Tirade

"Ellie Fredriksen, Aviator" at the Cartoon Art Museum auction

2011-12-04T19:12:00.000-08:00

How about an auction? The Cartoon Art Museum is just a Bay Bridge away from where we work and we find a constant stream of great art and artists come to the museum and visit the studio as well. Why not participate in this year's Pixar event?

The Cartoon Art Museum, the only museum in the western United States dedicated to all forms of cartoons and comics, is delighted to host its eighth annual benefit at Pixar Animation Studios on Saturday, December 10, 2011.

More info about that event if you click this link. Wanna bid on this piece of art created by yours truly? It is so affordable, ground floor action here. You can do more than think about it and head on to this location and start bidding, by gum! Charity Auction

Hey, if you want an original Pete Docter then you are in luck! This is by far the easiest way you can snag actual hand made work by this modern movie master. Just check this out and give yourself an early Christmas present. Check it out!

I have something to confess. If you want to see the full image of the Ellie art (she is drawn full figure, see) go head to my tumblr. You heard me. I got one. I've been carrying on with another blog system. I have images there that are not here on Tirade. I can wax ad nauseum here. But I'm practically mute over there. Check it out.

Cartoon Art Museum Pixar Event, December 10, 2011
Bid on Pete Docter hand drawn Carl and Kevin!
Bid on Ellie Aviator by Ronnie del Carmen

Cartoon Art Museum

Ronnie del Carmen Tumblr "Paper Biscuit"

Sketchtravel: Around the world through 71 artists's worlds

2011-10-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

EPIC. Dice gave me the book back in 2007. And now the project that seemed so far off is done. It's been a long journey for Dice and though I wasn't there it's almost as if I can see how it all culminated. And who was the final artist on the book? Sketchtravel TV, the end of the journey...

The book, as in, THE ENTIRE book, will be auctioned off on October 17, 2011 in Brussels. I know, one person gets to walk away with this one book. Amazing. I won't be there but I wish them all good fortune. It is for a very good cause. Who's in it, you ask?

This traveling museum contains the personal visions of 71 exceptional illustrators, animators and comic book artists, including artists such as Bill Plympton, James Jean, Rebecca Dautremer, Glen Keane, Frederick Back, and Hayao Miyazaki. Initiated by illustrators Dice Tsutsumi (Japan) and Gerald Guerlais (France), the project will culminate in an auction of the original book in Brussels on October 17, 2011. Proceeds from the auction and royalties from the book's publication will be donated to the international literacy non-profit, Room to Read.

My participation in all this is just as a silent partner who watched as Dice and Gerald did all of the heavy lifting. But I did manage to document it back when I was years younger and had better time management skills. Check that out here

My congratulations to the entire team and all the artists involved. May good luck and angels watch over you all.

Sketchtravel website

Sketchtravel Blog

Room to Read

Art Blocks for Ghana

2011-03-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Watercolor and Pencil on watercolor board mounted on wood panel.

Been Swamped. Been playing catch up for the last month and headspace is on work most days. A sobering weekend to be sure and it's made me wake up. Also, not seeing my friends from when we used to carpool from the city, separated by three projects over three buildings--yada yada yada. I contributed to this amazing auction with all these amazing artists. Please give this a look.

The Picture Book Project Foundation presents Art Blocks for Ghana – a charity art auction of original works created by top artists within the animation and illustration community to provide boarding and education for orphaned children in Ghana, West Africa. Online art auction coming March 12-20. 2011.

So, you might want to throw in and the best part is that you could end up with amazing original art. But really, even better than that you are helping in the lives of children who really need it.

Bid here.

The great Dice Tsutsumi lead the charge on this effort but also set the bar with this beauty.

Enrico loves Japan so much he can draw a street scene from memory. Check out Enrico's art block

My contribution. Finished over a plane ride back from Argentina.

The Picture Book Project Foundation will also be donating part of the proceeds from Art Blocks auction and events to help in the awareness and support Dice Tsutsumi's efforts and Give2Asia.

Art Blocks for Ghana
Artists Help Japan

Help Japan

2011-03-11T23:42:00.001-08:00

Help Japan a photo by Jerrod Maruyama on Flickr.

It is very easy. I just did it and it shows up as an item in your next phone bill. I didn't even have to call or lick a stamp. After all I've seen of the devastation left by the largest earthquake to hit Japan ever--well, it's not much but it's a start. Our thoughts and prayers go out to our friends and colleagues in Japan.

______________________

George Takei, Lt. Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the U.S.S. Enterprise tweets: The tsunami's devastating power, chillingly captured. Share this video & give $10. Text REDCROSS to 90999

Lee Unkrich, director of Toy Story 3 talks about this horrific video in his tweet: This is absolutely unbelievable.

For my video game friends, check out Kevin Pereira of G4's "Attack of the show" who took a break from the show to talk about texting help to Japan. Check out the video here.

Watercolor Sketch weekend

2011-01-23T16:08:00.000-08:00

The image above can be viewed much larger by clicking here.

A Sketchcrawl in the new year. Saturdays are for drawing. You look forward to it (feel the fates are keeping you from it) until the day of and then you're thinking Saturdays are for sleeping in. After you push yourself out the door it's all momentum. I had a great time. Enrico and I had a relaxing afternoon with about 60 other people in the city. Jamie Baker and Matt Jones joined us for coffee at Japantown's New People building.

I was lazy and didn't start drawing until way past lunch. This was a lady who was seated two tables away and did not deserve to be bothered by my gaze. I hope I didn't ruin her afternoon--much. There's no way to ignore the fact that I was drawing her and she endured my attention with grace. She was a lovely subject.

I love the grain of watercolor washes seen up close. To view her larger click on the link below the image. Oh, heck do this right here.

Skethcrawl

Aviator Ellie

2010-11-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

Adventure is out there! Ellie has the distinction of not only being one of the most loved characters in the Pixar universe but one with also the least amount of screen time. Having had the privilege of telling her life story (the ones we showed in the movie and ones we set aside) I am especially attached. I can tell you that I still muse about their possible adventures: cross-country races, barnstorming, secret missions, cryptozoological hunts, rescuing endangered animals and ballroom dancing! A regular Indiana Jane.

I did this pin-up for San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum fund raiser this coming weekend. Where? Why, at Pixar, that's where! Michael Johnson (who also happen to be the tech grand wizard who devised software for us to storyboard by) holds this annual get-together for CAM and a bunch of us donate lectures, tours and art. Go check it out.

Seventh Annual Cartoon Art Museum Benefit at Pixar Animation Studios

Windup Girl study

2010-09-06T23:17:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook drawing. Muji mechanical pencil, watercolor applied with Pentel waterbrush. Fleshtone finish on Photoshop. She just showed up while having Blue Bottle cappuccino at New People in Japantown.

Because you can't choose what to draw. Haven't been able to read much of late but I did pick up Paolo Bacigalupi's "Windup Girl" in paperback after being caught by the back cover description. I'm just into the first chapters. Growing up in the Philippines and having traveled to Thailand and Japan the textures and cadences summoned by the book are fun to conjure along with.

So, sketches happen. Maybe more will show up. But I am taking my time reading the pages. A leisurely approach to casting the movie inside my head. It just won a Hugo award in a tie with The City & The City by China Miéville,

The Windup Girl is a story about colonialism, independence, mysticism and ethics, sex and loyalty, and the opposing forces of greed and empathy. Filled with complex and flawed characters who must struggle to overcome their failings, The Windup Girl has no easy or pat answers, but rather charges the reader to summon empathy for imperfect humans who fail as often as they succeed.

--from Boing Boing review

Japanese Brush pens are an occasion to what else--draw!

2010-08-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Gray ink brush pen, Muji black ink brushpen. A couple chinese calligraphy classes allows me to relax. The red ring you take off--it separates the ink from the brush array when inside the package. I kept it. I'm a pack rat.

Delaying gratification. Been wandering into the Kinokuniya stationery store as a matter of course each time I'm in Japan Town. I have more than enough drawing implements in my satchel. I have three or four sketchbooks in there, kneaded erasers, pens, pencils, ,waterbrush (and unopened spare), watercolor set, various hoarded coffee shop napkins for blotting, fountain pens--I am prepared for a drawing opportunity. Though most days I will not find one.

The bag is heavy. I have my GF-1 in there for photos that I will regret not taking, a copy of "And there you are" because this book was intended to replace the habit of carrying sketchbooks all the time. See I've lost an entire bag with contents like mentioned above. Including a camera.

Old habits. "Then the terrorists win" internal argument loops and fades, results in carrying a reconstituted clone of the same bag, contents and all, anyway. Why not. If I'm not drawing then what the heck I'd just hang it up and buy a doughnut franchise.

But when the drawing does show up all recrimination is erased. More drawings want to show up. The need to try brushes and notebook papers and feeling some stories out glide in. The day is brighter in one corner.

The coffee helps, too.

2010 National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards

2010-06-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

The Animation division award from the NCS Reubens for my work on UP. It's already up on the mantle. Notice the Rube Goldberg characters adorning the edges.

A wonderful honor. Last weekend I flew to New Jersey to attend the 2010 National Cartoonists Society Reuben awards. My schedules being what they are I had to make sure I could really attend before making the travel plans. The lure of meeting all these luminaries of cartooning was too great. It all worked out in grand style. Oh, and I won the feature animation division award!

I got to attend two talks. George Booth, as Arnold Roth mentioned as he presents George a Lifetime Achievement Award, "makes it impossible for any of us to ever attempt to draw a funny dog or cat ever again." Joe Kubert is a legend in comics and I wasn't about to miss hearing him speak about his career. I was very impressed at how well rounded his regard for the life of an artist, not just comics, and his love for drawing.

George Booth drew dogs and various parts of dogs and put them together using an overhead projector. So amazing to see him construct these hilarious dog drawings. Then he looks up and laughs out loud himself. What a joy!

My thanks to Jeff Keane, president of the NCS (brother to Glen, son of legend Bill Keane of "Family Circus) for welcoming me and for throwing such a grand party. Jeff is also quite the thespian. In a send up of The Godfather featuring fellow cartoonist he did a very convincing Vito Corleone.

Very special thanks to David Folkman for introducing me to the NCS. He is tireless in his support and passion of the organization and kindest of people you can meet (he is also Co-Publisher/Design Director of “Hogan’s Alley"). Chad Frye recognized me in the corridors and proceeded to make sure I felt like I belong and connected these giant names of cartooning to faces. Whoa! They were all there! Arnold Roth, George Booth, Joe Kubert, Jerry Robinson, Mort Walker...it goes on. What a night. Met so many amazing and welcoming people.

