Sketch Hunter: The Art of Andrew Bosley

Speedpainting...

2011-12-13T10:19:00.000-08:00

Scifi APC

2011-11-28T05:55:00.000-08:00

Hey all! Still trying to improve my scifi stuff here. After the submarine bridge, a couple posts ago, I started working on some vehicle concepts. It's been fun gathering ref and learning to appreciate the cool shapes already in our modern day vehicles. Concepted many designs, made a quick mockup in Sketchup, and finally ended up with this. Much to improve, but hope you enjoy!

Some sorcery!

2011-10-24T04:27:00.000-07:00

Before I put up more scifi, I thought I'd put of this fantasy piece I did for fun. I took some elements from an old illustration and made something I'm pretty excited about. Don't really know what's going on, but I liked the look of it. Hope you like!

Working on the scifi...

2011-10-20T05:07:00.000-07:00

I'm really horrible with this blog thing. I've been very busy over the last year, but much of that busyness was with freelance work that I can't post up here. Well, my freelance work has slowed in the last month and it has allowed me the time to do other things. I've realized that I have nothing sci fi in my portfolio and so I'm making a big push to fill that gap. It's been hard and sci fi is a lot less forgiving than fantasy, but I have one piece to show for it. Since I only had a couple of hours per week to put into this, I was very sick of it by the time it was done, but I'm still fairly pleased with myself. Lot to work on still, though. More to come soon. Probably some vehicle designs!

Some more practice...

2011-04-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hey all! It's been a while since I posted last, but I've been working on some personal projects. I've been trying to practice some concept process and techniques at home, so I gave myself an assignment. Based on a Brainstormer prompt (desert + knight), I came up with this. It was mostly shape driven, but I want to try exploring character concept through different processes in the future. Anyway, hope you like it!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

2010-12-22T11:54:00.000-08:00

Hope your holidays are joyful and awesome!

Just for fun...

2010-09-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hey all! I've been busy for a very long time with random freelance work and have not had any time to work on my own things. I'm now taking a short break and had a chance to finish this. Hope you enjoy!

Just a little something something

2010-06-18T20:12:00.001-07:00

The Brainstormer Iphone App is Here!!!!

2010-06-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!!! Well it's taken a little while, but it's happened. The Brainstormer iphone app is now available at the itunes store!!! Thanks to the hard work of Joel Davis, an early fan of the original Brainstormer, the new app is full of new, great features. It has taken the original and kicked it up a notch. You can share the Brainstorms you create (via email, twitter, or facebook), you can customize the lists, and much more. All in a little app. All with the same design and style. It's awesome! Thanks to everyone who has shown an interest in the original flash tool and encouraged the development of this new app.

Now I need your help! If you have an iphone/ipad/ipod touch, please check it out (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-brainstormer/id374496865) and spread the word (post about it on the forums you frequent, twitter about it, join our upcoming facebook fan page, etc.). It truly is the ideal way to use the Brainstormer and well worth the purchase.

What's next for the Brainstormer? Well, I'm working on a Brainstormer fan page on facebook where all news and info will be posted. It will also be a place to share what you've done with the Brainstormer and participate in group Brainstormer challenges. Joel and I are considering the idea of developing this for other platforms (android, etc.), but don't have a specific timeline for that. And I'm already developing a new Brainstormer, specifically for the ipad (all that space!!! think of what we could do!!!) with a whole new set of features well beyond what we could do on the iphone. I'm very excited!!! Please pass the word around and get creative with this! I'll post more as things develop! Thanks!!!

New (old) illustration

2010-06-03T05:37:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Realized I never posted this illustration to the blog. It was done for a Gnomon competition a ways back and I liked the way it turned out. Thanks for visiting!

AuthorCulture's "Spin the Wheel" Writing Competition!

2010-02-17T11:16:00.000-08:00

Hey all! A lot of exciting things have been happening and I need to leave an update soon. But before that happens I need give a shout-out to a great writing blog and a very talented author.

A few months ago, author Linda Yezak contacted me. Her writing blog (AuthorCulture) was hosting a short story writing competition and she wanted to use the Brainstormer as a tool in the competition. The idea was to spin the Brainstormer and write a story based on the word association combos that came up (exactly what the Brainstormer was created for). I was very excited and happy to offer my support to the competition and to the site. AuthorCulture is a great resource for authors of all levels. Definitely check it out (see link above)!

