Jesse Nelson - Blog

My Family

2012-01-14T22:23:00.002-06:00

My Christmas present to my parents this year. Yes, there are that many of us.

Sketches

2011-12-18T17:00:00.002-06:00

Some recent sketches from my Drawing a Day blog.

Redesigning

2011-11-04T00:12:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a new website design, which is why things might look a little out of sorts. Also why I haven't done too many drawings this week. More to come soon.

Jesse

Fall is Here

2011-10-18T16:55:00.001-05:00

Easy Light-Linker Released

2011-10-07T14:55:00.005-05:00

Get it from Creative Crash.

Check out my previous post for a more detailed description of what the script does, as well as a video demo.

Drawing a Day, again

2011-10-03T15:39:00.001-05:00

So I've recently started up my drawing a day blog again. This time I'm concentrating in doing stuff I'm really interested in (i.e. studying color and light). So far so good! Check it out if you get the chance, there should be a new drawing every weekday.

Boat Dock

2011-09-20T11:49:00.002-05:00

I saw Shutter Island last week. A little sketch inspired by the opening sequence.

Easy Light-Linker for Maya

2011-09-04T13:13:00.000-05:00

EDIT: The script is now available from Creative Crash. Download it here.

If you've ever worked with lighting complex scenes in Maya and needed to fine-tune the effect of your lights, you know how much of a pain it can be to use Maya's built in relationship editor to define light-linking between objects. As your scene becomes filled with more and more objects, the task of scrolling through and making sense of a long list of nodes which you probably forgot to rename begins to take its toll on your desire to light a scene. Was it pSphere39 or pSphere21 that you wanted to un-link from that spotlight? There is the group of objects for your coffee table, but which of the cubes corresponds to the glass surface that you need an extra specular highlight for?

To me, having to do the extra cross-checking of object names and locations in the node hierarchy can quickly take the joy out of tweaking my lighting to get the perfect look. What if there was a way to interactively link and unlink lights within the Maya 3D viewer, without going to an extra menu and tediously scrolling through all those names?

Well...that was my goal when designing the "Easy Light-Linker" Python script for Maya. Check out the video below for a quick demo:

As mentioned earlier, I feel that Maya's light-linking interface as it stands is a bit tedious for lighting artists who don't want to be constantly pulled out of the artistic flow of lighting to manage complex node hierarchies. In my experience, maybe 15% of time and work in lighting is placing the actual lights, while 85% goes to tweaking all the settings to get the perfect look. Given the best naming conventions and strictest adherence to them, it still takes time to use the current relationship editor, even with the choice of light-centric or object-centric linking. My goal in this script isn't to encourage bad habits as far as project management or naming of scene objects, but rather to provide a simplified way for artists to be just that: artists, without some of the extra stress of mindless and unnecessarily clicking.

I hope to get the script up on Creative Crash soon, after some more testing and fixes. Hopefully it will be some help to those of us who love lighting in Maya!

Jesse

Programming makes my head hurt

2011-07-26T12:23:00.007-05:00

But I really enjoy it.

I've been learning Python, little by little (my only other programming experience being with Maya's MEL), especially as it relates to computer graphics. So far I've managed a simple (but I think kinda creative) script for Maya that simplifies the light-linking process from a large list of node associations to just an object selection and a click of a button. Hopefully I can get the code cleaned up and release it here soon, for anyone interested.

Sometimes, though, my mind gets so filled with ints, strings, tuples and classes, that I need to take a creative break and use the other side of my brain. Or however that works. Today, after a particularly confusing session on Regular Expression Operations, I was enjoying seeing the sunlight filter through my window onto a lonely bottle of Jones soda, and thought, "I hardly ever try to paint from real life."

It was pretty fun. The more I try painting, however, the more I realize what a novice I am at it. I love the whole process and creation, but when I take a step back and see how far I have to go to be able to paint the sorts of things I want to at the quality I want to...

Whew. It's enough to send someone back to programming.

Site Updates and New Reel

2011-06-04T22:08:00.002-05:00

I've updated the site a bit, including a new Lighting Reel showcasing work done through May 2011. Check out the demo reel section of the website for a complete breakdown.

