Happy Halloween! The Drawing Club sketches (10/28/10)

Hope folks out there are having a safe & happy Halloween!  Here are my sketches from last week's 10/28 Drawing Club session.  Jonnathon Cripple posed as "The Mutant Zombie"...

For more information on The Drawing Club, please visit:  www.thedrawingclub.com

Thanks for visiting!

SILA "Art in the Park" (10/23/10)

Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA) held another "Art in the Park" mixer at Griffith Park this past Saturday.  I showed up for the later half of the event, but managed to do some sketching & mingling with other artists. Below are a couple of pages:

To learn more about SILA and/or to become a member, please visit their website:  www.si-la.org
Thanks for visiting!

Painting for the United States Air Force Art Program

As a Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA) member, I had the privilege of taking a trip to North Carolina last year to participate in the United States Air Force "Brush of Blue" Art Program.   In this program, the Air Force gives participants the opportunity to travel to various locations – after which the artists donate illustrations/artwork (reflecting experiences and observations from these trips) to the permanent Air Force Art Collection.

Below is my painting, which is based off of a photo I took at the Luzon Drop Zone in NC.  Students were training for combat control, and this particular soldier was incredibly focused and alert.

This piece – along with many other works from artists around the country – is currently on exhibit at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio from October 18 through the second week of January 2011.

Many thanks to the kind folks at Pope Air Force Base in NC and the Air Force Art Program Office – and of course, to the brave men and women serving our country.  For more information regarding this art program and SILA, please visit:  http://si-la.org/airforce.html

29th World Wide SketchCrawl

Sorry it's been a while since my last post!  Thankfully, work has been keeping me busy...and life is good :)

This past Saturday was the 29th World Wide SketchCrawl.  The Los Angeles group met at Venice Beach – and it was a fun and interesting day, in spite of the gloomy weather.  Below are my results:

Please visit www.sketchcrawl.com to view works by other artists and to learn more about this world-wide drawing marathon!

I'm going to try to be better at posting in the coming weeks.  Thanks for stopping by :)

Here Be Pirates...

Just finished scanning in some figure drawings from David Colman's character design class.  We were fortunate to have an awesome model pose as a pirate, so we could practice overall expression.  Below are my drawings (some darkening was done at home) – please click to enlarge.

Here's another little pirate-themed character exercise from the class:

Thanks for stopping by!

"Camille Lyon" - Form Exploration (final class project)

Here are some latest "Camille Lyon" drawings, which were shown in my final presentation for David Colman's character design class.

"Camille Lyon" is a basic story concept upon which I've been working this summer...you can read more about it – and view original designs (based more on graphic shapes) – in my 7/10 post.  Recently, we were asked to explore a different design interpretation based more on form (some alternate designs can be seen in my 8/14 post).

David gave some great feedback in the last class, so these designs are still work-in-progress.  I'll most likely revert back to the original graphic direction, and see how I can incorporate feedback from this latest form exploration too.  Not sure what I'm doing with the story yet...but it's been fun designing the characters so far :)

By the way, David's class is wonderful...I would highly recommend it.  Please check out the Concept Design Academy for more course info.  Thanks for visiting!

Latest Sketchbook Pages

Below are some sketchbook pages of peeps from the past several weeks...rounding out the summer with a few different approaches.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Toys for OLIVIA™ and Pop On Pals™

If you're shopping for any little folks (or little folks at heart), perhaps you might want to check out the new toys that recently hit shelves for OLIVIA™ and Pop On Pals™!  I had the privilege of being part of the design team for these brands, while working at Spin Master in Los Angeles.

Spin Master's toys for OLIVIA™ are based off of the TV show airing on Nick Jr. – which, of course, is based off of Ian Falconer's award-winning children's books.  You can find these OLIVIA™ plush dolls, figurines, and playsets in the small-doll aisle for girls, at a local Target or Toys "R" Us.

From Spin Master's Magic Ladder™ comes Pop On Pals™ – a new original preschool line that makes mixing & matching accessories fun and easy for a preschooler.  Simply "pop" a Pal into an accessory ring – and the ring slides onto the body!  Wacky combinations abound.  My good friend Linda Hong designed the overall look of the characters and the line.  I was fortunate to be involved in later design & development.  You can find Pop On Pals™ in the preschool aisle at a nearby Target or Toys "R" Us – among other major retailers. Visit www.poponpals.com for more info!

Please also take a moment to view the wide array of other cool toys at Spin Master's official website:  www.spinmaster.com

Thanks & best wishes to my friends at Spin Master for a great working experience & continuing collaborations.

"Camille Lyon" - Form Explorations (in progress)

Hello!  I thought I'd share an update on my project for David Colman's character design class.  I've been working on some designs for my story concept "Camille Lyon" this summer.

For the first half of the class assignment, we had to focus mainly on graphic, stylized shapes for the characters.  These explorations, along with character descriptions, can be viewed in a previous post.

For the second half, the challenge is to offer new and different design interpretations based more on form – while maintaining the basic integrity & essence of the character.  Below are some of my form explorations...I chose the ones I thought may work best for the bottom lineup.   These are still in progress and pending instructor/class feedback, so the designs will most likely change again :)

Thanks for visiting!

