Character Doodles

Between character design and storyboarding on our latest projects, I often have paper, markers, and a thought in front of me.  It's fun to just spurt it out and have a little goof-off doodle every now and then.  This is just one of those pages that I found laying around the story room here at Moonbot.  I think it started as character design suggestions and ended with giggles.

Peer Roundup

Here's a little roundup of a couple friends' work.

Jamil Lahham -  Laundry Day

My buddy Jamil is an amazing animator.  We had the luck of finding each other at Moonbot, working on "...Morris Lessmore" and winning an Oscar together.  Jamil has since moved to New York and is working on a personal short film that he has been conceiving for a while.  He is sharing his process on a production blog, with images, tests, making-of videos, and more.  Keep an eye out for this guy, and check out the blog.  First video is here:

Stacy Pierce - Freddie Mercury sculpt

Stacy is another great talent I met years ago at a caricature convention, as well as while training artists in theme parks.  Among other things, she is a great sculptor and asked to sculpt my (ancient) painting of Freddie Mercury.  Seeing only the flaws in it and lack of structure, I figured she had her work cut out for her, but she really pulled it off!

More to come soon.

Classic Woody

Certain cartoons stick with you, especially if you grow up and continue to be an artist (yes, I mean that, as opposed to saying "become" an artist -- I believe children, when they create, are artists and if they can choose to continue or not).

One of the classics that I loved (and still love), is the old Woody Woodpecker shorts.

I am not a fan of the cheesy 90s version, mostly because the humor was softer and the design was watered down and 'Disnified'.  The 40s (and some of the 50s) however, was gorgeous, awkward, rank, and silly fun.  The design was off-beat and bold.  The humor was also so ridiculous that it was almost a spectacle, in that Tom and Jerry, Itchy and Scratchy way.

Here are a few samples of the cartoon.  If you go HERE you can watch over an hour of strung together shorts, some of which are REAL gems, some of which are just okay.  One of my favorites for humor and outlandish visual gags, is this:

And one of my favorites for Design (and humor, I guess) is this:

I thought it would be fun last year to doodle some new versions of Woody in my sketchbook.  That turned to an itch that I needed to keep scratching, so I turned it into an homage to the 1940s version, with a light update that suited my taste.  Here are some of my ramblings.  These are all Prismacolor pencil, Zebra brush pen, and COPIC marker on paper (click images to enlarge):

more GUARDIANS art

Here is an alternate cover for the TOOTHIANA Series, used cropped in on the partial novels included as promo last year, for Simon & Schuster.  This is the one that I found to be most successful, as far as what I was going for.  It is painted entirely in Photoshop.

Hope you dig, and go get your copies of William Joyce's GUARDIANS series!

click to enlarge

Toothiana art, Vine

Hey all!

For William Joyce's Simon & Schuster "Guardians" series, from the same stories that spun the Dreamworks film, Rise of the Guardians, we painted alternate covers for the Tooth Fairy book to put in cereal boxes!

It was fun and I got to pose my girlfriend for them, so that never hurts.  Here is one of the alternate covers, at some point in the Work-In-Progress state.  This was not final, but I liked some areas more in this version, so it's what I'm sharing.

If you haven't seen Rise of the Guardians check it out - it's out on iTunes and DVD.  There is some incredible animation and visuals, so don't miss it.

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I also have a new VINE acct. That is a fun idea, and I'm having fun WITH it.  Follow me if you find it amusing.  

Back, with new art!

HEY HEY!

It's been slow, but I'm still here - chipping away at all the fun work we are doing at Moonbot Studios. 

So to kick things back in gear, I'll just start sharing some stuff from the last year that I haven't been able to, or didn't take time to, or couldn't until now.

Here's a painting I started at a workshop with Sebastian Kruger in Germany, in 2008.  I recently finished it, and gifted it to my friend Nicole Durbin.  (the date says 06-12, I had forgotten when I started it... but who really notices that stuff.  haha!)

This is about 18" tall and on stretched canvas, painted with acrylic.

THIS UPDATE IS FOR IVY.  ;)

 

More to come soon!

Rise of the Guardians

I've been super-busy at work and elsewhere lately, thus no posts here.  I'm still around, kickin out art, making films, books, etc, and we are BUSY BUSY BUSY.

To get your fix, drop by the Moonbot Blog and check out all the posts with cool art and updates.

In the meantime, make sure you go see RISE OF THE GUARDIANS.  It is in theaters this week, and my boss and friend, William Joyce, is responsible for the idea, development, producing, books, etc... and this film is very cool.  Kids and adults will love it, I promise you.  So go check it out!

Some fan art I kicked out this morning, just to warm up.

Moonbot's MORRIS LESSMORE book out, Today!

 

I was fortunate enough to lead this project, and illustrate a good majority of this book here at Moonbot Studios.  Not to be overlooked, Vanesa R. Del Rey did all the inked spot-art in this book.  She is a force.

One thing I am ridiculously proud of here, is that we could have repurposed the images from the Academy-Award winning film.  We could have painted over the stills.  It could have been a cut-paste situation, but I fought hard for a certain style and, more importantly,  the concept of doing ALL NEW original art for the book.  The fact that we did that makes me proud to say that we, at Moonbot, do carry out our thesis to the fullest.  And if you've seen the movie, rest assured this is new and different.  Same story, new art.  You'll love it.

You can get the book at your local bookstore or shop online at one of the many retailers.

Thanks!

Maurice Sendak`

What an incredible influence on so many creatives.  RIP, Mr. Sendak.

Sketch!

 Lots of things going on - Convention prep, Personal projects, Work stuff, etc.  I'll have more to show soon, but for now here's a little nibble from the sketchbook.  Talk soon!