Joe Kubert spoke briefly and opened it to questions. He is a noble man and wants to talk more about the history he was witness to as a comic book artist than about himself. He has a great laugh as well. He says he draws everyday still. That's for me!

The NCS wishes that more animation professionals attend the event and I for one am sure I'm coming back. Because besides the star gazing and the great people I know that someday soon I want to be one among them, drawing from my home office, weaving my own tales of adventure and hopefully being a card carrying member. A real cartoonist.

The National Cartoonists Society
Chad Frye's Blog for a comprehensive report on the entire weekend.

Wild West Iron Man: A variant cover

2010-05-26T21:48:00.000-07:00

I snapped an iPhone pic of the work in progress on my cintiq. Pencil illustration finished off in Photoshop.

Outlaw Metal. Joe Quesada and I almost worked on an feature a long time ago but it was not meant to be. Flash forward to Marvel being part of Disney and I get the call from Joe asking if I would be interested in doing an Iron Man cover. How fast could I say, "YES!"without tripping over myself? I mean, ol' Shell-head was THE very first super hero I ever drew as a kid (hey, no human features to stumble over like eyes, ears and such). And I am still a huge Iron Man fan (though don't ask me what happened to Tony in the last decade or so. Love the Gene Colan and Don Heck illustrated ones). So, not only, yeah, but HECK YEAH!

Those of you who are old enough can see the homage right away. Yup, "Wild Wild West" was a TV show I grew up with and loved the characters. Sure, it's silly but the opening titles looked awesome. Like an animated comic book page. They did their titles right back then.

I wanted to show the mask as it might be fashioned with the tools of the time, rivets and screws, so I needed the head to be big. It made for a more movie poster approach for the design.

If you like to see more check out Bill Presing's WWII Iron Man. It is a study in grace and metal. Check out his post in Daily Peril, his blog. My cover will be a variant for Invincible Iron Man #27, goes on sale June 9. Bill Presing's variant for Iron Man: Legacy #3 hits stores on June 23.

Marvel Sneak Peek

Tirade Oekaki has moved! Not too far.

2010-05-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

Keeping limber with a fashion illustration exercise and a poster study. Both illustrations based on images found at The World of Kane

Whole lotta moving going on. The Tirade oekaki board has been around for a long time and a favored stop for those who tire of Photoshop (after all, a lot of you already have that as your default drawing program). The simple java applet provides a more casual tool to use even as it mimics the basic Photoshop tools. For some, like Claudio Acciari, it appears to rival Photoshop for that favored default spot.

Well, the folks responsible for hosting our board are moving servers and gave us an alert to say that they are moving the address to here.

Please make a note of it. It's all there and nothing has changed. I always make a habit of grabbing my finished image onto my personal files because the gallery holds only a fixed number and the drawings fall off as it makes room for new ones. That is, they disappear. Don't wait too long after you finish drawing and posting. Keep a copy for yourself, if you care. I have a folder of Claudio and others somewhere in my work or home machines.

A Nina lost in the scary dark dreamscape. There is also a blue study in the oekaki board.

The banner to the right has the link to the oekaki board's new location (the headline above as well). Oh, and if you want to start your very own board you can check out how here.

Tirade Oekaki
Claudio Acciari
The World of Kane

Oekaki BBS

TIRADE has MOVED! To here, actually.

2010-05-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

iPhone snap of a doodle yesterday from a meeting. I just made the connection as I write this post. I had moving on the brain.

PANIC! I've settled with my frantic life and near impenetrable proclivity to procrastinate. So, the fact that the May 1st deadline to migrate Tirade off of FTP publishing was coming was not going to be an exception. Except it was. April 30, yesterday, evening: searching the web for a way to backup my blog. Found many clunkers, downloaded a few. I really should have just looked into what Blogger had set up. Which I eventually did.

To my relief they had it all figured out. It went rather smoothly. Had a near panic that comments seemed to have not migrated along with my ur-blog posts. But that got resolved after I got to the last step. Then there was the forwarding post to relay people from the old address to here. It was only showing up...here--where it would be useless. That fixed itself after re-uploading the entire thing again.

Whew. So it was a dread panic and would have required industrial grade sedatives after the cataclysm of losing all these years of posts. It all turned out okay.

Pass the beer and let's post something.

________________________________________

Here's an image uploading test. My home Photoshop in on the fritz.

UP nominated for Best Picture!

2010-02-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

The man of the hour as he tries to stem the tide of phone calls this morning.

What a ride! It's been a long journey that's about to culminate in March. For myself I am counting today as the win. We made it to the big boys table with UP being nominated for Best Picture along with the other live action movies. We make movies, we tell stories. These days the fact that a movie is made completely with computers or whatever percentage is not a discussion anymore. It is just making movies.

My thanks to our stellar, award-winning crew but especially to our Story crew. They did a lot of heavy lifting that won't have a category to celebrate at these award shows but they so rightly deserve every bit of goodwill this movie gets. They are the best story crew I've had the privilege of serving with as Story Supervisor. You guys make me proud. I thank you.

Here's the logo for our Story Crew t-shirt. We wear it proudly and this week is an especially good week to walk tall in one of these. All hail, STORY!

UPdate: Here's the squadron photo we took after dealing death from above to all unholy story issues.

Josh Cooley composed the photo, Bill Presing had the airman headgear and we all took headshots with it one day. Viola! From left to right, Back row: Brian Wright, Bill Presing, Enrico Casarosa, Ronnie del Carmen, Josh Cooley, Tony Rosenast. Front Row: Justin Hunt, Nick Sung, Rob Gibbs, Bobby Rubio (not in the photo, Pete Sohn, Ken Bruce and Jamie Baker). The beauteous Shannon Ryan is emblazoned on the plane as our babe/department manager among beasts. She is known as "The Ryan." We couldn't have the entire crew with us that day but then again it is a war after all.

2010 Golden Globe Award for UP

2010-01-20T15:53:00.000-08:00

We had a little champagne toast this morning with the guys. Hip hip! Hurray!

I almost missed it. I was driving home and caught the original broadcast winding down. I got email and notices on line congratulating me. I did see Pete Docter accept the award on the rebroadcast as well as Bob Peterson and Jonas Rivera in their group hug. Amazing.

ABC interview of Pete

Apparently they hung out with Paul McCartney quite a bit and noted that he's such a gentleman and a lot of fun.

My congratulations to Michael Giancchino for his Golden Globe win as well. I am very lucky to have worked with his music on this movie and on the Dug short.

Michael Giacchino after the award Q & A Wait for Pete heckling Michael.

Honored to have served on the movie with the entire UP crew. Among the highlights of being in this business I can say this is the brightest.

Old New

2010-01-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

Counter Reset. The doodles I do are fleeting and so with anything I draw. I could lose these. I just had that happen in a big way over the holidays and I mourn for those things that I wrote and drew. After the trough of necessary emotions I chose to leave it as memory. I can't really have them them with me everywhere. Which I know is what I had insisted on doing.

I choose to draw some more and what survives will be up to the fates.

Good Start. Enrico just sent me a link to the Muji website that holds their manifesto. Both of us are pre-sold audience. We love Muji. A reason to fly to New York or Japan. I mean, literally on the list of things we have to do while there.

MUJI

Old hold fold cold sold mold Been playing Word warp on the iPhone and I thought I would quit after I break the million mark score. I'm way past that and I still do it.

Non sequitur I turned another year older on the last day of last year. Last week. I say it today. Steve Purcell says, "There's something that actually makes sense about starting the New Year right on the heels of a birthday." Never thought of it that way in all the years I've had this mill stone birthday. I think I will see it like that from now on.

Hold a sec... I am writing this on my work desk. I had just remembered that I had Muji pens lost along with that bag. I had a lovely brush pen that I was getting really attached to. As I opened applications on the computer I see a brown paper bag below the screen. I didn't carry all my Muji pens with me! I had these here still! I had a kid smile on my face if you happened to pass by with a camera. Underline this with silver.

This is going to be a great year.

Unreality Check

2009-09-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

Cappuccino foam Nina drawing at Caffe Trieste. Zazu makes good espresso drinks. The foam holds up, then I draw.

Yesterday was the day. September 28, 2009 was a Monday. The morning was at the El Cerrito swim club trying to get my breathing lesson down. Then rush to work, grab coffee (and a small cinnamon swirl) and then on to a meeting.

Right after the meeting I pace about and decide I should take my photo with the phone. What I remember of a day is harder now. I should remember more but not many win that battle over time. This post should help. Cryptic, huh? But maybe I just like Mondays--direct opposition to that song about hating them.

I should say something about the long silence in blog posts. Or I just start posting and get on with it, eh? Things are afoot. The house is empty and looking to see if the city will have a new place to call home. All's good. Spectacular, really. I'm off to Japan in less than a week to travel for the movie. I will be traveling most of October. I should pack.

UP opening weekend: 68.2 million!

2009-06-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

WHOA! Not bad for an old man movie, eh? All the work and anticipation had culminated in a grand showing of love for Pixar movies and this movie's story. On Friday I was at the Disney studios signing books with Ricky Nierva and we were met with very grateful people--people who are in the same studio, and industry--thanking us for this movie. On Saturday I did a signing and talk for the public at Nucleus where I was met with the same response. I must say that this is unique for us. We usually will get compliments on "a great job" or "an amazing movie" but this is different. People are thanking us for this movie's story. I am so honored to be part of this movie.

Pete, myself and Bob during one of many recordings at Studio B at Disney. Being around where Walt made the classics sure brings out the animation fans out of us.

Amazing. There was a time when we were just figuring out how to dig ourselves out of one difficult corner after another when this day was so far in the future. It wasn't real. Now here we are. My thanks and eternal gratitude to Pete Docter who took me along on this journey and believed in what I was going to do for him. Bob Peterson for showing me where the funny was only EVERY time. Jonas Rivera for making sure I can show up for all of it and having my back.

Our story crew was unobtrusive. We worked hard and kept on the path, fought the battles. I am so very proud of each and every one of them. That deserves its own post. Be sure of it.

It's out there now. Up is welcomed into people's lives and I am forever grateful.

UP is released tomorrow! Plus a booksigning!

