clifford's doodles.

I would still pick you...

2010-10-21T05:33:00.002-04:00

Here is a painting I made as part of a card for Stefan's and my seventh anniversary.

Slow Loris

2010-10-09T12:02:00.001-04:00

Eurosplorin'!

2010-05-16T05:31:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone! I'm traveling through the Mediterranean at the moment. My boyfriend and I have started a blog dedicated to our travels. Check it out!

Easter Egg Backgrounds

2010-03-19T10:55:00.003-04:00

Here are some backgrounds I made in Flash CS3 inspired by Easter egg patterns...

Easter Chickadee

2010-03-11T16:39:00.002-05:00

chickadee painted in Photoshop CS3, everything else done in Flash CS3.

A Mom's Many Roles

2010-03-11T16:19:00.003-05:00

Here are some stills from a Mother's Day eCard I'm working on. I just like the colours of the backgrounds... :P

A Night of Life Drawing at the Toronto School of Art

2010-03-10T10:35:00.004-05:00

I was at the Toronto School of Art last week for a night of life drawing, something I haven't done since I left Sheridan back in April '08! I was actually surprised to find myself not too rusty, and got some half-decent drawings (in my opinion anyway...).

Father's Day card

2010-02-03T16:49:00.005-05:00

Here are some illustrations from a Father's Day card I'm working on. It shows what we can learn from our dads.

Being diplomatic:

Working hard at the office:

Expanding your mind via literature:

Being fiscally responsible:

St. Patty's Day

2010-01-29T14:10:00.004-05:00

Here's a still from a St. Patty's Day eCard I made. Father's Day to follow...

sugar plums

2009-06-25T15:51:00.004-04:00

Arrrrrr!.. Part the Second

2009-06-18T14:41:00.002-04:00

a cast of characters, as promised, for a piratey adventure!

Arrrrrr!

2009-06-16T10:40:00.001-04:00

Some character designs to follow soon....

i take ur toof now??????

2009-05-29T22:28:00.001-04:00

Trash of a Different Colour

2009-04-28T16:52:00.007-04:00

what's so funny, pussy cat?

2009-04-09T15:48:00.001-04:00

puppieeeeeees!

2009-04-07T17:04:00.002-04:00

meow mix meow mix meow please deliver

2009-04-03T15:42:00.001-04:00

Master Copies

2009-03-26T11:47:00.004-04:00

Something from work. these are just quick copies... click for actual size (they're not big).

calico.

2009-03-19T15:34:00.002-04:00

a smattering from work.

2009-03-02T12:50:00.005-05:00

here's some stuff i've been poopin' out at work.

Meh

2009-01-31T15:22:00.003-05:00

I might be putting some paintings of puppies up soon but here in the meanwhile is a shoddy cloud painting. Sorry.

Scott M. Fischer

2008-06-24T00:45:00.004-04:00

Check out his stuff.

Fast Food Pigeon (2008)

2008-06-02T16:49:00.005-04:00

It's here!

Everything copyrighted to me. Don't use any of it without my permission!

Please leave your comments and criticisms :) I appreciate the comments.. and oh yeah.. I still need a job!

Portfolio updates!

2008-04-08T23:12:00.012-04:00

hi to the four of you who read this blog!

the film's all done and handed in; now i'm working on my portfolio and demo reel. to the right you can click on a link which will bring you to my Sheridan Online Portfolio.

here are three pieces i did for the portfolio this week, plus some updated life drawings pages.

someone hire me please!! :)

UPDATED: coming april 2008....

2008-02-12T23:47:00.009-05:00

UPDATE (05/04/08): the film is all done for the marking deadline. i might add some things for the industry day screening (depending on how my portfolio/demo reel is going), but once it's finalized i'll have it up on youtube or something and embed it on my blog!

Semester 7 Week 14 Portfolio

2007-12-06T19:00:00.001-05:00

so here's my final lifedrawing portfolio. i'll miss lifedrawing next semester, but i think not having it is for the best--everyone will be busy with their films. i've learned a LOT from lifedrawing these past seven semesters.. probably the most i've ever learned about art in general.

please leave comments; i really appreciate other people's criticisms and compliments!

royal agricultural winter fair 2007

2007-12-05T22:55:00.001-05:00

okay, so i went to the fair and drew in my sketchbook. then i picked out the stuff i liked (slim pickins) and redrew them onto watercolour paper, tweaking whatever i saw fit along the way. then i gave the collage a wash and some colour.

