Fooger Snarts

Gremlin Sketch

2010-01-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

Another In House Character for our website

Bombs Away!

2009-11-17T11:42:00.000-08:00

Bombs away!

This was another unused idea that went along with the arrows concept. It was also done in photoshop.

Crazy Lady in Verizon store!

2009-11-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

It seems like everytime that I have gone into a cell phone store the majority of people in them seem to be whacked! This lady was at the counter with a fairly dubious looking guy who was paying for her phone. Everytime the cashhier did something, like entering her name into the computer, Crazy Lady would whoop and holler at the top of her lungs. When it came time to pay, the guy who was with her pulled out a roll of cash about the size of a baseball. I suspect he was either a dealer or "manager."

More Unused Photoshop Illustrations

2009-10-13T10:08:00.001-07:00

These are illustrations done in Photoshop for another direct mail campaign that doesn't appear to be going anywhere at the moment. For the sake of showing them I removed any text.

Notes on Head construction.

2009-07-15T23:58:00.000-07:00

Attn Emily: These are some quick notes I put together. It seemed easier to draw an explanation than trying to say it verbally. Basically you have two options when constructing a head: a large solid ball with a chin, or two ovals. The two oval method will give you a more natural feel allowing the jaw to hang correctly. For some characters it won't make a bit of difference how you design it. However, this approach will work best if and when you have to animate and design more human characters.

A lot of the construction really comes down to what you are most comfortable with since you are essentially dealing with graphic cheats. If you get into animating, you'll start to notice that the shapes become much less about literal construction and more about graphic ideas like silohuette, line of action, and visual clarity. The literal construction has more to do with model sheets so everyone in the animation department can get on the same page. In reality, very few guys really animate like that. Look at Preston Blair's roughs from Dance of the Hours in the First Walter Foster animation book and you'll see what I mean: loose and graphic but still working in space.

Finished BlackJack Illustration.

2009-06-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

Though I only finished it a few weeks ago, I nearly forgot about it. Unfortunately, this is one of those projects that I put off a while back and only recently returned to. Overall, I like the way it came out, but I am not too keen on the pose or expression. I think the biggest problem, looking back, is that the illustration doesn't hilite the match enough. Some of this may have to do with the differences between what is often called hard sell vs. institutional advertising. I 'd say that this one lands closer to the insitutional.*

*Institutional advertising ususally refers to selling a product by pushing things like lifestyle or image. It is the opposite of a hard sell where a products advertising is about facts and measurable data.

Transvestite golfers?

2009-06-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more drawings for a quote that went South. Originally the concept was suppose to be centered around two average golfing buds out on the course. However, as time went on the creatives decided a transvestite playing on the LPGA tour had more humor. The two drawings that I have here are the ones I liked the most though the agency was really pushing for something that looked more graphic. Unfortunately, those just weren't as funny. In the end (as depressing as it sounds) we probably lost the job because I wasn't able to get a better graphic design. That's Life! Live and learn.

2009-03-09T12:02:00.001-07:00

Here is an old advertising illustration we did for a mailer a while back. This image actually appeared on the postage side of a 5.5 x 8.5 card (the image took up the lefthand side). The drawing was done by hand but the coloring was all done in Photoshop to look like colored pencil.

I thought it was cool, but if I had to go back and do it again I would have inked it by hand and thrown in a little more detail instead of cleaning it up in pencil. Pencil works great for animation but more and more I think I am wanting to do stills with a pen and a fine point nib. The line coming off of a quill pen just looks better.

Unused Character Sketches

2009-03-04T11:41:00.000-08:00

These were conceptual drawings for a client that wanted a "Health Nut" character for thier website. Unfortunately the job never made it past the character designs because the client and the agency couldn't work things out.

Character A was an intentional take on Sponge Bob while the others are just variations. You can only do so much with an almond that has arms!

Elvis Lives!

2009-02-20T12:11:00.001-08:00

Ooooh.... I haven't posted much the last few months. However, these are some late night sketches for some random ideas that I have floating around. The Elvis is something that just makes me laugh and I have always wanted to do a baseball thing for some reason (though I have never played baseball).

