Hey look! I did some cartoony stuff!

This is what occupied most of my time last year. A really cool game that will never be made! Ah well, that's how it goes in this biz. I still get to draw fun stuff. Those that know me know this is quite a departure from what I'm used to doing but what a great way to stretch those muscles. I don't think I was terribly successful in getting the style like Rafael Colanzo and Bobby Pontillas. Those guys breath this stuff and it's brilliant. It just doesn't come that naturally to me but I had fun trying. These were some of the better ones...

Snabbit! Snapping Rabbit. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone had an evilometer?
I kinda like this one but if I had it to do over again I would redraw those monkeys. I can't stand the way I drew them. They look like the fell out of some stoner comic from the late 60s. Bah!Thumbnail process for the Bulkhead contraption...

What could be a more refreshing pick-me-up after fighting hordes of mechanical monsters?! Why a fruity beverage of course!
A gouache-y looking vista...
Bulkhead schematic... This guy was fun for me. It took a lot of back and forth to finally come to this design but it works well I think. The whole thing is controlled by a single ships wheel with a small horde of monkeys pulling levers and ropes to work the arms and legs!

Parrothead!

I'm not really a Parrothead but my good friend and neighbor Tammy is. She has seen Jimmy Buffet perform 18(!) times! If she isn't a Parrothead I don't know who is. She also shares exactly the same birthday AND birth year as me! So for her birthday I painted on our birthday. It was as much a present to myself since I don't get the chance to practice painting with real paint all that often. So I got to work digging up a few references and 4 hours later Parrothead was drying on my makeshift easel. Happy birthday Tammy!


Materials: Clumsily applied Guoache & Prismacolor Pencils on Moleskine watercolor pad

A long time ago...

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. I finally found some time to sketch something for my self recently. Whew! Well... see you next year lol!

Nothing new to see here...

Sorry for the lack of posts everyone. I've been super busy with work and raising my son. I manage to squeeze in little things here and there. I'll post anything I can in the meantime...

Speaking of which here's an old sketch for Dead or Alive, the zombie/western book cover I did for William Harms last year. This one will probably never get done but I thought it was a pretty good design for a novel. It would be designed as a wraparound with the binder rings occupying the space where the spine would go.

Moleskine sketchbook - Whistler Master Class of One!

Hey if I can't be at the Illustration Master Class 09, I have to make my own right? Having loads of models doesn't hurt either:) Poolside at our condo and view of mountainside from condo window, plus monsters. One of the girls had found a plastic grocery bag and tore out the bottom to create a plastic halter top:)

Unearthed

Man, it's amazing what you find when unpacking from a move. I ran across this storyboard (from probably 2003) when I was working on an animation idea examining theories in dinosaur behaviour. I got really inspired to do this when I ran into world famous paleontologist Robert Bakker at the Whole Foods in Boulder CO(where I lived at the time). He was sitting there enjoying his food in the common area and sketching in his sketchbook which had all sorts of anatomical drawings of animals long since extinct. We started talking about his book Red Raptor which gives a fictional narrative to these theorized behaviours and I got so excited I went home later and immediatly started working on this storyboard. As sometimes happens these things get put aside for a while and eventually get lost in the shuffle of life, but I still enjoy thinking about this stuff and still like the direction of where I was going with it. Who knows maybe I'll get inspired to work on it some more someday. In the meantime I've got a zillion other things to work on that I'm more interested in now:) These thumbnails are about 1.5 inches across.

Happy Birthday for my sweetie

Yesterday was my beautiful wife's birthday and so naturally I had to paint her a little picture. I guessed one can never go wrong with a roller derby theme and I managed to get our (now) 16mo old son in there to boot! I love you baby! Stay 16 forever!

Humans vs Aliens

These are for an art test at a certain game studio. Studious observers will recognize which one from the shoulder patch:)

Battle for Seattle

Having some fun with lines again. Feelin' a bit rusty but good:)

Yes we did!

I feel great! No I did not draw this:)

Ray-animator

I found some old animation work collecting dust on my hard drive from my Jaleco/VR-1 days. Ahhh so many memories destroyed by beer-Fridays and the gentle musing of the HalfLife crowbar...:)

Music by Brazilian Girls

Opportunites...

This is my world right now. If you hadn't heard, a group of us (myself included) at GPG were laid off a week ago yesterday. Time to get creative. The search for a new home continues...

Here's a peek at my current studio space. Pretty minimal but exactly what I need right now to focus.

I always enjoy seeing other people's workspace. This is mine at the moment. The painting on the left hanging above the table is from my friend over at Bethesda, Adam Adamowicz. The other is a quick oil portrait of 'The Black Frog' from El Coro done at the Massive Black workshop in Seattle last year. A buddy of mine Mike Geiger won it in a raffle but couldn't take it with him on the plane back to CO. I've been keeping it until it dries and I can ship it to him safely. I'll miss you Froggy.

Some goofy-ness for hard times

Some stuff that's been accumulating for a while...:)

New Gallery

My new site is up. Nothing fancy. Just portfolio and CV.
http://raylederer.com

ZOMBIES vs COWBOYS!!!

Hi all, here's a thing I just finished. Zombies vs Cowboys! This is a piece I did for my good friend William Harms. His book will be published late this year or early 2009. You may see another variant cover emerge in October...:) I included a version with temp lettering just to give an indication of layout. I won't be handling that stuff in the end. Anyway thanks or looking -Ray





Also here's a time lapse video of my chaotic process of painting if you're interested:)