Trip Park

How cold is it?

2012-01-24T16:57:00.000-08:00

Being back up north for the weeks reminded me of how cold can really hit you. Or for me it hit me with this concept for a magazine cover...

Green-Eyed Ghost

2012-01-20T10:39:00.000-08:00

Troll

2012-01-09T16:40:00.000-08:00

How to build a robot

2012-01-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

Goat

2012-01-03T19:16:00.000-08:00

Man -THAT one went by fast!

2011-12-31T08:06:00.002-08:00

Ready for 2012 already!

2011-12-31T08:06:00.001-08:00

Oh, go have yourself one here...

2011-12-20T03:58:00.000-08:00

So now that my list is off and out (phew), here's the inside line to this year's holiday card. I still have a few more with stamps so if you'd like one - drop me a line with an addy. Hurry - before they all scurry out the door! Funny, but I already did a mouse this year so perhaps this was a personal theme?

Welcome Ho-ho-home!

2011-12-16T07:07:00.000-08:00

Being at the airport yesterday I saw so many military personnel coming back for the holidays. I drew this up in the IPad while waiting at the gate.

Annie way we go again!!!

2011-12-05T16:21:00.000-08:00

We just found out today both McDonald's commercials "Apple Tree," and "Suzy Von Zoom" are up for Annie nominations! We didn't get it with Spaceman Stu last year, but it's always nice to be...oh, just win, please dammit! Thank you again, John Montgomery and Keith Hughes and Susan Credle for bringing me in to help out! And thank you Leo Burnett - you never forget your first...ad agency.

Fun, fat Dino

2011-12-05T16:05:00.000-08:00

A smallish Dino for an early conceptual series.

Cool or Cute?

2011-11-07T16:29:00.001-08:00

So what do you think?

Oh, what a cute little, what the -???

2011-11-06T10:12:00.000-08:00

And a bit more to this guy...

From the Hunger Games Book Two, this little Carnivorous Squirrel is surely not something to which you'd want to feed any nuts...

'Tis the Season

2011-10-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

And almost done...

Cleaning up a bit more in the face...

But then you do something so simple and obvious and suddenly he becomes cuter, but just a bit more... See it?

A bit slow on this one - but more on the face...

Man - that time already. Feel like I just finished last years...

Mantis

2011-09-13T18:38:00.000-07:00

Just a quick bug...

Armour-Clad Jacker

2011-09-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

Another take on the Jacker from The Hunger Games...this time a bit more rigid

Give me your tired, your poor, your Life Preservers...

2011-08-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

I just had to get this down on the iPad...

Oh - one more, then things will have clothes on them...

2011-08-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

Another something naked...

2011-08-26T04:38:00.000-07:00

Me...later on

2011-08-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

I saw this guy at a flea market today, and I luckily had the iPad in hand.

SketchPad pencils...

2011-08-08T19:28:00.001-07:00

SketchPad on iPad has these new pencil downloads; from 2H's to 9B's to the evil F; all of them are pretty close to a real pencil tip. Another quick sketch here:

Taking things into another dimension

2011-07-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

Wanted to try my hand at one of these rendering programs. Taking a bit of getting used to but here's a first shot (don't be a hater):

And then I added a little paint...

Not-so-cute-mutt

2011-07-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

Looks like I'm missing the mark based on the "do-overs," but thanks! I love a challenge. here's another shot at the Muttation.

Okay, Okay - so the first Muttation wasn't as big a deal as the Tracker Jacker - here's another stab at him...thoughts?

Here's one of the Muttations; or a sort of wolf-pup-like gang of predators released upon the contestants in the later part of the games. They're genetically created creatures by the ruthless government, and well, just read the book(s) already!

Tracker Jacker

2011-07-11T06:46:00.001-07:00

A bit more armour-clad here...

Another buzz through this one...

If you by any chance picked up The Hunger Games this past holiday week (and like me, couldn't put it down), you'll remember these bad boys; the genetically created Tracker-Jackers. These golden hornets with deadly, venom-filled stingers were something at which I had to take an IPad stab...no pun intended!

Mad Dogs!

2011-06-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

Still a WIP, but I wanted to try to get more of this touched on in between summer trips...

Just a beginning design on a character for a Chicago hot dog stand called, "Mad Dogs." It seemed like a fun one in concept. Only after getting this pencil done I sure got hungry.

Rotten Kindle

2011-06-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

But I say that in a good way - as I just saw all the Rotten School books on Kindle now, and while I loved how the B&W images looked in print - they really translated back into digital watercolor images nicely. Thank you Painter. These would be great things for kids going to Summer Camps people (- I'm just sayin')!

