Hey Wacom users!

Tired of losing your tablet pen all the time? Check out what PenMoto has to offer! It's a magnetic ring that keeps your pen attached to your hand as you switch between drawing and typing and whatever else you may need to free your hand for, without having to put down that pen and then go searching for it afterwards... Personally I'm looking forward to this because I tend to stubbornly not put down my pen when typing, resulting in sore wrists and many typos. Check out the page, watch the video, and I hope you find it compelling enough to support!

PenMoto Kickstarter page: [link]


And for Cintiq users-- have you heard of SmudgeGuard? It's a one (or two) fingered glove that lessens friction and also helps against the heat of the Cintiq screen, which can get pretty unbearable on some days. It's also great for drawing traditionally as well, as it's name implies. I've been using mine every day for over a year and a half and can never go back to not using one. Check it out!

SmudgeGuard: [link]


I love that these tools are carefully designed and crafted by individuals who are Wacom users themselves, finding ways to improve their own Wacom experience and sharing it with the rest of us. Their prices are more than fair. Please do yourself a favor as well and check them out!

ALSO! Check out Womanthology ! It'll still be up for one more day!
[link]

Guys, guys! I'm really excited to say Rad Sechrist (~radsechrist) has finally joined DA!!

He's a story artist at Dreamworks animation currently working on How to Train Your Dragon 2. He also draws comics and teaches. His awesome blog is at [link] and he posts terrific art notes at [link] . He's also a super awesome and nice guy!

Please drop by and say hi!

A belated journal entry-- but thank you guys so much for the DD on my Young Justice fanart the other day!!
It was a surprise that really made my day. Thanks again for your kind words, and thanks =Acaciathorn and `WildCharmander for picking it!

Also, Comic Con is coming up so quickly...! There's also that Trickster event right across from the con which sounds pretty interesting too. [link] Anyone else going?

Going to have to guard my wallet now... oh, Comic Con...

Man, life has been suuuuper busy--  I usually don't see the sun by the time I get back home, haha. But life is great! I feel like I say that every time I make a journal, but I'm so glad that it's still true!

I haven't been able to do much illustration nor painting at all within the past few months, since storyboarding and animation is consuming my life but I love it so much!

I've been gushing over sakuga AMVs and genga keyframe drawings and expensive-as-heck artbooks from Japan... it's truly awesome to have friends to accidentally stay up til 7am just checking out cool stuff with...  Enthusiasm is infectious indeed! If you nerd over that kind of stuff, we gotta become friends! hahaha

Also been trying to catch up with more anime and watching stuff I never would have thought to watch-- Angel Beats (which I started because someone rec'd the OST and was pleasantly surprised), Madoka, Haruhi, etc etc. As for stuff that's currently airing, I've been watching Steins;Gate (my personal fav of this summer season so far), as well as Blue Exorcist and Tiger & Bunny which are entertaining and alright. And the One Piece manga, of course, is way up there on a pedestal... ! If anyone's got suggestions, (especially shorter season stuff that I can marathon easily), then by all means, come at me bro!



The Preorder journal for the Rising Sun Art Book is up! All profits made in the sales will be donated to the Japanese Salvation Army. Please lend your support! [link]

Also, Trigun the Movie: Badlands Rumble will be having a limited release in the USA very soon, starting July! So please support the industry and show the studios that their hard work is being appreciated! Plus, if the reception of the movie is good enough to prove a fanbase still exists, it may even motivate the making of Trigun Maximum as a series, a possibility hinted by Satoshi Nishimura himself.
Info and tickets here! [link]



Lastly I will be at AX from Sat ~ Mon with the awesome Carl aka We're in Row D 51, which is 15 spots down from the end, or something. If you're nearby, come say hello!!

EDIT: Here's a helpful guide to AX Artist Alley layout by ! Thanks Ben, now I finally know where my table is, lol

Hey guys!

