in Painter and I usually like the results I get from it more but since Colorize isn't supported in Photoshop (it converts it to Color on import) I have to export a flat image format (I do an uncompressed .tiff) from Painter and bring that into Photoshop. I let the colors get fairly bold at this stage since they seem to have a tendency to lose their saturation during the final rendering.
4 - Here I just paint in the details and add the finishing touches. I mainly use the cover pencil in Painter for painting. It's simple and similar to a digital airbrush but ends up feeling more natural for some reason. I use the digital airbrush too for adding a punch of color where I need it. I keep them all at low opacity to keep them versatile and to maintain the more natural feeling of building the paint up.

3 - paint basic colors into Color or Colorize layer.
4 - paint in details/final rendering.

5 - In the end, I spend time tweaking the image in Photoshop until I come up with something I'm happy with. For this painting I adjusted the levels again and the color balance (making it more blue). I sometimes edit the Hue/Saturation, Brightness/Contrast, etc...just play with it until you're happy.

5 - do a final adjustment of image settings.

That's it. Feel free to ask me questions in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.

"Hey! Listen! Hey!"

2011-05-13T11:10:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure what happened, Blogger seemed weird for a while and deleted this post so I'm posting it again.

Should I Be Flattered?

2011-05-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

Check out this post on my good friend Sam Nielson's blog for an interesting story concerning the vacant-eyed red-headed kid in this painting of mine. I'm never sure how to feel about stuff like this. I've seen images of mine replicated before and I usually don't care and am genuinely flattered, but when it's in an actual commercial product...I don't know. Sam's image was obviously used a lot more than mine (this "artist" who used our pictures has good taste at least :) so he's got more to be annoyed with, but I still find myself a little ambivalent about it all. If nothing else, it's a little weird.

Bauer Power

2011-04-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

"If you don't tell me what I want to know, then it'll just be a question of how much you want it to hurt."

Been watching a lot of 24 lately.

Botanical Burden

2011-04-12T09:21:00.000-07:00

Oily Pirate

2011-03-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

Around the time I started this blog (more than 5 years ago, wow) I began exclusively painting digitally. When I started I used lots of layers and digital tricks but as time has gone on I've begun basically painting as one would traditionally, using very few, if any, layers or overlays. Originally I liked digital painting for the ways it was different from traditional but slowly found myself unsatisfied with it for those same reasons. So I decided a few months ago it was time to get back into real painting and decided to go with oil paint. I'd only used acrylics before and thought it was as good a time as any to switch to oils as I'd essentially be relearning how. So this is my first attempt, ever, at an oil painting. It took a while since work has me so busy but I really fell in love with the process and can't wait to paint more, hopefully better, oil paintings. Thanks to Dave Malan and Dave McClellan for answering my endless questions.

Play Ball!

2011-03-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

I've been crazy busy at work and have thus had less time for art (at least any art not for the Cars 2 video game). I did manage to finish this 50's style pinup girl I've been working on for a while. No, I don't think she'll be able to run the bases very well in high heels.

More Sketchbook

2011-01-14T08:20:00.000-08:00

Drizzt

2011-01-11T07:32:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine is a big Drizzt fan and asked me ages ago to draw a picture of the heroic dark elf. He's been doing me a lot of favors lately so I figured I owed him.

New Sketchbook

2011-01-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

Around Halloween I got a new sketchbook. I was desperately needing something different after using essentially the same size and kind of sketchbook for years. I wanted something wirebound with non-white paper so I could work in both the darker and lighter values. They didn't seem like unreasonable or obscure expectations for a sketchbook but it took a surprising amount of time and research to find what I was looking for. I eventually found this book which I've been loving (it's even eco-friendly for all you hippies out there). The white highlights are done with one of those gel pens and the rest of the sketch is my stalwart Zebra ball point pen. It feels so good to be sketching again on a regular basis.

Maria Wiegenlied

2010-12-24T07:43:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Simple Nativity

2010-12-16T19:15:00.000-08:00

Another one done for my sister.

A Right Jolly Old Elf

2010-12-12T14:16:00.000-08:00

A quick painting for my sister.

