three fingers hold the pen

2012-01-29T21:29:00.000-08:00

Did the Boat thing again this year.

it burned in three distinct sections, what does that bode for the year?

Sodor Castle

2012-01-11T11:59:00.000-08:00

A sample of some work done before Christmas for some proposed animation based on a well known train.

Twelfth Night

2012-01-06T15:41:00.001-08:00

CHRISTMAS

2011-12-25T08:37:00.000-08:00

Arthur Christmas-part two

2011-12-18T08:21:00.001-08:00

A few more of the designs I did for Arthur Christmas.

BRADFORD PART 2

2011-12-03T18:34:00.000-08:00

More names:

Deb Singleton - mother hen and festival director - made sure we were all in the right place at the right time, had all our vouchers, got us all into and out our hotel rooms, made it to the train on time! Barely got a chance to talk to her for the whole time!

Fozia Bano - Awesome assistant to Deb!

Andy Schmidt - Animator extraordinaire at Pixar, was the pre eminent guest, gave a talk about his adventures there. Andy and I started at Pixar at the same time. Didn't talk with him much, he being constantly mobbed.

Richard MacGuire - director and illustrator of children's books and experimental comics.

Linda McCarthy - of the small studio, Tiny Elephants, does stop motion, created the animated intro for this year's festival.

Barry Purves -had a retrospective of several of his stop motion films (Plume, Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra) and then screened his latest, Tchaikovsky, a tribute to the composer and gave a great talk about his production process. I had met him years ago in Ottawa at the ASIFA festival, but not seen him since - great fella.

Geoff Dunbar - finally met the man, shows up in every retrospective of British animation, had seen his films forever, he of countless commercials, Roi Ubu, the feature Cunning Little Vixen and designer and director of the Rupert the Bear piece done with (Sir) Paul McCartney: received a lifetime achievement award at the festival.

Neil Boyle - animator, director, conduit to all that is Dick Williams ( ie, contributing animator on the video version of The Animators' Survival Kit), and just finished a new film, The Last Belle, which will soon be on everyone's lips - he takes large steps!

and last but not least:

Roy Naisbett - Probably the one true Living Legend of Layout these days... I was always aware of the name and the work, but now I can say I have met the man, and am in awe. Besides being Dick Williams' right hand man for years, he did layout for a truly charming new film that was screened as part of the talk on layout : The Last Belle, see above, which will be winning awards everywhere soon. Shared a few pints with the great man. And I can say I was "Naisbetted".

Moment of embarrassment: was given the train tickets at breakfast, then in the rush of getting out of my room, left the the flipping things behind. Didn't discover this until well on the way to london, so had to buy fresh tickets at Waterloo station. Sorry Deb!

Great taxi ride from St. Pancras' to Waterloo Stations: past church (St. Marylbone?) where Dickens was married , past the old Vic, along ??? across the river on Waterloo Bridge, took some left turn on to a small street on the South Bank down saw the Gherkin and the Shard, the Wheel, and a myriad building cranes blotting out the view of Westminster.

Stories on the train to London:

Fraser stories about editing on Little Dorrit, the BBC feature film of 1988. (Joan Greenwood, still had that voice)(Miram Margolyes, "sorry, got to fart")( Alec Guinness, which led Neil B. to tell an anecdote that Guinness, on the set of ?, was doing a scene where he was shaving: he was such a consummate craftsman with his acting and had such a knowledge of filmmaking, that he did the scene so there would be no way to cut or edit around his actions.)

Neil and Roy, stories about Dick Williams, legion.

Geoff Dunbar - showing off his iPad, showed us the interactive storybook version of The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore and several other things.

Moment of embarrassment: was given the train tickets at breakfast, then in the rush of getting out of my room, left the the flipping things behind. Didn't discover this until well on the way to London, so had to buy fresh tickets at Waterloo station.

And then there was another train ride, all the way down to Bournemouth, where we went on the Monday to BU, and the National Center for Computer Animation, and do our same presentation for the students of the computer animation program:

Saf: Sefronis Efstathiou, Postgrad Framework Leader, Computer animation Academic Group,

ball of fire, host for us as we did our show.

Anne: one of the students from AI ( the Animation Institute, also on campus at BU) who dragged me off and gave me the guided tour of the animation area.

All the students at AI,who showed me their in progress films and hung out with us for beer and sketching in the on campus pub named for someone literary, damned if I can remember the name now.... but I can remember what I was drinking - - Old Speckled Hen!

TALK at CASO

2011-11-22T21:06:00.000-08:00

Will post more about Bradford, but here is something else that is happening soon, this Monday, in fact!

BRADFORD ANIMATION FESTIVAL PART 1

2011-11-20T05:45:00.000-08:00

Just got back from the UK, where I was a guest of the Bradford Animation festival!

And it was all because of this:

which is just coming out now, but the author, Fraser MacLean, initially contacted me two or more years ago. Over that time, I helped (a little) with the production of the book, providing information and in one case, a drawing, which got used, amazingly ( when there is all the Great Layout Work of the World to choose from, my little corner of the field seems pretty insignificant.) I count myself honoured to get a mention or a piece in here.

Let it be known - This is the book that we (the layout artists) have all have been waiting for; after all the endless "art of" books on animation and story, we finally have one to call our own.

Watch this space , and others, you are going to hear a LOT more about it.

The Bradford Media Museum, outside and in

The festival started on Nov.8, but i didn't arrive until the friday 11th. Hadn't been to England in 20 years, hard to believe, so was very much looking forward to it. Looking forward to few pints of beer, more like.

Fraser asked me to help him with the presentation, which was to help roll out the book, as he was doing a signing afterwards.

He gave the lion's share of the talk, which was a condensed history and then a look at some examples of the craft.

I showed some pretty pictures, pieces form Hunchback of Notre Dame, then some stuff from Incredibles, not layouts strictly speaking, but designs for the environments, but the case was made for the role of traditional drawing in the CG production world.

In the process of all this, I met a HOST of amazing people, as is always the case at events like this - more on them later.

The book store had about 20 copies, which sold out instantly.

Don't have one myself yet!

Here we are, later - Roy Naisbitt, Neil Boyle and Fraser M., and that's my pint in front

Arthur Christmas

2011-11-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

Leading the target a little, but here is a teaser...concept art from Arthur Christmas, out soon from Aardman.

