Off the Beaten Path

I wish I had more time to draw lately. Hopefully the next few days will a lot me a bit more free time. I'm finding just drawing roughs to be so much more fun and exhilarating, while I still like the look of the cleanup, but that tends to drive my perfectionist side a bit batty.

Gilligan hitting the road.

Claude and his turtle flexing.


Our little hero soon awoke to find him self in an extremely heated situation.


Pirate a day


I've been trying to think recently about why I really get inspired by Milt Kahl. Of course he's a great animator and his drawings are remarkable, but something about his personality and presence really makes me like him above all of the other godfathers of animation. It came to me today while I was listening to Clay Kaytis' Animation Podcast Valt which was a lecture Milt Kahl gave that was recorded and preserved by another great animator Ron Clements. From what I've read about Mr. Kahl and the interviews I've seen by himself and others he never would admit he was any good, yet he always pointed out the flaws and things he didn't like in others work. I believe it was Richard Williams that said in an interview that Milt Kahl was honest maybe a little too honest, and that he always stuck to what he believed in and what he liked. Towards the end of the lecture he talked about The Black Cauldron, which having researched a bit about Disney history was kind of a dividing film. Milt seemed to have left Disney over some disagreements over how the Black Cauldron was being treated vs what he thought it should have been. Tim Burton another one of my art hero's was an animator at Disney at the same time and he presented a lot of story board and concept designs for Cauldron as well, which were eventually thrown out cause they were too out there. Though both of these amazing men have completely different styles, yet they both stuck to what they liked and what they believed in. I really aspire to keep those traits alive in my life and my work. Maybe even one day I'll win a Winsor McCay award like my heroes. Thanks for the Inspiration!

Finding the Balance

With school starting, work, drawing, and life, I've got to reevaluate everything in order to find the balance in a new routine that works. Although it's new and exciting every once in a while it's a little rocky. I'm finding drawing is a lot like that too. Some days you can just whip out a drawing without thinking in only few minutes and it just works. Other days you struggle trying to produce something that's half way decent. Overall you have to keep drawing to try to find that balance of talent, ability and skill vs hard work, persistence and knowledge. Here's to the adventure!

Gilligan hanging out.


Claude and his turtle vaudevilling.


It wasn't long after reaching his proverbial pigsty that the porker hungered for the flesh of our little hero.


Pirate a Day


One of my favorite moments every morning is checking to see what great post Michael Sporn made for the day. One day it might be some great behind the scenes moment or drawing in Disney history, the next its some rare collection of images from some forgotten illustrator, or simply a garden of flowers he found extra beautiful. If you haven't checked out his site yet, bookmark it right now, it really is a treat! Thanks for the inspiration!

Another day, another opportunity to draw!

Felt a little overwhelmed with drawing today. I got a lot done, but I have so many projects I want to work on I wish there was more time in the day. I guess it all comes around to the fact that I have to get faster! I've been thinking a lot lately about different mediums. I really wanna start using color more, but I don't want to spend my free time away from improving my drafting. I also picked up a wacom tablet a while ago and, oh, do I need practice with it. It's totally different not looking at your hand while you draw. Definitely a good exercise for my push too hard overly critical self.

Gilligan circling himself.


:Warning staring at this for too long may cause you to go crazy:


Claude and his turtle having a raspberry off.

After what seemed like an eternity of choking our little hero went limp and the overgrown boar carried away the helpless victim to his lair.


Pirate a Day


I can't believe I haven't mentioned the Character Design Blog yet. It's one of my favorite pastimes these days. It's such a great resource for anyone who is interested in making creative, unique, lively characters. The interviews, images, and insight offered there are unmatched at least to everything I've come across so far. Thanks for the inspiration!

Stay on target, stay on target

Pretty tired tonight, but I still wanted to get an update out before I went to bed. I didn't have hardly any time to draw today so I had to do a lot of my roughs on the go and stay up late just to clean them up. Between Eric Goldberg's webinar about timing yesterday and Preston Blair's bouncing movement I'm starting to learn a lot more about animation. It's really fascinating.

Go buy yourself a rubber bouncy ball from a quarter machine and bounce it a few times. Watch how it moves. When it starts to descend it feels slow, then it really picks up speed and when it hits the floor it seems to squash itself and then the equal and opposite reaction occurs.

Gilligan on parade!


Claude's spinachaphobia flaring up again.


Just when our little hero thought he had escaped the worst and was preparing for his next move, the Swinenstein summoned all his rage and energy into a lung collapsing mystical ring of death encompassing increasingly tighter around our hero's neck.


