Rabbit Gear

Sketch Timelapse Video

2011-12-17T19:23:00.003-05:00

No matter what you do in life, there is always a benefit to getting practice. I may not be at a studio yet, but I'm sure not going to let myself get rusty!

Nostalgia Art. Doodles from the days of yore.

2011-12-15T11:03:00.004-05:00

We all have those drawings and doodles from high school. Our ideas and jokes that we jotted down on notebook paper during physics class ( which would explain my average grade). I drew bunnies.... lots and lots of bunnies.

Anime-style Guys

2011-11-28T00:47:00.003-05:00

Contrary to popular belief, I do draw men too.

I love the holidays. I hate the shopping.

2011-11-18T23:14:00.002-05:00

Commission Sketches

2011-11-05T23:19:00.001-04:00

Erin's Totally Lame Halloween

2011-10-30T14:25:00.004-04:00

I love Halloween. Really, it's my favorite holiday. Television specials are better, the decorations are more creative, and its just more fun. I always done something for Halloween. Treat or treating, making costumes, carving pumpkins, decorating, baking snacks, watching scary movies, costume parties, SOMETHING! This is the first year that I'll be spending Halloween at home without a plan. This makes me into a sad cake. But at least I'll always have zombies. I sketched this last night while I was re-watching the entire first season of The Walking Dead on dvd. I adore zombies and I've gone totally fangirl for that show.

The Art of Erin Greener Exhibition Night

2011-10-10T11:22:00.005-04:00

Well, I can now say that I have at least one solo show under my belt. Even though it was a small show, it was so much work for both me and owner of the location. I had to make a boat load of new drawings and prints and he had to convert his little restaurant into a gallery space and prepare the catering. In the end it may have been a small gathering but it was a fulfilling one. I even had a few pieces sell. Half the proceeds from all art sales will go to the Stratton Foundation to help fund scholarships for future generations of College for Creative Studies animators. Even though the opening reception is over the art is still up on display. If you're ever in Birmingham, MI. and you're looking for a place to grab some lunch, the Old Woodward Deli is the place to go.

The Art of Erin Greener Exhibition

2011-09-25T18:51:00.003-04:00

OMG the excitement! I have a solo show coming up in less than 2 weeks and I have been working my tail off getting ready for it. Several never seen before drawings will be making their public debut as well as some old favorites. Drawings and prints are up for sale and the money raised will help benefit the Stratton Foundation, an organization that has been helping out a cornucopia of growing artists such as myself and I am honored to be able to do something to give back. The art will be up from October 7 at 5pm all the way through the rest of 2011 so are plenty of chances to stop by and take a look. It's all happening at the Old Woodward Deli in lovely Birmingham Michigan. Please join us for a meet and greet on opening night!

More summer critters (will they ever end?!)

2011-09-11T11:12:00.003-04:00

I love drawing animals!

Summer Critter Sketches

2011-08-01T18:05:00.003-04:00

Sneak Preview for the Upcoming Gallery Show.

2011-07-21T21:30:00.008-04:00

I'm very excited to announce that this October, I'll be having a small gallery showing to showcase some work from Dark Circus as well as some brand new original illustrations. Doug Stratton of the Stratton Foundation and Mr. Gill Chung of the Old Woodward Deli in Birmingham have been kind enough to work with me to coordinate this show. The opening night is set for October and will continue for a month. It really is an honor to have this opportunity and it wouldn't be possible without the previously mentioned gentlemen. I'll have more information and more sneak previews of new pieces as they come along. Here are little snippets of two new original pieces. The rest will be revealed in October.

Threadless Submission- I need your votes!

2011-07-02T23:40:00.003-04:00

This summer I'll be working on a few shirt designs that I want to submit to Threadless. In order for them to be printed, I'll need some support from you guys. Designs chosen to be printed must receive high enough scores in the voting gallery. My first design is a cute little graphic for a girls tank top. I would love to get printed so any votes are extremely appreciated. More designs will come and I'll announce it here and on facebook.

Click here to go to Threadless to see and vote on my design

http://www.threadless.com/submission/352104/Carefree_Cuppy_Cake_Cuties

Podcast Interview with the Stratton Foundation

2011-06-30T18:25:00.004-04:00

Doug Stratton and myself with the Dark Circus film poster and

accompanying line art purchased by the Stratton Foundation

I was very fortunate to be one of the recipients of the 2011 Stratton Foundation Scholarship earlier this year. But it didn't stop there, the foundation was also kind enough to purchase a piece of my artwork during this years CCS Student Exhibition Opening and interview me for their scholarship podcast. The interview is now online so if you are interested in listening then CLICK HERE to visit the Stratton Foundation's podcast page.

Redhead Lolita

2011-06-24T09:35:00.002-04:00

6"x8" chalk pastel and prismacolor pencil

ReImagining Detroit Project- Collaborating with One of Us films

2011-06-14T13:35:00.005-04:00

(Image by One of Us Films)

Since the end of the school year, myself and a small group of fellow CCS students (now alumni) have been working closely with a film studio located right in the heart of Detroit called One of Us Films. Their current project is a documentary based on the book written by John Gallagher. Reimagining Detroit is about all the ways that deteriorating post industrial cities such as Detroit can recover as long as the city is willing to makes big changes and new choices.

