Ben Lambert's Art Blog

Animation Demo Reel

2012-01-31T21:45:00.000-08:00

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Ben Lambert Animation Demo Reel from Ben Lambert on Vimeo.

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Ben Lambert- Animation Demo Reel 02/08/2009

My Left Hand

2011-12-02T07:42:00.000-08:00

Hand study using some water colors and ink.

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Joe Biden Caricature

2011-11-07T18:30:00.000-08:00

Joe Biden Caricature. Created in Photoshop and Illustrator.

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Barack Obama Caricature

2011-11-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama Caricature. Created in Photoshop and Illustrator.

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Dr Sketchy's in Grand Rapids and my leg

2011-10-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

I finally went to Dr. Sketchy's in Grand Rapids. If you like to draw, drink, or both you should definitely check it out! The guy modeling had some amazing home made costumes that made for some challenging and fun drawings.

Here is one of the longer either 20 or 30 min poses.

This one was of my leg while I watched the Bears lose to the Lions. Drawing is a great way to get your mind off the fact that your home team is getting a whoopin'.

I used a really handy brush for the first time called the Niji Water Brush. It's a brush that holds water in its base. It's perfect for watercolor on the go. A little squeeze and you can wet/clean your brush!

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Chubby Ninjas - Concept Sketches

2011-09-19T07:08:00.000-07:00

Some concept sketches done for an iPhone game in the works.

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sketched in Photoshop

Olivia Wilde Caricature

2011-07-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

I asked on FB for some suggestions on who to draw and Olivia Wilde came up. What a perfect suggestion because she also happened to be a topic for the drawing jam over on the drawing board a while ago. Kill two birds with one stone. (side note...what an evil little phrase that is)

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Character designs for a cooking show

2011-07-06T15:13:00.001-07:00

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Steve Buscemi Sketch Caricature

2011-04-19T15:24:00.000-07:00

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Aziz Ansari Caricature from Parks and Recreation

2011-04-16T14:19:00.000-07:00

This dude is pretty hilarious.

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Charcoal Figure Drawings

2011-04-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

Here are my final 2 drawings from our last 2 sessions of my figure drawing class. I miss the class already.

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Self Portrait Attempt

2011-02-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

This was an assignment done for that figure drawing class I'm taking at Kendall. After a few hours of sitting in my bathroom, using the toilet as a stool and looking in the mirror, i came up with this slightly awkward, moody, emo looking drawing of myself. Doesn't help that my head was tilted down a bit to see my paper and I drew my eyes looking forward hehe.

I definitely want to spend more time with charcoal to get to know it better. Find out its likes and dislikes. I'm not sure we are getting along too well right now.

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Figure Drawings

2011-02-01T15:11:00.000-08:00

Im currently taking a figure drawing course in Grand Rapids at Kendall College of Art and Design partly because I had a hard time finding uninstructed workshops and partly because its always good to have some instructions ;) So far I'm enjoying the class quite a bit. It has focused mainly on the form of the body and experimenting with different methods to get comfortable drawing it. Exercises like contour and blind contour drawings, and a pretty fun one where we had to imagine we were sitting across from where we were actually sitting and draw that side of the model.

Last summer I took an anatomy for artists class while I was living in California with Charles Hu at his school 3Kick in Pasadena. At the time, that class was a lot of info, but I'm very glad I took it as it has all started to sink in and is helping me draw people a lot better. Having a better understanding of the major muscles, and proportions has really helped me get over the stagnant point I was at before the class. Its like when I used to play the bass guitar. I didn't sit down and learn a thing when I started, but played mainly by ear. One day someone taught me some basic scales. At first it felt as if I was going backwards with my playing, but once I got comfortable with it, I became a much better bass player.

Anyway, keep learning, taking classes, and growing at whatever you do :)

A drawing from my class in GR

Some of this weeks homework. We had to draw one of the handouts she provided.

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No Suits - shirt for sale

2011-01-31T11:49:00.000-08:00

I have posted a new shirt on MySoti.com :) I finally got the last one I made and ordered after about, oh, 5 months of waiting. They were having some problems over there apparently ;) However, I liked the print quality so much, I decided to give them another shot.

Here is my new design...