As for the drawings, the side pose of the king was more of an attempt to figure out the fat on the body. A while back I started to do the obvious and began structuring the head as two ovals. If you don't do it that way you'll never get the jaw in the right place.

Western Sketch

2008-11-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

A while back I decided to try to create a series of faux western advertisements done in an art nouveau style. This is a rough layout for the first idea. The product, Blackjack Matches, is completely fictitious though it did require quite a bit of research on Matches from the 19th century.

Unfortunately I got a little sidetracked on this one because my wife and I considered putting our house on the market. After several weeks of packing stuff away, painting, picking up, and what not, we finally came to our senses and determined that trying to sell our house would be a ludicrous idea at best! Now that I am getting back to reality, I am going to get this idea back out.

The layout is actually 18x24 and I am going to ink and paint it in photoshop. I initially considered doing it by hand, but I determined that I need way more practice with a quill and brush to get it right.

How Time Flies!

2008-10-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

Has it really been since June 9th that I posted last? I've been busy enough with work and doing things around the home that I more or less forgot about the blog. Fortunately things around the house (we almost decided to move and then thought better of it) have calmed down so I can now proceed with a few personal projects that I had started on back in June.

I had this idea for a series of posters focused on 19th century Western products (Lanterns, hats, matches, lariats, spurs and on and on) done in more of an Art Nouveau style. I actually have the first one sketched out but I need to decide how to paint it.

As for the business, we have been treading water: neither sinking or swimming ahead. It would appear that all major advertisers seem to be taking break until the elections are over. One creative director told us that most of thier clients can't afford the airtime with all of the candidate ads and they don't want to get mixed between spots for the local DA race and the Presidential election.

Speaking of which...

I did do a few "mock" buttons for a mailer that we sent out mid-summer. The concept was "Animate in 08" so the layout for the mailer was a picture of a bunch of campaign buttons intermixed with stills from recent spots. Unfortunately we decided that we didn't want to risk copyright issues so we only used buttons that indicated Democrat or Republican. Here are the ones that we designed!

Obama vs. McCain

2008-06-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

This one is for a "Gallery Challenge" over at AN that involved Captain America. It is suppose to be McCain and Obama fighting for the shield although McCain doesn't read very well without his hair being visible.

Thumbnails!

2008-05-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

These are thumbnails for a little league baseball idea that I had. Mostly they are just random thoughts for page layouts that were done late at night. For me, the thumbnails really help to figure things out quickly without wasting a whole lot of time. Once they are figured out they can be blown up on a copier to actual size and used as a template. This is really helpful when it comes to doing curved or three point perspectives where the vanishing points are well out of the frame.

Finally!

2008-04-15T12:04:00.000-07:00

Well... These are a few recent drawings from the late night TV sketching that I like to do. The first is a politician whom I can not recall the name of (he was just real happy and kind of stoned looking!). The second is Joel Coen of the infamous dyanamic duo also-known-as "The Coen Brothers!"

Final Character Model

2008-03-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

This is the final version of the model that I posted a few weeks ago. Because the character was suppose to be an animated version of a live action spokesgirl, we had to match her outfit. I think it looks pretty nice, but the color was a bit of an issue. Since the real girl was wearing a black outfit, and has black hair, we decided to bring the suit color up to a grey.

I might try to post some of the animation from the spot later on.

The Desk is done!

2008-02-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the animation desk. It has a few quirks, though for the most part it works well and can adjust to almost any angle. The whole design was based off of the idea of using a swing arm that the table top can pivot off of. By doing it this way the hieght and tilt are more or less controlled as one unit. The only major problem is that the wood has swelled just enough that the movement is a bit tight. Oh well: at this point I'll take it.

Still Here!

2008-02-19T11:19:00.001-08:00

Thanks again for all of the comments and criticisms. As always I appreciate the take on things wether it be from Carlos, Juan, Enrique or even Johnny Bench. While I may not appear to take your comments and run with them I often do (the comment regarding the eyes on the Greenspan drawing was one of the those moments). Several comments have made quite a bit of difference in how I have approached both my work projects and personal projects.

