Merril Brandon

I'm Moved

2009-08-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

Hey Folks. I've moved my blog to a new locale:

brandondayton.com

Please update your bookmarks, and thanks for dropping by.

Whu?

2009-06-22T20:01:00.001-07:00

6 Pack

2009-06-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

Boy, I'm getting behind on posting these.

Four Frames

2009-06-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

Catch up from the last couple of days.

Quickie

2009-06-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a frame a day goes pretty quick.

Ker-Ash!

2009-06-01T19:35:00.001-07:00

One More Time

2009-06-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

Wanted to take one more pass at Mr. Gris:

Guess What

2009-05-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

More Green Monk:

Mr. Gris Returns

2009-05-22T21:50:00.001-07:00

I wasn't totally satisfied with the last iteration of Mr. Gris, so I solicited some advice from a number of friends and re-worked it.

Mr. Gris

2009-05-18T21:26:00.001-07:00

The result of a digital painting/character design exercise. I originally did the painting on my cintiqe, and I'm not sure how accurate the colors are. My main monitor makes the image look more washed out and greener.

His face is supposed to be a warm boneish hue, but it looks too green. How is it looking on your end?

The Jackie Chan Formula

2009-05-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

Action directors take note:

Jackie Chan knows how to make an awesome fight scene better than anyone else in the world.

Better than Michael Bay, better than the Wachowski Brothers, and even better than Christopher Nolan. Yes, even with everything brilliant that Mr. Nolan did with Batman, his ability to direct a fight scene pales in comparison to Jackie Chan.

I recently had an excuse to revisit Police Force and Drunken Master II. And let me tell you, if the only Jackie Chan movies you've ever seen had Chris Tucker or Jennifer Love Hewitt in them, you have no idea how amazing Jackie Chan can be.

It may have something to with Hollywood insurance and that he's no young buck anymore, but all of Jackie Chan's masterpieces were made long before he became the Asian Nick Nolte.

Take a look at the fight scenes in films like Police Force, Drunken Master II, and Super Cop. They're amazing. And there's still nothing out there that compares.

There are a couple of tricks that JC has figured out that make his fight scenes so awesome:

1. The Nice Guy. Jackie Chan's characters are never stoic bad-ass kung-fu masters. They are basically Asian Jimmy Stewarts -- nice guys that end up in a mess and try their darnedest to get out of it. This is immensely important, but action directors always miss this. A bad-ass kung-fu master eats ninjas for breakfast. He might as well just be playing croquet. A nice guy hates to fight, isn't that great at it, and gets beat up a lot. He has to struggle to win. And watching a struggle is much more interesting than watching a croquet game.

This is exactly why Jackie Chan likes to make fun of himself. Bad-asses never look stupid, because then they stop being bad-ass. Jackie Chan makes fun of himself so we know he's vulnerable, and fallible just like us. That way, when he does win a fight, it's way more amazing.

2. Room with a view Jackie Chan understands that every great fight scene is a story unto itself, and like with any story, it's much more interesting if you know what's going on. In contrast to the current trend to shoot action up-close with a million edits a second, JC chooses to shoot wide and edit with clarity. There are close-ups-a-plenty, but they are always used to punctuate big kicks and punches, and comic moments. And cuts always follow continuity and classic rules of spatial consistency.

3. No Cables Needed. Forbidden Kingdom may be the exception, but for the most part JC eschews the Hong Kong action practice of choreographing scenes with cables. It's another one those things that helps to raise the stakes. Cables soften gravity. They make a fight scene feel like it's happening on a trampoline. Take away the cables, and it feels like a world where gravity can introduce your face to a concrete floor. For the same reason JC likes to the play the nice guy he likes to leave out the cables. When your hero is vulnerable you care a lot more about him when he's in danger.

4. Clever tricks. This is one of the biggest innovations that JC has brought to action directing. A fight scene doesn't just involve fists and kicks, but every movable and immovable object within the vicinity of the fight. Not only has revitalized the fight scene with this, but also covertly resurrected the brilliance of Gene Kelly. Check out Signing in the Rain and imagine all of the dance scenes were fight scenes. It's basically just a Jackie Chan film (albeit at half speed).

5. The Cornered Animal aka Beet Face. This is the book-end to The Nice Guy. While JC always likes to play the nice guy, he's always a nice guy that by the climax of the film is pushed to the boiling point. JC knows that if you start with an awesome fight scene you have to finish with an awesomer fight scene. The first fight scene will be the nice guy scrambling for survival, and final fight scene will be the nice guy transformed into cornered animal who destroys everything in his path. You can always tell when a JC movie reaches this point because his face turns bright red ( or purple in the case of Drunken Master 2) and he gets really, really pissed.

The final fight scene in Drunken Master 2 is a great example of all of thee above, and probably the greatest fight scene of all time. Please partake:

Drunken Master 2

Let's Flip the Script

2009-05-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Two frames to post today. I decided to make a bit of a change about how I work, and if you pay close attention you can see the change happening between these two frames. For most of Green Monk I've been sketching out each frame with a 4H graphite pencil. I started out using a mechanical pencil, and found that I couldn't get the crisp sharp lines I wanted, so I switched to a wood ensconced graphite.

The reason for the graphite was that it was very forgiving. I could try different things and erase and start over. This worked for awhile, but lately I've been dissatisfied. I still have a hard time doing a really sharp clean up with the graphite. Once I work it too much it's impossible to erase away, which always leads to me trying to clean up digitally. This in turn causes a messier finished look and a loss of a lot of the fine pen strokes.

So I decided to work with red col-erase. I've been hesitant to use col-erase in the past because it doesn't erase very easily, especially after more than two tries. But when it comes to digitizing and cleaning up my art, it leaves no trace (like a good boy scout).