SUMMER RECAP

2011-10-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

All right, a post that is way past due:

Looking back at some of the stuff produced this summer:

Show at the Gladstone Hotel:

Had a piece in this show at the Gladstone Hotel, show was called "The Good The Bad and the Ugly", kind of a homage to Leone. I repurposed a layout from Hunchback...I thought it was kind of meh...but it sold. The event was a smashing success- at least, it was packed and noisy. Had to go out on the street to hear myself. I never met any of the other artists, (amend that - talked to Robin Budd) but talked to a ton of folks - Arna, Lisa, Laura, Yuri, John, John, Robin, too many I've forgotten.

Crazy... Tammy, let's do that again soon.

Summer sketching... really didn't amount to much this summer.

Although there was a trip to GREECE, was invited to a wedding of a former student. The trip was very very good. The sketches , well, some better than others.

Worked on a pitch for a series - Hoadley Bear:

Toronto Cartoonists' Workshop: taught classes on Satutday afternoons until mid July. It was a good gig, but driving into Toronto in mid summer on weekends when there is always a street festival, or a protest, or construction, or all three, was a bad idea. If teaching in Toronto, live in Toronto!

MAGAZINE HEADS

2011-09-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

Sketching at the AGO

2011-09-01T08:39:00.000-07:00

Didn't have a sketchbook...so I used the site map.

Didn't have a sketchbook...used the site map.

2011-08-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

M..M...Must...D-do...N-N-New...P..ost..tt..grunt -ack --

2011-08-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, been a while, I know.

So , start with something simple.

Someone told me I ought to do a coloring book for kids.

Stuff like this.

Mini Wheats

2011-07-15T19:02:00.000-07:00

Anyone seen those Mr. MiniWheat comic strips in the Metro paper?

I helped with them: did the backgrounds, rough and clean, drawing around Chuck Gammage's great character sketches.

Sure were alot of revisions, though - that's the world of ad agencies and high-powered clients - these were just never finished.

Here's some samples of the things along the way.

Summer is HERE

2011-07-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

In a Show!

2011-06-29T20:35:00.000-07:00

The Good The Bad and the Ugly! Artworks by a passel of animation artists here in TO!

August company. Sort of based on the movie of the same name , but only loosely.

Everyone come on out!

2011-05-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

2011-05-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

Did I post this before? Do i remember anything these days?

Characters (very preliminary) for a project i want to do.

3D From The Past

2011-05-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm a little late on the uptake on this one, but there is a great post over at Cartoon Brew on the making of the Fleischer Bros. feature, Hoppity Goes To Town, showing how the opening shot/flyover of the city was done.

Honestly, in all my years, I never saw any material on this. Internet does it again!

It is very appropriate to layout, as this is exactly the effect attempted by many 2D films: Hunchback, Oliver, Thief and the Cobbler, We're Back, Prince of Egypt, even Pinocchio,

It is a comment on the difficulty of drawing such things by hand. As a layout man, there is a certain foolish pride that rises, saying, sure we could do that in 2D alone, give me enough levels and scene planning tricks. And there is a tendency to think of keeping the medium "Pure"...the sanctity of the great multiplane shots must be protected!

Could be done, but it would be laborious and time consuming and in the end what counts?

I assume there were discussions at the time. The mixed media won out, and why not?

There were horizontal multiplane rigs built by Disney for Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty that incorporated dimensional elements.

Even now, some shows don't rely on one approach, as evinced by WETA and the Lord of the Rings films, and their use of CG, miniatures, forced perspective, etc.

Even the rigs that were used by ILM from Star Wars through to whenever they went digital were not held back by a strict adherence to dogma. Lots of combo techniques.

BACK to SCHOOL

2011-04-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

PERSPECTIVE

I've gotten away from presenting some of the teaching aids i use at school. At the moment , i am teaching in three places: Sheridan, teaching the Second year there in layout and design, as well as mentoring some of the Fourth year grad students, an online course in 2D layout for the Academy of Art University in San Fran and a short 7 week course in Drawing at the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop.

At all of these, I am constantly doing demos of various things, perspective, light and shadow , structural drawing, composition.

here's a few images from some of the recent classes:

TWO WORDS:

2011-04-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

BLACK NARCISSUS

Still basking in the afterglow of the technicolor hues of this masterpiece film, just shown by Maury White, as the final film in the Friday night screenings at Sheridan.

Great one to go out on. I beat the drum during the week for this, exhorting all the students to come see the is: definitely one on the bucket list, one of the films to see before you die.

Directed by the Archers, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, designed by Alfred Jung, shot by Jack Cardiff. One of the high point of English cinema.

Moments: David Farrar, all hairy legs and roguish charm, "You're sure there's nothing else you wanted to talk to me about?" ...the young native boy, speaking the names of the objects on the blackboard to the children in the classroom, while sister Ruth looks jealously at the Farrar and Deborah Kerr through the pierced screen of the window in the convent-cum-seraglio; the boy knows something is up but doesn't let on...Kerr, keeping vigil for the missing Ruth, framed by the archway in the rising light of dawn on the far mountains...the various shots of the convent situated high up on a precipice, with the buildings silhouetted against the mountains beyond, miracles of the studio process....too many to list!

Thanks to all those who came out! Hoped to have a few more fourth years, to try and put some finishing touches on their education before they leave, but film projects and the deadline for this week's screening were too much, I guess.

What can you do; I only hope they see it at some point in the future and think as well of it as I do.

The film has been raved about many places before now, so I will not go on at length, except to say, the Blu ray version was absolutely sumptuous. Some scenes were beyond breathtaking, they were complex yet subtle: the colours were extremely complex, esp. those of the the nuns in the first sequence. They looked like paintings of the time:

It was shown earlier in mid march at the TIFF lightbox, as part of a week long program to commemorate Cardiff.

Always one of my absolute favourites, for its visuals, but also its story of cultures clashing, of love of many kinds, of the themes of temptation and inner unresolved conflict.

LIZ

2011-03-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

Got to acknowledge her.

Wow! sigh.

ON TEACHING by Uncle Milty

2011-03-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

On Teaching

“[Giorgio Morandi, Glaser’s teacher] made me aware of the fact teaching involved the expression of the teacher’s world view of life; or put another way, what the teacher was as well as what was said, informs the class

Most people believe the idea of teaching is essentially transferring a body of knowledge to a student. This is of course, part of teaching but creating an attitude toward those facts is even more significant.

I try to create an atmosphere of inquiry where the class is a safe place to fail. The secret of most successful classes is the presence of a handful of gifted students who respond well to the problems and provide a standard for the rest of the students. Without this core, teaching can be very difficult indeed.

