Nelson Hernandez - Art Blog

2011-07-11T12:52:00.000-07:00

One A Day : 30 days FAIL.

fell off the horse for this last month. hit 14 or 30. part of being a little lost artistically. want to do something, but not sure what as I gear up to a life post sjsu...

2011-06-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

1 a day / 30 days : month 2

I made it to day 60 of consecutive speed paints. Would be nice if it was double that number, but just hitting the goal was what I was aiming for. I think it is now in my system. This batch I started out stylizing the paintings more. Pretty much after that, my goal was figuring out how to simplify stuff without noodling. After a while, I realized that I need more challenging subject matter and not just what I wanted to use as reference. My next goal is to do 30 days of imagination speed paints. That will be my next goal....

2011-05-20T15:04:00.000-07:00

Speed Paint : One Month Difference

What a difference a month makes. This is a speed paint I did twice. The left is a month ago (45 mins). The right I did today (30 mins). I'm happy to see improvement. I have been doing at least one a day. I'm on day 42!

2011-05-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

Visceral Games Test : DEAD SPACE World

This is some old artwork I found from earlier this past semester. I was recruited to do an art test for Visceral Games (EA), makers of Dead Space and some others. I was asked to create an environment piece in the style of the game. This was my pass. It was fun, sooo different from what I normally do. I didn't get the job...

2011-05-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

Calvino Continued.... (development)
Color Script..? (first attempt)

Wheelbarrow...

Moment 03 Ideation & Thumbs

Moment 04 (& 05?) Ideation & Thumbs

What I'm going to squeeze out before the end of the semester. 2 weeks left...

2011-05-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

1 a day / 30 days

Here are 30 speed paints done in 30 days (45 minutes or less). My new habit and hopefully addiction that won't get derailed. Its easy to say you're gonna do this and then quit. Artist Goro Fujita came by SJSU and recommended doing this saying it wasn't easy, but so helpful to him. I don't see much of a leap, but I did get faster. We'll see how month 2 goes. For now... here's my first 30.

2011-04-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

BFA GALLERY
Animation/Illustration 2011 Graduating Class Show

May 03 is the opening night of the BFA Graduating Class end of the year Show. I repeated the BFA seminar as part of my Graduate studies and will be featured in this show. A lot of hard work was done by all the students featured in the show. Please come by and visit.

Opening Reception:
Date: May 03 2011
Time: 6PM
Location: SJSU Art Building
Room: 224

2011-04-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

Italo Calvino - "The Enchanted Garden"
W.I.P.s....
Environment Compositions

Trees Style Guide

Plants & Flowers

Environments Comps
Entering the Enchanted Garden
View of Villa from Garden

Comps: Hedge Entrance to Garden

Thumbs to Comps

Villa Comps

Posting for posterity... Need something new on here also posting it allows me to see with fresh eyes for the next day. Some of these are a real mess... Need to clarify. Everything due this Friday :D

2011-03-14T17:46:00.001-07:00

ZEITOUN Design Assets
Story Moment

Visual Development project
based on book ZEITOUN
by Dave Eggers

2011-03-05T14:50:00.000-08:00

In the meantime...

fig painting sessions... only once a month at SJSU, but I will take what I can get... switched to oils this semester, and am "working it out." heh

2011-02-05T15:23:00.000-08:00

Zeitoun Story Moment Thumbs (In Progress..)

This blog needs more love...
Lets try this again... Final semester at SJSU yay! Finishing up my masters in the Animation/Illustration seminar. This is a small batch of story moment thumbs to get loosened up for our project based on Dave Eggers book, Zeitoun.

2011-01-21T17:25:00.000-08:00

Revisions: Exploratory Work for Jorinda & Joringle redux

color elevations

color isometrics

details

doors & foot bridges

Hey. New work that I did this week. I'm revisiting an earlier project and started with some color & design explorations. Next pass will be to texture & light these. Just felt I needed to post something again...

2010-12-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

BFA - Collabo...

This was a background I provided for my classmate Kathleen O'Brien for her final animation project. It was a quick turnaround because her other collaborators fell through. It was fun to get back into the mix and really like working with others, especially when they are pleased.
The Top image is the background I did. Below is a shot of the animation profided by Kathleen... I think she still intends to get the lighting to match the background just right...

