DAVID RYAN PAUL

Retro Game Night

2012-01-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

Here's my piece I did for Retro Game Night in Seattle at Piranha Shop. It's Geon from King of the Monsters.

If you are in Seattle, or visiting, go check out the show. There's some really great art on the walls for this show.

New Monsterpedia Story Designs

2011-11-11T18:38:00.001-08:00

Howdy folks. Here are some designs and sketches for my story in the new Monsterpedia Volume Two, coming out for ECCC next year. It's written, and now I have to thumb out the pages and get busy completing the thing. It's a bit of a departure from my last story, in ever way...well, every way apart from being about monsters.

This story is in the same universe as my creator owned comic I have in development. This story will give me a little practice on feeling out style. I'm sure by the time I'm doing pages for the larger story, the style will have been refined a bit.

Enjoy!

Another Starship Lander

2011-06-18T23:40:00.000-07:00

Time to go.

Starship Lander

2011-06-18T23:17:00.001-07:00

Before the storm.

Various Starships

2011-06-18T18:32:00.001-07:00

Here are a few colored sketches of some starships. I could draw these forever, and probably will.

Esther's Robot Dog

2011-05-04T00:31:00.001-07:00

Esther and Robots was Tuesday's topic for Every Day Sketch, so here's Esther's Robot Dog!

After doodling the black and white sketch, I thought the robot was a bit on the creepy side, so I went a different direction.

Hamburglar

2011-05-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

The topic for today's Every Day Sketch: Hamburglar.

Robbled.

Phoenix

2011-05-01T23:44:00.001-07:00

Friday's Every Day Sketch: Phoenix!

I love's me some ships.

Shamebot

2011-04-29T03:03:00.000-07:00

Shamebot, for today's Every Day Sketch.

Ship Shape

2011-04-28T16:19:00.001-07:00

Todays topic over at Every Day Sketch: Make something from a pre-selected shape. You can't go wrong with a starship.

Punch Out - Glass Joe

2011-04-27T01:03:00.000-07:00

Today's topic for Every Day Sketch is Mike Tyson's Punch Out.

Here's old Joe doing what he does best.

City Of The Lost Children

2011-04-25T02:17:00.000-07:00

One and Le Scaphandrier: The best mugs in the world.

City Of The Lost Children was April 22nds topic of the day over at Every Day Sketch.

Dinosaur!

2011-04-22T01:27:00.000-07:00

And here we go again with another sketch done for Every Day Sketch. Today's theme: Dinosaur!

This species is called Eieatayousaurus (eye-EAT-a-you-SOAR-us).

Fact of the day: This is the first Dinosaur I've drawn in well over twenty-five years, or possibly more. I know, I can't let that happen again.

Kermit Face

2011-04-20T17:07:00.001-07:00

Yet another one done for Every Day Sketch. Today's subject: Me, and or me/Kermit Face.

2001: A Man Walks Into A Bar

2011-04-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

Another whackadoo done for Every Day Sketch! Theme: A man walks into a bar.

Adventure Time Season 30

2011-04-19T09:50:00.001-07:00

The Adventure never ends...EVER!

This was done for Every Day Sketch.

Sons Of Scum

2011-04-10T13:12:00.001-07:00

For those of you who don't know, I dabble in writing and recording music. Specifically Metal. More specifically, Death Metal.

My goal this year is to make some major headway on a self published comic. This means most, if not all my free time will be taken up by that endeavor. The images above where done for the release of a track I'd written last year that I never got around to posting. This very well might be the only track Sons of Scum ever produce.

Noah Maas contributed some great Death Metal vocals for the track. He is also a super talented artist that I have the pleasure of working with at Popcap.

Inks A For Demon Head

2011-04-08T17:19:00.000-07:00

This was a quick sketch from my book where I used a Pitt Brush Marker for inking. I love those things. They have a great feel, and I tend to be really fast with them. This image will also serve another purpose, but more on that later.

March Modok Madness - Moebius Modok!

