Shenandoah Ain’t Got Nothing on These Mountains.

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Jun 222017
 

Yesterday, we ventured to the nearby village of Erding. A small town, but much of the family have lived there. We popped into the Erding museum to get a little history on the town. Most of the displays do not feature english, but Danielle and Miriam helped me through with any questions I had. Once the museum closed, we settled down at a quiet cafe tucked away in a corner of the town for a beer and some snacks.

Today we set out early for the mountains. It wasn’t too long of a drive before we arrived at our first destination- Eibsee. A beautiful, clear, mountain lake that sits at the bottom of Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany. We rented a pair of paddle boats and set out into the lake. We navigated to a quiet shallow and shared a picnic meal of meatballs, bread, and cheese. Then we splashed in for a swim. I don’t think a regular pool is going to cut it for me any more. Once we came in from the lake, we paused at an ice cream stand on the shore before changing and heading up towards the mountains. We took a gondola ride up to the peak of Alpspitze, where we took many, many pictures and had a beer at the cafe. It’s wild to see these mountains in comparison to what we have back home. I’ll let the photos below speak for themselves.

 Posted by at 4:54 pm on June 22, 2017

A Jaunt to Germany

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Jun 202017
 
Nymphenburg Palace

I haven’t been as diligent in cataloging this trip as I was in Japan, but it’s been a much more leisurely beginning. This time around I’m travelling with friends- Danielle and her mother Robin. We flew out of Dulles International in the evening and an overnight flight brought us to Munich. The flight was uneventful, which is all anyone can ask of an Economy trip. United did not impress me as much as ANA, but they got us here so I can’t complain. We arrived in the early morning on Sunday, where we were picked up early by Robin and Danielles extended family- aunt Gaby and Meriam. They brought us home and we settled in, met more family, and unpacked while waiting on cousin Kim to arrive. Once she did, we had a lovely brunch in the backyard featuring weisswurst and pretzel-breads. I could do that for breakfast any day of the week! No doubt. While drawing at the table, I made my new best friend in Sophia, Meriam’s 6 year old daughter. We sat for a long while to draw together. Afterward Kim and Roland took us to the city center to tour around a bit. Admittedly, I was a bit of a jet-lag zombie so I didn’t take too many photos as we went along, and only absorbed a portion of the trip. Still, it was a good time. We took a brief break in a quiet beer garden and toured around a bit more before I ruined the fun with a bit of dizziness from lack of sleep. We came back in and I quickly caught some Zs.

Monday was a leisurely day. A light breakfast, coffee and bread, before packing up and heading to Echinger See, a nearby lake for swimming and sunbathing. Being that it was during the week, it wasn’t terribly crowded- Mostly parents with young children. We had a swim- The water was only cold enough to make the initial adjustment a bit torturous, but was otherwise fine.I brought my ukulele down and it brought some dancing to the feet of a few children and some smiles to the adults. All in all, a very nice afternoon. Once home, we had Gaby’s homemade spaghetti (delicious!) and rested for the evening. I still wasn’t 100% adjusted, and the swimming with that had worn me out for the day.

Today, we got up early and headed to Nymphenburg palace- a 1600′s complex used as a summer residence by Bavarian royalty. The building’s exterior was impressive, but the interior is truly impressive. Ornate, gilded carvings, countless paintings, exotic and finely crafted furniture- It all really demonstrates the wealth and reach that the rulers here had. The gardens and grounds of the complex were also beautiful. We took a long walk around to see other buildings in the complex, all just as impressive as the palace proper. Then we visited the carriage museum, which housed carriages used by those who called the palace their own. These were no less impressive and ornate as the palace itself. Finally, we went upstairs to the porcelain museum- A collection of fine porcelain figures and art. All well crafted and beautiful, but not really my style. Once we returned, we spent the evening outside chatting and planning tomorrows fun.

I’ll keep you posted as we continue!

 Posted by at 6:56 pm on June 20, 2017

Sketchbook Cover, 2014!

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Feb 132014
 

Here’s my new sketchbook cover for this year! I tried out some mold-making and casting, for a change. I like the way it turned out!

The process: Firstly, I pulled the original cover off the book and sealed it. Next was the sculpting. I used plastalina clay- oil based, and never-hardening. Through trial and error I arrived at my final design. Rachel, from over at Maewyn’s, helped me with the casting process. Once the sculpt was done, it was boxed in with leftover clay, and silicone was poured to make the mold. After that set, we pulled the silicone mold off the sculpt and cleaned out the stuck clay. Next was pouring the resin. It cures much faster than the silicone, and I soon had a new, plastic cover for my book! I had to clean up overflow and edges on the thing. I used a dremel and a drill to clear out the holes for the binding, and a utility knife to cut the overflow on the edges. After that, I sanded down all the edges and sanded the interior sides so it would take paint better. Painting was done with familiar techniques- Thin washes to work dark colors into the crevices, and dry brushing to highlight the peaks.

Once everything was re-assembled I found out just how much heavier the plastic is than the original cardboard. It’s totally worth it, though!

