Birthday come early.

Well my birthday has come early. I have a tradition that in January I treat myself to something I always wanted. This is my birthday gift to myself. Celebrating me and one more year of life done and the enigma of death looms closer and closer... eeep. All that aside I'm pleasantly happy with the latest Wacom Intuos 4 Medium Tablet. It came with Corel Painter 11 at a fantastic deal that I couldn't let slide by.

So that means I get to experiment with AVP. The last image in this post the Blue fella is a first attempt at the Tablet using the grip pen. Needless to say I got a steep learning curve to climb and quickly. Thankfully this is why I made AVT in order to get better at drawing by using the tools of the trade. I'm almost ready to download Z-brush's month long demo to dive into deep artistic waters.

To everyone visiting a happy holidays. To everyone else not gobbling down PC dong, Merry Christmas. Have a great New Years and see you in 2010.

Kevin164

Update 2 complete.

This has been a long road this project. Started in April of 2008 it was supposed to be a simple 50 panel exercise, but I'm a story teller at heart. So, here we are 200 panels and plus later. I've grown fond of the characters with telling their complete tale. I've listed the chapters left to go and I have the bones and marrow of where I'm going with plot.

I'm getting closer to the third sequence with a two year old, a job, while trying to be a good husband on top of the whole endeavor. So with the update completed I can now move onto the final chapters of the second act, then into the third and final outcome. I made the necessary change to the relationship between Nexus Valor and Gear Break. I've toned down Dead Bolt and KillSwitch since both were too gung-ho. I wanted more solid personalities out my Tankbots. I finally found a name that I liked for the sister of Gun Start and Short Stop. She's had more name changes than Prince. Overall I pleased with the decision on taking the time to go back and fix the Drop Sequence. It was worth the extra work.

Now it's time to get going and finish this project. I'm pushing myself to be finished by November of 2010. Another game conceptual project is looming on the back burner and a children's book for my son is in order. Both are calling me to flush them out. Anyways to anyone visiting I hope your enjoying the story so far.

Kevin164. 11/16/2009

Tweak, Polish, and Beat into a story. Update 2 begins.

Well, I've been dead in the water with the AVT storyboards for the last two months. Why? Because I've been updating all the prior storyboards. Well the first part my statement is a lie. I've been extremely busy on AVT. I practically have the second act finished in Black and White. A few extra filler boards for the action and we are ready to move on to the meat and potatoes of what I think will blow people away when I get planet side in the story.

In fact I think I've over done it. It's a nightmare of sheer volume of work sitting on my hard-drive that I'm going to have to color and finish before I can up load it. Then I decided to UPDATE EVRYTHING!!! What the hell am I thinking?

...and yet... I managed to get the Drop Sequence fixed. I hated that series of boards. When I first started it I really wanted to stop and do something else with the story. It was long and tedious and really didn't serve any purpose. I knew that I needed it to establish the main character. It would tie into the last part of the story about who he was and where he was going. It was important set up for the final act. It looked horrible. I was embarrassed by it. It took forever to finish and I hated it.

Then UPDATE 2 happened and I have made the jump in my art. See if you keep drawing you get better believe it or not. Art is like weight lifting you can only get stronger by doing it every day.

I got better. I can see it in the last few sequences. I'm getting more comfortable with the characters and how I draw them.

Wait till you see the Humans, Aliens, and Jockey Pilots that will populate this story in the third act. I'm biting through the midnight hours to get you all there, and when we go I plan to make it worth the wait.

See you

Kevin164

Nearing the 200 mark on AVT.

I've been terribly busy laying the ground work in the yard for my wife's sod experiment over the last month. Also I've had a change in shifts at work making art for the Storyboards slow to a crawl. Graveyard usually allowed me time to draw from 2:00 am to 5:00, since I am pretty much alone. I now work the evenings... so opportunity to draw has been cut short. I want to keep a professional appearance for my employers especially since I am now a point man dealing with the public during this shift. Time to draw has been nixed, especially at my own home till this bloody backyard is finished.

