A Few More Circus Friends

Here are a few more characters for my intro character design class. These go with the work from the post a couple back.

Robot Jox Concept

I'm currently in the midst of redesigning a couple of sci-fi movie vehicles I particularly like, and here's a sketch of one of them. It's a redesign of Achilles' mech from Robot Jox. This is a rough re-working of a doodle from last year and part of a bunch of ideas I'll put up eventually. I just rather like this one.

Maleficent Dragon

Week 3 Character Class HW: Roughs for New Project

This is the first wave of work for a group project in the class about a circus troop that doubles as burglars at night using the wild skills they have. So far, the world is inspired by Art Deco and may have magic involved, although I didn't focus on magic this week. The following are sketches and rough thumbnails of my character, who will be a daredevil.

Also, I just found out there isn't class today.... So Happy Birthday, President Washington, and Happy President's Day!! I guess I'll be posting more roughs for an expanded Week 3 this week....

Batmobile Concept

It's been waaaaaaay too long since I've been doing vehicle designs, so here's a Batmobile I designed today.... I really could keep working on it, but I had to just say enough was enough... and go to bed.... Maybe more on it later.... Or a different one.... Had a lot of fun! It feels good to take a break from my quest to learn character design and do what I love designing most (sci-fi and fantasy vehicles in case you didn't notice).

More KOMET Character Design

Here are some sketch-paintings I did as the next step in my project for Ross' character class. I hope you enjoy! Rock on!

Character Design Week 2 Teaser

Below are a couple of images from the work I'm doing for my character design class this week. I'll post the rest in the next day or two.

New Character Design Blog

As you may have noticed, there aren't many characters on this blog.... Having been trained for Product Design, characters and people have been a weak point of my skillset, yet an interest. To remedy that, I am taking a character design intro class at Brainstorm School. CLICK HERE to see the blog where I will be putting my homework from the class. I'm hoping documenting the efforts will help me improve!

David Bowie

Unfortunately, this makes two tribute sketches in a row (and unfortunately both a little late as I've been busy). This one is for David Bowie, my favorite musician, who passed away last week. I can't remember the first time I heard his work, but I got big into his eighties work while in city college. After that, while going through Art Center, my late nights of homework were fueled by rock, and that's when I started to really appreciate his full discography. I was intrigued by his way of picking what he wanted from genres (or complete disregard) and creating something completely his own. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars quickly became my favorite album and a companion through those tough hauls. Many of the messages in his music resonated with me, such as the importance of being different and not letting oppressing views affect one's own. He'll always remain an inspiration as an artist and person.

George Barris

Well, I'm FINALLY getting around to posting this.... Better late than never. This is my tribute sketch/painting for the great George Barris.

When I was in elementary school, I really wanted to be a comic book artist. Toward the end of elementary school and beginning of middle school, I was starting to really get into cars. While watching one of my first DVDs, the sixties Batman movie, I came across a very cool extra with George Barris talking about how he created the 1966 Batmobile. I was sold. I had to be a designer. At the time, I wanted to be a car designer, which would eventually shift. From there, I got really into classic "kustoms," as Mr. Barris called them, and the crazy neon tuner rage of the time through the early Fast and Furious movies. That might explain why subtle design was never my preference....

Somewhere around that time, I started sending Barris Kustom my concept and custom car sketches. They weren't great (I was a kid figuring it out from Rat Fink shirt sketches and any magazines I could find) but I was always given encouragement from Joji (his daughter) and the King of Kustomizers himself. When I finally met him in person at a car show in Pittsburgh, he told me about a school called Art Center, and the rest is history.... Later, when I was learning to pinstripe, Joji had me pinstripe wallets for them to sell at shows. The call from Mr. Barris saying how much he liked them was one of the coolest things for a kid into hot rods. I'll always be grateful for the kindness and support the Barris family has shown me over the years. It's not everyday a kid gets to meet his childhood hero, let alone get to chat with him about Carson-style tops for the street rod he's working on over the phone.

If you don't know his work, be sure to check out the Barris website. Look for his early kustoms before the TV car era, too, because those helped shape the entire custom car world.

Futuristic Cityscapes

Redux Versions and iPad Sketches

Here are a few updates of old work that I felt like refreshing along with a Parasaurolophus and redesigned War Rig (both sketched on my iPad):

This War Rig is inspired by Mad Max: Fury Road. The idea is that since nothing goes to waste in the world of Mad Max, Furiosa would have potentially had the War Rig rebuilt. Immorten Joe's Gigahorse was his signature vehicle, so Furiosa would naturally rule with her own ultimate wasteland machine. This started as a pencil sketch (the cab) and then grew into an iPad/ProCreate loose digital painting.