Trouble at Snake Ridge Pass

I've been watching a lot of westerns lately (I love 'em, it's something I inherited from my pops) and in an attempt to make him a Christmas card, I came up with this little illustration called "Trouble at Snake Ridge Pass"

Good news everyone! My printer seems to functioning at optimum performance and seeing as how I just got my beautiful new printer paper, prints shall be up and available for purchase very shortly.. Stay tuned!

Until then, I thought I'd share a wonderful animated commercial a friend of mine showed me.. Check out the link below..


Why the Panda is black and white..

A sketch page..

..thought I'd add one

...and another bot

More robots..

Just a quick sketch.. 

A girl and her robot..

Finally finished this digital piece I was working on.. They should be available as prints shortly.. Will keep you all posted :D

Viento y Agua art piece for sale!

I just took down my pieces from the Viento y Agua Coffeehouse for the "Love, Life and Happiness" themed art gallery..

The piece is titled Both Sides and it consists of two flat 14" x 18" canvas panels painted completely in acrylic, floating in a 1" black frame, bringing it's total size to approx 18" x 40"..

The good news is that the piece is still for sale ...

The better news is that it's only $550 (just in time for the holidays!)..


Please let me know if you or someone you may know is interested.. :)

818.983.5668
dburkesl@yahoo.com

**Please excuse any less than stellar resolution photos due to glare**

Gettin' the job done since 1910..

I created this random character while watching tv with my roommate.. He seemed like he would have a background spanning many decades with adventures interspersed so my roommate thought of the name E'rl "The Job" Wilkins.. Seems to fit.

Works in Progress!

I thought I'd go ahead and share a sketchpage I just compiled for an eventual digital painting I'm working on for my portfolio.. I'd love to know any thoughts or opinions on layout so it could be better composed for a portfolio.  Thanks!

Kung Fu Panda 2 Art

So in between the postings of my own work, I thought it would be good to share some of my daily musings and inspirations.. For the first time the other day, I saw the wonderful Kung Fu Panda 2 (as I was eagerly anticipating it based on how much I enjoyed the first one).. I could obviously see the joy in watching these movies as a kid (as the kid in me still very much does), but now as an aspiring concept designer and having a better understanding of the inner workings of how these types of movies are developed, I was blown away by the animation, character designs and varied types of animations I noticed throughout the movie.  Needless to say I had to find the production art for the movie and upon finding some I thought I'd share: 

Source:   http://kungfupanda.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Kung_Fu_Panda_2_concept_artwork

..and thus began my toned paper binge

I love being able to use the toned paper as a base color, while being able to bring out darks and lights so well.. The canson paper I used had a bit of a tooth too, so it got a little texture to boot..

A friendlier monster than most..

A quick study of a monster for my roommate who desperately needed one designed for her..

One Planet Away..

My first page of character thumbs for a portfolio driven story of mine I'm revitalizing.. Stay tuned for more!

My most recent Digital Painting assignment..

Environment studies (1 colored final)

Keep your monsters in the dark!

Digital Painting Homework WK 3: More environment thumbs..

Digital Painting homework: Environment sketching

Intro to Digital Painting HW #1

First assignment: Textured Spheres!

A new style...

I just finished a piece for my (ex)girlfriend that she assigned me.. The goal for me was to portray a sunrise, midday and sunset scene on the ocean using more abstract style whilst maintaining emotion and feel through color. Definitely 
not my usual style, but I like the outcome..

How my brain feels as of late..

Mad scientists know..

..how a Monday feels..

Arm wrestling..

.. but who would win?!

Some works in progress!

SciFi Creature

Final class project

Animal Heads..

Thinking about starting a series involving the use of animal heads as hats..

Fantasy Sketch (Willow)

Following the first couple weeks in the horror genre over at the Concept Design Academy, we are now focusing on the world of fantasy, re-creating characters from the movies: Labyrinth, Willow and Legend.. below is one of my primary sketches that I will take further based off the movie Willow

This Morning.

..so this morning in class, i concocted myself a coffee complete with flavored additives and sugar that somehow 


managed to taste exactly like a popcorn flavored jellybean... i decided to sketch my initial reaction

Werewolf Revised Color Study..

The Thing redesigned

Lineart...

Concept Design Academy!

Well..I've started taking classes over at the Concept Design Academy.. I'm currently enrolled in the Creature Design course and am very much enjoying being back in a creative atmosphere with likeminded illustrators.. plus, the other students are very talented and inspirational and the teacher is quite awe-inspiring..

I figured I'd keep my blog updated with the sketches and projects produced in the course .. the first projects are based around the re-imaginings  of The Thing, Pumpkinhead and American Werewolf, below are a couple preliminary sketches ..

Thing sketch (lineart)

Pumpkinhead sketch (lineart)

Werewolf sketch (lineart)

face split..