2010-10-05T11:44:00.000-07:00

New Artz: BOARD TRACK RACING
Project 01 for MA/BFA Fall 2010

Explorations...

2010-07-26T00:21:00.001-07:00

FOR HiJiNX

So... I entered this drawing for HiJinX Comics brand new Art Contest. The contest was draw your favorite super hero just pen/pencil on paper. I got it in under the wire, kinda waited till the last minute, and yes I realize the perspective, anatomy, & crotch problems... (I also like the energy of the thumbnail version better) But Robin (Dick Grayson version) is really my favorite character. He's the one I grew up with, the one I grew up loving and wanting to be. Anyhow, this is it. I was happy a) to get it done & b) just entering the art contest. All good fun!

UPDATE: Apparently, I won the contest. Not a lot of fanfare, not that I needed it. :D I got $25 of free new comics so that was pretty sweet. Thank you Dan from HiJinx Comics

2010-07-07T17:21:00.000-07:00

KINGDOMS OF CAMELOT: Marketing Art
Property of Kabam! (formerly Watercooler Games)

These small illustrations are marketing art for the Facebook Game "Kingdoms of Camelot." I got a cool little gig at the beginning of Summer/End of School Year creating work for Kabam! (formerly Watercooler Games). Each week I'm contracted to create 10 original ads (shown actual size) as advertisements for the game. These usually go along the side when you look at your FB page. Maybe/Hopefully you've seen one and it compelled you to play the game. Iits interesting to find out which ones were effective and which really... really weren't. I'm surprised each time.

Big Props to my last semester's teach Ariel for helping us out with the gig!

2010-05-10T22:27:00.000-07:00

"THE MAN UPSTAIRS" by Ray Bradbury
Character Concepts

Room Schematic

Story Moment

Moment Thumbnails...

These are for our last Adv. Illustration project. Concepts based on short story by Mr. Ray Bradbury. I wanted to try my hand at "horror." Characters and Story Moment from "The Man Upstairs.

2010-04-13T15:44:00.000-07:00

Final: Moment Piece
Exterior Moment

Interior Moment

Planning two Moment Piece Illustrations. One for Exterior & one for Interior. I've narrowed it down to some 'beat boards.' These are the final ones in the running for each environment/story moment.

2010-04-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

Moment Piece Thumbs:
(I Heart Color..).

Using Exterior Environment:

Using Interior Environment:

Final Phase of Project 01... Thumbnails for Moment Piece. Playing with color & composition shots for final piece. Did a batch for each of my environments exterior/interior. Will most likely work with a composition using the exterior, so that I can include all the characters.

2010-03-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Environment (Interior): Smuggler's Pitstop Hideout
Environment Color Render

Color Comps...

Grayscale Pre-Color Render...

Thumbnails...

Latest Work/Current Project. Still not satisfied with finished interior, not fully resolved but this was the final I turned in. Will continue to paint it out and give it more life/age... I like the mood.

2010-03-12T19:06:00.001-08:00

Post-Catastrophe: In The Big City
Environment Color Render

Color Comps

Grayscale Pre-Color Render

Thumbnails

Setting for conflict between main characters. Where the Pontiff holds his masses & "business."

2010-03-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

The End of the World: Character Dev
Characters: Final

Initial Thumbnails

Grayscale Finals

Color Comps

Character Development for current project following a global catastrophe... for Ariel Alvarez' 117 Adv. Fun Project so far... These are Final Character designs (still needs a few tweaks) and development: Initial Thumbnail Sketches, Grayscale Final Designs, and Color Comps.

2010-02-07T15:33:00.000-08:00

ROBERT HUNT Portrait Painting Workshop (03/05-03/07)
Oil Paintings

Day 03: Natasha

Day 02:

Day 01: Rachel

Start/Finish

I had the pleasure of working under Robert Hunt for his first portrait painting workshop in Oakland, Cali. Beyond being an awesome artist/illustrator he's a gentleman, scholar, and a real hoot. A wonderful experience working with him and at the studio. Hope to visit again. Robert also took professional shots of our work. These were all painted with oils.

