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We lost an incredible man and illustrator on Friday last week. (December 2nd, 2011) Dugald Stermer was one of the best.

He was a huge influence on my own work and countless others.

Dugald’s Work

(Dugald Stermer at Ease  Photo by Judith Calson   /   found via Robert Hunt)

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About two weeks ago I went to the Mojave Desert to visit family and while I was there I had the privilege of teaching a second-grade class how to draw a couple of animals. Since it was close to Halloween I taught them, step-by-step, how to draw a simple cat and a bat. It was way too much fun! I was also able to show them some of the work I’ve done for clients and my own projects. They were so excited! It’s always encouraging to have kids get excited about art and what you do as an artist.

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I also made a few posters for the kids to take home. This was a promotional poster that I made for October. I had it printed on a glossy stock so the kids could roll them up – so it looked a little different from this image.

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Of course to top it all off, I got a packet of letters from the kids yesterday, thanking me for visiting their class! I can’t express how much this means to me! They are the best thing ever! I’ve read every letter and will probably keep this in my desk (along with the letters from last year’s class). I love all of the lovely pictures each of the students drew for me!

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Here are three of the letters from the packet. They are amazing and I wish I could post them all! So, You’re welcome Mrs Smith’s class! It was a pleasure visiting you all! :D

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New personal piece. I actually didn’t like the way this image started but it grew on me as I worked on it. I’m currently working on some new work to replace some of the images in my portfolio that I feel are “out of date”.

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One of the images I was working on was this one, of a female space pilot. (Can you tell I’m trying to include more humans in my portfolio?) Anyway, this character is actually part of a private commission that sort of came to a halt a while back. I decided I’d use some of the prompts as a loose inspiration for some character studies. When I was fleshing out the costume for this character study I looked up X-Wing pilots from Star Wars for reference:

(© Lucas film)

I love this costume. It looks so simple. I mean, I’m pretty sure you could replicate this pretty easily at your local hardware store. It’s awesome and I think it points to a time in film where there weren’t massive budgets to be thrown around. At least the budget wasn’t the selling point of a movie anyway. It was about keeping it iconic. You immediately know what this is when you see it (assuming you’ve seen Star Wars). I think it’s a great reminder that, in design, the best solution is usually the simplest one.

Anyway, I’m not sure if I’ll finish the pilot or not. She was a good warm up but I think I’d like to explore more ideas about the costume and such…

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Working on this among other things this weekend. This is just a bit of a larger subject. Decided to post this work in progress look for twitter. A neat idea came up about posting whatever is on your drawing board (and I assume computer screen) at 10am every day. Of course, you’re also supposed to mark the tweet with #10oclockart. If you’re on twitter, you should join in on the fun! :)

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Here are the books that I own:

Animal Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form

I’ve had this book for years and I turn to it almost daily. It’s a very simple guide to bone and muscle structure to most mammalian forms.

The Art of Animal Drawing: Construction, Action Analysis, Caricature

I recently picked this up and I love it! This book is older and the drawings inside are mostly about form and action – drawing animals in motion.

Animals Real and Imagined

By one of my favorite creature artists, Terryl Whitlatch compiles her knowledge into a beautiful book! I’ve turned to this book for all sorts of anatomy questions. Not to mention its very inspiring to look through!

The Wildlife of Star Wars

Same as above, an inspiring collection of creature designs from the Star Wars movies.

The World of Kong

This book is gorgeous. I kept getting comments on The Morae River about how people were reminded of this book after looking through the project (I was incredibly flattered!) An inspiring collection of creature designs from the recent re-make of King Kong.

Creature

This was a gift and I never thought I’d really use it for reference. However, I look through it all the time! Especially for ideas on skin texture and facial expression.

Anatomy for the Artist

Not the traditional creature anatomy book but I love this human anatomy book. The artist handles the body so well and I love the overlays inside. It really helps to see the muscle structure of the animal that is most familiar to us! ;)

Wildlife Fact Files – I got these when I was a kid. I’m not sure if you can still subscribe to them or not. They offer some photos and interesting facts about animals. They aren’t extensive but are good for quick reference.

The Encyclopedia of Animals

An amazing book FULL of images and illustrations! This book helps me so much!

The Audubon Field Guides

These are small quick field guides and while they don’t offer a huge amount of photo reference they offer behavioral traits which is super important when designing creatures!

