мой любимый русский

Вика Юрковец, Ты сделала 2010 год незабываемым.

autodestruct playlist -- top 10 of 2010

1) The Flashbulb "Arboreal"
2) Emancipator "Safe In The Steep Cliffs"
3) Venetian Snares "My So-Called Life"
4) Igorrr "Nostril"
5) Hammock "Chasing After Shadows...Living With The Ghosts"
6) Ólafur Arnalds "...And They Have Escaped The Weight of Darkness"
7) God Is An Astronaut "Age of The Fifth Sun"
8) Front Line Assembly "Improvised Electronic Device"
9) Hybrid "Disappear Here"
10) Cursor Miner "Requires Attention"

Honorable mentions :
1) Lights Out Asia "In The Days of Jupiter"
2) Red Sparowes "The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies The Answer"
3) Bonobo "Black Sands"

It was a rough year for psytrance.  None of it made my cut!  Thanks to my bosom chum Headphone Commute for keeping me in line with exceptional music!

sketch squat / remainders of 2010

Tonight was the fifth time I hosted a private "Sketch Squat", but the first in my new OC digs. The vibe was intimate [read : "cramped"] which was the entire point. New and old friends here, including a very special Skype cameo from Vigil Games' Crystel Land, painting all the way from Austin! So yeah...REMOTE sketch squat. That's a first.


Oh, here's some misc. scraps from the past few weeks "cleaned up" to be somewhat presentable. These were done from a hair magazine in Barnes & Noble...



...and these were done at the last Sketch Squat.



Leyendecker head studies + porn + ???  I promise to get badass and do finished, color work in 2011. Promise! In fact, I met people tonight who will help me accomplish this. DON'T YOU DARE HOLD OUT ON ME!!!

Rebuild

My belongings showed up from Texas today. Included with the shipment was a heavy box, sneaked into the pile by my former coworker Phu Giang, who was kind enough to let me use his house as temporary storage.



This gesture would have been even MORE touching had Phu not included several additional boxes of super-heavy computer junk I SPECIFICALLY asked him to throw out. Touché!

sketchdrop / namedrop

This past weekend I visited Concept Design Academy with Carlo Arellano and Justin Murray. I was also introduced to concept artist / figurative master Kevin Chen and Anthony Francisco!  California's paying off already.

Below : Carlo, teaching a class on Advanced Entertainment Design





(Hope I'm not pissing him off by posting this super-advanced, secret tentacle spider!)

Unrelated : Thanks once again to Miss. Monster for keeping me in cool shirts.

sketchdump

Bottom right : Was trying to replicate some heads from the Tangled art book. Ever try to stay on-model the way these animator types do? It's hard. I couldn't make him look like the same guy across two drawings with the reference staring me right in the face.



Side note : you gotta love boobs that look like thumbs from the side.

lifedrawing log - 12.08.10

First session in a few weeks...and my first session at the Blizzard campus.

Tron-in' it up...

My new pals Kalen Chock and Stefanie Huynh [bottom right] took me to this official "pop up shop" that's temporarily selling all this neat, Tron-style fashion.



Way to go, Disney/Adidas.  You seduced me with your UV-reactive, glow-in-the-dark shit, got my money, and the movie's not even out yet!

Playlist :
[only for future folk -- sorry, Earthlings]

Cursor Miner "Requires Attention"
Subheim "No Land Called Home"
Black Sun Empire "Lights And Wires"
Laughing Buddha "Sacred Technology"
Braincell "Intelligent Being"

sketch night

Tonight's theme : Indian Warden

Pumpkin Goblin!

Virginia Critchfield gave me this sketchtrade as a going-away present.  Having never given her one in return (OH THE GUILT!), I figured the least I could do was a color treatment.



Thanks, Virginia! It was awesome working with you!  And I needed something to do this afternoon, so, even without you being here, you kept me sane today.

portrait / playlist

On the Photoshop :





In the headphones/car :

Asura "360"
Solar Fields "Altered Movements"
Kaya Project "Desert Phase Remixes"
Digitonal "Be Still My Bleeping Heart"
Igorrr "Nostril"
Venetian Snares "My So-Called Life"
Bong Ra "Monster"
This Morn' Omina "Momentum of Singular Clarity"
Shobaleader One "d'Demonstrator"
Bitcrush "Of Embers"
Bitcrush "From Arcs To Embers"
Proem "Enough Conflict"
Dryft "Ventricle"
Lights Out Asia "In The Days of Jupiter"
God Is An Astronaut "Age of the Fifth Sun"
Olafur Arnalds "And They Have Escaped The Weight of Darkness"
Danny Byrd "Rave Digger"
The Qemists "Spirit In The System"
Mood Deluxe "Hot Points"
Invisible Allies "Hyperdimensional Animals"
Anders Ilar "Stories of Old"
Prometheus "Spike"
Tetrameth "The Eclectic Benevolence"
V/A "Sync:Saphir LP"
V/A "Lucas Presents Tales of Heads"
V/A "Culture Vulture"
V/A "Growling Acoustics compiled by Shuumat"
V/A "Power House mixed by DJNV"
V/A "Ninja Tune XX Vol. 1"
V/A "Ninja Tune XX Vol. 2"

From heat waves to blizzards!

