ART of ACH

Warmup Sketch - Boy

2011-10-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

Did a warm-up sketch this morning before beginning work on a kid's project I've been contracted to do. I realized I don't draw kids very often, so I needed the practice. The project will be for a cutscene animated in Flash - oh yeah, I'm also teaching myself Flash (about friggen time!)

Sketches from out n about

2011-09-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

Drew some of these at various places, including at a bar, at Comic Con and at last night's Animation Nation event with Stephen Silver.

Jury Doodie heads, with KENNY G!!!!

2011-09-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Jury Doodie part Deux. In 2007 I had to spend all day in a stuffy Downtown LA Courthouse waiting to see if I was gonna be chosen as a juror. To pass the time, I sat and drew some of my fellow potential jurors. A few weeks back I had the misfortune of being stuck in the very same building, and again passed the time sketching away. This time, however...after I cleverly talked myself out of serving - as I walked through DTLA's California Plaza, I was delighted to have stumbled upon THE Kenny G. doing a sound check for a concert he was apparently performing there later that evening. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating how excited I actually was, but it was a cool moment nonetheless. As I watched him, I KID YOU NOT, the natural outdoor breeze was dramatically blowing his hair as if he was in a music video or something. It was dreamy. I quickly got out my sketchbook and decided to sketch him, just as he was wrapping up. All in all, not a bad day in LA.

Jim Morrison circa 1994

2011-08-23T20:58:00.001-07:00

"It took me like three hours to finish the shading on your upper lip. It's probably the best drawing I've ever done."
This was one of my first "good" drawings I ever made. I was 14 years old, and this was an assignment for my art class. I probably could have gotten a lot of girls with this drawing alone, too bad I was such a shy introvert. Ah well, at least I kept at it and made a career out of it. Art, that is.

Some ladies

2011-08-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

Digital sketches

2011-08-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of digital sketches from photo reference, including Walter Cronkite

Burly Bearded Baddies

2011-08-17T01:24:00.000-07:00

Well, mustachioed at least. Playing around with proportions and moustaches for some bad guys I'm designing.

Older faces

2011-08-12T01:59:00.001-07:00

A collection of older faces I never got around to posting until now, including a Sophia Loren I never finished and a Hans Christian Andersen.

A few faces + Wonder Woman

2011-06-06T16:06:00.001-07:00

The the gist of these were drawn at Patrick Morgan's Animation Nation talk in Burbank last week. I did a few sketches of Patrick himself...I'm not sure why I always seem to draw him so haggard looking - my bad dude! The Wonder Woman was drawn on the back of a receipt, I do that sometimes.

Splash Page for ActionAllStars.com

2011-05-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

Did this as a splash page for the Time Warp Adventure level for ActionAllStars.com The plan was to make it look like a Drew Struzan Indiana Jones poster, who is definitely one of the reasons I love drawing faces to this day. I think I still have a piece lying around somewhere from when I was like 14 when I tried to copy one of his Star Wars posters . This was indeed a fun piece.

Here are the thumbnails - the story for this level is: there's a turf monster terrorizing the construction site of a new football field, and work can't continue until he is caught. So it is up to you to find and capture this mysterious monster.

Update: here's the final image as used on the site.

Ballpoint Fun

2011-02-02T20:21:00.001-08:00

Just some doodles with a ballpoint pen

Gallery Girls @ the Downtown LA Artwalk - 1/13/11

2011-02-02T16:56:00.000-08:00

Mexico Nov 2010

2011-01-10T20:13:00.001-08:00

I spent a day of my vacation in Mexico to draw some of the passers by in the plaza of the city where my parents grew up, Cuidad Guzman, Jalisco.

Drink & Draw

2011-01-10T20:10:00.001-08:00

These were people that attended a Drink & Draw event at Casey's Irish Pub in Downtown Los Angeles.

