Pineapple Productions | Art Blog

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T22:16:00.002+10:00

Hi all in blogland, just wishing you a merry christmas/happy holidays.

I also bring the gifts of an art update:

Firstly as you may know I've opened some online stores here and here. (you can see some of my zazzle products on the left of my blog there)

Anyway, here's me sporting one of my tees:

I was pretty chuffed with how is came out.

I've also added more products to the line in the form of the following little guys:

Also recently made the trip down to Currumbin Sanctuary to draw some Aussie critters:

Oh and the lovely ladies over at Womanthology asked me to draw something for the Christmas PDF they made especially for their Kickstar backers - so that was pretty damn awesome:

That's all for now!

Ask Shatterstar

2011-12-02T13:00:00.000+10:00

So it's been a while since I blogged on here, what with tumblr I keep forgetting to come here.

Speaking of Tumblr, those that frequent the fanverse on tumblr will have spotted the "ask" pages, were artists role play as characters and draw responses to fans questions. So in an effort to keep drawing I started one for X-Factor's Shatterstar. He's fun and he's ridiculous. Here's a sample of what's up so far:

As you can see I'm still working on the format, but they're fun to do and it forces me to draw different scenarios and to get inside a characters head. If you want to follow the blog can be found here

Also if you don't read Peter David's run on X-Factor you should, go buy it

Art Update

2011-12-02T12:41:00.001+10:00

So in follow up to this piece you may remember:

I got rather attached to my little robot girl and am now trying to develop her into a story, she's a sad little thing but I love her

I've named her 3. I'll let you know more about her when I've solidified her story more.

I've also recently sent out applications to Graphic Design school for which I created the following for my portfolio:

yep that's me

Alas my Captain America painting was going to be another speed paint but my screen capture program decided to stop working.

In other news I am slowly developing various different comic book projects including an anthology of short stories (of which 3 might feature) and have been, given the latest attention on the subject, researching good portrayals of women to inspire a superhero story I'm also working on. So I'm reading Birds of Prey and am enjoying it a lot so far.

Store Update

2011-12-02T12:35:00.000+10:00

As you may or may not know I have an online store!

You can buy cool stuff like this there!

And it's just recently been updated with two new chibi designs! I introduce you to our little snoozing and ninja mates!

I'm also currently working on the latest addition:

Also be sure to like my facebook page to stay up to date on sales and new designs!

Printfection

2011-10-19T19:58:00.000+10:00

I've added another chibi to my store over at PrintFection!
Go buy stuff and feed a starving artist!

Rapture completed, Melbourne trip and little robots

2011-10-19T02:30:00.000+10:00

So the trip down to Melbourne for the Illustrators Australia Exhibition was a success. Met some great Aussie Illustrators and the seminar was very worth it. I have a notebook full of handy sites to check out and a head full of buzzing ideas.

And here's the final piece that I've been teasing for a few weeks now:

Now it turns out when I was coming up with this idea that I kind of fell in love with that little robot girl there and I know have plans for a few stories with her that I can hopefully get out of me soon. She also inspired these pictures:

And finally, I've been watching My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic. And it's all kinds of great. This is how a show aimed at little girls should be....and I drew this, because everyone has to at least once.

Rapture continued again

2011-09-26T13:50:00.002+10:00

Ok, now to add some details and some outlines

Rapture Continued

2011-09-25T18:25:00.000+10:00

Slowly getting there. I need to take photo's during the day the lighting in my house is terrible.

Rapture

2011-09-24T23:22:00.000+10:00

So I finally started actually painting my 9x5 painting for Illustrators Australia

Here's what it will hopefully look something like:

and here's what I've got so far....yeah I know you're supposed to paint the background fully but I didn't feel like losing my drawing underneath.

Let down Your Hair

2011-09-19T19:31:00.000+10:00

Let Down Your Hair by *utopiangem on deviantART

This resulted from a rather silly conversation with a friend of mine.

Meanwhile I've been sketching this out for the Illustrators Australia Exhibition:

I'm rather taken with the little robot girl, I've become quite the sucker for cute things. Just recently I've just watched all the episodes of the new series of My Little Pony. It's Fabulous. Seriously, check it out if you haven't.

