Hawkrider

Elspeth

I’m reading through Mercedes Lackey’s Mage Winds trilogy at the moment and have the urge to design a few of the characters. Elspeth is the protagonist of the series and goes through quite a transformation, from “The Brat” to eventually being Chosen as a Herald and finally being inducted as an honorary member of the Hawkbrothers.

I just started the third book of the series so I’m sure I’ll have more doodles of her to share. Along with a few of the other characters. :)

It was fun trying to design the white “shoot me now” Herald uniforms… Not sure if I was super successful but it’s a start.

Fashion Doodle

I follow quite a few fashion bloggers and thought it might be fun to draw characters inspired by their adorable outfits. :) Here’s a doodle, heavily inspired by Katie at Skunkboy Blog. I wanted to make her shy and a little slouchy. 

Here’s the original outfit/look reference:

http://www.skunkboyblog.com/2013/01/weekly-wears-shiny-happy.html

Boop

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!

My friend Ashley is the only 23 year old I know who still gets CRAZY EXCITED about her birthday. Here's a little somthin' I whipped up to celebrate. :)

Working: Part I

So now that the year is sort of winding down I thought I'd do a bit of a recap, focusing on a few projects that I feel pretty dang lucky to be a part of the past few months.

BEST ONE TIRES

Credits: Animation - Sean Hall, Brian Thompson (and myself) 

Color - Sue Lakso

Audio - Kent Militzer

Finish - Ryan Wheeler

Agency: Ferguson Advertising

BestOne Tire 25 from CRASH+SUES on Vimeo.

Best One was a blast to do but posed some interesting challenges at the beginning. We had a lot of ground to cover with our little tire guy and only about 20 seconds to do it. In order to avoid just cutting to new locations we created transforming environments. It got us to the next location a lot quicker while adding visual interest to the spot.

Here are some of my early designs and sketches that got thrown into the mix. Sean took lead with the storyboards and shot planning while I dove into designing some of the elements that would make up our landscape. I was also able to take a crack at designing the two human characters that appear at the end of the spot. Brian came in a bit later, balancing the team out nicely with rigging, modeling and lighting. In the end I was able to help with a little bit of everything. It was definitely one of the biggest projects I've worked on and I LEARNED SO MUCH! I was proud that we were able show it off at the Minnesota Electronic Theater this year and I look forward to working on many more potential entries for next year. :)

Christmas Card

My parents ask me every year for a Christmas card they can send out to friends and family. This year I went with a Whoville theme. :)

Uh Oh

A few characters I've been playing around with. They have a unique relationship...

VOTE NO!

Don't limit the freedom to marry!

Crash+Sues Print Ad

A print ad appearing in The Show's 2012 book. A project that fell on my desk super last minute but was pretty fun to work on. Also last minute, I found out I was supposed to work with a horizontal 1/2 page space instead of a vertical 1/4 page space.  

The vertical is definitely the better (and my favorite) of the two so I figured I'd post this one.

Also, I'm no graphic designer. I tend to flail a lot when it comes to layout. Luckily my friend Tou was nice enough to give me a few pointers. Thanks buddy!

Franken-Me

Just gettin' in the Halloween spirit!

Fall Knit List

Trying to work on showing texture through line-work/color. Yay knitting! 

Skyrim - Lessa

Lessa, my vengeful Dunmer out to get the Empire. She gets mixed up with all the wrong crowds before eventually stumbling up to the Companions doorstep.

...My imagination goes crazy when I play this damn game.

Daily Doodles: Round One

              

Daily Doodles. The only requirement, draw something, ANYTHING, once a day. It's the little steps that count right?

Here are some of my favorites from the past few months.

Ready For Fall

Big sweaters and boots! Hurray!

LET'S DRAW!

Trying to make our bi-weekly sketch parties official. Er.. slightly more official.

Ok, fiiiiiine. I just wanted to make a poster.

An Update

Just the latest work.

I've updated the colors on Nike. It never really had the edge I wanted in the earlier version.

My family's dog recently passed away. She was young and my mom was especially heartbroken. Here's a picture I made for them. It also ended up in the AiMN Media Arts gallery show. My first ever gallery entry. I can't wait to try more!

Lin

Lets all just take a moment to appreciate how rare of a character Lin Bei Fong is. You don't see too many 50-year-old women kicking ass like she does in cartoons these days, well... pretty much EVER. I absolutely love how 'outside the norm' the Avatar series is. I'm looking forward to the season finale next weekend!

Peach Dress

What I wore the other day. 

Pokin' A Fish

Here are the characters I'm working on for a short film. I want to tell a story about a little girl and her dad. I want it to be lighthearted, fun and relate-able. Right now I'm playing around with the whole line-less look, trying to push contrast in size and shape. Not quite sure if I want to go the full animation route or something more limited. 

I'm lucky enough to have a really amazing dad, who gave me quite a scare last year when he was diagnosed with cancer. Luckily, we caught it early and were able to get rid of it before things got worse. But holy damn was it scary. I'm so glad everything turned out ok! I love my dad! :)