Here are also a few books that are on my “To Get” List:

Art Anatomy of Animals

Animal Drawing: Anatomy and Action for Artists

Prehistoric Life

Color and Light

When it comes to referencing animals, I also like to watch Nature Documentaries. Nothing really beats seeing the animal move around in it’s natural habitat doing what it does. Here is a quick list of some documentaries that I find particularly helpful and have watched too many times:

Life of Mammals – available on NetFlix Instant Watch

The Blue Planet- available on NetFlix Instant Watch

YellowStone – available on NetFlix Instant Watch

Planet Earth

Life

Life of Birds – available on NetFlix Instant Watch

Human Planet

Of course, going to the zoo and museums helps tremendously! It’s something I know I need to do more of too. In any case, I hope this list is informative for those of you who might be interested in creature design and animal illustration. If you know of any books that you like to reference or share, please comment! :)

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I don’t have much to post in the realm of personal work. Adjusting to my work load has caused some of my personal stuff to become neglected. I do manage to sketch here and there though. This is something I like doing – just sort of sketching lots of body-forms quickly in pen. I have a tendency to want to get everything right and so this helps me to loosen up and try to let go of making the drawing perfect.

Here are more doodles:

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I’ve also recently made a facebook page for my artwork. I was sort of opposed to the idea for a while – only because I already update a million things on the internet already so one more thing seemed like a bit much. However, it sort of needed to happen. If you’d like to keep up with my work on facebook you can here:

Brynn Metheney – Concept Art and Illustration on Facebook!

I know a very talented lady by the name of Laura Guill – we went to school together and had studios almost next to each other in thesis. Recently I commissioned a small illustration from her and just had to share it!

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This tiny tapir is literally the most adorable thing in the world. Laura’s work involves her painting subjects in acrylic and then cutting them out and pasting them to a background to created a three dimensional effect. I love my tapir so much! Thanks Laura! :D You can see more of Laura’s tiny animals on her blog, here: http://crown-of-laurel.blogspot.com/

Anyway, I’m off to work on some developmental work. I do have a about 10 card illustrations I’m hoping will be released so I can show those as well.

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Something fun for promotion.

I’ve also added a subscribe feature to this blog. Now you can receive email updates in your inbox whenever I post new content. It’s in the sidebar ————>

Recently I’ve been working on more and more projects. It’s been exciting as some of them have been with some bigger clients – which I hope I can talk about more soon! While I draw and paint for most of my day there are times when I’d like to just do something else to pass time. Not that I don’t absolutely love what I do but there are times when I’d like to have a change of scenery. I don’t think I’m alone. Some artists like to take walks, garden, play video games, make things or do something else that stimulates the brain and body in a different way.

Recently I’ve been working on these small brooches. They started as Christmas gifts I gave to friends and family this past year and they have turned into something I do when I’ve finished working for the day and just need to unwind on the couch with a glass of wine. The name “Coyote Tail Crafts” come from my living in the Mojave desert. It was a hard place to live – it was always hot and there wasn’t much out there growing up. Recently it’s been expanding into more of a suburban paradise which, was something I always wished for as a kid. However, I find myself feeling heartbroken over the fact that some of those empty fields have been filled in with tracking homes and that some of those large open expanses of desert have been replaced by Super Wal-Mart. There aren’t too many coyotes near the city anymore but they’re still out there somewhere. I want it to be the desert again, not some weird artificial environment. :/

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Anyway, the brooches are really fun to make. I like to name each pin after a place or memory – which is what the “name” is here in this image. Anyway, I just thought I’d share on of the little things I like to work on other than illustration and such. I’ve always thought it was important to branch out and try everything. Sometimes it’s just fun to make something with your hands that you can give to loved ones or sell to strangers. Either way, doing something creative everyday is important even if its just cutting up felt and fabric. Its a way to get through it all…

To see more brooches you can visit my etsy store here –> http://www.etsy.com/shop/CoyoteTailCrafts

What do you like to do in your spare time?

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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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This was a quick warm up from this morning. Nothing too special – just trying to wake up and get things going.

Tuesday night I was invited to speak to two classes at my former college, CCAC. Robert Hunt and Bob Ciano had me share my work with their students and talk about life after school. I focused mainly on self promotion and the act of working on something creative everyday. Something I knew right out of college was that I’d need to keep up my momentum. Having a blog like this and joining online communities helped me stay on top of deadlines I had set for myself because I felt like I had an audience to please somewhere – even if that was never the case. I also covered online promotion and the power of social networks like blogs, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I’ve had a good amount of success reaching people through the internet. Of course I also talked about physical promotion, networking and meeting people. Sending out books and prints to potential clients and such. I also covered how long it takes to get things moving when it comes to freelancing. Graduating in the midst of a economic crisis was hard enough. December 2009 was tough, real tough. No jobs anywhere. Yet somehow, I made it work. It took lots of willpower. There were plenty of days where I wanted to give up and go back to school for something – anything at that point. Something to take me out of the recession. However, I think sticking with my art through that time really made me realize how much I love doing it. Of course, I’m busy with lots of deadlines and projects but I’ll never be busy enough. I think that was the thing I really wanted to talk to them about. To never be satisfied. To try everything. To constantly move forward. This is what really got me working at what I love – never giving up, never giving in and always being thirsty for the next project. Overall it was a lot of fun to talk to the students. A friend of mine and fellow illustrator, Brianna Harden shared a quote on her blog a while back that I thought was inspriring to anyone starting out and anyone who has been in this for a while. I shared it with the classes later through email:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” -Ira Glass

While I’m no expert and I’ve only been at this for a couple of years, I do know that: working as hard as you can and being nice to your peers can get you places. It’s not easy and it will never be easy but if you have others there with you who are as inspiring and motivated as you are, it can be awesome.

