Pauls Concepts

Rioichi Cooper design for Sly Cooper Thieves in Time

2011-11-14T21:50:00.000-08:00

A recent painting I did of Rioichi Cooper, one of Sly's ancestors from Feudal Japan done for the December issue of Game Informer. The design had been alluded to in the previous games cinematics, so it was fun to develop the design a bit more. This image is also on Game Informer's site next to some other art I had done earlier for the E3 press release of Sly cooper earlier this year, you can see it here. This was fun to do, the deadline was tight on it, but it was good to be able to show a little more detail than the earlier released paintings that were mostly in silhouette. I put a detail up also, enjoy! For a current look at the most recent released screenshots look here.

Radio City Rockettes Christmas show

2011-11-10T08:33:00.000-08:00

One of my clients Reel FX asked me to do some designs for the environments in the newest Radio City Rockettes Christmas show. The whole show is 3d and digitally mapped so it should be a pretty cool experience. I just saw the new site and noticed my designs are on the home page so I thought I'd show the initial sketches for it. I wasn't going to post em at first as the drawings aren't much to look at but these were just for the design of the Castle. I worked on a few other areas and characters but I don't want to spoil the show! Check out the making of video on the rockettes site! To see a preview of what the show is going to look like.

The Untitled Art Show

2011-10-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be interviewed on a live radio show tonight called the Untitled art show. You can listen to it live or later after the show it's available for podcast download on i-tunes or live streaming on the site here: http://untitledartshow.com/

Coastal studies

2011-09-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Studies and experiments from a few years ago.

Judy Moody stuff

2011-08-24T14:51:00.000-07:00

I did a few color key paintings for the CG. sequences done in the Judy Moody and the not Bummer Summer film. It was actually pretty fun, went super fast and was able to see the final result in the film quickly. The movie was kind of for a young adolescent audience and unless you fall into the 12 year old girl category maaaybe it's not for you, But I still had fun working on the dream sequences. If you're interested in seeing how they turned out, go to the link above and you can find an example on the bottom of the videos to the left.

Sketchbook pages

2011-08-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook pages from 08

Flapjack figure drawings

2011-06-28T19:13:00.001-07:00

I went to a figure session the other day. It was good to do some personal work for a change. Lookin forward to doing more.

Sly Cooper Thieves in Time

2011-06-07T01:40:00.000-07:00

So Sly Cooper Thieves in Time was announced at E3 today and I have some art that has been released for now that I thought I'd share! I did these images just before E3, didn't have a lot of time to do them and had a full plate with other assignments, but I liked how these ones turned out. They are supposed to all be very dark and mostly in silhouette so they don't reveal too much just yet. The layout's were designed to match the teaser done for Sony's E3 press conference. And the animatic for that was laid out by my co worker James who has been doing a great job on the IGC's. I have a ton of concept art for this project as I have been working on it for 2 years now! So glad the cat's finally out of the bag! Keep checkin back, cause I'm planning on posting more after the game releases! For now, check out more here! http://kotaku.com/5809279/sly-cooper-thieves-in-time-art-and-trailer-steal-beauty/gallery/

Alice

2011-05-06T00:33:00.000-07:00

I recently got an email from a college student named Alice asking me to draw her, I guess I needed a break from work art so I decided it was a good excuse to do some personal art. This is the fastest I've ever done anything that someone has asked for hehe. I guess I just got inspired by her photos. Hope she likes it! I wanted to post something to show my appreciation to visitors, when my visitor stats hit 50,000, thanks to everyone who keeps checking in on my blog and following my work progression! I will try to keep getting better in the future hopefully you will keep following my journey!

Robot n Redhead Battle

2011-05-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

I did this sketch quite a while ago but never quite finished it. I really wanted to put more into it but figured I might as well post it as is and I can always go back to it later when there's time. I've been workin like crazy lately but hopefully soon I will be able to show the fruits of my labors. Hope y'all like:)

models

2011-04-30T00:42:00.000-07:00

Reminiscing

2011-04-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

A great time in my life and also a sad time in my life. I found this sketch and decided to post... why not? Hope she's ok.

