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!

Happy Beaver #4

Finally - a new installment! Now with a title logo and copyright notice! Enjoy.

PS - I've put another pinstriped beaver toy on the auction block. This one was painted by Greg Cooper, the fellow who 'striped the first one. Happy bidding!

New Episode of Happy Beaver On The Way

I've been busting my butt on it today, but I just couldn't get it finished! Here's a teaser image to tide you over until tomorrow!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Especially to my sweet baby love. Thank you so much for marrying me! I love you!!

What if E.T. And The Giger Alien Had Kids?

They'd probably look something like this. This is an old doodle from the early 90's - it had old Pixar computer names written on it.

Originally, this was drawn on lined paper, so you can imagine the fun it was to clean up!

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!

Mid-80s Brain Fart

Here's another doodle from over twenty years ago. I still think "G-Man" is kind of neat, though I'd draw "Q-Tee" in an entirely different way now!

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!

Another Mighty Mouse Rough

Here's the other half of that unfinished T-shirt design. Enjoy!

Mighty Mouse Turns Twenty

Well, Ralph Bakshi's version of him, anyway. Yup, that's right, the second season (or half-season) of Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures was created in the summer of 1988. It was my first job in animation, and a pretty good one, at that! A bunch of future big shots worked on it, including Andrew Stanton, Bruce Timm, Rich Moore, John Kricfalusi, Vicki Jensen, and Jim Reardon. Tom Minton wrote some really funny scripts for the show, too!

Ralph let us vent our spleens on television, and the result was wildly uneven, but it had its moments. I got to get a lot of stuff out of my system early, so it wasn't as big a deal when I couldn't do it elsewhere. I got to trot out my smart-ass obsessions with UPA design, Hanna-Barbera kidvid, Warner Brothers and M-G-M shorts. I didn't know what I was doing, so I got to make a lot of mistakes, learn from them, and get paid at the same time! It was crazy and rewarding, but I'm glad I don't have to do that now. I remember nights at home with my hand cramping up as I cleaned up character designs. TV animation schedules are rough!

Unfortunately, the rights are owned by five different people who don't exactly like each other, so they'll probably never come out on DVD. Ultimately, that's not a tragedy - in the context of what was going on in animation at the time, it was fun and experimental, but compared to Adult Swim shows today, it's pretty tame stuff.

The drawing I'm featuring here was done long after the show ended, in 1991 - I had wanted to make an anniversary crew tee back in the day, but I never finished it. It was going to picture the Cow and Bat-Bat squaring off - I'm not sure how Mighty Mouse was going to figure into the design. It might be fun to do, if I could finish it before the year is out!

If you're a fan, bust out those VHS dubs (or bootleg DVDs), pop on your favorite episode, and remember. Thanks for watching it the first time around!

PS - Ralph's releasing a career retrospective book that'll hit stores this April. I can't wait to see it!

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!

Nerdy Fan Art, Circa 1983

Lifted directly from one of the issues (maybe a cover). I read Cerebus from about issue #40 to the very end (#300). It got progressively harder for me as I went along - in general, I'm not sure I'd recommend going past the end of Church & State (though there is a lot of interesting material past that point).

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!

Dutch Beaver

These are fun, even if I do get way too carried away with them!

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.

Beaver Toy Box Art (In Progress)

I thought you'd like to see the current version of the box art. I decided to scrap the original concept, and move in this faux-log direction instead. I think I'm going to drop the text on the box front entirely, and make the beaver picture a little bigger - the rest is pretty much set. I'm going to try to do that at lunchtime today so I can e-mail the art to Gentle Giant right away.

Maybe I'll do a cylindrical box for a later version!

In Case You Didn't Get The Sixteen Panels Joke

It's a riff on the above strip. Pretty funny!

New Drawing

Here's a stylized portrait (it's a bit mild to truly be a caricature) of a co-worker, Jack Dubowsky. I was in a bit of a rush, so I did it in black and white. Enjoy!