As for Johnny Bench you have many a valid point. If I came off as rude for not posting frequently enough I apologize. I understand the time and effort that people take to post but I also understand that it is my perogative to post and make corrections at my own will. In fact, I do continue to work at things outside of work though I may not feel the need to post them here either because they are not as good as I'd like or because they do not pertain. So, with that said, what am I doing outside of work.

Recently I have been trying to do portraits of my nieces and nephews to give to thier parents. I have always had a very hard time with drawings from photos (go figure) so this one has been keeping me busy. The first one went through about four or five iterations before I got a decent likeness. The second one took multiple attempts as well but I learned a lot. Most of what I learned is that I have a very hard time with shading and finding the right look for the right subject. One sketch that I did of my father in law came out looking pretty nice using cross hatch but the same technique on my 8 year old niece was a complete failure.

Also on the agenda has been the construction of a new animation desk. I'll try to post images of that as well. The goal with that was to design it so the hieght and angle adjustment were "all-in-one". Unfortunately, I had to make a lot of adjustments because somewhere on the plans I was off by a 1/4 of an inch (that is another story though).

Again, to Mr. Bench, I understand your concerns and I will try to be more appreciative to the people who took the time to post comments.

Thanks again,

Tim Stevens

Albuquerque, NM

As bad as it sounds, here is a recent model for a credit union spot we are working on. This is the kind of thing that we do a lot of. It was based loosely on the original Bewitched animation designs from the sixties.

Happy Driving!

2008-01-25T11:43:00.000-08:00

So... I had a meeting I had to make at 12:30 PM last Saturday that was work related but I was sitting at Jiffy Lube waiting for my car to be finished up. Now, normally it wouldn't have taken so long but on this particular day I was attempting not just the standard Lube and Oil, but I was going in for the big 60,000 mile transmission service on the ol' Corolla. I figured initially that an hour would be long enough for the two though I couldn't have been more wrong.

The shop was filled with the usual suspects: a thirty something lady with a laptop driving a honda: an uncle with his niece in a Subaru: a construction worker with his wife in a Ford work truck and on, and on. As I go about my business, I finally get called to the counter to meet with the highschool kid, who I'm leaving the responsibilty of working on my car to, to go over what my car probably doesn't need. "This filter looks a little old: would you like us to replace it today?" "Hmmm - No!" "The cabin filter is kind of dirty: would you like us to replace that today?" "Ughhh - No!" "How are your wiper blades?" "Fine!" So he picks up the filters and I go back to watching a rerun of The New Yankee Workshop through a haze of static on the old TV in the lobby. After a few minutes my car is done and they pull it to the other side of the garage for the "Automatic Transmission Service".

At this point I'm constantly staring at my watch knowing that it will take thirty minutes to get to my appointment. The time reads 11:45 AM and my car is sitting in line waiting to get drained and filled. As the minutes tick off, the clock hits Noon and I have had enough: it is time for Elvis to exit the building. I go to the counter, get my keys, and motor. I am now visually frustrated as I rip out of the parking lot ( OK: I didn't actually speed out of the lot but "rip" just has a nice visual when you know I drive a Corolla!) I get to the first light and miss the arrow. My frustration grows. I get through the light and head to the freeway. I go around slower traffic and make my way back to the center lane. From out of nowhere a black Lexus SUV pulls in front of me. I lay on the horn and throw my hands in the air. The Lexus quickly changes lanes as we approach a light. I get into the left hand turn lane. As I come to a full stop, I hear a horn. I look over and see said Lexus driver screaming through the window, waving his fist, flying the bird, and yelling profanitys that don't require lip reading skills to understand. I give in to the taunt and I yell back one or two things accompanied by the best impromptu physical gestures that I could come up with. Tough guy in the Lexus however, has a large white poodle sitting in his lap: a fricken' poodle! I immediately calm down and stare him down without a move. (Remember, I am one seriously imtimidating 5'-6" animator driving my kick-ass Corolla.) So I stare him down, he goes bonkers, and the light turns green. The Lexus speeds away without incident and I head to my appointment.

I think to myself, "Self!" "Yes." "Could we have avoided that?" "Hmmm - Probably."