This was Book 2, or The Great Smelling Bee. Sherman Oaks' robotic pet cat takes on Headmaster Upchuck's left leg in a, well, cat fight. Here's a look at the pencil.

Then the final in watercolor, well, Painter watercolor. The pin stripes were a stumbled-upon fun trick - I painted a layer of gray with all the shading - dried it, then added a solid darker layer of gray all over. A white, thin brush in the (still) wet layer stripped away all the stripes, revealing the lighter layer of shaded gray below.

Good PR is a gift...

2011-05-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

...And THIS is the article it comes in. From Adweek.com, May 23, 2011:

McDonald's, which last week again defended itself from doctors' and parents' accusations that it makes kids fat, is out with timely new commercials that are notable mostly for not sending shivers down our spines. Created by Leo Burnett in Chicago (with production houses Kompost and Duck), the elaborately detailed 3-D cartoons subtly cast the brand's Happy Meals as not just fun but healthful and wholesome to boot. In an upbeat, honky-tonk spot, a twig-like young girl named Suzy van Zoom is so famished after tearing around burning calories on her new two-wheeled bicycle that she descends upon the local McDonald's franchise to fuel up. (She's accompanied, of course, by a stampede of equally hungry animal friends that she picked up while zipping through the zoo—perhaps inviting accusations from PETA that McDonald's makes penguins fat, too.) In a second, more mawkish ad (posted after the jump), a bird nests her young in what turns out to be one of the iconic boxes the Happy Meals come in. Whether or not the naturalistic, feel-good tone of these animations misleads youth toward obesity, it's safe to say any child who opens up a Happy Meal to find nothing but yogurt, apple slices, and feathers is going to be pretty pissed off.

Suzy Von Zoom

2011-05-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

Here is the recent spot in the McDonald's campaign by Duck Studios and Kompost. I worked with Leo Burnett in Chicago, the ad agency of record, with the art direction and story boards.

This first board, an iPad thumbnail type was the first try at it...

Then I took a shot at re-doing the boards to add a bit more to the scenes and characters...

Here's the spot as it is airing:

Broomies

2011-05-05T05:32:00.000-07:00

Take two sisters, put them in an urban, industry-focused, competitive environment where it's every man for herself (meant to write that), then add their advantage that they're both witches!

And just for fun, one of them's in advertising!

A bit on the steps with the help of the iPad...

Here kitty, kitty

2011-04-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

A character from a quirky story around with I'm fiddling...

Pandamonium!

2011-04-22T08:01:00.001-07:00

With all due apologies to Dreamworks and their fantastic work on this great feature, I was asked to do an editorial piece for Independent Lawyer magazine regarding the legal suit over the rights to the Panda characters. While the concepts started brewing, see below, this one (below) was the final piece...

I wanted to explore a bit on where this could go conceptually, and while I liked the guy in the panda "suit" with his Disney-character-type-head removed and under his arm accusingly pointing at the real Panda, Po (accompanied by a disgruntled, disapprovingly-expressioned attorney), it didn't win out. There were a couple more thoughts from the iPad below, but in the end I asked what the headline was they wanted to go with, and the art director said, "Pandamonium..."

...the wrestling ring concept then made perfect sense.

Egret

2011-04-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

A quick commission job here, but again with my birds...there's got to be something psychologically disturbing going on with the need to do birds. Guess it could be worse...24" X 28" acrylic.

Hello, I'm Trip...and I'm a slob.

2011-04-02T07:35:00.000-07:00

Not usually, but after a week of doing about six different paintings for my wife's design business I get overwhelmed and very messy. The paints can pile up, the brushes get stuck together, coffee mugs not filled with coffee get mistaken for, well, coffee. It can be an ugly sight reminiscent of Sanford & Son's red truck.

Robin

2011-03-31T12:42:00.001-07:00

Another in the birds/nest/eggs series I guess. This being a robin, so another spring-type bird enjoying some weather that's a heck of a lot warmer than what we've been going through recently!

After a rough pencil, I added some layers of acrylic molding paste to make certain parts pop off with some dimension.

A tight shot of the big-headed guy...

And the final, a tall piece, somewhat. It's also here on Etsy.

Woodpecker

2011-03-31T06:21:00.000-07:00

Saw one of these the other day - loved how it's red-head popped of the gray, dreary landscape. Almost wrecked while staring at him/her. But thought putting it on canvas might be a safer option - at least I was off the road for the afternoon. It's also on Etsy.

Red Nest

2011-03-29T19:29:00.000-07:00

Nest (con't)

2011-03-29T05:08:00.000-07:00

The iPad sketch first...

Perhaps just thinking and painting about spring hard enough will make it warm up??? This one's a monster - 36" X 32" commissioned after I did the previous posting. Done in acrylic.

