Jar of Emptiness

Sonic CD Fanart Contest

2011-11-29T09:45:00.001-05:00

You're seeing it here first!

Just finished pulling an all-nighter to pump this out. I heard about the contest relatively late (only a week, or so 'til the deadline), so I had to hustle. Fortunately I'd done quite a bit of work to it over the weekend, so I wasn't working from scratch. Still, it took almost 12 hours to finish.

The absolute final deadline was 10:00am this morning. I got it in just in the nick of time, around 9:30.

*Update* 1-2-12

I was chosen as one of the first-prize winners! See my entry among the rest on Sega's Flickr.

Hot off the presses!

2011-10-08T19:53:00.000-04:00

As of now, I'm officially a published illustrator! I was recently contracted to to do over a dozen illustrations for a children's book called "The Elf Bully." The original title was "Getting Santa's elf on the Shelf." That, of course, had to be changed to avoid association with "Elf on a Shelf." That also called for a new cover to replace the one below.

Relatively speaking, it was a quick project. Initially scheduled for 2 weeks, it wound up taking about 4. The time-frame was actually rather appropriate since the project essentially paid my rent. hehe

Pick up "The Elf Bully" today! Now available on Amazon.

If I haven't heard it, it's new to me.

2011-08-10T16:27:00.001-04:00

There's a radio station here in Atlanta called WRAS 88.5. It's a college run radio station that has the most eclectic assortment of programming I've ever come across. Once I discovered the station a few years ago, I've never listened to anything else. No matter when I tune in, I'm always in store for a new treat.

One such occurrence was when I heard this marvelous piece of insanity. Solla Solla by Illaiyaraaja

Way before I actually saw the video, the song impregnated visuals in my mind that were actually pretty similar. Although, I kept picturing the singer as a duck for some reason.

As soon as I could, I tracked down the album (s). You can grab 'em here.

I loooved them. 70's -Indian-Electro-Pop is a pretty fascinating combo. There's definitely some humor to be had listening to this music, but I dig them in a completely non-ironic way. Not unlike another video I came across.

I believe the song in this movie was written by the same guy. From what research I've done, he's a pretty prolific guy with a staggering amount of work under his belt. Without getting too far into that, I have to say that this clip has really enamored me. All in spite of how goofy it is, or perhaps because of how goofy it is.

I really don't know why, but I freakin' love it. It's almost sickening how much I love it. The bit at 1:36 is especially mesmerizing. The look on her face certainly has something to do with it. I just kept replaying that shot over and over the first time I saw it. I feel compelled to animate it.

I can't complete a post about cool music without mentioning a gem by Burt Bacharach called "South American Getaway." I was introduced to it recently when I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

It's one of the coolest westerns I've ever seen. I was pleasantly surprised at how good that movie was. The soundtrack really took me off guard. I was nothing short of blown away to hear bossa nova in a western! This tune has been stuck in my mind for days. It gives me the sensation of fragmented memories sweeping over me like a steady breeze.

Here's just the track itself, uninterrupted.

This version of it's gorgeous. It's mood is so adventurous and epic. The classical treatment of it almost makes the intro sound like "Frog's Theme" from Chrono Trigger.

Dragons' Duel

2011-06-22T00:09:00.001-04:00

I got another dinosaur for you, or should I say dragon? ;)

Most, if not all, of my next postings will be of old stuff. I've been too busy with freelance and other things to work much on new stuff (or finish in-progress pieces.)

This is an ink drawing from college. Based upon the dates written on the back, I seem to have worked on this off and on for six days.

7-12-05

7-13-05

7-17-05

7-19-05

8-7-05

8-12-05

Micro Update

2011-06-15T01:35:00.001-04:00

Here's an old animatic I unearthed from an ancient dvd disc.

Megaman Tribute Entry

2011-03-04T16:49:00.000-05:00

My next foray into Udon's series of tribute books. This time it's megaman.

I thought that this time around, I'd try focusing more on concept than technical execution. I'd figured that perhaps the concept of box art for one of those retro walking robots would be pretty unique.

I also referenced this modern Astro Boy figure.

Art for Sale Pt. 2

2011-01-12T21:22:00.000-05:00

Grab the print on Ebay!

Art for Sale Pt. 1

2011-01-12T20:29:00.000-05:00

Available on Ebay!

TBA1039 Exhibition

2010-12-20T20:33:00.001-05:00

3 Days ’til the Grand opening of TBA1039!

2010-12-08T17:13:00.007-05:00

(Left to Right)

Curiously Attractive For A Fishman, No Toys For Men, and C-070

If you find yourself in the Chicago area this weekend, check this out. On Dec. 11, 2010 7:30pm-11:30pm, I’ll have three works on display at the TBA1039 gallery!

You'll notice that the third piece is what I've been using for my profile pic. I'll do a post tracing the origins of it one day.

Preview of a Pinup to come. Part 2

2010-11-08T19:33:00.002-05:00

Hmmm.

Alternate, or replacement?

Decisions. Decisions.

Preview of a Pinup to come.

2010-11-05T01:04:00.000-04:00

Now that's The Stuff!

2010-10-12T15:16:00.000-04:00

I love jingles. I love 80's music. I love horror movies.

What I especially love, is a jingle from a very weird, yet vastly entertaining 80's horror movie.

The movie I'm referring to is "The Stuff."

The Stuff (1985) was written, directed, and produced by Larry Cohen. The first of his movies I remember seeing were his "It's Alive" movies about mutant, killer babies. As someone who's always stood firmly against ever having kids, I've found these movies to be especially scary. hehe

The Stuff is a much more light-hearted in nature. This is evident by the fact that its about killer ice-cream. This killer ice-cream also had killer branding. It had a great logo with kind of a 70's flair to it.

What really caught my attention was one of The Stuff 's two theme songs. It reminded me of "Body Talk" from Toxic Avenger, another tune from an 80's horror flick. There's something about 80's drum beats that just get ya pumped for anything. You' re primed and ready to win the big competition, get into shape, or partake in some teenage hijinks.

Whenever I hear a catchy song I like, I have to know the words to it. This is especially true if it gets stuck in my head for long periods of time. If I'm going to have a song pervade my thoughts, I'd prefer it be a steady, unbroken stream. My only option at this point is to get memorizing!

To my surprise, nowhere on the whole interwebs could I find anyone who'd documented the lyrics. You would think that someone among the film's cult followers would have taken it upon themselves to do it. To my knowledge, there's also been no official soundtrack release. So, I had to do a little youtubin' and rewatch some scenes from the movie to learn the lyrics.

You hear the tagline, "Enough is Never Enough for The Stuff." throughout the movie, but you only hear each theme song once (twice in one instance, if you count some brief background play towards the end). Because of overlapping dialogue, the beginning of the 1st song was hard to make out. I think I managed to decipher all the lyrics though. It plays during a photo shoot with some fashion models.

"The Stuff" Theme Song #1

Lyrics - Richard Seaman
Vocalist - Unknown

One lasting taste that satisfies,

One big exciting sweet surprise.

One lick is never enough for the stuff!

Stays firm and never melts away,

My lips crave more and more each day!

One lick is never enough for the stuff!

Never melts! Never melts! Never melts away!

One lick is never enough for the stuff!

(Instrumental)

One lasting taste that satisfies,

One big exciting sweet surprise.

One lick is never enough for the stuff!

Stays firm and never melts away,

My lips crave more and more each day!

One lick is never enough for the stuff!

Never melts! Never melts! Never melts away!

One lick is never enough, oooh!

One lick is never enough for the stuff!

While I was at it, I figured I might as well list the lyrics for the 2nd theme song. It's not a peppy as the other one, but still pretty catchy. It's heard at the tail-end of a commercial scene with Abe Vigoda. It parodys the Wendy's commercial "Where's the Beef?" with "Where's the Stuff?".

"The Stuff" Theme Song #2

Lyrics - Richard Seaman

Vocalist - Unknown

Voice over - Unknown

The Stuff is here now.

A great new taste sensation.

Light and free now,

Puts you to elevation.

Enough is never enough,

Enough is never enough of The Stuff.

(Spoken)

The Stuff, the taste that makes ya hungry for more. The Stuff, the taste that delivers.

Enough is never enough,

Enough is never enough of The Stuff.

The film credits say the advertising singles for The Stuff were written, composed, produced by a guy named Richard Seaman. I'll refrain from making obvious string of jokes. For the life of me, I can't dig up any information on him. Imdb only credits him for his work The Stuff. I thought that maybe he would have been behind some recognizable jingles for actual products, but I can't find any indication of that. I can't even find out who did the vocals for the theme song. Not even the movie lists that. All lost in time, I suppose.

For any The Stuff fans whom also happen to be lyrics-nazis, I hope I've been helpful.

If you can't get hold of the dvd, you can watch The Stuff in nine parts via youtube.

Flintstones 50th Anniversary (continued)

2010-10-02T21:00:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, I decided to play around with some values. After blocking in some color, I decided to experiment with different opacity levels. The result was pretty interesting. I think I'll try out the subdued value approach to future digital works.

Before I clean this up, I'll get some more progress made on Darpes.

Flintstones 50th Anniversary

2010-09-30T23:06:00.000-04:00

Commemorative sketch for Fred's 50th!

A jar more professional.

2010-09-13T14:46:00.004-04:00

Emtpy Jar Productions, LLC now has a wordpress blog. It has most of the same content as this blog, sans all personal material. There's is some exclusive content, however (like my 3D work). I feel it's necessary to have some motivation to visit one site over another. I think there's some art on my Deviant Art page that I haven't posted here.

The primary goal of the new site is to have a website that's more employer-friendly. It's meant to achieve this in function as well and appearance. Art is arranged gallery-style, making it easier to see everything together.

There you can also see the latest cut of my 30 sec Animation reel. For convenience, I've uploaded it here.

Parrot Me this, Parrot me that........

2010-08-27T17:59:00.008-04:00

Here's yet another project from the Anthem graveyard. These mascot designs were for a language learning service of some sort called "Parrot Me." In my initial approach, I referenced a lot of sports teams with birds for mascots.

This was the final result. However, it was brought to my attention that the character needed to be more cute, yet intelligent.

Not to mention, green.

At one point, the word "mature" was also thrown into the mix. Then someone jokingly said that I should reference Golgo 13, so I whipped up a did that did just that.

These are the last incarnations of the character, before the project imploded. I went in more of an Einstein direction with these, hoping to capture that "cute & fun, yet wise & mature" aspect. That also led me to reference Doremon, a character that fits that description to the tee.

What I took form Doremon, in this concept were his proportions and minimal attire.

Sudden Scribbles, Solidification Pt. 4

2010-08-11T22:56:00.000-04:00

I stole a couple of hours tonight to work on this. Out of all the outside work I've been doing, I figure I should take SOME time to work on personal stuff. Tonight I got panel 2 a little closer to completion.

A new stream of consciousness.....

2010-07-22T22:48:00.000-04:00

A Warmth So Distant

Come now light of the sun and carry me away to the land apart from the evening dew.

And now I rest here realizing the true nature of what comples me to look across the beyond, a vague glimpse into the key of unknowing.

Far away, adrift in the sea of time I come to realilze the nature of who can see me. Who can save me.

In the doubt of my mind I see another light approching.

Far off into the distance, I see a setting sun inside a beautilful flower. Another day passes and light approches.

