Aaron Quist

...It's a thing.

2012-01-13T00:02:00.001-06:00

Random "thing" of the day. Looks like he's in perpetual pain. Should definitely add him to the "existence is haard" art series.

Draggin' Along

2011-12-30T17:58:00.000-06:00

A new illustration in the spirit of 2D platform shooting games like Metal Slug. I love the look of those games, and really wanted to capture that clunky and fat vehicle design style. Tons of fun painting this one!

Draggin' Along
Digital
2011

Fruit, Fowl, and Fish

2011-11-23T13:09:00.000-06:00

Doodles from the old sketchbook. Total experiment drawing straight ahead with ink. Some characters I love, and some should have never been born. I'll let you decide which is which...

"They should all be destroyed"

-Robert Muldoon

Armadillers and Winged Beasts

2011-10-14T23:00:00.000-05:00

Some more doodles

2011-10-04T00:44:00.001-05:00

Fun with pencil and copic marker:)

Happy Cloud Man & Friends

2011-10-02T11:17:00.001-05:00

Had an awesome time at 24-hour comic day at the MN Center for Book Arts yesterday. Feeling a bit hungover, so to speak. So, here are some pen & ink doodles on smooth bristol.

Also, a great TED talk on how doodling is actually good for your brain, rather than a complete waste of time. My existence has been validated.

"Bud & Blu" Process

2011-09-21T00:51:00.000-05:00

Finished clay sculpting and priming my "Bud & Blu" Munny design. Next comes painting, once I regain consciousness from all these fumes.

Froggie Sketches

2011-09-18T20:23:00.000-05:00

Studies from me ol' sketchbook. I managed to fit in at least one creepy man-frog! See if you can find him...

Grass-Head and friends

2011-09-17T16:05:00.000-05:00

Sketches from "Uncommon Grounds" coffee shop this morning. Had to bust out the colored pencils on this one. Not sure what's going on here, but "Grass-Head Guy" definitely has ill, if not creepy intentions.

Munny Design "Bud & Blu"

2011-09-15T22:50:00.000-05:00

This is the design for a new Munny I'll be finishing soon. I was going to wait and post when it's all done, but I realized I haven't posted anything in over a month, and my blog was getting soggy and starting to smell bad.

So anyhoo, these two characters are "Bud & Blu". Bud is a happy guy, never having to care about how he'll get where he's going as he sits atop his best "bud" Blu. Blu is clinically depressed, and in constant pain every moment of his waking life for having to haul around his freeloading floral friend.

Romo Robo Model Sheet

2011-07-09T11:26:00.000-05:00

Model sheet reference for the cg artist. Still needs a "back" orthographic view, and maybe a breakdown of more technical pieces like his nipple cannons:)

Barfing Turtle

2011-07-05T19:31:00.005-05:00

This is old, and super limited, but eh... Still warms my heart.

Romo Robo!

2011-06-29T01:26:00.000-05:00

This is a robot I drew a few months ago while watching FLCL. That show is so inspiring - made me want to draw a robot with a box head.

And now my awesome and talented friend Romain Faure, our French intern at the studio, asked if he could model this guy in 3 Dimensions! I'm really hoping this happens...

Dr. Sketchy's Sketch Dump

2011-06-26T23:04:00.005-05:00

Here are some sketches from last months Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School. The session was great - it was held in an upstairs barbershop in Northeast Minneapolis. It was the weekend that preacher Harold Camping predicted the rapture would begin, so our theme was "the apocalypse". And although the world didn't end, a tornado did rip through a nearby neighborhood while we were drawing. Pretty crazy...

Also, after the session, a vote for the top drawings was held, and I won for the "Four Horseman" drawing (second one down). My prize was a really nice art print on cloth (the photo on the bottom) made by Emily Chesley.

Skelekrab

2011-06-19T14:06:00.001-05:00

My latest submission for Mojizu.

Click on the image to check him out, and if you like him, please vote!

Mr. Mushroom

2011-06-14T00:12:00.000-05:00

This is a student film I produced waay back in 2006-07 while I was attending MCAD.

The feel of the film is still appealing to me, as well as some of the sloshy, morphy animation. There are many choices in the film that make me cringe when I watch it now. Oh well. This thing was really a blast to make. Especially sculpting the characters and sets out of styrofoam, then coating everything with clay. It was fun having an entire world for these characters built on a tabletop.

