JustinLashley.Com SketchBlog

Mellow Mushroom

2012-01-29T10:38:00.002-05:00

Our waiter at the Mellow Mushroom drew a little mushroom guy on our take home box saying "thank you". I said thank you back and drew this little guy on the check.

Book Cover Final

2011-11-11T12:51:00.004-05:00

It took far too long to finish, but here is the final book cover for Roxy's Sequel!

Fall Tree

2011-10-07T21:35:00.004-04:00

A painting for Allison and Bill's wedding. Once it's printed, the guests will dip their fingers in ink and leave prints on the branches to make leaves. Congrats guys!

The Deep

2011-07-17T22:31:00.004-04:00

1 iPad + 1 Sketch app + 1 documentary about deep sea creatures = this

New Title Image

2011-07-17T22:10:00.005-04:00

Over the last month or so I have been changing up the layout and design of the blog a bit. Trying to go for a notebook-like look, an omage to my medium of choice when I began drawing as a kid. To this day, I still feel some of my best works are laying around in old notebooks somewhere, scribbled down in between history notes and math problems. This is where I began to play with perspective and shading, teaching myself from cartoons and comics and anime. It's crazy to see how much my work has changed, and how somethings still haven't!

Anyways, you didn't come here today to listen to me blab on and get sentimental! This is a Sketchblog! On to the drawings!

More Book Covers

2011-06-14T12:42:00.002-04:00

More iterations on the group cover. Sorry these took so long Jess!

Book Cover Thumbs #2

2011-05-24T21:56:00.004-04:00

More thumbs for the next book by Jess Phillips!

Portal 2

2011-05-18T11:13:00.002-04:00

My girlfriend and I playing Portal 2. I think its pretty accurate...

CRT Discharge

2011-05-06T17:32:00.003-04:00

An demonstration of the proper way to discharge an old CRT computer...

Elder Tree

2011-04-18T00:42:00.004-04:00

Did this today on my connecting flight from Dallas to San Jose. Things were kinda shaky, so I went for a very loose style.

Frogman: Style Test

2011-04-13T11:58:00.002-04:00

Did this quick test for Frogman, trying to work out the look for an upcoming project I want to do. Not sure what I want the final product to be yet, but I'm excited about the look and the way its coming along!

The Unknown

2011-04-10T16:58:00.005-04:00

I have no idea what to call this thing. Kinda of a lizard, elephant, bird thing. One of those drawings that starts out as shapes and end up taking a life of its own.

The Alchemist

2011-03-24T12:41:00.003-04:00

Knocked this guy out quickly last night and finished him off this morning. Tried to use as few colors as possible, and it turned out pretty well.

The Singer

2011-03-11T01:24:00.002-05:00

Wanted to do something really quick and try messing with this kind of etching look. A fun test that I want to work with some more.

The Frogman Cometh

2011-03-03T10:38:00.003-05:00

Frogman, P.I. This guy was a brian child of my self and one Adri Moreno when I was working on her mural. She is kicking her self now for not trademarking him or securing animation rights...

50 posts!

2011-02-28T21:23:00.004-05:00

Had I know that this was post number 50, I may have done something more a little more awesome than this quick character. Here is to hoping that I hit 100 posts before the year is out!

Baby Golem

2011-02-26T23:54:00.004-05:00

Working on some new ways to paint, still trying to depend less on line work and more on form and color.

Ware or Were?

2011-02-20T12:32:00.004-05:00

WereBear.....or is it WareBear? Either way, pretty funny!

The Cardinal WIP

2011-02-18T18:32:00.004-05:00

Have been messing with this guy for a little while now, and I've finally got him right. Rough sketch and color at this point, hope to have more soon.

Not-so-solid Snake

2011-02-02T15:48:00.002-05:00

A quick post, currently working on a larger painting. Did this sketch like a week ago and wanted to finish up. Getting a better hang of Sketchbook Pro, but kinda missing some of the more advance selection and masking options of Photoshop. The end product is about the same, it seems.

Hola Lola!

2011-01-21T00:26:00.002-05:00

A quick drawing of Lola and Mayra.

Winter Day

2011-01-16T23:43:00.001-05:00

A painting of an alternate reality where my girlfriend doesn't despise everything about winter. Also, everyone has big heads and stubby legs.

The Return

2011-01-14T22:07:00.005-05:00

After a long break, I'm finally working again. Just picked up Sketchbook Pro on the App store and this guy was one of my first attempts. Still feeling out the brushes and pressure sensitivity, but it's a good start!

Do It!

2010-06-14T23:21:00.004-04:00

An iPhone background image commission by the lovely Adri Moreno de la Peña. With the right attitude, even a turtle can run!

Sloth

2010-05-04T22:08:00.002-04:00

I dunno why.......cus I can?

Blue

2010-04-14T22:13:00.002-04:00

Used to draw a lot of anime in high school, but got out of the habit in college. Felt like giving it a go again and just started randomly sketching. When I was finished, I sat back and looked at it and realized..."oh, its Joanna from Perfect Dark....great...." Someday I hope to create something truly original.....maybe.

