For those who saw Princess & the Frog, did anybody else notice this?

I was bored...

I hope you all had a nice Christmas.

Now for something completely different:

Yuletide Greeting

I don't have much to say, so Merry Christmas everybody, & have a Happy New Year!

(oh, & it's my 300th post. Insert "300" joke here)

Christmas Card 2009

It's Christmastime again, & you know what that means! .... CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!! Wait.... that wasn't what you were thinking?... really?... ah well, I tried.

After doing my 2007 & 2008 cards, I finally realized I should do something that DOESN'T involve characters that only I know. So how do I top birds...... WITH ANOTHER BIRD, OF COURSE! & what's a better icon for the holiday than a partridge in a pear tree? (besides Santa Claus, Frosty, Rudolph, The Grinch & Dominic the Christmas Donkey)

Started with the roughs:

Then the clean-up...

then the color...

& the final textures, text & tints!

I'm gonna send these suckers out as soon as I go get them printed. To Kinko's!!!

NAKED NUDIES!!!!

Now that I got your attention, check out some of my attempts at reaching a higher level of sophistication in my drawing ability.

I Animated Something...

There's 4 hours I'll never get back.

Compression sucks.

Give Thanks & Pass the Stuffing

Hey All! I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Ah, Thanksgiving... Imagine, a day where you give thanks for killing indians by eating like a pig, watching football. dog shows & giant balloons on TV for hours on end, trampling people to death while spending every dime you own on Christmas gifts & sleeping in all day the next day... this holiday was MADE for Americans!

I pity the vegetarians.

To celebrate, here's a playlist of some of my all-time favorite Thanksgiving cartoons for you to enjoy! Whether you eat meat, veggies or tofu, have a nice holiday anyway!

Lonely Night

Just another one of those nights.... ho hum...

Some Scribbly Life Drawings

Here's a few model drawings from my Monday Life Drawing class with Stephen Gaffney. I'm still kinda rusty, but I'm gradually getting there.

& a dry erase caricature for kicks & giggles.

Sculpey Fun

For my Toy Design class, we have to sculpt a "collectible figure" of an original character out of Sculpey modeling clay. Since I have no concept of how to think up something new, I chose a character from my cast of ol' reliables, Randy (whom I've been focusing on a bit too much lately).

Using some tin foil & a poorly-constructed metal armature as a base, I began to sculpt him. Here's what I got after about an hour:

& here's after about another hour's worth of work:

While I have used Sculpey in the past (during my few years of learning at Hofstra University's saturday cartoon classes), I never sculpted anything of this magnitude before. I have to admit, it's difficult, but lots of fun!

The hardest part for me is smoothing out all the rough edges & bumpy areas. It takes plenty of Sculpey, & even more patience. Still, it's really cool seeing your character(s) in 3D like this.

I based it roughly off a picture I posted not too long ago. I definitely took a few liberties when translating it to 3D, but it still kinda has that charm. In fact, there's some things I like more about the figure than the original drawing.

I'll probably be working on it a bit more tomorrow night before my class on Monday. Sadly, I have no place to bake it at the moment, so he'll stay soft & colorless until I can find a suitable place to bake him.

Try Odosketch

I was looking through Keith Lango's blog & I found a link to this online drawing page called Odosketch. It's sorta limited, but still really neat. Try it out!

Ohmmmmm.....

While strolling through the city yesterday, I saw this business logo on the side of a tow truck. Look familiar?

Originality is for losers.

Sliver of Doodles

Here's some quick meanderings I did on the opposite side of a page where I had a finished inked drawing (to be posted later).

MORE Inking Practice

Here's a little something I inked up today while 'TAing' for Doug Crane's 1st Year Animation class. I think I'm getting a little more confident with ink. I think I'll give brushes a try soon.

Inking Practice

I've been practicing a little with the Pentel Brush pen, which I haven't dabbled with since before summer break started. Sadly, since my little visit to the emergency room a few months back, my hands have been constantly shaking, so it's really hard to keep my hands steady enough to cleanly ink my drawings. I've improved a little since inking this page, so the practice has definitely helped.

Back in Shape

Hey guys, my new scanner/printer works like a dream, & I just scanned a truckload of drawings. Thanks to the automatic feed function, I'm saving plenty of time & energy. I'm now more efficient, just in time for the new semester! I'll be posting some of my recent stuff very soon. Thanks again to Dan Caylor for recommending the scanner (click his link on the right, he rocks!).

It's been about 2 weeks since classes started up again & it's been absolutely wonderful so far! My classes are fun (no groaners this year), my professors are great, I'm seeing all my old animator/cartooning buddies again & a lot of really cool stuff has been coming down the pipeline. I got a real nice job here as a teacher's assistant, I got several recommendations from teachers & I just started Stephen Silver's Character Design class! Even in such a short amount of time I think my attitude towards life has made a complete 180 degree turn & my drawing ability has somewhat spiked up a bit. Life is good.

Finally, here's something I drew last month while passing through the city. Not only was I in the midst of some creative, emotional & mental instability, but it was probably the hottest day of the summer.

Well not anymore!

Scanners, SVA & Silver

Hey blog, how's things been while I was gone? I can see you're hungry & weak from lack of posts in your cybernetic belly. But don't worry, I'm still there for you....

