The Sketchbox...

Beach Cities Volleyball Club - Manhattan Beach, CA.

2009-07-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

Beach Cities Volleyball Club - Manhattan Beach, CA.
Paul June of Barrel O'Monkeyz (www.barrelomonkeyz.com) requested a logo refresh job for a new client of his, a non-profit volleyball training club for kids in the L.A. area.
This is one of the submissions.

I like that the abstraction reminds me of kanji and conveys a clear sense of purposeful activity.

You can see the winner - created by my brother, Rob - at www.beachcitiesvbc.com. We went on to redo their site, too. Fun stuff.

Wild and Crazy Story

2009-01-24T22:52:00.000-08:00

Scene from a book: a landowner happens upon the meat-stripped carcass of his pet dinosaur. The victim of carnivorous tiger-roses, it had been enjoying its own snack - eating a two-legged apple.
We don't need drugs to trip on in Utah.
:)
Bill

New link - Paul Lasaine

2008-11-24T17:56:00.000-08:00

Marcelo Vignali introduced this gent and his work to me via his blog. Paul, thanks for sharing artwork as well as some technical info! I'll be a frequent viewer.

Twilight

2008-11-14T10:51:00.001-08:00

A friend of my wife contacted me with a need to create some artwork for an opening-night event.
The Twilight movie will be released on the 21st of Nov. The shirt was done for a local, midnight party. More info at http://www.twilightmoviepartystgeorge.blogspot.com/

Skull

2008-09-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

Quick concept for a client. Sketched it on charcoal paper, then quickly inked directly over it with a #4 brush. Nice to have a pencil in hand. Tactility is a wonderful thing.

Kayak & Kolob Reservoir

2008-07-31T10:47:00.000-07:00

After a recent trip to CA, I raced home and took my wife to a nearby man-made lake that lies on the northern slopes of Zion National Park. I had hoped for one campsite in particular, and we got it!
Just in time, in fact, to see the surrounding thunderstorms part their gloomy curtains for a polychromatic spectacle of wonders.
I plan on taking the easel next time.

Oarfish

2008-07-16T18:31:00.001-07:00

My uncle recently gave me a 3-man kayak. My friend Joe and I took most of our kids and his wife to an alpine reservoir to try it out. There's an island in the middle of the lake that's large enough to camp on. A cluster of boulders drapes from the shoreline into the water, forming pools and crevices for crawdads to enjoy, and trout carcasses collect there. I'm sure the local gull population loves it.
I didn't have a pole, but we did catch some fish. Hold on to your stomach, if fish skulls disturb you.

Crazy Boy Scouts...I love these guys!

2008-07-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

I'm heading off to camp next week, and our troop needed a Class-B uniform, or in other words, a t-shirt that they could beat the living seams out of, thus keeping their regular uniforms (with all of the regalia) intact.

One scout suggested a new troop name that I thought was hilarious. Technically, they're supposed to come up with the design themselves, but I'm out of time. I banged this design out this evening, and we'll print it up on Monday morning.

Sovereign Amphibian

2008-06-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

Once again, I created the poster art for the LaVerkin Community Theatre (Theater?).
I wanted to do something reminiscent of a childrens' book that conveyed a sense of simplicity and whimsy.

Eagle, Hawk, Falcon

2008-05-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I spent two days at a BSA Camporee. I had the pleasure of grabbing a front-row seat while Master Falconer Martin Tyner presented a Harris Hawk, Prairie Falcon, and Golden Eagle to the group. It was summarily mind-blowing to be within, literally, a few feet of each of these gorgeous animals. The eagle, as you might guess, can generate quite a wind with just a few flaps of its large wings. Strong bird!
I snapped a hundred shots or so and remembered how much I have missed sketching from live models in the last few months. Lucky boy that I am, my sketchbook and pencils were handy.

Pirates, Pizza

2008-04-09T22:41:00.000-07:00

This guy was part of a series of pirate character concepts I developed for a pirate-themed restaurant in St. George, UT. I haven't seen the sign over the door yet, but there is an ad in the phone book, so I suppose I will not be undermining the big reveal, should it ever actually happen.
I was able to design the interior as well as the logo, so I'm looking forward to the big event.

