Dream in Color - Progress, Concepts & Sketches

2024

Beginning stages of an animation-- I start with an ink sketch on paper, then take it into Adobe Photoshop, and begin inking and coloring my layers, which I turn into a
flipbook-style keyframe animation, reminiscent of video game idle animations.

2016

2021

Sometimes you think a sketch is never going anywhere. It's been sitting there for years, untouched, and somehow inking and coloring had always felt like a distant dream. But after 5 years, somehow the dream becomes a reality. It feels so easy to pick up that old sketch, like it was done yesterday. And the result showed me how much I've grown.
I know now that no sketch ever has to be "finished", and every art piece can be added to.

Figure sketches based on my own hands, I was focused on improving my hand anatomy and correcting past mistakes, and I really wanted to define the knuckles and joints. In the future, I'd simplify and leave out certain lines and add shading to give a more comic book feel, but I'm proud of the semi-realistic effect I came out with for a figure study. I also really loved the way I started drawing nails, kind of like baseball caps. It gives them a little dimension.

I did these sketches in 2009, and they inspired me to try again. It's so interesting how many of my techniques are still the same from then, and how many shortcuts I take automatically without thinking. Figure drawing really helps me to pinpoint issues I work on from year to year, and using a model that moves helps me understand how hands really work and why certain things get stylized the way they do.

2016

I like filling up pages with little graphite sketches, especially one character making a bunch of different facial expressions. I had gotten very inspired by my friend's interpretation of this character, Cosima, and I loved how boldly she expresses her strong emotions.

2015

2017

Practice portraits for random people on Facebook. I would make a post asking people to send in selfies I could draw, and then I would comment back to them with their sketch. It was really fun to learn all these different facial features. I also loved the social media aspect, it was a great way to get people together, and to do something nice for someone else, while getting to practice realistic and diverse facial features.

2009

2024 edit

2018

2024 edit

These two sets are a practice I started doing where I take an old piece I was never happy with, and I adjust the anatomy without changing much of the lineart, so that it reflects my current knowledge. It's surprising how something that looked so wonky actually has so much potential! It really makes me reflect on how I've grown.

2018

This piece was really fundamental in my future as an artist. I had never experimented with drawing such a strange creature before, and I was usually too shy to even try to draw animals, let alone mutants! They were designed by Ally Akari. After this, I started brainstorming for my comic, Monsters in Real Life, and getting more experience drawing creatures, aberrations, monsters, blobs, you name it! Isn't it amazing how one drawing can influence your tastes so much?