A Couple Commissions, 2013

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Feb 132014
 

Here’s a couple of pieces I did for people this past year. The bodhran was a request from the house band at my regular pub. They weren’t terribly specific about what they wanted, but loved the final result. The fishing demon art was a tattoo design for a coworker. I’ll update this page if and when I ever get a shot of the art on his skin.

Demo Reel Fall 2013

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Sep 292013
 

Here’s my new demo reel! It’s mostly motion graphics since that’s what I’ve been doing for the past 5 years. I’m good with that, though. I have fun flying logos about!

 Posted by at 5:54 pm on September 29, 2013

Stepbrothers Longboard

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Aug 112013
 

So I hand painted a skateboard. A longboard, as a matter of fact. My stepbrother made it in his shop class and asked if I could do something awesome on it. I obliged, and this is the result:
Brandons LongboardI think it came out pretty good, I think.

Who knows, maybe this’ll become a thing. I’d be happy to do them for other people.

 

Branding for Maewyn’s

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Jul 012013
 

I was approached by costumer Maewyn about helping her develop a logo and banner graphics for use on her website, Maewyn’s Menagerie. We started with a rough concept she had drawn up, and I was given freedom to develop it further.

Her original idea was to have an ‘M’ shaped rune to represent her brand, and some sort of text treatment. The rune started turning into an abstract wolf about the time I associated the top of an ‘M’ with the pointed ears of a wolf or big cat. Since she almost exclusively produces realistic animal masks, it fit quite well, and she loved it. For the text, we chose the font ‘Primitive.’ It has a medieval sort of feel that fits the name of her business quite nicely, as well as providing a nod to hand-crafted quality and high fantasy.

After the logo was nailed down, I added it to banners featuring her costuming. We briefly discussed a tagline for it, and when I offered up the alliterative ‘custom costumes for curious creatures’, we had a winner!

 

Another Castle Concepts 1

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Jun 012013
 

Hey everyone!

For those of you who didn’t know, Uncade, LLC. has been working on their first major title, Another Castle. It’s a randomly generated, rogue-like platformer. They’ve already successfully received funding from Kickstarter, and are currently in full development mode. The company approached me to do some artwork and concepting for some of the creatures they’re adding in. This is the result.

This first batch was to develop a spider to drop on unsuspecting prey, golem variations for the three energy types, and an eyeball related boss monster.

Hopefully I’ll be doing a few more of these for them as time goes on and budget allows. If you’d like to keep up with the game, here’s some ways to do so:

The Another Castle website (http://www.anothercastlethegame.com/) – Features an early prototype of the game if you’d like to get an idea of what it’ll be like!

The Kickstarter Page (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uncadedave/another-castle) – The blog here seems to be the most up-to-date.

The Uncade Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/Uncade) – Also regularly updated.

The Uncade website (www.uncade.com) – Less up to date, but bears inclusion.

 

And Thus Concludes My Adventure.

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Apr 142013
 

Today was my return trip. Admittedly, it’s not a terribly exciting story.

We started early enough. Evan made breakfast- bacon, egg, and cheese. Yum! And we loaded up my luggage. I said my goodbyes to Rachel, who was staying at the house, and Evan drove me up to Naha airport to catch my first flight into Tokyo. I got checked in and headed on through security. Bidding Evan farewell, I got to my plane. It took a bit to get off the runway. We had to wait for two commercial planes and 3 Japanese fighters to land. They flew right in front of our waiting plane, though, so that was pretty sweet.

We flew into Narita Airport, where I had about 30 minutes to figure out where to meet my connection and get there. I arrived and it was already boarding. Up side, I made my flight. Down side, no time to grab a snack or use the toilet. From Narita, we were bound for New York. The flight started off great, as there was a seat between me and the person on the ailse, and then the aisle seat person asked to move to one of the center seats on the plane. I don’t think it was anything I did. Suffice to say, I had three seats to myself! I ran in to the same problem I had before on this flight. I couldn’t really get any sleep, even though I was really tired. Instead, I opted for some Minecraft, since I had outlets on the plane, and catching up on some more movies on the little personal screens they had on each seat. I watched Looper and The Adjustment Bureau this time around. I also watched some Astro boy, because why not? Food service was decent again. dinner was a fish and rice dish, and breakfast (if you could call it that) featured chicken and rice in a tomato sauce. We had a little turbulence, and I felt a little dizzy from that and the lack of sleep, but I made it through. The stars out the window while we flew over the pacific were pretty amazing, even with the light from the interior of the plane obscuring the view out the window.

Once we landed at JFK in New York, I had to drag myself through customs and immigration. Next was some good ol’ American airport security. Fortunately, the whole process went quickly and I had plenty of time to re-check my bag and get to my gate. After waiting a bit, I was bound for Dulles International. It was slow to get going, but once we were boarded we got out without much delay. A quick 40-50 minute flight, waiting on my bags, and I was greeted outside the terminal by my mom and Danielle, who came up to drive me home.

It was a fantastic trip, and I hope to share some of the photos I took while I was there once I’m rested up and have some time. I hope I’ll be able to make another trip out there, but there’s so much more in this world I’d like to see. I guess time will tell! For now, I’m very tired and should have already curled up for the night. Thanks for keeping up with me!

 

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