Metaben

The Austin...in Colour

2012-01-24T23:51:00.001-08:00

Finished an ink illustration a few days ago. Here are the finished colours on it.

The Drinker

2012-01-19T16:04:00.000-08:00

Sci-Fi,Fantasy and Horror; What do these 3 related genres and Espresso culture have in common...absolutely nothing. Nevertheless they are the basis of a new series of pieces starting with this one:

The Drinker

The below caption may or may not be shown with the piece:

It was then that Phil realised the state of Latte art in the Zorglplxx nebula had frankly gotten completely out of hand.

Phil: ...DRAT!...and I've just shaved

The Austin

2012-01-19T16:02:00.001-08:00

Goon inspired cartoon of a friends baby. Will be adding colour shortly.

Cats for a coporate client

2011-12-18T00:36:00.000-08:00

A few panels from my last storyboard gig

2011-12-18T00:29:00.000-08:00

Mushrooms, mushrooms everywhere and yet none to eat.

2011-12-05T19:24:00.000-08:00

Might be, could be, this will be the last of the mushrooms...but who can really say...not I says me.

Yet more mushrooms

2011-11-28T07:46:00.001-08:00

I am working on other things. But these guys keep popping up.

Twi'lek Bounty Hunter

2011-11-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

I had a little time Sunday night and then again Monday night after work, so a quick 'Star Wars' sketch for fun and practice.

More Mushrooms

2011-11-12T19:48:00.000-08:00

A quick and simple black and white ink drawing of a box of home grown oyster mushrooms for a friend's organic recyclabe mushroom home kit. Soon to be on shelves. This wil be on the package, it'll be around the size of a loonie. Oh well I'm in there at least.

Mushroom

2011-10-20T09:56:00.001-07:00

Even little contracts can be beautiful.

Comic Strip for Foodies

2011-10-20T09:54:00.001-07:00

Aliens vs. Indians

2011-10-10T11:02:00.000-07:00

This production concept/poster illustration for a movie currently in development was SO MUCH FUN!..and stress...but mostly FUN!

Final Storyboards

2011-09-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

Due to budget constraints only 6 of the 130 or so panels from the last set of rough boards I posted were completed. If the project gains additional funding then more of the boards could be brought to finish.

Rough and Tumble Storyboards

2011-09-21T11:02:00.001-07:00

You can't write a story without notes and a preliminary rough draft and you can't draw a storyboard without notes and a preliminary rough draft. Here is just such a rough draft.

Darkhorse Espresso T-Shirt Designs

2011-09-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

These are the 6 T-Shirt designs I submitted to Darkhorse espresso. They are all rough, low-res comps. When the ones selected for print are chosen I'll re-do the graphics in high-res and set up the files for print.

Espresso Sketching

2011-09-21T10:44:00.001-07:00

Sketches made while ramping up for some t-Shirt Designs. I only used the building shot in the end, but I thought they all had some charm to them.

4 step program in 3 images

2011-08-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

For my last contract time was very short. I had to produce 14 illustrations in less then 4 weeks, 25 days.

Here is an example of the different stages in producing these drawings. Note how rough the sketch is. At the beginning there was no clear vision of style or mood. It had to be figured out as we went. So the sketches were kept loose in anticipation of change, also, they were done with an aesthetic direction in mind that in the end the project did not go with.

The posting is called "4 step program in 3 images" because I inked directly onto my pencils, so there was a second stage to the rough sketch, finished pencils.

Kids Stuff

2011-08-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

Drew some illustrations and the STORYBOOK itself for a storybook that will be featured as the opening of a short movie. Shrek is the example that comes to mind, the sotrybook will set the stage and lead into the movie

Rough Cuts

2011-08-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

Here are some storyboard thumbnails for a potential short movie on the life and times of Tom Thomson

...and the winner...drum roll please....

2011-05-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

...this one...finally.

How many tweeks does it take?...this many.

2011-05-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Barrel-O-Squirrels

2011-05-06T09:08:00.001-07:00

The Brain Squirrel epic continues...good lord.

Brain Squirrel rejected...so Son of Brain Squirrel

2011-05-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

Brain Squirrel from the last post was rejected by the client, boooooo, I really loved it. Anyway here is the most recent kick at the can...Son of Brain Squirrel, wether he's made the cut or not is as yet unknown...good luck kid.