Nest

2011-03-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

Something to put on Etsy, a studio canvas stretched, 16" X 16".

Apple Tree

2011-03-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

The third in the new animated McDonald's series, this began as a simple idea (spanning the life of an apple tree) from Leo Burnett, Chicago. I worked with them on the original storyboard, and the spot was produced by Kompost animation in Sweden as an even more beautiful (yet still very simple) idea. Justin Roberts, the singer who performed this song, is an established singer of kids' music, and his work can be found here, but Apple Tree is on this album.

Pelican

2011-03-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

Had a number of encounters with these guys last week. They can be pretty viscous characters, fun to draw up too. More from the neat Sketch app on iPad...

Help them see help coming

2011-03-17T19:20:00.001-07:00

Dice Tsutsumi of Pixar Studios has joined up with a great cause here. He's not only an unbelievable illustrator and conceptual artist with Pixar, he's a contributor to the fun Art Bocks for Ghana. It's legit, I've given, please do what you can as well. Obviously this is a crisis no one saw coming so let's try to help them see help that is. Thanks!

Go here for more...

Small

2011-03-05T07:16:00.000-08:00

The Foreverglades (Story Art)

2011-03-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

Putting Story Art together for a concept of mine I've been flushing out. In "The Foreverglades," the most unlikely of curmudgeons (in the form of an alligator pro golfer) turns his back on friends and fans when he crumbles in the biggest tournament of his life. But in his waning years, he realizes you are never too old to make new friends...

Happy Tarantula

2011-03-01T10:06:00.001-08:00

Pushed the brush strokes a bit on Sketchpad for the iPad - too many in sequence has crashed my iPad previously (just save the thing once in a while to keep from inventing brand new, multi-syllabic swear words you shouldn't bolt out unless in a confined space). But I wanted to make a tarantula look like it was really happy - without showing any mouth open nor any teeth...

Sketchpad had great layers (limited to five though).

Then the hairs, lots and lots of hairs.

Pig in a Waller

2011-02-15T15:35:00.000-08:00

In this Art Block for Ghana contribution, I wanted to completely sculpt something as if it were coming out of the block itself, sort of carved into the front of it...

Using an iPad for the initial sketch to get it out of my head...this was a crude way to get me thinking of dimensions, amount of Sculpey needed, and/or how much wire-frame might be needed to get made (not very much I found).

In flipping a 12" X 12" art block over, this one gave me a lot of room to create a flat surface (to be the grassy sides) that then have a dip into a pool of mud. I started creating the pig, not sure how fat he needed to be at first.

But eventually, after placement of the legs, I knew I had to widen his girth to justify where the hip hinges lie and from where his knees emerge. A tiny wire was used to emulate a drip from his left hoof, but was covered by Sculpey to give the impression of thick mud dripping down to the surface. It also served as a small support of the leg.

Found some molding paste and mixed it in with various shades of green to create the texture and feel of grass around the sides. Some angles and close-ups.

Mouse House

2011-01-30T07:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the iPad, ideas can now flow at late nights right nest to the bedstand! This was a quick sketch for another Art Blocks for Ghana.

Started by flipping over the Art Block, the depth was perfect for what I had in mind here...

Layers of cardboard and glue, and the right, lined up tears later...

Have to love Scupley...and something this small didn't require an extensive wireframe. Found another use for my son's airsoft pellets too.

Placement, after painted...almost glued the sucker in there before I realized I'd never reach in there to paint his backside...

Then the finals (I added "stuffings" of house insulation around the inside parts of the wall)...Mine can be seen here too.

A very Groovy Stu!

2011-01-28T04:34:00.000-08:00

The agency with which I did the Spaceman Stu commercial sent me this link, and my jaw dropped. Somewhere out there I know Stu just broke out in a bit of beatboxing...

His link on YouTube is ScarVideo, someone in advertising needs to hire this guy!

New York Pigeon

2011-01-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

Last time we were in New York City, I found a simple, iron fencing around some ivy at the base of a tree. There's thousands like this in New York, and you see them all the time. But like so many things in the city, when you work there you take simple things like this for granted - it really was a neat little image. I stalked a nearby pigeon, taking a few shots until I got one I liked of him (or her) in stride...

Crudely, I photoshopped the guy into the front of this scene.

An early layout and initial color pass. I always hate looking at these in this rough part - just want to speed to the end where I see it in my head!

I only took one shot of this in progress as I got so into it so quickly it was done (I think) in less than two hours. Painting on Painter is great, but it's fun to go back and toss some old school brushes around once in a while. This piece is also up on Etsy.

