Merry Christmas

Earlier this year I had the wonderful opportunity to be on a set-building crew locally here in Utah.  We we building a set to resemble ancient Jerusalem.  Here is one of the videos shot on that set.

It was a great project to be a part of.  Merry Christmas.

PS: Pretty much all of the "stone" you see in the video is styrofoam blocks carved to look like stone.  It was mounted on plywood walls and sprayed with cement from a high-pressure hose.  Then the cement (thousands of square feet) was textured by hand with brushes and such.  That was what our crew did on the show.  It was grand.  I loved this job.

PPS: The porch where Mary meets to talk with Martha was my favorite place to eat lunch every day.  I ate many a turkey sandwhich there.

PPPS: You can see more of the videos shot on this set HERE.  Or just download the FREE APP.

Octorok

Just messing around with gouache and Photoshop.

Cardboard Cyborg

This year for Halloween I wanted to see if I could make a costume for exactly $0.  Turns out, I can.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you cardboard cyborg.  Truly a marvel of modern science.

I'll see if I can get some better photos posted soon to show off the details.

I love Halloween.  Does it show?

Inktober Concluded

Yup, it is about over.  But I saved a couple of my favorites for the end.  I really like the dishwasher robot.  I want one of my own.  And even robots are more fun in space.

Now I need to finish building my Halloween costume.  It also involves robots.  And cardboard.

Inktober Continued

A bunch more robot coloring pages.

Inktober

Yup, it's Inktober, a holiday season only observed by illustrators and the ink people who live at the bottoms of dry wells.

In honor of the season I'm posting a bunch of free coloring pages on one of my favorite subjects: robots.

Go ahead and print them out for your kids (or yourself.)  Enjoy.

Gouache Pixels

I'm probably way too excited, but folks, it is happening.  Very soon.  Just a few more weeks.

I've got Zelda on the brain.  I can't help it.

Gouache Doodle

Can I post something without actually saying something about it?

Probably not.

Gouache Doodle

I also really like the word "gouache."  It's pronounced "gwash."  Before I knew that I called it "gow-a-che."

Live and learn.

Gouache Doodle

I really should post more art on this here art blog.  Here is a little gouache doodle.

I really enjoy the word "doodle."  It is much fun to say aloud.

Making New Art Friends

A few weeks ago I emailed an artist whose blog I follow with a simple question.  She answered my question and then soon found my blog as well.  In no time we made plans to do an art trade.

The artist in question is Jess Bradley.  She's got a great sense of fun and humor.  You can see her art here.  And also here.  And some more here.  And also a bunch of other places that you can get to from those places I already mentioned.

Now on to the art trade.  All this cool stuff came from far across the Atlantic (from Bristol, UK am I right Jess?) to get to me here in Provo Utah, USA.

My favorite bit was the trading cards.

But the keychain was cool too.  Previously my keys were boring.  Now they are happy.

You can see all the details about the stuff here.  Lots o' goodies.

Hooray for making new friends.

More Photoshop Mouse, Mouses, Moose, Moosen?

Don't worry folks, I know that the plural of "mouse" is "meese."

I spent my day off doodling out another cute mouse (and a fat lady wearing a peacock on her head.)  But in a totally different style than the last one.  I was going for "cute."

I like how it turned out, but then I turned off the layer with the black line work.  And that's when it got interesting.

I almost like the second one better.  It doesn't read as well as the first but I think it is more visually interesting.  I wonder if I can figure out a way to combine the textures of this one with the flat color chapes of the last mouse.  Must get to experimenting.

What do you folks think?  Is there something interesting going on here?  Should I pursue it?

Photohop Mouse

I've been messing around in Photoshop today.  And I came up with this:

It's a bit of a departure for me and I'm mostly pleased with it.  I must remember to have my characters do something more than just stand there.

What do you folks think, should I do more like this?

Folio Academy

Will Terry, a buddy of mine, and Wayne Andreason, a guy I don't actually know, just launched a pretty cool website: folioacademy.com

It's an instructional site with art tutorials on a wide variety of subjects.  There are already a bunch of cool videos up on the site and they add more all the time.

Cool stuff.

Maximus Cloud: Amateur Adventurer

For a job I've been working on lately.  Really fun job.  I dig this one.

He's kind of the stock adventurer character (akin to Link and others.)  Only, he sucks at it.  I could write dozens of these stories.  I just might (eventually.)

Robot Name Tags

It's that time of year again and my wife is setting up her 5th grade classroom.  My contribution every year is the student name tags on the outside of the door.  This year's theme: robots.

They make pretty good coloring pages and they're all yours folks if you want 'em.  Enjoy.

Cecil Is On the Move

Chloe and Sophie are in Boston and they took Cecil along with them to see the sights.

Cecil at the Boston Harbor:

Cecil in front of the USS Constitution showing off his new pants:

Sometimes Cecil wants to go where everybody knows his name:

I have to say I'm a bit jealous.  I've never been to Boston.  Someday I will have to see more of this great big country.

A huge thanks to Chloe and Sophie for the update.

Lost Monster #3 - Cecil

I decided to take another Lost Monster with me to Chautauqua last week while I was there for the Highlights Foundation Writer's Workshop.  I decided to call him Cecil.

And then I picked out a hiding spot in the square at Chautauqua.

Two days later I got this great email:


Hi Will my name is Chloe and I have found your monster. I live in Dallas, TX and I am 10 years old.  My sister's name is Sophie and the sign that said take me home is her monster!  Sophie is 6. After the summer we are going to tour the Nation in a RV for a year and my sister and I will be home schooled. Every place that we go I am going to take pictures of Cecil and I.

               Thank you for doing this !!

These kids are awesome.  And I'm kind of jealous of their upcoming tour of the country.  It sounds like Cecil couldn't have ended up with a better home.