Andrea Gerstmann Art

Game Assets

2012-01-27T03:20:00.000-05:00

Recently I've been working a lot on assets for the game I'm making... so I thought I'd post a little scene I put together. (click to view larger)

Molly and Kato having a mystical walk experience.

2011-12-25T23:19:00.000-05:00

I painted this for my parents for Chistmas.

Grinch Tree!

2011-12-23T16:07:00.000-05:00

I got one of those little potted trees and made it into a grinch tree! :)

Got the idea from morning television.

Christmas Cards

2011-12-18T23:05:00.000-05:00

I made these cards out of bits from magazines for my friends. Stay tuned for more!

Weedy Sea Dragon

2011-11-28T16:11:00.001-05:00

I made this painting for art for water. It also makes a pretty snazzy desktop wallpaper.

ISCA convention 2011

2011-11-23T21:07:00.000-05:00

I just returned from the 2011 International Society of Caricature Artists convention in St Pete's Beach Florida. This was my 4th year attending the convention and I had the time of my life. Above is the little piece of wall that I got to display the caricatures I made during the convention of other attending artists.

The art of caricature makes for a very interesting convention, as it is as much about observing and getting to know the people you are drawing as it is about humour and creating the caricature itself. It is social, entertaining and productive at the same time. Plus, you get to get to know other like minded artists, nerd out, and see their processes, and become friends for life.

This is my painting of Marlo Meekins as a fox.

This is Jert. This year much of his art had gore and blood. He also gets paint everywhere.

Alberto Gonzalez (above) and Dylan Glynn (below) both look like children and both have beards.

This is Christy, she is just like Link.

This is Sean Evans.

Sean Gardner is an angry bird.

Happy Haloween

2011-10-31T16:40:00.000-04:00

Puppy!

2011-10-30T21:56:00.000-04:00

Bird in tall grass 2

2011-10-21T18:02:00.000-04:00

Magnolias

2011-10-19T13:53:00.000-04:00

More flower paintings for clients.

Little Houses with Red Roofs

2011-10-17T13:20:00.000-04:00

Flowers

2011-10-14T16:40:00.000-04:00

Some quick little flower paintings for a client 7" x 9"

Thanksgiving Leaf

2011-10-10T19:13:00.000-04:00

This weekend was Canadian thanksgiving so I painted a leaf from life. It is painted in acrylic roughly the same size as the actual leaf and as accurately as possible. Painting anything from life is a challenge: the leaf was noticeably curling up as I painted it, and the lighting was always changing. I think these challenges force you to observe and understand and paint your perception rather then simply copy an image.

Cello/Tree?

2011-10-04T12:32:00.000-04:00

This was not my idea.

puppy doodles

2011-10-04T00:25:00.000-04:00

Bird in tall grass

2011-09-29T16:17:00.001-04:00

I'm working on this set of 4, here is the first one I finished. They are in acrylic 16" x 27.5".

Patrick - map test

2011-09-25T14:50:00.000-04:00

I have been working on a video game with my brother in my spare time for a few years now. The game is called Patrick I have mentioned it before, but generally I avoid posting about it due to the slow progress of making it. As I am making all the art by my self, and the tedious nature of most of the work involved. So far the majority of what I've made is map junk, and honestly I'm still not done making map junk. It's a top down 2d game, but I tried really hard to make it look and feel natural.

My brother is making all the software for the game. He has made a map editor that is still missing a bunch of stuff, and still has some issues that need to be sorted out. But it works enough to make some test maps and for me to actually see how a bunch the stuff I made so far works and looks in game.

I made a test map and took some screen shots of the progress so you can get a sense of all the little pieces that come together to get what you see.

Here's the finished product (ignore the numbers in the top left and those lines with the glowey ball at the right and bottom those are just some of the map editor controls) If you click on the image to look at the full size image it is zoomed out to 33% (to give you an idea of the scale).

First I make some parts water and some parts land. you can really see the tiles here and the water looks jaggedy.

Next I smooth out the contour of the water with some part land / part water tiles.

After that I make the ground more varied. My tiles were created in gradients and the map editor automatically enforces the gradients. It makes it much more difficult to see the tiles

Then I added map objects. The map objects are independent of the ground tile system. They don't adhere to the edges of the tiles at all, I just place things where I think they look good.

The last step is to add ground cover. A bunch of these objects are animated in game. including the water. We don't have sprites in the editor yet, or their dialogue. But I could make a series of linked maps and import them into the game and run around.

Molly

2011-09-23T11:22:00.000-04:00

breakfast doodles of my dog Molly.

sleepy potato

2011-09-22T20:22:00.000-04:00

My dog Kato was neutered today. Unfortunately he also has a rash... so he's on antihistamines and painkillers and he has to wear a t-shirt to keep from scratching. We took off the cone over his head cause it was depressing, poor guy is zonked.