Slippy J Caricature

2010-12-22T08:23:00.000-08:00

I've been telecommuting from over 1000 miles away these last few months. With the help of skype, ichat and other wonderful sites like dropbox, this has been a fairly easy transition! While video chatting, I took a screen shot of a fellow coworker and decided to do a caricature from it. Hope you don't mind Slippy ;)

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PS if you want to sign up for DropBox use this link... DropBox... we will both get an extra 250Mb of free storage :)

The Ikari Secret shirt design competition

2010-12-15T08:46:00.001-08:00

I've made a shirt for the Threadless design competition. It's up for scoring for 7 days. Perhaps you'll recognize the code for infinite lives in one of my favorite childhood games, Ikari Warriors. If you like it, I would like you if you rate it :)

thanks!

tiny website update

2010-12-09T19:19:00.000-08:00

www.BenLambertArt.com

I added a little winter touch to my site to go with the view outside my office window these last few days :)

Hope you're staying warm.

Some recent character concepts I did for my jarb.

2010-11-15T18:13:00.001-08:00

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Mel Gibson Splatter Paint Caricature

2010-08-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

Photoshopped using a "custom" splatter brush I pieced together using other splatter brushes I found off the internet, and selecting sections using the polygonal lasso tool.

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My First MySoti shirt for sale

2010-08-08T18:48:00.001-07:00

I've been making my own t-shirts since I've been in 7th grade or so. It's fun to be able to share them to those who might be interested :) Hope you like it.

If there are any "work at home" businessmen out there, this shirt is for you!

Backgrounds and Characters

2010-08-03T20:59:00.000-07:00

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Owl Drawing

2010-07-07T18:18:00.000-07:00

I had a pic of an owl on my desktop for the longest time just waiting to be drawn. I got tired of it taking up the real estate so I finally did it!

Ink and watercolor on Bristol Board

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Pete Doctor Caricature sketch

2010-05-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

The talented dude over at Pixar who directed Up and numerous other great films.

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New Website

2010-04-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

I've messed up my goal of at least one post a month already, but it's for a good reason. I've been hard at work programming and creating my web site for my flash animation and illustration portfolio! Click on the image to check it out and let me know what you think :)

I've also decided to post links to previous versions of my web site I did years ago, but decided not to use for one reason or another. The main reason being that web sites should be simple and to the point and I felt these were becoming a bit too elaborate ;) At least now they have a home and all that work wasn't for nothing.

Version 1 circa 2005...

Version 2 circa 2007...

Zackapalooza

2010-02-11T22:08:00.000-08:00

This here poster was done for my boss' son's Bar Mitzvah. Rock on Zack!

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Lake Shelbyville

2010-02-11T21:57:00.000-08:00

I inked this as an X-mas gift for my Dad. Its taken from a pic of our summer trip to Lake Shelbyville, IL. We had a great time, camping, fishing, and just hanging out. My Dad and I have a lot of good memories on that beautiful lake, and it was sure nice to be back after many years away. The good thing about living far away from your parents is that when you do get together you really enjoy and appreciate your time together even more.

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Yoda Dog in Ink

2010-01-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

Not too long ago my wife's childhood dog Yoda passed away. RIP Yoda, you'll be missed.

Ink on Bristol Board

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1 Girl - 1 Day

2009-12-03T15:44:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine started a blogging challenge with a couple of artists where they draw a new girl everyday for 100 days. Check it out, its pretty neat... http://1000girlsin100days.blogspot.com/

In tribute to that, I did my own "challenge," 1 Girl...1 Day.

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Fantastic Mr Fox

2009-11-29T17:11:00.000-08:00

I saw Fantastic Mr. Fox last night. It was so good, I wanted to mention it here! It's an absolutely inspiring film that is just bursting with creativity. I think you should go see it ;)

Figure Drawing

2009-11-29T16:52:00.000-08:00

A few figure drawings from 2 different sessions.

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Mini Gore

2009-11-29T16:36:00.000-08:00

Me and a few of the people I work with bought Mini Gore for our Ipod/Iphones. It's a really fun and simple game with some really great art (WELL worth the dollar it costs). We have a little competition for the highest score, and the holder of that title, gets to display this little "trophy" of the main character, John Gore, that I made on their desk. Current record holder....yours truly, At *14,340 points.

John was made with Sculpey and acrylic paint.

*this post will not be updated in the rare case my record is beaten :P

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Some Work Stuff

2009-10-26T23:13:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting as much as I would have liked lately because a lot of my free time has been filled up with learning ActionScript 3.0 so I can finally get myself an official website. It's been and lot of fun and a lot of frustration. I've nearly given up numerous times, until a lightbulb goes off, I fall asleep because its dark, and wake up refreshed and ready to try it again the next day.