And I think I like that the col-erase is less forgiving. It forces me to be much more methodical about what I'm doing. I take more time to test out thumbnails, and when I'm ready to put pencil to paper I'm much more deliberate and careful.

Take a close look. I think you can see the difference here. Frame 1, graphite pencil. Frame 2, red col-erase. Feel free to point out anything else that I didn't notice.

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program

2009-05-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

After receiving more hits than I will ever receive by posting something totally unrelated to art, I will foolishly return to posting art. This little number took me a couple of days to complete.

I've had a few difficulties with the issue of doing a frame a day. These questions seem to pop up:

What if a frame is taking me a really long time? Do I work into the wee hours to finish it? Do I just get through a frame, even if I'm not happy with it, just to check it off as done for the day?

This is the conclusion I've come to. Starting with a wise suggestion from Twyla Tharp I've decided that my quota every will day will be one frame, or an hour and a half of work, whichever comes first. Second, I won't spend more than two days working on a frame.

While I want to make good quality, I also want to complete something. Two days should be enough to satisfy myself, but if I'm not totally satisfied with the frame, I reserve the option to change it in the editing phase (i.e. after the first draft is done).

So here's today's frame. It took me two days to complete, and I may change it when I get around to the editing phase.

Wells Fargo Vs. Small Business

2009-05-05T09:40:00.001-07:00

So, the other day, while doing some routine financial maintenance, I noticed that my business credit card had been mysteriously been canceled. Had I mistakenly canceled the account? Had I forgotten to activate the new card they had sent me a month ago? Was this somehow the result of credit fraud? Being the vigilant small business owner that I am, I quickly made inquiries to Wells Fargo, to resolve the situation and discovered that the only one messing with my credit card was Wells Fargo.

Their Business Claims unit explained to me that due to the tough financial times, they had deemed me too great of a credit risk to continue giving me credit. What are their reasons for deeming me a credit risk? I don't use the card enough, I have a negative tick on my credit report from 2004, and I've had too many inquiries over the last 12 months (which included setting up a merchant's account with them last year). All of this despite the fact that I've had the card for over 3 years, I pay it off every month, and I have a credit score that is not only good, but has been steadily improving for the past several years (apparently what Wells Fargo deems as risky it not of much concern to Experian).

So, part of what irks me about this is the ex post facto nature of the action, but what really gets under my skin is that I was blind-sided with this cancellation before I've received any notification. On top of that, I was informed that there is no process for appeal, discussion or re-negotiation (I was however invited to re-apply).

Apparently, I'm not the only one this has happened to: Wells Fargo Cancels Credit

So now I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Are my other credit lines with them going to magically vanish? I have no way of knowing. I may just wake up one day to find that what was once good credit is now bad credit according to Wells Fargo. Seriously, is this good banking practice to have your customers in fear that at any moment the rug can be arbitrarily pulled out from under them?

I'm now seriously considering jumping ship. I understand Wells Fargo needs to protect its back, but when it comes at the cost of giving terrible service then I need to do what's right for my business and find a bank that's willing to engage with me like a real human being.

What's really absurd is that Wells Fargo gets to ambush its customers using arbitrary algorithms while peer-to-peer lending continues to be hounded by the SEC.

Fatherhood

2009-04-30T20:41:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the hiatus in posting. I've been adjusting to the new duties of fatherhood (I know, lame excuse). Anyway, here are some Green Monk panels I've managed to do over the last couple of days. Boy do I feel rusty.

Eat Lead Taco Clown

2009-04-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

A couple of sketches for an independent film in development. The Taco Bandito and Fuego Negro:

Witches

2009-04-04T14:59:00.000-07:00

Had a figure drawing session that was canceled the other day, so I spent lunch drawing witches with Gibbs. I found out pretty quickly that the pen I was using liked to smear, so I made a couple of attempts to use the smearing to my benefit.

I'm still here

2009-03-31T19:32:00.001-07:00

Phew. Freelance has been keeping me busy in the evenings. Here's what I've managed to do for Green Monk lately:

Twofer

2009-03-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

These two are actually in backwards order. I put the oldest last so it would flow together with the rest of the panels I've posted on the blog.

I'm getting close to the end of part one. In a couple of weeks I'll start working on getting all of the panels layed-out, adding lettering and sound fx and working on a cover.

Can't...Move...

2009-03-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

Kra-Koom!

2009-03-03T19:16:00.001-08:00

Uh oh

2009-03-02T18:02:00.000-08:00

The Wind Up

2009-02-25T19:26:00.001-08:00

Run!

2009-02-24T20:35:00.000-08:00

Back to Business

2009-02-23T19:28:00.001-08:00

I somehow totally miscalculated the framing on this one while I was drawing it, and ended up having to complete a bunch of it digitally. Ah well.

And Now Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Program

2009-02-18T19:24:00.000-08:00

From Saturday:

Now With Color!

2009-02-15T20:28:00.000-08:00

Here's my first try on color. I might still make some adjustments here. More Green Monk tomorrow!

Classic Pinup

2009-02-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

Here's a freelance pinup I'm working on, that'll eventually be part of an iphone app. I'll post the color version when I finish. The linework here is a lot tighter than what I do on Green Monk, so I actually did a panel of GM beforehand to warm up. I'll probably post that panel tomorrow.

Last one...for now

2009-02-13T17:58:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Friday, and my Playstation 3 just arrived in the mail. So, here's yesterday's frame. If I don't do any tomorrow my next post should be on Tuesday of next week.

Whooosh!

2009-02-12T21:23:00.000-08:00

Thunk!

2009-02-11T20:18:00.000-08:00

I added this frame in. I'm going to have to make up for all these extra frames I'm adding.