Carrie Lezotte, the executive producer of One of Us Films, came to the College for Creative Studies in early April to meet with some of the seniors in Entertainment Arts.

Students such as myself, Shelbi Allen, Kaitlin Kirsch, Jayna Shropshire, and Jesus Lopez were invited to participate in the merchandise campaign for the RD project. We were asked to pick an aspect of the book and design a product to promote the campaign. It's been great working with the staff at One of Us Films and we're wrapping up our design projects soon. Our stuff will be debuted at a merch launch party so our work will be presented in good time.

If you feel like supporting the Reimagining Detroit project with a donation, you can visit the Indiegogo page.

Car Hop Cutie

2011-06-09T11:34:00.002-04:00

A waitress for the Girls Drawing Girls blog. Drawn with ink pen and colored in Photoshop. This one reminds me of how I miss rollerblading around Detroit during my breaks from finals. *sigh* At least there will always be pie. Pie makes the world a better place.

New Update! A Portfolio on Rabbitgear!

2011-06-09T01:52:00.003-04:00

You can make the argument that a blog is a portfolio in itself but let's not kid ourselves and just click the new tab up top that says 'portfolio' instead. There's work from Dark Circus as well as some environments, character concepts, figure drawing, sketches, and illustrations.

Girls Drawing Girls: GDG Volume IV Pre-Sale!

2011-06-06T18:36:00.004-04:00

I'm proud to announce that the Girls Drawing Girls Volume 4 art book "The Way Nature made Her" is available for pre-sale! This is the biggest and bestest volume of pinup art that GDG has published so far with 174 pages and work from over 83 artists including myself all wrapped up in beautiful hardbound glory. The pre-sale price is $40 for this whopping big masterpiece and will also include a personalized book plate made by a GDG artist and free shipping to U.S. addresses exclusively to anyone who orders the book before July 10th. The regular book sale will begin on July 20th at the San Diego Comic Con. All the fruitful, flowery, nature-ie goodness can be yours if you go the Girls Drawing Girls blog and order!

The first POST GRADUATION batch of sketches

2011-05-27T18:28:00.003-04:00

It feels so great to get a little relaxation after graduation. I was so happy that some of my artwork sold at the Student Exhibition Opening night. I really appreciate the Stratton Foundation and One of Us Films for buying my art.

Here are a few sketches I've done since graduating.

What if I told you that I drew this one in a moving car?

I wanted cake.

Peach Pin Up for Girls Drawing Girls Volume 4

2011-05-16T19:37:00.002-04:00

Man, oh man. It's nice to finally be working on something other than my student film. Don't get me wrong, I love animating and filmmaking but I need an art vacation. This is my finished illustration for the fourth volume of the Girls Drawing Girls yearly art book. This year's theme is nature so I went with one of my favorite fruits as the inspiration. The book will be coming out this summer so I'll keep you posted for details to anyone interested in purchasing a copy.

Wrapping Up the School Year, for the Last Time (Dark Circus Work Reel May 6)

2011-05-06T20:22:00.004-04:00

After a year of production, Dark Circus has come a long long way. Even though it's still a work in progress, it's really grown up a lot. I plan to continue working on it throughout the summer. I have a lot of new ideas to try out and I want to see this through to the end.

For sake of comparison, I also have my very first animatic from when Dark Circus was still in it's storyboard days.

Usually by this point in the year, I post a funny sketch of myself either sleeping to demonstrate the lack of shut eye anyone gets around here or maybe scaling a mountain of homework and successfully reaching the pinnacle with a glowing pencil-sword of victory. To be honest, I've barely had the time to even think about doing that. In my opinion, senior year finals week at the College for Creative Studies should have been one of the trials of Hercules, it's that nuts.

A brief photo summary of finals week for this year's animation seniors:

The normally pristine traditional animation studio starts looking more like a war zone. I definitely let my work space get a little sloppy.

Well, we all do...

Chips, snacks, coffee cups, pop cans, pencils, paper, EVERYWHERE!

You could occasionally find a few animators passed out in their chairs, tablet pens in hand.

But on the bright side, there is something really special when you and all your friends can unshackle themselves from the light tables and cintiques for a few moments to all go look out the window at the beautiful sunrises that follow the many all nighters you spend together.

It's been a crazy year, no, it's been a crazy four years. But aside from all work and stress, I wouldn't have wanted to do it any other way. I've learned so much and met some truly amazing people. And deep down, I'm a little sad to think that it's coming to an end.

Classmate Caricatures

2011-05-04T17:22:00.002-04:00

Jazz Men Sketches

2011-04-01T10:50:00.002-04:00

I'm currently taking a music history class during my final semester and the professor, James Hart, (lower right corner of first sketch) invited over a few friends of his to play some live jazz numbers for us, Dr. Frank on the keyboard and Dr. Bebop on percussion.

