Anthony Anderson

Wendy and I watch a lot of Law & Order...

The Big Swing of the Wheel

Kevin Baker, contributing editor of Harper's Magazine and last night's guest on The Colbert Report, made a quip about the health care proposal that I felt had bearing on illustration.

"...if you don't take the big swing of the wheel, you're going to go right into the ditch."

When a drawing isn't looking right, it sometimes takes a dramatic turn in another (or indeed the opposite) direction to put it back on course, vs. many minor adjustments which may or may not help in averting disaster.

Today, I hope, will be a day of "big swings of the wheel."


<---unrelated : Here's a doodle of John Bolton, who was on the preceding Daily Show. I like his wooly mustache.

today's Gnomon viewing

Not that these guys need the extra plugs, but I wanted to extend praise and congratulations to my revered industry peers James Hawkins and Vitaly Bulgarov for their excellent and inspirational instructional DVDs. Pick 'em up here.

lifedrawing log - 07.28.09

Ink!!!

Monday Morning Mecha 001, 002

Going to start posting mechanical whatsits on Monday mornings, just because I like the alliteration.



Here's the sketchpage the idea originated from...


We'll see if I can keep up the habit.

Comic Con 09

Back from San Diego!

Convention highlights :
-Bryan Lee O'Malley panel
-creative goal setting panel
(Overall message : Set a specific, measurable, attainable goal. Visualize it. Play to your strengths. Get help. Do your homework. Know your nemesis. Expect breakdowns. Never give up!)
-Adam Hughes drawing demo
(Overall message : "Have a battle plan!" "Do what the artwork wants!" "Don't fight your 'children.'")
-Nathan Fowkes demo
-Eric Canete sketch!
-Ryan Ottley sketchbook
-J Scott Campbell table (Damn, that guy's getting good at his likenesses.)
-Miss Monster's table (Got yet ANOTHER great shirt from her.)
-Stuart Ng plunder (new Claire Wendling book "Daisies" -- OMG)
-misc. Japanese artbook plunder

below : THQ booth goofery

The poor girls on the right are sporting unwieldly styrofoam armor proxies of Darksiders characters I had a hand in creating. Sorry!!!

below : Nathan Fowkes + model



Personal highlights :
-Hanging with Wendy, Joshua James Shaw, Andrew Murray, Tara Rueping, Devon Cady-Lee, Jeff Moy, James Daly, Sean McNally, Kenji Bliss, Travis Doggett, Kelli Nelson and too many others
-random convention life drawing

below : Wendy and Brobe from Yo Gabba Gabba


below : random sketches/gestures from the con

It's silly, the sheer volume of interesting people who go to this thing. Even if you only have time to make crude doodles as they scroll past, it's worth it. The Suicide Girls booth alone is an artist's jackpot!

lifedrawing log - 07.21.09

Girls cntd. cntd.

Must be my time of the month...

Girls cntd.

Another hastily toned page of sketches. I figure quickie posts are better than no posts!

2+ figures!

No ambitious, high concepts here...just trying to get two or more figures to exist in the same space. Or, er, up in each others' space...

more from the couch

colors slapped on later...

lifedrawing log - 07.13.09

Q4 remix -- female marine

Props to Josh Lennen for his hard-surface 3D skills making some rejected Quake IV armor. Not bad considering what he had to work with! G'faw!

He said he might also take a stab at this female marine from the archives.

I gave her a slight proportional makeover, just 'cuz...

couch babes

Not much rhyme or reason to these...just practicing m' cheesecake on the couch, like y' do...



Spikes and skulls = easy.
Girls = hard.

USPS = Fail

Word of warning to anyone who ships stuff through the United States Postal Service : write "DO NOT BEND" on your padded mailer in big letters. Otherwise those monkeys will attempt to cram your merch into any space they deem crammable. While you're at it, include "DO NOT DEFECATE ON" and "NOT TO BE TAKEN INTERNALLY" just to be sure.


Jeremy Miller, your replacement is in the mail.


UPDATE : "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

lifedrawing log - 07.06.09

Aaaaannnnnd we're back! The model was hitting it out of the park over and over with her poses last night...was a struggle just to keep up!

Aaaand, my website's fucked.

Looks like autodestruct autodestroyed itself.

Technical difficulties. Please stand by.

Thumb War : web version now live!

I posted a browser-friendly adaptation of my recent demo, Thumb War : Design Iteration Combat Simulation on autodestruct. Feel free to peruse and check for spelling errors and gross artistic oversights!



It took loads of time/soulsearching to put together, and while I may expand it later (Little is said about, say, composition.), I'm done with it for now. It was sort of like therapy.

example .jpg



If I'm ever to put together an instructional/promotional DVD, it will be about something wholly divorced from the world of game design and other pipeline-driven art...which I only pretend to understand anyway!

Necronomicook @ 17!

Dominance War results are in! Considering the sillier tone of my entry, I'm surprised to have placed.

Thanks to Fredrik Hultqvist, Chris Robinson, Grant Gosler, Andy Park, Jimmy O'Ready, Minoh Kim and Cecil Kim for all their kind comments, and for bumping Necronomicook into the finals.

Also, mad props to my man Justin Albers for rating high as well! Vigil Games, represent!