Winter Break

I hope everyone had a happy holiday!   Here are a few pages from my sketchbook, and a very large(3x5 ft) figure painting, done with oils on canvas. 

 

Done with modeling!

Although I fought with Maya and Z-brush all semester, I finally finished my zombie model.   The assignment was to create a zombie self-portrait for the game Left 4 Dead 2.   I used a screen capture to create the backdrop for my glory shot, and the modeling/texturing/lighting was done by myself  (with the help of Jared Mills and Michael Wu of course)  

Heres a screenshot of my zombie in the game, Im actually a little proud of this one.

Visual Journalism

Here is another illustration I did for Barron Storey's conceptual illustration class.  The assignment was to do an on location sketch, and enhance it to create a final illustration.   We were asked to focus on comparative imagery that would resonate in our picture, which would allow for a more thought provoking, and compelling image.  

I didn't quite hit the mark on this one, but it was a great learning experience.  

Peter Rabbit

Here is a little project I did over the weekend.  Because of the time frame I gave myself, I wanted to focus more or the environment and props, but I couldn't help but do a few character sketches of the rabbit.

Experimenting

Something a little different.  Heres another piece for Barron Storey's conceptual illustration class.  I applied some of the techniques Barron taught us to my particular style, and came up with this illustration.

9 hour work day

I sat down today and forced myself to work on Vis Dev.  These are mostly revisions from a past assignment, so the only new pieces are the designs for the dragon, painted poses for the tall green dude, and transformation sequence.  The last piece was from a thumbnail that I did when the project was still fresh, I just dropped in my new designs and adjusted the colors a bit. 

Here is some of the work I did in a 9 hour work session.  

I am probably going to revisit the dragon design... after uploading it im starting to think he looks like a digi-mon with a mullet. 

002

Heres a quick 1 hour paint, from an old black and white photograph I found on Pinterest.   It was interesting trying to paint a black and white image into color, but i learned a lot.

After doing some research, I found out that this is a picture of Titanic Survivor, Molly Brown.   pretty interesting, I guess you learn something new everyday. 

Speed Paint 001

Going to try and do one speed painting a day, heres a quick environment I painted from a photograph.  Whenever I paint from photographs I try and push the shapes, color, and mood to get a better overall design.

Happy Halloween

Frogs

Here are some preliminary sketches I've done of a frog.  This is part of the Wishing Well project that I posted a few days ago, he is supposed to be a magical frog that lives in the Well.  I still need to push my shapes and develop the characters personality... and Im going to redesign the well to better fit this character. 

Crew Of You

    Im currently taking a class with the amazing Barron Storey; and if you don't know who he is, you should definetly look him up.  He teaches conceptual illustration here at San Jose State, and we are finishing up our second assignment.  Barron asked us to design six characters based on our personality, a set that these characters live in, and a final image describing a scene in our story. 

Long Time no Post

Hey guys, 

I haven't posted for the longest time.  This past summer I've been busy working on a short film with my friends Jason Marino, and Craig Kitzmann.   Progress on the film has slowed down since the semester has started, but i've been keeping myself busy by taking on extra projects and revising old ones.  

Here are a couple pages of the work i've done this semester.  Since Im not currently enrolled in a visual development class, Im taking on the BFA assignments as best as I can. 

Im also taking a figure painting class this semester.  Its my first time using oils, but i've already noticed the oil painting skills translating to my digital work. 

Figure Drawing

10 mins.

Rule of names

Here are some more ideation for the current assignment Im working on, Ursula Le Guin's Rule of Names.  I would still consider these drawings early explorations, but hopefully I can get some more finished paint soon.

Bear Drawings

Here are some bear studies I've done.  Just a little something to keep my blog up to date.

Finally put together an online portfolio!  Here is a link WENDELLS PORTFOLIO

New Project

Here are some early development work for a new assignment in my visual development class.  The environment thumbnails were done using a technique similar to what Scott Robertson does in his Gnomon video, Creating Unique Environment.   I wanted to explore different ways to approach design, and this method helped me find shapes that I wouldn't have normally thought of.

James and the Giant Peach

In my advance visual development class, We were given an assignment to design a character for an existing animated film.  I chose to design the King of the cloud men for the movie James and the Giant Peach.  In the original novel James and his friends encounter cloud men.  They are described as ghostly creatures who control the weather. 

Here is another master copy.  I really enjoy Zorns ability to simultaneously indicate detail, and simplify forms with his brushwork , which is what I wanted to focus on for this study. 

Mastercopies

Here are a couple digital mastercopies I've done this week. The first is a John Singer Sargent study which took about 4 hours. While I was painting this I realized how much these master painters kick my ass. I plan to go back to this piece later in the week, and spend some time to really study how Sargent applys paint to canvas. The second is a Dean Cornwell piece that only took about half an hour. I liked the painterly feel, so i wanted to time myself to see if I could pull something like thiss off. The originals are on the left, and my copies are on the right.

Cameron Chun's Color Workshop

Im currently taking a 4 week color workshop with Cameron Chun, one of the animation/illustration professors at SJSU. We spent the first session focusing on local color, and the second session was spent on the figure. Here is an update for the first half of the workshop.

And here is a 20 minute painting of my friend Aaron Soon, working on his Green Ninja scene.

Moebius Tribute

Jean "Moebius" Giraud, a famous comic artist that has helped design many films, passed away today; the same day that our advance visual development class finished our first project. Our assignment was to design an environment based from the movie The Fifth Element, one of the films that Moebius helped design. Its a weird coincidence that our project was due the same day that this artist died, so in a way, this painting is a tribute to Mr. Jean Giraud.

I chose to design a taxi auto body shop. First some sketches, and a rough isometric view so I can better understand the space and style of my design.

Once I understand my environment, I can begin with small thumbnail studies. After I have established the big shapes of my composition, I mock up a rough line drawing and begin painting it in black and white.

When I am happy with my values, I start glazing colors over my piece using several types of layer blending modes.

also.. I was bored in class and did another speed painting from one of Dr Suess's books. I don't really like painting sci-fi realistic stuff... So this was a fun break from my assignment.

Random

Random painting I did in class while thomas was going over work. Started out as a painting of this guy in class but somehow the painting got away from me and went somewhere completely else...