Jedi Time!

Who is the best Jedi ever? That's right! Qui Gon Jin! I thought about saying something like Gandalf or Harry Potter, but neither of them is Liam Neeson.
This is an experiment-y type portrait of Yoda that I did for my Illustration 3 class with Chris Thornock. Yoda has always been one of my favorite people. He has so  much perspective and natural joy, despite the awful things that come his way. I love that happy little green dude. This was done in acrylics on watercolor paper.

Back in Action

Hey friends! It's been a while since I last posted, but I have a great excuse! For some of that time...
     I spent about three weeks (April 22 through May 15) in the U.K.! It was incredible! I went with the Brigham Young University Singers and we sang our way across most of Southern England and a little bit of Wales. If you're interested in reading up on what we did, you can check out the tour blog HERE.
      I will start posting things up more regularly now that I am back and getting back in the swing of things. Meanwhile, here are two paintings from the end of last semester to tide you over. Both are acrylic on masonite board.

A Classic Nursery Rhyme

Baa Baa Black Sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes Sir! Yes Sir!
Please don't shoot me sir!

That is how the nursery rhyme goes, right? I still can't figure out why no one else remembers Mr. Bigg and his lackeys, Catgut Jimmy and Red Al. You guys remember how Jimmy was known to carry an ACTUAL violin in his violin case? And the story about how Al, a reptile, came by his luxurious red locks? You remember right?
If you don't remember, I guess it's okay. My childhood was just cooler than yours.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Here is something in a slightly different style for me. This is part of some concept work I'm doing for an upcoming BYU animation project.
That is all.

Rojoice Peasants!

      Huzzah! We've reached a landmark in bloggerating! This is post number 100 on Jacob's Briar Patch! I didn't think I could hold out this long. Or rather, that I would still be posting on this thing. But look how far we've come together. Remember this?

     That's right. Blog post number one. Remember the Bloggator? I should print him out and put him on the fridge with letter magnets. He's special.
     But now I'm in the thick of things. I just finished drawing a coloring book which I plan to post here sometime in the near future for your coloring pleasure. I just need to wait for the company I sold first print rights to to give me the go ahead. I'm also working on a card game and two children's books. As REAL JOBS! I'm all professional and everything! Wish me luck friends.

UPDATE: I made a bunch of changes to the newer image and reposted it.

Heads is Awesome

So I'm thinking about getting a wall mounting. Some people hang up the horns or heads of animals that they have hunted down/bought at a semi reputable pawn shops. I plan to use the heads of characters I have drawn. I could have Gandalf and Smaug on opposite ends of the room with the dorkfish mounted over the fireplace. Oh! Or Goofy as Mr. Wheeler posed like a bear in one corner of the room. That would be awesome!
More work from Jake Parker's Character Design class.

Holy Cow!

     Those of you who have been watching for a while may be aware that this is the time of year I usually post a rant/emo weep-fest about being rejected again from the art programs at BYU. For years I have deflected that age old college question, "What's your major?" by telling people, "I'm studying art." Notice, no claim of being an art major. I haven't been. For years I have been applying and being rejected from one department and the next.
     You may have noticed that there is no rant yet. And there shall not be one. I don't need to whine about rejection. I'm bigger than that.
     And I was accepted into BYU's Illustration department.
     See above.

The Process.

Alright, so someone asked me to post up a sequence of images outlining my process. I can't imagine why, but here you go:

 First I block out the local colors on my drawing (sorry, can't find my line art, it wasn't great. :P) Then I block in basic areas of light and shadow.

 I didn't really like the composition on the original, the princess was just too small

 Still working on composition, I just wasn't getting the feel I wanted out of the image, so I closed the dragon's eyes and changed the ambient light from blue to red. Also, darkening up the shadows and making the form read.

 Moving into the details. Added texture to the dragon and strings to the lute. At this point I was pretty happy with where the dragon was at, but I was still afraid to touch the girl. People are hard.

 Changed my mind about the red. Did not make me happy and didn't bring out the story the way I would have liked. Purple works better. I also changed the composition a little and gave princess Brat some more space. Also, fire.

You may notice that I don't touch the dragon except for a few touch ups after this. I was pretty pleased with him. I've started adding in the rest of the background of the scene (which I should have done from the beginning) and I tried to start on the girl. Ew.

Bookshelf, Fire, and little to no progress on the girl. I also removed the remaining line art and changed the background from a corner to cavern.

Did I load the same image twice?

Turned the girl into a blue troll. Suck.

Sought professional advice. Added some texture and finally got the girl to look human. Yay!

