Alejandro Lee

Junior Rocketeer

2012-01-02T03:38:00.000-08:00

Commission for the Adorable Tumblr.

Flair and Prismacolor pens + Photoshop; 4½ hours.

- n e b u l a + a m b u s h -

2011-12-21T23:43:00.000-08:00

Commission piece for a sci-fi novel cover.

Foreground spacecraft were modeled & composed in Google Sketchup 7; color and lighting effects are all Photoshop CS3.

Sketchup was pretty good for getting a nice quick design going + getting the local colors of the object figured out.

...but then Sketchup is hopelessly lacking in lighting and texture features, which meant doing a crap-ton of Lasso Tool in Photoshop. Definitely sticking to Maya for my bigger projects down the line.

24-Hour Comic

2011-10-14T03:20:00.000-07:00

My entry to the worldwide event known as 24-Hour Comic Day (2011):

FULL 26-PAGE COMIC HERE.

Enjoy~ ☺

Aqua Science Center - modeling phase 2

2011-08-26T22:22:00.000-07:00

Done modeling. It's still pretty stiff on the actual *~design~* aspect, so the next step is to convert to line art, print, overlay pen sketch and Photoshop. Definitely going to rework the colors. All fairly easy.

(The people, creatures, and benches are from Google Warehouse + FormFonts.com)

Aqua Science Center - modeling phase

2011-08-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

Some time spent in Google Sketchup 7.

Will refine both screenshots into high-detail line art and then concept paintings later this week.

Environment studies

2011-08-19T00:25:00.000-07:00

various settings for my comic

::will turn most of these into mood paintings over the next few weeks::

Dining scene revisited

2011-07-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

Fixed up an older piece that was always bugging me.

A rep from Valve told me during a review I needed more "color/lighting narrative", so I'm trying to do more of that.

Okay, back to doing new pieces~!

Subeta: village + meadow

2011-07-16T21:47:00.000-07:00

Commissioned scenery artwork for the online community site.
Fee: $150 (negotiable)

Process:

I ask that my clients give me half the payment up front and provide as much information as they can or wish to about what they want.

Then, I provide the client with sketch variations for them to choose which they like best.

After that is the line art phase which serves mostly as a simple progress update. When the final illustration is done (see top), the client can complete the payment and receive their artwork as a super hi-res file.

Simple as that. ☻

Brass Age: A Steampunk Affair

2011-03-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

Oh hey. So, ~part~ of the reason my comic hasn't been coming in for the last two weeks is an art show I was taking part in.

PHOTOS. 8D

(I made that skull gun that I'm posing with, btw. :3 ::will post a step-by-step:: soon~)

(Way) More show photos from the gallery's homepage. |P

So, thaaaat said, WILL TRY TO GET MORE COMIC PAGES DONE BY NEXT WEEK. >__>;;;

Kapitol (color spread)

2011-03-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

Got around to coloring this page in a few weeks back.

Makes me wonder if I'd ever want to turn SSnPP into a fully-colored graphic novel or not.. ;P

Pete's Lab [cutaway view]

2010-09-30T18:28:00.001-07:00

Concept / Rough Modeling phase:

Lineart phase

Rough modeling (Google Sketchup) about 8 hours
Lineart (HB mechanical pencil) about 12 hours
Coloring (Photoshop) took about 25 hours

Kapitol: City of Cities (lineart)

2010-07-23T12:29:00.001-07:00

SSnPP is almost ready to start up again, y'all.

So yep, *this* would be Kapitol, the faraway gilded city that Piston Pete longs to be a citizen of (...as well as his bitter rival, Morticus Angstrom IV...)

And yep, do not be fooled; once shaded & coupled with some narrative text, this WILL be the opening page of the new chapter.

Time spent: 20 minutes on thumbnail, 2 hours on penciling, 6 hours on inking

ONWARD~!

"The Guild Alley on Bristol Bay"

2010-07-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

Life can be tough for a fledgling maritime guild. At one particular manmade inlet leading into Bristol proper, a series of compact office structures serve as the headquarters to any number of trade companies still getting their sea legs.

The series of archways are suitable for vessels as big as schooners to sail through. Fittingly so, as these young guilds would be fortuitous enough to have just one schooner to their name.