2010-01-19T00:23:00.000-08:00

BERGERON LIVING ROOM: COLOR
From HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut
Color Final

Color Comps

Grayscale

2009-12-30T19:10:00.000-08:00

Random Art Thread

No. 05: Wade Thompson

No. 04: LabVantage Solutions

No. 03: Virginia City Historic Distric

No. 02: Tosh Askew

No. 01: Mr. Tissue

Work Inspired by Wikipedia Random Article Feature

Quickie Art: in order to remain warmed up and get creative ideas flowing. This is little exercise of making an illustration based on topic chosen at random. I use the Wikipedia random article button and try to illustrate something based on the subject that comes up. No real rules just that I have to do it. Hopefully there will be some fun stuff that comes out of this.

One of the things I've discovered that I'm learning is about process. I tend to start a new project differently everytime, so I'm trying to remedy that because I feel like I waste time. These little projects I've assigned myself have taught me a lot about that. Hope to finish these off quickly and then move on to next gig.

2009-11-13T15:26:00.000-08:00

Group Project : The BFG
(Big Friendly Giant)

Works - From top to bottom:
Moment Piece: Sophie meets the B.F.G.
The BFG.'s Workshop w/ Dream Chamber
Dream Jars, Dream Stone Grinder, & Stove
Characters: Mr. Tibbs & The Queen
The Footmen

For Final Project in Viz Dev on Roald Dahl's The BFG. This final project was a group project where each of us was assigned a spefic moment piece, environment, and characters. This is some of my finished Development work for the project. It was a really great experience, with some really, really talented individuals.

Group Members:
Gus Corrales
Paul Nguyen
Chantrelle Pryor &
Me

2009-10-18T22:26:00.000-07:00

Plein Aire: The Return... Fall 2009
Acrylic
04: SJSU (demo) (limited palette)

03: Penetencia Creek Trail Park (complimentary base colors)

02: Guadalupe Gardens (limited palette)

01: Penetencia Creek Trail (grayscale)

2009-09-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

Weekly Assignments: Art 118 Storyboarding

#6: Trick or Treat

#5 : "The Button"

#4 : "Shrunken Idoll"

#3 : "The Magician"

#2 : "Dog & Squirrel"

#1 : "First Day of School"

2009-08-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

Short Film Project Visual Development with Raquel Coelho:
Finals for BERIMBAU

2009-08-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

Stuff I'm Working On...

Sketches for BERIMBAU...

2009-07-24T23:34:00.000-07:00

Summer Digital Speed Paints...
(School begins in 1 month)

01: Self Portrait from Pic.
Pushed a little, using some Photoshop Painting tricks/tips.

2009-06-12T23:00:00.000-07:00

Summer Plein Aires: Round 01...
(I think I need to stretch my palette... )

06: Mexico City Restaurant, Alameda & San Jose

05: 10th & Mission

04: Palo Alto - Cantor Art Center

03: SF - North Beach, near Coit Tower

02: SJSU - statues/grassy knoll

01: 4th & Taylor: Foster's Freeze

2009-05-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

Projects to Finish...
for Jorinda & Joringel

grayscale edit

Just finished up my first semester back at SJSU for my master's. It was a great experience, especially taking JP Balmet's visual development class. He did a great job, gave us challenging projects, and was extremely generous with his advice and knowledge. These are images of my final submissions for the semester. Not 100% finished, by far but pretty clear where its going. These are environments created for the Grimm's Fairy Tale Jorinda & Joringel. Summer is here...

2009-05-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

Plein Aire New Round...

03: Windmill GG Park, SF

02: Back to Nature - Kelly Park

01: Blame It On The Rain...

Not an homage to the Milli Vanilli song, I did this painting indoors from the 6th floor of the MLK Library. It was rainy on Friday so I chose to go for something indoors. I'm trying to go faster, so I 'm going for a simpler approach. Back to basics, I should know this by now...

2009-04-22T01:07:00.000-07:00

What a Crock...
Time for some new stuff...

Final Characters (First Pass...)

Color & Lighting (especially) needs some tweaking. To be cont. this summer...

Fan Boat Driver (color comps)

"Gunner" Character

Fan Boat

For our current Viz Dev Project, something totally different... Fan-Boat Racers. This is what I've got so far. Basically: Fan-Boat racers driven by anthropomorphic animals native to the Florida Everglades, our choice. My animals: American Alligator: junk collectors. This is my boat & my driver (one of two characters). The progress thus far. More to come...