Dr. Bebop on the drums

300 POSTS! WOWZAS!

2011-03-24T13:59:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe that Rabbit Gear has gotten this far already! Let's celebrate with a sketch of my friend and fellow CCS student, Geum Wook Lee.

Title Card Line Art for Day Dreamin'

2011-03-22T10:45:00.004-04:00

Jesus Lopez, a friend and fellow CCS senior animation major, asked me to draw up the title image for his 3D animated senior thesis film, Day Dreamin'. To keep up with Jesus Lopez's work and his film production, check out his blog at http://jlopezartspot.blogspot.com/.

Birthday Card for Sister

2011-03-20T10:57:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was my sister's birthday and being the artsy, broke, student loan debt toting, tablet weilding, little sister that I am, I made her a birthday card in photoshop featuring two of her favorite things in the world. Happy 23rd, sister!

Hagopian Rug Design Competition 2011- 4th place

2011-03-15T13:29:00.003-04:00

One of these two designs took fourth place in the 2011 Hagopian Rug design competition (the other made the top ten). Both were made using color pastel and were based around a Michigan theme.

This was the placing design. I took my inspiration from the Raisin River that runs through my own backyard and the surrounding crops of the little farm community I come from.

Progress of Pin Up Peaches

2011-03-07T20:21:00.003-05:00

Work In Progress

Pencil Render Drawing

I'm really excited to be working on an illustration for the annual Girls Drawing Girls art book. I've never had any work published before and this is such a great experience. The theme of the book will be nature and my illustration is about peaches. So for I have the line work and pencil rendering finished and now the rest will be done in photoshop. Here is some of the progress work that went into the design.

Character Sketch

Rough Gesture Layout

Layout Tiedown

Shading and Rendering

Dark Circus Movie Poster

2011-03-01T18:36:00.001-05:00

A little photoshopping was a refreshing change of pace but now it's time to get back to animating! Huzzah!

Erin Greener Demo Reel

2011-02-24T10:46:00.001-05:00

Erin Greener Demo Reel from Erin Greener on Vimeo.

Valentine's Day Drawings

2011-02-15T12:30:00.001-05:00

I hope you all had a good Valentine's day! Here are some drawings and sketches to celebrate.

Burlesque Dancer Line Art (Girls Drawin Girls)

2011-02-08T10:34:00.002-05:00

I don't get the chance to do much artwork outside of working on Dark Circus so it pains me to watch the days go by and I have nothing to post to my Rabbit Gear blog. It's like watching your baby go hungry! So horrible! I'm trying to do more art for fun and more drawings for the new art community I've joined recently. The Girls Drawin Girls group specializes in pin up type art and thought I'd give it a try so I drew and inked this drawing of a burlesque dancer. I've never seen a burlesque show and I only have a faint idea of what they wear so I think this was a pretty good guess.

I'm Officially A Member of GIRLS DRAWIN GIRLS!

2011-01-26T16:59:00.005-05:00

Hurray! I'm finally in! Girls Drawin Girls is a community of woman artists from the animation and illustration industry that enjoying exhibiting, selling, sharing their artwork and also redefining the art of pinup. I'm so honored to be accepted into the group and I'm excited to share my work. Have a look at GirlsDrawinGirls.com! There's so many fantastic artists and inspirational works to see.

Can Sketching Cure a Cold?

2011-01-22T17:12:00.002-05:00

No, no it can't. But at least it can help keep my spirits up and my progress moving. I usually always get sick around this time of year, so I can't say I'm surprised. I drew this silly thing today after so much coughing wore me down. Doning my warm snuggly slanket and a hot cup of green tea, I will overcome this cold!!

Aliens!!!

2011-01-15T14:40:00.000-05:00

I know, these aren't aliens :P

Dark Circus Updates: Starting the Final Semester

2011-01-13T09:45:00.003-05:00

As the semester is starting up the backgrounds are closing down. With less than a dozen to go (some of which are very simple, some are moderately complicated) I'm excited to see how my work reel will look with completely colored backgrounds. For more news and posts of progress, visit the Dark Circus Blog. I'm so excited!

Here's a few of the backgrounds

Day Kitty and Night Kitty Desk Buddies!

2011-01-03T20:33:00.002-05:00

A little gift for my Mazsha (mother) to keep her company in the basement office ^_^

Last Batch of Anatomy Drawings for the School Year

2010-12-27T23:03:00.002-05:00

If only the scanner was big enough to get these full size. We did several in-class life drawings and I really enjoyed it. I would encourage artists of any medium to take figure and anatomy classes because people are some of the hardest things to draw right.

Another Christmas Card to round out the Holiday!

2010-12-25T19:49:00.000-05:00

With another kitty!

Christmas Card 2010

2010-12-21T19:18:00.005-05:00

Awww!! It's the Christmas kitty! He's here to wish you a happy holiday! He was originally drawn with color pastel and then brought into photoshop.

