Toy Story 3 at gallery Nucleus

Sunday, September 12th, Pixar story artist James Robertson and sets art director Robert Kondo will be doing a presentation and book signing on the making of Toy Story 3 at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra. The artists will concentrate on their involvement in one of the film's most climactic sequences, talking about how ideas are taken from script to screen.
For more information and to purchase tickets (only 2$) see the official Nucleus web page.
Be sure to stop by and say hello!

Storyboard drawing by James Robertson.
Concept painting by Robert Kondo.

APE 2010

This year I will be exhibiting at APE, or Alternative Press Expo, an event showcasing indie comics, small press books and all art self-published. I'm excited not only to be sharing a table, but to be collaborating on a small illustrated book with friends and co-workers Jennifer Chang and Katy Wu.
Here are some tidbits of art: notes, inspiration, research, thumbnails, in-progress paintings, and so on. In the last picture the painting is backlit by actual sunlight, which made me see clearly problematic areas and also how much further I should push tones and light before I begin inking.
More to come soon!

Newt

You may have heard about Newt, a film that was being developed at Pixar until last year. I was part of the art department where I worked as a character designer. Unfortunately the project faced difficulties that led to its shelving, and eventual cancellation.
A few days ago Disney released a very small portion of the visual development from the film, and it is my pleasure to share it with you here.


Art by Bill Cone, Jason Deamer, Katy Wu, Greg Dykstra, Huy Nguyen, Armand Baltazar, Teddy Newton and myself (though I'd like to credit all the departments whose great work went into developing the film).

One-eyed Willy

Here is a piece I did for an art show celebrating the 25th anniversary of "The Goonies" (in case you got a cute overload with those peas...)
Check out the rest of the show at Lunar Boy Gallery.

"One-Eyed Willy"Acrylic on board8" x 8"

Toy Story 3

Today marks 2 years since my first day at Pixar.
So far it's been challenging and exciting, I've met some great folks, I've worked on a few short and feature length projects, I've learned a lot.
Two of the films that I can't wait for you to see are "Day and Night" and "Toy Story 3". While the first, a short, pioneers a new use of mediums in animation, the second soulfully concludes what is in my opinion one of the best trilogies ever done in film.
Go see them (in 3D) June 18th!

(This by the way is also a Golden Book cover illustrated by my friend Adrian Molina.)

Following is a small selection of my artwork from the film and the art-of book.
The first image is of a flat doll created by Nate Wragg, which I was asked to re-work slightly later on in production due to story needs. It was an interesting assignment where I had to preserve the spirit of the character (that Nate had captured really well) while changing her to look more home-made, with adjusted features and proportions. See the evolution below:


The peas were a little more straight forward to design. I started directly from my friend Erik Benson's hilarious board sequence and went from there.


I also recommend buying the "Art Of Toy Story 3" book to see some of the amazing artistry that went into making this movie (a special nod to my husband James who dedicated 3 years to this film and who storyboarded some of the most poignant sequences in it).

Bonaparte

Here is a new painting I did of young Napoléon at play in his Ajaccio family home, in 1776. I bet he liked sneaking in his dad's office to play with forbidden grown-up things!


And here are some sketches and colour studies.

Day and Night

I'm proud to share this tidbit of information with you. I had the chance to work on Teddy Newton's latest short film "Day and Night" which will open June 18th with "Toy Story 3" (another film I did character work for). This was so much fun not only because of the brilliant film idea but because of the spirited crew we had, led by Teddy himself, animation director Tom Gately, and production designer Don Shank. Don even designed the titles typeface. He wrote about the film here.
Get excited for this one - it is unlike anything you have seen before!!!

LEGO

The other day I saw a primary-coloured ship loading at the Port of Oakland. When you think of it those crane operators above are paid to play with giant LEGO blocks all day.

Big Sur

I'm pretty busy with our film at work so I try to relax as much as I can come the weekend. Last week I spent time with friends near Russian River and the last two days James and I traveled South to Big Sur, one of the most beautiful places we've been to.
This morning I painted these 2" by 3" little things to remember the big picture by.

Look, A Ship!

I see cargo ships every day on my way to work (under those Imperial AT-AT Walkers at the Port of Oakland ). I'm amazed by the size and capacity of the freighters, and I especially wonder where they're off to. I also love how the departing ships, full to the brim with colourful containers, become real-life Paul Klee paintings.

Here is one from the Maersk line.