Whoops...

And I just realized that was a WIP I posted. So here's what I actually came up with at the end. Seriously, for real.

Drawing Jam! Update

So here's what I've got at the end of the jam. Yeah, I know, it's not done, quit yer complainin'.

In all seriousness, it was one of those moments of "biting off more than you can chew and not finishing it, but learning a lot as a result." I'm actually fairly happy with the enclosure aspect of the painting, but the viewing area was giving me major trouble. Super huge trouble. And let's not even talk about starting on the dinosaurs.

Well, this week's jam ought to be not as bad though, since it's not as complicated. Here's to next week!

Drawing Jam!

So this week, I have a challenge before me: My good friend Dustin Johnson who has a blog over here, suggested that the two of us should start doing a weekly jam to keep our skills sharp. We used to do this sort of thing back in college, and quite frankly, I miss the times of sitting around with some chums, someone gives a ridiculous concept, and we all start drawing. Anywho, I decided to start us off with our first jam, and since I went to the zoo this past week (I'll probably post up photos soon of that,) I decided to do something along that line.

So our challenge this week is to do a drawing/painting of a zoo-type dinosaur enclosure. Things to keep in mind is that we have to be able to show the dinosaur, have people in the scene, and at least suggest how the dinosaur is enclosed (moat, glass like how Tiger pens usually are or the Reptile house, netting, etc.) Should give us both a workout.

Here's what I have so far. I decided to do my favorite dinosaur family, the Dromeosaurids, and do up a pen for those little vicious buggers. Once this is done I may put up a progress post just to show the steps I took to this, but for now, this is all you get.

Ach! Too long!

For anyone that reads this blog, I'm sorry it's been so long between posts. My girlfriend and I recently moved to Atlanta, so the past couple of weeks have been unpacking, and just getting situated. On top of that, I hadn't drawn in ages, so I've been slogging along trying to get back into the groove of things.

To hopefully rekindle the timeliness of this blog, here's some new and old sketches outta the ol' book. And hopefully new stuff will be a lot more frequent than before.

Really Long time...

Wow. I feel really guilty about neglecting this blog for so long...but it wasn't intentional! These past couple of weeks have been hectic since the girlfriend and I have moved up to Atlanta now for a graphic design job she got. In the meantime, I've been unpacking, doodling, and working on a project that I can't really say what it is yet...

In the meantime, here's a painting I did for Conceptart.org's C.O.W. (creature of the week) challenge. It was arctic dinosaur, so I couldn't pass it up. I learned a good amount of painting techniques with this one, but to be honestly, I think it's a bit of a fail in terms of actual concept, compared to some of the stuff people pumped out. Unfortunately, the next challenge was Catapult Creature, and during that challenge I wasn't able to get to internet or a computer to paint it. But I think I'll still complete it later just for more practice.

Been away for a while...

And I apologize! I'll try and be more regular with this. In da meantime, here's some new sketches, outta a fresh sketchbook I started.

Sketches!

Here's two more little drawings. One is a blind lawyer (M.M anyone?) and the other is an Ahab concept. It's kinda neat, but I think I need to incorporate more of a nautical/sea motif in his armor. Plus, his face right now is a blank one, which for a character like Ahab seems like a design flaw. I still haven't found his "look" yet.

These are Superheroes!

So these are Daredevil and Spider-man.

Ahab!

Well, here's a bunch of sketches of, weirdly enough, Captain Ahab. This isn't a story idea, rather a challenge for me to conceptualize characters in a similar universe. So, I decided to go after Moby Dick, and throw it in deep-space, starting with Ahab. I think I'm gonna go after Ahab, Moby Dick, Ishmael, and Queeqeq (I think that's how his name is spelt?) as my choice of characters, as well as Ahab's ship, the Pequod.

Anywho, Ahab's idea is that he's a species of creature that survives (or has adapted to) inhabiting mostly in deep-space, hunting the beasts that make up the deep-space seas. I decided to go with an idea that he has this organic body armor that also works as a containment suit, and when he steps out into space, it seals up tightly, preventing decompression death and allowing him to work in the near vacuum that is space. I'm still tinkering with ideas, but I want to bring some sea theme to him for sure, so I've been exploring conch shells and other sorts of shells/crustaceans as inspiration.