King's Vineyard

2010-12-08T21:39:00.000-08:00

This is another, much less digital, game I did some art for. Designed by a few of my coworkers, Sandeep Karkhar and Dave Haslam, it features some clever mechanics. Working with Mayday Games was great, this project was a little different from anything I've done before and they were very patient. Ultimately I'm quite happy with the final product which you can find out more about here.

Epic Mickey

2010-11-30T12:58:00.000-08:00

No, I did not paint this

I've spent the majority of this year working on a video game called Epic Mickey which is out today. I worked on the environment art for a several levels but spent most of my time on a few of the boss fights. In some ways it was a dream project for a Disney geek like me to recreate stuff from the movies and parks. It was fun because the art, for some clever story reasons, was meant to be inspired by the Disney stuff but not exactly match it. So I was able to help create (with the help of other talented artists both here in Salt Lake City and Austin, TX) a dark, twisted version of Hook's Jolly Roger and a Tron version of Space Mountain.

The game includes its own version of the Haunted Mansion (called the Lonesome Manor). There was no way I was going to not work on that (Haunted Mansion is my favorite Disneyland ride), so I muscled my way into it where I could, ultimately helping to render the ballroom level and even do one of the long paintings for the stretching room. I also worked on an area modeled after New Orleans Square. It was a cool project and I'm excited to see it released, It's exclusive to the Wii, you can see the trailer here.

Angel

2010-11-22T08:28:00.000-08:00

Young Rapunzel

2010-11-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

My 2010 Pumpkin

2010-10-31T14:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Drac

2010-10-29T14:59:00.001-07:00

Wolfy

2010-10-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

Mum

2010-10-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

Frank

2010-09-23T21:00:00.001-07:00

She's Watching You

2010-09-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

It's not too early to start Halloween posts, right?

Nilbog! It's Goblin Spelled Backwards!

2010-08-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some art from my favorite bad movie for the Avalanche blog topic: Troll. Troll 2 is a must see!

Watercolor Fairy

2010-07-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

No one's EVER painted a fairy with watercolors!

Vigorous Viking

2010-06-07T14:50:00.000-07:00

Ever since I saw How to Train your Dragon (awesome!) I've been wanting to paint a viking and I finally found the time this weekend.

Bright Idea

2010-05-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

An illustration I did for the May edition of the LDS children's magazine, The Friend.

Redneck Bigfoot

2010-05-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

A quick painting for my brother in law. Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I've got a lot of things coming soon, promise!

Watercolor Weekend

2010-04-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

I found some time over the weekend to do another painting using real paint. Revolutionary!

Happy God of War III Day!

2010-03-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

I picked up my copy of the Ultimate Edition last night at midnight and played until 3 am. Between this and Final Fantasy XIII coming out last week I'm a very happy gamer. KRATOS!

Love, Love

2010-02-16T08:38:00.000-08:00

A goofy cupid I painted for my wife for Valentine's day. Happily, she likes it.

The Girl Who has Everything

2010-01-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

What? Actual Paper? Real Paint?

2010-01-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

I got an awesome set of Watercolor paints for Christmas (thanks in-laws!) which I finally used to paint something. It's been far too long since I've painted with anything other than digital paint and I had a lot of fun. I think this turned out moderately well and I'm excited to try more.

New Year

2009-12-31T15:26:00.000-08:00

Hello 2010, year of Greek Mythology! In the first 3 months we'll have 2 new films based greek myths and 1 new video game (Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief, the remake of Clash of the Titans, and God of War III). So I've decided to ring in 2010 with a piece of the god of sky and thunder himself.

As for 2009, it was okay I guess. At least it brought us one truly magnificent film (Drag me to Hell) and one spectacular game (Uncharted 2).

Christmas Presents

2009-12-29T13:02:00.000-08:00

My wife has been asking me for a while for a few pieces of art and I guessed she ultimately deduced that the only way to get me to do them was to ask for them for Christmas. So above is the portrait of our son, Max, and a personalized bookplate. She seems pleased with them.

Palate Cleanser

2009-12-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

As promised, I've done something more appealling to male sensibilities after all the Twilight stuff. I hope you enjoy viewing my sexy, bikini clad, jungle inhabiting, panther riding woman as much as I enjoyed painting it.