I have decided to start sketching again more regularly. Often when I'm painting a lot I neglect to sketch as much as I should.

Tuscany

2011-09-21T13:59:00.001-04:00

Some quick Tuscany paintings for a client 12"x12". I have never been to Tuscany... these are from my imagination.

More Comics from Fan Expo

2011-09-13T19:12:00.001-04:00

Some more of the comics Noam Sussman and I made while sitting at our booth during Fan Expo.

Fan Expo 2011

2011-08-31T09:27:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I had a table at Fan Expo with my friend Noam Sussman.

We made some joint comics while we sat at our booth.

Here are some of them:

(click on the image to see larger version)

Draco Malfoy - Harry Potter

2011-08-23T16:02:00.000-04:00

Sam Merlotte - True Blood

2011-08-20T19:30:00.000-04:00

Arya Stark

2011-08-17T15:50:00.000-04:00

Patrick

2011-08-15T01:06:00.000-04:00

A painting of Patrick from the game I'm making.

Daenerys Targaryen

2011-08-13T00:19:00.001-04:00

quirky landscapes

2011-07-26T12:24:00.000-04:00

cottage country

2011-07-21T17:10:00.000-04:00

Loon

2011-07-19T12:50:00.001-04:00

Zelda Fan Art - Ganon

2011-07-05T02:03:00.000-04:00

Wolf and pups

2011-06-15T16:04:00.000-04:00

Wolf

2011-06-12T23:27:00.001-04:00

Zelda Fan Art - Link

2011-05-28T20:34:00.000-04:00

Owl

2011-05-13T15:20:00.000-04:00

I've decided to paint on a ukelele.

I made this little owl drawing to go in the hole.

Zoo

2011-05-09T20:05:00.000-04:00

I went to the zoo with some friends of mine who were visiting and did some quick drawings

Sketchbook Doodles

2011-05-09T19:46:00.000-04:00

Spidernoodle 2

2011-04-19T23:32:00.001-04:00

I drew another spidernoodle... I kindof want to animate him

Spiderman doodle / noodle

2011-04-19T13:03:00.000-04:00

Turf War! The Serious Business of Robins - Done!

2011-04-11T01:08:00.000-04:00

Here are the finished copies of my mini comic.

3"x3" hand crafted accordion book with spot colouring done by hand and fancy flowery covers.

Turns out most printers don't allow you to print custom sizes... so I had to be sneaky and trick my lazer printer into thinking my 45" long paper was only 14" and somehow avoid causing a paper jam.

Turf War! The Serious Business of Robins - Comic

2011-04-07T12:21:00.001-04:00

I made this comic about robins last night based on this drawing I did about a year ago. I'm going to make it into a little 3"x3" accordion book with the ground as a continuous line. I am thinking about doing some spot colouring as robins don't look like robins without the red breast. I also need to make the cover.

doodle cards

2011-04-03T15:13:00.000-04:00

Drawings on doodle cards of people who were around.

Raccoon

2011-03-28T23:25:00.001-04:00

A raccoon stealing the seed from a bird feeder at night.

16" x 20" Acrylic on canvas.

I also just made a new Online Store! Click on the 'Online Store' tab at the top of the page to check it out!

Scribbly paint

2011-03-25T16:41:00.001-04:00

Whee!

ps. these are kinda old.

Raccoon Doodle

2011-03-22T19:08:00.001-04:00

I'm working on a painting... this is the doodle version.

Ski Vacation

2011-03-17T23:54:00.001-04:00

I am currently in a log cabin on the slopes of Panorama in the great Canadian Rockies for a ski vacation and visiting family. Yesterday we ventured to Revelstoke to ski in the most powder I have ever seen. On the drive back to Panorama I drew this picture of my experience in my sketchbook.

Patrick logo animation

2011-02-28T00:47:00.001-05:00

I made this logo animation for a game I am working on. I put it over a little section of in game scenery.

Patrick logo animation from Andrea Gerstmann on Vimeo.

Dogs

2011-01-31T13:23:00.000-05:00

This is what I am wearing today.

2011-01-26T20:12:00.000-05:00

More little paintings

2011-01-25T16:46:00.000-05:00

These are roughly 5x7.

Mini Paintings

2011-01-20T15:55:00.000-05:00

I made a bunch of these cute little paintings. The tall ones are 4x6 and the square ones are 4x4.

Moose

2011-01-14T20:31:00.000-05:00

I painted this moose just for you.

Forest 2

2011-01-11T18:34:00.002-05:00

Forest

2011-01-09T01:47:00.002-05:00

Christmas stuff

2011-01-05T20:48:00.001-05:00

A little painting of my dogs Molly and Kato.

Before Christmas I was commissioned to make this double sided company Christmas postcard.