2009-04-05T21:54:00.000-07:00

Plain Erring... in San Jose
04: Basile @ Bascom

03: Sunol @ Auzerais

Wasn't really feeling this one after I started: No real interesting shapes, colors were kinda blah... Well, that was my one shot this week. haha

02: Stockton @ Taylor

01 : Alviso Marina

Plein Aire paints - for Mr. JP Balmet's class... Sad that he has to assign this for me to go out and do it. For that though, I am grateful...

2009-03-18T23:04:00.000-07:00

3rd Pass. That's it for now...

Time to move on, for now. Hope to see with fresh eyes, get some feedback in order to polish up and finalize. But the project is over for now.
2nd Pass

2009-03-11T22:59:00.000-07:00

New Work, finally.
Color Lay-In...

Very, Very Rough Interior: Before Tightening of Line & Value...

basic layout before paint & texture

2009-02-24T23:52:00.000-08:00

How Do You Paint An Old Man?

Practice for a project I am currently working on...

The Long Form #2: S-BUX...

2009-02-20T17:04:00.000-08:00

FIG DRW SSN

From 02/19 SHM Figure Drawing Session: Model - Jesse. A break from homework... Thank you Otman for feedback.

2009-02-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

Project no. 2: MASK MAKER & MASK SHOP
Character, Exterior & Interior Design
Ideatons - 2nd Pass

Ideations - 1st Pass

Viz Dev project 2, mask maker & shop located in bustling Market place circa 1940s French occupied Morrocco. Hustling as we speak on Ideation refinement...

2009-02-12T00:17:00.000-08:00

The Mask Maker...

This oughta be inneresting: our next project is to design a Mask Maker & his shop, hidden in among the market stalls of 1940s Marrakech. These are just some first pass ideation...

2009-02-09T23:52:00.000-08:00

New Work: WATERFALL SPIRIT

or "Coulda Been Worse..."
Aspects of Process:

This semester I am taking JP Balmet's Viz Dev class. This is part of our first completed project, I think the top image, the "moment piece" was the more successful part of the project. I would consider it a first pass towards finish as I would like to clarify shapes etc. I'm pretty happy with the energy.

I had more trouble with the character design, and would really like to know how to get it right. Well, its our first official character design assignment and look forward to JP's feedback. Include is the some process aspects for both the character & moment piece.

Also, I am enjoying the class: its tough, fun and its a trip being back in school. More to come...

2009-02-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

Break Time: MLK LIbrary, San Jose

2009-01-23T19:46:00.000-08:00

(SQUINT)

From Reference. Used a square brush. Very fun. This was my last post for the Cold Paint blog

2009-01-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

Pixelated Ritz

Just trying a square brush in photoshop. Worked pretty well for a low-rez image. Just for fun...

2009-01-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

SELF-PORTRAIT MANIA!!! For Cold Paint...
1hr 30mn Digital Self-Portrait

Right Ear is really jacked up (for starters), I'll fix it soon.

25 Minute Self-Portrait

Digital painting by me, nose by The Jackson Family surgeon.
For Cold Paint

2009-01-16T23:46:00.000-08:00

SpeedPaints Vol. II
From Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven

Speed Paint: BOUND by the Wachowski Bros

For Cold Paint: So far
Joined Cold Paint: One Painting a day blog for winter break with some folks from SJSU. All these are from around 1/2 hr - 1 1/2 hr: Speed Paints. Good practice. Just want to keep the skills up and get the speed up as well. My focus is to get a catalogue of lighting into my arsenal. Started digitally, but happy to do traditional as well. One week till school...

2009-01-10T21:27:00.000-08:00

Figure Paint: Figure Drawing Marathon
01/11/09

01/10/09

Saturday's session. The SJSU Winter Figure Drawing Marathon culminates with Saturday's Figure Painting session instructed by the great Cameron Chun and a 5 hr uhhh..., "whatever" session on Sunday. Man, I am so glad I took part in this, its been great. This work: Figure painting 3-4 twenty minute sessions, I lost count it went by too fast and it was fun. Acrylic...

Also want to give props to Mike Matessi for last Sunday's FORCED figure drawing lecture. Thanks guys!

