Moving Day

Hey Guys,

For anyone who still visits here, I'm starting fresh and moving over to Tumblr!  So come visit me at:   http://benreynoldsart.tumblr.com

Thanks!

The ABCs of Northern Ghana

I was recently asked to be part of an amazing project for students in Northern Ghana through Tools for Schools Africa Fdn. It's a book called “9 Degrees North: The ABCs of Northern Ghana” and its available now right here. All of the artists in this book donated their time to create a fun, engaging book for students to learn in a really unique way. There are beautiful illustrations of each letter of the alphabet by some amazing artists. I joined the project late so I wasn't able to do a letter, but I did a spot illustration on the introduction page. It's a beautiful looking book and you can read more info about how you can send one to students in Ghana right here. Please take a look because its a great cause. Special thanks to Mike Boldt for putting this all together and for asking me to be involved.

Beer League

I did this illustration for a friend who plays in a Mens rec hockey league, or "beer league" as they're sometimes known. Usually because if you win you drink beer. And if you lose you drink beer. And then you look like this guy.

Merry Christmas!

My version of the big jolly red guy. Merry Christmas everyone!!

CTNX Wrap-up!

This is a bit late but I just wanted to share a couple photos and memories from attending my first ever CTN Animation Expo in Burbank, California. It was an amazing experience and I hope to go next year. If you work in Animation or a related field (or if you're just a really big fan), I strongly suggest you attend. The level of talent all in one room is mind-blowing! I had the opportunity to meet a lot of amazing artists like John Nevarez, Willie Real, Mike Yamada, Victoria Ying, Stephen Silver, Mark McDonnell, and many, many more. Plus I got to spend a lot of time with my ol' buddy Hans. It was a blast. To all the artists that I ran into - it was great to meet you! Check out a few pics I took at the event:


Peter de Seve and John Nevarez on stage doing their thing.


A picture I snapped of some drawings John Nevarez had going on his table.


Character Design workshop by Sergio Pablos (Hercules, Tarzan, Rio, Treasure Planet, etc).


John Nevarez working on the Cintiq.


Some of my swag from Mike Yamada, Victoria Ying, Willie Real, Stephen Silver and Christophe Lautrette.


Bye bye L.A...till next year!

CTN Animation Expo!!

Hey All - I'll be attending my first CTN Animation Expo in a few weeks! I've wanted to go since its inception, so I'm pumped to finally make it. I'm looking forward to learning lots, meeting lots of artists that are inspirational to me and to just soak it all in (including some weather). If you happen to read my blog let me know - I'd like to meet all of you!

New Website

Check out my brand new website!

www.benreynolds.ca

Forest Creatures Redux

So I just pulled out some designs from the past and worked on them a bit. It was fun to revive this work that I originally posted here.

Still rough sketches, but before they were REALLY rough. Threw some quick colour on them too. Enjoy!

Monster Pet Shop

Hey Guys,

I'm super pumped to finally show a project I've been working on for a while called "Monster Pet Shop"! Its a game for iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) and is available now in the App store. In the game you own and run a pet shop, and you fill it with....Monsters. Ok that part was already pretty clear, but this was a ton of fun to work on and Art Direct. I got to design hundreds of Monsters, tons of other characters, backgrounds, etc. Below is some of my favourite rough artwork from the game, and some finished bits. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

The Wife and I

On April 2nd I got married!! It was an amazing day, and I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to be married to the most beautiful, caring, sweet girl that is also my best friend. (Gonna score points if she ever visits this blog! Aka..I'm not going to score points) 3 weeks in and let me tell you marriage has been awesome! I love my wife tons and this is a drawing to prove it. Thanks for visiting!

Christmas Dragon

Thought I'd post this really quick sketch of a standard run-of-the-mill Christmas Dragon. I drew this one a bit differently...really quick right in Photoshop just done with shapes using the selection tool.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Alien Sundae

Recently I had the pleasure of working on a Flash-based game called "Alien Sundae". It was fun for sure. I mean who doesn't love drawing Aliens and Ice Cream right? The characters are all done in Flash and the BG's are Photoshopped. Word up.

Jungle Friends

Hey Everybody - my promises of more posting? Those were lies. I have, however, dug this little goody up from the archives. This is some work I did for an education Flash-based game back a while ago. The client wanted the characters to be VERY simple, almost "fisher-price" like. They didn't want the characters to have legs etc...just basically "ball" lower halves, like you see here. Since they were going to be so small in the game (bouncing around) and it was for little kids I feel the style really worked. The main character was this girl you see above and she is a jungle explorer. She goes around making friends with all these animals. But guys! I know what you're thinking: "oh, isn't this a happy game!"...but there are poachers and hunters ok? So stop smiling.

Canada Gets Active

About 6 months ago I had a chance to work with the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA) on a project called "Canada Gets Active". It's an initiative across Canada that supplies Grade 5 students with a Community Activity Pass that provides them with FREE access to designated recreation facilities. It was a great project to work on, and is a great effort by the CPRA. I created a poster design, logo, characters, as well as the actual passes for the kids to use. Here's a look at the sketch of the characters from the poster design. The characters we created for the project were based on sports equipment so as to avoid race and gender. Hopefully I can show more soon. Read more about "Canada gets Active" here!

Bodybuilding Bird

I was recently approached by Fusion Bodybuilding to create a custom illustration/character for their Twitter page. The Twitter bird has really been hitting the gym hard. Enjoy!