I go on with the rest of my day and eventually calm down so as not to blow a gasket and do something more stupid. Things like this often have a sort of "Chevy Chase" way of becoming a catalyst for ever increasingly dumber things! As I reviewed the situation over and over in my head I could only arrive at one solid conclusion as to why tough-guy reacted the way that he did: the poodle must have taken a shit in his lap! Yes indeed - dog shit! If I had a dog shit in my Lexus I to would have reacted in a lude way. Although, dog shit aside, I am probably as much to blame if not more. At times like that you just have to sit back and ask yourself ,"What would Yoda do!"

Driving: love it or hate it, it's better than walking.

Happy driving!

What's a Fooger Snarts???

2007-12-26T11:31:00.000-08:00

Recently, a few folks have wanted to know about the name of this blog and what it means. Though I don't know the complete story I can tell you that Fooger Snarts is actually a mythical character that comes from gypsy lore in the Rhine Valley region of Germany.

It is said the Fooger (correctly spelled Füger) was actually an apprentice to a German, or maybe even a Roman vintner, in the region several centuries ago. Though like most tales, no one knows for sure exactly what happened or if the primary characters were even real.

Supposedly Fooger, a stout young man of maybe no more than eighteen to twenty years old, was given the task of making sure that all of the wines in the vineyard were correctly labeled, stored, and eventually removed at the propper time for people to consume. However, Fooger is said to have frequently snuck into the cellars to taste the various vintages without the approval the master vintner. On a normal day, Fooger probably would have not over indulged, but after finding a particulary great vintage he drank to such a degree that he wandered into the fields to pass out under the grape vines. Normally he might not have been able to get away with this but on this particular day he was left alone at the vineyard while the master and the other workers went into town. Upon waking from his hazy state of consciousness, he came to the stark realization that not only had he left the great doors to the cellar open, he had also allowed a band of gypsies to enter the vineyard. As he came to, he could hear the bustling in the cellar. Stumbling at first, he gathered his senses and ran to the cellar. To his great surprise, he encountered not just one, or two, but a family of gypsies preparing to roll several kegs of the masters wine out of the cellar. Lunging for the closest one, Fooger was thrown to the ground and cursed with a horrible spell by the gypsy. Though it is not clear what the exact words were, Fooger was in an instant banished to walk the nearby forrest for eternity. However, the gypsy should have killed him.

To this day it is said that Fooger Snarts will seek out the gypsies in the Rhine Valley and torment both them and there business dealings as payback for the curse that was layed upon him. So the gypsies can go about there business, many of them will still place bottles of wine in the forest for Fooger to drink so he will become happy and drunk without a care in the world.

That is as much as I know about the tale of Fooger Snarts.

Hope ya'll had a great Christmas.

TS

Dude - I posted something!!!

2007-12-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

Here are a few drawings from the last couple of weeks or so. The first one is Mark Halperin who is an ABC News commentator: #2 is Sean Penn: #3 is John McCain. I kind of like them! I think the feedback I've been getting has really helped out. One thing I have noticed is that my drawing at work has been improving as well. That is always good!

Rolling with the punches

2007-10-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I I'm still not drawing as much as I should be. However, I appreciate that ya'll are keeping interested. As for the criticisms, I have been lucky. Since the inception of this blog I have always received solid information and feedback from everyone.

As for what I have been up to... For the last three weeks we have been dealing with a combination live action animation spot for a national olive oil producer. Unfortunately we have been bogged down in technical difficulties from the live action footage. We shot in HD but are releasing the spot in NTSC. You would think that down converting and editing would be easy (we did) but everything from formats, to editing systems, to CoDecs have been a source of non stop headaches. The first major stumbling block was the camera.

We shot on a Panasonic DVCPRO HD camcorder that had just come into town, and going against our past experiences, we decided to use it. The problem with Panasonic products is that they format information in the P2 format which is specific to Panasonic. Unbeknownst to us, Panasonic has built up a very strong relationship with Apple and Avid. The P2 format works best on Final Cut Pro but is not viewable in PC based programs like After Effects and Premier. Since we are completely PC based we were unable to view any test footage (although there are some after market codecs that you can buy that will supposedly convert the files correctly). Because of that we decided to go to an outside editor on FCP and have him output the base-edit into HD and NTSC files. The problem with that is that the editor wasn't real sure how to export what we need.