Anyway, Here is an animated gif of the sketch I did of Kanye West and some of his mouths. It's for an animated piece we are doing at liquidgeneration. Lately I've been sketching the mouths out is Photoshop and using the animation feature to test out how they look. It's pretty useful when you have a character with big lips. Can you guess what he is saying? Perhaps hes not saying anything at all and I just want you to spend more time on my blog...but then again perhaps he is.

Under that is the colored version. The background has nothing to do with the animation we are creating, but I thought it's a little more interesting than white ;)

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Green Girl

2009-09-28T22:39:00.000-07:00

This was done for the September drawing jam over at Drawingboard.org :)

India Ink and watercolor

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Ball Point Pen

2009-08-20T22:08:00.001-07:00

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Gamer Girl from Sketchbook

2009-08-06T23:52:00.000-07:00

I drew this from the drawingboard.org's drawing jam. If you haven't heard of it, check it out. It's an inspiring site that motivates me to draw and get involved just about every time I go to it... only problem is, I never signed up and actually officially participated yet. Hopefully, Ill get to posting this one finally!

*update. I registered and posted it :) Check out all the art for this months topic on the Drawing Board and post one yourself!

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Pau Gasol Caricature

2009-07-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

Phew! Almost missed my goal of at least one post a month!

I sketched this back when the Lakers won the Finals with hopes of posting it then. he he, I got a little side tracked ;) Anyway, here it is...a month and a half later.

I loved the way he looked when concentrating on free throws. Very relaxed face with concentration in his eyes, long neck, and dropped shoulders.

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Big relaxin', Big city, Big trees

2009-06-30T21:20:00.000-07:00

Last week my wife and I took an amazing trip to Carmel, San Fran, and then Sequoia National Park. Too bad I can't vacation for a living. I want to do it all over again!

I sketched this at our camp site in Sequoia...

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Figure Drawing with oil pastels

2009-06-28T21:54:00.000-07:00

This was done a few weeks ago at an LA figure drawing workshop.

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Flash Game Mocs

2009-06-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

These are some game mocs I did some artwork for that LiquidGeneration's sister company Brand Blaze recently pitched for various companies.

I did the characters in both of these.

I did everything but the food in the McDonalds piece for these last two.

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Character designs for work

2009-06-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

At work, I've been doing a good amount of character conception and illustration lately. It has been pretty fun and has kept me fairly busy. All of these characters, with the exception of Indiana Jones, were just drawn and illustrated without having to really worry about making sure everything is on separate layers and ready to be exported for Flash animation, mainly because of time constraints. That sure made my job a lot easier, untill of course we get the job and then I have to go back and re-work the illustrations ;)

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Heri

2009-05-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

I've been taking an Adobe Flash Actionscripting course at Santa Monica College these last few weeks and its been sucking the free time out of me. I am really enjoying it though! I'm not sure if my brain's cut out for this kind of stuff but its slowly making sense the more i stare at it. I'm kind of at the equivalent of knowing Spanish enough to read it, but when I try to speak it, out comes Spanglish with a lot of pauses between my sentences.

Speaking of Spanish, I needed a break from Actionscripting so I re-visited this caricature I started of my Mexican co-worker, Heri a while back. (nice transition huh!) He's a talented dude. Check out his blog while enjoying a Corona.

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sketched and textured in Photoshop, colored in Illustrator.

Ben Harper Caricature and a visit to his Mom's folk music store

2009-04-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

I saw a documentary film about Ben Harper recently, and in that film it talked about his Mothers music store where he grew up surrounded by musicians and unique folk instruments. When I realized that store was just 45 minutes away, I had to check it out. My friend Beags, who lent me the film, knew the route from his previous visit. So we hopped in his car and headed out to Claremont, CA!

I had to do a caricature of Ben Harper to make it fit this blog ;)

There were some really interesting instruments from all over the world and a huge wall filled with mainly ukulele's and dulcimer's. This corner had some old sitars and other instruments that were on display only. In the bottom right corner there's a metal sculpture of Ben's Grandpa who opened the shop 50 years ago.

