Union Square

Professor Thoms, NYC

Bill

Yesterday I caught news that Pacific Northwest artist, and arguably the best teacher back at the Art Institute of Seattle, William Cumming passed away at the age of 93.  This is how I remember him ; he was constantly in his sketchbook and he loved working with young people!  I'd stay after class and he'd share his enthusiasm for Degas, Turner, Renoir with me.  He'd always mention that he wanted his students to build the confidence to someday have their work hang right alongside those masters.

Find out more about Bill's life and work here!

"Fine art is a war, I hate fine art with all its fuss and crap. Fine art students are brought up in a spirit of contempt for people. Of course I paint for the market. So did Rembrandt. So did Titian. It's high time we quit compartmentalizing art, and leave graduating students thinking they need a grant to make a living."

St. Marks, East Village NYC

Made it down to the East Village after an epic 3-day birthday celebration.
Love the hair!

Also,  Bobby Chiu contacted me a while back to contribute to the http://artistsketchbooks.com/ collection.  So look out for my app hopefully sometime soon.

Also Also,  I decided to put up a bunch of Design stuff I've done onto a separate blog site.  It's a bit sparse and very much a work in progress, but do check it out if you're keen 

HERE!

Feedback is always welcome.

Happy Birthday Momma Pontillas!

Yesterday was the birthday of one the most adorable people in the world.  My mom is a single parent and I'm a single child, so growing up we just had each other.  I made the cross-country trip from Seattle to NY with her a year ago today.  She checks this blog every day for updates, leaving supportive comments but they never go through :)

She loves loves loves Filipino folk dancing and was always dancing around the house, but generally is too shy to do it in public.  It is the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Happy Birthday Mom!  I love you!

Florence & the Machine, Terminal 5 NYC

SoHo, Broadway & Prince St

Coolest cat in the city.

Harlem 125th Street

I met her last Sunday morning, We took the same train back up to White Plains from Harlem.  She's an avid film lover, and her favorite nostalgic of all time is the Empire Strikes Back.

125th street.  This is the train station most Blue Sky peeps from the city take to work in Greenwich, CT.

27th St & 6th Ave, NYC

At the window, texting and waiting.  The second time we passed, whomever she was texting had arrived and they looked like they were fighting.

Ratatat, Terminal 5

Ratatat- Bob Ghandi

The Temper Trap, Terminal 5

The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition

Grizzly Bear, Governor's Island NYC

Grizzly Bear- Two Weeks

The Cure

Probably what she's listening to.  

I couldn't sleep this morning so I woke up and drew.  One of my best friends here, Joe Lee and I are working on a book w/ art based on people & places in New York.  Crunching on this movie, I've been slackin' big time but he's been doing some absolutely killer stuff! Do yourself a favor and check out his Work ! Ironically enough, Joe had never heard of the Cure before this year.  Whaaaaat. Oh those crazy Aussies!

Rio Animation Crew Shirt!

I recently did this design that luckily got picked for our animation dept. crew shirt for the movie I'm working on, Rio!

Here are a few other designs I did that didn't make the cut!

Sweet!  Okay back to work!

New Music

Just a simple sketch I did tonight for an Art Blog that Garrett and some of the other animators at Blue Sky started this week! This week's theme was braaand new.

The Conductor

The Getaway Guy, and he wields a big shovel.

Done for the current topic over at the Draw Force blog!

Schoolism: Fleshing out Prof. Jetsam Khandro

Stephen's Schoolism class ended last week, but I wanted to continue fleshing out Prof. Jetsam Khandro for our Dr. Jekyll /Mr. Hyde assignments.

The Makalu & Prof. Jetsam Khandro

(Hyde & Jekyll, respectively.)

Easter Sunday

Schoolism: Assignment #9

 For the last assignment we were to redraw Jerry Loomy, the character we first did in lesson one, cleaned up and colored. Also place the first one we did from lesson one next to it. 

  
My reference:

Pete's dragon

Schoolism: Assignment #7, Expressions and Attitude

Yu-Na Kim

Double McTwist

 

Anyone else getting Olympics withdrawals?  More to come.

Schoolism: Assignment #6, Fleshing out "The Makalu" / Turnarounds

 

Stephen's Drawovers

 

Night Shift

 Tonight Cheryl and I were talking on Skype.  She works the night shift and had to get some zzz's but she wanted to stay on.  She finally crashed, so I sketched her sleeping.  

Hopefully that doesn't sound creepy.

Valentine's

Schoolism: Assignment #4, The Features

This week's Schoolism lecture was on features. The assignment was to draw a page of hands,eyes,noses,ears. A few realistic and a few cartoony.  Here is a page I did of hands.  Some of these are okay, most are way off.  Hands are always some of the weakest parts of my drawings, and I need all the practice I could get. 

Case in point.  Here's a sketch I did for the Draw Force blog some of the artists here at work run.  Ironically missing any sorts of hands!

AM Newsletter

Here's a little bit of a interview/post-mortem of the making of my Animation Mentor film, Better off Undead!  Thanks for showcasing it AM!

 I remember trying to get this film done last year, in time for Valentine's Day, and I didn't even come close!  So it's cool this was posted now.  It's funny to read this interview and scroll back just a few posts in the past and read how frustrated and disheartened I was going through it at first.  Melodramatic much?  But what's really cool is reading and remembering how many people, both good friends and strangers, offered to help me out.  I would get messages from people asking if I needed any modeling, animation, lighting help.   That was so awesome and I'm super grateful! 

As an aside, a little after I finished Animation Mentor, I posted it on CG Talk, and I was contacted by a talented artist named Jason Walker who said he wanted to do the environments for my short!  We went back and forth a little bit but he eventually got too busy with school, and I eventually moved out here.  But he did send me these initial lighting tests and I was already blown away!

Ceej

 

Missing home.  

Happy Valentines Day!

Schoolism: Assignment #3, Fleshing out Prof. Jetsam Khandro