2009-05-28T22:04:00.000-07:00

I love these guys. This has been the most rewarding movie I've ever worked on. From left: Russell (likes chocolate), Dug (loves everyone) and Carl (likes grumbling)

Nothin' but blue skies! The movie finally opens tomorrow, May 29,2009. Man, it seems we've been waiting forever. With the movie opening Cannes and the studio screenings one can almost think that the movie's been out there already. But NO! The general public will be able to see what all the fuss is about. If you got time please search out the reviews for this movie. It's been such a gift to us who made it. Made all the hard work all worth it. But now the real proof: The general public gets to see it.

BUT WAIT! WE ALSO HAVE A BOOKSIGNING AT NUCLEUS THIS SATURDAY!

That's right! On Saturday yours truly will be at signing at Nucleus Gallery in Alhambra.

Artist Ronnie Del Carmen will be visiting us from San Francisco on Saturday, May 30th, to talk about his work on the upcoming Disney•Pixar film "Up" where he served as story supervisor & lead story artist. Ronnie will show a short slide presentation and participate in a Q and A session.

"The Art of Up" Artist Panel and Book Signing with Ronnie Del Carmen

May 30, 2009
Opening Reception / May 30, 2:00PM - 5:00PM

Nucleus Gallery
210 East Main St, Alhambra CA

Please come by if you are around--Hey, it's free admission! I will be signing both Pixar books as well as the brand spankin' new "And there you are." Limited copies only so the first few will be able to get a signed copy. Real busy, eh?

Actually, I'll be at Disney studios tomorrow (Friday) doing a book signing then stay overnight for our Nucleus signing. Hope to see you guys there.

Nucleus Gallery
AWN: The Art of UP Artist Panel in L.A. on May 30

UP: My name is Dug

2009-03-15T19:16:00.000-07:00

The advance copy. I brought it with me everywhere last week. Yup, even N.Y.

My very first one! I've always wanted to make one and I didn't really pursue it like I have many other career goals. Maybe because it appeared to be rather arcane. Who knows how one gets that gig?

Last year the opportunity to illustrate this book for our movie came around and I asked maybe I could submit samples. A long shot at best, I thought, and I have to draw it in as spare a manner as I can so I could--in the unlikely event I get the job--whip through it. I could only do it away from my day job, which was of course just getting into the frenzied third act. Every reason not to do it.

But got it I did. And the editors also wanted (with good reason) for me to put more muscle into it--way more than my scratchy samples. Oh, boy. But I was blessed that the author is the divine Kiki Thorpe (who now works here). She's an old hand at this and she gently guided my newbie carcass through all this. We did a rough pass and tweaked here and there (images, words, placement of the text) to make the reading experience better. Then Winnie Ho designed the graphics of the book took care of the fonts and all the other details not related to illustrating it. I have them to thank for my first effort into children's book illustration.

Oddly enough, though it took forever to do those leaves I enjoyed making them. All done in Photoshop CS3 with two customized brushes.

I hope this leads to more because I am hooked! I need to do more. I learned a lot about the way I work after making this.

I never get tired of looking at that. Not the drawing--the credits!

Now then, on to the commerce. The book is slated to release on April 14, 2009 but you can pre-order it at Amazon right now. See that sidebar image of this book on the right?

Special thanks to Kathleen Chanover, Leigh Anna McFadden, Kelly Bonbright and Nancy Intelli. They made all the publishing dreams we had regarding UP come true. They rock.

The back cover. The entire dust jacket was designed to wrap all the way into the interior flaps. They eventually decided to keep those white with some spot illustrations from the inside pages. Very professional job, I must say.

My Name is Dug on Amazon

Kiki Thorpe

Paris Gallery Images

2009-03-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

Images link to larger version.

Different approach. I was very happy to have a past inspiration grab hold of me again for the Paris gallery show. I remember walking into the L.A. County Museum back in the early nineties to the abstract expressionist rooms and come face to face with my first Robert Motherwell painting. I walked past it actually, there was so much to gawk at: Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Helen Frankenthaler...but I found myself coming back around and standing in front of one of the "Elegies for the Spanish Republic" series.

I kept coming back to it years later, bought some books I would leaf through occasionally. Like skimming. Or not wanting to be completely pulled in. I know nothing about abstract expressionism nor am I able to even attempt anything close to it. But it did make me want something about it.

The "Verses" series was an aspect of the Nina story and she stands in one universe and seem to converge on another. Thus the contraction from multiverses to "Verses" which also had the welcome correlation to children's book verses. I had just completed a children's story book then and still had that mode operating. So, there it goes.

I like watercolor when viewed up close so here's a link to a detail.

Disney/Pixar's UP trailer

2009-03-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

Carl Fredriksen is having a relaxing time at home. Gives new meaning to the phrase "mobile home."

OH,MAN! I just watched the trailer in the main theater and I gotta say that even though I've been part of this movie from the beginning I don't mind saying that it made me want to watch this movie NOW! It's been a long road to get here and Pete's still working on the finishing touches to the movie, I am very proud of the work everybody's put in to making this movie.

Check out the trailer I saw on Yahoo.com here.

While you're there check out the Pixar retrospective that looks at Disney•Pixar's previous nine films.

Official Disney/Pixar site

Kerascoët: Jolies Ténèbres

2009-03-02T11:11:00.001-08:00

Dust jacket for the book. Links to a Youtube simple ad for it.

Compelling and terrifying. Not for the faint of heart or for kids. "Don't be fooled by the cuteness," Sebastien warns me over dinner when we were in Paris for our show. I wondered about that for while until I got back to my hotel. I leafed through it. I can't read french, mind you, but the images are enough to get a sense of what's going on. This book found the edge where it becomes dangerous and runs past it full speed. I am humbled by what Kerascoet--Marie Pommepuy and Sébastien Cosset--along with writer Fabien Vehlmann have unleashed on an unsuspecting public.

Myself and Sébastien Cosset at the Arludik show for Three Trees in Paris. He hands me his only advance copy of this book the publishers sent him. That was such an honor.

I cannot talk about this book more. I came back to work talking as if I'd gone to a haunted island. I had to see the faces of each one who was intrigued enough to peel pages back one at a time. The look of sheer admiration for the artistry but soon after a wincing at the unexpected. I am having a good time--I must have looked just like that.

We met with Dupuis, the publisher of Jolies Ténèbres, and got to talk to Sergio Honorez (Head of Publishing) about this book which is just about to come out this month. He says that once he saw the book proposal he just knew, "We have to publish this." Kerascoet is also published at Dargaud for Mis Pas Touche, a book I've mention in this blog before. In France artists can have as many different publishers for any one artist. Neat, eh?

If you look at the work it is astoundingly beautiful. I put in a reservation to grab this page at Galerie 9 art. And if you're not careful you'll find even more stuff all over that website.

I love finding stuff to rave about and even more gratifying is to meet these wonderful creators (Marie was not well during our visit but next time). That trip to Paris and Angoulême was so amazing. I'm hoping it won't be too long before we find ourselves back there again. If only to grab more books. Sigh.

Kerascoet
Dupuis
Galerie9art.com for Kerascoet

WALL-e wins Oscar. Andrew brings it home

2009-02-23T14:49:00.000-08:00

"Out there, Barnaby!" Andrew Stanton comes home brandishing a golden statue. These small traditions we have are what I know I'd remember fondly when I'm in the old folks home for aged and decrepit animators. The company is a family and one of our movies went out and did good. That means we all did.

I worked on the first act of Wall-e a long time ago before I went to be part of UP. I had a short stint in Andrew's push to get the reels on its feet. Pete Sohn, Nate Stanton and myself went in and drew/designed and made up the moments with Andrew about Wall-e's time on earth (Eve's arrival was my section and I did forays into the second act in the sewers). It was a blast. Maybe it was because I was never meant to go the whole distance. Maybe because I got to go in there with blue sky and try anything. I could do that till the cows came home. Come on, robots!!!

My thanks to Andrew Stanton and Jim Morris who then were the only other folks with us conspiring and dreaming to accelerate a notoriously glacial process.

Congratulations and good work to all involved.

OUT THERE!

Totoro Forest Project: Built by volunteers

2009-02-15T19:15:00.000-08:00

That's Noelle, front row, second from left. Zoe, same row, framing me, Dice and Enrico. Our bookends, keeping us from toppling over.

Noelle & Zoe. The plain truth of the matter is that that event at Pixar would not have happened without these ladies. Noelle had been part of many of our other auctions and galleries so we don't hesitate to ask. Actually, we barely get a proposition out and she's already signing up. Zoe had impressed us throughout the whole process that if there was something to ask about the process it would be a safe bet that she'd know the answer. And all that was donated time and energy. Mind you they both have day jobs and lives outside of this project.

After the event we all took time to recuperate and some of us deserve it more than others. Zoe and Noelle went back to their lives, as did all the volunteers. We've tried but we've yet to get together again and mark the event for the monumental effort of faith and goodwill it was. It might point to how everyone did this to contribute to the cause and what it means--with no need to focus on their part in it. I figure that has a lot to do with it.

The tireless crew who put that show on the Pixar Atrium floor.

This past Saturday we finished the second half of packaging the artwork from the auction in preparation for their rightful new owners to send for them. It marks, effectively, the end of the entire arc of these amazing works of art. From artists donating them to the wonderful people who bid and won these beauties and finally the trip to their respective new caretakers.

The last look at these amazing works of art before their final journey. Still more donated time. Dice was sick but there he was ready with supplies and lunch!

To the volunteers: We thank you with the most heartfelt of emotions for all your time, energy and heart. It would not have happened without your part in it. These things are not easy to stage, we hoped you all would show up and that you did. For that a part of a forest somewhere outside of Tokyo will remain untouched and you should know that it's because of your contribution to this project.

That very night after the event we struck the show. Cleaned up after, took down the exhibit and re-wrapped the entire lot and stowed them. All that after being dead tired from putting on the show. The very next day, there's Noelle and Zoe dealing with the details of what we had wrought. We can't love or thank these ladies enough.

Be well and hope to see you all again soon.

Noelle Page
Zoe Boxer

For more details of what the project has accomplished please head on to the Totoro Forest Blog.

Photo credits: Carlos Baena, Boon Heng Pang and yours truly.

Happy 200th Darwin day!

2009-02-12T01:00:00.000-08:00

Two days ahead of Valentine, I highlight this as a red-letter day instead.

