It's been a while...but, I forgive you.

sheesh...I'm such a slacker. Sigh. Sorry people. Not that you care...you heartless bastards!!! Anyway...just been sketching ideas and whatnot for the comic. I've realized that I'm not a comic artist. Apparently I an animator. Huge difference. I don't know anything about laying out a comic or cleaning up a drawing for a comic....hell, I don't know anything about cleaning up a drawing period. I was told in school that my clean up line quality sucks, and that I should never do clean up. Which is fine by me...I just want to animate. I just want to really animate, not clean up mocap or tone down the squash and stretch or take out the character in an animation because it's not "real" enough. I want to animate until the cows come home with the rum and soda, then we all get good and pissed and prank call the kangaroos. anyway...feel free to judge me by the these drawings. I know you do anyway, so, this way, you at least have my permission.

random doodle

from yesterday...not much else going on...just your usual gas pains and whatnot.

character desings

we're doing a compilation comic at work for the next Emerald City Comic Con. I plan on doing a comic version of a short I want to animate. Still don't know if I want to do the short in 3d or 2D. I guess it'll have to do with what software I have available. If I only have 3d, well, then...you know...hehehe...you know...you know, don't you? Sheesh, do I have to spell it out?

Anyway, here's an early version of the characters...still trying to figure out what shapes I want to work with...and the amount of detail. Feel free to let me know what you think...tho, no one's reading this...'cept me of course...which is fine...sniff, sniff...i'm used to the harsh realities of my so called life....anyway...have fun.

my friend is famous!!!

and he mentioned me...he's awesome. go here to read all aboot it... http://drawn.ca/ . Joel Trussell is the man!!!

and now http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ is talking about the man. Plus him and his wife just had a baby last night...a boy to add to their collection. Joshua Trussell....congrats all around. Joel deserves all kinds of happiness and sunshine.

What a funtasticular weekend!!

My friend Joa, whom I haven't seen for, like, ten years, dropped by with his girl this past weekend. We were going to attend the wedding of our friend Simon in Enumclawsalad, but something came up and we weren't able to go to the weddin'. But we did have a good ole' time at chateau de la Huddle. I'll post some photos whence I gets home.

It was really great seeing him. I didn't realize before, but Joa was responsible for quite a few of the positives in my life...the rest were due to Huddle. But, Joa helped define my sense of humor (giggle: that's what I used to call my log jam, Joa called his "personality"), and pointed out that one could actually work in the arts field of art. I think I was planning on being a dentist or maybe a gynecologist or pediatrition or cowboy or something.

He seemed really happy. I'm glad that Shauna goes good with a side of Joa. Wait, that sounded dirty, what I meant was, they are good together.

Anyway, I now plan on seeing him at least a good couple times a year, whether he likes it or not. He lives in the great Canadian north of Canada's Vancouver Island in Canada. It's pretty up there, hey?

As for the lack of drawing, well, I just plain suck. I will have some character designs up for a comic I plan on doing for "Atomic Lead", which is a comic kids at work are putting together for next years Emerald City Comic Com. I'm basically going to storyboard out a short I've wanted to do for a little while...and call it a comic, maybe stick a picture of a naked woman in there for fun and profit.

I love my wife. She smells like cupcakes and bunnies.

Don't forget to vote for my shirts at Threadless dot com. If I get a bunch of really good votes, and win, then they print up my shirt and I get a gift certificate for like 250 to purchase my shirt as well as other shirts that are funny. Funny cool, not funny ha-ha.

Anyway, I digress. Go here http://www.thelonelyisland.com/ . They're funny. The kind of funny that kicks you when your down and then spits in your ocular sockets, and while your on the ground writhing with painful rapture, they take a chainsaw and cut up all your stuffed animals, you know, the ones that you got from all your various ex-girlfriends? Yeah, they're gone. They are that funny.

possible t-shirt designs

It's been a while, sorry folks. Not that anyone's reading this, but hey, I just thought I'd apologize just in case.


Oh, the game I worked on is coming out tomorrow. YAY!! It's been getting excelent reviews. So go buy it. It's called "Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves". I need the royalties...remember people, I'm adopting here.


Anyway, here's what I did today at work, well, right before the liquid lunch. Bart would be sooooo jealous.

one more cowboy...