Mr. Mushroom from Aaron Q. on Vimeo.

"Jelliphant" Walk Cycle Process

2011-06-11T13:07:00.000-05:00

This is an animation I made as an exercise with my coworkers after work one night. I cleaned up and colored the cycle in my off-time.

It's my favorite kind of character to animate: round, squishy, and appearing to have little to no intelligence.

"Jelliphant" Walk Cycle Process from Aaron Q. on Vimeo.

FVW - Fast Five

2011-05-25T01:03:00.000-05:00

Well, this cartoon a day for 30 days thing is harder than I thought it'd be. I have some catching up to do...

Regardless, the story continues with the tragic death of everyone's favorite glue-sniffer. Could this be the work of Wolf? Yes. Yes it could. He definitely did this.

FVW - Day Four

2011-05-20T01:47:00.000-05:00

The Frog V. Wolf universe is turned upside down with the arrival of a new character: Leroy, Frog's freeloading, glue sniffing, pineapple gifting nephew.

Frog V. Wolf - Day Three

2011-05-19T01:04:00.000-05:00

Day Three of the madness - and a shout out to my home state!!

Frog V. Wolf - Day Two

2011-05-18T00:04:00.000-05:00

Shlyce!

Day Two of the epic battle of Frog V. Wolf.

30 Day Art Challenge: Frog V. Wolf - Day One

2011-05-16T22:58:00.001-05:00

In an effort to produce more finished pieces on a regular basis, starting today I will be making a new piece a day for thirty days.

The series is called "Frog V. Wolf", and it's a 30-day brawl between two martial arts masters: "Frog", who's light on his feet and psycho with a blade, and "Wolf", who's a spinning ball of schizophrenic energy, ready to rip his opponents into chewy beef cutlets. I'm excited to see where this strange experiment goes...

The Munny is Done-y!

2011-05-04T01:11:00.003-05:00

I finally finished my Munny commission! It will be on display at Tomodachi in the Rosedale Mall along with other guest artist pieces. I had such a great time making this thing. It was my first DIY vinyl toy, and I don't think it will be my last. Also, super sculpey is AMAZING. It's easy to work with and it doesn't get crumbly like other cheaper clays do.

Below is a turnaround clip of the final product. And even further below I posted my process. It's very simple, and more of just a "here's what I did". For a more in-depth "how-to", check out this link. I found it incredibly insightful and easy to follow. Also posted below are some beauty shots of the final.

"Dolpho" Custom Munny Turnaround from Aaron Q. on Vimeo.

"Best Friends" Linework!

2011-04-19T22:39:00.000-05:00

Here is the scanned linework for a new piece entitled "Best Friends". I inked it with a .1 Micron on Bristol board. I will be coloring it traditionally, probably with colored pencils, maybe crayons, or even finger paints. I'm not ruling anything out.

Ghost Pig

2011-03-31T00:04:00.003-05:00

My submission for Dueling Banjo Pigs!

Ghost Pig

Digital

2011

Grass Sprites!

2011-03-24T22:34:00.000-05:00

This is my submission for monsters in real places.

The photo was taken in a Hawaiian rain forest with my Canon Rebel EOS 300D. I knew I wanted some magical little guys sitting on the log, and the shapes of the grass blades inspired the design of the characters. I imagined these sprites all congregating to listen to each other jam on their mystical little ocarinas.

One-ton Wonton

2011-03-16T23:54:00.001-05:00

My piece for this week's Illustration Friday! The topic is "stir".

My favorite part of this is imagining a bunch of hairy, naked little wontons relaxing in their bathhouse-like soup bowl.

One-Ton Wonton
Digital
2011

Short Characters for Short Film

2011-03-01T21:10:00.000-06:00

Here are some characters I made for use in a short animation in a short film directed by my not short friend Matt Burns. The animation will be a fake commercial about a dating service, with the feel inspired by the Zoloft commercials (the ones with the round, squishy, depressed guy bouncing around and being all depressed). I tried giving them a traditional feel though they're digital, and I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out.