Lunchtime (con't) Start to Finish

2011-01-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

A bit more on "Lunchtime," but this was a dog character from a chapter book I wrote, devoted to only his owner, quite anxious around everyone else. His name is Brutus.

Carolina Ram

2011-01-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

As a homage to my alma mater, I did this mascot-type ram for Etsy. Note the ever-so (not-so-subtle) Carolina blue color in the background and highlights...

Lunchtime

2011-01-18T08:13:00.000-08:00

A bulldog from one of my chapter book concepts.

A Montage of Matriarchs

2011-01-18T07:47:00.000-08:00

Recently asked to do a mom character, it made me pull up some of the recent "mom" types I've covered...

Going snow-where?

2011-01-18T05:55:00.001-08:00

IPad Animation creator, Red Software, put my "Snowman" animation up on their site. Fun stuff to have up there, as any time I can virally become shamelessly, self-promotional - I'm a happy guy.

The Threat himself...

2011-01-17T11:58:00.000-08:00

So this guy is sticking in my head a bit more since I did the below animation...

Small Threat

2011-01-17T08:21:00.000-08:00

We are not alone...

Fun with cocktail napkin doodles

2011-01-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, the most frenzied sketches still read somewhat well, and when the character comes together with a nice balance and weighted stance, it's hard not to go to final to see what you found.

"Stu & Annie Sitting in a Tree..."

2010-12-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

That's the tune that came to mind seeing Spaceman Stu just getting nominated for an Annie Award. Stiff competition, but not bad for a little guy with a fishbowl plopped atop his head?

Snowman

2010-12-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

"Fun with an iPad While Waiting (and Waiting) in an Airport," or what I WAS going to call this until it ended up our flight was cancelled, then another was cancelled...and then a whole day later we realized we were going nowhere. But in the 30 minutes or so it took me to do this animation, I had every intention of making this a nice, heartfelt, and charming piece for the holidays. So I was about to have the snowman pop a cute carrot on for a nose, but once they announced that our second flight was cancelled, I knew the cute bird had to die!

Oh, and happy holidays!!!

THE FULL Spaceman Stu SONG!!!

2010-11-29T08:50:00.001-08:00

The responses to YouTube to Spaceman Stu was unreal! But something we kept reading over and over again was, "please give us the full song." Well, just in time for the season of giving, here it is! This is the full Spaceman Stu Song from the McDonald's commercial on which I worked. It can only be found here for now, but should things progress like I hear, you'll be able to download it through McDonald's own site.

Now if you want to see and comment on YouTube (go here), but here is the original commercial in its full :30:

Blast from the Jay Ward past!

2010-11-24T08:54:00.000-08:00

All you have to do is look at this Jay Ward original retro box, now out on cereal shelves everywhere, to get a feel for why I fell in love with animation through advertising. I was able to work on several fun icons (Seven-Up Spot, Keebler Elves, Ronald McDonald, Various Fruit by the Foot animated oddities, etc.) through advertising as an Art Director over a number of years...

...and with that I loved taking the Cap'n and putting him in a 3-D (rotoscoped) environment for the first time ever! I think I even got to get his quirky Cap'n's famous hat wet here - sorry Cap'n! More on this storyboard and animation props, and design can be seen here (storyboards) and here (character design, submarine design, ancillary characters' design).

Grumpy Office

2010-11-23T13:43:00.000-08:00

Just a quick study on a potential mechanized supervisor. You wouldn't want to come in late with him, he's always cranky - if not badly in need of a fresh oil change...

VERY happy Birthday!!!!!

2010-11-12T06:43:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. But when I did this one the headline that day that Viagra was celebrating its own birthday just go me too excited. No, wait, that was wrong to write. But I did get aroused by this concept...okay, that was worse. Here, you can take a look at some of the other cartoons I've done with Greensboro's News & Record, on my Editorial Trips blog.

Punked & Skunked

2010-11-12T06:20:00.001-08:00

One of the more busy challenges from The Rotten School books was this cover for Book 11, "Punked & Skunked. The story was hilarious, and the visuals were a fun mess of contraptions from these kids' own inventive minds...of course, they really came from the twisted and genius mind of R. L. Stine himself. This cover needed Bernie Bridges with a contraption on his back that (in reality, this scene never really occurred in the book itself) was going quite hay-wired. I loved putting his dog, Gassy in wherever possible - and here he's getting his own auto-wash...and if you look at one of the shocks closely, you'll see that Bernie's own arch enemy in the series, Sherman Oaks, owns and makes these very shocks. Typical, he owns everything else.

The pencil had to be done quickly as this was one of the last books done in the series (before they were extended to another four more).

