Shout out to the Moose Man

Last night on Wipeout, the guy who won it all could make this moose face with his torso. I salute you Moose Man.

morning warm up

Been thinking a lot about how I need to focus more. These guys look like they are focused. I will try to be like these guys today. Oh, and I got a ticket driving to the Tetons last week, maybe thats still on my mind too.....

Oscar Pictures

Legend of the Star

These are a few illustrations for a book that I have been working on. If it looks like they are a bit rushed or not very well thought out it's because there were a bit rushed and not very well thought out. This was a tough project for me. I don't feel that I ever "caught the vision" of this book. I was not happy with the overall story and the writing was not engaging. I never felt a connection with the project and the work suffered for that. I'm happy with the look of the illustrations but not the design. I think the whole book would look better if I would have gone through the entire process of painting an image in this style a few times to get it right and then work on the final images. I'm living and learning.

Toastmasters

I'm a part of Toastmasters and one of the roles is Grammarian. It's the role I most often volunteer for. As Grammarian, you get to count how many times people say "Um..." "like" or any other filler word, stops and restarts and any other distracting word usage. At the end of the meeting, I report for everyone's benefit how many times they messed up. So basically, I'm distracted by focusing on all of the errors people make. I get to flex my critiquing muscles.

Concepts for Childrens Book

Sketch Club post

here's my latest post on the Sketch Club blog. Check it out, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Easter's a comin'

Sketchclub post

I just posted on the Sketchclub blog. Click on the link to see the full image. Its a bit of a Jed Henry rip off, but his stuff is amazing and I want to learn anything I can from him.

I'll tell ya, this Sketchclub has been one of the coolest things that I've ever been a part of. I feel like a real artist when I go out with these guys to the local Greek cafe, we sit in silence and draw all the characters around us. It must make people very anxious to sit near us. I wonder if we drive away business. Then at the end of the hour of sketching, we head outside and pick out "the Mark". The Mark is anyone who stands out for some reason, someone that has character either in the way they move or what they're wearing. Usually its both. Then we commit to memory as much information as we can about them and go back to the studio and try to redraw them as well as we can from memory. Great exercise. And it's cool to compare what each other picked up on.

Evening Commute

Palm tree and telephone line silhouettes all the way home...

It was just announced that

Pajama Gladiator has won a Student Emmy!!

There is a first, second and third place and we don't know which one it will take, but we'll know that at the actual ceremony that Ben Porter (Producer) and I (Director) will be attending in March. I'm very pleased that our little film is getting noticed and recognized. It's hugely gratifying and all icing on the cake. What's even cooler is the fact that we were up against Kites, which is the BYU's animated film after ours, and they won an Emmy too!


In other news, I found out that the show Wipeout is having a casting call this Saturday down in Anehiem by Disneyland. I'll probably have to ham it up, but if it means that I can take a run on that obstacle course then I'm good for it.

Nosferatu

I just watched "Nosferatu" and enjoyed it way more that I was expecting to.

FAMILY; isn't it about time?

Over the holidays my brother and his lovely wife went out to Chicago to adopt a beautiful little boy and I couldn't be happier for them. Welcome to the family little Kallen! We've been waiting for you buddy! I can't wait to meet you in person.

I was closing my eyes to try to visualize the scene I'm working on and a figure much cooler than this one came running through my thoughts. I tried to capture it as a drawing but it was too evasive, and this is what I'm left with.

Another Yearbook on it's way

In this digital age, we take thousands of pictures a year - most of them are horrible, but what do we do with them? For the past two years my wife and I put them all together in a "Yearbook" and publish it through Blurb. It's a great way to actually use these pictures that we so generously shoot.

PJG claims Producer's Choice and Viewer's Choice Awards

Not only did I not expect this, I didn't do anything by way of telling people about the competition to get the votes! To my great luck and support, there was a mass email sent out at work for me about this and I heard of another one going out on BYU's campus telling people to go to the Nicktoons website and vote for the film. And as a result, we won the Viewers Choice. A month ago, Ben, the Producer, and I went to the Nickelodeon Studios for a party. We knew we had won the Producer's Choice Award. But the viewers choice was still up in the air. So thank you wonderful people who took the time to check out the film and who voted for it. Those of you who voted for something else, you should see it again.

Guy a-walkin'

I am SO lucky. I am also very grateful. Sony rocks and I feel overwhelmed by how this is all coming together. Here at the studio, Marcelo Vignali gets some people together and heads over to a local Greek place where they sit down and draw the people around them. I tagged along this time and plan on making it routine. At the end of the sketching session, the group singles out someone just walking by and they all memorize him/her to the best of their ability and then go back to their respective desks to then put it on paper. Then they'll be posted on the Sketchclub blog. Great exercise in memory retention and quick observation. I think this poor guy noticed us all studying him as he walked down the street.

Happy Hallowe'en

Sony Story Artist!!!!

