Live drawing on the Gigantic stream today!

If you want to see me draw a community created "Gigantic" character on the fly then tune in to our stream today around 3pm PST. Here's the link:

http://www.twitch.tv/gogigantic

Here's the reddit thread talking about the stream:
http://www.reddit.com/r/gigantic/comments/36iyl3/the_next_gigantic_stream_a_heros_tale_there_and/

Should be fun! (or nerve wracking)

UPDATE!
Here's a link to the now archived video stream so you can watch it at your leisure. It went well, designed some fun/goofy characters, talked about art, and of course our game.
http://www.twitch.tv/gogigantic/b/661426254 

GDC 2015

I'll be helping out my team at GDC this year. So if you're in the game industry and are attending come check out GIGANTIC and say "hi!"

Imagine FX Cover and Workshop!

More Gigantic news!
Gigantic is on the cover of an upcoming issue of the digital art magazine Imagine FX. The cover was dual painted by Devon and me.  It was an interesting process. I've never actually collaborated with someone on a piece of artwork but it was pretty fun, so I see no reason not to do more art-collaborations in the future! Emily and I have painted on each others paintings from time to time, and we've also helped each other out with drawings but those are more like un-official collaborations.

Anyways here's the cover! It definitely exceeded the quota for the number of characters on an IFX cover! (Usually they just have one character per cover.)

Tyto, Voden, and Knossos get ready to battle their most
fearsome foe... cover copy.

After the issue is actually out I'll get permission to post some process stuff and post the cover without the text.

There's also a "how we design a hero on Gigantic" workshop in the issue. I tried to put into words the interesting and collaborative design process at Motiga, using the elite sniper, Imani, as an example. I'd love to elaborate on this further but for now this is a nice peek into our process! Here's a really lo-res pic of that workshop... gotta get the issue if you want to read it!

Digital Arts Festival Moving to Early Next Year

The Digital Arts Festival that I mentioned in this post has been moved to early next year, check back on this blog for more information about the new date.

MEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!

Digital Arts Festival - November 2013 - Redmond, WA

Update: The Digital Arts Festival has been moved to early next year, check back on this blog for more information about the new date. 

Here's some exciting news!
I was invited to attend and present at the upcoming 2013 Digital Arts Festival in Redmond, WA. I'll be doing a two hour talk/presentation on Tuesday Nov.5th and a two hour workshop on Saturday Nov. 9th.

http://digitalartfestival.com/index.html

Here's more information about the two events:

Click the image for more info and to buy tickets

Concept artist Vinod Rams is coming to Redmond to talk about what it takes to become a full time concept artist and demonstrate his process. Vinod's clients include Monolith Games, Wizards of the Coast, Raven Software, and Paizo Publishing. He is currently a senior concept artist at a new company, Motiga Inc. in Bellevue. Don't miss this great opportunity to learn from one of the greats!

Click the image for more info and to buy tickets

Giving your characters.... CHARACTER! by Vinod Rams

In this 2 hour workshop, senior concept artist Vinod Rams will give you insight into giving your character designs real personality and charm. Knowing your anatomy is only half the battle when it comes to character design, getting inside your characters heads is how a good design becomes great. Vinod will go over topics like expressions, posing, costume design, and the importance of selling your character to it's viewers. There will be discussion, demo's, drawing (traditionally or digitally) and critiques. 

If you're a student that is coming out to my workshop please feel free to e-mail me or post a comment about what character related stuff you'd like me to cover. The workshop is only two hours long so I have to keep it focused. You can buy tickets for individual workshops or for the entire week long festival, so you can take advantage of all the events and speakers. This is a small intimate event, limited to just 10 seats so buy your ticket quick before it gets sold out! 

Lots to prepare for both of these events, better stop blogging and get to it!  

Rose City Comic Con and 2D Artist Magazine

Just a reminder that Emily and I will be sharing a table at Rose City Comic Con in Portland this weekend. So if you're in that neck of the woods, please drop by! I'm still selling my sketchbooks and some prints of my illustration work. More info on Emily's site here.

Speaking of sketchbooks, I have a sketchbook feature in the current issue of 2D artist magazine. Here's a little teaser, but the actual article has about 35 sketches with a bit of insight and commentary by me. (for what it's worth)

Some of these sketches will be familiar to my loyal blog-readers.

It's a pretty cool issue, especially the interview with Ryan Lang, a vis-dev artist at Disney.
You can download the magazine here.