For the Ladies part 2: Team Jacob

2009-11-20T13:50:00.000-08:00

The females in my family requested this and I wanted another Twilighty piece for the Avalanche blog. I did not paint it of my own volition. I think I'm going to do something tough and testosterone filled next. I need to cleanse my palate.

Kratos

2009-11-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

The God of War Collection ships today and I've been playing the God of War 3 demo over and over so I've been in an angry greek mythology kind of mood. I have a hard time pinning down what I like so much about the games. The main character is a horrible person. The fighting system is fun, but not incredible. The narrative is frequently cheesy but always feels appropriate for the subject matter. The rush of pure testosterone laced adrenaline the game provides is nice. I also really appreciate any franchise in any form willing to tell an epic fantasy story without just feebly copying Tolkien.

I also recently had a Final Fantasy 7 marathon. I played Crisis Core, Final Fantasy 7, (watched) Advent Children, and Dirge of Cerberus, all back to back which was quite an experience.

Currently Playing:

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Game of the year! I'm just a few trophies away from platinum (I finished it on Crushing the other day). Phenominal in every way.

Metroid Prime Trilogy - I like the Wii controls and all the games are great so I'm loving this.

Recently Finished:

Batman: Arkham Asylum - So much better than any other Super Hero game I've played. Finally someone got it right. Incredible game.

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus - The great production values and fondness felt for the characters by FFVII fans isn't quite enough to make up for the uninspired gameplay.

That's it for me, pretty dry until my birthday/Christmas next month and I get all the great games that have and are coming out this holiday season. I really want to play through the campaign of Modern Warfare 2, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii looks awesome. Anything else good out there?

For the Ladies...

2009-11-05T12:16:00.000-08:00

Not a big fan (like I'd admit it if I was), but I think the two main characters have interesting faces. So I painted them. You're welcome.

Halloween Pumpkin '09

2009-11-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

This year I entered the Lehi City pumpkin carving contest and won the grand prize, a year membership at the Lehi Legacy Center (which is our city's pool/track/gym place). I also won a game at a Halloween party we went to wherein one eats crackers attached to a sheet of plexiglass while wearing a blindfold with goofy eyes on it. My finest hour. So generally a great Halloween with one exception: Trunk or Treating. I hate, hate, HATE Trunk or Treat. I loathe everything about it, the practice, the name, everything. It is ruining Halloween and slowly destroying society. In the future when civilization has collapsed and we live in a post apocalyptic wasteland and people wonder where it all went wrong, I'll be there to answer, "Trunk or Treat." If you were someone who engaged in this practice over the weekend then you should be ashamed. Classic Trick or Treating forever!

Coffin Character

2009-10-28T09:49:00.000-07:00

Quoth the Raven...

2009-10-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

"Nevermore."

Death in a Red Dress

2009-09-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

I try to keep the spirit of Halloween in my heart the whole year round so it's nice to have the season here again for real.

Sketch Trade with Jordan

2009-09-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

There's an explanation here, but I don't want to get into it. Thanks Jordan!

Sketch Trade with Virginia

2009-09-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

Another trade with another great artist. Virginia Critchfield gave me one of her trademark pencil sketches of Tonberry (a Final Fantasy monster) and I gave her some creepy wall-eyed dude in brush pen and marker. Thanks Virginia! Good luck in Texas.

Ol' Jack Burton Always Says...

2009-09-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

The topic on the Avalanche blog is "Childhood Re-Drawings" where we're taking stuff we loved and would draw as kids and rendering them now with our more developed artistic skills. I was obsessed with the movie Big Trouble in Little China as a child. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I would answer "a truck driver who fights monsters," which is how I interpreted the occupation of Jack Burton from the film. So I decided to paint him, my childhood hero.

Details, Details

2009-09-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

I don't like to post huge images on here (though I try to make them of admirable size) so I occasionally feel that the painstaking love I put into certain areas of an image get lost. So I thought I'd take an opportunity to post some details of previously posted images which I feel deserve a closer look.

Drag me to Hell!