Interested in helping raise funds for Japan? and are organizing an artbook charity project and are now open for public submissions. Check out their journal for more information if you are interested in participating and/or helping to spread the word! [link]


Also, check out "The Last Cause" feature film project on Kickstarter--  [link]

"Mai and his crew are seeking $50 thousand to make what looks like it will be a gorgeous, intriguing proof-of-concept reel for what will eventually become a full-length feature. ... I like the anime-influenced scifi melodrama of the story. I want to help support this flick to prove once again that you don't need millions of dollars to make original science fiction with cool effects." Annalee Newitz, Editor-in-Chief at io9.com


It's heartening to see people making art with goodwill and with ambition. So please check out what they have to offer and see what you can do to support them! (=

...Today! to HBO!

Super stoked for "A Game of Thrones" premiere.

That aside, the weather has been so hot! Looks like summer is protesting.

EDIT: Watched GoT and loved it! The adaptation was spot on-- it's been years since I read the books and I thought that my memory wouldn't have held up, yet I was able to identify characters and settings at first glance, plus it felt amazing to see shots that were strikingly similar to how I envisioned it as I was reading. Kudos to the crew. It was kinda like reliving fuzzy memories and seeing them in HD for the first time-- Trippy.

Anyway, can't wait for more! And I hope there'll be more seasons and so on.

Also gotta hunt down whoever it was that I lent my ASoIaF books, cuz I gotta reread them! Can't wait for Dance with Dragons later on this year as well!

CN has cancelled Sym-Bionic Titan ...

And will be airing this in its old time slot: [link]

(Nope, not an April Fools joke. It's actually a new cartoon called Problem Solvers. )




Edit: Whether it be lack of toys or whatnot... Either way,  disapproving frowns at the kids who aernt giving artful shows like this a solid audience.

A Facebook group  [link]

For great justice art and animation!!

...And yeeeah. Other than that, life is really awesome and I'm having a great time! Hope everyone else is doing well

Happy new year guys!

Apologies for spamming with the sketchdumps from blogspot! but I just took a look through my DA gallery again and jeez, the stuff on there is old! Felt the need to push those old deviations back, haha.
Anyway I've figured out how to post to scrap and then discreetly move those into my gallery, so hopefully the spamming won't be an issue for anyones inboxes

Never actually made a post about this before, so I figure its about time-- but if anyone's interested in my scribblings my blogspot is here www.paintdump.blogspot.com and as for my ramblings and sharing of art and youtube links, I have a twitter here www.twitter.com/cteez .

That aside, life has been really good, and quite busy. I've been drawing a lot and nerding a lot. Got to watch a bunch of cartoons (exactly which series they are, probably will be obvious in a few of my sketchdumps, haha!) all thanks to my friend ~ayenlou for letting me borrow the DVDs!
And speaking of cartoons, there's a lot of stuff coming out soon that I'm really excited about-- Young Justice this week, and Transformers Prime and Sym-bionic Titan resuming in February, the Supernatural anime, GI Joe, and then some. Comicwise, I also recently read Young Justice (the old stuff) which was quite fun, and the old Impulse series has certainly charmed me into being a loyal fan! Already did a bunch of fanart for fun, and there are still so many more series out there that I love falling in love with, and here's hoping I get around to finishing some tributes for them...!


Drawing and reading comics and watching cartoons and having friends who do the same... yep, life is good.

The amazing Jose Lopez ~Desoluz has just started using DA! Please give him a warm welcome as he settles in!!

Jose is an art director and lead character designer on Transformers: Prime and has also worked on Green Lantern: First Flight, Superman/Batman Public Enemies, The Batman, Jackie Chan Adventures, and Generator Rex among others.

He's been a super great friend and mentor to me during TF: P and I'm so stoked to see him here on DA. Words can not describe his awesomeness. Please go say hi!



Oh yeah, while I'm at it-- tune in to Transformers: Prime as it airs February 2011!

Some friends are making an artbook! Woooot! Please take a look and if you'd like, show em some support at their Kickstarter page here:
[link]


Thanks for reading and have an awesome holiday break!

