Updates all around...

Hello blogger, my old friend. Boy a lot has changed since I last posted... The biggest being: 

I packed up my car and moved out West, to become a full time student in animation and film! I knew if I wanted to improve as an artist and storyteller, I needed to focus as much time and energy on doing so. I will forever be thankful for my time at Blue Sky, while I was there I learned so much and had such amazing opportunities and mentors! To leave was a very tough decision. 

Below are a few things I worked on for 'Peanuts' marketing. What a great team and experience, this film was incredible and I feel very lucky to have been a small part of it. The amount of artistry and care that went in to making this movie was amazing.

These 'Houndini' keys were for an 'all' detergent commercial. I worked on the above keys, and the callouts below, under the guidance of the wonderful Ric Sluiter, and then also received feedback & got the work signed-off from our fantastic Art Director, Nash Dunnigan. 

Materials color callout for the Beagle Scout's hand-drill!

I loved being able to paint a sandwich. Originally this was used for a character but he unfortunately got cut, and the sandwich instead was thrown in as a gag now and then for the Beagle Scout's.

Above are Halloween color callouts for Lucy's princess hat, Sally's crown and star wand, and a felt bat. These were used for various campaigns which was really neat to see. I've included examples below, the first being the Peanuts Movie Halloween generator, where you could make yourself in to a Peanut with a Halloween costume, and then a Trick-or-Trick ad with the gang for UNICEF.

Last but not least, this will be my final post on this blog as I've moved on over to Tumblr:

http://tiskatiesmith.tumblr.com

Thank you for stopping by! Fare thee well, Blogger. 

Work from Epic!

I just realized… today is my 6 year anniversary at Blue Sky! It's crazy how fast time has flown by. I feel very lucky to have such wonderful & supportive co-workers, and to have been able to work on some really awesome projects. I recently got the thumbs up for posting the work I did on 'Epic', so I'm super excited to share them today of all days.

For 'Epic', I created graphic design work for Bomba's house. I'd like to say a big BIG thank you to Mike Knapp for giving me the opportunity to work on these, to Ang Macias for allowing me to fit these in to my schedule, and to the artists for their ever awesome & fantastic feedback. Also, a huge thank you to Tom Cardone who gave me my first taste of creating graphics for the film, 'Rio'. My favorite thing with the graphics is figuring out ways to make them creative and fun, and to make sure they still match with the language of the film so they blend in to the background & become part of that world. And to include little easter eggs here and there! So without further adieu, here are the graphics. My apologies in advance for being a bit wordy with this post, I'm excited to talk about these!

For the wine labels, I knew I wanted to base them on the jinn moth girls, designed by Robert MacKenzie and Marceline Danousha. The labels are dated 1987, the year Blue Sky was first founded. Something I noticed months later was that the girl in the 'vintage white' label is holding a red wine! Maybe she turns it in to white wine with magic.

I used to put stickers all over my headboard when I was a kid, so this assignment was especially fun- stickers for MK's headboard! Stars and flowers are things I usually doodle all the time. If you were to zoom in on the green butterfly, you'd find a little bit of a surprise...

Fangs! Red eyes! EEEEEVIL!

The MK drawings were meant to go on her walls but were later taken out as her room looked overly messy, and were to look as if they were drawn when she was 6 years old or so. I drew these with crayons and with my right hand (I'm left handed.) It was actually really tough trying to channel a 6 year old, this took a lot of research and many attempts so it wouldn't look like a weirdo adult drew them. I especially liked drawing Ozzy with four legs. You'll see in the film that he lost one leg along the way and only has three when teenaged MK comes home.

I had a blast making the magazines. Please note that I pulled a 'Rio' illustration from Kyle MacNaughton, and the 'Rio' pattern from David Dibble for the back of the Gadzooks! magazine. The inside details how the robot was made by 'Dr Ty Carter' (a designer here at Blue Sky) and the imagery there is pulled from our movie, 'Robots'.  For the back of the Everyday Exploring magazine, that is an image from David Dibble and the front is set design exploration art from Sandeep Menon. I added the text, the shoes ('whose shoes are these?'), the postage/scanning tag, and scruffed it up.

Bomba's Academic Journals! That's Bomba's house inside there in the crest.

Baking soda box. BAKING SODA BOX!

More easter eggs - that's Ronin on the 'RONEY!' sticker that went on MK's backpack. This was also based on a popular sticker that was made years ago here at BSS. For Bomba's mousepad, it's a Wonderbot from 'Robots'. I also had a ton of fun creating the Department schedule, where I looked up certain days during the years 1999 - 2000 to make sure they were correct (re: the winters solstice.) 

And last of all, the labels for the bugs and whatnot. To try and get an authentic feel, I looked up their names in latin & based them on that.

I also had the honor to work on Queen Mab's dress with the fashion designer, Han Feng, and got the chance to meet Beyonce at the voice recording sessions when we presented her the artwork for inspiration! It also was so great to have been able to work closely with Chris Wedge. He is a fantastic Director and made it a point to get to know the people who were working on this film. Thank you again, Team Epic, for such a wonderful time & many great opportunities. This was an experience I will never forget.

Umbrellacorn poster, sticker, & crest designs

So a way's back when, the awesome Stephen P. Neary (check out his tumblr) created the short 'Umbrellacorn' for Blue Sky, and I had the pleasure of helping design the poster! Here's the short's info and a few selections of concept work on the BSS website: Umbrellacorn!