Well, the competition came, stories were entered, and a winner has been chosen. Congratulations to Kate Mahoney for her fantastic short story, "Human History"! It's a very clever take on the word combos she used...Self-sacrifice/dystopian/UN conference room. Though I'm finding many people are enjoying the Brainstormer as a novelty (and it is fun in that way too), it is rare to find someone willing to really challenge themselves and make something great out of an unusual word association. But Kate has done that. And she did a fantastic job. Though the story is quite short, it is too long to post here. Hopefully Kate will post the story on her blog (http://kateness.wordpress.com/) soon. Congrats again to Kate! Well done!

Kate's Bio:
Kate is 22 and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. In between tossing resumes to the wind, she enjoys writing and running. Her fondest ambition (other than finally being able to move out of her parent’s house) is to be a published author, and her biggest vice is the lure of books when she should otherwise be looking on Monster. Unemployment aside, she does secretly love being at home, because home is where the cats are; Blackie, Misty, and Roger, who are as much a part of the family as its human members. Her blog, kateness.wordpress.com ruminates on topics as diverse as her writing travails and the uncovering of her computer’s plot to one day take over the world (or at least her bedroom).

Some freelance work

2009-12-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

Hey all! Been busy with some freelance gigs lately. Here's one I did for the new Dragon Age roleplaying game. More will be posted on my website tonight or tomorrow.

Some work and a new website!

2009-11-04T05:09:00.000-08:00

Hey all again! Just wanted to announce that I have started a new portfolio website at www.andrewbosley.com. I hope to update it regularly with finished pieces as this is site will be directing possible freelance clients for now on. The blog will continue to be a place where I post general info, finished pieces, sketches, and the occasional rant. Thanks to all those that are following the blog and come and visit occasionally! Your support is much appreciated!

Above is a new piece that I finished for a collaborative project called Warrior Story. Travis Getz, a friend and colleague at Red Storm is interviewing veterans about their times in battle and publishing the interviews in book form along with some illustrations by myself and others. The majority of the profits from the sold books will be given to support the Wounded Warrior Project. This particular illustration portrays one of the accounts of Col. Phil Ballinger as a prisoner of war. It's a rewarding project to be a part of and more illustrations from it will be coming in the future. Thanks all!

Brainstormer update!!!

2009-11-04T05:03:00.001-08:00

Hey all! It's been a long while since i posted and I apologize for that. A lot has been going on in my life, both personally and professionally, and the blog has fallen by the wayside a little. Anyway, a quick update. I have really appreciated everyone's interest and encouragement on the Brainstormer. It had been suggested by many that this would make a good iphone app, so I have been working towards that a lot. It is not ready yet, but I'm happy to say that an iphone version is being prototyped at the moment with the help of a very talented designer in CA. I don't have any proposed date of finish, but keep your ears open and come back here often and more info will follow periodically. Please pass along the info to others. Thanks all!

The Brainstormer is here!!!

2009-06-02T03:53:00.000-07:00

Long Post Warning! If you want to go straight to the more cool parts, just find the link near the bottom of the post or go to the link on the sidebar under "Cool Tools". But you'll miss a good story, you know.

Hey all! It is finally finished! I wanted to share something that I've been working on for a long time. When I was in school at SJSU, studying visual development and illustration, I was always trying to give myself little concept projects to keep myself sharp and thinking. So I created a list of objects, persons, things, etc. and a list of styles, adjectives, etc. These very large lists were in the back of my very first Moleskine (an address book used as a sketchbook). The idea was to combine an object or person with a style or adjective (ex. Byzantine submarine or subterranean factory) to create unique and interesting combinations to concept out and illustrate.

