Dent Found

Wow, I totally thought this image was lost to the ages. I recently resurrected my old Powerbook and while rummaging through the drive, I found a small folder of Peck images. This drawing just really captures the atmosphere of a fictitious Sactown and the coolness of Dent.

Movie Review: Brave

Okay, I live in a world where I take it for granted that Disney/Pixar are hands-down THE most formidable entertainment tag team in the world. Their effects, animation/cinematography, character development, and stories are just so head and shoulders above the rest. And they've hit so many home runs in a row, you get to the point where your expectations are just so high. I think, however, I've finally experienced my first let down in their latest installment, Brave. Now, let me be clear, I give the movie an enthusiastic thumbs up. In fact I was so amazed at the animation (i.e., the bear playing in the stream)—it's just so stunning seeing where the technology has gone—but past that, the rubber meets the road at that pesky stretch of highway known as Story.
     Brave is your typical "girl-doesn't-to-want-conform-to-society's/family's-expectations" vehicle. And that packaging has worked so many times over, from Cinderella all the way to the more recent Tangled. I mean, think about how many times the premise has been used in the last 60+ years for Disney. But this time it just felt forced. Now, I don't think the vehicle is flawed, but I do think the story has to be exceptionally bullet-proof in order withstand the scrutiny of discerning movie fans these days. Let's face it, we sort of expect everything to be well-made. We're spoiled that way. And a weak story can't be frosted with slap-stick and special effects—not that those are bad things, but in this case it just really felt like a diversion from the less-than-sterling narrative. To Pixar's credit, they built an incredible world—lush and vivid with incredible detail. I'd watch it again, just to freeze frame it and study the backgrounds. But it all comes back to story. Story. Story. Story. "B+"

Bat B&W Final

Here's the final for the next Incompatibles installment. This was fun doing visual research on stalactites. Batman's eyes look like two pieces of coal right now, but I'll fix that digitally. I will also take care of the image on the big screen when I go to color in p-shop.

Bat In Progress

Here's an Incompatibles in progress. I scanned the previous thumbnail from the road trip roughs and cut it up in p-shop. I adjusted the elements on different layers then re-outputted this version as a blueline to work out details and relationships better.

Here is the value study two steps later. You can see the adjustments that were made from the rough. I've zoomed the action to bring more focus to the characters. I really want to showcase the size of their bellies, but I think that will be more stated when color is added.  I love Robin's face at this point, but I'm not totally sold on Batman's mug. More tweaks will happen when I go to final pencils.

Value Study > Finished Drawing

Value study before rendering the final pencils. Here I decide what's going to be shaded by hand and what's going to be colored in p-shop.

And here's the finished b&w drawing. I made a lot of adjustments and additions in the detail. Compare the mane, saddle, ribbon, reins, mailbag and stirrup between the two versions. And below is the final colorized panel. I really enjoyed doing this one.

road trip roughs

Here are some Incompatibles sketches I did during our family vacation in Utah this last week. Many of these sketches are no more than 2–3 inches square. I like to render out ideas small, then—if I like what I see—I can scale them up on the computer and print them out as blue lines for further tinkering.

I can't give away the captions until they're finished, but some might be obvious.

The nuances of the pony and rider here can really tweak the interpretation.

Hehe.

Baa.

Sometimes it's nice to space out the elements in the drawing, then select/overlap them in p-shop, especially ones involving a lot of structural perspective. I haven't tweaked this one yet, but will repost it when I've reworked it.

A crude little scrawl, but I like it.

An eventual twist on a Pavlov's dogs.

game design

I'm working on new card game right now. It looks nothing like the standard set of cards above—it's even more pictorial. The game involves nuances of some well known standbys (i.e., War, Crazy Eight, and Uno), but the game-play and design is infused with enough originality to steer it well clear of patent issues. Which reminds me—I need to look into patent registration at some point. 

I just tried the latest iteration of the game out on my family tonight. It really helped to work out some of the major bugs involving card numbers and ratios. My aim is to make this something that could be played one on one, but also be just as enjoyable in a group setting. It's so interesting how things that seem so clear in your head become quickly obsolete once UX testing begins. In no time, we figured out the game wasn't intuitive enough and had too many "attack cards" (I'll explain later).  Nobody could win—at least not so far as we could tell for the first 20 minutes we played the game. So I whipped out my sharpie and neutralized half of the attack cards and we dealt out another game. It was night and day in terms of play. Still lots to figure out in user testing, so some of the illustrative aspects of the cards will remain crude until I have a firmer idea of game play.

yarns reception this wednesday

Just a heads up that the Yarns Exhibit reception is this Wednesday, May 2nd, 6pm-8pm at the CSUS University Union 2nd Floor Gallery. Meet the artists of this anthology and see the process that led to the book becoming a reality. Signed copies of the limited edition book will be on hand for purchase ($20). And all book purchases get a free sketch inside to boot. We hope to see you there!

Heinrich Kley

One of my favorite influences is the German caricaturist Heinrich Kley. His work was just so dynamic and free. It's amazing what he could do with a line. If I can bring an inkling of the energy he brought to his drawings, I'd be filled with happy sighs. Check out some of his work here.

Yarns Debut

YARNS, the Yowling Anthology of Random & Neato Stories, will be making its debut this month at Sacramento State University near the end of April. It's been fun editing the pub and gathering the friends for this endeavor. The reception for the show is on May 2nd, 6pm–8pm in the University Union Gallery. Come out and view the "making of" the book and meet the artists that put it all together. For more info, go to  http://www.union.csus.edu/gallery/.