Lighting Reel Spring 2011 from Jesse Nelson on Vimeo.

Finished!

2011-05-16T20:17:00.005-05:00

Well, I just finished up my last year at Huntington University and graduated with a degree in Animation. It's so great to be done and I'm so excited to start working in the animation industry. My Senior thesis film was completed a week ago today, and we are excited to start submitting it to film festivals. As such, we can't release it online just yet, but you can watch a one minute excerpt here and get pumped for the eventual release of the whole thing online!

Also, I'm already getting ideas for personal projects I want to work on this summer. I was expecting to take a break from everything for a few weeks, but I've almost been more energized since finishing our film. Who would have thought. So, keep checking back often to see some cool stuff!

Jesse

What Remains trailer

2011-05-01T01:49:00.002-05:00

We're less than 10 days out from the premiere of our film. We've cut together a little teaser trailer for now, as it may not be online for a few months yet.

www.whatremainsthefilm.com

Lighting timelapse

2011-04-26T00:41:00.002-05:00

First a cool video. This is a shot from our Senior thesis film which I lit in a couple hours. It's changed a bit since the end result of this video, but I think the progression is cool all the same. Plus, I don't think I've ever come across something like this before, so hopefully someone else will find it useful.

Now a long (though hopefully interesting) thought.

I've always been amazed at how, in the midst of the vast expanse of online help many of us look to for information on CG related topics, the topic of lighting for animation and CG/live action has almost always been silently passed over. Forgotten among hundreds of face modeling tutorials, animation tip sheets ("How to make a walk-cycle in 10 easy steps"), and After Effects compositing videos lies this unwanted subject (to which the continuous output of poorly-lit animated shorts are a testament, I might add). Now, I realize that there are plenty of resources that describe what different lights in a 3D package do, and plenty more that delve into basic lighting theory (re: the 3-point light setup). But I have yet to find a complete, dedicated, well-informed online resource for the aspiring lighting artist, some place that not only provides quality information and up-to-date lighting related news, but links to the few GOOD resources that actually are around. Richard Yot has one of the few good web resources that I've found, though by no means a hub as such. Also there are some amazing books out there (many interestingly enough having to do with lighting for film...go figure); John Alton's "Painting With Light" is a great example, as is a section of "The Visual Story" by Bruce Block (incidentally an amazing book related to visual storytelling in general). There's also a great chapter on storytelling through color and light by former Pixar Director of Photography Sharon Calahan in Advanced RenderMan: Creating CGI for Motion Pictures.

However, I think anyone who's done any amount of looking will have come to the same conclusions as me about online lighting resources. Granted, things have been getting better in the last few years, and more useful information is being put out there.

In my opinion, ultimately the lack of information (at least online) is because many people don't realize how closely lighting is connected with traditional art, specifically painting and photography. It's much easier to tell someone "push this vertex there" or "pull that curve here" in a tutorial than to try and explain artistic principles of light, value, color and composition. That's why many good lighting artists are also good painters and photographers. In the end learning this stuff well takes time, observation, practice, and more time—often time away from the computer, which is probably one reason I enjoy it so much.

Of course, the same could be rightly said about all other areas of CG; but again, other areas are less abstract and more easy to throw up a quick "how-to" guide for, especially the more technical topics. I'd say texturing and texture painting are the most similar to lighting in terms of online presence, though not nearly as drastically lacking.

I suppose my point in this little rant is that I'd really love to one day start such an online resource, specifically for people interested in getting into lighting. Some place that says straight up front you can't just be great at following tutorials or learning software; that you have to be able to learn to be an artist. Someplace that provides links to online resources and keeps up with new material, news, etc. Possibly even get some lighting/painting groups started. Who knows. The above video (waaaay up there at the top, remember?) is a foretaste of sorts for the type of material I could have. Of course, hopefully I'd be a much better artist then, as well.

Jesse

New Blog

2011-02-17T18:35:00.005-06:00

I'm joining a group of animation students here at school and starting a new blog with a "drawing a day" theme. My goal through this blog is twofold; first, to get me into the discipline of drawing every day; and second, to work specifically on my environment design, composition, and value. Most days we get to pick our own topic, so I'm excited to be able to practice exactly what I want to (as if I couldn't do that anyway on my own...).