Far off into the distance, the light comes closer, ever closer into my being. Another day approaches.

~DS Hill

Scratches in the Dark

2010-07-07T00:21:00.002-04:00

Here's a relic from '05. It's a scratchboard project from one of my sequential arts classes back at SCAD.

In search of Terratherium

2010-06-27T23:33:00.002-04:00

I got a whole slue of sketches from that old Monster Hunter contest. The contest was a bust, but it was fun playing around with designs.

I was primarily trying to fuse a Galapagos Tortoise with a Giant Sloth. I also tried referencing snapping turtles, armadillos, as well as prehistoric armadillos.

I wasn't sure of what to call it, so I took the Giant Sloth's scientific name Megatherium and switched out the "Mega" for "Terra".

Terratherium (Earth Beast)

Notebook Knuckles

2010-06-26T00:43:00.000-04:00

I was going through some sketchbooks for stuff to put up on my new deviantArt page and I found this.

I also realized that I'm probably gonna spend most, if not all day scanning.

Experimentaion

2010-06-17T18:25:00.000-04:00

Harlequin Salamander: Color Version

2010-06-06T14:52:00.000-04:00

Sudden Scribbles, Solidification Pt. 3

2010-05-30T19:15:00.001-04:00

Capsule CEO has achieved maximum initiative implimentation!

2010-05-28T11:19:00.003-04:00

Need business advice? Wanna learn how to elevate your strategic directive plans to an actionable market goal?

Capsule CEO can tell you how!

Now available on the iStore!

Harlequin Salamander

2010-05-24T21:42:00.002-04:00

Billosaurus Rex

2010-05-23T22:35:00.002-04:00

Can't stand to leave empty space.

Pac-Man 30th Anniversary

2010-05-21T23:05:00.000-04:00

I wanted to do something a bit more complete, but it's been a long day.

Sudden Scribbles, Solidification Pt. 2

2010-04-22T23:21:00.003-04:00

What D&D Character Am I?

2010-04-11T01:37:00.005-04:00

Lawful Neutral Human Monk/Ranger (2nd/1st Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength- 12
Dexterity- 11
Constitution- 13
Intelligence- 14
Wisdom- 11
Charisma- 12
Alignment:
Lawful Neutral- A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs him. Order and organization are paramount to him. He may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or he may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government. Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot. However, lawful neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it seeks to eliminate all freedom, choice, and diversity in society.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Primary Class:
Monks- Monks are versatile warriors skilled at fighting without weapons or armor. Good-aligned monks serve as protectors of the people, while evil monks make ideal spies and assassins. Though they don't cast spells, monks channel a subtle energy, called ki. This energy allows them to perform amazing feats, such as healing themselves, catching arrows in flight, and dodging blows with lightning speed. Their mundane and ki-based abilities grow with experience, granting them more power over themselves and their environment. Monks suffer unique penalties to their abilities if they wear armor, as doing so violates their rigid oath. A monk wearing armor loses their Wisdom and level based armor class bonuses, their movement speed, and their additional unarmed attacks per round.

Secondary Class:
Rangers- Rangers are skilled stalkers and hunters who make their home in the woods. Their martial skill is nearly the equal of the fighter, but they lack the latter's dedication to the craft of fighting. Instead, the ranger focuses his skills and training on a specific enemy a type of creature he bears a vengeful grudge against and hunts above all others. Rangers often accept the role of protector, aiding those who live in or travel through the woods. His skills allow him to move quietly and stick to the shadows, especially in natural settings, and he also has special knowledge of certain types of creatures. Finally, an experienced ranger has such a tie to nature that he can actually draw on natural power to cast divine spells, much as a druid does, and like a druid he is often accompanied by animal companions. A ranger's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.

Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16) Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14) Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13) Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (22) True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20) Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19) Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXX (9) Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXX (7) Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXXX (6)

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXXXXX (8) Neutral - XXXXXX (6) Chaos --- XXXXX (5)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXX (8) Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14) Evil ---- X (1)

Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13) Dwarf ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10) Elf ------ XXXXXXXX (8) Gnome ---- XXXXXXXX (8) Halfling - XXXXXXXX (8) Half-Elf - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12) Half-Orc - XX (2)

Class:
Barbarian - (-19) Bard ------ (-23) Cleric ---- (-8) Druid ----- XX (2) Fighter --- (-4) Monk ------ XXXX (4) Paladin --- (-17) Ranger ---- XXXX (4) Rogue ----- (-6) Sorcerer -- XX (2) Wizard ---- XX (2)

Sudden Scribbles, Solidification Pt. 1

2010-04-07T23:56:00.002-04:00

It's That Time of Night Again

2010-04-04T01:31:00.000-04:00

No regard to form. No attendance to structure.

Just a drop in the stream.

A dripping from the brain.

A Taste Of Something Bitter.

Sudden Scribbles, Soon to be Solidified Extra

2010-04-03T22:36:00.001-04:00

After I finish the final version. I'll most more of these preliminary doodles.

Sudden Scribbles, Soon to be Solidified

2010-04-03T22:29:00.001-04:00

Fishman Revised

2010-03-16T23:34:00.001-04:00

I was looking over that piece I did for the Darkstalkers Tribute Contest, and I couldn't shake the feeling that it could be better. I decided to go back into it to make it a bit more robust.

As you can see, the biggest alteration I made was the contrast. It's a lot less faded now. I tried not to go too extreme with the values though. That would look just as bad.

Lighting is something I haven't really honed in on much, so I pushed that as well. Of course, I had to do more than just put in more highlights. Pretty much all over the piece, dropped in various violets, magentas, and carmimes to complement all the blues and greens. This helped to get that warm, vibrant feel to the sunlight. It also improved the foreground/background separation.

All and all, I'm actually pretty pleased with the end result. I don't feel that way very often. Coming back to something with a fresh pair of eyes is probably what helped the most. Experimentation is pretty key as well.

In most situations, my preferred way of working is to just "play it by ear" without locking myself down to some rigid mindset of doing it the "proper" way. By "proper" I'm referring to a very calculated, by-the-book approach. Like this is how I'm SUPPOSED to be doing this. I'm certainly not trying to say that I don't put any thought into what I'm doing. I just try to keep my thinking flexible. It's like one of those science projects where you build a guided path (out of cardboard, or something) for a plant to grow. You know where the plant's going, but you don't know exactly how the vines are going to shape themselves to get there. Controlled chaos, if you will.

So with that said, I'm sure I may revisit some other old pieces in the future. However, I'd like to finish up that Aztec Comic and maybe that Sagat drawing.

If Nothing Happened Today

2010-03-16T16:13:00.003-04:00

Breaking news!!!

Paperdoll's single - If Nothing Happened - was featured on the Today Show during a segment about Al Roker. (1:56 into the clip)

Just in case no one clicks the above hyperlinks....

Today Show Clip

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/35870556#35870556

Aaaand more links

Official Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyLjzv2wmdE

Unofficial Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6N1cjC6pvk&feature=related

Dayquil Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkHUjEgpaAo&feature=related

And the stream flows on.....

2010-03-14T21:07:00.003-04:00

A Mason's Wish Pt. 2

It's mirage?

Yes. The wondrous refraction of admiration.

By a sun of your own creation, you behold goddesses in the garden.

A wish granted time and time again to feel that sting in your spine.

Visions validated by the hardness held on your back.

Shadows of idols on high swallow the sculptor.

So deep in divine darkness, the true nature of religion is lost.

The perpetual piles of burdening blocks are sustained by narcissism.

The mirage mirrors not marvelous miracles, but the mind of a man who melts and molds murky memories into masterpieces.

~DS Hill

Just a stream of consciousness.....

2010-03-03T02:47:00.004-05:00

A Mason's Wish Pt. 1

What is it that you want?

What is it that you reeeaally want?

Do you even know?

How can you know for sure?

Can you tell the difference between a true desire and an overripe fantasy?

Do you think so much that your thoughts invade your dreams?

Do you dream so much that your dreams invade your waking life?

You're a Bixi bearing everlasting blocks. As one is lifted another takes it's place. What's killing you is what sustains you. A bixi without burden is a bixi without purpose you say? Your pain is your pleasure?

To stand beneath the feet of its own masterpiece is a bixi's dream. To craft and carry a world of unblemished marble. A world all its own. A beautiful forgery.

You don't want. You don't need. You only wish.

It is not the oasis, but its mirage that you treasure.

~DS Hill

Captive Animals of Chattanooga

2010-03-02T01:15:00.004-05:00

On Saturday, Anthem did a company trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee. We rented a van and drove up there to hit up the Chattanooga's zoo and aquarium. Given that it was only a day trip, we had to move fairly quickly, so I didn't have time to sketch. I wound up just taking a bunch of pictures.

What you see here is only a fraction of them. I took about 440 pictures, so it was pretty tedious going through all of them. These were some of the cleareer ones (and the ones with the best compositions). I have more that were blurry, but still looked cool. I'll post those separately.

I may even do another post with some of the not-so-great ones. I took so many pictures, I feel like I should do something with them.

This is an old chimp named Hank. He sells propane and propane accessories.

Ah, he reminds me of the iguana I used to have for a pet. He was about that size.

Exhibit was MIA.

Monkey: Old man tortoise didn't skip town. Those hawk scumbags bumped him off. I'll take 'em down, even if it costs me my badge!

Monkey: No one batted an eye when those two first came to town. This city's always been full of low-life hoods lookin' to make a name for themselves, but these guys weren't your run-in the-mill meatheads. They were smart.

Monkey: Before anyone know it, this whole city was on the business end of one hell of a sucker punch. They had the whole criminal underworld in their pockets in a matter of weeks.

Monkey: I first got wind of 'em when a pro wrestler was found dead in his dressing room. Called himself the "Tanzanian Tank." Some punk-for-hire snuffed him out after he refused to take a dive in the big title match.

Monkey: A real freak, that guy. He was part of some small time gang called the "Avian Anarchists." Wouldn't talk 'til we threatened to cut his screwball hairdo. Then he sang like the dirty bird he was. Thing is, the info he gave was bogus.

Monkey: He said he was working for "Butterball Red", one of the biggest crime bosses from way back when. The glory days of mammalian kingpins. Nowadays, that old codger's too senile to order take-out, let alone a hit.

Monkey: Butterball working with birds made even less sense. Birds had never been a dominant force in the crimeworld, but that began to change. When birds began gaining a foothold, every mammalian gangster in the city was up in arms. All hell broke loose with us cops right there in the thick of it.

Monkey: Most of the big bird bosses wound up dead, or in the clink. None of them could've been responsible for the "Tanzanian Tank's" murder. Someone new was on the scene.

Monkey: I made a deal with "Softshoe Sal", an old boss I pinched, for a reduced sentence in exchange for info about the city's new scourge. It was then that I first heard of the "Hawkins Brothers."

.....to be continued.

Wow. I have no idea why I suddenly went on some weird noir tangent there.

I couldn't resist. hahaha

I got a few lol's from this.

It's funny, the zoo is as old as I am. At least as old as I will be by the end of this month.

And now for the turtles!!!

I think this is my favorite picture.

