dreamylabs

Souvenirs from the Maritimes

2008-06-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

I recently took my first trip to eastern Canada, and had a great time. I must say, it's one of the nicest and most accommodating places I've been to for just sitting down with my sketchbook, and doing a bit of painting.

Sarah, driving the two of us down. We ended up driving over 3300km total!

The back of a small autoshop over the St. John river in Perth-Andover, NB.

George's Island, over the water, from the harbour in Halifax.

This is Spook. He was uncharacteristically friendly while we were visiting. I think he liked the idea of being painted.

Peggy's Cove, NS. I'd love to go back for a week or two with the intent of painting the whole village. Every little cottage was so picturesque. I eventually decided on painting the lighthouse, somewhat predictably. It's also pretty iconic of the location, so I didn't feel too guilty.

All in all, a great trip. I wish I had more opportunities to sit down with my paints and get my hands a bit dirty. Maybe I'll try to set aside some time to do some little location studies around Toronto, while the weather is still nice.

back alley

2008-06-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

detail:

If you're curious about the finer points of my colors at all, reopen these .jpg's with photoshop and the palette should display a bit more accurately. Seems like browsers are always a little off.

Hoping to share more art from this project eventually, but it'll be a little while before I have some quality photoshop time again... so I thought I'd share this now!

The salty smell of the high seas!

2008-05-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine whom I work with, Colin, has a group of students he helps with design on his spare time. He asked me if I wouldn't mind guest critiquing occasionally. Sounded like a good time to me, so I put together a character for the topic they're working on right now. Pirates! Looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with. Hopefully I'll have some other designs to share later on, from future topics.

I left my heART in San Francisco

2008-05-12T18:42:00.001-07:00

I recently spent a few days in San Francisco. Aside from taking in the sights, looking like a tourist, and seeing some great studios, I managed to squeeze in a little bit of time to paint, too.

Thanks so much to Sarah for pretty much the best birthday present ever. I'm really hoping we'll be back in the bay area sooner rather than later!

Twins!

2008-04-30T08:20:00.001-07:00

Warm up sketch! I saw these gentlemen this morning, on my way to work. I'm now on the lookout for a smaller version of myself.

fox & flame 2

2008-04-14T19:30:00.001-07:00

Here's the last fox & flame painting, for now. Initially, the roughs were based upon a short story outline I'd written. From there I decided to take a few pieces to finish. I like the approach of the talented guys who post on the Draw Force blog, so the themes of the individual paintings are pretty similar to theirs. In the end I wanted to have two character illustrations, a location, a character posed, and then a showdown between two of the characters. I ended up mixing in a couple secondary characters along the way, since they were pretty prominent in the original story.

I feel like the exercise was successful - I'm pretty happy with the results. I might take another short story or fairy tale and create another set of the same five illustrations at some point.

edit: the image in this post was adjusted for browsing in firefox. After seeing it in safari, it looks almost black. If the colors look too dark, click here for the original values. Most of the images I post seem a little off from the .psd, this time especially.

fox & flame

2008-04-01T07:12:00.001-07:00

I've been developing a short story and making some art along the way. Seems like people who read my blog enjoy seeing my process work, so I thought I'd share some rough drawings as well as the development art. Hope you guys like these. The story isn't quite finished, so I'm hoping I can keep making art that will push the designs further. Big thanks to Nick for already giving me some really helpful feedback on each of these pieces along the way. Critiques are always welcome!

Rockstars!

2008-03-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

Lately I've worked on a couple projects that revolve around scraping a band together. Is there intentional resemblance between one of the band members and someone found in my links, you might ask? Quite possibly...

Redhead in argyle!

2008-02-20T09:19:00.000-08:00

Some recent design work! I've got a few other pieces from this project I might post later on. Definitely had fun with this.

Dreamylabs update!

2008-02-14T21:59:00.000-08:00

So, after having www.dreamylabs.com redirect to this blog for the past year or so, it's finally received a much needed overhaul. I put together a new layout, as well as updated it with mostly new content. The layout is similar to the hardcopy portfolio I put together for graduation, for those of you familiar with it. The content is mostly new, however. Plenty of work I've done since last year, most of which I haven't posted here.

As soon as I get some free time I'd like to give this blog a similar treatment. It could use a little refresher. I'd like to define it's purpose a bit better too, for the casual visitor. I have a habit of using the blog to show off work that doesn't necessarily have anywhere else to go, but I'm sure that isn't evident for a first time viewer... or even return visitors for that matter. Now that I've got a "real" portfolio website online again, I'd like to make the blog feel more like the digital sketchbook it was intended to be. In the meantime though, I'll keep updating it as usual. I've got a couple fun projects on the go, which I'll hopefully be able to share sometime down the road.

Anyhow, go check out www.dreamylabs.com and have a look at the galleries on there. Lots of new work that I haven't shown previously!

Tazed and Confused

2008-02-08T09:31:00.000-08:00

Recently wrapped up doing some work for Second City. Their new show just premiered last night, and I had the lucky pleasure to do most of the promotional art for it. If you're in the Toronto area, keep an eye out for that, and definitely go check out the show if you get the chance. I've been a couple times myself, and it's hilarious.

