Rough Groupshot (Costumed)

Trying to see how they all look as a group. I seem to have approximated the perspective pretty well (each is a separate drawing), though edits will be made during cleanup. Alsooo...more early development bits!

Sizing chart. Looks like Zach is the "heavy" in this team.

Mighty Morphin' MMO Rangers

Working on a new redesign. I'm exploiting the "Power Grid" aspect of the story, with hints of "Iron Man" and "The Centurions-ions-ions". Sooo many drawings precede this one and I'm still only 45% there. 

I'm working it out with ink and colored pencils until I find "THE design". Mainly simplifying shapes. It would be hilarious if I ended up with the original 90's spandex.

Can you tell I started gaming recently?

Iron Man-esque undersuit. This one's pretty much there.

Power Rangers + Life Drawings

Thinking about the Rangers again. They're a looong way form where I imagine I can take them. Also my updated life drawings pages...BTW wow, that blog banner is OOOLD.

Kimberly Hart

For this one, I tried out a new coloring method which utilizes photoshop's "Hue/Saturation" feature (here's the youtube link...). The system involves painting the whole thing in one color (like with gray markers), and swapping the colors out in the end. Not bad for a leap of faith!


And here's a peek at the clean pencils, brought to you by Prismacolor Pencils! "Prismacolor: melts in your mouth, not in your hands!"


UPDATE: I darkened the shade and added lens flare. That is how I am to be rolling. Perhaps I should also darken the rest of the bike's rear...

New Banner!

I've been working on a new banner for...well FAR too long. I really need to use Photoshop more. A lot of the lines have been "corrected" since the rough pencils. Either way, I hope you all enjoy your new welcome mat.

Happy New Year!

2010! Lots of things to come. Some old, some new. There is one franchise however that won't be joining us in the new decade. A franchise with at least 17 seasons of sqib-exploding entertainment. With this fake-trailer, join me for a last look into the lives of the world's busiest teenagers, the Power Rangers.

(NOTE: I'm actually impressed that someone managed to make a physical representation of "nostalgia-blurred vision".)

Just one big pressure point...

There are actually TWO ways to make someone simultaneously explode. 1: spend your entire life studying the deadly art of Hokuto Shin-Ken. 2: Just have Trini press on the giant "Z" *rimshot*.

Yyyyyep. 'Harder than it looks to get those interesting angles. Might as well start now. Trini's right fist is far too big for the effect. And the left leg is a little muscular. Those'll change in the tracing process.

Reading Scripts

I remember hearing several interviews of Brad Bird answering questions regarding being a better film maker. The half-cliche, time-tested query: "What advice do you have for an aspiring ________? *adolescent voice cracks*" ANYWAY one of his common answers was to read movie scripts. Sounds like a logical move...

But how do you go about GETTING these scripts!? I'm not sure how you get them in the conventional sense, but I'm reminded of a forgotten site that I visited back in high school. It's called Movie-Page.com. Somehow, the webmaster gathers scripts to just about every movie in Hollywood. I remember reading "The Matrix" with one of my best friends (I gave a legendary performance as Morpheus). Turns out it's still there after all these years. Enjoy.


SCRIPTS SECTION


OH FIIINE here's another Ranger doodle. Jason and his "jump front kick pop-up"

Before, and after Ben Caldwell...

I finished reading this book called "Action! Cartooning" after I bought my own copy. Before then, I was reading it out of the school library and mooching off the website. After reading it (this isn't a plug, btw...actually it kind of is...) I have to say a few things. First of all it did a fantastic job of explaining the "line of action" concept, where you always start your figure with the "spine" curve.

Second I learned some valuable construction tips that I'm still getting used to. My power ranger drawings improved so much I thought I'd to an "extreme makeover", before/after-type post. Each drawing now takes around 20 minutes and feature far more than just the straight "contra posto" (spelling?) pose.

