Ryan Alexander Lee

Sketch Jam

2012-02-09T06:06:00.000-08:00

Went to a sketch meetup with some of the artists at Kabam, Inc. a couple days back. Food, drinks, merriment, and drawing happened aplenty. Got a chance to bring some pens and play around for a bit.

Jump!

2012-02-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

Another preview! :)

Coming Along...

2012-02-03T14:38:00.001-08:00

A little preview...

Busy, Busy, Busy...

2012-01-31T00:48:00.000-08:00

Tahoe Plein Air Sketch

2012-01-27T23:20:00.001-08:00

A little snapshot sized study from Tahoe last weekend. The little piece of Winter Wonderland that I brought back with me.

Studies!

2012-01-26T21:14:00.000-08:00

A quick lunch study done from a photograph in my reference collection.

Rocks!

2012-01-24T19:38:00.000-08:00

Dug up an old plein air study from last year! This was done with the Safehouse Crew near Mt. Diablo.

Uhhh

2012-01-17T13:30:00.000-08:00

After-Hours sketch...

Portraits~~~

2012-01-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

A Moldy Oldy

2012-01-11T23:34:00.000-08:00

Moldy Oldies!! Seems like a pretty good name for old Moleskine sketchbook drawings, right?

Portraits Continued:

2012-01-10T13:43:00.001-08:00

Buh-Buh-Buh-Birds

2012-01-09T11:21:00.000-08:00

Yet even more birds!

Portraits Continued:

2012-01-06T12:41:00.000-08:00

Still more on the way... :)

More Birds!

2012-01-04T23:53:00.000-08:00

Still thinking about birds...

The camera resolution I used to snap these doesn't offer the best detail, but I wanted to toss them up anyways.
Below is a plein air sketch from just recently:

Thinkin' About Birds

2012-01-03T01:15:00.000-08:00

A few sandpipers for this evening's sketching.

Goodnight 2011!

2011-12-31T15:26:00.000-08:00

Mean Muggin' on New Year's Eve. Not really though, all smiles here. Wishing everyone a safe and Happy New Years 2012!!

More portraits en route...

Smudgery...

2011-12-13T01:52:00.000-08:00

Another renderfest. Had an idea and couldn't stop penciling it. One day I'll start adding backgrounds to these...one day.

Safehouse Show III ~ Sunday, Nov. 20

2011-11-15T17:45:00.001-08:00

"The Lowlands Girl" 66 x 52, Starting Bid: $100 @ the Safehouse Show 3- Silent Auction!! If you are in or near San Francisco this coming Sunday, you won't want to miss this one. It is an honor to be displaying work alongside some of the most incredible artistic talent out there today. The show will be packed with artwork at insanely low prices. Come see us this weekend!!

Doodles from Tonight:

2011-10-27T01:40:00.000-07:00

It Begins..

2011-10-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

http://devoration.blogspot.com/

Plein Air-Fort Baker

2011-08-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Went out with the Safehouse crew this Sunday and did some oil sketching! Coffee, muffins, cold, good company, and paint brushes!--Mmmmm.

Lazy Saturday

2011-07-30T16:33:00.000-07:00

Phhbblllt.

Not Today

2011-07-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

Howdy! Finally able to get some nice photos of this oil painting that was done for the Safehouse Studios Gallery Show last month. Got more stuff coming down the pipes soon. Thanks for stopping by!

The Good Doctor

2011-07-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

Made the counterpart to the Dr. Wily piece a while back and realized I had never posted it online. It's about time for an update anyways, so here it is!--The Good Doctor: Thomas Light. :)

Marin Headlands

2011-04-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

Got a chance to ride out to the Marin Headlands for some plein air this past Sunday with friends! I decided to take a turn at some watercolors for a change. This giant rock was very iconic and I couldn't resist giving it my full attention for the morning. Unfortunately, I had to leave it unfinished so that I could return a zip car rental on time. BUT, next round I'll come prepared and really set up shop. I'd be more than happy to take another stab at it.

Step_by_Step

2011-04-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is a breakdown of my process for Lady Vilquine. It wasn't totally linear and involved quite a lot of back and forth. Plenty of frustrating evenings trying to get things juuuuuuuuuust right.

I drew the very first scribble for this in a public bathroom on a blue notecard I brought with me just so I wouldn't lose the idea. All I had in my pocket was a dull, unsharpened wooden pencil. The first sketch was hardly readable, but it was enough. Once I felt like I had captured the right shapes and the feeling/look that I set out for I began to draw it in greater detail. While the other ideas were interesting, I was attracted to the scribble highlighted in the red rectangle.

I tried my best not to fret too much over things like anatomical correctness or general proportions in favor of staying true to the initial sketch. There's something to be said for pushing those boundaries and exaggerating certain areas when it serves a purpose; even if that purpose isn't always totally clear at first. Something about pushing the original pose forward a bit added something nice and dynamic to the design.

