Scribblehood?

Hey internet people! I finally found my way back to my blog and boy have I been busy! 

It's been a pretty crazy/awesome year so far for me. We're finally starting to get settled in after our cross country move from Vegas to Chicago. And while I miss this west coast at times it is really great to live closer to home (St. Louis). It's been especially helpful the last couple weeks after the birth of our baby girl, Callie! We've been so thankful for all of the family and friends who have been around to support us as newbie parents. And as you can see from the photo above we're pretty stinkin' proud of the adorable little thing.

So in between the move, newish job stuff and fatherhood I've had bits of art happening as well. I've gathered some of the scraps here for a post. It's a lot of random stuff but I hope you enjoy browsing my scribbles. I seem to be more and more interested in doodling lately so these are extra doodle-y. I've been trying to focus on just getting my pencil to paper more often and not really caring as much about the results. It shows but I also think it frees me up to really just explore and have fun. What else are sketchbooks good for other then having fun?! I'm hoping this thought process will help me as I move forward and continue to develop as an artist. It really takes the pressure off to try and "make something awesome" every time I start to sketch. Anyway... on to the art!

This is a bit of a rarity for me. I don't usually show stuff from my day job where I create art for slot games. Most of it is just heavy photo manipulated and UI sort of work. But I had a game make it out to casinos recently that does feature more of my painterly work. If you're in a gamblin' mood feel free to check out "Giant's Gold" at your local casino! Ha!

I just wanted to make a note about the next couple Mario sketches. I've been kinda Nintendo obsessed recently due to the new 3DS XL I just upgraded to and the release of New Super Mario Bros. 2. Love both of 'em so far! Nintendo does nostalgia very well and I'm a sucker for it as you'll see in the sketches below! Ha! The digital one is my first attempt at sketching something on a tablet in Sketchbook Pro. I'm terrible at drawing with a tablet sadly. I'm hopeful I'll get a Cintiq sometime in the next year or so but it's fun to try. But it's where my Mario sketchery started this week so I had to share.

Thanks again for stopping in! Hope you liked the sketch dump. Be on the lookout for blog updates from now on each weekend. So stay tuned for more of my scrawls next week! If you can't wait you can always follow me on my Facebook page and Twitter. Go forth and BE AWESOME!

- Ryan