C is for Clea

2011-09-06T00:52:00.002+10:00

C is for Clea by *utopiangem on deviant ART

B is for Blink

2011-08-23T15:26:00.001+10:00

B is for Blink by *utopiangem on deviantART

B is for Blink by *utopiangem on deviant ART

Earth Shattering

2011-07-06T20:34:00.000+10:00

yeah corny name I know...but I couldn't resist.

I started drawing this after reading Avengers: Children's Crusade #6 which see's the full return of not only the Scarlet Witch but of Rictor's powers. Rictor is likely the highest profile mutant to have lost his powers in M-Day...And I'm also a fan of X-Factor...so I was a happy little fangirl.

So here's Ric just sitting, and communing with the Earth, breathing...as you do.

This was also and excuse to play with some new brushes

Power Girl: Not an Invitation

2011-07-04T16:59:00.000+10:00

Drawn in response to the alarming trend society has to place the blame on the victim instead of the perpetrator. No Matter what the girl wears it DOES NOT excuse the act.

BWAHAHAHA DC Relaunch

2011-06-18T23:01:00.001+10:00

So if you have any love for comics you should know about the DC Relauch. Well as part of the (largely) pointless character costume redesigns which are supposed to modernize the costume for a more modern audience and give the female characters more practical costumes (check out Harley Quinn, Teen Titans and Nightwing so see how they fail at this) Booster Gold got a redesign. Now Booster's my boy. I love the guy and as far as I'm concerned his old costume...this one:

which has barely undergone any changes since he first debuted in the eighties was still holding up really dam well. It's slick and it's simple....the the relaunch comes along and decided Booster needed more FUSS:

Just look at all that pointless mess around his face and shoulders. It's just distracting. He is by far not the worst off (check out the newly acquired Apollo and Midnighter) but it's just unnecessary. Sure, change is good, it keep things interesting, but this is change for the sake of change...

anywho all that lead up to me thinking what would Boost's best dead buddy Blue Beetle think if he saw him now...I think it'd be something like this:

(FYI made up the boots cos as you can see you can't see Booster's feet in the promo image)

ok fan rant over....for now

Hi Blog miss me?

2011-06-15T19:48:00.000+10:00

Yeah...I've been slack...sorry...Here let me make that up to you with a heap of fanart:

yes your eyes don not deceive you, that is Batman wearing culottes...Gail Simone sent out the challenge on Twitter and I answered.

Further, if you're interested in what cool stuff I find on the net you can check me out on Tumblr it's AWESOME and it RANDOM!

I do on occasion have a bit of a rant on there too.

And if you want to watch me draw have a geezer at this!

I've been Daily Sketching again

2011-02-10T20:13:00.000+10:00

Here blog have a huge dump of pictures :D

2011-01-24T21:34:00.000+10:00

Hey blog Happy New Year and all that!

Hope everyone had an awesome new years! I did. I spent it watching Top Gear, drinking Smirnoff and drawing naked people. Observe!

ok so not all of those were drawn on new years... But they're my first go at digital life drawing. They're a bit iffy - the feel is a lot different on a cintiq than it is on paper and I'm not very familiar with Corel Painter yet and Photoshop doesn't give a nice look. I'll get there.

In much older art I drew a picture of one of my favourite duo's in comics:

And finally I leave you with some scribbles:

ta-ta!

"Nothing is True, Everything is permitted"

2010-11-22T11:25:00.000+10:00

So I've been playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and I'm in love. Well I was in love with the first two as well, so at least I'm keeping it within the family. Not only is it a very beautiful looking game but the stories compelling and the game play is just right. Plus is damn fun to sic a horde of assassin's on unsuspecting guards - mwhaha.

In other belated news here's the finished Chibi Avengers pic:

I've also discovered the wonder that is Booster Gold. That character is frankly, awesome. And he seems to be really coming into his own at the moment. His cameos on Batman: Brave and the Bold didn't hurt either. And his relationship with Blue Beetle is nothing short of Bromance. So I felt like drawing him...

And finally I've been doing some caricature commissions:

That's all folks!

Green Arrow

2010-09-28T18:25:00.000+10:00

Just thought I'd share this little bit of awesome

I've been drawing stuff!

2010-08-30T11:17:00.000+10:00

Hey everyone!

So we've just had a long weekend and I spent nearly all of it drawing! I'm so proud of myself. So this post is a really nerdy post....it's nearly entirely fanart! So lets begin with something cute!

Yes Chibivengers! I'll throw some shading and highlights on later.

