Battlecat zBrush Progress

I’ve been busy with work since I got back from SDCC. We are getting ready to go online with our class so there is much to be done. I am still working on my own stuff too though, just haven’t had the time to get a post together.

My current project is a pair of zBrush sculpts featuring He-Man and Battlecat. Here is some progress of Battlecat. He is still pretty rough, but I am moving a lot faster with it than my last zBrush sculpt. I had a big fight with zSpheres on this one. I probably redid the zSphere configuration 6 times! But I learned a lot about zSpheres so it’s all good I am excited for zBrush 3.5 to come out this month. zSpheres2 looks amazing and I am looking forward to playing with it.

I have also have a sculpture I am doing for work for an online tutorial. It is a mad scientist character created by one of my coworkers. I should have photos of that pretty soon. He’s totally out of my style, super cartoony. I really love working off of someone else’s artwork!

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been doing work with Joy & Tom Studios, learning cool new stuff about molding, casting, and production. I have an opportunity to help out with some pretty big projects so that’s really exciting! The artists Joy and Tom are a pair of awesome people, very talented and helpful. I am really happy to be working with them.

Finally, my book is coming back to life again slowly. I am really hoping to have it done for SDCC next year.

Thanks for watching, people. I’ll be around

Comic Con 2009

This was my first time at San Diego Comic Con and I was totally blown away! So much to see, so much to do, so many people to meet! I attended the con all 5 days and I felt like I had JUST enough time to get everything done. And I still missed out on some panels and meeting/talking with some people. Good times were had. San Diego is a beautiful city with some of the best food I’ve ever had. I got to catch up with old friends and make new ones. I will be doing everything in my power to be attending again next year.

I had the honor of meeting so many people including the Shiflett brothers, who are two of the most awesome people I’ve ever met! I had the honor of having my portfolio critiques by the very talented Clayburn Moore. I chatted with one of my sculpting heroes, Damon Bard, which was amazing. I met a bunch of other awesome artists too such as Paul Komoda, Rachel Young, Justin Ton, Jordu Schell, and many others. I got to see Miss Monster too, but not nearly as much as I would have liked to. I spoke with people at Mezco, Gentle Giant, Hasbro, Sota Toys, Kotobukiya, Shocker Toys, and Symbiote Studios. I dropped off portfolios, business cards, postcards, and Wolvie busts. Networking was a lot of fun and I feel like I learned a lot.

I also met someone from a local studio Joy and Tom Studios just 30 minutes from my house. Small world! I dropped by their place yesterday to look at the studio and I am going to be doing some work with them soon helping with castings and such.

I am a lifelong nerd. What I am nerdy over has been ever changing throughout my life. But I ALWAYS appreciate a well made action figure. The Wonder Twins by Mattel are one of the coolest sets I’ve seen in a while. The packaging makes lights and sounds!

I also picked up one of these awesome models from anatomytools.com! I’ve been wanting something like this for a while, what great reference material!

My Yokaiden sculpture on display at the Del Ray booth. Nina and her publisher Dallas were kind enough to do this. Next to my sculpt is a custom Lumi made by one of Nina’s friends. The sculpture looked so great in this case, the lighting was perfect.

The book signing went great with 90 signed copies of Yokaiden given out to con goers. Each book had one of the postcards I made stuck inside. Another nice thing Dallas did! What great people!

This was probably the most amazing sculpt I saw at the show. This is The Godfather done by Toynami. The likeness and attention to detail are just amazing!

Downtown San Diego is full of large sculptures. This one was super reflective. My husband, Nina, and myself are reflected here.

If you want to see more photos from Comic Con, check out my husband’s Flickr stream.

Comic Con has been very inspiring for me but very overwhelming too. Since I’ve gotten back from California, I’ve been stuck at a big fork in the road. There’s so many paths I can take, so many things I can do. I am trying to hone in and figure out where I want to go next. Since so many companies told me they do almost all their work digital or are headed that way, I want to dive into 3D now that Comic Con is over. I am also planning on attending Siggraph next year so I would like to have some work to show there.

Thanks for being patient with my blog and art updates. I am starting to get back into life here. You will hear from me again in the hopefully not too distant future.