Squirrel + Brain = BrainSquirrel

2011-05-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

The Brain Squirrel, a mascot design for an upcoming Ipad software application. Aside from this I have been working on a couple of personal projects and sketching a great deal. I'm still not ready to show anything from my new projects and my scanner problems persist making the posting of sketches a bit of a pain. Still, I may get around to the sketchs soon as I will not have finished work to post for a few weeks yet.

Photoshop tone tests

2011-02-26T16:56:00.000-08:00

I was playing around with monochrome tones in my last project and so decided to play some more. Here is a gray tone test in photoshop. I tried converting it with the zipatone filter but it wasn't all that great. I really like the look of zipatone but I can't make it work in photoshop. If anyone can instruct me on what to do or direct me somewhere that can help that would be great.

Info pamphlet 2

2011-02-26T16:12:00.000-08:00

Here is the final delivered work for the info pamphlet. My clients work on Macs and I use a PC so there were some fonts they wanted I was unable to get to work on my machine, therefore some of the text was tweaked with these new fonts on their end of things making these files not the final final renditions of things...but close enough.

The client wanted an "Indie/Graphic novel look to the work", examples given were work by Joe Sacco and the graphic novel "City of Glass" and a few others I can't recall. "Not too cartoony" was mentioned and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis was used as an example for that...which was too bad I'm a big fan. We also focused on the work of Scott McCloud and used his work for "Google Chrome" as inspiration and direction.

I only had 12 days to complete this project and have it ready for print. It included, layout, pencils, inks, tones and text in both French and English. It was a very tight schedule. There were hard deadlines every day and feedback corrections to execute every day several times a day. Got there in the end though :)

Info pamphlet 1

2011-02-26T16:02:00.000-08:00

Some of the preliminary build up work for my last project, an info pamphlet. I only had 12 days to complete this project and have it ready for print. It included, layout, pencils, inks, tones and text in both French and English.

More Boards...

2011-01-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

A new scene in the short movie I boarded needed to be drawn up. I used some older panels, modified a few, and drew up a handful of new ones for this sequence.

Comic books

2011-01-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

Preliminary sketch work for a comic book project I am currently working on.

Sketchbook

2011-01-06T18:13:00.000-08:00

Urban bike lanes and pedestrian free areas

2011-01-06T17:00:00.000-08:00

I was hired by a friend to draw a few quick sketches for a civil engineering project pitch that he was working on.

Short Movie Storyboard Project 9

2011-01-06T16:59:00.001-08:00

Short Movie Storyboard Project 8

2011-01-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

Short Movie Storyboard Project 7

2011-01-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

Short Movie Storyboard Project 6

2011-01-06T16:55:00.001-08:00

Short Movie Storyboard Project 5

2011-01-06T16:52:00.001-08:00

Short Movie Storyboard Project 4

2011-01-06T16:42:00.001-08:00

Short Movie Storyboard Project 3

2011-01-06T16:11:00.001-08:00

Short Movie Storyboard Project 2

2011-01-06T15:41:00.001-08:00

Short Movie Storyboard Project 1

2011-01-06T15:17:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons I haven't posted in a while was do to a storyboard project that kept me busy from July through October 2010. The boards are for a short movie that will begin production within a few months.

The short required roughly 460 boards. It was a pretty epic 1 man job, none of the sets had been designed, no casting decisions had been made and only a handfull of characters had been designed. There were no camera directions on the script, not even notes from the DOP, and the script wasn't finalized and so subject to change, at times dramatically. Inspite of all this the gig was a blast.

Here are some examples of the work I did for this movie. Though this selection accounts for only 10% of the boards, there are 47 panels, so I'll be posting them seperately. Here is the first batch.

Life Drawing

2011-01-06T14:44:00.000-08:00

15 min. Sketch

10 min. Sketch

15 min. Sketch

20 min. Sketch

10 min. Sketch

20 min. Sketch

Website Graphics

2010-06-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

I finished the graphics for the website of the short movie I am working on. Here are the results, so far, as they are still subject to change by the client. The idea was to create a russian constructive era look and feel. I was drawn to tear at the pieces, to make them look drap and worn, contrasting their sharp edges and bright colours. I feel it highlights the underlying truth of the corruption and oppression which is central to the society in the movie...and it was fun.

