Monsterous Vomitous

Thought I'd share a little bit of my sketch and thought process. My assignment was to come up with some general funny monster designs a few months back. For this job, I wanted just try to cram as many quick monster ideas as possible on a couple of sketchbook pages. I tried to get varying sizes and personalities, hoping for a few keepers. I choose a few favorites then fleshed them out a little in the following pages. These still aren't close to what the finish creatures looked like- the client decided to go in another direction.

I'm heading back home to the States tomorrow for four or five weeks. Starting out in Wisconsin, then my brother's wedding in NYC, followed by Comicon in San Diego and then maybe working a little in San Francisco. Whew. Hopefully I'll be able to update on the road.

He is the Campion!

My friend and old office mate, Pascal Campion, has FINALLY gotten off his French arse and started up his own blog. He used to blow us all away with his daily works of genius that he would crank out in one morning hour before anyone slunked into work. His creations were usually sprawling detailed landscapes containing anything from flying armchairs to flocks of mischievous birds.

Check out his work- he has done an illustration every day of the work week for the last year or so. His speed is only matched by his amazing storytelling skills. But I've always had a sneaking suspicion that he enslaves little Parisian dwarfs to do his production work for him.

I think he's also planning to have a book out for Comicon this year. Right, Pascal? You can see his frantic animaton on his site as well.

Back from Beijing

Up, up and awaaaaay!

I'm finally back from Beijing! I apologize for not uploading anything while I was there. It seems that accessing Blogger is blocked in China.

Beijing is a remarkably crazy city. I really liked it despite (and because of) the heavy pollution, the sweltering mugginess, the constant blaring of car horns and the threat of being run over every five minutes. It really is a unique city. The people were extremely friendly and generous. I'm glad I had a chance to work there so I could talk to the locals and see what they were like. I also had a chance to do a little sightseeing as well- The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and Tiannamen Square. The best way to see the city is walking through the old neighborhood alleyways and streets called "hutongs". Sadly these are being bulldozed to make way for faceless modern high-rises for the 2008 Olympics. Beijing is a city in transition.

You can see my pics here.

I'll be extremely busy working on two freelance projects over the next couple of weeks, so I don't know how much I'm be updating Blogcha. "Sorry" in advance for blog butt suckage.