Here are guys relatively new to DA so please go give them a visit!

is finally posting again! It's exciting for me to see his stuff here on DA since it brings back memories of Epilogue.net and Treasure Planet (which btw was the first "concept art" I was ever aware of. Talk about inspiration!)

has just joined DA! He's worked on several shows such as Megas XLR and Metalocalypse and is currently on Transformers Prime doing background design. He's super friendly (and very funny!) so feel free to drop by and give him a warm welcome as he settles in~!

And while I'm at it, others who are already on DA:


Thanks for looking

Hello!

Wow, it's been busy. First there was Anime Expo. Thanks to everyone who dropped by! And thanks to those who print traded with me! It was really so nice to see familiar faces and meet new people!

Speaking of conventions, Comic-con is tomorrow! I'm excited because this is my first time at Comic-con for a number of things: first time with a 4 day pass, with a place to stay, and with panels that I absolutely want to attend.

So as to what I've been up to (an excuse for my inactivity haha): since December I've been at Hasbro Studios working as a props artist on a new show and it's been a truly fantastic experience so far. It's an honor to work with such amazing and skilled people and I am really excited that we can finally share a glimpse of what we've all been working hard on! On Thursday from 4:30 ~ 5:30pm is the "Transformers: Prime" panel. Please go and check it out!

Conventions aside, right after AX ended I moved into my own apartment. It's small, cozy and peaceful-- I love it! Now that I don't have to do 2 hours of driving every day I am glad I can spend that time and energy on other things instead... like drawing! It's also great to have some time to catch up with anime and movies I shoulda seen a long time ago. Like Hunter x Hunter, Gintama, and Code Geass. I also just watched Inception. All were really fun to marathon. If you have any suggestions, please do share!

And that's it for now. Thanks for dropping by, and take care you all!

So it looks like the Anime Expo artist alley packets are now emailed out and I'll be going again this year. Who here managed to grab a table and will be going? And who here wanted to but didn't manage to get one in time?


Anyway, wow I love How to Train Your Dragon so so much! I could ramble about it for a long time, but to cut it short I'll just say... On top of the smart storytelling and the lovable characters and the dialogue that did not make me cringe, I really enjoyed every scene and the way they worked; from the cinematography and pacing to a script that flows, to the music and sound effects (especially for those dragons); to the color palettes and lighting to the variety of characteristics defined for every species of dragon and so on.... not to mention awesome character animation. Reasons like that are, in addition to story and character, why good animated films deserve at least a second viewing. And HTTYD was awesome and managed to snare my personal interest on top of impressing the nerd in me with all that and more, which makes the rewatch factor veeery high for me. Very! And all the while you just can't help but admire the amount of knowledge, skill, hard work and effort that went behind the scenes to make it all happen.

And like many of its animated peers, I don't feel like this is a film simply made "for kids". Rather, it is made by adults who still have their inner child, made for anyone who still has that spark in them, and done in a way so that kids can enjoy it as well.

So go watch it, you guys!! (in theaters, support the artists! Even if not by means of royalties, then at least by letting them know their work is appreciated! )


And my buddy *AprilEriksson gave me a Night Fury toy, because even though I am getting older, I am still a kid at heart and loving it!
So, of course, I immediately proceed to do something stupid with it. Because at the end of the day, this is what we (alright, maybe just I) learned Photoshop for. [link] & [link]

Well, that's it for now. Take care you all!  ☆

Edit: Offline now!

Hey guys! Livestream plug again. My friend Andrew's streaming right now! For those of you with questions about learning art, here's a guy you can pick up some knowledge from!

He is super approachable and knowledgeable (and hilarious), and his paintings are friggin badass. So don't miss out!!

[link] --> The livestream! You can also check out his previous streams.

[link] --> His blog ~

Hey guys! Man, it's been a while since I last blogged. So I figured I should make an entry!

