Anthony and the Dinosaurs

This series is supposed to be a personal narrative. Since I didn't have access to my baby pictures or a time machine I had my little brother stand in for me. I have a few more image ideas I'd like to try if I come back to this story again. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

3D Modeling and Animation

Took a 3D course this semester. Spent a lot of time modeling various objects and characters and I thought this environment was worth sharing. Everything you see here was built using Cinema 4D.

Our assignment was to create an animation using the camera tool. I took a previous project where I had to create two rooms that were connected by some kind of staircase. I've always been a fan of the Myst series, so I wanted to do something that was similar to the flybys and trucking shots from those games.

I was really satisfied with the spiral staircase. If I had more time I might have smoothed out the camera rotation in the animation. I learned a great deal about materials and modeling, and the camera tool was not much different from the one in After Effects.

The animation took FOREVER to render. If I ever take on a project like this again I'm going to limit myself to no more than 1000fps. I hope you all enjoy, and don't forget to watch the video in HD!

Four Paintings

Hey everyone! Got lots of new stuff just in time for Christmas! Spent a lot of time this semester painting people and things around our dairy farm. I had a great time doing these and learned a great deal more about color and value. Special thanks to my drawing and painting instructor Ray Bonilla who offered and demonstrated some great pointers and inspiration.

























I also did a painting of my grandfather. This was a difficult image to do based on the lighting, and I still think I could go back and fix this up a little (perhaps digitally). But I like a challenge and I really wanted to paint this photo I had taken last summer. I'm not much of a traditional painter, but the same techniques and rules still apply, so I spent a lot of my time trying to find the right values and reworking the way I thought about light and color.

Wall Art

Last weekend I got together with a few friends to pay tribute to the first caveman who ever drew on a wall. The Emmitt Christian Gallery in the Rockafeller Arts Center at SUNY Fredonia is reserved for students to display their own work(s) for one week as a mini gallery.












We decided we would each paint something that best defined our styles and artistic character. As you might have already guessed, I drew a giant robot, Tyrannosaurus, and lots of action!
















It took 24 hours for me to finish the painting, but it was well worth the time! The transparencies and projectors helped out a lot with the sketchbook to wall transition.
















Featured in the gallery were myself, Mike Hernandez, Lindsay Holmes, Fred Duchow, and Jason Rappold. You can check out everyone's awesome progress and final work in the video below...

College Paper Illustrations

Been working as Illustration Editor for my college paper about a year now. Keeps me on my toes and practice for freelancing. Here are some of my favorites that were featured in The Leader, as well as a few comics from The Lampoon.

3:00 am

Here's a short comic about getting up at the most ungodly hour imaginable and going to work. For those of you who don't know, I live and work on my family's dairy farm. I am not a morning person and I can't stand the cold, so this period of time from three in the morning till about quarter to four is the absolute worst semi-daily experience I have ever endured.












I wanted to give the reader a sense of loneliness. There is absolutely no one awake, and with our neighbors being further away than most people you feel pretty isolated at that hour. This is why I excluded any dialog or sound because it is tremendously quiet. It's also dark. Really dark. The rural area lacks much for street lights save the one at the end of our driveway. But you can see the stars forever, so there are some nice benefits.

Back to Painting

Started off the semester with some oils and acrylics. My challenge this year is to master my oil materials while still maintaining proper color composition and lighting. I started by sketching a photo I took of our barn last fall...


















I changed from a horizontal to a vertical piece because I believed it emphasized the height of the silo much better. I began the first part of the final work with my under-painting using white charcoal pencil, drawing pencils, and later black and white acrylic paint.

















From there I began painting. My greatest challenge for this painting was going to be keeping the sky as realistic to the rest of the painting as possible.


















This painting turned out alright. I'm happy with the way the sky turned out and the warm tone on the light side of the silo. I could go back later and fix those cooler ground colors. Overall, I think it was a good first step. Next time I will be working on a portrait of my grandfather...

Here's A Treat

... for waiting so long after the last post. I can't promise that there will be anything too soon after this one. This semester has been EXTREMELY busy. But I do promise there will be a ton of stuff on here by the time November begins to wind down. Cheers!

I ♥ Robot

I love drawing robots just as much as dinosaurs. I especially love creating mechanical marvels with an organic edge. There is something so musically visceral about these guys you can almost hear the clanks, whirs, and whistles as you draw.









I guess I have much to thank for my love of these bucket o' bolts. Doug Chiang comes to mind, especially his remarkable work on ROBOTA. His trademark of placing technology within exotic, organic environments was really inspirational to me. I highly recommend you check out his old site here.

When I was younger I was also a huge fan of the early Lego BIONICLE line. The story gripped me becuase of this combination of robot warriors living on an organic, tribal island. I started out with the "bones" and worked my way up from there. I want to try some more stuff with these guys in the future-- maybe a more sketchy, conceptual look in my own unique style.



















I also tried my hand at a style very similar to the amazing duo that is Creature Box. These guys add so much energy to their work, resulting in the most awesome, comical, and original characters yet. You can check out Dave Guertin and Greg Baldwin's work here.

Some Thumbs

So this summer has been pretty busy for me. Still trying to doodle as much as I can these days. Here are two thumbnail drawings to keep you happy and let you know I'm still alive.













This first one here was actually an idea I had for a comic to be used in the school paper. This first panel (which also had text boxes) took three hours to make. Wasn't sure if I was ready to commit to a weekly project with that much detail involved quite yet-- but we may see some more of this next fall, perhaps.











Still drawing dinos. Here's a thumb I did for a much larger image I'm working on now. If I can get more time, and if it turns out well, I'll post it here later.

Photography

Here are a few samples of my work from photography class last semester. I used a Nikon N90 with a 50mm lens while shooting.
























I also experimented with overlays. In this first image below, I placed a dryer sheet over the photo paper while exposing the image. It gives it a home-made, cracked paper texture. This other image of my little brother was done by simply placing one negative over another.













For our final project we were asked to do a series of images with a common theme and aesthetic. I chose bicycles as my theme, and I focused each image on a single part of the bike, making them more mysterious. The black and white images really bring out the grime and wear against the shine on the metallic parts of the bicycle.