Fan Art All Over Again

I haven't done a piece of fanart in...like...forever!
This was a blast. I'd been sketching Luca off and on for a little while, and it was only a matter of time. I've been getting a little itchy to make some art on my own, so I figured I'd ease in and do something light...like a character portrait! :D

For those not in the know. This is Luca, a fan-favorite character and antagonist of Der-Shing Helmer's webcomic The Meek
It's a great read, and an awesome testament to what one artist, with a lot of determination can do on their own nowadays. In my estimation, it's about the best webcomic around for quality of art and writing. Loads of fun, I highly recommend it. She's just started Chapter two, which is going to be SUPER AWESOME, so yeah...just read it, please!

Otherwise, for me this is the calm before the storm. I start work on Monday (at 38Studios as a Junior Character Artist)! I'm SO excited, but could certainly use your prayers and well-wishes! I'm finally going to have a real job!

-Nick

MIT Summer 2009 (SHADOW SHOPPE)

YAY!
Guess what went live today? Yes, you're right! The MIT GAMBIT Games! Good guess.
Which means that finally I get to post some of the art I've been working on recently. :D
I DID THIS:

That's the main poster (there are two other color variations) for the project I was assigned to: Shadow Shoppe. I was privileged to work with some of my best friends and some very talented and gracious students from Singapore. We were holed up in a beautifully appointed lab at MIT for the sole purpose of developing video games in response to a variety of research questions. The game was developed entirely from the ground up with the basic question:
"How do people associate certain types of traits with basic forms and shapes of character design?" Trickier than it might seem, actually.

Thom Chang and I worked on Shadowshoppe. I'm responsible for half of the concept work, and all of the backgrounds. He accounts for the other half of the concepting and all of the animation in-game. Oh, and I also did all of the voice-acting for the game! I love voice-acting! Head on over to the following link to play the game and let me know what you guys think!

Play Shadow Shoppe
(Click "Go To Website" and please don't be put off by the age/gender/location form...it's for the research aspect of the project)

Here are some screenshots from the game, for added visual interest!

My fabulous friends and colleagues are also responsible for much of the artwork on some of the other projects, all of which can be found here.
For those of you familiar with the rotating cast of characters in my life. My friend Fabiola Garza worked on Camaquen, and roommate Brandon Cebenka worked on Waker. Definitely check out their games and all of the new work up on the website!

I will leave you for now with a poster all of us GAMBIT kids (art team) put together at the end of the program. We each took a crack at drawing eachother's characters, since over the course of the summer we all generated a lot of fan-art :) I did the Dearth characters and had a large hand in collaging this all together. Stay tuned for more concept art and doodles if I get permission! :D

GAMBIT kids, if you're reading this: I miss you. I'll see you in Singapore some day! Here's to a fantastic summer!
Much love,

-Nick

So...Now What?

Hey All!

Sorry for the long silence. I've been moving in to my NEW PLACE OF RESIDENCE!!!





(just kidding, I live across the street from this place.)

I am now *officially* moved in. Well, I'm still in-process to be honest, but I've been using my new place as the base of all my operations, so it counts. I'm no longer half-in-half-out of Boston!

This new step in life is both exciting and BORING AS CRAP.
I am thrilled to have a new place. I am excited to be moving forward with post-school existence. But I am now in a waiting room full of ramen and gas bills. D:
Basically, I'm just whining because my actual job starts in 8 days and in the meantime I have nothing to do.

Alright fine, I've actually been keeping quite busy, and have found myself in the company of the most wonderful sort of people. But leave me at home alone for any length of time and I start going nuts.
It's good to me made to relax and spend some quiet time alone, though. I just come to it reluctantly. Kind of like broccoli.
My significant art supplies are all stored elsewhere right now, as well. So I don't have anything to show for my boredom except some idle doodles. All of my actual recent "artwork" is top secret until the game I was working on gets released (soon! here!)
I just figured I should post a newsy post about all of the nothing I'm doing. :D

In the meantime, I have found a number of very diverting things to occupy some of my downtime with:
I bought one of these! (excusing my frivolity with the fact that I am now a video-game professional and don't really play so many video games...so I had to buy a console! right? right???)





Of course I got the cheapest and girliest console out on the market. But I couldn't resist Professor Layton and the upcoming Studio Ghibli game. And I am cheap. And girly.
And I am now, once again, a world-class Pokemon Trainer. First time back since the late 90s :D
Once I get my internet set up here, I'll be taking all comers. So if you've got a DS and a party-full of Pokemon, then feel free to taste the wrath of my Torterra! Friend-codes, anyone?

Also: I went to go both District 9 and Ponyo. Can you guess which one I preferred?
PONYO WAS WONDERFUL! (On District 9 I know I'm in the minority but it made me sick to my stomach in a kind-of-don't-want-to-see-this-ever-again kind of way, *winces*) I've been seriously considering my fanart options, and this one *might* win out. Some of the scenes were just really sublime. The night-scene after the power-outage, the fish storm, the father-son signal scene and so on. But for me, the cake was taken as soon as the town flooded. I mean: Kids. In a plastic boat. On adventures. Over a sunken town.
Awesome.

I've also just started (and then finished, in the matter of 3 days) reading Scott Pilgrim.
Whoah.
I am really glad I gave that a chance. The american(I know, I know...Canadian)-manga-for-12-year-old-girls look didn't really grab me off the shelf initially, but I'm really hooked. I didn't even know there was gonna be a movie until yesterday! Hooray!
If you don't know what I'm talking about, I highly recommend that you slip off to the nearest bookstore and give "Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life" a chance. No matter how much it may look like it's gunning for the sailormoon market. I'm in love.

And lastly, my friends and I have been guffawing at this particular series of Youtube videos.
If you have never seen them , definitely check out some Viral Video Film School. Some are funnier than others. This one's my favorite: Youtube's Worst Demo Reels.

Hope you guys don't mind this very chatty post. :/
Overall: boredom or no, the Lord has been good to me, and I have been really blessed to be here. Job soon, art soon too!
Thanks for reading, even when there isn't much art I can show!

Cheers,

-Nick