Catching up

Well friends I really do hope this finds you well. Here in Burbank California things are rolling ahead. Just like the Blues Brothers. On a mission from God. I'm very busy with a great deal of positive stuff evolving and emanating from my school. The form it will take is still coming together but it's getting clearer. Especially in light of the changes that are rapidly happening in Hollywood.

It's exciting and amazing. The combination of forces such as the declining trend in TV viewership and the rise of online streaming. The progressing lawsuit against all the major animation studios in Hollywood for colluding with each other to keep artist wages down. The very successful 3 year contract negotiations the animation union has just won. The emergence of crowdfunding and its impact on business. It's all coming together in a perfect storm that's leading to an era of what I'm going to term as the power artist. Or the era of artist power. Something like that.

It's very thrilling and I'm super excited to be here in the heart of and part of all this activity and new thinking. The animation community is experiencing a unique phase right now and my school is in the whirlwind.

That's what's going on. I intend on getting back to creative fun and I want to especially say hello to the Crash Bandicoot fans who frequent my blog and make it special. And to all visitors of course! Thanks everyone and we'll get rockin' soon.

Frankenstein 2015 ... 1996

Back when I was working the studio scene one of the projects I was involved in was creating a series of concept designs for a direct to video situation that DIC animation studio was developing in association with CBS TV. The video concepts were based upon classics of literature. One of these concepts was Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein". 

Earlier today I saw a trailer for a new movie on the way this coming November entitled "Victor Frankenstein". In one scene I got a glimpse of the monster from behind and it reminded me of what I had come up with nearly 20 years earlier around 1996 when I was on the video project. So I dug through my archives and lo and behold I found the art from that time. Thought I'd post it to confirm that my visual interpretation of the Frankenstein monster was 2 decades ahead of what this movie envisioned.

This is the raw image of the original art. The line was photocopied onto an animation cel and painted.

Free the Bandicoot !!!

Tobor the 8 Man

I think the original title was "8 Man" but was changed to "8th Man" when the series was aired in America. I always preferred the straight up 8. Are you familiar with the cartoon? Early TV anime. Felt like doing a simple homage to Tobor which is "robot" spelled backwards. So here it is...

Spyro time

Cheer up Crash

Samson

I've been thinking about this character lately and wanted to give him my own visual rendition as I continue to practice digital illustration with Photoshop. Samson is the legendary strongman from the Bible story. He was of the Hebrew tribe of Dan and I looked to give him that kind of feel. Almost like from an ancient biker gang. He had his long hair in locks or braids and I attempted to reflect that in his appearance. A lot of fun and the practice is good.

Pretty Girl practice

It's been a while since I got into color and recently I'm determined to shake out the cobwebs and get some practice with painting in Photoshop. Here's what I did today. I drew each girl separately in digital black line and went into the compositions to work up the color. Then I combined them into one picture.

Feel like a werewolf

Playing with Photoshop looking to create. There's a blue moon tonight...