Something a little less on the cute side now. Just a study of this. I love comic artists' use of absolute black in shading - so I'm trying to learn a bit of that from this. Plus Thor's awesome.

speaking of Thor...

This is my version of him. I'm thinking this probably fall in the Marvel Adventures universe where Thor is more of a big jolly fellow.

Yeah, I kind of chickened out with Cap's costume there... I'll draw a full costumed one eventually. And you can use your imagination in regards to who Tony's talking about there.

Now onto some Daily Sketches!

yeah...not exactly daily - I missed a few (bad Gemma!)

In other news...

I've also been attending Storyboarding seminars over at storyboardart.org. 10:30am every Saturday (or 3:30am every Sunday for me - yes, I am insane). And I threw together these for some of the optional assignments:

A study of some shots from Pride and Prejudice.

This looks teeny here so click on it for a BIG version. But's it's essentially some thumbnails I did for a scene of a couple at a restaurant.

and finally because everyone on Deviantart was doing it:

Things that inspire me the most!

Grand adventures in AWESOMENESS

2010-08-05T22:37:00.000+10:00

So how is everyone?

Good.

So, here's how Iron Man's doing....

I've also started doing the Daily Sketch Challenge and three days in so far so good. Here's the spoils of the challenge so far:

That's All Folks!

for now.....

Iron Man Painting continued with some penguins

2010-07-10T00:58:00.000+10:00

Hey blogland!

I've been trying to keep a busy little bee with lots of study and drawing. I swear I've never studied this much even when I was at uni and now I'm reading film text books cover to cover. It's good bedtime reading. But if I want to stay fresh I have to keep at it.

Also here's some yummies for you!

firstly a little snippet of the Iron Man painting I've started. I'm painting this little guy every Friday night on my uStream (GemSTREAM) at 10:30pm if you want to watch.

A nd some Penguins!

Their show is classic and ridiculously well executed for a TV show - and a hellova lot of fun.

Another Speed Painting Underway - Iron Man 2

2010-05-10T09:13:00.000+10:00

Hey all!

Thought I might share something I've just started on. As you'll a likely now I'm a HUGE Iron Man fan and I also happened to love the hell out of Iron Man 2. So I thought I might take up the challenge and paint up a picture of one of the suits - and me being as crazy as I am am attempting to draw up the Silver Centurion armor (AKA the suitcase armor)

hit the video below to see how I'm doing!

Iron Man 2 Speed Paint WIP from Gemma D on Vimeo.

Also here's a little toon Tony Stark for you!

aaaaand some sketches!

2010-04-18T21:16:00.000+10:00

Okay, now some toony stuff....

First we have one of my favourite couples in comics. Yeah I'm a big softy for comic couples and these two have to be up there with Rogue and Gambit for me - you just know there's no one else they should be with. Might colour this soon.

Next we have some scribbles I did whilst watching Crisis on Two Earths - another DC direct to DVD animation. Good bit of fun and worth watching for the fights and for Owlman.

Rough idea of my version or Little John for the production package I'm working on...still toying around with whether or not he should be a robot or not. this would be the human version...

And finally some random warm-up scribbles...

What now - oh yeah, Lifedrawing!

2010-04-18T18:35:00.001+10:00

Finally got around to posting/scanning these:

couple of experiments with style there...

and here are some 20 second to a couple of minute sketches:

Composition and storyboard studies

2010-04-18T18:16:00.004+10:00

I've got a lot of art to post so I'm going to break this into a few posts...

First off here's that model sheet I was promising:

Another scene I've been working on to build my composition skills (and my tablet skills)

and some studies (ie I copied for the sake of learning and claim no ownership of the idea, style or composition of the image).....

This first one is from a picture by the very talented Lauren Montgomery, the second is a study of a picture by Robbie Rodriguez

And further into the realms of 'study' I've been transcribing a scene from Iron Man into storyboard form for practice with boarding and composition (plus an excuse to draw me some Iron Man - how excited am I for the movie?....VERY). The first couple of these are shocking, I openly admit, I had the wrong aspect ratio and hadn't any of my materials with me as I was stuck at work with nothing to do while the computers were being formated - so I hopped on you tube and started this. The later ones are from when I got home and whipped out my DVD.

those last ones are my favourites :)

I'll leave this post here for now....more to come soon!

