100 Posts, Wowzers

Today I noticed that I just passed 100 posts on this here blog. That feels like an accomplishment, though I'm not sure why.

Coming Along, Slowly

Because I won't have much else to show on the blog for a while (so very busy) here is the line work for that piece that isn't getting finished as quickly as I hoped.

Coming Soon

A layout sketch for a piece I'm working on. I hope to be able to paint this over the weekend but I need to spend sometime on my actual homework. Can't fail that writing class or I don't graduate in April.

BYU Illustration Wins Student Competition (7 Times)

The Society of Illustrators just announced their winners for this year's Student Scholarship competition. If you don't know what the SOI is just think of it as a the Screen Actors Guild for Illustrators. The Student Scholarship Competition is a way for the SOI to recognize up and coming talent.

This year BYU got in 7 entries! Big BIG WOOT!

Here are BYU's winners (student and entry):

Anna Doxey/Eggelston:

Anthony Holden:

Will Strong:

Houston Trueblood:

Steven Waggoner:

Kelly Weed:

Jacob Wyatt:

I'm really blown away that I actually won something with my artwork. I like it and my friends all seem to like it. But I didn't really think that other people (professionals even) would really be interested in my work. Maybe I am ready to be a professional after all.

You can see all of the winning entries here. Congrats to everybody.

A Bit of Rough Animation

I made this bit of rough animation today in Flash:

Robot with signs (rough animation) from Will Strong on Vimeo.

As it turns out animating is a ton of fun, especially if you do a simple 2-D robot that doesn't require any knowledge of mass or form. I know that there are timing issues that need to be taken care of (and it compressed funny too.) But I'm rather pleased with this.

Oh, by the way, this will be the intro movie for my new website which is currently under construction.

Sunday Project

So I try to not work very much on Sundays. It's the day of rest you know. Sundays after church is the time when I usually do silly things that I don't have time for on other days, like that red, felt plushie toy from a few weeks ago.

So my wife Tiffany has recently become wise to how I like to spend my Sunday afternoons. Today she made a request, to make her a really cool box for an upcoming Valentine's Day party in her 6th Grade classroom.

So I did this:

Her kids are going to be so jealous. (Sorry about the backwards text. Photo Booth takes mirrored pictures and I was too lazy to throw them into Photoshop.)

5-Year-Olds Are Great

So, I just got back from the BYU Illustrator Showcase, a student art show here in Provo. It was another huge headache to get it all together this week (on top of submitting the Society of Illustrator Contest entries). I (and some great helpers) had to collect pieces form 20 different student illustrators, hang them in the gallery, do publicity, food, music, etc. It was a ton of work and really, after we set it all up, I didn't really want to go.

I'm glad I did.

As I wandered around and listened to the comments of people looking at the art I started following a group with some kids in it. A 5-year-old in the group pointed at one of my pieces (the one-eyed monster) and said "Mom, that one is my favorite."

And then it all became worth the effort. Thanks kid.

Swamped

I've been crazy busy this week getting all the submissions for the Society of Illustrators 2010 Student Competition ready. It's taken a ton of time this week (and last week) but it should be worth it in the end. There should be at least a few winners from BYU this year.

I'm glad that headache is over.

Incidentally, this is about the only thing I had time to draw this week. The correlation is unintentional:

Oh, I also drew these: