Emerald City Comicon!

Come visit me at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle! (sharing a table with fellow Blur studio alumni, the amazing Chuck Wojtkiewicz) Come hang out March 14-17th, say hi, and buy a copy of "The Story Of Inc" and some special fine art prints!

The Inc Logo

A little blast from the past. Before we chose our final logo for "The Story Of Inc" book project, a lot of logos were tested and discussed with the team. Here's a bunch of Logos that didn't quite make it.

Megastructures 12 Nicoll-Dyson Laser

Speculative Fiction Reviewer James Davis Nicoll first proposed the Nicoll-Dyson Laser as a weapon where the satellites of a Dyson swarm surrounding a sun act as a phased array laser emitter capable of delivering their energy to a planet-sized target at a range of millions of light years.

The laser could do anything from wiping out the atmosphere on the target planet to cracking the planet in half depending on the focus of the beam (a collimated beam would be the diameter of the Dyson sphere used to generate it, whereas a focused beam could be more concentrated). Other factors that could effect the beam’s intensity include the size and energy output of the sun surrounded by the Dyson Swarm, the efficiency of the swarm’s solar energy conversion, and the amount of time the laser was pointed at the target planet.

Inc Coral Desert Wandering 15

Landis and Inc trying find shelter before the final rays of sun sink below the horizon. Continuing to refine my more painterly style.

Monolith!

So big announcement time! I have started a new full time job as a Senior Concept Artist at Monolith Productions in Kirkland WA! If you don't know Monolith, they have been around for the last 25 years or so, and some of you may have played their critically acclaimed videogames "Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor" and "Middle Earth: Shadow Of War". I've started on a new project with an amazing team of people who have been tremendously supportive in this transition.

I have enjoyed tremendously the last 20 years in California, the last 17 of which I spent in San Francisco, but over the years housing has just become far too expensive, traffic has become pure gridlock, and the once thriving SF film and videogame industries are now a tiny fraction of their former selves as those companies have gone out of business or moved the bulk of their work to tax incentive rich countries.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Seattle, as well as being a naturally beautiful city, the area has a lot to offer compared to SF. Housing is less expensive. It has a thriving videogame ecosystem with dozens of companies. And you can buy housing in good school districts within a short commute to those companies (minimizing your time on the crowded highways). In the last few years I've seen a lot of artists from the entertainment industry trying to find a better quality of life, moving from the overcrowded population centers, and now it's our turn! I will always love the San Francisco Bay Area, but it is time to move on.

I am so excited to be working at Monolith, the team is great, the project is cool, and I look forward to making lots and lots of art!

17th Annual VES awards

So I am honored to be nominated for a VES (Visual Effects Society) award in the category of "Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project" for my work on the Underminer Tunneler vehicle in Incredibles 2. Congrats to my co-nominees Philip and Kevin, and congrats to the other nominees!

https://www.visualeffectssociety.com/post/17th-annual-ves-awards-nominees

Happy 2018!

2018 has been quite a year. As many of you know, it started with me leaving Pixar after 16 years. Approaching the midpoint of my career, it was time to make a change and explore new horizons, and so I spent the entire year freelancing.

I learned so much from this experience, I learned about working remotely, running a small business, paying for my own health insurance (26k a year for a family of 3 btw). I shifted my work from mostly film to mostly videogame work. My first book “The Story Of Inc” shipped to 500 customers. I started up work on a number of new personal IPs, and resurrected a few older IPs that I feel have potential. I taught a 6 week class in concept art to a local class of art students. And our family asked ourselves a lot of hard questions about where we want to live for the next 10-20 years.

All of these new experiences have given me the confidence and knowledge to move forward with the next stages of my artistic career and life. While it is likely I will do more freelancing at some later point, I will be going back to a staff job in the coming year. I will announce more soon, but I am thrilled to be moving onto an exciting new project with a veteran team of professionals in the videogame industry.

It is time for the next chapter. Thank you so much for following along all these years, expect a lot of new artwork, books and educational materials in the coming year. May your 2019 be filled with positive change and bright new possibilities!

Space Ship 38 Line Sketch

I know, it's not Inktober, but that doesn't mean I'm not doodling the rest of the year :)

Inc God Robot 2 Final Battle 1

Inc and Landis are unprepared for the wrath of the second guardian. This is a good example of an image designed for a book, where the middle of the image is left mostly blank so that the painting would work well on a 2 page spread.

Eden Habitat 2

Experiment 2 showing potential designs for "Eden Habitat", merging architecture and nature into a future utopia. This island has been built up into a futuristic castle of sorts, a giant ant hill with people and apartments on the outside, and an interior geofront for industrial purposes. Decided to go with a semi cloudy day, the sunlit with cloud shadows look is always difficult to do, hopefully I managed to make it feel natural.