this year's "holidays" cards + a new drafting table!

after much internal and external questioning, i finally decided to go with "happy holidays" as the theme for this year's card. most everyone i know celebrates christmas, but figured a more generic holiday greeting is the safest bet.
as far as the subject matter, i decided to kill 2 birds with one stone by including and further developing a family of cattywampi- a new breed of characters i came up with ear marked for a few ideas i have floating around in my head. after tossing the first draft, i then inked this one, scanned, and started dropping in the colors behind a multiply layer of the outlines in photoshop.
the image above wasn't actually used, but instead i customized a bit by laying in a variety of different BG images, to keep them nice and special. below is a pile of the bulk of them, before jen & i wrapped them off like little presents and sent them to the far reaches of the country.


and below are a few of my favorites...in other news... after jen finally gave me the go ahead on acquiring a proper art desk, i scanned craigs list for a drafting table- nice and big like the kind "professional artist folk" use [and similar to the one i used throughout art school]. after a few minutes of searching, i stumbled across this pristine mayline jobby, which best of all, was FREE! after a quick trip to redmond to see if it was legit, rob helped me pick the BEHEMOTH [i shit you not- this thing weighs ~1000 lbs.] up, and get it into the house. i was _extremely_ surprised there were no injuries- nice!

... patenaude

another batch...

more simple/ compact enemy designs for one of the game ideas.
messing around with some fat body designs.
this one was actually and attempt at a vertical design for a t-shirt contest submission... that never happened;)
why won't he just leave that little bugger alone?
"oh, you... comere for a little pinchy pinch pinch"
another round of q-bert nosed dudes- looks like the guy on the bottom is quite aroused about something;)

ok. that's it... i've been procrastinating enough- time to move onto painting what might turn out to be this years holiday card, if it turns out all right.

... patenaude

even MO' arts!...

i toldja i had quite the backlog- still trying to post these [while procrastinating on painting the holiday card;)] before moving onto the ~5th sketch pad of the year.
this one started while i was gearing up for the halloween series [which consequently left me quite obsessed with pumpkins ], before adding a nice shape which turned out to be that dragon lizard.

after drawing the guy, i decided to use the remaining space to continue working out the details of the catty wampi [the kitty cat beasties- plural for cattywampus].
i can't wait to use this vehicle [or something like it] in a video game some day- part santa sleigh, part pirate ship.
i've taken to working a few rude comments into some of my sketches [more to come!];)

decided to keep the sketch pad binding in this one, because it was so unbalanced/ empty without it.
hah! one of my most genius weapons ever! spiked vibrating um... "intimate toys"- HILAIOUS!

ok. that's it for now- plenty more to come!

... patenaude

mo' arts...

planning on starting to add more captions to give the drawings more purpose, if for no other reason to convince myself that this all matters;)...

...i think these two might be keen on each other.

... random guy- testing out the long bow tie as an accessory.

"blee boh bah borp"

"hrmph"

a few sketches of some q-bert-esque baddies for one of my game ideas.

so... that's all- plenty more to come [already scanned even!], but i'm on my way out the door for 5 miles with the hounds!

... patenaude

new batch, hot & fresh outta the oven...

posting a few not-so-finished pieces so that they can enjoy a brief moment on the web before slipping away into storage. starting to work a bit more text into my sketches, in an attempt to at least hint at what might be going on with these folks.







... patenaude

halloween collection, final?

a bit late with the final scans for these [photos were posted in august, but scans are necessary for reproduction] considering the paint has been dry for months & we've had our christmas tree up for over two weeks [trying to milk every ounce of holiday spirit out of that bad boy]. but! better late than never?...



enjoy!

... patenaude

the yellow submarine...

wow! after recommending/ loaning it to a friend to watch, i realized it'd been a while since i'd seen it. so i sat down with my sketch pad and a bit of wine, and popped it on the TV.

it's such a perfect mix of some of the best music ever recorded with some of the most beautiful and imaginative imagery that i've ever seen. every time i watch it, i can't help but be inspired and appreciate what a wonderful EXPERIENCE it is, and how completely i'm drawn into the world that it's created. and, as a video game artist, my thoughts lead naturally to imagine what a _WONDERFUL_ video game it would make, or at least inspire. i know they've created interactive rides based on the movie, but i'm talking about a larger project, that really captures how deep this world actually is. given that, despite my ongoing battle to be too heavily influenced by any one thing, you just might start to see some of the elements of "the yellow submarine" creep into some of my future works.

below is a video i ran across that takes a quick peak into the movie, hopefully enticing you to finally sit down and watch it... or watch it again. enjoy!



... patenaude

better late than never.

a bit late with this one, but wanted to post it before getting too far away from halloween. it was an early sketch done for the halloween series i did, which i'm planning posting final scans of later in the week.
... patenaude

more sketches...

a few more random sketches- trying to start working some captions in, if for nothing else, just to coax a few laughs outta myself...





... patenaude

"The World Hopes for Its First President"...

fantastic newsweek article, that reminds us that the US isn't the only country in the world that needs obama to win... [http://www.newsweek.com/id/166910/page/1]

"Obama went into Election Day with a steady lead in U.S. polls, averaging about 50 percent to 44 percent for McCain, but he was headed for a landslide around the world, topping polls in virtually every nation often by strong margins: 70 percent in Germany, 75 percent in China and so on".


great read!,
patenaude

a few sketches...

much more to come [in the process of cleaning up ~25 scans that i just did]. also shifting gears from "art for art's sake", to gearing concepts towards story and game ideas- will be sure to note any details on pieces earmarked for those projects.

... patenaude

shoot... i might actually vote for this one...

i couldn't resist- another non-art update... but i just had to...



... patenaude

quick non-art update...

documenting this, for future reference & my excuse for not being able to allocate as much time to art these days as i'd like...

wow... boy was that close! jen & i were scheduled to do our final walk through on a brand new ~ half million dollar home last friday, and close on halloween. oddly enough, besides a bit of persuasion from my good buddy rob, it was GEORGE BUSH that really nudged me towards reason- do you want to know how?... he said DON'T WORRY!... so i worried- just in the nick time! i'm not blaming it all on him, but isn't it amazing when ANYBODY [let alone the president of the united states] has ruined what [little] credibilty they had, so much so that you're inclined to DO THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT THEY SUGGEST?

here are a few links that also helped jen & i make up & solidify our minds on the subject...
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/602-Time-Is-Up-Congress-And-America.html

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/08/real_estate/financial_crisis_pulling_out_of_home_sales/index.htm?postversion=2008101016

http://seattlebubble.com/blog/2007/09/19/who-are-you-going-to-believe-on-the-economy/

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=arSYa87HCb9U

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/liamhalligan/3023967/A-default-by-the-US-government-is-no-longer-unthinkable.html

... as i post those links, i can't help but wonder how differently this whole mess would be if there were no Internet, no 24-hour news to... let us to know worry... times are crazier than i've even seen- it doesn't even seem to be a good time to buy a new TV these days, let alone a new HOME!! eegads!

we'll begin seriously looking again in the first quarter of next year, more than likely in the same area [capitol hill/ madison valley area], but will hopefully be spending considerably less... for considerably more;)

ps. i promise that the next update will be chocked full with art!

... patenaude

mo' elements!...

this'll be the last batch for a while- a few action shots for the ADD sidecroller series+ a few enemy concepts to be used in that and upcoming projects- enjoy!

... patenaude

more elements!

like i promised, here are more of those "elements" i spoke of- these little devils that made their first appearance in the "changing of the guards" piece for the obama fundraiser, and will do an encore in the "ADD sidescroller" series... yep!

more to come soon!

... patenaude