2008-12-25T15:41:00.000-08:00

SARGENT, Another Study: Side by Side

What are these two doing exactly? Hmmm, is it some kind of business transaction? Anyhow, Sargent sure could paint, and I have nerve for attempting to copy him. Amazing painter he was: this one was fun. Hope some good rubs off on me. This is it for a minute as far as studies go... next up gotta do my own shit. I put it in writing so I gotta do it now. Hope to revisit Peter Pan...

2008-12-23T16:56:00.000-08:00

You Oughta Know...

Taking a page from my buddy Jaime, strayed from artist studies and did a speed paint of a pop star: Alanis Morisette. She looked cool in the reference picture (almost like a superhero) so I did her digitally, uh... painted digitally. Simplified, pushed the lighting just a little bit. Key idea I'm keeping in mind lately: I'm painting the light. Tip of the hat to Ruben Perez & John Clapp for the painting tip.

2008-12-22T23:30:00.000-08:00

Apologies...

(after Sorolla)

(after Sargent)

2 quick studies based on portraits by Juaquin Sorolla & his homeboy John Singer Sargent. Like the Speedpaints, just trying to get a feel for the form & the lighting. Don't think I quite got the light: esp. in top painting (ala Sorolla) reflected light in face is not there. I would always see homages to artists' works with the words "apologies to..." Now I see why, 2 beautiful portraits mauled by my crude attempts. Apologies to Sorolla & Sargent... fun nonetheless

2008-12-15T23:15:00.000-08:00

The Long Form Sketch

I'm gonna try more of these "Long Form" sketches. it spanned 2 pages in my sketch book and done in one 50 minute sitting at Panera. I like that place. I get some drawing done there. I added tone. I wanted to keep it simple, similar to some sketches I saw in Kelsey Mann's Blog, but didn't quite get the same effect. Anyhow, hope to continue on stuff like this, get quicker, more polished, yet looser, etc. etc... =

2008-12-15T00:36:00.000-08:00

Petey Pan...

A new project to work on. Trying to loosen up with this one for Creation Engines. Our current topic: Peter Pan. Hope to make it into something a bit more developed. Something to work on over the break...

2008-11-17T20:51:00.000-08:00

"Plein Airing"...

Exercising the observation skills. Went out and did some painting from life at Guadalupe Gardens in San Jo. Love it 'cause I always finish it up with a meal at Panera... I hate the sky in these, they reproduced poorly, but in the original - its not much better. I keep loosing my whites. I know, I know... I gotta preserve my whites when working with the medium (i used acrylic). Anyhow, good to know for next time. Going into winter, so I there'll be an abundance of light values. Gotta remember that when I go out: restraint!

2008-11-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

SURGE of POWER: Cover II

Following Vinnie's cover notes, this is the cover I have come up with as another prop for the Surge of Power sequel. Basically had to crank this one out this weekend cause the prop goes into the production next week! Vinnie had quite a few specifics for this cover, hope I delivered. I will have problems with it I'm sure. Wonder why Surge is in such a hurry and where's he's coming from? heh heh...
Another SURGE II Cover

After a little back & forth, we've come to this cover layout. Still awaiting full approval before I can move on to color. Here's a cleaned up line & quick tonal pass for values. A fresh look tomorrow will help me tweak the values better.

Another prop cover needed for Surge of Power II. Just sent off these thumbs to my producer Vinnie Roth, for approval. Awaiting his follow up comments. Image based on his description. The figure in the 3rd image (far right) is kinda cool, but I'd definetely change "Surge's" position. But the "Surge Mobile" is meant to be a center of focus, so don't know if Vinnie will want the front of the car obscured. I'll have to wait and see... Any other comments/suggestions appreciated. Could use the feedback.

2008-10-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween from Creation Engines

for CE's halloween blog post. the bride... (not the Sting/Jennifer Beals version, the original)

2008-10-24T21:20:00.000-07:00

Speed Painting...

Jumping on the Speed Painting bandwagon. I've wanted to do this for a long, long time since I heard about it. I was introduced to it at school during my senior year but never got around to doing it... until now! Well, here are my first Speed Paints...done digitally. Recognize the movies?