So after drawing and redrawing this really wonky thing about four times, I decided to take it into photoshop and define a style. I was really drawn to works of an artist who frequently works with Capcom called Shinkiro. If you've played Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 recently, you may have seen his work. Anyhow, it prompted me to play with the approach a bit more. Did I want her to look cartoony? Did I want this piece to look real and super rendered? Wasn't sure at first...

After letting myself get carried away with the face of the character as I often do, I began to get really frustrated over the anatomical correctness of the entire design. I wanted it to work like I thought it did in the thumbnail but just couldn't get the pieces to fit without losing the shapes that I was drawn to in the beginning.

So, I began a back and forth over what to push here or pull there, what could be tilted or turned, shrunk or enlarged, etc. I also became torn between creating a character that was fairly realistic versus something that was stylized and cartoony. In the end I attempted my best to merge the two, sort of ditching the original idea of working from the style of Shinkiro's work. After more variations than I care to admit, I finally came to something I was feeling decent about.

The horse's head was also not really working for me and it started to drive me crazy. It took me a long time to see it too. I had been staring at and working on the image for so long that I sort of became blind to obvious mistakes. It seemed like I had turned it in every direction before settling on what felt like the best choice. I got rid of the ground as well, deciding that this piece served better as a sticker-like, graphic shape instead of a scene with an implied environment.

Overall, this character was a ton of fun to create from scratch. Ideas for a story flooded my mind as I built the image up and were then woven into the costume, materials, weapons, colors, etc.

As always, I've got some more stuff brewing that I'll post up when its ready. Thanks for reading! :)

Lady Vilquine

2011-03-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

New piece! I'll post up the progress shots for this soon! ;)

Update!

2010-10-13T16:38:00.000-07:00

Ok so I stopped working on this piece for a while and wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. As you can imagine, working with a piece this size can lead to many a frustrating night...and it certainly did. BUT, I finally decided to get back to it and so this allows me to show you where it was at before I stepped away for a little while.

I am happy to report that it is still in the works! ;) As well as several other things I'll be loading up soon.

Until then, here's this creepy dude...

Why Hello Again.

2010-09-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

Been a little while, but I've got plenty of new stuff to toss up on this ol' blog of mine over the next few days. I'll start with a self portrait. The glasses turned out to be a lot less challenging than painting the beard. Hadn't expected that when I started. Apologies too for the photo quality...this pic was taken on a mere powershot sx 200. Once I get this painting professionally photographed or scanned in I'll add it to my official portfolio website. Which, by the way is now located here: http://secretsciencestudios.com

See ya soon!

Dark Ages Mega Man Redesigns: Dr. Wily

2010-08-09T02:48:00.000-07:00

My entry for the CharacterFORGE Redesign challenge. Artists were asked to combine characters from Capcom's Mega Man franchise with a Dark Ages/High Fantasy genre.

I recreated Dr. Wily as an insane Blacksmith King, responsible for forging all of the cruelly evil Robot Masters that Mega Man must destroy.

I smuggled in a few extra characters where I could. :)

To see other Dark Ages Mega Man redesigns, go here:

http://cghub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3549

Shape Study:

2010-07-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

Spent some time studying shapes today starting with a focus on helmet design. I've been really inspired by screenshots from the upcoming game, Vanquish.

...Then I moved onto more general figure shapes that veered mostly towards armor designs and contour mechanical shapes.

Finished up with a weird concept: Ancient exo-suit composed of a skeleton trapped in amber resembling the mosquito from Jurassic Park. Some kind of weird mythological earth warrior maybe? Then a male/female figure duo plus one ejection seat pilot. An afternoon of doodles. Not bad. :)

Sketches

2010-06-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

This one is a little older, but I realized that I hadn't yet posted it on my sketch-blog. SO....here. :)

The Badger TK_38

2010-06-07T16:08:00.000-07:00

The Badger Robot is complete!

The Badger_TK_38

2010-05-11T23:55:00.000-07:00

Went ahead with my pick from the robot thumbs below. Still lots of tweaking and rendering ahead.

Figure Studies

2010-05-05T15:36:00.000-07:00

Quick study speedy paint

2010-04-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

here's a quick 30 min study from the other night. Planning to do more quickies like these. Either that or spend many hours on one and try for a decent digital still life painting.

The Man In Time

2010-04-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

Bummy

2010-04-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

Graffiti Beach, Costa Mesa Extravaganza!

2010-02-20T23:37:00.000-08:00

The High Priestess

2010-01-18T23:36:00.000-08:00

Here is a Work-In-Progress for the Team Character of the Week Online Competition over at ConceptArt.org. I'm part of a team of four artists assigned to interpret a deck of Tarot Cards as part of a month long challenge. To see what my team and I have been up to, here is a LINK.

Sketchn'

2009-12-15T00:59:00.000-08:00

You Just Need to Do It.

2009-12-10T22:55:00.000-08:00

Oopdate

2009-11-10T21:04:00.000-08:00

Super Fighting Robot

2009-10-23T14:22:00.001-07:00