Mr. Moon, Sr.

Tommy, I think this guy looks like your dad. Spotted at the Getty.

I hope you are enjoying your travels. I am in Rochester, NY. There were complications on the way out; seems we'd bought a ticket for Rochester...Minnesota. I discovered this in the Chicago O'Hare terminal, about to board the Minnesota bound flight.

But it all worked out.

Cap and Neck

Tuesday Drawing

Look at that... it's Tuesday and there's a drawing there!

This is an old drawing that I've just "vectorized".

Prince Valiant Page Layouts

Prince Valiant Art

Click the title or the link above. Nothing special. Just the page layout solution they used for laying out the sunday strips in a different proportion.

pRince Valiant

More good links

http://kuler.adobe.com"




characterdesign.blogspot.com"


my.break.com/content"

Links to Game Design

http://www.sloperama.com/advice/specs.htm


http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article243.asp

http://www.zurreal.com/herospath/game/doc/concept.pdf

http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/classes/cmps080k/Winter06/project-design.html

A Book About Living and Sketching in Paris?

What do you guys think of this sort of thing? It's my current project, and it's just what the title says. The "copy" on this page is horrible--it's just filler to get a sense of composition, layout, format, marketability, what-have-you. Putting my inks to use.

I am soliciting opinions and suggestions--please help

Rick Says:

Well, I'm a complete sucker for this sort of presentation... this drips of the sort of classic illustration that I just adore. So, my first impression is that I think this is extremely cool.

As far as feedback is concerned, I think what you need to do is take your artist hat off and put your designer hat on. When text enters into the equation you are creating something that is a new piece of art rather just framing an existing piece of art, if that makes any sense.

I would encourage you to integrate the drawings and the text more fully. I’ve posted one idea… I’ve broken up the drawing so that there is space for the text within the image so that the whole package is more unified. I was forced to flip the drawing so that the text would flow in the proper left-to-right, top-to-bottom fashion. As the artist and the designer, you are in a unique position to be able to manipulate your images as much as you like (or are willing) to create a pleasing reading/aesthetic experience for your reader.

I probably don’t need to say this, but I would also encourage you to make a dummy of the book… which is to say, print it out and staple it together. Seeing the pages side by side as they will be viewed by the reader with create new compositional ideas in your head that seeing the pages on their own would not present to you.

I expect that Maurie would know a lot more about this sort of thing than anyone else who posts on here. In fact, children’s books in general can inform you as to the compositional avenues that are open to you. Also, if you look as some Flash Gordon strips (the later ones where Raymond abandoned word balloons) you will also find some great combinations of line drawings and text that might inspire you. Good luck!

New "Pie in the Sky" video (for MoveOn.org competition)

PIE IN THE SKY

As many of you know I am learning After Effects and seeking out contests that give me deadlines for creating small movies … The latest of these movies is now entered in the “Obama in 30 Seconds” ad competition sponsored by MoveOn.org.

The first round of voting began today. One set of five finalists will be selected based on total number of unique hits (views); another by tabulating the ten highest ratings. The ads are all 26 seconds in length (leaving four seconds at the end for a MoveOn.org disclaimer).
My entry is called “Pie In The Sky” and it can be found here: PIE IN THE SKY. It stars a pie, and that alone should be why you click on it to view it. I'm going to guarantee that no one else's ad has a pie in it. Neener neener.

When you follow the above link and watch "Pie in the Sky," it will count toward the total viewers for the ad only if you enter your email address; this prevents fraud and makes sure that one person isn’t just hitting refresh over and over. The site will send a confirmation email to your email addy to close the loop. It’s all fairly standard stuff.

Of course, while I’d like you to simply watch my ad and revel in its elegant simplicity and “from left field” humor (did I mention it has a pie in it?), you’re also welcome you to check out other people’s ads … by going here.

Email me at tcarroll at rockstarsd.com if you have questions. Voting will continue until 11:59 p.m. PDT on Sunday, April 27. Have fun!!

New Hellboy Trailer

Click on the headline... Looks like fun to me!

Have a Balloon

The scanner has been idle of late

Can you name the actor with the 300 obscured face .

I think the movie is called BREAKIN'

Ranjo Ripoff

I was doodling recently and I sketched out one of Jeff's hovering robots... I thought I would take it all the way in Flash to see what would happen...

Something of interest

1/2 off comic fonts!

Comic Craft is having a half off sale on their fonts until April 18th. Click on the headline for a link.

Some Drawings

These are from a series of drawings that were done one at a time as I conceived them. It was my hope that eventually they would coalesce into some kind of unified story. But I've realized that they should remain simply as they are; individual pieces that merely give the illusion they are part of something larger. That's how they were originally intended to be, and I can't force something artificial onto them. So the mystery of exactly what they mean remains. Maybe it's better that way.

The general direction I want to go is toward a look that shows many traditional fantasy and comic-book influences, but is somewhat apart from the Kirby and Frazetta idiom that dominates so much of the work in the field today. I'm as big a fan as anybody, but I'm just not them, and I never will be, *sigh*. People have remarked at times on the design-y kind of flatness in my work (I like that "paper cutout" style"), and I'm thinking I could just run with that. Besides comics artists, I admire a lot of the contemporary children's book artists like Maurice Sendak and Leo and Dianne Dillon. I enjoy some of the underground comics artists too, like Robert Crumb and Charles Burns, but they frequently come across as really ANGRY in both style and subject matter.

Rich Sjoberg Post

Rich managed to find this old Marty Davis drawing from eleven years ago. He still has the original. A real collector's item!

I asked Patty if it looked like me, and she said, "It looks like your evil twin."

My Brother and Me: THE SAME AGE, Again

Here's his "Birthday Image." Remember the 12" doll my friend Pete and I modified to "strongly resemble" my bro?--the "Deputy D.A. Kit Davis Action Figure"? Did I share that one here? Anyhow, that's what this gag is predicated on....

My marker work is rusty. A little ragged. Had to get this done in a rush to ship to his courthouse (I love surprising him at work--they x-ray everything before they let it in).

This is our week of age-confluence; we're both 38 for 7 days. Then I surge ahead again and become...32.

After the Notes

Now I'll do a better pencil drawing before I start painting

Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve

Those of you who can get up to the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve this week, go and bring your wife, kids, family, girlfriend, boyfriend, dog or whomever, and all your camera equipment. We just got back from there a little while ago. It was an especially good year for the wildflowers and this is what it looks like for miles around. Don't miss it. Stunning. Unbelievable. Orange. You can't sit among the poppies in the actual reserve, but you can pull off road outside the park and walk into the fields. We, and hundreds of other professional and amateur photographers were doing the same thing. Go on a weekday if possible and it will probably be a lot less crowded.

ROBOTS

Students showed me this last week. I like the simple shapes for the robots..