Halloween Fun

This is different from a lot of what's been on here lately. A good friend of mine asked me to draft up some designs of Jack-O-Lanterns for Halloween. I thought this was an excellent opportunity, considering I haven't carved a pumpkin in years. I ended up going into Photoshop and building a contact sheet full of sketches of unique ideas. I'm tired of the standard jack-o-lanterns and decided to put my own style into it. This only took me about an hour, and made me realize that this is a great way of picking out a face for anybody's next pumpkin. Always start on paper! :)

 I hope you enjoy them, and if anybody actually decides to attempt to carve any of these (i'm not sure how well they would work in the real world), please send me pictures at evan.m.boucher@gmail.com and I'll post them up here! Special thanks to Susan for inspiring this idea.

(click image for larger view)

Anyway, Happy Halloween All!

-Evan

Some Recent Paleo Work

It's been a while since I've posted....and it's NOT because I haven't been drawing or creating. I've simply haven't had the chance to scan any of the plethora of sketches I've done since last post.

I have a couple things for you here. First off, is my completed Master's Thesis. I figured I'd share it on here for anyone who's yet to see it. The project was a heavily researched restoration of the extinct crocodylian, Thoracosaurus neocesariensis. The fossil source (NJSM NH 2005.2) was digitized in order to help the project stay authentic in its attempt at realism. For more about the process of the project, see here.

Also, just to keep me occupied I've been trying out my new Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet as well as playing with Autodesk Maya 2011. Here are some work-in-progress images of a Camarasaurus I've been modeling. This differs from the above project in that I skipped building the skeleton and muscles and went right for the skin. I did, however, use skeletal photographs as image planes to get the correct proportions and make intelligent decisions while modeling, so its not like the result is completely invented. I also did some light background reading on the discovery, features, and phylogeny of Camarasaurus to keep this exercise somewhat informed. 

There are still teeth and toes to be modeled, and overall cleanup. I'll post the final images once this guy is completed. I definitely would like to take the time to sculpt and texture him.  Depending on how much time I have I may even rig him up and do some experiments with animation.

-Evan

Shovel Man

Concepts for a stereotypical fictitious murderer, Shovel Man. This is a character me and my brother barely made up in order to scare our cousins... I posted a really rough sketch a couple posts back from when we first made him up, but I felt compelled to flush him out a bit more...

Enchodus aka "Sabor-Toothed Herring"

Here are the renders of the fish I created for my Thesis. It's the genus Enchodus and it's from the same location and strata as the Thoracosaurus. This was a lot of fun. You can see the texture map at the bottom. Software: Modeled, Rigged, UV Layout: Autodesk Maya. Texture Painting and Sculpting: Pixologic ZBrush and Adobe Photoshop. Rendered with Renderman for Maya.

What happens while I wait for sims to complete...

I've been working on water simulation for my Thesis, and as we all know....simming takes a lot of time....so sometimes I decide to sketch while I wait for stuff to calculate.

First some Amphibians:

Here's a devious Cane Toad (Bufo marinus). He looks so evil, because of the nature of the animal, being introduced as an invasive species and killing everything it can.

When I first read about this my mind was blown. This is the Ribbed Newt (Pleurodeles waltl). These guys are like the Wolverine of the amphibian world (Wolverine as in the X-Men Character, not Gulo gulo). When threatened, these guys actually push the pointed tips of their ribs through poison glands and then THROUGH THEIR SKIN, to stab/poison whatever it is that is attacking it. I'm not even kidding about this. you can look it up for yourself!

Now we have a Commando Manatee....or a Comanatee, whichever you prefer. I know he should probably be in the Navy, and not a paratrooper, but I have a special connection to paratroopers. I drew another version of this guy on a whiteboard with parachute and an 82nd Airborne Patch, but this one is simplified a bit for visual clarity.

And here's a generic Rock Monster sketch I did as a quick concept for a friend of mine, who may be trying to build an army of them for a project.

And finally, we have another experiment of mine, continuing to test myself in creating completely original creatures that don't look like anything that currently exists. The idea behind this guy is that in its evolutionary history, it lost its limbs, and instead strengthened and lengthened millions of hairlike flagelli, that sweep under and around its body. There are a large number underneath the animal to support it, while there are also these tentacle-like things all over the body that constantly touch/sense/grab onto surrounding objects to inspect, as well as to propel forward. This thing is a little creepy, and I'm curious to see how it would look in motion.

Sketches from Maine

So I'm back from my week long family reunion/anniversary party in Maine. I got a lot of quality time with my Mom, brothers, as well as various cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents. Everything went perfectly. One highlight was getting to see a bald eagle fly right past the house on lake Maranacook where we were staying. This was a first for me, and I was very excited about it. Also got tons of fresh seafood which is always a plus...anyway enough reminiscing about last week, here are the sketches I did while up there. I didn't really take the time to do any candid life sketching, but I enjoyed these little beasties I concocted:

This first guy, i started drawing some sort of dinosaur, then decided to make it more interesting by adding in human features in it....I then kept that for my theme and created this human-dino hybrid creature. It's a little eerie to look at, but it was fun to do.

Next we have this little guy. I have no idea what he is...I just thought he was cute :)

Next we have this canid. I really liked the pose I put him in, and thought the expression was too good to not add something for him to be reacting to.

Now we have a graphic approach to a barn owl (Tyto alba). I started with the outlined shape on the left side, and tried to finish the form without disrupting the simplicity of the outline. I tried to contain as much of the character as I could inside that shape.

And finally, I got bored while waiting for my dinner at the Chick-A-Dee restaurant in Turner, Maine with some couple dozens of family members.  I drew this creature trying to keep the idea in mind that I wanted to create a monster that didn't resemble any living animal. It's really tough to do, and it's something I'm always trying to practice here and there. I particularly liked the idea of having suction-cup like legs, and a pair that sprout from the tail.

Misc. Sketches

So I have some various sketches to post before I forget. The first couple are people I sketched in Maine when visiting family.

Here, on the left we have a man playing with his cell phone while waiting for someone in Freeport. The right is a character my brother and I created to scare our cousins, named Shovelman. They got too scared before we even had the chance to give him a backstory....drat. Well he posed very nicely for this sketch, anyway.

Next we have one of those cousins, sitting at a fire pit. What I learned from this? Apparently when I draw people outside at night with only the light of the fire to aid me, they end up looking older than they are. 

Now we have some fun little critters that I sketched while waiting for things to process. First, there's an alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), then we have a three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus), and then a koala (Phascolarctos cinereus). Notice how freakishly strange koala's front paws are....you can't make that stuff up!

I'm going back to Maine for all of next week, and there should be plenty of down time for sketching! I even bought a new sketchbook for the occasion. I know I'm excited.