A Whole New World Girl

2010-02-25T01:34:00.001-05:00

There's been an obscene lack of art on this blog lately, so I decided to post concepts from one of Anthem's past projects that fell through. I don't exactly remember what happened. I think our client's price was too low for the amount of work that would have gone into it. This was a project from last year (around August maybe), so I'm not sure of whatever became of the client's project.

Our client was planning to create a line of dolls more, or less like American Girl. The franchise would be known as "World Girl." Like the American Girl dolls, each would have its own back-story and customizable clothing. However, these dolls would do more than just look pretty. The whole shtick with World Girl was that the dolls would also teach another language. I'm sure there was also supposed to be some online interactive version of each character that had lessons to follow. A lot of the details have been lost in time. All the info I got was second hand. I never spoke to the client directly, or ever saw her in person.

The prototype for their first doll was that of an impoverished orphan from whom you'd learn Spanish. Our first roll was to take their concept art and jazz it up.

I'm probably not a liberty to post the original concept drawing they provided, but you can get an idea of what it looked like in the sketches below. I was under the impression that I was supposed to recreate the concept verbatim, just drawn better. So that's what I set out to do. I even translated the kinda awkward pose, except less awkward. Unlike the structure of that last sentence.

You'll see a few sketches I did from looking at one of American Girl's illustrations of Josefina. She's part of their historical line.

I may have done this before I started referencing Josefina.

I actually Frankenstien-ed this sketch from two separate ones. I didn't like the body in one sketch and the head in another, so...... FUUU-SION HA!

I didn't design that dress, btw. That's what she had one in the concept we were given.

Now I did design this one. I don't claim to know anything about fashion (especially for little girls), but I think that'd work for a doll.

We got some critiques from the client that she looked too "Black." I suppose I can see that now. Those lips are pretty full. She's also got some thick 90's eyebrows there.

I guess it's that ol' chestnut about artists putting themselves into their work. My characters tend to "look Black" in one way, or another. People even claim that the turtle from my film makes expressions like me.

At any rate, I had to darken her hair and lighten her skin to make her look more Hispanic. I don't know how well that worked. Black is a color of many shades.

Regardless of her true racial identity, they also wanted her to look cuter.

Went a bit more stylized, but that was apparently too much.

I already had an earlier sketch that was more cutesy, so I threw some color on it.

Oh, but it didn't end there. The costume had to go. I then went to work on some alternate dresses. Again, I used American Girl for reference, but also some traditional adornment from various latin cultures.

I think this was the dress I wound up going with. Out of all the designs, it wound have been the simplest to animate (for the interactive web stuff). I also had to strike a fine balance between poor and fashionable. I was told that she had to look like a doll a girl would want to buy, but not so glamorous that she looks rich. She was supposed to be an orphan after all.

Once again, there were issues with the hair. I had to make it straighter and turn down the lightness even more.

The project went bust soon after. I did get a lot of art out of though. If anything, I'll say that this was an interesting character design exercise.

Do the Part-Time Shuffle!

2010-01-24T13:31:00.002-05:00

I remember a time when I would walk into a comic shop and be in awe at the gross abundance fun and interesting books laid out before me. The experience was akin to walking into a Toys R Us, except without those sliding doors that blast you with plastic-scented air conditioning. That would have been ever better. Never-the-less, going to check out the latest comics was something I'd look always forward to. As the years have gone by, I become less and less driven to hit up many comic stores (except for the ones that sell old comics). Most people would probably equate that with getting older, but not in my case. To put it simply....

They just don't make 'em like they used to anymore.

Don't get me wrong. There are a few gems to be found here and there, but they're much fewer and farther between than they used to be. I'm now pretty reliant on the internet, or friend recommendations to lead me to the good stuff. In this case, a promising new comic comes from a fellow graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design.

Part-Time Shuffle: Stage 01

Story and Lineart by James Stanley

Coloring by Jessie Lam

(I half-expect to see a boss fight with the bartender in an alley.)

The image above was enough to hook me in. The presenation has the same vibe I'd get from a fighting game, or a side-scrolling beat 'em up. As a huge fan of those things, that's definitely a plus. The entertainment value of such resonates not just through the art, but also in the story.

Part-Time shuffle is the chronicles the exploits of Meiko Schultz, a half Japanese-half Jewish, Osaka resident with hopes of becoming a famous film directer. Until her dreams take off, she humbly runs a family-owned video/hobby shop called "Hole in the Wall". With childhood friends Shunya and Aoi helping out, things are going pretty well. Little does Meiko know about her family's "other" business.

She's told the full scope of what she's truly inherited by the notorious Kigen Yakuza. Feeling cornered, if not confused, Meiko offers her services to the family. Surprisingly, her offer is accepted and Meiko becomes the family's new part-time assassin.

In the preview currently online, you get a taste of what to expect from the series. There's a great sense of humor already present as we are introduced to the main characters. Readers will also be treated by colorful writing such as "butthurt{ness}" and "unfortunate slumber is happen..."

The art is clean, solid, visually engaging. The designs give you just enough information to establish each character's idiosyncrasy without piling on too many accessories. Many designers have a tendency to get detail-happy, witch actually winds up making the characters look less distinct. Such is not the case here.

So far, this comic looks to be one of the coveted gems of today. Light-hearted action/adventures have always been favorites of mine, so I hope to see more of the series.

The online preview is currently available on the artist's website.

Let us give thanks to Liquify

2010-01-02T14:48:00.002-05:00

Rusty Sketchin'

2010-01-02T00:10:00.004-05:00

Well, I wanted to kick off the year of the tiger with some Sagat fanart.

It's been a while since I've sat down to do a finished graphite drawing, so it's no surprise that this one didn't turn out quite like I wanted. The musculature looks like mush. The biggest fowl up was on the arms, which is why I cropped them out.

This is definitely something I gotta polish in photoshop.

Just for the hell of it. Here're the drafts. Maybe I'll post the whole slew of sketches I did before even these.

Scanner wasn't big enough to get the whole thing.

An Anthem Christmas

2009-12-24T18:04:00.005-05:00

Here's a Christmas card I made for Anthem Creative Groups. The cards themselves have Anthem's logo on the bottom right.

When asked to sketch ideas for the card, I speculated as to what kind of character would be the most fun to draw. A snowman was the first thing that came to mind since, they don't really have a "standard look". Their facial features, limbs, and adornments can be made out of anything. Eyes can be coal, buttons (as shown above), simple indentations in the snow, or just anything remotely round.

Like scarecrows, you can pretty much just dress them anyway you want. Since most people would use old, worn out clothes for that sort of thing, snowmen and scarecrows tend to look a bit like hoboes. I think what I was going for was a "charming English tramp" sort of thing. Dickens-esque, if you will.

As for the concept, I just sketched out the first humorous situation involving a snowman that came to mind.

"A Snowman roasting a marshmallow with a really long stick."

If figured that it'd be something people would find cute and amusing. Something they'd look at and go....

"Hey, well alright. Looks like the snowman's roasting himself up a marshmallow there. Ha haaa, but he's got that long stick cause he doesn't wanna melt. Ha ha ha! How 'bout that? "

It's funny, A lot of my coworkers the interpreted the situation as being very grim. The more I thought about what I drew, the more I started to see it myself.

"A Snowman with wooden arms, sitting on a dry log, in front of a dry tree, holding a branch amidst a roaring fire."

One begs the question. Is he greeting hello, or bidding farewell?

In any case, he can't even eat that marshmallow. What's going to do with it? Even if he had to bodily means to swallow it, it would melt his insides.

Maybe it's like the elephant man. He knows that sleeping on his back with his head flat will kill him, but he just wants to sleep like a normal person. Perhaps the snowman wants to experience his first and last moment of normalcy (normalcy in terms of what "real" people can do). He has the long stick not to avoid the fire, but to savor the experience longer before the fire reaches him.

I often wonder if I'm incapable of creating something without morose undertones.

Aztecs Revised: Part 2

2009-12-23T01:10:00.003-05:00

This round, I focused on making the lead lizard-man stand out a bit more. At the very least, I wanted to continue experimenting with the coloring throughout the page.

In the first panel, I added some of the ground color to his back and added some reflected light to his arm. In the second and third panels, I covered him with some of the sky color. Even then, I feel like the lizard-man with the "hook/sickle"-like weapon wound up taking over the third panel. It's mostly because I made the cave area darker. That's the exact opposite of what I wanted to do. All the lizard-men kinda pop better now, but I think I like the bright red dirt in the old version better.

As if I wasn't indecisive enough, THIS happened when I was messing around with layering effects.

I really like the contrast going on there, but I can't figure out how to replicate it without the green (which helps give it that glow). It has such a soft painterly look to it. Maybe I can keep some green around their bodies and blacken out the cast shadows. If I brought back the redness in the soil, that would compliment the green.

Hmmm. I don't know what I'll do.

Now, here I pretty much did what I said I was in the previous Aztec post. I brought a little yellow back to the lizard-men in the second panel, added some value to the third panel, a gradient to the fourth. I decided to throw in that same gradient color to the first panel to tie the whole thing together. A big change I made was brightening up the glow in the second panel. I'm still iffy about that decision. I don't want the values to get too overbearing. I'll keep playing around with everything and see where it goes.

Checking Over

2009-12-16T01:49:00.000-05:00

Ugh. So many type-o's.

Dr. Sketchy Sketches

2009-12-15T22:06:00.003-05:00

These were done at "Dr. Sketchy's" held and Atlanta's Cleremont Lounge. I live model session is probably my only reason to ever go to a strip joint.

In the pic above, the challenge was to do something creative with her hat. I just plopped a snake up there.

Aztecs Revised

2009-12-12T23:07:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since the last time I worked on these, so I decided pick 'em back up. I was originally just going to work on page 2 today, but as I was playing around with the color, I thought of some edits for page 1.

First off, I noticed that the orange and teal where waaay too dark in both pieces, so I lightened them up. Then I gave the lead lizardman some abstract reflected light. For more "pop", I varied up the colors in the 2nd panel and spread around the sky color in the 3rd. I'm only just now discovering how much some sutble gradiants can add.

And now page 2.....

I'm actually not done with this yet, but you can see that I'm trying to be more effective with the lighting. I can't believe it never accured to me to make the lizardmen in the back lighter. It looks a lot better. I haven't quite decided if I'm going to colorize their contour lines, or keep them black.

Speaking of contour lines, I touched those up here and there (mostly just in panel 1).

I want to keep the last two panels pretty monotone. In panel 3, I'll just add some flat value to enhance the forground and background. In panel 4, I might just drop in some slight gradiants.

Though I'm going against the cardinal rule of "powering through with no backtracking", I'm glad I re-thought my approach with pages 1&2. I'll have a better idea of how to handle the coloring of 3 & 4. It'll be good to have these pages completed. Not only to I want to finish the story, but I'm itching to do some new pages and gauge my artistic growth. These pages were drawn 2 years ago.

Under the Sky so Grey

2009-11-29T23:03:00.014-05:00

When I look back at the person I was one year ago, I see a prisoner. He's held captive by obsession, delusion, conjecture, and even his own imagination. For one who spent seven years in solitary confinement, life outside his cell is incomprehensible. Institutionalized by pain. Blinded by emotion.

I pity this person. Nearly a decade of his life has been wasted. He salvaged meager seeds of information and fertilized them with baseless assumptions. The dense clouds of misjudgment swelled and bore raindrops of hope. His passionate light of ambition energized the seedlings. In time, he had grown his ultimate ideal. No plant from the outside could rival its grandeur.