Banner Design

2010-06-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on the short movie that will be shot later this coming fall. I've had to shelf the project for about a month due to other engagements but now I'm back at it. I'm currently designing/illustrating a set of graphics to be used with the movies promotional website. The stuff is meant to have a russian revolution era feel to it. I struggled like crazy on this one until I finally decided not to re-invent the wheel. I settled on one of my favorite russian constructivism designs and use it as the basis for the project. I'm not scoring points for originality here but the end result is pretty nice and getting done. I'll post the rest as I finish it. Below is the first and largest piece the site banner. I've included my original digital painting, the altered and brightened variant I used in the end and the final banner design it was included in.

We need those storyboards now Mr. Scot!

2010-06-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

I had under 3 hours to bang out these boards. I spent roughly 15 minutes on each one...whew...

The finally...I hope

2010-06-11T12:18:00.000-07:00

Here are, hopefully, the final final versions of the animal illustrations. Saw the poster sized print of the dog on the triumph, looked amazing.

The build up

2010-06-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

Last time I posted some illustration work. It only shows the final colour pieces. Here are the pencils and inks leading up to the finish. I originally wanted to completely paint these images but time wasn't on my side and inking and digital colours rather then digital paints became the way to go.

Animals and vehicles...but of course!

2010-06-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

I was comissioned to come up with 4 illustrations incorporating 4 animals and 4 vehicles. The animals and vehicles were pre-chosen. Anyhow, I decided to take advantage of this contract and push myself as an illustrator and artist. Well I did, but in the process grossly overshot the deadline and ended up rushing two of the illustrations. Nonetheless the work got in at the 11th hour and I still managed to push my boundaries farther out as an artist. Here is the result...it was hell yo...but worth it.

Sketchy addictions

2010-05-11T18:35:00.000-07:00

We all have our poisons, this is one of mine...and oh how I love it.

Vikki Blows Pin up

2010-05-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

I need to improve at the three following things; Painting, the female form and architectural rendering. In this pin up I'm hitting two of the above three targets. It should be easy to see which ones...I hope.
I'm using a picture of Vikki Blows I downloaded off the net as reference. It's not finished yet but here is where I'm at after about 8 hours of painting.

Story board roughs

2010-05-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on a live action short movie. I'm wearing a few hats on the production and one of my duties is the execution of the movies storyboards. I'm posting a small sample of the 422 panels that were roughly boarded for this short. These are visual notes that I drew up so that myself, the director and the D.O.P. can sit down and come up with a final set of shots that will then be properly boarded. So here is a very rough but charming idea of things to come. Please note that these pages are not consecutive but a random sampling of the rough boards.

New intuos4 tablet

2010-04-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

I just got my new "Wacom Intuos 4" tablet today and took it out for a spin. It makes my old tablet look like a toy. I love this thing.

Ponyo

2010-04-21T01:35:00.001-07:00

A friend tipped me off to Myazaki's latest movie "Ponyo on the Cliff". I loved it and was inspired to create this quick sketch of it's two protagonists Ponyo and Sōsuke.

Life Drawing 04/19/2010

2010-04-20T10:29:00.001-07:00

Above: 10 minute sketch

Above: 20 minute sketch

Above: 25 minute sketch

Life Drawing 04 / 12 / 2010

2010-04-14T10:19:00.001-07:00

Hulk vs. Hellboy

2010-04-10T00:14:00.000-07:00

Hulk vs. Hellboy pin-up. The three stages. pencils, inks and colours. Both the inks and the colours are digital, photoshop.

Life Drawing

2010-04-06T16:03:00.001-07:00

Comic Book Gig

2010-03-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

Before Christmas I was brought onto a project as a penciler. The attached images are the results. I learned a lot. The differences between the first 3 pages and the last 2 are substantial, hurrah for the learning curve.

I have also included the final colours of the first 3 pages. These were done by Thomas Deak. His digital colours are brilliant and should be shared.

30 minute sketch

2009-12-16T18:12:00.001-08:00

1 hour sketch

2009-12-03T11:40:00.001-08:00

1 hour sketch

2009-12-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

Lust

2009-11-30T00:02:00.001-08:00

The last of the character designs

2009-11-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

The final three character boards for the movie short.

Character Designs

2009-10-27T12:01:00.001-07:00

I've been working on character concepts for a live action film short that is in pre-production. I still have about 3 or 4 more character boards to finish up but here are the ones that are finished. Some of these have been posted previously but I wanted to pool them all together into one post.

Photoshoping...ing...

2009-10-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

I got a pic from off the internet of the Crystal Castles lead singer Alice Glass and used it as the model for this digital study. I didn't finish it and I don't think I will. So let's call it a sketch study and call it done.