Rocks

2011-03-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when I have time, I do random sketches of things just for practice. I usually don't show them cause they usually turn out bad or don't have a purpose. But I felt like showing a few over the next few days, just to keep people checkin back. This was a practice experiment I did a long time ago but was too shy to show it!

Badass Model!!

2011-01-18T21:35:00.000-08:00

I recently got an email from Bruno Camara saying that he modeled my Viking Thrall Character design from Tomb Raider Underworld and man was I blown away! I love it! Just had to share because it is such a pleasure to see the design translated with the attention to style and design that I had in mind from the start. This guy is a bad ass and did a bad ass job! This is an old design from a while ago but still, I want to see him model some of my newer designs! All design copyright Crystal Dynamics/Eidos the models were done as fan art.

More MEGAMIND stuff!

2010-11-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

I decided to post some more stuff from Megamind. At the top, Titan fighting Megaminds robot early development piece. I did some design stuff for Minion who used to be a little midget dude with a jetpack that was Megamind's right hand man. This is before his character changed into a fish, I really prefer the new design it turned out great! Also Some pre-vis for the Metroman museum I was working on this with Erwin Madrid and pretty much did the same shot as him as I was trying to design the statue, his turned out much better than mine. Under that is the museum store with a bunch of "Ubertoys" and memorabilia before they changed his name to Metroman. Then some more of the giant robot just a different take on it than the one I posted before. The Metrocity development was to show the contrast between Hals neighborhood and the skyscrapers. I put cranes on the rooftops because they are always rebuilding the city as the superhero battles constantly destroy stuff. These are all unfinished and could be a lot better. But I thought if would be fun to post what I did for people to see. Hope it doesn't hurt your eyes too bad. heheh... All images copyright Dreamworks Animation.

Megamind in theatres!!

2010-11-08T23:17:00.000-08:00

I worked on Megamind right after finishing up Afro Samurai. I had the honor to work with some amazingly talented people who are also great friends over at PDI DREAMWORKS. You can see some of the artists in my links section. The look for Megamind went through some interesting takes. I did some early pre-vis/ look development so make sure you stay after and look for my name in the credits! heheh As you can see the giant robot looked much different at one point the piece on top was a collaboration between myself and Dermot Power. I used it in the key below for the scene where Titan is fighting Megamind in the city. The observatory piece was a collaboration between myself and Alex Puvilland. I will post more stuff later. Make sure you go see it!! and Buy the Art of book on amazon!! Some of my art is in it! Congrats to my good pals and everyone who worked on it! Great to see how this film came together! All work copyright Dreamworks animation.

More Plein Air

2010-10-07T01:01:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday! So I wanted to mark it by posting a painting. First one of the year, lets see how many I can do this year. I went to Garin Regional Park in the east bay a while ago and here is the result. I had a hard time that day because of the sun that was beating down on me, and illuminating the canvas from behind for a while. But super excited to go out that morning, got up at 5am and saw the sun come up! Good thing I had my paintin buddy with me or I don't think I couldn't mustered the motivation. The colors of the hills are mostly yellows cause all the vegetation is dead and dry this time of year. Hopefully I can catch it when things are green and do a side by side shot. I hope you're all not getting tired of seeing plein air paintings from me, I'll try and post something different soon when I have more time, just to switch it up a bit. Thanks for reading!

Plein air in Pacifica.

2010-09-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

We went to rockaway beach again over the weekend a while ago and I did this painting, it is dried just enough for me to scan it the paint was still a little sticky hehe. It was an overcast day that day so was a challenge to see what colors I was putting down. I had fun, hope y'all like!

Dragon Sketch

2010-08-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

This was part of a bigger painting that I cropped into. I was playing with lighting and edge treatments mostly with this one. I had fun doin it, just a couple hours sketch keepin things sketchy.