Sounds confusing??? it gets worse.

We actually recorded onto a hard drive instead of tape in the hope that we would get straight files without having to go through a DVC PRO deck (deck time will jack your editing cost). The benefit (or so we thought) to shooting onto a Flash drive is that you should be getting the exact frame rate that the camera is set to. What we found out is that on most mid-end cameras the tape decks are designed to run at a constant speed and are not variable. When you shoot, the camera converts whatever setting you are at into standard frame rates. So, if you are shooting at 24p (on a mid end camera) it may be converting it to 29.97 fps. In addition to that it also depends on the format you are shooting as to how it writes to the tape and drive: all of these cameras shoot in literally a dozen frame sizes and speeds.

So after all of this we think we finally have a solid edit that will lock up to our animation.

So much for making HD easy. I can totally see why so few stations have truly switched over and why so few productions are truly shooting, editing, and releasing in it. Eventually there will be some standards, but until then people will have to slug it.

It is days like these that I miss film!

Still Here...

2007-10-04T00:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been able to get back on doing some corrections. Work has been getting pretty busy the last week or so. Fortunately that means that production will be steady up to Thanksgiving.

I will try to get a handle on some more corrections and new drawings here in the next week or so.

Thanks again for all of the input

Greenspan Revised!

2007-09-28T23:46:00.000-07:00

This is a quick revision of the Greenspan drawing based on some of Chico's advice. I think all in all the most critical thing that I learned was realizing the actually placement of the eyes to the bridge of the nose. I was always treating it like the bridge and the eyes were on the same plane which is why my eyes always felt skewed to one side. It is one of those things that you just don't ever think about until someone points it out.

I also went back in and fixed the collar going into the ear on frame left. Now the collar makes a good T-intersection instead of oddly curving up into it. I tried modifying the mouth slightly though I 'm not sure the new version is any better than the older one

Thanks again for the help.

Greenspan

2007-09-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

It is Allan Greenspan "THE GOD OF MONEY"!!!

I like how this one is working. The shading is getting better and the face seems fairly well structured. One of these days I will have to try to paint one in Photoshop.

Don Rickles

2007-08-31T11:38:00.001-07:00

Well... Atleast it started out as Don Rickles. Again, this was done from last nights Charlie Rose. I think overall it isn't bad though the likeness and personality aren't quite as good as I would have liked.

As for the shading, you have to cut me a little slack on some of these due to the overhead lighting used during the interviews (OK, you dont have to cut me any!).

I think I an starting to see a progression in my drawing. If you look back at some of there earlier posts I think that much of the criticism I've had has been quite useful. GEtting feedback through blogging is definately a good way to learn.

The World is Flat! Thomas Friedman

2007-08-20T23:20:00.000-07:00

Dude... I've gotten really lazy about drawing during the month of August (it all started with a project that began in the kitchen - but that is another post!). Anyway, this is the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Currently he is still standing behind his recently published book "The World is Flat". In it he discusses why countries like Korea, India, and China are able to do what they do so well. http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/

Keeping Things On Model!

2007-07-11T00:24:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest things to do in animation is to keep things on model. It is something that you have to be constantly thinking about or you could inadvertantly dig yourself into a deep whole. Why I am I bringing this up you say? Because I found myself this last week ignoring my own advice!

A few days ago I started layouts for a commercial job that was centered around two characters that had been designed for print material by an illustrator. What is important here is that I was working from someone elses designs. The first instinct for most artists when given a new design is to say, "Are you kidding me, " and then they go off and try to subtley alter the design to meet thier needs. I actually did this even though I knew I shouldn't have. You see, animators tend to draw things differently than illustrators. Illustrators draw for frames frozen in time. If a character looks different from frame to frame no one will notice unless the differences are dramatic. Animators however have to draw the same thing hundreds of times in a row and in motion. This is why the designs have to be "animatable" and why it is so tempting to change a design to suit your needs.

