Shell Shock.

Well, looky here at this little mash-up. I dunno if I'll finish this illustration. But I wanted to display the unfinished progress. There are 3 more turtles ready to be imported into ol' Photoshop...but I dunno if I'm gonna continue with it. We'll see...

Shell yeah.

Well, once again my arch-nemesis, Mark Montgomery, has forced my hand.

I haven't posted here in a long time. I just simply haven't had anything to post, really. I've had the inkling of desire to illustrate or to create something...but everything I produce isn't what I want. So last night, I sat down and decided to play with character proportions on the ninja turtles (which the aforementioned arch-nemesis also posted about recently). This isn't going to see the next phase (his right hand wasn't even complete), but I thought I might need to keep up with Mark in my posts a little more. So here was some progress, as well as a couple of head shape ideas for the other 3 toitles.

I'm going to try to possibly put a new polished piece together pretty soon. I need inspiration!

BRAWK!

I finished! All in all, it's a 9-page comic. If I had more time I know I could have stretched this story out at least another 5 pages. But for what it is, I think it works fine.

Anyway, this whole thing is for an anthology being put together by fellow sequential art students from SCAD. The theme of it is "Break." And my characters are "broken" down on the side of the road. And there we are.

I had fun putting this together. It's different from my normal endeavors. But then, recently my normal endeavors have been to explore stuff I don't normally do. So it's a bit...the same...as my same endeavors, I guess. The inking was a combo between the brush, micron pens, and Photoshop. I'm really happy with how this turned out. Got me thinking about the possibilities of a graphic novel. That's a big bite to take, but this was 9 pages in a week. So, you never know.

Mark Montgomery is supposed to be contributing too. And it's gonna be awesome, I bet. Don't make me look like an idiot on my own blog, Mark...

Bird is the Word.

Well, this is the first (still unfinished) page of a 10 page anthology piece I'm currently working on. The theme of the anthology is "Break." The entire premise is that these two super heroes - Eagle Eye and Bill - were on their way to save the city when their car broke down due to an electromagnetic pulse. Humor ensues.

There's not a lot of action involved in the comic. It's more of a character piece that has fun with the dynamics of their relationship. The banter you see on this first page sets a pretty accurate tone for the other 9 pages.

It's also been a long, long time since I've done any comic work at all. I just don't dive into it as readily as, say, illustrations. But I thought this sounded like a fun challenge to tackle. And it's given me an opportunity to really explore my spot-blacks (something I never really do, as I color or tone almost all of my work), as well as my overall balance and composition when it comes to sequential story-telling.

I have 3 other pages done...but I wanna save them all for one big reveal. Enjoy!

Try the Wine.

This was inspired by my new part time job at the Firefly Cafe, here in Savannah. I tried referencing concept work from a few different artists, including some of the "Art Of" books put out by Pixar, as well as Shag and more retro-style executions. Trying to expand the palette and bend to whatever style I'm in the mood for at the moment. Hope this was successful. I feel like it was. Thoughts...?

Chwomp!

Over the last few months, I've been working on a side project with a couple of friends of mine. It goes beyond this particular image, and we're trying to keep it on the hush-hush until all of the details get ironed out. Usually, I like to give a brief synopsis on what or why I'm doing something. But, if you can forgive the lack of exposition on this, that would be fabulous. Raincheck?

Anyway...since I haven't posted anything in quite a while (not since graduation, it seems), and I was really happy with how this illustration turned out, I thought I would drop it on the ol' sketchblog. It's a step away from my norm, I believe. Thoughts are welcome.

Jeff Larkin did that thur three-die-mentional render above. And if you visit his website, you can find a couple more really nice collaborations that we've been...well...collaborating on. And take time on his demo reel, as well. Tell him Brett sent you. But be sure to use the secret knock when you go. Jeff has a Gun.

Shyeah.

So this is number 3 in my (hopefully) series of 4 movie cars. It's the Mirthmobile from Wayne's World. It's a little different from the first two cars, especially in the usage of space and type. It's also a lot more bouncy and animated, I think. But that comes with the mood of the film as well.