Access into each individual office is done in either of two ways: through the communal service tunnel along the top, or else by rowboat. While a thoroughly vexing process, the rivalrous guilds find it pleasing, as they can maintain a physical boundary with their competition (who happen to be their neighbors).

(roughly 100 hours)

Step-by-step process here.

Self Portrait 6-15-10

2010-06-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

18x24" tone paper, charcoal + white charcoal

Tone Figure Drawings

2010-06-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

All drawings are 18x24", charcoal + white charcoal

(second image is a reproduction of a painting by Nelson Shanks; rest are from observation)

Fanime 2010

2010-06-06T05:26:00.000-07:00

Fanime (San Jose, CA) was pretty good...!

Rocky and I were able to get a solid, "professional"-looking display going and in spite of a less-than-favorable location in the Artist Alley, we still drew in customers and made triple-digit revenue per day. :3

Various convention photos here.

Figure Line Drawings

2010-06-06T05:18:00.000-07:00

Been taking some night classes at PCC to improve my drawing skills:

Tone chalk drawings coming soon~!

BIRTH

2010-01-30T05:16:00.001-08:00

Conceptual Key Scene based on my characters/story.

Also a step-by-step process on making this piece.

Trailer revision

2010-01-06T22:18:00.000-08:00

Revised my promo animation (this is the version I had at my grad show). Changes includes work I did since April + larger resolution.

(size: 11.0 MB)
(run time: 90 seconds)

chapter 5 preview

2009-12-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

Chapter 5 of SSnPP is coming along. I've been talking to some publishers via email and in-person lately and they like my art, but the consensus is I need to refine my use of SFX and dialog balloons to give it that "professional" touch. (Thank goodness for layers...!)

So, for future chapters, expect a different look in terms of the graphics (I'll also be retrofitting all the previous chapters when I get the chance). ☺

Dead Bot's Gulch

2009-12-06T01:15:00.001-08:00

Concept landscape for the world of Sally & Pete.

I've been sitting on a mountain of grayscale work this whole year; decided some of them would be good for color/mood studies.

More colored work soon...!

"...And Twenty Cents!"

2009-12-04T05:26:00.000-08:00

Key Scene:

Clerk: "How much bounty money are you willing to front, sir?"
Pete: "I'll give you everything I've got! Twenty cents; that's a lot, right??"
Clerk: "Sorry sir, the minimum for missing persons is $2,000."
Pete: "F-Fine! $2,000 ...AND TWENTY CENTS!"

Development

Environment concepts for the world of Sally Sprocket and Piston Pete; I'm also planning to do a few as key scene paintings soon.

The Wicked Prince: modern genre

2009-12-01T17:21:00.000-08:00

Modern-day retelling of "The Wicked Prince" by Hans Christian Anderson. The prince is now a greedy logger and his airship has been re-imagined as a crane lift, jury-rigged to cut down a seemingly unreachable sacred tree.

Like the original story, the modern prince pays for his hubris.

Visual Development 4 for Entertainment, Fall 2008; Instructor: Patrick Hanenberger

Sally & Pete: Props

2009-11-11T00:06:00.000-08:00

Prop sheets for some of the cool stuff that shows up in my comic (for the sheets, I went ahead and rendered them as if it were for 3-D animation).

More to come soon...!!!

Staging my comic panels

2009-11-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

I find it helpful to gauge various angles and perspectives during the sketch phase; both of these angles made it into the comic.

Model Construction: one-to-one gun (WiP)

2009-10-05T08:44:00.001-07:00

I've begun building a 1/1 model of my skull gun, as a display piece for my grad show.

More progress photos to come soon...!

The Hinterlands: Golf - Spa - Hotel

2009-09-10T22:23:00.000-07:00

Project Proposal; produced under the supervision of Concept 2 Creation Studio.

Comic Update

2009-08-31T16:02:00.000-07:00

New chapter (well half of one) up!

http://47ness.deviantart.com/gallery/#Sally-Sprocket-and-Piston-Pete

Enjoy~!