He's not purdy, but he smells like horse pudu. So, he has that going for him, which is nice.

watch too much gorillaz...

here's a poorly drawn girl...enjoy.

welp...back to woik...

I'm back at work, and it's good....good....goooooood. I'm around people again...sigh...it's amazing how just being in a large room with a bunch of artists inspires me to draw more. When I was at home, all alone, sniff, sniff....it was sorta hard to get focused on what/how to begin drawing. That is why I'm no good at freelance. I feed off of other's brains...great, now I'm a zombie.

Anyway...no art as of yet. I'll scan sumfin in this evening, but in the meantime, if anyone is reading this and knows how, could someone tell me how to make it so when someone clicks on an image on my blog, that that image will open up full size in it's own beautimus pop up window? I've searched blogger and they don't tell you how to do that. And if it's some sort of little code thing that you put in the html stuff, then I'm clueless. If someone could just let me know, that'd be great. I'd be so grateful, that I'd create a shrine in your honor, or at least think of you once or twice the first couple of times I do it.

Uh, yeah....so, uh...in lieu of art, I'll just put a link here. or something...i dunno. uh...yeah....I dig this cat's stuff...I don't know him, but he seems like a "he's a good boy" as my grandmother would say. http://cheeks-74.deviantart.com/gallery/

Enjoy. But not too much...that can cause small lesions in the cornea. Which is bad. And stuff.


bart and ramey on a blurry evening.

Okay...this kinda sucks...

I'm a people person. I miss my co-workers. I'm lonely...I'm all alone here on my week off, and it kinda sucks. Anyway...I am drawing a bit more...but I tend to feed off of other people. I'm a vampire of sorts...but me no likey blood.

here's a cowboy.



and here's a crappy color job to boot.




and here's an idea that I'm working out for our adoption announcement. I guess we'll send it out after we get the referral photo, or maybe when we know when we'll be going to China to pick her up. Anyway...any suggestions would be wonderful.


I'm out. I need to walk to the store.

new pin up...

I'm in the process of getting software to color it (i.e. photoshop) or something similar...i'm not usually big on "colour" as they say in Canada, but i wanna play with it...eh...we'll see....anyway... here's a new pin up for your oogling pleasure.

Be gentle...

yay! I got a new scanner...Unfortunately my drawin' skillz have gone the way of my bowstaff and computer hacking skillz. I've been doing 3D for so long that it takes me a while to get anything decent. I'm going to post these warmup drawrings despite their sucky attitude and lack of polish. Just remember, it's been a while for me. All I've really done over the past year is doodle. I'm going to try to do at least one "finished" sketch a day. I'll prolly miss a couple, but I'm wanting to get back into the swing of being able to feel comfortable with a pencil again.

Anyway...Don't laugh too hard...I'm a sensitive artist, remember.

warm up number one.

horrible warm up number two...

an attempt at a pin-up....still wasn't warmed up enough...maybe by the end of the week I'll have gotten back into the rhythm of things.

I've noticed that I feel way more comfortable in color-erase than I do in 2b. I think that, because of my 2D education, where we used colorerase for pencil tests, that I feel way more comfortable experimenting with my line placement. Anyway...just an observation...

I'm going to continue drawring, or maybe I'll play a game for a little while...then get back to drawing. I'm a little frustrated at the moment. I'm just so stiff and so outta practice. Just gotta get over the hump. Sigh. Anyway...Ciao.

some thinkin on game animation...

okay....I went to school to make cartoons. I gradiated with a bachelor's of media arts in animation, from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, which, if anyone's gone there, you'll know; they teach you to be an independent film maker first, an animator second. They teach you the basics but not much more...they really want you to experiment with the medium which is very good. Having said that, I wish that they would've had more instruction on character design and working within a studio setting, at least for us Amerricuns who are without the NFB's support (read: money) to make a film.

Anyway, after school, I did a stint at a flash animatin' house in Seattle, called Smashing Ideas. I worked on flash cartoons for the interwebnets like Zombie College and whatnot. Then the bubble burst, and I learnded 3D and got into gaming.

The one thing I've really noticed about animation in this industry is that there is none. Well, there's a few exceptions, but not many. Really good animators are rare apparently. Or, they might be there, but can't actually animate anything, like when i was working at Gaspowered Games, and I had to remove any hint of character from the animations.