Attempt in oil

2009-10-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

Life Drawing

2009-10-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

My friends and I have been hitting up life drawing at the TSA in Toronto for the past month. Here is the good stuff from the past 4 weeks.

Too much to post in one go so....sketch book today other stuff tomorrow

2009-10-24T18:12:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted in a while and I've got a ton of stuff to put up. I just spent 4 hours scanning, snapping digital shots and prepping files for uploading and I have run out of steam and I also have other things that I need to tend to. So Instead of killing myself and uploading all of it at once I'll do it over two or three days starting with my sketch book selections from the past month or so.

Sometimes I use my sketch book to develop my skills, sometimes to record, as fatefully as possible, the world around me and other times as I have been doing lately to quickly jot down ideas or impulses. At these times the sketch book becomes more of a visual note book then a visual tour-de-force. In these periods I shy away from letting people see it as the art in it is a series of crude notes and nowhere near a study or a thoughtful rendering. This has been the case for a while now and as this blog is more then just a showcase for my work but also a personal journal of sorts I've decided to post some of it so that I can look back on it down the road and see where my mind was at this time.

Concept Art Again

2009-10-13T21:34:00.001-07:00

Since I blogged last I've done some interesting sketching, a bunch of life drawing, some comic book page layouts and some more character design.

The sketches and life drawing I will post this weekend or sometime next week. The comic book stuff I will post when I finish all the pencils.

All I have the time to post at the moment is this final design of one of the characters from the project I am working on. The last character I finalized was the fat diseased guy. One or two posts below this one. I used a way different final approach for that one, I completely repainted him digitally. It created a much more finished piece and a much more satisfying experience and result for me but it did take a long time. The illustration below may be less finished but it communicates just as much info and took about five or six times less time to finish. So I think this will be the approach I take with the other characters as well. Unless of course my client has other ideas. I'll keep you posted...wuahhahahahah...stupid joke...but then again no one is reading this...booooo.

9

2009-09-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

A friend saw 9 loved it's designs and came up with one of his own. He sent his character design to me and I was inspired to do a quick Photoshop sketch of it as practice.

More concept work

2009-09-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

I posted a few concept sketches earlier this month. Here's one of those sketches fully rendered. I've included the original sketch with this post.

Grillo the good luck grasshopper once again having lost his way

2009-09-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

An inside joke between a friend and I. Wouldn't be funny to explain it as is often the case with inside jokes. You just had to be there. Just the same enjoy the Grasshopper.

Hulk vs. Hellboy

2009-09-15T23:23:00.000-07:00

Hulk is a monster, Hellboy hunts monsters...'nough said. I'm still working on the colours for this one. I'll post it when it's done.

Logo / Pin-up work

2009-09-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

A friend called from L.A., needing a pin up girl logo. Other then her having to be straddling a torpedo I could do what I wanted. I only had a few days to get it all done. With everything I had on my plate it was pretty tight, but totally worth trying...and here she is.

Sketchbook

2009-09-15T22:43:00.000-07:00

Here's some of my more entertaining and interesting sketchbook work from the past few weeks.

Concept work 2

2009-09-15T22:29:00.001-07:00

Concept work

2009-09-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a couple of projects doing concept work in order to develop some skills, gain some experience and work on my portfolio. I can't really talk about any of it, but minus the context here are some sketches. I'm going to post the two projects separately, this is the first.

Inking

2009-09-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

These are some examples of the inking I did last year in school. The pencils are by, in order, Terry Dodson, Ramon Perez, Ramon Perez again and John Buscema. The Dodson and Buscema pencils where from the book "The art of comic book inking", they both have a line through them as they came in the book folded and had a very nasty crease through there centers. Just the same the book rocks and I recommend it. The Ramon Perez pencils came from the man himself, he was my instructor. The class kicked ass.

2009-07-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

Sketches from the past few weeks.

2009-07-09T21:38:00.000-07:00

Years ago I found this image online:

I thought it was funny but not terribly well done. I was doing some photo-retouching and photo illustration at the time and decided to re-finish it.

Recently my brother saw someone using my re-finished version as their background for their iphone touch. I was amazed it was still floating around out there in the social ether. I decided to dig it up and post it.

Here it is:

I don't know who put out the original, but thanks whoever you are, it was great collaborating with you.

2009-07-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook stuff from this week.

2009-07-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

A tonal study in oil from a set of three small black and white prints.

2009-06-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

Studies in various medias from my time at school these past 3 years.

