Diary of a Small Supermarket

The BYU Creamery on Ninth sells balloons, and I was there buying some when I noticed a peculiar notebook in the corner. It was a diary. Of the supermarket. Apparently the employees communicate problems from night crew to morning stockers via this little notebook, but it contained some golden entries.

Enjoy!









This Michael is actually a girl and she married, you guessed it--a Michael. He's a Jr.

The soulbone's connected to the good drawing bone

Bones are like souls--they only show through sometimes, but it's always at really important junctures.

The tany below is a marvelous work in real life--I spent a good 30 min studying it and whoever sculpted knew his anatomy...very, very well. He didn't have tension and relaxation down, but mass, volume, and twisting where all there. I was looking at a real dinosaur.

These were drawn sometime last summer...along with 3-4 (or more) other sketchbooks of this stuff.

If you're wondering eremotherium is Science for "giant sloth." I had a great joke about what it really means, but am exercising my right to discretion...*sigh* ...it was really funny, but alas, also terribly inappropriate...

Graphic Novels

So my friend Jake Wyatt lent me Blankets-- the first graphic novel I've read. I've never been too into comic books (a sin?), but I have a big story I think would work great for the medium. Seeing as it will take 5 years of my life you will definitely hear about it if it decide to do it.

Early Winter Sunset

Few things are as inspiring as a snowy mountain sunset.

A unique advantage of studying at BYU is having a giant white "Y" on our mountain as we have a perfect reference for what an absolute white looks like in the lighting scheme. Pretty cool.

Gestures

A few quick gestures. Much finished artwork to come soon.

Dream

Just woke up from a dream, started fiddling with my phone, and found
Autodesk Sketchbook. I am absolutely certain it stomps on other
sketching and painting programs for the iPhone. Very intuitive and
sleek. Thanks, Autodesk, for making the free version uber useful!

These are sequential images

Please leave the story in a comment if you can imagine a relationship between the two images. Yes I painted them one right after the other so your guess is as good as any. I don't know how they relate myself.

Where Clouds Play - Redone

I was not happy with the first draft so I went at it again. While I think there is a distinct improvement I'm not really sure how I feel about the piece. I can't decide whether it's over done or not...

New Avatar

In honor of nothing in particular I have changed my avatar from my famous mullet picture. I received many many requests from women to change the picture (it was too scary I think), and I did quite a while ago on Facebook, but I wanted something more artsy here. So I painted this.

30 minute value studies

Can't sleep.

The second one was hard.

Sketches from the weekend

Zion Design

Here's another Zion-inspired design. Yes I know they don't have oceans like this at Zion National Park. Thank you.

Jenna Kimble's Flying Monkey

I did a CD cover about a month ago that featured this flying monkey.

Fun with Skeletons @ Thanksgiving Point!

According to the freeway signs, I live next to the largest dinosaur museum on the planet...hmm...Somehow I find that a little improbable. At an rate, I figured if they could claim to be the biggest it was probably worth the $10 entrance fee, and it was! The top two images are from a Gastonia (a type of Anklyosaur). The bottom is a crocodile skull. Did you know crocodiles have been around since the time of dinosaurs? That was news to me! Anyway it is a lot of fun.

Josh Black's Painting-a-Day

So my friend Josh Black claims he can do a painting a day. I'm not sure if I can do that, but I'm going to try to do more than him, at least. Hopefully one day I can attain to the quality of his, but alas, we will see...some day. If anyone else wants to join the contest--bring it on!

The Girl Without Hands

Along with not posting for a few months, I've written a short story entitled The Girl Without Hands. The idea was to take a story that could only be told in animation and develop it into a book of production-worthy concept artwork. In this case, the concept that made the film impossible in live action was a main character without hands--audience's shrink at the thought. But it's not impossible in animation! Here is a preview of a few of the pictures I've done in the last month, with many more to come. I just want people start seeing what I see in the story.

Color images are concept and black & white are story boards with lighting values. I haven't quite decided the aspect ratio of the film.

I plan on publishing the book, including the short story and (hopefully) 100 pages of concept art, in the future, when I think the artwork is to a point that it can get me a job.

This is probably all you will see me post on the subject for awhile.

Mother's Day - Arr!

I know I ruined the pic but who cares? It's Mother's day! ....or was

R-rated Movies - An LDS, BYU Animation Student's Perspective

I have written an article on R-rated movies from an LDS perspective. When I wrote this article I was a student in the BYU Animation program.

If you are not LDS but have sometimes wondered why your Mormon friends are picky about what they watch, or have "black and white" rules about movie consumption, the article should answer your questions. It is, however, written to a Mormon audience. There is a division in Mormondom (if that's a word) on this subject, because some are pretty strict about it, but the official rules I don't think are quite so clear-cut, leaving the choice to the viewer's discretion.

