Wheel of Fortune BINGO

The first of many games I'll be involved with at GSN launched this past week on gsn.com, Wheel of Fortune Bingo.

To save yourself from navigating to the actual game itself you can just click here. Happy Bingo-ing!

2013 and Beyond...!

I'm not apologizing this time. Anybody who follows this blog knows the deal by now.
But I plan on changing that, starting with this post.

Today is new. It's the first day of 2013.
There are a lot of exciting things happening this year. And I'm sure there are many surprises to come that I don't know about yet (Good surprises I hope).

One of my goals for the year is to start writing again, along with making accompanying artwork for said writing. I have volumes upon volumes of post-it note pads filled with ideas that I want to actually see through to the end. In addition: I would also like to start keeping a sketchbook again. I got the "Paper" app for iPad, which is really amazing for sketching, and it has gotten me back into the motions of keeping a sketchbook again. But it's no replacement for the real thing. I also want to start making illustrations just for the sake of illustrating. A lot of the road blocks in my work come from me trying to figure out the tiny details in characters and their stories. But I'm missing out the exploratory aspect of just making something for the sake of it existing and not being just a thought in my head. So I plan on doing more 'one offs' and stop trying to fledge out a tightly knit opus for everything.

I'm also trying to pin down a stronger presence on the web. I've never been happy with my domain names. And changing my identity as often as I do isn't making it any easier to market myself. So that's another goal for this year.

One of the biggest changes to my life in 2012 was transitioning to the Games team at GSN, where I'm now the Game Artist for our upcoming skill games. It's been quite the undertaking, but I've learned a million and one things in the few months I've had the position. And I'm really excited by the prospect of putting my own stamp on upcoming projects.

Here's a small snippet of something that's on the docket for the new year. It's a small portion of a piece of concept art for a skill game I've been holding onto since September. Supposedly production is going to start sometime in the first quarter of the new year. Fingers crossed I'll get to show more soon, and then hopefully a finished game sometime in the future. It's really cute, I hope you'll all get to see it someday.

There are some other 'at work' projects that I'm hoping to convince someone to put into production. But I really want to get back into my personal work and not be so involved at my job that I don't have time for me. 

So here's to it all! If I don't make good on my promises from now until at least March then that's really pathetic. Wish me luck!

To Be Continued...

Autumn SwapIt!

Yeah, I know, I'm the worst at this. I get it!
Just a quick post, as exciting times are (expectedly) coming my way. Hopefully I'll have more in the coming weeks (...hopefully I'll actually update/post on my blog more frequently). Been very busy with moving and work and the other joys of life.

But for today, I have this.
Autumn SwapIt, a seasonal game on GSN.com that I worked on, went live today.

I made the background for the game. Lots of fun to make, and didn't come out too too shabby.

Hopefully you will get a better score than I did while trying to take this screenshot. Here's the background without the game-board.

I had thought I would have something else to show today, but it may be turning into something more significant. So until it's official (or until it crashes and burns) I can't share it.

So there you go, something new, and something cryptic. #MeetingDemands

Process

Just some playing around.
This was a first pass at the "Oodle Ogre" (O_o) for GSN Games.

Decided to play with it during my free time. We'll see where it goes. If it goes. This is where I'm at so far.

WOF

Yeah, I know. I'm awful at this. But I made no promises, so I reject your judgement.

#takingthehighroad

Anyways, I recently got to do a project involving Wheel of Fortune for the GSN Games' Facebook page. The idea was to post puzzles from classic episodes of Wheel of Fortune for our fans to try and solve, and so they wanted a classic puzzle board to go along with the theme. I had to get approvals from Sony and some of the Execs at WOF, which was kind of cool. Though my manager played it smart and told me that after all was said and done.

The image above was the classic board they approved inspired by a board from the 80's (I was given [grainy] pictures of the sets from different decades). Below are the other iterations I made that were also considered, the first one is also an 80's inspired board and the second is from the 70's.

Unfortunately Vanna White did not make the cut. I imagine she's pretty choked up about it.

Look for the puzzles on GSN Games' Facebook page.

Till...sometime!

Inkling

Okay, I've said it before, I'm bad at this. So whatever, get off my case.

Nothing 'fresh' yet, but I'll get it here. But hopefully this is something cool to tide over whoever's interested.

Someone at work just receive the Wacom Inkling and brought it in for all the play with. (Unfortunately for 'All' I got to it first)

I love it. I've heard some people give negative reviews about it, but I think those reviews may have arrived upon some unrealistic expectations. It's kind of fun and super easy to use.

It's biggest problem is that it doesn't always grab everything you put down on paper, but for various reasons: Your fingers can cover the sensor depending on how you hold a pen, you might not apply the right amount of pressure, and if you're not drawing on a hard surface (like I was drawing against my knee) then it might shift some lines. But these are all issues that can be worked around.
The coolest thing is that you can sketch in layers, there's a button at the top of the sensor that allows you to create a new layer as you're working. No backsies though :-/

I love it! I want one. Someone make it happen!

Punxsutawney Phil

I still intend to use this blog to post new things I'm working on, but unfortunately that wont be the case this time. (Never start a blog with a cold!!)

These were candidates for a groundhog's day promotion on GSN Cash Competitions. 

Both designs take a great deal of artistic license, one a bit more than the other. But given that the reference images that were included with the creative request were istock images of what can only be described as a coyote/bear floating above an oval, I don't feel like I totally missed the mark.

Again, neither of these show the whole promotion, just a snippet. I won't tell you which one made the cut, but I will say that the absence of a "sharp looking top hat" was cause for some brief hostility in the work place.

Something fresh to come, I promise!