Gnomon Workshop Live

Just got back from an exciting weekend in LA where myself and several other working professionals spoke to both students and professionals alike in a series of demos and lectures. Mine specifically focused on the topic of making sure your design, whatever it may be, services the story, and is believable within that context. I also stressed the importance of thinking through your design from all angles and creating orthographic views and creating reference and material sheets to pass on with the design to the next phase of production artists.
It seemed to go well, and I believe that this is something that is lacking in many of today's film designs. Everything is getting too "hey look at me!" for the sake of design, and not believable within the context of the story. I hope those that were there were able to take away a bit of knowledge about this topic and will implement the points I discussed in there future projects.
It was also nice to meet many of the people there, some were still students, some were working professionals there to glean a bit more insight into how others work. I even met a few CCS alumni and local Bay Area folks as well.
I enjoyed seeing the talks by the other speakers and got to see how talented they are as well. It was an honor to get to meet them and put some faces to the names. If you were one of the people who were able to be there, thanks for coming and listening to me, I hope you were able to learn a bit more as to what makes good design and how you can apply it in your own job or project! And special thanks to Travis and Alex and all the Gnomon crew!
Think above and beyond!
-Alx

Slipstream

Hey there, wow, it's November already!? Well, here's piece I did recently that started out as a doodle. Basically a retro inspired streamlined racer. I love those old open top racecars and the graphics in that era. All 'in the box' and straight to to you. I hope you enjoy it!
-Alx

American Le Mans!

Just thought I'd share some photos I took last weekend at Laguna Seca at the American Le Mans Series races. It was an ear pounding blast! The race was exciting with the Penske Porsche Team going head to head with the Champion Audi team from start to finish. Although I have to say that even though the Porsche kept it exciting, the Audi clearly dominated the race. The V10 Turbo Diesel Audi was both insanely fast and incredibly quiet! While all the other cars roared by rattling every fiber of your being, the Audi would whoosh by almost sounding like a high power electric car. It would start at the head of the main straight in 4th or 5th place and halfway down it had passed every car and was several lengths in front by the first turn, incredible!
There were a host of other notable cars present including 2 Audi R8's and even the new S5 sedan. Several Porsche GTS R's and about 100 Ferrari's. The race went from 3:30 until 7 or so in the evening, so the last dozen laps were in the dark making for a dramatic finish. The results were obvious though, the Champion Audi V10 TDI's came in 1st and 3rd with the Porsche's 2nd and 4th.
Hope you enjoy the pics, I know I enjoyed the race! :-)

See you in LA

Well I mentioned that I'd have some news to report soon and here it is. I'll be speaking at the Gnomon School for Design in LA on December 1st! I'll be joining a host of other great artists from film and games. Check out the event page to see more info. I'll be talking about the need to make designs that work, or at least look like they work, and how that effects the outcome of the final product no matter what medium it ends up in.
That's all, hope to see you there!
-Alx

hot off the wacom...

Here's the final versions of the sneak peek I gave in the last post. They are mainly just 2 designs, but I thought I'd do a rally version of the one since when I designed it I had that in mind. So these both started out as ball point pen sketchs, but the line work from the pen is not really visible in these. The original sketch was no more then 3 inches across for each.
Hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed drawing them. I just finished them an hour ago and thought I'd just post 'em up!
Enjoy!
-Alx

Over 5000 views!

Wow, thanks everyone for stopping by the site, since March of this year this site was looked at over 5000 times! whoo hoo! I'm sure that's no big deal to some, and I'm sure it's nothing to brag about, but I just noticed it on the counter and figured I'd mention it to start out today's blurb. So thanks everyone!
OK, well I can't believe it's fall already and this month is almost gone! We started up our local church college group this past friday and there were plenty of eager new faces ready to learn more about Genesis which is our focus this year.
Other than that there's no real news to report, just working away and still drawing! I'll have more to announce at the start of next month, but for now I'll just post a sneak at some recent sketches I've working on here and there.... and yes... more cars:-)

more cars....

Hey there, here are 2 more car sketches that are a little rougher than the ones in the previous post, but I think I like 'em the way they are. Both of these as well as the 'bull car' in the previous post were done entirely 'in the box' and no paper was harmed in the making of them :-P
So enjoy these as well.

car crazy!

OK, So anyone that really knows me, knows I'm a huge car freak, especially German cars like VW, Audi etc... So I had some extra minutes this week and banged out a few cars. Not all were meant to be VW's some I just slapped the badge on at the end. But the GTI is one I intended to be a VW as I drive both an '86 GTI and an '04 Golf R32. I thought I'd take a stab at making the next gen a bit more ...sexy and aggressive and less pedestrian and boxy. I also got a request from a friend to see me do a few WRC ralley inspired versions, so I'll be doing those next. But for now enjoy these few. The 'Bull car' is something I did on the fly, thought it might appeal to some mega rich Texas cattle owner somewhere...:-) The 'Sports Hybrid' is more a form study, where the motors are contained within the wheels, so there is no need for an engine compartment.
My summer travels took us to Greece, Turkey, Rome, London and Sydney...phew! It was loads of fun, but now it's back to the usual grind ....as I have no more vacation time left :-P
OK enjoy and I'll be adding these and others to the main site soon as well.
God Bless!
-ALX

On a break

Hello All, thanks for all of you who have left comments or written to me. If I haven't written you back yet, please bear with me as I have been taking a break and doing some traveling off and on with my wife. This is also the reason I was not at the San Diego Comic Con this year. But I hope to be there next year in force with some of my co-workers to show our wares.
I know Tranformers has just been released in some countries, so I hope you enjoy! This is one film that I would've loved to have been in Japan to see :-) I've recieved many emails about an Art of Transformers book. I wish I had an answer, I've been in contact with Ben Procter and we're inquiring on this issue.
OK well I'll have more once I'm back at it. But for now I pray you are all well and like I've told many of you, the best practice is to just draw! draw! draw!
And if you are in the Dallas - Fort Worth Area hurry up and go see the Star Wars Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit! Where I am part of a (pre-recorded) panel of WAY smarter peers talking about how science can influence movies, but also how movies have influenced science!
Ciao for now!
-Alx

CG Society Profile Article!

OK, back from a much needed break. One big bit of news is CG Society just posted a very nice article about the work on Transformers and an overall look at my career in film design! Check it out! And let them know if you 'digg it' ,overall it was a very nice piece. There was no ILM art department in LA, it was the LA art department they sent me down to, and plenty of great artists there who deserve just as much credit, namely Ben Procter, Paul Ozzimo, Ed Natividad, Feng Zu, Tony Kieme, Ryan Church, James Clyne and more! Great work guys! They were responsible for the bulk of the design work of the robots.
I've got another month of Sketch of the day ready to scan in. I also hope I responded to anyone who emailed me recently, if not please forgive me and buzz me again.
I hope you all enjoyed Transformers, it was a fun, fast paced ride for sure. A little bit on the silly side for my tastes, but it worked in context. I saw it opening night with my family and a full house of TF fans who all seemed to eat it up with a cheer. My wife and #1 fan made sure that my credit was duely noted throughout the theater at the end.... thanks babe.
Oh and here's that Sub attack pic a little better resolution for ya.