January 13th, 2012 / No Comments » / by Anthony
Ugh… I really struggle with getting the likeness right with girls. It seems like even the slightest thing wrong results in an entirely different person.
In any case. I think I’m close with this one. I’ll call it a near miss.
January 8th, 2012 / No Comments » / by Anthony
So I knocked this one out today in almost exactly 2 hours. By recording my process I really get to see how much of my time is spent actually painting and how much is spent fussing with distractions.
As I mentioned, I recorded this painting so see the Youtube video below for a quick (12x) example of my work flow for this piece.
January 4th, 2012 / No Comments » / by Anthony
A quick (3 hour) study I did of Mister Harry Potter.
I like the 3 hours study length. I just wish I could get a more refined image out of the effort. I’ll keep working.
January 2nd, 2012 / No Comments » / by Anthony
Just a fun doodle from today. Happy New Year.
November 23rd, 2011 / No Comments » / by Anthony
Thanks to Kate (of SheGeekShow fame) for tolerating my obliteration of her visage. :)
I’m in the mood to complete projects right now… It’s kinda scary.
November 22nd, 2011 / No Comments » / by Anthony
This was an extremely challenging project for me. I was asked to age a person from a very young age to this image. The goal was a preschool aged boy but I ended up with what I think is more like a 1st grader.
Here is the final image.
November 1st, 2011 / No Comments » / by Anthony
I read somewhere that today was that day… I wasn’t able to corroborate that however. I don’t like to take chances though so here is a lunchtime self portrait.
October 27th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Anthony
A quick doodle from lunch, inspired by the basketball game we went to last night.
First caricature style I’ve ever done… Not really sure why I did it. I just started with an abstract shape and this is what it became.
October 12th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Anthony
This post isn’t about game design or art or writing or any of the myriad of hobbies and passions that dominate my creative landscape. It may however shed some light upon why it is that I have so many, largely unsuccessful, creative endeavors. I was inspired to write this by this video. I will touch on some very personal stuff here and in the grinder that is the internet, this post might boil down to a caricature of the ‘first world problems’ meme, but it is who I am.
I, like so many of my generation, grew up in a broken home when it wasn’t yet accepted as the norm. People still held on to the idea that all marriages have a chance to succeed if you work hard enough. So when you told someone that your father didn’t live with you, it was often met with disbelief or more likely, because children of primary school age are cruel beings with no moral compass, you are met with ridicule and insults. Especially if you are the smaller, less athletic kid who’s glasses won’t stay on his nose.
But I’m getting a head of myself. My father left when I was very young. So young that I have no real memory of him ever being there. He wasn’t completely absent, however. He would pop in once or twice a year to upset the delicate balance of home life that Mom tried to maintain. Usually with gifts intended to distract my brother and sister and I from the fact that we hadn’t seen him in months.
He was a jovial man who shucked responsibility and thought only of himself. He was only interested in the good times and avoided conflict and the mundane side of life whenever possible. That included Mom and us kids. I won’t go so far as to say he didn’t love us. I’m sure he did. When I look at my two boys I can’t see how someone can not love their children, but he just wasn’t interested in raising us. I guess he thought Mom could handle it on her own.
Mom did handle it on her own. That is to say that she did the best she could. Mom had her own issues as well. Between her estranged relationship with her folks and a couple of wonky relationships with nice but otherwise committed men that lasted for most of my childhood, Mom was too distracted to really be a good parent. Don’t get me wrong. When compared to my father she Parent of the Year. But she really only shined when speaking relatively. Mom was a loving parent but quick to anger and quick to raise a hand. Given that she was raising three kids on her own I can kind of understand her need to establish dominance. I’m sure my siblings and I would have run completely a-muck without that.
In addition to the challenges of growing up with only one parent who was then only partially engaged in the business of parenting, we were extremely poor. Mom had no college education. I’m not entirely certain that she graduated high school though I have no evidence either way. She had gotten married and knocked up at a pretty early age and to my knowledge never had a real job from the moment I was born up until I turned 16. In those intervening years we lived off of the government and charity.
If you’ve ever lived this way you know that life exists in month long segments. Starting each month you have what seems like loads of money. The cupboards are full and the table laden with feasts, relatively speaking. But as the month wears on, that food gets eaten and you find yourself looking at an empty cabinet and wondering how you can make a half gallon of milk, a bag of flour and a bucket of grease (saved from previous meals) last one more week until the checks come in. Biscuits and gravy, is how. My stomach turns thinking of the bland amorphous blobs that we would eat for dinner night after night. It’s a wonder I can eat biscuits and gravy at all these days.
I’m getting away from the point of this post so I’ll get to it. There is one thing I lacked growing up, more than food, or proper eye care, or any of the things that you might have taken for granted as a child. There is one thing that you can give freely regardless of your financial situation or race or creed.
Encouragement.
Among the few consistently present adults in my childhood, no one encouraged us to be more than we were. No one saw where our gifts were and pushed us to grow them. As a child I showed signs of artistic ability from a young age. My father and aunt were both talented artists. I also showed musical ability, another gift from my father. In high school, despite failing freshman English twice, I won a writing contest and earned my first publication. But no one noticed. No one saw these glimmers of rough talent for what they might someday be and pushed us.
Encourage one another. Be it a child or an adult. When you see in someone a gift or talent, encourage them with love and enthusiasm. Because you never know who the next Edison, Franklin or Bell. You never know who might be the next Steve Jobs. And where would we be without them?
October 11th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Anthony
Another study of another famous person being awesome.
I am a software developer by day and full on geek by night. I dabble in game development, concept art and music. I'm passionate about games and what they mean for society now and in the future. In other words, who knows what you'll find here but hopefully it will entertain or inform.