I believe the best learning occurs when students become aware that they are responsible for their own education and that their teacher is not the source of all knowledge, but rather an instrument to awaken the students’ dormant imaginations.

The creation of what could be called a community of inquiry where, to some extent, everyone teaches and learns simultaneously is not easy to achieve but is highly desirable. It takes a long time to recover from bad teaching and to convince the students that the purpose of the assignment is not to display cleverness, but to learn something they did not already know.

I used to teach skills and technique, presuming that after students developed skills, they could apply them to a variety of problems. Now, I teach more from the point of view of identifying one’s intention and assuming the skill and technique will follow.

What remains constant is the small number of extraordinary students who are both innately gifted and willing to devote their complete attention to becoming serious practitioners. I use the word serious in the Italian sense, someone who must be paid attention to because he or she has the passion, talent, and persistence to change things.

That would be Milton Glaser, the god.

GALLERY SHOW!!

2011-02-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

I have been remiss in leaving it to now, but I have a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:

I am going to have, my first, my very own,

SHOW!!

I have joined forces with the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop. The show will be in their space, in downtown Toronto, 486 College St., that's between Bathurst and Ossington, kicking off with an opening on February 25, from 7 to 11.

I invite everyone who sees this to please come on out and have a look.

The stuff on display will be mostly layouts and designs - some original, some not - from things I have worked on over the years: features, television, book illustration. There will art on dispaly from The Incredibles, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Bluth Features such as All Dogs Go To Heaven, Rock A Doodle, Thumbelina,

Here's the blurb , as per the TCW:

The Toronto Cartoonists Workshop is delighted to present Animation & Film: The Scott Caple Retrospective. Caple, an environmental designer and art director whose numerous projects over the last 3 decades includes the Disney/Pixar megahit The Incredibles, will walk guests through his dazzling array of animation artwork from some of the most popular and seminal films over the last 30 years.

Caple has carefully chosen works from his entire career in film and animation – from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan toInspector Gadget, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Incredibles. Please join us for a fascinating journey into the world of film animation.

I will have a limited number of signed prints for sale.

There will be refreshments provided.

I'm not sure how I will be showing art from Raiders or Star Trek as I don't really have any art from those jobs; maybe I 'll just tell war stories...

So please pass the word and come on out for a taste of animation art that doesn't usually get a nod!

Explicit!

2011-02-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

I 'm reposting this post from back when the blog started: I want to explain where the name for this blog comes from. I have a great interest history, and especially the medieval tme period and consequently, medieval art. The great and manuscripts, books and their decoration are fascinating to me. partly because of the art, but also because of the people who created them. There is much to be learned about the medieval mind. We have the mental image of the poor, lonely scribe, warming his hands by a low guttering candle, in a cold stone tower, hunched over his work, ink stained, muttering prayers and praying that the Vikings don't show up. (Not necessarily an accurate picture, but more on that later.) We think of him as anonymous. But a surprising number of manuscripts are signed by those that wrote them. More than just signed; often with some comments regarding the work, or a short prayer, or his relief in finally finishing the task at hand. The title of this blog is one of these afterwords or "explicits"; this one shows up again and again in numerous manuscripts from the Middle Ages. The original Latin goes: "Calamus tribus digitus continetur, Totem corpus laborat."Truer words were never spoke! How often have any of us groaned and stretched after hunching over the work for hours at a time. Any craftsman knows this, be they painter, poet, sculptor, modelmaker, 2- or 3-D animator....
I first ran across it myself in the book Medieval Calligraphy by Marc Drogin, one of several books by this author. I dedicate this entry to you, sir, wherever you are, for this phrase has returned to me over and over with great weight.It is so profound. And written down by some poor slob four hundred years ago! The whole body labours, regardless of the ergonomicists' best efforts.
And way back somewhere in those aching vertebrae, we kind of enjoy it....
And nothing to do with the three fingers on the hand of an animated character!

One of theirs

One of mine

the words themselves

TORONTO CARTOONISTS WORKSHOP

2011-01-18T14:27:00.000-08:00

Some notes from the drawing class I did for Toronto Cartoonist Workshop back in the fall. Some of the demos were done on whitboard, some on large paper on an easel. Then I just took pictures of them and whipped up handouts for the next week's class.

Since the Workshop is more geared for comics than film, the lessons steered towards creating panels and graphic sequential art(fancy term for comics.) But perspective is perspective.

The class was small (7 ) but we had fun.

The New Year

2011-01-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

It's TWELFTH NIGHT!!

Good cheer and Wassail!!

More Season's Greetings

2010-12-28T21:37:00.001-08:00

SEASON'S GREETINGS

2010-12-22T23:10:00.000-08:00

More Incredibles

2010-12-11T19:53:00.001-08:00

Check out the Incredibles page for new artwork!

Idea for a Pan

2010-12-11T19:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a sketch I did in class , talking about doing pans and panning backgrounds. It's a very simple set up; not longer than 3 fields, one point perspective, character in profile, a single panning overlay. It could be developed into a very entertaining scene. Give it a try, see what you can do. Send in the results!

Last whiff of summer

2010-11-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

Three sketches from the summer, now that it's gone for good!

Done at my parents' place outside of Owen Sound overlooking Georgian Bay.

by request

2010-11-16T21:44:00.000-08:00

And here's one showing the shadow cast by a ball bouncing on the table in your cool 50s apartment...

PERSPECTIVE!

2010-11-07T21:27:00.000-08:00

Another experiment.

demo of a cast shadow by a moving object.

Cobblestones

2010-11-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

Did a quick demo drawing "cobblestones or flagstones" in response to a question for one of the classes at Sheridan last week...so here's the thing: make sure SOME of the EDGES of the stones go with the Grid, that is, the ground plane...this will help root the design and make "lie down" properly. Do not draw snakes or squiggly lines for a texture, they make the stone "stand up" and stones don't have such lines on them. (Ithink thereason peole draw them is they arean interpretation of the surface of the stone where it reaches an edge and drops a fraction; what they are drawing is the slight shadow cast by the edge. The quick cartoon stone texture is some short broken lines, don't know why but it works. Beware the cliche!

below: explaining why we draw the things the way we do: they come from a quarry, usually are of limestone or one of those stones made of strata, they then get worn down through erosion or hard use...they start off with sharp corners and end up rounded..or the corner breaks off, leaving a new angled edge.. These things look this way for a REASON! Better still, go outside and draw a few! learn the Truth! Beware the cliche!