SO...heeeeere're the scribbles I did in fall 07', that gave me this stupid idea...



aaaaaand HERE's a few quick drawings I spat out within 3 days ago.
Thanks, Ben! And to think, this is nothing compared to when I reeeeally get comfortable with these techniques... Dudes and dudettes (because this blog is so popular...), I know this book's been out a while, along with the "Fantasy!" sequel, but run, don't walk, to your local bookstore and pick this baby up!

TYRANNOSAURUS!!!

Well summer's pretty much over, which means my schedule shall soon runneth over and prevent me from working on my film. The only thing that disappoints me is that we got literally NO testing done. Of course, that's not to say nothing got done. I managed to get 2 full storyboard sequences drawn, inked and toned, and the crew has been working hard as well. But for the first time, I'm learning what "development hell" means. Next opportunity, I must learn how to better lead my team and have them meet more often.

There are two main reasons I haven't given up on this thing. One is that, like Andrew Stanton advised, I have fallen for my story, am stoked about what it could mean for all of us if it's completed, and am dying to see it realized on the screen. The other is that I'm sure nothing about my idea is out of this crew's reach. The only crippling obstacle has been scheduling. But all that's irrelevant now. School's starting, so goodbye project...

And HELLOOOOOOOOOO POWER RANGER DESIGNS!! You'll be seeing a lot more o' these this semester! lol

PTERODACTYL!!!

There's GOTTA be a better way to photoshop these drawings. The way I'm going at it now is painful, takes forever and has no foreseeable hope of accomplishing any kind of line quality. I traced over the rough drawing in ink, went into photoshop, traced it again and colored it. Didn't really try to color it WELL, but I tried not to embarrass myself. Someone's gotta let me in on the secret to cleaner lines and shading. And don't tell me the secret is, "work harder" lol!

This is that same image of Kimberly Hart from over a semester ago. I spent the entire day coloring it, stopping only for a 2 hour nap. I'd go further with it, but I'm not sure my crew would be so happy with me blowing all my time drawing Power Rangers. I guess it's more of a way to roll through "boarder's block"... I gave her 1 layer of shading, for the sake of it. One of the rules of civilian wardrobe among rangers is to work their colors into their outfits...genius...

And SURPRISE!!! My brand spanking new rendition of Jason Lee Scott! I made him look younger and therefore less bulky. However, I also tried not to lose sight of his Sentai "alpha dog" persona. Jason's the ideal leader. Humble, yet strong and without fear. Head based on a square (of course...). I might color him someday. I notice color really helps me get more of the character across. He has a normal sized head, which I seem to be gravitating towards in the later designs. I still haven't given up on the big-head idea with their "suited" designs.

Trini: Part Deux

Sorry for the barrage of posts. I actually have a lot of "old" drawings I wanna catch up on. I couldn't resist trying out Jeff Matsuda's Batgirl, "Big head, small/thin body" ratio on the Yellow Ranger. I can't yet push my designs nearly as far as he can, but his style is infectious. I'm not gonna pretend I'm not influenced by it ;). She's supposed to be feminine, but not quite so "graceful" as Kim. I'd probably have her fight animation silent and quick, with daggers a-blazing, like a female ninja...yeeaaahhh...

I also tried "softening" up Trini's head design. I brought the chin in and changed her eyes to something more...slanted (for lack of a less racist term). In the end we have a whole new, more innocent look. How'd I do?

Trini & Kimberly

Well this project that Raf and I are working on (see Ratdog Blog) is moving about as smoothly as WALL*E with 4 flat tires and a crowbar dent(i know he doesn't use tires...). I think the problem is (besides my raging 'boarder's block') that we can't seem to get a good workflow going between meeting, working, and the rest of our lives. What keeps me going though is a comment made by Andrew Stanton a while back. He said that if, at the start, you love your idea so much that you're dying to see it on the screen, that obsession will drag you through the slow times and rainy days. If we pull this off, it'll mean a lot for all our futures. Plus it'll look awesome.

