Work-in-Progress: Nativity Angel

Hmmm.  The coloring on this one is off.  I was working too quickly.  The final will need to be adjusted, but I'm happy with the shape.

Cutie Bugs

Except for a few touch-ups, the painting is complete.

Work-in-Progress: Nativity Sheep

I'm slowly coming up on the end of the Nativity figures.  I like them individually.  I like them together as a group.  But I'm still unsure of the look and feel of the background.  I'm trying many different things.  Sadly, none of them really move me.  That may actually turn into the most difficult part of this project.  These sheep are completely adorable though!

Work-in-Progress: Nativity

New figures.

Work-in-Progress: Nativity

Continuing with the Nativity scene with the Three Wise Men.

Work-in-Progress: Nativity

I've always loved the Nativity scene and wanted to do a version for myself.  This is the first test run of the initial style I'm trying out.  It's inspired by a small wood nativity I was given as a kid.

Caroling Elves in the Snow

Really Bad Kitty

This holiday season, Really Bad Kitty embraces the gift-giving spirit.

Holiday Cuteness

WIP: I may have invented a new bug...

Hoverpillar!

WIP: Exoskeletons?

WIP: Bug Collection Painting

All the prep work is ready.  Just need to collect some bugs.

Bee Different, or To Bee or Not to Bee, or [Untitled Play-on-Words Project]

This was actually more of a test than a completed piece.  I'm not at all happy with the grass/weed things.  Just a fun little exercise.

The Bug Collection

A few more cute bugs joined the family: caterpillar, grasshopper, and ant.

Because You Can Never Have Enough Cute

Bugs are creepy.  Unless they're cute!

Painting finished. Finally.

Introducing the RBK 3000 Auto-Sequencer.  Ever wonder how Really Bad Kitty became really bad?  Wonder no more!  The RBK 3000 has enhanced all of the badness and suppressed the goodness.  Hook your kitty up today!

Better Homes and Gardens Candy Cane Wreath

Every year I attempt one Christmas project.  And when I saw this, I had to do it!  It's from Better Homes and Gardens.

I made three total.  Sadly, the creatures were stirring.  Not the mouse, but a thousand million ants.  But I learned my lesson.  With the first, I coated it with the clear matte finish after it was done.  Well, that left a lot of uncovered, sugary goodness.  And I guess ants like that kind of thing.  With the second and third, I coated those puppies after every layer.  And then added more.  And then some more.  To store them, I wrapped them in saran wrap, sprayed a bit of ant spray over the wrap, and then bagged them.  They're in the storage unit right now.  I'll know if it held December 1.

Something new

Working on a new sculptural piece, but I can't decide which color set to use yet.  I like them all.  Maybe the first one is out since it doesn't contain an orange-y brown.  I'm partial to orange-y brown.  It's not quite fruit and not quite poo.

Iris

Wanted to practice some gradient and pattern skills in Illustrator.  Love irises.  And they're very gradient-y. Working on this I realized that I can't wait to update to the new version of Illustrator so that I can use the new 'draw within' feature.  Even though it only takes a few more steps, I just didn't feel like creating a mask for the veins.

The Mummy: The Ride

Before Universal Studios built their Mummy attractions, I had designed a facade for a theme park attraction of my own.  The versions of the rides in the States are pretty much coasters-in-a-box.  The one that just opened at Universal Studios Singapore actually looks a lot like this.  Guess I was way ahead of my time.

Resort Camping

As part of a master plan for a theme park resort, I included some high-end "camping."  Here's a few quick sketches of some of the facilities.  Please excuse the terrible scanning job I did on these; they are slanted and messy.  I still need to figure out how to scan better.  It seems like the scanner is a bit too smart for its own good.  It automatically does a number of functions without being asked.  Very rude, if you ask me.

Chamber of Secrets

Long before Harry Potter's World at Universal's Islands of Adventure in Florida was announced, I had sketched a few concepts for an entire Harry Potter theme park.  This is a concept for a Chamber of Secrets floorless coaster.  You enter from the Hogwarts castle, stroll down a stained-glass window hall and then into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, which, if you don't know the series, gets its name from Myrtle's dreary history as opposed to some strange perversion for having intimate relations in the loo.  Once in the bathroom, you descend into the chamber, walk through the serpent entryway, and then enter the boarding area.  You become the basilisk as you board the coaster and then travel through the tunnels of the chamber in a high-speed adventure.

The image is huge if you decide to click it.  I had to stitch together the scans in Photoshop.  Any smaller and you wouldn't be able to see very much.