The cool thing about the store is that it doesn't promote or shove in your face that it's essentially the birthplace of Ben's musical talents. In a way its just another great thing that came out of it. The only thing I found were a few newspaper clippings featuring him from the local paper taped to the side of a display case. His mother was also there working the cash register :)

The last picture is of Beags strumming away at the ukulele. Check out his blog if you're, a) into music, b) into sports, c) from Boston

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Figure Drawing workshop 4-01-09

2009-04-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

So I did make it to figure drawing last week. (I couldn't not make it after that last post.) This was my first time using oil pastels. I'm not really sure of the best way to use them but I was having fun blending with my thumb and the white pastel, and probably ended up laying down too much crayon. Soon Ill have to draw everyone in just blues and greens because all the skin tones will be used up. If you have any advice, please share!

*Special thanks to my Mother in Law for getting me the pastels for xmas ;)

Character design

2009-04-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

This is a little soccer player concept I did for Liquid Generation.

Art and Crass

2009-03-31T21:54:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I did this piece for a little art show. The proceeds went to support The Wellness Community of West Los Angeles. The title is Cleaning Matron and was done with coffee and ink on pannel. The Kings Crown told me about the show and did a sweet piece of a transparent pig. To be as accurate as possible he had a transparent pig shipped in from Tokyo for reference.

Sketch Book Posts

2009-03-31T21:43:00.000-07:00

So here is a drawing I finished tonight of a dude in a magazine. Mando, Heri, and I were giving each other a hard time at work for not posting in nearly a month...So here goes!

The caricature of the man with the beard was of one of the artists in last weeks figure drawing workshops. I needed a little break from the model ;)

Figure Drawing workshop 3-25-09

2009-03-31T21:26:00.000-07:00

It's strange how hard it is to get myself to go to figure drawing on Wednesdays, yet every time I really enjoy it. In fact, right now I'm putting off making plans to go tomorrow. It sure is an important part of an artists career and every time I go I realize how difficult it is to draw the figure and how I have a long ways to go before I get the hang of it.

Mc Steamy quick sketch

2009-03-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

During my walk to work, I'm pretty sure I passed by Eric Dane. I was across the street and wasn't wearing my glasses, so I can't be completely certain, but in LA when you think you see a celebrity, chances are you did. When I was passing by I was obviously staring (and probably squinting a bit) to see if I could confirm my sighting. He noticed my gawking, turned and stared back at me as if he wanted to make sure that I knew who I saw. Either that or it was a random guy who was like "what the heck are you looking at?"

Any way, the reason I bring it up is because it gave me a subject to do a quick caricature sketch of at lunch :)

Figure Drawing Workshop 2-18-09

2009-02-23T22:25:00.000-08:00

Last week was pretty fun. These were done with ink, a crow quill pen (the one with the round nib at the end...im not sure if there is a specific name for those), and a white china marker. I've been trying to experiment a little more with different media during these workshops, and it has really been a blast. It helps to keep it fresh and also makes me think and work in a different way.

From the Sketch Book...

2009-02-15T19:40:00.000-08:00

Kings Crown and Lady

2009-02-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

Here are some drawings out of my sketchbook from last week. This Saturday my friend Luke and I got together, drew some pictures, and drank some beers. Can't ask for a better night. Hopefully it will be something we do more often :) I couldn't help but do a quick caricature of him while he was drawing. The only thing I didn't exaggerate was what he was drawing at the time. As you can see he's an amazing artist ;) Check out his blog and see for yourself!

The Lady is from a figure drawing workshop from this past week.

X-mas Present For My P's

2009-02-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

Last year my parents and I went on a trip to Big Sur, CA to see the beautiful coastline and redwoods. We took a bunch of pictures and had a great time. When I decided I was going to do a caricature for them, I came across a picture of them hugging a red wood that was pretty funny. When I went home for the holidays, I saw that same picture I used to caricature hanging on their fridge. I couldn't wait to give them my rendition of it :)

Man on Chair

2009-02-01T13:19:00.000-08:00

This model was pretty interesting so I had some fun exaggerating the pose a bit.

My Blogs New Web Address

2009-01-30T22:08:00.000-08:00

I have changed my old blogger web address to this....www.blog.benlambertart.com...so please update your bookmarks :)
As of now you're being redirected but I'm not sure how long it will be that way.

thank you

Heath Ledger as the Joker

2009-01-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

This weeks figure drawings

2009-01-17T19:53:00.000-08:00

Adventureland Art

2009-01-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago at work we created four games in Flash to promote the upcoming movie Adventureland. We worked through a pretty intense schedule to get everything done. It was the first time we pulled an all nighter there! 26 hours total! Geeze! I guess it evened out though because we took the next day off to catch up on some sleep and re-moisturize our shriveled, blood shot eyeballs.

