First up is Mike Corrieros book: “Planet to Planet”. This book is filled with creature sketches an designs. The cover is gorgeous, as you can see. The inside is full of black and white pencil drawings and what looks to be digital sketches. I actually own this one and I look at it constantly. This book is 67 pages – each one is filled!

Mike has always been a big inspiration to me – I remember joining COW for the first time over on conceptart.org for the “StormBringer” challenge and being blown away by what he produced. He was even kind enough to comment on my entry. Mike has always had great ideas and is very willing to share his knowledge and learn more about creatures, the natural world and the industry. He’s always looking for ways to push form and keep his designs looking credible – like they could actually work. More about Mike Corriero.

Allison Theus has been an inspiration since I was in middle school! I’ve been following her art online for a while now and I’m very happy to say that we’ve been able to become good friends through a small project we’ve been working on. Her work is just awesome; incredibly detailed and imaginative. She’s also made an online book called “A Book of Mostly Creatures”. From what I’ve seen of this book it looks like a great collection. It’s also 154 pages!

Her attention to anatomy and form has always been a motivator for me to make sure I’m looking at animals and paying attention to their muscles and how they connect and move their bodies. Not to mention her beasties are usually demented and just all around badass! More about Allison Theus.

Next up is Christopher Burdett. Chris and I have recently become contacts and have quickly become friends online. Chris’ works is incredible. He’s always been super fun about his work too (check out his birthday posts on his blog). His blog is constantly being updated with new and exciting things to look at. His work is always dynamic and always awesome! He has always inspired me with how he’s able to handle his creatures! Chris has actually made a number of online books but one I’m sharing is called “Pandas 1-36″.

Something that I think is important in being an artist is to always give back. His book, which was orginally created from doing sketches of pandas for his wife, is acollection of panda drawings. What’s so great about this book, besides the adorable drawings of pandas, is that all of the proceeds go to helping pandas and their charities! This is so important. To give back to something that perhaps inspired you to begin what you do or to donate to something you believe in; this is how we can give back through our own art. Anyway, Check out more of Christopher’s work and learn more about him here.

Anyway, I hope I did some justice to this awesome bunch. Please be sure to check out their work and the books I mentioned above.

Last year I put together a book through lulu.com called FishHooks. It is a collection of illustrations, sketches and studies that I thought I’d like to show and sell at APE. It actually did quite well and lots of people seemed to enjoy the book. Overall is was a great experience putting it together. I highly recommend putting together a book of work. Not only is it a great way to get your work to fans and potential clients, its really fun!

Here are links to all of the books if you’d like to purchase them:

Planet to Planet by Mike Corriero

A Book of Mostly Creatures by Allison Theus

Pandas 1 – 36 by Christopher Burdett

Enjoy!

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Something that I found in the “sketchbook” folder of my computer. I try to draw something everyday to further my understanding of photoshop and digital art. Mostly, they get deleted or just thrown into a folder. I didn’t really like the way it turned out at first and I still don’t really like the image but I thought I’d post it anyway. Maybe I’ll put all of the little random doodles into a giant image one day.

Today is grey. It’s been grey since Monday and while I usually welcome a cooler climate with open arms, sweaters and tea, I can’t help but feel a little unmotivated. I suppose It’s good weather for reading – I have a lot of that to do. I’ve been reading a lot of comics lately. I took a class about comics during my last semester of school. Since that class, I’ve been hooked. I love comics. They make me care about everything. I will probably end up making a links section on this blog soon so I can link to all of the comic creators and web-comic that I follow. For now though I will share a web-comic that I read last year in class.

It’s called When I am King. Most web-comics are just like paper comics, but on a screen instead of paper. This particular comic, along with others, is one that uses the web for what it is capable of – motion, scrolling maybe even sound. I will most likely post a few others in posts to come. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this adventure.

I recently bought a book that was created by a friend. If you are into creature design like I am then you’ll definitely want to pick up this book. Planet to Planet is a collection of sketches by artist Mike Corriero. The book is stuffed full of doodles, drawings, sketches and studies of creatures and animals. The artwork is beautiful! Check it out here: Planet to Planet on LuLu.com. It’s a must-have for creature design lovers. You can also get a 15% discount on the book by entering this coupon code: BEACHREAD305 when checking out. Be sure to have a looksie at the book!

I’m off to get some design work finished….

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I’ve been working on “A Social Dispute” lately, trying to get it finished. It’s taking more time then I thought it would. Needless to say: comics are hard. I’ve always had a profound respect for the people who produce them but trying them myself has made me really realize the amount of work it takes to produce s sequential story. I’ve had the privilege of working with Matt Silady on this endeavor and he’s been helping me along as I stumble around in this medium. I’m hoping to have the second page up soon.

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Re-visited this drawing with a new take on color. I like him better now. Expect more work up on brynnart.com in the coming weeks as well!

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