TEACHING ONLINE or OLD SCHOOL/ NEW SCHOOL

2010-10-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

So something i haven't talked about at all: I have begun to teach an online course for the Academy of Art University down in San Francisco. The AAU has a long distinguished history of offering art instruction and training for the illustration, animation and other visual arts.

I got a call over a year ago from one of my old disney buddies, Dave Nethery, who had been with the Feature unit in Orlando, Florida. The AAU was expanding and wanted to offer online training in animation as well as the classes available on campus. They wanted a course to teach 2D layout.

An almost extinct career, but one with a distinguished past, so why not?

So began a long process of first building the course, which involved writing and sorting out a course outline, a ton of research, and the creation of visual material to support it. At first I thought it would be a side line and not take so long, but it turned out to take almost all my time all last summer of 2009. It was a chance to come up with a course of study that would include all the things I think are important to the layout process, including the history of motion pictures (remember film and projectors?)

After a sumer and fall of putting it together, working with the editors and tech guys who were formatting it for the on line experience, the course has gone out thereand i am in the middle of a semester of teaching it.

It's 15 modules, that is weeks, each module consists of about 12 t0 20 sessions, or pages, that deal with some point concerning layout. There is lots of multi media: still images presented with the text. slideshows that demonstrate a process, I even went down to SF and sat in a TV studio while I demo'd a whole slew of How Tos which were filmed and turned into video tutorials. That was rather fun, although I was nervous and it shows when you watch them.

It'll be interesting to see where it all goes.

I'll provide more details here as things go ... .

OLD SCHOOL - NEW SCHOOL

2010-10-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hey, out there, how do you bring a draft post that were working on, forward in time so it's at the top? (please look down below for post on Teaching online for Academy of Art University.)

Above - a screen grab of a page as it appears online. )

Duellists, Part Two- Next Time, D'Hubert!

2010-10-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hey, i got some action from that last post and showed the stills in layout class this week, so I want to rave about it a bit more...

Scott had directed a lot of commercials up to this point, including the landmark Apple spot, "1984".

There is some good material about the shoot on the DVD release.

Of course this was before digital post (1977), so much of the sumptuous cinematography was done in camera. He used alot of graduated filters to get the dark skies and in a couple of pan shots you can see the sky move but not the filter area. But overall the lighting and and so on is gorgeous, as are the composition of the shots. Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" kind of paved the way.

And then he (Scott) went on to his next feature, "Alien", which just changed the face of movies.

But I have soft spot for The Duellists , one of those small pictures that have alot of heart despite the non slickness.

The other thing about this pic is the spot on authenticity of the costumes, uniforms, weapons, etc. He never did that so well again, not in Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven and especially not Robin Hood, which has some real howlers. Why does this happen? my theory: the more stature, the bigger the ego, the less you listen to the experts.

Ridley's Best Film

2010-10-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

The Duellists, made in 1977, Ridley Scott's first feature, and still his best.

Amazing compositions.

This may be a page for the book, although I 'm not sure about permissions.

Summer Wrap up

2010-09-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

OK , so here are bits and bobs that were going to get posted or were things I did over the summer.

Isn't this great!

A summer card I made up...
A great shot of disneyland...the old way.
A shot taken form a couple of years ago, students in class trying on medieval armour.. it's all about doing the proper research.
Frame grab from the Popeye cartoon, Ali Baba. Nice clear syle.

If You Are So Inclined

2010-08-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

Inch by Inch

2010-08-09T23:55:00.000-07:00

Two things: One, I keep letting the blog get stale, and two, I AM closing in on the completion of the book on Layout- that so many of you continue to ask about - for which i thank you!

it's a huge job, like anything worth doing.

Well, here's a page, unfinished, but the point is made.

Hey, another Wyeth!

2010-07-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

This image , when I first saw it as a youngster of some 12 or so summers, absolutely nailed me to the wall.

It is from the volume Legends of Charlemagne, one of the Scribners' classics illustrated by Wyeth.

The vision is so powerful and has such clarity; how did he see these things in his head? (And no Spielberg movies for inspiration..)Tried to copy it, seeing how the horses are so well drawn, but it is there but not there: trying to do that without knowledge of anatomy was impossible.

NAME DROP!

2010-07-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

Can't believe I don't have this on the blogroll, but never too late.. the amazing, inestimable and energetic Peter de Seve.

My de Seve story is hanging out with him a little back on Hunchback, (but man, that 's starting to go back aways)... then seeing him at Blue Sky while working on Horton.

I always thought they should have made a print of his Hunchback piece as a crew giveaway.

I don't have much signed stuff, but that I 'd like to have.

So, go to Sketchy Past!

2010-06-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

OVER at Today's Inspiration, there was a series of recent postings on N C Wyeth.

As I said in a comment, any gushing over Wyeth is superfluous. What more can be said? The man was such a giant, his imagery so powerful, his influence so lasting, his legacy so demanding, that ... well, any more is just stating the obvious. Each viewing of his art, in print or original , is a fresh art lesson.

I hope more are aware of him than there seem to be. I always show work in my classes, thinking, oh, well, they'll have seen these already, but am GOB SMACKED when I realize that they haven't...how can get as a far as art college without encountering these images? But it was the same when i was a student; Even 25 years ago, in college, everyone knew Frazetta, but not Wyeth. It floored me. There was such an obvious lineage.

How can one function in the art ( design, animation) world without knowing these works.

One MUST. And know them intimately. Look at them again and again, draw from them, read about the artist, make the effort to see the originals. It is where we come from.

So, to pick up the gauntlet and carry on the good fight....more Wyeth.

A Giant for a giant: his mural for the Westtown School in Westtown, Pennsylvania.

A little info: was painted in 1923,is six by five feet, and was painted as a memorial toWilliam Clothier Engel, a student of the school and student of N.C.'s, who took pains to choose a theme the the boy would have appreciated.

This is one of the iconic images by Wyeth. it is pictorially stunning (you can SMELL the sea air) and portrays his philosophy and belief in the power of the imagination. ( I'm doing it again -superfluous!!)

An Experiment

2010-06-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

OK, going into uncharted territory here.. going to post a short video tutorial by yours truly... Something i demo'd in class during the last year at the school and have recreated here via the magic of iShowU...

let's see how it works.

Comments most welcome!

Hey, it's A New Look!

2010-06-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

Fooling around with the templates on offer...will it please the crowds? Then here's another summer image from the files.... to market, to market!

It's June It's June!!

2010-06-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

Well, "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May/ And summer's lease hath all too short a date", as the poet said.

Time to get cracking and make use of the summer.

A couple of recent sketches.

It's May, it's May!

