Happy New Year!

Me-Chan's Search

I'm so excited to share with you, "Me-Chan's Search" which I've been working on since last year!  It's finally finished and up on youtube!  The project was done specifically for children who experienced the 2011 tsunami in Japan, and is currently only in the Japanese language.  The story is about a little lamb who's surveying the aftermath of the tsunami.  Nothing is left except for one large heart shaped rock.  This rock reminds us that even if everything else is washed away, God's big love will remain.

The project was done with a combination of Autodesk Maya for the basic animation, and Toon Boom for the clean-up.  With the exception of one scene I cleaned up, my part was mostly working on the basic character animation in Maya.  Unlike most Maya projects, we chose to not inbetween the scenes, giving the animation a different feel closer to stop-motion in style.

My 1st Published Children's Book Illustrations!

Earlier in the year I was hired to illustrate a children's book on a very serious topic, but the story has such a wonderful message of hope and is written by the sincere heart of a child who misses his father.  It was a privilege to illustrate this book for K.J.

Quote
"K.J.'s father Nick was an example to me and showed me how to be a family man. He showed that when it came to his family, he would put himself second and let nothing stop him from providing them with what they needed. And he always did it the right way. The way a godly man should." - Green Bay Packers Tight End, D.J. Williams

Description
K.J.'s best friend, his father Nicholas Reider, died when K.J. was only seven years old. K.J. captures the memories he cherished with his dad and hopes that other children will cherish them too.


Get the Kindle Edition from Amazon for $4.89
http://www.amazon.com/When-Daddy


Get the Print Edition straight from the Publisher for $8.99
http://shop.lifesentencepublishing.com/

Kansas City Zoo Sketching

I think the last time I'd been to a zoo (before this past Saturday) was about 2 years ago.  I love zoos, I even used to work at one, so it seemed like a really long time since I'd been.  I was near Kansas City, MO house/kid sitting for my brother over the weekend and thought going to the zoo would be a fun Saturday outing.  I'm so glad that we went!  I was able to take some nice photos, get in some sketching time, take some video, and keep the kid happy~!

I don't remember what these birds are called, but they sure are neat animals!

 

The Polar Bear was just chill'n...

 Red Panda, one of my favorite animals!

Elephants are always entertaining! The elephant in this photo I took and the elephant I sketched below are in the same pose, but they are actually two different elephants.  The one I sketched was missing a tusk.

My favorite exhibit was the kangaroo exhibit. Once inside the gates, there were no barriers between the animals and the guests.  They were just free ranging!  I got to sketch them and also take some reference that would be great if I ever want to animate a kangaroo!

Keeping busy

I've really been keeping busy this month with lots of freelance work & collaborative projects.  I snuck in some drawing time to make a new Penguin & Peep piece this week, and spruce up one that I felt I could have done better on.

New Penguin & Peep piece- "Japanese Garden Stroll"

Fireworks: Version 1

Fireworks: Version 2

I wasn't sure the original version of my "Fireworks" print fit as well as it could with the other Penguin & Peep illustrations I'd done, because the colors are bolder and the strokes not as delicate.  So, when I went back to tweak it I softened the fireworks, made the sky more purple, and added flowers to the bushes.  I also enlarged Penguin & Peep a bit.  Looking at them both together, I still like them both, and I think version 2 just looks a little more girly. In the end, I'm not sure if the result was better, or just different.  What do you think?

Novel Characters Blog

I'm starting a new blog!  I will still be updating this one as often as I can, but I will also be updating (hopefully weekly) character illustrations and book reviews of my favorite characters from novels.  It's called Novel Characters!  It's my... uh, novel idea! ;-)  Check it out:  http://ncharacters.blogspot.com

MeChan's Search Trailer

 One of the projects I've been working on over the past year is almost ready to be released.  Check out the trailer for MeChan's Search!  Japanese Language with English Subtitles!