Urban Golf

2009-07-23T02:30:00.000-07:00

Concept illustration for some friends of mine; my inspiration for "urban golf" came from a dream. She's ticked off because her boss is on the phone rolling back her hours (again). So his fancy little executive clock is going to suffer now... :Þ

• golf club / cooler / clock from generic product advertisement photos
• flat textures from mayang.com
• cloud / city textures from my own photos

© Alejandro Lee, 7/23/09

"And Through the Woods..."

2009-07-20T06:21:00.000-07:00

Here's another original story I've been working on lately (it's original but it's also a mix of two classic tales you should all be familiar with)...

(A preliminary version of Ichabod Hare; in this version he's living in the Middle Ages. Ironically, I mostly based this version of him off Benjamin Franklin... :3)

Also some loose environment thumbnails:

Don't worry, I'm still pouring all my attention on Pete & Sally and the comic (but expect a bit more on this project later...!) ☺ ☻

Comic update

2009-06-26T04:11:00.001-07:00

http://47ness.deviantart.com/gallery/#Sally-Sprocket-and-Piston-Pete Enjoy~!

Also, next week I'll be attending ANIME EXPO. I'll be in Artist Alley, selling copies of my comic in book form (i.e. Volume One~!) Hope to see you there!

Comic update

2009-06-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

Chapter Two is ready to go. Preview pages:

http://47ness.deviantart.com/gallery/#Sally-Sprocket-and-Piston-Pete Enjoy...!

Comic update

2009-05-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Chapter One is ready to go. Preview page:http://47ness.deviantart.com/gallery/#Sally-Sprocket-and-Piston-Pete

Sally Sprocket & Piston Pete (introduction)

2009-05-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

(NOTE: comments have been re-enabled on this blog; I was getting spammed for a while, but I think it should be okay now. Sorry for the inconvenience.) ;Þ

Piston Pete is an android tinkerer traveling alone through the steampunkified Old West looking for others of his kind.Sally Sprocket was once a human child who nearly died out in the wilderness if not for Pete happening upon her when he did. Being a mechanic by trade, and an android at heart, Pete can only think to make her a cyborg and effectively adopts her.

These are the two protagonists in my upcoming original comic that I plan to publish and sell in the near future. Look for tons of updates relating to this project in the days and weeks to come.

I also put together a kind of "promo animatic" that gives you a fairly good idea what the story will be about.

Enjoy...!

Redesign: Orz Space Marine

2009-01-12T18:11:00.000-08:00

Personal piece; I always loved the early 90s game Star Control II, one of the alien races was the Orz who had a unique ability in battle:

"Orz crew, encased in robotic, armored exoskeleton, can exit the ship from the aft portholes and enter an enemy ship by burning a hole in its hull. These Orz Marines then start roaming the enemy ship’s corridors, killing any enemy crew member they encounter. Especially useful in large groups, the Marines can blast a ship entirely by themselves. Any Marine aboard an enemy ship when it explodes will jet back out into space and set a return course for the Nemesis."

Unfortunately the marine only appeared as a tiny blip on the screen so I crafted a fairly quick dramatic concept piece, keeping true to the aesthetics of the Nemesis and, of course the Orz itself. When I have time, I'll try redesigns for the other races/ships as well.

Visual Storytelling Exercises

2008-04-16T02:01:00.000-07:00

Several of my paintings done for VisCom 6 for Entertainment (instructor: Scot Drake), Spring 2008.

