A morning walk to get the Monestary Times

Dark Minions part 2

The 2 other characters I got to work on over at Shadowmachine.

Painting from google hangout

Did an impromptu google hangout.  Where we all draw together and see each others screen.  It was fun and I plan on doing more of them.  This is what I did

Fired animation by an excellent animator

You're Fired from Matt Timms on Vimeo.

Matthew Timms animation

and the original

Awesome job.  Makes me so happy to see art go forward and turned into something bigger than itself.  Thanks Matthew for the awesome work!

Give him some love here

http://matthewtimmsfx.blogspot.com/

Have a lucky week!

Dark Minions part 1

I got to work with Shadow Machine animation on a pilot for Amazon Studios.  It was a whirlwind of 2 weeks.  Full paintings and designs in a day to lots and lots of iterations.  A great group of people and I hope to see them again down the road.  Killer talent and some awe inspiring set pieces from their movies and TV shows.  I will break this up over a few posts.  Here is some of the work I did on the 2 main characters.  Most of the design was done by Andy Bialk and I batted clean up.  I got to start fresh on some other characters but I'll leave that for later.  The pilot and voting can be found here:

Dark Minions

The man and Machine

Trendy Entertainment is making Dungeon Defenders 2.  I got the opportunity to work with the awesome group on same key art assets.  So as they get revealed at their blog, I will reveal them here too. 
Check out the game here : http://dungeondefenders2.com/blog/

Grecian Wizard

From the Depths

Inspired by my good buddy Mark McDonnell

The CTN Roadtrip is upon us! #ctnroadtrip

Please join us at the 

CTN Animation Road Trip 

at the 

Burbank Arts Festival 

April 13th and 14th.

THIS WEEKEND!!!!!

the map of with me!

B-48

Come on down for festivities, beer, art, walking n talkin.

SO many good artists!

Here's the list

Alina Chau Animator, Author Illustrator
Animator Made
Brett Bean Character Designer
Mitchell Bernal Creator of Skelanimals
Sue Blanchard Illustrator
Blue Canvas Artist Networking Community
Mike Cedeno Painter
Center Stage Gallery
CGMA Online Education
David Colman Character Designer
Creative Talent Network
Craig Elliott Concept Designer
Stephan Franck Director, Storyboard Artist
Dominick Domingo Development Artist, Instructor
Arthur Fong Visual Development Artist
Walter Gatus Character Designer
Ed Ghertner Production and Background Design
Francis Glebas Director, Storyboard and Visual Development
Steven E. Gordon Director, Storyboard and Designer
Michael Humphries Art Director and Fine Art Painter
Gary Montalbano Conceptual Designer, Illustrator, Publisher
Christophe Lautrette Production Designer
LA Film School
Mike Kunkel Cartoonist at the Astonish Factory
Jose Lopez Character Designer
Sue Mantle DiCicco Childrens Book Illustrator Writer
Chris Oatley Visual Development Artist
Ruel Pascal Painter
Bill Perkins Art Director / Painter
Jeff Ranjo Storyboard Artist
Tom Sito Writer
Stuart Ng Books
Guy Vasilovich Director and Producer
Valerio Ventura Art Director, Director
Glen Vilppu Master Draftsman and Instructor
Virtual Animators
Ed Wexler Art Director
Woodbury University
Michael Yamada and Victoria Ying Designers
Dean Yeagle Cartoonist

Creatured

Florian Satzinger sent out an amazing link to some great photography of animals.  Just great reference and inspiration to be had by Andrew Zuckerman

LINK

 

Here's the morning warm up.