If you are new to the business it won't take long before you encounter a design that you think you should change. Take it from me: NEVER CHANGE THE DESIGN! Even crappy designs can animate. Clients pay god money for their characters and they establish thier identities around them. It shouldn't be our business to change them no matter how crappy, poorly drawn, or un-animatable they are. With that said it is amongst one of the most tempting things to do. One thing you have to keep in mind is that most clients know thier characters intimately. If you change thier design you will almost always end up diverting back to the original. However, when most people stray off model the tend to be doing it without even realising it. You only have to look as far as the beginning and endings of most scenes to see where an animator will subconsciously veer off model.

So how do you prevent going of model?

It is relatively easy. As one of my teachers use to say, "...Any decent animator will keep the model sheet under his paper, not tacked up on the board."

What you do is you take the best pose off of the model sheet, usually the 3/4 pose, and you xerox it to the approximate size of the character you need to draw. Place this copy under your animation and flip to it for reference. You aren't exactly copying the model but rather you are animating to it. Flipping back and forth between your model and your aniamtion is the easiest way to keep things consistent and "on model". If you do this with all of your "extremes" you are almost garunteed to get it correct.

However, with the job I was working on their wasn't a set model sheet but rather a short comic strip with the characters drawn differently in every panel. In a case like this you have to get the client to lead you towards the drawing that best exemplifies the character. A worst case scenario would be if the client gives you a frame grab from an old video to use as the model ( I actually had this happen on a commercial for vlassic pickles).

Had I taken my own advice before I started layouts I probably would have saved myself atleast a full days worth of work. Taking the time to stay on model may seem cumbersome at first but it will ultimately save you time from fixing things late into production.

Ben Kingsley

2007-06-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

Rethinking things...

2007-06-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

After getting some helpful comments regarding the Wolfowitz drawing I really had to sit down and rethink what I was doing. This drawing of Zbigniew Brzezinski (Carter's national security adviser) is a good start. I tried to get a more realized ear: the features are more correctly lined up: The line work isn't quite as heavy.

I think the next step is to (as Anonymous mentioned) start researching these guys and doing true caricatures instead of head studies.

Paul Wolfowitz

2007-06-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

Wolfowitz, for those who don't know of him, is sometimes regarded as one of the architects of the war in Iraq. His most recent position was at the world Bank where he served as president until his resignation.

Old Guy with Tie #1

2007-05-25T16:31:00.001-07:00

I think this one works, but I'm not sure...

Buffet and Maher

2007-05-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

More semi famous folks! From Last nights charlie Rose I did a quiksketch of Warren Buffet. This one was actually a bit of a learning tool . Since I have been trying to learn how to do caricatures better I have been realizing how hard it is to structure a face out while you are doing it. One of the great things about structure is that it gives you a solid foundation: it is great for animation, layout, figurative work etc. But when it comes to caricature I think you have to know where to use it. If you look at a lot of good caricature artists they will tend to have awesome rendering and great faces but they tend to draw bodies a bit wonky. I'm obviously no pro: I'm just trying to figure out how to do it better. For me taking a less structured approach to the face and head (for caricatures) is feeling like the best way to go while sticking to a more structured approach for the body. Remember, bodies are lot less intricate than a face and they tend to be much more generic.

But back to my point!

The drawing of Buffet started out fairly real and then I realized it was getting bland so I went back in and pushed it a bit more. I have a tendency to lock myself into the initial structure fast (you have to in animation) so getting back to drawing a bit looser is tough. On this one I erased the brow, the hair, and the mouth back to get it more in character.

It isn't the best thing I have done but I think I learned from it.

Old Birthday Card...

2007-05-10T23:58:00.000-07:00

Every once in a great while I will draw a card for one of the relatives. This one was done completely in Photoshop (CS1) and I think it took two or three hours to do. The idea behind it was that William, my nephew, was a big football fan and his favorite team at that time was the St. Louis Rams (gold and blue). It was also his eleventh birthday hence the number 11 on the jersey.

Richard Sonnenfeldt

2007-05-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is one from the other night. It isn't a very good likeness though. In reality his jaw isn't nearly big enough to justify they way I caricatured it. His eyes are also a little too alive. Overall I think it works - just not so much in relation to the real person. The thing that makes caricature so tricky is knowing what to exagerate yet still keeping it in the spirit of the subject.

New Stuff....

2007-04-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

Like most if us, I need to draw more! This is a bit of the output I've had since the last post.

Newwwwwwwwwwwwt!