Ka-Pow!

2009-02-10T20:35:00.001-08:00

This frame has a weird optical illusion going on where the action lines make the top look crooked. Drawing all the action lines took about 45 minutes, but I think its worth it for the effect.

I'm also starting to post each frame a day late. It's not because I'm a procrastinator (even though I am), but I've noticed that ink smears a bit and fades when I try and clean up the penciling right after inking.

Atomic Art

2009-02-08T19:31:00.000-08:00

For lo these many years I've learnt to do a lot of my artwork digitally. Just about anything you see on my blog that involves color was done with Photoshop, Painter or Illustrator. I enjoy working digitally, but I've been having a hankering lately to produce art that exists in the real world.

Part of it has to do with some musings on the awesomeness of paper I've been having lately (I topic for a post in the not too distant future), but it also has to do with the trend pointed out by Merlin Mann that no matter what your profession is nowadays, you probably do it on a computer.

Now, if I was computer programmer, I wouldn't have much of a choice (unless I wanted to dictate code for later transcription or write it out in long-hand). But as an artist, its well within my ability to unshackle myself from the computer and work with something made out of atoms. Ironically, I find that when I am working in the atomic medium, I am much less prone to exhaustion, eye-strain, and compulsive email checking.

So, with that in mind, I bought a watercolor set and intended to try it out. Then, about a year later I finally did. This is the result:

So, while I'm no Scott Campbell or Bill Pressing, there are nonetheless, some things I like about this doodle, and some things I like about working with watercolor in general.

First off, its terrifying. I used to get sweaty palms when I first started trying to ink my own stuff, but even with inking I can at least use correction fluid to clean up my stuff. With watercolor, what I put down, stays down. I like this. I like that it makes me approach my work methodically and analytically. I spend more time visualizing what I'm going to do and breaking down the process. Regardless of the medium this is a very good thing to do. I also allows the process to be more alive. It becomes more like a performance art. I'm not noodling details, but rather the art is created in a singular, non-reproducible moment.

Second, I love the texture of watercolor. For all the fancy "watercolor" brushes I've seen the in various digital painting programs out there, nothing feels and looks like watercolor.

Lastly, I like that when I'm done I've got something I can hang on my wall without. I can always print out digital art, but the print is never the actual art. It's just a copy.

As promised I'll get into more about the awesomeness of paper in a later post. Stay tuned this week for more Green Monk updates!

Today's Offering

2009-02-05T20:57:00.000-08:00

Daily Updates?

2009-02-04T19:17:00.000-08:00

I'm flirting, just flirting, with the idea of posting my Green Monk work everyday. The only thing is that scanning and posting an image takes way longer than I want it to.

Anyway, here's the latest:

Green Monk -- A Few Frames

2009-02-03T20:12:00.001-08:00

My schedule's clipping along so far. I've missed a couple of Fridays because of social engagements, but I'm going to try to make up for that by allowing myself to do two panels on days that I feel like it.

Here's some cool stuff I've done over the last few days. Boy, this will be even better once its in sequential order!
Oh yeah, there'll be some word bubbles here too.

Drawing this dude's robes has been getting tiring. So I've been trying to do some more dynamic stuff with them.
There are also supposed to be word bubbles on the panel below, but I couldn't figure out a good place for them in the composition. I might have to do some revising to the script when everything is said and done. I think it reads pretty well visually, so there shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Green Monk -- Gitter Done

2009-01-14T18:26:00.000-08:00

As folks are wont to do at the heralding in of the new year, I've decided to make some resolutions. I've taken a smattering of War-of-Art style wisdom from Cory Doctorow, and from an interesting report on resolutions via Science Friday and I'm going to keep it direct and simple. First I'm doing a frame of Green Monk every weekday (with the option to do more on weekends). I've thumb-nailed the story out to the end, and I have 84 frames total to complete. If I do a frame a day, I should finish up in about 4 months. If I can do a couple of sprints on Saturdays, and edit out frames as I go, I could finish up sooner as well.

I've done this for three days so far, and it seems to be going well. I take an average of 45 minutes to complete each frame, although today's frame was done in 20 minutes.

Anyway, here's what I did today.

Technical Drawing

2008-11-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

So I started working at EA Salt Lake at the tail end of the production of Nerf N-Strike for the Wii. It's been a great experience. I got thrown into doing a whole lot of technical drawing, which was a scary, and quite a stretch.

Fortunately I had access to the very enlightening Feng Zhu and Scott Robertson tutorials from Gnomon Workshops. Along with some good advice and inspiration from Jake Parker, I jumped into it. I still have a lot to learn, and I still clutch my ruler quite tightly, but all-in-all I was pretty happy with some of the results.

By the way, two of these were inked by hand and two were inked digitally in Painter. See if you can guess which is which.

Green Monk -- Sampler Platter

2008-11-11T18:02:00.000-08:00

So here are just a couple of frames for the Green Monk mini-comic that I sketched out on 24 hour comic day. I'm way ahead of schedule now. I've got to revise my game plan so I don't end up pulling a "tortoise and the hare".

Anyway, Enjoy!

All In a Day's Work

2008-10-19T19:32:00.000-07:00

So a friend convinced me to participate in the 24 hour comic marathon. I decided to use it as an excuse to spend 24 hours getting a bunch of work done on Green Monk. I started at 10 am and planned to do a panel an hour for a total of 24 panels, but ended up finishing everything by 10 pm that evening.

Not feeling the urge to do 24 more, I decided to pat myself on the back and get a good night's sleep.

I'll post some of the Green Monk panels in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here are some pictures from the event:

Rob Whitaker praying for our souls.

Facing off against Xavi:

The last panel of the evening:

Congratulations to all the real troopers that stuck it out all night. This was the half way mark for them, but it was bed time for me.