A first pass of color, although always ugly, just lays out the palette of colors with which to work. Knew this might be a bright yellow cover, so I needed highlights of that.

And the nice addition of the "construction/warning diagonal stripes" in black and yellow were a fun touch here and there.

I always loved how the art broke out from the boarders of the books' frame. This was no exception.

Who you callin' chicken?

2010-11-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

Chicken calls, rooster calls, pigeon calls (although pigeons don't really make much noise other than, "CAB - get out of the friggin' way -- quickly!"), etc. But here it is, the holiday card. Want one? Send me an addy and as many stamps as I have left over from the usual list I have out there I'll throw a stamp on there and send one out...(my lawyers have asked me to write "while supplies last," here).

More Work In Progress

2010-11-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

More here on the Christmas card...one big gal of a hen.

More Work In Progress

2010-11-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

FINALLY, I was able to get back to my favorite annual neurosis; my family Christmas card. It is with bated breath that all who expect to see this from me can't wait to see, wonder, and critique the living crap out of it until I do about the 254th sketch that gets approved. But I love (and will do anything for) family, after all. So here is a bit of this year's card...was able to get a new character done enough to post:

Bebe Bao's Birthday

2010-10-04T13:28:00.000-07:00

This was the second commercial to break in the McDonald's animated campaign on which I worked, Bebe Bao's Birthday. Leo Burnett produced these first two spots with Duck Studios, LA. We had a fun time with the number of characters here, eventually done up in a stop-motion, 3-D looking environment. For high-def, go here.

Spaceman Stu

2010-10-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

One of the fun McDonald's animated commercials that broke recently is Spaceman Stu. I was thrilled to be a part of bringing this little guy to life with the first ad agency for which I ever worked, Leo Burnett. His initial design simple enough, we had him look like a normal little boy, only he seemed to defy gravity by severely leaning back so as to get a better view of the stars. For high-def, go here.

And the Rooster Says...

2010-09-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

Something also in the sheep-type series...

(The lamb and seagull just sold recently - this rooster is the last in its series still for sale...)

Game Rooooom

2010-09-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

Rachel Tiep Daniels' new venture (apart from a stellar job at Blue Sky Studios, and her Picture Book Project Foundation) in helping out others in need is Art Blocks for Ghana. Here is a Start to Finish on my submission...Her concept for these pieces was simply enough, "home." Since my family life has so much of the gaming world in it these days, I wondered what adolescent critter would really cause a pain in the butt by bringing in a contemporary, whole new game room to its own, "home?"

The pencils are always layers of tracing paper, rough, and very ugly!

But thanks to my iPad, I'm not pinned down to a lightbox anymore. I take an initial scan/pic of an approximate pencil I like, and then layer and layer these things until I'm somewhat happy.

A bit more from the iPad, then I printed out a piece.

But the print, in a much lighter version, gave me a chance to put a template over which to trace over the piece with a sheet of graphite transfer paper below...giving me a nice beginning linework directly on the 10" X 10" block.

...Seen below.

One pass with acrylics.

and the help of some pens, pencils and additional smudges. Finished piece also here and up for auction, see Rachel's blog for details.

How it all started...

2010-05-21T15:29:00.001-07:00

If there was ever a fun career in which to get started - it was advertising. Here are some of my favorite commercials I had a blast making...AND they were all part of a balanced breakfast!!!

Animation Reel

2010-05-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

Some commercials/animation I've either concepted, animated, helped animate &/or storyboarded, etc.

Row of Bravado

2010-05-21T05:59:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite Rotten School spreads was this scene with Bernie Bridges bringing his very pathetic football squad into a huddle. It was fun assigning specific numbers that had hidden meaning to the players (for Jennifer Ecch - in another scene, she was a weight-reflective 125 - as in lbs.). One such number in particular was the bench-warming character "Nosebleed," who always gets nosebleeds. We gave him the number "O+." As in O positive... I also love how Feenman's helmet is never on the correct way - facing forward!

Watercolor for these was always done in Painter with a variety of spatter water brushes, colored pencils for touch-ups, and simple air brush tips.

Rotten Cast

2010-05-21T05:36:00.000-07:00

While a lot of what on which I've recently worked can't be posted as it hasn't been released yet, here's a look back at the cast, practically in its entirety (apart from some random fart clouds and familiar cyclone, funnels of vomit - yes I just wrote that) of the Rotten School characters. The point of the full-color ones was to have them featured on the backs of the books...whereas the rest just weren't quite ready for prime-time yet.

Still a WIP (Work In Progress)

2010-04-27T07:28:00.000-07:00

...And I keep getting side-tracked (who doesn't I guess), but here's where I've left off with these gals. Good thing I'm way ahead of schedule for this piece...nothing like thinking about the holidays in the springtime.

