The Art of Aaron Quist

Block on!!

2008-07-10T19:04:00.011-05:00

About a month ago we finished helping out with an ad campaign for the Twin Cities Basilica Block Party, and I have to say it was a complete blast to work on!

Myself, Andrew Chesworth, Alec Mueller and Joe Kim came up with original block head concepts, and I then took our approved concepts and made the final illustrations. These illustrations were then turned into billboards and performance art by the very creative guys and gals over at the Olson agency! I'm blown away at how cool this whole thing turned out.

Here is a link to the photos that were taken by the block party street team. Very funny stuff, and awesome to see our characters printed on people's heads!

http://sites.google.com/a/streetfactorymedia.com/block-heads---june-27--28-2008/

I'm trying to go around and snap photos of all the billboards in town, so I'll throw them up as well as soon as I find them all. Until then, here are the illustrations in jpeg form! :D

New Characters!

2008-06-30T21:12:00.010-05:00

This is a collection of some characters I've created in my off time over the last six months or so. They have no purpose in life other than to make you feel uncomfortable. That, and they were a great exercise in digital inking, coloring and color design!

New technology gives birth to robotic dog!

2008-05-20T22:52:00.006-05:00

So, my boss recently acquired two brand new Cintiqs for the studio, so I've been dinking around with them on off hours. I have to say it is an amazing tool!! AMAZING! And yeah... Here's a robo dog!

Quick sketch from Espresso Royale

2008-04-18T00:00:00.002-05:00

This is a quick sketch/painting from a coffee shop near my apartment. I was only granted about ten minutes of time before the guy left, so it's not quite as finished as I want it to be. But hey, it's good practice for speed painting, right?

New Peculiar Jones design!

2008-04-17T23:56:00.002-05:00

So, as I'm creating pages for this story, I thought that a newly designed version of the hero should be created as reference (I was never truly happy with the first design - somewhere in my blog archive...). And here he is! I'm a lot happier with this version of Peculiar Jones, so he'll look something like this in the actual comic.

Toy designs!

2008-04-09T22:37:00.004-05:00

Here is a page of toy concepts I came up with as a personal exercise. I've really been digging designer toys lately, so I've been creating some of my own designs as a side project of mine. Hopefully soon I will be making clay mock-ups of these little guys!

Maurice the Rat

2008-03-28T22:09:00.004-05:00

Yet another character for the Peculiar Jones comic! This is a talking rat named Maurice, aptly named after Maurice LaMarche, the legendary voice of Brain (Pinky & the...) Another great character from the brain of Ted Anderson!

New Study from Dunn bros.

2008-03-24T21:41:00.002-05:00

This is a quick painting (about 45 min.) from Dunn Bros.

I had a lot of fun with light placement on this one, as the brighter tones really stands out against the dark complexion of the man. Also, with these quick paintings, I've really been trying to limit my palette as much as possible.

New character design for "Peculiar Jones" comic

2008-03-12T09:09:00.002-05:00

This is another character design I created for the Peculiar Jones comic project I'm working on. His name is Howie the Yowie, and he's a regular of the story. I tried to give him a little Teen Wolf vibe, even though he's a yeti.

New Illustration! ..and more to come...

2008-03-05T09:25:00.005-06:00

Wow! It's been a while since I've had the chance to update... Work at the studio has been insanely busy, so I've created a lot of work over the past month-ish that I will be posting.

This is an illustration I recently created on my own. It's a concept for an animation about a naive baby turtle and a senile old crab spending a day on the beach. I'm hoping I didn't make the turtle come off as brain dead...

Public Studies Vol. 2

2008-01-16T20:47:00.000-06:00

Here are some digital sketches from Dunn Bros. and Caribou coffee near my apartment in Minneapolis. I've been trying to play around with different styles - a new approach to each portrait... It's a lot of fun to do, and I will be posting more indefinately. Also, if anyone recognizes themselves in my work, pleeeez let me know!! I'd be happy to make prints.

New Peculiar Jones character design

2007-12-27T02:08:00.000-06:00

Her name is Patience Dogood, and she's a young witch in the Peculiar Jones comic I'm working on. These are some drawings I developed to solidify her design. More info on the comic can be found at peculiarjones.blogspot.com!

Studies from the Como Zoo

2007-12-19T21:07:00.000-06:00

I visited the Como Zoo in St. Paul, MN over the summer and sketch a variety of animals. I recently dug up those sketches and drew clean up versions of them as part of an ongoing sketchbook diary. Sketching animals, as well as people, is tough due to their insistence on moving all the time :( This is why you'll notice that the only sketch I was able to get of the Tamarin is while it was sleeping. I knew it would slip up sooner or later..

Public Studies Vol. 1

2007-12-13T14:46:00.000-06:00

These are sketches of some people at the Chipotle near the studio where I work. I began with a rough sketch of their faces as I ate my burrito, then later broke them down into shapes and drew cleaned-up, cartoon versions.

Brain Wads vol. 1

2007-12-11T20:13:00.000-06:00

Here is the first piece in a series of art I'll be creating called "Brain Wads". It's something I've been making in my spare time when my brain hurts and I can't think too hard about what I'm drawing... (click to see the larger image!)

Waterlollies - Awesome animation by Adam Philips

2007-12-10T13:24:00.001-06:00

I've been a long time fan of Adam Philips' work, and I just saw his latest animation. It's frickin' sweet! Great animation, nice staging and beautifully rendered. Check it out, and also check out his other works at www.biteycastle.com!!!

Vampires, Werewolves and corpulent businessmen..

2007-12-09T16:59:00.000-06:00

These are character designs for a new comic project that I'm working on called "Peculiar Jones". Ted Anderson created and writes the story, and I'll be doing the art for the book. For more info check out peculiarjones.blogspot.com..

More random characters!

2007-12-08T03:17:00.001-06:00

Here are some more characters I've created in the past few weeks. The pencil sketches themselves are old, but I've recently decided to ink and color them.

Some new character designs!

2007-09-19T09:13:00.001-05:00

These are a few characters I designed in off time at work. They're not connected with any story as of yet, but I hope to include them in some form in a future comic or animation.