Funny thing about drawing all day is that it actually put me in the mood to do more drawing the next day. This is what I did this morning:

Expressions

2008-10-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a sampling of some emotion icons I'm doing for an social networking site currently in development.

The guy I'm working with saw some of my stuff in this book.

Sexy Girls! (and trees)

2008-09-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, after my dissatisfaction with a forest I drew for Green Monk the other day I decided to study some forests by Jeff Smith and Claire Wendling and to see if I could get a better hang on this forest thing.

Here are my first few attempts:

What I noticed about Jeff Smith is that he defines the masses of leaves in a general way, but tries to be specific with the edges of those forms.

He also does a good job of separating the background from the foreground by giving the foreground greater detail and dealing with negative space wisely and consistently. In other words if the gaps between trees are dark, masses in the foreground should be light. In the sketch below I tried to play with the reverse of that idea. Negative spaces are light and the background and foreground is darker. Kind of like a silhoutte. I could have done much more with value on the forest floor.

So I was kind of happy with these first three sketches, but I still felt like that they were a bit generic and that the forms were too flat. So this next sketch I wanted to make the forms stronger, and the designs more unique and interesting. I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

So to summarize what I learned about drawing forests:

1. Think in terms of large general shapes including the mass of leaves.
2. Define the edges of the leaf masses with the details.
3. Give the masses organic form. Use detail and shadow to define how they wrap around and layer on top of one another.
4. Give the foreground more detail, the background less.
5. Be consistent with how you draw attention to the foreground and punch out negative shapes in the background.
6. Make the design interesting (like real nature).

I have more practice to do. The first couple of sketches look more and more primitive the longer I study them.

Oh yeah, I also drew this sketch last night:

Green Monk -- The Giant

2008-09-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

Here are the latest frames of Green Monk, introducing Roussimov the Giant. I'm not too happy with number four here. I'm still trying to figure out the best approach for rendering forest. I need to study some Jeff Smith.

More Miyazaki Love

2008-09-23T21:24:00.000-07:00

I figured I should do a companion piece to go with my last post. It's Master Yupa vs. the (nearly) indestructible Heedra.

Why I Love Miyazaki

2008-09-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

There's a lot to love about Hiyao Miyazaki's films: bizarre creatures and settings, heart-pounding action, quiet moments of contemplation, and a loving attention to detail. But there's one thing above all that stands out about his storytelling, and one thing that makes me want to emulate him: Empathy.

Miyazaki can't resist the urge to take a villain and show us how they see the world and why they do what they do. He's so good at doing this that you don't just understand the "bad guys" but you like them too. At the core of this is a faith Miyazaki shows in human nature and a compassion for the suffering and joys that all humans share.

Probably the two best examples of this are Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa Of the Valley of Wind (the graphic novel), which are essentially the same story with subtely different characters and conclusions. Both stories are told from the perspective of a character who embodies Miyazaki's own empathy. Ashitaka and Nausicaa are compassionate, courageous and open-minded. I'd almost say they were objective, if they weren't so compelled to engage in the dramas they observe. With Ashitaka, his role is outlined a bit more clearly as he's given the charge to "see with eyes unclouded", but Nausicaa, in her unqualified compassion of all living things, ends up with essentially the same perspective.

Both narratives involve warring factions who disturb a transcendent power in their quest for dominance. He has the practically interchangeable characters of Princess Kushana and Lady Eboshi that could easily be cast as villains -- strong willed, ambitious and truculent women battling for dominance in a world of cruel and idiotic men. But Miyazaki gives us ample reason to admire and care about both of them. They both are unfailingly dutiful and loving leaders who engender equally unfailing loyalty from those they lead. They are both shown to be compassionate. Lady Eboshi takes special care of the lepers, and Princess Kushana risks her own life in trying to save the lives of her soldiers and to rally them to victory.

Miyazaki also gives us the Forest Gods and the Insects, particularly the Wolf God Moro and the Ohmu, respectively. Their fight for survival is in opposition to the progress of humanity. This is particularly evident in the direct conflict between Eboshi and Moro, who each have the death of the other as their top priority. But as with Lady Eboshi, Miyazaki takes the time to teach us to care about and love Moro too. Moro is vulnerable, she's fighting a hopeless war against the humans, and she's sentenced to die from the outset of the story. At the same time we admire her for her courage, nobility, strength and reverance for the things she holds sacred.

This is where Miyazaki's greatest triumph becomes evident. Not just that he can make us care about and even like characters, but that he can create such a riveting conflict between them. This is why the role of Ashitaka and Nausicaa are so important. We see everything from their point of view. To them, there are no good guys or bad guys, just painful conflict. Their struggle is the sacrifice to show the warring parties how destructive their respective paths are.

The most beautiful moment of this sacrifice is optimized in Master Yupa's death in Nausicaa. After seeing the example of Nausicaa's equanimity, Yupa finally understands what has to be done to stop the conflict between the Doroks and the Torumekians. At a a crucial point where two camps are preparing to slaughter one another he throws himself on the bayonets of an attacking group of Dorok soldiers. His sacrifice shows the only real solution can't be found in destroying the enemy, but only in destroying yourself. But it's not self destruction in a nihilistic or hopeless way, but in a recognition of the inherent goodness in humans; that the sacrifice of a life for the purpose of compassion will touch even the most deeply scarred and suffering people.

This is why Miyazaki is perhaps the greatest living storyteller, because he's giving the message that has always been the most important: there are no enemies, only suffering. Especially in a time where the complete destruction of humanity is a reality, the need for narratives of compassion are crucial to our survival. But even our simple day to day existence is hobbled if we can't see past the petty conflicts that lead us to greater and greater misery and hopelessness.

