Music is For the Birds

I finally figured out what my thesis is gonna be about, & it's gonna star this ragtag group of friends of the feathered kind.

A few new things...

Here's just a few little things I drew up recently:

For Toon Platoon last week, the topic was to draw a picture based on a scene from your favorite movie & if you wanted to, include your own characters. I was very happy to draw something related to my all-time favorite film, FANTASIA!

I drew out a few ideas, like Randy leading the mushrooms from the "Nutcracker Suite" sequence & Steve-O under the hippo from the "Dance of the Hours":

Then I realized that I've lately been focusing the spotlight mainly on Randy & Steve-O (especially Steve-O) & that Cannibal Chicken hasn't really been in much. I decided to give my "oldest son" the reins of this entry & had him be Chernabog from the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence, with the other two birds playing sidekick this time.

**Speakin' of Fantasia... after going through my old files & drawings I found a 10-year-old sketchbook filled with concept designs I made for a Fantasia-themed something. What that something is I'll let you in on when I get back from California next week.**

This week, we just finished a "Mother Nature/Father Time" spree & here's the color version of my entry:

I based the design a bit on the late, great George Carlin & "2007" from Chris Sanders' Kiskaloo. Unintentionally, he looks a bit more like a cross between Gandhi & Willie Nelson.

Hey, does anybody remember the caricature of myself I made for Toon Platoon a few months back?

Well, I took that drawing, made a few minor changes, inked it & colored it. Take a look:

Maybe I'll make into my new-new profile image. What do you think?

With Comic-Con right around the corner, some of my friends prepared for the occasion by having a bunch of business cards made to give out at the convention. Missing the boat a bit too late, I realized I should have a little something to give out & spread the word too! Since I didn't have enough time to get business cards made, I did the next best thing: designed a small 4.5'' x 3'' flyer in Photoshop, went to Staples & got a bunch of color copies printed. After spending about an hour & a half cutting out these little buggers with a kindergarten pair of scissors, I ended up with about 50+ mini business flyers to give away!

& guess which image I used...

It's a bit bland, bare (& brown), but it'll do just fine. I even left a little space in the middle just in case somebody would like a mini personal doodle! I think of everything, don't I?

At least I'm finally prepared!!!!

Stay tuned a little later today for one last message before I fly off!

You like puppets too?...

Although I haven't spoken about it at all in the entire history of this blog, I am a HUGE fan of the Muppets & the art of puppet performing.

Along with Disney cartoons & movies, I was raised on the Muppets. Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock & Muppet Babies were some of the first shows I ever watched on television growing up. Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas has been a must-watch yearly tradition for my older sister & me every holiday season & John Denver with the Muppets has always been near the top of my music library. The Muppets first introduced me to many great artists, comedians, musicians & actors through The Muppet Show & the Muppet movies & they still entertain me to this very day. In many ways, the Muppets have been a bigger inspiration to me than any cartoon character.

To me, Jim Henson is the person I idolize the most. He was a very unique individual, who had an incredible imagination, appealing personality & more creativity & talent in his bare hands than most people have in their entire body. Of course he had numerous equally creative & talented people at his side (Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, & countless others), but nobody had the spirit & tenacity that Henson did. He left the world far too soon.

Being a puppeteer has been a secret dream of mine for many years, & until now I haven't been able to quench my thirst for it. A few months back, I decided it was finally time to make my dream a reality.

For weeks I scanned the web scanning, researching & inquiring numerous companies & studios who can seamlessly create a puppet based on my own specifications. After looking over numerous sites & asking questions through email with countless dead-ends, I finally came to the right place: Furry Puppet Inc. . I immediately contacted Zack Bouchman from Furry Puppet, getting a gratifying reply back from him. After meeting with him & discussing specific quirks & important factors in the design of the puppet, we struck a deal!

Before I made contact with Zack, I thought hard on who to translate from 2D to the third-dimension. I finally decided that Cannibal Chicken would be the best choice because I thought he'd be the most difficult to transform into 3D & fabricate in puppet form. Get the hardest out of the way first, right?

I sent Zack a bunch of sketches & finished drawings showing him what Cannibal Chicken would look like from all sides as well as his proportions, colors, specific quirks & details in his design (his one green eye, his shirt, etc.). Here's some of the drawings I sent him:

Zack took these reference drawings & started working...

A few weeks later, Zack sent me some work-in-progress pictures of the puppet. At that point, the puppet was only sculpted foam. Although it was hard to visualize how the puppet would finally look, I was shocked & excited at how far the project had progressed & how Cannibal Chicken looked in three dimensions:

After this point, the puppet's pieces were sewn together, had it's fabric & fur dyed the appropriate colors & sewed on, had bendable & flexible wires put into the fingers & tail, had them grafted to the body & had arm rods attatched.

After over a month of work, Cannibal Chicken was finally complete:

I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw these pictures. I practically fell outta my chair! He came out a million times better than I could possibly imagine!

I'd like to thank Zack Bouchman & Maria Gurevich (chief fabricator) from Furry Puppet for their wonderful work & for letting me have permission to post the work-in-progress pictures. They're both extremely amazing & talented artists! Check out their official site & the Furry Puppet Blog to see their work & (if you desire) order a custom puppet of your very own from them. I highly recommend them!

Now that the first half of my puppeteering goal is complete, it's time for Phase #2! I'll try to post video(s) of Cannibal Chicken in the near future to see if I got what it takes. 'Til then, I'll be warming up & getting used to handling the puppet.

As you can probably tell, I'm very satisfied indeed.