Monster Theatre

Here's my leica reel with UPDATED new corrections! Woo hoo! 

Life Drawing

Birds in Paris

19th century Cinderella

I was very much inspired by the movie, Young Victoria which takes place in 19th century England so I decided to do a Cinderella story based on that era. I love period films so I think I’m going to do more of these! 

Caricatures

I’m not very good at caricatures but here they are anyway. 

Editor at Large!

We're doing caricatures for our final term assignment for Character Design. I wanted to do my portfolio based on fashion icons and the first up is the fabulous Mr Andre Leon Talley! 

Vintage Bowles

Continuing the trend of fashion icons caricatures, here's the inimitable Mr Hamis Bowles. 

Grand Central Station

My second assignment for Storyboarding. Our class had to come up with a line for a story idea and we came up with “Mine is better” or “It’s not what it looks like”. I chose the latter though I don’t think what I ended up with totally fits that brief but I still like it. There are some corrections which I’ll do at the leica stage but here is what it looks like now. 

Run Hilda Run!

Finally finished my walk & run animation! This was a really fun project and I really enjoyed doing it which is kind of a surprise to me. I never really imagined myself to be an animator (except for when I was a kid) but after doing this I’m kind of entertaining the possibility of becoming one! 

Contrasting Characters

Ok yeah, everyone did a fat person vs a skinny person for our contrasting assignments but whatever. I had a good time with this one. 

Expressions

Expressions based on my caricature of Alber Elbaz. 

Narcissus

Something I was thinking of for character design but decided to go a different route. Still think it’s cute though! 

Echo

This was my original idea for my contrasting characters. Echo the nymph! 

A dream is a wish your heart makes!

Finally got some time do some personal work tonight. I decided to push my layout assignment further and do a painting of it. Worked some Mary Blair/Eyvind Earle inspiration together and this is what I got. 

UPDATE: I reworked my painting after Angela, my fairy godmentor gave me some tips. Looks much better! Thanks Ange!

Everyone loves Piotr!

Piotr Bielicki is our layout teacher for 2nd year and he is pretty spectacular. He’s also really fun to draw! 

Gods and Godsesses

Gods and Goddesses

I’m working on a new project about ancient myths and legends. I thought I would warm up by drawing my favourite Gods and Goddesses. The goal is to get these drawings painted before school starts! 

Popup store!

We’re finally open for business!

Beautiful things are in store at the West End General Store Popup located at 990 Nicola St in Vancouver’s West End. You can go see the line of bags I’ve worked on all summer for Forest and Waves along with other cool stuff from Oolloo Tea and Lemonni! 

Exciting news!

WÜNDERKID's film, Leggo My Preggo just got accepted into the Ottawa International Animation Festival!!! We will be part of the Student Showcase! So excited! 

Forest and Waves preview!

Here’s a little preview of Forest and Waves’ new summer catalogue! Ed designed tin camping mugs inspired by the animated short, Hedgehog in the Fog. 

Find more of us at ForestandWaves.com!

Adam and Eve

I thought I would have more time to do some personal projects this summer but this has not been the case! Between work, internship and friends, I have barely had any time to myself. I just decided I really need to just devote some time to get stuff done so here I am at 2:30am finishing personal projects. I'm tired but I'm feeling good! Eve is finally done and I think she's looking pretty cute!

Decided to go with the fig leaf for Adam. It was just too cute! I want some fig leaf underwear now. All you gotta do is slap it on! 

Eve foliage fashion

Possible Eve foliage fashion. I was thinking of just letting both Adam and Eve just go butt naked but Ed did point out that the fig leaf is kinda cute. I do agree so I decided to go for it.

What do you guys think? 

Internship with Forest and Waves

 Hey guys!

I hope you all are having a good summer so far. I’m writing this post like a letter because I feel so far away from everyone that I feel the need to formally address my missing you guys so much because I miss you guys SO MUCH! Does that make sense?

