My first character: Bomb Boy

Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? I did. (*cough* still do *cough *)

I remember growing up watching tons of super-hero cartoons and collecting comics.

While getting super-powers in real life might be impossible, it isn’t on paper. When you can take the ideas in your head and bring them to life in an illustration (or animation)… the sky is the limit!

After being inspired by comic art and cartoons, in combination with having a very active imagination, I created my own super-hero… BOMB BOY!

It was 4^th grade, and on the top margin of one of my homework papers, I drew myself… no fancy suit…just an eye mask, t-shirt, jeans, and a cape. After that, I started getting more creative with the character… giving him super powers, a symbol, and a back-story. I began working on my own comic book soon…my fourth grade peers, along with teachers, family, and friends all got a kick out of it, which only fueled my motivation and creativity. I was bound and determined to get it finished! Eventually, I had it completed at a whopping 56-pages! Making the Bomb-Boy comic was a complete blast.

In retrospect, I can definitely say that creating Bomb Boy and running with the story definitely contributed to leading me into the field of animation. He is one of my first character developments, and creating the comic at such an early age definitely was my first attempt at any kind of storyboarding.

Since his creation in 4^th grade, I’ve kept drawing Bomb Boy. Sometimes I draw him different, and sometimes I keep it old school.

This is the most recent "Bomb Boy" art work I've done. 

I thought it would be cool to show my process.

First I did a really loose sketch of the pose I wanted.

Then I cleaned it up, changed the pose a little, and put in all the details I wanted.

Finally, I digitally inked and colored to make BOMB BOY.

Here are some more examples of other times I've drawn this character:

This is a version of Bomb Boy that is a little older. I gave him some cool-looking robotic gloves. Gotta have something to hold those powerful charges of energy and bomb explosions, right?

Bomb Boy vs. Big Blob

Bomb Boy vs. Big Blob (again)

                                                     Bomb Boy....catching breath. (work in progress... there will be a villain behind him when its complete.)

Bomb Boy vs. Mosquito Man

(Note the wolverine inspiration with Mosquito Man's claws. Awesome)

Now for the grand finale. I thought it would be awesome to show you guys some pages from the original comic. Not only is it cool to see how far my skills have grown since 4th grade, but it is a pretty funny read too. Enjoy!!! 

The first 10 Pages of ....Bomb Boy!

Thats all for now, folks. I plan to completely re-do the Bomb Boy comic sometime. I'm sure it will be just as much fun as it was the first time.

Hope everyone had a "super" time reading this.

;)

Works-in-Progress

I have finally joined the blog world.

Hopefully this will be a good way to keep everyone up-to-date as to what I'm currently working on.

Senior year has kept me pretty busy and is bringing out a lot of good work. My skills have definitely been challenged, but I can already see the improvements.

So, what have I been working on?

I'll go a little image crazy in this first post to help give an idea.

Well, since last semester, I have been involved in a class called Animation Production Studio. In the class, we come up with an idea (the initial concept the class used came from Sarah Harkey. Check out her blog. http://s-harkey.blogspot.com) and bring the idea full circle from pre-production all the way to finish. Its supposed to reflect how working in a real animation studio would be. I've really liked it so far and I get to work with a big group of really talented people.

 First semester, I was mostly focused on making concept art and story boarding for the middle sequence of the film. It was a lot of fun. Heres some examples of work I did.

Currently, in the second and final semester of school. APS class is in full production. I've posed and animated a good hand full of scenes. What is really cool is having so many people to bounce ideas off of and get critique from, it really helps the animation reach its full potential. The screening of the APS film titled "Play Date" will take place at the end of May.  Really looking forward to everyone seeing it!

On another note, I've continued to work with the bread characters I created a while back.

Good ol' Bobby Bread, Loaf, and Krista Crustless. 

I made a short called "When Bread Goes Bad" in 2009 about expired zombie bread attacking on the counter-top...

 I had so much fun making it, that I decided to go back to the original story that it was based off of and turn that into a short that I've been referring to as "The Toaster"... It is definitely still a work-in-progress, but I'm excited to have everything rolling and to animate these characters again. Hopefully I will have things pretty close to complete in the next few months!