Three Weeks To Go!

The Legos Return!!

Hercules!

The man himself. The Kevin Sorbo. The Hercules.

Irene 1

First Trip to Coney Island

Gil, Mahesh (Mark), Myself, John and Crystal

Another Neville Creature

Hello again! Got another post here - more ZBrush stuff!

This design, like the “tree-dweller” creature, also belongs to Neville Page and is featured as the ‘sketch’ in the tutorial I mentioned. His process of sculpting it was truly an inspiration to watch, and… of course… I simply HAD to sculpt it myself. This isn’t precisely the design, there are a few areas where I took the liberty of adding my own creativity to the piece, such as the joints of the knees being inverted.

And, as a little treat, this is a video of the rendering process I mentioned earlier. It’s a little long, running at about seven minutes, so I don’t blame you if you don’t have the time at the moment… But watch it later! :)

Art Progression

Hello! Hope everyone is keeping cool with all that heat down in Texas! It’s cooking up here as well. Probably not nearly as much, but there’s enough metal up in this joint to bounce off just the right amount of sun to cook a pigeon for breakfast… Or maybe just the eggs will suffice.

Anywho, I’ve REALLY been delving into my art lately. I picked up a book at Barnes and Noble with my employee discount on Character Creation by Scott Spencer. In it is a section on rendering in ZBrush and compositing in Photoshop. Here’s a couple of new renders of an alien I sculpted a couple weeks ago.

On top of that, I’ve been doing some sketching!

(Yeah, I know, I need to get a scanner…)

Now, granted, the very basic design/concept of this “tree-dweller” creature is actually credited to my top idol right now… Neville Page!

You’ve probably heard me mention this guy before, but if not, I’ll tell ya now… The guy is a genius creature designer! Probably the lead concept artist in Hollywood! His works include:

Super 8

Cloverfield (my favorite!)

Avatar

JJ Abrams’s Star Trek

Planet of the Apes

Tron: Legacy

The Green Lantern

Watchmen

I just purchased a three hour tutorial where he demonstrates and illustrates the basics of character design. He starts with stressing the importance of anatomy (from human beings to mammalian creatures), discusses the vitality of form through silhouette and shape, and finishes with a full demo speed sculpt in ZBrush. After three hours, my mind was blown!

More on this topic as it progresses… ;D

July 4th Fireworks!

The Site

Here is the official website for “Gilroy,” created by my producer, Khiry Palmer. Created the music in Garage Band while waiting for my buddy John to get the official score recorded for me.

www.gilroyplay.com

Gilroy - A Crazy Story in Two Acts

After a great many hours of writing, writing, and more writing, I have finally finished my first feature-length script for the stage.

It is called “Gilroy - A Crazy Story in Two Acts.”

PLOT

The following event that takes place revolves around Gilroy (Gil), a thirty-two year old man who lives alone in a small rural country home in the heat of nowhere in southern Texas.

Gilroy has been under the consult of a psychiatrist in a nearby town for some time now. Upon the casual arrival of a new “guest” to his home, however, Gil begins scheduling more and more appointments. It soon becomes clear that this guest has no true intention of leaving any time soon and Gil begins to deeply question his own sanity. As the truth uncovers itself through a bizarre turn of events, he realizes that things at home — as well as in town — are not as they seem.

I will continue editing and refining throughout this month and July, and then . . . auditions will be held in early August. Rehearsals will run through September and October, and the show will open in early November at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn Heights. Cannot be more excited than I am right now!!!

It’s Official!

I can now officially title myself as an actor, writer… and director!!!

More to come as this story develops... ;D

The Pug Monster

In honor of one of my good friend’s most treasured pet, this is… the Pug Monster!

Finally a Desk!!!

Ikea decided to be good to me the other day and finally brought me a desk!!! Feels good to stop working off of that bed…

Setting the Bar for Myself

This is a lil’ project I started and finished last night in the course of about an hour. After watching some inspirational vids on Youtube, I had to sculpt something… ANYthing! This guy turned out a little meaner than anticipated, so I figured the expression would balance him out a little bit. Sculpted and rendered in ZBrush, composited in Photoshop Elements. :)

Prospect Park

This is a quick vid of John, Crystal and I at Prospect Park last Saturday. Beautiful day, amazing park, delicious food!

Dinner and a Movie

Shortcut To The Apartment

A little late on the post, as this vid was taken on Thursday. Just a little clip on a cool shortcut granted to me by the Super. Definitely makes the move a lot easier!

The New Apartment

Paradise Lost

Picked myself up a copy of Paradise Lost today from Barnes and Noble. I’m so excited to delve into this epic poem! I’m already ten pages in and I’m hooked. You know you’ve got a good read when you don’t want to get off at your subway stop because you can’t put the book down… :)

Spring Awakening

Three shows down! So far we’ve gotten some great feedback from people in the audience. This past week was super tough getting all the tech work fixed and set, but boy it sure has been worth it!

On Sunday, we had not a performance, but a filming/photo shoot. While they didn’t film the entire show, they did get plenty of footage and shots that will be put up on the school’s website some time soon. I’ll update when they’re up! :)

Load In

Today, we load in to the Hudson Guild theatre!

