Meet Robyn Diaz, Illustrator and Video game Art Director.

She just finished this amazing marathon that is the illustration  the Philo and Sophy children’s book.

That’s 28 acrylic paintings! I was sitting right there as she was working on them and I still can’t believe it. It is just really vibrant and detailed and the colors are awesome. The process it self is not unlike comics but the painting and the color really forces you to think about the consistency of the entire book.

The lettering also can’t fall within the middle of the spread.

I am jealous of her lettering skills. There, I said it.

The work will be featured in tomorrows ConTEXT national show at the Upstate Artist Guild in Albany.

The story for the book was written by Joseph Ulrich. If you are an aspiring artist or are curious about the magic and challenges behind children’s books you can read all about the illustration process in Robyn’s Blog.

What did she say the network was?

Just a second, I just did this.

Was it cafnet, hubba, linkey…

Um hum… Oh! Who’s that?

Wait, what did I just do? There it is.

What?

There it is. I am connected.

I totally don’t know this person.

Aw, but it’s so slow.

LOL? What type of hint is that?

So sloooowwwww….

Who is that? I totally don’t know this person.

Oh wait, wrong plug in.

What?

No dude, I’m cool now. Just got to change these settings here…

Yep, I totally don’t know this person. Unfriend.

Seriously, what?

That’s how I roll Mr. LOL.

Hmm… Some dude in the network just unfriended me.

Here’s another flash test. I was trying out this idea I had where a guy is ridding a motor cycle. He jumps and turns into a dragon, the motorcycle turns into a girl robot and they swap places.

Here the one different process I used was a layer for roughs and key frames then a separate one for inks.

It was tricky not to have a shortcut for adding frames and erasing tool issues.

Sorry for all the extra frames. I was having trouble with YouTube quiting the video early to display advertisements for other videos.

I am happy to announce that, after many a sleepless night, the latest Jorge Comics production has gone on Sale!

I will be signing the first 50 copies at MoCCA Fest 2010, NYC, April 10-11. The book features 4 complete stories, Territorial, Special Report, Awakened and the Martian Transcripts. If you like giant Monsters this is the book for you.

Meet Eric Feurstein, comic artist and game artist extraordinaire.

He is but one of the talented people I will be sharing a table with in MoCCA Fest 2010.

Enough of that, let’s look at the facts. As you can see above, his recent book, Tomb is out of this world.

I read it online and recommend a purchase (I know I’m getting mine signed at the Festival).

When not working on his own games he’s now taken to Star Trek strips.

Jolly  good!

Go get to know Eric and keep posted for other artist profiles on the future.

Isn’t pride supposed to be a sin in the Christian church?

I think so.

Then I don’t get pride. Everyone says you have to be proud to be this, proud to be that, or feel proud to have done that.

Don’t forget, in some cultures the worst of insults is to have someone diminish you. In other words insult your pride.

Yeah I think I know what you’re talking about. I think it’s called “loosing face”.

So, what’s your take?

I don’t know. I sort of feel proud to have done things even if they don’t succeed and therefore are nothing to really be proud off.

I’ve succeeded at things I am not really proud of myself.

Like I said I don’t get pride.

Maybe realizing so is something to be… I mean, good enough.

You almost said it.

I know.  I’m not proud of my reflex for puns.

Straight on animation is not too shabby to do. Select a range, right click to turn them into blank key frames, turn on onion skin and your done. The “<” and “>” keys advance frames. All in all I really dig this.

Here is a quick Tae Kwon Do form that I put together in a short time.

Shake it!

Oh yeah, thats what I’m talking about!

Shake it like a polaroid picture!

Like a whata-what?

A polaroid picture. You know…

Ahh… nope. But keep on grooving.

Those old picture cameras? A little printout would come out and you had to shake it for the image.

Is that some kind of video game?

No, that’s how it worked.

How many mega pixels?

Sigh. Just keep on grooving girl.

Darn tooting.

What is the meaning of this?

Why don’t you tell me.

Well if it wasn’t you? Who was it?

Some joker with no consideration of anybody else.

Seriously. What did he expect would happen? Disappear into the ether?

The nerve. The ignorance. The indignation. Paralyzing anger.  Lurking, strengthening.

Only one thing left to do.

I am the cool spring breeze blowing over the recently uncovered meadow.

That’s it,  you got the right idea.

Where’s the nearest  garbage can?

Just around the corner. I’ll show you.

Cycle be broken.

I’ve been meaning to get back into animating but alas when I was in school Flash was very new and the tools were primitive at best. Thats why every thing I made in Director, Painter or Traditionally hand drawn.

I put together a little experiment to see how Adobe Flash worked. I feel like I barely scratched the surface. The workflow is not there yet but shows promise.

I used the sketching tools to scribble a few hand drawn looping frames for the guitar player. I tossed some automatic inbetweening for the Stubble Bunny. Backgrounds is a quick Japan Sketch over a few photo shop texture filters.

Music is a snippet from Red Elvises, Boogie on the Beach. It’s a neat album if you like surf guitar/rockabilly music

A little later I decided to mess around with the bones features of Flash.

Here I’m just testing some flash IK on a quick Godzilla Doodle. I’m not 100% sold on how easy it is to work with. Seems like there are a lot of bugs. For example adjusting a bone will affect the and throw the entire rig off. Constraints behave a little erratically and there is some wonkyness on how . Still is something new to do.

Hey man long time no see.

What’s it been?  A year? Two years?

I think Three. What have you been up to?

Same thing, working hard, hardly working. How about yourself?

I just had my long lost girlfriend call me up out of the blue to ask me about  an old piece of jewelry.  Except it wasn’t just jewelry, it was a one of a kind celtic relic. Some thugs explained that to me as I was being pinned face down on the floor. Luckily I had pawned something that looked like it the day  before so they needed my help and eventually a second group of thugs rescued me from their speeding van. The rest of the day we ran around looking for the thing, strong arming one pawn shop owner after another and then I meet up with the most gorgeous woman I have ever met, who also happens to know how to clog a pistol with a throwing star from 12 feet away. Honestly, that’s a skill that did not seem handy until that day. Turns out, she thought I looked like her old boyfriend from the telescopic scope of her riffle but she was really looking for the guy who lived across the hall from me. So in fact the jewelry I was thinking of was not the one she was looking for so she got angry and left. How was I supposed to know? She kind of sounded like my girlfriend on the phone and she was very vague and non descriptive when talking about the darn thing.

So you haven’t heard from Adriana since the last time I saw you?

Nope. I have no idea what’s become of her.

Really. She’s on facebook you know? Soon as I get to the computer I’ll send you the info.

Dude that would be rad! Let me give you my email?

Neat.

Boy, It is tough out there.

I heard that. Some days is just hard to even get out of bed.

What can you do? Life is just hard sometimes.

Um hum, at least it’s not personal.

True, true. Strictly business.

I’m thinking about planting flowers this year. Perennials.

You think they’ll take?

I don’t know. It’s worth a shot.

Damn right it is.

The coffee is warm.

The room is mostly empty.

No one is speaking.

Outside, the world  slugs along to seek the future.

And just as you begin to understand it, the moment is gone and a new one arrives.

The coffee is warm.

Cream no sugar.

We can try to deny it but it wouldn’t make a difference.

Nope.

Did you get one?

No, I did not. How about you?

I rather not talk about it.

Well, who’s is this?

If it’s not mine, I don’t want to know?

This is ridiculous! Why don’t we just walk away?

We are too good to be manipulated by such petty things.

Darn right girlfriend let’s book it.

You first.

No you first.