And the final image. Added some last minute details and texture to make awesome. This is the turning point in the story of Princess Brat and the Dragon where the princess first tries to be civil without the threat of being munched. Is a good job.

Quiet as the Tomb

So, I guess that I've offended all twelve of my previously loyal blog-stalkers. According to my stalker/self-esteem boosting program, no one has been to the lonely drafty hallways of my blog in the past three weeks. Apparently, no one likes the blog makeover. Rest assured, I plan to change it to something more bearable for you all. Until then, here is a graveyard, dark and lonely as my blog.

UPDATE: So, I found out that when I updated my blog's look, I accidentally erased the magic html words that made my Google analytics account read it. :P

Making Faces

Yay for digital painting! This is for a project for my drawing class. The assignment was to do portraits, or head drawings of ourselves or anyone we could get to sit for us. We were told that we could use whatever media we wanted, so I opted for the computer. What a time saver, and mess saver! Can you imagine the mess I would have had to clean up doing the six drawings I did? Well I can. Based solely on the mess I made doing the other two. Charcoal, while full of lovely possibilities, is filthy. So I took a photo of myself and dug a few out of the old archives and I used them as reference for these value/head studies. Wheeeee! Anybody recognize these gentlemen?

Digital Painting into the Space Age!

     Here's a little bite of what I've been up to for the past couple of weeks. I painted this, but the brilliant line art was created by Sam Nielsen. I LOVE painting on my computer! It's great! I can just sit down and start painting. There's no prep, no messy cleanup, and I can save as many versions of my work as I like. Handy, yes? I painted this guy in Corel Painter, which I highly recommend to anyone looking into painting via the digital medium. Photoshop is great, and has all kinds of great tricks and techniques to make awesome stuff, but Painter is so much easier to use. I've been thinking about creating a real website one of these days, to show that I can pretend to be all professional, but I know more about aliens than I do about web-hosting. Maybe I should ask the aliens for help.

Adventure!

My little brother Alex just got his mission call! I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. For those of you who aren't Mormon or familiar with our interesting little practices, all of our young men (and any young women who elect to do so) between the ages of 19 and 25 are strongly encouraged to basically donate two years to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ where ever we are sent. My brother was just called to serve for two years in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin mission! It covers the upper part of Wisconsin and most of the upper peninsula of Michigan.
It's a big adventure! I served my own mission in the Philippines, Bacolod mission. So there's really no telling where these missionaries might be sent. And, of course, each little corner of the world has its own special challenges.
I think the most amazing part of the whole thing is that somehow, it works! These are not professional preachers being sent out armed with doctorates and practical experience in public speaking. These are children who love the Lord and want to spread around the love of God. These stuttering, passionate young men and women help people to make changes in their lives that years of counseling cannot make. For all their weaknesses and human foibles, they become instruments in the hand of God to bless his children, and those who truly understand greatness tremble at their passing. This dumb college age kids are exactly what Paul was talking about when he said that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.
I'm pretty passionate about this stuff. Anyway, here is a tribute to the great adventure ahead of all of us in the form of another picture I drew for Joe Olsen's drawing for animation class to the theme of Caravan of Awesome in the Desert.

The Swelling Ranks

Hello friends! I'm back and I've brought along yet another imaginary friend! Soon I'll have a whole army of these guys. Just think what you could do with a posse of imaginary friends. No really, think about it!
First, they don't eat real food. That means that you don't have to worry about providing any kind of actual sustenance for them. Second, they don't actually NEED to occupy any real space. Just brain space, and that only runs out of room when it comes to math and boring things. Third, these guys are indestructible! That is the whole point of imaginary friends, none of the bad things in life can touch them! And finally, they are always on MY side. No imaginary baddies stand a chance against my legion of imaginary friends. So much POWER!
Sorry, got a little carried away with the heady bliss of absolute power. It corrupts absolutely you know. It also rocks absolutely.
This is the latest in a parade of oddities from my third stint in Joe Olson's Drawing for animation class. I think I've got some other stuff roaming around my hard drive waiting for me to post...I'll just send the friends after them.

My Head A'SPLODE!

Yes, I am a lazy slob when it comes to posting things on my blog. But I would have been a total slacker if I had neglected to commemorate today's fun filled occasion! It's the first day of classes at good old BYU.
In honor of this momentous celebration, I give you a piece that I have entitled, White Rabbit: the college student psyche after 15 minutes of the first class of the semester. Pretty classy huh? This is why I try never to dwell too much on how far behind I am with all of my school work, commitments, following up on the parental pressure to date, marry, and give them grandchildren, and other delightful social pressures. I just avoid the gradual descent into madness and throw myself into it headlong. It saves time.
By the way...Day 24: NO TIME!