Anyway, those were some of my thoughts. Today I’m working on more stuff I can’t share for a while. I do have another spot in Imagine FX coming to the States soon and some cards done for Fantasy Flight Games that I should be able to post in the coming days.

Otherwise, I’m working on the project I’ve always wanted to work on and its awesome. ;) I really can’t wait to share it.

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I have a very talented friend who is part of a site called Alphabeastiary. She’s part of a lot of other sites too but I was recently inspired to join the project to fulfill those moments when my mind is blank for ideas and I just want to draw. The letter D was dedicated to the creature: Dobhar Chu

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This was my take on the critter. Be sure to check out the whole bunch, they are all awesome!

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In my attempt to be festive this year, I began to draw a reindeer in a stoic pose that I thought I would make Christmas cards with. However, he slowly turned into some sort of imp gnawing on a candy cane. Go figure. Anyway, these were my Christmas cards this year. I’m hoping to do something fun every holiday season. The cards were lots of fun to make too.

I have two other bits to share, one a book that has just come out – which I’m super excited about and an animation that blew my mind. First, I’ll talk about the book.

The book is titled, “Animals Real & Imagined“ and it’s illustrated by one of my most favorite creature artists of all time, Terryl Whitlatch. It looks to be a whole book of her studies and illustrations of animals that she’s observed and those she’s imagined and created herself. I cannot wait to get my paws on this book and I suggest that if you are into creature design, that you grab it as well. You can read about the book and Terryl here: Academy of Art News – Terryl Whitlatch

Anyway, here is the animation I mentioned before. It’s been circulating on the internet for the last week. If you haven’t seen it, I suggest you take a look:

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This was an experiment I started the other night in pencil, watercolor and oil – a method I used to work in constantly. It requires lots of layering with fixatives, and matte mediums. The end result is usually a more layered looking effect than this. I kept the technique up for a while until I started to get sick from the chemicals in the fixative – the back of label read: causes nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness. I endured a year of these symptoms before I realized what was happening.  I was careful to spray things outside, wear a mask or cloth around my face and let the piece dry for a day or so. However, with tight deadlines in school I’d have to breathe in the fumes while I was working on the final product almost inevitably. The fixative would linger around the piece for a week or so.

I recently tried the method again without the fixative, with this drawing of a dodo, but found that turpenoid has the same effect. I’m not sure if it’s association now or if it is something in the thinner but I can’t use the stuff without getting dizzy spells and headaches for a few days. I hate writing about this because I feel like its my fault. I feel like I’m less. In any case, I’m trying to find new methods to replicate the way in which I used to work.

When I couldn’t produce work the way I wanted to, I learned how to paint in the computer. I knew I needed to learn because of the field I had decided I wanted to be a part of but was always reluctant – I think it had something to do with the environment I was in at the time. I had one instructor who always told me to learn it but it didn’t hit me until I went to “Revelations” – an art convention put on by Massive Black. I saw digital painting in a way I hadn’t ever seen it before – in the process of being done. I understood that it wasn’t so different from what I was doing on paper, in fact, it was structured exactly the same. I was excited about art-making in a way I hadn’t been in a long time. I came home, bought a wacom tablet and photoshop and began to teach myself…slowly. I didn’t have too many resources in college in the digital department. There was one class that covered everything briefly, but nothing that taught painting or anything that would be necessary to create a digital illustration from scratch. I taught myself almost everything I know now with class assignments and personal work when I could. Needless to say, most of my attempts were pretty awful in the beginning. I’ve since deleted a lot of my student work except for the work I did for The Morae River my last semester.

I am in no way an expert in digital media either. I only know about 10% of what I should probably know. I’m learning new things every day and I hope to be for a while. The illustration above has digital enhancements added to it. I couldn’t finish it in oil due to the headache. I’m wanting to figure out my process again, in a more health-friendly way because I like to work in watercolor and pencil.

I’m not sure why I felt the need to type all of this….I guess that’s what blogs are for? haha…

edit* …And since you’ve endured my rambling on, you should watch this as a reward. (if you skip ahead to watch it I wont blame you either, hehe)

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The last couple of days have been hard. I found out that my hometown is on fire. Southern California is notorious for wildfires. My family is ok for the most part but some of them had to be evacuated from their homes. Needless to say I’m a bit tense and wish I could be down there right now to help.