2010-05-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

Slow out of the gate, but -- kick up your heels and sing Rondelay...!

The Darling Buds of May ! gather ye rosebuds while ye....may!

Layout Hangover

2010-05-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

To any layout artist, Duck Amok works on some plane approaching Nirvana...that doesn't mean pure bliss, either...

These are great on their own, but are a bit how i felt teaching layout this year.. next year's class, take note!

And speaking of Nirvana...Remember, Sidhaarta attained Nirvana after realizing that all no matter how hard he worked or searched for meaning in higher things, it all just came down to watching the river go by...not so different than just watching TV and eating pizza...

Shining a little light on the Subject

2010-05-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

Posting in response to a request.

A few pages from a demo done at school...actually, a while ago now. Several weeks. Back when it seemed to matter.

In fact, SCHOOL"S OUT!!

HOORAY!!

Teaching; many's the remark made about it...

It's fun and rewarding, but sometimes you just have to mark one too many assignments.

Then you just do the Daffy.

But, as for the light and shadow,

Again this is nothing new, it can be found in Loomis and others.

Although, I have taken the "plane that finds the shadow" thing further than is done in "Successful Drawing".

I will post his for comparison if i can find it. Too pooped right now to subject my frail copy of the book to spine breaking scanning.

Remember, ANGLE and DIRECTION of light. Practice yourself, try examples with the light in different positions.

Find good examples of lighting and draw them.

Think I Have the Title For My layout Book

2010-05-05T19:22:00.000-07:00

E L L I P S E S ! ! ! !

2010-04-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

A quick and dirty demo done for the layout class out at the College...a bit out of date, was done about a month ago. Took a little while to get it written up with notes.

Usually this stuff gets posted on the server for any who wish to follow up, then it hit me, duh, put it up on the blog.

Loomis is STILL the Fountainhead for all this stuff, in my humble opinion. There is alot to be learned for any who take the time to really read and DRAW form his examples: drawing fropm his examples reveals points that he doesn't discuss. Too many books present the "ellipse in Perspective" without taking it right through and carefully showing the in and outs. The Famous Artists Courses are good, but still not as in depth.

I think it is interesting to note that all the material on how to draw from the 40s, 50s, and 60s use examples like barns, trees, country roads, art deco skyscrapers, and guys in fedoras. My theory is that they drew those things because that was what they were seeing , that when they went sketching on Sundays they headed for the countryside, it was still a much more rural society and there was big market for painting of that material.I can see where the, shall we say, younger folk of today, find it hard to stick with the material presented by Loomis et all, as it looks rather dated. Now it is all the Comicon crowd and those craving art instruction have been weaned on alot more modern stuff and naturally want to see that in their own art. Interesting how times change. There is alot to be written about how different the world was in the days when those initial art instruction books were written. I am fascinated by it. more later....

Scott Robertson is certianly one of the best of today's crowd, for the modern wanna-be hard- object doodler. I haven't seen all his demos yet, but the one on ellipses is very good and gets into the small stuff. and uses examples that appeal to today's way-into-mecha fanboys.

Mind you, it's still geared for the illustrator and single art pieces.

There is alot that could be shown for the use and handling of the ellipse in ANIMATION.

This is a start....

A small sketch

2010-03-21T21:08:00.001-07:00

2 0 0 1 ! ! ! !

2010-03-16T17:52:00.000-07:00

Had a screening of the film at the school last week on Friday. Blu Ray. Big screen! Looked great!

Well, plenty of ink has been spilled over the making and subsequent impact of the film. Suffice to say it still is one of the best looking films ever made. Also one the most grown up films ever made; a film that makes you think, that's a rarity.

I primed the pump by screening a clip or two in all my Layout classes for the week, and waved the Kubrick banner. What other films had they seen by this filmmaker? Some had seen the films, but didn't know he was the director. How it predated Star Wars by ten years and pretty much invented the "kitbash" spaceship design look seen everywhere since. That it was shot in Cinerama and that's something you're not going to see again, even in this 3d retool era. GO, I said, be there or be not MEN, for you cannot call yourself a film buff unless you have seen this

game-changing-before-the-term-was-known piece of true cinematic art....

We then went back and analysed the clips for composition and film structure. Demo'd some sketching to get them to see where the neat things were happening. I saw alot I hadn't noticed before myself.

So many things.... The soft voiced, then very hard-edged computer; the slit scan timegate, the Dawn of Man, that CUT, THAT MUSIC!

WE Have Heard The Chimes At Midnight, Master Shallow!!

2010-03-05T22:13:00.000-08:00

I meant to mention this before, but I finally did a piece for Steve Gettis over at Hey Oscar Wilde. One of my favourite characters and one of my favourite themes. (Falstaff from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts I and 2.)

Over at the Blog Around the Corner

2010-02-22T14:45:00.000-08:00

A blog I follow, and I don't follow nearly as many as I should) is Today's Inspiration by Leif Peng. Lief has been posting for years now, a lot of it artwork by major illustrators, but a lot by NOT major Illustrators. Guys you've never heard of. Work that you recognize and go," So that's who that guy was...." All those second string illustrators, who didn't make it onto the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.

The woods were chock full of these guys at one time. There were so many of these guys and they were so good.They could all draw and paint like crazy; realistic rendering, beautiful anatomy, bang on lighting, beautifully rendered with the strokes of a quickly moving brush, not the finicky rendering of the so called "beer bottle" illustration so commonly seen in the seventies, but real authority in one lick of the brush.

So, this week, over at TI: First Bob Foster, now David Blossom. Ok, now you're getting into territory that is tinged with one's real formative years. I remember alot of these pieces, but they are tied up with my adolescence,mostly from seeing them on the paperback racks at stores like Towers (anybody remember them?) or the occasional used book store, during those years when one knows they want a career in art and are trying to get a handle on what's out there. And alot of these seemed very.... wierd, yet compelling, along side the Frazettas and Jeff Jones and the MAD magazine artists. The years of discovering artists in the public library, fer gosh sakes-Wyeth and Pyle in those old hardback editions of the Scribner books - peering at those awful half tone colour plates, yet knowing that this was real quality,if you could only see it better... And then there were all these strange sci fi/crime drama/ slightly sexy paperback covers, nay, VERY sexy for a boy living in a time when Playboy was only available at the drugstore and the owner sure didn't let any kids near that part of the magazine rack....

What a world we are living in today, where all of this material is available so easily got at!

Back to TI's posts...Imagine if these guys were your teachers today!

