Zander of the clean up crew

Zander and his crew get called in after the holiday craze passes. There's A LOT of mess to sort out after the holidays!

The sleigh packers - Ginny

"Ginny" is often bringing up the rear of the rush to pack the sleigh full of gifts. She's gotten really skilled at catching rogue presents flying through the air.

The sleigh packers - Gigi

"Gigi" is also apart of the sleigh packing crew. She's a bit short and doesn't always notice when projectiles come flying her way until it's too late....

The sleigh packers - Giselle

"Giselle" helps load up the sleigh before Santa goes out on Christmas Eve. It's such a hectic time that sometimes accidents happen.... looks like one of the presents has fallen off the stack....

Some holiday commission work

It was my pleasure to be commissioned to create some special elf characters for a very good client and friend. He had some family members in several medical fields that each received an elf to match their respective fields: anesthesiology, dentistry and nursing.

Let's all sing "Jingle Bells" along with "Groot"

"Groot" here is a character from "The Guardians of the Galaxy" that showed in theaters earlier this year. For those who haven't seen the movie, Groot is one of the main characters in the story. He's a large walking tree alien of sorts that can only say "I am Groot". Whether he's agreeing, laughing or stomping mad, he'll still only say "I am Groot". In the movie, he was badly hurt and had to start again from a sapling in a flower pot. Currently, he's growing well in that pot according to the movie.

Toby the bell shiner

Toby is the bell shiner at the North Pole and there are PLENTY of bells to shine!

Snowball fight with Cassandra

Somebody must help keep up the air of fun and whimsy around the North Pole. Cassandra's task is to instigate snowball fights all in good fun :)

Chaz; the fix-it-all elf

Chaz dashes about fixing this or tweaking that on the assorted machines at the North Pole. There's always something needing his help!

Mathilda, the master quilter

Mathilda is in charge of sewing special quilts filled with love and cheer. She may look elderly but she's still considered "young" as far as elves go.

Claire of the garlands division

Flashy and fashionable; Claire is the mistress pf garlands. She can make a fabulous garland to suit any theme on any tree!

Sierra; caregiver of the firs

Sierra roams through the forests of firs, taking care of the trees large and small. Even the tiniest sapling is of great importance!

Stan and Lance of the ornaments department

"Stan" is on the top and "Lance" is on the bottom. These twin brothers create ornaments full of color and holiday magic!

Chocolat, server of endless cocoa

Living in the North Pole means lost of elves wanting hot drinks. "Chocolat" brews the best hot chocolate on Earth and she even customizes every drink to each elf's tastes!

Art, colorist of the elves

Arthur, aka Art, does all of the painting and any other job that demands color. His fellow elves always wonder how it is he never gets paint on himself.

Holly's basket of cheer

"Holly" grows the healthiest and brightest holly bushes in the whole North Pole. She loves to scurry about pinning up sprigs of holly to encourage cheer and romance!

Noelle, the dreamer

Noelle is the creative mind behind all of those visions of sugarplums dancing in your head. Her job is to create sweet dreams!

Stretch, clothing department test dummy

Stretch is the tallest of the elf bunch measuring at 3 feet tall. The clothing department elves try all clothes on him since he is the closest to human child size.

Gizmo, the planner

"Gizmo" hails from the logistics department. All plans must have his OK on it.

Kara, the reindeer handler

Somebody has to keep the reindeer clean cut, in good spirits and well fed! Kara is the right elf for the job.

Lift off!

"Chuck" is an inventor and tester of those inventions. Working with the magic division, Chuck and his team came up with the formula for reindeer flight!

Tinkerbell the boxer

I tried something new today and did an "art trade" with a fellow artist on deviantart.com. He requested a sketch of Disney's Tinkerbell as a boxer. He also requested this specific pose. This was fun to sketch :)

Holiday distress

It never fails; every year some unlucky elf gets too wrapped up in their work. "Jordy" is the lucky victim this year!

Hail to the "Chief"!

This guy happens to be of shorter stature than your typical elf. Chief measures up at 1 foot, 8 inches while his fellow elves measure at least 2 feet in height. Don't let his tiny cuteness fool you as he is the mission director of the North Pole! Nothing happens without this guy.

"Handy" from the carpentry department

If it must be built with wood, Handy can build it. From toys to buildings; everyone can count on Handy!

Peppermint, the medic elf

Have an accident? Get a new bruise? "Peppermint" will patch you up right and serve you cocoa!

Quality control

"Jingle" is apart of the quality control division. Making sure all plush toys are warm and fluffy!

Cookies anyone?

This is "Sugar" from the sweets department. She's got a fresh batch of cookies for a lucky recipient!

Spruce, the garland elf

Spruce is from a faction of the decor department. He and his colleagues make sure all halls are decked with boughs of holly.

Send in the elves!

Happy December everybody! I love doing holiday inspired designs. For this month, I'll be drawing a different elf for each day of December. This is going to be fun : )

Today, it's an elf working in the candy cane department.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Think of the families.....save a turkey today :P

Running through the woods

I love nature : )

The many expressions of "Jinxy"

A character's expressions is one of the quickest ways for an audience to connect with that character in my opinion. This is why it's so crucial to explore and experiment with your character's facial expressions. Often, a production could have pages upon pages of just facial expressions alone. This is helps the animation team understand how expressive this character is and then they can show it through the finished animation to the audience.

More "Jinxy"

 Exploring how he moves.

Meet "Jinxy" - the black cat

This is "Jinxy". He's a "familiar", aka: assistant, to a very powerful witch. His role is primarily to convene with local fairy folk like gnomes, fairies and the like. He also gathers ingredients for his mistress's potion needs aside from being good company to her.

My happy place

A little pen doodle I did last night of my happy place. Took about 2 hours.

Random poses for fun

Designing characters is fun but making them act us even more fun and can get really challenging. Every character or environment design ever made is simply made of shapes. The magic of design begins with shapes!

More pen fun : )

Another pen doodle. Happy Sunday Everybody!

Pen doodle

I really love sketching with a simple black ballpoint pen. It's funny that only a couple of years ago, I would've been too afraid of using a permanent medium since it can't be erased if I make a mistake. For anybody looking to take their art to the next level, try using a permanent medium for your next creation. It's an excellent way of building confidence in your skills and vision : )

All about "Frozen"!

http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/the-story-of-frozen-making-a-disney-animated-classic/



Click the hyperlink above for some cool inside information on how Disney's "Frozen" came to be!

Get to know me!

An interview of yours truly with the lovely Google + group, "A View From the Edge". Come visit the community if you enjoy connecting with others:

https://plus.google.com/communities/111805505233986719149

Edible hair pieces for dogs are so IN right now!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152677709049185

click link above picture for a short, cute dog video!

So true!

What the heck, Brain?

I often wonder what my brain is thinking when I design things. This is another one of those times.

Old and wise - ligthing pass

My old woman design now with lighting and shadow!

Old and wise - flat color pass

Flat color pass on "Old and wise"before the addition of light and shadow.

"Wheeeee! Let's go camping!"

Old and wise

It's important to draw a wide variety of characters from profession, to gender to age to even species.

Lady

A slightly stylized anatomical study.

A slightly stylized anatomical study.

Nymph render test

Here's another quick sketch and render I did to further experiment with digital tools. This one is inspired by watching some of my good friends play the card game "Magic".

"Hope"

"Blue"'s little sister around 4 or 5 years of age. Her name is "Hope" for the time being. Used a slightly different render approach than her brother.