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These are lighting roughs I did as a quick demo for my painting class. Gouache and prismacolor.
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Portrait Painting in Watercolor and Gouache 10 Week Course

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If you live in the LA area and your New Years resolution is to get more painting in and have a good time doing it then come on down to my portrait painting class. It will begin Monday January 9, 7-10pm. We'll be focusing on watercolor but acrylics and other water based mediums are ok too.

To enroll contact LAAFA.org, phone (877) MY-LAAFA
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Happy Holidays!

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This is a color key painting from the DreamWorks Christmas special "Shrek the Halls".

Merry Christmas everyone!
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City at night concept for Puss in Boots. Layout by Christian Schellewald and painted by me.

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Background painting from "Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas" by Wade Huntsman and Myself. Acrylic and photoshop.
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Puss in Boots, photoshop.
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Class demo sketch

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.Here's a demo sketch I did for my head drawing class, I thought I'd pass along a few pointers to those of you interested.


First, simple but accurate construction drawing then massing the light and shadow, this should be as simple as asking yourself what's in direct light and whats in shadow. Then addressing the turning forms within the light and shadow and designing hard and soft edges.


This overlay shows how a simple construction drawing lays the foundation. Though it may seem a bit abstract, it helps place the larger masses of anatomy within the whole, it maintains the symmetry of the head and helps convey the simple three dimensional nature of the head (like longitude and latitude on a sphere).



Always look for the simple statement as shown in this photoshop paint-over. If you put anything (and I mean anything) in your drawing that varies from it's simplest shapes and values you'd better have a darn good reason. Variations in shape and value that don't convey form to the viewer (even if you believe you're really seeing them) are the first and fastest step to drawings that don't hold together. Remember that your eyes want to find as much information as possible and tend to notice variations and contrasts more than they notice the overall value and shape relationships. squinting your eyes down to cut out all the surface details to see the simple massing of shape and value isn't just a good idea, it's a necessity.
Let me repeat it because this "simple statement" paint-over describes the most important thing I know about drawing. So few people ever master drawing because they don't know or are not willing to find the simple masses and relationships underneath all the complexity they can see. Everyone notices how the parts contrast from the whole, but you have to forcibly train yourself to do the opposite, to notice how the parts most simply relate the the whole as described in this final image.

Good luck!

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After a modest opening competing with Halloween and unseasonal NE storms, Puss in Boots has kept an unprecedented hold on movie goers during it's second week. Word of mouth is great and it looks like the show will hold strong over the next few weeks. We can stop biting our nails now.

This is some location design work, layout by Christian Schellewald and painted by myself.

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The legend of Puss in Boots! Photoshop painting.
I think the movie is fantastic but of course I'm biased. Go see for yourself!
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Happy Halloween!

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I've had a blast working on Dreamworks Halloween specials, these are from Shrek's Thriller Night on the Scared Shrekless DVD. Other projects that were a hoot are "The Pig Who Cried Werewolf" and "Night of the Living Carrots"! They premiered on Nintendo 3DS and will likely have a wide release in the future so I'll have plenty to post for upcoming Halloweens.

The Legend of Puss in Boots!

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We're headed down to the premier of Puss in Boots this week to see the final cut of the movie. We're very proud of the show, I think you'll especially enjoy the color, light and atmosphere worked into each location. I worked on it for 2 years so it's a big investment for me, I hope you check it out! Coming to theaters October 28th.
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Study in ink.
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I'm not sure but I thought that someone somewhere might find this interesting. Background department naming conventions using one of my paintings from Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron.
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Charcoal demo

My head drawing class starts next week and for those of you further out I have a video demo coming soon. Otherwise here's a step by step charcoal drawing for you to have a look at:





I've darkened the line drawing significantly here so you can see it, the original is very light. There's a little bit of red prismacolor lay in then a Ritmo B charcoal pencil.


Lay in with a compressed charcoal stick.


Half tones blended in. This is all done with my fingers guys, it's not a pretty process but it's the way I like it.



Finishing with compressed charcoal, a Pitt Charcoal pencil for details and a kneaded eraser for highlights.
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A background painting for "The Road to El Dorado", 1998. Acrylic on Crescent illustration board, 16"x 18".
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Painted for "Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron". Acrylic and digital.
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Portrait drawing 10 week course begins Oct 4

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My 10 week head drawing course is coming up beginning Tuesday night, October 4. Come on down and join us if you can, we'll learn how to construct and compose a portrait from start to finish and have a good time doing it. To enroll contact LAAFA.org, phone (877) MY-LAAFA
The piece shown here is 16"x 22", compressed charcoal and white nupastel on Crescent T-V bristol paper.

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Something I did for one of the Madagascar shows.
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World Con

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I'm fresh back from World Con (The World Science Fiction Convention) so I thought I'd go through the archives and pull out something appropriately "spacey" to post.

Some highlights of the Con were:

• Lunch with Irene Gallo (Art director, Tor Books), Gregory Manchess and Jon Schindehette (Art director, Wizards of the Coast).
• A panel discussion by the Killer B's, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford and David Brin. All three delightfully opinionated and 3 of the best living SF authors.
• Meeting Michael Flynn, author of the stunning "Eifelheim"
  
• The Hugo Awards Ceremony where Alastair Reynolds didn't win but should have.
• Catching a glimpse of Larry Niven handsomely attired in an electric pink shirt.

And on a related note, I've contributed a few pieces to "Project Icarus", A serious study of technologies and designs to get us to a nearby star in the next century or 2. They are currently looking for a volunteer graphic designer interested in contributing a few logo ideas to the project. They're at http://www.icarusinterstellar.org
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Watercolor demo

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I'm posting early this week because I'm heading off to the World Science Fiction Convention! Hope you enjoy this demo.




















Watercolor and gouache on Arches paper. 15"x 20"

This is transparent watercolor except for 3 or 4 opaque gouache strokes needed in the highlights. Keep in mind that transparent does not mean it has to be applied that way, I do like luminous pastel feeling watercolors but I don't want to always be limited to that. I've laid the darks on pretty thick so that they are in fact no longer transparent. I only buy watercolor in tubes because the hard cakes just don't release enough pigment to paint in a full value range. My favorite brands are Winsor and Newton and Holbein.

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These are color roughs from "The Return" sequence of "The Prince of Egypt" 1998. The cool temperatures were an important color statement for this part of the story. Acrylic on illustration board.
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Photoshop sketch.
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Comicon demo

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Here's the demo I did at Comicon. Thanks to everyone at LAAFA and to all of you who stopped by.
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COMICON!!

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I'll be doing a charcoal portrait demo at Comicon. It will be Saturday, 2:30 at the LAAFA booth #5567, come on by!
Here are a few examples from previous years:












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Portrait Drawing Workshop Saturday Aug 6!

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My annual portrait drawing workshop will be Saturday Aug 6, 12pm to 8pm. It's designed to be an instructive overview of the materials, techniques, and concepts for successful portrait drawing. To enroll contact LAAFA.org, phone (877) MY-LAAFA

Here's what you'll get for your hard earned money and time:

12 to 2pm Slideshow and lecture with numerous step by step examples. We'll discuss:
• The fundamentals of constructing the head with the values of light and shadow.
• Principles for creating the illusion of space and volume on a 2 dimensional drawing surface.
• Ideas for portrait composition and creating a likeness.
• Techniques and tips on materials and the drawing process.
2-5pm: Full length Instructor demonstration from a live model.
5-6pm: Dinner break.
6-8pm: Student drawing time from a live model with instructor feedback.

Hope to see you there!
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Coast town.
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