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Update

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:21:20 -0700

It's been quite some time since I updated and it was killing me seeing my page not updated for so long. Truth be told I've been really swamped. I've been burning digital ink on my comic and between that, testing characters on the next feature and training for the Lifecycle I haven't had a lot of time to do much else. But I wanted to share a sample page with you. I'm going through clean ups now and I'm looking to start inks by the beginning of next month. I can see I'm not going to be update a lot as I race towards the June 2nd deadline.

New Wall-e trailer

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:09:31 -0700

Pixar released the new Wall-e trailer today. It's going to be shown before Horton hears a Who, but you can also check it out online here. Take a look!

Ironman short

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:14:40 -0800

Another comic related forwarded link. There are some clips posted of an all CG Ironman short over at Marvel Kids. It's actually pretty damn cool. I think Blur studios did this, and they usually do great stuff. There some awesome stuff in here. Check them all out.

Watchmen movie

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:14:14 -0800

So I was forwarded this link for the new Watchmen movie. It features pics of the main characters of the movie. I have to admit I wasn't a big fan of the 300 movie, but I'll give it to Zack Snyder, that dude is faithful to the imagery of the comic. I think he's great at visually adapting comics for the big screen. I admit I was (and still am) more than a bit worried about how this movie is going to be adapted. It's story is pretty convoluted and all of the separate elements are pretty important for the ending. When comics are translated to film the story is one of the first things that is sacrificed. (I've heard that the ending has been changed from the book and that to me is a potential tragedy.) But these images have me intrigued. I'm more than one step closer to checking this out than I was before. Check out the blog. There are a few pretty cool things one there.

Click pic for link

SoulCage: Layout Round 2

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:44:28 -0800

Alright! So I just finished a second pass on my comic. Actually it's a 2nd and a half pass. I got a bunch of great notes from some friends so I made a quick change to this draft. I showed my first draft to a bunch of people and got some great notes. The biggest note came from Mandrews and it was simple. TRIM THE FAT! He told me to cut back on the panel count. The page count too if I could. He felt like I could condense a LOT of what I had to make it more punchy. It was a great note. So I sat down and really focused on distilling the work. It went from a 21 page 142 panel story to a 20 page 98 panel comic, and I think it's been strengthened a bunch because of it. Is it enough to appease Mr. Andrews?... We'll see. I don't know if I want to trim anymore, but if it makes the piece stronger...

I feel like I'm just about ready to dive in and I'm super pysched!! Luckily the due date has been pushed back until June 2nd. I'm glad because it gives me extra time to put some real love into the pages. Here's a page from the newer draft.

Early Bird Show

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:47:16 -0800

Saturday was a busy day for me. In addition to checking out Wondercon, I stopped by the Studio Gallery to check out the Early Bird Painter's show. A few friends of mine some how manage to drag themselves out of their beds in the wee hours of the morning and go out to paint. I know, sounds crazy to me too! Well the fruits of their labor are on display for the world to see... well San Francisco at least. The show was great and I highly recommend you stop by and check it out if you get a chance (it'll be around for the next two weeks). It includes the work of Daisuke Tsutusmi, Jennifer Chang, Enrico Casarosa, Sharon Calahan, Bill Cone, Mike Dutton, Jimmy Gutierrez, Noah Klocek, Robert Kondo, Ernesto Nemesio, and Nick Sung.

Studio Gallery

1718A Polk St. (between Washington and Clay)

San Francisco, CA 9410s

415-931-3130 www.STUDIOGallerySF.com

Gallery hours: Wed-Fri 11-8, Sat-Sun 11-6, Mon-Tue by appt.

I chat with Arnaud about art.

Sitapa, Me and Jennifer Chang.

Checkin' out Enrico's work.

A great piece by Dice.

Best animated film 2008

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:06:47 -0800

Ratatouille just won the Oscar for Best Animated Film! Congrats to everyone who contriubted to the production of this film. It was a great honor working on such a huge labor of love.

WONDERCON '08

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:02:12 -0800

So I braved the costumed hordes and rabid fanboys to check out this years Wondercon at the Moscone Center. What can I say? It was pretty cool. Some pretty entertaining costumes. A few interesting booths. I have to say I wasn't as rabid about getting my geek on this year as I was last. I really wanted to stop by and see Darwyn Cooke, but I didn't see him all day. That sucked because I lugged the New Frontier Absolute Edition around with me all day in hopes of getting him to sign it for me. That book is HEAVY! I WAS able to get a comic page that Mignola inked back in the day signed so that was cool. I was going to try and get a picture with him, but he looked so damn tired and irritable, I didn't have the heart.

I popped by the Imaginism Studios booth and hollered at Bobby Chui and Kei. I got a copy of their newest book Dragon Sketches signed for me. It a great book. Thanks guys!!

I stopped by and checked the sneak peek of Wall-e. They showed 4 sequences and they looked great! 1 of the clips they showed before at Comicon last year, but the other 3 were new. I hadn't seen any of them final rendered. The audience really seemed to dig it so I was pretty psyched about that. Andrew Stanton did a Q&A after and really did a great job I think.