What were the chances of having a teacher like that? I contend that finding men, or women like that for teachers is becoming rarer and rarer... who out there is that good now. No doubt there are some, but it is lost

What I want to know is, how come with all this material being gushed over, we don't have any new artists who are attempting this kind of work? All I see these days are guys drawing big boobed blue alien babes with guns and gorillas, or the same splashy washy digital painting with a lone figure looking out over the post apocalyptic alien landscape, badly done, shallow stuff. There's tons of cheesecake now, but none like McGinnis or Elvgren or Hawley.

What happened?

I Built A Boat And Burned It

2010-02-09T21:08:00.000-08:00

OK, so two weeks ago I made my sacrifice to the Gods for the New year - now bring me work!

An old and dear friend has a bunch of us together each year at this time to observe Uphellya, a Scandinavian (read Viking) mid winter celebration that involves a boat, offerings, fire and hope for the future.

The company arrives during the course of the lowering, chill day, materials are waiting in the shop, a boat is built- there's been very different designs over the years - then at sunset the boat is dragged out onto the frozen pond, any offerings or items that one wishes to either bring luck or as a gift to the gods are placed therein, a few words are spoken, toasts made, the boat is torched and all eyes watch for any omens that can be gleaned for the coming year.

After the last flame goes out, all file back inside for good food and drink and lively discussion.

This was this year's boat....

Comparison Composition Class

2010-02-09T20:44:00.000-08:00

More studies from Nevsky and Two Towers.

2010-02-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

Comparison Composition Class

Don't mean for this blog to turn into a constant recap of layout class, but on the other hand , it's a good idea to put down the thoughts and sketches that are generated while they are still fresh.

This week we hit composition in a big way. Looked at two examples of live action films: Alexander Nevsky, then Two Towers: different at first, yet similar in many ways.

So first - Alexander Nevsky, directed by sergei Eisenstein, 1938. Begun as a silent film, then repurposed for sound. Soundtrack by Sergei Prokofiev, eminent soviet composer who created music specifically to go with the visuals which enhances and complements them.. Damn, I 've been looking at this since high school and the days of Blackhawk 16mm ...Criterion has a great disc of this out, along with Ivan the Terrible.The first thing one notices are the striking compositions of the scenes. We looked just at one sequence: the charge of the Teutonic Knights across the frozen lake Novgorod then went back at stop framed to examine mainly the composition of the individual scenes, but discussed other aspects, as it is hard to comment only one facet of the thing, tied up as it is with story, continuity, screen direction and so on.

Two Towers, Jackson, 2002 - - many things to be said here, but mainly that we are jumping forward 75 years in film production- there are many differences: production value, art direction, colour, alot of moving camera work, as is normal now, It just wasn't feasible to do alot of camera moves in the early days; technology has changed all that, audiences expect it. And sound! not just Music, but beautifully mixed and THXed crunching, clanging, scraping sound efx. Also, DIGITAL technology is now part of the toolbox and that has made huge changes in what can be created on screen; here that means thousands of orcs, arrows, huge sets, things can be shown wholly, no cutting around required. Jackson and friends have added several pages to to the playbook. And YET: composition is still King! Not so obvious as Eisenstein's somewhat artificial ones, but everything is carefully staged.

more class demos

2010-02-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

First week of class in the new semester and I did have a list of stuff to do, but i like to keep it loose to see what comes up in class discussion...asked if anyone saw any good movies over the break, and of course, Avatar was the first to be mentioned. A bit later , we got into how good do you have to be? Well, as good or better than the guys who designed Avatar, because they are your competition when you get out of here. And there's a lot of them. And they're really good.

So how you can start catching up? Improve your drawing. how to improve your drawing? Well, one way I know works, practice and use construction drawing.

And don't just do it once, you have to do it a million times. Ask any of them. it helps to be good already, but repetition is the key. and improve as you practice. You do the ellipse again and again, draw that droid head again and again from every concievable angle until you get it right.

here's what I drew as I talked, and don't believe for a second that this is any good either. But it is an approach that can help you make progress and place the details of an object in the correct place on the overall form. Whether it is a realistic organic form, like one of those alien beasties or a harder design, such as something mechanical or architectural...Scott Robertson says it all : draw through!

And then you have to pump them out at the rate of 6 or 12 a day to have things ready for that design meeting with the art director.

it's all been said before and will be said again: drawing is the foundation of design. it helps you SEE. Slows you down; makes you OBSERVE. Lets you LEARN. AS the man said, "Learn why the world wags, and what wags it!"

Happy new year!

2010-01-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, went a bit dark for a while there; it's now 2010 and time to get back in the saddle.

Hope this finds everyone healthy and whole, post holiday, entering the new decade.

I would like to direct everyone to the website for Heavy iron Studios, for whom I did freelance over the past four years, and for whom I did design work on the games they created for The I ncredibles, Ratatouille, WallE and UP. They entered hard times of late and the work dried up, but they have some galleries of art for the above mentioned games on their site: here's the link and here's a few grabs showing my stuff there. Go have a look!

PS the first one is not my colour: it has been done over a drawing of mine. I f I can find out who did the colour version,I'll get the name up.

New Unknown Artists

2009-12-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

Don't you just love it when you discover an artist you never knew existed? And hateit, because how did you get this far without knowing about them?

here's one: J. S. Smith, English illustrator in th e60s and 70s, mostly nautical stuff.

What is it with the English, that they can draw and paint ships, trains , planes so well?

Anyway, these are little jewels.

To All my American Readers

2009-11-28T10:22:00.001-08:00

CTN EXPO

2009-11-19T19:55:00.000-08:00

Flying down to the CTN Expo, which should a blast! If nothing else, there will be a ton of folks that were friends and fellow workers form the California days! Also, if nothing else, a bit of california sunshine, which i have not seen in a long while. I haven't been out to any of the big cons in several years now, not since Comicon in 2001 or 02, I think it was. I have a bit of loyalty to CTN as I was among the first to join back in 2003(?) This one promises to be the start of a new tradition. Nothing for sale at this one, but next time for sure!

CTN, X marks the spot!

from last week

2009-11-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

well, a couple of weeks ago now,really... this is a panic post...throwing up something just because you haven't for a couple of weeks, so anything will do....

More perspective demo drawing from layout class.

make sense?

Back To Layout

2009-10-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of pages that I used in class last week, coming back to revisit perspective...

Showing two simple methods of finding a correct square, in a one point set up and a two point setup.

Nothing new here - this is all in Loomis and others, but I find that sometimes the knowledge has to be winkled out and the step by step isn't always completely clear... ah well, that which is worth having, is worth working for, isn't it?