Anomaly Demo

Sorry for the delay in posting this; various non–art stuff kept getting in the way. Here's what I did during my six hours at the Anomaly Workshop.

Before the workshop, I did some legwork since I was worried about drawing and painting with people watching me. First, I played around with some body roughs. I knew I wanted to do some type of creature, since the theme for the workshop was "study from life" and we were in a natural history museum. 

Here's the first round of sketches that I did in my sketchbook.

Another round in the computer exploring the proportions a bit more. I'm trying
for something long, lean and muscular.

Getting somewhere... I wanted to explore something with his ears.
They have very loose skin, so when he's alerted or startled he can
expand them to take in more sound.

The images completed at the workshop.

Detail view. I was inspired by Terryl Whitlatch's bold use of color for
her creature designs.

The ever important reference sheet.

I'm happy with this guy, and I'm glad I did some studies before the workshop. That way I could just zone out and paint details and textures, which I love doing. When I get some free time, I'm going to give this guy the full Terryl Whitlatch treatment: design his skeleton, musculature, and do a page of action and behavioral drawings–the complete package!

Again, thanks to everyone who stopped by during the workshop!

Anomaly 2012 Report!

We're back from the Anomaly workshop in Vancouver.
It was a lot of fun, and I've come away from it inspired to create, which I think was the point of the workshop... The Beaty Biodiversity Museum was amazing. Rows and rows of skeletons, fossils and taxidermied animals to look at and study. The atmosphere for the workshop was very relaxed, and it felt very different from a comic con. Here's some photos Emily snapped while I was "workshopping."

A blue whale skeleton, the largest on display in Canada.

mouse deer skeleton

an echidna and a bandicoot

ungulates!

 The highlight of the event for Emily and me was meeting Terryl Whitlatch. Terryl is one of the most well known creature designers in our industry. After discovering her work back in 1999 for Star Wars: Episode I she quickly became one of my favorite artists and I constantly look at her work for inspiration. She did a presentation about her career and her thought process for her creature designs as well as hang out on the main floor of the museum to talk and draw with the other artists. We talked for a while and later when I was demoing she came over and we discussed the creature I was working on! I was flattered to say the least. Check out her latest project: Tales of Amalthea, it looks amazing.

Unfortunately I was too busy to attend any of the other presentations, but from what I hear they were all really fascinating.

I enjoyed meeting with friends and colleagues while I was doing my demo. Answering some questions and talking shop with students and other artists in the industry was nice and hopefully watching me work was interesting to all of you that stopped by.

Finally I'd like to thank Graeme McCormack for inviting me, and all the other organizers that put the show together. This was the first art workshop I've been a part of and it was a great experience all around.

A rare sighting of the dorkicus artisticae - more commonly known as the
"Vinod Rams."

I'll post the creature I designed at the show tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Anomaly 2012 is this Saturday!

Anomaly 2012 poster by Scott Carmichael

Just a reminder to anyone that's in the Seattle/Vancouver/Pacific Northwest area that the Anomaly Workshop is on Saturday. I'm getting stuff prepared for the demo I'll be doing there. It's not going to be a formal talk about a particular subject, rather I'm going to be on the main floor of the museum drawing and (digitally) painting from 6pm to midnight. Like I mentioned before, I've never done this sort of thing but I think once I get into some sort of rhythm it'll be a lot of fun. (again please don't throw things, kneaded erasers can really hurt)

My plan is to design a character on paper, scan it, and finish off the concept in the computer. Hopefully things go smoothly, and I don't just end up drawing and erasing the same monster head for 6 hours straight. (this is a possibility) If for some reason I'm not at my table drawing, just try and find where Terryl Whitlatch is. I'll probably be fawning all over her like the art-dork I am.

I'll post the work I do at the workshop sometime next week. Stay tuned!

Anomaly 2012

I will be doing a demo at the Anomaly workshop in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 28th.

Click to go to the website

I've never done a live demo like this before, so if you're planning on attending please try and keep the heckling to a minimum. I'm going to be figuring out what I want to tackle during the 5 hours (yes 5 hours) that I'm scheduled for over the next month. If you are planning on attending and want to request something for me to cover feel free to leave me a comment with some ideas.

A big thanks to Tom Scholes for recommending me to the organizers, hopefully I don't make a fool of myself so you don't regret your generous endorsement!

I'll be posting more about this later, stay tuned.

-Vin