I'll be posting there every day, and whenever I create something I feel is more worthy of attention I'll put it up here as well.

http://jesseaday.blogspot.com

Jesse

Color Scripting

2011-02-14T22:56:00.005-06:00

As our Senior Thesis Film team continues to work hard to stay on schedule, I decided I'd better mention a bit of what my role is in the project. At the moment I've got my feet in a couple different places, including animation, texturing, and maya scene setup. Additionally, at the outset of the project I was responsible for all the storyboards and some initial concept design work.

Primarily, though, my job is to head up the DP-related elements of the project. These include camera setup and shot composition; overall film colors; lighting; and some compositing. Being a very visual person, these things are what I enjoy the most about film and animation. I definitely am an image-maker; seeing that finished picture in my head and trying to bring it about on screen is what really drives me.

At the end of last semester I finalized the color script for the film, and below are a few panels from it.

Jesse

Beat Panels

2010-12-06T18:50:00.002-06:00

These were the first draft of the beat panels I drew for our Senior thesis film. The story has gone through many changes since then, but I spent a bit of time on these guys and thought several of them turned out pretty well. Black and white is so fun to paint in because all you have to worry about is value!

Jesse

Ship Concept

2010-11-27T19:41:00.003-06:00

Whew! It's been a while, and we've been working hard on getting our Sr. Project Film, tentatively titled "Alone", up to speed. I'll be posting more of my work from that project periodically, and to kick it all off I present a concept I drew of the inside of our main character's ship:

Head on over to our production blog to check out some more great concept work we've been developing!

Jesse

Lighthouse

2010-08-11T02:17:00.002-05:00

Strange place to find a lighthouse, eh?

Jesse

Character-licious

2010-07-29T21:05:00.006-05:00

Mr. Frisky:

Colored version. Poor Mr. Frisky was caught in the act...

Some other characters:

Chaaaaarlieeeee....

2010-07-12T11:39:00.001-05:00

A bit of an oldie. Take that, Bryan Ballinger.

Finished Piece! (and Blog thoughts)

2010-06-30T17:08:00.005-05:00

I finally got my latest traditional piece finished, cut, framed, and ready to mount on a wall. I'll tell ya, making your own frame can be quite a challenge (especially if you're trying to use all materials you find around the house...).

What happened was I couldn't find one at my arts and crafts store that would fit the wider triptych format nicely, so I decided to save on a custom frame (expensive like woah!) and try to build my own. I dug out some old window/door moulding from our barn that was barely large enough and cut it down the right size. Unfortunately they weren't all the same thickness, so I had to cut and adjust the pieces I mounted on the back to stabilize the frame. And even now there's a small gap along the top and bottom between the frame and the glass, but it's hardly noticeable unless you're up close and looking for it! Total cost was about $6, which was the cost of the glass I had cut. My current lack-of-job has me rejoicing at that fact.

Some in-progress pics:

Frame in-progress

Finished piece (ink and watercolor on drawing paper)

Triptych mock-up (done in GIMP)

Painted, cut, framed; final piece

Cool sepia version :)

I'm really happy with how this one turned out, both the drawing and the frame, although if I was doing the latter again I'd go ahead and spend the few extra bucks to get wood trim that was actually the exact same size. If I do anything else like this this summer, I'd like to try leaving the wood frame finish instead of painting it. Maybe I could do a sepia toned piece that would go with the frame.

Also...you may have noticed that I've been playing around with some new themes for my blog. I'm pretty limited by what Blogger gives me as default templates, so I'm thinking I'll have to bite the bullet and finally get some more web coding knowledge, enough that I can actually know what I'm changing (right now I sort of stumble through the HTML code and get about half the results I want). It's something I've always wanted to do, but never really got around to. Meh. Now added to my list of to-dos this summer.

Jesse

Alone

2010-06-27T23:35:00.002-05:00

Did this as a concept exploration piece for our Sr. Project. We had a theme of "alone", and I thought of a young kid all alone in a wasteland holding his teddy bear. Somehow as I drew, that idea turned into this. Whatever.