2010 has been a year of dizzying highs and crushing lows. Change on nearly every front. Part of this change, I'm happy to say, is that I'll soon be an official employee of Blizzard Entertainment!



Polycount beat me to the news some weeks back, but I wanted to wait until I actually arrived in Irvine, CA safely to call it a done deal. Everyone's been crazy-nice, and even though I don't actually start until the 29th, I've already attended a sketch night there. I'll be working on their big, secret MM0, no doubt behind some padlocked door guarded by a snarling, Cerberus-lookin' hellhound. (FACT : They can routinely be seen sniffing the perimeter.)

Thanks and respect to all my friends at Vigil Games for some great times, and to my art pals from Sketch Night and the various Austin lifedrawing functions. Carry on, carry on!

P.S. -- If anyone can point me to a good comic book shop around here, I'm all ears.

LA auto show -- a few pics

Mainly I just wanted to share this awesome winning entry from their design challenge, which according to the spec, was to "envision an efficient, light-weight, four passenger vehicle that is both comfortable and safe, while delivering satisfactory driving performance without sacrificing the styling consumers' demand."



The other entries were cool too, but this one had all the European-comic-style zazz as opposed to the slick, airbrushed, speedpainty ones that could double as Trapper Keeper folders.  Leave it to the Germans.

Bonus : future bike and robo arm!

technique practice

Workin' on my finishing moves. (And also, boobs.)

Babe Lab Update - Amy Matthews interview

Holy hot jumping fuck! CartoonPink did an interview for Babe Lab!



I'm so not worthy!

hair studies

From misc. hair mags...

Epic. Sketch. Night.

With a heavy heart I bid farewell* to my beloved Austin sketch crew.



Carry on, carry on.

*more on this in future posts!

Terriers

lifedrawing log - 11.10.10

Babe Lab Update - Rayph Beisner

Rayph Beisner totally schools Babe Lab with a peek at his process. Thanks, Rayph!!!



And to all the would-be Babe Lab contributors, I'm still happily accepting additions to this modest pool of knowledge. Get on it!

More unfinished whatsits.

Why is it that I get about this far into something and an impatient alarm in my head goes "STOP! MOVE ON! STOP! MOVE ON!"



Perhaps when I've found something more meaningful to convey than "Hey look, titties!", I'll be able to slog through and complete it. In the meantime, enjoy my sticky page stains!

Vigil Costume Contest / Sketch Night pics

The more youthful, lively Vigilites participated in a company costume contest today.  Personally, I think Crystel Land's "Sister of Battle" costume will walk off with the ribbon -- 40K related and all that.


<---more sketch night candids

sketch night - 10.28.10

Also, check it! Dan Beaulieu went nuts on his own pumpkin!

lifedrawing log - 10.25.10

BlizzCon'd!!!

I was, frankly, unprepared for the scale of this event.


Here's Hall D at the opening ceremony.  Overwhelming!


RRRNNNNGGGHHHHH!!!  *forehead vein bulge*


Apparently this was the first year they had live artist demos at BlizzCon.  I was pretty much glued to this stage, occasionally asking annoying questions.  You can sort of make out Mark Gibbons and Arnold Tsang in this shot...


...and here's a fuzzy Mr. Jack!


Nick Carver and I were quick to bond in an outdoor sketching ritual.


Clockwise from the left : Vadim "Slipgatecentral" Bakhlychev, Josh Singh, Tamara "First-Keeper" Bakhlycheva, moi.





Some cool shots of Josh...sorry the ones I took of you and Sean "Cheeks" Galloway didn't turn out!

...

autoketkamex

Sorry for all the non-drawing posts, but I'm still sifting through pics from my Russia trip. Here I am with artists  Ketka and Mex/Sidxartxa!  We're at a Ukrainian restaurant not far from Nival.

Art Tote! / DS Russian

My pal Dan Beaulieu impressed me with his awesome art tote (see also : "man purse"), so last week I decided I could use one, too. It's not as nice as Dan's, but it's simple and contains everything I need to go on spontaneous sketchpeditions, even in foreign lands!



Buying art supplies is sort of like stocking up on healthly food. You feel good about yourself for buying it, but hate yourself when it winds up going to waste.

Unrelated : here's Darksiders...in Russian.

lifedrawing log - 10.16.10

Gah! I'm guilty of "the crop-out cop-out!"

armorpumpkin 1

sketch niiiiight