Here's a look at the main illustration I made for the show, before being formatted for programs, flyers, posters, etc. Each of the characters are one of the six actors from the show itself. The largest print is 56x34" so some detail gets lost in a web sized .jpg, unfortunately. All of the tonal work is actually done using small halftones. Anyhow, have a look.

Really looking forward to similar opportunities in the future, I had a great time with this project.

Edit: Apparently it's also a cake. Nice!

Sketchbook Dump!

2008-01-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

Been extra busy lately between work, the holidays, and more freelance work. I haven't had much time at all to set aside for my own art over the past month, so I thought I'd share some random sketchbook pages. I'm just about finished the sketchbook I started back in August, so this is a selection from beginning to end. Mostly drawings from the commute, along with a few cleaned up sketches and traveling doodles.

Hopefully I'll be able to share some of the art I'm making for work in the relatively near future. In the mean time, this'll have to do! Hope everybody had a great new years.

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-17T06:46:00.001-08:00

I saw this lady waiting for a train recently. I have no idea how she transported all her packages. Christmas magic, I suppose! I hope everybody has a safe and happy holidays.

High Noon

2007-11-27T06:13:00.001-08:00

Bandit at high noon!

Smile!

2007-11-14T09:56:00.001-08:00

Inspired by the very talened Pascal Campion. Sometimes I forget to smile while I'm drawing.

Check out this interview if you're looking for a bit of motivation to work quicker and happier, which is exactly how I approached this illustration!

foggy morning in toronto

2007-11-12T06:50:00.000-08:00

Morning warmup! Lots of fog today.

Observation

2007-11-02T06:12:00.001-07:00

Last week I was out with my buddy Chris on lunch, and he was commenting on my walk. Totally an observational animator thing. It got me to thinking though, that I'm not nearly observant enough sometimes. So this week I decided to make sure I paid more attention to all of the people I walk past every day. I decided that each day I'd pick the most interesting person I saw on my walk from the train station to work, and do a memory sketch to warm up, before I start doing actual work. The idea was also somewhat inspired by the Sartorialist as well, but my intent wasn't just to pick people based on fashion. I picked them all for pretty different reasons actually, just to keep things fresh.

So here are the drawings! They're all quick sketches, usually done before my coffee has cooled enough to start drinking. I didn't have a whole lot of time to spend on them, but this exercise definitely pushed me in an observational sense. I'll probably keep something like this up for the next little while and see how it evolves. If any real gems pop up, I'll share them.

Creepy?

2007-10-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

I went to cirque du soliel with a friend recently. I didn't see this clown there.

I've also become spoiled by a cintiq. If anyone feels like picking me one up for Christmas, that would be swell! Hopefully the blog posts pick back up again, it's been a couple crazy weeks.

Sal my pal.

2007-09-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

Meet Sal. Sal is short for Salvidor. His mom named him Salvidor because she hoped he'd pick up a few paint brushes. His predisposition lent towards typing though, like his father. He's pretty good at that, for obvious reasons. He takes pride in his work, and always does a bang up job.

Tuba

2007-08-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

Fact: One of the more challenging aspects of playing the tuba is making sure you don't get stuck between the tubes.

New York City

2007-08-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

So, regardless of not having a scanner, I wanted to post up some of my recent sketchbook doodles. I just got back from a trip to NYC, and had a great time. I've been to the city before, and it seems like there's never nearly enough time to check out half of what I'd like to see. I still had a great time though. I saw some sights, shopped some, met some talented artists, and squeezed in a bit of time to draw and paint whenever I got the chance. I already miss it. Toronto's subways don't have nearly as much character! Hopefully i'll be back sooner rather than later.

Conveniently I got home just in time to check out the artwork of Deanna Marsigliese, and meet her as well, at the opening of her show at the Labyrinth bookstore. Check out the store while her work is up, if you get the chance. Her book is great, but of course the art looks so much better in person.

Edit: got rid of the photos, updated with scans!

Houndstooth

2007-07-21T14:07:00.001-07:00

I had a bit of time to paint a character i've been working on for a new short story. I'd like to adapt it into a new film or perhaps a small comic when i'm confident with the concept.

edit: Somewhere between photoshop and blogger my image seems to be losing its saturation. Anyone know why that might be? It's saved at maximum quality, but the colors don't look like the original .psd, I'm not sure why that is..

She made the first move

2007-06-20T08:20:00.001-07:00

I saw some kids being cute when I was out for ice cream the other day. Awwh.

Not having access to the scanners at school has made posting new work on the blog a bit difficult. I think i'm going to have to look into picking one up for myself. I'll try to post the occasional photoshop doodle though, to keep things interesting until I've got my own scanner.

robot!

2007-05-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

Sorting through files today and I came across some of my exporation sketches for the film. I thought I'd share some of my development process for the repairbot. Check it out!

Finished!

2007-05-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

I thought i'd put a few stills up in lieu of the actual film. The 8 months spent working on this seemed like forever but at the same time it ended far too quickly. I miss my classmates a whole lot already. I'm really excited to see what everyone decides to do next. I'm sure most people will find great jobs for themselves - our class is full of talent.

I've enjoyed having a week off to catch up on some sleep but I'm feeling more than ready to get back to working. Hopefully i'll get a bit busier in the near future.