high on fructose…

been awhile since ive picked up a good magazine and cut loose sketching and getting inspired and what not…James Jean is definitely one of my favorite  illustrators…i just needed a break, needed to breath a little, this is what i like to do from time to time to warm up and loosen up (oh yeah, dom’s warm ups are good too)

train ride from madrid to barcelona

Finally back…sorry for the leave of absence but the vacation was much needed…we have tons of pics that eventually will go up as well as sketches…so, we were on a train from Madrid to Barcelona, Dan was fast asleep, Dick Cheney was sitting behind us and Albert was sitting across from me…i sketched this on my train ticket…

@ las vegas…circus de soleil mystere

Wow…longtime no post…sorry we’ve been quite the busy bees @ work  and haven’t had time to post…we’ve also been planning our Lineweights Europe trip…we’ll be going to visit Dan’s home country of Spain then going to Paris and lastly chilling in London with my cousins out there…and of course we’ll be sketching throughout, packing the moleskins with all sorts of random stuff

Anyways, I was in Vegas celebrating a close friend’s birthday and we went to watch circus de soleil: mystere, and it was the best show ever…i fell right in and chased the white rabbit and never looked back…when i got back to my hotel room i doodled some things i saw or thought i saw…

a farm hand from the Great Depression

Back before i started i.d. a was dabbling in illustration/animation, but never pursued it cuz i wasn’t up to par and lacked the self confidence to think i could make it into the program (SJSU has one of the best illustration/animation programs, as their graduates go on to work for ILM/Pixar/Disney/EA Sports/etc)

I took their intro to illustration class with one of the greatest instructors ever, John Clapp. He taught us 3 things that we would take to our graves: 1) Contrast is the meaning of life 2) Shadows are your friend 3) When in doubt, squint…

The following was one of my main projects, a photorealstic sketch using only dense charcoal and rubber kneaded eraser…we used a subtractive process where you start with a black base and then erase out the rendering, playing with contrast tone…I struggled so hard with this project and my final (a self portrait), as well as life drawing in general…

Some background on the photo i referenced, i forgot who the photographer was but i think was taken during the Great Depression of a farmer or field worker, he was blocking his face with his worn down hand, probably embarassed and distraught…i never finished this rendering, it was one of those work in progress projects, i gave it to my sister…

bart and conference scribbles

Took Bart yesterday (thankfully no strike went down) and sketched on the way to a conference/event by PeclersParis for trend/design/cultural stuff…here are some scribbles from the Bart ride and at the event…i like scribbling on the ride since it gets rough and forces you lose control and is unpredicatable as people are coming and going, sleeping and moving…good exercises…

purple stuff

just a bunch of purple stuff….super space calamari, a hulking helmet, kid up to no good, and the giant grape space ape (cygor one of my favorite spawn characters)

daily meanderings…..part 2

i have no idea…meandering i guess…does anyone remember Battle Beasts?…a panda zombie girl, don’t touch that, goldfish, pull the trigger already, bears, and brains…our european vacation isn’t coming quick enough, im thoroughly going  insane…

daily meanderings

from left to right…a smile (i think)…a man with a huge square chin, tough as nails…my friends just got a baby terrier, his name is Rocky…my little niece Asia (whom i drew the Repunzel sketches for), she’s a big inspiration…my other key inspiration, my baby sister, Stacy, who just got a job teaching English (i used the mechanical pencil she bought me for my birthday to draw this)…

mr.magooboo strikes back

Wow Dom! pulling out the old school ‘isht…well, i thought i posted these already, but i guess i never did…here are dan’s and my sketches  of our beloved professor who would throw nebulous notions at you and shoot you down as we presented our lame concepts…we miss you magooboo, we’ll come visit you soon!

and here he is…the nebulous mooliger…he really really really  hated star wars…

yuki 7: must have book!