Anyways, I'm sorry that this blog has kind of gone to pot this summer. The reason why I haven't updated is because of my crappy pile of plastic & gears that I call a scanner. It's an HP, which usually (as far as I know) has a decent selection of products, but this scanner has been a complete waste of space almost right out of the gate. Every time I update, or download a program or even restart my computer, I need to completely reinstall the stupid thing. In the 6 months that I've had this, I've had to uninstall & reinstall the scanner's software at least a dozen times, & it's just been a real pain in the ass for me. I have a stack of drawings I've been wanting to scan for months, & this godforsaken piece of hardware has been mocking the living hell out of me.

I've been searching around for a scanner that won't be a whiney so-&-so, & I have my eye on a certain one. I discovered it over here on Dan Caylor's blog . It's called a Brother MFC-6490. Not only is it a scanner, but it's a printer & photo card dock too! But best of all, the scan glass is HUGE, I can fit my Bristol board or animation paper in it with room to spare. & to top it off, it has an automated feed scanner built in on top too, so I can scan a bunch of drawings at once. No fuss, no muss (hopefully). I'm still looking into it from top to bottom, but I think I found the right guy. It's about $300 with tax, but if it lives up to what the specs & reviews show, then it's worth the price.

Besides the hardware debacles, I've been holding up fairly well (more or less). I've been going to the local mall once or twice a week to draw the consumers, which so far has been both a pain & a joy. I've also been trying to get myself in shape & get into a healthier state of mind, though I have cheated a bit here & there. I've also been working on a few projects here & there, animating tests & just trying to be productive one way or another. I'm really excited to get back to the studios & start working. I've been away for 4 months, but it might as well be a year. I'm especially looking forward to seeing all my animator buddies again, I miss them very much & want to hear how they've survived the never-ending summer.

Since classes start again in less than 2 weeks, I'm starting to get my act together. I've been slowly cutting back on my late night drawing sessions, setting my alarm clock & planning out what I'm bringing back over to the SVA dorms. But most importantly, I'm think ahead about my upcoming classes, especially Life Drawing & third-year animation with Howard Beckerman.

-Speaking of Howard, I mentioned a few months ago that I attended a party over at Bunny Hoest's place as Howard's guest. Here's a big group shot of everybody who attended the party. See if you can find me somewhere in this crowd, & while you're at it, see if you can spot a few other familiar faces too!

CLICK TO 'ENLARGIMAFY'!

(& here's some more pictures from the party if you're interested, courtesy of Joe Vissichelli)

Like I said before, Bunny was an absolute doll & we all had a fantastic time. While I was there, the first guest I ran into a fellow named Stephen Silver & his wife Heidi. You may have heard of him, or at least seen his work. (CLICK). We chatted for a while & he showed me a sneak preview of his newest book "Passion For Life" (which I highly recommend, go check it out!) & talked a bit about the industry & the importance of life drawing. He also talked about his online character design course, which immediately caught my attention.

A month later, I met him & his wife again at his own booth at Comic-Con. I bought Passion & we talked a bit more about the online class, which further perked my interest. I knew that I'd never be able to fit SVA's Character Design class in my 4th year schedule, so I finally decided to shell out some money & sign up for Stephen's class. I'm REALLY excited about this class, as well as my SVA work. It's kinda sudden, but right now I need all the help I can get. I saw my opportunity & dived for it.

There's still some spots left if you're interested, so if you're willing to learn the ropes from one of the best character designers in the animation industry, consider signing up over at Schoolism.com.

Like I said earlier, I have a 2 ft. high pile of doodles & sketches from the last 2 months sitting next to my computer ready to be scanned. Once I pick up the new scanner, I'll get started scanning in as much of them as I can & post the best ones up here for you guys to see. Until then, enjoy this doodle of a certain bouncy tiger I scribbled in Flash late last night after watching The Tigger Movie. I'll post my thoughts about it another time.

Comic-Con-A-Palooza!

Although Comic-Con ended a few weeks ago, I'm still geeking out over it. I saw so many cool things, bought a truckload of cool books & most importantly, met with a plethora of really awesome people. Friends, colleagues & major inspirations all together under one gigantic roof.

I entered with a full wallet & left with:

- Gag cartoon books by Bill Plympton & Ethan Nicolle

- Ted Mathot's Rose & Isabel & Cora books

- Derek Thompson's 2 DerekMonster sketchbooks

- Eric Goldberg's new sketchbook, Enjoy it While You Can, Kid.

- The Art of Bone (snagged it for only $10!!!)

- 3 copies of What is Torch Tiger? (1 for myself, the other 2 are for friends)

- Steve Purcell's Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway book

- Stephen Silver's new book: Passion for Life

- First 3 volumes of Val Hochberg's comic Kick Girl

- Doug TenNapel's Monster Zoo

- Chris Sander's 3rd Sketchbook & 2 posters (& a crapload of pins)

- A recycled Happy Beaver t-shirt (self-silkscreened by Jeff Pidgeon)

- Enrico Casarosa's Eisner-award nominated The Venice Chronicles

- And there you are & Paper Biscuit 2 by Ronnie Del Carmen

- A Fone Bone plush & T-shirt

- Jeff Smith's new children's book Little Mouse Gets Ready

- The Cartoonist Jeff Smith Documentary DVD

& a truckload of buttons, rub-on tattoos, business cards, sketches & autographs

I also snagged a set of tiny PVC Bone figures, but sadly I lost them. They weren't costly, but it's still a real bummer. I was really looking forward to having the Bone Cousins sitting on my Animation desk.

Since I really have nothing to say besides things you've probably heard a million times before from other Con goers, I'm just gonna leave you with my "best of" slideshow of pictures. Later on (when my scanner isn't being stupid), I'll post some pages from my Comic-Con sketchbook.

Long story short, it was fun, exciting & expensive. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Con Coverage Coming Soon!