Rumplestiltskin - Theatre Poster

2008-04-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

I had REALLY wanted to illustrate this one, but did not have the time. Thank goodness for digital cameras and image editing tools.

Fair(l)y Rough

2008-04-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

This is a rough I did for a character design last year. I was shooting for a cute, doe-eyed young girl.
Figured I'd lighten up the somber mood from the last two posts.

Fred Harrison - a Great Man, a Great Friend

2008-04-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

Fred passed away over a week ago. He and I were discussing the formation of a creative services agency or consortium during the last two months. We were both excited about it. He had a beautiful portfolio and was at once affable, sensitive to others, brilliant , gentle in demeanor, aggressively creative, and loved living.

Complications that arose months after a valve surgery contributed heavily to his demise. It was sudden and unexpected, as he was relatively young (mid-50's), and a fitness and martial arts buff.
His dear wife let me know the devastating news over week ago. I was unable to attend his funeral, as it had already transpired.

I'm trying to put a benefit auction together for his family, so, if you have any bright ideas, let me know. I'll be putting design/illustration/photo services on the block, as part of a group of creatives in the area.

The post title is a link to his website, where you may download a copy of his portfolio.

Fred, I'll miss you brother. We'll see each other soon enough, but I can wait. Hope you understand. ;)

Charleton Heston

2008-04-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

This is my small tribute to a great artist and a great man.

Sharks Walking Around the Studio

2008-02-28T20:54:00.000-08:00

I had a request to create a character for a local martial arts studio. Among other programs, there is a decently sized group of guys that train in mixed martial arts, or MMA. The owner was looking for an anthropomorphized shark with MMA gloves and some board shorts. I had an enjoyable challenge and was pleased with the direction I had chosen. Here are two sketches that were part of the development process.

(Earlier, I vented about client direction that I disagreed with. I elected to remove that portion of the post, and I'll try to be more positive in the future!)

comp for catalog cover

2008-02-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

I was asked to do some art for a manufacturer's sales catalog cover.
This is one of the initial comps I did.
Creature hand holding a crystal ball...just mind-blowing, I know.
I sketched the hand and ball with a colored pencil, then dropped in color in Photoshop.
The flame in the background is from a photo I shot on a campout. I love being a Scoutmaster and putting campfire photography on the clock!

New links added...

2007-12-19T13:10:00.001-08:00

Wander to the right and you'll find Chad Hardin, Jeff Hein, Stephen Silver, Patrick Morgan, Nathan Fowkes, Paul Hamblin, and Chris Wahl.

Chad and I were roommates for a short time in 1996. We were both recently missionaries for our church and studying with Glen Orbik at California Art Institute in Thousand Oaks. Years later, we were both at Saffire, a game developer, and now Chad's doing some beautiful comic work. Chad has a great storytelling sense and is a great illustrator. Good thing he's doing comics. He kicks butt.

Paul Hamblin is a good friend that I met at Southern Utah University. After 9/11, I decided to go back to school and get a teaching certificate. It didn't take very long for me to decide against the teaching certificate. Paul shared studio space with me for a few months. I hooked him up with his wife, they moved to CA, and now she's putting him through ArtCenter. Been doing some nice work.

I briefly met Jeff Hein at a lecture about a year ago. A couple of weeks later, I was in Salt Lake at a convention and decided to drop by his studio. He's got a few thousand square feet, maybe less, above a Benihana or something. Location, location! In between his broccoli with beef and wasabe, he paints and teaches upstairs. Jeff does some fun stuff.

I don't know the rest of those guys yet, but I certainly enjoy perusing their blogs and websites, and I suspect that you will, also.

I also added Adam Hughes and Glen Orbik to the website links. Adam is well-known, and does the comic convention circuit. Paul Hamblin and I drove to nearby Vegas a few years ago to attend what turned out to be a flop of a Las Vegas Comic-con. It was held on Halloween, was poorly advertised, poorly attended, and gave us a chance to meet a lot of great artists very quickly. Adam, who was uncharacteristically NOT being hounded by an ogling fanbase, was nice enough to answer some technical questions we had. He seemed like a pleasant and engaging fellow, even though he was drawing away on someone's requested sketch the whole time.