What a Rotten Series!

2010-04-08T06:34:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me that after 16 of these R.L. Stine Rotten School books, I never thought to post the covers I did. Digitally is a great way to show them as they were picked out to be the most vibrant (blindingly-so) colors on the shelves so they'd stand out just from their spines alone. See if you agree:

All four

2010-04-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

Decided on this for a layout. Color to come...Start to Finish.

One Fishy Story

2010-03-30T07:06:00.000-07:00

The average time I've had to work on picture books is nine months. During that period there's very little time for anything else as it's very non-stop. Perhaps the second most fulfilling part of working on these (aside from finishing them), is getting the array of pages in pencil form all completed and approved by the publisher. It is at this point you become a proverbial hermit, dying to show the publisher each individual page once they're done, but you know it'd be best to complete them all first. With Trout, Trout, Trout (A Fish Chant)! the biggest trick was to arrange April Pulley Sayre's poetry of fish names in a visual order near the individual fishies so that children would still follow the prose left to right accordingly (and this was very tricky as fish like to swim around the page a great deal!).

But then when the color pages come together you really start to get chills. I love a great picture book as much as any kid, but when you actually start to see your own pages come together and you realize they're on their way to actually becoming a bound entity, one gets a little giddy - so much so I have a tendency to hide things in the pages for fun. I put my kids' names in the pictures, there's an illo of a piranha from my first book, Gopher Up Your Sleeve, by Tony Johnston, in there, just to name a few things. Another fun thing is with the "Cavefish;" if you look at the cave-drawing in his cave, you'll see that the monster fish is the same shape the Starhead Topminnows take on the next set of two pages...

Model Sheet

2010-03-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

A model sheet for a neat, feisty character.

Bernie Bridges in 3-D!

2010-03-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

Oh, you knew it had to be...Bernie. Rotten School's favorite bad boy. I made a sculpt of Bernie then had copies made, and painted each one. I think I only had six or so made, and I'm down to just a few left. The toughest thing about him was his darn head's so top-heavy - in the beginning I had to sculpt an arrangement of wires clumped together for his head, then had them supported by some huge, strong support wires that went through his neck. He still looks like he's about to fall forward with the slightest breeze. Perhaps I should just stick to illustrating...

3-D!

2010-03-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well, everyone else is going 3-D...why not? Recognize these curly locks?

Hiberneal

2010-03-10T07:49:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the best way to get monsters out of your head is to put them on a movie poster.

2010-03-08T10:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, not the "Trip" you might have imagined, but this "Trip" is an original piece, illustrated on a wooden postcard, from me through the Brownstones to Red Dirt Postcard auction on ebay. It's on until March 13th, so plan this "Trip" accordingly (I know - that one was bad too).

Gladdias

2010-03-04T12:36:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite characters I've thrown out there...Gladdias the Interstellar Cleaning Lady.

Airmail

2010-01-24T11:10:00.001-08:00

For this postcard entry to the Brownstones to Red Dirt Auction site, I knew I wanted to play off the pen pal theme of kids writing each other practically halfway around the world. What better way than to show this than with native birds handing off these very letters?

After deciding which type of birds to use (the NY Pigeon species being a no-brainer given the locales of these kids, I picked and chose parts I liked from various failed characters.

Then it was a matter of breaking out the dreaded paints, brushes, things my Mac has spoiled me from. The cards were literally thinly slices of a sort of white pine, so we're drawing on wood. Very porous, drank up the watercolor, etc. I resulted in breaking out some trusted color pencils and pen tips.

Brownstones To Red Dirt Postcard Art Benefit

2010-01-20T12:39:00.000-08:00

I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Dave LaMattina and Vicki Saulls while working up at Blue Sky Studios last Spring. Together they've created a neat auction of original postcards to help fundraise for the schools involved in their documentary, "Brownstones to Red Dirt." But even more thrilling was being asked to add my own effort to this great cause. When it gets posted I'll link it here. But for now, to see the postcards as they're coming in go to their blog here.

Beastly Character

2009-12-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

Beast, from Rotten School, definitely went through a nice exploratory. While he turned out looking like the one below, we went through a range of possible looks.

He was described as dog-like, always wearing a dog collar, with an optional leash attached. Starting with a bit of a hunched-over look, we then put him up on two feet. He also needed to be hairy, so we tossed a bunch of nasty bed-hair types on them. I had one I liked where we never saw his eyes...but in the end, we bulked him up and went with the one above.

Rotten Game

2009-12-19T05:36:00.000-08:00

It's called Feed the Beast! Beast was a fun, Rotten School character to create, and this game makes it fun to feed him. There were a lot of versions to Beast before we got him right. He's big, he's hairy, and you don't want your hands near his mouth.

