Stuck in a Rut

I've been stuck in a creative rut lately and I'm trying to drag myself out of it. This is the best I could muster up during my lunch break today. Got to snap out of it.

Soul Music

I've been a huge fan of Soul music for years now...and what's better than soul music? Well, Zombies playing soul music in the month of October.

October is Awesome!!!

Happy October! October is by far my favorite month for a number of reason: falling leaves, cold air, candy corn, halloween...and my birthday! I've been super busy, but that shouldn't stop me from enjoying some fresh apples and playoff baseball.

I haven't had time to do much of anything outside of work lately. I've been juggling three or four projects for a while now and hopefully things should start slowing down. The chapter book illustration gig is moving along nicely, and I'm almost done with the first book! Here's one of the interior illustrations.

Monster Man

I have been drawing LOTS of monsters lately. Not only am I illustrating a children's book about monsters, but I also have been commissioned by American Greetings to produce a Halloween E-Card. Even though it's a little early for Halloween, here are some characters and a style test I made for the E Card.

Monster Squad

I have been juggling four or five projects in the last few weeks, so I haven't had too much time to post...or work on my own stuff. Bah! Anyways, I've been hard at work on my first children's publishing project...Monster Squad for Penguin. The first cover (of four) has been approved and is ready for layout.


Here is the what the cover will kind of look like once the text is added. Design by Meagan Bennett of the Penguin Group.


Here's my final illustration that will be added to the layout. Should be fun once it's all done!

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.