Sketchbot Variant 4 @ San Diego Comic Con 2011

It's been over 2 months since my last post, but with good reason - we've relocated to Los Angeles, CA this past June!  It's been a busy Summer thus far getting settled in and also jammed-packed with quite a few freelance gigs.

Tomorrow I head south for my fourth San Diego Comic Con!  Sketchbot Variant 4 (green w/stylus accessory) will be available as a pre-release exclusively at the Dragatomi booth #4935, and then it goes global after the con. Price remains at $35.

I'll also have 25 Limited Edition Sketchbot prints that will be available during the times I'll be signing - Thursday at 12pm and Sunday at 3pm.  These giclée prints measure 8.5" x 11" and were printed on cold press bright archival paper on an Epson 3880 Stylus Pro. The quality is amazing, and I'm excited to offer these for $20 each. See you all in San Diego!

Making of Sketchbot and 3d Printing @ NYC Maya Users Group, Wednesday, May 18th 7-9pm

I'm very excited to be invited by Steve Mann and the NYC Maya Users Group to give a presentation on how I use Autodesk Maya to create characters that are printed via rapid prototyping and make their way to final products - specially, the Sketchbot vinyl designer toy.

I'll be bringing along plenty of samples to show what the 3d printing results look like, in addition to touching on a few other 3d-to-print projects I've completed over the past year.

The meeting will be taking place at Oceana Digital on Wednesday, May 18th from 7-9pm. Entrance is free and you can RSVP at nycmayausersgroup@gmail.com  I'll also be giving away one original Sketchbot variant at the end of the evening!

This will be my last event in NYC before we head out to LA on May 20th. Would be great to see lots of familiar faces there for my last hurrah.  Blue Sky Studios will also be on hand showing behind-the-scenes on their latest CG animated film, Rio. This is full-circle for me, as I moved to the East Coast 17 years ago to animate for Blue Sky!

Sketchbot V3 Debuts FRI, 4/22 @ TOYSTREET NYC

Alright folks - here's the first new Sketchbot colourway for 2011!  Variant 3 sports a popping, semi-translucent magenta tint to the vinyl and comes with ink pen accessory and matching sticker.  Debuts this Friday, 4/22, 12-8pm at TOYSTREET NYC and will go into wide release thru normal distribution channels the following week.

My good buddy Mr Munk will also be sharing space with me at the booth where he'll have some gorgeous customs available for sale.  Definitely swing by and check these bad boys out in person.

Rumor has it I'm also tapped to do a custom sneaker-head for Cookies 'N Cream.  Stay on the lookout for more info day of show!

Sketchbotik

Astute readers will recall that when I first started the Sketchbot blog back in 2007,

I was excited to be heading to Berlin to attend my first Pictoplasma conference.  I've since attended two additional events that took place locally in NYC, but am unable to be in Berlin for the latest incarnation which begins today. I will, however, be there in spirit as my custom Lunartik, Sketchbotik, will be part of Matt Jones Mini-Tea Tour debuting tonight at 43º Kitchen/Gallery as part of the Pictoplasma Character Walk. Lars and Peter have planned an incredible 5-days worth of character goodness, so be sure to check it out if you're in Berlin.

The Pharaoh Bonez

It's been a crazy busy month work-wise, but I was able to crank out this custom - The Pharaoh Bonez - for tonight's "Dem Bonez, The Reconstruction"custom show opening at ZAKKA.

Turns out Elite Gudz's Mr Den had worked with the godfather of graffiti, SEEN, for about 13 years and had access to this piece that didn't quite make it into final release. Den and co-curator Nemo got the go ahead from Seen to put together this show, and I'm honored to be included with such an esteemed roster of artists.

Show opens Friday, March 25th at ZAKKA here in my funky-industrial BKLYN neighborhood that is known as Dumbo.  Check out my Flickr set for a few more shots.

Crimson Argus

Here is the full reveal of my custom Alien Argus for Max Nagata's group show at Toy Art Gallery, which opens tomorrow, Feb 26th and runs thru Mar 26th.

**UPDATE** Artwork is now available online - here's a direct link to my very affordable piece.

I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out, as I've been experimenting more with washes, dry-brushing and all around weathering on recent customs.

Here's a great tip for getting amazing captures of your work - try to take advantage of the natural outdoor light, especially during "Golden Hour" when taking photos.  I like to throw the background out of focus and position the piece to get an edge/rim light along the silhouette of the character where possible.

If you're in LA, be sure to stop by the gallery to check out what is turning out to be a huge custom show for Mark's awesome Kaiju-inspired creature!

Alien Argus Custom Group Show

Here's a few sneaks of my piece for Mark Nagata's Alien Argus Custom Group Show, opening Feb. 26th and running thru March 26th, 2011 at Toy Art Gallery in Hollywood, CA.

The figure has crazy awesome detail and was super fun to paint up. This piece also marks my first ever Kaiju custom!

I'll post the full reveal next Friday when the show opens.

New Moon @ My Plastic Heart

Happy New Year Sketchbot followers!  It's been a very busy start for me, as I just completed a big freelance gig for Saatchi NY and am putting finishing touches on a few new pieces for various shows early in the year.

First up is New Moon, Interpretations of the Chinese Zodiac, opening tonight (2/11) at My Plastic Heart NYC. This is the third iteration of the zodiac-themed show, curated by John Wong.

My concept took a few twists and turns before settling on an idea that was partly inspired by my 1-yr old daughter's wooden toy blocks. My birth year is 1965, so naturally I chose to do The Snake. Pigs are on the direct opposite on the zodiac scale, so I wanted to incorporate them into the composition. The humanoids were based on old sketches I did years ago while doing simple, volumetric character studies.

The final piece, titled "Why Do Opposites Attract?", is an 11" x 17" Giclée print and will be on display thru March 13th, 2011.

Happy Holidays from Sketchbot!

It's been an incredible year for Sketchbot. We debuted the original colourway this past June at My Plastic Heart and had them available at San Diego Comic Con in July, Variant 2 was introduced at New York Comic Con at the end of July, and the DIY blanks were announced at Designer Con in November. We also had not one, but TWO Custom Shows - the first was held at My Plastic Heart in March, and the second at Munky King LA at the end of November.  Next year we have four more exciting variants rolling out, and the possibility of Sketchbot Custom Show 3 is already in the works. I'm also participating in a few exciting shows early next year - most notably, I've been invited to do a series of Star Wars Galaxy Sketch Cards for series 6 and also will be contributing to the third New Moon show at My Plastic Heart.

Here's to a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous New Year!

P.S. Longtime readers will recognize that the above image is based on this concept from two years ago. I had always intended to bring that concept to life in 3d, and finally had some time this year to crank it out.

Sketchbot Custom Show 2 - Captain Cavebot!

When I first began this custom, I was going to do an entire figure covered in sculpted fur based on two drawings I did called Furbot.  I started with the body, but then had to put work on hold for 2 weeks while I took on some paying jobs.  When I returned to the figure last Sunday I started rethinking the concept and was doing a few colour studies in Photoshop when it hit me - "why not just do a figure with a hairy body only?" The classic Hanna-Barbera character Captain Caveman immediately popped into my head, so I snapped a picture of work-in-progress and mocked up that idea.  I think it turned out pretty good, considering the last minute change and working out of my normal "mask 'N spray" comfort zone.

You can see this, along with 70 other amazing pieces beginning tonight at Munky King LA.  See you at the show!