a fiver that turned out

1 min poses

Halo Wars - Ensemble Studios RTS for 360

Big milestone for us at Ensemble – our new project is announced! The teaser site for our Halo RTS for 360 went up today: www.halowars.com.

 

Of course we won’t be able to release much information as yet. The team is hard at work, but it’s still very early days.

I have to say; it’s unbelievably cool to be able to *finally* tell people what we’re working on.

 

how do you get your ideas?

Sometimes I get asked, “how do you get your ideas?” It’s pretty straightforward: I sit down and doodle for a chunk of time. In a restaurant, waiting on a meeting, whenever.The goal is to draw rapidly, without much forethought, and let the subconscious slurry of images (reference photos, other artist’s stuff, fashion trends,) all combine and re-combine into new designs.Most of what you get isn’t useful, but sometimes instinct and handskills click, and you get something you can use.

still having fun with watercolor

One more from our office drawing night. (more here)

Saw this bit done on James Rose’s flickr stream - take a long pose and just sketch it over and over as fast as you can….

the proposition – a gorgeous film to listen to

Filed under better late than never - just saw The Proposition – the infamous ‘outback western’ written and scored by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, directed by John Hillcoat.

I should really be talking about the the stark cinematography, or the shockingly violent story – but actually, I just love Cave’s music. The film to me, really WAS the music – the pace and mood of the two art forms are uniquely well matched.

Either way – the bottom line is this is a must-have soundtrack.

I’ll pull out some adjectives: Phantasmal, Sonorous, Turgid, Eerie….and when paired with the idiosyncratic pacing of the film – compellingly suspenseful. This is a gorgeous film to listen to.

Nick Cave

The Proposition

san francisco sketch

Found this old drawing in a pile the other day. I was in SF a few months ago on a drawing trip with the guys at work….we did this ‘assignment’ playing with the idea of summarizing the town in a single image - mine was the bridge and chinatown rolled up into one….something about other cultures moving to the US….or immigration bringing new artfroms…not sure, never did finish the idea…

pencil drawing…

Had a chance to draw a long pose on the weekend - way different from the super fast gesture drawing we do at work. So, of course, our model was not reeeeally lying in a meadow…it’s a long story involving a photo of a dog I’d seen the other day; anyway, I was just feeling pre-raphelite or something…

one more watercolor gesture….

Whoops - I forgot to post my favorite sketch from last gesture session…

fully articulated metal human

Metal worker Mark Ho spent six years learning to hand craft this amazing, fully articulated human sculpture. This is a truly amazing project - the sculpture is fully poseable, stands about 17 inches tall and has 920 machined metal parts, 101 in each hand! This is truly an admirable exercise in obsessive compulsive disorder.

[link to complete article at craftsman museum]

[update - ZOHO site]