2009-08-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

I finally watched this a few weeks ago. I've wanted to see it since it came out but it released the same weekend as Up and I saw that instead. I'm not sure I made the right choice. This is the best horror movie of the year, possibly the decade. Modern it may be but it had, in part, the tone of a great classic horror film (so I felt compelled to do a fan-art movie poster carrying that mood). Sam Raimi's storytelling style is very conspicuous which is why I think he excells with pulpy subject matter. As a fan of such material he's one of my favorite directors and Drag me to Hell is one of my new favorite movies.

Sketch Trade with Dillon

2009-08-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

A bunch of the artists here at Avalanche have been trading art for art and my good friend Dillon and I decided to trade. I got a cool acrylic painted space man and he got a ball-point pen and marker cowboy sketch. Thanks Dillon!

5

2009-07-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

It has been far too long since I did one of my video game posts and part of the reason is because of Resident Evil 5. I've played it start to finish about 5 times, at least once on each difficulty, and earned the Platinum Trophy. Yes, I'm awesome. The game is great, though not as good as RE4 (but, really, what is?). The new additions to the series are great (co-op, Sheva), and the old stuff is still entertaining (cheesy-cool storyline, shooting zombies). The horror element has been even further diluted and I, for one, am happy to see them trying new things. The game focuses almost exclusively on combat and Chris (whose phisique I've only slightly exagerrated) and Sheva (the main characters) are super strong zombie killing machines. The new Silent Hill game (called Shattered Memories) puts you in the shoes of the most average of individuals removing combat completely, making monsters something you can only run or hide from. What makes me happy is that two of my favorite Survival-Horror franchises, which started out with similar gameplay, are both going in such different directions.

Currently Playing:

Final Fantasy VII (again) - I just downloaded it from the PSN and copied it to my PSP. I forgot how great this game is! It's reputation is well deserved, one of the best ever.

Patapon - Fun.

Recently Finished:
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core - loved it. It was been especially fun to go straight from this into FFVII. I plan on continuing my FFVII marathon by watching my Blu-Ray Advent Children after I'm through with FFVII and even playing the poorly reviewed Dirge of Cerberus after that...Epic.

Ghostbusters: the Game - Better than I expected. Nothing great but a solid experience overall.

Fallout 3 - I didn't finish the game (It's huge!) but it kept me engaged about as long as Oblivion did. I love the environment, the V.A.T.S. system, and the sense of discovery. Ultimately, however, the lack of a compelling narrative and mundane/repititious missions killed my interest.

God of War I and II (again) - Gamers seem to be leaning in preference more and more towards the procedural, sandbox experience (like Fallout 3). I still far prefer a straight, focused game. The God of War games are about as linear as they come but the experience is relentlessly captivating in every way. I can't wait for GOW III.

Killzone 2 - I'm not a big FPS fan, but I got this one mostly to admire the tech on display (and there is A LOT to admire). I ended up really enjoying the game as well.

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride - I don't know what it is about Dragon Quest games, they're so simple and essentially all the same, but I just can't get enough.

Anything else good out there?

Delila

2009-06-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

Portrait of my niece, Delila. I did it for her birthday...and so she would get my brother to let me borrow his PSP during my vacation next week. Thanks Rich! Hope you like it Katie.

Sinister Skalliwag

2009-06-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

'Nother pirate.

Creepy Pirate

2009-05-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

This is a quick painting of a pirate based on a homeless guy I saw in downtown Salt Lake City.

Miss White prefers Merryfeather

2009-05-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to paint some of Disney's leading ladies in a retro style and thought it might be a fun fit to place them in old magazine ads. Snow White is first since she's my favorite. Hopefully I can find the time to do more.

Pirate Sketches

2009-04-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

I won't bore you with the details of my long absence. I will only tell you it involved an ancient curse, a mad scientist, and high speed car chases...or I've just been working crazy overtime at work leaving me no time to draw or paint. Either way, hopefully I can now begin updating regularly again.

Xanax and Allegra, Conquerors of Zyban!

2009-02-23T14:42:00.000-08:00

I've always found an amusing similarity in the names in fantasy novels and the names of prescription drugs, thus the title.