Turtlepigsheep

2010-12-30T11:13:00.001-05:00

Leslie Nielsen

2010-12-03T11:24:00.001-05:00

R.I.P

Cee Lo Green

2010-11-24T01:50:00.002-05:00

Liv Tyler

2010-11-21T15:22:00.003-05:00

My submission for this weeks Caricaturama Showdown 3000.

Weird Little paintings.

2010-11-19T18:01:00.000-05:00

Some weird little paintings I did a while ago they are around one square foot each. I wasn't really painting anything in specific but I like to think of them as landscapes.

International Society of Caricature Artists Convention 2010

2010-11-17T00:01:00.004-05:00

Just got back from the ISCA convention in Las Vegas. I had a blast.
I won 3rd for best body situation... yay me!
My camera battery died at the convention and I just found my charger lodged between my seat and my door in my car (?) if you were at the convention and happen to have good pictures of my art please send them to me. for now this is what I've got.

Some shots of my wall:

Big Bang Theory

2010-11-14T15:09:00.001-05:00

This is the portfolio piece I submitted at the ISCA (international society of caricature artists) convention.

More Flowers

2010-10-21T12:57:00.000-04:00

Peonies for a client.
11x14 Acrylic.

Faster!

2010-10-18T23:33:00.001-04:00

Now the thing is running!

I have been animating on 2s cause I'm lazy.

animated creature

2010-10-17T10:50:00.001-04:00

Animating for my game again. I find myself just animating traditionally and using flash just to test it. This is a anteater-deer-fox I think.. I want to also animate it trotting or prancing.

Watermelon Mittens

2010-10-14T20:22:00.000-04:00

I made myself mittens.

Flowers

2010-09-10T10:41:00.000-04:00

Ellen Degenerous

2010-08-30T00:23:00.001-04:00

Me.

2010-08-11T01:00:00.001-04:00

A self caricature: 10"x12", Acrylic, 3 hours.

House Warming Fox

2010-07-28T10:08:00.001-04:00

My sister just got a new house. I painted this for her as a house warming gift. 16" x 20" acrylic on canvas.

Dr. Sketchys - Alice in Wonderland

2010-07-20T00:27:00.002-04:00

Today I went to Dr Sketchys Toronto. It was a special session this week: Alice in Wonderland themed and there were 6 models over the course of the evening including the youngest model they have had playing Alice. This only scratches the surface of the goings on of the evening. So many models, elaborate costumes and so little time. But alas, these are my favorites:

Alice

The Queen of Hearts

Dr. Sketchys again

2010-06-29T00:41:00.002-04:00

Dr. Sketchys.

2010-06-20T16:03:00.001-04:00

I went to Dr. Sketchy's last Monday. I think it was the most entertaining one I've been to yet. Plus, the guy had an amazing face for caricature.

Patrick run/fight test1

2010-06-16T03:37:00.002-04:00

I've been working on Patrick an indie video game for a while now in my spare time. I have a bunch of environment stuff done... but it's not all in the map editor yet, and I need to get some sort of video capture program.
For now: here is some animation of Patrick. I did this fighting thing Saturday... wanted it look like button mashing.

Patrick run/fight test1 from Andrea Gerstmann on Vimeo.

More Kingston

2010-06-03T09:15:00.001-04:00

Some more stuff I saw in Kingston:

Boxes that float,

Another alien

I think neons should only come in neon colours. But unfortunatly they are something boring like black or grey.

Doodles in Kingston

2010-06-01T21:20:00.001-04:00

I'm in Kingston.

This is the old train station, now its a tourist info thing. I don't usually enjoy drawing buildings... but I figure I should give them another chance and maybe they will be fun some day.

Some aliens on a park bench.

Sketchbook Dump

2010-05-31T00:22:00.001-04:00

Here is a bunch of recent stuff from the sketchbook:

some people do not require a face...

I like this dog.

did this for the sketch jam; the theme was pirate animals so i drew pie-rats... get it? hur hur. I'm very punny.

chickadee doodles, before I did the painting.

Some other folks.

Chickadee

2010-05-25T12:55:00.001-04:00

I made this for my mom, it was her birthday this weekend.

a robin.

2010-05-14T19:53:00.001-04:00

yes, "obsessed with worms" is a facial expression.

practice it and you can impress your neighbours with your uncommon likeness to a robin.

Floppy Disks - Fungus

2010-05-11T16:46:00.002-04:00

Waxy Tree Frog

2010-05-10T16:54:00.002-04:00

This is a Waxy Tree Frog (Pyllomedusa sauvagii) I drew one quickly at the zoo once: http://agartblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/zooing-with-marie.html

since it is obviously an awesome animal I felt it necessary to draw a more finished looking one.

I scanned it periodically as I made it. This way you can see how I did it and steal all my secrets.

Step 1: draw stuff.

Step 2: marker shading

Step 3: pencil crayon half

Step 4: pencil crayon the other half

Step 5: acrylic paint

Step 6: add a branch

Done!

