The Update You Have All Been Waiting For

My flight to Dusseldorf leaves 6 am next Friday. I hope rocket fire from Gaza doesn't affect that.

I'll be going through Kiev, in both direction, hopefully the strife in that area doesn't affect me. Get what you paid for I guess?

From DUS I'll be taking the train to Cologne for my 3rd year as volunteer at GDC Europe. It's going to be great.

I also have my flight to Japan and South Korea in September all figured out as well. Maybe I'll get lucky enough to finally break into the game industry during my trip. Otherwise freelance will probably be my last option.

Printed out my portfolio; updated my website, taking into account some constructive critique I received; and noticed that I printed a slightly outdated file so I may go back and reprint it, if I feel it necessary and time allows.

Here's the final Silverhawks work:

Abandoned the Chroma Witch project after building it in vector

Somehow found the time to do a virtual plein air of a village in Croatia

And pumped out speed paints on a daily basis, off course. For some I have been using colors found on a "palette meme" on Tumblr. :)

Back in the Game

I'm working on my board game again, after a brief hiatus to do a couple of art test, and hitting a rougher patch of the unemployment roller coaster.

At least I kept up the daily speed paints. Here are a few samples.

Went to the 5th Israeli Games Unconference after being at the 3rd, and made a few new contacts. I still think I need to leave this country ASAP, but it isn't easy. Made good use of a website I found offering game internships in France a couple of weeks ago, though I've only received a few rejections for my efforts.

Board Game 1 - A New Project

My cousin had me play Settlers of Catan for the first time about half a year ago. I was instantly hooked, and have been delving deeper into the hobby ever since, first in the Bay Area, and now home to Haifa. I've found a group to play with on Monday, and we pull out Catan whenever my brother and SIL come to visit. I listen to blogs about it and watch videos on youtube. I figured I would try my hand at it, if only as an excuse to design some art. Here's what I have so far, some rough layouts and ideas. Prettier thing are soon to follow.

I couldn't start this project without first finishing the monster studies collage, so here it is in it's final form.

And a few more of the podcast paintings:

Wooga Style

I talked with a Wooga representative during GDC Europe, and I told him I would do something in their style, to increase my chances. Here it is, a demoness based on something I did when I was 17 or 18 and had on my door since.

In other news, there's no news about employment, whether it's from game studios or the few local places I contacted. Been messing around more in Photoshop, made use of my GDC Vault access, started reading a book about making games in Unity, and installed 3DS Max to add to my skills.

ANSC Trade Counter 3rd revision

This is the third revision of the Austin Nature & Science Center Trade Counter brochure, which I took far too long to complete. Too easy to get sidetracked when working from home as a volunteer graphic designer.

Flail Dragon

Flail dragon, from concept sketches, to color studies, to sampled colors from photos, to vector. Pixel art next?

This past week has been painful. I had full intentions of leaving Saturday, the 7th, and reserved a car, thinking everything will go nice and dandy like it did when I rented in Columbus. At the rental office I found myself failing the credit check and denied a car, losing $50 in the process since I counted as a "no show." My dad mailed me a newly activated credit card to replace the expired one still in my wallet, which should have arrived by Saturday, but is now waiting to clear through US customs, and I have no idea how long that will take.

1911.2.M Tail number 513

The Marine variant, complete with arresting hook for carrier operations, delivered July 3rd 1913.

This is the last version of these planes. Learned how difficult it can be to make these orthographic views, finding myself returning to what I thought I had done right to correct things.

1911.2.D Tail no. 223

Delivered April 26th 1913 to the Kholodnia Army Air Defence Branch for zeppelin based operations.

Progress on my heron, too. I'm at the minor tweaks phase.

Moving on Saturday morning. It was fun, Austin. Maybe we'll meet again someday.

1911.2.O Tail no. 104

1911.2.O Tail no. 104, as delivered in April 10th 1913, to FAOO Vasilyevna, the first to engage in aerial combat in the Great War.

Aside from changes I made to reflect going from prototype to production model, there are a few mistakes I caught which I'll have to go fix on the prototype. Going to Ikkicon for NYE's weekend, should be fun. Last week in Austin, still working on the Heron. Hope 2012 will be great, and not the end of the world. ;)

1911.2.1 No. 002

The first flying prototype, loaned to the to Army Air Observation Branch on September 23rd 1911, for operational evaluations.