Second FarFaria book on-line now

My second project with FarFaria was up and running right before Halloween last year. Its been a little hard to come back and post about some of the work I've been doing but there is a few more announcements to make and will be posting again soon.

This project was also really fun to work with. Though it looks a bit dark and scary, its actually a really sweet story about making friends.

Here is the link to the main page, in case you would like to sign up for the FarFaria app.

http://www.farfaria.com/stories/title/zombie-elementary

New FarFaria story published!

My first project with the children's book iPad app FarFaria is now published.  I had a lot of fun working on the illustrations for the story titled "Grunt and Growl," written by Conrad T. Mahoney. The story is about two young cavemen who struggle to find a new way to travel.

I'm currently working on a second project for FarFaria and its another fun story with a lot of humor. I will post an image from that story as soon as the project is finished. In the mean time, check out the FarFaria webpage where you can see the cover illustration I did for Grunt and Growl. If you do sign up with FarFaria, you can find the story of Grunt and Growl ( with my other 14 illustrations) and many other illustrated stories under Adventure Island.

http://www.farfaria.com/stories/title/grunt-and-growl

Four Thumbnail Drawings

Just exploring some new ideas.

Crossroads

This painting was one where I tried to use my digital skills in a less "painterly" way than I'm used to working. I wanted to create something more clean and polished and also in a different style.  I'm constantly pushing my work towards more focused and well defined new directions. This was definitely a  good exercise to expand and improve on my previous background art work. More coming soon:)

STEAMPUNK ILLUSTRATION SHOW

In the beginning of the year I was invited to be part of a show at Cal State Fullerton (I'm a recent grad from there), that would be based on three literary works by three Allumni from the 80's. These authors were actually the originators of the term "steampunk." Soon after I was invited I got to work on my piece for the show and just a week ago our delivery date came and went at CSUF's Begovich Gallery. As part of the show there will also be a book printed composed of all the work available for purchase at the closing reception.

I really can't wait to see the show. If you have ever had the chance to go to the Begovich Gallery, then you probably know how great and big the space is. This is going to be a really great event with hundreds of people attending, some even wearing Steampunk gear!

The poster was created, I believe, by a current CSUF student. You can find all the info about the show there. Mark the date and hope you can make it.

Digital Car #2

I've always liked the elongated cars from the 60's and 70's. This is my first try into creating my own dream car. You can probably see that this one is heavily based on a 70's Cady. Its still not quite what I was going for, but it was a good one shot exercise.

Morning Car Painting

I've been meaning to do some car paintings for a while. Today I used my morning warm up to start those paintings. I will keep posting more of them as they come along.

Mike the Mechanic

For some reason, over the years I always gone back to drawing some type of  mechanic. Its been a couple of years since the last one.  There's definitely a big change in my work since the last one I did. I like being able to see my work keep changing and developing.

Robot Space Boy

This is another digital sketch. I will be posting more of these as they come along throughout the next coming weeks. Done in Corel Painter.

Digital Sketches

Here are some digital sketches I did for an illustration that will be in a show in April. I want to re-work the final piece before I post it here. Hopefully soon.

Chicken Licken

Here is my design for my version of Henny Penny, also known as "Chicken Licken" or "Chicken Little." This was one of the drawings I did before putting together the scene that I drew with all the other characters. The final illustration was done for the SCBWI Tomie dePaola award contest. You can see many of the entries here, including my own.

Here is a piece I did a while back. I brought it out to add some minor changes to. I think it still needed some work and it does look better than before. This image was made for an ABC book that was created as a class project. I got the letter S. "S" for "Snot my day." I will be posting some new work soon.

SCBWI 40th ANNIVERSITY

This passed weekend I was able to attend my first Los Angeles SCBWI summer conference. SCBWI was celebrating its 40th year and it did so with a record attendance, more than 1300 attendees. During the weekend we were able to listen to and learn from many of the great writers, illustrators of the children's book industry, like David Small, and Jon Scieska. Being that it was my first time at the summer conference I definitely felt a little overwhelmed at the beginning of the event. But as soon as it started I realized that there were many of my friends from CSUF present, and all the new friends I could ever want to make all around me. Everyone was just there to have a really good time and SCBWI did a really great job making everyone feel right at home.

The portfolio showcase was one of the highlights for me. There were over 180 different portfolios on display, including my own. It was really great being able to see so much work in one room. There was so much good work, and so many great styles that I'm sure the judges had a very hard time deciding on the winners. Though I was not one of the chosen few, I did feel very confident about own work and received a lot positive feed back from a lot of people.

My weekend at SCBWI was truly a great and memorable weekend! I can't wait for next year.

See you there.

Here are some of the new images that I put together for my portfolio.

More Environment Designs

Here are just a few images that I've produced during my time as an intern for Easley-Dunn Games. My experience as an intern has been really great and has helped a lot in understanding better the job of a concept artist.