Super Civil Servant!

It's-a Me!

Super Paper Mario will be in stores tomorrow. I can't wait...

Sketches

This is a collection of more old concept and sketches both professional and personal.

Hairy and Scary

Done for the Avalanche blog art challenge. The theme is Rock Stars.

Meet the Concept Art

The Meet the Robinsons video game hits retailers today so I thought it an appropriate time to post some concept art I did for the game. None of these designs made it in the game, but I like to think they had a little influence on the end product. My position here at Avalanche is in production and I think it's ultimately the right place for me, but I'm glad that I can occasionally do a little visual development because I really enjoy it.

Glass Tree

My parents recently built an addition onto their house which includes a new bathroom with a cool octagonal window. I like doing the occasional stained glass project and my mother thought the previously mentioned window would be good space to include one. It's not perfect, but I think it turned out better than my last stained glass piece, and it looks really nice in my parents bathroom (this photo was taken at my house before it was installed, in case there was any confusion). I can't take all the credit since my mom picked out all the glass and I think she chose some really nice colors and textures.

Trailer Ho!

Today, like every other day, is a good day to love pirates. Not just for all the regular awesome reasons, but because tonight is the world premiere of the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End movie trailer on ABC! The only potential problem is that it's debuting sometime during the 2 hour Dancing with the Stars season premiere (at 8/7c). Of course the internet will have it everywhere the day after, if you can wait. Me, I'm watching Dancing with the Stars tonight.

Rock Tree

I like the way this tree turned out because it kind of reminds me of an album cover by Roger Dean or Rodney Matthews for some progressive rock band in the 70's.

Movie Posters Rant

The Maltese Falcon is a great film. Sharp dialogue, incredible characters, great performances, thick atmosphere, and a fantastic story all work together to create a spectacular film that is cooler than ten Tarantino movies. Great movies don't always have great posters and the Maltese Falcon is a good example of that. While none of the images created for the film have been particularly bad, I feel it's always lacked a definitive poster that adequately captures the spirit of the film. Hopefully mine does to some extent.

I'm always irritated by bad posters or DVD covers for good movies. The original poster for Mulan is a favorite of mine. It's a very cool image that captures the spirit of what the film is truly about. Yet when it came time to release the film on DVD the marketing guys thought process must have went something like this: "We need more characters on the cover, and what about Mushu, everyone loves him. The oriental color scheme might alienate western consumers," and so on. Thus, the DVD was released with this cover.

Return of the Jedi has made $309 million in domestic box office earnings alone, but apparently that was not enough to give it a decent DVD cover (all the Star Wars DVD covers are bad, but this one really bugs me in particular for the following reasons):

My favorite part is the position and size of Luke's hands. In my modified version to the right I roughly painted in what his arms would have to look like based on the positions of his wrists and shoulders to actually attach his body to those hands. I also like the stars shooting out of the lens flare of his light sabre and the various characters and objects that all look like they came from different sources with no effort put into unifying the values, colors, saturation, etc. But the thing that really irritates me about this cover is that a lot of artists, Drew Struzan in particular, have created excellent pieces of promotional art for all the Star Wars films. There's no excuse for this poorly photoshopped junk.

Anyway, you're probably asking why I care so much, I'm not really sure actually. The poster or cover doesn't affect the content on the film or the disc. I just hate having some of these hideous things on my shelf.

Guy with Tie

Crestfallen Caveman

Slugly

QT

This was done for the I Heart U/Too Cute For Comfort theme on the Avalanche Blog, the object of which was to do something "unbearably cute" in the interest of Valentine's Day. I'm a little concerned about how much fun I had doing it, I feel like I have to draw something extra NOT cute now to cleanse my creative palate.

I dedicate this image to my lovely wife, Heather (who happens to love unbearbly cute things). Happy Valentine's day!

Amaterasu

If Roger Ebert had played Okami or a number of other great games he perhaps wouldn’t have made this comment:

"Video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control…I am prepared to believe that video games can be elegant, subtle, sophisticated, challenging and visually wonderful. But I believe the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art."

His observation certainly applies to some games, but many are more like a film than he may realize. The player is driving the action, true, but aside from irrelevant details, everything that happens is still under authorial control. The path is set, the artist/storyteller is simply using the unique tools that gaming offers to more fully immerse the players in his story. The interactive nature of games only enhances their ability to move people. The audience is naturally more invested in the characters because they feel like participants in the events taking place. That said, I admit that games have been doing it a little clumsily thus far. There are still a number of limitations keeping the narratives of games from achieving the emotional impact they’re capable of. However, I think they are well on their way to breaking those barriers. I fully believe video games will eventually affect society just as profoundly as literature and film have.

Curses and Villains

A couple pieces I posted on the Avalanche blog. I've been drawing so little lately, but the game I was working on here at work is finishing up so I'm excited to take some time off and get re-acquainted with my sketch book.

Captain Zombeard

Happy new year! I wanted to take my two favorite things to draw (pirates and zombies) and put them together. This is the result.

Bogey

This is a portrait of Humphrey Bogart I've started for what will eventually be a poster for the Maltese Falcon (possibly my favorite film, it and Gladiator are always fighting in my brain for the top spot). I'll of course post the finished product here.

Fun Guy

Don't be fooled by the sad look on his face, that's how he gets invited to parties.

Depth Perception

I've been drawing so little lately-my new baby, lots of overtime at work, Final Fantasy XII, and a new freelance job have all been eating my spare time. Once the new Zelda comes out in four days (four days!) I'll have forgotten entirely what spare time is...I guess playing video games could be considered spare time.

This is another piece for the Avalanche Art Blog. It's not as finished as I would like it to be, but I don't really want to work on it anymore.

Welcome, Foolish Mortals...

...to Ghoulsmire Castle!

-Done for the Avalanche Art Blog challenge.