No Chocolates or roses necessary. I don't celebrate Valentine's day but instead make it a point to appreciate the union I have with my wife over many days of the year. Beats having to claw my way into a restaurant after battling for parking for a meal that could be enjoyed away from this lemming-like imperative. Not holding it against any of youse who do celebrate this cherubic love assassin's day. And chocolate? Fuggeddabowdit.

On matters Darwin. Born 200 years ago in 1809, February 12. Interesting article about Darwin's reaction to seeing slavery up close during his travels on the Beagle.

This itinerary of far-flung places is well-known. What is less generally realised is that the voyage had multiple objectives. Darwin sailed as gentleman companion to the prickly Captain Robert FitzRoy, whose first aim was to return three Alakaluf and Yahgan aboriginals ("Fuegians" to Darwin, as they came from Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago of islands at the southernmost tip of the Americas). They had been snatched during the Beagle's previous voyage and Christianised as an experiment. Darwin lived for months with these so-called civilised "savages" and came to understand first-hand how, as he put it, the savage-to-civilised distance was no more than that between wild and domestic animals.

Still more significantly, the voyage exposed Darwin to what few English gentlemen of his day would ever see—the full barbarity of slavery in the raw.

Pertinent stuff in these times when race relations are enjoying an emblematic period with our new president. Also heady times for science as well. I'll close with the ending paragraph to the article above.

To celebrate historical figures we have first to understand them. In 2009, 200 years after his birth, it is time to switch the spotlight onto the younger Darwin—the man whose belief in human brotherhood transmuted into an evolutionary theory of common descent. Rather than being morally subversive, as his Christian critics claim, Darwin's achievement was morally grounded. Rather than being a dispassionate practice, his science had a humanitarian drive. It made brothers and sisters not only of all human races, but of all life.

Live long and prosper.

And if that don't beat all, it's also Lincoln's birthday.

Prospect article: Darwin the Abolitionist

Abraham Lincoln
Charles Darwin

Three Trees at Galerie Arludik

2009-02-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

Tadahiro Uesugi, myself and Enrico Casarosa at Galerie Arludik the night of our show. New and recent work will be on exhibit from January 27 to March 7, 2009.

Bonjour! I was happy to be back in Paris last week but especially so because we have a big show that reunites Enrico, Tadahiro and myself for a new showing of our latest work. Our hosts were the beauteous Diane Launier and her spouse businessman/adventurer Jean Jacques Launier, owners of Galerie Arludik.

A visit to Album, a bande dessinée treasure trove in Saint Germain, reveals a poster for our show. Neat!

J.J.(I believe is a nick name Lisa McLain of ACME archives christened him with and stuck)describes their mission...nay, crusade! is to present bande dessinée, comic book art, production art and animation art to be on par with fine art of traditional galleries. The gallery is on the Île de la Cité (the island cradle of the French civilization no less) and home to a host of those aforementioned traditional galleries, thus striking at the heart of that argument.

Tadahiro and Kuro had been in Paris a few days ahead of us and we proceeded to merge our schedules post haste. I don't know about you but the social event that rules my world tends to be coffee, espresso to be exact. But having the pleasure of being with good friends surrounded by the astounding cultural lushness of Paris makes for a particularly special visit.

The show itself was a blast. Diane had warned us that several hundred people had been emailing the gallery with questions and intentions of attending. "We might have more than four hundred people tonight." It ended up being around six hundred, with people spilling out into the street outside.

We met so many of the luminaries of bande dessinée fame. Nicholas de Crécy, Juanjo Guarnido , Sébastien Cosset of Kerascoet (Marie Pommepuy was not feeling well and sent her regrets) , Arthur de Pins... the list goes on.

I was especially happy to be reunited with Bibo Bergeron who looks the same as the days when we were trying to shoe horn a rockin'south american musical number into a sagging section of the El Dorado reel. So fun to talk to him again. His movie, A monster in Paris looks amazing! He showed me a clip of the unjustly beleaguered production. I wish him all the best.

It was an amazing show. Our heartfelt thanks to Diane and Jean Jacques for taking good care of us and orchestrating this grand show. We hope to be invited back soon and maybe even stay longer. But hold on, they weren't done with us yet.

Next: Angoulême!

Galerie Arludik

The day of my birth

2008-12-31T15:02:00.000-08:00

"Ronnieversaire" is how Bibo Bergeron put it, he coined it and I'll use it forever. Doesn't it sound great? The above is a parking stub for parking off of Piedmont Avenue--this is today's. Happy New year, all!

Bon Ronnieversaire! I asked my mother when I was a child the circumstances of my birth on a day when much of the world is looking skyward to the night sky than to any other human being next to them. I have many mixed feelings about this day and my mother's details of the day were nothing special. She'd gone into labor at sundown and my delivery had obliterated any other detail inside the old navy hospital (my father was not in the navy, it was the closest free hospital to them) in Cavite City until I was smacked into crying wakefulness. Only then did she realize that the fireworks had been going on outside. Even then the need to set off one's cache of fireworks could not wait for the appropriate time.

I did not make it past the line of the 365th day of of 1959--perhaps by just an hour or thereabouts--and will forever not be counted into the round block number of 1960. Oh, well.

"Everyone is celebrating your birthday!" became an annual phrase that I've come to revile, be bored by and now, in my middle age, appreciate the anonymity by-product that no other birthday comes with. And then I think: What must Christmas birthday people hear. "You've always struck me as Christ-like, y'know?"

To those who do remember my incandescent birthday for whatever reason, thank you for the well wishes. I do so appreciate it. All my friends over the years, I raise a glass in your honor in return and wish you all a happy new year!

To my family, whom I've not been able to be with in this very busy (boy was it ever) I hope to correct this by next year and we'll have a grand reunion next holiday season.

The images posted herein are the snapshots of work I made for the Galerie Arludik. Enrico, Tadahiro and I are doing it again but this time in Paris. More about this in the next post. For now we've more pressing events. This year is ending and I think we all have much to ponder back on.

And to look ahead for.

________

Galerie Arludik
Wikipedia about today.

UP trailer

2008-11-08T15:54:00.000-08:00

Since it's out... Might as well. Now available at Apple trailers. This business can really perplex me sometimes. This trailer is going to be in front of Bolt (Nov 21) but somehow somebody decided to get the scoop. This now prompts us to make it more official on the best site to watch trailers. I've been working on this movie for a few years and people are reacting to the story very well.

That's all I want. Cheers.

UP at Wikipedia
UP at IMDB

UP at Pixar.com

Up at Apple trailers

Exhale

2008-11-06T09:47:00.000-08:00

Take a bow. To each and everyone who voted, regardless of for what or who, this is an amazing time to be in a working democracy. This moment belongs to you.

Totoro Forest--Forest Heroes gets one of these!

2008-08-17T01:07:00.000-07:00

Gouache and watercolor on cold press watercolor board, approximately 6" x 8". Nina appears care of Paper Biscuit Industries.

A little Sumpin' sumpin'. The Forest Hero level tickets ($500) not only gets you into the auction and entitles you to the wondrous catalog of images of all the art it also means that you get a bookplate to come along with it. That bookplate will be especially made, original art--actual media, people--created by our artist friends: Enrico Casarosa, Dice Tsutsumi, Bill Presing, Scott Morse and yours truly.

Above is my first contribution to this pool. I hope to do at least two more. Check out the others made by the guys on our Totoro Forest Blog. Just our way of showing our appreciation to our Forest Heroes for supporting this cause.

See you all soon.

Totoro Forest Project auction tickets
Totoro Forest Project

Totoro Forest Project Blog

Totoro Forest Tickets

2008-08-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

First sale of tickets. They are going up for grabs for the September 6, 2008 auction event on Monday starting at 10 a.m.

Monday, August 11, 2008. Each ticket includes admission to the catered event and a perfect bound book (french fold) about the auction and the Totoro Forest initiative. By buying this ticket you will be registered for the auction, and may use your unique ID to bid on items. Please follow the link here.

The mock-up of the book. Spot varnish over every image, making them pop off the page. Dice spared no expense.

With the admission price you get a copy of the auction's very posh catalogue ($40.00) featuring all the magnificent art available that day. We just saw the proofs for the pages of this book and you are getting a very special printed edition of this celebration. Check out all the other tiers of prices and accompanying perks and privileges.

Dice is as unstoppable and determined as anybody I've ever met. Nice guy to boot. Enrico has a way of making any spare moment produce results on anything he sets his mind to. I'm the slug of the team by comparison. Great team of people all around us who are spot on and dedicated. We will feature them on later posts.

Check out the Totoro Forest Project website for more information and a look at all work up for auction.

Link to buy tickets for Totoro Forest Project auction
Totoro Forest Project

UP at SDCC Saturday, July 26, 2008

2008-07-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

A snapshot of the Pixar theater screen during one of our internal screenings. That's our movie's hardworking logo.

A SNEAK PEEK! Less than a year from now the movie we've been working on now for over three years will be in theaters. I wish I can show you the sequences, the characters and the locations...Hey, wait a sec, I don't have to wait. The Con is upon us and we got a show!

This Saturday at the largest multigenre fan convention on the planet, Pete Docter, our fearless leader and director will walk you through what we've been up to.

Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. Room 30AB
Disney Pixar's "UP"

From the inventive storytellers that have taken you into the worlds of space, toys, and superheroes comes the extraordinary adventure that will take you to a lost world where anything can happen, and everything will. Meet director Peter Docter (Monsters, Inc.) as he presents the first-ever look at Disney Pixar's new animated 3D adventure comedy, UP.

It's been quite a trip. Literally. We had the grand daddy of all research trips. Easily the most adventurous, rigorous trip I've ever been involved in (and I've been in a few. They are a walk in the park by comparison). Danger at every turn: snakes, falling off cliffs, lethal bugs, spelunking under a crumbling cave ceiling...you know, fun.

Come on by and say hello. I'll be at the sidelines making silly faces and nodding a lot along with our dauntless producer, Jonas Rivera, who is no stranger to pitching a movie to thousands of people.

I'll be walking the convention floor Starting Friday. It's been a while since I've been and I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of old friends and checking out this year's crop of illustrated wonders. See you there!

Official UP Website
Wikipedia on UP

Totoro Forest Project

2008-07-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

A thank you for inspiring us. This has got to be the auction/fund raiser to beat all. Hayao Miyazaki has been the singular filmmaker who's movies continue to amaze and inspire me over the years. In an animation world that's gone 3D specific (and even going 3D, as in glasses necessary) Miyazaki's movies connect with audiences around the world and holds up even after decades and styles move onward.