He's hardly finished, so there'll be more to come!

Aw Crap.

Well, here's a hellboy poster I just whipped up. I've been enamored by the idea of a graphicy way of presenting something, and this just seemed to be appropriate subject matter to do so. At the moment, I'm gonna consider it done, but I might revisit it and tweak mainly the lineart...

This is Batman.

Duh da da DA daaaa!


I saw Dark Knight today...and was very, VERY impressed. This is quite possibly the best comic book movie created yet. But hell, I'm sure everyone's saying that.

New Website!

That's right folks! I finally got my stuff together and cobbled it into a coherent website! It's a lot of the same stuff on here, just more professional looking.

You can check it out right over here: Art of Andrew Sides

Enjoy folks, and spread it around like some bad disease!

Hot Heat...

Well, here's the first of an environment paint-up! It's quick and rough, but I like the quality of it. I like it, considering it's my first tackle of an environment paint-up, but I'm going to shoot for a much better quality next time.

Space Color Comps

So, here are some color comps I did for one of the space suits. I'm going to go with the design that the color comps were used in, since I think it's the strongest out of all of them (coincidentally, it was the last of the three to be drawn as well.) These 8 (technically 7, last one is a bit of a joke, hehe) comps give me a base from which I can decide upon a final scheme and start to do a turnaround on, as well as more detailed paint-ups of both. A cool thing about this is if I want to, I can take a design scheme from one comp, and switch out the colors from another if I have to, so if I want to see what it might look like, I'd have no problem doing so. Well, enough talk, here's the art!

Development of the Space Thumbnails

Here's 3 more developed ideas based off the thumbnails. I took it off of the ol' Bubble-head suit, since I like the look of the bubble helmets, for some reason. They give off a pretty retro feel, and that's the look I'm going for: Retro sci-fi looking, but believable.

Space...

Here's some thumbnails of space suits. I think I'm going to take one of these to completion, but haven't decided which yet.

Roar!

Well, here's the Creature Spotlight: THE LIZARDMAN! I'm pretty happy with the turnout, but I think my colors are off on my monitor, since it looks a lot darker than when I was painting it. Also, here's some dinosaurs for your enjoyment.

Long Time...

Man, it's been awhile since I last posted. So what's happened? Well, I moved (which is partly to explain my absence,) been doing some artwork that will hopefully lead to a job, and I had to reformat my computer recently. Now that stuff has kinda settled down, I'm back on track with this again.

Here's some block studies of people that I've been doing lately. Usually if I hit a drawing funk or don't seem to be improving a whole lot I'll switch up my approach to keep it fresh. Lately my people have been loose and getting away from me, so I switched over to a method I learned in my drawing classes (I think it's derived from Glen Vilppu, but I'm not sure.) I like doing these, it's really clear and defined where the planes are and where everything in space is, but it can still be loose and energetic. Also, taking a cue from James Gurney, I used a water soluble pencil and one of my water brushes to lay down tone. I LOVE this method. I've never been a fan of smudging the pencil around, since it muddies up everything (at least when I do it), but this basically gives me the pros of smudging without the rest of the crap that goes with it. I'm still getting used to it, but it's been fun.

Also, as a sidenote, I haven't forgotten about my Creature Spotlight! Here's a sneak-peek at what's coming up. This little guy is gonna be fun to paint...

Graduation! And a Slug.

So I'm done with college! I guess it's a big step, but it hadn't really sunk in. So to comemorate the occasion (and because I'm busy with other stuff I can't show yet,) here's something I did about two weeks ago. It's a tossed Creature Spotlight concept, since I wanted to try a more centipede-like critter, but same idea. So here it is, the first version of the Lava Slug! I have no idea why this silly thing can't upload the right colors, but once I figure it out, I'll edit this post.

EDIT: Hey, I got the right colors up! Enjoy, new post will be coming soon.

Color Comps

So here is a set of color comps for some animation backgrounds I'm doing for my personal project, "The Tower Troll." The kid's head on a plaque is part of the project too, but I'm not going to spoil why! These were done in watercolor, by the way, with micron inks over 'em.