Thursday, November 28, 2013

Welcome to my "home on the net"
Who am I and what do I do?

I've gone from big corporate company to small work-with-my-hands artist.  I've run the full gamut and have now landed in a space where I can continue to grow as an artist and pursue personally rewarding projects.

What the heck does that mean?!?    I have decided to pursue life as a potter.  Working with my hands on things that don't disappear when the power goes out.  Art that will outlast me.   Fewer hours spent in front of a glowing monitor and more time creating.

My home studio is underway, the construction dust is being swept up and the paint on the walls is now drying.  The kiln is warming up and the wheel is spinning.

Teaching.

Teaching and mentoring junior artists while working in the video game industry was always rewarding and I'm finally getting the opportunity to teach again.

I'm teaching two beginner wheel throwing classes, one for kids and one for adults in 2014.  These will be followed by a second kids class and a sculpting class for adults.  I will also be teaching private lessons once the studio is finished and I've acquired a couple more wheels.

So what exactly did I do in the Video Game industry?

I worked professionally as an artist for over a decade.
My various jobs within the industry included:

3D modelling of envornments
3D modelling of in game characters
Character design, Concept Art
Teaching and mentoring and leading junior artists.
Document writing for Asset creation.  (guides for new artists)
among other more mundane things...


I was also privileged enough to have been influential in developing and encouraging a thriving artist community while working at Electronic Arts (Canada).  I created and supported a group called The Art Crew which allowed both artist and non-artist to share ideas, personal work, critique and learn from each other.  By the time I left EAC, The Art Crew was a thriving community of creative minds.  It was extremely rewarding and I'm proud to have built this group from the ground up.

There really were many things I was involved in during my time making video games.  It was fun and challenging, hard work, rewarding and sometimes extremely frustrating but always an adventure.


I have many other pursuits all revolving around art. Drawing, sculpting and casting. Including artwork sculpting and design sculpting.

By all means, if you're able and willing, please post some comments on my work. I always welcome the feedback.

Jeff.
Hi everyone,  I was planning on an update here and discovered that most if not all of the links to my images are apparently broken.

I will be looking into the problem and trying to get it fixed...  Thanks for being patient.

Looks like when I switched over to Google+ in the past, all images got moved over, at some point I think I might have closed the Google+ account which then deleted all the images.  Then I proceeded to re-open the Google+ account but lo and behold, all the images were still deleted and gone...  I've begun re-uploading and re-linking images so things will begin to get back to normal soon.

Jeff.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Life Drawing






I started life drawing a year before I began studying Classical Animation at Sheridan College in Ontario Canada. That would be about 17 years of life drawing with a few breaks in-between.

Here is some of my work. Various pieces from various times but most within the last few years... This is a very small selection of work, I've got a stack of drawings which I haven't worked up the courage to devote the time to photograph yet! (too busy with other projects!)

I've used a wide variety of drawing materials. Conte in a rainbow of colours, charcoal, erasers, ink, watercolour, graphite sticks. I mainly use thick black charcoal pastel sticks now though. I like the amount of control and variety of line I get with it. You need to have a sensitive hand though and that takes a few years of practice to develop. It also doesn't tear the paper like conte can. I like economy and tend to prefer putting down lines that describe form in one shot. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't!




I always draw on large sheets of newsprint. Hint: go to a packing supply place and buy packing paper. Loose sheets of 24 x 30 newsprint. WAY less expensive than "life drawing newsprint" from your local extortion... umm I mean art store.

10 minutes


The drawings which are more fleshed out (more detailed, complete, less messy) are approximately 5-10 minute drawings give or take a few. The ones which seem really fleshed out are around 20 minutes. The really quick sketchy ones with far less detail and far more movement are usually 2 or 3 minutes at the most.

10 - 15 minutes


about 5 minutes.




10 minute



This drawing is actually only about 4" x 5" in size. A small doodle on the page.


about 1.5 - 2 minute sketches.


3-5 minutes.


probably 5 minutes. Small drawing on the side of a larger one.

1 minute

3-5 minutes


10-15 minutes





15 - 20 minutes. Much of this time is spent just placing down small marks or "anchor points" The main body of the drawing starts to appear around the 5 minute mark.