How fun!

When you mess around in Illustrator, you don't think that anything you do is worthy.  It's just playtime.  So it's nice to see your stuff posted somewhere other than your own blog.

UsingMac.com
SaveDelete.com

Baby Dinosaur

During meetings I take notes on whatever is being discussed.  When the meetings drag on and on, I started to doodle in my notebook.  Somedays there are more drawings than actual notes.  I was flipping through my notebook a few days ago and thought that the original doodle of the baby dinosaur was so cute that it deserved a little extra love.  SketchBook Pro on the iPad.

Boy in Snow

I've been under the weather lately, so my days have consisted of Mario Kart Wii, Grey's Anatomy marathons, and the iPad with SketchBook Pro.  This one started as just a couple of shapes.  I threw down a couple of circles and ovals and the rest just kinda grew from there.  I wanted snowflakes, but I didn't figure out a decent way to that with the app.  Now that I think about it, I might be able to draw one decent snowflake and then import it as a layer a few hundred times.  Oh.  Nevermind.

Scout Robot

Spy Robot

More robot goodness.  This one was completed between Visalia and the Grapevine on the 5 north, heading home.

Muscle Robot

I guess I've started a robot series.  Also done on the roadtrip up the 5 north.  This one was completed between Fresno and Modesto.  Guess I missed all the amazing vistas with my head buried in my iPad.  Oh wait.  Between Fresno and Modesto?  Nope, didn't miss a thing.

Scavenger Robot

Took the magical iPad on a roadtrip recently and continued with the robot theme. Made this little guy on the 5 north between Valencia and Bakersfield.  Don't worry; I was the passenger in the moving vehicle.  This one is six layers of colors and shadows.

Robot

Another one from the SketchBook Pro app.  This one is on four layers: the background, the shadow, the robot's colors, and then the robot's outline on top.  There was liberal use of the mirror function.  And I'm okay with that.

There's No School like the Old School

EPCOT Center.  Circa 1989.  Ahh.  Magic.

And each Future World pavilion used to have its own logo.  Simple and pure and genius.  Here's a wallpaper for your magical iPad in honor of this great time in history.

Click here to download to whatever folder syncs with your magical iPad.

iPhone Version!

Click here to download to whatever folder syncs with your amazing iPhone.

Dreamfinder would be happy.

iPad and SketchBook Pro

There's an app in the iTunes app store called SketchBook Pro.  It's wicked fun to sit on the couch and just doodle away the afternoon.  You get all sorts of brushes, which can be manipulated, and a full color editor.  Here's a clown.  Why a clown?  No idea.  None whatsoever.  This one is three layers: The background (different shades of purple with different opacities), the shadow (an airbrush with high opacity), and then the clown (color and outline).

Updated Design

Got a magical iPad for my birthday.  Somebody loves me.  Now I just have to go down to Starbucks with it so everyone can see me using it.  ;)  But now I can test my designs!  Which led to this update of the too-busy, colorized Tomorrowland Terrace.  This looks WAY better on the magical iPad.

Click here to download to whatever folder syncs with your magical iPad.

The magical iPad

Tomorrowland Terrace

I was goofing off in Illustrator today and decided to do something based on the art direction of Disneyland's Tomorrowland in the 60s.  This is an ode to the Tomorrowland Terrace stage, the one that rises from the ground just as the band starts rockin'!  Groovy, man!  (It's iPad-sized once again.)

Click here to download to whatever folder syncs with your magical iPad.

Beauty and the Beast Dark Ride

Whenever a new Disney movie (the animated kind) was released, I used to imagine what a dark ride for it would be like.  Of course, my dark rides were always 4 times as large as is realistically possible without a show building the size of the Indiana Jones Adventure and $200 million dollars.  I'm guessing I drew this around 1992, back when I was fascinated with the use of a turntable that matches the speed of the ride vehicles to tell an extended piece of the story.  Journey Into Imagination at EPCOT had one, and I thought it was the coolest thing EVAR!

It's Fun to Be Free

I fell in love with EPCOT Center during my first visit in 1988.  What an immense playground for the mind and heart!  Each pavilion brought new use of technology to tell a story or share information in an amazing way.  Sadly, the place has very few wonders left in it.  Most of Future World has been stripped of its elegance and spirit.  Although World of Motion was not a favorite of mine, it believed in itself.  And it believed in you.  And that's worth celebrating.  So I made a little illustration of its grand facade, simple and striking.  (Not to scale.  At all.)