30-minute drawing jam: nazis

2007-11-28T22:46:00.000-05:00

the topic was nazis.

moldy life

2007-11-28T18:07:00.001-05:00

some old stuff. i have some newer drawings that i pulled out but i haven't had a chance to take photos of them... i'll probably just post them when i have my portfolio ready (in about a week).

Debby in colour

2007-10-25T22:59:00.000-04:00

some colour. just started today, pretty much. for the next seven weeks i'm aiming to work in colour mostly... let's see what happens.

4th year film concepts

2007-10-24T23:14:00.000-04:00

blob-pigeon pharoah about to devour the earth! (it makes more sense in context.)

not exactly what i had in mind, but oh well..

to clarify... that is an obese pigeon face down on a tongue, with crinkle fries shot into his back, and ketchup blood seeping out from underneath him. and a heat-lamp sun.

Semester 7 Portfolio + 12 other drawings

2007-10-18T22:11:00.000-04:00

so here's my semester 7 lifedrawing portfolio. i've been lifedrawing way too much. i need to work on my film!! hahaha...

anyway, i'm pretty happy with how the drawings turned out.

3-minute:
5-minute:
10-minute:
two nudes thrown in for good measure (both 5-minute):

and some 20-minute and longer:
this one is gerry's and my favourite from the portfolio:

and two heads. heads are still my weakest point, i think!
one of ron i put in the day the portfolio was due:

that's it for that!
here are some other drawings that didn't make the cut:

here's one of ed looking like something indecent is being done to him.. but really, he's just singing.

one of murray i got the day the portfolio was due:

a 3-minute of debby i really like:
and for fun, a 30-second...

and a one-minute.

so.. yeah, now i am going to work on my film. i'm a bit behind, but for those of you who don't know what it's about, i have three words for you: morbidly obese pigeon.

Doug

2007-09-18T22:30:00.000-04:00

just some drawings to keep this blog somewhat up-to-date. currently working on drawing heads/faces.

Year 3 Semester 2 Final Portfolio

2007-04-16T20:30:00.000-04:00

here is my final lifedrawing portfolio for year 3. i don't feel confident enough to go into colour yet.. maybe i'll give that a try next year. i'm still familiarizing myself with the concept of shape. comments are encouraged! thanks :)

Robert Liberace

2007-03-01T23:05:00.000-05:00

"Antaeus", red chalk on paper, 14" by 18"

Astounding. Check Robert Liberace out.

Year 3 Feb 2007 Life Drawing Portfolio

2007-02-23T19:27:00.000-05:00

here is the first of two portfolios for gerry. the next seven weeks i'll focus on the structure and anatomy of the head, and keep trying (keyword trying) to master clothing and character :) hope you like the portfolio! please leave your thoughts!

an overdue slice of life

2007-02-02T22:29:00.000-05:00

a bunch of recent lifedrawings. taking from gerry zeldin, i've been focussing more on shape and the graphicness of the pose... and now slowly integrating line back into my stuff.

Year 3 Semester 1 Final Portfolio

2006-12-15T13:42:00.000-05:00

Big Smelly Life Drawing Dump

2006-12-09T14:02:00.000-05:00

so i started doing the "smudging" thing.. it's coming along... something new and pretty exciting to explore at xlife! :)

Lifedrawings: Georgina

2006-11-24T19:01:00.000-05:00

Here are some drawings of Georgina (as per Lettie's request :P). She's very rare to get during extra life and she's also very good!

Lifedrawings Oct 2006

2006-11-14T22:59:00.000-05:00

a 2 and a 3 from the end of last month. i was drawing pretty well that night. this year i've hardly been going to lifedrawing to draw for myself (i've pretty much only been going to tutor)... we'll see how next semester goes.

- cliff

Stefan

2006-10-14T02:01:00.000-04:00

hey everyone!

so here is a digital painting of my boyfriend Stefan! i made it for him in celebration of our three years together so far.

done in painter9. took a long time, but i have no idea how many hours....

cliff

Rusty Joiner

2006-08-04T00:03:00.000-04:00

hey, so here is a copy of a photo of model Rusty Joiner done in painter9. took forever to get his face right (i never drew him out first or anything, i just painted and changed as i went :S.. not the best idea LOL). i don't know how long this took, maybe like 20+ hours.

please critique!

cliff

Copy of Donato Giancola's "Under Pressure"

2006-07-07T22:28:00.000-04:00

so here is another copy of a Giancola painting, Under Pressure (13" x 20", Oil on Paper on Panel). just the man from it. this one was much harder to do; not sure why, i think the colour changes are much more subtle than the other one, and i'm not as happy with the end result.

what do you guys think?

