Tuesday, March 23, 2010











Just started watching Breaking Bad, its a show about a chem teacher turned meth dealer. The writing is pretty good. So i decided to do a character design of the main character.

Also finishing up The Illusion of Life! Cafe sketching about every other day and still figure drawing once a week.

Also i hate how this blog template clusters my pics, anyone know how to fix?

Friday, March 5, 2010


So today i was sitting at my desk doing some digital work when one of the ninja turtles came to give me the mail, "hey dude, you got a package from that Ringling School," he said.

So none of this actually happened but i did get an acceptance package today! Oh and today is my 19th birthday.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The Days Go On...

As of today i still have not received any admission decisions from any of the schools i applied to. I should have news from SCAD and Ringling within the next 2 or so weeks, and CalArts sometime in March. Ill update as soon as i know.
Ive been trying to keep as busy as possible during this waiting period. Ive been cafe sketching 3-5 times a week, figure drawing once a week, digital painting almost daily, as well as listening to podcasts relating to art and animation, reading, and ChiuStream every Friday.
ChiuStream is a live video stream done by Bobby Chiu of Imaginism Studios. It consists of Bobby Chiu selecting a topic, which participants have one hour to paint/draw. Out of the top three voted entries Chiu selects a winner. Every once in a while Chiu will interview another professional artist and hold a contest for them. The latest is with Imaginism Art director Kei Acedera. These streams normally have a longer deadline (a weekish) and a lot more participants.
The topic for this interview was to redesign the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. I started this challenge off by doing a few sketches of normal every day house cats so i could have something to build on. I then tried drawing my version of the cat in various styles until i found something that i really liked. I then did the pencils (which were a bit more ambitious then the final) scanned in and painted on PS.





Also here are a list of some great podcasts on animation and art:
-Spline Doctors (Pixar)
-Speaking of Animation (DreamWorks)
-Sidebar (Comics/Art)
-Chris Oatley's Artcast (I'm featured in this episode(16:42). The piece was done late last year so forgive my lack of a complete composition)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Few sketches from this month. I should have more finished pieces in the future.






Wednesday, January 13, 2010

So as of today i have finished applying for both Ringling and Calarts. I should be hearing back from both early March. Im really hoping i can go this year. Ive been spending hours each day searching and applying for scholarships. So if anyone knows of any good ones please let me know.


I have also been working on a few freelance projects. This is an album cover i did for a friend the final with text can be viewed here If anyone is interested in commisioning please shoot me an email at yyates05@ymail.com


And a personal piece.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

So lately ive been working more on my portfolio(due 1/15) as well as a few free lance things. But i leave time to work on some personal things.

During my cafe sketching ive been trying to make my drawings more simple and try to grab the essence of the scene instead of just copying it. So here is an evolution of drawings.




Monday, December 21, 2009

The Portfolio

This is my portfolio for Ringling College of Art and Design -Computer Animation major. Still
working on getting it down to 10 pieces please leave a comment or critique.
1.MY-014
2MY-012
3MY-008
4MY-017
5MY-003
6MY-19
7ball-and-glove
8Pots-Yates
9vol.7_2
10vol.7
11MY-004
12MY-010
13 MY-002