Portfolio Center Visit

2009-12-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

I was invited down by friend (and remarkable illustrator-turned student mentor, as well as academic angel), Lindy Burnett to speak at Atlanta's Portfolio Center. Here is the interview they were kind enough to give me. These students are absolutely intimidating with talent, and are some very gifted, and original creatives. I was honored to have a few minutes to blab about my creative journey to date. I showed them my animation work, my commercials from being an AD in advertising, and most recently, my YouTube Character Design (I'm also available for birthday parties, night club engagements, and bat mitzvahs).

Dumb Clucks

2009-12-16T10:21:00.000-08:00

For Rotten School's last book, "Dumb Clucks (Book 16)," we needed to show Bernie really getting it by the school's new TV hero of the week, Super Chicken. I can't tell you how good a bunch of holiday gifts these books would make (okay, shameless, gratuitous, self-promotion inserted here).

The pencil needed to show Bernie bridges getting slammed over and over by SuperChicken's tauntingly merciless eggings over the head.

A first pass of color in the watercolor tool gave me some basic shadings and detail.

Cloning several detailed feathers helped stack them all over the chicken's body accordingly, and once the patterns were there I was able to clone curved feathers to other areas as well.

Adding the frame helps me see what is going to be seen and what's in the way of the crest logo. Highlights and motion blurs added to help give the look an animated motion to Bernie getting egged. More feathers are added on the Chicken to smooth out their feel.

MoMA's Tim Burton

2009-12-04T14:09:00.000-08:00

I don't care if you're slightly interested in art, doodle on the occasional napkin, or have all the art school savvy one can muster - I just came from Tim Burton's show at MoMA* and it is a MUST SEE. Tim's work, from literally his grade school to today, is on display. Costumes to puppets to toys are packing in everywhere (just turn around and your jaw drops even further), and it truly shows the life's work of someone that recognized (from a very early age) that he was very creative. This site* is hugely and perfectly Tim and just a taste of what you'll see, but here's just a sample from the museum's brochure:

Building Crashers

2009-10-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

I have a (way-more-smarter-than-me) friend that wanted me to illustrate a magazine article for him based on building technology that depicted major building automation companies, HVAC, etc., that have system controlling buildings for decades - becoming more and more IT-like by using servers and networking, but now with a battle on for "platform" control of the building, BAS companies who know HVAC or Cysco types who know IT (sort of a tool belt), AC guys, or propeller head IT guys, but with periphery scrappy lighting control, and systems furniture companies are all fighting for control with BAS and IT.

Yep, he lost me at the word, "building."

But it was yet another challenge, for this entire concept needed the simplification power in an illustration, and I had a No. 4 graphite pencil (and wasn't afraid to use it either). Here's the rough ink to get my thoughts on paper:

But we needed to show that the forces at work, in this case, huge building-climbing monkeys, were battling each other:

And with that, the pencil went through a tiny revision. The periphery scrappy forces at work went well in them being tiny, obnoxious bi-planes trying to cause a dent in the raging havoc the monkeys were creating.

And there's nothing like Painter to help make a turnaround such as this, pulling the color out in basically a day's time SO much easier.

With the below version...I get to what I call a "halo" point in the illustration. I hate showing anything to an Art Director before I think it's done, but with this, I could either stop at this point and submit if their time was up, or I could put several more hours into it and amp the fun up more. Luckily here, she said I had another day or so.

And if you look at the difference below, I was able to really sit on it in Photoshop and have at it. I added blurs (planes), motion blurs (flying arms), gaussian blurs (planes in distances), and shadows on the building. Also, I had time to add hair...lots and lots of hair.

Yes, MeTube...

2009-10-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

And now for something completely, well...I'm now up with a different way to get some work out there. Trip Park Productions is YouTubing it. Here you'll find where I seem to have jumped into animation, character design, and illustration all with the convenience of one stop. Too bad I can't offer anyone a Mountain Dew Slurpee with each visit!

Lemme Tell You a Story

2009-10-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

The problem with loving to draw characters, is that you inherently feel the need to wrap a number of them into a cast that play out in your head...which then leads an illustrator to thinking they can write! Here are three works in progress that prove this scary theory and how it plays out right here:

Grounded:

When a spoiled rotten alien adolescent who has had everything given to him is accidentally pummeled light years away from his cushy planetary surroundings, he is forced to socialize with earth's earliest evolutionary life forms. But when forced into survival mode, will he be accepted by their more advanced creatures, or treated as an outsider as he often did to others back home?