Anyway, I’m doing well (thanks for asking ;) I was supposed to give myself a break after school because I felt pretty exhausted after the final few weeks but after just few days I got right into my summer internship!

I’m doing a design internship for Ed Juan of Forest and Waves. I found out about Ed from pretty much internet stalking him since he graduated from Calarts in 2008. Since then he’s worked for all the big studios in LA and also Laika as a vis dev artist and is generally amazing (check out his thesis film here). Ed is continuing his work in animation but in more of a freelance position now since he started his new design studio, Forest and Waves. It's an outdoor and surfing company and he designs, illustrates and prints all the stuff himself with the help of one other person and now me! My duties range from ironing tea towels to packaging blankets to researching notions to marketing and also designing! I just finished my first prototype for him, a summer beach bag (he's the guy pictures holding the bag on his shoulder)! We're hoping to get this baby ready for the fall winter catalogue. 

I've also asked Ed to mentor me for animation/design so as the summer progresses I'll be showing him stuff I'm working on. I've been with him for only about 2.5 weeks now and I've already learned a lot about animation, the industry and basically what it takes to make it out there. Really cool stuff.

Oh, also I started a new summer job. I just started working for J. Crew (is that even a surprise for anyone?). I started today and it was actually a lot of fun. I don’t think I’ll be saving ANY money but I’ll definitely have enough chambray shirts to last me for five lifetimes. 

How are you guys doing? I hope you are all having a lot of fun and enjoying yourselves. Leave me love notes, please say hello. I miss all of you guys and I already cannot WAIT for school to start. 

Until next time,

Derek

Demo Reel 2014

The old adage is true but time does fly when you’re having fun. Putting together this demo reel made me remember all those long days and late nights but I don’t really remember how tired I was. I just remember that it was a lot of fun just being in the studio with my buds doing what we love. Awe. Now time to sleep for 4 months. Zzzzzzzzzzz

DateNight with Derek - A cooking show for one

I am so pleased to show the first episode of “Date Night with Derek - A cooking show for one”! On today’s show, I cook spaghetti carbonara! Here is the recipe below. It’s really up to you how much of any of these ingredients you want to put in. If you like the sauce more creamier, add more milk, cheesier, add more cheese, etc. 

step 1 

buy these ingredients:

pasta (a handful is good for one person)

bacon (if you’re feeling fancy, go buy some pancetta)

half white onion

olive oil

salt

pepper

parmigiano reggiano (said in a thick italian accent)! buy a good cheese not the ones that are pre-grated ones. it makes a huge difference! 

1/2 cup of cream

2 eggs

step 2

boil the pasta until al dente. it should be a bit firm when you bite into it. make sure you put salt in the water to flavour the pasta and olive oil so it won’t stick! 

step 3

cut the bacon and onion then cook in a frying pan. i suggest cooking the bacon first then once they’re crispy to take them out. use the residual oil to cook your onions until golden brown.

step 4

combine 2 eggs, half a cup of cream, grated parmesan cheese and pepper to make your sauce. it should be a thick consistency once you’re done. not thick like pancake mix but a bit more watery than that. if you’re making this for two people, just add an extra egg. if you want a richer taste, just use the egg yolks with the cream and cheese. 

step 5 

drain the pasta

step 6

mix everything together in the same bowl you cooked the pasta in. make sure you do this off the heat so you don’t get a scrambled egg sauce. this happened to me once. i still ate it and it was still good. that’s the great thing about this recipe, it’s hard to get it wrong. if you do get it wrong well then… come buddy. get yourself together! 

step 7

eat and enjoy!

***

Let me know if you guys actually make this! I’m interested to see how it went for you. Also, let me know abut recipe’s I should try or ones you would like to see in an upcoming episode of “DateNight with Derek”! 

Life Drawing

Here's my favourite drawings from the last two portfolios of the year. I've learned a lot this year and I just hope to keep getting better!