The Pig People of Padulang, Utah

2009-02-13T15:32:00.001-08:00

Valkyria Chronicles

2009-01-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's been a while. I've been busy, give me a break. Anyway, it's 2009! What better way to start a year of blogging than with the most important issue of the previous (or any) year: video games. One of those games (which I got for Christmas - thanks Heather) is called Valkyria Chronicles.

The game takes place in a fictional version of 1930's Europe with situations resembling those in second world war. You play a squad leader for the small country of Gallia, desperately struggling to fend off "the Empire" which is fighting to gain control of their land and it's ample supply of Ragnite (their main source of energy).It's a tactical RPG which you play both from a bird's eye view of the battlefield (selecting which unit to move) and from a third person view (within which you actually move the unit, playing like any 3rd person shooter). It also uses a clever turn-based combat system and a distinctive art style. An ad for the game has already played off another popular war poster featuring Uncle Sam (itself based on an earlier poster from Britain featuring Lord Kitchener).I like this image so much I wanted to do something similar and since one of the characters in the game is named Rosie I thought Rosie the Riveter would be appropriate.

Back to the games of 2008: Game of the year? Metal Gear Solid 4, followed by Valkyria Chronicles and Little Big Planet.

Right now I'm playing:

Valkyria Chronicles - If you can't tell I love this game. A lot.

I've recently finished:

Mirror's Edge - The concept feels fresh and the graphics are phenominal. When it's working it's wonderful, but unfortunately it becomes too frustrating too frequently in the latter part of the game. Still, definitely worth a look.

Gears of War 2 - I played this after hearing people go on and on about it on the gaming blogs and podcasts. Due in part to these lofty expectations I came away from it feeling it was only marginally better than average and certainly nothing special.

Prince of Persia - I ended up really liking this game. It's fun to play and nice to look at. It did feel a little repetitive by the end, but it's a great new direction for one of my favorite franchises.

Dead Space - A competant blend of Bioshock and Resident Evil 4 with a bit of it's own identity mixed in. I hoped the game would be more frightening but enemies are thrown at you so relentlessly that the tension never has a chance to build.

Anyway, what are you playing? What was your favorite game last year?

Is that you Santa Claus?

2008-12-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

The Archer

2008-12-10T11:43:00.000-08:00

The new Avalanche blog topic is Zodiac and I'm a Sagittarius.

Ana Lucia Cortez

2008-12-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

In getting back to my LOST caricatures I'm following up my favorite character (Mr. Eko) with my least favorite. I can't stand her, I cheered when she died.

BOLT!

2008-11-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

BOLT the movie opens in theaters today and the video game came out a few days ago. These are a few screenshots from the two areas I worked most on, the cave and the helicopter battle in the Yucatan jungle. I'm quite happy with the finished product so go out and play it!

Halloween '08 Pumpkin

2008-11-19T12:01:00.000-08:00

I wasn't going to post this, feeling the season had passed and it was time to move on, but I have nothing else to post right now so here was my pumpkin this year before it met it's eventual demise in our compost heap.

Fun Shall Overcome!

2008-11-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

I've had LittleBigPlanet for a few weeks now and it is genuinely wonderful. I've never seen a game with such ineffable charm. Whether it's the inspired art direction or the delightful narration by Stephen Fry or the marvelous soundtrack or it's sweeping accessibility- the game is just impossible not to love. My two year old son watches me play and frequently laughs because the game is adorably captivating. He likes to wave at the Sackboy on the screen (I, of course, always make him wave back). Heather wants a Sackboy or Sackgirl as a pet. When playing it with others, everyone ends up laughing. This game is for everyone and it's just plain fun.

I just finished and published my first created level over the weekend (and I think it compares fairly well to other user-created levels). It's called "Sackboy Jones" by kanyn. Play it, heart it, give me feedback. Thanks!

Right now I'm playing:
LittleBigPlanet - Endlessly fun!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Better than I expected but not quite the home run it could have been.