2011-03-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

The fine folks over at March Modok Madness have posted my entries for this year! I decided to do the old boy as if rendered by Moebius. Enjoy!

The Amazingly True Tails From The Illustrated Monsterpedia

2011-03-01T14:31:00.000-08:00

My new comic anthology books, The Amazingly True Tails From The Illustrated Monsterpedia are in! Come by table K-08 at ECCC this weekend of March 4th-6th and pick one up. If you buy one, I'll give you a free monster or Sci-Fi sketch inside!

I'll also have prints and my sketchbook for sale. Check my store. That's pretty much everything I'll have at the show.

See you there!

The New Sketchbooks Are In!

2011-02-22T17:00:00.001-08:00

The new sketchbooks are in! They will be on sale at ECCC March 4th-6th.

All of the surplus will be sold at my store after the show.

The Marquis!

2011-02-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a drawing I did of one of my all time favorite comic characters, The Marquis, by Guy Davis of The Marquis, and B.P.R.D. fame. Guy's work has always been a huge inspiration for me, so I thought I'd give a little back in the form of my first ever piece of fan art. He will also be at ECCC in March!

Holy cow! You can now see my drawing next to a whole lot of awesome Marquis stuff from some fantastic artists on Guy Davis' The Marquis site. Thanks so much Guy!

New Comic Anthology, a New Sketchbook, and Store

2011-01-30T22:37:00.000-08:00

Here's the cover for the new comic anthology I've got coming out at this years ECCC. It's called The Amazingly True Tails From The Illustrated Monsterpedia. I will be selling my remaining stock at my new store which you can find by hitting the link on the right sidebar. There are options to buy directly from Storenvy, or Paypal. You can see samples of the comic by going to Storenvy.

My table is K-08, in the Artists Alley. Drop on by March 4th-6th. If you get a book, I'll give sketch something on the inside.

Here's my new sketchbook! It's professionally printed, and pretty snazzy. Check my store for details.

Plants vs Zombies XBLA and other Stories.

2011-01-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

Dang, it's been a while. You might notice a bit of change on both my sites, as I'm gearing up for ECCC. Soon you will see a Store button over to the right pretty soon. I'll be selling some prints, a brand new self published sketchbook, and a comics anthology in which I participated! So stay tuned.

Plants vs Zombies XBLA for PopCap has been out for a while now, but I've just now gotten around to throwing up some artwork for it. My job was to design a series of houses that would represent the player's progress throughout the game. This would be the PvZ XBLA Leaderboard. Below are the final versions of each set of houses. It was a lot of fun trying my hand at the style Rich Werner set for the original game. I also did animations for the houses, but you'll have to check out the game to see those. In addition to the houses there were achievement images placed on the lawn in front of each house when the player unlocked those. I left them out of the screenshots to display the houses, unobstructed.

Redneck House Stages

Haunted House Stages

Future House Stages

McMansion House Stages

Emerald City Comicon Teaser

2010-11-22T18:56:00.000-08:00

This is a small teaser of a six page story I just completed for an Anthology to be released at ECCC 2011. I'm not going to post the pages here, as I'd rather wait for people to see it how it was intended, in the comic book format.

Drop by again soon, and I'll have more details about the book, and how to get a copy!

Group Art Show

2010-08-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

Some of us Popcap artists are having a group show at Two Bells next week. These are my two selections. They are 100% guaranteed to run off old ladies and children.

They are also executed with 100% Photoshop and Cintiq.

Cover Ideas

2010-07-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

These are some thumbs for a couple of illustrations that are based around the idea of old Creepy/Eerie/or general pulp style magazine covers. We'll see what happens.

Late TAG

2010-07-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

Ooof! Boy, these are late. This TAG session is at least a month or two old. I'm lame.

These are the only couple of salvagable drawings I dare to post.

Bitten

2010-04-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

These are a few of the visual development pieces I did for Bitten, by PlayFirst, before I started up here at PopCap. The game just released today, so go over there and give them some money, and play it. This represents my contribution to the game, minus a few storyboards and first passes at UI and FX.