Soon, his botanical beauty blossomed and inundated his cell with sweet fragrances. Belted by the narcotic aroma, his mind became warped and illogical. He failed notice the vines binding him in place. The plant's thorny clasp pierced his flesh, yet he made no attempt to stop it. Suffering became his definition of reality.

He thrived on the glorious agony he felt. It was a pleasant alternative to a world devoid of anything truly faith-worthy. Surely there was a purpose behind it all. Something that could bring him so much sorrow, yet so much joy had to be an emissary of fate.

"My endurance will be rewarded." he thought to himself.

"If I believe in this plant and nurture it to maturity, then the one who left its seeds behind will one day return and recognize my virtue. Throughout all these years, I never ceased in my adoration for you. Behold the bountiful bouquet I've grown for you with no less than my own blood and tears."

That was his contention, his declaration of truth. Little did he know how weak of a concept "truth" really is. Especially when the steward of said truth is a restless mind. A restless mind can solidify very few definitions of reality. As it were, the strongest opposition to the prisoner's idealism came from within himself.

Deep within his consciousness, was a desperate voice of reason, yearning to be heard. It was often kept it in check, but it never stayed silent for long. It told him that what he was doing was foolish, fruitless, and fundamentally worthless. His thoughts became perforated with vicious opposition to his actions.

"Do you know what kinds of seeds those even were?"

"In what way are you justified in growing them?"

"You know absolutely nothing about those seeds, nor the one who left them."

"Don't you know that damn plant is killing you?!!"

"Aren't you curious about what's behind those walls?"

"You must break down these walls to prove your religion is just. If that plant truly is what you think it is, then it will thrive in natural light. It'll keep growing and take you away with it. That is what you want, right?"

"However, ......if natural light causes your plant to wither and burn, you will have definitive proof that it was no more than a construct of your own desperate desire."

These words dealt heavy blows to the prisoner, but failed to completely weaken his resolve. The "war within" raged on and his mind polarized further with each passing year. A violent cauldron of turmoil boiling since '01 was beginning to bubble out of control. By '08, the prisoner was at the end of his rope. Something had to be done. A definitive truth had to be established. To do that, the walls had to come down.

I seated myself at the computer, took a moment to gather my thoughts, and began typing a letter (a facebook message to be exact). I knew that, regardless of the outcome, I would never be the same from that night forward. I was to transform my world from one in which "I never knew what could have been", to one in which "I knew what it was to reach for a star".

I read and re-read my letter. The phrasing had to be perfect. It was to be handled with a delicate touch. I wanted to be as honest and direct as possible without sounding too creepy. I wanted to assure her that I wasn't "after her", yet let her know how strong my feelings were.

Before I could talk myself out of it, lowered my hand to the keyboard and selected "Send."

(I've left her name out to avoid any embarrassment. Who knows if someone she knows, or even her herself will ever come across this.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 30 at 11:30pm

Hello Xxxxx. How are you?

I hope things have been going well for you these past years.

This may seem jarring, and a bit weird, but there's something I have to confess.

I've had feelings for you ever since sophomore year of high school.

These feelings have remained with me for the last seven years and withholding them has become difficult. Along with these feelings, I've housed many regrets.

I regret that I never had the nerve to talk to you more. I regret how obtuse I may have been when I saw you in Savannah. Above all, what I regret most is that never got to know you.

Time may have expired for that. However, I can't let time slip further away without expressing myself.

There's something about you that took hold of me and never let go. I don't believe it ever will.

All I want is to tell you that you are my greatest inspiration. An artist can't ask for more.

However these words may find you, or whatever your current circumstances, I wish you all the best.

Darius Scott Hill

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 2 at 12:16pm

Hi Darius :)

I'm doing wonderful. I hope all is well with you too.

Thank you very much for your e-letter. I must say that I'm quite flattered :) I was always fond of you and most especially your marvelous art. I have always sensed that you are one of the few genuinely good persons I have ever met. You are truly admirable.

You have definitely left an unforgettable impression on me that will stay with me evermore, I'm fortunate to have met you :)

I cannot thank you enough, your words carry many sentiments and shall be cherished.

Yours Truly,
~Xxxx :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 3 at 4:28pm

It's nice to hear that you're doing well. I've been doing great as well. I have a job that I really enjoy and get to work with my college friends.

I too was flattered at all the things you had to say. It was a pleasant surprise indeed.

Hopefully, time hasn't quite expired for us to get to know one another better. It's been a pleasure talking with you again. Perhaps we can talk more.

Sincerely,
Darius

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Those were my final words to her. Following the deliverly of that message, I was mysteriously un-friended and blocked. I have to tell you that the stark contrast between that "rise and fall" did a number on me. It took me about three months to recover.

When I got her first response, I was on cloud nine. For that one moment, I felt as though I finally knew what happiness and satisfaction felt like. I felt so validated. All those years, I was worried so much about her perception of me. Not only did she NOT think I was some kind of scuzzo, but she was actually fond of me (in a strictly platonic way I'm sure.)

Then, she did a complete 180. One year later, I still have no idea what happened.

Was it something I said in the message? Was it something she saw on my profile page?

Who knows. I could drive myself insane trying to analyze it. It was my dissatisfaction with unanswered questions and loose-ends that kept me so enamored with her in the first place. I just couldn't stop wondering what would have happened had I spoken up earlier back in high school. At least now I know that I wouldn't have been completely out line if I had. Of course, its far too late for any of that.

What impacted me most actually wasn't the rejection. It was the complete destruction of how I thought the world worked. I was so sure, that the outcome of sending that letter would one of four scenarios:

Scenario A - She completely ignores the message.

Scenario B - She sends me a scathing rejection letter.

Scenario C - She sends a "gentle let-down" kind of rejection letter

Scenario D - The planets align just right and she returns my affection.

What actually happened was "Scenerio E", a weird combo of A, B, C, and D. She sends me a nice rejection letter peppered with some unexpected complements only to follow it up by imposing a digital restraining order against me. It was then, more than any other time in my life, that I realized how for beyond analysis life really is.

Getting seven years of feelings off my chest was definitely a goal, but another one of my goals was to eliminate "gray area" once and for all. No matter what happened, I just wanted answers. I wanted the world to reveal itself to me. What would be behind the mask? Would I see a beautiful face that reassures me that the world is a fundamentally fair and just place, or would an ugly face prove my pessimism right and show how much the world is really against me?

Well, the world DID remove its mask and the walls DID come down. The trouble is that there was nothing there. No beauty. No ugliness. No good. No evil. The world doesn't favor me, nor is it against me. There was no fated outcome to me pouring my heart out like that. No designated response. The world is just the world and things just happen. I simply did what was right for me and she reacted in a manner that was right for her. I have no legitimate reason to be angry and depressed about it.

What happened meant everything and yet it meant nothing. It can be interpreted as either a good, or bad experience, but it is inherently neither. Who was right? The plant grew bigger in natural light, but then it exploded.

Only one thing is for certain. It's impossible to eliminate gray area, because that's all life is. It's like trying to evaporate the ocean with a hair dryer.

I was right when I said I'd never be the same after sending that letter. I tried, in vain, to bring order to chaos and it banished me to the void.

Looking back on the events of one year ago, I'm glad to be rid of unrequited affection's heavy burden. Though I do wonder if it was a burden, or an anchor? I may have been miserable, but at least it drove me to form passionate believes that I could stand behind (even if it was only half of me). I just don't know what to think about anything anymore.

I don't want to paint too bad of a picture. Something I DO believe is that the way things turned out was necessary. If I had gotten a "good" response, I would have gone on to be a hopeless romantic who believes he is entitled to certain things just by being a "good" person. If I had gotten a "bad" response, I would have gone on to be a bitter pessimist who believes that no matter what, the righteous cannot succeed in this world. Both of those viewpoints are extremely narrow-minded and arrogant. My way of thinking would have never progressed.

That plant had to die. The bluebird had to be silenced.

To Kill A Bluebird...

2009-11-06T21:45:00.028-05:00

As was mentioned in an earlier post, this is a piece called " No Toys For Men" done for "Break" the Anthology. It's due to be released some time before Christmas, but there's currently no definitive date. Since it actually IS coming out, I supposed I shouldn't be posting this. Ehhh, oh well.

The theme of the anthology is, of course, centered around the concept of "breaking." For quite some time, I was at a lost as to what I should do. The obvious thing to do would have been to draw some character breaking through something, or to conceptualize a broken heart. I wanted to be a bit more clever than that, so I made a list of every concept, scenario, and phrase related to breaking as possible. The list ranged from the abstract (broken spirit), to the physical (broken neck). It soon dawned on me that a combination of both tangible and intangible forms of breaking would yield the most interesting result.

The intangible aspect of it would be the most important, so I began my exploration there. Emotional, psychological, or spiritual anguish were always favorite subjects of mine. Whatever I did would most likely represent one of those three states. I eventually found myself wanting to deal with the establishment and subsequent destruction of happiness.

That process potentially covers many forms of breaking: A breaking of ones dreams, perceptions, and concepts of reality. It is disillusionment, pure and absolute. To fully embody it, I needed a powerful symbol of happiness.

The most iconic and profound symbol of happiness is, of course, the bluebird.

The bluebird of happiness is an enduring symbol of joyous, childlike, innocence. Inversely, the death of a bluebird represents disenchantment and a transition into adulthood. It was then that it became evident to me that my primary visual cue should be not just a bluebird, but a bluebird ravaged and in ruin.

In my research of bluebirds, I ran across a species of bluebird known as the Fairy-Bluebird.

As brilliant as its blue plumage is, I didn't want to use the male of the species as a source of imagery. Luckily, the female of the species was pretty colorful as well (as opposed to most bird species).

This was actually a turn for the better. It's appropriate that the blue coloration of the females is more turquoise in hue, because the name "Fairy-Bluebird" reminded me of "The Fairy with the Turquoise Hair." from "The Adventures of Pinocchio."
She's more commonly known as the "Blue Fairy."

Finding examples of her with "turquoise hair" was pretty difficult.

In Disney's "Pinocchio", she's a blond with blue wings and a blue gown.

In the feature "Un burattino di nome Pinocchio" , her hair is blue, but not really turquoise.

Ah, but I digress. The Fairy with Turquoise Hair, in her original book incarnation, is a motherly figure that helps Pinocchio mature and earn his humanity through good will. Her role in Pinocchio's transformation is a bit more direct outside of the book. The Disney "Blue Fairy" not only granted Pinocchio's wish to be a real boy, but was also the one who brought him to life in the first place. That was a granting of Gepetto's wish upon a star. Through and through, she was a benevolent being of wish fulfillment. Wish fulfillment is the divine-like realization of a dream and the promise of happiness.

Pinocchio also lead to the idea of including a boy in the illustration. Through the destruction of the bluebird, the boy would be changed, or transformed in some manner. I then asked myself, "What should his relationship with the bird be?". Was it a pet? Was it some sort of gift, or did he capture it himself?

Or,........perhaps he made it. Yes, the meticulous building of a dream. Forging one's own reality, piece by piece. Creating a vessel to take one far into the heavens where dreams reign supreme and each star is a covenant that righteous aspirations are rewarded. The sun, being the greatest of which.