I know... it's way too insightful for words.

morning drawings of the moo

2010-05-10T11:16:00.002-04:00

Molly is oddly obsessed with sunshine.. every sunny morning she will wiggle around a patch of sunlit floor barking and pouncing on it intermittently. Then she will stand staring at it, bit lip in contemplation and confusion.

Zoodles

2010-05-05T21:56:00.002-04:00

Went zoodleing today. Here's some drawings.

Floppy Disks - Yellow Strings

2010-04-29T23:58:00.001-04:00

More Floppies

Making up stuff.

2010-04-28T16:51:00.001-04:00

I think its important when making up stuff to not bother trying too hard to be original. Its far more important to be inspired. Any original idea was inspired from something anyway... it's arguably not terribly original in any case. If you ever draw a blank trying to come up with ideas: look around, go on an adventure and be open-minded. Find something inspiring and do your best to capture what inspires.
I clearly was playing Mario before i drew that turtle....

Leon going snowboarding with a llama.

2010-04-19T22:29:00.002-04:00

Leon asked me to draw his caricature... snowboarding and llama themed. I did it digitally for some reason. I decided 'on a chairlift' was the best bet. It allowed me to be clever and put the year in the chair number spot. I also had fun drawing snow lumps on the tree... that you can only see in the full size one.

here's the full image:

detail:

Narnia

2010-04-14T21:03:00.001-04:00

Its loads of fun to draw while watching movies. Personally I will watch for a while and figure out the caricature before i start to draw... it makes it effortless when I put pen to paper.

Llama.

2010-04-13T20:59:00.002-04:00

I'm working on something that will have a llama in it... a somewhat odd request, needed to figure out how I would make it work. So i aimlessly drew some llamas today. I like this one hes got attitude.

Picnicking

2010-04-12T18:28:00.001-04:00

I went to a picnic yesterday and drew some dogs and people.

Floppy Disks - Tiny Jellies

2010-04-08T14:35:00.002-04:00

Floppy Disks - Amoebas

2010-04-06T13:46:00.002-04:00

Floppy Disk - another blue one

2010-04-04T15:22:00.001-04:00

I've been making these floppy disks in pairs, here's the pair for the blue one I recently posted.

digital painting in the middle of the night

2010-04-02T16:24:00.001-04:00

I couldn't sleep last night, so I started digital painting...

First I drew this simple noseless caricature of myself.

Then I decided to render it... and add a nose. Eventually my tablet driver stopped working so I went to sleep.

The next morning I decided to change the lighting and the expression...

moar doodles

2010-04-01T18:35:00.002-04:00

This is my dog Molly, most of the time she is completely insane.

crazy eyes.

I really like drawing people who are playing music, especially the ones who are singing. their enthusiasm is fun to capture. On the down side, I was drawing this almost entirely in the dark. I need one of those little lights with a clip made for reading in the dark.

I really enjoy these super simple doodles, I like using few lines and drawing them just once.

I have these orange post-its on my desk.. cause post-its are useful. sometimes I draw on them.

Floppy Disk

2010-04-01T16:26:00.001-04:00

I should get in to the business of selling floppy disk art coasters.

This one is... uh... blue. Blue with some stuff.

really windy

2010-03-29T18:31:00.002-04:00

Logically, any landscape existing on a skateboard would be really windy. What with all the moving forward and junk.

I actually finished this about 3 weeks ago. I was going to wait until the person for whom it was made saw it before I posted it... but as that still hasn't happened so I thought I might as well go ahead and post it.

Music

2010-03-27T23:10:00.001-04:00

This guy was making a pretty good playin' music face.

some doodles

2010-03-21T18:27:00.001-04:00

It has been a while since I last posted, but I promise that I have still been drawing and painting and promise that i will post more. I went out with some friends a week ago a drew some people in the mall cafeteria.

Eat, Sleep, Ski... Draw.

2010-02-10T00:21:00.001-05:00

I just returned from British Colombia where I skied at Panorama and Revelstoke, and yes it was beyond amazing. As I spent most of my time skiing and the rest of my time lying on the floor from my exhausted muscles, I didn't do much drawing on my trip... being me however, i certainly did some drawing.
I stayed at my aunt and uncle's cabin, and my cousin and her kids came for a couple days. I drew a caricature in my sketchbook of the kids.

some other drawings of the kids:

At the airport waiting to board the plane someone had a tiny dog in a bag.

a photo of me skiing.

Octopus vs Robot

2010-01-17T14:22:00.003-05:00

This is the second skate deck.
This was my train of thought to come up with the idea:
Since the first skate deck was fire, the second one should be water... octopuses are under water, and treasure chests... you know what would be funny, if an octopus opened a treasure chest, and there was a robot inside that started shooting lazer beams at him.