Celebs - 2010

2010-07-29T02:26:00.001-07:00

Drew most of these shorty after Michael Jackson's death, just got around to scanning them. Got a few Jacko's in there, an Elliott Smith and some Billy Corgans, and unrecognizable (but I like how I drew him) Anthony Bourdain, and some poker players.

Comic Con and E3 - 2010

2010-07-29T02:22:00.000-07:00

People watching from E3 and Comic Con - 2010

WHALEBOY 3D!!!

2010-07-26T02:36:00.000-07:00

Is it a whale? Is it a boy? No, it's Whaleboy, stupid! That's right, boys and girls...Everybody's favorite boy-in-a-whale-costume-with-a-sucker fish-attached-to-his-head is now available in stunning 3-D!!! I made this CG model in what little spare time I had for my buddy Patrick Morgan to show at this year's Comic Con - unfortunately there were technical difficulties and we couldnt get a smooth quicktime of the rendered animating turnaround in time for the masses to behold. Here are some screen grabs I got - I just hope I did the Whaleboy fans proud.

Update: Here is a shot of the Whaleboy I modeled, fully posed and blown up for Patrick's booth at this year's Comic Con. I was pretty stoked to see that!

Gallery Girls 5-17-10

2010-05-19T00:50:00.001-07:00

Theme was Super Girl & Wonder Woman - the models started in one outfit, and slowly stripped off layers to reveal their super hero outfits underneath. That was pretty cool.

Random people watching

2010-05-12T13:21:00.000-07:00

Life Drawing with the Gallery Girls 5-10-10

2010-05-12T01:13:00.000-07:00

Theme was Egyptian

Life Drawing with the Gallery Girls 5-3-10

2010-05-12T01:05:00.000-07:00

Theme was pin-up girls

Drawing Jam: Rachel Dashae

2009-10-14T01:26:00.000-07:00

Did this for the September Drawing Jam of model Rachel Dashae. Did this really to take a creative break from some mundane work I've been doing lately. Didn't have much time to work on this, but I was pretty happy with how it came out. Now back to work.

Dale Gas

2009-09-25T18:34:00.001-07:00

I was recently commisioned by my brother and his softball team to come up with their team logo. Their team is called Dale Gas - the literal translation is "give it gas" but is a more acurately translated into the slag "step on it". Naturally I thought of some of the classic hot rod guys like Ed "Big Daddy" Roth for inspiration, and though the car design is about 90% borrowed form Mr. Roth, the gnarly one-eyed baseball-headed bat-totin' monster is 100% me.

Drawing Jam: Hayden Panettiere

2009-03-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

This was done for the December Drawing Jam over at The Drawing Board (I know it's almost April, so sue me). I would like to revisit this piece and maybe do a digital inking, as brush pens are still kinda new to me....and her hands need work, I know.

Cafe Sketches

2009-01-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

Some cafe sketches from the past couple of weeks

Memery Sketch part Deux

2009-01-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

Went out with Patrick again yesterday to the Fox Hills Mall for some more lunchtime sketching fun. Spotted this older lady with a crazy hair-do walking rather slowly with a walking cane gettin a cup o' joe...she was a perfect subject for our memory sketch. Here is my take.

Since I have to get back to working right after my lunch break, what I like to do to get as much of the details fresh in my memory down on paper is try to get some quick roughs done, then take those home and do a finished piece on my own time. Here are some of my roughs for her.

Memory Sketch excersise

2008-12-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

My friend Patrick Morgan and I went out to sketch some people on our lunch break, and though the pickins were pretty slim, we spotted this lady that was begging to be drawn...so we decided to take a mental snap shot of her and use her as our memory sketch subject.

I'll add colors soon, hopefully before the end of the week.

Life Drawing 'Cowboy'

2008-10-22T14:24:00.000-07:00

Some life drawings I did last night, the model dressed up as a cowboy and got into character with some great poses. I had fun with these.

