I'm officially out of school for the rest of my life! That is, until I figure out where I want to go to pursue my Master's. And decide what to pursue it in. :S While I'm looking for a job/jobs, I'm determined not to let my skills regress. I have plans to make another 3D model of my character Calypso, as well as finish the 3D model of the famous motorcycle from Akira that I started almost a year ago. I also have entered a couple of different art contests/challenges. Fun stuff; I'll try and post them here when I finish. For now, here's a birthday gift I whipped up for my aunt. It's her two cocker spaniels, Jasmine and Clancy, playing in the snow in Prescott. Used: colored pencils, oil pastels, and white gel pen.

Stuff.

So! Things are coming to an end. I graduate from college in two weeks--yay! Here is my finished demo reel:


And in other news, I finished yet another pet portrait. In my three years of doing pet portraits, this was the first time I got asked to draw a cat--guess dog people are more obsessed with their pets, or something. ;) Ironically, this cat is the same breed as my own cat so that was pretty cool. I think Maine Coons are beautiful, beautiful creatures and it's amusing to me how timid my cat Hershey is when he's so much bigger than the rest of my family's animals.

I've been applying to jobs all over the place so hopefully by the next time I post, I will have been successful! :)

WIP - 3D Animation Studio

Final project progress! I've been using the Hogan rig for all of my Maya animations in the past, but this time I wanted to use something more human. I couldn't decide between the Andy rig or the Blake rig, so I ended up using both. Not sure which one I like best; each one has some nifty features.

D&D Art Order Challenge

Recently I decided to enter the D&D Challenge on The Art Order. I only found out about the event a week before the deadline, so I didn't have much time to come up with something, but I really wanted to try something new. My entry is for Creatures, and I chose to do a tribe cook based on pre-done character references. Creatures are somewhat out of my comfort zone, but it wasn't as hard to do as I'd thought. In fact, I really had fun. I'm going to definitely enter more of the challenges on The Art Order. :)

Animation Studio character designs

A couple of very simple characters for my 2D studio class. The flying pig was my first choice, but it didn't match the audio I'd chosen so I'll probably use it for my second project.

WIP - Horse Model

Something for 3D Animation Studio. It won't make it into my graduate demo reel, but I might put together a 3D-only reel after graduation, simply because I have a lot of material.

I'm not striving to make this horse super ultra-realistic, but I don't want to go the cartoony route either.

[video] Illustrators of the Future Win

This was a nice surprise to receive in my inbox!



I entered the L. Ron Hubbard's Writers/Illustrators of the Future contest in 2008/2009 as just one of the many scholarship opportunities I'd gathered as a highschool senior. When my submission got enough kudos to move onto the next stage, that was cool enough for me. But then I found out I'd be illustrating the short story of another contest entrant and that I would, along with about 15-20 other writers and illustrators, be getting published in Vol. 26 of Writers of the Future. It's a pretty substantial science fiction/fantasy anthology. I feel extremely honored to be included with such a talented group of people!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to attend both the workshop and the awards ceremony for the vol. 26 winners. It was held in 2010 and I'd just begun entering my core classes at college--I didn't want to interrupt my schooling. (Plus, I couldn't afford to stay in LA for a week.) My parents and I didn't think too much of it until we saw this video last week and realized that no, this awards ceremony was actually a huge deal. And now I feel really bad for missing it. (I'm still broke, though.)

But here's the clip with Simon Cooper, whose amazing, enthralling short story 'Confliction' I got to illustrate, and my own segment that I was not present for. I was wowed that they actually showed my other submissions, too!