Little wolfman guy - process

In 2010 while teaching at California State University Northridge I created a demonstration using Photoshop on a Cintiq while projecting onto a screen. I had fun teaching at CSUN using this system. Here's something I came up with at the time. 

It started with a line sketch...

Then I added grayscale shadow and tone...

Next step was some pattern markings on the fur...

Finished off with a color tint...

But wait! I had the layers wrong! I actually started with the color tint...

Then added grayscale tone and shadow...

And ended up with pattern on the fur...

However the creation of the work went down it was an enjoyable experience and I got a good demo that everyone learned from and an intriguing character out of it.

Bunny clan

I drew these sketches in ball point pen back in 2007 as class demonstrations. Recently I placed the images in a booklet I published to assist my students with their free form drawing and concept development. This is the page that features these characters. A simple and fun way to create.

Jak and Daxter girls

One of the highlights of working on "Project Y" aka Jak and Daxter was the part where I had the opportunity to develop female characters. I came up with lots of different variations. Everything from school girls to housewives and potential girlfriends for the main character who was as yet unnamed at the time in 2000. Here are a few of my favorite concept sketches from back then. They're drawn in blue pencil with black line.

Crash Bandicoot - Origin of N Tropy - Part 4

Here's a couple more development images of N Tropy from Crash Bandicoot 3. Dated January 22 1998 which was the first design pass on the character. Two more sessions would follow a little later. These drawings are among the initial material created for the character.

Smile and be happy

This is something I drew in class about a year ago. Sometimes it takes a while to appreciate a sketch. She reminds me of a friend. I was subconsciously influenced by her I'm sure. Later I did some faint tinting in Photoshop. 

Crash Bandicoot - Origin of N Gin

For the Crash fans. This is the only drawing of N Gin that I could find in my collection so far. It's a xerox copy of the original. Not dated. I do believe this is the very first concept development sketch of the character. There are more drawings of N Gin online but I don't think they include this one. The character first appeared in Crash 2. He was a scientist / engineer who had an accident and one of his rockets embedded into his head. Thus he lived with it and it became the central trait of his personality. Fun character. I had a good time with this guy. He didn't change much as he was all there design wise from the beginning.

A different Mona Lisa - 2

Last January 5 of this year I had an entry about how in 2006 I was experimenting with images from Nat King Cole's song "Mona Lisa" from 1950. Here's something I came up with around that time. This is from my early days with Photoshop.

ZEUS

A year ago at this time while drawing in class I worked up a few concept sketches of the king of the Greek pantheon Zeus. This evening one of my students noticed the first image below in a pile of demonstrations I've got stacked up. He was enthusiastic about it and suggested I post it on my blog. So here it is along with two other concepts I created at that time exploring design variation for the character.

Crash Bandicoot - Origin of N Tropy - Part 3

Here we go with the next installment of how Nefarious Tropy came into being. Drawings dated from January 22 1998. I continued with the idea of a time travelling device that would be worn on the body. Eventually this evolved into something that would encase the character. The direction was a good one but in the first sketch below it looked as if he were pregnant. 

Spyro love - Part 2

About a month ago on April 13 I posted a few drawings of what Spyro the Dragon looked like during a phase of the development of the character. Here's another version from the process of exploration in early 1997. These samples are from a booklet I recently published involving free form sketching and concept development. The black line running down the middle of the graphics depicts where the page fold is.

And speaking of Spyro there's still time to participate in the Ebay art auction sponsored by the Worthing Boys' Club in the UK. This is a second chance to pick up a highly collectible signed print of both Spyro and Crash. The auction's deadline is this coming Sunday May 12.