I had fun with this one, and it has a little bit of sentimental value to it, since it's the last illustration I'll ever do for a college class. Scary to think about that.

This one's also got a few sections I plan on revisiting, but I'm happy enough with the product to display it. Thank you, Sarah Burgess for walking up to me, when I was about ten minutes away from leaving this piece alone, and complaining about the text placement...sending me into another half hour of repairs.

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!

But Doc...what if we don't succeed...?

Well, after another dry run for about a week...I finally managed to produce something new. I did the pencils yesterday and took it to color tonight. And yeah, that dirty, half-done scribble at the bottom is definitely the finished pencils. Everything past that was done in the kumpruter. I originally planned on having the Delorean hovering above a field with those flags dangling from it, like in the last scene of Back to the Future II. But this is where it went, instead. I like it better, cause it definitely has a more foreboding feel to it, which is what I wanted to try and capture from the second film. Thanks Jeff, for the ideas on taking it this direction.

This is a work in progress since I haven't completely decided what I want to do with certain elements of the palette. I'm really trying to get that Delorean to pop a little more. I think it's 95% there, and since I've been staring at it for the past 4 or 5 hours I'm just not able to see what I need to do. Probably just need to walk away from it.

Or I'll just draw at 88mph and fix problems I haven't had yet. Sleepy time.

Are you inking what I'm inking...?

I actually did these about a week ago. I haven't really touched my brush in quite a while, so I thought I'd break it out for a few hero studies. These weren't really for anything...just to see if I could still wield the tool. Still some things I need to work on, but I'd like to eventually do a really nice black and white illustration with only the brush to guide me. It'd be nice to have some more variety to my portfolio.

It's been another dry week. Though I'm tackling this last quarter with all I've got, it does nothing but bother me when I have a ridiculous term paper to write. I want to immerse myself in my art, but I can't with the formalities of art history looming over me like an acid rain cloud.

I've decided to buy a dog, and train him to confess to wrongdoings. Then I'll feed him my homework and provide a written statement to my professor, signed by Sparky.

What did you DO, Ray?!

There is nothing more depressing to an artist than spending a week and a half trying to find your muse. Every time I sat down to draw, or color, or even surmise a concept for a drawing...I fell flat. Nothing wanted to connect, and my brain and hand weren't communicating. It's the worst 2 weeks, artistically, that I've experienced in a long, long time. Never the less, when you do find that ghost...you bust it. And what better time to do that than 4am...?

So I started out today just wanting to draw a car, not really expecting to take this to the level it went. And then it went there. I'm really happy with how it turned out, though. Could use a tweak here and there. But for the most part, I think this picture has a lot of spirit- AY OH!

Don't cross the streams...

Oo...ee...oo-aa-aa...

This is the new shot of Doc. Played around with his colors to give him a little more ashy-witchy-doctory look. I'm way more happy with this one. Still got a handful of others to complete, but I've been feeling quite the dry spell lately. I can't seem to do anything correctly on paper. I wanna brush ink so badly, but every time I start to work on something, I end up comparing it to my previous work...or I feel like I'm recycling an idea, just with a new character.

Witch doctors don't have days like this, I bet.

Doc, this is heavy.

So, I got through a whole day of drawing, inking, and coloring...and I don't like anything I've done. And even though I don't wanna use this for anything, I did spend a good chunk of time on it...so I thought it was worth showing on the blog. The curse I've been feeling lately is that every time I throw something down, the first run of it is a disgusting failure. And the second shot is always 5 times better.

Refills are not free.

Turn arounds...every now and then I get a little bit lonely...

Well, it has been quite a long time since I've posted. I'm in my last quarter here at SCAD, and I'm cranking through on senior projects. Here's a taste of what I've been working on. Now, these turn-arounds need some tweaking and reworking. But the changes are very minor, and I'm extremely happy with the progress I'm making so far. I plan to have about 13 character turnarounds at the end of the quarter. So, we'll see!