These are done FREE hand ...well, a little help with the shift key after i took to Photoshop, but don't use a ruler with the initial sketch!

Please vet these for me - are the instructions clear? Easy to follow? I'd like to use these in the BOOK when I get it OUT!

Medieval Mummery

2009-10-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

Heather Hill, Assistant APM
Tom Shannon, Journey Layout
Sam Michlap, Journey Layout
Ed Ghertner, Layout Supervisor
Peter Bielicki, Journey Layout

More Medieval Mummery

2009-10-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

OK, following on from the last post with the Don H. caricature, here's a bunch of other ones that I did at the same time, at the end of the show. As I said, feelings of job-well-done and go-team were running high, as they do when you're wrapping a project, and I was in the zone after looking at medieval stuff for two years straight.

Roy Conli, Producer
Kirk Wise, Director
Gary Trousedale, Director
Diana Blazer, APM of layout
Dave Goetz, Art Director

Lots of Easter eggs in these ones, which will only make sense to those who were there.

To all the above, where ever you are, pardon for publishing without your permish, hope you don't mind.

I shall blow my own horn a little here and say, these all went into the annual caricature show that was held every year at the studio - or as we called it the John Musker caricature show, long time disney director and crack sketch artist. JM simply dominated the field with his acidic and devastating portrayals of anyone at the studio. He held nothing back. I never saw any other caricatures that laid a person so bare. he would draw the most beautiful woman in an ugly way, yet they were beautiful.

At the show opener, it was the one time that HE came over and talked to ME, which I consider a better compliment than anything about any layout I ever did.

If only he would direct his films the same way he did his caricatures.

Don Hahn

2009-09-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

This is Old News now, but we had the Uber Producer from Disney, Don Hahn, out for a visit to the College. He was primarily in town for TIFF, accompanying his documentary, Waking Sleeping Beauty, another take on the so called second Golden Age of Disney animation. I didn't make it to any of the three screenings myself, but here's a review from the Telluride Film Festival.

He was also promoting his new book, Drawn to Life, the legacy and memories of Walt Stanchfield, Life Drawing Instructor to the Stars at Disney for years.

Seemed to be a real shot in the arm for the students. He gave a very slick presentation of what goes into the making of an animated film, a Disney one at least. It was a good review of the production process and the application of the elements and principles of design.

It's interesting that the doc takes in the time 1984-94, as if the Second Golden Age was already drawing to close.

I arrived at Disney in 94, two months after the massive Northridge earthquake, to work on Hunchback of Notre Dame, which Don produced, taking over from Roy Conli about halfway through production. Within two more months, Lion King was just about to be released, Frank Wells died in a helicopter skiing accident, Eisner had heart surgery and the stage was set for the upheaval that led to new studios, tons of animation production, animators' salaries going through the roof and all the rest of the exhilaration and ultimately hubris of that time.

Out of that came six years of working on various features, but I still have a soft spot for Hunchback, as I love the medieval time period and was discovering life in SoCal. As the mighty animation industry grew like a new mountain range and sowed the seeds of its own doom, I was happily scratching away at layouts of cathedrals, bell towers, the lovely winding streets of medieval paris and meeting my destiny among new friends and the arrondisements of LA that I had always read about but was only seeing for the first time.

One of the things that came out of the time was a ton of caricatures and cartoons: Here's one of Don, done just post Hunchback, with the period still at high tide. Our beards were still brown!

Thumbnailin' Time Again

2009-09-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

Back at it at the College again- getting the new crop used to the idea of the Successful Thumbnail.

New Look

2009-09-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

Going for a bit of a makeover...re; the header...and here's some more summer stuff: saw an outdoor production of Midsummer Night's Dream. Fantastic, even with a shoestring budget and odd costume designs.

SUMMER SKETCHES

2009-09-06T21:43:00.000-07:00

more medieval people
painting outdoors
more people
friends' back yards
near home

Back On The Air

2009-09-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

Didn't mean to let that happen!

Gone for a whole month plus. Apologies to those who were coming back for more.

Had a couple of things going on at the end of july that put me off the rails!

So...roll on, September! Lucky number 9! ( hey, wait , sept is 7...)

Here's a glimpse of my summer project..example of layout done for a online course I built for 2D Layout for the Academy of Art University in San Fran. Details to follow...

2009-07-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

Even More UP

2009-07-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

more UP

2009-07-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

More UP

2009-07-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

2009-06-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

UP UP and Away!

2009-06-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well, time to weigh in on UP.

Seems as good a time as any to post some work that I did for heavy Iron Studios, on the game for the show. I worked on it for about a year, from fall of 2007 to summer 2008. This followed working on the games for Incredibles, both of them , Ratatouille and WallE. I did alot concept development: everything from simple gags to elaborate set designs. looking back on the stuff i ahve it was ton of work. i haven't seen the game yet, but I enjoyed the fact that it would be aimed towards younger folks and that the gags/action/ gameplay would more fun and frivolous, rather than the shoot em up type game that is so prevalent in the game biz. Speaking of which ---- Man, get that scene at the end with Muntz with the shotgun! That really came out of the blue, I felt. And nor necessary. There are other ways for the antagonist to max out at the climax of the story. And it wasn't the violance that bugged me, it wasjust unimaginative. Sorry, it was lazy thinking. The gun is just too easy to do. Course, figures, coming from the that 'Murican psyche. What else do Americans know about any more , except guns and violence?

OK, my two cents, more to follow, if you wish.

some shakespeares

2009-06-11T11:51:00.001-07:00

The Elements of Design...with a twist

2009-05-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

Here is something that was run up originally to give out in class but I somehow never got around to it...seemed a bit silly, the more I looked at it. But what the hell, get it out there.

If it makes someone remember the stuff, that's the important thing.

Thanks to Nappakao Khebchareon for the Elephant of Colour, Lecturer and teacher at NYP in Singapore and all round great person!

2009-05-26T20:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you just gotta put up some some Calvin and Hobbes and analyse the perspective!

Its May Its May The Lusty Month of May

2009-05-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

Before it gets to far into the month, here's my annual "sumer" piece! Nothing like warm weather to bring out the medieval design!

An Experiment

2009-05-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, taking it to the next level. first movie post ever. it ain't art, but I wan to see if it works.

End of Semester

2009-04-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

Once again, the end of a school year and the end of another round of teaching. Leaves one with a sense of accomplishment, a little bit, but more a sense of confusion, because you, like the students are not quite sure just what and how much happened, and a sudden hole in your schedule - like Wile E. Coyote, each week one has been rushing off the cliff of security into the high open space of the classroom where you hover gesticulating wildly before dropping thousands of feet to your doom below; suddenly you 're not doing that.

