Monday, March 7, 2016

Sweet Beat-Downs


I'm not that much of a technical artist, though I've always been attracted to technically challenging stuff. Ultimately, technical brilliance is just not "me." I'm a 5' 8' guy who wants to be an NBA center.

In every project I do, I come to a point where I give up my fantasy of making something technically brilliant and embrace my own awkwardness in the name of "honesty" or some crap like that. I think I'm drawn to technically challenging projects because they distract me from the horror of creative freedom and inspiration.

I think fear of the randomness of inspiration is why pop music folks eventually go insane. You can write the best song of your life in 15 minutes when the muse decides to visit... but what the hell do you do with the next 15 years of down-time? The technical challenges give me a steady "day job" that keeps me boring and preoccupied.

So, I've re-worked the scale in this model. The size relationships between the various pieces were all wonky-- the building was/is too small, curb/sidewalk too big... now, it's... kinda fixed. Sigh. I also, lowered the camera to simulate a first-person view. At this point, the camera angle really emphasizes the flatness of the building model too much... Whoops. The building the model is based on is super flat, (as are most of the buildings in Springfield, OR), so I'm toying with the idea of giving it a big thick roof with eaves, as seen in the drawing in a previous post below. The point being to create a chunkier, juicier 3D experience and this means leaving the source material behind-- ooh!

Finally, this image is a quick render - no compositing, ambient occlusion, color correction yet... and the lighting is still the generic basic sky/sun set up. Hey, it's all "in progress,"folks. I ain't fakin' it.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

The Road, minus Viggo, Cormac

Re-working the road for the Jack's Auto scene. Amazing. It's a gripping narrative, I know.

Monday, February 15, 2016

Isometric, initially


We'll see if this goes anywhere; here's a first stab at an isometric view of a concept that began with my Springfield photos. I did some initial modeling based on a quick down and dirty approach centered around my source photos. When I looked at the initial results and compared them to finished work by other artists, I felt I was missing a depth/juiciness - the sense of place was tepid... It all needed exaggerating. 


It's still as challenging as ever to try new approaches - I'm always fighting off my disappointment that I'm not staring at an amazing finished drawing when I'm two minutes into the process... 

So maybe impulse/inspiration is the youthful, wildness, and process is the grownup reality concession - gots to somehow keep them both alive and well... It's living with paradox, I suppose - Keeping the easy answers at bay, all while living in the arid horror of global mecha-capitalism... Chortle.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

From the 1989 NBA Finals

From a letter to Nick Oredson in 1989...

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Friggin' February


Something for everyone!

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Going back in time...

Storyboards from the olden days - pre-lapsarian... Hmm. Drawing? Time to rediscover some discipline? Not like Foucault... just, you know, like sitting down and getting into it. Well, maybe that is like Foucault...

Miles' Storyboards for Francisco Pulpo's Scincinnati circa... 1995!

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Ad-vert-is-ments

Check out this exciting new line of products...

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Friday, January 22, 2016

Drawing and Queesin'

Well, another week down, and look at the greatness... 

Momentum would be nice, but in its absence, I continue to putter - clinging on to the ghost of possibility... Oooh, spooky! #DramaQueen.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Sundaiee - Week One - The week that was...



 Okay, so I'll do one post per week. I can handle that much, right? So, what the hell am I doing again?

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Not to worry...

... it's still going on. The creative funnel cloud. The snow storm. The watchfulness.


I did lose my fucking pencil, by the way. Irritating. Seems so dumb to buy a new one, but maybe it will lead to a Joycean adventure. Yup. Probably will.

UPDATE: I found my pencil this morning. It was in a book... on writing... Note to self, etc.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Springfield


It's NOT post-apocalyptic or anything... Nope. No.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

I'm Fury-ous...

From la dernier anee... oneself as Nick Fury...

En quatre couleurs...

Sunday, November 22, 2015

What's a pencil?

I'm feeling like there should always be an original... so, I'll start with a pencil... whatever comes next, I can't be held accountable for. Seems like in the olden days, I was always beating myself up about not drawing well enough. That was not very constructive. No. Pretty dumb, really. I think I was afraid of what would happen if I gave up the futility of "doing it right," (cf Daft Punk, c 2013). It bears repeating. Pretty dumb, really. I regret much. I think I've kinda failed because I was too cowardly to "just be me." Like the successful people in the bank ads always are... Like the people who really had the talent, like the people who had really figured it all out.



Tuesday, November 17, 2015