Plein air Painting

2010-08-12T00:08:00.000-07:00

I did these at Piccetti winery and Rockaway beach. It was the first time in 7 years or so that I'd picked up an actual paintbrush! The health inspectors at my old art school came through my senior year and made everyone switch to water based oils because regular oil paints are bad for us. I started painting digitally more anyway and was kind of scared away from it a little. But I love it way to much to give up completely! I'm bringin back the traditional roots and having a lot of fun so far! By the way, the smallest one was about 2"x4" it was challenging to paint so small. The largest size is of rockaway beach which was 8"x10"

Lion O is not gay!

2010-08-09T23:51:00.000-07:00

Okay maybe he is a little, but he was fun to draw. I was just experimenting and sketching tonight. Usually I don't put this stuff on my blog because I'm afraid you people will deem it unblogworthy, but figured I haven't posted in a while so...

Character sketch diaper dude

2009-12-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

Just to keep it going...

Funeral procession float ideations.

2009-10-03T01:37:00.000-07:00

Afro Samurai concepts showin some thumbnails in the left corner. It was fun to draw.

Take a look at my soul

2009-09-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

Don't usually do art as a form of self expression. I guess a lot of people do, and it makes them feel better. I want to be able to let go and not worry so much about what it looks like to other people sometimes. This one was an exercise in that. Just a quick piece maybe 30 min to 1 hr. didn't think much just let go. Though there are hints of meaning in there for me. I was really frustrated at the time and painted it instead of wrote it down or talking about it.

The Art of Games Italy

2009-06-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

Here's one pic from a recent group show I was a part of In Valle D Aosta Italy, which is about a 2 hour drive west of Milan. Close to the border of France. From Left to right: Mattias Hogvall, Barontieri, Nick Oroc, Jason Felix, the guy who printed our stuff whose name I cant remember, Jim Murray, Daniel Dociu, Politician guy, Me, Allesandro Tiani, Valentina Marchetti and some other guys involved in various capacities. This was an amazing experience and I feel extremely thankful to have been a part of it. I was lucky to have the opportunity to meet and exhibit my art next to some of the most talented people in the games industry today. There are definitely more amazing talents out there that I'm sure we'll see more of in the future as video game and film development work gets more recognition in the rest of the world.
I am so thankful to have met these other guys, their work is amazing and they're great people which makes me like thier work more. I was looking forward to meeting some more of the artists involved Like Craig Mullins, Stephan Martiniere, Kekai Kotaki among others, but unfortunately only 7 of the 13 were able to make it out at the same time.

Thanks to everyone who made this possible!

I'm going to post some pics on flikr soon, just need to find time to set up an account and stuff.
For a full list of Artists go to http://theartofgames.eu and click the artists link. So keep checking back!

Lobster ship

2009-06-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

A speed painting that started with a brush experiment. It's a little different for me, and that's what I was going for. Trying to challenge myself when I have time, to design things differently than I would normally.
I couldn't decide which palette I like best so I'll put em both up. Lemme know which one you think is better.

Daimyo Armory

2009-06-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to change it up a bit. The last few things I put up here are in a different style and I don't want to give the impression to all the non scroller downers that this is all I've done. I had fun with this piece and wanted to share. I will be adding it to my website along with more unseen stuff soon.
And I just got back from Italy for the Art of Games Show that I was included in. I will post a few pics in the next few days or so... promise.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of easter this year, I gave this dude some bunny ears. Another image that I'm hoping to sell limited edition Giclee prints of at the Gallery opening.

Midnight Snack

2009-03-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

This sketch isn't finished either, I am working on another one to accompany it. I'll upload that later. That blue light is from the refrigerator door being left open. mmmmmmhmhmhmhmm num nom nom.

2009-03-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

This is an in progress sketch, that I'm hoping to be selling prints of among others in The Art of Games show, at Valle d'Aosta Italy. I'll blog more about that later but for now look at the Sketch inspired by one of my favorite movies "King Kong" with a twist. This isn't finished, I'll post it again when it is.