More meeting fun

2008-08-07T18:55:00.001-07:00

The Joker

2008-08-05T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a sketch I did of Heath Ledger's Joker. What a phenomenal performance he gave, truly inspiring...I had a Joker-esue grin on my face every second he was on the screen. It will be interesting to see anybody try to top his performance.

Here's the pencils

Meeting Sketch dump

2008-07-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

Heres a huge dump of sketches done during meetings at work...Im pretty sure this is what meetings are for, though I could be worng.

Drawing Jam: Miranda Kerr

2008-03-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

I did this for drawingboard.org 's March Drawing Jam. The model is Miranda Kerr of Victoria's Secret.

Classic Dames

2008-02-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a few 'dames' I did from photo ref...they were actresses from the black & white Hollywood days, though I couldn't tell you who they are. Every once in a while a group of us at work get togther and draw from these old Hollywood pics...you just dont see faces like these anymore, truly classics.

Holiday Card

2007-12-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

Well, it's December and you know what that means...SANTA CLAUSE'S BIRTHDAY IS COMMING!!! Good ol' St. Nick, the Patron Saint of falling into debt. Well, this is the first X-mas card I've ever designed, I actually did it for a contest my company was holding...and though I didn't win, I had a lot of fun doing it. The style is definately inspired by a bunch of illustrators I've been looking at for inspiration lately, though I tried not to make it a complete rip-off.

2007-10-02T16:12:00.001-07:00

Jury Doodie was funnn!!! Well, not really...but I tried to make the most of my time sitting around waiting.

2007-09-28T16:35:00.001-07:00

A bunch cafe sketches I hadn't gotten around to scanning until now.

2007-08-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

Jimi Hendrix. Drew these on small 3x5 inch pieces of paper, thought I'd post em. Not my favorite drawing, but I havnt posted in a while so I figured...what the hey?

2007-08-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

The Caricature(s) on the bottom right is a of a professional caricaturist named Joe Bluhm. I got to meet the guy at this year's Comic Con and bought his awesome book Rejects, a great book of caricatures and the stories of how his drawings were rejected by his clients because they were so...what's the word...horrifying? In all honesty, they are all great and the people who rejected them must have no idea what a real caricature is and were probably expecting a cute-icature or something lame. Anyways, as I bought the book, he asked me if I wanted it personalized...I said "sure!" Then he bagan drawing me right then and there, kind of caught me off guard. So this is what he drew:

A good likeness if you ask me (and anybody who knows me), but not nearly as extreme as what you will find in the book. Pick it up if you get the chance...you'll get a good laugh out of it.

2007-08-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

Drew these while watching TV one night. That's supposed to be Jewel on the top left, 2 versions of MSNBC'sNancy Grace on the bottom left, a guest on Nancy Grace's show on the far right, and some guitarist for some band top middle.

2007-07-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

Here's my attempt at Terry O'Quinn from Lost. I don't watch the show so I don't know if I captured his likeness well or not. Anywho, I did this for an acquaintance of mine's Caricature Challenge over at http://diegolucia.com.ar/diluc/terry.html Working on this made me realize I really need to do more color pieces...I need tons of help in that department, maybe take a digital paint class or something.

Here's the sketches...
For shits & giggles...

2007-07-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

More faces...tried a few different styles with this batch.

2007-06-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

Compilations of drawings I had lying around, decided to scan em.

2007-06-06T11:47:00.001-07:00

"My friends think I'm ugly, I've got a masculine face." Here's my attempt at Mr. Tom Waits, I tried a different approach with him. I need to work on my crosshatching, I think I got his likeness though.

2007-06-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

More caricatures...I had fun with this batch.