Sketching

2010-06-26T20:08:00.002-05:00

Here are some characters from my sketchbook drawn the past couple days. Construction Worker inspired by a post from the fabulous Lindsey Olivares.

Teaser

2010-06-09T20:37:00.002-05:00

A crop of something I've been working on. Hopefully I can get it framed soon and posted up here!

-Jesse

Dupliverts v0.45

2010-06-02T17:32:00.003-05:00

For anyone interested, I've uploaded the script to Creative Crash. Feel free to download, test it out, and give me comments/suggestions/bug reports/whatever!

DUPLIVERTS v0.45

-Jesse

Hay is for Horses

2010-06-01T21:51:00.006-05:00

So for my sister's birthday a few weeks ago, I ended up drawing a little western-y scene for her (she loves horses) and getting it framed. It was actually based off a rough Don Quixote sketch by Pablo Picasso; I mainly copied the composition and general poses. It was really nice to work in traditional media, good ol' pen and pencil on drawing paper.

Trusty Microns.

Work in progress.

The final image (I really need to get a picture up of it framed).

I'd like to do some more traditional stuff this summer; maybe get back into pastels, some watercolors...I really want to try and do a triptych like those done by the awesome Lawrence Yang:

Also, check out this one done by my talented classmate Jimi Bonogofsky:

Jesse

Dupliverts MEL script for Maya

2010-05-29T02:09:00.004-05:00

I hate writing (and reading) long blog posts, but it appears I'm about to put up another one. If you're not into reading long posts, you're probably not into MEL scripting either so it works out. :)

After some encouragement from Pete Molinero (http://petemolinero.wordpress.com/), I decided to dig out an in-progress modeling tool I had been working on this past semester, dust it off and start work on bringing it to a useable state. I call it my "dupliverts" script, and it's modeled after an identically-named tool available in Blender 3D.

Basically, it works like this: you define a parent object and a child object and the script will duplicate copies of the child object onto the parent object's vertices. This is actually one point where it differs pretty significantly from the one in Blender; in that program, the tool would create instances of your child object instead of actually duplicating it (pretty misleading considering the name, huh?). Sort of like a particle instancer where you emit static particles from an object's vertices, actually; except in Blender you could set it up super easy with a click of a button, and you could freely move the instances (as a group) off the parent object wherever you wanted.

But yeah, in my script, it actually duplicates the child object.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches, and I'm currently running into some maintenance issues with my way (having 100 individual objects named "tree1, tree2, tree3..." is a little cumbersome). Also, you can't do things like add a different shader to the base object and have it show up in all the rest...

That being said, however, it does give you a significantly greater level of control versus using a particle instancer, as you can individually move every single object afterward. (Just a note: I have seen a script that will replace particles instances with actual geometry, but I've never tried it...) Also, you can easily gain control over coverage percentage and can randomize placement with a few clicks, something that would eat up tons of time in the particle systems window. I'm sure there's a way of doing the geometry instancing for my script as well, I honestly just haven't checked into it.

All that being said...here's a screen capture of a small forest as an example of the script. I created three trees by hand, and the script did the rest.

Pretty nifty, huh? I'm pretty happy with the features written in so far, but I do have a growing list of changes and additions I want to make. The current feature set:

- Support for multiple child objects in a single operation
- Can choose x, y, or z axis of child object(s) to align to parent object's vertex normals (aim your objects!)
- Can randomize child object's size
- Can randomize child object's position
- Can specify percent of coverage for child object (based on parent object's number of vertices)

Now, here are the current features/updates I would like to write in (most will be pretty simple):

- Clean up resulting meshes from the script (grouping, etc.). Perhaps have a option to combine all duplicated objects into a single object?
- Ability to overdrive all random input values (they only allow for 1 Maya unit difference right now)
- Ability to specify certain axis to disregard when calculating random position movement
- Ability to work on faces as well as vertices!
- Ability to switch between geometry duplication and instancing? I'd especially like to find some way of linking all the new objects' shaders to the base one (maybe there's an option for something like this in Maya, but I haven't looked into it). If I were customizing the tool for a specific project, a randomized shader option could definitely be written in.