2008-10-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

CRYPTOZOOLOGY: The Yeti

stages

tonal thumb

For Creation Engines blog. Just a quick little sketch just to say I did. From most current topic "Cryptozoology" the study of "hidden" animals.

2008-10-07T23:20:00.000-07:00

Playing Around with Value

Something I did for my students, just to show how to separate ground planes using value.

2008-09-30T18:29:00.000-07:00

SURGE of POWER: The Sequel

A sequel is in the works to SURGE of POWER, a fun, campy Superhero movie released in 2004 produced and conceived by my friend, Vincent Roth. I initially did artwork for the original movie, SURGE OF POWER: The Stuff of Heroes, including props, framing artwork, and concept work. Now Vincent is back at work on a sequel after touring the first film at film festivals and conventions. He's asked me to do new art, and this is the first piece I've conceived: A cover to the JUSTICE BRIGADE comic, a fictional book the main character is a fan of. More SURGE movies = more art for me to create. Looking forward to seeing how the projects develops, no doubt bigger and better.

Some initial concept thumbnails for the cover. I initially thought the cover on the right would be great, after talking with Vincent the concept was revised, and I think the second idea (left side) works much better in showcasing the heroes (Blue Beacon, Splendorella, & Captain Meteor).

Original cover "prop" artwork from Surge of Power I conceived and created back in 2003 - oh, the horror!!!

2008-09-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Tree Tonals: Big & Small

Things I do with my class. Good practice for me, to do what I assign them to do. Quick studies, focusing more on value/tone to define form. Man, like anything else, if you want to draw, gotta draw everything. Yeah, I know its good for me...

2008-09-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

War Is Hell (CE Post)

This quick little illo is the latest CE Challenge: WAR. I really need to start painting a) More & b) Faster. Here it is from loose sketch to digital paint.

2008-08-31T16:44:00.000-07:00

Outdoors: Guadalupe Gardens, SJ

Some outdoor painting I've started up. Hope to gain a keener eye at painting & determining subtle shifts in color & light. Pretty fun, but only so much pollen one can tolerate. More to come..? I hope so.

2008-08-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

One Tree
Another warm up before I focus more and more on painting and technical skills this semester. I spent this last weekend in Bakersfield with my wonderful family. This little paint is for my mom. Painted in Tehachapi, a little ways from my family's home.

2008-08-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

Nekkid Ladies

More figure drawing from the last two weeks. Man, out of about 50 sketches, these were the only ones I think were somewhat successful.

2008-08-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

Quick Paint - Stanford U., Palo Alto

Warming up 4 the new semester... great weather today.

2008-08-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

The Marvel Way #2: Spider-Surfer

#2 in my exercises from How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way. Still learning in several ways how to go about this right. Number of things I am hoping to get out of this from economy, neatness, referencing, line weight, composition, figure drawing, etc, etc. Gotta start somewhere. I'm enjoying myself, trying to see where I can improve. Its difficult, but I hope to go a lot further with these exercises. Next up: a multi-page story. This is my last one pager for a while.

2008-07-31T15:18:00.000-07:00

Live. Nude. Drawings!

2008-07-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

"Draw Your Own Comic-Book Page..."

I needed to crank this out. Still have this burning desire to draw comics one day. One can talk and talk about wanting to do something, but unless you do, its just talk. Well, here's hoping this is the start of something. I took one of the exercises from Stan Lee & John Buscema's "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way." Tried to do it as blind as I could (they offer up examples), and was surprised how different mine was. Anyhow, probably a crappy comic book page by industry standards, but its a start...

2008-05-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

The Adventures Of...

So this is what Jaime encouraged me to do. A little one page comic, total stream of consciousness. A bit of a story foundation in mind... Originally started as maybe Robin's first night on patrol with the big B. Could possibly subtitle this "Try to Keep Up." I'd been a lot bummed lately regarding art and my output. It hadn't been fun for a while. Comics were the reason that I got into art in the first place. Thanks Jaime for the suggestion, hopefully there will be more of this to come. :)

2008-05-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon...

Something I am working on. Thanks to Jaime for the idea. Pure instinct trying not to overthink it. Hopefully will be done soon.

2008-03-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

Landscape Studies...