Here are some extremely talented artists who shared the design load: Erin Middendorf, Jim Moore, Damien Mammoliti, Jack Balingit, Barry Prioste, Chuck Eyler, and Nick Stern who was the Art Director. They are all champions. Please kneel before them.

Tax Time TAG

2010-04-06T23:11:00.000-07:00

Jeez. The talent coming to TAG is just astounding. It was nice seeing everyone again.

Here are some humble attempts during this weeks tax rush.

Modok Madness - Marduk/Modok

2010-03-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

Here's my submission for March Modok Madness. I was scraping my brain for ideas, when the name of the Black Metal band Marduk came to mind. The rest is history.

Many thanks to March Modok Madness for accepting my submission! The site is awesome. Click the link to check out some damn entertaining images.

TAG Victims.

2010-02-02T22:50:00.001-08:00

We had a great turnout at TAG this month. SO many awesome people showed, and had fantastic sketches. I can't wait to see you all again next time.

A Couple of TAG Drawings.

2010-01-05T21:52:00.000-08:00

Pyroghast!

2009-12-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

Here is the new image I did for my band Pyroghast. If you are into metal, or want to be highly annoyed, head over here to the Pyroghast MySpace page and get a dose. There is also a Pyroghast YouTube page for you to 'watch' the songs in HD, which really means staring at a demon face for five minutes. The songs might take a while to show up in HD.

I think I was channeling Druillet, Mike Mignola, and Guy Davis. Somehow a bit of nouveau got in there.

If you want some wall paper type images, you can grab from here or if you want one with the band logo, head over to the Pyroghast MySpace page and grab one from the pics section.

A New Post From My New Home in Seattle.

2009-12-02T00:48:00.000-08:00

Here are some pages from my last days with the guys at PlayFirst(much respect), my flight to Seattle to find a house, my buddy Cory's hockey game, and TAG. TAG is a drawing night held at PopCap for industry folks to come by, hang out, and draw. Sometimes there is a subject to riff on, but I love just sketching everyone.

Materials: home made sketch book with animation paper, a ballpoint pen, brush pen, and some white out every now and again.

Please note: if you are using Firefox, and looking at the large version of an image, click on it just to make sure the magnification is at maximum. If it's just a few pixels off, the images look really blurry.

A Big Pile of Sketches

2009-09-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

These were done in my usual places like Emeryville Food Court (probably has an official name), The Westfield in SF, Bodega Festival, and a good figure drawing session in a studio in the Mission.

My materials are a home made sketch book with animation paper, a ballpoint pen, brush pen, and some white out every now and again.

Please note: if you are using Firefox, and looking at the large version of an image, click on it just to make sure the magnification is at maximum. If it's just a few pixels off, the images look really blurry.

Fan Art

2009-09-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

Here's an image I did as a piece of fan art for Kowloon Walled City. They have a new record coming out soon. You should get it. Really.

The rest of the images are all the roughs carried through to final inking. The roughs were done in pencil, and then scanned. I put in a font, recomposed the image, and printed it out. Then I light boxed pencils on top of the sketch, scanned it, and messed around with it some more in Photoshop. Next, I turned the pencils blue, and printed them out on Blue Line Pro comic book paper. The inks were done with a Pilot Precision V5 ballpoint, my trusty Pilot .25 ballpoint, Pitt Brush Marker, and a real brush and ink. Finally, after scanning that in and playing with the levels, I used a bit of Photoshop magic to get the rest done.

I like the way the red pops on the 'final', but I think I actually prefer the black and white.

I'm getting ready to start a short comic, and this is probably the style I'll be using. It was a lot of fun.

Time Line Reversal

2009-08-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

Here are some sketches from the last couple of pages of the sketchbook I just finished. I left the book at work and didn't get a chance to scan a few in until now.

New Sketchbook - Site Back Up and Running

2009-08-25T23:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, first of all, I hope the site is back up and running for everyone. As it turns out, the one day you don't monitor your site, is the day it mysteriously goes off-line. Hooray internets!