The singular, most loved movie of his oeuvre is "My Neighbor Totoro." The forest creatures of all our childhoods come alive in this one simple tale. Miyazaki had an actual forest in Tokyo to serve as his inspiration: Sayama Forest. Today all is not well in this real life forest.

Sayama Forest (approx 8750 acres) is located right outside Tokyo. Urban developement over the last three decades means the forest is losing its land. In 1990 Hayao Miyazaki set up the national trust,Totoro Forest Foundation to preserve the environment in the forest.

To help this cause we have The Totoro Forest Project, a fund raising/auction to suppport the foundation involving donated original art from over 200 internationally acclaimed artists, designers and storytellers from across studios, disciplines and media. All the proceeds will go to help the foundation in preserving Sayama Forest.

The event will be held at Pixar on September 6, 2008 where all the artwork will be on display for a silent auction and live auction following. We expect this to be an amazing day to celebrate and show our gratitude to master Hayao Miyazaki as well as come together to support a cause that can help avert an environmental tragedy.

A high-end catalogue featuring all the amazing artwork in the show is currently being prepared to be available for this night. Along with that the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco will host a special exhibit of this show running from September to December. Watch this blog for further details.

The work-up to the finished piece. More relaxed with this one than the first painting I did. The finished work is 15"x 20" and can be seen on the Totoro Forest website roster. Or click on the image above.

A monumental effort to bring this all to fruition by Dice Tsutsumi, who had the spark of the idea to help the forest after a visit to his home in Japan and hearing of the forest's plight, dedicating all his spare time (and then some) to make this all real for us. My thanks to Yukino Pang of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco's tireless efforts to realize this dream as well my partner in studio, book and art crimes Enrico "No slow button" Casarosa.

Please check out the official Totoro Forest website to take a gander at the donated wonders from a roster of great names in art, illustration and animation.

Totoro Forest Fund

Totoro forest Project
Dice Tsutsumi
Yukino Pang
Enrico Casarosa
Cartoon Art Museum

My final Story Auction piece

2008-04-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

"Nina Light Reading" was done in Gouache on pastel board. My thanks to Ted Mathot for giving her a good home and that very generous contribution.

I love a nap. The auction was held last Friday and it was a roaring success. I've been very busy of late and yet it's a good busy--the only kind I welcome. Somehow with even less time than usual I managed to help out in the Story Auction and make pieces for it. Of course I drove Shannon Ryan mad (she's our Story manager on UP and shoots lazers from her red haired head). But that's part of the fun I was talking about. She's gonna kill me next week.

It was a blast. So much fun. It was like a fiesta and people attending were having such a great time, some even remarked that we should do this more often. If it wasn't so hard to organize alongside work we probably would. At the night of the auction this piece had the single highest bid during silent auction.

My thanks to all of Pixar Story for being the stars of the show. You guys and gals ROCK! All of the volunteers who traded in more extra hours of their free time to organize and run all the details of the show. You are all rock stars. To all who participated by buying art, appreciating it and making the event a grand success, thank you, thank you!

More details and pictures to come.

Goodbye, Ollie Johnston

2008-04-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

Unending Inspiration. Ollie has passed away leaving us with none of the nine. He's an inspiration to many animators today and will be forever to thousands more to come. "The Illusion of Life" was a book I could not believe even existed when I backed into a career in animation. All the secrets of the trade and the finest examples of it for all time were there--to top it off, it was written by Frank and Ollie. An authoritative source you could not find better, ever.

Goodbye and thank you, Ollie Johnston.

Ollie Johnston
Disney Legend
Ollie Johnston on Cartoon Brew 1 2 3 4

Nina Flying

2008-04-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

I'm musing on the graphic design of a card or a cover here. A last minute impulse to try. Watercolor and pen on Arches paper

A second auction piece. I've not been making artwork to show for a while and, just like anything I do, it takes some time for me to warm up. As a story artist my work is done in intense bursts yet I must also regard it as disposable. A conundrum about the job. You have to invest in it for it to be any good but detach from it soon as it's had it's day in the sunlight. Either half isn't easy to do (I don't even think about that, the job's a blast).

So, switching from "Nobody will see this" to "I'm putting this on the wall for all to see" can strip the gears some. It doesn't help that we draw digitally on a screen. No actual paint, graphite or ink. This auction keeps me in shape for a larger piece I have to work on. There's a project we're working on for this year that I have to have done in a month. More on that later.

Barefoot Medusa

2008-04-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

Watercolor, gouache and pencil on watercolor board. Image links to a larger view.

An Auction Piece. I tried many studies of what to do after Ted Mathot suggested I try a companion piece to the Crystal one I did for the Emergency auction at Maverix. I had two false starts and this one was a study I had come back to after the rather tepid first tries.

Medusa, she of the Inhumans (careful of the hair, can give Reed Richards a run for his money, prehensile wise),queen to Black Bolt. Hey, I just remembered that I did a black bolt a while back for something...Oh, yeah, it was someone's sketchbook. I colored it on Photoshop. I did post it on the Drawing Board.

Anyway, this is a piece for an internal art auction to benefit our about to be born Story Pod. We're generating funds to furnish a corner of the building we can call our own. We've a name suggested by Brenda Chapman: Joe's Place, after Joe Ranft.

We've got the whole membership of the Pixar Story department generating art. I'll ask permission to post some as we progress.

Medusa
Black Bolt
Crystal

Sketchcrawl 18

2008-03-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

Pencil and watercolor on Moleskine cahier. Both images link to full spread pics.

Ghirardelli Square. It started out a gloomy morning last Saturday, March 29. The night before it rained. Enrico and I always remark, tempting fate, that it's never rained on a Sketchcrawl. Well, a sketchcrawler's luck is hard to beat--no rain. It was cold, but no rain.

Parked at Fort Mason, a ways from the square but the parking was free. I wandered back to that side past noon and had a serene couple of hours of sketching these two pages shown here.

The afternoon got colder but then the sun came out to warm us. Don't move into the shade if you're getting too hot 'cause it's still cold in there.

My thanks to all who stuck it out for our favorite sketchbook sharing ritual at the end of the day. There were a good number of new faces who were uncertain about handing over their drawing books over to these well-meaning strangers to peruse. But they all broke through and had a grand time with it all. You just gotta jump in. We're there for ya, you'll survive.

Thanks for all the wonderful positive energy, folks. I'll see you in two months!

Sketchcrawl 18 forum
My Flickr photos of SC18

Justin Wright 1981-2008

2008-03-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Justin with girlfriend, Ashlee

It was a shock. I read the mail late last night and it kept me up. This morning we gathered in a small screening room as a Story department for the formal announcement before the news goes out to the studio. Justing Wright passed away last night.

Justin was a very enthusiastic person and full of energy. You'd never guess that he had already gone through so much in life.

Justin’s journey to Pixar has another plot twist. He got introduced to the famous studio because of a heart transplant. When Justin was born, his heart had all sorts of complications: cardiomyopathy, a complete block, a hole between the upper two chambers, a hole in the mitral valve —the list goes on. Finally, when Justin was 12, his heart had been through too many surgeries and procedures to be of much use, not to mention that it was the size of a deflated soccer ball inside his slight 70-pound body. It was time for a transplant.

With a lot of time spent in hospital beds recovering, Justin drew pictures (a hobby he says he started as a kid when he got bored in church). His doctor at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children's Hospital noticed Justin’s interest, and one day, after Justin was fully recovered, took him on a tour at Pixar, where he had some connections. Justin was enthralled—this was what he wanted to do.

I didnt get to work alongside Justin and my memories with him are few. I do remember the day we, the Story Supes, met to decide on accepting Justin to the Pixar story crew as a full story person, no longer an intern. We put on long faces to fake him out and Mark Andrews said that it wasn't going to work out but we couldn't really continue with it and we just said, "Welcome to Story!"

He was so happy. He could hardly contain the energy in his lanky body and even promised that he would work hard and prove us right. He didn't really need to say all those things, we knew he had it in him and the months since then proved it all. I wish we had more time with him.

Our sincerest condolences to his family, our thoughts and prayers are with them.

I'll post more details on this post as I receive them.

Justin Wright's blog Charlie, a deck hand

Pacific Union College Alumni: Justin Wright

Remembrance Blog Roll

Think Radical

Ted Mathot

Yarn and Coffee: Justin

Jeff Pidgeon

John Sanford

James Robertson

Bill Cone

Enrico Casarosa

Alex Woo

Nick Sung

Scott Morse

Cartoon Brew

Austin Madison

Kyle Shockley

Kelly Matten

Rainbow Zookeeper

Phil Rynda

Lindsay

The Animation Blog

The Pixar Blog

Update March 24, 2008

A drawing I contributed to honor Justin last Friday when his family came to Pixar to visit with us. There were boards of his drawings, a sequence he did and caricatures of Justin. A Dave Matthews song (Justin was a huge fan) rendered by Plot Device, the Story band. Family, friends and co-workers spoke--Andrew Stanton spoke as well as John Lasseter himself--about the best of what Justin left us--his optimism, disposition to have fun and willingness to engage in all manner of debates (who will win, Superman or a Jedi?). We were his work family and we miss him.

Coffee boots drawing

2008-03-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

This scan's color is a bit off. It's warmer than this, I swear. Too lazy to color correct. Sigh

Happy Birthday. It was Don Shank's birthday (an old man. I'll let him disclose it hisself). Raquel, his beautiful wife (and expecting a little bundle soon), invited a bunch of us over at the Emeryvillle Trader Vic's for some Mai Tai's and good company.

I've been meaning to give the Shanks a gift and this is a good opportunity. I used a gray pastel board for its tooth and then leafed through a design mag for color.

I knew she had to be framed by the chair (value call) and then I got the blue (a Herbert Leupin poster) first. I remember a Van Gogh painting of his mother I saw at the Norton Simon years ago that still haunts me. It was a study in green.

I didn't look the image up, not wanting to get sidetracked but went with the green for her big skirt. All the rest was just feeling it through. It could all have fallen flat but somehow it kept together. I really like how this turned out and I had a good time making it.

You know, I came really close to that green, just from memory. I just looked that image, "Portrait of Mother," up for this post tonight and that green...man, I love how this mystical stuff works.