Now, to the slightly annoying part. I'm definitely going to release it online for anyone who wants to use it, but I'd rather wait until some of the changes are done, I can bug-test it, and I've gotten a chance to improve the code (definitely NOT as efficient as it could be right now). So, feel free to give comments or suggestions; this is more a learning experience for me than anything else, and I'm up for trying out different things.

Jesse

(wow...that post is way too long...)

Another year, another post

2010-05-21T22:45:00.005-05:00

So my junior year at Huntington University is officially over; along with that, I have several new projects to post up here for your viewing pleasure. Foremost among those I want to show is my year-long short film project "Lightbringer". Unfortunately, it's not quite finished yet, at least not to our utmost desires. We're going to be working on a few small revisions this summer in anticipation of submitting to festivals, including (hopefully) getting a score composed for it, so the official internet release will probably have to wait for a few months.

I think, though, we're all pretty happy with how it turned out, especially considering how little we knew going into the whole project a year ago. I'm excited for when we can finally get to show it to everyone! Enjoy some teaser images below while you wait. :)

In other news, I've been accepted to an intern position at Take Two Productions in Kansas City, MO! You can view some of their amazing commercial work on their site, http://www.t2.tv/t2/. Not sure if I'll get to help out with any actual productions, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity to learn from some experienced artists and professionals.

Of course, this means I won't be headed out to California for the summer like I had originally hoped. After earlier reject letters from Pixar and Nickelodeon, I finally got the last "thank you for applying" from Disney today. I was pretty stoked, though; apparently I made it into the final review for the lighting internship, and I even got some critiques on my work from the guys reviewing my reel! Wow, talk about motivation to keep pressing on and learning as much as I can! That's what the summer is for...

And finally (to make this post even longer), be sure and keep an eye on the blog for the Senior project I'll be working this coming school year. I'm excited to be working with a group of extremely talented individuals, and this summer we'll be developing ideas and gearing up for preproduction of our film. Check it out at http://srproject.andrewpmartin.com/.

-Jesse

Thinking ahead

2010-04-22T23:01:00.002-05:00

In the midst of trying to finish up my Jr. Film project, I'm in a group exploring options for our Sr. project next year. We're currently exploring possible concepts and environments more than stories, and it's given me a chance to do a little drawing and painting.

Jesse

B-movie poster

2010-03-24T15:10:00.003-05:00

This was done for a class assignment. We were given old b-movie posters and had to change them into our own versions of the film...I got the movie "The Soul of a Monster" and created this. Kinda creepy, but I thought it turned out OK.

Portrait

2010-03-22T14:07:00.003-05:00

So this one I was determined to cut my time in half on...and then I got to the end of 20 minutes and realized I enjoy painting people maybe even more than environments and landscapes. So I stretched it out another 20 minutes. I do have to say though, I'm rather happy with the result. I'll definitely be doing more figures and faces in the future.

Jesse

Winter Boat Dock

2010-03-20T12:24:00.002-05:00

Did this one yesterday, another long one at 40 minutes or so...it's so hard for me to spend only 20 minutes on a sketch and get in enough information! But if I don't keep myself focused I lose sight of the image as a whole and it doesn't turn out as well.

Jesse

An oldie...

2010-03-19T11:34:00.003-05:00

This is one I actually did a few months ago...it was based off a concept painting for King Kong (the Peter Jackson version). It took at least an hour, if I remember correctly.

Jesse

Rock Arch

2010-03-18T12:26:00.002-05:00

Taken from a Windows desktop wallpaper photo I found. 35 minutes.

Riverside

2010-03-17T12:45:00.000-05:00

This one took a little longer than I wanted...35 minutes or so.

Jesse

Color sketches

2010-03-16T11:44:00.002-05:00

Since I'm on spring break, I've got a bit of time to work on my personal stuff. I'm hoping to do at least one of these a day for the rest of the week. I'll get back into the composition stuff when I return to school.

This was from a picture of my brother, done in around 25 minutes.

Jesse

#6: Asymmetry

2010-03-07T21:46:00.003-06:00

I feel like all these concepts are starting to blur together...they're definitely interrelated, some to a rather significant degree.

