Legend of Korra political cartoon 2

Here is my second Legend of Korra political cartoon.  It is themed around the time that Korra quit the Task Force that Tarrlok set up and when she is kidnapped.  I personally like the sketchy-ness of it.  I tried a more cleaned up version, but it just didn't have as much life in my eyes.

Final display case backdrop for fall

Here is my final version of the backdrop for a display case at The Provo Library.  I'll post a picture of it in the actual display cases once they put it up.

Fall display case background at work (WIP)

At work we have a few display cases that usually are themed in coordination with a visiting author or event.  For the month of November they asked me to make a simple fall sunset background.  Here is my first pass at it.  The two light vertical line represent where the divisions are between the three cases.

Birthday Card for the wife

My wife is a huge Doctor Who fan and this year I decided to do something out of the ordinary for each day during the week leading up to her birthday.  This is what I came up with on the first day.  Although now that I've scanned it I see that the window on the door to the TARDIS is not correct perspectively.  I suppose I can fix that and still color it someday.

Legend of Korra political cartoon

Here is one of my Legend of Korra political cartoons.  What is an Equalists home life like?  I'm sure it can't be pretty.

Spin pencil test

I have been wanting to do some gymnastic animations and here is my first pencil test of a quick move. I am wanting to do a longer one next time with running, possibly a vault... and some earthbending....

Back to regular posts I hope

It has been a crazy time recently, but I should be back to posting regularly.  Bryan Konietzko, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender and more recently, The Legend of Korra, asked for fans to make an animation of Mako, from Korra, to dance to a Bollywood dance from the film Lakshya. http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/30497077745/no-korra-movie-in-the-works-at-this-time I spent the weekend working on this animation. I learned much from this simple animation and have a new respect for animators.  Here is the video I posted on youtube, very short and kinda choppy.  But it is more or less animated on 4s, so what do you expect.

Now to work on some storyboards

Oregon!!

We are on vacation and finally in Oregon at my wife's parent's place. I'll try my best at keeping the posts regular, but we shall see.  The car is a good place to read and sketch, but it is rather difficult when it gets to details.  As we were driving I was reading a storyboarding book and the art book to Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Such an inspiring and amazing book.  That right there is my dream job. To work on The Legend of Korra. I am no where near that point now sadly. But someday my goal is to storyboard at least a part of a scene in one episode. Lofty, I know, but it motivates me

Polar and Inverse Polar Panoramas

I have been taking a photography class this past term and yesterday discovered Polar Panoramas.  My final was due today, and yet I was so intrigued with these panoramas that looked like tunnels and small planets that I knew I needed to include some in my work.  

In photoshop under file there is automate, and then photomerge.  From there you select the pictures to be able to make a standard panorama.

 After photoshop thinks for awhile, it will spit out a many layered panoramic image.  If you took the pictures for a complete 360, than you will want to crop this image so that the two ends will be able to fit together seamlessly.  

 From there, do some touch ups with color and fill in some blank spots, and then go into image, then image size, uncheck the box "constrain proportions" and then make the width the same as the height. This will super-compress the image.

 If you want a planet, than rotate the image 180 degrees and go to Filter, Distort and then polar coordinates.

 If you want the tunnel world than you don't inverse it.

They aren't the best in the world, but it is a neat little photoshop trick I learned that is fun to play around with.  i pulled an all-nighter last night, so... I'm counting this post as today's and yesterdays.

Korra Political Cartoon Idea #3

Chi-blocker home life.  they probably have family lives too.  Who do they go home to? And do they approve of what they do?  Here is another work-in-progress.

Seriously though, I need to get these worked on, but after finals.

If you can't tell whats going on in the picture, don't worry about it, you'll see soon enough.

Another quick sketch of a Korra political cartoon

This one is of the non-benders protesting the new laws that Tarrlok has passed requiring a curfew and such.  They wont take it anymore, the guys falling off the world are Metal-bender cops

Soon, very soon, I will be done with finals and able to devote more time to these.

Found out I had to go into work tonight

So, I am sticking with it and having at least one post a day, but today you get a sketch on a sticky note, enjoy.

The first one is a terrible comp of Amon not showing up once Korra joins Tarrlok's task force.  The other one is Amon taking over Republic City.  It is in his hands if that isn't clear.

Like I said, I have a lot of ideas for political cartoons, I've only sketched out a handful, I need more hours in the day.

The picture doesn't seem to want to upload, I'll try adding it when I get home.

Nothing new art wise

I have been super busy trying to finish up a class that I didn't take time to draw today. Tomorrow should be better

Legend of Korra Political Cartoons Preview

I'm starting this new little project that I have been thinking about for awhile now.  Korra world based political cartoons.  Something that would be in the newspapers of Republic City.  This is a work-in-progress of Amon holding up his two biggest threats, Tarrlok and Korra.  This takes place after he confronted Korra at Avatar Aang Memorial Statue and wasn't on Tarrlok's Task Force anymore.  Tarrlok and Korra aren't getting along very well at this point and Amon feels that he is superior.  I'll explain more once I finish it.