I handed it to an appreciative birthday celebrant knowing it's going to a good home. Some days a drawing just comes off nice and smooth. Wish I could have more of those.

Shank Pile
World of Kane on Herbert Leupin

Fio Giulietta Casarosa

2008-03-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Baby Fio! She has arrived! Enrico and Marit are proud parents of this bundle o' joy. The blessed event happened last Saturday and she came in at around seven pounds, ready for the world. Congratulations to my friends, Enrico and Marit (Marit, she sure is quite a champ). Hip hip, HOORAY!

Daddy Enrico's Blog post

Ratatouille wins Oscar!

2008-02-25T23:42:00.000-08:00

Brad poses with a smattering of a proud story crew. From left: Pete "A rat too loveable for for words" Sohn, Ted "A round of tequila shots for my friends" Mathot, Josh "Gray Leader checking in" Cooley, Mark "Rock you like a hurricane" Andrews, Brad "The Magnificent" Bird, Jim "My friend the Rat" Capobianco, Enrico "I'm gonna be a daddy" Casarosa, Ronnie "That's Mr. Biscuit Maker to you" del Carmen, Alex "I'll direct the smashing around here" Woo, Bill "You don't wanna mess with me" Presing. Image links to a larger look at these mugs.

Brad Bird brings the gold man home. There's something about Brad that inspires hero worship, we're no exception at Pixar (or, especially here). We gathered to salute him at the atrium with glasses of champagne in hand (cider for me. Allergies) and the crowd started to cheer as he walked into the building and through the crowd.

He was hoarse and started to say so but raised the Oscar to us as we applauded. He didn't miss the opportunity to say that the Oscar win was "...about you. It's for you."

"I'm keeping it." he quickly added, to laughter and applause. "But it's for you."

Ed Catmull wanted to highlight that Brad did a great thing by taking on the reigns of this movie. Ratatouille took a lot to finish, and Brad didn't have to jump in but he did. Brad's response, "Because there's something special about this place."

We all gathered around after the toasts and he graciously posed for pictures. Congratulations all around to all who worked on the movie. I'm glad to have been a part of it.

ITH* Creature

2008-02-22T12:37:00.000-08:00

Made in Photoshop CS2. Custom brush, color halftone screen. I'm sure I'll find more of the ITH's friends throughout the year. He'll pop into Nina's story for sure.

*Inexplicable Talking Head. I've been seeing this thing in my head for a couple weeks now. I don't know why and ,more curious, don't know why I can't shake my fascination with it. So today I started my day with a short to-do list and put him on it.

I attempted to shape him as best as that nagging mind picture can get me. I don't know if any of you are like this but I can see this drawing, literally, in my head. I've learned over the years that I should shape the actual drawing by keeping my mind's eye on this image and not be distracted by my hand's inclinations.

I think I got it very close to how this fella looks. Feels good to get him out there. I was also musing on a few things overnight and this meandering phrase came around. Sounds like something he would say as he sips his red. Though I'm not sure how he could sip anything, really.

On a side note: Just been through a screening on reels of "UP" and I'm exhausted. I've been making animated feature reels for over thirteen years and it doesn't get easier. The movie's doing quite well and it's one I myself can't wait to see on the screen.

This is my decompression day. And, for those of you who know me, I'm here at work when I could have a day off. Busman's holiday. That and an espresso makes it.

UP (film 2009)

Sketchcrawl 17: Portsmouth Square S.F.

2008-01-21T13:40:00.001-08:00

One of my more relaxed sketches on the crawl--as in, I was calm. The drawing seems to reflect this as well somehow. A detail of the sketch is here.

Another good and relaxing Sketchcrawl. Three day weekend and a Sketchcrawl called for Saturday. I must've been a good boy. Took the Bart over and met up with everybody at Portsmouth square. There was a good sized contingent there already drawing away. Enrico took a count and we had around sixty, give or take. A good turn out for what was a cold sunny day in San Francisco.

Had a great time. Didn't draw as much but meeting all you lovely folks for a day of drawing outside sure does a mind/body good. Our subjects were the good people of Chinatown who were there going about their day of congregating with friends, family and maybe take in a rousing game of cards.

From that overpass crossing Kearny St. I drew two elder gentlemen sharing a newspaper article. Great vantage point to see all the Sketchcrawlers, too. Click image for a lager pic.

The men and ladies of the square tended to be seniors and they had such character in their faces and garb. We've been here before for a Sketchcrawl and we don't seem to tire of the place. At one point our subjects turned their curiosity on us and looked over our shoulders to see what or who we were drawing.

An army travels on its stomach. True of our corps as well. Enrico, Bolhem and I hoofed if over to the House of Nanking. The chef took care of us after we fumbled with our menus--and that he did. The food was excellent! The tea arrived and we marveled at how luscious it looks with all the leaves and colorful buds. And it tasted great. Happy and full we sauntered over to Zoetrope for an espresso drink and dessert. Now that's what I call a Sketchcrawl.

I love seeing everyone's sketches at the end of the day, always a treat. Thanks to all who participated. See you at the forums and at the next Sketchcrawl.

Portsmouth Square
House of Nanking

Sketchcrawl Forums
Paperbiscuit Flickr albums

Nina starts the year

2008-01-07T17:42:00.000-08:00

Photoshop drawing and color. Low-rez with a customized brush then scaled up. Something Don Shank showed me.

Monthly drawing? Maybe not a bad idea to have a regular drawing post, eh? I can gather enough for a calendar? The storms over the weekend had forced us to hole up in the house. I need to get the hybernation cobwebs out. Heck, need to work out.

My thanks to Claudio Acciari for continuing to post on my humble Oekaki board. He's such a consumate draftsman, it's not even funny. While you're at it, check out my very own Oekaki board. We've been losing comments to the ether lately and I've no idea what triggers it. I hope it fixes itself in the long run. I also posted the simple password for comments on the top of the page (under the banner of my oekaki page). That's just so the spam bots don't thrash my board with mindless ads for vulgar items. Sheesh.

while you're at it, maybe you want to leave a drawing on that there drawing applet--it's really quite a versatile drawing program for something free online. Most of the controls and options you would have been used to in other drawing applications are there. I can even custom make a brush. Too bad you can't save it permanently.

Claudio Acciari

OekakiBBS tutorial. I really should go through this myself(though that scary image can hinder the faint of heart).Scroll down the page for a call-out of all the tools.

Paperbiscuit OekakiBBS--in case you can't see the banner in the sidebar linking to the site, heh.

Happy Holidays 2007

2007-12-23T22:15:00.000-08:00

Mostly done on my Oekaki board. I brought it in to Photoshop, hoping to jazz it up. Didn't really do much--just touch ups. But do check out the OK BBs link on the side bar.

Wishing you all the best. Have a happy and safe holiday. This is an Oekaki drawing, something I haven't done in a while. The java applet seemed to be working better in my Safari browser (though still not working in Firefox) since an update on my java came around. Good to be drawing.

It was a good year. I travelled to many wonderful places (I also have so much back log of posts--from the Italy, France and Philippine trips) and so glad to have met so many good people. I hope to see them all again soon.

Be well and here's to the new year, may it bring you all peace and happiness.

Paper Biscuit Oekaki Board

Drawing on feeling

2007-12-13T16:20:00.001-08:00

Just close enough. Sometimes ya just gotta draw it out. Waves of feelings can make you draw. I don't have time and yet it was there, might as well. Get it out. This isn't it. But this is what showed up. Just sharing.

Photo at the Met

2007-12-12T16:28:00.002-08:00

Image links to a larger view. Just click to view

Wait for it... The last Sketchcrawl we did was at the Met in New York. Hard to believe it was just a little over a month ago and so much has happened since. This is a favorite shot I took while at the European Sculpture Court. I couldn't have staged or planned this shot if I tried. Does it feel like a fashion editorial shot for magazine? The lady on the left had just taken a photo of the Perseus statue and was framed by it's base. You breathe and count micro seconds as you bring up your camera hoping she doesn't move and yet she does. Don't walk away... please...breathe...and she stops.

Click.

I've so much time travel to make up. The trip to the Philippines yielded more to write about than the mutiny I posted below (really, that happened at the tail end of my stay). So, watch this space.

sketchcrawl.com

Shooting the Manila Peninsula siege

2007-12-03T05:57:00.000-08:00

Caught up in the moment. On November 29 the news that a coup attempt was underway at the Manila Peninsula caught us off guard. My initial response was amusement: Of course a coup would happen during my visit. After dodging a super typhoon and a 6.0 earthquake a coup by a faction of the military couldn't be far away.

But this is serious. The Shangri-la, the hotel where we were staying, is directly across from the Peninsula (see map) and if this erupts into a full-on firefight on the streets we were right in the middle of it. Though you wouldn't know it to look at the pedestrians. Guess they've been through this sort of thing before.

Curious bystanders armed with cel phones (the country is purported to be the text capital of the world) were snapping away pics or just going about their day. Though most of them stay on the curb there were people taking pictures right on the road (traffic was blocked from entering Ayala Avenue and Makati Avenue).

The military trucks and armored vehicles were parked along the other side of the road where some journalist types were even closer to the soldiers, big cameras, note pads. Then I notice these folks on my side of the center divider were mostly press too. All I had was my world weary four-year-old Nikon Coolpix 5200, a point n' shoot that's hardly press rated.

So I followed them and behaved as they did. I marched over to the soldiers and snapped away, I swarmed along with everybody as commanders moved with troops, I took movies up close of soldiers as they prepared for the assault. Nobody seemed to mind I was there.

At some point the assault started. "I see movement," a lady journalist talks into her phone, the gaggle of photographers pushed to get a good shot. I had my camera out with theirs...then shots rang out.

I can't remember how I covered the distance to a parked news van. There were a couple of us taking cover there. People pointed to a window at the Peninsula and said something about snipers. I see the smoke of gunfire high of on the hotel windows. I made it over to other side of Makati Avenue just in time for more soldiers to run past me.

I couldn't tell you why I stayed out there. The danger was real and I had no direct stake in what happened. I walked away after we heard that a tank crashed through the doors of the Peninsula and lobbed tear gas. It was going down.

With at least seven coups since the popular uprising in 1986 that ousted Pres. Marcos the country seems to have incorporated this option into their politics--and it may be losing it's potency to mobilize the masses. Or these causes are not as universally shared. Trillanes, Gen. Lim and all those holed up in the Peninsula eventually surrendered. It took all of six hours (in 2003 Trillanes was involved in the Oakwood mutiny, that lasted 18 hours. Which was, by the way, why he was in court that day). Most people I talked to were ambivalent about what this latest coup accomplishes.

