Trying to find a rhyme

Hello,

Once again things have gotten busy and I find myself realizing time has flown by, I ask myself what now? Do I play catch up and write up or just go with the flow, well I chose go with the flow. I recently found myself making a huge overhaul to my site OneBlueBird and where do I begin to talk about that, well its fully coded by me not the best code but it works. The current plan is to finish the site by adding some more exciting elements like a series of animated transitions for moving from section to section. I have also been exploring Augmented realty for the site, those details will have to wait as I don't want to ruin the surprise. Other than those elements the site is pretty close to complete.
Work wise I have been busy with the release of all 5 episodes of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse. Besides that we have also announced at work our partnership with Universal Studios and we are doing Back To The Future and Jurassic Park so that has made things very busy and exciting at work.
Being in San Francisco has put a lot of things in perspective both personally and professionally. Design and interactive design is so much apart of my life and my love at the moment. I get moments of pure excitement when I have an idea for an exciting app or interactive motion design. (Speaking of animation and motion design I have been story boarding a lot lately for site designs and some cool ui ideas at work.)
Besides the excitement I get from design, I have felt a part of my career and my true love of illustration kicking back into full affect with a project I did for The Devil's Playhouse poster series. The posters are fun from the illustration to the full design layout of the typography. The beauty of illustration for me is the prefect harmony between design and illustration, when all the right elements come together from concept and subject matter.
My next post will be the complete collection of The Devil's Playhouse posters I had the pleasure of creating. Till then enjoy the post and the art I created for my website.

Here is to a rhyme to live by.

-Enjoy

California life

California oh California,

This is an open letter to the life I have started in California specifically San Rafael just outside San Fran. My new career at Telltale Games as their Art Director is going amazing so far I have been handed a great marketing / web group to push in the right direction and my hopes to step up the design look and feel of the company and products. Lots of potential for me to play and invent some great work. Life in California has been really interesting and growing on us. I think this area is full of great things to enjoy but we just need the weather to clear up, as most might know winter in the San Fran area= Grey and cloudy or better described as FOG. I am sure it will get better and the exploration of California can begin. Things on our list of must sees is the beach, red wood forests, shopping/food areas in the heart of San Fran and lastly some fun hiking.

Other then the above mentions of growth, learning and new beginnings, life is grand. Started working out regularly and drawing more. These past 4-5 months have been stressful and a wall for me in terms of creativity but I feel the energy coming back and I am going to start to get lots of content being pumped out and on this site as well as every other place I live on in the "inter-web."

Well I think that is enough social words for today here is to a lot more and I hope to keep feeling this motivated and ready to communicate my work and passions.

Have a wonderful day,
Stephen

I am Back!!

Dear Readers,

I know I know... I am a broken record, but seriously I have a good reason for my lack of posts and disappearance for the past few months. You might ask, "so whats up and where have you been or what have you been up to" and the answer is a lot and now I am ready to share a list of them with you all.

First off the big one was that I got MARRIED :-) in October and little to say that was my life for September through the middle of October. After the Honeymoon I got several amazing job offers and had to do a lot flying from MN to San Francisco for a few weeks. I accepted a great Art Director position for a talented and great Gaming Studio called Telltale Games. I am sure some of you have heard of them, as they are responsible for such great episodic games as Sam & Max and of course their big hit at the moment is the newly redone Lucas Art's Classic Tales of Monkey Island! With that being said I am excited to add my mind and talents to the mix at Telltale.

Well if you have been following my blog over the past years you all might be saying WOW what happened to my Senior position at Ham and the answer is I decided to leave Ham. They were running into several issues that I will not go into too much detail about but they had to lay off several people/friends, as well as cut everyone's salaries and so on. I loved the work I did there a lot but I had a really hard time with that and seeing what was happening to the people I cared about and seeing the economic downward spiral happening there, SOOOOO I took a fulltime contract position with a gaming company called Electrotank as there Senior UI Designer/ 2d Artist. I got to work on some really cool work and will share it down the road once I can, the only thing I can say about it is "ubi" hehe

Now that I am married, moved/settling into California life while starting a seriously cool career path I think it's time to get back to the web and get my word out again.

I hope people will read this once I get back into the swing of things and please post comments or ask me anything you would like and if I can answer them I will.

As an end note I am going to be posting all of our cool wedding stuff I made for the big day.

Take it easy and here is to the future and happiness for both my personal life and career!

Thanks for reading and enjoying my works.

-Stephen

Sketches and trip stuff!