And this is only one of the things that makes Miyazaki's films so important. I could write another post entirely about Miyazaki's ability to patiently spend time with beauty; My Neighbor Totoro contains a whole universe of brilliance unto itself. But the main point is if you're DVD collection isn't already choked with Miyazaki films, repent and go forth to Amazon and do likewise. And if there's no room left to squeeze Laputa between Armeggedon and Austin Powers -- the choice should be easy.

Mo' Sketches

2008-09-15T19:18:00.001-07:00

Yup, Sketches. I'll post some more Green Monk next week.

A couple of preliminary sketches for an upcoming project.

Some monsters after being inspired by Derek Thompson's sketchbook:

Who is the Green Monk?

2008-08-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

So If you've known me for awhile or you're one of the few that have actually been following this blog since its inception you might know about Green Monk, a story that's been ruminating in my brain for years now. About three years ago I got it into my mind to make a mini-comic of it, and since then its been a harrowing tale of a battle with myself to create a truly personal piece of art.

I've had to combat a lot of self-doubt, inexperience and perfectionism to get to a place where I now feel ready to dive into this project. So keep your eyes peeled for more news.

For those of you that are interested, here's the basic premise: In a mythical Medieval Russia, a Russian Orthodox Monk wanders the countryside doing good with the aid of a giant blade of grass that can divide anything asunder, whether made by hands or magic. I have a handful of short stories that center around the monk that span different stages of his life. The topic of the current project is one of those stories.

So here's everything I've done so far on the project. There are no words yet, but you should be able to follow the story okay. I'd love to hear any thoughts or comments whether critiques, curiosity, questions or shameless praise.

Without further ado:

Don't you wish you knew what they were saying?

Now at Etsy.com

2008-08-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

Someday I'll have a page on my website where you can buy my sketchbook and prints, but until then I've made all of them available on etsy.com.

If you buy one of my sketchbooks on etsy, I'll even include a sketch in the inside front cover.

It's also currently the only place you can buy the print featured in this post.

Comic-Con 2008

2008-07-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

So I'm gearing up for this year's Comic-Con. I'm going to be hanging out at booth B4 with the crew from 8fish. I'm going to have original prints (those you see featured in my sidebar) screenprints, and a sketchbook with a compilation of much of the cool stuff I've posted on this site, and much more. Here's the cover art:

The sketchbook is 32 pages, 14 of which are full color, and its going to be available for a mere 10 dollars. If you're not planning on being at Comic-Con and you'd like to reserve a copy, drop me a line at brandondaytonATgmail.com.

Massive Sketch Dump

2008-05-25T22:02:00.001-07:00

Well its not that massive, but it seemed like I was scanning for 5 hours (it was actually about an hour). Anyway, more apologies for my inconsistent posting. As I mentioned before, I've started a new job, and had some other hectic things to take care of.
I had kind of burnt out on drawing a little bit until I picked up a copy of volume 1 of the original Akira comic, and my brother lent me Craig Thompson's Blankets to read. Both of them left me feeling inspired. Reading Blankets made me realize that I should be using a brush to ink. I feel like I can translate my pencil work much more accurately with a brush. So expect to see more brush work from yours truly.

The whole experience has made me realize that I need to spend more time enjoying inspiring stuff. The ironic thing is that I rarely read comics, which is stupid, and I'm going to change. I'm getting a library card and exploiting the Salt Lake Public Library's comics section to its fullest potential.

I've also got to find really good stuff to read. I had been referencing some kind of mediocre comics lately, and its made me complacent and boring in my approach to drawing. Seeing really good stuff like Otomo and Thompson's stuff just gave me so much more of a hunger to push myself, and they did it in two totally different, uniquely brilliant ways.

Anyway, enough talk.

Finished

2008-04-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been lax on my posting. I just started a new job at EA games, and I'm still scrambloing to finish several freelance jobs. Here's the finished splash page for Barry Zeigler:

Barry Zeigler

2008-03-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

Here are the pencils for a full page spread on a project I'm currently working on with Neal Holman about an office shmoe that inadvertently inherits an intergalactic battle suit of unspeakable power.

I'll post updates as things progress.

Fabric

2008-02-09T14:28:00.000-08:00

A spot illustration for a local magazine:

Ye Gods

2008-02-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

Some Norse Gods as teenagers. Concept courtesy of Ben Simonsen.

Fun With Pencils

2008-01-28T17:56:00.000-08:00

A couple sketches from the sketchbook:

Aang!

2008-01-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

A little bit of details added to one of the sketches below. From the best animated show on TV right now (I'd say best TV show period, if it wasn't for The Wire).

Church Sketches

2008-01-15T19:47:00.000-08:00

I was rifling through a pile of old church programs, and found a bunch of sketches I had scribbled while trying to stay awake. Here they are:

Art Show -- Update

2007-12-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest on what I'm working on for this Saturday:

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to do it as a screen print or paint it up with more shadows and texture and stuff. I guess it'll depend on whether or not I have the time to do the screen printing.

Art Show -- This Saturday

2007-12-03T17:41:00.000-08:00

For those of you in the Salt Lake area, I'm participating in an arts and crafts show featuring local Utah artisans and stuff. It'll be a great place to pick up that unique Christmas gift!

Here's a preview of something I'm working on, in all its smeary col-erase beauty:

That Special Time of Year

2007-11-27T19:42:00.000-08:00

A little study in preparation for my Christmas cards this year. I've got some sketches too. Maybe I'll post them at the end of the week.

Sketchbook Dump -- Part 2

2007-11-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

As promised, here's the rest of the sketches. See if you can identify the theme here.

Here's my impression of micron pens trying to look like a brush:

Real color brush here.