I've recently finished:

Silent Hill: Homecoming - This ended up feeling like a montage of the most popular elements of previous Silent Hill games and the movie. Anything new it introduces doesn't fit the unique SH atmosphere. Ultimately it feels like a competent tribute to SH games instead of a real addition to the series. There are a few small additions that I love but they're too small to carry the game beyond the realm of mediocrity. The SH franchise is in real need of a reworking the way RE4 so successfully did with Resident Evil. Until that happens I just can't muster the enthusiasm I once had for this series.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen - This is a must play for fans of old-school J-RPGs. I loved it.

What are you playing?

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T14:55:00.000-07:00

The Grave Digger

2008-10-28T13:49:00.001-07:00

The Evil Lord of Destruction!

2008-10-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

I've never loved anything the way I loved He-Man when I was 5-7 years old. This was when I called Saturday - Cartoon Day. My brother and I would get up so early Saturday mornings that we would watch the color code thing until the broadcast would start at about 6 am and be swept away in a blissful haze of terrible animation and toy commercials for 4 hours. Smurfs, Thundarr the Barbarian, Transformers, Thundercats, Voltron, and, of course, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The 80's was a great time to be a kid.

Dracula

2008-10-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

"What manner of man is this,

or what manner of creature is it in the semblence of man?"
-Bram Stoker

I love the original Dracula novel, but, as is almost always the case, none of the film adaptations have portrayed the spooky specter the way the book does. Bram Stoker provides the following details:

-Dracula has a full mustache, but is clean shaven everywhere else.
-He is an old man with aquiline features and slightly pointed ears.
-He has bushy eyebrows and a full head of hair but is balding around his temples.
-He has stubby fingers and hairy palms.
-He dresses in black and has a cruel look in his eyes.

This is a far cry from the suave gentleman many picture when they hear the name Dracula. I decided I wanted to paint the famous bloodsucker and stay fairly close to the original description. I found that it's hard to make a mustache scary. Some of my sketches look like a hook-nosed Borat with a mohawk. I was convinced it could be done, however and I eventually ended up with the sketch that turned into this painting. I'm quite pleased with it, and it sorta creeps me out a little.

Homecoming

2008-10-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

Within the last month two of my favorite video game franchises have had new releases. Dragon Quest IV hit a few weeks ago and Silent Hill: Homecoming hits retailers today. I figured there's no better way to celebrate than with a painting of everyone's favorite Silent Hill denizen, Pyramid Head! It's also a wonderful way to begin the month of Halloween. Few games can compete with the immersive atmosphere and interactive narrative most Silent Hill games have. I'm always looking forward to going back there.

Silent Hill fans (myself included) are fairly intense when it comes to the foggy town. Many are intelligent and interesting. But among any fanbase can be found the fanboyish whiners lighting up the internet with their self important observations and complaints. Team Silent out of Japan created and developed the first 4 games, the first 3 of which are held in the highest regard. SH4 was a bit of a departure for the series, it was more experimental and openly surreal. It was met with much criticism from the SH fanboys. I enjoyed it but fatigue for the series was becoming evident in Team Silent's work. When speaking of the future of the series the creators wanted to push it even further away from the traditional Silent Hill gameplay and atmosphere. Fans complained. So the next game (SH Origins for the PSP) was handled by another studio and some (myself included) found it to be a competent and worthy addition to the series. Homecoming was also handled by an outside studio and so the fanboys have been outspoken about their disapproval of this from the day it was announced. They all object to the series being handled by someone else, despite the fact that the original studio has all but said they don't want to make any more and if they were to they would be very different from what we've come to expect. Personally I'm happy either way, I like the original games enough that I'm fine with playing variations on the theme or letting the series evolve. I get irritated by those who just want every new SH game to be a remake of SH2 (rightly considered the masterpiece of the series though the first game is my personal favorite). Homecoming could very well be no good, reviews have been all over the map (some rank it as high as 95% and others as low as 60%) but that's beside the point. Making up your mind about a game before you've played it is unfair. Being so exacting in your expectations that you're nearly impossible to please does not make you an intelligent and discerning individual. I know the internet will never be lacking in pretentious people with unfounded opinions, but they still bug me.

Right now I'm playing:

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen - The DS is the perfect home for the DQ games, I'm enjoying every minute of this one.

