Raarghabbible!

Fiji-mermaid-jelly-ghost-thingy

Doodlin'.

Angel

Been awhile. :)

Go See Pacific Rim

I saw Pacific Rim, and I fucking loved it. Domestically it didn't do as well as I hoped it would, but it still did well. Plus, the reviews are all fairly good too! It's currently clocking in at 71% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's exciting for me to work on something that people are having fun seeing. I think most the people I know would totally dig it.

More than that, you can see it as a family. I think ten and above would be fine with it, but to be safe, maybe twelve and above. It features a strong female lead that isn't just eye candy, and doesn't need to fall in love with the boy to define her character. I really like all the characters, and I love the message of unity, and coming together.

It's a great film for that age set; kids and adults who aren't afraid to be a kid. It feels like it's made for that group, the adventure film goers. The Star Wars and Indy lovers. Instead of taking a comic book character and turning them into something strictly for adults, coming up with a dark and serious tone, while still selling toys to young kids; it feels like a film that caters to child like wonderment. Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of those films, but I'm taking my daughter to Pac Rim, but won't let her watch The Dark Knight any time soon.

Here are two pieces I did for the film. They're both in the artbook. One is all me, and the one with the bones is based on a Oscar Chichoni sketch.

Anyway, go and see it. It's not going to be the same on your TV. Honestly.

Watch it with your heart and have fun.

Ron Perlman's shoes.

PACIFIC RIM

I use my blogs for fun, and to a lesser extent promote myself. I'm extremely uncomfortable with the promoting side of things. Naturally as an artist I usually like my work for about an hour before I begin to tear it apart. I'm constantly filled with self doubt and stress. So, usually it's a gag here or there and a post of a sketch I did for fun. Occasionally I push a project that I worked on and am excited about. That leads to this long winded, but quickly written, post.

I worked briefly on Pacific Rim.

When I began writing this I was worried that Grown Ups 2 was going to outperform Pacific Rim. Maybe it will. Does it matter? Not really. Guillermo will get paid (although, I'm guessing much more if it does well), the actors will get paid, I will get paid...uh, got paid. We all made our money, and worked hard  and had fun doing it. Of course, if GU2 does better, than we can be guaranteed that there will be a GU3. Maybe that's not a bad thing. I never saw GU1, so I really can't trash talk. I think most those guys in GU1 are funny too. But here's the thing about Pacific Rim, and why I'm rooting for it.

It's Guillermo's film. He treated it with respect. He made something that's fun and acknowledges what it is. It's a summer popcorn flick, meant to dazzle you and entertain. Maybe, maybe, it will have the same effect Star Wars and Empire had on me. See, the thing is, my dream was to work on a real Hollywood movie.

I had great success in games, and I guess I was greedy, but really wanted to work on a film. Sadly, I had given up on that dream. I thought, maybe my kid will be a director some day and throw Dad a bone.

I have worked on one other film, from home, and it was also an amazing experience; more on that in August. It gave me the confidence to try new avenues to get into film. So I made a book of art to present to GDT at a talk about his Strain books.

That shit usually doesn't work, or shouldn't, but with Guillermo it can. So I handed my book to him and months later got an email. I worked with Guillermo del Toro and an amazing group of artists in a small cramped room near Thousand Oaks on the film Pacific Rim. With Guillermo, you never doubt that he knows what he's doing. His artistic skills are top notch, and I felt like I learned more working with him than I could have learned in years at a school. He is incredibly hard working; he was there more than we were, and the few times he asked if we could work on a weekend, he truly asked. There was no punishment for missing it. No anger, no retribution. My family was way up north, so rather than spend my weekend alone, I was more than happy to show up. And it was crazy fun. We worked hard, but the atmosphere was a little lighter than on the weekdays. Maybe because GDT had been writing all night, and all day, and then again all night, and all day. He was a little punchy by Sunday. But happy; very happy. This was a fun project.

I do have another story about Guillermo. One that really matters to me.

When I was working on Pacific Rim we all went to lunch one day. It was this awesome burger place I'm planning on visiting while I'm down there this week. On the way out, this man recognized Guillermo, raced to his car and started showing him what looked like posters from his trunk. Guillermo said he'd catch up with us in a bit. I saw him talking with the man, shaking his hand, and even giving him a hug as we left.  I'm sure he made that guys day. That stuck with me. It would have been easy to say, "Thanks, but I'm very busy" and walked away. But Guillermo didn't.

So I'm rooting for this guy. I want that kind of behavior to be rewarded. I want to reward kindness, intellect, and brilliant artistic vision.

Plus, he's just a great fucking guy to be around.