Jesse

#5: Positive and Negative Space

2010-03-06T22:23:00.001-06:00

#4: Staging groups of people

2010-03-05T23:12:00.003-06:00

A couple of these turned out quite nicely I thought, especially for having been done in 10 minutes or less. I'm enjoying going through these a lot.

Jesse

#3: Clear Staging

2010-03-04T16:01:00.001-06:00

I tried to limit myself to 5 - 10 minute sketches for this one. It's quite a rush to just start drawing and have the image take shape as you go...not having time to think things out before hand and giving yourself a timer is a pretty fun exercise.

#2: Intersection

2010-03-04T00:16:00.002-06:00

Not as happy with this one...

-Jesse

Composition Studies -- #1 Framing

2010-03-02T18:27:00.004-06:00

I'm reading through some brief composition lectures on the amazing John K's Curriculum site (http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/). It's really helpful to have some plain, simple breakdowns of different compositional elements. I'm trying to draw up some quick studies as I go through these. I'll be posting them here over the next week or so.

I'm not going to pretend like these are super amazing examples...just my attempts at working through and trying to show the different elements.

#1: Framing

Lookout post

2010-02-06T13:25:00.002-06:00

Our animation lab just got a pair of Cintiqs installed! I just had to try one out when I saw them...this was the result (45 minutes or so in Painter, part of the time used to play around with features).

Jesse

(almost) 100 hands

2010-02-06T13:22:00.002-06:00

Just finished a challenge where I had to draw 100 hands in 5 days...I didn't quite get them all finished, and only ended up with 81. Probably due to my tendency to spend too long and get lost in the details.

Jesse

CG Society Lighting Challenge

2010-01-09T15:29:00.005-06:00

So I decided to enter the Lighting Challenge on CG Society last month. We were supplied with the scene, and our job was to create textures and set up the lighting. I chose the theme "Winter Mood" from among several options, and this is the result!

EDIT: My image was chosen to go in the Lighting Challenge Gallery on Jeremy Birn's 3D Render website. Check it out, along with some other really amazing work!
http://www.3drender.com/challenges/bedroom/index.html

Click for larger version. Textures and lighting done in Maya 2009. Model provided courtesy of David Vacek.

-Jesse

And the third

2010-01-06T16:38:00.000-06:00

Comic 2

2009-12-31T12:14:00.001-06:00

Introducing "Break", a mini web comic

2009-12-29T12:26:00.005-06:00

This is an idea that sprung into my head rather quickly the other day. My original intentions were to just create a temporary, one time thing (basically, while I'm on break from school) but I was amazed at how much I enjoyed drawing this first comic. Two more are on the way for sure, and I guess we'll see what happens after that.

I won't claim to have many varied comic influences, so you may recognize the heavy influence from such strips as Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, and Foxtrot. But whatever works, right?

Enjoy!

Jesse

Sketch Dump

2009-12-23T17:29:00.003-06:00

Some recent sketches, inspired by efforts from the prolific Pascal Campion. The first set was done at Chicago's O'Hare Airport around 6:30 in the morning while waiting for my connecting flight; the second are some of the better ones pulled from my sketchbook the past week or so.

-Jesse

Olaf and his Tuba

2009-12-15T22:07:00.003-06:00

Here's my final project from my 3D Environments class this semester. We spent most of our time working through this; the character was from last semester, but everything else was created for this class. I re-worked the lighting about three times, and I think I finally got it to a point where I'm pretty happy with it. The beginning few frames are darker on Vimeo than in the original video. Oh well.

Olaf And His Tuba from Jesse Nelson on Vimeo.

Jesse

New Blog

2009-12-02T23:31:00.003-06:00

I've started a new blog specifically geared toward the short animated film entitled "Lightbringer", which I'm working on with three other students. Go there to find much more consistent updates on the progress of the film.

http://lightbringerfilm.blogspot.com/

-Jesse

Color Scripts

2009-10-28T15:26:00.002-05:00

Here are color scripts from my Junior studio project. Basically these help set the "beats" of the film as well as the mood and color palette of different locations. I was really trying to pay attention to color schemes and using ones that convey certain ideas as well as working well together. Most of these palettes were borrowed from the color script from the Pixar's UP; you can see the whole script for that film on Lou Romano's blog, here: http://louromano.blogspot.com/2009/06/up-color-script.html

Click for big version

All these were done in Corel Painter. I'm hoping to get up more stuff from our project as they come along.

