Jeez, he's gone!

I've worked on and off at Leapfrog for no more than a year and a half, and in that ridiculously short period of time I've already watched the company shift gears from an in-house design and animation studio to a completely outsourced one. It's a strange perspective to be brought in for a few weeks work at the exact moment that the last of the animators/art directors have left... first Min Lieu, and now Mike Daley. there are still some great people here and there is one last art director (Michael Mattesi), but Mike D was the last of the original crew. The one's around when I started at least. and it's a strange sign of the changing winds here at Leap Frog, and hell... the bay area art scene for that matter. I could write a book about this... but I'll spare you my home-spun opinions of our rather myopic economy and the 2D side of the industry... this post is about Mike D. A good friend and co-worker, that while I'm confident I'll have the privelage of working with again one day... it is still sad to see him go and leave a place that he brought so much fun and inspiration into. I sent him this quick and small, farewell sketch on Friday as was, once upon a time, customary in this company... Have fun out there Mister D, and never stop drawing you bastard!

Painting Update

I haven't touched this one in a little while, I guess I've been distracted. I can definitely say that this one is moving so slowly, I feel like I'm hitting some rocks with my gouache sensibilities... I can't believe how rusty I still am. so much of it used to come so much more naturally to me... oh well keep on pushing I suppose...

Another Sketch

I'm so addicted to drawing in Sketchbook now and on my cintiq at work, I wish I could just stay after hours and draw away on it. This is just a little doodle that came into my head today while on my lunch break. Maybe I'll develop it further!

Absinthe

This was originally going to be a sketch for my next April Lady, but I liked it so much I wanted to do something else with it, so I'm making it an absinthe illustration. I sketched this one out on my lunchbreak, using my cintiq at work and Alias Sketchbook Pro. Love that Cintiq! I want one so bad!

I'm not entirely sure where I'll take this one, as I said this sketch is super rough. Give me your thoughts.

Sketchbook

Yikes! I haven't liked anything I've sketched in a long time. I think it's just been a while since I've forced myself to keep a sketchbook, and given time I'll scrape the rust off. Nevertheless, here's a spread in my moleskine that I like more than others for some reason, just a a bunch of pseudo- life-drawings/caricatures of strangers. enjoy!

Somethin' Goofy

Here's a new self portrait I started yesterday. I'm tired of looking at the profile button picture I made almost a year ago (that doesn't look anything like me either), in every online avatar thingy, like gtalk, aim, and even blogger. So on that note, I decided to make something better, something funnier, more graphic, more fun, but most of all, something that would creep the hell out of anyone who has to look at it in their chat menu... I think I remotely succeeded. It would have been done tonight, but I somehow left most of the file's progress at work and emailed myself an earlier progression. so the final version will be up tomorrow morning... otherwise. I hope you enjoy these progressions.... YEY!

On a Spring's Sunday Afternoon

Just a random illustration inspired by spring and the artist Jen Wang. This is the rough sketch on illustration board. Now I'll be cleaning up the line and applying several passes of gouache/watercolour... and it'll be done! Not sure how many progressions I'll record but I figure I'll probably end up doing a few more. Enjoy :)



....a few hours later:

and here is somewhat revised version of it with line clean-ups. I've already started painting it but, I'm tired, my roommate with the expensive digital camera is asleep, and I don't feel like piecing together a scan. I also have to work tomorrow... *sleeps*

Lady of the Month!

Well it's that time again, a monthly lady done in traditional fashion, I wanted to go a little more angular and hard with my line-work this time around. This time I also included the original line. Enjoy!

New Sketchbook!

Hello, my name is Christopher Vear, and I'm an addict... I have more moleskine notebooks sitting around my room than I can count, and no two are of the same type... nevertheless, I just bought a new one and with the joy of procuring a new sketchbook, I filled the first several pages in one night, this spread is my favorite of them, more scans in this style will follow, inspired mostly by Diburros. That's all for now, but expect more soon! ...I hope. :)

Nouveau

I adore my girlfriend, and I wanted to find a way to tell her so... combining my love of Art Nouveau with her image I came up with this.... hope she likes it :)