Why is it that most game companies are afraid of animation? Why do they only want to make realistic games. They don't have to compete with movies. They really don't. There's plenty of realistic games; let the developers actually animated something damnit!! Let them create something with actual characters, acting, and style.

At least where I work, I get to do actual animation. The type of 'mation that got me into the whole animation scene in the first place: character animation. Squash and stretch, acting, blah, blah, blah...hopefully we'll get to do more in the future. Our latest game went gold recently, and we're doing that whole figuring out what our new game will be thing...which is kinda scary....anyhoo...i don't know if any of this meant anything or not...I just think that almost all games lack any sort of real animation. And I wanted to give a brief history on me...and then I wanted to belch the alphabet...which didn't work out that well...I feel sick now....

I wish I could've been born back in the day, and worked at Warner's with some of my favorite directors: Avery, Clampett, Jones. Actually, I really would've liked to work with Avery...he's my hero. I prefer him over Jones or Clampett personally. I like what he did with the whole character awareness of being in a cartoon and stuff...and that "Red Hot Ridinghood" reowwww.

I wish I had a puppy.

I wish that that puppy loved me.

I wish that I would stop typing now.

I'm out.

(one more Trussell for the road)

P.S. I'm prolly getting a scanner this weekend, and I hopefully have next week off, so, I'll do the whole sketch a day thing. Even if I don't get a scanner, I'll still do the sketch a day thing with painter or flash or somefin...then you all can decide if you still want to read my blog or not.

plexi blog...whoot.

Here's the blog of a couple of friends of mine....the good people down at Plexi Pixel. http://www.plexipixel.com/blog/ they do good things for the Seattle area...I just wish I could attend most of them...but I'm too lazy..sigh...

I'm working on that whole scanner thing...so once that straightens itself out, I'll be doing like a sketch a day, or every two days, and people can point and laugh and call me silly names like "master" or "genius"...anyhoo...in the meantime, go to plexipixel's website and check out those kid's stuff...then...check out http://www.memoshouse.com/ . He's good people. Occasionally...giggle. He's a cat I works with...some nice stuff...okay, so he's better than me...sigh...anyhoo...here's some examples.

Anyhoo...more later...i'm back at work and needs to actually work today...next week i'm taking time off, so i'll either have my scanner or do painter or flash drawings and people can swoon over my godlike ability to make them wet themselves with laughter over my lack of skillz.

Peas.

You can post a comment now.

Not that many people are reading this, but the few who do can now actually add a comment.

The wife and I, and by that, I mean, The wife, are starting a quilt for our daughter to be. It's called a 100 Good Wishes Quilt. She's sending out cards to some people, but, I decided to add the info here just to see what would happen, as well as to have an excuse to write more on ye ole' blog of idjitdom.

What is a 100 Good Wishes Quilt you may ask? (if you didn't ask, I'm asking for you)
Well, Traditionally, parents in northern China make a Bai Jia Bei (the quilt) to welcome and celebrate a new life. Friends and family contribute a square of cloth and a wish for the baby. The pieces of cloth are made into a quilt, and the good wishes go into a memory book of sorts. The quilt is said to contain the luck, energy, and the good wishes from all the families and friends who contribute.

So if you want to participate...all you have to do is send pick a 6in by 6in square of 100% cotton, washable fabric of whatever design you choose. Then send card or something with a wish or thought for Esther (that's what we be naming this little bundle of human) and a little scrap of your fabric glued to the card. It could be a drawing, quote, or anything else that strikes your fancy in the painful area. Sign it, and mail it to us.

if you don't want to do the fabric thingie, feel free to send the wish/quote/drawing/photo/video game/money/toy/ect. to us anyway. Please, no underwear. That's just gross. I'm unsure as to post my address or not, as there are wackos out there who might actually send us something evil or semi-evil. I'll discuss with the wife...she makes all the good decisions. In the mean time feel free to email me your "I wanna be send somfin" to geneblakefield@comcast.net . I'll email back the address after a thorough background check and criminal history report, or I'll do eenie minie moe, which everyone knows is an extremely accurate way of determining whether or not someone's intentions are evil or not. Oh, and I'm going to have the wife start working on this in December, after she's done cooking and doing the laundry...and maybe a backrub or two...so please try to have them in by November if you want to add fabric. If you just want to send the wish thingie, you can do that after I guess.

