Newest Life Drawing

Wild Woman...

Not so sure about the coloring job here. I went for the highlight levels and shadow levels to help sell the "realism", but I gotta live with it a couple days before I'm sure...

Orion Slave Girl

I really wasn't sure if I should post these yet, as I am not convinced I did the color right. Of course, the best way to look at these is up onscreen as they should be, so here it goes. I may repost after I live with it for a day or two...

Star Trek Gorn

Since I first thought of doing a Star Trek Aliens series in order to help me find my own style, I've been wanting to draw a Gorn. I came up with a design a while ago, but have been playing with the proportions ever since. I think this is working better, but I have to sit with it a few days to be sure...

Star Trek Ferengi

I finally got around to finishing another of my Star Trek Aliens series - the Ferengi. Ever since my first little sketch - I've liked this design. Although I have to start paying some serious attention to my color palette. I think I need a more mature color sense. I wanted his skin to be this sickly green. First, why employ human flesh tones on aliens? This is animation - might as well play with all of it. Secondly, I think it gives him a sense of moral emptiness - like he has no blood, no heart. The species is supposed to only crave money and profit, so I thought this would be a good choice.

A Little Star Wars

I've steered clear of drawing Star Wars for awhile - it just seems like everyone has done it. But I was sitting drawing with my son, and he had his Star Wars books open, so...

I'm still refining what will become "my" drawing style. It has been a great help to draw other people's characters (rather than my own original designs) as it helps to focus me on how I would construct them. I still start by always looking for that big, overall shape. I guess that's what made me do Grand Moff Tarkin -

I look forward to finishing some of these and adding color, when I can find some more time...

Native Pantheon

Recently inspired by the PBS documentary "We Shall Remain", I tried some sketches of favorite Native Freedom Fighters. Geronimo, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse. It's a bit tricky to get a good animation shape but not to go so far as to eliminate their humanity. Not sure how I succeded here, I got to sit with it a few days to know. If I end up liking them, then I'll try and finish them off.

YODA

When Yoda appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, he was 974 years old. He's always been old. But what must he have been like as a young Jedi? I imagine he was pretty wild and did a lot of damage before settling down in mid-age (600?) to adopt the wise old master vibe. So what was Yoda like back in the day? These are just two quick sketches, only a couple of inches wide, as I start to explore. I'd like to return to this idea as time allows.

Life Drawing

A few of my favorites from life drawing, held every two weeks at Fox TV Animation. These were done with a felt tip pen. These poses were held for 2-3 minutes. Fast and in ink - no time for mistakes or worries.

Revised Klingon Design

It wasn't until after I posted the last version that I looked at it fresh one morning and said, "Damn, the perspective is all wrong on the shoulders!" Don't let anyone tell you art is easy. Here's the new body on the Klingon:

LOTR sketches

Some Lord of the Rings sketches done sitting at the kitchen table, drawing with my son, on a Saturday afternoon.

And here is Alexander's excellent sketch of Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn:

new scribbles

These are just some random sketches I put on one page for no particular reason. A couple of Tuskin Raiders, IronMan, and some ideas for Thundercats.

David

In trying to develop my own style, I have been drawing other people's characters in order to understand how I would handle shape, line, etc. This was done in that vein - by no means close to the original, but fun to try.

Klingon in color

Production has kept me busy of late - working nights, weekends and holidays. But I was able to sneak a little time to finish this first color pass of the Klingon in my Star Trek Aliens series.

Klingon redone

It's all about the basics. In animation, exaggeration is the key. Frequently, by going too far in the design to you finally arrive where you wanted to be all along. I needed to remember that with the Klingon in my Star Trek series. I've pushed the original design, and hopefully this is much more on track.

Star Trek Andorian

Little seen, but always a favorite - the Andorians. I like the head shape for this one, but I have to work on a better expression and body...

Cardassian

The next in the series. I know there are a few DS9 fans out there, and besides - it's always been a wicked design. Hope I didn't go overboard with textures.

Spock - first color pass

Here is my first color pass at Spock. There are still some tweeks - I don't feel that I have a good color sense, so I'll need to live with this for a few days before I really figure it out. More coming soon...

Star Trek design start

Here are the first of my series of Star Trek aliens. I am going to color them in full, and add more aliens. Star Trek has always had great alien designs, and releasing them from the constraints of live-action and having to fit real people into that make-up has been a lot of fun. Much more of these coming soon.

The Lone Ranger

So, it's not quite finished. I'm not finished with the background. I canted the background to work with the figure - the Lone Ranger was always a little skewed, y'know? I always see him as Batman in the Old West. I am working on a Tonto page to work alongside this piece. As work heats up, it may be awhile before I get that one ready. Did you know that originally, in the radio drama, the Lone Ranger's calling card was not a silver bullet - but a single bullet hole in the forehead. Hard core.