I also noticed that my last post didn't turn out very well.  I tried to do it from my phone and apparently publishing posts for an app isn't the best way.  Ya live and learn I guess.

Legend of Korra ideas

There is a storyboard job opening for The Legend of Korra (pretty much my dream job). I have always wanted to do storyboards, but sadly haven't take the time to develop as a story artist. There is no way that I will be good enough to actually get this job, but it has motivated me to start drawing more and to put my ideas into storyboards and possibly even animate them myself in the future, lofty goals, but I also have one to board out at least one scene in Korra before the series ends. Possible, but very unlikely.  Here is a quick sketch I made on my phone during a meeting last week. It is of a metalbender on his first day on the metalbender force. He is still trying to get the hang of his new abillities and just barely passed the exam....more to come later.

Tech Tuesday: Audiobook

Finally getting around to posting again, I figured I would try before the new month by starting a little schedule of posts.  Ones on Tuesday with be about things that I have made and less about drawing. 

 This is what I call an audiobook.  I gutted an old copy of Treasure Island (after removing the N.C. Wyeth pictures), sadly I couldn't find a copy of The Time Machine.

 I then went on to put in a slightly hacked CD player to play a copy of the Time Machine audio book.

 I also included an older smartphone that had a copy of the book on MP3, PDF, and the film.

I made this to show the progression of media and how we used to use books and other items a lot more, but now our phones have replaced most of our older gadgets.  Don't get me wrong, I love my phone and all that it can do, there is this feeling you can't get anywhere else that you get from holding a book and being able to flip the pages.

Flour Sack Animation

VAANM 160: Intro to Animation class at BYU

Flour Sack Animation

We had to animate a flour sack falling and landing.  This was my first real attempt at animating anything.  I worked on it from probably 7pm until noon the following day, with a little bit more time tweaking the timing.  Overall I really enjoyed the experience and want to continue to animate in the future.

Illustration Portfolio Review

Twice a year there is the portfolio review at Brigham Young University to see if you've got the moxie to get into the Illustration program.  Here is my work for this go around, last semester I tried and didn't get in (maybe I'll post that portfolio later)

 Here are a few figure studies.  I am in a figure drawing class this semester and am learning tons.  These photos don't do these justice, in life they are a bit more green.

Next we have a part of my final from last semester. My wife and I wearing our wedding clothes for a few "shots"

Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we often fight, but only with plastic swords and nerf guns.

For Black Friday, Allison got herself a Kindle, she was kinda addicted to it for awhile.  When I took the reference photo, it was originally supposed to be just from my hands down, but the picture got her and the kindle too.  This picture was tons better than what I had in mind and just had to use it instead.

A couple portraits from class.  About 40 minuets each.  They are okay, but way better than the last time I tried one at this size in High School.

This one is of my wife coming home from running for quite awhile, is is training for a marathon and just on Friday ran 16 miles.  The medium is Acryla Gouache for this one and the next two. (note to all those that see these, I never painted before this one of Allison)

Dying with debt, it is about those who retire and collect debt up the wazoo and don't have any intention of paying it off before they die.

I thought of this awhile ago and finally painted it on Friday.  There is more to be scared of than your own shadow.

And finally, we have to do a creative exercise.  There are a bunch of lines and shapes, and we need to create something out of it, I was running out of time and this was the best I could think of in a half hour.

There it is... My entry into the BA in Illustration, wish me luck.

Sketchbook Show

There is a sketchbook show soon to be at BYU and I finally got together my pieces that I want to submit.  The problem was that I couldn't narrow down my selection, so I decided to make a collage.

I'm happy with how it turned out.  It is not the most amazing, but because of limited time and what not, I am pleased with how everything was able to fit together.  It will be interesting to see what other people do for their entries.

Ah, the obligatory first blog post on a brand new blog... THE EXCITEMENT!! What to say, what to say?  Well, since this is a blog about my art and not my writing, I'll give you some of that right now (who am I even talking to?)

I created this blog to help me show my art in all of it's forms to my family and friends who rarely if ever get a chance to see what I do will all my not-so-free time.

I am going to school at Brigham Young University and am currently taking a few art classes. I plan to post my in-progress works for a couple of my classes. We will see how on top of things I actually will be. I work over 40 hours a week between my two jobs, one being on-campus in the library and the other at the Provo City Library. I also am going to school full time. I got married almost 6 months ago to the lovely young lady in the picture. I'm glad she puts up with me and all my crazy antics...

...and there you have it