Rise!

Girl powered

Just wanted to create an old school superhero

Siggraph demo

Thanks to WACOM and CTN, I got to Demo at SIGGRAPH 2013.  Many talented artists got to show their stuff, I hope you got to check out  Armand Serrano, Jason Scheier,
  Brian Kesinger, Craig Elliott, Erik Martin and Armand Baltazar

Warm up with shapes

I did 2 smaller "ideas".  1 approach to how I warm up in the morning and then another approach towards design.  It was only an hour so I couldn't finish the piece but here's where I took it when I got home.
 

digital drawing then painting

New art print

A new art print for SDCC this year.

New Originals too!

Come on By July 18-21st.

San Diego Comic Con

Booth F-08

Through the morning fog, he waged.

Again,  Trying to get out of my comfort zone and design and paint like I don't normally go.  Let me know what you think.  Just needed a mental break from the style and property of Spaced Out.

Speed painting this morning

I just wanted to mess around in a completely different way.  I don't normally work like this but it's always good to break out of your norm, right?

The Kobold King

Another painting for Dungeon Defenders 2

Check out the game, the other paintings, and art at that link.

Same as before,

Art Director- Rusty Drake

Painting by me.

Character Designer- Danny Araya

The Spirit Warrior

Another painting for Dungeon Defenders 2

Art Director- Rusty Drake

Character Designer- Danny Araya 

Basically this is what I get from the company with some art direction and then it becomes the painting you see above.

Danny Araya Designs

Orc

Another Image I created for Trendy Entertainment for Dungeon Defenders 2.  The character design was already done.  If I'm not mistaken the character designer is Danny Araya and art directed by Rusty Drake.  I got to "beef him up" and put him into a scene.  So all this artwork is mine, but design wise this was a task I usually find myself doing the pre-production parts and not this part.  A fun and very different task as I am normally working off of my own designs and such.  I got to do a few of them.  I will reveal the paintings I did as they do ;)

Gamma Worlds

You know, I have no idea if I ever posted these.  Done years ago for Gamma Worlds for Wizards of the Coast.  One of my first freelance jobs.

A little risque (click at your own discretion)

Just a little sketching in between breaks.

Inspired by Hattie Watson.

A blast from the past...

Backing up old files and finding old hard drives you find stuff from years and years ago.  Here's some of that....  It's an old game that years later would be turned into a mobile MMO.  It was originally called Blackstar.

Basically if you've made it to the bottom of this post...congrats.  This was only a smattering of the work I got to do on the project back in the day.  My first concept art job and I moved to Texas to do it.  I met some great friends and after all these years I continue to work freelance for the company off and on when the chance arises.  The game changed drastically.  So here, ya go.  Some good, some bad.

A morning walk to get the Monestary Times

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

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

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