This girl has no name, but for the time being I've been calling her Rebecca.


Kiwi...

Newton...


And here's a background I started painting tonight. It's coming along nicely, but it has severely departed from the original pencils. Still, I'm excited to see where it lands...


Anyway, that's all for now. Enjoy!

The Fridge Door!

Ok, so this illustration may not make a whole lot of sense unless you click here.

It's the first illustration to be posted on Fridge Door. Basically, a phrase, word, question, etc is posed every month and different artists have the opportunity to approach it from whatever angle they choose. This month's title was "What is frumberlockle?" And there we have it!

This piece served a two-fold purpose. The first fold, of course, was to hit the ground running with this new art-blog that we've got going here. The second purpose came after spending most of yesterday really diving into other artists' work and realizing that it was time to expand the palette a little bit. Though I understand the execution of painting, it's not something that I approach very often. However, since the child inside me (the same one who still draws cartoons and has a shelf full of Looney Tunes and Transformer toys) never fully died off, I submitted to the attitude of "anything you can do, I can do." Maybe not always better, but I can get there with practice I think. That's my story and I'm sticking to it like, HEY, a picture on a fridge door!

Just for posterity sake, I printed this image out and put it on my actual refrigerator door.

Safari, So Good.

Click the image to view it larger!

Well, it has been quite a long time since I've updated the old blogger. But I've recently completed (I think, anyway) the newest addition to my body of work. It's the same safari characters that appear on my website, with a few new additions and a subtraction. I laid the pencils down some time ago, and two weeks back I started picking at this thing until it turned into a full blown assault on my time and health. Late nights, or early mornings - however dark the sky is when you look out the window - tend to catch up with you if you're not careful. But it was actually nice cranking through a couple of all-nighters. I haven't had one in months. They remind me of what I love.

I love sleeping until 1pm the next day. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!

Special thanks to Jose Pardo, an incredible artist I have the pleasure of working with every week. He crash coursed me in a few rendering techniques a while back that really contributed to the finished piece above. He also assured me that there is no extra charge for awesomeness...or attractiveness. Check out his site below!

Moon Vision Studio

How cute. Wait...how cute?

I did this today after work. It's me...uh...and it's ME...UH! I mean...Mia.

It's me and Mia. Yes. There. Enjoy.

Safari, so Good.

I did these sketches today. Some days I don't feel like I can lay a line down to save my life, much less the life of a character. But today, for some reason, everything was working really well. These are updated versions of what my group of safari characters will probably soon become (the whole group can be found at brettbrooks.com under the Illustrations section). You can see the progression in the characters from then until now. Exciting!

Ch-ch-ch-Chip and Dale!

Well, I did this yesterday. I was hoping that this would be a future piece of merchandise (a pin, actually) at the parks, but the concept was turned down for a few different reasons. So since this illustration will never go past this stage, I'm free to show off the work as long as I circle-C everything that's necessary and don't make any money off it. So if you were going to send me money anyway, go ahead. But all I can send you in return is an 8x10 glossy of myself...autographed. And kissed.

Chip and Dale as Chewbacca and Han Solo. I really liked where it was going and was excited about it. Unfortunately it will never see production. Colon, open-parenthesis. Ah well. Enjoy!

Do Not Stare At My Jest.

I've been practicing a lot with female figure drawing recently, as can be seen in the post below. A friend of mine at work introduced me to Chris Sanders' art (Director of Lilo and Stitch) and I got really inspired to try my hand at it.

I've discovered that the combination of curves and a really interesting pose can be nearly addicting to draw. I have a bunch of sketches that weren't very good and, thusly, were trashed. But because of the versatility that the female figure can sometimes have over the male figure, a certain charge accompanies the art. I've in no way mastered or even come close with this stuff, but it's really fun to just lay out new poses and challenge myself with perspective in anatomy and foreshortening.