2007-03-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

We finally purchased a new scanner at work so I didn't quite get the settings like I normally do. Sometimes upgrading doesn't necesarrilly mean "easier to use"!

This is a quick sketch of former Senate majority Leader Newt Gingrich.

Chris Rock and Dominque DeVillepin

2007-03-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

Barishnikov! (Did I spell that right?)

2007-03-06T11:34:00.000-08:00

Hockey Game!

2007-03-06T11:30:00.000-08:00

My wife and I went to one of the local hockey matches the other night and I took the ol' sketchbook along just in case: I didn't draw but this one page! It actually seems a little wierd having hockey in Albuquerque, NM (actually RioRancho, NM) but the games are fun and the new arena is nice (although a bit small).

More and more and more....

2007-02-15T11:22:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to get these things to look more caricatured but they still seem to come out on the more realistic side. Ironically though, I do like how they are turning out. The first one is of Michael Leavitt, the head of the Health and Human Services department. The second is of David Mamet.

John Mellencamp???

2007-02-09T16:11:00.000-08:00

This was a drawing from another episode of Charlie Rose. I can't quite decide of it actually looks like John Mellencamp or not. At some points it does and at others not quite. It started out as a caricature and ended being more real.

On the Shoot

2007-02-09T11:51:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a 1 day shoot in El Paso for the "blueprint" job (see model below). While it was a good experience it went way to quick: 24 hour business trips are kind of wierd. Here are a few sketches from the set and airport while I wasn't actually working.

The hair and make-up stylist....

The creative director from the agency...

The stylist and one of the grips.

Kid at airport...

Just for Comparison...

2007-02-06T11:34:00.000-08:00

Just for comparison, this is a another piece of concept art that was done just after the impressionist looking one. The idea is that this lady is suppose to be walking around in a blueprint type environment.

On any given day in the commercial world you can be going in five directions all at once (today I'm only going in three directions so I suppose that is not too bad!).

Again, this one was done completely in PhotoShop CS1 using my wife as the model. The real job will be done in 3D but this atleast gives the creatives and the client an idea of what to expect.

Concept Art

2007-02-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

This is a background that was done for a piece of concept art. The spot is tentaively being done in a style reminiscent of the Man Who Planted Trees. But while my take on it has a lot in common with Frederic Back's style I think it doesn'ty really come any where close to it. I like it though (atleast enough to post it).

As for the character models that go along with it, I can't say that I really like those yet. One of the things about Back's style is that it is particularly loose with very limited structure. Most of what I draw is pretty structure heavy so when I go in the opposite direction it takes a lot of work.

Technically this was done in PhotoShop CS1. I tried to use a set palette of colors instead of randomly picking ones (similar to having a box of pastels off to the side).

Bill Nighy

2007-01-26T15:25:00.000-08:00

Something didn't quite seem right about the drawing at first but I think it ultimately worked out.

Peter O'Toole

2007-01-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

Peter O' Toole is one of those actors that has a very distinct look so he seemed to be interesting to draw. Also shown is Frank Schultz the CEO of Starbuck's. (again, from a late showing of Charlie Rose).

More and more...

2007-01-14T22:03:00.000-08:00

I think this was one of Bush's advisors from Thursday nights show...

2007-01-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

More Charlie Rose...

This is world renound conductor Zubin Mehta from the Friday night show. The nice thing about drawing talkshow guests is that there is a bit more time to analyze them. When I do the memory drawings I'm going more off of intsinct than anything else.

2007-01-04T11:38:00.000-08:00

Late at night I like to watch Charlie Rose on my local PBS station. These are sketches that I did on Tuesday and Wednseday of him and his guests. While I got Charlie a little whacked out, I think the others are decent.

2006-12-28T11:46:00.000-08:00

At some point I am going to write down some of my thoughts on the use of perspective for animation etc. My overall impression is that most people hate trying to figure out perspective and most animators will avoid perspective moves like the plague. The ironic part is that perspcetive (the creation of depth) is a critical component in making 2D animation come alive. Without traditional perspective you get what essentially becomes graphic animation. And while graphic animation is all fine and dandy it is something best done after you learn to manipulate traditional perspective.

