The Pixar Detective

So beyond excited to announce that I'm starting a new project with Jon Negroni, creator of The Pixar Theory!

Octopus Tea

Another sea critter in a cup I started this past week. Something I've been stressing over lately is composition as a whole. I'm so caught up with questions like "do the shadows make sense?" and "Am I'm mixing warm and cool colors correctly?" that I forget about whats really important to show in my work. I recently read a conversation between two of my favorite animators, Glen Keane and Ollie Johnson. When Glen was showing Ollie some of his work in Tangled, he pointed out how far technologically they had come in aspects like the reflective fabric in Rapunzel's dress and the subtlety of her freckles, Ollie replied with this statement "Oh, Glen, what I was wondering is; What is she thinking?" this statement basically slapped me in the face. I can have the greatest sense of color and light reflections in the world, but if I can't correctly get across what my character is thinking, then I have failed.

Starbucks Siren WIP

I love Starbucks and I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds the delicious coffee and cozy atmosphere endearing. As a former graphic design student I've always admired their use of type and logos, but as embarrassing as it is for me to admit it, I only recently had the realization that the Starbucks logo is a siren. That in my opinion, was extremely clever of Starbucks, because if you know anything about sirens you know they appear appealing on the outside, until you're within their grasp.. then you can't escape. Coincidentally Starbucks has done this very same thing to me, and now I can't go a day without coffee.

You should also know that I still consider this piece a WIP (work in progress) but I feel like it would be really cool to release the final piece in a "mermaids in cups" series.