Pirate a Day


As a little boy I really didn't have that much time to watch TV, but on Saturday mornings I would wake up early, flop on the couch with a giant bowl of Golden Grahams and devour my weekly dose of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The plot is a little out there, the story is just a bit over the top, but I couldn't take my eyes off the characters. Every episode I couldn't wait to see what bizarre, outlandish, fun creature they would come up with for the turtles to befriend or fight. As I'm drawing more and more I find myself looking back at what I love, finding out all about it to try and decipher what I really drew me into it. I think for the Ninja Turtles it really was the character design. I did a little research on some of the character designers for "TMNT" and I came across Elyse Pastel. Her illustrations are still as lively, fun, and playful as the stuff I loved as a kid. Thanks for the Inspiration!

Believe the Character Exists

Had a lot on my plate for today, but I managed to get the bulk of my daily drawing done pretty early. I didn't have too many struggles drawing wise today, just trying to prioritize what projects to work on during the time I had. One thing I did today that helped smooth everything along was to remind myself, I get to draw. I love to draw. Just simply reaffirming what I already knew seemed to help keep my hand steady and my head focused.

Gilligan free-falling.


Claude's turtle forcing Claude to dance wild west style.


Despite his best attempts at being perfectly quiet, our little hero forgot one key factor, disgusting pig monsters have a keen sense of smell. In one swift unpiglike movement the monstrosity summoned some sort of unholy magic force that our little hero only barely dodged.


A new project I've been thinking about working on is Pirate a Day! I usually draw some sort of pirate or pirate-like person during the day so I figured I'd add it to the mix.

In anticipation for the summer session at AnimationMentor I've been checking out every resource they have on their site. Today I watched the Eric Goldberg Webinar. Eric is the genius behind the Genie from Aladdin. I've had his book Character Animation Crash Course for a month or so now, and can't wait to get to it. So this webinar was a real treat. One point I wanted to share was at the end of the interview some one asked him what advice he had for those just starting out. He responded with something that seems so basic and so simple, yet most of us have probably never even bothered to consider it. "Believe the character exists." He says if you do that. Then you will give the character the life it needs to make others believe it as well. Thanks for the inspiration!

In the Zone

I've heard about football players, basketball players, professionals of any type of skill talk about being in the zone. I know I've had that feeling before, while drawing, but I haven't really felt the rip you out of the zone feeling as strongly as I did tonight. For some reason after drawing for an hour or so, everything was going smooth and then I had to take care of some other business and just could not get back on track. Fought through it, and eventually I got over that hump, but I just thought I would bring it up. Maybe some of you have had that happen before. On a happy note, I finally got around to making some of the animation cycles actually move tonight!

Claude and his turtle exploring the deep blue.


Gilligan stretched out the wrong way.

Our little hero hoping the Porkestuous creature having not yet spotted him, leapt stealth-fully from the closest window knowing that the element of surprise would easily turn the tide of the imminent skirmish.


After our latest venture to Borders, Rhys picked me up a copy of "The Art of How to Train Your Dragon". We both loved the movie, but the art is almost better than the film itself. Nico Marlet's concepts are beautiful. He was also one of the lead character designers on Kung Fu Panda, Monster's Inc, and Madagascar! Thanks for the Inspiration Nico!

One last note, Jerzy, Mark, Kevin and Knifeman from the Art and Story (Extreme) Podcast, which is exponentially better with the new soundboard zoo they've got, are really getting excited for the upcoming Kids Read Comics event on June 12-13. If you haven't checked it out, it looks like it's going to be a blast. The concept is pretty simple if you haven't guessed it already. It's basically a gathering of kids, adults, professionals, amateurs, and comic enthusiasts sharing their love for the medium. I wish there was an event like this when I was a kid. Go check it out!

Feeling hot hot hot!

Had to try breaking some of my usual habits today. It was way too hot to work in Turbos Studio North, so I had to move to studio south. Which is also commonly referred to as the couch by the air conditioner. It took a while to get used to after-all, I am a creature of habit, or at least I think I like to be. So today I had to work under strange conditions no close up overhead light, no drawing table. I'm gonna have to try to mix it up a little more. I like the challenge.

Gilligan stretching.


Claude and his turtle letting loose.

Outside the Ham Hock Inn the creature loomed closer to our previously unsuspecting hero. The creature seemed agitated, but considering the name of the inn, one really can't blame him.


Arbitraryjane and I used to watch Pete's Dragon ritually. I really couldn't even pinpoint the reason why. The animation is good, the music is great, the story is preposterous, and for some reason it all gelled together perfectly in our young minds. I was searching for some of Randy Cartwright's or Ken Anderson's work on the picture and stumbled across The Art of Disney Animation Blog. What a little gem of a site. It's one of the best collections of Disney animated film concepts I've seen yet. They even had some of my favorite Milt Kahl sketches and some truely unique Tim Burton Concepts from The Black Cauldron. Do yourself a favor and spend an afternoon checking out all the great images collected there. Thanks for the Inspiration!