Interview on "Karin Won't Stop Talking" Blog

© Karin Cameron / "Karin Won't Stop Talking" 

One of the great things about Facebook is being able to network & meet some genuinely nice and talented people.  On that note, I've had the pleasure of recently connecting with writer Karin Cameron, who was so kind to invite me for an interview on her blog "Karin Won't Stop Talking".  You can read the full interview here.

Additionally, this interview has motivated me to create an archived section for my Little Do They Know comic strip – which you can find on the right sidebar of my blog, or by clicking here.

I've also updated my regular website a bit more, by adding some recent work and letting go of some of the old (still need to be better at this):  www.viviandesigns.com

Please be sure to check out the rest of Karin's blog as well (which includes beautiful short stories, relatable musings on daily life, and other interviews).  Not only does she have a fun, witty, and approachable writing style – she's a wonderful person as well.

http://karinwontstoptalking.wordpress.com/

Thank you, Karin, for this sweet opportunity & for your support!  Cheers :)

28th World Wide SketchCrawl

Here are my sketches for the 28th World Wide SketchCrawl.  The Los Angeles group met at Hollywood & Highland...so good to draw & hang out with everyone!

I stuck mostly with quick people sketches to coincide with some class homework.  I'm trying to get more used to sketching with pen (I usually sketch in pencil), so that I can improve my confidence & commitment to laying these marks down.  My friend & fellow artist Kendra Melton has been encouraging me in this area :)

Unfortunately, I had some trouble with color washes...I didn't realize that the ink in a Tombo brush pen is NOT waterproof :(  So the colors came out really muddy, and I stopped after a few tries.  Boo...ah well...I'll remember this for next time.

Please visit www.sketchcrawl.com to view works by other artists and to learn more about this world-wide drawing marathon!  Thanks so much for visiting.

"Little Do They Know" (7/21/10)

It's been a while...but now that I've had a chance to gather some thoughts, here is a new Little Do They Know strip.  (The image is wide, so you may need to click further to enlarge.)  Thanks for stopping by!

Meet Camille Lyon...

This is still in its early stages – but I thought I'd share a small project I've been working on for David Colman's character design class. Below are some rough explorations of three main characters for a story I've been thinking about, tentatively titled Camille Lyon.  Here goes:

It's basically about a little French chameleon named Camille, who wants to be just like everyone else & blend in with her peers.  In having this mentality, she usually makes a habit out of trying to please others and conforming to popular standards.  Camille is sweet, eager, and earnest – but she is also deeply insecure, shy, and unsure of herself.  She'll even do things that she honestly doesn't like to do, just for the sake of fitting in & feeling accepted.  Since Camille is so preoccupied with mimicking others, she forgets all too often to reach deep within and discover her unique, special self.  As she learns to focus more on herself, she'll eventually come to realize that it's okay to be a bit different, break out of her comfort zone, and stand out from the crowd.

Camille's best friend is a little old lady named Nette, who owns a neighborhood cafe.  Having seen and gone through her share of life experiences, Nette is a constant source of guidance, support, and wisdom for Camille.  She embraces her individuality & relishes every moment of life, while encouraging Camille to do the same.  Nette can be known to be very blunt & honest as she "tells it like it is"...but she does this with Camille's best interest in mind, of course...

Art is a cuckoo bird who wants to become a renowned artist.  Always to be found with a brush or pencil nearby, Art is passionate about art. Sometimes in more ways than one.  You see, Art really does love Art...almost too much.  As talented as he is, Art can be rather conceited and overly into himself – often believing that he is more special and unique than everyone else.  He purposely rejects the idea of conforming, and prides himself in being different and doing things his way.  This makes Art an unlikely love interest for Camille, who is dazzled and awakened by Art's one-of-a-kind, capricious nature.  But Art does have the capacity and the conscience to better himself – especially when he eventually learns that it's okay to follow some rules, value others, and be responsible...all the while being yourself.
(For early explorations of Art, I wasn't sure if he should be a cat or a bird...needless to say, I went with the latter.)

Wow, long post! :P  Still working out the kinks...but I suppose it's a start.  Okay, back to some other work tonight...thanks for visiting.

More Peeps

I've been sketching more people lately, thanks to David Colman's class at the Concept Design Academy.  Here are a few recent pages...I tried using a grey marker for some of these...having fun & trying to improve.  Most were done at The Grove in LA.  Thanks for visiting...cheers :)

And now for something a little different...

Happy Independence Day!
In addition to taking a character design class this summer, I'm also trying things out in a storyboarding class taught by Rad Sechrist at the Concept Design Academy.  I still have a long way to go, but I thought I'd post the following images, which were done for last week's exercise.  I was trying to come up with a germaphobic, obsessive-compulsive type character (anyone who knows me knows that I'm pretty familiar with this subject matter).  I started off with some character design explorations, then picked one design to try some expressions/poses, and finally applied the character to 3 quick story beats. So...here is Jeremy the Germaphobe:

Trying to keep up more with the blog...thanks for visiting!