Just recieved my copy of “Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7″ (http://www.fleetstreetscandal.com/store.php?itemid=123), and it is gorgeous…its been featured on NotCot and is a must have…Kevin Dart also created an awesome fake movie trailer (http://www.artofthetitle.com/2009/07/13/a-kiss-from-tokyo/) that coincided with the book and posters, and i hope they make a full length feature! as always every time a get a book i get excited and start drawing from it…i love the characters, the whole 60’s spy theme and his style…thanks for the extra dose of inspiration Mr. Dart!

the creature feature show…

I found these old sketches from our junior year @SJSU for a warm up project that Prof Mcclusky had us do for our wearable technology concept for Nokia…the premise was great…design an alien creature that lived on you (be it symbiotic or parasitic relationship) and tell a story about the relationship that the human and alien shared…this was a 1 week warm up and we had to also build it in CAD (we were promised SLA’s…we’re still waiting for those…)

Here’s a shotgun blast of some of my concepts…i ended up going with the top left concept…basically it lived on your face and when you sneezed, rather than you using your hands to cover your face or just sneezing out in the air, this creature would spread its gills over your mouth and eat all your mucus, boogers, and what not…this was during the time of the Bird Flu…

Alex n Dan please post your sketches if you can find them, ya’ll had some cool ones…Dan’s ate your brains if i remember correctly, to make u forget things…

in loving memory of michael jackson

Dear Michael,

Thanks for all the memories and music, we’ll miss you! You always kept us singing and dancing…thank you

Your fan always

Jon

taking bart to the battle of the bay

Last week,  Dom and I went to the Battle of the Bay, A’s vs Giants…and as luck turned out its the 20th Anniversary of the Earthquake Series.

Being Eighties Kids, with Dom a Giants fan and myself an A’s fan…we had a blast, recalling  memories of 80’s baseball in the Bay and growing up on opposing ends.

I also took Bart this time to the game…it had been awhile,  so of course i got overwhelmed with all the people and had to draw them all, and when i got to the coliseum i went insane…i love how diverse and beautiful the people of the Bay are, just so many faces and stories to tell…here are some that i caught…

A’s win! take that Dom…oh yeah, the Giants did take this series in the end last week…

On Bart and at the Game…used a cheap red ball point (wish i didnt lose my bic)

Quick box perspective demo

So, i know that King had posted a box demo a few days back, but we had gotten feedback that there were issues with it…namely the perspective…of course King likes to do hyper, distorted boxes for fun, but that may confuse people, especially those of us who just started sketching…doing the hyper, distorted boxes are a great exercise, but you have to understand the basics of constructing a box in perspective first, hence this post…

This is actually a perspective exercise that we would follow up with our calisthenics (Point to Point, Ellipse, and Arches)…it really helps to rack up the mileage and practice your perspective…hope this helps!

The new demo is located in our Tutorials + Techniques section…feel free to leave feedback and comments…

SF Zoo Crawl Thank You!!!

I’d like to thank everyone that showed up to our first Lineweights field trip event and for partcipating in getting in that mileage on paper. We’ve got another fun filled Sketch Crawl so be on the lookout! As a part of our Thank You’s to those who came, we gave out sketchbooks with samples of our work and other goodies…

Here are some of my sketches from the zoo…such a challenging exercise and i need more mileage and practice!!! By the way one of the best books i’ve come across for sketching animals and characters is David Colman’s  ”The Art of Animal Character Design”…This guy is amazing and so inspiring… http://davidsdoodles.com/

 

a tribute to Kwai Chang Caine…we will miss you david carradine

Such a tragic loss, as we have lost a huge inspiration, a hero, a legend, an icon…this is my tribute sketch to you Caine…may you rest in peace…you will be missed Grasshopper…

rapunzel…part 2

here are the two rapunzel sketches i promised my little niece Asia…sketched on 11×17 trace paper (the cheap stuff, i just like the wrinkled, tattered, and gritty feel of it)…used col erase and prisma…can’t wait to take my nieces to see the movie

underlays, the rough stuff…

the finals…

we are PVC

I will never be able to afford these sweet vinyl toys…so all i can do is draw them and hope someone is kind enough to buy me one for my birthday…which reminds me, i forgot to finish rapunzel for my niece…woops….back to the drawing board!

rescuing rapunzel…

As everyone knows I’m a huge fan of Disney/Pixar, and I’m totally excited about their new film Rapunzel…so I’m roughing out a sketch for my little niece (the Boss), Asia…it’ll be a two part sketch with the following and a shot of her looking out of the tower with her hair flowing down..i’ll update the post once i finish…unfortuately i’m gonna be outta town this holiday weekend…so here’s an early look at what i got so far…

Jammin in the studio

Sorry its been awhile since any new posts…we’ve just been busy jammin on Alex’s Nstructor and *anonymous dude’s*  (communication concept)…and as usual as we pull all nighters and after breathing in tons of paint fumes from our crank shack shop, we tag up the studio…so here are some sketches, shots of the protos, and our crank shack design studio…enjoy!!!