And no one is under any illusion that this was going to end here.

_____

Links to movie clips above

1 2 3 4 5 6

Wikipedia entry on the Manila Peninsula siege here.
Link to news recap of events with a background on events leading to the siege here.

Off to the Philippines for a conference

2007-11-17T15:33:00.001-08:00

Nostalgia. I'm slated to participate in an animation conference in the Philippines the week of thanksgiving. As I write this I'm preparing to go on the long plane ride. I've returned twice last year after a twelve year absence. I grew up there and I have fond memories of a simpler time. The image above is of a historical home in Batangas (a prominent family's home during Rizal's younger years) common at around the turn of the last century and I remember my grandfather (father's side) had a home very similar to this.

The conference aims to develop the country's animation industry with the focus on creating original content. I did a series of talks in th summer of last year at several universities back there about this very same topic and I am very encouraged and applaud these goals.

I'll report back soon as I get back in two weeks. Meantime, I have halo-halo and bibinka in my immediate future.

Animahenasyon 2007

The Society of Illustrators

2007-11-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

Yours truly at the second floor dining area. That's Bernie Fuchs to my right and N.C. Wyeth to my left. I swear I couldn't have staged this better. Bernie Fuchs was illustrating sports magazines and Reader's Digest story collections when I was growing up and was truly inspirational. Made me want to draw. N.C. Wyeth, well, beside Howard Pyle himself, this man made Robin Hood live for all of us without the aid of movies.

My lord! Look at what's on these walls! We were invited by the esteemed Peter de Seve, Chairman of the Society's 50th Annual, to participate in the judging panel for their sequential art section. Imagine me marveling at being invited. Then flash forward to the day I walk into the the building on 128 East 63rd street and up to the second floor where I encountered the pantheon to classic illustration in America. I had to hold my jaw up.

The paintings, portraits, sketchbooks, memorabilia from artists decades here and gone...it was an amazing array of history and craft sure to amaze any illustration student or fan--myself being a rather exuberant, if not well schooled, example of one.

Top: Glass case holding memorabilia. Dean Cornwell letter, on his letterhead; a letter from Jack Davis, photos and sketchbooks. Ahh, if I could get get to handle those. Second row: Stairway lined with portraits of illustrators done by other illustrators. Our own Enrico Casarosa admiring the art. Third row: Hirschfeld tile (see below) and a bust of Charles Dana Gibson flanking a framed board of signatures by the illustration greats. Bottom: Framed poster for "The Girlie Show," a black tie affair that showcased a special revue held in 1963. Note it was stag only.

I've been aware of the grand works and storied names over the years: N.C. Wyeth, Meade Schaefer, Bernie Fuchs, Charles Dana Gibson, Brad Holland, Dean Cornwell...it goes on. But to stand in front of the originals (they made them big) in person was a tremendous treat.

Mead Schaeffer. This was quite eye-catching. I took a snap close up and you can see the masterful brush strokes. Click on the image.

The bar and library on the third floor has a hearth (right) in the center of a tiled wall. Those tiles were illustrated by the famed illustrators of the day and fired in a kiln.

The tiles were amazing to behold. A gallery unto itself of the wide range of styles and temperament of each of these greats. I could have stared at them all day. They continued this tradition on the second floor where they framed a wall-sized collection of drawn tiles, the Hirschfeld tile above being one of them, of the next wave of artists.

I knew about the Society--mostly from their annuals--but never thought to go there. Actually, I didn't even know you could. But if you take a look at their website you can waltz in and take a gander at these beauties yourself.

The great John Lagatta. Breathtaking, really. I did stare at this a bit.

Close up you can see how a master at his craft does it. Simple, fluid and direct.

My thanks to Peter and the all the folks we met in their magnificent building (did you know they own it outright? What a location) and for having us be part of their process for the next annual.

The Society of Illustrators
Peter de Seve

Alzheimer's Association Auction a grand success!

2007-09-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

The Maverix Studios gallery was packed and buzzing with art marketplace energy and noise. Can you spot a very happy Ted Mathot in this picture? A visiting Simon Dunsdon? Mike Murnane is in costume somewhere here as well.

Maverix Studios held the art auction last night in the city and although all these auctions are a blast we had an especially thrilling night. Cutting to the chase: Steve Purcell's piece, "Ditty" went for the highest bid of the evening. Brenda Chapman had won it on the paper bid but, as it is the fashion at Maverix, it went up for the grand audience bid along with eight other highest bid items. Brenda dueled fast and furious with another lady starting at $400, and quickly escalated to beyond a thousand...Two Thousand!...Three! It all culminated in Brenda winning the piece at $3, 500! Whew! That was amazing!

A very happy Brenda Chapman chatting with Brian and Lorien McKenna about a certain Inhuman.

This is the closest to high stakes gambling I'll ever get myself. Once you're in the room and have been battling with others to secure artwork on the silent bid you're already quite a bit pumped up. And the best part is that you're amongst colleagues, friends and family.

From the top: Mike Murnane as Auctioneer Supreme and MC Derek Thompson. Those guys know how to work a crowd out their hard-earned bucks for a good cause. Albert Lozano, world class DJ to the starz--also mild mannered artist/designer at Pixar. Anita Coulter eyes Crystal on the wall. Center and bottom is the Hall o' Art and lovely art-lovin' folks.

I had my eye on Rhode Montijo's two original pieces from the start. I took my time bidding on this one inked piece. I knew it was going up for the public bid because it was up to around $250 by the time silent bidding closed. Jamie Baker, who's already like blood brothers with Rhode bid on it right off, then Bosco Ng jumped in. I just watched as they battled and it reached to $425. I was standing right next to Bosco as Mike Murnane stoked the fires of battle with his inimitable autioneer stylings.

Anita Coulter holding up a magnificent print by the equally lovely Sho Murase. That baby went for five hundred bucks. Good job, everyone. The circled art were next. Mine at center (Crystal) and Steve Purcell's record-breaking art.

I raised my hand and flashed five fingers. Oh! That did it, blindsided my pals. There's a trick to this and you gotta wait till the players are losing their will and even maybe even needing to be saved from themselves--though clearly not the case here but I sure did end up winning my very first Rhode Montijo original art! After four years of waiting I finally got one! HA HA!

Rhode Montijo loveliness here. Already safe at home.

The other highlight for me was securing Jeff Pigeon's "Happy Beaver" toy he donated for the cause. Signed as Derek Thompson puts it, "Right on it's a**" I've been meaning to get one but this is the best time to do it.

Jeff Pidgeon did all of us a favor and made a toy. And I just love it ta pieces! Look at that orange molded goodness. Hmmmm--mmmh!

My contribution to the auction was original art: "Crystal of the Inhumans." This was also one of the highest bids of the evening. Brenda had bid on both Steve and mine's hoping to get both but Derek Thompson wanted it as well, even so far as to playfully intimidating the crowd, "If you don't know who the Inhumans are you shouldn't even be bidding but this is for a good cause so it's all good."

Brian is likely talking to Lorien about..."What?! Enough with the Inhumans already! Sheesh."

Derek and Brenda battled, Mike egged and taunted the players and eventually Brenda let Derek win the piece for the high bid of $700! Whoa! That is crazy. I wanted a Derek monster myself. But that will have to be for another auction day.

"Crystal of the Inhumans" is watercolor, pen and pencil. I scanned this before I signed and framed it for the auction.

Congratulations to all who attended and my thanks to Esther Pearl and Nate Stanton for putting this together, Maverix for having the boundless energy and giving soul to have us use their wonderful space yet again. We hope to have another one of these things before the year is done and this time we're going to be even more ambitious! So, watch this space.

Alzheimer's Association
Maverix Studios
Maverix Studios Blog

UPDATE! The great Carlos Baena has posted his magnificent photos of the evening. Check them out here.

Jamie Baker's got an excellent report from his vantage point here.

Lost Sketchbook

2007-09-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

Had to happen sometime. At the last Sketchcrawl we went to the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, it was a real good choice. Good central location, target rich environment, free music (Jug Band that day), and the museum lunch counter was good.

The De Young Museum features a tower you can take an elevator to and enjoy a 360° view of the city. No museum fees, it's free! Wonderful! I broke out a new cahier moleskin for the occasion and started on a view towards the Golden Gate bridge. I was catching up to the group and my energies were flagging, but I managed to get one watercolor done. I took a snap of it and went down to get a bite to eat.

At the lunch area I had a thoroughly relaxed lunch and the view of the sculptures in the museum grounds was not bad either. Someone was waiting for a table and I offered mine as I was going anyway. I left and even glanced back as the bus staff swooped in to clear the table.

It would be a full hour or so before I find that the sketchbook is missing. I rush back inside and ask the staff if they noticed a little brown sketchbook. No luck. I ask lost and found and still zip. I retraced my steps all the rest of the afternoon and, needless to say, any remaining enthusiasm for drawing I may have had on reserve left me. I hung around till the end of the crawl to see everyone's work as this is my favorite part of a sketchcrawl day.

above image links to larger view. Sigh.

Everyone was shocked about my news and even offered me their spare sketchbooks. Thanks, people. Typical for me to be carrying four or five at any one time and apparently it goes for everyone at the crawl.

Let that be a lesson to you, kids. Always do a thorough check of your valuables before you leave a table. This one sketchbook had the one sketch in it, thankfully. Otherwise I would be an emotional wreck. I console myself that at least I got a picture of the work -- practicing that "half-full" point of view--and that it wasn't the book that held my Europe trip in it. That one was full...and safely inside my bag.

Sketchcrawl.com
De Young Museum
Golden Gate Park

Joann Sfar: Missionnaire

2007-07-31T22:17:00.001-07:00

Back from Vacation. Well, it's been a while and I must say that it was a grand tour. I'll spill all the details on the specifics as we go, there's just too much to tell and they're all battling for primacy in my brain. Let's just get started. Paris was our last stop and we stayed for five days. I got a map from Stuart Ng which shows all the bookstores along and around St. Germain. Of course I lost my mind at Album right away. I've got a post on that alone. This is just about a moment there.

The french Album store (I wandered into the American one first, whipped around to the other corner for the local stuff) is two floors of bande dessinée heaven. I pigged out. After my book binge (more on that later) I picked up several magazines for good measure. This cover above appealed to me.