To best illustrate to idea of constructing happiness, I thought it'd be appropriate that the bird be artificial, a toy even. A boy who built his own toy bird. However, the bird would have to be more than a toy. An embodiment of childish idealism would have to be a guardian of sorts. Something massive. Hence, a giant mechanical bird.

I wanted the design of the bird-mech to be primarily reminiscent of those little wind-up tin toys. If possible, also I wanted to harken back to classic imagery of clockwork birds like the one in "The Nightingale."

For that reason, I made most of it very rounded and smooth with some "clockwork" accents here and there. You'll also notice the placement of the boy near the opening between the birds legs. Obviously it's to symbolize rebirth, but it also makes a nice focal point.

Here I altered the design of the bird-mech to match actual bird anatomy (namely the wings and legs). At the same time, I tried to retain the "tin toy" look. I also changed the boy's expression to that of shame rather then distress. I wanted to get across the idea that he was responsible for the bird's demise. To really drive it home, as well as to sell the whole "vessel/vehicle" aspect of it, I added a cockpit to the bird's head.

The boy has inadvertently crashed it and in doing so jolted himeslf out of his idealistic bubble.

The bird's wing blocks out the sun he cherished so much. Only the light of his new found perspective shall guide him.

I left an opening in the bird's neck for aesthetic and lighting purposes, but also to subtlety play around with the nature of the light source. It's obviously meant to be coming from within the bird, but you may also interpret it as sunlight passing through the bird. In that case, the artificial light of his bird-mech is really the light of his beloved sun.

In Native American culture, bluebirds are messengers of the sun who herald the dawn of a new day. The bluebird in this context could be not just a representative, but a messenger of the boy's own happiness. The bird-mech may have actually destroyed itself. It knew that its prolonged existence would hinder the boy's development. The boy had to be brought down to earth and be reborn as a man. This is represented by the tall shadow he's casting.

I thought nothing of it at first, but after closer examination, I thought to myself about the importance of his adulthood being represented a shadow. Who he is on the inside has been changed forever, but he's still a child. His transformation into adulthood may just be a superficial facade. A person caught between two states of being. More than a child, but less than a man. He's left to wander the grey wilderness, searching for meaning. Searching for something to believe in again.

I that doubt much of that will be very apparent to anyone who sees this in publication. At the very least, it was a cathartic experience for me. It commemorates a milestone in my life that I will touch upon in full on Monday Nov. 30th. The 1 year anniversary of my bluebird's death.

Just a little Haiku.

2009-11-06T19:05:00.002-05:00

Dream No More

Bite of steady winds.

Restless dead stir in the night.

Cold lucidity.

~DS Hill

Shattered Wings of Blue

2009-11-03T17:59:00.007-05:00

Here again we have a piece that was finished quite some time ago, but has only now shown itself on this blog. There are actually a lot more like it. For example, I have a whole slew of concept art I did for a company project that fell through. Look for that soon.

What we have here is an illustration done for anthology known as "Break." It was put together by some college colleagues, but it hasn't come yet. I'm not sure if it ever will, so I decided to go ahead and post my entry here. I may do another step by step walkthrough for this in another post. I'll also elaborate on the story behind the piece's abstract concept.

Also, I'll post bigger versions of these pix.

The piece is called "No Toys for Men."

Black and White (interior art) version

New Paperdoll Music Video

2009-10-29T16:56:00.003-04:00

Given that this was finished over a week ago, this is kind of old news. Well, old to me, but new to anyone who follows this blog.

The NY band, Paperdoll has recently had a song of theirs ("If Nothing Happened") featured in a Dayquil commercial. To capitalize on the exposure, it was decided at the office to new an official music video for it. The last video was, of course, for the song "Anything At All."

We wanted to get the video done as soon as possible, so animating it was out of the question. After knocking around some concepts, we settled upon a video comprised exclusively of public domain footage.

It took three of us (including myself) roughly two days to rip enough clips from various dvd's. They all came from one of those cheap "50-pack"-type deals. After the footage was compiled and organized, I took the directorial duties and edited all the clips together myself. That took about another two days, but the total amount of hours added up to less than 24 hrs.

A high def version of the video can be seen here.

A Doodle

2009-10-12T13:18:00.002-04:00

Did a little sketch of Piccolo a couple of days ago. Just thought I"d post it.

Bayonetta Redesign: Progression

2009-10-08T13:42:00.020-04:00

I've been meaning to put these concepts up since Ignition's contest wrapped back in August, but just never made time for it. Each of these concepts were pretty large and had to be sized down for the web. Since the development of this concept had so many more steps, that also meant that I'd have to upload a lot of pix for this post. Well, I had a little time to spare, so I decided to get this thing together.

For those unfamiliar with "Bayonetta", she's the title character for an upcoming Playstation 3 game. My laziness would like to direct you to the wiki page for the full description.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayonetta

Since this is a post regarding a re-envisioning of the character, then I suppose I should post pix of her in her original garb.

Alrighty, lets get right into it shall we?

The picture above was my first round of concepts. This is more or less a "warming up" peroid. The focus here is just to generate ideas. Before I start using reference for a character desgin, I like to see what I can come up with straight out of my head, get a feel for whatever directions I'm unconsciously going in already, and continue from there.

I was probably going for Victorian kind of look, but I decided not to go that route. However, it did remind me of some good reference. The anime incarnation of Witchbalde had a lot of good armor designs. The aspect that I wanted to utilize the most was that of the hair swooping down around the breasts.

I think what also reminded of it was the fact that Bayonetta's been described as some sort of witch. (Incidentally, Witchblade has supernatural elements, but actually has nothing to do with witches.)

The curvature of the designs seemed applicable since Bayonetta's "costume" is all just her hair. Whatever I did would have to convey the sense that her outfit is truly wrapped around her.

When Bayonetta uses her hair to attack, that means there's less of it to cover her body. In which case, she's nearly nude.

Soooo, near-nudity is another commonality between Bayonetta and Withcblade. :)

With all that in mind, I did the 2nd round of concepts. However, I wound up giving her more cover than I expected.

In a few of these, I started channeling one of Angel's outfits from "The Big O."

I was also considering using Erakah Badu's headwraps and reference.

At some point, in the midst of coming up with hair styles, I thought of "I Dream of Genie."

This was a big turning point in my conceptual process. The "look" had finally been established. She's just similar enough to Bayonetta, yet still feels like someone new. The djinn(genie) influences really sell the exotic feel I wanted to achieve. She even has the best face out of all the other drawings. I actually think that this concept embodied my aesthetic intentions more than the final product. You can be the judge of that shortly.

First, I decided to work out the positive/negative balance of the space. I didn't exactly know what pose I was going to do, but I had a general idea of how dynamic it was going to be.

Here, I drew some "lines of action" that turned into a loose gesture drawing.

Once I was fairly certain of how the body was going to be positioned, I began building the forms.

I didn't notice it at the time, but her left leg (on the right side of the image) came out kinda weird. I think my unconscious intention was to have that foot completely off the ground (As evident in the orange stick figure). I must have forgotten about this and put the foot partially on the ground. This resulted in and odd angle.

I like to start with flat values whenever I do digital painting. I also like to keep them in black and white, and overlay color later. This picture obviously has the values colored.

You'll also notice that my costume design started leaning more towards those small concepts in the far left and far right of that 2nd page of ideas.

Here I tried to add a little more "witchiness" by incorporating some funeral veil-esque fabric.

I finally fixed that leg, but I never changed the knee. Maybe I was just focused on meeting the contest deadline.

I also made a big change to the hair. I was having a hard time selling an exaggerated version of the "I Dream of Genie" hairstyle. Then I discovered another variation of it that worked better, or was easier to draw rather.

I kept the gesture lines to jazz up the background a bit.

The previous one had some minor issues. Not only was it too dark, but people also mistook those rings on her guns for handcuffs. The ribbons I drew in somewhat fix that. I don't think I had a function in mind when I drew those rings in the first place. They're mainly just there to fill out space and add some motion to the pic. They'd probably be less ambiguous if I actually came up with a purpose for them.

Overall, I think the final product is just OK. It's fine just as a finished illustration, but it's not a finished illustration imbued with any sort of spark. It's too boring. I feel as though I could've cranked up the sexiness and exoticism a bit.

I'll probably do another iteration of this concept in an attempt to satisfy myself better.

Collapsing House: Durge of Memories

2009-09-26T23:39:00.006-04:00

Once again, I found myself in my home town of Macon. The home I once knew will soon be gone.

Last week, I learned that my grandmother's house was beginning to crumble. I was told the ceiling of a room had collapsed, but upon arrival it was much worse. The ceiling of too rooms had fallen and was cracking in another. The washing machine had also rusted and rotted out of its frame. A trail mix of dusty attic debris littered the floors. Squirrels, wasps, mice, roaches, and all sorts of misc. vermin had apparently ransacked the attic for so long, that it finally gave way.

One of the rooms whose ceiling collapsed was mine. I remember having plastic, glow-in-the-dark stars glued to my ceiling since I was little. That way, I could sleep under the stars every night. I imagine what it would have been like to watch the sky fall.

Anyways, my grandmother obviously had to be moved out of the house (to my aunt's place). Repairs could only go so far due to the high volume of clutter in the house. This consisted of old papers, old clothes, and a lot of old toys (mostly mine). So Friday I made a trip down to Macon with my Aunt to help clean the house and salvage what I could. This was, by no means, an easy mission. I knew I was to be a pack-rat braving a wave of "Trash it, trash it, Salvation Army!!!"

It began the very minute we awoke Saturday morning. Before I could finish perusing a single box or bin, another one was unearthed with a "Darius, what are you going to do with this?!" Once my father and uncle arrived, that got echoed three fold. I darted from room to room like a manic, coked up chihuahua trying to save its buried bones from vultures. No out-of-print book, nor vintage action figure was shown an ounce of mercy.

As I watched my encapsulated childhood being primed for potential eradication, I was stricken with the fundamental futility of my actions. My family members were, at that point, extreme personifications of time's relentless march. This is the march that tramples recollection, belittling its original potency and distilling it. Memories fade into obscurity and are eventually lost forever. I was the sole custodian of these memories, scrambling to preserve his most prized possessions. However, a custodian of memories is a custodian of decay.

One can save an old book from the dumpster, but one can't stop its pages from turning yellow (Well you can in some ways, but you know what I mean). One can only delay the inevitable. Even after the ceilings are fixed, the house will continue to crumble. Some memories/emotions/dreams are fated to die. That fact was made all the more apparent as I skimmed through my old high school yearbooks. I knew full well that among the pages I would find the face that had haunted me for so many years. That face was now just a face. A face in an ocean of faces lost in a current. All those people and the world I knew them from are long gone. Her especially. She was a memory I held in a death grip for nearly a decade. I now open my hands to find nothing. Not that I expect to find anything anymore.

Oddly enough, I couldn't help but notice my father throwing away framed pictures of his old girlfriends. It seems everyone was purging themselves of the past that day. (I briefly considered asking to keep one of them, but that would have been wrong on a few levels). I found it rather amusing, that on such a day, an unexpected visitor would arrive outside.