Enough of that. Here's the official first pass at the 2 characters, Trini Kwan and Kimberly Hart. The point of this wasn't necessarily to caricature the actors from the show, but to organize their character descriptions and try to translate them to action cartooning. Of course to completely ignore any flair these actors brought to the MMPR craze would be a crime also. I'll "show my work" in these descriptions in case someone wants to make their own designs, sans the tedious research lol (Check my links section for some good MMPR reference sites...or not).

I always imagined Trini as the second most capable member of the team. She talks a small game, but she's always so Gung Ho about helping her friends. Her flaws are that she lacks a lot of the attitude most snot-nosed American kids have. Her humanity lies in her sincerity. She looks like she has a lot of respect for the truth. And also her inner strength. "Kid's got heart!", as the High School coaches say. The fact that the actress who portrayed her is no longer with us makes me want to draw her in as emotionally stronger than in the show. She has the rough hairstyle of Thuy Trang plus one of the outfits, But I played with her expression and gesture to fit my idea. She has a solemn look to her, sugesting she got "the call" from Zordon.

Kimberly is inescapably a Valley girl. She's also a competitive gymnast. Her more annoying character quirks are that she's so delicate, both emotionally and physically. You don't see much of her taking down putty patrols on her own, as she works much better with the team. However, she's not dead weight. No Sentai series from Gatchaman(G-Force) to Voltron would be complete without this acrobatic and graceful element. She's enthusiastic, and shows courage under fire. Plus, her "Check out the sterio!" comments were cute. I'm sure if she was actually cornered by a goon squad, she'd find a way to smear em'. She's the smallest physically, based on the Pterodactyl and later, the Crane. I imagine her Ranger animation would be light and floaty. Classic outfit + hairstyle. I improvised on the physical build and facial features.


NOTES: Of the people I showed it to, I got a few critiques. One was that Trini's face was too...big? I think in the cheek area, i dunno. Maybe I should bring that chin in a bit. No complaints so far on Kimberly, but I might still work on her a bit more. Any thoughts?

Next up is probably Jason and Zach. I stumbled on a cool and easy head design for Jason, but need to produce a solid complete figure before I show it. Zach is becoming a real pain in the spandex. Who knew the Black guy would be the big speed-bump lol!? I can't seem to get a good head design for him. Ah well. I'll keep on it.

*sigh* Just what this world needs...

...ANOTHER SKETCH BLOG! YAAAAAY!! Welcome to my new blog. I was originally against doing this myself, as I am used to reading the blogs of ego-crushing giants like Robin Mitchell, Lauren Montgomery, Ben Balistreri, etc. But my friends made passionate and convincing arguments so here I am.

I was at a loss as to what to CALL this thing...I'll probably end up changing it, time will tell. I decided to name it after a life changing moment in my development as a geek. I dub this Blog, "Day of the Dumpster", after the first ever episode of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Aye, a Saturday morning of 1993' I'll not soon forget...

As a matter of fact, this could work out real well...I've been working on a sort of "portfolio-filler", and this could give me a reason to keep it up. I plan on "adapting" the MMPR world to a (pretend) Saturday morning cartoon format! I figure everyone my age knows those characters pretty well, plus how they look. So, like in Jeff Matsuda's "The Batman", cartooning them should teach me a lot about how I like to draw, as well as show employers an honest look into my personal drawing style.

Plus I'm always guilty of holding my art as "too precious to post". Since the MMPR are a copyrighted property ANYWAY, It'll be a lot easier for me to just draw, show, and take lumps.

I'm still working on it, trying to heed the words of authors Tom Bancroft and Ben Caldwell. I have a decent springboard for the characters, Trini Kwan and Kimberly Hart (who knew they had last names!?). The suited designs aren't an issue right now. The main challenge is translating the (surprisingly diverse and detailed) character descriptions of these 6 teenagers to interesting designs, along with the other wacky citizens of Angel Grove. I'll post some work l8er. But for now, enjoy this scribble I did (not to be confused with a "sketch". there's a diffrence, darn you!).