So with that said, I am going to try and jot down a few perpspective tricks and tips that I find useful. I'm by no means the expert on this but I do know enough that I might be able to help a few folks.

2006-12-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

Color is one of those things that I really have to work at. Some people do it well and some don't. This is the first go around with color on the Snake charmer.

2006-12-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons why I posted the sketch of the beatnik was that we are actually in the process of creating a directmail piece at the moment. The sketch below is an intial rough drawing for an idea we have involving a snake charmer. Normally it would be pretty un-cooth to post a preliminary sketch but because I don't have much traffic on this blog I feel OK about showing it. As a side note, when I did show the concept last week I got a quick and snappy, "Oh, that's a cute idea: go with it". If you hear something like that from a director it usually means they aren't paying attention or they are thinking about something else. In situaitions like this, you can almost always bet that what was OK on Friday is probably going to get shot down on Monday.

2006-12-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

Once or twice a year I will design a mailer for the company that I have printed up in large quantities. We actually use to do 3 or 4 mailings a year but it has become much more cost effective and easier for us to do e-mail ads. The last physical mailer we did was a slight joke about art snobs. This character was a quick sketch done in Photoshop that didn't make it past the boss.

2006-12-10T17:18:00.000-08:00

Over at Animation Nation, Charles (owner, operator of the board) will occasionally put up a post in the Gallery section of the site asking anyone to join in on drawing a theme. This time around the theme was Superman. For some reason I thought it would be funny to hack on the Speedo crowd for this one.

2006-12-06T11:30:00.000-08:00

Eventually I will put up something that is animation related but I need to scour some of my work stuff to do it. Currently we are finishing off a spot for a regional supermarket. When we finish that one I will try to post a link to it as well as some of the art. This spot is actually pretty high budget for us so it should look cool!

2006-12-06T11:19:00.000-08:00

Eating out is one of my favorite past times! While I like to cook on occasion (I made sweet and sour chicken last night) I am a sucker for having someone bring me my food and refill my drink. One of my subtle rationallizations for dropping cash in a restaurant is that I might see someone interesting that I could draw when I get home. Mario's pizzaria is a place that I frequently see those kind of people. This rotund fellow is actually the manager/owner!

As far as the drawing goes, the construction is a little whacky but I kind of like the overall look!

2006-12-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I see someone doing something on the road that exemplifies why certain people shouldn't be driving (the worst being a couple I saw having sex in the front seat of a ford Tempo driving down a major street early in the evening - yes it did actually happen). A few months ago I happened upon two different drivers on separate days partaking in the same vices. I am at once dumbfounded and amazed that anyone could eat drink and smoke while driving. Thankfully I got a pair of companion drawings out of someone elses vices.

2006-11-30T11:57:00.000-08:00

Every night I hang out with the mutt on the couch. And while he doesn't own the house he sure does act like it.

2006-11-27T11:47:00.000-08:00

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday My wife and I head over to the PO box to pick up our mail. On rare occasion we will run into very interesting, and sometimes odd characters. The man in this drawing was probably no where near the wierdest person we have seen there but he seemed liked the right person to draw once I got home.

2006-11-27T11:32:00.000-08:00

When I draw, it is usually late at night sometime between when I kennel the dog and when I go to bed. Sometimes it goes well and other times I head to bed early. Last night seemed to go fairly well.

The drawing below is a side pose of a manager at the local Raleys supermarket that my wife and I shop at. While it looks like him, I failed to capture the way that he tilts his head back to see through the bottom of his glasses.

2006-11-26T01:10:00.000-08:00

This drawing is of a cashier at the local Hasting's music and video store. I think she was having issues with the till, eventually calling the manager over. So much for getting your video home at an early hour.

2006-11-26T00:21:00.000-08:00

This is a quick sketch of one of the baristas (aka coffee makers) at Starbucks. While I usually draw memory sketches this one was done at the shop.

2006-11-22T22:14:00.000-08:00

This is an old memory sketch of a kid I saw in a local coffee shop. While it is not very recent I think it is a good first image to post

Starting out!

2006-11-15T13:02:00.000-08:00

Eventually I'll get some real images up here. Until then I will resort to the placeholder so I can think about it!