Tucson Comic Con 2012

I had a great time this weekend at the 2012 Tucson Comic Con hanging out with my bro David Rivera! And while I've been to a few comic cons in the past, this was my first time on the vendors side of the table! It was a fantastic chance for me to absorb some of the local art, hang out with talented artists and really get my finger on the pulse of comics today.

I really want to thank every one who came by and purchased items from my table. It was quite an exhilarated feeling seeing people excited to buy my stuff. It was all so surreal actually. Every artist I talked to at the Con was amazing and so incredibly nice. People like Brian Garvey, Andy Carreon, Ben Glendenning and family, Travis Hanson, and Ken from CFN were truly a pleasure to meet and chat with.

I want to especially thank my table-mates, Jason, Autumn and Jared. Jason Worthington is an inker/artist working on the comic Cheerleaders vs Zombies with writer Jared (sorry I don't have his last name). These three were instrumental in explaining the ropes of how to handle a con from the other side of the table. Jason had a ton a helpful hints and marketing ideas I could use based on my current work. Being new to this, I was lucky to be sitting next to these three. I look forward to hanging out with them at the Phoenix Comic Con in May!

Furniture Connextion TV Spot Blow Out Sale

I had two days to put this spot together. It was pretty challenging.

New American Openings Commercial I put together

Fashion Show

This was done pro bono for a charity event, so I only had a limited time to work on it. Took about 4 hrs from start to finish. Longest part was designing the fancy logo.

More Elastek

Here is another piece I worked on.

Where have I been?

I know it's been a while, but I wanted to share some of the work that I've been producing over the past few months. I won't throw everything out there at once (because holy shit, there's a lot), instead I'll gradually release them over time. So without further delay...

Here's a 15 sec spot I did for Elastek. Aired in Tucson about two weeks ago. 

Great News!

I know it seems like I've not kept up with my previous agenda, but some fortunate things have come my way. A week and 1/2 ago I applied for a motion graphics job here in town. Since I have no experience the firm decided to give me a series of tests. After completing them, I received an email stating that I passed and now have a job with Tucci Creative! SWEEEEEEET!

Digital Painting

As I stated a few days ago, I just finished a major revamp of my portfolio site. And in doing so, I've come to realize that my site is sorely lacking when it comes to content. So, in order to rectify that issue, I've planned to do two digital paintings a week, for the next 31 weeks and I'll be using this site to keep myself accountable. That's roughly 8 months and 72 new digital paintings. At that point I plan to apply for jobs in the industry again. I've been spending so much time and energy trying to find work that I forgot the most important thing related to my search... perfecting my craft!

I'll be following a number of tutorials, some purchased (Gnomon) and some free (Feng Zhu's Design Cinema) to round out my technique. Currently my portfolio is lacking in several areas; vehicles, props, environments (indoor and outdoor) and human characters. My two main focuses will be speed and quality. After a few months of this, I'm sure my speed will increase and I'll be able to produce several paintings per week, which I will post here. However, no matter how fast I become, my original goal of at least two paintings a week will remain the same. This will help to keep my stress level down, just in case I can't produce more paintings due to work, life or whatever.

I don't want to create a specific schedule that tells me what to draw on any given day, but I do want to follow some sort of guideline. As I stated above, my portfolio lacks vehicles, props, environments and characters. Coupled with that is the fact that I want to work in either the game, television or motion picture industry. I'll float from topic to topic designing what I want, when I want, for whatever I want. So for example, I'll design props for games one week and human characters for an animated television series the next. Or maybe an environment for a live action movie one day and a few vehicles for a game the next. These designs will have to vary greatly depending on their needs. Lets face it, a 2D television prop will vary greatly from a live action motion picture prop.

Stay tuned.

Portfolio facelift

I finally purchased my domain name and updated my portfolio site which not only looks more professional, but is easier to navigate. I'm working on new content to add and will be posting WIPs in the near future.

Getting Animated... the Finale!

After an entire month of working on my animation for the 11 Second Club’s November 2010 competition I have to say… I’m spent! It was a long month of boundary pushing and self discovery. In the end, it was a valuable lesson in self management. In all, I spent 10 days putting the animation together. That’s everything from character designs and story ideas, to blocking and animation. And as an added bonus/torture, I decided to do the entire animation old school. That’s right, 2D animation!
But not new, cutting age 2D animation using cool programs like Flash or Toonboom! Oh no, I went OLD SCHOOL using paper and shooting my work with a camera. A CAMERA!!! What was I thinking!? Shooting takes forever and trying to align the many uneven animation bond peg holes was a nightmare, not to mention a colossal waste of precious time. In hindsight, I now realize that paper animation is probably not an option I should pursue for future animated pieces. Next time I do something like this, it will be done with a WACOM in a program like Flash or Photoshop.
The competition ended last night and in typical Hollywood bomb-diffusing fashion, I submitted my entry with literally 14 seconds to go. Seriously! Yesterday, of all days, was a day chock full of frustrations and setbacks. After nine days of relative ease, the 10^th and last day of my animation was a bizarre twist of events that I’m sure took a few years off of my life. However, after all was said and done I successfully accomplished the task I set out to achieve. Not even crashing programs, choked renders or unsuccessful uploads could stop me. Let’s face it, any one who knows me knows I’ve never been one to give up when faced with a crisis.
And after pushing myself, again, I can honestly say that this was an incredibly positive experience for me. It was kind of like a crash landing that you live through. What’s that saying “Any landing you can walk away from”? So… what will I take away from this experience? Work faster! Plan better! And export your files at least a week before the end of the competition!
As far as animation goes, my submission is by no means complete, but its done and that’s saying something. So for your viewing pleasure I give you… my animation.


I placed 99th out of 295in the competition.