Half-Life 2: Episode 2 - I've been enjoying this more than the original HL2 or Episode 1 -and I loved those!

I've recently finished:

Killzone - I played this because the sequel looks so cool. Unfortunately it kind of deflated my enthusiasm. It had some cool moments but overall...meh.

Anybody else playing anything good?

Bella

2008-09-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

This is a protrait of my neighbor's kid I just finished. I've never really tried a portrait of a child before and in doing so I now realize why they are so rarely done well - they're hard! It took me 3 previous attempts and many long hours to finish something I was happy with. Thankfully, they also like it.

Mr. Eko

2008-09-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

Mr. Eko is my favorite character (so far) from LOST. RIP.

Bumble

2008-08-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

The current Avalanche blog theme is Snow Monster. I decided to depict an encounter (not included in the show) between Yukon Cornelius and Bumble from "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer." I translated the characters into my own style, but left the mountains in the background essentially the same as they are in the movie. It may end up looking a little inconsistent but I like it for some reason. Hope you like it too.

Claire Littleton

2008-08-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

During the LOST hiatus I'm going to start doing the characters from the show who are either dead or missing or a ghost or posessed or brainwashed or a zombie or something. I have no idea which category Claire falls under, maybe none of them...I love this show.

Desmond Hume

2008-08-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

Everyone's favorite "bruthuh."

I never got a chance to do a LOST caricature for the season 4 finale and I've been meaning to catch up. Even though the finale didn't focus on any particular character I felt that Desmond had the best moment.

Why So Serious?

2008-08-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

More fan art for my new favorite movie.

The Dark Knight

2008-08-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

As is no doubt apparant by the lack of new content uploaded on this blog I am very busy lately. I have, however, fortunately found time to go see The Dark Knight. My wife and I saw it last Saturday and enjoyed it so much we saw it again last night (this time on IMAX!). This is not only the best Batman movie, but the best superhero movie. Period. I've never had the experience before where I'm completey in love with a film while at the same time annoyed with it for being so good that it's made a lot of other movies I like, in comparison, seem pretty crappy. So yeah, thanks a lot Batman.

Team Logos

2008-07-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

These are a few logos for local sports teams I did for some people in my neighborhood. They were actually pretty fun.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

2008-07-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

I've been extremely busy at work lately so my monthly video game post is a little late. I've also been feeling lonely on PSN, the newest firmware update raises the number of people you can have in your friends list to 100. I was amazed when I read that - I had no idea anyone was so popular, I have a total of 5 friends in my list. So please, if you have a PS3, be my friend. Just so I can feel good about myself. My PSN name is kanyn. Thanks.

I'm really only playing 1 game at the moment:

Metal Gear Solid 4 - I've come to the conclusion that this game is worthy of the great deal of the praise, and also some of the criticism, that it has been attracting. Fan or not you can't deny the significance of this franchise nor can you not respect what (MGS creator/director) Hideo Kojima and his team have attempted to build here. MGS4 is a masterpiece. The game is bursting at the seams with exhilarating game play, a compelling story, and production values that rival many Hollywood blockbusters. I'm nearly through the game for the second time and I've enjoyed an almost completely different experience than I did my first play through - the depth of the game play is staggering. There are moments so exciting and intense and fun to play that afterwards I had that adrenaline pumping, heart pounding, awe struck feeling you get after riding a good roller coaster. That said, the game is by no means perfect, some of the plot twists are absurd, dialogue is still poorly written and preachy, most disappointing is that the last act is probably the weakest in the game but these complaints seem petty when weighed against the wealth of entertainment the game provides. In a way too, the absurdity of certain plot elements and the silly dialogue adds to the fun of the experience and helps maintain the identity of the franchise. The MGS titles never take themselves seriously enough to make these elements unpalatable, in fact they add to the overall charm of the series. It's a fine balancing act to make a story, characters, and gameplay that are simultaneously silly and serious, but MGS does it and this 4th installment in particular does it well. It has moments of genuine emotion and deals with some deep issues, but never forgets that it's just a video game. A very, very good video game.

Seward Home

2008-06-24T13:22:00.001-07:00