Basically I am up at 5:30 am digging and pulling vegetation that frankly does not want to be parted from the dirt it has so lovingly infested. This frantic dance between me, a pick axe, and shovel happens till the temperature reaches African-Safari HOT. By then I'm ready to call it a day. I'll crawl inside looking like some poor Virginia coal miner punching his shift card at the mine only to find my son ready for chow and a day's adventure. All I want is a shower and my bed.

So basically I'm screwed for a while when it comes to the blog, Twitter, and my Portfolio work. Sod should be in this next week and I can have this nightmare honey-do list behind me till the next one crops up. I need a road trip to the coast. I need to see the ocean again.

Sigh.

AVT: Rescue and my Movie Theater in the head.

I have a movie theater inside my mind. It's rather nice and extensive. We are talking IMAX meets Carnegie Hall. This place has saved me many times on rather boring days in jobs that I rather not be doing. Mostly yard work. The one thing I have the misfortune of is that I have enough artistic talent to make and impression, but not enough to garner employment. It's frustrating and I find myself working harder to shore up my failings in anatomy and perspective. I know that I can do the job, I just need that "break into the business" start.

The other thing is that I observe movies that I want to see in my imagination very clearly. I mean I'm there and it's a blast! I just can't get it on paper for everyone else. AVT: Rescue is my first attempt at trying to convey what I'm seeing. For me its beyond frustrating, like looking at a third grader's renditions of Monet, while compared to the designs of flashes of metal and life crossing my big screen.

I'm driving my wife crazy trying to finish it. She considers it a waste of time deep down. She loves me enough to placate my obsessions, but we have a toddler now, so having her husband wasting hours into the witching hour and beyond can get old quick. She's an artist as well. A good one, but Princeton killed whatever it is that COMPELLS us to create something. Being a student of the Ivy League of Hard Knocks I have regained some of that compulsion to share again in 2006. The fights between us over this are getting unruly.

So besides my Dad, who I love and haven't called lately. Sorry POP! I hope anyone else who's getting to see this endeavor is enjoying my hard work and sacrifice. Not that Hasbro or 20th Century Fox disapproves or approves all of this, because in short this one of a million fan fictions circulating the Net.

Well, a lot of work happened on the morning of the first this month. Five panels finished and about twelve new scans to mull over in the wings waiting to be flushed out. Should be a good month for art work.

AVT character sheet.

AVT: Rescue Random Panels: part 2

Well, some new panels finally for the storyboard. I have no time anymore with raising an infant. Turns out I'm a pretty comfy couch for babies. Doesn't help with any new art though.\

 I'm finally able to show the Jockey forays by introducing my first panel showing the U-ship from the Alien franchise in action. More to come.

M6 project start.

Another game idea hit me in 2008 ( out of the air when bored.) .  I guess I would describe it as a mash up of GTA4,  Wing Commander,  with Armored Core all thrown in the pot for good measure. I received a mess of notes and sketches scrawled out on the back of an old bill and now I'm transferring the story and paintings into Photoshop & In-Design.

I'm forcing myself not to use any ink and lines this time for the conceptual & environmental drawings,  I can expand a little further while brushing up on my digital paintings. I am working out the bugs. 

This ship was done by using Cs3 and painting it in as a big ugly blotch of green and then refining it into an uglier blotch of black and green. I'm trying my hand at Mechs this way, so the learning curve is steep at the moment. 

Hopefully I can get Z-brush by the end of summer, then I can really get into the design of what's playing out in my imagination by creating the 3d molds saving time while not having to go back to figure out the profile or perspective lines for a mock up sheet.  

1st Landscape in CS3

Well, the color got washed out in the change over to a JPEG. Hmm, well I'll just have to fix it later. So enjoy the pee yellow fortress of doom.  :)

We seem to be having a technical malfunction

Okay it's all back. Whew!