Life drawings, Critters and Storyboards (sorta)

2010-03-25T15:51:00.002+10:00

Hi-ho! I come bearing the gift of art! First up we have some critters...you may have seen some of these before and that's because this is a page from my portfolio (many of the pictures here are) and I just thought I'd share since I love drawing weird creatures...I have noticed though I have a tendency to draw grumpy things - either human or creature...I'll have to amend that.

Next we have some life drawings that I put into a recent portfolio. You might spot some previously unseen drawings of (gasp!) a male nude the one and only I've managed to wrangle in my time since leaving Uni. I don't understand artists' reluctance to draw the male nude - they are just as beautiful to draw as the female nude.

I've also been trying to work on my composition skill - especialling regarding scene composition. So I've been doing some sketches that I plan to turn into mock story panels for practice.

...like this.

Finally some sketch book pages. I had a couple of trips up to Brisbane on the train recently so I took the opportunity to blow the dust off my old observational sketchbook and draw me some passengers. There was a really cute nerdy couple both with pony tails, they had a really sweet moment where the girl leaned back into her beau and he did her hair - I tried to capture that. Unfortunately his head was obscured by one of those non-smoking signs so I made it up.

and there we go, till next time!

X gem

2010-01-30T17:50:00.001+10:00

Here we go. all done :)
Had two things in mind when drawing this: Big hair and colourful. I also wanted to go in a more cartoon/animation style of colouring and put a bit more effort in.

I plan on doing turn around for this character later down the track for my portfolio.

And no this wasn't inspired by Avatar - there have been other 10ft tall blue creatures before.

Animal Sketches

2010-01-24T18:54:00.000+10:00

Here's some Animal drawings for you!

Just thought I'd throw these your way - been really slack recently. Should go back to life drawing class...you want me to go to lifedrawing class don't you? Don't you?

stuff...

2010-01-24T17:22:00.006+10:00

It's been ridiculously hot the past few days... I've been lifting my hand and have been taking my wacom mat with me...thank god for air conditioning.

Been working on a logo for my brothers Dive Shop (well the one he goes to) which is coming along nicely - considering my lack of experience with illustrator.

Also pumped this out this afternoon with no particular intention other than trying to be colourful. I'll polish it off with shading and lighting soon.
whilst my transition into that animation industry is going slowly I've been surviving the intermitten time where I have to work somewhere other than where I love by listening to The Animation Podcast. It's a great listen and makes drafting much more bearable :) The casts feature interviews with many animation greats so I really recommend it.

In other news...look how much of a NERD I'm becoming! Isn't it great! I'm such a huge fan of Batman TAS (and all the other DCAU) that I couldn't pass up this Nightwing figure I spotted on Ebay....I have Batman coming very soon.

2010-01-21T13:32:00.002+10:00

Hi Blog

I'm currently in the process of getting blown away by this:

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

It's fully CG rendered. Yes fully. As in entirely, completely and absolutely. I'm officially impressed. It's also a suitable thing to be spending ones lunchtime enjoying and it's incredibly relaxing. Alex Roman you are a very talented individual.

So if you are a fan of realistic modelling, rendering and lighting I highly recommend giving this a look. A good look for Max users too.

...so anyone else want to have a go at lighting and rendering now?

***

Back in the real world it look like I'm finally going to get that trip to Vancouver that I've been dying to have for about 5 years now. Vancouver is not only one of the nicest cities in the world it's also home to these guys the talented buggers that make this! And many other lovely CG TV eye candy. One of the best in the biz. So if you are in Vancouver in May look out!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-05T14:47:00.003+10:00

Sooo, yeah you can see I've been drawing mushy pictures recently. The first one was just a random doodle, the other two are Batman fanart :P

I like Batman - he also has the best cartoons. The Nightwing one is just in my own style and the Batman and Catwoman one was me trying to emulate the Batman cartoon. I do realise that my style is similar anyway, but I was trying to get as on model as I can get.

Also no trees were harmed in the making of these pictures - woo digital

Also here we have something that was floating around Deviantart that I thought would be a bit of fun to play with. I can see how much uni really helped me improve. Hecs dept well spent.
And finally just an edited version of my real based on the advise of a good friend of mine. I plan on starting the new 11 second club for January soon so hopefully that'll turn out.