Chess Set

2010-03-03T21:49:00.002-05:00

Quick ideas for a chess set I am going to model in clay. Wanted to do simple ideas, since I don't have any exp. in working with clay. Should be fun!

Torchlight Concepts #002

2010-01-20T00:05:00.003-05:00

Another building idea for the Torchlight Community mod.

Torchlight Concepts #001

2010-01-04T11:27:00.003-05:00

A few concepts for a mod project for the game Torchlight.

Book Cover

2009-12-03T21:29:00.003-05:00

Here is the color version of the book cover. It may be a bit dark overall, but I kinda like it. Can't wait to see it in print!

Book Cover Thumbs

2009-11-09T21:04:00.005-05:00

Here are a few thumbs for my friends self published book. This is pretty much my first attempt at free lance work. Lets hope I nail the job!!!

New Painting

2009-09-24T16:01:00.002-04:00

So once again I started this thing over. I moved on to something more within my range. Hopefully this will be the last time! I may play with some gradients in photoshop before I call it done, we will see.

W.I.P. Wedding Gift

2009-09-22T15:22:00.003-04:00

Here something I've been working on for a long time now. Problem is that after about a days work, I would delete everything out of frustration. But now that the "deadline" is almost here, I can no longer afford to be so self critical!

Bee

2009-09-03T14:36:00.002-04:00

It's been TOO LONG since my last post. Life just seemed to get in the way. Now that I'm home and back on track, I hope to keep the posts more regular. I am currently in full swing on my animated short film, but I hope to do a drawing or sketch every few days or so.

Card Sketches

2009-07-20T19:16:00.001-04:00

Haven't posted in a long while, been very busy updating my website and working on my short. Here are a few sketches for some business themed greeting cards that I'm helping a friend do. I plan to finish them off tonight or tomorrow in Illustrator.

Old Squid

2009-07-08T23:49:00.003-04:00

Took a brake today from my short to do this quick painting. I hope to start posting some progress on the 3D models soon.

Faces

2009-07-06T23:28:00.002-04:00

I did some quick sketches for my characters in my short. I went with a larger, thicker look for the frontiersman and a more scrappy, thin look for the native. I plan to do one, if not both, of the final model sheets tomorrow so I can get modeling as soon as I can.

Native Hunter

2009-07-01T00:30:00.002-04:00

Here is the second character from my upcoming short. I was looking at a bunch of concept art from Starcraft 2 today, and noticed how they seemed to put broad colors under their outlines, then paint more details above. It helped me get my formes and volumes down quicker than my previous technique, so I want to work more with it. As for the character design it's self, I definitely want a minimal amount of clothing for this guy. I may go back and create some tattoo patterns for his body, but for now, I like the lanky but toned look to him. I hope to get started on some more defined character sheets tomorrow.

Frog Mutant

2009-06-28T23:24:00.002-04:00

I just finished watching the film Wizards by Ralph Bakshi and wanted to do a quick character in that style. I wasn't so hot on some of the animation and timing in that movie, but I loved the story and character design. I also wanted to play around with the background to give a more painted feel to these sketches

Frontier Hunter

2009-06-27T16:55:00.004-04:00

Long time since I last posted, got pretty lazy this week. But I have finally settled on an idea for a new short animation I want to do, so now I have tons of stuff to start posting. I may even throw up some storyboards when I get to that point. So this is one of three characters from the short, a American Frontiersmen who is on the hunt. I like him as a start, but I want to stay away from too much loose clothing for the short (cloth simulations are a huge pain in the butt), and since I'm not the best 3D modeler, I'm planning on going with a more stylized look to the characters. But I like where this guy is going so far.

New Suit

2009-06-19T02:20:00.003-04:00

I've been watching The Animaniacs all night while I worked and wanted to do a quick cartoony character before I headed to bed.

Blues Man wip

2009-06-18T23:34:00.002-04:00

The last few years I have started getting into the blues more and more. It was a heavy influence on some of my favorite bands like Zeppelin, the Stones, and Clapton. I hope to finish this guy some time over the weekend.

Dog Day Afternoon

2009-06-16T20:13:00.002-04:00

Watched Dog Day Afternoon over the weekend. Pretty weird movie, not sure what message it was trying to convey, but I liked it anyway. I liked this guys hairdo and lanky build. He also played Fredo in the Godfather movies, says IMDB.

Alex Mercer

2009-06-15T01:27:00.002-04:00

Spent the majority of this weekend playing Prototype. I've been pretty impressed with this game so far, it seemed like it was destined to fail with all the hype surrounding it. But it's a ton of fun, it was all I could to to rip myself away for a few hours!

Bat Anim Test

2009-06-11T23:24:00.006-04:00

Having some trobles with this post, but it should be all sorted now. Here is a quick animation test for my Bat character. A little rough, but a good start. Click on the image to watch!

(if anyone knows how to load a .swf file into blog posts, let me know, it would be a big help)

Bats

2009-06-10T22:55:00.002-04:00

I spent the last two days working on this model sheet for an upcoming personal project. I'm pretty excited about it 'cus it will give a good chance to start animating on my Cintiqu, which I've been wanting to do since I bought it.

