German Connection

Who would have guessed that I have extended family in Germany of all places. For the next three weeks we have two new guests living with my family. My cousins from German. They're pretty cool. Can't really say anything bad about family from over seas bearing gifts. I got chocolates and cologne, but out of the two I like the chocolates better. Cologne is great but I hardly find myself stepping out and saying to myself, "Damn, I stink! Let me slap on something to cover that BO."

This is a pretty pattern I did for my science of art class that I got an A- in.

Inspired by Butterflies

I did a flux advertisement for a class assignment about a week ago. It was for my Science of Art class. The piece is about how the cosmetic industry was using the unique way that Morpho Butterflies get their vibrant blue color to enhance make up. I like how the hair turned out, it's kinda sketch crazy. The wording could have used more work, but it wasn't that important to me at the time.

Banner

I finished a banner for a friend recently. It was actually a few weeks ago, but I hadn't remembered to post about it until now. It's for his website Dads4Sons.com it's an interesting website to say the least. Helps out my friend and made me some money so I didn't see anything wrong with it. Actually it was the first commission that I've done that's generated by this blog. He saw it a while ago and asked me to make the banner for him. It turned out extremely well. I'll post a cropped version here and if you wanna take a look at the larger version you can visit the site: www.Dad4Sons.com.

Of Pigs and Squiggly Things

I did two tessellations for my online class I'm gonna post them here for kicks. I love the pig one, I wasn't really trying to make a pig but it just kinda turned out that way. If I were to redo it I would probably give the piglets some more color in their cheeks and not add the back leg in. It would seem more like they're moving forward if both their front legs were visible. It would take lots of work to correct and I just plain don't feel like it right now. The other one is a rotation tessellation that's more abstract. I wanted to do a third one but I still have lots to do and I feel my energy getting low already.

Sinister

I've not been feeling well lately, even though I've been exercising lately. My apatite has been really low, well lower than usual. The last time I went to the family doctor the nurse weighed me and said that I lost some weight, there really isn't all that much to lose.

I decided to take another photo for my profile here, it's rather sinister looking, just the way I want. This is definitely not a photo for me to use for a dating service though, it has the potential to scare people away. Since I know nobody ever reads this blog anyway I don't really have anything to lose putting it here. I'm content to know that this is my personal journal for whatever I want to write about.

Everyone Loves Cherries

My friend, Zia, came over and she lent me her digital camera so I can do an assignment for my online class. I gotta get a camera soon, it's a disgrace for a 3D modeler/texture artist like me to not have one. We took pictures of hubcaps for the class it was an on the whim choice of subject matter, but it worked out well. I also got some photos of when we went cherry picking. Here's a good one of me.

WIP

Haven't posted anything in a long time, but with good reason (I always say that don't I?) In any case I haven't really had the energy to do much lately, been stuck in this dazed sort of funk. I have been working on two things though, a new comic and a drawing of the zombie cowgirl. It's not finished, so I'll refrain from posting it. Instead I'll post something that was rejected, it was a wine label design that the person who asked for it didn't like so they ended up not picking it. It's kinda abstract and not my best work, it's still charming in its own way.

A Good Birthday

It's been a long time since I posted, and an even longer time since I've done anything constructive. But I have my reasons. I stopped posting because it was finals around the middle of May. At the 28 of May I celebrated my birthday with my friends and family. We went cherry picking and had sushi. One of my better birthdays. It certainly sets the bar for how I will judge subsequent ones. I don't need any presents, just good company and they were. I got my favorite shoes dirty in the orchard and I don't even care. I'm gonna try really hard to work on models for my portfolio as it stands now I have a lot of free time I just hope I have the self control to not spend it all on wow.
Here's a concept drawing I did that got used as the base for the bar environment I made for my modeling/texturing class final:

Procrastinating

I have a ton of work to do and not much time to do it in, but for some reason I just feel like posting. Here are more concepts of Karen Blackwater. I like the one with the Poncho and Dagger.