2009-03-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

Clan Design sketches

2009-02-19T14:37:00.000-08:00

Some character clan ideas for Afro Samurai. Some of them made it in and for some of them they didn't have time to include them. In order from top to bottom the different clan names are, the furious five, the fighting nine and the pole cats. I had fun with these. I guess I haven't normally done group shots like this in the past. But it's really good to develop ideas together and see how they work compared to each other.

Afro Shipped today!

2009-01-27T13:37:00.000-08:00

Today Afro Samurai slices through shelves! This was one of the most fulfilling experiences I've had so far professionally, I really enjoyed working on this project. I'm really excited and hope this one does well because the team on this project was amazing! Everyone really worked hard to get this project finished and even harder when they wanted to include that little something extra that they felt would make it even more bad ass! Everyone on this team was truly passionate about it and that's why they worked so hard and put in so many extra hours to get it done. We had a small team of really competent people and I am honored that they let me contribute and be a part of it! I have nothing but good things to say about this team and I could go on, but if you're here, you probably just want to look at pictures anyway... And check out the site! bloodisbeautiful.com

Arctic Sea

2009-01-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

Underwater, quick paintings for TRU. I'm playin this part in the game and remembered that I did these pieces so I was inspired to post em.

Underworld Character designs

2008-12-31T18:41:00.000-08:00

Alright, the last entry of '08 Some Tomb Raider Character Designs. Hope y'all dig em! Hopefully '09 will bring new and improved... everything! The top left one is an early concept of what the Doppleganger was going to look like. and the other is Alister.

Outta Shapes

2008-12-02T22:23:00.000-08:00

I did this today at lunch. Dreamworks is nice enough to offer free figure sessions every week. I dig em... sometimes.
I have a habit of nicknaming my models, so I can remember the drawings I've done. This one is called outtashapes.

Couple Characters For Underworld

2008-11-24T17:21:00.000-08:00

These characters were done in pre-production for Tomb Raider Underworld. I did the Lara Design based on what we already had because they weren't sure if they wanted the costume to change that much, so it was really more of an illustration of her at that point. And the second design is for senator Rutland, I think he later got cut from the game but this is my design for him, I kind of liked the way his expression turned out. I have a lot more stuff from that project that I will be uploading and hopefully interspersing between other posts so as to not be too redundant.

Early Development for Tomb Raider Underworld

2008-11-21T00:05:00.000-08:00

Both of these pieces are early development sketches. The top one I was just trying to show the scale of the Kraken by having Giant tentacles with smaller and medium sized tentacles on them that from a distance maybe looked like hair or something and group them to look like a shape. The bottom piece was done for the Kraken Area before anyone knew what we wanted to do. It was kind of fun to explore different ideas that could possibly translate over. I wanted Lara walking toward the castle to be the first read and seeing the Kraken on top and surrounding it to be second and third. I thought it would be cool to hide the tentacles in the environment so you didn't notice at first that she just walked past a giant Kraken tentacle, this things taking up the entire cave!

2008-11-18T23:24:00.000-08:00

Here are some images from Tomb Raider Underworld, which is available now in stores. I Worked on most of the characters and handled a lot of the underground areas. I will post more as the days progress cause it's too much to do all at once so keep checking back for updates! And leave some comments lurkers geez.

Study

2008-11-11T23:41:00.000-08:00

This is from a Tuesday drawing session.

2008-10-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

The first one is from last week, when a few co-workers and I went out at lunch to paint... since I couldn't find my paints. I did a sketch and then painted this when I got home from memory. It was a really quick one.

And the second is from last year and the first time I used goache.

Venti Frappaccino no whip

2008-07-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

This is from the frappaccino session. Hopefully I'll be posting more new stuff soon, I've been busy with life lately. I'll mos def put up some new stuff from the recent Tomb Raider Underworld project as well as Afro Samurai as soon as the games ship and I am able to.