On a lighter note, The Morae River blog is back up and running. I’m glad I was able to perform some updates on it – it had been neglected for so long. There are still some minor glitches but for the most part it seems to be running smoothly. The image above is the most recent species to be added to Tul. I will be posting the full profile soon.

In other news, a former instructor and friend of mine is having a solo show. If you live in the Bay Area you should come out and see some art! Robert Hunt will be showing his landscapes at Periscope Cellars. This collection is stunning so be sure to stop by if you can. Here is a video of him painting if you’re interested.

Lately, I’ve been trying to come to terms with my sketchbook. I’ve never been to proud of my sketchbook, which is why I rarely post anything from it. So in an effort to become a little more comfortable with it, I need to start posting it here.

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Anyway, as you can see my sketchbook isn’t very exciting but I need to keep working in it. I know that if I begin to post it here I will be more obligated to keep it filled with work.

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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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Finished up the Pygmy Esorifleu for CGHUB’s creature planets. These were lots of fun to do. I’m currently working on the next species for topic # 15 – Viscinian Scavenger. These are just some rough sketches of the overall form that I want the organism to have – following the guidelines provided in the prompt.

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This forum activity has been really good for me. It a lot of fun to help run but its also pushing me to try new things with creature design and even graphics. I’ve been producing the banners for the activity with direction from Shane Watson – CGHUB’s community director.

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In case you’re wondering, I did not paint the actual planet. I use Flaming Pear’s “LunarCell” to produce it. Creating a banner along with stats and a creature for the activity each week can be a lot fo work and so any shortcuts are vital to get things done on time. I did, however, paint the galaxy and produced all of the other graphics on the banners (except for the little icons on the top banner, those are winning entries) Anyway, This has been loads of fun for me and my partner in crime (co-runner of creature planets) - Ogi Grujic. As the activity progresses, I’d like to re-work the layouts of the planet banners and such but for now these seem to be working ok.

Like I mentioned in my post before, I’m wanting to share things that inspire me, things I find funny, and things that I think others should watch. This was a short that brought tears to my eyes. I love how animation is able to span gaps and make you care about lumps of dirt on the moon. Enjoy…

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Something I forgot about and finished up.

I’d like to start using this blog for the other word that is listed in its description: “inspirations”. I’m on the internet way too much. One of the characteristics (and vices) of being a digital artist is that you have the entirety of the internet at your finger tips at all times. In any case, I see lots of weird, touching, fascinating and just plain hilarious videos, pictures, blogs and profiles scattered about the web. So I’d like to start sharing some of those things that I find inspiring and that end up touching in me in some way or another. Ill start with this: My Milk Toof.

Ickle and Lardee from: My Milk Toof

This adorable and endearing web-comic brightens my day every time I look through it. Inhae, creator, artist, and author has transformed her milk teeth (or baby teeth) into unforgettable characters, Ickle and Lardee. The two teeth embark on epic adventures and hilarious skits around the house and out in the yard. Its a beautiful combination of sculpture, photography, and comics. These are some of my favorite strips but be sure to look through all of them.

Heavy for the Holidays . Up and Away . Bed Buddies

enjoy!

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I thought a lot about The Morae River and what I want to do with it. It’s been dragging lately. Not because I’m uninterested, but more because it’s beginning to change. I’m not sure that I want The Morae River to continue to exist on the continent of Orcura. I’m thinking the river might be moved to an island. This geography might be more appropriate to where the world exists in relation to us. I’m also wanting to blur some information and keep a lot of things a mystery. Anyway, it is going to take some thought and some re-designing but I am excited to kind of let it change and tell me what it wants to be.

I’m working on some other things I can’t really mention right now but I will be posting some work in progress of a few things soon.

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We lost a legend today. RIP Frank Frazetta…

From the New York Times: “Frank Frazetta, an illustrator whose  vivid colors and striking brushstrokes conjured up fantastic worlds of musclebound heroes fighting with broad swords and battle axes to defend helpless women from horrible beasts, died on Monday in Fort Myers, Fla. He was 82″….Read More

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I’m giving a talk tonight at California College of the Arts for Bob’s Ciano’s class. If you were in the class you can retrieve your goodies at this link: Goodies for Students

Its a small package containing some photoshop brushes I found from Cghub and filters from Flaming Pear’s webpage.

The image has nothing to do with the demo. I just thought it was funny that someone tagged mudblood on some building in Oakland.

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One of the best animated shorts I’ve seen in a while. The drawings are gorgeous and the horse is just so perfect. Check it out and enjoy! :D

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A new piece in the works – “Rust”. Here is the sketch for it. I’ll be uploading the final soon. Brynnart.com is also getting a make-over today. I’ll be launching the new site tomorrow morning.

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