Batty

2009-06-08T23:40:00.002-04:00

Some quick bat concepts for an upcoming project. The end product will be more cartoony, but I've always found it good to start off with some life drawing first.

Web Site

2009-06-07T21:22:00.002-04:00

After a lot of struggle, I finally have got my new web site up. I'm still working out the kinks, it seems to take a while for changes to show up on the web, so the link from the site to this blog is not working. For now, though, the main page is up and the demo reel plays. Looking at it now, I really need some new work. I'm planning a short film at the moment, so my next few drawings will most likely be geared towards that.

The Mask

2009-06-04T22:31:00.002-04:00

This one started out as a pretty abstract sketch, wasn't sure where I was going with it. But I kinda like the way it turned out. The armor reminds me a bit of Mass Effect, which I've been playing a bunch of. The weekend is coming up, so I hope to post something up tomorrow before heading out to party!

Sharpshooter

2009-06-03T23:08:00.003-04:00

Another quick sketch and paint job. Not really happy with the pose on this one. I also realize I should try to do more complex lighting, most of what I've been doing so far has been single, harsh light sources. I should try a mid day setting with more subtle shadows.

Wing Ding

2009-06-02T01:19:00.003-04:00

All you can eat wings at BW3's sounded like a great idea until about a hour ago. Now I feel like the biggest glutton on the planet. I imagine that someday my metabolism will say "screw you" and walk out the door, and this is what I will turn into.

Hairy SharkMan

2009-05-31T22:54:00.003-04:00

Not sure what I wanted to do with this one when I started, and I'm still not sure what it is, but its kinda cool. It was fun not really having a plan going in, although it made it tough to finalize the details in the end.

Male Figure

2009-05-30T22:57:00.003-04:00

Just some quick figures today. Went disc golfing all day and now feeling pretty beat. Probably will try to start finishing my painting from last week tonight and hopefully post it tomorrow.

ARRRRRrrrrrrr

2009-05-29T01:01:00.005-04:00

Finished the illustration from yesterday, pretty happy with the way it turned out. Also pretty proud that I manage to finish it off when I worked from 8:30 am to 9 pm today. On the up side, I've got most the day off tomorrow now, so I may try to post something up before we hit the town.

ARRRRRRRrrrrrrrr

2009-05-28T02:03:00.004-04:00

There was talk of a new pirate game at work today that sadly, I wont be working on. I started sketching some ideas and I worked on this little pose while waiting for renders to finish. I hope to throw some more color in tomorrow after work and some Resident Evil 5 with Matt.

Figure 01

2009-05-27T01:48:00.005-04:00

Loooooooooooooong day at work today, and I estimate it will be longer tomorrow. I've been wanting to do more life drawing and figures, but it's hard to find refrance images online that arn't.....questionable. Looks like I may have to head over to the bookstore sometime this week.

I'm not thrilled with this one, my coloring is getting better, but the figure is pretty poor. Guess it was just an off day.

Phantasm

2009-05-25T12:06:00.003-04:00

My cousin visited for the long weekend, and so, no work was done. I quickly finished up this little sketch from Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, which I had never seen before Thursday night. While not the best animated movie ever, it was still pretty good, and it brought back some fond memories of the Animated series from when I was a kid. Good to know that not every cartoon I enjoyed back in the day wasn't cheap, outsourced garbage!

Late

2009-05-21T22:51:00.002-04:00

I've woken up late 4 out of the last 5 days for work, which is not like me. So I'm calling it an early night tonight. Did this little sketch in Flash this morning before work and quickly finished it off after dinner. I like the idea, I may try to do something more finished with it later.

Ceremony

2009-05-21T00:18:00.007-04:00

I found this image over the weekend on the National Geographic web site. I really liked the tightness of the shot and the bold colors on his face paint. The sketch turned out pretty well, but the lighting is giving me some problems. The other painting I did had a harsh directional light, but this is much more subtle and I'm having a hard time with it. I'm going to put it away for now and get back to it, maybe over the weekend.

Confused

2009-05-20T00:28:00.002-04:00

One quick sketch before bed. I tried using a quick, bold stroke and fast colors. Not sure about the result, I may have to try it some more and feel it out, but a decent start.

Tribal Fire

2009-05-19T22:56:00.007-04:00

This is my first painting I did over the weekend. I don't have much of a traditional art background, so I'm kinda learning as I go. I picked this image because the lighting was very harsh and direct, so it was easy to quickly block out. It's still very rough, but I'm pretty happy with the result, and pretty proud that I am weening myself away from outlines.

First Post

2009-05-19T22:27:00.002-04:00

Well, its official. I have a blog. I am now the proud (but poor) owner of a Wacom Cintiq, and I have started a quest to do at least one drawing, painting, or random doodle a day before or after work. I plan to post these images up and drop a quick little blurb along with them. This blog will run in conjunction with my portfolio website (www.justinlashley.com), which is down at the moment. It's really more for me, to force myself to broaden my skills as a digital artist, try new things, get some feedback, and just unwind after a long day of making keno and lottery games. Hope you all enjoy it!

Justin