Work that died (but lessons not forgotten)

So sometimes you hope a project finds it's feet.  Sometimes you just want it to end...put out of it's misery.  This project was both.  I did work with Atari for a quick turnaround.  I loved all the folks I worked with but there were a lot of hands, no real time to commit, and funding was spotty at best.  I came on to do final illustrations of already finished designs.  Unfortunately they hired me too soon as most of the assets and design decisions had not been reached yet.  So much of this is testing the waters and seeing what was working.  Literally some of the characters were silhouette outlines and I was to make up the rest but adhere to an aesthetic that wasn't designed yet for the game.  I really liked the folks and love the property so I was hoping.  But here's the work that will never be. This was over 2 years old but thought it would be fun to share and explain some of the small lessons I learned out of it.

Lessons I learned and some artwork in between:

1.  Stop working and talk if the job changes drastically. 

Both parties need to be aware
     Sometimes its on purpose, but mostly production just gets fouled up.  That's why I usually go hourly because if scope, ideas, personnel, etc, change or just go out the door it doesn't matter.  You're getting paid to help fix problems and make the best decisions given the information you have.  If you are going by project, be clear and precise on what you will give them.  Both parties should know the expectations of each other.  That way, you're both happy in the end. 

2.  Stay positive even when it all points the opposite way.

It's what saves me time and time again.
Attitude reflects in your art, your life, your appearance and how that energy and life comes back to you from others.  Be the person people want to go back to, work with.  Trust me.  Find your way to cope and deal.  We all have bad days, just don't make a month out of it.

3.  A good Art director instills confidence

   This one really struck a chord with me.  There's something to learn with every great experience but even more is learned through failings and struggles.  I plan on being an art director one day.  Or production designer and I learned that instilling confidence and knowledge to your team is essential.  If they know what you want, have a plan of attack, or really trust that artist to give them something special it will shine through the entire project.  Each artist already has a narcissistic self loathing confidence issue already.  The person above them leads by example.  Negativity, timidity, and lack of speaking all effect the artist.  Atari was good, no problems on any major front but this job made me evaluate what I thought made all the good art directors I worked with before.

4.  Appreciate the real networking that happens

I love the real and dislike the fake.  I determined long ago that I would never make my career going to parties, pretending to laugh, and kissing some tail. I would make it through sheer determination, sweat, personality, talent, and deserving IF it was deserved.  I just don't have that personality to fake it.  I like my wife with less make up, friends who are honest, and real conversations.  I got this job based off the work I did for Wizards of the Coast and the art director jon schindehette.  I tried to give him the best of me and I know he remembered that and when a video game came calling, he offered me up.  This was the first year I decided to go full freelance and I was just starting out.  Jon really helped in more ways then one.  I truly hope we can find another project to have a go at.  Also, there are lots of personalities, but I have learned to keep the truest people, good people on my proverbial speed dial.  (FYI:  If I tweet, instgram or facebook another artist I am endorsing them as people usually more importantly then their art)  I feel very strongly about who people really are.  Especially now that there are SO MANY good artists that difference I make out is who people really are.  I have no patience or time for mean.  Even in the UFC I root for the cool guy better attitude.  I'll have another post on how the UFC and being an artist can be similar.



Well, I turned a blog post into a journal...sorry bout that.  Me rambling as I await feedback from Disney ;)

I wish all the people who got laid off from this project a quick recovery to a new job or reinvigorated to start a new path they've always wanted to tread.

Cheers,

Bean

Warrior

Trying out a new Photoshop pencil brush

Frank n Furter

2 crazy kids lookin for adventure....

Don't ask... I'm makin' this career up as I go.....

The art of Brett Bean volume 2!

ART OF BRETT BEAN HERE!

 

ART OF BRETT BEAN HERE!

The 2nd volume of the Art of Brett Bean is out now!

Click on the link, visit the store

Here is the cover and some sample pages. 

Thanks to Alberto Ruiz, Trinquette Publishing, Pulp's books, and the labyrinth for putting all of this together.

 

End o the day quickie...

The Drawing Club sessions

The drawing club Game of Throne sessions.  

5-15 minute poses.

Dragon time!

and some elves while watching Legend

Messing with some different paint approaches

Finally, a moment to breathe and draw some orc....