Rehearsals are over as now we move on to tech runs, making sure lights are properly working, the set is fully stable, props are where they need to be, costumes aren’t falling off, etc. etc…

Dress rehearsal on Thursday, opening Friday night! Who’s excited? THIS GUY!

:D

1930’s German Haircut

Robbie Skadal. Now Hanschen Rilow.

Feelin’ Greekish

We’ve been working on a lot of Greek text this semester. In our One Act Project class, we’re rehearsing Metamorphosis and will present it to an audience near the end of the term. Woo!

In our Voice class, we’ve been incorporating movement as well as vocal dynamics to interpret Greek text.

So! I’ve been feeling very Greekish lately! Started a new draft on my script. This story begins after “Satan” and his fallen has been cast out of Heaven and into Hell. The seven members that sit by his side are called the Staff. They act similarly to that of a Greek chorus, addressing the audience for narration. Here is my first go at such writing.

So hear this story told
The tragedy of old
We come in mended speech
His pride and fear to teach
When time has set he then will learn
A path to take for twist it turn
But mind his thoughts of plots and schemes
For they have locked and blocked his dreams
A thousand years, two thousand more
Into the past for future war
If lost you find yourself afraid
Content be such as there is made
A guide of black and gold
That tells this story told
How fear and pride denied
The blood-red turning tide.

Quiche!

Oy! Spring Break’s been fun but really exhausting!

Today was our second day of rehearsals for this week, both days being from 10 am to 6 pm with breaks here and there. Right now my legs are resting, AJ’s playing Unreal Tournament, and I’m enjoying a delightful microwaveable quiche from Trader Joe’s!

Rehearsals from 2 to 6 tomorrow. The show’s comin’ together! Can’t wait for Steven and Rachel to come see! :D

Springtime?

Hey y’all! :D

Finally starting to feel like Spring’s rolling in. Looks like this week will hardly get below 50 (yay warm weather)! Hopefully it’ll be bright and sunny—a good way to end before a nice week of break time.

Midterm grades are starting to come in; so far so good! Can do a little better in Theatre History but nothing too bad.

Two rehearsals down and two more to go for Spring Awakening before the end of this week. Wow! Such an exciting process! The work has been very relaxed as we discover who we are in this group of boys and how we fit into said group. The show will be fairly stylized and somewhat dark. Can’t wait to see what the set looks like!

I’ve got a fifteen minute video I made for my “Actor’s Manifesto” presentation in Theatre History - basically an interview followed by a few time-lapse vids of me working in Photoshop, ZBrush and Word. I’ll try to get that posted sometime soon in two parts.

One week ‘till Spring break! Woo!

Weather for Central Park

So I haven’t updated with anything major in a long time… just in case you didn’t know… School’s been keeping me MORE than busy, presenting more and more assignments each week. I’ve certainly been learning more and more about myself as an actor.

Today, however, the weather was just too great to just sit inside and be a bum… So Courtney and I headed out to Central Park after getting a slice of pizza and met up with AJ. Afterwards we headed over to Borders to try and find a required book for one of our classes and then to Five Guys for a burger. To conclude the evening, we watched three full episodes of Band of Brothers. Such a great day!!!

A Word From C.S. Lewis

"A man’s physical hunger does not prove that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation on a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man’s hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating and inhabits a world where eatable substances exist. In the same way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some men will. A man may love a woman and not win her; but it would be very odd if the phenomenon called “falling in love” occurred in a sexless world.” - C.S. Lewis

What is Lewis trying to say? Our simple craving for something (tangible or intangible) proves that what it is we are craving exists. We are born with these desires, and therefore carry the very proof that Paradise exists.

:)

The Happiness Compartment

Since day one in Mr. Omar’s class this year, we have been working on a special production called “The Happiness Compartment”. It takes place during the night of the Cuban Missile Crisis and involves characters like Lee Harvey Oswald, an associate to the Kennedy candidate, a Marilyn Monroe drag queen and more. It’s been a super long and tough semester (and a few weeks more) but…

…Wow! What a show we put on tonight! With a mixture of stylish freak-dancing and projected images of Marilyn Monroe and Ted Kennedy and giant mushroom clouds, the evening was FILLED with pure and simple fun!

(Oh and, uh, guess who plays the Marilyn Monroe drag queen…)

Yeah so anyway, we had SO MUCH FUN! And we got so much positive feedback from our teachers and fellow classmates alike! Our brilliant Mr. Omar was, unfortunately, sick and could not attend the show. That’s right. We were all on our own the entire evening with no one to assist or guide us. It became our project, our show. The performance was set up in one of our classrooms. The stage was set up longways in the center with the audience on both sides of us. There were times where I would be sitting in a chair directly next to an audience member while still acting in a scene. *sigh…. What a rush!

Okay, that’s all for now. It’s midnight and I still have makeup on.

I mean, uh…. what?...

New ZBrush Render

I’ve been playing around with Photoshop Elements and have been finishing off my renders with some neat paint effects. This is my latest one, which I call “The Jury”. AJ and I have been coming up with some wicked-cool characters for me to sculpt and will eventually be put into a deep sci-fi/fantasy story. We’ve got the plot and almost all the characters. Now to sculpt sculpt sculpt!!!

Snowy Day

Christmas With The Family