Frappaccino

2008-07-24T00:51:00.000-07:00

This is an old figure study of this girl I have come to know as frappaccino, because she came to the class having chugged her coffee and wouldn't stop talking to people. She even got a little aggressive with some people. But I had fun drawing her anyway. I guess I tried to take her energy and put it into my drawings, figuratively speaking.

Doodle Action

2008-05-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

I saw there will be blood recently, hmmm kinda eerie. But one of the characters in the movie was in my head and I wanted to sketch him, apparently on a pink piece of paper...

Dan's Ink

2008-05-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

I did this almost 2 yrs ago now I think? But it's a tattoo design for one of my best buddies Dan. I also did some concept sketches of what it would look like on his body where he was thinking about getting it done. He ended up putting 2, one on either side of his body, each kind of wrapping around from his lower back to the inside of the top of his thigh. I think he just likes to have an excuse to pull his pants down in front of people. ha!

More Afro

2008-04-29T20:02:00.000-07:00

These mood pieces were done for the Afro Samurai project I'm currently working on at Namco Bandai Games. They were recently released on the web so I thought it would be kosher to post em here. I've been itchin to actually post the stuff I am currently working on so this is a taste of some of that stuff.

I've been havin a lot of fun working on this project... All images copyright Paul Sullivan and Namco Bandai Games America.

Monument Valley

2008-04-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

Some environments I did for the Afterburner Black Falcon game. They wanted kinda saturated colors. The top one I think I spent a few hours on then the other two took me around 30 min of painting after each sketch was finished. At this point, I was going through some difficulty grasping how I get digital painting to look the way I wanted it to. I was still kinda experimenting with my approach and thought process. Which is still an ongoing thing that varies from painting to painting. But it's getting a little bit smoother I think.

Tomb Raider Concept re-visited

2008-04-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to do something to this piece to finish it off because it never quite felt finished. So I decided to paint a little more on it, I might keep going with it but as it stands now I guess I like it better than I did before.
I did this one for Tomb Raider Anniversary. It was supposed to be the final boss battle of the game, all crazy and stuff. But we cut it due to time constraints.

Card Illustration

2008-04-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

He failed his test...

It's ok. dood, we've all been there. Copyright Paullmark cards 2007

Figure studies old and new

2008-04-07T17:01:00.000-07:00

I went to San Jose State to sit in on a figure drawing class a few weeks back. They only wanted the do fives so there wasn't much of an opportunity to put any detail and value. The bottom two images are from that and the top ones are a little older like '05 ish. And those pages are composed of 1's to 15's I think. I need to go more often to keep it fresh. But I love Figure drawing, the study of anatomy and the human figure has always been a great passion of mine.

More Lunch time sketching.

2008-04-01T23:11:00.001-07:00

Here's some more lunch time sketches from back at Crystal D. The first one is a brush pen painting. And the second was just pencil, and an exercise to try and show a separation of the trees, where there wasn't much of an obvious separation.

Lunch time sketches

2008-03-31T23:58:00.001-07:00

I did these last year when I was working on the Tomb Raider projects. I used to go out at lunch and sketch trees with my friends Ben and Shao Wei, and I think Seamas went once or twice. It was a nice way to get fresh air and inspiration.

Afro Samurai Concepts

2008-03-17T21:49:00.001-07:00

This is a sneak peek of some Afro Samurai concept art, that was released for publication in the February issue of PLAY magazine. Copyright Namco Bandai Games America.

Zombies!

2008-03-17T00:35:00.000-07:00

These were for a game pitch back in the day, it was 2 weeks workin on zombies and then BAM! no more zombies... just like that... sigh

sunset color study

2008-03-17T00:13:00.000-07:00

This is a random sunset color study I did from the ol noggin. Trying to get a good palette and stuff...
Just for fun.

Quick enviro sketch

2008-03-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

So I decided to jump on the ol bloggin bandwagon.
Just messin around... practicing, in the hopes that one day I will figure out how to paint. I spent around 10-15 min. on this one.