Perched high in a tree across the street was a hawk. I honestly didn't read too much into it. Not every hawk I see has to be some sort of harbinger. (It may have actually been a Falcon anyway). Still, it was also funny that earlier that day, my uncle told an anecdote about a large snapping turtle his son hooked while fishing. Hmmm, I hear a story about a turtle AND see a hawk in the same day. (See Deadly Desire)

It was probably just a coincidence, but still I couldn't help but ponder the hawk's presence. I guess I have a habit of applying meaning/mystique/mythos where there may actually be none. That's what turns crushes into obsessions and the present into an undead, bastardized past. A detailed explanation as to how that whole situation began and eventually played out will have to wait for another post. I've mentioned it in passed off and on in various posts, but I don't think I've gone into painful detail about it. There's also a recent development that I really want to discuss. It's more of a realization than anything.

OK, back to the house!

By the end of the day, a good chunk of the junk was gone and the house was marginally cleaner. (I saved a decent amount of figures too!) It'll take another weekend trip to retrieve more of the stuff I salvaged and finish cleaning the house. It really seems to get further and further removed from the one I grew up in upon each visit. Not just in terms of the decor, but mostly the feeling. It's smaller and more distant. Further it plunges into an unrecognizable haze through the years. Soon it'll be gone completely. A house of memories lost in time.

Two Contest Entries Done.

2009-08-27T15:28:00.008-04:00

I've spent most of this month working on an illustration for that Bayonetta contest I mentioned before.

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/bayonettacompetition.html

As I was wrapping up the Bayonetta piece, someone told me about a fan art contest for Muramasa: The Demon Blade.

http://www.muramasathedemonblade.com/?fbid=BB9i2AqSlSZ#/fanart/page/1

Lucky for me, I had already done one. Soooo, I pretty much just slapped some color on it and made a background pattern. I submitted it yesterday and it's already up on the site among the other entries. It's the one with my user name "burntmoth19."

Here's the progression.

I dropped in a bg color, added values (with a lavender tint) , and changed hue of line-art to be pinker. I wanted the overall feel to be reminiscent of cherry blossoms.

I then eye-dropped her colors from her official character art and muted them down. As this point the umbrella still saturated.

Here, I decided to just mute out the umbrella as well. Then I drew in some highlights here and there.

Gave the umbrella shadows a slight magenta tint and colored the ears.

In this last stage, I created a sakura pattern for the bg and repeated it. I only wanted a slight implication of a bg element so I dropped the opacity down on it. It also gives the overall piece some texture.

In the next post I'll post my progression of my Bayonetta fan art.

Monster Monday cont.....

2009-08-17T21:55:00.004-04:00

Ah, here's the final. I wanted to clean it up more, but I've been here at the office waaaay longer than I should be.

Blast from the Past Pt. 2/ Monster Monday

2009-08-17T20:23:00.005-04:00

In this installment of blast from the past, I present to you a monster I drew six years ago in my 1st year of college. For some reason it possessed me to draw some monsters in my 2D Design sketchbook. One of which was this thing.

I don't know what exactly I was going for. It like a wingless griffin with a gorilla torso, donkey ears, and a unicorn horn. Well whatever it is, I chose it to begin a series of illustrations in which I take and old drawing/concept and update it.

It's also my first entry for Weigy's Monster Monday.

http://blog.weigy.com/

I'm too lazy to link directly to whatever his latest installment is.

The 3-month old pic below was my very first attempt.

These next two, I did today. Orginally, I wanted to keep the pose relatively the same for compare/contrast purposes. In the end I just couldn't resist giving it something better.

This one's the closest to the final. I just have to clean up the lines a bit. Notice my creative usage of watermarks? hehe

Blast from the Past Pt. 1

2009-08-12T23:25:00.007-04:00

Last month, I was going through some a couple of portfolios filled with old work. Most of it is stuff from high school with a few works from SCAD. I figured in the next few posts I should show a few.

These pix are some mastercopies I did 9 years ago.

(The scanner cut Raph off below)

I drew them from a TMNT book I sent away for.

When I ordered the thing, I thought is was a graphic novel, but it turned out to be an Role-Playing Game.

Wiki can sum it up better than I can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_&_Other_Strangeness

At the time I had no idea what an RPG was, so I was a little confused when I opened it up. After reading through it, it seemed pretty interesting and there actually was a decent amount of artwork, and comic scans in it.

The art alone made it worth the purchase. This was one of the few times I had ever seen the original TMNT in any form of print. I wasn't one of those hip kids that read the comic before the cartoon aired.

Just for kicks, here's a real oldie.

This little gem was a product of my own creation. It's not dated, so I don't know when I drew it. I think I was around five. The image looks weird because I scanned it still inside the frame. I was paranoid about taking it out.

What's a Fashionista?

2009-07-24T20:07:00.009-04:00

One of the projects we've had going on at work is a mobile "Don't forget the Lyrics" game. It's a karaoke style game...........for the phone. Rather than singing, you hit scrolling words with a bouncing ball.

..................

Let the record show that we didn't come up with the idea. Anthem's a graphics outsourcing company. We produce assets for whatever falls in our lap.

I had to paint the texture for a Wayne Brady model, as well as do some backup singer silhouettes. Apparently they're there to help you with certain genres of songs, giving you hints and the such.

A punk rocker for rock.

A cowboy for country.

And a b-boy for rap.

I was originally only supposed to do three with some one else doing another set of three. Only two of them where produced before that artist had to go out of town, so I had to do one more.

A fashionista for help with Pop songs.

Now I actually had to go on Urban Dictionary.com to find out what the devil that is. It seems to be....

"A person devoted to fashion clothing, particularily unique or high fashion"

So I pretty much just had to do a silhouette of a fashionable woman of some sort. I guess the name fashionista is pretty self-explanatory.

Anyways, enough with this boring anecdote. What I really wanted to do is present my process of producing her silhouette. I think I managed to do some interesting layering with the underdrawings.

Changed my mind on the leg position at the last minute.

Doing the face wasn't necessary, but I couldn't resist. The sketch just didn't feel complete without a face. Wow, I just noticed that I drew the eyes below the eyeline. I do have a habit of sketching a head in one perspective and the face in another.

You know, it's starting to look really weird that her arms/shoulders are pointing to the right, her head to the left, and her waist to the front. Damn. The more I look at this, the more mistakes I notice.

I was actually somewhat proud of this drawing too. *sigh* Me and my hubris. I'll never learn.

In this final pass, everything's been smoothed out and defined. Of course, what I delivered at work didn't have the bg and gradient. I just through that in to jazz it up.

These where my references for the outfit and pose.

Doc the Last Guardian

2009-07-24T19:54:00.005-04:00

Ah yes, the last Guard Doc pic is done.

Glazed Head

2009-07-24T19:21:00.009-04:00

I began another painting pass over that Monster Hunter Contest entry. This time, I decided to try a different approach than previous pieces. I sought to be a bit more experimental with the coloring and not pit too much thought into it. The quick and rough technique of painting is something I'd like to delve into more often.

Ah, but wait. I still haven't explained what this whole contest was about have I?

Well, last month Capcom USA announced a "create-a-monster" contest where the winner would win a free copy of Monster Hunter 2 for PSP. As you can see via the link below.

http://pspupdates.qj.net/Capcom-s-Monster-Hunter-Freedom-Unite-contest-create-a-monster-win-stuff/pg/49/aid/132418

If that link still works, you will notice that the contest was set to run until Monday, June 29th at 11:59pm. However, they already picked the winners a hell of a lot earlier than that. By 3:03p.m. they posted the winning entries. Needless to say, I was PISSED!

http://capcom-unity.com/snow_infernus/blog/2009/06/29/unitys_monster_ideas_monster_hunter_contest_winners

I never participated in a Capcom sponsored art contest before, but from what I've been told this has happened before. I gotta tell ya. That whole situation makes me a bit wary of the "redesign Bayonetta" I heard about.

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/bayonettacompetition.html

Just like all these contests I enter, the primary goal is to get another finished piece out of it. (Even thought that sloth/tortoise isn't done.) Still, I'd rather not have to contend with anymore bullshit.

I've been Linked!

2009-07-09T17:12:00.004-04:00

Apparently, in a blog post about paperdoll, angry asian man linked to my Youtube upload of the video. Cool.

http://www.angryasianman.com/2009/07/what-im-listening-to-paperdolls-ballad.html

Monster Hunter Contest cont...

2009-06-29T23:49:00.003-04:00

Rough Color

Whoops, I forgot the watermark for these.

Monster Hunter Contest

2009-06-29T22:48:00.003-04:00

No time to explain. Midnight deadline approaches.

Aztec Comic Page 2

2009-06-06T15:16:00.005-04:00

I started blocking in some colors and values for the 2nd page. I was going to wait until I'd done some values for the bottom panels, but I went ahead with the post anyway. I'm considering leaving the bottom left panel flat with very minimal values. Most of the page is already so dark so dark.

As you can see, I now have a logo in place for Empty Jar. It's kinda of a prototype, but It'll do for now.

Empty Jar Productions LLC

2009-06-02T02:39:00.004-04:00

As of last week, I made Empty Jar Productions an official company.

All works presented on this site are owned by me. Any future works, animated, or otherwise will be done under my company name, and bear the (yet-to-be illustrated) new logo.

All Rights Reserved to Empty Jar Productions LLC

Yada, Yada, Yada.......

Proposal Illustrations

2009-05-30T15:04:00.004-04:00

Not long ago, Anthem sent out some proposals to Ignition Entertainment to do the websites for the upcoming games Muramasa: The Demon Blade and BlazBlue. With each proposal we sent out, we included an illustration to kinda jazz up the package.

I did this first image for Muramasa and the last two for Blazblue. I'd intentionallly done this sketch for a bi-weekly office drawing challenge.

The colored version is the one we sent out.

Desire of the Highest Quality

2009-05-28T14:39:00.003-04:00

A much higher quality version of my senior film is up now.

When I first got on youtube, the appropriate file size for uploads wasn't very high. Now you can upload stuff up to 1 GB in size.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x08O8QKnfSs&feature=channel

If I had a Website.... If I could Dream forever....

2009-05-25T23:04:00.005-04:00

Looking through some old files, I ran across what would have been the basis for my website. I'm sure this is about two years old.

The idea was that each object would be a link to a different section. The phone would link you to the "contact me" page, the tv would load my demo reel, the framed painting would be fine art pieces, and the sketch pad would, of course, be sketches. I don't really remember what the light bulb and the other books would be. I suppose something would have to be the "about me" page. Maybe the turtle would link to that.

Anyways, seeing this picture again is an interesting experience. Old work, in general, reminds me of where I was in my ability and shows where I am now.

(On that note, I've been considering redoing some old drawings and doing a compare and contrast. It would be a series of sorts.)

The image of a turtle standing on a tree stump has all new context for me now. Even his expression seems to tell a story I'd yet to experience. I almost see this 2007 piece as a harbinger of what was come. Let me explain.

The turtle here is obviously the on from my Senior film "Deadly Desire." At the time, I was using him as a packaging theme (website, business cards, letterheads, etc...). He stands precariously on a tree stump cut to an angle. Scattered around him are the accouterments of a household. The soft, warm palette evokes a feeling of twilight (sunrise, or sunset).