Please Enjoy Your Stay:

When the extreme-fun, risk-taking, dare-devilling Studsky family answers an ad calling for just such a group to embark on the thrill of a lifetime, they find themselves unknowingly trapped in a climate-controlled bubble on the face of Mars. Quickly the Studskys realize they are not alone: an equally extreme yet more destructive family of (disgusting), nomadic aliens become their next-door neighbors. Our favorite Studskys soon find their days on this extreme mission may very well be numbered! It is up to Allen Studsky, their only down-to-earth son (who just happens to be the least extreme of all them all), to use his book-smarts and quick wit to save their soon to be radioactively-cooked tooshies. But can he save his family before their alien neighbors destroy everything and head on down the street to their next destructive stop - Earth?

Fraidy Katz:

What happens when a rich, reclusive, adventure-seeking grandfather gives his grandson (who is afraid of almost everything) a million dollars if he can only stay in his eerie mansion, filled with every possible creepy crawly imaginable, for the entire summer?

Will it be the deal of the boy's life…or will it

scare him completely to death?

Cater-Cake

2009-09-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

I've been fortunate enough to be working with The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art up in Amherst, MA, and during this year's Carle Honors, I helped the Planning Committee design a cake for not only the American Icon's 80th birthday, but for The Very Hungry Caterpillar's 40th birthday as well. This is a one-of-a-kind museum and if you ever get a chance to visit (and, like me, appreciate children's book illustration), you'll be blown away.

The design had to be simple enough to embody the essence of the book's hero, but angled in such a way that a large number of audience members could see it from a good distance. So what better an angled device to use but a large leaf. As it turns out, it was an ideal visual from the book as well...but the key was getting TLC's Cake Boss, from Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, NJ, to help not only get this cake made but to literally make it come to life.

Here is how it looked in progress at the bakery itself.

And here was the final result.

I swear I saw the darn thing blink once!

The final cake was happily donated to a middle school whereupon up to 600 adoring fans of the caterpillar excitedly devoured every last bite. We'd like to thank Eric for kindly donating the cake, and Carlo's Bakery for helping make such an unforgettable, if not digestible, creation for Eric's birthday.

Okay, Be Afraid!

2009-09-22T07:38:00.001-07:00

I guess this is the "start" to an unpublished story. We all have them, don't we? I was about to rewrite this one completely out of prose, but before I did, I thought I'd put it out there for fun (I know, Illustrators should never be writers...this might just be more proof to that):

New Underwear

2009-09-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

In this Rotten School book #4, "Lose Team Lose," (probably the best and most funny in my opinion) Bernie Bridges has two wars going on - one fighting the girl of his nightmares hunting him down, and the other a series of huge, monstrous opposing football teams. To him, they're just as bad. But I loved depicting this character with practically no shoulders in huge pads, and it brought his Hershey's Kiss-shaped body into a neat, opposing triangular shape.

(Here's a secret - I'm not very organized, no really, not at all) But I make myself get that way or things get really messy. With every book, project, etc. I break out a binder and sleeves, shown here, and just keep every tearing, every shred, and piece that makes it into the scanner, 'cause you just might need it later. Here you can see the pieces that went into this page alone:

The first issue here was the player behind Bernie, although menacing, he looked too old. Note several tries at it above.

A smaller chin helped, and I went overboard a little by giving him an almost babyish look and added big, puffy cheeks. The only thing not really babyish here is the tough, lower lip. You teach yourself things at the strangest times...

Although I loved the big guy's build, I was willing to sacrifice most of his presence by making him bleed off the page with his huge shoulder pads. So my suggested layout was below. But in the end, we went with keeping his whole silhouette within the crop. Still worked.

One of my all-time favorite tools in Painter is the Digital Paintbrush Splatter Water tool! It's rare you get a chance to really pour it out there, but with this guy, the great thing about it being in B&W was that while it gave the impression that he was covered in splashes of mud and grime, it also gave the creepy impression that it could also be blood from last week's game.

Foodfight!

2009-09-08T07:01:00.000-07:00

In Gopher Up Your Sleeve (by Tony Johnston), here's another in the quirky animal illos. Piranhas are really just thug-like creatures, so this one was pretty much a no-brainer. As when you have two characters who look as if they are evenly matched in their carnivorous, bad-ass ways, I wanted to create two expressions of mundane, we-do-this-every-day, Mexican standoff type looks. I especially liked the bites taken out of each other's fins.

The Foreverglades

2009-09-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

An assortment of oddities assembled together for a concept of mine called, The Foreverglades. There have been earlier steps to some of these on the blog, but here they are in their entirety.

Animation Reel

2009-09-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Here are a few commercials and animated pieces that I either created and storyboarded, for which I did character design, or created and animated entirely.