Munny for Nothing

2011-02-02T22:57:00.001-06:00

A few months back I was asked by the kind owner of one of my favorite stores "Tomodachi" to design a custom Munny in my style. I thought about this for a while, coming up with various designs (pictured on the bottom), and finally came up one that I like. It's based on an illustration I made last year. I'll be posting the progress as I experiment with my very first custom Munny!

And yes, that's the way you do it ;)

Space Pear

2011-01-15T12:53:00.001-06:00

Quick character illustration this morning between projects. These last few weeks have offered little time for personal work, so I'm taking what I can get!

Space Pear
Digital
2011

Illustration Friday: "Afterwards"

2010-11-10T21:52:00.006-06:00

This is my submission for Illustration Friday. The topic is "Afterwards". I've had knights on the mind lately, so I had a blast making this oh so awkward situation. I was thinking that with all the dragon slaying going on in fantasy lore, I've never seen the effects of the brutality on the families of the poor dragons. Might make for a great Lifetime movie...

Title: Afterwards
Medium: Digital
Year: 2010

"Clawbeard"

2010-11-08T22:07:00.000-06:00

A new piece I created based on an old character of mine. He's a creepy farmer whose beard has gotten way out of control, and he wanders aimlessly through farm fields with his trusty squirrel companions. Not sure what the plungers on his hat are for, and I don't think he knows either...

Title: Clawbeard
Year: 2010
Medium: Digital

"Envirometer" is Selection of the Month from Midwest Independent Film Festival

2010-10-24T18:34:00.001-05:00

The animated short "Envirometer" is being featured as selection of the month on the Midwest Independent Film Festival site. I was the designer and one of the animators on this project, and it's great to see that it's still receiving some nice exposure!

Below are some stills from the project.

"Ice Knight" - Final

2010-10-24T18:12:00.002-05:00

Here is the final version of the Ice Knight. I fleshed out the background and added texture and environment effects like the snow and hazy blue tones. I'm happy with the way it turned out, and I'm excited to be done and on to my next piece!

Ice Knight - Work in Progress

2010-10-16T10:40:00.001-05:00

This one is pretty close, but I'd like to refine the background yet. I'm learning so much as I do these one off illustrations in between projects, and it's really helping me stay fresh and excited about what I'm making!

Mojizu Submission "Tuffalo"

2010-10-05T23:57:00.003-05:00

Here is my latest submission for Mojizu. His name is Tuffalo because he's half buffalo and half, uh, tuff. He was a fun one to draw, as I didn't try to do a super clean ink design like my previous submissions. He's just a (digital) pencil illustration, which is a much looser process yet equally appealing to me. Hope you like:)

Myco - Page 2

2010-10-04T22:47:00.001-05:00

Continuing with this straight-ahead comic experiment, here's the second page of "Myco". Hopefully I can keep up the pace and keep producing pages for this story outside of other concurrent art projects!

Myco - Page 1

2010-09-30T23:53:00.004-05:00

Here's an idea I've been kicking around for over a year now. I've been trying to develop this project as an animation, though I've struggled with how to present it and in what style. Just recently, I tried to simply draw the idea in a straight ahead comic (no sketching, straight to ink pen), and found that this process has been a great way for me to overcome my need to over think my work.

Cory Wong Quartet @ The Artists' Quarter

2010-09-14T21:00:00.007-05:00

Saw these guys perform last Tuesday. They put on a hell of a show! They perform every Tuesday night at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul, and they're definitely worth seeing. Here's a link to Cory Wong's site, where info on him and the band can be found.

Title: Cory Wong Quartet
Medium: Pencil, Digital
Year: 2010

Illustration Update

2010-08-12T00:55:00.024-05:00

Man, it's been a very long time since I've posted. How embarrassing... Lots of things have happened since the last update. We moved to a new apartment for one, and for two I've been working a lot on Peculiar Jones. Unfortunately I'm not able to post any progress on that project at this time. Shucks...

Anyhoo, here's an updated color variation on an illustration I did earlier this year. Below is the old one (bottom) and the new one (top). I only revisited this one because my sister wanted a version with a full spectrum of delicious retina-tickling color. I think the new one feels more goopy and playful like I wanted it to feel.

New Character Illustration!

2010-06-05T14:16:00.022-05:00

The image on top is a character I drew probably six or seven years ago. It feels outdated, and I thought it could use a redesign (pictured bottom). It's always a blast for me to find an old drawing, and polish it into something new and fresh.