What I see here is someone awakening from a long dream. He dreamed of a beautiful hawk who lived at the far end of the forest. He brought her a single rose to win her love, but was swiftly executed. Awake, he's reminded of the bitter truth. The hawk never existed. The enormous tree in which she made her home was, in reality, the small stump he now stands upon. What could have grown into the wondrous tree from his dream, was cut down ages ago. His newly acquired self awareness makes it all the more difficult to maintain sure footing on the incline. There are no apparent signs of distress in his face. No sadness. No anger. No relief.

All that lies before him are shattered pieces of his fantasy. He sought to transform the world around him. Build a house of man in a forest. Build a foundation of concrete logic in an illogical world. His magnum opus of reason is a poor representation of reality as it truly is. Those artificial objects are useless in the woods. Even his rose is no more. The turtle still has his life, but his love is gone.

The dream turned into a nightmare, but far sweeter is was than the real world. It was dynamic, exciting, and romantic. It wasn't a pond of lukewarm water. That's all the turtle has to return too now.

This picture represents the destruction of my expectations, the transformation of my paradigms, and affirmation of the world's true form. I could very well be reading into it too much. I DO have a tendency to see things that aren't there.

And now for something completely different.

2009-05-19T21:59:00.005-04:00

"A Transient Purpose"

Sweet one.

Fly in the ocean breeze. Skim across foamy paradise.

Ride the waves blessed one. Dance across golden shores and cut briny frames.

Swim free.

Oh beautiful one. Nymph of the sea. How graceful your body.

Glistening in the diamond depths. Never to be had.

Goodbye wonderful creature.

"The Knolls of Cacao"

Emerald blades rust from dry tears.
Together they weaken and fall.

Mounds of decay harden to stone.
Sun burns copper shell.

"Swim with you"

The sun was in the lake yesterday!
I wonder if it likes to swim?

Its so cold.
You went too far.

Back up there already?
How fickle you are.

The waters are heavy.
Light grows dim.

"Transmute"

It never was.
It never was.
Seven fathoms and it never was.

I chased a ghost and found a philosopher.
It blessed my eyes and disappeared.
I am where I'd always been.

Grey nothingness welcomes me.
I can't find what isn't there.
What isn't found can never be lost.

In these grapes, there lies no taste.
Theirs is not mine to have.
It never was.

~DS Hill

Moar Comic Coloring

2009-05-19T12:10:00.003-04:00

I did this over 2 weeks ago and haven't really gotten the chance to do much for it since then. It's a rough pass of tones and color detail. It's primary what the finished version of this page will look like.

3rd Guard Doc Pic

2009-05-05T19:12:00.004-04:00

Here's the pic for Search Advance Healthcare Directives.

The colors may or may change before it's used. I've been eyedropping from the previous pix to keep the palette limited. I may get complaints that the colors are too dull. Who the hell knows.

Aztec Pages

2009-05-04T12:07:00.007-04:00

aHey, hey! I found the rest of the Aztec Pages! You know I spent a ridiculous amount of time looking for the files I had saved on disc before I finally remembered that I had them saved on gmail.

Derp.

Never-the-less, here's the pages. Depending upon how well my coloring venture goes on the first page, I'll do these next.

All those waves are from the tracing paper I inked these on. In retrospect I should have used vellum. Maybe I could find any. I don't remember. Perhaps I thought vellum was too opaque to see the pencils.

Moar Guard Docs!

2009-05-02T17:11:00.013-04:00

Oh Lawd! A post that's actually on time! New shtuff on Guard Doc.

In addition to the original logo,....

(http://burntmoth.blogspot.com/2009/02/grand-return-part-ii.html)

I have to complete four illustrations for the website. They have to be a series of pix involving elderly people enjoying an energetic and carefree lifestyle. Basically anything to take their mind off death. Each image will appear when upon entering the pages for search entire registry, search wills, search life insurance, and search advance healthcare directives.

This first one is for the wills page. Initially my plan was to do them in pencil first and touch them up in Photoshop, but I wound up doing so much Photoshop tinkering that I decided to do the rest all on the computer.

In the inked version, I had to change the dog's feet because they apparently looked too beast-like. I also needed to close the dog's eye's a bit more. I was told that the dog looked as if he where in the process of hauling the children away to the forest and eating them. I also had to make their grampa look a bit less creepy.

For myself, I changed the girl's face a bit. I think it looks better, but even now I still think that the kids could be drawn cuter.

This was the first colored version. The pix are supposed to have kinda of a children's book feel. I try out using a limited color scheme and off-setting the blocks of color. There're also some textures thrown in there to push that whole "printed" look.

In the end, the full-color version seemed to be the favorite.

This next one is for the life insurance page. It's also the first one in which I did the inking entirely in Photoshop. I did use a pencil sketch as a base though. I wound up changing orientation of the female jogger, as well as reversing her upper body.

I'll post the rest as soon as I finish.

Unused All Wheels Comic

2009-04-27T19:48:00.009-04:00

This is a little strip that was supposed to go on the All Wheels site (allwheelsstorage.com). I don't remember why it wasn't used, or where it'll end up. I finished this a pretty long while ago, but I never thought to put it up.

I didn't write the dialogue btw.

Filler Update Part II

2009-04-18T20:57:00.007-04:00

I began doing a color test for that comic I did about Coatlicue, the Aztec Serpent goddess. I've only blocked in the basic palette so far.

While that's in progress, I might as well post the other three pages. I wanted to wait until the anthology I submitted it to got released, but what the hell. Whenever I find the scans I'll put them up.

Filler Update

2009-04-18T18:48:00.007-04:00

I've been missing my Sat. deadlines far more often than I should. For those of you who may still be following this blog weekly, here's something for your trouble. They're both pretty old, but I think they look alright.

It's what every kid wants for Christmas; a blood-thirsty bear and a kill-crazed crocodile.

2 Min. Mickey Sketch

2009-03-24T19:02:00.004-04:00

In the office today I was challenged to an impromptu drawing contest. The challenge was to draw characters from memory in a span of two minutes. In one of the rounds, I had to draw Mickey Mouse holding a giant soccer ball. I unfortunately forgot to make the ball giant.

High Quality Paperdoll

2009-03-23T19:26:00.004-04:00

A better version of the music video is up now. We're still working on the actual HD version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ov3_Dh2qYM

Paperdoll Music Video is Done!!!

2009-03-16T22:53:00.006-04:00

Anthem Link

http://anthemcg.com/en/video.php

Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma8PGRfrlSc&feature=channel_page

At the moment there's no high quality version on the youtube page.

Alternate Version

2009-03-16T19:43:00.004-04:00

You Lose: Again

2009-03-16T19:34:00.005-04:00

Well, I submitted to another Udon tribute book and once again I didn't get in. In any case, my primary purpose was to get a finished piece out of it. In that respect it's not a total loss.

All Wheel Storage

2009-03-08T16:07:00.003-04:00

For the next post I was going to put up all the illustrations for All Wheels, a vehicle storage place, but I decided to just put up a link to the site. I had to finish the illustrations pretty quickly, so there are a few stray marks here and there. Hopefully I can get around to fixing that before long. In addition my normal workload, I've been working more consistently on personal projects.

http://www.allwheelsstorage.com/

I've actually started writing a memoir. It's a tell-all account of my seven year odyssey that came to a close back in Dec. You my or may not know what I'm talking about. Well, to give you hint, it was the event that prompted me to do the "Deadly Desire: Shattered Expectations" post.

I was thinking about posting the memoir here when I was done. If I did that I'd probably have omit and/or change some names. I'd run into that same problem if I tried to get it published as well. I don't want to embarrass anybody. I'm sure that even if the names where different, I might ruffle a few feathers (Hey, I worked in a bird reference!).

Oh, and Anthem has a blog now. I'm in the process of writing a post about good comic/cartoon to film adaptations. I don't know when I'll have done yet.

http://blog.anthemcg.com/

80's Hero, almost Mario, ATV Racer.......Guy.

2009-02-28T21:47:00.003-05:00

This is a character concept for an ATV racing game for the DS. We eventually found out that the game is supposed to be more realistic, so this won't be used for anything.

For anyone who doesn't know, I work for Anthem Groups, which is actually two separate companies. Anthem Game Group is video game development company and Anthem Game Groups handles web development.

Grand Return Part II

2009-02-28T21:39:00.004-05:00

Here's the inked version. I did some traditional inking first, then touched it up digitally.

Grand Return

2009-02-28T21:28:00.004-05:00

Wow. No Update in over a month. Well that's four (maybe more deadlines missed). In all fairness I have been busy, but never-the-less I've got to get caught up. Soooo, lets get things rolling with four weeks worth of post material! It's all pretty much stuff I did for work.

Here's the sketch of a logo I did for Guard Doc, an online database for important family documents.

...or something like that.

Deadly Desire: Shattered Expectations

2009-01-24T22:38:00.005-05:00

Ah, back on schedule (Yes I consider this to be on time because I began writing before midnight).

Well, as I stated in the previous post, this installment of "The Jar" will be an in-depth study of Deadly Desire. Recent events have given me all new insight into nature of my films storyline and how it reflected my grasp of reality. That grasp has grown weak and limp in the passing years. The reality I once held dear has deteriorated into a formless mass. Pure absolutes of black and white where the cornerstones of my perspective. Now lying in ruins, a cloud of gray envelopes the foundation of a once grand monument of truth. My desire proved to be deadly in ways I had never dreamed of.

The tale of "Deadly Desire" was one of unrequited love, but it was also one of existentialism. The turtle's romantic pursuit of the hawk was a quest for truth. She was the barometer by which his
whole sense of self was to be measured. What was his true role in the world? Did he even have one? If, in fact, he did have a role then who was the master of it?

To the turtle, the world could only be two things:

1. A place in which individuals can never overcome their established positions. Law, order, and outstanding moral codes dictate the way of things. Hawks and turtles are fixed as predator and prey. They must never and can never break beyond who and what they are. In this world, the hawk will kill me immediately. I'm destined to fail. That is the way of things.

2. A place in which individual are in full control of themselves and forge their own paths. There is no outstanding structure to adhere to. Nothing is beyond one's reach. Faith in one's own abilities, strength of character, and determination are all one needs to manifest a dream into reality. In this world, I CAN win the hawk's love and I will be happy.

These were his absolutes. She will either kill me or love me. Those were the only plausible outcomes. As it were, Belief #1 was the correct one. This was my stance at the time. If I confessed my feelings to the one whom I admired, I would receive prompt and severe rejection.
However the outcome proposed in "Deadly Desire" proved to be grossly inaccurate.

At the most basic level, hawks do not kill turtles on the ground. They lift them up into the air and drop them to crack their shells. I was unaware of this at the time I wrote the story, but it turned out for the better. This ignorance parallels that of the turtle's. He expected the hawk to react in a manner his beliefs dictated. When one of the turtle's two scenarios was proven right, his story ended on his terms. He died with feet planted firmly on the ground. The hawk came down to HIS level. His beliefs and general worldview remained mostly intact just as his shell did. He was disappointed, yet satisfied with the truth.

That is was I expected. That is what I wanted. I wanted to eliminate the gray areas once and for all, embrace my newly acquired awareness, hold it up to the sun and declare "THIS is my absolute truth! THIS is what I believe in!" Sadly, this is impossible, because life is nothing but gray area. People don't always give the "A", or "B" answer. Sometimes a big fat "C" rolls in out of nowhere and shatters your feeble attempt at establishing reason. "C" is unholy fusion of both "A&B." It is a scenario that contradicts itself so much that it almost nullifies it's own occurrence. It essentially paints the perfect portrait of a world in chaos. A cold and indifferent world that neither favors you, nor curses you. It just does whatever it does whenever it wants to do it.

