The Tin Man from the wonderful world of OZ. This came out of just talking with some friends about stories that had great characters and imaginative environments.

When I was thinking about this character I imagined him having an older hand crafted feel, so I wanted to stay away from an assembly line or sci-fi look. I thought the creator of the Tin Man would have spent a good part of his life working on him and putting a lot of love into the design.

I'm a real sucker for visual story telling, so I try to tell a characters story in their design. I think this really helps tie any character specifically to the story they belong to. For the Tin Man I tried to do this using a heart motif. His breastplate is a giant heart as well as reverse design on his fingers, and even a touch in his face. We're told he doesn't have a heart, but I wanted to show that, so I tried to make his body so we could actually look into it and say "hey man you don't have a heart in there." Eventually I want to have blue and green oxidized rust stains falling down his body, contrasting with his original hand crafted polished design.

Here is some work in progress on the Jenny Green Teeth character I'm hoping eventually to make. I don't think this is close to working, even though there are some aspects I like. I'm going to play around with this design a little see where it ends up. Again, any thoughts are welcome.

Another work in progress. A friend of mine posts weekly challenges to help keep us creating outside of work. This challenge was to take an eighties movie and do it in the style of another artist. So of course I picked the greatest film ever made, the Three Amigos. For the artist I went with Sean Galloway. His works great, it's a real fresh take on character design, plus it's just inspiring to look at. This piece is missing two amigos, but they are on their way.

Here is a work in progress. This is a design I am working on for a creature known as Jenny Green Teeth. She is a human-like creature who lives under water in lakes and bogs. Right now she is looking a little to much like the designs from Pirates of the Caribbean. Eventually I'm going top make the moss hanging from her look like an old dress, as well as put a little more history into her design. Any helpful crit's or thoughts on this piece where it is currently are welcome.

Alright here is some new work! It's been a while since I have put any work up on this site. I had a change of jobs and am now working at LucasArts. I have been putting a lot of time in at work, but here is some new work. This is a piece I did based on a creature from Japanese mythology known as a Kappa. I approached this piece by working only from the written description. This creature has a bowl on top of is head that holds water, if the water spills from this bowl he dies. I thought he would carefully wrap his bowl on his head to keep it from tipping over. I made the bowl on top of his head resemble the silhouette of a crown, I imagined him as noble while also giving a hint to a larger story.

More work to come, promise!

This piece I did is actually a character my brother came up with. This character was based on the story of a orphaned thief living in Venice. He used a back pack made from trash as a means of getting away after stealing things. He would steal something thing run and jump in the canals to make his get away, looking like garbage floating in the canals. I really like this idea because it created a great silhouette, placed the character in Venice, and in general is a great visual look. Again I want to give my brother credit for this concept, thanks man!

I was tossing around the idea of Hansel and Gretel set in Japan. This is the witch from the story. The question I kept asking myself, is why would a witch make a house of candy? I imagined she gained her magic from special recipes. And around her waist she would carry all the cooking utensils needed to make these recipes.

Here is a design I did for Frankenstein's creature after reading the book. I wanted to include some of the sincerity and innocence that the creature had towards the begining of the story. I wanted to contrast him visually by combining his horrific appearence with the gentle presence of the birds. I always trying to show the character's personality in their visual appearance.

Here are a couple of characters I did for a tribe of people who live on an island. I wanted their design to tie them to the island. For the first one I imagined a long dress made from ivy that would connect her to the environment. The second one has a dress made from broken canoe paddles, I saw this as a way she would mourn all those who die at sea.

This character is a member of a group of barnstormers know as the Knuckle Heads. The story takes place at the height of barnstorming before the creation of the FAA. This character would hang from the bottom of planes that had lost their wheels due to shaky landings or close calls. I imagined these guys as using self made outfits, hence the old style football helmet for protection. I think this piece starts to work because the wheels on his chest are a visual story telling element while at the same time creating a silhouette that breaks up the normal silhouette of the body.

This character is Hansel from a Hansel and Gretel story I placed in Japan. For Hansel I wanted a characted who was bad mannered and even disrespectful. To established this visually I have him wearing a western style vest over a kimono as well as keeping his chopsticks in his hair. I wanted to set up in his design a distaste for more traditional ways, which I saw as a reason the Witch in the story would immediately dislike him.