Harry at Rest

This is one of a handful of life drawings I just scanned out of a newsprint pad from Figure Illustration 1 this semester. I'm not sure what it is about the regular male models at my college, but they're all absolutely fabulous to draw - fantastic unique features, on top of being really great guys. This portrait in particular I really enjoy - I believe it was a 20 minute pose.

-Mel

"Nexus: Feral Kin" Colored

Another Finals assignment for the semester out of the way: Score. Given some compositional tweaking from the original sketchbook lineart posted earlier, I gave Nexus' Simon, Dominic and Cheyenne here a proper color treatment: More then was required for the assignment itself, which was to simply have a certain ammount of drawings in a sketchbook completed, granted, but hey. This was fun... and if one can make Finals fun, by all means. Rock it.

♥Mel

Nanmia Character Study

The rather charming old gal I've been animating in recent weeks, Nanmia, from my TKP series concept. This was the initial study sheet I scrawled out prior to starting the current animation I'm working with. I really do love this character - tenfold since animating her. She's both charming and an incredibel challange in all of her loose, floppy skin and quirky expression. I'll hopefully get the pencil test posted here for you soon.

♥Mel

Doodles!

I needed a break from the animation lab, so I thought I'd share a couple of doodles with you all. Here's two tied down frames from the 20 second long pencil test I'm working on at the moment, as well as a little toon of me as a kitty... just because, really.

-Mel

Mel's Other Half

A fairly recent painting for my Figure Illustration 1 class this semester. Acrylics, in a very different style then I've worked with the paint previously - mostly color washes. A very interesting process to learn, for sure. That said, here's my sweet man, Niles. And yes, his eyes really are brown and blue ;) Acrylics, roughly 11x14 inches or cold press illustration board.

-Mel

MSB Pages 1-4

I recently started a new rather dinky thing of a sketchbook - all of 5x8 inches - perfect, I'm finding, for doodling on the fly and note taking. For something a little different, and to give you and idea of how I'm keeping a sketchbook recently, here's the first 4 pages of the MSB ("MiniSketchBook") all 4 of which contain notes and doodles surrounding Nexus' new original incarnation. Characters Pictured: Dominic Drowe, Simon Valkyrie, Cheyenne Valkyrie (Kayo) and Vinnie Lennox.

♥Mel

Nexus: Simon, Dominic, and Cheyenne

Ah, bless Figure Illustration 1 for giving me the excuse amidst all of my maddening schedule to HAVE to work in a sketchbook. It's so hard to find the time otherwise, when I'm rifling madly through hundreds of loose sheets of animation paper on a daily basis! This is one of seven images I have to have in my sketchbook for the class. Ultimately, these seven images are supposed to lead up to a final concept for our final project - an illustration of our "Alter Ego." My argument is, as animators, our characters ARE our alter egos in one form or another, seeing as, as the "actors" behind the characters we create and animate, part of us is reflected in each and every one of them.

In this images' case, here's a trio of characters from my "Nexus" series: Simon Valkyrie (Top Left) Dominic Drowe (Top Right) and Cheyenne Valkyrie. Simon and Dom are the Alphas or leaders of rivaling Feral (or what humans would loosely consider "werewolf") packs. Cheyenne is the monkey wrench in their rivalry: Simon's firstborn and Dominic's mate. As you could imagine, all hell breaks loose amidst the lot quite frequently indeed.

Drawn in a cute little 5x8 inch sketchbook I picked up the other day.

♥Mel

New CCS "Game Art" Reel

My apologies for being so quiet as of late! Unfortunately, everything I've been working on is still either in production or in the possession of professors for whatever reason. I'll be able to accumulate the lot by the end of the semester though, for sure, and share it with you all. For now, here's the latest demo reel from the college I attend, this one centering around concept\game art. I have three pieces in this one, which is quite the honor indeed!

-Mel

Akinah Expressions Test

A quick pencil test from this evening - our assignment was simply to animate the transition between three different facial expressions in a character. So, here's poor Akinah, having a rather bad day. I wish I'd had more time to putz around with it then just a couple hours this evening, but cest la vie! Onto the next assignment first thing tomorrow morning. Also of note: The nifty music clip there is from RoyaltyFreeMusic.Com

♥Mel

Agave for Emma Progresson Video

A progression video for the "Agave" image i created for my buddy Emma, in an Unavisi Community art exchange over this past summer. Mechanical pencil line art, Adobe CS3 and a Wacom tablet were used.

♥Mel

This Is My Hell

Our assignment this weekend?
"Animate something weird."
Well, ok then.

♥Mel

Zensei "Bank" Image Progression

I enjoy creating these, actually - it's another step by step display of the progression of my Zensei "Bank" image (which, in all actuality, is really a tradesman's tent for the Zensei clan) for the Environments and Characters class I took last semester. Set to "The Fremen Qizarate" by Brian Tyler from the Children of Dune soundtrack, a tune I tend to lean back upon frequently when thinking about this particular tribe of people from TKP.

♥Mel

The Dawn Watchman (Tobias Rough Pencil Test)

A rough, 7-second, three scene pencil test for my Tech 2 midterm assignment. Tobias ("Toby") hears danger approach Kemono territory, and alerts the post on the edge of the forest across the way. A smoke signal tells him that his warning call has been a success.

Update: Also, to answer the question of, "ugh, why isn't it longer?" Trust me, I think this thing could benefit from at least another 15 seconds of acting time. Unfortunately, per the assignment, we had to be exact in the timing down to the very frame in this assignment, or we failed. So, 1 second (24 frames ) for the first shot, 4 seconds (96 frames) for the second shot, and 2 seconds, 7 frames (56 frames) for the third. Hope that helps!

♥Mel

Unavisi Sketch Exchange: Xand for Lee

An egregiously late all-digital sketch exchange for my buddy Lee of her drop-dead gorgeous Terina character Xand, from the Unavisi community. Lee, thank you again for your gracious patience with this!

♥Mel

Life Studies Set 1

As a bit of something different, here's a set of figure drawings from the Figure Illustration 1 class I'm in this semester - there will be more of this to come, for certain. It's an incredibly busy class. Please excuse the somewhat grainy quality of these images, they're taken with my aging digital camera, as the tablet they're drawn in is quite large. Models present: Richard, Ron, Harry and Heather.

-Mel