Pacheco State Park off Pacheco Pass (HWY 152). Went hiking with one of my best friends Ben. Awesome time, hardly anyone else was out there. Got to do some sketching (promised my classes). Always see the exit on my way to visit the folks in Bakersfield. Highly recommended. Ben's a saint for his patience, came this close to a rattlesnake... very distinct sounds they do make.

2007-12-16T15:35:00.000-08:00

CARS!

Inspired by Pixar's CARS I did some vehicle studies. In my ongoing quest to one day work on backgrounds and props for animation, I've decided to do some quick paints/studies of cars. I wanted to push the form and make them more stylized as I went. Also trying to describe the reflected surfaces in a simplified way. Its rewarding work, different from the organic shapes of people/drapery, but Iike it all the same. This is the first round.

2007-10-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

Just in Time for Halloween: VAMPIRE TOOTHBRUSH...

This round of CreationEngine challenges revolve around Halloween. 1) Redesign a Classic Movie Monster & 2) Create a Haunted Inanimate Object... This one reflects the latter. Total silly idea, wanted to try something fun & visceral...

Trick or Treat

2007-06-23T00:47:00.000-07:00

The Return of the Space Cow-Girl.

From this weeks Creation Engines exercise: SPACE COWBOY. This character I call COW G.I.R.L. She rides her trusty steed, mech-BULL. Plan to develop the story later...

2007-06-10T01:13:00.000-07:00

SPYder: Paint.

Another one for Creation Engines. Just crankin' them out... This cute little Black Op is called: SPYder.

2007-01-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

Donut Shop: redux!

I made some corrections and revisions to this earlier Donut Shop project. It was strange revisiting a project after so much time, but fun at the same time to correct errors. It was a nice break from everything else.

2006-12-15T01:53:00.000-08:00

The PAWN SHOP... in stages

Working on this viz dev/layout piece for a pawn shop has been quite a task, but a fun learning experience. Here are the preliminary comp and rough lay-ins. Now that I've cleaned it up, I see that I need to apply some editing. I'm gonna subtitle this, "A Phased Withdrawal."

Preliminary Compositions for PAWN SHOP Project

I worked out these rough preliminary comps and the design kind of emerged by accident. For some reason, I really liked them or "responded" to them. I've been trying to develop a better sense of composition, as well as value, in order to make my work better. This work is preliminary work towards a more developed layout of a pawn shop. More (hopefully) soon.

2006-12-13T13:27:00.000-08:00

Character Design Visual Development:
WOMEN WITHOUT BONES by Steve Martin

These drawings are characters from our final project in my BFA senior seminar class. They are visual development pieces depicting members of a mysterious & fascinating tribe of women in the Amazon. This work is loosely based on an odd short story by Steve Martin (yes, the famous one), from a collection of his, handed out by our teachers. The work is done all in pencil with some touching up in Photoshop. I was pleased with the results, but of course they could be developed further.

2006-11-21T21:40:00.001-08:00

Layout: John Steinbeck's FLIGHT

A Layout for John Steinbeck's "Flight." This layout was created for our Steinbeck viz-dev project. It is from a scene we created as a group. The scene was one that was expanded on from the original story. Our scene imagines what happened to Pepé Torres when he traveled to Monterey on a fateful errand. The scene results in a murder. My layout is meant to depict the Coastal shanty town created by the fisherman of the early cannaries of Monterey. Pepé intends to spend the night at Mrs. Rodriguez' house which serves as a boarding house to some of the men.

2006-11-21T17:51:00.000-08:00

Figure drawings... It was time to update my figure drawings.

2006-10-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

This image is a beat for a visual development project on John Steinbeck's "Flight" (short story). Teams of 4-5 were assembled to decide on the 5 important beats to the story. I worked with 3 classmates and was assigned the 4th beat, which I'm showcasing. In this beat, Pepé, the protagonist, loses his horse by a gunshot. This is an important turning point in the story because it leads to his ultimate demise. Soon, Pepé will be stripped of all his posessions and will fend off the elements and his enemies.

Below the image are my original thumbnails for my suggestions for the beats. The thumbnail for the more developed image is in the middle column, top row.

2006-09-30T02:52:00.000-07:00

2006-09-30T02:51:00.001-07:00

2006-08-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

Hi. This is Nelson. Soon I will have my work up to for my friends to see. I am looking forward to this and connecting with others. Until then, take care.

nsh