Copy of Donato Giancola's "Roberto Benedicto"

2006-07-02T17:28:00.000-04:00

so here is a copy (of the man) in donato giancola's roberto benedicto(22.5" x 15", Oil on Paper on Panel). i did this just to explore what kind of colours one could use in painting flesh (which is why nothing else is copied.. aside from the fact that there's so much detail!)

done in painter9.

cliff

Inspirations

2006-06-23T18:22:00.000-04:00

hey guys,

just a notice that i added some links on the right-hand side to artists that i admire.

*jeff george is a coloured pencil artist. you'll be amazed at how realistic his stuff looks and what can be done with coloured pencil.

*donato giancola is a fantasy illustrator who works in oils. his stuff is unreal; his flesh is really well painted as well as all the sci-fi machinery.

*todd lockwood is a fantasy illustrator. he used to work in oils; now he works in painter. his style has translated really well, keeping the lush look of his art.

*dermot power is a concept designer. he's done concept work for all four harry potter movies, batman begins and charlie and the chocolate factory. check out his "film visuals", they're amazing.

*ryan wurmser is a painter. i love his portrait and figure work.

that's it for now. i'll add to the list as i think of more artists i look up to.

cliff

NBC: The Office

2006-06-14T16:33:00.000-04:00

Oh man, this is one of the best shows i've ever seen. it's like a real-life family guy, only it's serial so you don't get sick of it after watching 2 episodes.

i have yet to watch the BBC version but the american one is great. you guys should definitely check it out!

cliff

CARS

2006-06-12T17:36:00.000-04:00

so CARS was pretty good. i went in with very high expectations, and i came away pretty happy with what i saw. the story is more kiddish than pixar's usual, but the movie is worth paying for even for just the visuals. it's a very beautiful movie to look at.

cliff

Painter 9 doodle...

2006-06-08T22:04:00.000-04:00

here is something i did in painter9 out of boredom... it's wallpaper-sized so if you're crazy enough to want it for a background then go for it.

cliff

comingsoon.net interviews John Lasseter

2006-05-30T13:31:00.000-04:00

for those of you who are interested, there is a great article over at www.comingsoon.net in which John Lasseter talks about Cars and the Disney merger.

some worthwhile quotes:

"At Pixar, the movies are director driven. What I mean by that is that the stories that the directors choose, they write and they come from their own heart. We're the only studio that's like that. All the other studios are executive-driven. The movies are picked by executives in development and directors are assigned to them."

"Tire store to a car is like a men's shoe store, right? I don't know if you noticed that when Luigi had McQueen try on the tires that there's a patch of asphalt in front of the mirror so you can see how good the tire looks on the asphalt. We have fun that way in really thinking through this world."

"[E]very boy is born into this world with his own set of sound effects. Right? Cars have a very different sound than a motorcycle, bombs, machine guns, flying like Superman, and all those sounds, and lightning and thunder, right? I had the tape rolling and I said, "Owen, what was your sound for thunder growing up?" and he started going, "Kachow! Kachow! K-k-k-chow!" I was sitting in the room laughing so hard. I would have never thought of that!"

"[T]he merger isn't going to change Pixar at all, because that was one of the parts of the deal. Bob Iger recognizes how special Pixar is and it's culture, and it's really protected. It's going to stay exactly the same. "

"Disney has been sort of an executive-driven studio for a long time, and I believe in having the stories come from [the directors], whether it's something they wrote and they like and it comes from their heart, and surrounding them and being honest with them when things are working and not working."

cliff

And so it begins...

2006-05-30T00:09:00.000-04:00

so here is something i did in painter9 for a card that stefan and i will be giving his sister for her wedding :P

cliff

MoMA's interview with Ralph Eggleston

2006-05-28T11:22:00.000-04:00

courtesy of Luxo: a Blog featuring Pixar Animation Studios, here is an interview with pixar's ralph eggleston. he was:

art director for The Incredibles and Toy Story,
production designer for Finding Nemo
story writer for Monsters, Inc
director of For the Birds, among other things.

http://redstudio.moma.org/interviews/behind/#

check out all the clips, they are pretty informative. he talks about how it's not about the technique of the drawing, it's about the emotion; that's the only thing people will respond to. learning to see is more important than learning to draw well. make movies for yourself, not for the audience.

cliff

My First (Serious) Painter painting

2006-05-24T19:54:00.000-04:00

hey guys, here is my first "serious" painter piece.. although i did it mostly as an exercise in realism. i'm not really counting the painter pieces i did for michael hitchcox because i didn't really try on those... plus, i never really found the brush i wanted.

this is a painting of my friend kelly. as for likeness it's pretty good, only her eyes aren't as far apart as they are in the drawing.

any comments? they would be much appreciated...

cliff

FORTUNE: Interview with John Lasseter

2006-05-24T12:40:00.000-04:00

check this out: there is a great interview over at CNN with John Lasseter.

some worthwhile quotes from the article:

"My older brother Jim, who passed away six or seven years ago, was a brilliant interior designer who studied Japanese design. What he loved about their approach is that they'll design something and then they take away until they can take away no more. We have adopted that same philosophy here in our films."