Playing around with color and some filters on Cs3. Not much time lately, especially with any new art. Probably have to update everything from AVT to Gorgon in April.

Mechs and ships.

Well, now I'm dabbling into mechs. God preserve me I'm doomed. Perspective lines and form and function. C'mon left brain do your stuff. This little guy was done with Cs3 using the line tool. 

Then and Now and back again.

I found myself looking at some of my old drawings and designs in despair a couple nights ago. It occurred to me that I'm going to keep pushing myself to get better on painting, conceptual design, and anatomy... that means late nights for..ever. I found a whole bunch of professional artists and their blogs a few nights ago and I came to the conclusion I had better get rolling with the break through if I ever want to turn a pay check in the arts industry.

So I'm breaking out the old drawings and going over them to try my hand at some new tricks. I don't have any USC professor to beat me over the head, so I'll have to do that myself, as I try to figure out the tools and trade tricks of my superior peers. Drat, I'm never giving up.

Gorgon: Galveston Variant

Giant Monsters and Tanks make for a great Sunday afternoon.

Dune: Old Man of the Desert

My version of a very old Sandworm from the planet of Arrakis in the novel Dune by Frank Herbert.

AVT: Rescue random panels

Some panels from AVT: Rescue. These are just very quick sketches with some photoshop thrown onto it for effect for the storyboard process.

A new look for an Old Drawing.

I just got back from Orange County and what a ride that was. Christmas is pretty much a test of family endurance along with the comfort amongst your blood. My Son made out like a bandit this year. The Grandparents lavished him with gifts and then some. So much so, that I had to ferry it all up north on my own carrying it inside our car.

I was of course crushed under the luggage, car seats, and every imaginable choo, choo whistling toy conceivable. It would take an hour to unload the car on my arrival and what looks like days on end getting it all sequestered in the house. 

Somehow I had the energy to get all of it in and completely re-arrange the entire house in order for me to hook up the computer so it was up and running, while plugging my new mistress (my wife is not pleased by this thing)  the X-Box 360  into the TV. 

All of this before collapsing on the couch and realizing I had to go food shopping, if I wanted to eat anything before nightfall and sub zero weather sets in.

It is good to be home. Sadly if I don't find work here soon I'll have to go back to the southland, while my Wife and Son stay in the North in order for me to support them. Times are bleak, but I'm still pretty upbeat about everything. Being without them is going to tear me apart. I don't have to make a lot to support them, so hopefully I can weather through the next two years until the economy can change ( hopefully).

Before I left I scanned in a host of old inked drawings from my portfolios. I would find an old and dark character from 1998 that has surfaced from time to time in my art work called The Silence. His origins are from  a treatment I wrote a while back about a man named Noble, who is in a comatose state due to an operation gone awry. While under he awakes in a weird world of a dream-life and something is hunting him, trying to end his reign as the EGO.

A myraid of alternate personalities manifest to protect him from this malignant force, all the while not trying to destroy the other in order to keep him alive as the EGO. These alternate personas are The Clown, The Bear,  St. George,  Bill Bong,  The Silence,  Saberous and Grinning Jack.  Each is an aspect of his life stemming from a troubled childhood. 

The Silence was a foil to the unmovable super ego St. George,  where these two shared no misgivings and usually ended up being more of a threat to our hero than the thing trying to kill him.

The Silence was heartbreak and the aftermath of what it can do to a person. That cold void in one's chest that can put a gun in their mouth to end it all. He was Noble's despair. 

So I dug him up and gave him some color and whallah...now he's added to my On-line Portfolio. The veins in his arm were easy compared to the rest with a simple paste and bevel to get the 3d look. I wish I had taken some more time on the background but at 1:00 am I was cutting corners and rain takes a while. 

 This is what happens of course when you take a Psychology class and you're a comic book artist/writer at heart.