SCRAMBLE!!!

I've been in a bit of a creative slump these past few weeks. I've lost my drive, & I haven't been animating at all. But after attending Bunny Hoest's ( of The Lockhorns & Howard Huge fame) annual "Bunny Bash", my creative juices began flowing again. I just needed a bit of a jump start from Bunny, Howard Beckerman, Stephen Silver & company to get me going again.

I sat down at my Cintiq & immediately started animating. In about an hour, I animated this little bit of my circus dog doing a surprised take & scrambling off-screen.

(Click on the Image to see him scramble!)

My first pass was in green, & my "tweak pass" was drawn over it in purple. If you watch closely, you can see what changes I made in the latter pass compared to the first.

I'm starting to get back into the groove again. & with Tom Sito's animation class coming up in a few weeks, I need as much practice as I can get. If I keep this energy up, I may finally be able to finish that troubled film of mine before the year's up! Here's hoping!

Beware of the Montauk Monster!!!

Does anybody remember the Montauk Monster?

About a year ago, some deformed creature was discovered washed up on the beach near Montauk Point, here on Long Island. It was dark gray like a seal with long scrawny legs & a shriveled tail like a pig, but had a beak with a row of teeth only on the bottom jaw. God, it looked like something outta The Dark Crystal! It was a big sensation for a while & it was covered on every news station. Pictures of it were everywhere for a while, & during that time everybody was debating on what the thing really was.

Some people thought it was some prehistoric, dinosaur-like creature along the same lines as the Loch Ness Monster, while others thought it was a mutated monstrosity that escaped Plum Island, an animal disease & research facility off the coast. (Imagine N.I.M.H. from Don Bluth's The Secret of NIMH, but isolated on an island far off the coast. Feels like something out of a cheesy B horror flick.

As it turns out, it probably was just some poor dog (most likely a Boxer) who was swept out to sea & drowned. Over time began to bloat from the water & it gradually decomposed until it finally was discovered on the shore, which explains it's off-putting appearance.

Creepy & disturbing as it was, I think it would've been an awesome monster if it were real. Imagine this thing knocking over your garbage cans at 3 AM or sucking the blood out of a goat! Creepy little devil!

You can see pictures of the real 'Montauk Monster' all over the web. There's even a whole article on it on Wikipedia. I warn you though, the pictures are REALLY disturbing, so beware! Squint your eyes if you have to.

Ten Dollar Sketches!

With some encouragement from a few friends, I decided to start doing commissions over on deviantArt. Since I don't really have the skill or confidence to go for the gusto & do "full" commissions, I'm going to start off easy. 

My friend Zach, his girlfriend Tara & their friend Megan have been doing something called "100 Ten-Dollar Sketches". The title is pretty self-explanatory... For each commission, they draw 1 full-body character sketch for $10 a pop. They do this 100 times, & gradually they're a grand richer. A simple strategy... so why don't I give it a go?

So far I've only got 1 commission. It's a drawing of Lena Hyena from Roger Rabbit in a Harem outfit. It's probably the single creepiest thing I've ever drawn, but it's a start nonetheless. & hey, it's good practice.

If you got 10 bucks you're willing to part with for the greater good, why not go to my deviantArt page, read the info there & buy a sketch from me? & while your at it, click on Zach, Tara & Megan's pages linked at the bottom of the page & buy something from them too? 

For those of you who didn't notice, I finally changed the headline banner for the blog. I just realized that Fall was over. Why doesn't anyone TELL me these things?!

I originally planned to change the banner for every season. I did one for last summer & did one for the fall, but because of college & other more pressing matters, I never got around to making a new banner. So the fall banner sat all through winter & spring, 'til yesterday when I finally got fed up & scribbled this out in 20 minutes, just to change things around.

I'll keep this one up 'til the end of the summer (or when I better idea for a design comes along). 'Til then, enjoy me & my tarantula-leg eyebrows for a few months.

By the way, here's the old model, just in case some of you miss it already:

Fan Art a Go-Go!!!

Although I don't have an army of drooling fans drawing truckloads of fan art of my characters on a daily basis, I do receive one every once in a while. Sure, most of them are from friends, but I don't care, I love 'em just the same! I love seeing myself &/or my characters in such a wide variety of styles, it's a very amazing, if not humbling, sight. Because fan art comes very few & far between, I admire & cherish every single one I receive, no matter how crude they may be. & thus far, I haven't gotten a crude one yet!!!

These were done by my friend Chris Niosi, whom I've generously plugged numerous times before (& he deserves another plug now!)

This guy I haven't really showcased much is named "King Nautillus", an aspiring evil cephalopod king of the sea. Imagine a somewhat eccentric octopus with a voice along the lines of either Paul Lynde or Vincent Price.

& speaking of Nautillus, here's my friend Zach Bellissimo's interpretation of the underwater king. He got the level of sliminess & sagginess just right. I'm actually gonna take some of the little bits he subbed in & use them on the character from now on. 

& then he drew me as a link button on his blog sidebar. I look like a cross between Ace Ventura & Wolverine... in a hat. Fear my tarantula-leg eyebrows! 

My most recent piece of fanart was a commission from my Cartooning friend Mike Luckas. He drew my three bird boys in a semi-realistic, semi-cartoony style that I really dig. The colors& shading alone knock my socks off!

Another Cartooning friend, Pat Woodruff, drew this for me as a Christmas present, done up all in markers. I love the bucket of chicken in the microwave, it's actually the first time in years I've seen Cannibal Chicken actually craving for chicken. It's kinda like a coincidental throwback from when I first used to draw him, it gives me this great nostalgic feeling.

& the last bunch was done by my friend Ivey Ao. She painted all of these pieces with watercolors. Painting watercolors are very hard to do (at least for me), so I really give Ivey huge amounts of credit for going out of her way to do these for me. They rock!

I'm even going through the trouble of giving these pieces justice. Each one of the original hard copies that were given to me are going to be framed & hung on my wall. It's a lot better than stuffing them in a drawer. 

The Woods are Filled with CUCKOOS!!!

30 days, has September,

April, June & Montana,

all the rest have cold weather,

except in the summer,

which isn't often!

Woo hoo! Woo hoo!

Wayne Allwine (1947-2009)

I just heard that Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse, had just passed away. This is a real shocking blow to the system.

I was lucky to meet him & his wife Russi a few years ago. He was such a kind & wonderful man. I'm glad to know he had a very happy life, making millions of people around the world happy too. My sincerest condolences to his wife Russi & the rest of his family.

M-I-C... 

See ya real soon!

K-E-Y... 

Why, because we like you!

M-O-U-S-E

We'll miss you Wayne...