2007-05-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

Somebody I know whom I greately respect as both an artist and a person recently told me something that had an impact on me. He noticed in some of my drawings (see older posts) that I had a bit of a "style" developing, it's a simplified style that I've been trying my hands at after being inspired by guys like Stephen Silver, Shane Glines, and a bunch of the guys on the links section. He said "Artists can sometimes hide behind styles", and though I'm certain he said this with no ill will towards my work, it did make me think. Artists like those I mentioned who draw in that simplified style I admire so much, also have a clear understanding of the fundamentals of drawing. Though I've beed drawing for a few years, I'm hardly a master of the basic fundamentals, in fact...I still have a whole lot to learn. These past few drawings I've done, though still as caricatures, were done with some of the fundamentals lacking in my older posts. I found out that I've had a hard time with shading, and with details like hair. Giving them form, weight, mass...It's definately a challenge and something I've gotten rusty with while drawing in the style I've been developing. I still want to develop that style, but I dont want to use it as a crutch to avoid the basics of drawing. Sorry for the long explination...here now, are more drawings.

2007-05-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

A couple more from photo ref. I actually took a little more time with these...went for a more traditional caricature approach.

2007-05-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

And now for something a little different than the norm...naked ladies. Enjoy.

These were from the May 'Drawing Jam' over at http://www.drawingboard.org/viewtopic.php?t=55266 (Warning: [tasteful] nudity)

2007-05-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

Another round of vintage Hollywood faces from today...I'm quite pleased with how she turned, I just wish he came out better. Oh well.

Below are some warm-up sketches I did from photo reference. I tried to keep them quick n' loose.

2007-04-11T18:56:00.000-07:00

Some quickies from today drawn from pictures taken at a Tattoo convention.

2007-04-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I've decided to change my blog name...turns out there was another blogger using a very similar name, and though he never contacted me about the similarities, I decided to change it anyways. So here is a new post after a very long absence. Drawn from watching loops of old TV shows a co-worker of mine made...love those classic faces! Enjoy.

2006-10-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay, I've been quite busy here at work...and though I have been drawing fairly regularly, I havn't had much time to scan and post anything in a while. So here goes a few updates (more of the same...people's faces) but when I get more free time, I will try to post different subjects. Enjoy!

2006-09-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a few I did from over at the drawing board. A bunch of caricaturists posts pics of themselves and do caricatures of one another. There is some amazing talent over there, I may get up the courage to post a pic of myself and have them have a go at me. In the meantime...

2006-09-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

A little late...these are last weeks faces. I really should start drawing more than just faces now, makes me wonder if you guys are sick of seeing the same stuff. Anywho, here you go.

And here's some of the rejects from previous weeks...there's nothing really wrong with them, but they just dont do anythign for me eigther. Blah.

2006-08-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

This week's bunch...Starbucks patrons and some co-workers.

2006-08-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

A few from yesterday's lunch break at the local Border's bookstore.

2006-08-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a bunch of sketches from this weeks outings. All done on lunch breaks throughout the week.

The sketches below are my least favorite from the past few weeks, but I did promise I would post the good with the bad...so here they go.

2006-08-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

Here are a few caricatures from photo references...It's easier for me to work from photographs because I can take the time to study the subject's features closely, instead of trying to quickly capture them as the subject is walking by. These particular photos were from a few caricature jams over at the Drawing Board.

Here's the reference pics

I think Uma Therman is my least favorite, and Matt Damon is kind of there...but I was fairly happy with how John Goodman came out. Below I posted my process to show that it takes a few tries to nail down a look I'm happy with.

2006-08-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some scribbles I did from life. Some were while on a lunch break, out and about, or while in company meetings. I am heavily influenced by Stephen Silver, Patrick Morgan, and other artists who can capture somebody's likeness and make a funny picture out of it. It's not so much a caricature, but more of a cartoonization of the person's likeness. Simplifying, stylizing, and giving character to ordinary people. I'm still trying to find my own style, hopefully as the posts continue I will see something emerge. Here's what I got for now:

2006-08-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

So this is my sketch blog...here is my first post, and if all goes as planned, it wont be my last.

Tor Johnson from Plan 9 From Outer Space and Hellboy...that red bastard is just so damn fun to draw.

More Hellboys, as mentioned above...fun bastard to draw.