Last weekend for class sign up

Hey Everyone,

If you are looking to build on your character design skills, want to build up your character design / vis dev portfolio, or are looking for some professional feedback and draw overs for your character design work, then have a look at the two online character design classes I'm teaching that start up this weekend.  Both classes focus on different aspects of character design so for a closer look, click the links below.

Character Design for Animation

In character design for animation we focus on the fundamentals of character design, and explore a wide range of assignments that showcase the ways to apply these fundamentals to your work.

Character Design for Production

In character design for production, the class takes you through 8 weeks of professional character design pipeline, so that as we go along week by week, you have a better understanding of what it means to design characters on a professional schedule, and have the work to showcase that understanding.

Character Design for Production

With my online character design classes starting this weekend, I wanted to put a little more info out there about them.  One of the classes I offer is Character Design for Production.  This class is an 8 week course that takes you from beginning to end on the professional production of a character design.  Whether you prefer designing in a more graphic and 2-D style, or are looking to develop a design with more of a 3-D sensibility, this class covers it all.  We focus on the fundamental building blocks of designing characters for production, which is how to make your designs be functional characters for animation.  Each designer starts out with their own concept and story description for their character, and week by week, we take that concept and story through pose sheets, expression sheets, turn arounds, ect.  By taking our design concepts through all the production stages that a professional project requires, we let the design evolve towards the end result, which is a fully functional design that can act / perform on screen.  Each week has a different lecture and demo which focuses on a different aspect of the professional character design pipeline.  And as work is submitted each week, I do draw overs on top of the submitted designs and talk about things we can do to not only improve the said design, but to improve the big picture of the character.  By the end of the course, you'll have 3-4 new spreads for your portfolio that shows you not only have the understanding of designing a character for a professional production, but you also have the work in your portfolio to show it.

For more info on this class, or to register to sign up, click HERE

A....

...very distinguished Yeti

Online Summer Character Design Classes

Hey Everyone,

I'll be teaching 2 online classes this summer for character design.  For those of you who are interested and would like more info on the classes check out the links below:

 Character Design for Animation

Character Design for Production

I'll be posting about these two classes this week leading up to the start of the summer term, and if you want to see some demo sketches from the weekly live Q & A sessions we have during the online course, head over to my tumblr to see more

New Book Out Now "Monster Trucks"

Hey Everyone, this week marks the release of a new book I illustrated titled "Monster Trucks."  It's a fun and spooky smash'em up picture book written by the very talented Anika Denise.  If you want a sneak peek of the book, I'll have some pics posted over on my tumblr.  If you are interested in picking up the book you can find it in stores and online:

 Indie

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Tumblr Too

Hey everyone, I've started a tumblr to go along with this blog so if you are on tumblr you can check out my posts and updates there too, check the link below:

http://natewragg.tumblr.com/

New Year, New Books

With the new year, comes new projects.  And a few of those projects I have going on this year are the release of a couple new books, one of which is titled 10 Little Ninjas.  Written by Miranda Paul, this book hit's shelves later on this year.  You can Pre-Order the book online here.  I'll post some more previews as the book get's closer to release.

Elwood Doodles

Some early doodles of Elwood and his Birdie friends.  If you want to see more of Elwood, you can pick up the book online at Amazon , Barnes & Noble

Vampire Doodle

New Book Out Today

Hey Everyone,

Today is the release day of the latest book I illustrated, "Elwood Bigfoot: Wanted: Birdie Friends!" Written by the great Jill Esbaum, this is a story about Elwood, who's a big, clumsy, LOUD...and lonely Bigfoot.  It's hard for him to make friends, especially with the tiny, delicate birdies he loves so much.  If you are interested in picking this up, you can find this book at:
Amazon , Barnes & Noble and most places books are sold.

This book was a ton of fun to work on.  It's not often you are given the opportunity to work in the style and subject matter you love most, but in this case I was, and I had a blast from start to finish.  Above is the cover and below is one of my favorite pages.  I'll post more in the next few days.

Macaroons!

One of my favorite memories from our time in Paris...my girls and their macaroons!

Mr.Peabody & Sherman

So I know this post is several months late, but I figured there is still a few weeks left in 2014, so I'll post some work that I did for the 2014 release of Mr.Peabody & Sherman.  These are some beat boards I was asked to do several years ago for an earlier version of the movie.  The Art Team and Leadership on the project was great, and so the paintings that you see above is a sample of what I contributed to the show very early on.

Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears

If you are looking for a great Christams gifts for your little ones, pick up a copy of Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears.  I illustrated this musical spin on the classic Goldi Locks story and it's out everywhere books are sold.  The pictures above are a sneak peak of what you'll find inside. If you want to skip the lines and buy it online, you can find it on amazon HERE

Love my Lady

I was missing my better half the other day while I was at work, so I drew this to keep her close.

Dragons 2 Charity Auction for Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Above is the piece I created for the Dragons 2 Artists Collection Charity Auction.  If you'd like to bid on the piece you can do so HERE

To see the rest of the Pieces that are up for Auction, you can do so HERE

For mor info on the even, read below:

To celebrate DreamWorks Animation's most highly anticipated and visually stunning sequel, How to Train Your Dragon 2, over 70 artists and employees from DreamWorks Animation Studio contributed their original works to this collection to help support charity. All items were created and curated by the artist and donated to bring awareness of the film and raise money for the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. The DreamWorks Artist Collection, totaling 114 individual pieces, represent a wide range of sizes and formats and come to us from writers, directors, storyboard artists and employees at every level. This is DreamWorks Animation's first ever original show of this kind and it is now up for auction! The auction will close on Nov. 11th at 12pm PST.

At the Old Haunted House

Just in time for Halloween is a new book I just finished illustrating.  It's titled "At the Old Haunted House" and was written by Helen Kettman.  It's a spooky book filled with Ghosts and Ghouls and everything the slithers and goes bump in the night.  The pictures above and below are from the book, with the text not included.  You can find it in stores and online HERE

Band Shirt

A few years back, I was asked to create some art for a band t-shirt. They wanted something with a split screen idea, and so we ended up with this idea of 1/2 astronaut, 1/2 alien, in a Jim Flora-ish insipred design. 

ASStronauts

A few ASStronauts landing on an Alien Planet.

ASStronauts
10" x 15"
Acrylic & Paper Collage
2010

Last Nights Demo

Here is a little Vampire I drew last night as a Photoshop Clean-Up Demo for one of my CGMA Online Character Design Classes. 

Flight & Fury

As part of promoting the release of How to Train Your Dragon 2, a large collection of Dreamworks Artists are putting together a Gallery Show / Auction next month.  All of the money from the event will be donated to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles  The Gallery will be on dispaly at Gallery Nucleus from June 21st - July 6th, with the opening for the show on Saturday evening, June 21st.

Above is my submission for the show.

"Courious"
Paper Collage / Acrylic
8" x 10"
2014