May Update!

It happened, it finally happened...
After almost two years of teaching freelance for ToonBoom, I've been officially given the job as one of their international software trainers. Essentially, I work both in-house and abroad, teaching individuals, schools, and studios, how to use their various animation applications. I also get to draw, rig, design, and animate, all sorts of art stuff, in-house, for various clients, not to mention constantly meeting new people throughout the animation and art industry, all over the world! So it's pretty exciting, super busy, and a lot of fun!

All this happened though, in the blink of an eye. One minute I'm in Toronto, and the next, I'm in Montreal, literally looking for a place to live the moment my plane touched down in Trudeau airport! I'm still not quite settled in, and there's a 50/50 chance I may be moving again in the fall. Until then, I'm bouncing from place to place, meeting various locals, and getting a lot of walking done in the process, hehe.

I'm hoping once I get my bearings, and something loosely resembling an actual routine, I'll have the chance to do some drawing for myself again (yeah, I know I keep saying stuff like that).

Also, huge shout out to all the fans at this year's Palladium Open House! Wish I could have made it to see everyone, but with everything happening all at once, there was no way for me to make it to down to Michigan. Hopefully, they'll decide to do at least one more in 2014...

Okay, enough talk, here's a zodiac Art Jam pic I drew celebrating all you Taureans out there (myself included).

Ringing in 2012!

2012 has proven to be one heck of roller-coaster of a year so far.

For example, that epic top-secret project I was working on, along with Palladium Books... has been one of the most professionally demanding and creatively rewarding endeavours I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on. For the last four months I worked as a creative director, eating, sleeping, and breathing that project: writing, drawing, researching, planning, meeting... and in mid-February, it came to a crashing halt.

I still can’t go into detail on what the project was or what happened, since the parties involved are still involved. I can say we had the chance to bring something really cool and unique to life, but between a very small window of opportunity, and some unexpected financial risk, we were simply unable to sustain the project. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance to go back and work on this project again in the future, but never say “never” as they say. Hopefully it’ll see the light of day in one form or another.

In the wake of that experience, I’ve been travelling and talking to various studios. I’m currently working with one animation studio from home, and in a week I’ll be flying across the ocean to conduct some animation training for a couple places in Europe. With all this travelling going on, it’s very likely I’ll be moving in the next couple months, though the actual destination hasn’t been decided yet.

This also has me unsure if I’ll be able make it to the Palladium Open House in Michigan (May 4-6, 2012). I had originally hoped to be there to unveil my big project, but now I honestly don’t know where in the world I’ll be at that time.

Admittedly, with everything going on, I've fallen quite behind in my Art Jam drawings, so here’s a couple to make up for it!

Inspired by the development art of Nico Marlet from How to Train  your Dragon.
I wish I had the art book for reference before working on this piece, but it was still a blast to draw!

The theme for this was to draw a super hero or villain  as their opposite gender.
Here's female Shredder of the Ninja Turtles series drawn on my iPhone using Sketchbook Mobile!

End of Year Art Post

Looks like another one of those weeks that turned into a month...

This new top secret project of mine seems to just keep getting bigger and bigger, not to mention taking up almost all of my time. Not that I'm complaining, since I think it'll all be worth it; course I'll let you all be the judge once it's done!

Okay, to make up for lost time, here's a huge art post for you!

The first is a preview of some of my all new interior character art from the Robotech®: New Generation™ Sourcebook, published by Palladium Books and written by Irvin Jackson.

From left to right: Lunk, Annie, and Lancer

Next up, Art Jam pieces! The theme for this was favourite cartoons vs other people's favourite cartoons, and of course my pick was Transformers!

Omega Supreme vs TMNT's Krang

Insecticon Bombshell vs Pokémon's Mewtwo

Bumblebee vs Metabot's Metabee

And last, but not least, here's an art piece I did a few years back as a Christmas card for Palladium Books.

That's it until January.
Here's wishing you a festive holiday season, and all the best in the new year!!

Apollo

Off to Atlanta!

After a whirlwind turn of events, for the next month and a half, I'll be teaching animation just outside the city of Atlanta, Georgia! Unfortunately, that means I'll be missing out on Toronto's TFcon, and Indy's Gen Con. Between teaching, and finishing up the Robotech book cover,  it also means I won't likely have any updates here until September.

That said, I want to leave you with my latest art jam piece. It's a bit of a rush job, but cute, I think. The theme was dinosaur buddies, so I drew dinosaur baby buddies! Awww.

Arcee

Latest art jam theme was a sexy girl and a car. I didn't have time to draw both, so I kinda' cheated, splitting the difference, and instead drew a girl car. More specifically, I drew Arcee from the Transformers first generation animated series!

It's been a while since I've done any kind of vehicle art (Robotech mechs don't count), so it was nice to try out something a little different. Hope you like it!

"I know only two speeds... fast and faster."

Intelligence	Endurance	Speed	Skill	Strength	Courage	Rank	Firepower
8	7	8	10	7	9	8	7

Art Jam Guuurl

New art jam art! Less said about the theme for this piece the better. It's a sexy, half-Asian girl with dark hair, light brown eyes, and just happens to have the same fashion sense as me (albeit, in a dress). Okay, 'nuff said... Here's the picture!

Army Girl

Here's the next art jam piece, the theme being a kick-@$$ army girl with a cool code name. Got the army girl part, but couldn't come up with a code name. Any suggestions?

Mini Inca Warrior

This little piece of artwork was done as part of a private art jam. For those not familiar with art jams, think of music jam sessions, but instead of musicians playing instruments, we have artists creating art.

I’m hoping to participate in some of these jam sessions every couple of weeks, try out some different styles, and most of all get some creative juices going.

To kick-off my contribution to the last week's theme of South America, I present to you my mini Inca warrior!