Sanctuary

On days life really throws it in your face, it's good to have a sanctuary. For me that's my studio. I have been working on it for a while. All I have left to do is my wall of art from many family, friends, and mentors, another desk with no computers to draw or paint at an a comfy chair to read in. If you don't have a place were you can close the door to the outside world. It's hard to escape. I love my sanctuary. 

Sketchbook Post

This is a page from a sketch book from January. These are some homes for creatures. I designed these for games cafe. Been gone from there for 7 months time flys. 

New Games

I wanted to share a few games I had the honour of working on recently.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alphie/id657817239?ls=1&mt=8

Alphie! 

Available for android and ios. Super cute little kids game.

A friend from College also worked on it small world this gaming/animation industry

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/grumpy-bears/id602301807?mt=8

Grumpy Bears!

Available for android and ios. 

A hilariously violant little game. 

To date I have worked on over 100 game titles I need to update my list to get an exact number. However I feel very lucky to have worked on all of them. 

Colored!

Here is the digital color of the candy land girl. 

Here is a wip of the Canvas version using the digital version as a guide. I have photos take. Through out the painting. I will post when I'm finished.

Quick sketch

Here is another sketch I did on the last day for Genevive ft. 

On the road home

I

It's 1am and I boarded the bus back to Winnipeg. I have 28 hrs on the bus. Then a 12hr drive to Calgary. My city has been damaged but not broken. I'm looking forward to getting me boots on and helping with the clean up. It's times like this you want to be home and helping.

I have loved my time in Toronto and I will do a post all about it when I return. For now enjoy a sketch I did for the last day at class this was for Fernando. I did 3 others I will share later as I sit on the bus.

Recent Stuff

 

A mash up of some recent work.

Heading into the last week

I'm swamped again with home work. Here is the piece I'm working on, I'm about 70% done on the values. I will be coloring and acrylic painting this one.

To much home work.

I wanted to post more often but this class is intense. Hope you enjoy last nights painting.

Quick Sketch

 

Some cute little Creatures. Painting lots of shape studies. I will post a big post at the end of the week again. But here are some cute ones for today. I got a new sketch book just for animals.

No Lines......Scary Stuff

On the 5th of June, we had another lecture, live from Paris with Bobby Chui. We learned about fur and textures. Our assignment was to paint a character with zero line art, and try and use fur and textures. Here Is what I came up with.

Testing some water colors.

 

I've arrived in Toronto

Taking the bus from Winnipeg to Toronto was probably not the best idea. 5 days later and I'm still soar. However I met some wonderful people. I wanted to post more often, however my focus is to learn as much as I can. The first week was spent retraining my brain to think in terms of squares. More difficult than you might think.

Thierry has been an amazing instructor and great hostess. Every day we are learning so many things. He has taken us to many places. Today we went to Pacific Mall. On Sunday we are getting a tour of Toronto.

 

The first day we had an amazing lecture with Bobby Chui, Via Skype Live from Paris. During this class Bobby spoke on making an image viral. At the end of the day we had to paint something, Just to see where we were at, and see if we could make a viral image.

On the second and third day we were given a cube lecture. We learned how to draw with form and not lines. Using this method we drew the cars, and painted them using planes. An Incredibly useful tool.

In the Evening we went to the Imaginism Studio, we had a tour of the AMAZING space. The studio has an incredible collection of original artwork. We had the honor of having a lecture on oils from Peter Chan. There are no words to describe his talent. We were given a look at his upcoming gallery show.

 

Today we did a lesson in Rhythm and base tones as well as Contrast, no lighting yet. We studied Bougereau's Paintings. That is out home work for the weekend. This cube was painted from a photo in 30 mins, no eye dropper just comparing

 

 Lastly a little sketch for you.

Happy 60th Birthday Dad

My Dad is such an amazing man, he has lived every second of his life to the fullest. He has climbed mountains, water skied, ice climbed, jumped out of planes, and always looked out for, and helped everyone that he came into contact with. I love you Dad Happy 60th 

21 days till Toronto.

The fast it approaches the more nervous I get.

I'm so excited to be able to study for a month with these amazing artists.
I look forward to sharing my journey with you. For now I must buckle down and make sure the studio has everything they need before I leave.

How amazing is my boss to allow me this time to study. Smart man. He knows the knowledge I bring back will be shared, and improve us all.

A little something for you to enjoy. Some Icons for our latest game. Grumpy Bears. This is the first game I had the pleasure of directing the team on. I'm super proud of all the hard work they did, in one month. I had a blast on the concept art, and 2d production art. It was fun to get back into 3d as well.

This image is property of Fluik/Appsquire Ent.

Also if you watch 100 Huntley Street Tomorrow at 9am. You will see some of my art work, for a wonderful client. Me in a Tree. This is from a couple years back

Thank you to everyone who came out to see me at the Calgary Expo.
It was another fun year. If you would like to order prints, or books please contact me through my website. www.lightboxentertainment.com 

Thank you guys for helping me out and keeping me company this weekend.

Shelli (Michelle) Woodall (model maker, Event Horizon, Saving Private Ryan)
Patrick LaMontagne (editorial cartoonist)

Cole Pollack (director/screen writer “The Family Journal”)

I look forward to resting the next couple days, then finishing the list of commissions. 

2013 marks the 6th year, I've had the honour of having a piece in the Calgary Expo Art Book. A print has been donated to the expo to auction off for charity. See you all tomorrow.

Bubble Bubble

Another piece we just finished.

"Little Girl and her Yeti"

It’s been a while!

I have been busy with a big change in my career, in Jan of 2013 I left Games Games Café.
After working on the Sally’s series, it was hard to leave that behind, I had a big part in the concept art and animation, for the recent Skytopia, and smaller support roles for word stars and pendulum. I wish them best of luck as they struggle to find their place in the world of social gaming.

4 hrs after leaving Games Café I was offered a chance to be Creative Director for an up and coming studio in Edmonton, Fluik/Appsquire Ent. Luckily this didn’t require a move. Thanks to today’s technology we can work from anywhere.

I took a month off before starting at the new studio. This allowed me some much needed time to recoup, and finish some amazing client work, including having produced 3 animated shorts. (yes my time off was making 3 shorts, I love what I do)

I’m now working to help develop the talent of some young artists, and working in a studio that releases games so quickly, and proficiently. It has been an adjustment to get back to a 60-70 hr workweek.

In Jan I was accepted into the Imaginism Studios In house 1-month program.  This is a HUGE honor. I’m very nervous, but really excited to be surrounded by amazing talent and focus on learning for a solid month.  In this Job we never stop learning. It’s one of the things I love the most.

Next week I will be exhibiting at The Calgary Expo. I have a piece in the art book this year, that I can share with you after the show. I look forward to see lots of friends and meeting new artists.

Here is hoping I will be updating my blog more often. Definitely during my month in Toronto.

Some Recent Game Titles I have worked on:
Olivia Paints
Olivia the Great
Strawberry Short Cakes 30th Anniversary Game
Sallys Spa ipad
Sallys Studio ipad
Skytopia
Word Stars
Pendulum
Grumpy Bears

Lots lots more but that's enough for today.