I feel like the luckiest person in the world! Just last Monday I was offered a job with Sony Pictures Animation as a Story Artist! Here's a quick run down of how it happened:

Monday - Sept 8th Blue Sky Studios got my Layout demo reel
Tuesday - Sept 9th I got a call from Blue Sky and a phone interview with the Layout people
Thursday - Sept 11th Blue Sky called with an offer! And it was a really good one! I was very pleased with it. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was in the industry and I would have been foolish to not go after it. They let me know they were on a pretty tight schedule and needed to get an answer to them by Monday the 15th. I sent out a bunch of emails - one of which was to an recruiter at Sony Pictures Animation with whom I had been in contact. I asked if she knew of anything going on in Sony with Story positions. She emailed me back quickly and the ball was rolling.
Friday - Sept 12th I got a call from this recruiter saying that Sony was interested in interviewing me at their studio on Monday!
Monday - Sept 15th My interviews went better than I expected. I was relaxed, the conversation was great and I thuroughly enjoyed it all. On my way out of the parking garage, the VP of Productions came out and stopped me in my car and told me that I have the job if I want it!!! Want it?! Of course I want it!!! I was on top of the world!

So my family and I are now off to LA to live the dream of a story artist! I can't wait!!!

Here we go again

It's bound to happen one of these times, right? I keep getting closer. The first time I applied, I was in college, didn't have much to show and they were very polite, but i'm sure they laughed when I left the room. The second time I applied was for the After Effects position. Though I was recommended by the person they were going to hire, someone else was hired before I even got my portfolio in. With the Layout Artist, Pixar actually called me up and flew me out for an interview. That was amazing. Thought they didn't offer me a job, I was that much closer. Now, I'm gearing up for round four! Wish me luck.

My recent venture into water color...

This painting was done in about an hour. I know it's not amazing, but my enthusiasm for watercolor has just been rekindled and this is right at the beginning of the wave. Hopefully things will get a better as I keep practicing. We just got back from a visit to Idaho to visit a friend, and as a thank you for staying at their house, I sat out front and painted the scene before me.

I would also have you know that I did not make the painting from this photograph. The difference in perspective you see is the difference between the naked eye and the focal length of the camera lens. So please don't dock me points for not getting it to look exactly like the photograph that you see. But I was impressed that Marianne was able to get a picture from almost exactly where I sat to do the painting.

I have a lot to learn about painting.

tree study

Chia Loosli

random sketches

Clown Monkey

Jonas Boy

This is a portrait of my newest little boy for a gift to my wife for this year's Mother's Day. I know there are many problems, but seeing as how I'm not really a portrait artist, I'm pretty pleased with this. I know if I put in more time, I could iron this out to be a bit more technically accurate. This is about 6 hours of work. Black and White rocks. I don't want to leave out Max, so I'll be posting another portrait of my first born. We'll see how that one turns out.

May Demo

I have been working on this over the past couple of weeks and I would bet I've put in well over 60 hours working mainly on the Half Pipe Dream, not to mention working out all the little details. The Devil is in the details... Ain't it true.

Anyway, I want to spend more and more time on this thing because it needs so much work. But I have to get it out before I miss an opportunity. There is a trade off, do you sweeten the demo reel - thereby increasing your chances at the golden job? Or do you quick get something together and sent out, before the rad job gets nabbed? It's a toss up.

endings

I have gotten great feedback from people on this little piece and one of the comments was the screen direction issue at the very end. Here is a side by side comparison of the two.

complete with Titles

I am very interested in hearing your critiques. I know that it is standard to just leave a "feel good" comment - ex. "wow, I love it!" "Perfect!" "Don't change a thing! You're amazing, Glenn, and you should work for Pixar!!" Don't hesitate to leave that as well, but if you see something that could be better - let me know. I am using this for a camera-setup portfolio piece and I want it to be nice.

Grazie amici

full first draft of Half Pipe Dream

Here it is, the entire first draft of this little exercise I've been working on. Like I mentioned before, the idea came from a childhood dream, but I'm using it now to explore camera angles and camera movement. I welcome criticism and approval just the same. Let me know if this is understandable. What works and what doesn't work for you? What is confusing?

Half Pipe Dream rough draft

When I was a little kid, I was really into rollerblades and one night I had a dream that there was a skate park that had a roller coaster roller blade track. That idea has been rattling around in my head since then and I thought that creating it in 3D space might help exercise it out of my life! Plus this is just way cool to look at without the danger what could happen on a track like this.

A smile might be nice

I don't think of myself as an angry person, but I've been noticing that most of my drawings come out with angry eyes and expressions. Maybe its the cool lines that mad eyes make.

animated GIF test

Taxes are due WHEN?!

Soccer girl

PJG character cut outs

Nervous Pooh

This is in honor of my big brother, Scott. You know when you anticipate doing something stressful, like speaking in front of public, you get the butterflies in your stomach? Scott claims that there is also a link to the bowels - that you get nervous poo. This is my birthday present to Scott. Here's to you big brother, thanks for inspiring me!