Original pastel drawing

SLEEP! It's a Glorious Thing.

2010-12-18T14:14:00.005-05:00

Now that the semester is over and winter break is here, I can finally get back those many lost hours of displaced z's. To celebrate, I give you sleep-themed sketchies! I got about 10 hours of sleep last night and it was amazing!!

Some sleepy classmates napping in story class. I would have been napping too if I was too busy drawing them.

Slanket! My favorite blanket ever! I spent quite a lot of time on the couch and very little in my own bed up at the school dorm. Nothing rocks a power nap in a freezing cold living room like a nice warm blanket with sleeves. You laugh at me now but you won't be laughing when I'm all warm and comfy in my Slanket and you're freezing cold!

Sculpture Update: Adding Muscles

2010-12-18T14:00:00.002-05:00

The semester may be over but the sculpting isn't! My anatomy professor gave me full credit (despite its unfinished state) and he even wants the finished product for the spring show so I was quite the happy camper to hear that. A lot of muscles need to be sculpted and some repairs will have to be made to the skeleton half. If you look in the first and third photos, you might notice that the left foot of the skeleton side that I spent so many tedious hours chiseling away with a needle-thin tool is now completely gone. It broke my heart to surgically remove it but it was too damaged to be operated on right there so I'll have to make a new one. As for the muscles, only the thigh is done so there is still a lot more to do. I'll leave this sculpture on the back burner for now and then work on it here and there over the next few months until it's done. Onwards and upwards!

Dark Circus Updates: Keys and Colors

2010-12-09T00:20:00.003-05:00

As finals inches closer, I keep the production rolling on Dark Circus. I'm not nearly as far a long as I was hoping to be but I've made a lot of solid progress so far. Some of the new updates include...

Extra Help with Background Coloring

New Key Frame Tests

Opening Scene Backgrounds

Kitchen Scene Backgrounds

Sculpture Update: Skeleton Almost Done!

2010-12-04T18:25:00.003-05:00

So my last handful of posts has been nothing but anatomy work and this one is no different. I've either been animating away on my film, sculpting away on this fella here, or drawing bones and muscles in my anatomy sketchbook. The regular sketchbook has been a little neglected lately and I feel pretty bad for the poor guy. I really should pay more attention to him. I definitely will over the winter break.

But back to the sculpture. The skeleton is almost finished. I just need to do the left hand and lay a suggested spine in the front midsection. After that, it's muscle time! I have 12 days to finish it but I feel like most of the hard work is already done.

Sculpture Update: Spine and Ribcage

2010-11-28T10:49:00.002-05:00

Getting more done on the anatomy sculpture. This torso is driving me up the wall now because I've spent so long on the details. I really need to get cracking on the arms, feet, and skull. I haven't even started the muscles yet!

Illustrations for Anatomy Class Midterms

2010-11-23T10:13:00.006-05:00

I'm aware that midterms were weeks ago but I was a little slow to get these scanned in. Along with taking a drawing test and having a well polished sketchbook, we had to replicate one of Michaelangelo's prophets from the Sistine chapel into our books and also have three drawings of a statue from the Detroit Institute of Art at three different angles. I drew from a life-size bronze statue of a boy listening to a sea shell.

Hmm... I wonder what the prophet is doing? She doesn't look too happy about whatever she's pointing at. Maybe she found a spelling mistake, haha.

Lookie At What I'm Making! My First Armature Sculpture!

2010-11-18T22:47:00.003-05:00

I've never made a sculpture with an armature like this before but so far I've enjoyed working on it. It might be hard to tell but it's the beginnings of a skeleton. So far I've spent a lot of time on the Os Coxae (hips) and the leg bones and I just blocked in the rib cage this evening. When it's finished, it will stand around 12 inches tall with half of the sculpture as bones and the other have will be muscles. I'll keep posting progress photos until I finish it.

Time to Get Animating!

2010-11-14T16:50:00.003-05:00

Do you get it? Time. I posted a background with a clock! Get it!? Eh, wasn't that funny. Anyways, I probably won't be posting too many more background-related updates until Winter break. I've really got to focus on getting the animation rolling. I hope you're all dropping by the Dark Circus Blog to check out all the updates I post!

Already Thinking About Christmas?!

2010-11-13T09:44:00.003-05:00

I did a little playing around with color pastels in my Art Therapy class (she encourages it!) and I found myself coloring a kitty on a snow hill in my sketchbook. Now I'm considering making this into a Christmas card for the upcoming season thanks to the cute little red and green scarf. Ahh! I'm thinking about this too early, I need to focus on my homework!

Dark Circus Updates: Coloring the Backgrounds

2010-11-01T12:14:00.004-04:00

I've been working on coloring the backgrounds and they're coming along plenty spiffy. Some are done, some are still in progress, and some are only flat colored so far.