Hello,

I have been running around catching up on some major work since my trip to Boston. The trip to Boston was mainly fun because of the ride there with Amanda, we had a ball rocking out while on our 26+ hour straight drive to the hotel we stayed at in Boston.

It was a tiring/challenging trip seeing family plus trying to enjoy ourselves and eat and drink some good New England food. My niece was cute but really over the top with her bossy "no" action the whole time we were there, it was hard to get her to socialize with me, Amanda or anyone and even giving me her uncle a hug was like a battle. But I love her and we had our few precious moments!!

There were several highlights to the trip which I will post below for you all to see. Once we got back it was time to work late nights and catch up on several large projects (mainly games) that had to get wrapped up and kicked off. Since I posted last there have been two games that have launched and a couple of other projects that I started and I'm currently finishing up. I will save those projects for another post later. So please check back I am trying to keep to my promise of updating as much as possible. haha so we will see!! Below are several sketches in my favorite style I am developing lately for both my redesign to my current site and also some fun family style imagery.

Hope you all enjoy and please keep me on my toes and ask for more work it will help motivate me to keep this beast alive.

-Stephen

Enjoying the best Guinness I have ever had ummm..... that was a great Irish bar in Boston.

Hanging out with the dead people in Salem Mass. that be witch country.

This had to be the best moment I had with my niece Bella. We did some doodling together.

This was one of the highlights of the trip for me and Amanda, Hanging out with my BEST MAN Amiel!! Watch out folks he has got some insane skills and is going to be releasing his beautiful art on the world.

This is a sketch for the up and coming redesign to onebluebird.com

Some doodles of the fun hanging elements in the site that will be animated.

My hope is to turn this into my music/sound on and off controller for my site redesign.

Just a fun sketch of what I think my mom looked like young and holding me for the first time haha. Not sure what the crown is about but I have been putting that in all my pieces lately.

Winter time is almost over and I thought I would post this playful image of Amanda and her process in building the greatest snowman ever!! (totally thinking about turning this into a poster or postcard)

Back from Boston

Hello,

Well we made it back from Boston in one piece. It was a fun drive there with lots of stops and visiting with Family and friends. I got to see my main man/Best man which was great. Took lots of pictures which I will post as soon as I can get them off the camera. Got to see my niece for the first time and let me just say it was interesting to see how she didn't like people and it took forever for her to warm up to anyone even her uncle. But hey I got to draw with her and give her a stuffed horse to hug. Other then that the trip was very tiring and as they say "I need a vacation from my vacation". I thought for today I would just post a few recent sketches that I doodled. Keep a look out for pictures, details about the visit and also a huge amount of sketches I want to post.

-enjoy

Here is a sketch I did while sitting in meetings and thought about kids, Mario Brothers (my version looks like an angry hitler) and questioning designer:
Here is a sketch I made in my new travel sketchbook. I hope to start filling this one up soon:

Some illustrating and sketching

Hello,

Well before I head off next week I wanted to try and get in some posts. Today's focus is back on my true passion which is illustration and sketching. For the past five years I have been trying to find my voice as an illustrator and I have to say I am feeling good about where I'm going. Art is like life with its ups and downs like a roller coaster. Feelings of success to feelings of questioning the quality of art you produce. I think I finally figured it out in my mind, I have to see the lines I need to cross and the barriers that I have to jump over. How does one get over these barriers haha well if I had the one right answer I would write a book, I think... The way I have dealt with my barriers is to realize what they are and find ways to climb over them and use them to overcome the next big barrier. I believe that every experience is a stepping stone to the next big challenge. The beauty in life and art is to learn from them and get better. Hope this little insight helps and remember to take a moment to see how a barrier will help you become something stronger for the next task ahead.

Well here is some exploration and pieces that I have done, enjoy.

Sketches for BRIO Magazine (full page spread about teens and eco-friendly choices):
Doodles for fun:

Sketch for a work project:

Illustration for a Technology Magazine about the life and evolution of a hacker:

Test Illustration sample for a Direct TV print and web campaign:

One of a series of Illustrations about San Francisco:

Illustration of the southern cook Paula Deen:

Series of Dog illustrations for a dog book that was recently published:

What have I been up to?

Hello,

So some might ask what have I been up to that has kept me so busy. Well here is just a taste of all the fun stuff I have had the pleasure of being apart this past year or so. (next post will be interactive micro sites for places like target.)

Here ya go:

5 minutes to kill yourself 2 ( had the pleasure of leading all the assets creation, design and illustrations for this project also animating in MAYA at times.)