Neary had already sketched up a bunch of ideas of what he wanted and was looking for, so I was able to riff off of those and draw up a bunch of options to see what he might like. He also was looking for crest and sticker ideas, so those are included as well.

I had a blast working on these & getting the opportunity to help with the designs. (Neary, thank you!!)

I'm a raptor, doin' what I can...

Alright who saw Steven Soderbergh's recutting of Raiders of the Lost Ark? Talk about awesome. If you haven't seen it yet, definitely go on & check it out here on his website. I grew up on Star Wars and Indiana Jones (specifically Raiders), so that movie is very near and dear to my heart. I remember the moment I pulled my family's beloved VHS out of the VCR and the film pulled along with it... I was heartbroken. 

Anyway, that exercise from Soderbergh, as well as Emma Coats' drawing from film exercise detailed here on her tumblr (also including Raiders!), inspired me to take the 'Chaos in the Kitchen' sequence from Jurassic Park and map it out. Here's the start:

That part of the movie still gives me chills. I'm looking forward to continuing with this exercise & finishing up this sequence!

Now... to round out this quick post! Some train sketches!

Till we meet again, ye olde blog!

ACH it's 2014

Oh hey!  Hey I'm back!!  Happy 2014!  Boy has time flown by.  This past November marked some really exciting things: I celebrated my 5 year anniversary at work and I went to CTN!  It was my first time going, in general and as an exhibitor, and I shared a table with the illustrious & ever beardy Dan Seddon.  It was an amazing, humbling, inspiring, stressful, but most of all, fun, weekend.  I met so many fantastic people, made new friends, got to see old friends, and saw some artists who's work I've admired so much. 

To top it off, I had picked out a digital camera for my 5 year anniversary work gift, and it arrived just in time for the weekend!  Normally I cart around a disposable kodak camera.  But not this time.  So here are some CTN recap pics, please excuse their blurriness.*  

THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by our table!! 

YODO.

Say hello to Mr. Greg Couch, aka Man About Town.  Aka Badass Production Designer on 'Epic', who gave a fantastic presentation there at CTN. 

Ladies & gents it's the talented Willie Real!!  Amazing artist & all around super nice guy to boot.

AAWH;9##DHD it's KRIS PEARN!!  He is the best, I was so excited to see him.

At one point we had a rave at our table.

LOOT.

Drawing of yours truly from the awesome Ian Abando.     

John Nevarez drew this in basically 5 minutes, I was floored.  He had a swarm of people around his table & he took the time to draw this in the book I bought and to chat a bit.  He did this with everyone, he would make sure each and every person got to talk - whether it be a portfolio review or to answer questions or to just say hello.  Such a great person, it was wonderful to meet him.

*The digital camera broke shortly after CTN.  Twas not meant to be.

Leading up to the whole event, many of my nights were spent doing this...

PAINTING COASTERS.  They were 80's wrestler themed, which was a lot of fun to make.  I found these awesome birch logs online & my dad cut them in to small circles, to which I then painted and glossed using epoxy.  The nights spent doing artwork and singing to myself reminded me of the scene in 'Never Been Kissed', when Josie Geller is at home & puts the finishing touches on her needlepoint pillow, and then shows it to her turtles.

Amongst the coasters, prints, and other random things... I also carved my own stamp, with this being the initial design: 

But sad to say, there was no way I was able to carve that Jackalope.  RIP Mister Jackalope.

Thank you to my family, my friends, and to all who swung by for the encouragement, the feedback, and support!  To the new friends I made at CTN, and the old friends I was lucky to see & catch up with: I cannot wait till we meet again.  Let's boogie.

Right near da beach BOYEEEE

Man do I love the shore.  Spent great time with family, ran on the beach a lot, got to see wonderful family friends, surfed (and fell down) a whole bunch, ate delicious food, hit up all our favorite Sea Isle/Ocean City/Stone Harbor spots, did early AM yoga one day right on the beach to welcome the DAYYY AH!  it was all so nice.  Plus, it was my niece's first time there!  She was so cute and will definitely be a little beach baby - she loved the water! 

Throughout the week I also had a great time sketching (and attempting watercolors)...

We also had an 'Italy Day' where my brother-in-law made an amazing ragu, my sister made homemade pasta, and we all put together a great antipasto spread.  And drank WINE!  And watched the Godfather.  If it had been sunny that day, we would have played bocce.  All very fitting for the Jersey Shore.

Last of all, some sketches from the movie 'Gladiator', it was on the tube our first night at the shore.  You'll also see a couple in there of our slug dog, Linus, who was pooped and fell asleep.

Till next time Sea Isle!!!

Color block + doodle dump

Early AM post!! I had wanted to get these up yesterday but ran out of time. I leave today for the beach (t-45 min actually), and am so excited.  My family and I hit up Sea Isle City every summer for a week, and it's a vacation that I look forward to all year.

But before I go, here are some artstuffs.

This was inspired by Elaine Wu and Tiffany Ford - color block your outfit for the week!

Cafe & Park sketches...

 

Came across these folks larping in the Park, it was awesome.  I felt a bit like a creep sitting there drawing them, but they seemed ok with it.

And then some zoo drawing!  I really liked drawing the piranha's faces.

Now this... I don't know what this is.  Drawing Back to the Future with marker funtime!!

Ok, gotta run.  It's Saturday.  Did you dance?