Some further news regarding my previous post...it would seem having no previous credit history and wanting to do an overseas course is a huge hindrance in getting a loan from any lender... So it's looking like, unfortunately Animation Mentor is a bust. I love those guys there and they do great work. Hopefully I might get to learn from them some day - whether in the industry or a learning environment. But all is not lost, I plan to instead hop on a plane some time this year and jet of to Vancouver to visit a mate over there and see the wonderful sights that Canada has to offer...now just need to get a loan for that. Should be easier - in theory.

And Happy New Year Blog!

Animation Mentor

2009-12-07T13:36:00.001+10:00

BOOYA!

Ok so, in the interests of further education and improving my skill and developing a network of animation people I'm going to be doing Animation Mentor next year. It'll be costly but I'm sure it will be worth it.

It might however put my grand plans of going to Canada (specifically Vancouver and British Columbia) on hold but we'll see how it pans out.

Just have to get me a nice big loan now to cover it all.

in other news: how's this for awesome? I'm so doing that if I get the time. Move over 11 Second Club

Catherine Zeta-Jones Speed Painting

2009-11-26T22:11:00.002+10:00

I thought I needed to paint something beautiful after Alan Rickman so why not one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood? This took me about 3 hours with a photoshop failure in the middle. You'll notice in the video I do a few of things essentially are doing nothing - this is where I downgraded to an earlier version of Photoshop and had to figure out where everything was! Anyway I hope you all like.

Catherine Zeta-Jones Speed Paint from Gemma D on Vimeo.

6 Legged Robot walk cycle

2009-11-19T13:17:00.004+10:00

Been downloading a bunch of different free animation rigs to spice up my reel. And I came across this little guy. Thought it might be fun to try a 6 legged walk cycle. I kind of see this guy like the skuttle-bots on Red Dwarf. Running around mostly unseen performing maintenance of giant ships.

I also recently made another digital portrait and recorded my process with a screen capture program. Unfortunately at the moment my adobe programs are playing up so I can't put it all together. But hopefully that will all be sorted soon and I'll have it up for all to see.

A little experiment

2009-10-18T10:26:00.002+10:00

A friend of mine showed me how to customize my photoshop brushes. It's so fantastic that I can't believe that I didn't know about it before.

So here's a result of my playing around with my brushes:

little work in progress

2009-09-27T17:32:00.003+10:00

It's been waaaaaaaaaaay to long since I've animatied...waaay to long. Took a bit to remember all the keyboard short cuts for Maya -_-'

So anyway this is an idle pose I started what was probably a year ago now and abandoned for one reason of another. Been working on it today and now it's sort of serviceable. There's just a few kinks left to iron out then all done.

2009-09-25T15:48:00.003+10:00

Couple more drawings for this afternoon...

I have a new blog and some more drawings

2009-09-25T14:12:00.003+10:00

Since I go to life drawing every week I can see this blog filling up very quickly with lifedrawings - and as that's not everyones cup of tea I thought I might move all future life drawing posts over to here: http://pineapplesfromlife.blogspot.com/

Please follow me there :)

now onto some drawings:

I'm a little slow on the up take with this one but I felt it needed to be done. Just commemorating Disney's little purchase of Marvel.

I'll be back later with some more art for you. I've got some scanning to do....

also remember, if you like life drawings head over here: http://pineapplesfromlife.blogspot.com/

Had a drawing day today...

2009-09-18T17:44:00.003+10:00

So I went on facebook and said : "Tell me what to draw!"
Here's what happened...

If I actually have anyone watching this blog...feel free to suggest something for me to draw.

Alan Rickman portrait complete and Speedpaint video

2009-09-17T21:55:00.003+10:00

Here we go! Alan Rickmans all done. There's more I could do - but I like them kind of painterly...

And here, if you want to see how I painted it, is the speedpaint video XD

2009-09-17T15:02:00.003+10:00

A little something someone asked me to draw for them :)
Was more than happy to draw something up for her.

And look! A random animatic!:

Superhero Action Sequence from Gemma D on Vimeo.

A little experiment in style and genre.

And some more Life Drawing

2009-08-28T16:40:00.003+10:00

It takes forever to scan these. But I want to share them :)

Eventually I'll get to the male nude I did last wednesday. He was great. Did some awesome dynamic poses.

in the mean time here's some more lovely ladies!

Life Drawing!

2009-08-27T16:36:00.003+10:00

Been scanning my drawings again. So here we go!

A little bit more...

2009-08-24T22:14:00.003+10:00

So here's a little bit more Alan....

