Christmas at CalArts

 This is my last week in Valencia until next year, I'm looking forward to coming back home and seeing some snow for a change.

To get in the Christmas spirit, a number of us decorated our cubes, from hanging lights and scented pinecones to virtual fireplaces, a lot of us are just looking forward to getting back home and enjoying the holiday. 

Pencil Test

This was a 2D pencil test we did for class. I used a character from years past and redesigned him for the film world.

More Art (2)

This week we had to design wicked female antagonists. This was what I whipped up

 Gag Sequence Vignette

Maquette Monster

For Color and Design this week we were assigned to create a sculpture of one of our characters. This one was made of Sculpey clay supported by an all-metal armature. I whittled the spoon and stained it with watercolor and the rest of the color was acrylic.

48 Hour Film

John and I teamed up to make an animated short for CalArts' 48 hour film tradition. We finished it in just under two days time.

The theme this year was "Cactus"

October

Here's a picture of us from the annual CalArts Halloween Party. I was Wall-E on the left, John as a mime, Jared was Quailman, and Kyler as a zombie lumberjack.

More Work

More Work

Field Trip to the Zoo

 We were assigned to design gorillas this week

Just for the occasion, we took a class field trip to the L.A. Zoo. These are some of the drawings I made while while I was there.

Art Updates

Here are some birds we had to design for Character Design class, I had fun making these...

Below is a storyboard I made for an in-class pitch on Tuesday. We were assigned to board a scene we made up, so I turned it into a little fishing mishap, see if you can tell what's going on...

And I Got a Pen

Last week, Nathan Stanton visited CalArts to talk about the Pixar story team. It was fantastic talking to him about working at Pixar, along with plenty of invaluable story advice for we future film-makers.

Best of all though, he gave us all Pixar promotional pens. John and I don't write with them. Instead we put them in a place of honor above our desks like the picture above. It's a constant reminder of what we should be working towards

Arctic Expedition

For story class, we had to create characters for a pitch for the class. My characters were developed as a forgotten expedition to the North Pole, assumed to end in disaster.

 Major Wick is the fearless leader, plagued with insanity, and his closest companion is a frozen herring named Dima. His crew includes Pook, the silent but friendly Eskimo, Mr. Scwitz an ice-fishing tourist who got more than he bargained for, and Dr. Merriman, the crew's navigator, who was swallowed by a polar bear.

Meeting John Musker

Last Friday we had a presentation by John Musker, one of the Disney directors for Aladdin, Little Mermaid, and Hercules to name a few, he's hidden behind the CalArts animation gang...

Keane Street

The work has just begun here at CalArts, and all of the freshman in character animation have been assigned to our cubicles. Fortunately enough, my friends and I managed to get our "cubes" in the main animation building, in a place called Keane Street, named after the legendary Disney animator Glen Keane.

 The cubicle I'm sharing with John.

 An illustration I managed to make in my free time

 The elephants are part of an assignment for my character design classes, one of the tougher courses faced by the budding CalArts animator.

 

Hoping to stay posted, the workload is starting to pile up

CalArts

Made it to CalArts

Flew in from the Oakland Airport and classes are about to start. The weather has been hot, but even now, the rainy season is starting to come to the high desert. The classes are looking to be helpful, but brutal; some sessions go from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, either drawing or animating. Hopefully, I can keep updated to the current events here at CalArts. The work is about to begin...

Museum Pictures

Some pictures from last winter at the Fort Wayne art museum in town. The band played a gig for one day, and I talked at a lecture about sketchbooks a bit of time later.

Monster-Making with Alex

Here's some illustrations from a drawing session with my ten year old cousin Alex.

  

 I drew the next two, but the difference is barely distinguishable

Alex has a serious eye for this sort of thing, it might just run in the gene pool.

Illustration Issue II

A Mountain Guru; complete with finger cymbals

 Figure Study

 Archimedes' Propeller Skates

Untitled

Illustrations: First Issue

Watercolor and ink for Thought

Early concept drawing for Rise&Shine

 Covarrubias Ink Study