Jazz Boid Turnaround Finished!

Today I was finally able to finish (or abandon, depending on your creative philosophy) the turnaround for my Jazz Boid resin figure! I'm hoping to make this character in 3-D with Bigshot Toyworks! Check out the full series of drawings on my Flickr photostream.

New Artwork!

Here's a piece that I recently finished for the Cartoon Art Museum benefit auction. Since I've heard of folks out there printing digital artwork and selling it themselves, I've left out a couple of details that will only appear on the auction art. Enjoy!

Bill Melendez, R.I.P.

My deepest condolences to his friends and family.

To read more, click here.

Welcome Home, Jim!

My brother-in-law Jim Slater returned home from Kuwait safely, arriving in Vermont at 4PM EST. Phew - what a relief! We're definitely counting our blessings. If you've got a loved one overseas, I hope he (or she) comes back to you soon!

My New Logo

I've finally finished the logo design for my toy line! It took me forever to figure out which direction to choose, but I'm quite happy with this one. If all goes well, you should see this over at the DKE Toys Distribution booth during Comic-Con. Enjoy!

The Auction Poster Design Redux

Here's the new version that I just finished. It's not perfect, but I'm much happier with it than the first one, so I'm going to frame it up for the auction. Enjoy!

Another Challenge

Here's the color version of Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch..., which I painted today. This one turned out a lot better than my first painting, but it got a bit blotchy when I decided to add a shadow layer on the vault wall at the last minute. It's very clear I'm going to have to plan out the color pretty thoroughly if I want these to look their best! I'll try doing a color study in the computer when I do the rough version - impulsive changes don't seem to work with Doc Martin's dyes.

I tried to paint the Komu-Kun drawing at the same time, but I didn't have a clear idea about how the color should go, so it fell apart pretty quickly. I'm going to do another color version of the beaver auction drawing tomorrow, and if that goes well, I'll try the third piece again. I have a feeling, though, that the auction might only get two color drawings... we'll see...

The Challenges Of Real Media

One of the reasons I've been so blog-quiet is that I'm working on some artwork for a charity auction. All of us story folk at work are donating/creating artwork so we can decorate our new story pod, Joe's Place. The trick is that, since it's being auctioned off, it really needs to be original, non-digital art. Eek!

I can't even tell you how long it's been since I've bought art supplies - I've been drawing digitally for years now, even on my own projects (like the Happy Beaver comics - I know, I know). I stopped by Blick's Art Supplies, and dropped enough cash that it made me wonder if it might not be better to simply give the story team the money! Still, the more I thought about it, the more excited I got.

My original plan was to rough out the drawings digitally (since that's the most malleable step), back-light some watercolor paper, and do the Sharpie 'inking' that way. I wouldn't have to worry about bleeding, since Sharpies are waterproof. If I still had any courage left (it usually evaporates after the line art is done), I'd color the art with Dr. Martin's dyes, just like the old school guys did!

As you can see, the line art is finished for three pieces - the poster design, plus two others. All of the planning has worked out so far - I bought a light box for the back-lighting, and it worked great - so well that I didn't need to use the sheets of treated acetate I bought as a backup. The biggest question mark was using the dyes, since I didn't have any experience with them.

I was going to try to hedge my bets at first and paint the treated cels - I could frame it with the art as an overlay, and if I messed up the color, I could grab another cel and try again. But even though the cels were supposed to be able to take watercolors, washes were just plain invisible on it. I took it to mean that God wanted me to grow a pair and paint on the original, so I did.

I started with the poster design, since I needed to get it finished first. The results were mixed - the parts that I knew what I wanted were labor-intensive (it took me four hours to paint one drawing) but successful. The part that I was the least clear on my approach going in - the auction crowd - was much less so, and I wound up really overworking it:

It turns out that these dyes aren't great for layering - they bleed in really unpredictable ways, and it's best to use them as solid colors. It's ironic, because that's the way I color ninety percent of the time - this particular piece seemed to ask for a little more nuance. I learned a lot about the medium, though, and I still have enough time to redo the line work and try again. If I run out of time, well, at least I've got something for Monday!

Recent Artwork (For A Change!)

Here's two versions of a Dave Smith caricature that I did. Dave worked in the Walt Disney Archives, and just became a Disney Legend. I drew this artwork to decorate his congratulatory card!

The first version (as you can see) was much more stylized in terms of color. It didn't pass muster, so I changed it into what you see above. I also added a stack of animation paper, to help hint at his job a little bit. I'm glad I did that - it anchors the character in the frame more effectively.

Initially, I was disappointed that I had to back down on the color, but now I'm not as sure. I like the fact that it's punchier and less literal (for some reason, it reminds me of The Banana Splits, but I'm not sure why), but something seems missing - I'm not as happy with the suit colors in that context. I think the trick of placing one of the Mickey faces on top of his head like a Disneyland hat works better in the original.