Chaos is the only inherent nature one can apply to the world. An absurd place that will never adhere to your structure, bow to your reasoning, or fulfill your expectations. It can take your hopes higher than you ever thought they could go only to drop them further than they could ever fall. What's left is a broken mess.

Though morbid, the ending to "Deadly Desire"turned out to be one of hope and idealism. It states that even if may dreams don't come true and my plans fail, my beliefs will always strong. I'll always have the satisfaction of knowing exactly how the world operates. It was the creed of a proud pessimist. Now, both the pessimist and the optimist in me have been destroyed. Whats left is a person who only sees things for what they are. No more security shells and either hope or fear. I'm broken, but I haven't cracked yet. We'll see how long it takes before that happens.

Tempest Ballad: Mage Part II

2009-01-17T20:01:00.007-05:00

HOLY HELL!!! Almost a month has gone by without a post! I guess my New Year's resolution should be keeping to my own schedule. Also, I'm just about out of old artwork to post, so I gotta get crackin' on some new stuff. I really have to make time outside of work for my own projects.

Well here's the rest of the mage concepts I have for now (execpt for the rest of those photo collages). Did I call him a mage before? Hmm, well in any case, now you know what it is. I really don't know how specific I can get with this without letting to many cats out of the bag.

As with the previous character, these designs are still EXTREMELY rough. They're kinda in the ballpark though.

After this post you'll get a special treat. I've been planning to write an in depth analysis of how "Deadly Desire" reflected my world view of that time versus my current one.

In a nutshell, I used to be a "glass is half empty" person who fostered a backup belief that "the glass is half full." An event that transpiered in my life early December stripped me of both those world views. I now believe that the glass has no inherent nature and that pondering such is pointless. It is nothing more than a glass of water.

I smell another controversial post coming. hehehe

Tempest Ballad? Yes I like the sound of that one.

2008-12-27T23:26:00.005-05:00

Ah, yes. Another photo finish(I just realized that's a bad pun). It's not midnight yet, so I made the Saturday deadline! But anyways, here's another character from the yet-to-be-officially-titled video game.

For this character, I decided to take a different approach for costume design. I spliced together some pix of fashion models in various orders to get a feel for the character's over all look. These four are just a few of the numerous combos I came up with. I feel that these best represent the overall look I was going for (especially the last one). I don't have anywhere hear as many sketches for this guy as I do the other character, but I'll post what I have later.

And yes. Even though I used all female parts, this is supposed to be a guy. To give you a better scope, the character is supposed to be a steampunk era mage.

Tempest Ballad

2008-12-20T23:50:00.005-05:00

Alllmost there, but not quite. The very last image in the post is probably the closest the what I'm going for. I'm actually considering going back to the very first color concept and building on that. Most people seem to like that one the best anyway.

Tempest Skies

2008-12-20T23:39:00.004-05:00

This was the next phase. Taking the costume concept I liked the best and trying to refine it a little. Even at this stage, I still haven't quite nailed down the overall look.

Tempest of the Skies

2008-12-20T23:35:00.003-05:00

The rest of the costume concepts. Blogger wouldn't let me post them all at once.

Tempest Sky

2008-12-20T23:25:00.005-05:00

The first round of sketches.

Really rough costume tests.

Tempest Blue

2008-12-20T22:11:00.005-05:00

Yes, it's a bit late, but its still Saturday. Technically I'm still on schedule.

Anyways, this post consists of some concept art for a game that's been on the back-burner at work for a while. I don't know how much I can say about it without violating my non-disclosure agreement. What I will say is that the game has a fantasy/steampunk/WWII kind of environment. The character art that follows is that of one of the characters.

In this post I'll start with some of the reference I choose to work with. My goal here was to make the character as distinct as possible within the bounds of the setting. Trying to achieve that, as well as incorporating idiosyncratic features, is pretty challenging. I wanted the character to look less like a steampunk character, and more like a CHARACTER that just happens to be from a steampunk world.

I picked this actress for facial reference because,......well.......she has a distinct face. That and the fact that I'm firmly against the gross overuse of redheaded heroines in most media (specifically animated series). I specify facial reference because the character is in her 20's and this actress clearly is not.

Well,..... not SO clearly. Eh,...... I going to stop talking now.

The rest of these are just costume reference.

Paperdoll Extra

2008-12-13T10:24:00.005-05:00

In the last post I forgot to add another thing I worked on for the video. It's just a line of sea creatures used repeatedly for a crowd scene.

Also, here's some minor edits I made to the Teresa Fish(Band Vocalist). I've got some other stuff to post today, but those might come a little later. Check back in the evening, or early morning depending on how long my day is.

Alllllso, I can't remember if I posted this already and I'm too lazy too check. Here's another character that wound up on the cutting room floor. Hakaider Shark!!!

Punks, Rastas, and Disco Anglers!

2008-12-06T11:31:00.014-05:00

First up in our little aquatic adventure is the Blade Runner Replicant Fish. This unfortunate creature was "retired" before making the final cut.

Next up is the Hot Topic blow fish. Unlike the previous fish, this little guy will be appearing in the music video. His final incarnation is in the first image at the lower right-hand corner.

Back fresh from the 80's is the Punk Fish whose final form can be seen in the center of the 2nd image.

Ah, the mellow Rastapus. His final design is the iamge in the top right-hand corner of the 3rd page. I personally think the one one the left-hand side was a little more fun.

Oh, one of the band members has arrived! It's Seahorse Patrick, the guitarist.

Appearing next is Jack Fish, the bass player. For this guy I worked off a preexisting design (seen at the top left) and edited it a bit. I also got to animate this one. For compositing purposes, I had to put blank space at the end of the animation.

These are all in Flash btw. I'd take a good ol' paper and pencil anyday, but whatever.

Slap dat bass hard!!!

http://studentpages.scad.edu/~dahill21/portfolio/Jack_Fish_Guitar8.swf

Back from Scarborough Fair is the groovy 60's Cuttlefish. Her animation had to be rushed a little to meet a deadline.

http://studentpages.scad.edu/~dahill21/portfolio/60%27s_Cuddle_Swim15.swf

As we descend deeper into ocean, we at last reach the bottom. Here we find some of the more
"interesting' creatures. Finally venturing out of his den of despair is the Emo Eel. Can the sun ever shine in the murky depths? Can a heavy soul ever escape the grasp of the abyss?

The Idle animation is the only one that I didn't clean-up and color.

http://studentpages.scad.edu/~dahill21/portfolio/Emo_Fish_Idle12.swf
http://studentpages.scad.edu/~dahill21/portfolio/Emo_Fish_Notice6.swf
http://studentpages.scad.edu/~dahill21/portfolio/Emo_Fish_swim17.swf

Our final entcounter is with the Disco Angerfish. Upon further study, the Disco Angler appears to bare a strong resempance to Gunther.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbYtqAWDF2U

He's got that creepy 70's porn star vibe to 'em.

Oooooo, you touch my twa la la!

And so end the first of a long line of postings.

Tune in next week. Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.

Back from a long absence

2008-12-06T11:08:00.004-05:00

My, my. It has been a while hasn't it.

Well, I've returned and this time with a definitive schedule. Since work keeps me working pretty long hours during the week, I've decided to start doing weekend posts. Every Saturday sounds pretty good. I'll be posting some of the stuff I've been doing at work (the stuff I CAN show). In addition I'm committing myself to working on some personal projects that have been in the queue for a while now. Most of these are series' of concept work that I've been wanting to do, but there's still the matter of that lip-synch animation I mentioned in the last post. I'd have to use the cintiq at the office If I wanted to get that started.

There's also a post I've been working on has to do with some common themes I've noticed here and there regarding "A hero's journey". Often times I see stories in which a protagonist must face a rival, face himself, face his antithesis, and finally face his ultimate nemesis. There're also the matter of color association. The hero is usually blue, the rival red, and the antithesis black. I talk about this in depth later.

As usual the posts are gonna be pretty broad: works stuff, personal stuff, casual sketches, or just a topic I feel like addressing. The first the thing I'm putting up are some of the work I did for the Paperdoll music video. We at Anthem Groups have been working on that for awhile, but other projects have sucked up a lot of time. All that's really left to do is compositing and as soon as thats done, the video will be online.

Here's a link to Paperdoll's website just for a frame of reference.
http://www.paperdollband.com/

On the project, I was an animater and lead character desginer.

The music video is aquatic-themed with all the band members being represented as fish. There's also a lot of fun archtypes in the video, which you'll see shortly.

Jar of Emptiness

Sonic CD Fanart Contest

Hot off the presses!

If I haven't heard it, it's new to me.

Dragons' Duel

Micro Update

Megaman Tribute Entry

Art for Sale Pt. 2

Art for Sale Pt. 1

TBA1039 Exhibition

3 Days ’til the Grand opening of TBA1039!

Preview of a Pinup to come. Part 2

Preview of a Pinup to come.

Now that's The Stuff!

Flintstones 50th Anniversary (continued)

Flintstones 50th Anniversary

A jar more professional.

Parrot Me this, Parrot me that........

Sudden Scribbles, Solidification Pt. 4

A new stream of consciousness.....

Scratches in the Dark

In search of Terratherium

Notebook Knuckles

Experimentaion

Harlequin Salamander: Color Version

Sudden Scribbles, Solidification Pt. 3

Capsule CEO has achieved maximum initiative implimentation!

Harlequin Salamander

Billosaurus Rex

Pac-Man 30th Anniversary

Sudden Scribbles, Solidification Pt. 2

What D&D Character Am I?

Lawful Neutral Human Monk/Ranger (2nd/1st Level)

Sudden Scribbles, Solidification Pt. 1

It's That Time of Night Again

Sudden Scribbles, Soon to be Solidified *Extra*

Sudden Scribbles, Soon to be Solidified

Fishman Revised

If Nothing Happened Today

And the stream flows on.....

Just a stream of consciousness.....

Captive Animals of Chattanooga

A Whole New World Girl

Do the Part-Time Shuffle!

Let us give thanks to Liquify

Rusty Sketchin'

An Anthem Christmas

Aztecs Revised: Part 2

Checking Over

Dr. Sketchy Sketches

Aztecs Revised

Under the Sky so Grey

To Kill A Bluebird...

Just a little Haiku.

Shattered Wings of Blue

New Paperdoll Music Video

A Doodle

Bayonetta Redesign: Progression

Collapsing House: Durge of Memories

Two Contest Entries Done.

Monster Monday cont.....

Blast from the Past Pt. 2/ Monster Monday

Blast from the Past Pt. 1

What's a Fashionista?

Doc the Last Guardian

Glazed Head

I've been Linked!

Monster Hunter Contest cont...

Monster Hunter Contest

Aztec Comic Page 2

Empty Jar Productions LLC

Proposal Illustrations

Desire of the Highest Quality

If I had a Website.... If I could Dream forever....

And now for something completely different.

Moar Comic Coloring

3rd Guard Doc Pic

Aztec Pages

Moar Guard Docs!

Unused All Wheels Comic

Sudden Scribbles, Soon to be Solidified Extra