Gary Baseman Bitching

I was a sophomore at Massachusetts College of Art when I first heard about Gary Baseman. He was giving a talk at my school and there were posters EVERYWHERE...in true Baseman style. I attended his talk and I was truly enlightened by the work that he was making. He was an illustrator, TV show creator, and fine artist all wrapped into one! He had it all. I followed his career and loved studying his paintings/illustrations. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't influenced by him...even a little bit. In some ways, Gary Baseman inspired me to make the type of art that I want to make, even if I was working with a professional client.

The turning point came for me in 2004. Gary Baseman was speaking at the ICA in Boston, so again, I decided to trek out in the cold and hear what he had to say. The talk started as the curator was working out some technical kinks with the projector. Gary Baseman stood at the front of the small theatre with his sketchbook in hand. He was doodling as we all watched...somewhat awkwardly. He looked up, held out his sketchbook, and said, "Oh sorry, I have a deadline for Time Magazine in two days." There was something about that comment that left a sour taste in my mouth. In some ways I haven't looked at Gary Baseman's work the same.

Why? Well, I don't think he's pushing the envelope anymore. Yes, his work is everywhere. It's in galleries, on designer toys, and he's still illustrating for major publications. Yet the content of his paintings are getting old. They all look very similar. Same characters, similar color palettes, and similar themes. I noticed it more than ever today when I was flipping through his new book. I was a little bored. I dare say that he is trapped within the box that every artist is sacred to be locked in. Maybe this is unfair for me to say, but it looks as if he's on auto pilot just creating these for the next big gallery show. I could be wrong. See similarities below:




I'm sure he has made more money than 99% of commercial artists. But at what price? Here's a little poem that I love. This may be bold attributing this to Gary Baseman, but hey, this is America.

He found a formula for drawing comic rabbits:
This formula for drawing comic rabbits paid,
So in the end he could not change the tragic habits
This formula for drawing comic rabbits made.

Even with all my ranting and raving, I still admire Baseman's body of work and self-promotional skills...I just wish he'd mix it up a little.

Children's Book Gig

Before my trip to Nicaragua, I was asked by Penguin Publishing to submit sketches for an upcoming kids chapter book series about monsters...yes monsters! The day I got back, I was notified that I was chosen as the illustrator for the series. I'll most likely be chronicling the process as I work on each book. Here are the samples that I submitted.

Nicaragua

For the last nine days, I have been back-packing and traveling throughout Nicaragua. I'm technically on a vacation, but traveling from city to city has been down-right exhausting. However, I have to admit it's been nice to step away from the world of animation and cartoons and refocus. I've seen so much that has opened my eyes and inspired me for future work. Nicaragua gets a bad rap for the civil war conflict in the 1980s, but it's a very peaceful place with VERY hospitible citizens. It's been one of the most educational trips I've been on in years.

I'll be returning to the US of A on Monday and I can't wait to eat fresh veggies..and drawing again! Hasta Luego...

Alien vs. Alien Process

For years, I have been obsessed with the Pixar Art books that chronicle the preproduction and story process. They inspire me to design and I love nothing more than developing the look of my animated films. Like pixar (and most studios), every part of the story and design process starts on paper and jumps to the CPU. Here's a step by step process of how I created the Alien vs. Alien animation.

CHARACTERS: I always start designing the characters first. My initial drawings are pretty rough because this stage is basically a brain-dump to create some fun personalities.




FINAL CHARACTERS I created these designs directly in flash based off my earlier drawings. The bottom characters are sample designs for the alien crowd. There were 40 creates in all.



BACKGROUNDS: Again, everything starts on paper. I did dozens of quick doodles and then handed them off to my background artist. Once he finished, I made tweaks to the color and added little details throughout.




STORYBOARD AND ANIMATION: I started my initial thumbnails on paper, but I drew a tight storyboard/animatic in flash. Once I finished, I handed the animatic off to my animator who animated ONLY the characters. The backgrounds were added later in After Effects.



POST PRODUCTION:Once the animation is done, effects artist Evan Sussman takes the backgrounds and animation and composites them together while adding effects, lighting, and camera moves.



LOGO:Lastly, I drew the logo in my sketchbook and then created the final logo in Illustrator and Photoshop.

Alien vs. Alien

This winter, I dedicated time to work on my own projects. During that time, I started drawing aliens...lots of them. I didn’t have a story-line for the characters, so I started to brainstorm where these aliens could live. I thought back to my childhood when I loved the WWF (back when Hulk Hogan and The Macho Man ruled the ring). I asked myself, what would an alien wrestling match look like? Intrigued, I decided to make an animated alien wrestling match...or at least the introduction. I wrote, directed, and designed the piece, yet I worked with a great group of artists who helped me make it possible. A big thanks to:

Evan Sussman - Compositing and FX
Dan Flynn - Animation
Josh Gold - Sound Design
Jon Renoni - BG Design
Fletcher Beasley - Music

Well, Alien vs. Alien has been sitting on my computer for the last couple months and it’s time to share it with the world. If you like it, feel free to pass it on to others. ENJOY!

Heartwood USA

Since March, I have been working on the Heartwood USA animated pilot for a Boston-based father, entrepreneur and political enthusiast. Shane Keats, the creator and writer, came up with the idea to create a green show for kids that takes more of a political angle. Shane says, "A lot of why I made Heartwood USA is to get back at villains, real villains, the kind you, me and our kids will encounter over the course of our political lives. To win in the long run, you've got to dust off and start again...if we can influence kids to take climate change seriously and help them laugh a bit in the face of the bad guys, then we've done a good deed".

My task was to develop the style and create a demo that looks on par with other animated kid shows. I worked with a team of very creative, talented artists to help me produce the pilot, Cow A Dunga. See below.

Broccoli...uhhh.

I haven't updated my blog in almost a month and I feel like a big, soggy piece of broccoli. I have been insanely busy with a project I have been co-developing with Evan Sussman. Hopefully, I'll be posting more doodles and drawing in the weeks to come.

Taxi Design Process

I've been working on a sub-atomic Taxi design for an animated short I've been working on. My design process is pretty straight forward. I always start the process by drawing in my sketchbook. Then, I usually do a quick digital pass when I'm working on storyboards. Finally, the finished version is created in Flash. Voila...a taxi!

Ice Cream People!

On Monday night, I attended the Massachusetts College of Art Senior Portfolio show featuring the work of the illustration, design, and animation departments. I came across a great, young illustrator named Brian Butler. His work is fantastic. He's currently working on a postcard art project called Ice Cream People. Take a look. I decided to give it a whirl and send him my doodles. Low and behold...here they are!

Wrapping Up

For the last couple months I have been directing/producing an animated demo for a Boston entrepreneur that's set to launch sometime this month. Here are a few quick illustrations I whipped up for the website. More to follow in the coming weeks...

Jabberwocky and Lewis Carroll

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been doing a series of illustrations for an upcoming biography on Lewis Carroll by Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti. I have been commissioned to create a series of characters from Carroll's texts. Here's my interpretation of the Jabberwocky.

Me at TED?

For the last year or so I have been obsessed with TED . I go there for inspiration, enlightenment, and pure entertainment. I recently got an email from a friend who told me I made it to TED. It turns out Al Gore regularly uses my PSA as a part of his global warming talk and showed it this year at TED. It's funny because two days earlier I thought to myself, "if I can make it to TED before I'm 80, then I'll be happy." In a way, I made it there sooner. Check out Al Gore's talk at TED.