I found it useful in it's crude form, but always wanted to turn it into a small, more sophisticated pinwheel format. Finally, a few months ago, during a lull in freelance work, I decided to make it happen. I inputted the lists into a free vector program called Inkscape. Designed a cover for it and called it the Brainstormer. I also added something new in this version: A story conflict list. I've spent a lot of time reading about stories and screenwriting since school and I recently found an interesting book called The Story Structure Architect. It broke down every plot idea into about 50-something different categories. I used this and narrowed it down to 45 for my Brainstormer. The point being to add greater depth to the combinations. Sometimes I would want to create an actual illustration from the designs I created for myself. But I needed a story if the illustration was going to be interesting. So this new ring of conflict ideas was a way of adding context to the concepts that came from the Brainstormer. When it was all designed and done, I had a nice paper version I could carry around in my current Moleskine sketchbook/journal. It looks just as shown above (minus the random button).

But when I showed it to some friends at work, they thought it might be cool to have a digital version of it. Obviously that would be very convenient for anyone who is on a computer all day. I had planned on posting the jpgs of each ring and cover so anyone could make their own without starting from scratch, but a digital one was even better. I didn't have the expertise or the programs to make that possible, but a good friend from work, John Michel, did. He was kind enough to offer his time to turn this idea into a Flash animation. We ironed out some quirks and John turned it into a really cool, animated, fully interactive program. He was also kind enough to store it on his site, until I finally make a site of my own.

I am posting it here for the first time and hoping that it's something others can benefit from.

The Brainstormer (click here)!

You'll notice when you play around with it that you have two ways of working with it. You can just use the random button in the middle, which will spin the wheels into different combinations. Or you can manually spin each wheel independently. I absolutely love what John has done with it! It's better than I could have ever imagined. Anyway, I hope that y'all will find it useful as well! Thanks for visiting!

More Red Storm Signs

2009-05-14T06:08:00.001-07:00

After finishing the meeting room signs for Red Storm, I was asked to create a character to represent the team rooms in the studio as well. There were a few variations on this guy, but I thought posting one was enough. If you're familiar with the games Red Storm makes, this guy should look familiar too (sort of). Note the ping pong paddle: a critical piece of equipment to any self-respecting Ghost. Thanks for visiting!

Being Manly

2009-05-14T05:52:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Found a cool new site that I am frequenting often. A recent post titled "7 Lessons in Manliness from the Greatest Generation"(link) was very cool! All those who know me well know that manliness is not something I struggle with :) But it never hurts to review the basic principles.

The Brainstormer is coming! Stay alert!

Portrait Practice

2009-04-13T04:28:00.001-07:00

Hey all! Thanks for stopping by! At work, a small group of us have starting getting together at lunch to sketch (figures, animals, portraits, etc.). For sake of convenience, we take over Red Storm's boardroom and use a projector or large LCDs to view our reference on a large scale. It's not the best way to do life drawings, but it works and it's better than nothing. I've benefited much from this and decided to take this process to painting portraits. And it has been a great exercise! I find hi-res portraits on Flickr, bookmark the sites through Foxmarks (so I can easily access them at work or at home), sketch the study in my Moleskine, and then paint using my Pelikan gouache set. I can take the reference anywhere I have a computer and it allows for me to finish the paintings quite fast. They're only roughs really and I still have a lot to learn about painting and portraits, but I like the way they've turned. Here are a few examples! Thanks for visiting!

Quote and Rant for the Week

2009-04-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

A little diversion from the art for a change. Decided I needed to share a quote I found recently that reflects much of what's been on my mind recently.

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help man permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

~Rev. William J. H. Boetcker in 1916

Wow!!! There are a lot of people out there taking money from all of us (but especially from those rich, strong wager payers) in order to spend their way to a "prosperity" and then telling us to do the same. I actually heard a tax "expert" on NPR encourage the public to spend the extra $20/month (our cut of a $750,000,000,000+ stimulus package) on eating out and extra clothes. They want us to spend frivolously when we should be saving? And what about those evil rich people? What happens when the taxing of rich, producing wage payers goes too far? Outsourcing.

The crazy thing is that so many people are buying this. When something is broken, why should we want politicians (who produce nothing) to get involved at all? Check this out (link)! Along these lines, I've been reading a great book called Atlas Shrugged, written by Russian-born Ayn Rand in 1957, that shows a sped-up view of a society that punishes the prosperous for the sake of everyone else. It's amazing!! Two people, Boetcker and Ayn Rand, who lived some time ago, but understood so well the dangers we are being led into today.