Not finished yet, obviously. This ones progressing a lot faster than my Robert Downey Jr one...must be improving - yay!

Also a little more Alice in Wonderland...

Alan Rickman Speedpaint video part 1

2009-08-23T10:33:00.000+10:00

Alan Rickman Speedpaint part 1 from Gemma D on Vimeo.

My first time trying to do this. So naturally the begining screwed up so you don't get to see the initial stages of the drawing.

Obviously the paintings not finished yet.

Digital Portrait - Alan Rickman

2009-08-21T15:02:00.003+10:00

A little something I've been working on the last 2 days. Originally I wanted to try out a screen capture software I've downloaded and make my own "speedpaint" video. Of course that didn't work out too well and the initial stages of the painting came out corrupted. So I tried a different program - and that corrupted too.

Augh

So know I stop every ten or so minutes to check to see if it recorded properly - so far so good. So if all goes well I should be able to make a video of me painting this - minus the beginning :(

I'm half-heartedly dedicating this to my mate Maruna who's an Alan Rickman/Snape fan. Half heartedly because this is the b*sterd he plays in Sweeney Todd - not good ol' misunderstood Snape from Harry Potter.

Story Board and Animatic

2009-08-16T17:10:00.001+10:00

Just a little something I'm working on...

Untitled from Gemma D on Vimeo.

Nananana Nananana...

2009-08-15T17:46:00.004+10:00

Batman!

So I've been watching a lot of the Batman and Justice League cartoons recently - which I highly recommend - and have subsequently concluded that I'm kind of in love with the character. He's fascinating and oh so cool. Not to mention that his animated cartoons are always very well done. This is the result of way too many hours spent watching those cartoons. It's mainly just a little exercise of building up an image from a dark background - and Bats here is a perfect character for that. It's not perfect but I like it :)

Life Drawing update

2009-07-30T10:21:00.004+10:00

So yeah....

2009-07-26T18:05:00.002+10:00

Kinda makes me want to put a book together...

(I'm real talkative on my blog ain't I?...Maybe I should say something)

So yeah, time to re-brand myself and get a real website together. And here's a peice of it. Wanted to draw my character representing each aspect of what I do. And there you have it.

Cont...

2009-07-25T15:08:00.000+10:00

Still going. Added some shade. Next up light!

Art WIP

2009-07-24T15:45:00.001+10:00

Just a little something I've been working on today...

Eighties anyone?

More Lifedrawing...

2009-07-11T16:06:00.001+10:00

just a little something I did on Facebook

2009-07-10T20:40:00.001+10:00

Click play if you like Deadpool!

Life Drawing Dump

2009-07-02T17:47:00.003+10:00

Bring on the naked ladies!

Pepper Meets Iron Monger Art

2009-05-15T16:00:00.001+10:00

Pepper, can you say "Oh, s%&*!"

Just a little speed painting I did from Iron Man. A little study in lighting. Painted in Photoshop.

Mondays

2009-04-25T17:08:00.001+10:00

Life Drawing

2009-04-25T14:13:00.003+10:00

I've managed to start up life drawing again! It's good to be back:
Click the picture for a bigger version

Emma Frost and thoughts on Dragonball Evolution

2009-04-19T20:57:00.004+10:00

I've been re-watching the 90's X-men cartoon (Still as awesome as it was back then) and it's put me in an X-men fanart mood. I might also be getting pumped for Wolverine later in the month.

So anyway, here's the lovely and not so lovely Miss Emma Frost. She may be a two face ----- but she's darn sexy.

Frost by ~utopiangem on deviant ART

also...

You know that Hollywood adaption of one of the most popular Japanese animations there is? The one everyone was so certain was going to be terrible? Yeah that one.

Well, it wasn't too bad. I mean it wasn't great. But it wasn't bad. It will certainly win over the kids. Not likely to be a favourite amongst fans but I don't believe it's worth a search for blood and vengence either (I demand a pound of flesh!). There are (despite initial appearances) many little nods to the original material - which are fun. There's a couple of nice jokes, some half decent fights and some special effects heavy bits (tastefully stylized for the most part - got a little heavy on the swirly particle "bamf" effect after a while). As you'd expect from me I liked Picollo and James Marsters did good. I don't think the build up to his character was executed well and I felt no tension through the entire film.

Yet I wasn't bored.

It was nice.

Like a pleasant day were you don't really do anything, enjoy it and forget about it a few days later.