And then tons of marking , because in your enthusiasm to give out assignments, you forget that you have to grade them.

And y'know, half of them are pretty good.

I don't spend this much time on all of them, but here's a drawover from one.

W I D E S C R E E N

2009-04-14T06:38:00.000-07:00

Did a lecture at school on composition and cinematography using the widescreen aspect ratios.

Went reasonably well, was pretty cursory, actually: I kinda breezed over a nuber of aspects. Fun getting the research together.

here's some stills I used as slides.

God, these films are great. representative aof a time when, for all it's faults, Hollywood did some good things. Certainly most of these films reflect the America of the time, when upper class white guys dictated everything and the movies made from bible stories were the conservative church going white guy versions of those stories. Along with some fanciful costume and set design. But the intent was to educate and say that al men are equal. The men who did this work, while stroking their egos, (after all, al artists have egos), were bringing something from their upbringing and culture and that great egalitarian experiment that made up post war America. They'd just been through a lot and were trying to pay it forward. At least they tried.

Art of Walt Disney..I think

2009-04-03T18:18:00.000-07:00

Of all the things that have been scanned from books and old papers that show up on the blogs, I haven't seen much about the 1942 book, The Art of Walt Disney, by Robert Feild. Known of it for years, looked at friends' copies, but never owned it myself. Not for lack of looking, back in the day of used book stores, etc.

I finally broke down and got me one. Was very easy, after all.

But here's why: I have still, to this day, a number of handouts that were given to us in first year Animation class at Sheridan College. And they're all still great, full of good info. Among them were a few sheets showing layout and drawing and composition tips. These have been the best bits of stuff on layout I have ever seen in any book, of all the books written on animation. There are things that even Loomis doesn't talk about.

I was always sure they were from the Feild book.

But they're not in the copy I bought.

It's a first edition: Collins, 1942.

Is there another edition? Is this one abridged?

So, question to Dear Readers: anyone help me here; Where are these from?

The Pen is Mightier than....

2009-03-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

Here is an old cartoon from the files, something photocopied from somewhere years ago and pinned up over the the desk or outside the cube in the studio you were working at the time...

Still says a lot.

But anyone know the artist?

Here's the signature but I can't read it.. it's not Searle or Sempe

2009-03-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

Now what's going on.. can't upload a picture the right way up....

OK,how bout some delishus layouts from Wind Wagon Smith..shown in class last week as part of inspirationslashreference as part of their latest project that they have the choice of three different time periods -this being the Old West...

STYLIN'

2009-03-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, that was an interesting experiment, but I really want the slideshow to show up at the side. Can't seem to figure it out.

back to just posting pix for the next while....

HERE'S a sketch about drawing with so called style - the thing is , everyone is doing all this so called flat style, but how many can back it up with real drawing. When today's flavour goes out of fashion, will they have something to fall back on? I maintain, you got to have the real deal underneath, know you can draw it for real, before you can do an artful job of cartooning it.

I should talk, my drawing is the pits these days and I'm faking it much of the time, but I know it.

2009-03-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

IRELAND

2009-03-17T15:18:00.000-07:00

On honour of the day, a leaf from an earlier sketchbook, circa 1990,when i was in Ireland working for Sullivan Bluth...Ah, t'ose wear t' dayse....her her..

2009-03-12T16:20:00.000-07:00

A few film stills and some thumbnail analysis.
Page from a book, maybe?

Medieval Folks

2009-02-26T16:05:00.000-08:00

Some designs for a personal project I 'm working on.

Burton! Taylor! Zefferelli! Zounds!

2009-02-17T19:59:00.000-08:00

Just watched one of my favourite films -the Franco Zefferelli version of Taming of the Shrew with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Holds up very well! The director really loved the subject matter. As with all his films, the mis en scene is great - there's real texture to the sets, costumes and action. You can taste and smell the atmosphere. Lots of great details for the observer to enjoy. As Micheal York is riding in to town, notice the kids in the foreground imitating the sculptor of the torso.
Also, lots of great blocking and compositions.
I always feel the test of any book or film is it's appeal- do you want to go there? I would go to this Padua in a heartbeat!

Two Words: Ken Steacy!

2009-02-15T16:42:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, time to talk about a great guy -me old buddy Ken Steacy, long time illustrator, comic artist and designer, who is the very definition of indefagitable. Ken's been working for some 30 years on tons of stuff for the illustration, comics and animation bizzes, has a fantstic collection of original illustration art ,runs his own on demand publishing, has never let the bastards grind him down and now-! has the honour of being exhibited in one of the premiere art galleries in North America, the McMichael Collection. From the site:

The exhibition, A Brush with War: Military Art from Korea to Afghanistan includes artworks dating from 1947 to 2008. In particular, it explores the two military art programs that started more than twenty years after the Second World War, the Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artists Program (1968–1995) and the Canadian Forces Artists Program (2001– present).

Ken grew up as an air force brat, which bred a lifelong fixation with aviation of all kinds. He participated in CAFCAP in the 8os and produced the pieces from which the one on exhibit was chosen in 1985.

It shows the navigation deck of an Aurora, the military version of the Lockheed Orion airliner. It shows the Tactical Navigator and the Acoustic Sensor Operator (ASO). Ken was on board the plane taking pictures and doing sketches during a SKAD mission -Survival Kit Air Drop- to some air cadets in training who who were some few hundred feet below in the water in the Strait of Georgia. Brrr!

As well, the show has pieces by Gertrude Kearns, Scott Waters and Elaine Goble, who I met and talked with (when I got to attend the opening luncheon with Ken!)

The show runs from January 17 to June 14, 2009. Get up there and see it!

GRIDS!

2009-02-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

From class a two weeks back...some VERY simple grids demonstrated for the students...the point was to show how a grid could be thrown over an organic object or environment, to help the animator see the perspective of the scene. or more specifically the portion of the scene where the animation is happening. YOU may know what it was supposed to be, but help out the next guy as much as you can. This is something for handdrawn and digital layout and boarding alike! Rendered light and shadow will provide the information, but will take more time and even that can be misinterpreted! Learn to sketch the grid! Show the structure underlying the object, whether it's a rock, a path, the side of a building, a cloud or the waves on the ocean!

Not Any More

2009-02-01T18:31:00.001-08:00

For February.
Did i post this before?
From an old job: designs for a proposed show.