Jesse

Poot

2009-09-23T21:40:00.004-05:00

During a character brainstorming session held tonight with my animation studio team, I took a little detour with the protagonist of our story. This was the result.

(Chest hairs and poot courtesy of Bryan Ballinger).

Clickie for largie.

Blog Fail

2009-08-20T00:14:00.004-05:00

I need a new color scheme for this blog. The blue isn't really doing it for me (plus some of my images are starting to have problems, as you can see...maybe that's a sign of increased traffic, hooray!)

I wish I knew web coding and such better so I could make a nice layout. I suppose I'll probably just have to replace things with a simpler version for now.

In other news, I found my copy of Corel Painter X, so I'm hoping to start doing some more color drawings soon!

Julius the Janitor

2009-08-14T01:03:00.010-05:00

It's a hard decision.

Click for big version

The Adventures of Wilbur

2009-08-06T16:55:00.004-05:00

I was lying on the couch in our living room and noticed a peculiar looking stain on the ceiling. It kind of looked like a cat sitting in a helmet...

How to Cultivate a Relationship

2009-08-02T22:49:00.003-05:00

Done for the cover of the bulletin at Good Shepherd today. The sermon was basically about relationships among Christians (I realize that the whole symbolism of the Lion and the Lamb might not have been the best one in that regard), and I decided to do the 'ol comic approach.

Moby Dick #2

2009-07-27T23:08:00.005-05:00

Some more images inspired by Moby Dick.

Whales, and Father Mapple:

Jonah in the Whale:

Moby Dick!

2009-07-25T11:20:00.004-05:00

So I started listening to Moby Dick on CD the other day. I've always meant to read it, even started it at one point, but the thought of listening to it instead crossed my mind and I figured I'd give it a try...the advantage of course being I can draw while I listen!

Hence, I'll hopefully be posting up a bunch of new sketches over the next few weeks, sea-faring themed or otherwise. Here's the first batch I had after finishing the first CD. Out of 20.

These are all based off photos, but each with my own bit of flair added to it. Whatever that means...

July 20 - Cows

2009-07-20T13:35:00.002-05:00

Here are some of the bovine-inspired sketches I did yesterday. Maybe they don't all look like cows...I know the one jumping over the moon is more dog-esque in his head.

Click for big version!

The one on the lower right was inspired by an image in a children's book I saw, so I can't say it was 100% original...

July 17 - Energy

2009-07-17T08:34:00.003-05:00

Giant windmills in the middle of Kansas. Are they energy efficient or are they just a waste of money?

I say who cares–they're awesome (in the truest sense of that word).

July 13 - After My Week Off

2009-07-13T19:52:00.003-05:00

It's not from a lack of creating, just a lack of wanting to post any of it...I haven't really liked any of what I've done lately, but I finally decided to put something up.

July 7 - Naughty or Nice

2009-07-07T20:58:00.002-05:00

This was one of my weekly 10 second club videos for my stopmotion class last Spring. It's one of my favorites from the whole year. Now on Vimeo in HD. Enjoy!

Naughty from Jesse Nelson on Vimeo.

July 6 - Mr. Poogles

2009-07-06T17:59:00.002-05:00

This is an interesting little sketch. I got the inspiration for it the other night when a friend was carrying around an umbrella, and then yesterday during church (in the span of about five minutes) I came up with an entire story for a children's book involving dear Mr. Poogles. Not just a passing "oh, that'd be cool to make" either–I very much want to get it published some day.

Click for bigger version.

July 5 - Ninja Girl

2009-07-05T23:15:00.002-05:00

Well, due to my computer having problems, I've actually been getting more drawing done. Go figure.

I don't really know what to say about this one. I drew the pose of her yelling a couple weeks ago, and decided to flesh her out with some action poses today. I definitely wouldn't want to run into this girl in a dark alley.

Click image for biggie.