Mystic Maidens from Pastel Practice

2010-10-26T14:48:00.002-04:00

This is a dandy little exercise I came up with during my Art Therapy class in which we are encouraged to draw with emotion only and not thought. I did a few pages of mindlessly smearing a few pages of my sketchbook with colored pastel to see what emotions I could come up with. After looking at them for so long I thought that I was seeing images on the page. The idea is to make completely random and directionless color blotches on the paper and then try to draw something out of that. I tried finding peaceful, mystical ladies in the pastel smears with a graphite pencil and then refined them a little more with additional pastel and eraser strokes. This is good practice for coming up with images on the fly.

Sketches for October

2010-10-26T10:07:00.004-04:00

Wow! My sketch posts have really slowed down since the school year began. I have a little less time for leisurely sketching but I have not been defeated!!

Dark Circus Updates: Backgrounds and layouts

2010-10-11T09:33:00.004-04:00

The good news is that I finished drawing all my background layouts for the film. The bad news is that there are a lot of them. I spent a whole day (and night) playing around in Photoshop to find a rendering style that I liked and could do well enough. Because this is one of the most complicated background in the whole film, I have a good feeling that the rest of the backgrounds will go much faster than this.

Shot 64 Background

Full Render

Flat Colors

Line Work from Layout Drawing

Anatomically Correct

2010-10-07T00:14:00.008-04:00

New pages from my anatomy sketchbook. Yay, bones and figures and sleep deprivation!!

Dark Circus Updates

2010-09-28T22:24:00.003-04:00

There's lots of new stuff to be seen at the Dark Circus blog. I've been spending a lot of time on character concepts, storyboards, and a new updated animatic. Be sure to follow the blog to keep up on all the new changes. I'm getting excited to get crackin' on this thing.

Be sure to check out:

Most Recent Animatic (updated 9/27)

Character Designs and Studies

Layout Drawings

"Macey" Character Description

"Nippen" Studies

"The Witch" character description

This cute little gif is the tied down animation (in slow motion) for my Proof of Concept, which is basically a sample clip of what the film is supposed to look like when it's finished. I plan to have the finished clip by the end of the week.

Feeling (Rib)Caged In

2010-09-19T23:57:00.004-04:00

These drawings (much like the skulls from last week) kept me plenty busy for a whole night. The rendering part is pretty fun but... all those ribs X_X!

I Can See Through Your Head

2010-09-19T23:52:00.003-04:00

An exercise from anatomy class. Drawing the model and then drawing the skull beneath it.

Skull Drawings

2010-09-15T12:06:00.004-04:00

I think I looked more dead than these skulls by the time I was done drawing them.

Last First Week of Classes

2010-09-11T20:43:00.004-04:00

The rumors you heard were true. The animation ninja is starting her senior year of art school. I'm back in Detroit and my pencils are sharpened. I can already tell that this year is going to be the hardest thing I've ever done but if I can't handle this then there is no way I'll make it in the business. Luckily for me, I got the chance to have a little fun before the homework monster reared it's ugly head. Before classes started I got the great opportunity to make some new friends and have some new experiences. After three years of living in Detroit, I finally went out to see the city by going to the Detroit Jazz Festival with my new friend and fellow CCSer, Sungkyung Lee.

I started building up my caffeine collection over the summer and I think I've got enough to cover me for the semester... I hope.

This is the year that I work on my senior thesis film. It's a requirement to have a finished film in order to graduate by May. These are some character study illustrations for my production sketchbook. If you're ever curious how the film is going, just drop by the Dark Circus Blog to see what I've been up to.

This sketch here is from my Anatomical Figure Drawing sketchbook. Expect a lot more of these because there is A LOT of anatomy to cover in just 15 weeks. By the end of the class, we're expected to be able to draw the entire skeleton and muscle structure of the human body by memory. I feel my brain hurting already.

There is a lot of work on the horizon but I'll be a happy camper if I can get in a little drawing for fun. These sassy ladies are little characatures of some of the new girls at school I met at the new student orientation days. I love the dress on the curly top!

And yes, the one in the upper left is a girl.

Cute Crafting ^_^

2010-08-26T12:57:00.002-04:00

Even though I'm an animator and illustrator, I like to do simple craft projects in my spare time to break up the routine. These are a few of the ones I made over the summer.

Pop Tart iPod Cozy

Panda sleeping mask inspired by the mask on ShanaLogic.com

Cupcake Door Sign for the front door of my dorm room at college

Cupcake in a Cap! I think I'll turn this into a necklace pendant.

Red Vines Label Entries

2010-08-21T21:42:00.003-04:00

Let's see if I can get some of my artwork on the packaging of Red Vines Licorice. The drawing on top is for the box and the medium is ink pen. The painting on the the bottom is for the 4 lb. bucket and it's colored ink and water with black ink pen line work.

Box Submission

Bucket submission

What Did You Just Say to Me?

2010-08-19T22:19:00.002-04:00

Isn't body language fun? Sorry that the posts have been a little slow. Unlike during the school year, my summer isn't exploding with artistic procreation. I've got a lot to focus on, mainly things to reel in a little income for school. I'm also tackling every scholarship I can find. Wish me luck!

