Happy Holidays

Busy, Busy

Apologies for not posting for awhile been busy with my real job. Holidays are almost upon us and I'm already thinking of New Years resolutions. For now here are a couple of oldies to go with the other oldies.

Doctor

An oldie.

Mean girls

Scribblin

Here's a couple of scribbles to loosen up.

Creatures and Doodles

more sketch

More sketches

A couple more. The rodent one inspired by Beatrix Potter.

Test

A long time ago there was an animation test to get into Don Bluth's studio. I believe it consisted of a little girl in her bedroom sitting on the floor playing with building blocks. I have the test somewhere and when I find it I'll post a drawing or two from it. In the mean time here is my vague recollection of what she looked like.
One thing, and a very important thing, about Don Bluth's designs was that they were very structured. They were designed to be animated by large groups of artists and maintained model.
Structure and model have never been a strength of mine but it has always been fun at the roughing out stage.

Kids in school

Some kids in school done with my sons black Laurentien pencil crayon.

some new stuff

Well after a few requests I've managed to get off my arse and start drawing again. And one thing becomes increasingly clear. The more I draw the more I need to learn. Which of course is a good thing. As usual comments are welcome.

Provensen's etc.

Good friend Smook sent me this link today from a fella by the name of eric sturdevant and he has a huge collection of provensen art (along with others…..) . Check it out...

HERE

Corpse Bride artwork

Yeah. You might want to check out Neil campbell Ross's new blog.
Some might find it a little inspiring.
Holy Crap!!!

HERE

Monday

Hello all and sorry for not posting for a while. Have a bit of Bloggers block. But be assured it is only temporary. In the mean time check out a couple of these sites for some inspiration. Both courtesy of Cartoon Brew. The first is Amid's new retro inspired blog called Cartoon Modern, a precursor to his eagerly anticipated book on designers from days gone by.

HERE

The second is from a french animator/designer Yoshi Tamura. Beautiful illustrations, he has just started his own blog and promises to have great things to come.

HERE

Yogi and Huck dvd's

As I'm anxiously awaiting the new releases of The complete Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound dvd's, this site has popped up with some video clips and other treats from the dvd collections.

Check it out HERE

Little Snow

Check out Walter Krudop's site. An illustrator of children's books Walter has taken to animating his first short film called "Little Snow". Only a couple of illustrations here but it looks promising.

LITTLE SNOW

Shadow Puppets

Michel Gagne has done it again. Check out his site for the first 12 of his InsanleyTwisted Shadow Puppet Interstitials.


HERE

Brilliant

Check out this amazing short film from Cube. I wasn't crazy about the design when I saw the first image but the film is brilliantly boarded and the animation is great.

Check it out HERE

Ailish Workbook sketches

Here are some rough workbook sketches I've done for a children's story called "Ailish's Rainy Day". I hope to finish it some day in the near future. They are more exploritory and in no particular order.

Even more promo

All work copyright of Nelvana Ltd 2005.

More promo

All work copyright of Nelvana Ltd 2005.

Promo

I have recently had the opportunity to direct another Promo for the studio I work for. As with all the promo's this studio sets out to create there was an insanely short amout of time to complete it.
Without going into it this promo turned out as good if not better than I could have hoped for and hopefully will be sold soon.
Here are some images from it. I was also able to design and pose the characters and help out with boarding,layout and bg design.
All work copyright of Nelvana Ltd 2005.

A little different

Here's a drawing that is a bit different from what I would normally draw. But what the hell...

A Whatchamacallit

Some more inky kids

Tasmania

Good. Now that I've gotten your attention, please check out Elliot Cowan's wickedly cool blog. Brilliant bite sized bits for your artistic enjoyment.

LINK

Wednesday Inspiration

Whilst checking one of my faourite blogs, Uli Meyer's, I came across this post regarding an animator/designer by the name of Gary Dunn. Fantastic stuff!!! If you're a fan of cartoony animation you should definately check him out.


LINK

Sempe

Here's a link to the artist I mentioned below. Obviously if you enter his name in a google search you'll come up with a few interesting links but this one seemed to be as good a place as any to start.


Jean-Jacques Sempe

Priests

I have just recently picked up this really great book called "Nicholas" by Goscinni and Sempe.
Goscinni of Asteriz fame and Jean-Jacques Sempe famous cartoonist. Being inspired by Sempe's drawings I, for whatever reason, decided to sketch a bunch o Priests.
Don't know why. Not overly religious. No word to spread. Just thought... Priests.
Anyhow... enjoy.
Perhaps we'll try Nuns next. Oooo perhaps...Devils.

Pitch art

Here is an image from an idea for yet another pitch. Tha idea was to have some slick bgs contrasting with some Stick figure like characters. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. Either way it was a fun experiment. John Stewart did the layout and Don Gauthier did the painting. Yours truly designed the stick woman.

ahhh kids

Another placeholder

Crazy busy so forgive the regurgitation of artwork. These were fun.

Red Rover Studios

Red Rover studios has a cool new commercial for Robin Hood Flour.
Designed and animated to look like stop motion this little beauty was done entirely in 3D.

Nice Work fellas.


LINK

Monday Morning Monster Vitamins

Take six every hour on the hour. Take with milk. May cause drowsiness leading to extreme nightmares. May cause minor stomach irritability in some. This medication used to combat minor boredom. Use as directed.

At long last....Jeremy

Ahhhh.... At long last I have finally gotten my hands on a copy of Jeremy.

One of my first posts on this blog was in regards to this childhood stop motion series which we used to watch on TVO in both french and english. It was a show that I remembered with great fondness. I finally got my hands on the first 8 episodes of the series on dvd through a seller on eBay.
I was worried that I would be disappointed with the quality, having remembered it being much better than it actually was, but I was not disappointed in the least. Sure it's quite jittery in places but overall it tells a great little story with some great art direction and great little models.

If you were a fan of this rare show I strongly recommend the $5-$10 it cost on eBay and pick up a copy.

Here is the best link I've found in regards to this great little character.

LINK

Bunnies

Older and wiser?

Now that I've been in the biz for a while,(13yrs), I feel I'm just begining to learn.
And one of the many things I'm trying to improve on is composition.
Hans Bacher is as good as they get in this respect and he has started his own blog which not only showcases his wonderful work but also offers some great tricks of the trade.
I strongly recommend bookmarking this site.

LINK

More Creatures

Creatures

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry for not posting for a while but things have gotten insanely busy. But for now here's an old sketch which I may have posted a while back but figure it to be a good place holder.

My gosh

Oh my Gosh, Check out Stephanie Choi's new blog. What fun. How inspiring. Over on Cartoon Brew they say that the summer of 2005 will go down as the Summer of the Blog.
So many great artists getting their work out there with relative ease. And if I could I'd thank every last one of them. Keep the inspiration alive.

Stephani Choi is a character designer on Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends.

Check her out HERE

Rain Kids

Some sketches for the kids book I'm trying to finish. Well except for the guy in the straight jacket.

Dog days of summer

As the dog days of summer draw to an end here is a drawn dog.

Smook

Now that he's got it up and running I must direct you to check out good friend Mike Smukavic's Red Dot Blog. Mike is a storyboard artist of immense talent and character. You can also view samples of his work by following the link to his portfolio on his blog.

Thanks alot Red Dot.


RED DOT BLOG

John Nevarez

Ooooooo, you must check out John Nevarez's blog. Absolutely lovely sketches and designs that you can sprinkle on your Corn Flakes cause they're so darn sweet.

Go there.... NOW!


LINK