And in lieu of the oil spill happing in the Gulf, I'm considering drawing a companion illustration of these guys dealing with the destruction of their home. I was making this as a celebration of how exotic and weird the ocean can be, and it's awful to think what the conditions must be like off the coast for the creatures under the water.

Character Sketch: The Pikkolo Bros.

2010-04-13T22:44:00.013-05:00

Their concept is that the little one on the left, "Pik", plays a tune to soothe his rampaging brother "Pok". In the event that Pik stops playing, Pok would succumb to his rage and terrorize the land, battering all the poor little furry animals.

Excuse me, but there's a worm in your brain..

2010-04-06T19:27:00.013-05:00

Wow, what a busy couple of months! I've been busy both in and out of work, and mostly on projects that I'm not able to post :(

But, I had a bit of free time last night, so I whipped up this happy fella! I figure that he's some sort of mammalian cyborg with a mind-controlling parasitic worm that has infested his brain. This is probably due to the fact that this week's episode of This American Life featured a story that dealt with parasites and their uncanny ability to program a host to suit their needs. So disturbing, yet, so interesting!

"Peculiar Jones" Pinup

2010-03-05T00:01:00.006-06:00

Here is a pinup piece I did for the Peculiar Jones comic. Due to story tweaks, I'm temporarily on hiatus from drawing any actual pages for the first issue. So, I've decided to keep myself busy by trying to nail down the designs and style of the book by focusing on a single illustration of the characters. There are a couple more little details I'd like to add, but this one is pretty close to being done.

WIP: Robster 2

2010-01-30T13:36:00.005-06:00

A little bit more fleshed out. Still working the colors, trying to nail down my workflow. Digital painting for me is so frustrating because I never know when a piece is done.

WIP: Robbster

2010-01-29T00:09:00.004-06:00

A digital painting I started tonight after spending a majority of the evening working on "work work". I just wanted to let off some steam by painting a really dumb-looking character. I think the more stressed I am, the less intelligent my characters are :)

Sand Hands!

2010-01-26T23:32:00.007-06:00

A character that popped into my head one night as I was jumping into bed. I immediately had to sketch him. I played with his design for a while, then came up with a direction and concept for him.

He's a big rubber sack body filled with sand. I imagine he feels a bit like a stress reliever ball (Those sand-filled balls that you squeeze when you're mad). He's leaking a bit of his insides, but still held together enough to pound fools with his club hands.

Title: Sand Hands
Medium: Digital
Year: 2010

Judith the Bag Lady

2010-01-25T22:58:00.008-06:00

So I've decided to try to get back into digital painting and hopefully improve my technique. It's a whole different mode of thinking for me, as I'm more inclined to draw with clean pen/ink, with flat colors and shadows.With that being said, this is Judith. She's a bag lady.

Title: Judith
Medium: Digital
Year: 2010

Now with alternate claws!

2010-01-24T21:34:00.009-06:00

With input and suggestions from some friends, I wanted to make a version of our favorite mammalian hero with alternate claws. I can't post all of the claw versions that we came up with, as some are less than savory...

Brain Drops

2010-01-05T22:21:00.006-06:00

This is a freeform illustration I drew while visiting my girlfriend's family over the weekend. I had no idea of what I wanted it to be, I just wanted to have fun with a tech pen and an illustration board. After I inked it, I scanned it and colored it digitally. This offered me a lot of flexibility to make changes in the colors.

Has it been that long?

2010-01-05T21:37:00.017-06:00

Wow, so I haven't posted in a while. Lots of things happened in these past couple of months, and I'm still crazy busy. I took a vacation to Hawaii in early December and it was AWESOME!! I've included some ink/watercolor drawings from a sketchbook I brought along, as well as some photos. Photos hardly do the island justice, though, but it may give you an idea at how colorful and vibrant the environment is.

Have you seen this cat?

2009-10-15T22:56:00.008-05:00

Some characters are instantly funny, gross, and uncomfortable to look at. This was the case when I saw a quick sketch of a cat drawn by my friend Andrew Chesworth (The blue sketch on top). I thought this character was fantastic, and needed to be finished. So, here he is! ...And I apologize for any awkwardness he may cause.

