C. S. Lewis Characters

My friend asked me to draw some characters from The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. It was short notice so I turned these around in about a day, not having time to do any revisions or iterations. Sometimes having a deadline is nice because it forces you to make decisions and stick with them.

I haven't read the book, so I only had the descriptions she gave me to draw from. The first guy is an "oily" man who has a sinister Jiminy Cricket alter-ego kind of lizard that perches on his shoulder and whispers nasty things into his ear. The woman is a noble lady who isn't phased by the cruel commentary of othersThe pairing consists of a tiny man who won't say a word to people, instead letting an actor that he leads around on a chain do all the talking. C. S. Lewis wrote some weird stuff is all I gotta say.

7 Face Shapes

I read this post about different face shapes and thought it would be good practice to draw a character with the 7 different face shapes described. First I drew a bird spirit Final Fantasy-esque looking character. Then I was like, "I draw too many cute kids," and I drew a burly guy. Swords and facial hair are burly, right?

Hospital Beds

The other day I had a serious epiphany while listening to audio books in my car and pining for ice cream (specifically raspberry dark chocolate chunk ice cream). And that epiphany was that I love art. It makes me happy. Simple, I know, but then after that realization was a tidal wave of why-am-I-not-making-art-more-what-am-I-afraid-of-I-gotta-start-setting-goals kind of thoughts.

Anyway, how this relates to the blog is that I've decided to start updating once a week. No exceptions! And dear friends, followers, and random peeps who accidentally stumble upon here, if I fail to update regularly, feel free to send me harsh messages about my inability to commit or how people who don't post art regularly on the internet never get to eat raspberry dark chocolate chunk ice cream.

To start with, here's a sketch (not quite finished... no hands) I've noodled away at off and on for a bit that I think I'm going to leave be. I started it after reading Demo 2 and drooling all over Becky Cloonan's gorgeous art. I particularly liked the last story, which involved a lot of bodily injury and had some really beautifully paneled hospital scenes.

The Shadow Character Lineup

I've been working on a short comic for a group project with some friends from BYU. We're having a show that displays some concept work and comic spreads from the project. The opening reception is this Friday, Dec 7 @ 7:00pm on the second floor of the Harold B. Lee library. I can't be there, but if you're in the area you can drop in to see everyone's art and say hi to the other artists!

Each of us chose a classic story or fairy tale to retell in graphic novel form, with the goal of getting children excited about reading. I chose "The Shadow" by Hans Christian Andersen. His dark fairy tales speak to my sensibilities as a storyteller.

My favorite character to design for the comic was the princess, who only shows up in the last pages of the comic, yet probably has the most costume changes of all the characters.

And the lineup with the princess, scholar, and his shadow in two different phases:

Unlikely Duo

Last weekend I moved to Glendale, CA and I'm starting to really feel settled in to my new place. I haven't had too much time to do art (but I unpacked my art box the other day, so that will change!), so here's a sketch I got around to scanning. I think it shows that I’ve been playing Mass Effect :)

My BFA Project is Complete!

This week I finished and exhibited my senior project at BYU! It's been a year since I started this project, and it's such a relief to be done. The show is up until the end of the month, so if you're in Provo you can check it out at Gallery 303 in the HFAC on campus :)

My project was a series of concept pieces for a theoretical animated film. It's a spooky children's story about some kids who find a book that grants whatever wish they write inside. But of course, the wishes always come true in terrible ways... 

I also included some of the concept work I did next to each piece. Here's a couple of them:

Elementary Education Course

This is the last course I worked on at IS: Writing for Elementary Education Majors.