And now...Harley Quinn.

Mark my words.

So I did this thing here for Mark Montgomery as a going away present last week. I'm pretty sure that those are the luckiest two girls on the planet.

Flesh Out Da Kitchen!

They say that too much TV can turn you into a...well...

Anyway, there's this guy...

Is he finished? Well, in the biological sense, he's quite finished. But I was kind of excited to get him up online, so I haven't decided if the art is completely done yet. And my impatience can sometimes get the best of me. So I may add a few more things here and there later on.

The animation is kinda small, so here's a full size still image of Zeke. His name is Zeke as of this moment.

Weird Science.

Hey! I'm a billy goat!

And take a look at my mad ol' scientist. He's just too mad for words.

Lady, have you got your lions crossed.

This is half a drawing I did for a SCHISM piece, so it may seem a little odd as a stand-alone illustration.

The full SCHISM can be seen here.

Ready for Take Off.

So I wanted to do something a little off from what I usually post. And this is what got - a muskrat-ish little guy ready for take off. I really like it. He's fun.

I actually visited Florian Satzinger's blog, and was heavily inspired by his work. You should check it out. Very, very nice stuff.

Under Construction.

So this piece is coming out rather nice.

This is far from complete (I haven't even finished his shadows), but I would like to add a background and some nice environmental elements. So far he's coming out exactly like I want him to. The goal is to render Deuces (and any other characters I wanna add into the scene) and the background image together as if it were a screen capture from an animated film - down to the aspect ratio of the image.

So he and the other characters will have minimal shadow work (maybe one or two levels at most), a major light source, and some rim lighting from either the gun blasts or something unseen on the ground.

And then the background will be illustrated a lot more detailed. Maybe teetering on a more painterly style. Haven't decided yet. Anyway, here's to progress as well as a potential portfolio piece.

Ribbit.

Sketched this guy out last night and threw a quick color scheme on him today. Not completely sold on the colors, but I don't really dislike them either. So we'll see. He doesn't have a name yet. But I was thinking something along the lines of Beatbox. For the time being, I've just been calling him Phrog.

If you feel froggy, jump.

Deuces Wilder.

This is an updated look at Deuces. I didn't explain it much in the last post, but he's part of a story I've been hashing out for just a little while now. An assassin raccoon. Gotta love it.

I really like this sketch, but because of a couple of discrepancies in the drawing - that I will not point out to the viewer ;) - as well as how it was affecting the later render, I've decided to do the obsessive compulsive thing and completely start over on the illustration. It's either that or just fix the problems with this one. But where's the merit in that? It's my way or the highway...and since they're both about as long and stressful as the other, it all works out in the end.

But the whole newsboy look is definitely the direction I want to go with him. Each of his guns are gonna have a nice, fancy spade etched into the mags. So the final picture is going to branch from this idea but probably go in a different direction.

Also, I own that hat. I let the raccoon borrow it for the pose.

Deuces Wild.

I hammered this rough sketch out after work today. I wanna take an image of this guy to color mode (not this image, though) to accompany the images I did of Gauge and Sprocket on my website (bottom row, 5th and 6th from the left). I feel like I can incorporate a few more little details into his design, primarily hinging on 40s gangster/newsboy and steampunk elements. So we'll see.

Say yes to drawing feet. Cropping and convenient fog are not an option.

Where Do You Go...To Rock 'n' Roll...?

I heard the song "Your Mama Don't Dance and Your Daddy Don't Rock 'n' Roll." And then this happened...

Picked a Winner.

So, there's absolutely no reason that I should have spent as much time as I did on this image. Nevertheless, here it is. A friend of mine at work came to me yesterday as I was sketching and suggested that I draw myself as a superhero with the power to...wait for it...wait for it...yes, flick boogers. And as conflicted as I was as to how ridiculous of a power that actually is, my Bretter judgment got the best of me and I ran with the concept.

I'm thinking that he says something witty, and under his breath just before vanquishing his enemies...like, "Bless you."