So, what to say. I've been getting real nostalgic and so on lately. I remember the good old days on DA when I was a lot less dead on the internet and used to actually socialize. What ever happened to those chat rooms and meeting random people and whatnot! And there was also the experimenting with random fanart and sharing silly story ideas and characters with buddies.. ah, good times. And what a cycle because I'm kinda doing that again now and it feels really good.

I need to go about being less of a zombie on the net. My days are rather busy but at least my evenings are now my own. Which of course means watching more movies and animations and doodling like there is no tomorrow! Still not enough hours in the day though, really..!

Anyone else watching Durarara or keeping up with Berserk or One Piece ? OP's been epic lately. Actually it always is, but still. Just saying!

( Also.. if you haven't played Robot Unicorn Attack lately... then DO IT NOWWW: [link] )

~toiletseat and I are at table D29, we are next to !Tsukie and ~tobiee. Be sure to say hi to us if you drop by!!

Also, my icon.. green for Iran!

EDIT May 23: No more kitten!
The mother cat has returned for her kitten so we gave it back to her.
It's actually not a decision I made. April and I were both out when the mother returned, hissing and angry, leaving my father to deal with it and eventually he let the kitten go. April and I were at least spared the moral decision of returning it to the mother vs giving it a human home. Either choice has its ups or downs. I hope this decision sits alright with you guys who sat along for this whole crazy ride and who wished for the kitten to have a good home. I hope it does too.

EDIT: FOUND THE KITTEN!!

here are some pictures:

[link]
[link]
[link]

It's currently in the bathtub ignoring the food and water and barking nonstop (sounds like an angry chihuahua). April's succeeded in calming it down from time to time but it's still a spazz. It is older and more energetic than I thought it'd be, which is good news. The pictures make it seem misleadingly calm and cute (edit again: Actually, April turned out to be the underground Cat Whisperer, because she totally got it to calm down and even PURR in her lap. Wow) But yeah, he is pretty filthy.

Could not have done it without my buddy April 's help, thank you for your super awesomeness!!

We finally caught the kitten after HOURS of overturning my garage and setting up barricades of stuff-- seriously, whole place looks like a wreck now. It chose to stay closest to the ground and closest to the wall, aka the furthest and deepest it could get, and therefore the most painful for us. To keep up with it we dug out stuff from one corner of the garage to the opposite. ...I think we deserve some Dip 'n dots after all that.

That aside, it was great to know that I destroyed the garage for a reason other than hallucination; for a while I wasn't even sure if it was still there or not. We moved boxes for a long time before we heard another mew from it to confirm its existence, and I cheered because this meant I wasn't just imagining things on an epic level. Afterwards-- [haha, what an understatement! I mean]-- "Hours of grueling blood and sweat later", April and I walked around the neighborhood asking about the kitten until someone finally told us that they've seen it around before and that it's most likely a stray.

As neither April and I can take it in, we're hoping to see if we can find someone willing to adopt it before we resort to the shelter, where it would be euthanized if left not adopted.

==============
Entry from 2:01 PM: It has been mewing and crying in there, but only with the garage closed and dark. We haven't seen it yet, only heard it. It hasn't responded to food lures (milk, tuna, water). It's made no move to escape whenever we had the garage door opened and we still don't know exactly where it is. Our neighbor's cat had observed for a while from a distance, but is gone now and made no motherly attempts at communicating with or rescuing the kitten, so I doubt it's the mother. The kitten was at one point crying very loudly, even as we approached its general location, and has fallen silent since then. It's been maybe two hours or so.

...I really don't want to have a dead kitten hidden in my garage. Any tips on how to get it out safely?

I also don't know what to do with it if its mother doesn't come back to claim it. I'm pretty sure it's not a neighbor's kitten (since if a KITTEN goes missing, wouldn't the owner ask around for it?) I personally would love to take care of it, but that makes only one of us in this household.

I don't want to scare the poor thing to death by clearing out the garage in order to find it, but if the thing is physically stuck in the clutter and getting weaker, then moving things around might be the thing to get it out. If this is a terribly wrong idea, please-- some cat person out there-- please tell me what to do before I do something totally horrific