Goku and Bulma were good. I liked them for the most part. Not exactly accurate but I can handle Bulma being a bit more kickass than normal. And she does get in over her head later - like Bulma does so well.

so overall? Dragonball Evolution is meh.

Do I want a sequel?

Sure, lets see what they can do with a bigger budget and Vegeta.

Gambit and twitter

2009-04-11T21:48:00.003+10:00

So in an effort to SPAM the internet with my stuuf I've joined twitter (also to stalk Jon Favreau) so check it out if your bored: http://twitter.com/utopiangem

also....

Gambit by ~utopiangem on deviant ART

Robert Downey Jr Process

2009-03-30T13:51:00.001+10:00

Robert Downey Jr is finally done!

2009-03-14T01:54:00.003+10:00

I've spent ages painting this I have no idea how long it's taken. I could go on painting this forever, seriously. But...

done

now...who's next?

Robert Downey Jr Portrait - almost there

2009-02-05T23:11:00.003+10:00

OK so, it's coming along now. I've just finished blocking in all the colours. This is by no means the finished product(obviously the hands aren't done).
Going to have to neaten things up around the edges, work on the shirt, and the hat. And a few other things.

Should be finished up very soon though!

RDJ Continued

2009-01-23T11:31:00.003+10:00

Been working on this portrait for a while now. Entirely made made in photoshop CS3. I'm enjoying it immensely.

As usual I'll post again when I've done a little more.

Giant Robot almost finished

2009-01-12T12:31:00.003+10:00

Just remembered that I should probably put this up here too...

Robert Downey Portrait cont...

2009-01-12T12:19:00.002+10:00

Still going! I'm really enjoying this XD.

Portrait cont...

2009-01-07T09:25:00.001+10:00

Still plugging away at it

2009-01-06T00:21:00.005+10:00

just a little something in honour of an actor I admire

Christmas in November

2008-11-12T13:14:00.002+10:00

Christmas card I've been working on - soon to be sent to the printers. There's a lot of pressure drawing caricatures of people you work with...

2008-11-03T08:51:00.002+10:00

Working on the christmas card for the office.

some more arty stuff

2008-11-01T16:46:00.001+10:00

Just some things I've been working on. The First is just for fun the second is for my dad's company christmas card.

I am alive... and I've been drawing too

2008-10-27T16:59:00.001+10:00

Allow me to introduce you to the people I work with... Will soon be a christmas card...

Giant Robot Drawing

2008-10-13T22:53:00.002+10:00

Still going at it, I'm almost there...

AE course

2008-10-02T17:17:00.003+10:00

Well I have just finished doing an After Effects short course with AFTRS (quite literally I'm sitting the classroom now...)

So now that I've expanded my skillsets a little I'm gonna work on some more little animation exercises...

whoo hoo

for now I'll leave it there.

I'll post some more art soon...

Post-it

2008-09-22T15:38:00.003+10:00

art-ness

2008-09-22T10:39:00.000+10:00

Some more art

2008-09-16T13:45:00.001+10:00

Been playing with painter...
And just a crazy critter I drew for my brother

tutes and art

2008-09-15T21:22:00.003+10:00

Just something i was playing around with.

in other news I've got some more cartooning work shops coming up soon. These ones are down on the Tweed coast area. I'm looking forwar to them - they'll a lot of fun and the kids seem to love them too. Makes me wonder if i'd like to take up teaching one day. Maybe, that'l bee my back up. I'll just run of and get me my Dep Ed now!

tata

seriously it's a lot of fun. it'll be good to get a few more classes under my belt too. Maybe i'll run my own one day...

Caricature

2008-09-09T16:45:00.002+10:00

A friend of mine commissioned me to draw a caricature of her and her Boyfriend for their 2 year anniversary. I hadn't had much previous experience with caricatures but it still turned out rather well considering.

I'll add my updated Robot picture once I've got it scanned.

Robot cont...

2008-09-01T10:07:00.000+10:00

Robot Study

2008-08-19T13:30:00.001+10:00

Another study :)
heh, I like to challenge myself...

2008-07-31T11:52:00.000+10:00

Demo reel

2008-07-23T12:06:00.000+10:00

Still working one it

art update!

2008-07-23T10:41:00.002+10:00

Finally ol' Donny here is done!

