11.30.2008

To Infinity and Beyond!!
















I started this piece a couple of weeks in piecemeal knowing that my daughter Alison will be born this week. Knowing what many parents go through with their first child (no sleep), my time for personal art will be cut in half if none at all. I'll sneak in a few vehicles like I promised (when baby is asleep). There will probably be a blackout for a few weeks after this posting. Enjoy!



This is a tribute to one of my all time heroes, Stephan Martiniere. His work is truly inspiring and perhaps influenced alot of my own work up to now. I had alot of fun attending his workshop a few weeks ago.







11.13.2008

My Website and R2 Artwork










































I've recently updated my website highlighting some of the concept art I did in the past three years for Ratchet and Clank Future as well as Resistance 1 and 2. Please feel free to check it out. There are still some things I need to update, but I'll get to that later. In the meantime, here are some images from Resistance 2.
If you haven't played R2 (Resistance 2) please check it out and support the team at Insomniac. These guys are great people with great talent and they worked their butts of to make a great game. It was an amazing feat to pull something like this in a year, but this is what Insomniac's reputation is known for.

I'm hoping to post some more personal stuff soon of my own based off the stuff I'm learning at work relating to vehicle design. I've been getting hooked on drawing mechanical stuff and such. On a side note, it's been a very educational and humbling month at the new job since I'm getting my arse grilled and working closely with some phenomenal talent. It feels like first term at Art Center all over again. Love it!! Ok, maybe that's stretching it a bit. :)

A big thanks to Kevin, Patrick, and Todd( the enforcer) for keeping me in check everyday. I'm going to grow alot more because of you guys. Gatchaman Go!

In the meantime enjoy if you haven't seen the site already!

Website:

10.17.2008

doodles



I consider myself a big car nut, but motorcycles are really fun to doodle around as well. I did these thumbs to help familarize myself with the language of motorcycles. These are great to do when you suffer by watching a long love story. :P

10.10.2008

The New Adventure


I am currently working on Gatchaman (G-Force in the US) as a visual development artist at Imagi Animation Studios. It is very exciting for me to work on this project since I grew up watching this show. I am very fortunate to be working with a talented team of artists which is extremely inspiring. I'll try to update every now and then since it will be crazy for the next few months.

9.08.2008

Concept Design Academy Fall 2008




Hello,




I just wanted to announce that Concept Design Academy will be starting up again this fall for another great round of classes. Don't forget to sign up early since classes fill up fast. Cheers.
Stay tuned on the previous update. Work has been tremendously busy. :)

8.23.2008

in progress

After doing in game maps and fixing bugs for 3 weeks, I had to get this done to keep myself from going insane. Sorry it took so long. Here it is.






I don't think I posted any production sketches of any type since my blog was up. This is 60% of stuff I do most of the time at work which I don't reveal too much on my blog. Since this is the "drawingmantis" blog it would make sense to post some drawings for once. I felt like drawing a weapon tonight since I haven't done it for awhile. I'll take this to full render next time.

6.21.2008

Thumbnails







Initial thumbnails for class project....

5.30.2008

Midnight snack




One color study before hitting the sack.....

5.04.2008

Dominance War 3


I was honored to be invited this year to be a judge on Dominance War 3. This is a game art competition where artists from all over the world are invited to wage their skills against one another. Please check it out. Lots of fun stuff to see! Cheers!

4.22.2008

color sketches





Just for fun.....





3.25.2008

Class Demo




So here is a breakdown of what we went over last night in class.
Example 1:
A. I lightly laid in a perspective grid to establish the space to guide my shapes. Starting with a midtone background, loose sketches are drawn in with a midvalue. I chose a angled composition for this comp. Quickly determine where light falls and shadow falls. At this stage, think of using graphic shapes rather than "render". We're more concerned about designing the page first.
B. By adding darker shapes, I establish shapes that are closer to the viewer. The focal point is off to the left so keeping focus on design, I try to relate foreground structures to it by "helping" point the direction into the payoff view. I'm being less subtle with these to illustrate the idea. Start adding the darkest value and the lightest value to achieve contrast.
Don't think about rendering at this stage, it's more about organizing your shapes within the space to read. Also, Flipping your images or looking at them upside down will tell you if the comps are balanced.
C. After refining the shapes a bit more, these will be sufficient enough at this stage to get an idea of how the environment will play out.
The following examples are done with similar steps, but I went with a less sketchy start with this one and kept it clean. One thing to stress at this stage is that I'm not concerned with establishing atmoshpere yet. Just design.
Enjoy!

3.16.2008

San Marino Sketch


This is a watercolor study I did today while I was waiting for my wife to finish up her work. 5x7 Fabriano cold press

3.03.2008

Cats In Spaaccceeee!











Ink and watercolor. Switching gears away from the sci-fi techy stuff and going back to traditional. I've always been inspired by Gary Larson's drawings so here's my take based on my two cats. Enjoy!








2.26.2008

Pepper







I found an old watercolor brush and Higgins ink in the garage. I decided to have some fun with traditional painting since I miss it so much. It took a few tries to get back into painting with wash, but this one came out alright I thought. The cat just won't sit still for me. Well, that's what cats do.

2.15.2008

Game Informer - February Issue





























2008 All rights reserved. Sony Computer Entertainment and Insomniac Games








I had to repost this one due to technical difficulties. :) I apologize for the comments that were lost. Thanks for those who commented earlier though. These are some concepts from the GI February issue. The cover page was done by Rodrigo Ribeiro.