The next three sketches here I did after studying cartoons by Maurico García Castro (also known as Fantasio) and George Ludway. One thing they are very good at is drawing female curves with subtetly. I tend to exaggerate the curves when I study their stuff.

You can find plenty of examples of their works at Shane Glines's Cartoon Retro, along with a massive archive of other brilliant illustrators and cartoonists that you'll be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Certainly worth the $50/year membership fee.

I think I want to finish this one up:

I want to finish up the one below too. I think I'll add a big cat in the background.

So there you go, a whole bunch of different girls, a whole bunch of different approaches. Let me know what works for you and what doesn't.

Lo, the Mighty Sketch Dump

2007-11-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

Here's the first of a two part sketch dump. You'll notice some brush work here. Its all done with a Pentel Color Brush. I started using it after harassing Bill Pressing at Comi-con about what he uses. I'm finding I really like inking with this thing. My line work has a ways to go, but I'm having fun.

Sketched while watching some UFC:

Started as a stylized profile of my wife, and turned into a concept sketch for DUNE. One of my favorite features of my wife is her "beaked" upper lip. It comes to a point in the middle of the lip rather than at the top of the lip. There's something very delicate about it.

A bunch of stuff drawn with mechanical pencil. Mechanical pencil is great to sketch with. If you get a nice soft lead, it erases easily and you can rework and build up your sketch as you go. The downside is it smears like a beast, and its not as sharp looking as drawing with a prismacolor or a polychromos pencil.

As a result I have to spend a lot of time on the computer cleaning up my sketches so they look ok.

Stay tune for part 2. It'll be all cute girls!

Fight with Color

2007-11-02T08:58:00.001-07:00

This illlustration with color. Thanks to Blake Loosli for coloring it. He does a good job with color, but he's famous in Europe for his caricatures.

Oswald Buttersby

2007-10-29T08:08:00.001-07:00

A couple of designs from Broken Crown, including the hero Oswald and the mysterious assassin Stilleto.

Color on Stilleto is thanks to Gibbs Rainock. You can see the other character I designed here.

When it Rains it Pours

2007-10-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

A revision of a previous illustration. Click through to see the big version.

Hamerella Pinup

2007-10-21T19:05:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to coloring an old drawing.

Family Time

2007-10-19T20:24:00.001-07:00

Another little spot illustration. I swear, I'm gonna come through on this sketch dump.

Fight!

2007-08-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

Another part of the upcoming 8fish/Impact book. I think my line work is actually getting better. Can't say I'm crazy about the composition though.

Big sketch dump coming this Friday.

Click through for a larger version.

Animation Excercise

2007-08-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

Saw this exercise over at John K.'s blog. I finally has some free time this Saturday and thought I'd give it a shot. I tried to re-use drawings as much as possible, but even then this took a lot longer than I planned (about four hours).

This was all done using Mirage.

Wait for it...

2007-08-09T16:39:00.001-07:00

I've still got to give my report from Comic-Con. I'll probably get to it this weekend. Till then, here's an illustration I did today for a local magazine:

I was inspired by this stuff:

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More Comic Con Fun

2007-07-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a taste of what I've been working on for Comic Con. You can see more of what 8fish is doing at 8fishanimation.com.

More Animation

2007-07-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a bit of cleanup I did on the next installment of the Maverik Monster series. I wish I could have contributed more, but alas, I had my hands full preparing for Comic Con.

Anyway, here it is. Rough animation by yours truly, cleanup by Gibbs Rainock. If its not playing smoothly, try toggling between "progressive" and "streaming." Or you could download the video by clicking through to the viddler site.

Comicon 2007

2007-07-13T08:30:00.001-07:00

I will be at Comicon this along with some other good folks representing 8fish. Please drop by booth 5230 and say hello. I'll post more information when it comes in. Till then, here's a little sneak peek of some of what we'll be bringing down:

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More Faces

2007-07-06T15:08:00.000-07:00

Some more facial expressions. I need to get more comfortable with drawing people facing to the left. I always defatult to drawing figures facing to the right. The final face here is an attempt to learn something from the rendering style of Chris Wahl.

Monsters

2007-06-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

A couple of guys and ghouls I sketched out today. I was playing alot with my cleanup process here. All of these were drawn and cleaned up on regler old typing paper. I think the results are as good as I would have got with bristol board, although the wolf drawing did get a bit warped with the ink.

On the wolf, I sketched it out with a mechnical pencil. For cleanup I primarily used a brush marker. When I scanned it in, I adjusted the levels, so that you could still see some of the sketch lines from the mechanical pencil. I also had to fix the placement of the eyes a bit, and I played around with the black and white edges in photoshop. So, some of the strokes you see here are digital:

On the vampire chick, I used a .02 micron pen to sketch the whole thing, then I went back and added the thicker lines with faber castell fine point felt marker. I like the delicate lines, and shapes I could build with those lines. I referenced some of Clair Wendling's hair rendering for the hair. Not quite as smooth and pretty as she does, but I'm working at it.

This last dude was rendered in a similar fashion to the vampire girl, just using some different thicknesses on the felt pens. Its interesting, that as I was drawing these, I had the impulse to use different media for cleaning them up depending on the sketch. Much more explorative then carefully planned out.

The Fight

2007-06-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

Here's the aforementioned spread with color. It was fun to finally have a chance to do something with superheros. There are some issues here with the drawing and design, but overall I like it.

Click through to see the large size.

First Look -- MVT episode 3

2007-06-13T20:43:00.001-07:00

Here's a little bit of animation for the next Monster vs. Trakker spot. I didn't get to do as much animation as I would have liked on this spot, but I'm pretty happy with this. The facial structure is much more consistent than some of the stuff I've done in the past; the features aren't floating around on the face (as much). Plus, the follow through and details on this were fun.

