Glory Days

Couple of old drawings from the early days of Monkeytropolis






They're monkeys. We had a fun game idea involving a Flash Gordon type monkey.

My Main responsibility at work

Cleaning Bishop's cage and keeping him fat.

Jeff requested a picture of the rat in response to Marty's post of his office pic.

New Surf's Up Trailer

New trailer is out with a special appearance by my kid Jack as the voice of one of the little penguins. They named him "Smudge" but they never reference him by name. He's the one that calls Tank a "Dirty trashcan full of poop." He is now SAG eligable!

Three Stooges Variation

It's me, Mike Dietz and Kyle Kirby. Ah, that manly comraderie you find only in the video game world!

This was meant to be posted soon after the last Three Stooges homage.

Well, it's up now.

BONUS CONTENT: A shot of my office, and my fellow inhabitant, Mr. K. Kirby. Tom said he was interested. That's the 405 outside, which is as mesmerizing to me as the surf on a beach.

Animation Mix

When you have five minutes to spare here's an amusing collection of animations:

Masked Avenger Maquettes

Jeff may know this guy.

Todd Ammons at work sent me the link, knew his work from Disney.

The title is a link to his Blog.

I really have to marry my skill at moldmaking (ha) with some sculpting.

Stephen Silver Online Character Design Class

I've met Stepen and he's a nice guy and to boot he draws like a mofo. Check out the vid...

Barefoot Executive and Lion and Tarzan

I think this lion is my best invented lion thus far. Young Kurt Russell in the the Barefoot Executive. Added Tarzan from a meeting sketch

ColErase Blue Doodles-Storyboard Freelance

The col erase pencils are very nice. They put down a line with smooth feel, no scratch or skip, and erase easily with the eraser attached to the pencil.

When I grayscale them and play with the levels in photoshop I get a lot of held detail.


In addition, This from Jason Weesner...

(the first two lines are my reply to Jason)

Rick Schmitz has just moved to the bay area.

I bet he'll be in touch with you.


--- Jason Weesner wrote:

> ...you know anybody in the Bay Area who does
> storyboards, my company is looking for two
> storyboard
> artists for 6 weeks. Might be some good money.
> Perhaps
> you can post this to TAG?
>
>
>
> +---------------+
> The Jason Weesner
> www.weezie13.com
> +---------------+
>

Faces from T-Ball Practice

T-Ball practice is a good time to sketch (when your kid isn't at bat, that is...). So, like I was doing with the robots, I sketched out some silhouettes and then tried to find some details by adding and subtracting with pencil and eraser. Lotsa fun.

I Spotted a Ranjo Credit

Mixed reception among the animation department to the new Meet The Robinsons. Marty organized the research trip. I'd be interested in Ranjo's critique. I found it unqualified magic. I 've never seen better 3d for one thing. I wish i'd seen Chicken Little at the theatre now.

So Skrbbl. The credit went by and Marty thought it was a story art credit. I'm not sure but I'm fairly sure it wasn't story. What was your credit?

UFC Characters and A Judge from Perry Mason

ColErase blue pencils are cool because the attached eraser actually picks up the color. The all in one tool

Do Y'all Know About the 2007 Comic Book Challenge

In a related (sort of) development ... the 2007 Comic Book Challenge was announced a couple weeks ago at Wizard World Expo in LA. I mentioned it to Rick Schmitz and he thought I should share it with TAG.

Go to Platinum Studios Web site and look for the Comic Book Challenge hot button at the bottom of the page (looks like the graphic above).

One you press it you go to a page where you can enter your email and you'll be sent automatic updates about rules and regs, deadlines, etc. I myself will be entering a couple of ideas and if this year's contest is run like 2006's, you won't have to even do a six page preview to enter. In a nutshell, you enter the contest with a basic written pitch and some concept and/or sequential art. Platinum execs select the top 50 ideas and those creators are able to pitch their comic live to a panel of judges outside the Convention Center during the SD Comic Con. The judges select the top three ideas and those pitches are posted onto Drunk Duck dot com and online votes are tallied to select the top comic. At that point, the creator is paid to finish the comic or graphic novel and it is published.

Last year's winner, DJ Coffman, said this in a recent email: "As to what I actually pitched in with the email, it's exactly the text and one page sample of art on this page ..."

To see what Coffman is talking about, go here.

Coffman then said, "I was shocked when I got the email that I was Top 50 and had 7 days to get to San Diego. Then I took about two days and perfected my 2 minute in person pitch and also came up with this 11 x 17 pitch sheet, which was pretty much my test pitch in the main captions...

The pitch artwork is here.

There used to be a movie by Broken Frontier, the Webzine that covers comics, showing people, including the eventual winner (DJ Coffman) pitching to the panel and some of the panel's reactions as the pitching was happening, but I can't locate the link anymore ... sniffle ...

Th-th-that's all folks.

Can't wait to read the posts on this one... Can't fault me for giving too little information ... ;-)

Possible Graphic Novel Opportunity

Hola, TAG,

A new friend of mine is a Hollywood type who routinely works on script development for TV and film (no joke, she really does) ... a while ago she produced a screenplay that deals with a mother who is at odds because of empty nest issues and a husband who may be straying from the nest. Mystical elements enter her life from an unexpected source and they both help her and challenge her at the same time. The script was attached to Diane Keaton at one time, at another it was attached to anotherA-list actress (the name now escapes me, but it could have been Meryl Streep...), but in the end it always fell out of development. This friend wants to now translate this screenplay into a graphic novel that can be published (or self published) and then possibly begin another run at being picked up by a studio.

This isn't a pipe dream. I met with her about it last weekend after I attended the Gnomon Workshop in L.A. ...

My friend wants to develop character sketches and produce a six page demo to take to Comic Con ... She will translate her script into graphic novel format. She is aggressive about this project and is not averse to paying for artwork from an artist with the skills to do this kind of non-superhero project.

I know that I am not the artist to take this project forward -- But do you TAGsters have any ideas about it or art candidates who might be suitable?

Email me directly if you do, but comments to the post are most welcome!

Life Drawing Returns

This is a quick post. Trying to do some life drawing again. I post these so I can look back at my progress. First page are longish (4's? 5's?) Last page is ones. Thanks Ellis for scanning.

Snake Oil Saleman

A meeting doodle

I'm back in ... New posts / new blogger page, too

Thanks to Skribbl, I'm back in the TAG fold ... back from the edge of google non-accountability ... That being said, it will take a moment to bring in a new sketch (what am I saying, I'll do one tonight and post it in the morning).

'Till then, here are a few robots to check out ... I drew them last week whilst I was waiting to be called in for jury duty service (never was). The full slate of robots can be seen at my Dread Naught Web comic site. They start simple and get more complex the further you go in.

And if you go there, remember to click on the initial image of three simple robot silhouettes and then press the space bar to advance through 'em ...

Instruction on Cat Heads

Took a lesson from coworker/boss Marty on big Cat heads. Draw head large. Features small. Also included a scan of Lion anatomy from a Dover Sculpture book that would reinforce that lesson.