Direenworks

Blog

  • FlockDraw.com

    I stumbled across this collaborative drawing website. Sent my college buddy Jeff Bellio a link, and this was what happened:

    jeffAndJames_flockDraw_doodle1This is what happens when you unleash our brains upon the same canvas at the same time! Neither of us has a plan, neither of us really knows what is going on.

    jeffAndJames_flockDraw_doodle5One of us will usually start by drawing a few large shapes, then the other will start to fill in what he thinks they should be.

    jeffAndJames_flockDraw_doodle8We have no qualms with the other drawing over top anything we started. It’s such an amalgamation, that I can hardly remember what I contributed vs. what Jeff added.

     

     

     

  • Moby Dick

    mobyDickDoodled this while recently watching the 1956, Moby Dick.

     

  • Ship Doodle

    This was a sketch I did back when I was exploring compositions for my Canvas for the Cause entry.

    shipDoodle

  • The Rigging Dojo’s Artist in Residence Program

    This past Thursday, I had the pleasure of presenting in a Rigging Dojo, AIR (Artist in Residence) session.

    riggingDojoLogo

    The Rigging Dojo is an online school for learning the art and science of CG rigging. They are well respected within the industry, and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a career as a rigging artist.

    My presentation was titled “Simple Solutions to Complex Problems,” where I discussed my approach to  inventing new rig tech, while in the confines of a production schedule.

    You can checkout my presentation, and an archive of others, by going HERE and subscribing to the AIR program.

  • Fun Cart

    This was a gift for my brother. Really think I captured him with this one :)

    Fun Cart

  • Airport Doodlings

    I’ve never minded hanging out at the airport. Always seem to keep myself occupied :)

    Gate_B24

    DEN_terminalA

    13 - 1 (4)

    PlaneWindow_overTheWing

  • First Photo

    Here is the first photo I’ve decided to post on my art blog.

    Tranquil Evening at White Rock

    I don’t intend to post too many photos here. You can just head over to my ShootingPrettyThings.com website if you want to keep up with all the pictures I do take. What I plan to do here is post the ones that have some particular significance.

    This photo was one of the first I took when getting back into photography. It was an eye opener into what can be done with modern cameras. Sure, I had been using digital cameras for years, and rented out a couple high end DSLRs back in college, but this was the first time I started shooting RAW, and really understood what that meant — technically and artistically. Got to love that smooth dynamic range!

  • What did the turtle say to the bear?

    Turtle_andThe_Bear

  • Compositional Voids

    I’ve learned to be careful with leaving empty compositional space in my pictures. My friend Jeff has a habit of adding robot doom wherever he finds space available :)

    This for instance is a photograph my brother took:

    fixeditWhich then delightfully became this at the hands of Jeff:

    FixedItAgain (1)

    I then felt the urge to breath life into it like so:

    fixedit_movedIt_webThere was much giggling / maniacal laughter throughout this process.

     

     

  • Shooting Pretty Things (with my camera)

    ShootingPrettyThings_webSplashLast year, I got the itch to get back into photography. I originally fell in love with it as a hobby in my early teens, back when using a camera involved long, bad tasting strips of ribbon. My weapon of choice then was the Canon AE-1

    Canon AE-1

    This beautiful contraption taught me a lot about patience and how to cope with failure :)

    I’m now wielding a Sony a6000, and finding that taking pictures is a much needed creative outlet for me. I love producing art, and in the past that has mostly meant sitting in front of a computer to create pretty things from scratch, but with a camera, I get to go out, explore the world and hunt down the pretty things, and shoot them! (with my camera…)

    I’ll start posting  my photos here on a regular basis, but you can also checkout my photography site: www.shootingprettythings.com to see as a whole, where they are also available for purchase :)