Starting the Lone Ranger

When I was in grade school, I used to keep a Lone Ranger novel on my desk so that as soon as I finished my work, I could continue reading the epic adventure. My fourth grade teacher hated that, and would constantly have to tell me to remove the book. Yes, my teacher told me to STOP reading. My love of the Lone Ranger never stopped. Here's the start of my big LR project:

More to come...

OUT DAMN SPOT

So, Darth Cheney was in a wheelchair for Obama's inauguration because he strained his back lifting boxes. Which made me wonder - what was in that box? What couldn't the movers, or his assistants, be allowed to handle? Could it be the documents that prove all the illegal and immoral actions he took in the last eight years? The heinous paper trail that only he must handle - like Jacob Marley's chains? I guess that explains why it was so heavy...

So I heard a story on NPR that said, while Cheney's approval rating nationwide was 12% (that high?), in his home state of Wyoming he enjoyed much higher polls. One guy they talked to explained that Cheney had done a lot of good for Wyoming. He steered legislation making it easier to drill for natural gas, and with high gas prices, Wyoming is having a little money boom. And that, my friends, is everything that has been wrong with America.

Who cares that Cheney tortured people he "suspected" of plotting against us? Who cares that he's reduced our standing in the world and we will have, from now on, less authority to demand others to act better? Who cares that gas and oil hit ridiculous highs, pumping millions into enemy coffers (and Bush and Cheney's pockets) while millions of newly unemployed are wondering how to pay those high prices for heat in a bitterly cold winter? These "Americans" who believe that all this evil is worthwhile because they got some money out of it, need to start washing the blood off those bills. Out damn spot. This is the price we put on human suffering and the weakening of our ideals? Was it enough money to balance the decades of toil it will now take to restore the world's faith in us? This guy from Wyoming actually thinks that all this weakening of America was worth a few extra dollars in his pocket? He may claim to be from the "real America" but the sooner he takes a lesson from the wealth-spreading, high-minded, equality-for-all liberals will he understand that while "my god can beat up your god" may be a stupid reason to do evil in the world -- a few more pictures of dead presidents is an even worse reason. Our ideals are worth more than that.

Finished Tia Dalma and What the Hell Sinbad?

All right, here's my next attempt at Tia Dalma. This coloring is better - she stands out more from the background while still merging with it, which was my original intention. But I may end up tinkering with it even more.

Sitting down to dinner the other night, Sinbad came on Cartoon Network. I haven't seen the movie since right after I finished working on it, and wanted to see how it held up with six years of fine aging. Yep - same old crap. Since I first heard about Disney's Hercules (3 years before I ended up working on it) I have been wanting a good Hero-Fighting-Monsters flick. And what better way to do that than in animation. Of course, Hercules was far from that, with his 12 labors reduced to a 1 minute montage in a peppy song. Then along came Sinbad. Strong hero. Fighting monsters. What else could Sinbad be?! Well, watching Sinbad RUN AWAY from every monster he encountered once again showed how animation executives can eviscerate just about anything. I understand that they wanted to show a tough girl and a sensitive guy - but come on -- it's called Sinbad! You want a tough girl, there are lots of stories to choose from, but why castrate Sinbad to do it? I always watch the end credits of a movie, but this time I noticed something new - Creative Consultants were the guys who wrote Pirates of the Caribbean. Now in that movie, they were allowed strong heroes AND heroines. Everybody got to fight with monsters! Why do animation executives decide that animation isn't allowed to do the same thing? It's nuts...it just nuts...

Tia Dalma - Beyond the Pale

Gabrielle had a great Halloween costume - she was Tia Dalma from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

She really rocked the outfit, but as we were doing research for making the costume, I noticed something curious - Google images returned page after page of pictures of other women who had been Tia Dalma for Halloween -- and they were all white ladies. OK, I though they ended up just looking like fat Gypsies, but to each her own, y'know? Then, just for kicks, I tried looking for Tia Dalma artwork. The very few painting I did manage to find, also showed a 'Tia Dalma' with extremely white features. Curiouser and curiouser. Tia a such an awesome character, and such a fun design, I decided to take a stab at my own design based on the Sea Goddess. This is still in progress - check back to see how it progresses.

Planet of the Apes

To start things off, here are some pictures that I started right after the Thanksgiving Planet of the Apes marathon...

Introduction

Good morning to all. This is my initiation to the world of blogging, which has been a long time coming. Since deciding to join the 21st century (better late than never) and start my web presence, one thing has consistently stopped me at the starting gate - my blog's name. As I ran through dozens and dozens of potential names, I repeatedly found that anything I wanted was already taken. To be sure, coming this late to the game I shouldn't have expected my first thoughts to still be available, but as I ran the gamut of obscure pop references and rare literary words - I found, still, no luck. So I went to these blogs to see what kind of person has exactly my tastes in titles and I found -- nothing. Page after page of empty lots. Title grabs dating back years, and abandoned ever since. So all these people squatting on prime virtual real-estate have left me with what I hope is going to be a suitable title for unleashing my rants upon those unlucky enough to stumble upon these posts -- so here it goes -- Brian Unbraided.