D23 Expo 2013 Part 1 of Day 1

            After spending two days on the road and a great night in Disneyland I was ready to hit D23 Expo and get a glips at the awesome.

            As much as I love Disney there were several things I knew would happen here, and one that really frosted my cookies this morning. My mother and I got up at 5:45 Cali time and went over to the expo… we waited in line for two hours and forty five minutes before finding out there was a separate line to get into the Arena and see what we wanted to see. I was miffed and more so than usual because my mother has orthopedic issues and cannot walk much or half the speed I can/do. And no one in the staff shirts knew what was going on, only the very nice gentlemen in the suites knew what we were looking for and where we needed to go.

            Thankfully we got into the arena but I’m still going to leave a comment about this because I don’t recall seeing this ANYWHERE!

            Long frustrating story short we got in and I was once more reminded why I love animation and how badly I want to work for the Disney Animation family.

            Pixar went first in the line up talking about a short that we got to be the very first people outside the studio to see. It will air in front of The Good Dinosaur next year, it’s called Party Central and is apart on the Monster’s University. Funny as hell! The Good Dinosaur looks like it will be a very cute movie, we got to learn about the story line and see exclusive clips. The story is about a dinosaur that befriends a human, in a world where dinosaurs are farmers and have never seen a human before.

            Next we got to learn a bit about Inside Out, Pixar’s 2015 film that brings us all into what happens in our minds. Basically our emotions run our lives and we all knew that, not sure what to make of this film just yet.

            Then they talked about Finding Dory… honestly I really don’t think Finding Nemo needed a sequel. It was a very good show but it can stand on it’s own. Guess not many others are in my boat. This is the story of Dory finding her family.

            After Pixar was done tooting it’s horn, we got to find out more about Disney Toon Studio. They have done Planes, they’ll be doing the sequel for next year which we got to see a bit of, and they do the Tinker Bell films. Although Tink is maybe one of my least favorite Disney characters, one of her upcoming films I have to see. Pirate Fairy, only because James Hook is in there being voiced by the actor who play’s Loke in the Avengers and we get to hear him sing. Not a bad voice either.

            We got to watch a cute and funny clip called Get a Horse, it’s a Mickey Mouse short done in the 1920’s style and I’ll leave it at that. Super funny!

            I’ll skip over a few things here because I have to talk about Frozen.

            I can’t stress enough how excited I am for Frozen. The legend of the Snow Queen is one of my favorite stories. Combine that with Disney Animation and I’m floating up in the clouds somewhere. Kristen Bell who is the voice of one of the leads, Anna, was there as a special guest to help introduce the story of the film and present us with one of the clips from Frozen where her character meets the price but it’s not love at first site, it’s more of a “Oooo you’re cute!” Moment really.

            Josh Gad is the voice of Olaf, the snowman from the trailer. He presented us a clip where Olaf first meets Anna, Kristoph, and Sven. His character then sings about how much he would love it to be summer, the whole time not knowing he would melt. At the end of his song Kristoph say’s, “I’m going to tell him.” To which Anna replies, “Don’t you dare!”

            The finally of the presentation was Idina Menzel (Marine in Rent and Elphaba in Wicked) who will be voicing Elsa the Snow Queen and Anna’s older sister, came out and sang us a song from the movie. She brought the house down!

            As we left the arena they handed us out some post cards with images of the films to come on them. Pretty neat I’d say. Mom and I will be heading back over there soon to look around the show floor before our busy day of more standing in lines. At least tomorrow we can have our phones and I’m so taking the sketch book.

Touma's new Subarmor

"Touma's new Subarmor"

This was surprisingly fun!

To my knowledge there is only one published piece of the new subarmor design and it's in the Message Art Book. I found that single image a few weeks ago and thought I'd give it a try. It's only a line art drawing, thus liberties have been taken with the colors based on the new armor designs. Below you'll find the reference image, feel free to snatch that.

Sailor it Up

"Sailor it Up"

Yet another entry for the Trinquett weekly drawing challenge. This one has been the most fun yet. I decided to take a turn and try a patriotic pinup style here, with it being the week of the Fourth of July and all.