I Finally Finished My DrawerGeeks Submission

I had a heavy deadline this week, so I couldn't get this done on Friday. I didn't really consider skipping this one - how could I not do a robot drawing?! Robots are the best!

Hope it was worth the wait!

Ball-Point Pen Doodle

While I was waiting for an appointment.

DrawerGeeks Preview: Grrrr Face

Here's my drawing for this go-round. Enjoy!

DrawerGeeks Gets Attention

There's a write-up for it on the lines and colors website. Cool:

lines and colors: DrawerGeeks
Posted by Charley Parker at 10:53 am
Bookmark on del.icio.us

Now here’s a great idea from a group of artists for an informal series of creative projects that also translates into a fun web site.

I can’t sum it up any more succinctly than they do themselves in the first paragraph of their FAQ: “DrawerGeeks is a fun thing we do every other Friday, where professional artists (mostly from the animation, comic book, illustration and design fields) all draw their own version of a chosen fictional character.”

The result is a delightful amalgam of divers styles, techniques and artistic approaches that is pulled together with a common theme. The characters are often drawn (if you’ll excuse the expression) from mainstream comics, e.g. Thor, Captain America, Wonder Woman and Bizarro; but you’ll also find characters from movies, literature, fairy tales and other areas of pop culture, like King Kong, King Authur, Little Red Riding Hood and Cereal Mascots.

The artists sometimes make the themes bit broader than they seem by giving them an open-minded interpretation; Iron Man, for example, can be the Iron Man, the Marvel Comics character, or an iron man. Keeping to the chosen character is one of only two rules the artists apply to themselves, the other being to “keep it clean”.

There’s no requirement or limit on the amount of time devoted to the piece, and you will see examples from both ends of the spectrum, though most tend to be quite finished and some are very elaborate.

This seems a tremendous way for these artists to have fun and encourage themselves to indulge in playful creation, unrestrained by the demands of art directors and deadlines, but within a framework of a collegial atmosphere and perhaps a bit of friendly competition.

Before you run off looking for how to join, DrawerGeeks is more or less a closed circle. In order to try to keep this as a fun thing for the original participants, and not burden someone with administering a giant web site, participation is limited to invitation only.

The idea to take from this, beyond enjoying the fruits of their project by following the site every other week, would be to initiate a similar project among your own circle of artist friends.

Or, if you want an already established framework for creating a themed illustration on a regular basis and sharing it with a large group, check out Illustration Friday.

The other thing to take from DrawerGeeks is to check out the page that lists the participating artists and visit their individual web sites — something I’m just starting to do. Enjoy.

Suggestion courtesy of Meg Levitt.

Another Of My Storyboard Drawings Online!

Very cool! Check it out here.

DrawerGeeks Preview

Here's this week's drawing, for the Captain Marvel theme. I'm really happy with this one!

Dinosaur Lunch

Here's my DrawerGeeks submission for this week, the theme being 'caveman'. Originally, the log was supposed to be a pet carrier, but Anita said she thought it was a lunchbox. I figure it works all right either way! Enjoy.

My First DrawerGeeks Picture!

The theme this time around is Snow White. This one was completely digital. Just a quickie, since I joined late! You can see it on the site, or here if that doesn't work.

Next time: Cavemen!

Bruce Timm Drawing

Here's a close-up of the Bruce Timm piece, the central drawing of a birthday card. He did this for me when we worked together on Tiny Toon Adventures. We were all a little creatively frustrated then, hence the lavishness of the art! This is my favorite of the drawings that he did for me, and since his work goes for big bucks at conventions now, I thought I'd frame this and hang it up.

I collected even more soundtracks and movie T-shirts than I do now, so Bruce ragged on me for being excited about the Dick Tracy movie. I'll bet he even put my face on the watch - fifteen years and I never thought to check!

Yes, I did have a mullet and a mustache for a short time. Even with my cluelessness, I quickly came to my senses.