Blackwater

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd share my latest project. It's an environment scene with a freaky western twist. It's the zombie version of the Wild West. Here's the drawing that inspired it:

I'll post more later when I have a bit more time. Working name for the figure is Karen Blackwater.

Job Hunting

I'm looking for some side jobs now, I think it's time. Dug around and hopefully I'll get something. Here are lots of example of my work.

Trying Out a New Background

I'm trying out this new background, it's a bit loud and ornate, but it'll do for now.

A Delicacy

I just finished a submitted a new comic to the new round of the WoW comic contest, I'm not holding back any punches this time. They will feel the full fury of my comic making skills! This time, I'm using techniques from Kazu Kibuishi, the creator of such great comics as Copper and Daisy Kutter. I don't yet share his wonderful sense of color design, but I'll just have to keep on trucking. Again, this time I use the knowledge of my previous comics to improve upon my latest one. Tell me if you notice a difference in quality.

Oh shit... I just notice some supertypos, even spelled my own name wrong! ARGH! This is what I get for staying up to do it. I'll fix it on my end, but it's too late to fix the version I already sent them, have to grin and bear it... sigh. The one on top as the fixes, the one on the bottom has the horrible typos.

More Comics to Come

My special edition Ipod arrived yesterday and I excitedly imported all the CDs I had (trust me it wasn't much). It certainly better than the bulky CD player I carried around. The package also included the complete Warcraft: Sunwell Trilogy, which I had fun reading as I waited for the songs to import. In the e-mail I got from Blizzard (I will work for this company one day I swear), they relayed that I could submit more comics and win again if I liked! This is great since I'm already half finished with penciling the next one. I also added a new banner of a ducky and lily pads at the bottom of the blog, isn't it cute?

Above is a sketch of Christian Bale that I did for a male figure study.

Drawing Cuties

I recently discovered the joys of watching Brothers and Sisters, the hit new ABC show. My favorite character is Kevin Walker portrayed by Matthew Rhys (Reece). I sat down and watched every episode, in fact, and is now officially enamored with the yummy star. In fact, I did a drawing of him, in color no less. Brothers and Sisters is the first thing in a long time to capture my attention and I actually stopped playing WoW to watch it, which is a testament to the greatness of the show. I'm glad to hear that they will be getting another season.

-Ray

In Other News

I won the comic contest! Yay, joy is me. Damn now I can't submit more comics to them. It was fun while it lasted, I regret not being more productive and making a crap load of comics and not posting here as much as I would like. I still have a few ideas for comics on my drafting board, maybe I'll finish them up.

Unexpected Business

Here's a screen shot on the environment I'm working on for my CG environment class. It's still in the super basic blocking out stage

In other news, I'm on spring break. In the meanwhile, I got a commission as rare as that is. I won't go into any details right now (I'll ask the client later if it's OK to publish the results here). However, if anyone needs a figurative artist for any commission work I welcome any chance to test my skills.

-Ray

The Pains of Slowness

I had my friend rebuild my computer, it runs fine except for one thing: he was out of ram. So for almost half a week now the damned thing has been sluggy as hell. And now I'm stuck in the labs on a computer that makes mines at home look like the Easter Bunny on coke. At least I got a stick of 512 mb ram in my backpack to upgrade my home computer with. However, there isn't much I can do about my current situation. I just have to suffer this until 6:30 and go to the zbursh workshop to get my project for tomorrow done. I have to get to posting more, but for now here's another concept sketch.

The Calm

I'm feeling the coming of a storm, its name is midterm. Only a few weeks before I have to sweep what I have done so far into something presentable (which is not much). Here's a sketch:

Third Time's a Charm

Ding ding ding I just submitted the third wow comic I did. As usual I will be posting it here early and here it is:I like the concept and I'm using some of the things I learned from the other comics, that really helped speed up the process and make it better than the other ones. The colors are vibrant and the forms are solid. The only problem I have with it is the hand in panel 2, it is kind of awkward and I didn't catch it during the refinement phase. Overall. I'm very happy with it and hopefully I'll finally win!

-Ray