If none of that matters, the flick is currently at 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. So, there is that.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pacific_rim_2013/

Doug

Pacific Rim

Hey kids. Here's some work I did that Total Film posted for Pacific Rim. An amazingly fun project to work on. I wasn't there long, but had a blast. Pretty excited that they used some of my images for the article. Eventually I'll write up more about the experience, but the team and Guillermo were amazing to work with. Doug

Maggot King

Quick sketch to turn my brain off.

Tendralien

Sort of dumb, but a quick alien sketch. I'm using that PS standard soft brush more and more. I'm not sure if it's out of laziness, or because I'm really digging it.

Work items

Hello kids. Some work posts. This guy didn't make it into the game like this, but I always liked him. So...enjoy. We're getting close to wrapping this thing up. I took the game home and played it this weekend, and damn it was fun. I'll post more when it gets closer. Here's another vid.

It's pretty massive for an XBLA game. It'll be on PC too, but still. Our team is under thirty people, and that's everyone. We have less people than most games have animators. Pretty crazy.

Anyway, hope you like.

OH! I played a fun and freaky game this weekend for the iPad called Slender Rising. Pretty slick for a small game, seriously freaky. Check it out, but make sure you play with the sound on.

Doug

Galaga 01

Sorry for the lack of updates. I know it's a constant phrase on this blog, but I've been crazy busy. Super fun projects.

So I'm going to try for at least two updates a week. Two mini pieces of art a week. They don't need to be finished. Just quick shit. Like this post. My re-imagined Galaga bug.

One of those things I loved about early arcade games is that the graphics were so ancient, you really had to use your imagination.

So the above is supposed to be this guy.

I'd say I'm prrrreeeeettttyyy close.

More to come.

Painted Scuplt

This is basically a sculpt sketch, imo. I probably spent a total of three hours on it, not including baking time. It isn't as cool as when it was baked, but I learned a bit making it. Plus, it was fun to pull out the ol' airbrush again. I think it's been well over a decade since I used it.

I hope I get some time to make some more of this stuff.

Cthulhuicken

MmmmmHmmmmnn. Dinner!

Workeez

Been pretty busy lately with lots of fun stuffs!

So numero uno, the above image is featured in TRIUMPH by Greg Broadmore. It might be my favorite book he's put out. I highly recommend picking it up. I wasn't goging to show the whole image, but Christian Pearce did, and if he can, so can I. Right?

Line art by Guy Davis. Colors by sexy Doug, that's me.

Another project I worked on was a motion comic for the Terra Nova dvd/Blu-Ray. Javier Soto directed it, it's the second project I've worked on with him, and it was great. He's a super cool guy, and easy to work for. Which reminds me, I only colored it, Guy Davis did all the line art. Guy Davis, one of my all time favorite artists.

I also worked with Javier on The Great Calamity, which will be featured on the Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Blu-Ray. It's super cool, and was another fun project to work on. Javier chose a super cool animated style to render it in, and I actually like the tone of the short better than the actual film (Which I also enjoyed). You can read a little about Javier's flick HERE.



 There was some other things outside my day job that I can not talk about. Secret shit. Mayan calendar and all that. Illuminaughty shit. Naughty.



Then, there's the day gig. We're getting really close to an end here. I'm excited and terrified. Oh! We're selling shirts. Buy some.

PAX went really well. Those are my fat fingers in the above video.

Oh...and then there my ever fucking unending preproduction movie. Man...making movies by yourself is hard. the arm is working pretty well now though, and I'm piecing together how to make some silicone wounds.It's a great learning experience if nothing else. That image of the arm is a few weeks old. It's better now.

Lay all this on top of trying to get in a little bit of shape, two kids, a wife, and a little bit of sleep; not much time for anything else!

Doug

Goofin.

Messing around with some new brushes.

Sketch influenced by Jenny Saville.

Damn, she does great work.

State of Decay

Well, it's been almost two years. A ton of shit has happen, but I'm please to finally show some work from my day job. State of Decay is the game I've been working on, and we're finally sharing it with the world. It's an XBLA title that our little team put together. I'm pretty proud of it, and super proud of the artists I work with.

Anyway, enjoy the site and check out the trailer, more to come. Click the link at the bottom of the page to see the game in action.

 

http://undeadlabs.com/stateofdecay/

 

One Eyed Willy

I'll slow on these soon. they're fun to do though, and so fruggin' fast. I can see why people do it.

Goofin'

Some ZBrush fun mixed with a heavy dose of Photoshop.

Space Jockey Redesign

'Effing around with a jockey design. I tried mixing Giger's original design with Sumerian legend. Giger's original airbrush painting had this sort of elongated head, which totally jives with the head wrapping Sumerians did. Quick fun.

Still like the original trunk idea on the Space Jockey though. 

Doug

Vajayjay Mouf

Goofin' with Sculptris 6. Fun and free!