In the Flower Shop

"In the Flower Shop"

I decided to try something a little different this time. I've been meaning to come up with some more concept designs for a story and in this one I had a flower shop. Originally I didn't have Anne (the character) in this sketch, she was tossed in to add to scale and overall feel. This is the one place my character is truly happy, inside the flower shop she owns. 

Another thing I did to challenge myself was to create a color pallet at stick with it. I haven't done that before and I was able to keep with it 99%. Kinda gave this an almost antique feel that I REALLY like.

This is the color pallet I used. Feel free to take/use the pallet, not the drawing.

Queen in the North

"Queen in the North"

Arguable both in the TV and book series. But with Robb dead, Bran and Rickon MIA, and no word about the will in the books since it was written, technically Sansa would be queen.

The North Remembers

"The North Remembers"

Film Fun Burlesque Rocker

"Film Fun Burlesque Rocker"

Another for the Trinquette, and this one is my favorite so far. I had a lot of fun doing this one and it's different from things I've done in the past. Burlesque/Pin Up isn't something I'm familiar with so I want to experiment with it more.

Jungle Queen

"Jungle Queen"

Another entry to the Trinquette Publishing page. I haven't worked with my colored pencils in so long and it felt really good. Was apart of the finals, but that's okay. There's always another time.

The Warrior Woan

"Warrior Woman 01"

I found a page on Facebook, via two friends of mine, that does a weekly drawing challenge. Since I'm always looking for ways to be seen and improve my art I decided to give it a try. The theme of last week was warrior women, I submitted this but it didn't make the final cut. No, I'm not upset about that it actually motivates me to try harder. If you guys want to check it out and try the challenges yourself the page is Trinquette Publishing.

The other blog

I'll still keep this one alive so don't fret. Here is the link to my professional blog http://nissataylor.blogspot.com

Coming Soon!

I'm in the process of creating another blog that will be the big sister to this one and more professional. I should be ready to launch it this Friday, I will still post things here too so don't fret too badly. I'll put the link up once I have it all ready.

Lyanna Stark

"Lyanna Stark"

My take on what she may have looked like in a Song of Ice and Fire. I've wanted to do a piece with her for a while now and decided to give the Mucha art style a go too, more for his great backgrounds than anything else.

Photoshop, 13+ Hours

I'm a Cutie

"I'm a Cutie!"

A Moment in Time

"A Moment in Time"

The Hat Box Ghost - Bust

"The Hat Box Ghost"

Slot Canyon 2.0

"Slot Canyon 2.0"

As you can see, I have re-done the slot canyon dig. painting. We had been asked to re-do this in a different style. Since everyone said mine was so soft before I went for sharper edges and oddly enough everyone likes this one better. I'm still partial to the first one though, don't get me wrong I love the way this turned out.

Slot Canyon Painting

"Slot Canyon"

Yes, this was another assignment for a class but this was surprisingly fun. I'm starting to get a better hang of the layers and blending colors digitally.

Anne in Gray

"Anne in Gray"

A Mountain Roadside

"A Mountain Roadside"

Believe it or not, I'm still pretty new to doing digital art like this and it's one of the many things I plan to get better at over the course of this year. Here's my first real stab at it.

Character Sketches

Digital Images sketches Pt. I

Treasure Pirate

"Treasure Pirate"

Painting for the month of January. He's probably the most popular of the skeletons in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Done with Acrylic, water colors and gauche. Below are pictures of the progress.

Happy 2013

     Hello those who read this! Tux (my kitty) and myself want to wish you all a Happy New Year! 2012 was a good year for me, and I already know that 2013 will be very busy.

     My resolutions are to drop 10 lbs before September and try to keep my basement area cleaner. I’m also going to try to animate something every month, be it a walk cycle for something from the 11 Second Club. I’ve also decided to paint more in preparation for a large self project I’ll be undertaking later this year.

     In September my family will be taking a trip to New England that I’m super excited for! I will also be going to one of the Disney Parks this year but I don’t know which one yet, that will depend on the D23 FanArt contest they are having for the D23 Expo this year.

     Here's to a good 2013 for us all!