Anyways, enough ranting for now. I hope that this doesn't scare too many people off, but MY VOICE MUST BE HEARD!!!... through this tiny blog. Anyway, I have two art postings coming up that I'm very excited about. I'll post them as soon as I can! Thanks for stopping by!

Fantasy Armor Studies

2009-02-02T18:07:00.000-08:00

Hey all! Just some quick designs done for an illustration I'm working on. These were roughed in pencil and painted in gouache in my Moleskine sketchbook. Very fun to make!

Quick recommendation: There is a great artist named Justin Gerard (quickhidehere.blogspot.com) that I have been following recently. He has a very nice process and works very fast, creating beautiful finished pieces every week or less. Very envious of the skills. Go check him out!

2009-01-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

I did some freelance work a ways back on a sci-fi project. Part of my assignment was to design a worm-eel-like race of creatures that were taking over the world. They don't look that fierce, but when they are in their bipedal power suits, they are dan-ger-ous to be sure. I only got to work on the project of a few days, but it was great fun! Here are a few ideations considered. I did do a concept that looks like the final product. If I can find it, I'll put that up too. Thanks again!

2009-01-17T08:02:00.000-08:00

Just a quick little robot character for my friend and colleague, Carlos Fin. He'll be modeling, rigging, and animating him for a future personal project. Not a lot to this guy, but I thought he was kind of cool. Thanks for visiting!

Some old concepts...

2008-09-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

These are a couple of concepts I did when I was working for Factor 5 in '06. I primarily did environmental stuff for their recent release, Lair. It was a fun project and I'm glad that I got to work on it, even for a brief time.

Arctic warrior guy

2008-09-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

I thought the idea of an Arabian-ish, scimitar-wielding warrior in a freezing world would be an interesting combo. And this is what became of it. Enjoy!

More from The Key

2008-05-21T04:25:00.000-07:00

Hey there! Finished this piece a little bit ago, but hadn't got around to posting it until now. This is one of the illustrations for my Key project. It's coming along pretty slowly (with family, church, and work occupying much of my time and thoughts), but I still try to do a little work on it every night or so. Hopefully, I'll have more soon. Enjoy!

Magical Fury!

2008-05-14T06:56:00.001-07:00

Hey there! Just finished making this piece and thought I would post it up here. Just some big guys picking on a magical girlie who has some neato magical powers and such. I liked the way it turned out and I don't often finish an entire illustration for myself, so there you go. Enjoy!

The faces of Red Storm...

2008-04-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

We've recently done some reorganizing at Red Storm. As part of that, we needed to rename and create signs for all of our meeting rooms. I was asked to help create artwork for these signs and these are the results. It was a fun assignment and I like the characters enough, so I thought I would post them here. My favorites are "Your Captain" (for our company lounge/game room), "Sergeant" (our Interview Room), and "Private" (a small room set aside for personal phone calls and stuff). Hope you enjoy!

Little sketches...

2008-01-17T05:09:00.000-08:00

Just some quick thumbnails for a far and distant story idea. I liked the style of the character and the overall look of the compositions, so I thought I would post it here for kicks. Watercolor pencil on paper. Pretty darn tiny.

The Key (part 2 of many)

2008-01-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

Hey all! Just another piece for my upcoming short story. This piece is from page 1. It's Derwent watercolor pencil on paper (specifically, a moleskine cashier plain sketchbook). More to come in the future. The full story, as well as many more from other artists, will be published in the book compilation, to be finished in May. Hope you like it!

A Day Out

2008-01-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

Had a chance to go out at lunch yesterday with a friend, Richard Case, and do some landscape painting in gouache. We have a nice park across from our office that has a nice venue of beautiful things. And yesterday was just perfect! 70 degrees in January! This one's nothing too flashy but fairly successful anyway.

The Key

2007-12-01T07:58:00.000-08:00

Hey all! As it's been a while and my wife is tired of looking at "claws and guns", I wanted to post something related to what I've been working on lately. I have recently organized a small group of artists at work interested in putting together an anthology of illustrated short stories. Our goal is self-publish it in May, just in time for one of the comic conventions here in NC. The theme for each of our stories is "The Key". Mine is a more whimsical, discovery-type story and the character I have here is one version of the main protagonist. As things come together more, I'll show more work from it. Thanks for visiting!