Summer Progress Reel. Last Envy Update for a While

2010-08-10T22:01:00.003-04:00

This is it, people. This is the last update I'll make on Enviosity until I graduate from CCS. It was fun while it lasted but this film is going to have to take a back seat for a while. I should say that it's going to have to wait in the trunk because there is no possible way I'll be able to touch it until my senior thesis film is all done. I would like to thank everyone whose been a part of this project and I hope to fulfill my promise of a finished film in the future. I'll be taking down the Enviosity link on the sidebar and replacing it with the one for my senior film blog but the Enviosity site will still be up for viewing. I guess its time to keep marching forward.

Back to the Petting Zoo

2010-08-05T14:46:00.003-04:00

I love animals. So drawing them is always fun for me. Every year at the county fair there is a petting zoo I like to visit and draw the animals. These are a few of the awesome critters they had on display.

Sheep and Goats

Gray Kangaroo

Oscar and Misty the rescue greyhounds

Gray Kangaroo, Fennec Foxes, and baby Flemish Giant Rabbits

Pixie Frog, American Alligator, and 2 albino Burmese Pythons

Red Kangaroo

Serval, Spotted Skunk, and a family of Ring-tailed Lemurs

Camel

Another Full Sketchbook

2010-07-26T21:02:00.003-04:00

I've filled up the sketchbook I started this summer with these last two drawings. Have some cute animals and edgy gunner girls while I go find a new book to draw in!

Unfamiliar Faces

2010-07-24T14:40:00.001-04:00

Just practicing drawing faces. Those are kind of important sometimes :P

Look at Those Fat Cats!!

2010-07-19T22:13:00.001-04:00

Community Day Street Painting!

2010-07-18T16:03:00.005-04:00

As you might be able to imagine, I was a very sad panda when I found that summer street painting in Detroit was cancelled. So I did the next best thing. Every year my hometown has a little celebration weekend in July with a parade, games, old cars, food, live music, and lots of little community events. I volunteered to do a small book-themed street painting in front of my library where people could watch me work. I got lots of walk-by glances and compliments but very few people stop to watch or asked me questions like the festival-goers I was used to, not to mention my tip box wasn't too much heavier than when I first brought it out. In the end, I actually didn't finish the whole thing in one day like I was hoping and had to go back in the morning the next day to wrap it up. I'm glad I finished it and put it to bed because now I'm really tired and have a terrible sun burn!!!

The Kids and More Hoang

2010-07-12T17:39:00.004-04:00

I did a few drawings of the kids I babysit every week. Those munchkins are all right by me.

Tasha and Mika the Chocolate lab

and Matt the Madman

I also did another doodle of my favorite ramen-themed superhero friend

Aww! Little Chibi Hoang!

Rabbit Gear's 2nd Birthday! YAY!

2010-07-09T19:59:00.003-04:00

That's right! This blog has been going strong for two years now. I want to thank everyone who have been visiting and supporting me through Rabbit Gear. Sadly, no cake was purchased to celebrate the occasion. Blogs can't actually eat.

Believe it or not, I am an Animator

2010-07-09T18:21:00.003-04:00

My animation posts are a little on the skimpy side as of lately. But I have been busy working on Enviosity. Here is a tied-down pencil test from the 2nd scene in the film.

Shot 17 Tie Down test

To find out more about the film, visit the Enviosity blog.

Lakeside 4th of July Weekend

2010-07-05T19:03:00.003-04:00

How to people celebrate their 4th of july by the lake? With swimming....

Alcohol....

And water sports!

Also, more drawings of Jogger the Dog

I was being silly with these ^_^

Mountains and Sketches. Another Trip to Tennessee

2010-06-21T12:10:00.006-04:00

My family's Cabin Rental business has been expanded yet again so that means we had another trip down to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. It was a 3 day fixer-upper adventure with a day of car travel there and a day to get back. So, 2 days in a small car and 3 days in a small cabin... naturally, I would have gone insane without my sketchbook handy.

These two sweet-lookin' gals were inspired by some cupcakes I saw in a local bakery n' boutique. Everything in the store was so cute!

I did these last three during the car ride home. Thank goodness the interstate wasn't too bumpy or else they would all look like something from Ed, Edd and Eddy. Hahaha

The last sushi! Oh no! This can only be settled with a fight to the death! Oh jeez, I think it was getting a little too hot in the car when I drew this one :P

Launched! The Rabbit Gear Wallpaper Blog

2010-06-13T10:13:00.005-04:00

Hurray, it's ready! The latest extension of the Rabbit Gear empire has been launched and it's all for you guys! You can download free desktop wallpapers for your computer, iPhones, and iPods made by me. I've made a few to start off with and I'll be making more and updating the stocks here. Go ahead and check it out at http://eringreenerwallpapers.blogspot.com/

This is the one I'm using right now :)

1 Month of Summer Break

2010-06-10T19:46:00.003-04:00

I just realized a few days ago that I had been home for roughly a month now. Man, time flies. Here's a few of the sketches I had accumulated over last May.