I'll make a post next time about my process for animation.

The rough animation is all me, and the second clip features cleanup by Gibbs Rainock.

If its not playing smooth (like it only shows three or four frames) you might have to download them to see the full motion.

To download, click on the video screen after you've played it. It'll take you to the viddler page where you can click the "download" tab to the right of the video.

Expression

2007-06-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

Here's some more artwork I've done for the 8fish/Impact project. Several expressions from a generic superhero character, and a spread. These are all done with Faber Castell and Micron felt pens on bristol board.

I'm thinking the spread still has some issues with line quality, but that may be because its so small here.

A handful of sketches

2007-06-09T15:51:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple of things I've done in the past week. The first three are part of a project I'm working on with 8fish and Impact Books. I'll have more on that as it reaches completion.

This last sketch is a bit of visual development for Green Monk.

MVT -- Episode 2

2007-05-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

Here's the June Monster Vs. Trakker spot. One correction on last month's spot: I've got John McDonald credited as doing cleanup on one of the scenes I animated. Although John did a lot of other awesome stuff in the last episode, on that particular scene he actually only cleaned up the eyes. Blake Loosli did the rest of the cleanup on the scene. He also did an awesome final paint job on all of the backgrounds.

Anyway, without further ado:

Back in Business

2007-05-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start updating once a week, at the very least. I've got another episode of Monster Vs. trakker coming soon, but until then, here's a sampling of sketches I've done over the past couple of months.

I still want to make some tweaks on this one, and I might use it to experiment with Chris Wahl's coloring tutorial here.

some faces

A Mignola/Wendling inspired swinehound. I drew this on my flight to Japan a couple of weeks ago. Oh yeah, did I mention I just got back from Japan?

What it do

2007-05-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

So I've had a request to explain exactly what I did on the Animated Maverik commercial. The studio I worked with to create this is by no means a large production studio, so I had the opportunity to contribute on many levels to this project. All of this was done under the direction of Ernie Harker, the owner and Creative Director of 8fish.

I did the following:

Helped develop the concept
Collaborated on the basic story structure
Contributed to character design (I designed the Monster's head)
Drew the storyboards
Edited the rough animatic based on the storyboards
Directed, mixed and edited the scratch track for the animatic
Oversaw production of the layout and workbook. That included drawing all but one of the character poses.
Oversaw the editing of the "workbook animatic"
Rough animation on shots 6 and 10(The last shot of dialogue between Ron and Britney).
Supervised rough animation and cleanup
Recorded the final dialogue

If you need any clarification on that, feel free to ask. There's some animation jargon there, and there's probably some 8fish specific jargon as well.

Rough Animation

2007-05-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

Here's some of the rough animation for the spot I just posted. This is all animated in Mirage Studio Pro.

Here's a little bit of what I'm working on for next month's spot. 5 bucks if you can find the scene where I made my transition from paper to digital.

Finally

2007-05-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, I'm a lazy slob that hasn't posted forever, but I'm going to make it up to you. Here's what I've been working on the past couple of months that's kept me from sketching as much as I would have liked.

I'm going to be adding comments and credits on the video so you can see exactly who did what on this. I'll post some of my rough animation once I make sure this is working right.

Enjoy!

Godzilla

2007-02-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago we created a group blog at 8fish, for an art challenge type of thing. We've been too busy lately to really get into it, but I was able to at least get to the inking stage for our first art challenge.

The concept was Godzilla VS.

I'm hoping to find the time to color this:

I'm Back

2007-02-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

Boy its a been awhile. Things have been mighty business at work, so I've been slothful on my posting schedule. I've got a couple of three things I'd like to post. I'll throw them up in separate posts, but I thought I'd start by showing some of the rough animation I've had the chance to do the last couple of weeks.

I 'm not going to post them as youtube clips, since I don't the like image quality. Anyway here they are:

surprise
dredlocks
hard landing

Look for the fully animated version this summer on TV.

Monster

2007-01-16T10:04:00.000-08:00

Well its a new year, and what better way to start a new year with a picture of a skateboarding monster.

Cosmonauts

2006-12-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

Some concepts for an Astronaut mascot. Hopefully I'll get to refine one of these puppies.

My New Website

2006-12-02T21:15:00.000-08:00

I've put together a little portfolio website for myself. I still have a bunch of stuff I need to add to it.

brandondayton.blogspot.com

Next step:

make banner for new website.

Wonder Woman Pinup--Color

2006-11-27T19:22:00.000-08:00

Here it is. I was trying for more of an animated look this time.

Sketches!

2006-11-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

Yes! I do still sketch:

Wonder Woman

2006-11-22T05:41:00.000-08:00

I just finished watching Justice League Unlimited last week. Great Stuff. Here's a WIP on Wonder Woman:

The onlly thing I'm thinking of fixing right now is the face. It got too cute as I was tightening it up. I'd like it to look more sophisticated.

First Look--Green Monk

2006-11-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple of frames from the Green Monk mini-comic.

This is a very interesting learning experience working on these. I'm going to have to go back and revise most of the first frames I did. I'll show before and afters once I do that.

Cheap-o-man rides again

2006-11-18T11:07:00.000-08:00

I wanted to play around with toned paper, but decided to be cheap and bought some construction paper at the craft store.

Anyway, here's some stuff playing around with construction papter, white out and prismacolor pencils.

Pinup Part Two

2006-10-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

I revised the Pin-up below after getting some good feedback from some message boards I posted it on.

I think the color scheme expresses more of what I originally intended.

Process

2006-10-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

Mostly for my own benefit, I thought I'd walk through the process of the last piece I did. I'll try and point out the steps in the process that have been breakthroughs for me. This is still going to be pretty general-not a full blow tutorial-so if you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line.