2009-06-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

Examples of comic book pages, Pin-ups, Cartoons and comic strips I've drawn.

2009-06-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

A bunch of Mascot and character designs I've done.

2009-06-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

Illustrations for a drivers handbook targeted at vehicle owners who are also parents.

2009-06-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

An illustration for Harlequin books to be used on a coupon booklet.

2009-06-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

More editorial illustrations of a different kind.

2009-06-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

Examples of editorial illustration work.

2009-06-29T09:48:00.000-07:00

A bugs bunny pic for a friend of a friend. It was fun, came up with a very fast method of colouring and shading in Photoshop which created a very satisfying cartoon effect.

30 minute sketch

2009-04-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to build good habits and develop some skills. So one of the tools I'm going to try out to work on discipline, personal drive and drawing is to complete a sketch within 30 minutes to an hour each day. Any medium goes and if I can spend more then an hour on a sketch or piece then so much the better. Hopefully this will sharpen up my abilities and my production rate. So here's the first, not great, but you have to start somewhere.

2009-04-16T20:53:00.000-07:00

I started this blog close to a year ago today. I posted some work from school including a penciled cover for a short 3 page exercise I had done that year. Last summer I started to do the final colours for it and was almost finished when other responsibilities kept me from doing so. I never came back to it and when school started up again this past September the blog also fell by the way side.

Well, school is done, and although I still don't have the time, yet, to pursue my own projects as often as I would like I did stumble onto this old effort and took a few minutes to finish it off. I'd say 99% of it was already done, I guess I had to wait this whole time to throw in the last 1% and post it.

I'll certainly be doing my best to be more responsible with my blog in the future. Enjoy this pic and I'll post again very soon.

Story boards / Presentation Boards

2008-09-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a set of 3 boards I worked on over the summer.
These are not strictly speaking story boards but boards
meant to be used during a presentation, as part of a pitch.
They wanted a comic book feel to them hence the word
bubbles and caption boxes. Anyway all 3 were done in a
single work week and I was really happy with how they
came out. I've removed almost all the text as the information
contained within is a big 'no no' for me to go public with. I
kept in all the caption boxes and word bubbles and replaced
phone info and adverts with generic mumbo-jumbo to keep
the look of the original layout.

Another dog another dollar.

2008-09-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

It's been forever. Here's the latest dog pic.
I'm hoping to be able to put up some of the
presentation/storyboards I worked on over
the summer. Still waiting for the client's "OK"
on that.

Just out!...not really though.

2008-07-26T14:07:00.001-07:00

Most of what I've done this summer has been story boarding and flash animation all of which can't be shown. Nothing major just the usual non disclosure policy for that kind of thing. Well crap, then here are some pics from back in the day.

Finallllyyyyyy....

2008-06-26T15:08:00.001-07:00

I have no excuses. Yes I've had several contracts that have kept me away from the drawing board, but so has a lack of discipline and plain being lazy. Getting back to it as I type. In the meantime here is my latest commission piece. Another talking dog. It has to talk it wears a suite
and owns an oak desk.

Batman and that Robin

2008-05-17T13:25:00.001-07:00

Batman with a less then willing Robin. A cartoon look at the dynamic duo during a love off period. A commission for a friend. There's a great deal of difference between the pencils and the inks. As it turned out I inked the sketch at a local tex mex, Sneaky Dees. Between the incredibly low light, the beer and the conversation I was working blind, distracted and drunk. in the end I still really like how it came out and I had a great time so...ya...

2008-05-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

A piece commissioned by a friend. I think he furthered his career with it. Art can be used for evil, muahaha.

2008-05-13T14:05:00.001-07:00

Sketches from the sketchbook

No sleep, no time, no mercy

2008-05-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

Haven't updated my blog in like a week. Just spent the last 6 days working 2o hours a day to finish a contract on a very tight deadline. It was a flash animation job, and man, it was tough to do on such a short deadline. Good news is that it was fun, the people involved were outstanding and I was very happy with the end result. As soon as the project clears I'll post the files or links to the video. In the meantime I had to put the break on all my other projects, which I'm happy to get back too now, but it does mean no new projects to post. So here is some work from last summer. A few terrifyingly patriotic images for a client down south...a couple of them are nifty though, the dude on the rocket...Dr. Strange love anybody. BTW the style is definitely design oriented.

Pseudo fatties

2008-04-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

Thin people I know conceptualized with a few extra pounds on. My favorite is the photographer. he's just so damn jolly.