I'm currently in the midst of my summer vacation enjoying 2 weeks of down time but I haven't been idle.

I'm in the process of creating a new website. I've secured hosting services and purchased a new URL. I'll link to it from this site once it's complete.

My apologies for the lack of images with this post. I've been drawing but it's not stuff that I can share just yet. You see I'm still laboring away at that graphic novel I mentioned a few months ago.

For me the creative process moves very slowly. I love to labor over every line, etch every tiny window into the face of towering skyscrapers...

Illustration is one of those areas where obsessive compulsive behavior can actually be beneficial.

I've often told my students that if an artist dedicated the level of obsession he/she feels for art to the process of courting a potential lover he/she would quickly find his/her self incarcerated or, at the very least, on the receiving end of a hefty restraining order.

I will not put a deadline on the project but I will say that I'm working diligently and that I will see it through. And I will post some progress as I go. The visuals aren't so unique that I feel compelled to completely conceal them until the final product has gone to print. It's mostly just a bunch of futuristic buildings, cars and surly looking men in suits and ties.

But not to worry, something violent happens about every 10 pages, just to keep you awake and interested.

I've also been delving into the realm of pixel art. In fact the logo for my new website will be a work of pixel art. (My first to be precise.)

The funny thing is that I started fooling around with pixel art as a way to avoid delving into more complex and taxing artistic pursuits like 3D modeling during my vacation. But to my surprise, when it came to creating my isometric logo, pixel art turned out to be every bit as involving and complex as modeling.

How silly of me to assume that any artistic process would be simple despite the cartoonish appearance of the end result.

And speaking of such misconceptions...

I'll be teaching a character and object design class this coming summer quarter. For those of you who don't know what that entails allow me to explain. The course focuses on designing characters, props, environments, etc. for video games, cartoons, feature films, etc. Most aspiring artists look forward to the class because, at first glance, it sounds like a lot of fun. Almost everyone loves dreaming up characters right?

Well... The challenge comes in when an individual is asked to create something that no one's ever seen before. That means no ninjas, samurai, giant robots, pirates... We're not looking to reimagine material that's already out there. Cliche's must be avoided at all costs!

Can you hear the students groaning already? I know I sure can.

But, dear reader, that's not the worst of it. The worst part is that the characters, once imagined, must be rendered in such a way as to make them easily portrayed via a 3 dimensional medium.

Huh?

It means that the character must work as a 3 dimensional structure because, in most modern forms of entertainment media, that is exactly what the design will end up being.

The lines that the artist lays down on paper will eventually come to life as a 3D model either in a video game, cartoon or movie.

So what you say? Why would that be so difficult?

Because it requires the artist to understand the geometry of form and the science of the human cone of vision. Most young artists I meet despise mechanical drafting and perspective because they feel that it constrains their creativity. So it becomes my job to convince them, in what little time I have to spend with them during their 3 year tenure, that an understanding and successful application of the afore mentioned skills will actually strengthen and increase their artistic output.

Needless to say most of them are skeptical at first...

I blame a great deal of that attitude on the fact that art in the K through 12 educational system in this country is, and I know I'm generalizing here, viewed as a less rigorous and scientific pursuit then, say, chemistry. (But I should add that most K-12 art teachers don't feel this way at all. The ones I've known are every bit as passionate about the science of art as I am. It's the school system and the overall perception of art in this country that's the problem.)

I know that, from my own personal experience, many of my fellow students in high school took art classes as a way to avoid the rigors of home-ec or woodshop.

It also doesn't help that a great many of the making-of features included with films and video games these days portray the act of creation as one long blue sky orgy of creative thought set to music and topped off with a wave of some CG magic wand that suddenly turns a concept sketch into a fully realized CG creature complete with scaly skin, rippling muscles and a hairy tail that quivers in the virtual wind.

It becomes my job to inform them that nothing could be further from the truth. Oh there's certainly creativity and a whole heck of a lot of fun involved but the conceptualization process is also deadly serious business.

I mean... Think about it for one minute.

Millions of dollars are at stake when an artist is designing the main character for a video game or film right?

Think about Halo's Master Chief. The subtle evolution that's taken place with his body armor, weapons, even the way he moves between the first game and the teaser we've all seen for the third, and supposedly final, installment.

Do you think the folks at Bungie just let everyone including the janitor take a crack at redesigning that armor? And even if they did do you suppose they'd just tape all of the designs to the wall and select one by simply throwing a dart? Or worse, picking the one that's cool just 'cause it looks like that one robot dude from that other game that was, like, totally awesome...

Shaking your head yet?

Millions of dollars. Millions. Should the armor remain green and grey? How about his visor? Gold like Oakley polarized shades or should we change it up and make it mirrored silver like those Ray-Bans Morpheus wore in the Matrix.

Kids loved the Matrix right?

No pressure.

Millions of dollars.

The correct answer is that only their best people get to touch Master Chief. Seasoned artists who understand the science and aesthetics of character design.

I'd like my students to move on into careers where those kinds of design responsibilities are heaped upon them by adoring employers who know they're up to the task.

And that's why character and object design is so damned important.

So do me a favor... Those of you who are reading this and will be in that class next quarter with me... Keep what I just wrote in mind when things start to get a little bit rigorous. You'll work hard in my class but if you apply what I'm advocating you will improve as a designer and an illustrator.

I need to get around to posting my summer schedule don't I?

I'll be teaching Maya again this quarter. My new website, once it's launched, will be featuring some Maya video tutorials that I plan on completing throughout the course of next quarter.

That's all for now.