Glen Orbik is also well-known, as he is an accomplished and prolific illustrator, as well as one of the finest natural instructors I have ever met. I say that with authority, as he was plagued with me as a student for a couple of years. Some can teach, but suck at art. Others are great artists that are horrible teachers. Glen is the perfect amalgam of the artist/instructor. I may add more later, but for now, divert yourself for an hour or two as you meander the paths of this master craftsman's website. Beautiful work. He shares it with Laurel Blechman, his partner of who knows how many years. Both are very skilled. Have fun!

New Sculpture - Fifth in the series

2007-10-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

I'm a little tired. Momma's even more so.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

2007-09-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

Well, as in the fable, the tortoise defeated the hare. I inked the figure and "shellmet", then I ran it through Streamline. Now Illustrator comes with a feature called Live Trace, which replaced Adobe's stand-alone app. known as Streamline.
I built the bike in Illustrator and left out a lot of details so that the eye would stay on that head after making the rounds.
The background is from a sandstone wall on Gooseberry Mesa, just East of my home in Southern Utah. I torqued the color in Photoshop.
The tortoise seemed to be the best choice since there is a regional tortoise preserve nearby that is well-known among outdoor enthusiasts and couch potatoes alike. It's beautiful country.

Character Sketch

2007-09-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

This is a reject for an initial character-driven logo concept intended for a startup cyclery shop. We ended up going with something a little more aggressive and definitely more masculine. Not a bad initial design, just not as effective for the core demographic the store was/is targeting.

I like the S-rhythms I developed in the character. Had she made it into the final running, I would have developed some more dynamic costuming. You can't have Thumper's triathlete girlfriend competing in shabby spandex.

Alternate Aladdin promo

2007-08-22T18:35:00.001-07:00

New Blog link - Otis Toy Design

2007-08-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

Candy Lavin used to be my CM at Applause. Now she's cracking whips at Otis in L.A. I attended a summer program at Otis just after I graduated from high school. Back then, it was on Wilshire across from MacArthur Park. Originally, the area was very nice, as evidenced by local architecture. It was fun while I was there, but at that point the neighborhood had gone to hell. Several years ago, they made the upgrade and moved a little closer to the ocean.
They pioneered a toy design program, being the first on the West Coast to offer one, and after a cursory review of the student work just now, I have to say I'm very impressed. A couple of friends of mine have taught/are teaching there. They lucked out to land Candy. I'll let you go to the site to find out more.

More Theatre Work - Rub My Lamp, Baby.

2007-08-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

My neighbor, Joe Webb, who is an amateur photographer and pyrotechnician, helped out immensely with the setup. He pulled a canvas backdrop out of his house and draped it between a willow tree and a red sandstone boulder in his front yard at sunset. We brought over a dual 500-watt halogen construction lamp on a tripod to help illuminate the shot of the lamp. Then the fun began!

We did this on the 4th of July. We set up and started snapping shots within about five minutes. I had smoke bombs that were supposed to be for the kids. I think Joe and I qualify well enough for that title...anyway, they were $0.30 off-the-shelf stinkers that served us well. Christy Webb wrote this theatrical adaptation of the tale and had a metal lamp on hand for prop use. We used modeling clay to seal the lamp lid on so the smoke would pour out of the lamp end. I burned my hand with the fuse once or twice - it's like a little flame-thrower, and I had to move quickly to get it in place and get the burn oriented toward the front of the lamp. Then the lid went on and I sprinted back to the camera. Joe manned his own camera and has some phenomenal shots which I intended to use, but didn't get around to putting them on my machine. It turned out that I had some decent shots of my own, anyway.

I also wanted to have a chance to use my tablet and graft a couple of shots together, so I set up a shoot with the actor playing Aladdin's genie. The rag on his head is a tablecloth that was laying around my garage. I put the dual halogens up again for lighting similarity and popped several good ones off. We were telling bad jokes and tried to get the genie to at least LOOK like he was laughing naturally. I found that the tablecloth matched the blueish smoke almost perfectly, and used that to tone the whole face.
In the end, it turned out allright, and the play was pretty good!

New website up - just a placeholder

2007-07-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

My brother and I finally tossed a site together. It's a placeholder, but does the job well enough for now.
www.sketchboxcreative.com