Along with this project came a good amount of changes and adjustments. One idea was to create caricatures of the cast and use those for the games...So I did them, and then, the next day, it was nixed. I figure I might as well post a few so it's not all for nothing ;)

Check out the site at www.adventurelandthefilm.com

I also created this artwork for the whack-a-mole game. For the stains on the machine I spilled some coffee on a piece of countertop, let it dry, and scanned it in. The only problem was that it took hours to dry and by the time it did, the smell of coffee nearly made me sick :P

Sweet Home Made ipod Case

2009-01-06T21:36:00.000-08:00

I made this case for my ipod out of a book I got at a thrift store for a few bucks, some craft glue, a couple beads, and a leather string. The book was written in Czech, which I can't read, so I didn't feel too bad about gutting it ;) Someone wrote a note on the first page which I was planning on posting to see if anyone might be able to translate. Unfortunately though, I lost it amongst the hundreds of pages I cut out. If it ever turns up, I'll post it.

Sad to say I can't take credit for this unconventional use of a book...I found it here at instructables.com. If you haven't been there, its a neat DIY site with a whole bunch of interesting stuff to make. The only thing I added was the beads and leather string to keep it shut.

Earth Monster

2008-11-15T21:54:00.000-08:00

Drawing from my sketchbook I did a while back using charcoal pencils.

Character Design for work

2008-11-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

These are some characters done for Liquidgeneration.com. It was fun sketching these two partly because it was the first time I actually sketched a character using Photoshop. Usually, I sketch on paper, scan it in and then color it in Illustrator. I have to say that I'm hooked! I felt a lot more loose and care free when I was sketching (probably because of the undo key).

Barack Obama Caricature

2008-11-02T23:41:00.000-08:00

Out of Bounds Intro

2008-11-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Here is an animation I did for LiquidGeneration a little while ago. It's an intro for a top ten video count down, and is going to revolve around sports. However, it's not actually footage of the sport (like top 10 slam dunks), rather its going to be more along the lines of top 10 streakers at a soccer game :)

More Figure Drawings

2008-10-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

Just some more figure drawings from earlier this week :)

Figure Drawing Workshop

2008-10-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

On Tuesdays or Wednesdays I try to make it to some figure drawing workshops. For a while I was going nearly every week, then for some reason I just stopped. I'm not sure why, but I didn't go for around 6 months straight! Anyway, I finally started going again and it sure made me realize how much I missed it. Here are some sketches from the last two sessions I went to.

Napkin Sketch at the Beach

2008-10-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

I've been fairly busy lately taking an internet programming class at Santa Monica College. Since my programming knowledge is slim, it has been an onslaught of information that is stretching the less developed left side of my brain to new limits ;) Its been a lot of fun so far though.

Anyway, I haven't been drawing as much as I would like to, but this weekend my wife and I made an unplanned visit to the beach. And, right before that, we made a visit to Dairy Queen for some blizzards, and some napkins I could draw on for some quick sketches.

Where I work...

2008-09-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

For the past five years I've been doing illustration and animation for Liquidgeneration.com. They hired me right out of school as my first full time job, to do illustrations for their site. At the time, I knew very little about Adobe Flash, and stayed far away from pop culture (two things they dealt very heavily with). However, they were looking for someone they could count on to do their cartoon illustrations, so I was thrilled to be aboard.

Studying computer animation in College, I was immediately drawn to flash for its animation capabilities, and soon started asking questions and reading books to figure the program out. To keep a long story short, I now work as Art Director and have helped put into place the workflow in which we animate. If there is anything I owe to LG, it's the thanks for letting me experiment and grow as an artist :)

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be posting artwork I've done for them, or am currently working on, here.

Here are some pencil, and color character concepts I recently did at LG.

Finally a post...and coloring book art

2008-09-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to get a blog up for years now, but kept coming up with silly excuses. Things like, "I'll do it when I get an official website up" or, "I'm not sure how I would like to brand myself." Well, NO MORE! It's up, its a blog, and I can always change it...no more excuses :)

Being an art blog, I suppose I should post some art huh?...

A little while ago I worked on a drawing for a kids coloring book. The book is a compilation of artists in the animation industry and sales will benefit a handful of children's orphanages in Ghana and Tijuana. It was a great project to work on and the artists created some great pieces. I'll make sure to follow up and post a link for the finished book when it comes out.

Along with the line work for the coloring book, we were all asked to do a fine art version. the originals will be auctioned off and the proceeds will go toward the orphanages as well.

here is my contribution: