It's time to LEVEL UP!

My drawing skills have fallen off quite a bit since I started working in games. My paintings have improved but I don't draw nearly as much as I used to during my school days. It's always such a headache for me to work out poses and get my sketches looking lively. But I'm sick of the frustration and it's time to level up!

I'm going to try my best to sketch every day in my sketchbook and watch for improvement. I'm giving myself freedom to do whatever I want. As long as I'm drawing and throwing study sessions in there from time to time. I read recently that if you want to improve you need to complete a sketchbook a month. That's a tall order for me but we'll see how far I can get!

Why am I telling all of you this? Hold me accountable! And be on the look out for a lot more scribble sessions then finished paintings. 2012 is the year of the drawing for me! Ha! And it's seriously time to improve! Here's the first page of my Moleskine to get things started. Something about telling myself how bad I suck makes me want to draw more. lol Hope you like these random scribbles! Look for more soon!

- Ryan

PS: GigaCon was awesome! Thanks to all of those who came out! I hope you guys enjoyed it and took something away from my ramblings. ;o)

Legend of Zelda Limited Edition Prints Now Available

Hey guys! Just wanted to pop in to let you all know that I've just ran off a limited print run of my new "Legend of Zelda" piece! The print is on high quality, matte paper stock and measures 11.8 X 17.7.

And these things look really sharp! The colors in my lame iPhone photos don't do them justice. And I included an image of what the "Hellboy Portrait" print looks like in comparison in terms of size. These guys are quite a bit larger! Still need to find a way to ship them out! Ha!

If you're looking to snap one up you can just head over to my new online shop and fork over $20 dollars plus $5 shipping. They should be arriving on your door steps in a week or two! I think you'll really like 'em! Especially if you're as big of a fan as I am!

What other super, cool stuff is going on? Welp, this weekend (January 13-15) I'll be attending GigaCon in Washington DC as a guest artist! If any of you are going to be in the area you should totally come to the Con! Really looking forward to meeting people and getting my art on with all of the awesome people on the east coast! Ha! I'm sure I've been spoiled by this Vegas winter tho. I'm sure I'm gonna freakin' freeze out there! But if you're in DC come shiver with me while we sketch!

Hope you're enjoying the New Year! I can't wait to see what 2012 has to offer! I think it's gonna be a big one! Take care and thanks for supporting my scribbles. ;o)

- Ryan

The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Tribute

Well, after several days of scraping together time to paint, I finally managed to finish off my Legend of Zelda illustration. I took some chances and varied my approach when it came to this piece. It didn't quite come out how I'd hoped but I still think it's pretty fun and I learned a lot for the next time when I dive into a work like this. And I was painting freakin' Link! So how awesome is that?! Ha!

I hope you guys liked how it turned out and enjoyed watching my progress as I moved along. There's something that I really loved about the original sketch and over the course of the illustration I just lost some of it. But I'm still satisfied and ready to move on to something new. I think I'll be working on more sketchy stuff for a while. Between this piece and work I'm getting a bit tired of working so tightly.

At any rate, I just wanted to get it posted! I was pretty sure I'd do a small print run of this but I want to see how the reception is first before I plop down any cash. I know the feel of it is a little different from some of my other work I've previously posted. Let me know what you think and I'll keep you updated on whether or not I print them off! Thanks for looking and happy Monday! Have a great week, guys!

New Year's Business Cards

Hey guys (and gals),

Work is still under way on the Zelda piece but I took some time to make up some new business cards for the new year! I'll be at a Con this month and just wanted to have something to hand out to all the new, awesome artists I'm hoping to meet!

I couldn't decide on which piece to use so I figured I'd do a print run of both! Maybe in the future I'll do more with other art pieces to make a little set. You could collect them all! Ha! ;o) May there be much more awesome art made in 2012! Happy New Years!

- Ryan

The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Tribute WIP: Part Three

The progress on my Legend of Zelda illustration has been slow going since enduring the holidays and the acquisition of a fiesty, little puppy. Ha! But I'm going to try and find the time to finish it over the next week or two. I haven't said much about it since I've been so busy. But I figured it would probably be good to address it for the sake of continuing to document the process! I still have quite a bit of work to do but it's shaping up a bit since the last time I showed my initial color pass. Hope you guys like where it's going! I'm going to throw my efforts behind this image and hoping to get it done soon so I can get some prints made in time for my trip to GigaCon in mid January. More on that later though!

Thanks for looking through my art messes! Enjoy the rest of your year! Just a couple days left in 2011! Lets rock 2012 with even more awesome artwork! Get scribbling! ;o)

- Ryan

Hoo Hoo Hoo! Merry Christmas!

I hope all of you are enjoying the holidays!

This year my wife and I made our own Christmas cards by hand to send out to a few of our family and friends. In each card I hand drew a unique owl. This is a sampling of some of those owl scribbles! They were a hoot to do (See what I did there? Ha!) and it was neat to see how each one could be a bit different then the next.

I hope you like them and I wish you the best as you continue celebrating into the new year!

- Ryan

Christmas Caroler Scribble

Here's a little pen scribble that I did while in a meeting at work today. Christmas is just a few days away! What's Santa bringing you?!

- Ryan

Ogre Head Sculpt

I swear I'm going to get back to drawing and painting soon! Haven't had as much free time lately so doing these quick little sketch sculpts have been a nice change of pace. This Ogre was another one done in Sculptris and I think he's the best of the three I've done thus far. I gave up on trying to make his hairy chops look believable though. Been having a blast playing with shapes in these! Hope you like him!

- Ryan