Kill Thy Neighbor for adult Swim: I was the lead Illustrator, animator and designer on this one. Its a button smasher but it was developed by HAM.

And then I worked on this concept that is being turned into something else. Its going to be a game that changes from shooter to action adventure. OneBluebird will be producing this one with one other title this year. Right now its for fun and just to have it built but I hope it will have a place to live.

Sketches and some more sketches!!

Hi,
Sorry for the delay in posts. I have been busy with things. Hope everyone had a great 4th, I know I had a ball. Other then that just some traveling and of course working. Here is a hand full of sketches I have done this month for a variety of clients. First set of sketches are for UTNE Reader. The next sketch was for a concept for YMCA. Then last is a sketch from the book I have been doing illos for.
-enjoy

New Sketch!!

Hello,
Man I am enjoying Spring :-) got to do the lawn and get some sun and then play with my puppy. Also we got to take long walks in the neighborhood and see whats what. On another note I finished this sketch for a new promo piece for my post cards and also a large card that will be handed out at the HOW conference. Yes indeed I am going to this years HOW conference my Rep has a booth so a group of us are going to go to represent for Scott Hull :-) This years event is in goo ol Atlanta. I grew up in Memphis soo I am excited to visit the south again. Ohhh also on an old note here is a screen shot of a clothing site (esselleonline.com) I designed and built :-)
well I am off to finish this promo piece and work on some other goodies .
-enjoy

Total Rejection

This is a sketch for an illustration about total rejection. You know the story about a guy head over heels in love- imagining his future with her. Then on the other side the girl is thinking about nothing but kicking him to the curb. This illustration is also a revision to an old piece I did about 3 or more years ago. Hope you enjoy it.
-peace
Stephen

New Piece!!

Hey Everyone,
I just finished this piece for EH Publishing. About the PS3. The Article asked the question: Is virtual violence harmless, or does life imitate video game?
My Concept was to take one of the stories about a man getting robbed and like a video game he fought back. Like a character from one of the video games.
I hope you enjoy. Here is the sketch and final.
-peace
Stephen

Doodles are fun

I was working on a flash animation and created this sketch while things rendered and whatnot.
I am going to be posting more often. I had several projects and plus with the holidays I have been traveling. Things to look forward to: ill. for Electronics House Monthly, Animation for Scott Hull Holiday site, Refresh to personal site for the New Year, plus some illustrations from other projects. Thanks and enjoy.
-peace
Stephen

Santa!!!!

Hi Everyone,

I am working on this ill. for the holidays. I hope you enjoy.

-peace
Stephen

My Web Angel

Hi Everyone,

I have been busy. I just finished along project with the department of defense. It was a flash video game based with avatars. So I am going to post them on my onebluebird.com site soon.

In the mean time I have been think this over long and hard. I want to bring my site into the new year!! Since making the site my style has grown and developed. Sooo I'm going to give my site a refresh. Nothing to dramatic. I am simply taking my design now a step further and adding some new graphics. My goal is to turn my site into a working illustration. So here is a sketch of one of the graphics that will be added.

-enjoy
Stephen

Tom Petty

Hey everyone,
Here is another promo piece I am working on. Its Tom Petty. I wanted to do an ill about music and who better. I should be done with this one in a few days.

-enjoy
Stephen

Another Promo Piece!!!!

Hey all,

I finished this sketch for a promo piece that will go with the Marie Antoinette, plus one more piece. This will make a three pack for mailings. The themes are couples and culture. So the Antoinette piece is a couple piece and comment on the movie coming out. This sketch(a.k.a. Smitten) is for a couples/ dating theme.

The last piece is a Music/ portrait.... its a secret till I am done :-)

well enjoy and peace,
Stephen

Marie Antoinette

Last night I saw the trailer for Marie Antoinette. Looks GREAT. Can't wait to see it. So last night I did this draw and finished it this morning. I am going to make this into a nice promo piece for my postcard campaign. Thanks to Amanda she helped make this true to 18th century France. The Bird in the hair was her idea :-)

-enjoy
Stephen

Little art to keep ya happy

This piece was done for a Wedding. I had lots of fun doing this piece.
-enjoy

Finshed Sketch

Here is the Sketch for the next Playgirl piece. I got thumbs up So i am starting the final. I should have that to post this weekend. Enjoy -Peace Stephen

Sketch

Here is the Wolverine Sketch, its apart of the series I am working on. The spidie piece is almost done will post that soon.
-peace
Stephen