Alien concepts

Here a few Alien concepts done in z-brush and photoshop. The one on the top left corner was the quick/sloppy z-brush sculpt and the rest are variations derived from the original sculpt. A nice quick way to sketch a bunch of character designs with little effort. Any one of these can be refined and taken to a polished state at this point.

Character Sketches

Using Z-brush 4 to come up with some super fast and dirty creature and character concepts. I may later take these to completion but for now, just messing around with the program on my breaks at work.

Character Design

Here's a few cartoon face studies done using a technique I mentioned in an earlier post. I just throw down a bunch of random flat shapes and then try to fit a face into it. The black around the figure is just placed there to allow me to see the designs silhouette better.

Sketchbook log

Some more doodles

New Year, New Sketchbook

Just filled up my last black hard cover sketchbook in time for a new one to kick off 2011 with. Here are the first couple of pages. Trying to concentrate more on design and shape exploitation and exploration with this journal. I use mostly col-erase pencils by prismacolor, Gelly Roll pens by Pentel or Sakura, and a Japanese brush pen.

Lucky Robot

I call this one Lucky no. 007.  highly influenced by the works of Masamune Shirow and the Ghost in The Shell Movies.  If you have not seen these flicks and your into Anime, do yourself a favor and check out part one and two on blue ray or dvd. I also recommend Shirows Intron Depot books, the full of awesome robots and pin-up girls.

Quick colors

Here are some quick colors done in a more somewhat traditional animation style. I posted the black and white piece to show how I will de-saturate a drawing while I am coloring it, to check if my tonal value is working. In this particular drawing I did not want much contrast in the finished colors and I like the muted non-mathematical color scheme.
I'll post more soon.

Some more shady types

More Operation: One way out sketches.

operation: one way out

Some character designs for a TV / movie pitch. My older sister wrote the screen play and asked if I would do the character designs. I will post more as I complete them.

Interview

I would like to thank the guys over at the Character Design Blog http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/ for posting a short interview in the blogs portfolio review section. You can check out the interview here http://portfolio-review.blogspot.com/2007/12/rafael-rivera.html
While you're there make sure you take some time to look around the site. I have it bookmarked myself. They do great reviews of up and coming movies and books and they showcase some of the best talents in the field of comics and animation. This a great place for inspiration if you are an artist.

And now for some random cartoony pig sketches and my latest business card design.

Some more scribbles

Here are some really rough sketches done in my hard cover sketchbooks with ball point pen and brush markers. When I sketch this way I try not to spend too much time on the sketches. Just a few minutes a piece. I don't concentrate on making anything accurate or pretty, but instead just let my pen flow and move on to the next sketch. Some are done while out on the road, some while watching movies and others are sketches from fashion magazines. the point is to keep yourself drawing daily and getting ideas down quickly.
These first couple are from imagination, memory, and magazines...















These are some vehicle sketches done quickly while out running errands...







These character designs were inspired while watching Scarface and Carlitto's Way...









Dairy Of A Mad Black Women...



Tombstone...







And finally storyboard roughs for the opening sequence of The Davinci Code...