Bike to Babycakes

I'd say about a month ago, I bought a used beach cruiser bike on Craigslist.  Red, Schwinn, working breaks and only minimal dents!  I love this thing.  Lately I've found that I'll pack up all my gear and head down...

TO THE BAKERY!!!  Babycakes is an amazing vegan bakery spot down on the Lower East Side.  

YUM.

Here is a map of my journey.

They don't seem to mind (or at least if they do, they don't show it) that I come in extremely sweaty and proceed to cool off/eat my freshly bought baked goods right there.

The last weekend I went it was gorgeous out, extremely sunny and hot - everyone was outside.  I brought my watercolors with me & attempted a painting along the East River...

Awesome thing about sketching outside when it's so nice is that you can hide behind your shades.  People don't know you're staring at them!  Sketching!  Watching.  STARING. 

But then it means you go home like this...

Sunburn city.

Also, I'm really looking forward to seeing 'Man of Steel' on Friday.  Michael Shannon as General Zod?!  GAH!!!  I can't wait to see how he handles the role.  I was watching 'Take Shelter' recently and did some roughs of him, Jessica Chastain, and a doc.  Ok basically roughs of mostly Michael Shannon.  That movie is such a fantastic one.  Is he crazy?  Nobody knows... 

 "There's a STORM COMING like NOTHING you've EVER SEEN"

Gestures + Random batch

Hey folks, here we go!  A whole lotta gestures!!  Working on getting the gesture down fast and getting the movement/feeling.  Most were drawn in coffee shops, Grand Central, and the train.

And some snippets of hands (a lot of Milt Kahl & co, really just getting the feeling of hands in there & practicing)...

And THENN some Octopi (playing with shapes)...

...And some random stream of thought + a few more gestures.

A big thank you to the greatest mustache growing guy I know, Aidan Sugano, for his critique and feedback on these!

Last but not least, a little more randomness.  I was playing with brushes & textures & this girl from The Sartorialist fit the bill:

And the Christmas postcard I sent out last year!  Take look... with these items combined, they represent one classic Christmas flick...

(front)

(back)

Can you tell which movie it is?  I'll give you a hint... 

Testing, 1... 2...

So 2013 kicked in and somehow, it's already March.  I hope you all have had a great new year so far!  It's still pretty cold in NYC, which luckily means I get a little more use out of my fireplace before it gets too warm!  I can't wait for nice weather to be back and the sun to shine longer.

I started an Animation class in late January and have been really enjoying it.  The first half is focused on traditional 2D animation and the second half we've been playing around with After Effects and TV Paint.  It's so much fun!!  I look forward to class each week.

Here's my first "bouncing ball" test:

As I was waiting for the professor to come around, I drew in those little tests below the ball.  Yes that is a guy shaking his butt, those are not wings.  You can tell by his whistling that he is a very happy little butt-shakin' man.

And then here's a test of a ballerina.  I hope this works!  This was rotoscope (drawing right on top of the frames), I loved adding in the color on top.

Next up: making walk cycles, more tests, and finally getting the groundwork going to create my own animated short.  The seed of an idea for a short came around 3 years ago, and I've been plotting and planning ever since. 

Happy Monday!

A bit giffy

Here is my first foray in to the world of animated gifs!!  My most recent assignment in the graphic design class I'm taking at SVA was to come up with a concept for a dream you had.  I roughed a page detailing a dream, almost like a sequential story, but it just wasn't clicking.  

Then I remembered one of my favorite dreams, where I was tap dancing like Gene Kelly.  Drew up a concept, chatted with the professor, and then we decided I'd try creating a gif! This was based on Singin' in the Rain when the three of them (Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds & Donald O'Connor) are walking along, so I knew I wanted to make it a bit of a jaunty walk.  It was also inspired by the ever talented & master of gifs, Anthony Holden!  Mine is quite choppy but it was great practice.  Imagine the tune 'doo doo doot doot do dah doo doo doot doot... I'm siiiingin' in the raaain...'

We be colorin'

This weekend is the CTN Expo, a time where artists from all over gather to trade/sell artwork, have presentations & give talks, and just in general get together and have an amazing time.  I plan on hitting this up next year and cannot WAIT to go!!  To see friends that I haven't caught up with in awhile and to also meet some of the artists that I've admired... it'll be incredible and such a wonderful experience.

Anyway, a good friend & all around awesome person, Rachel Tiep-Daniels, will be there at CTN to debut The Picture Book Project!!  She and Margaret Wuller, both Dreamworks artists, created the PBP Foundation which helps raise funds to support children and families around the world.  For the Picture Book Project, Rachel, Margaret, and Pixar Producer Karen Dufilho-Rosen collected artwork from 66 animation artists to create a coloring book that will raise funds to support orphaned children cared for various organizations in Africa, Mexico, and Cambodia.

 

Cartoon Brew did a fantastic post about the book and event, which you can find HERE!  And then here are the two pieces that I contributed:

I feel very lucky to have been a part of this.  Congrats Rachel, Margaret & Karen, and have so much fun this weekend!!

Art dump!!

Happy October!  Alright, this post is just a whole random assortment of things. 

The studio is expanding, which means we now have an official ART GALLERY space!  I contributed this to the show (please excuse my poor photography skills):

"Weirdos who Rocked the World"

(4x4 canvases : collage, acrylic, spray paint)

Can you tell who's on there??  I won't make you guess.  It's Chuck Berry, Lucille Ball, Howard Hughes, and the one and only Jim Henson with his pal Kermit.  I had a blast making the stencils and seeing what would happen when I spray painted them.  Thank you all who made suggestions of weirdos!  The show itself was fantastic and really beautiful, so many talented people here.

Coming up so very soon is Halloween, one of my favorite holidays & one that is big here at work.  I made these Save the Dates for our costume competition and kids trick or treat:

 

 

 (Does this look familiar?  Thank you, Children of the Corn!)

Some noodes...

 

Random sketches...

 

I need to draw more noodes & people.  New York is the best for people watching.

And now for some very exciting news...

 

My sister & her husband are having a baby!!!  BUMP WATCH!  Little Biscuit is due in January and we all are over the moon for them.  My sister is my best friend & she has such a wonderful husband, I can't wait to meet their daughter.  They're going to be amazing parents!! 

That's all for now folks.  Happy happy Friday!     

i'm BACK!

AH HA!  What!  How was my last post 4 months ago!  Where have I been.  Well, let me tell you.  I was assigned some really fun & exciting stuff at work which took up a lot of my free time.  And then when I did have free time, it was either spent working on freelance work or commissions or seeing what was left of my social life.  My apologies on the lack of posts though, little blog.  I'm really excited about this upcoming summer, and trying to get in more sketching, museum visits, life drawing & just in general getting down to the nitty gritty.  But enough of that.  Here are some sketches!

(Ceelo & his angry looking white fluffy cat from 'The Voice', girl walking on the street, girl on subway who was wearing a giant hat, and quick sketch of Michelle Williams at the Oscars.  I loved her dress!)