Live Action Character Design pt. 1

2008-04-10T00:49:00.000-07:00

Live Action Character Design pt. 2

2008-04-10T00:48:00.000-07:00

Live Action Character Design pt. 3

2008-04-10T00:46:00.000-07:00

Live Action Character Design pt. 4

2008-04-10T00:44:00.000-07:00

Live Action Character Design pt. 5

2008-04-10T00:42:00.001-07:00

Live Action Character Design pt. 6

2008-04-10T00:39:00.001-07:00

Animation Character Design pt. 1

2008-04-10T00:37:00.001-07:00

Animation Character Design pt. 2

2008-04-10T00:36:00.001-07:00

Animation Character Design pt. 3

2008-04-10T00:34:00.000-07:00

Animation Character Design pt. 4

2008-04-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

Animation Character Design pt. 5

2008-04-10T00:30:00.000-07:00

Video Game Level Design pt. 1

2008-04-10T00:29:00.001-07:00

Video Game Level Design pt. 2

2008-04-10T00:27:00.000-07:00

Video Game Level Design pt. 3

2008-04-10T00:25:00.000-07:00

Movie Indoor Environment pt. 1

2008-04-10T00:19:00.000-07:00

Movie Indoor Environment pt. 2

2008-04-10T00:18:00.001-07:00

Movie Indoor Environment pt. 3

2008-04-10T00:15:00.001-07:00

Movie Indoor Environment pt. 4

2008-04-10T00:14:00.001-07:00

Movie Indoor Environment pt. 5

2008-04-10T00:12:00.001-07:00

Movie Indoor Environment pt. 6

2008-04-10T00:11:00.001-07:00

Movie Indoor Environment pt. 7

2008-04-09T23:59:00.001-07:00

Classic Creature Redesign pt. 1

2008-04-09T23:57:00.000-07:00

Classic Creature Redesign pt. 2

2008-04-09T23:55:00.001-07:00

Classic Creature Redesign pt. 3

2008-04-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

misc.

2008-04-09T19:04:00.001-07:00

misc.

2008-04-09T18:54:00.000-07:00

misc.

2008-04-09T18:52:00.001-07:00

misc.

2008-04-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

2008-03-26T00:40:00.000-07:00

6 hours; Week 10 assignment.

2008-03-18T23:31:00.000-07:00

4 hours; Week 9 assignment

2008-03-12T17:24:00.001-07:00

Week 3 assignment; work-in-progress

2008-03-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

Costume Design; Project #1 - taking loose inspiration from architectural visual language (ref: Coop Himmelblau) - overlap w/ Character II (creature design)

2008-02-19T03:51:00.002-08:00

Week 5 of Spring 2008 in-class assignment

2008-01-24T21:38:00.001-08:00

90 minutes; single light source

2008-01-22T02:01:00.001-08:00

Same story; new version.

2008-01-18T02:24:00.001-08:00

First day of Digital Landscape (sitting in only); ~20 minutes, Art Center South Campus

2008-01-16T22:21:00.001-08:00

2 hours (+1 refinement); Week 1 of Spring 2008 in-class assignment:

"The alien, clutching its 'find', raced through the night, back to the mothership, pursued by speeding police cars, motorcycles, helicopters, and an angry mob of outraged citizens."

EDIT: um, wow I went into this painting without even thinking about the Cloverfield movie (nor was I keeping up on that); thank goodness I didn't turn this painting in. o_o;

2008-01-16T22:11:00.001-08:00

5 hours; Week 13 of Fall 2007 (neutral lighting conditions)

2008-01-16T22:05:00.001-08:00

7 minutes; Week 7 of Fall 2007 term (basic theme: mobsters)

2008-01-16T22:03:00.001-08:00

2 hours; started during Halloween at the Entertainment Design club (I'm definitely retooling the tail so it doesn't even out w/ the torso as much)

2008-01-16T22:01:00.001-08:00

30 minutes; based entirely on a compelling visual that appeared very briefly in a dream.

2008-01-16T21:28:00.001-08:00

1 hour; started with an underlay photograph of random hair strands and went from there...

2008-01-11T19:38:00.001-08:00

1 hour; themes: bathroom, schoolgirl, alien, cheese

2008-01-11T13:39:00.001-08:00

1 hour; themes: cat, ostrich, sexy (I'll let you draw your own conclusions)

2008-01-11T12:59:00.003-08:00

1 hour, themes: worms, caves, palm trees, eye

2008-01-11T12:59:00.001-08:00

1-hour, source: http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b319/47ness/006_source.jpg

2008-01-11T12:55:00.001-08:00

1-hour, source: http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b319/47ness/005_source.jpg

2008-01-11T12:53:00.001-08:00

1-hour, themes: post-apocalyptic, panda, bamboo, antidisestablishmentalism

2008-01-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

30 minute warm-up.

2007-07-16T23:38:00.000-07:00

Two days into this endeavor and I just happen to be stricken with severe headaches (possibly cold-related) and a purely coincidental wave of indigestion; "things do *not* look good for the Homestar Runner..."

Nonetheless, here is today's painting. :D

2007-07-15T17:44:00.001-07:00

First speed-painting.

Constructive criticism always welcome here. :D