Title: Titty Kitty
Medium: Digital
Date: 2009

Illustration Friday topic "Flying"

2009-10-12T07:52:00.008-05:00

I created this last night for Illustration Friday, the weekly illustration challenge site. I just came back from an out-of-state wedding and wanted to have fun with an illustration without overthinking it. So, here it is! It was a lot of fun to draw all of these folds and ripples. Hope you like it!

Title: Flying
Medium: Digital
Year: 2009

New Character!

2009-09-27T13:37:00.013-05:00

This is a character concept I came up with when sketching with a friend of mine. We wanted to draw characters that would be in an imaginary fighting game. This character's concept is that he has giant fingernails that are normally soggy noodles until he flicks them, turning them into razor sharp blades of fury.

"Peculiar Jones" Comic

2009-09-26T09:27:00.024-05:00

These are the pitch pages of a comic project between writer/creator Ted Anderson and myself.

The story follows our lovable anti-hero and freelance errand boy Peculiar Jones and his ghoulish associates as they try to make an "honest" buck in the big city, while being swept up in twisted mysteries and supernatural adventures that seem to follow them wherever they go.

This was a lot of fun to make, and hopefully we can move forward and get this baby published very soon! I hope you enjoy the pages and the character designs, and any comments/critiques are very helpful and appreciated!

Drawing @ The Tea Garden

2009-09-15T22:32:00.008-05:00

Man! It's been so long since I've posted! Work and life in general have been crazy for a while now, so I'm forcing myself to post.

I haven't done any real observation drawing in a long time, so it was really enjoyable to get into this again. This was inked at the Tea Garden, a fantastic little tea/coffee shop with AMAZING bubble tea. Mmmm, bubble tea..

Mojizu submission "Gnawg"

2009-08-07T02:11:00.007-05:00

Yet another submission... I've been having too much fun drawing these quick characters! This is Gnawg, and I'm not sure what he is. I just started scribbling and this is what I came up with :)

Mojizu submission "Krilldebeest"

2009-08-06T01:23:00.007-05:00

Here is my third submission for Mojizu! This guy was a lot of fun to draw. I've found it's always enjoyable to draw characters with gaping mouths and lots of teeth, though I'm not entirely sure why.

Mojizu character submission "Ramster"

2009-08-05T00:20:00.007-05:00

This is another character I submitted to Mojizu earlier this evening. I'm having a lot of fun with these quick character exercises, and writing a short bio for them really helps to flesh them out!

Check out the site and vote for "Ramster"! He needs the moral support. He's very sensitive.

Mojizu character submission "Gharbarian"

2009-08-03T22:33:00.008-05:00

I just submitted this character to Mojizu.com and it's pending approval:) This is my first ever submission to this site, and I'm excited to see what happens! It's an awesome site, and it's very cool to see an online community that encourages quality character design.

Animation Run Cycle!

2009-08-02T11:55:00.004-05:00

This is a run cycle I animated simply because I wanted to see this character flop around. I quickly roughed in a background here, so it's pretty loose. But I'm happy with the way this little flopper came out:)

Headless Horseman!

2009-05-28T20:57:00.004-05:00

I did this one a while back for a digital painting challenge between my buddy Alec Mueller and I. Our topic was "Sleepy Hollow"

Turtle Power!!

2009-05-24T13:17:00.007-05:00

I started sketching the other day on lunch break and came up with this scene. I wanted to do a Ninja Turtles piece, and settled on this one of Leonardo being surrounded. The colors aren't finished to my satisfaction yet, so I'll hopefully be posting the finished colors soon... But I've been cooped up too long and it's sunny outside, so sayonara!

Old Sketch

2009-05-21T22:08:00.009-05:00

This is an observation sketch I drew at a Dunn Bros. coffee shop near my old apartment. It's meant to be pretty loose, but I feel I captured her likeness fairly well.

My roommate.

2009-03-31T22:15:00.004-05:00

His name is Spunky, and he's a three-toed box turtle. He likes worms, leafy greens, and staring at people (but only when I'm not home, according to Kim;)

Some "new" characters...

2009-03-27T20:23:00.008-05:00

I drew these clowns July of last year as a personal project of mine, and they just kinda sat around on my external drive for a while. I figured it's time they did something with their lives, so here they are!