Claws and Guns...

2007-09-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

A kind of creepy, flying thing...

And a quick lighting change to an old piece.

Thanks again for all the visits to new Leyendecker blog. Good news...I still have some more hi res covers to upload. The bad news...there's only two more. After those are up, it will be pretty dry on that site. But hopefully I'll get some more fun and exciting things on this blog soon. All the best to y'all!

Thanks Lines and Colors!

2007-08-21T05:18:00.000-07:00

Lines and Colors was kind enough to spread the word about my new Leyendecker scans and put in a few kind words about my work as well. For those of you that don't know about the site, www.linesandcolors.com is a great place, like drawn.ca, to get up to date on great artists and art information. Lines and Colors tends to be more traditional, in its interests, than Drawn. Both are daily stops in my morning web jog. Its one for the bookmark toolbar! Hope y'all are well!

Some Great Leyendecker Images!

2007-08-03T04:28:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Just started a new blog around the corner from here at www.jcleyendecker.blogspot.com. On this blog, I've put quite a few high resolution scans of some Joseph Leyendecker SEP covers. I've had a collection of originals (covers, that is) for some time, but with the help of some friends at work, I have been able to digitize them for the whole world to see. There is a site out there with more Leyendecker covers, but they are all quite small. There are only thirty images here, but they are big enough to really appreciate. I have a couple framed covers I have at work and home that have not been scanned yet, so more to come. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Angels and Demons

2007-07-20T06:13:00.001-07:00

Hey all! Here's some more stuff for Ubisoft! Quick stuff for the most part. Please enjoy!

The Squid Man Thing

2007-05-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

Worked on the Gnomon Workshop challenge this month (Theme: The Freak). Hope it turned out o.k.

UPDATE! Well, it turned out pretty good and I got 40 free DVD's from Gnomon. Wowzers!

It's been too long!

2007-05-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry for taking so long to update. Busy, busy, busy! Lots of stuff in the works and I promise to post more often. Hope all is well with you all!

Just some concept stuff for Ubisoft's Might and Magic line.

A great blessing!

2007-02-14T18:28:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post from a proud husband and father. I am excited to announce the arrival of Ivy Bosley, who joined our family on January 31st. She is healthy, happy, and super adorable! We couldn't be happier! Wishing you all the best from good ol' North Carolina.

Old Faun

2007-01-01T04:42:00.000-08:00

I wanted to thank everyone for their encouraging words concerning the story I mentioned in my last posting. I am still actively working on it, though I must admit that I underestimated the time it takes to really develop a good story and then create the art to support it. However, I have set some more reasonable goals for the new year and I plan on posting more preliminary art as I work towards a finished product. Thanks again to everyone for their support and patience!

Inspired by the work of Andrea Blasich, whom I worked with briefly last spring, I have recently started experimenting again with sculpting. This rough headshot is a character in one of the many stories in my head that I hope to see realized someday.

Story Sketchbook

2006-10-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would post a spread from my sketchbook. I'm working on a short story/comic that I hope to finish by the end of the year. This is just some exploratory sketching related to it.

Sorry! It's been too long...

2006-10-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post my apologies for not adding anything new to the blog in a while. After graduation, I tried to update pretty regularly. But since moving to North Carolina and starting work at Red Storm Entertainment, I have been taking the opportunity to spend more quality time with my wife and two boys. Something that I haven't been able to do in a long time.

I will probably be adding some figure studies I did at Red Storm soon, just to prove I'm not dead. I'm also writing a short story/comic and hope to begin working on some illustrations for it soon. As those come along, I'll post pieces of them for anyone that might be interested.

I want to thank my incredible teachers and great friends at SJSU and the many others who have been so supportive of me and my work over the past 5 years. I can't believe how much has changed since May. Hope y'all are well! Thanks for coming by!

New Layout...

2006-07-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

Quick environment sketch inspired from a location in Zahn's thrawn star wars trilogy.

The Cutes!

2006-07-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

Here is some work I did at Hallmark last summer. Probably not the most edgy artwork in the world, but very fun nonetheless. I love Kansas City!

More Concept stuff

2006-06-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my online illustration portfolio!

2005-12-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

Glad you could come! I hope you enjoy your stay.