Anyway...today's art is from a good friend of mine, Jason Felix ( http://www.jasonfelix.com/ ). He's newly married to a very lovely saucy woman named Olivia...sigh...she's purdy. Anyway, this cat is super talented, and is one of those people who can keep Multiple plates spinning at the same time. He'll work full time, then go home and do his digital illustration, and in his free time, He'll publish a book. Now he's Mr. Married Pants. Congrats Felix. He makes me feel lazy...sigh....and his wife is purdy.....anyway...I love his digital art. I love his traditional art as well, but the images I chose are the ones that speak to me to most. They say stuff like "clean the bathroom", "you must draw", "want a pickle with that?", or "KILL!!!"...stuff like that. Anyway, enjoy, then go visit his site, and buy stuff...like books and prints and such. While your in the buying mood, go to Shane Whites site and buy stuff from him. Then if you have any extra money left, send it to me...

Untitled #47

okay, time for me to write more...I don't care if you want it or not, I'm giving it to you...so buckle up and put on your diaper.

Some people out there might be curious to know why the wife and I decided to adopt a little girl from China. Or, none of you might be curious, or a couple. Some people might think we've had fertility problems, which is not the case, we're too fertile infact...sorry TMI...

Adopting a little girl from China is something that we've wanted to do since we got married eleven years ago...yeah...I got married young, what of it? My wife wanted to do it even before that. There's just so many girls there, without families, and why add to the populous when there's already a supply? That's why we've only really wanted to adopt from China and nowhere else. Plus, I've always wanted a girl, so this works out great.

uh...so, yeah...we're pretty much just waiting for our referral photo to arrive, so I can put it up on cafe press and everyone can wear an Esther shirt. (that's going to be her name, named after the best grandmother in the world). We have about six/seven months before we get said photo, then, aboot two months after that, we fly to China, hand of the bag full of money, and bring her home. After signing a bunch of paper work and stuff. Then, Huddle and I will be parents. She'll be our daughter...that sounds weird...but cool. Photos of her will be up here as well...so...there.

Anyway, here's some artwork by a friend of mine. He's an excellent painter who does beautiful figure work as well as landscapes. I worked with him for a while, and he helped me land the job I have now, which I still owe him some beers for....thanks Joe.

His site you ask? sheesh, keep your pants on....I'm not done glowing about Joe. Ladies...look out, this stud is single (for now), and excellent artist, and freaking rich!!! anyway...giggle...here's his site... http://kresoja.com/

And here's some of his art. Hope he doesn't mind. All images copywrite Joe Kresoja.

wow, blogging is funtastic!! Not much info for today...Hi mom.


Just wanted to add some more art from someone that I admire. His name is the stupendous Shane White. ( http://www.studiowhite.com/ ).

Take a look at these beauties.

I totally admire someone who can not only do great character work, but can also do landscape/backgrounds, and do them well. It's one of my major weaknesses, I tend to focus on characters/figures.

I'd like to post some of my own artwork for people to snicker at, but, alas, I have no scanner...so I'll just stick with good art from people I know for now....

Nothing new in adoption news...we're just settling in for the long wait. I'll write more on that later, but for now...nuthin' new.

RAWK!!

Hello, trying this again, apparently I deleted the first one....well, that's okay. I'm new...be gentle. Anyway, this blog will be about my wife and my adventures in purchasing a kid, as well as posting art that I do, my friends do, or that I find inspiring.

To start things off, I'll post some art by my friend Joel Trussell. ( http://www.joeltrussell.com/ ) whom I find very inspiring...I love his lines and his buff arms...I mean, uh...Anyway....and let everyone know that Huddle and I have a log in date.

"We have received confirmation that your dossier was logged into the CCAA on August 17, 2005. "

So we have that going for us....which is nice.

Actually I'm super excited, and a little freaked out. I get to be daddy. I've never been a daddy before, so I don't really know what to expect. I know that I'll be in deep deep smitt once they place her in my wife's or my arms....it'll be over for me.

Anyway, more about that later, I just want to start this little blog thing because everyone else is doing it and I want to be cool...plus I know not many people will be reading it, so it can be like those sketchbooks I did when in high school, where I wrote horrible poetry and drew horribly disfigured drawrings cuz I didn't understand proportion and anatomy, or the use of meaningful vocabulary, but I really knew how to make an excellent run-on sentence.

Anyway, enjoy the pics of Joel's beautimus art.