"Some time ago, I gave in to my deepest formalist desires. I wanted to shed any notion of concept or idea and focus only on making shapes I loved. I think alar forms in nature are pretty great, so I wanted to make some of my own. The mythology I tacked on to these is that when P bends reality to his will, sometimes reality itself tears, and the result is these “Foils of Aerok”."I know the word "alar" from doing crosswords. It's a real word, meaning winglike. The idea of stripping something we make of any meaning, leaving only pure form, is, of course, an idea in and of itself, but I find the endeavor not only interesting, but necessary. To me it's about removing the audience from the equation, leaving only a direct line between me and the system that is the universe, some call it God, some, like Patrick Walsh, call it "the Big Up". It's occurred to me only recently that while I have no audience in mind when I make some things, that doesn't mean I can't share it with others - hence this blog!
"another 'wing' form. I did this freehand, but my hand’s movements were interpreted by Adobe Illustrator’s vectorization. Again, you’re looking at a math equation. But what I love is the dialog that happens between me and the software:Illustrator: “Is this what you meant?”Me (smiling): “Haha, yeah, sure!”I’ve discovered that I value less what’s lost in translation than what is found."Some would argue that software's interpretation of things (read: digitization) is "crude" and "soulless". To me, it's simply a matter of trying to say the same thing in a different language. It's like analog audio vinyl vs. digital files for music. BOTH formats exhibit information loss from the original recorded soundwaves, just in different ways. It's like saying English is better than Japanese. They both communicate in their own way, and both languages have aspects that can't transfer properly to the other. Language is fundamentally flawed - but in the best way, because it allows for interpretation. New things happen that weren't there before. what is more beautiful than that?
"These are character design sketches for storyboarding a film my good friend Eileen Brennan is putting together. The designs ultimately weren’t used, but I grew fond of these drawings - firstly, because I whipped them up in an insanely short amount of time (I usually labor for days on a drawing) and secondly, because the style that came out of me was pleasantly new to me, and something I really resonated with. Oh, and if you’re designing a group of friends, you have to do a height comparison."
Facebook friends of mine have noticed a recent surge in my character design hobby, so it seemed appropriate to post this. I'm not great at it, but it sure is fun!
"These are some sketches I did of the main heroine in a game concept I’m working on. I did it to push what I could do with the brush settings in Photoshop, after seeing some amazing character art videos on youtube. (In retrospect, I kind of wish I blew these up more - the textures you can get from Photoshop brushes are pretty great.) There are 3 stages of development, in order, but I find myself actually preferring the middle one. This is the beauty of sketching on a computer: Undo. Undo makes for some truly fearless drawing, and while it’s true that irrevocability forces us to move forward, I’m perfectly happy with cheating that system for now."
The character follows what I call the "Miyazaki girl" mold. Hayao Miyazaki's heroines are always strong-willed, slightly tomboyish, and good-souled. Is it possible to have a crush on an archetype? Oh and now that it's on the web, you CAN blow them up more!
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