Squid Girl

Super Awesome Macgyver

Books, Beanstalks, and abodes

Weebles and Jogger

Hoang and Jefff

Facebook Commissions

2010-06-01T09:56:00.002-04:00

I was approached by an acquaintance on Facebook for custom drawings. These are them.

Celebrity Status

Profile Picture

Philipe Digital Painting

2010-05-28T00:31:00.006-04:00

Philipe is another one of my stuffed animal friends that has slowly worked their way into my artwork. I bought him from IKEA for 50 cents and when I saw him I knew that I had to take him home. He's a weird and disproportionate little guy but he's very cute and lovable. He's on vacation right now so he's not here in Michigan but he's having a good time!

Here he is with one of his new friends ^_^

Sweet Swing Sketch

2010-05-26T19:41:00.000-04:00

Launch! New Website!

2010-05-25T17:12:00.003-04:00

Yep! I have a new website fresh out of oven. It's my art and animation site built with Weebly.com and it's ready for the world to see.

http://eringreener.weebly.com/

I will still continue my unwavering dedication to this blog for it has become my baby for almost two years now and I am very proud of it. The new site is more of a clean and streamlined portfolio for professional purposes. Rabbit Gear is more of an artistic stream of consciousness where I can be more casual and personal with my viewers. Making a new site has been on the checklist for a while so I can now cross that off the list of summer goals.

Cosmic Cupid Desktop Wallpaper and Process Work

2010-05-19T01:29:00.006-04:00

After slaving away at the mercy of finals and still having a summer ahead of me to focus on my films, I decided that I deserved about 2 weeks of artistic procreation time before I got back to work on Enviosity and Dark Circus for the summer. It's been great fun doing some digital pieces and I'm going to share some of my process with you. This uses both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

This is a Desktop wallpaper I've been working on called Cosmic Cupid. My process isn't hard, it's just time-consuming but I'm always happy with my results. Let's get started.

Step 1 is the sketch or underlying drawing. Any drawing that is going to be photoshopped, I always try to draw it on white sketchbook paper if I can help it and make as clean of pencil lines as I can. Then I bring the scanned sketch into Adobe Illustrator.

Using the pen tool, I start tracing out all the shapes. Because this character had a lot of details to her outfit, this took me a long time. I usually do all my shapes in a dark color with an even darker stroke color. This gives me a silhouette of my image and from here I can judge if I need to make any proportion changes. A lot of design information can be pulled from a character's silhouette so this is a step I try and incorporate into my digital processes whenever possible.

Now for color. The great thing about working in vectors is that changing a shape's color is a breeze. Yes, this still took some time because I had lots of shapes but at least it was easy. Once all my solid colored shapes are done, I export the file to Photoshop.

Once in Photoshop, I resize everything to fit my project. The resolution size for this project is 1050 x 1680 pixels and want my cupid to be smaller so it fits. I tweak the Image Size to make it 900 x 900 pixels and the Canvas Size to expand it to the right size for my wallpaper.

Before getting started on all my shading, I organize my layers by name. This is very important.

This is what the shaded cupid looks like. There are many many different ways to render in Photoshop. Mine just happens to take hours and hours of selecting, gradients, blending, making loads of new layers, blocking out the solids, adding highlight and shade lines, touching up with the brush tool, and lots and lots of coffee to keep you alive through all of it.

The last part is the background. Since this is Cosmic Cupid, she needed a "Spacey" background that was easily achieved with a solid color layer, a composited galaxy photograph set to Color Dodge, and a few more gradients.

And there you have it!

Coming Soon: A Little Something for All of You!

2010-05-16T10:31:00.003-04:00

I can't tell you too much because it's still a secret ^^. I've been working on it for a few days now and there is still a few more things left to do until I can announce it. All I can say is that it's for all my wonderful blog visitors. Here is a little appetizer image from it to satisfy you for now.

Starting Off the Summer with Sketchies!

2010-05-14T00:15:00.002-04:00

So I took my sketchbook along with me to a family get-together and had some fun.

Check Out Tim 's Moves!

2010-05-07T22:27:00.004-04:00

Upon fumbling around on Facebook, I came across some pictures from one of my Facebook friends doing some crazy break dance moves. And I was blown away by some of these poses so I just had to draw them. If anyone ever gets the chance, drawing dancers is a fantastic way to study the human form in some of its more extreme capacities. I'm definitely going to do a few more drawings of Tim here at the start of my summer.

Junior Year Final Review Reel

2010-05-06T16:39:00.003-04:00

Another year behind me.

Hockey Players and Birthdays

2010-05-03T11:15:00.003-04:00

Just a little quickie project. A friend asked me to whip up a three-panel comic to put on a t-shirt for birthday gift. The final drawing was done with pen and ink. I hope to be taking on more commissions over the summer.