Ooh yeah...I'm enjoying this one

Reports from deep space

2008-07-06T15:21:00.005+10:00

Finally I can log back into blogger!
So here's what I've been up to: The last animation I was working on the one for the 11 second club is currently rendering on my computer as I type. I had a chance to do some life drawing on friday which was fantastic. It's been so long since I'd had a chance. My instructor told me that I might be better suited to going to an untutored life drawing session in Broadbeach - aparently he feels I don't need tutaledge. I'd beg to differ - there's always more to learn, but I guess my life drawing teacher at uni must have taught me well. Either way, it'll be good for me as it's weekly and a lot cheaper than the one I attended on Friday.
I'm looking forward to finally getting my new reel together with my new animations in it and send it off to some studios - an office job seriously isn't for me. I'm also desperately looking forward to starting an independant life... I won't go into the current drama's hindering my life and just post some animations and some drawings - this isn't that kind of blog after all. :D

The picture I'm currently working on for art class

11 second club work in progress (bad animation stage)

2008-06-26T12:25:00.004+10:00

This is obviously no where near finished. The motion is choppy and inconsistant. And there's some crazy movements with the guys arm. Also there are no expressions/animations with the faces what-so-ever apart from lip sync. But I thought I'd post just so people could see how I'm going. I'm looking forward to putting some proper expressions on these guys' faces but I'm holding that off for the moment until I get the motion right. I've been concentrating mostly of the first second of the clip, getting the grab right (which it's not yet). I had to move the sound back so that there was more time for the action to take place. I might still have to move it back a bit more, it's looking to quick at the moment. But it's looking better than it did, my motion was too big before and it was too much to crame into too little time. anyway, more to come. I've got some work to do if I want to enter this in to the 11 second club.

Donald Sutherland Portrait

2008-06-23T23:24:00.003+10:00

A picture I'm currently working on. 4 hours of drawing bliss. You wouldn't believe how engrossing this kind of drawing is.

Animation Cycles

2008-06-20T13:58:00.004+10:00

While I was sick this week I whipped up some cycles. Yay! I hadn't done these in a while and it was nice to do something simple - especially since I was feeling rather ordinary. There's a bit of a jolt in the walk cycle that I need to work out and I'd like to try a few different kinds of runs and walks next time. For now, here's some good old generic cycles.

2008-06-10T10:25:00.007+10:00

I spent Monday afternoon animating. It felt good to actually be working on something like this. I once again realized how much I enjoy lip syncing :D. It's just so darn satisfying when you see a character speak! The following two videos are my blocking and lip sync. The last one is the animation I was working on before this one.

Going good so far, just hope nothing distracts me from finishing it this time...

2008-06-09T18:43:00.000+10:00

Another work in progress drawing

2008-06-06T14:01:00.002+10:00

Hi all! Just another picture I've been working on. This is about under 2 hours work from a photograph.

It Came from Beyond our Universe!

2008-06-06T10:49:00.001+10:00

My last ever assignment for uni is now complete! Hazzuh!
Credits go to my mates Dave, Mary and to myself.

Lara Croft continued...

2008-05-27T09:28:00.001+10:00

Lara Croft Work in Progress

2008-05-20T09:31:00.002+10:00

It's a work in Progress - I'm reproducing a picture of Lara Croft as an exorcise in shading and tone.

Some other things I've been working on... I'll upload them properly later...

Cavewoman Vs Raptor by ~utopiangem on deviant ART

Winter Wonderings by ~utopiangem on deviant ART

animation

2008-05-07T09:06:00.002+10:00

There's still some work to be done on it... but I like where it's going

Art Dump

2008-04-29T21:53:00.004+10:00

I stopped by an art class after work a few days ago, got signed up. So I should be starting art classes in two weeks time. The guy that teaches there use to do concept art and art for newspapers. I look forward to it.

meanwhile...looky down there

Still going at it

2008-04-22T10:53:00.003+10:00

I'd left this animation for a while because of the move and such... so obviously I won't be entering the 11 Second Club comp with this. I'll finish it up so that it looks respectable and add it to my reel though. One day I'll start the comp on time and finish it on time and enter it. As for now...here's my progress so far... Still getting there.

The Walt Disney Studios Rolls Out Slate of 10 New Animated Motion Pictures Through 2012

2008-04-09T13:43:00.000+10:00

The Walt Disney Studios Rolls Out Slate of 10 New Animated Motion Pictures Through 2012