These new sketches were done as usual, during lunch or dinner. All ballpoint pen. I decided to be crafty and make my own sketchbook from scratch this time around. A friend of mine over at the magic world of Pixar did it, and I just had to try it for myself. Take regular animation paper, get some matte board cut just a bit bigger, and have Popcopy put a ring binding on it. Then tape that bad boy up with some electrical tape so your edges don't get thrashed. It's magic.

More Tiny Soldiers

2009-07-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

Same deal as before. All of these guys are products of lunch sketching.

Tiny Soldiers

2009-07-15T16:36:00.001-07:00

Seriously. They are tiny, maxing at about 2 to 2 and 1/2 inches, tops.

Fear them.

Straight Pilot .25 ballpoint and some white out.

Send in the Troops

2009-07-15T00:24:00.001-07:00

Here's the latest in the line of unplanned ink sketches. This was done with the trusty old .25 Pilot ballpoint, with my Pitt brush marker for the line thickness. However, all the of the sketch was not done at the same time, or on the same page. I started doodling out the troopers first. They take up an entire sketchbook page (hence the unplanned part). I wanted to put them in some sort of context, so I did the ramp and the rest of the scene on another page, and assembled it all in Photoshop. I also resorted to a Cheap Trick (tm), but I think it adds some extra depth the scene needed.

Too Jin-Roh/Stormtrooper/Vader? Answer: Yes.

Starship Sketches: Part 4

2009-07-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Imperial Inspection.

This image is a continuation of my recent themes and working methods. I used .25 Pilot Ballpoint straight to my book, no pencil. I did some minor line cleanup and correction in Photoshop, and added color. Perhaps I'll do some character work next, but I have to admit, starships are a ton of fun.

Explorer

2009-06-22T23:09:00.000-07:00

This was a heavily modified sketch that started out in my book. Again, it was unplanned and was executed entirely in ink, and as no surprise didn't turn out how I wanted. So I brought it into Photoshop, edited, re-inked and redrew some parts, sprayed some color over it, and here ya' have it.

Starship Sketches: Part 3

2009-06-18T00:07:00.001-07:00

This image was done the same way as the one in the post below. I sketched it all with a Pilot Hi-Tech .25 ballpoint on a 8.5x11 sketchbook page. There was little to no planning of the image (no pencils). I started noodling out the main ship, and just let the rest of the image 'happen'. You know, one of those artsy things. I cleaned up some of my failed and eyeballed perspective lines, and vomited out some colors...probably more than a sketch deserves, but it was fun.

Starship Sketches: Part 2

2009-06-15T23:57:00.000-07:00

The black and white version was done with a .25 guage ballpoint, no pencil, straight to an 8x11 book page. I cleaned it up just a bit and slapped on some color.

This one is has the same story except I used a brush marker for spot blacks and a bit of white out.

Starship Sketches: Part 1

2009-05-26T23:49:00.001-07:00

I've been in a starship mood for the longest time now. These are just a few pages from the old sketchbook. Pardon me while I wear my Moebius hat on the last one.

Colonial Defense Force Arrives at Coral

2009-04-10T01:00:00.001-07:00

To say I've been impressed by the Old Man's War by John Scalzi is quite an understatement. This little painting is far from perfect, but I think you get the basic idea...things go boom.

Wandering Willows - Giant Post

2009-03-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

Wandering Willows is the game I've been working on over at PlayFirst,Inc. You can also check out the snazzy reviews we've gotten over on Gamezebo. 4.5 stars! Not too shabby :) More reviews here, and here.

Below are a few of the pieces I did for Wandering Willows. It was my responsibility to set the style and tone of the game.

The images above represent how our characters look in the game today.

Just above are early character explorations. If I posted every character direction we tried I'd have to start another blog.

This is just a portion of the concept drawings done for our cute little animals.

This was a joint illustration by Jack Balingit and myself. Jack did the bridge and the space ship. I painted the scene and populated it with characters and trees I'd done at an earlier time. This was an exercise to showcase how the game could look...a visual road map if you will.