Animation Projects Final

2010-05-01T19:00:00.002-04:00

My first ever traditionally animated film, Enviosity, has been in production since the beginning of the Fall semester. Even though it isn't completely done, I still plan on wrapping it up over the summer. I will continue to work on it and update the production blog. Thanks to Hoang Dang for the car images, Josh Harrel for advising, and to all my classmates and friends for making this such an enjoyable experience.

Pizza Run is Pizza DONE!

2010-04-30T15:16:00.005-04:00

We finished all the assets to the Pizza Run game. The other teams also finished their games which turned out good too. GM was impressed with what we had to show and our efforts were rewarded.

I learned a lot from this experience. I've worked on group projects before but never one where organized teamwork was so critical. We had to make a lot of compromises and we had to do so much in a very small amount of time. Because this was a sponsored project and not just a school assignment, we had to factor in all the client input and not just our own.

For any student that's waist deep in their artist education, I would recommend hopping on board to any corporate sponsored assignment that shows up at your school. You get a lot of experience and they look good on a resume.

Pizza Run Promotional Poster

2010-04-26T11:06:00.002-04:00

I spent the whole day in photoshop making a poster for the Pizza Run display that will be in the End of the Year Student Show. This baby's coming to a close soon.

Game Over, Man! Game Over!

2010-04-24T13:50:00.003-04:00

Well, almost. This is the screen you'll see when you lose a round of Pizza Run. The assets are almost done and we are so close to having this project wrapped up. The last thing on our list is finishing and cleaning up the animations of the aliens and then we're as good as golden. We'll be presenting the final products to the GM reps on Thursday and I still have to make a display for Pizza Run's production. So much to dooooo!!!!

Tun Ping Wang and Pan Suave

2010-04-22T20:42:00.005-04:00

In my opinion, Peter Tun Ping Wang is the most amazing painter in the world. He's studying in New York for the meantime and continues to wow people with his work. Check out his stuff at http://tunpingwang.blogspot.com. The doggy that looks suspiciously like a dinner roll is Pan Suave and he is Peter's buddy.

Other recent sketches.

Under Construction: A New Film, A New Blog

2010-04-21T11:04:00.004-04:00

You read right. Now that my senior thesis film is underway, I'm going to start a production blog for it much like the one for Enviosity. There I will post the start-to-finish production log of the traditionally animated film I will be working on, Dark Circus. It will include concept art, sketches, inspirations, pencil tests, animatics, and much more. I'm still building the new blog so be patient!

More Pizza Run Comics

2010-04-13T18:04:00.003-04:00

More Comic book cut scenes finished in Photoshop. I lend a big thanks to Kevin Ingrassia for helping me flat color these in.

MacGyver and Me

2010-04-11T11:45:00.005-04:00

It was about time I did one of these portraits with the oversized toys with MacGyver and myself in it. For anyone unfamiliar with MacGyver, he is the animation pig of the department and he is one of those stress-relieving squeezing toys. MacGyver has been at my side for the last two years and I hope to keep him with me as my animation assistant until he eventually falls apart.

Coloring the Comics

2010-04-09T06:06:00.003-04:00

Making the assets for the Pizza Run game is well under way. My job is still to handle all the illustrations pertaining to the game's narrative. All the cut scene comics have been inked and now it is time to bring them into photoshop and color them. This is an example of what the finished comic will look like. After this they will be animated with text in Adobe After Effects for the game's cut scenes.

Finished Comic

Before Color

Homin Jang and His Beloved iPhone

2010-04-06T17:10:00.002-04:00

I swear, I think he glued it to his hand or something. Homin is a very good friend of mine and a fellow animator at the College for Creative Studies.

K.O.A. S'more Tester T Shirt Design

2010-04-05T11:34:00.003-04:00

Johnny (Yuxin) Wang and his Train

2010-04-04T01:44:00.003-04:00

This is Johnny. Johnny is my next door neighbor in the school dorms. Johnny loves trains.

Dark Circus Senior Film Environment Concepts

2010-03-31T19:45:00.002-04:00

Time to start flushing this idea out. The drawing on top is the windmill where the main character, Macey, and her family live and work in the bakery at the top. The drawing on bottom is the darkling traveling circus and the decrepit old witch that runs it. I'll be starting a production blog for the film soon enough,

Hoang and Philipe

2010-03-30T08:52:00.003-04:00

Philipe is a little blue rabbit I have with giant ears and stubby legs and Hoang is a Transportation Design student as well as one of my best buddies here at the College for Creative Studies. They like to hang out. I think Philipe is scared of Hoang sometimes.

Hoang Dang is a fantastic designer with a lot of fresh talent and a work ethic that can't be rivaled. Check out his stuff sometime at http://d-designart.blogspot.com/ !

Breaking in the New Sketchbook (T Shirt Designs)

2010-03-26T00:57:00.003-04:00

I've taken up some freelance work recently and I've been asked to design a t shirt that says "Official S'more Tester" for a local campground. These are first drawings for my new sketchbook so this is a good break in. I hope to be designing some more t shirts over the summer.