Well, anyway, there you go. Enjoy!

More From The Archives

Here's a piece that I did for a friend's wedding. They used the art on mugs that they set out on the reception tables - the guests could take them home as gifts!

I like to use brush pens for their finished feel, but it's hard to do an entire drawing without mistakes. The felt-tip kind that I use smear easily, and that's bad for lefties like me! Regardless, I think it (and the mugs) turned out pretty well.

The tricky part was that the drawing would be printed in white on a black mug! That's why nothing is colored in on the original - I didn't want to commit to something, and then find out that it inverted poorly later.

NOTE: I cheated and tweaked this a little in Photoshop. Compare it with the mug photo and discover what's driven me nuts for years!

Artifacts From The Reagan Era

Here's a piece from 1982, featuring a bunch of characters I drew obsessively, but never supported with a story. You can see Floyd again, seated with the cowboy hat. I'd always wanted to do some sort of travelogue story with a bunch of disparate, oddball folks like these and call it Jeff Pidgeon's Road Movie, but it never moved beyond group shots and logos.

This is one of very few drawings that I actually did in real ink (I did more involved pieces like this for my high school art class). It was a terrific struggle, and I abandoned the practice not much later. I dabbled in watercolors for a short time as well - I used them here, but I think I completely missed the point by trying to use them like markers. There's lots of bad habits here that I unconsciously picked up from copying the comic strips of the time. I hope I've jettisoned at least some of them!

My High School Graduation Announcement, 1983

A good early experience with printers, back in the analog days. I did the blue level as an acetate overlay, with adhesive-backed rubylith (rubyfilm?) to indicate where the color would go. The registration was off on almost all of them, sadly. Otherwise, it turned out pretty well.

It would be quite a while before I became comfortable drawing caricatures of myself, so Floyd (the main human in my regular cast of characters) was my stand-in. I wasn't comfortable with much of the outside world, either, so "I" celebrated with the creatures and animals living in my head at that point.

The drawing itself is cute, but the composition is crowded and awkward. Tangents everywhere, and no solidity to anything. Yikes - CalArts sure helped whip me into shape!

CalArts Design Assignment: Four Animals, Four Colors (1985)

At least, that's what I remember the parameters being... who knows? That was a long time ago. If you remember this assignment differently, feel free to chime in!

Ancient Alien Drawing

This piece was drawn in the same period as the flying cat, twenty-two years ago. There's a third 'interpreted rubbing' of the floor tiles, but I think this is the best one. Enjoy!

Another One From The Archives

Susan brought this back into work on Friday, and said that it was her favorite card that she'd ever received at Pixar. How nice!

I thought it held up well, so I asked her if I could scan it for my online archives. It's a bit blotchy because it's white Xerox paper spray-mounted onto a black piece of cardboard, so the whites kind of 'grey out'. Anyway, enjoy!

Really Weird, Twenty-Four-Year-Old Artwork

In case you were curious about what inspired the anonymous toy back-story that I posted at the Vinyl Toy Freaks forum, here it is. I can't post it there, because the contest doesn't allow artwork, only writing. It's a crazy piece that combines a rubbing from the bathroom tile of my parents' house with a felt-tip pen drawing. I saw a couple of characters in the tile patterns, and rather than have them start talking to me, I decided to draw them. I'll post the other one soon, which I think is a marginally better drawing.

New Artwork!

I did a drawing for John Sanford to help him celebrate the second anniversary of his comic strip, Chippy and Loopus. So here it is! You can see this piece, and much more artwork at his blog. Enjoy!

A Birthday Card For Susan

It's been a while since I've posted any artwork, and I thought this piece turned out pretty well, so... why not? Susan had just returned from Italy, hence the tower. Enjoy!

More Caricature Sweetness

Previously-posted caricaturist Peter Emslie has another webpage, a blog called The Cartoon Cave. There's more great posts and drawings there, so stop by if you have a minute!

Peter Emslie Caricatures

Check these out - there's some great likenesses. The Larry David is especially good, but I had to post Don Rickles because the drawing makes me laugh! I can hear his voice when I look at it. It's nice to see a Hirschfield flavor, rather than someone simply copying his style.

Thanks to John K. for the link.

Final Box Art!

Here 'tis! I just tweaked the front a little - the other fonts didn't make me happy, so I decided to put the top flap logo on the front of the box as well. It feels right and looks good!

I thought about getting arty-farty and putting just the beaver drawing on the front, but my officemate voted for more practicality, and it made sense. I had to shrink the artwork down a bit in order to display it here, but the image doesn't seem to have degraded at all.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to get it to Gentle Giant! The image file is too heavy to send through standard email.

Anime Simpsons Style, Vice Versa

Here's a cute Totoro drawing in the Simpsons style by spacecoyote. She's also done drawings of Groening TV shows in an anime style!