Here is an early version of the grasslands (upper left) before we switched to a tile based system. The rest of the images to the right are tree types and instructions for how to make trees. Erin Middendorf gave the in-game versions a pretty new coat of paint.

Here are some ideas for buildings and structures for the game. The Professor's Lab in the upper left set the style. The color version is the actual version in the game.

These little nuggets were made to set the style for the icons.

These are screen shots of the actual game. I also did the User Interface and the special effects/animation. I can't show the special effects here because they are animations, so...go download it here!

Wandering Willows was a mucho fun project, and one of which I am extremely proud. I must give props to my team, simply because they are completely awesome. Dan Chao - our games beloved designer. Dan is passionate, creative, and most importantly smart. He is one of the most fun people with whom you could ever have the pleasure to work. Erin Middendorf - She can draw like most people walk through the air. Do you like those cute animals? How about 98% of all the cool clothes in the game? Let's not forget those gorgeous cinematics! Shuffle on over to her blog and give her a pat on the back. Jim Brooks - Knight in Shining Code. When Jim get's on the case, all your troubles melt away. Nick Stern - Studio Art Director. This man let me run the the ball, giving valued input, and for that I simply can't say enough. Solveig Zarubin - Producer, all out organizer. During the entire game, I think I touched maybe 2 spreadsheets. She shielded me from so much red tape, it's simply astounding. PlayFirst management also needs to be given a big nod here. Hell, they paid for the game! They also gave us a lot of trust, and that's a special thing. For all you non-game developers who read this little old blog 'o mine note this: it takes an entire company to make a game, not just our little team. Quality Assurance, Marketing, PlayFirst Site Team...jeez, the list goes on. All fine folks doing a damn fine job.

I can't leave out the Drawing Crew. You keep a brother sane.

King Slack (tm)

2009-02-16T18:20:00.001-08:00

Oh yes indeed it's been a while. It's been so long in fact that when I went to check the last batch of sketches I uploaded, there wasn't a page displayed on the blog and I thought it was broken. It was blank because I hadn't posted this year, so I'm here to take charge of the situation and post more drawings no one will see.

This gentleman was giving it his all to avoid gazing at his dates two best assests.

At some point in late March I'll be doing several posts of the game I've been working on. There is going to be a ton of material. Also, shorty after that I'll be taking a bit of time off of work. During that period I hope to do some paintings, which will be posted here as well.

Thanks for dropping by.

D&D Warlock

2008-08-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a quicky I did after playing a bit of the new D&D 4th edition. However, if that statement blows my 'cool', then just ignore it and enjoy the sketch.

I'll be posting some life drawing sketches I did a few months back very soon. I've been neglecting to scan and post them. I keep telling myself I'm not lazy.

On Arakis, we need Desert Power.

2008-03-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

The spice must flow.

On the other side of the screen, it all looks so easy.

2008-03-31T13:39:00.000-07:00

T to the R to the O to the N.

Mars Invasion!

2008-03-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

My buddies and I have exercises a few times a week with a different themes. The last theme was 'heavy metal'. So, I invaded Mars.

Breaking in a new book.

2008-03-18T22:02:00.001-07:00

It's been slow going for me for the past couple of months, but I'm getting my pace back up to snuff. While drawing the last page I discovered a guy with a feature I termed T-Rex Neck (tm). See if you can spot it.

Lunch time fun time.

2008-02-19T23:19:00.000-08:00

Here are some more victims from lunch outings with the guys at work:

New site launch with a giant sketch dump

2007-11-05T22:02:00.001-08:00

Internets rejoice, there is another blog of great import! Welcome to my new site launch. These sketches are from the last couple of months worth of drinking and drawing sessions. In case you aren't familiar with drinking and drawing, it's pretty self explanatory: drink a couple of pints, draw a couple of fools around you.

I'll be posting some original designs soon, so stay tuned. Thanks for stopping by!

Test Post

2007-10-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's a test image.