The End!

At last, another semester has come to thunderous, crashing close. My poor abused brain has come to a grinding halt and I can be blissfully brain-dead for the rest of the year. Which is only about two weeks, but every little bit counts.
So! Here are my final projects from this semester. I'll probably go back and post other things that I did too. That way people might stop by and visit my poor lonely blog. The top one is my painting final, including Fenris from down below and the second is my final from Joe Olson's class to the theme of "Imminent Defeat."

Portfolio flavored goodness

Nothing especially witty to say here. I just suck at updating this thing and thought that I would share a few portfolio pieces I've been working on. Regular readers (Hi Mom) will probably recognize the first two paintings from earlier this year. These are the honest to goodness finished projects. The third is new. This is my environment design for Sam Nielson's Digital Painting class. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out.

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.

Happy Halloween!

It's once again that magical, mystical night when all of the little ghouls and goblins take to the streets to wreak havoc on the world. And it's not just for the kids either. I think I've seen more fun costumes here at college than I ever did in school as a kid. Some people started celebrating yesterday so that they could show off their awesome costumes and I ran into Russel from the new Pixar film UP!, Jareth from Labrynth (You know, David Bowie), a pair of sharks who roamed campus in search of a feeding frenzy, and a tetris piece that meandered around looking for a spot to fit in. I wish I'd had my camera.
So, in honor of Samhain, here is a creepy little steampunk onion dude. He's from a class assignment, but I felt like he deserved to be here as much as my inane comments.

In Dublin's Fair City!

Alright, it's a lie. This is not Dublin. It's actually downtown Cork, Ireland. This is my messy, sketchy rendition of St. Patrick's in Cork. Not to be confused with the St. Patrick's in any other Irish town with a population greater than two. They ALL have at least one church or cathedral named/renamed for good old St. Pat. I heard more reasons why than I care to list here, but I like them.
This was another assignment for Joe's class. We were asked to emulate the style of one Paul Madonna (no relation to the well known, somewhat creepy pop star) who wrote/illustrated the an ingenious little book entitled All Over Coffee. It's basically just a sketch book of awesome buildings and non-sequitur comments. Very good. I don't know if I would buy it, but it would make a great coffee table book.
I'm not sure how well I emulated his work, but I enjoyed this project.

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.

I'm like da Vinci! With a Mac!

This is the same spacefaring, bug-eyed dog, this time with actual good work applied to it. I thought I would share it with you.

This is the character design from the last post. I have painted it. Four times. All different. Obviously. Which one is better? Please choose one. It won't necessarily sway me one way or the other, but I'd like to know what the imaginary people on the internet think.