R-rated, an LDS Student's Viewpoint

Progress

To brighten my mood I decided to post some work from this time last year. This is from our senior film, Crossing. Yes that is my "design" for a joshua tree. It was precisely a year ago that I recognized how incredibly inept I was, and although I could see things in my mind, yet I could not translate them onto the page as I wanted to. My understanding of 3-dimensional space was not very well developed. And while I still have a long way to go, at least I'm progressing.

Birthday

So for my birthday I woke up early and caught up on a lot of missed blog reading. It was depressing. I'm going back to bed.

New sketch

Hi. Just a new sketch. Not really sure what's going on. Just trying to
figure out and experiment with my tools.

Anatomy Lesson

I have written articles on the following subjects:

Artistic Anatomy from the Latter-day Saint Perspective: Its Purpose and Power

Art vs. Pornography: Practical Advice for the Student Artist with Values

Practical Information on How to Study Anatomy

These articles will be updated as I feel it is needed.

Vanessa

Vanessa helped me out. She had to hold her arms like that for 5 hours. Try it sometime.

I think this is the best one to date.

Why do I see art as being inextricably connected with my religion?

The answer lies in how I see the answer to the age-old question to the artist: "Where do your ideas come from? What is it that inspires you?"

My simple answer is that my ideas come from God and so does my inspiration. I will one day compile a list of artists that have believed the same, for they are many.

In my religion we believe in something called continuing revelation. A revelation is essentially a God-given "good idea" (that can sometimes claim to be an eternal truth). It's "continuing" because many religions don't really believe it happens in modern times, particularly in regard to revealing new or lost truths about the universe and our place in it.

But that is what I consider big revelation, and it doesn't happen as often, but what I receive as an artist is basically the same thing on very very small scale. Nevertheless it is my own, and I believe that when I have a good idea, or when my synaptics connect in my brain and I learn something, that it happens either directly or indirectly because of a higher power. Directly because I believe He has the power to enlighten and inspire me, and indirectly because He's the one that created me and is guiding me through my life's story, and as such, all things are an indirect result of His handiwork.

These truths I learn are almost always related to art, because art is my life and my passion. As I have more good ideas and more inspiration I become a better and better artist.

In regards to my religion, we canonize additional revelations every so often. One such collection is called the Doctrine & Covenants. It contains a record of what God has spoken to and through a latter-day prophet named Joseph Smith. Joseph is kind of like Moses but without the beard.

Thus, because of revelation I see all my art as a byproduct of God's handiwork. As such, I treat God like I would a Renaissance Master, and I trust in the judgments and good ideas He gives me, as well as the guidance, direction, and rules He places upon me, for I trust that as I obey them the mysteries I do not now understand will be unfolded to my view more rapidly than if I was to trust in myself, or the scientific method, alone.

Who wouldn't trust Michelangelo if he were alive today and teaching sculpture? Then why not God?

Charcoal headpainting

I know some people like to call them drawings but I'm pretty certain
it's more like painting. I just finished this about 10min ago.
Uploaded with my iPhone.

A new Religion label

In accordance with a class I am taking that requires it, I have decided to start including topics of religious significance on this blog.

I consider my conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church) to be the capstone of my life and the singular event (although the process spanned several years and is ongoing still) that has changed my life for the better more than anything else I have done in my life.

I encourage everyone to ask questions about our place in this world, the meaning of life, and any other subject that seems important to them.

These religious posts will generally link to larger papers or articles outside of my blog so that it doesn't become distracting for visitors to the artwork.  I have chosen to include them, however, because it's pretty much what you would get in a conversation with me, since my views on art are inextricably connected to my religion.

To filter just the religion articles click the "religion" label at right.

The American Marriage Debate

Much has been said about same-sex marriage and most of it is hot-headed nonsense, so I decided to educate myself on the subject. I recommend all Americans to do the same. If you want a jump start, here's the product of my 40+ hours of research which I didn't finish but have a goal to within the next six months. I am against the legalization of same-sex marriage in America but pro LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) relationships that are legally considered marriage. Sound contradictory? Read my paper.

A brief paper where I argue that America needs 2 types of legal marriages, one which allows for the raising of children and one which doesn't (This paper is currently in an unfinished state WITHOUT footnotes, but with a few minor and rather arbitrary citations because I had to turn the paper in. The finished paper will be perforated with them):
What is Marriage and Why are People Saying Gays Can't Have It?

My works cited of scholarly sources (with one or two minor exceptions I will take out when I get the time; my paper is built on the scholars):
Works Cited - Marriage Debate

Feel free to comment on the subject or send me an email with your opinions.

Portfolio Blog

Hey for anyone interested I just created a portfolio blog to help me as I try to get a concept design job. It sums up everything that I am in the art department...kind of a shame all my technical skills don't really exist...

http://michaelmercerportfolio.blogspot.com/