I also peeked in on the Capcom presentation for Street Fighter 4. Being a hardcore SF2 freak back in the day I couldn't miss it. It looks pretty damn cool. Can't wait for it to come out.

Overall, the Wondercon was pretty fun, but I didn't really walk away with anything. Nothing really jumped out and grabbed me. I'm sure I'll feel differently when Comicon rolls around. When it does I'm planning on having my own stuff to pimp around. For now, these pics are the most I took away with me.

Sid poses with the troopers as I try and slip by.

My sister and troopers. She got one of them psyched.

Loki and Enchantress.

An amazing Doctor Who and Dalek pair. (The Dalek was remote controlled)

Link in Wolf form and Minda (Twilight Princess)

Father and Son reunited. (aaaaaaaw.)

Even Stormtroopers need love.

Imperial Badasses.

Big Lou Ferrigno signing away. Don't make him angry... you won't like it when he's angry.

Harley Quinn.

For some reason it makes perfect sense that cobra soldiers would buy comics... in gear.

AROOOOOOOOOO AR AR AR ARRRR!

The Henchmen a la Venture Bros (awesome!)

He got the Most Energetic award for the Con. (Brightest Costume runner up)

Chun Li and.. triangle... sword... scary guy.

Cobra and Baroness (nice!)

Wait! What's this? Cobra Commander imposter? Which one is real? It appears that not even Baroness knows...

A few cool things couldn't get:

photos taken by Yvie Raij on my iPhone.

The Soul Cage: Rough Layout

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:47:03 -0800

So I managed to finish a first pass on the layout for the Soul Cage. I'm really really psyched about this. It's a huge milestone for me. I spent a long time in turmoil over the book, nervous I wasn't going to pull it off, asking myself if I bit off more than I can chew. Too nervous to even put pencil to paper! (I finished the script quite a few weeks back!) But my buddy Paul kept telling me "You're ready dude! Do it!" Finally, last night, I just put all those crazy thoughts to the back of my mind and just drew. I laid the whole thing out in one night! Oh it was difficult at first, but once I started going it just started flowing. (I'm actually pissed at myself for not biting the bullet sooner!)

Mind you, it's just the first pass, but it's a big step. I'm gonna show it to a few people whose judgement I trust and I'm sure I'll be doing revisions. I plan on doing 2 rounds of revisions, then it's really GO TIME BABY! Here are a couple bad iphone pics from the work I did.

I'll post more stuff as I get a little closer to finish line.

Bananaz

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:56:45 -0800

I've been a Gorillaz fan from the moment my buddy Aaron showed me their first video Clint Eastwood way back in 2000. Ever since that fateful day I've grabbed whatever Gorillaz I could get my hands on. Well apparently, there's a documentary showning at the 58th Berlin Film festival called Bananaz that takes a behind the scenes look at the virtual band. I don't know when this hits the states, but when it does... I'll be waiting. Check out the site for more information.

Batman Gotham Knight

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:23:40 -0800

So It looks like I was able to find the sneak peek again on youtube. Information cannot be stopped! If you're a Batman fan, check it out. It's interesting. Can't say I dig all of the interpretations, but I'm sure there will be some cool stuff in it.

The long road

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:38:45 -0800

So I've decided to take part in the AIDS lifecycle this year. I plan on documenting the experience on the Long Road section of my site. Stop by and check it out if you're interested.

Another great quote

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:15:53 -0800

Ok, after the Steve Job's speech I've become a sucker for great inspirational tidbits of advice. I'm not exactly sure how I came across this quote, and it doesn't deal directly with artwork (it has to do with working out), but I found the words to have resonance, so I thought I'd post them here. Read them and get fired up!

When we keep it simple, we're left with the hard part:

Doing the work.

We pretend like we don't know what to do, because what we need to do is hard.

We pretend it's complicated. It's not complicated, it's hard.

Most of the time the game is not figuring out what to do.

The real game is doing what we know to do.

You gotta want it.

You've got to want it enough to do it.

But the things you do you've got to do them in a way that's going to produce results.

It's about intention. Fire. Passion. Put in your blood, sweat and tears, and make it mean something.

This is an excerpt from this page, but these words hit home for me. I want to print these huge and paste it over my workplace... In fact I just might. I hope you guys share in the inspiration.

Comic stuff

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:21:31 -0800

So I've been away for quite some time, but I haven't been spending ALL my time mashing buttons on my 360. No, no, quite the contrary. Between work and my comic I've been keeping quite busy. I've been slowly making progress, and I'm actually feeling semi confident about getting this thing together. I'm hoping that I make Afterworks 3, but I may have to wait until AW 4 to do this one. That doesn't mean I'm not going to try and make it. I won't sacrifice quality though. I'll wait rather than risk rushing out bad work. So as proof I've been working I'll share some pics with you. These are a few tests I've been doing to try and nail down the look of the story.

A different approach of a familiar picture.

A here are two seperate tests I did exploring the color palette.

(For those of you keeping track, I mentioned submitting a different piece to AW. But as I was plagued with this idea, I felt that it was a sign that it was a story that I needed to get out. )