Two posts for the price of FREE!

Um...hi friends. I'm still alive. I know that all three of you who regularly check this thing were wondering. I just haven't had any kind of finished stuff to put here. But now I do!

Meet the Space Pug! He is not mine! I just added the poor paint job. The space pug himself is the work of the talented J Borutski. I have no idea who that is. I just painted his line art for my digital painting class. Also for Sam's class, I made a super-awesome-character design!
His name is Fenris. He's not quite done, but I'm close. Fenris is a hero fallen on hard times. Heroing is great and all, but there's no money in it and he has had to fall back on mercenary work, bodyguarding, and bounty hunting to get by, and since he's picky about who he works for and sticking to his Hero's code, he still doesn't make much. But he's got the crest from the (tragically short-lived) heroes' guild, and he's going to live up to it even if it kills him.
There's a lot more to the story. He has taken up with a young hero wanna-be and is showing him the ropes, one thumping at a time. It's amazing how one little assignment leads into a lot of extraneous, really fun, work.

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!

Waterbending Awesomeness

So, I managed to win over a whole slew of new Avatar: the Last Airbender addicts in the form of my family. I just sat down one afternoon and thought it would be fun to watch one or two episodes and before I knew it, everyone in the house, one by one, had gathered around and plopped down on or around the couch next to me. After that it became a nearly nightly ritual. We watched three or four episodes a night until we finally finished it up Thursday night with one of the most awesome season finales of all time! I. Love. Avatar.
I have also decided that, given the option, I would be a waterbender. Most people want to be firebenders, but they just aren't as cool. Most of them seem pretty off kilter to me. The waterbenders use Tai Chi, which is a style that focuses on precision, balance, and on using the force of an opponent against them. It's a style based on the push and pull and flow of nature. Which is pretty awesome as far as I'm concerned. Plus, as my dear friend Aaron pointed out, Katara could have easily taken over the world. The world is basically three fourths water you know. As are most living things...
Oh! By the way, this is my post for day 23: Cat. 'Cause there ain't no cooler cat than Briar here. And yes I know I skipped day 22, but I've drawn it, I just didn't get it scanned yet. It'll be here soon.

Go Team!

Sorry sportsfans. I haven't been keeping up with the hundred day challenge. With work picking up and getting off my application to the BYU animation department, I just fell off the wagon. The way things are looking it might be another week or so before I pick up on it again. Until then, here's something to keep all three of my regular viewers happy. This is the brand new logo for the world famous sports team, the University Villa Monsters. The Villa is a relatively small place, and as such, most of the Monsters' games of choice are largely imaginary, played with the thumbs, or with small game pieces not suitable for children under the age of five. But that doesn't stop them from being great! They're awesome because I say they are! Right?

It's like a sequel!

Today is day 21: Vacation. So I took one. Which means that the sketch I was working on just didn't turn out. So, for your viewing entertainment, here is take two of the back handspring animation from this spring, now in glorious pen! We'll be back to your regularly scheduled program tomorrow.

These are Earth Bending Feet

Those of you who know me may also know that I am an Avatar junkie. I. Love. Avatar. It's like a king sized helping of awesome with a heaping bucket of awesome sauce spread liberally over top. Toph, the blind earth bender pictured above is not my favorite, but she does represent the theme for the day. Day 20: Fortitude. Each of the four elemental fighting styles is modeled after an actual fighting style. Earth bending is modeled after Hung Gar, the Kung Fu style attributed to Wong Fei Hong, a Chinese folk hero who restored the fallen Shao Lin order. The style is characterized by its deep, powerful stances, particularly the horse stance, from which its forms are performed. Pretty awesome huh?

Faded Glory

The other day I sat down with my friend Aaron and we watched the first half of The Fellowship of the Ring. We still haven't gotten around to watching the second half. Mostly because when the council of Elrond rolled around and Orlando Bloom finally appeared on camera after an entire hour of blissful absence we could no longer take the movie seriously. Kind of tragic really, because I love the Lord of the Rings. I just don't like Mr. Bloom. They should have just left him in the prop closet they found him in and find a real actor. It's not hard you know. They just roam around the streets of major California cities waiting to be found.

Gandalf here is one of my favorite characters and Sir Ian did a great job with him. He is also grey. Which is today's theme. Day 19: Gray.

Yes, I know I'm a couple of days off, but I spent the weekend finishing my sample animation for the portfolio that I need to mail off sometime this week. I have decided that it's just better to go from where I was rather than trying to play catch up for the four days that I missed. More to come!