July 4 - America

2009-07-04T23:10:00.003-05:00

So I missed yesterday, and will probably miss the next day or two as well. My computer screen is crapping out on me, so I'm going to have to try and fix it...also, I discovered that I've lost my copy of Corel Painter, so I can't do any digital illustrations until I get back to school. Oh well.

July 2 - Destroyed Thing

2009-07-03T00:02:00.000-05:00

A bit of an oldie. This is something that crashed long ago in the desert...where could it be from?

July 1 - Growing

2009-07-01T22:04:00.003-05:00

This is the cover I designed for the bulletin this week at Good Shepherd Church. They're moving out of their old building and to a new location, and will officially be participating in a new church plant for the United Brethren church...so I translated their situation a bit literally into this one :).

June 30 - Sailing Through the Cliffs

2009-06-30T19:37:00.003-05:00

Here's a nice pencil drawing. I think the little boat enjoys being among all those tall cliffs. Click for larger image.

June 29 - Gestures

2009-06-29T22:55:00.003-05:00

And we're off! For my first art-a-day post, I'm going with a few of the 30 second gesture drawings I've been doing over the past few days using the website www.posemaniacs.com. Great place if you're into figure drawing and don't have the luxury of a live model.

Some Animations

2009-04-02T22:52:00.003-05:00

I know this place has yet again been slow, but I do have a bunch of new videos to put up. I post these slowly over the course of a week or so, but all my videos are on the same vimeo page so you could see them all anyway if you wanted...so here are a couple of the newest, and if you click on either you can go to my page where you can see more stuff.

I've got some more videos sitting around here, waiting for me to put sound to them, so hopefully those will get up as well in the next couple of weeks.

-Jesse

2009-02-20T08:48:00.004-06:00

Here's another little concept piece I completed recently. There are about three more I have half-finished and am hoping to get up sooner than later.

I know there's a lack of posts here and at my other blog, but the funny thing is I've been super busy creating new things here at school. I guess I just haven't had time to get any of them together. So more updates soon, I hope.

Jesse

Some Concept Art

2009-01-13T15:36:00.005-06:00

For no reason in particular, these sketches were done over the past few days. I've been really inspired by several different matte painters and concept artists recently, so I decided to have a go at a couple pieces. Hopefully there will be more to follow. Click on each picture for a bigger version!

-Jesse

And just to keep y'all updated

2008-12-31T12:13:00.000-06:00

Here are two of my most recent pieces. The first was for the "Christmas" theme at Drawergeeks Jr., and the second is a sketch I did one evening off a photo of my little brother.

-Jesse

Things are changing...

2008-12-31T11:25:00.000-06:00

So, this blog is going to become my new place to put up sketches and finished projects and other miscellaneous art that I create. To see more of what's going on in my life, what I'm thinking, etc., you can visit http://smallmenonamission.blogspot.com/, which is the blog I maintain with my brother. Otherwise, this blog is the one I'll be maintaining the most, especially during the school year.

-Jesse

The Last Comic!

2008-12-08T17:34:00.001-06:00

Comic 14

2008-11-24T10:10:00.001-06:00

Comic 13

2008-11-17T17:05:00.000-06:00

Week 12

2008-11-10T11:53:00.001-06:00

Comic 11

2008-11-03T08:54:00.001-06:00

Week 10!

2008-10-27T00:10:00.001-05:00

Week 8

2008-10-20T18:24:00.000-05:00

Week 7

2008-10-15T16:45:00.000-05:00

Fall Break...

Week 6

2008-10-06T16:56:00.001-05:00

Week 5

2008-09-28T22:13:00.000-05:00

Week 4

2008-09-22T17:05:00.000-05:00

Week 4. Something a little different.

Week 3

2008-09-16T11:33:00.001-05:00

Here's my comic for week three (sorry, a day late).

Week 2

2008-09-08T20:34:00.000-05:00

My comic for week 2. Yes, more of the same.

The Adventures of Balloonie!

2008-09-01T10:35:00.001-05:00

Ok, here is my first strip for my comic journal. It's about a balloon-headed guy. I haven't decided yet exactly where I'm going with this, but I have some ideas. I'm going to try and use no dialogue or narration, and just let the images speak for themselves.

Jesse