"'You know, what I think makes sense in fashion design is to take a really wild fabric and then make a classic pattern or piece of clothing with it. Either that, or you take a classic fabric and make a crazy pattern with it.' [Jim] said if you design things that way, there is something familiar for people to relate to. But if you do both - take a crazy fabric and make a crazy pattern - people can't make any sense of it."

"Let me tell you a funny story. I took the family to see this film one weekend - I'll go to see almost any film that's good for the whole family. And so we're sitting there watching this film, which I won't name, and there are long stretches that are just not very entertaining. My little son - he was probably 6 at the time - was sitting next to me, and right in the middle of this dull section, he turns to me and says, 'Dad? How many letters are in my name?'

"I must have laughed for five minutes. I thought, Oh, man, this movie has lost this little boy. His mind has been wandering, trying to figure out how many letters there are in his name. So I told my wife, Nancy, what he said, and she started laughing, and then the story went down the row through my whole family, our four other sons, and we're sitting there as a family giggling and laughing.

"And I thought to myself, If ever a child anywhere in the world leans over to their daddy during one of my movies and asks, 'How many letters are in my name?' I'll quit."

the bit about japanese design is very useful for filmmaking, i think, and the second bit about always keeping something in your character that people can relate to is really important too. hope you guys take the time to read the article; it's a very good read.

cliff

CARS

2006-05-23T15:59:00.000-04:00

i'm super-excited for CARS! i remember when the teaser first came out, i was like wtf... but every new trailer that pixar has released from then on just made the movie seem better and better..

here is the newest and final trailer... check it out!

Avatar: The Last Airbender

2006-05-18T12:04:00.000-04:00

i don't know how many of you have heard of the show Avatar: The Last Airbender (i certainly haven't up until last week), but i saw an episode last saturday morning, and it was amazing. the backgrounds are stunning and the animation is top-notch for a TV show. it's anime, but (gasp) i didn't mind!!! it's made in english, so there's no bad lip-syncking either. i am currently download all the episodes (they're in the middle of season 2) but you can buy season one on DVD.

if you haven't heard of the show i suggest you go download an episode.. it's like a show straight out of piotr beliecki's mind!!

canada day poster challenge + diecast CARS

2006-05-16T15:59:00.000-04:00

okay, for those of you who don't know (and that, i'm thinking, is a lot of you), the "canada day poster challenge" is held once a year across canada (http://www.pch.gc.ca/special/canada/affiche-poster/index_e.cfm). a theme is given, and anyone under 19 can submit a poster 15" by 20". i won this in 2003 for the theme "canada's natural beauty"when i was 16, and this year (the theme being "images of canada"), they have recently announced the winner, 14 year-old sophia hou. her poster and my poster, respectively, can be seen below:

sophia hou's:
mine:
hello?! when i first saw it, i was like "RIP OFF!!!!!!!!!!".... either way, they do look pretty similar. so i'm going to take some credit for her win :P

i don't know why the poster challenge's publicity seems to suck, but it's such a great contest, and the finalist from each province/territory gets a free trip to ottawa with one parent/guardian for canada day celebrations. when i was there i got to present flowers to adrienne clarkson, and i met jean chretien. it was cool.

on another note, i've been driving around town and going everywhere trying to find all the CARS diecasts.. some bitches at mattel thought it'd be funny to make a set of 16, then make 8 of them impossible to find. arg. i'm missing wingo, king, sarge, lizzie, and the two packs of stanley+red and boost+snot rod.

cliff

harro???

2006-05-16T11:14:00.000-04:00

okay.. so this blog has been created and deleted and now created again.. i just hope it doesn't consume my free time. i am making it in hopes of getting my art out there and getting noticed.

so anyway.. here is my year two final lifedrawing portfolio.

--cliff

ps. took forever to load these--after my first 5 were uploaded the next images were really stubborn in actually showing up even though blogger said they were uploaded.. is there something i'm doing wrong??

(update: fixed the broken links)