Okay, so a couple of nights ago I was feeling like pushing myself to do something dynamic, unique and a little sexy. I had just read through Claire Wendling's drawers 4.0 sketchbook, and was very inspired, and I had picked out a couple of visuals things she had done that I wanted to try out.

So I started by doodling a bunch of poses in my sketchbook, just trying to loosen up and find something that really grabbbed me. I tried to focus on using interesting shapes to build the poses, to try and break myself out of the cliches of what an arm or a torso, or a head should look like.

After showing the sketches to my wife and getting her feedback. I decided I liked this one:

So I ran it up to my scanner, scanned it in and converted the lines to a light blue in Photoshop. Then I printed it out using the "scale to fit media" option in the print preview window which blew it up about 400%.

Once I had a print-out with the rough sketch on it, I started sketching over it with a mechanical pencil. At this stage I am trying to build a solid structure, and resolve any issues with proportion and anatomy.

To make these issues easier to spot, I flip over the artwork and hold it up to a light. The mirror image makes problems with anatomy and proportion stick out like a sore thumb. I rework challenging areas until they feel right. There's a temptation to ignore the problem areas here, but I try consciously to find them and redraw them until they work.

I find her kinked elbow and bottow knee to be particularly challenging so I reference some anatomy books and beg my wife to pose for me, and then keep drawing and erasing until it works.

Mechanical pencil and eraser on typing paper is great at this point. It's a very forgiving combination, and feels more like scultping than drawing as I try and refine the forms.

I'm also trying to focus on keeping the shapes as simple as possible. At one point I draw her arm super chiseled and ripped, and decide that the detail is too much, and not very feminine, so I push it back to a more simplified shape.

At the end of the that stage I've got a rough sketch that looks like this:

You can see I've also decided on the details here. I really shouldn't have any major changes after this stage, just cleanup and tightening up the details.

There is still one big anatomy issue I need to resolve. Her torso is too long. I ask my wife what she thinks, and she agrees. Normally I don't suggest making fixes in photoshop, but everything else in the sketch is working well enough that I don't think its worth it to redraw the top half, just to scoot it down a quarter inch.

So I scan it back into Photoshop, cut out some waist area, and print it out again as light blue. This time I print it out on and 8.5 x 11 piece of bristol board. We're getting close to finishing!

Now, I do the tight pencil work. The whole purpose here is to create a guide for inks. I've found that tight pencils make for tight inks. When I don't define my lines first in pencil, trying to control my ink lines is like trying to tame a wild stallion. Again I'm using the mechanical pencil. I try and focus on maintaining the freshness of the sketch. I have to redraw the face two or three times until it feels right.

There shouldn't be anything at this point that I haven't resolved or defined. The ink stage should add very little to what I have here.

*picture of pencils Brandon should have scanned goes here*

On to the inks.

I won't go too in depth on inks right here. Basically I'm using larger strokes for larger shapes, areas of focus, and the underside of objects to give them weight. Smaller lines for details and to suggest form. Even the forms in the background should have some line quality here.

I have to make a couple of fixes with correction fluid, but nothing big.

I'm working with 3 different sizes of pen here. A PMOP porous point for the heaviest lines, a pilot fineliner for most everything else, and .02 micron pen for all the fun little details. I wear a cotton glove with the forefinger and thumb cut out to keep my had from catching on the paper and messing up my lines.

From here I scan it back into the computer at a very high resolution and begin to color. I suggest keeping it over 800dpi. Anything less and the linework starts to suffer when we get into the coloring stage.

From here I followed Ben Caldwell's coloring tutorial found here.

The great secret here is that to get the best line quality you want to forget about anti-aliasing, and pump up your resolution. Jordan Crane also has some good words to say on the subject.

When I got to adding shadow and stuff I got real airbrushy, but I don't think I went too far. Anyway here's the end result:

Green Monk--Turnarounds

2006-09-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

Here are some turnarounds for Green Monk. I'm working on the first 6 panels of the comic too, still kind of experimenting with how I want to finish them.

Green Monk--Here We Go!

2006-09-11T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well I'm getting underway on the first ever Green Monk comic. I just finished the script the other day and have just a little bit of design work to do before I start doing the thumbnails.

I think the story will be cool. Short, exciting, kind of fairytailish, with a funky twist at the end. My wife doesn't like the ending, but we'll see how it flies with other folks.

Anyway, I can't just make a post full of words. Here's one of the characters I'm designing for the mini-comic.

technorati tags:green monk, mini-comic

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Conquistadores 2

2006-09-06T05:08:00.000-07:00

More concepts for the Intergallactic Conqueror. This one is tough, cause it could really be anything.

I started out with "Ming the Merciless" variations.

My brother said the stuff I was doing was looking too human and suggested I make it more alien or demonic. Soooo

Ahh, now we're getting somewhere. So, now I'm to the point where I think I have some viable options. The ming direction could work, but it really isn't that edgy, and I'd like to push it. The demon stuff is getting closer, but I'd still like to try some things that are more alien.

This last one has nothing to do with anything. Its just a picture of a girl with a mohawk. It may seem like she's cussing at authority, but she's actually enthusiastically encouraging the youth of America to eat their vitamins.

technorati tags:punk, demon, alien, intergallactic, vitamins, mohawk

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Sketchbooks for Sale!

2006-09-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

Hey remember that one time I tried to give away a bunch of sketchbooks? Well now you can buy them for the unbelievable price of just 9.99. Its 37 pages of sweet sketches by 7 awesome artists.

Go to 8fish.com to get yours today!

I'll also try and put up a direct link to buy them on my sidebar, so keep your eyes peeled!