I flip through it, there's enough stuff here. I should pick this up, and oh, hey! Joann Sfar is featured. Maybe it's about his movie. Hey, it's his journal on his site, isn't it? At about this fraction of a second I notice the drawing on the periphery of my vision. I let out a yelp, "Hah!?"

There we were! That day that Joann visited us at Pixar we all gathered for a group photo and darn if that isn't our Sfar sketch versions up there. We're famous! Well, in my mind we are. After all, how often do you go to another country to find you are part of an article in a magazine there. Of course I couldn't brag to anyone nearby, my french is still at zero.

Okay, I cash out. I walk out and it would take another hour before I would realize that I bought a Sfar journal at Album as well. There were at least two of them that came out at the same time. I root around my stash and find the book, "Missionnaire." And sure enough there it is, a drawing of the Pixar gate, him posing with the Parr Family mannequins of the Incredibles...and there we are! Man, that's awesome.

"Missionary gathers the notebooks of voyage held by Joann Sfar during his stays in Tokyo in 2005 and the United States in 2006, as well as an anthology of watercolours drawn in Edinburgh and in Morocco."

On the bottom of the page he scribbles about a project that he and I had been keeping under our hats for a couple of years. It became apparent to both of us that I would not have time to execute these lovely pages. I never let on with anyone about it. So, on the following pages he discloses what's been on my hard drive for a while now. I hope to really work with Joann someday, maybe even get our Princess story out there together. Hey, you never know. I'm on a lucky streak here.

Joan Sfar website
The Rabbi's Cat at Amazon
Missionnaire at Amazon France

The Terror of Olivia Neutron Chan III

2007-07-07T19:21:00.002-07:00

Olivia delivers a flurry of pain dealin'. That Roverbite sure was a charming pooch. Funny, too. He had to go. All images except for the compendium link to larger views, so zoom in.

Pray you are not in the blast radius. Sam Hiti's tournament of drawn fighters, Fist-a-cuffs, is a great idea because it is simple. If you were ever a kid and you had this escalating argument about who would win in a fight between King Kong and Godzilla then you know how this game works. I love the tag line.

"Fist-a-cuffs. Where drawings are voted to the death and the streets run black with ink."

Sam had called for this to be the first full-color Fist-a-cuffs. Invited artists were enjoined to "bring your 'A' game." And the new catch this time would be that no one can know who drew the fighter. No popularity vote based on the creator's rep, no brand-name recognition (in the previous FACA's this was exactly the case). This time the drawing will have to stand on its own merits.

This is Olivia's full figure glossy. She's unused to cameras as you can see.

Olivia Neutron Chan III. She has molten plasma for blood, a nuclear furnace for a heart which in turn powers her destruction-geared limbs. She fires lasers, missiles, and blares through her Mach3 Valkyrie speakers the chilling songs of her namesake, Olivia Newton John--annotating a path of ironic carnage to burbling, vein-rupturing effect.

Olivia was done by migrating between Photoshop and Painter--I'm not familiar enough with Painter to just do it all there. This is also a side of my work no one sees a lot. "Dad, that is so scary. I don't think anyone could tell this is you," my daughter Gerin says as she cringes. That's the idea.

A compendium of Smak Talk visuals from ONCIII's battles. An Assault arabesque, if you will.

Well, she fought hard and well until it was down to her and Red Raja. I must admit, if I wasn't in this myself I would have voted for that tentacled lobsterman from the east myself. There sure was a groundswell of support for the old mullusk head. Olivia was going to have to rely on her ferocity and toughness to win the crowd and hope for the best. In the end it was a valiant close to a short, head-stomping career. My thanks to all who voted for her and phooey to all of you who didn't. All hail The Chan!

Here's one more visual of The Olivia on the warpath.

Olivia likes to sing while she works. This lyric is from "Physical." Pandemic got the groove eventually. Oooh, that had to hurt.

Links:

ONCIII vs Baby Killer
ONCIII vs Roverbite
ONCIII vs Pandemic
ONCIII vs Red Raja

I'm off for a trip!

2007-07-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

Guess where? If you check with a certain italian friend of mine's blog you'll find that he's off somewheres too. Hmmmm...Anyway, it's my first time to go to Italy and France. Tess and I are now in the frenzy of prep. You know, packing, annoying the big kids with lists of things to do and the an even longer one of what not to do. I hear that crossing one's fingers help. Sigh.

I caught a bug this week, food poisoning. Of course. The peppy nurse practitioner chimes, "I usually treat folks AFTER a trip. And you're not leaving me much room to use my magic here!" That was yesterday and the quick blood test (man, blood is such a deep red) revealed I'm not battling an infection. Great. Now, I just gotta not feel crappy. But honestly, today I feel much better. Bring on the fantastic food already!

See you all in two weeks!

______

Oh, by the way, if you've been checking Sam Hit's Fist-a-cuffs blog you know that the North Division Championships are winding down. Interesting two fighters left to duke it out.

'Just sayin'.

Ratatouille in Paris

2007-07-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

Service with a smile. Brad Lewis, Brad Bird,Guy Savoy, Ed Catmull, John Lasseter. Food always brings wide open smiles from everyone. Kinda like animation does.

Bon Appetit! Ratatouille ruled this weekend (and a surprising Monday after as well). Congratulations to Brad Bird and crew! This is such a beautiful movie and I must say this is the very first animated feature I've ever seen that actually made me very hungry while watching it. I did story duties early in its production life and I love the way it turned out. If you haven't seen it you should go and check it out. Make sure you have dinner plans after.

And if you're wondering how the French premiere is going, well wonder no longer. Check it out here.

Disney and More blog

Babe Magnate

2007-07-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

It's about hubba-hubba time. Bill has amassed a veritable warehouse of sexy girl drawings in this lovely tome that, in my opinion, gives him a corner on the good girl art market. If you are anywhere inside this summer's Comic-con then hunt him down. You won't regret it. It's very well put together, hard cover, cloth bound and gold stamped on the spine--spared no expense.

Check out his entry on the arrival of the boxes and his continuing our tradition of documenting the reveal of the actual books inside (we're a silly bunch, self-publishers). I got my copy already so write him or see him in person in San Diego this July for your very own copy!

Daily Peril

Sketchtravel: Page colored and done

2007-06-28T11:55:00.001-07:00

Above image is cropped but it links to a larger view. See? It takes a while for me not to be all shy about showing bigger images but I come around.

PENCILS DOWN! Well, you have to stop, push away from the drawing board and say, "That's it! Anything I can do to this from here on will have to be conjecture."

As always I am liking the work more and more the longer I stay away from it. Dice Tsutsumi and Daniel Lopez Muñoz saw it first as I was scanning it for my files (it goes away, see. I'll not see it for a long while). They were very nice and made me feel real good about the work. Artists, we're forever chastising ourselves for not being better and better every time out of the gate. Or is that just me? Shrinks are expensive, fortune cookies are free.

Anyway, my thanks to all involved and the book is now about to be handed to the next person in line. Dice will arrange the photo shoot of that hand-off. Onward!

Sketchtravel
Sketchtravel Blog

Sketchtravel: My page in progress

2007-06-27T18:43:00.001-07:00

The finished pencil page. Color will be added.

Backstage. Deadlines are great motivators. I had the one weekend to finish and that was it. Things will get busier, what with the Italy and Paris trip just around the corner. And I'm wary that the idea I had might just turn into mud as I try to realize it. The window of two days got whittled into one day, then into an afternoon. Actually a handful of hours.

Marker study on a pad of Muji newsprint from Japan

Start already! I had a thumbnail I worked up weeks ago, even before Enrico had the Sketchtravel book. I like it, it should work. Next was to do a rough on tracing paper to work out the composition.

That rough done, it seemed that it could hold together. The meter is running. Oops, we gotta run! We're due at Pixar to welcome our close friends to a Ratatouille screening in the best screening theater in the east bay. The sound in the Pixar theater is just truly amazing. You are forever spoiled for any other theater experience. Well, after leaving our guests there I really should be getting back to my drawing. But, well, you gotta have coffee, right? Off to Peets on Piedmont Avenue.

I used a coffee press for the composition but this coffee urn had so much character, so in it goes

They have a collection of antique percolators and coffee urns. I've taken many photos of these over the years but I don't have time to hunt through my un-tagged photos in my computer. I took a snap of one that catches my eye. Then I was thinking, hey, I'm a little sore from working out last week, when was the last time I had a good steam? We schedule a steam in the early evening--just to relax the anxious drawing brain.

I also collect these large wood block letters, likely used for headlines, and I thought it looked neat and complimented the urn. Seemed like fun, so in it goes.

Back to work. Oh, look at the time. I trace the drawing onto the page. I can't see the page too well, I should go outside to the back patio to draw. Natural light. Okay, now I can draw it for real. Pencils, HB, 4B, 6B. I'm careful not to smudge the page with my hand. Oh, fudge, look at the time. Honey, we gotta go. Time for the steam!

Ahhh, that made me sleepy. It's an hour later. Man, I gotta hustle. The light is dying in the backyard. I watercolor the coffee urn with a round sable and let the colors puddle and dry on their own. Takes time. I run inside to finish coloring.

Then it's a lot of staring at it.

After a great deal of squinting I grab the pastels to unify the whole thing. The focus of the piece is pulling to the left. It has to be all about Nina. That's what the pastels do. I do a lot of retouching the pencils and chase down some smudge I made of touching wet color. It seems to be holding together, but I do the diligence of touching it up here and there. By the time it's time for bed I will have resolved to wait till daylight again next day to truly judge it.

The finished piece in color to be posted tomorrow.

Sketchtravel handoff!

2007-06-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

Alley-oop! The handoff happened weeks ago really. We got to take the picture only last week when Dice Tsutsumi started at Pixar. He took the picture with Enrico's fish-eye lens. Enrico already finished his weeks ago. He got the book after Lou "Linguini" Romano. Here's their hand-off.

That sealed it. The deadlines keeping me from the book is done and this window of relative quiet won't hold for long. I had to do the drawing quick. Dice says he would love to have it by next week. Yikes! I have a thumbnail rough of an idea I want to do , but will it work? What if I mess it up as I attempt to make it for real?

Stay tuned.

Sketchtravel Blog
Sketchtravel
Enrico Casarosa
Lou Romano

Pixar man of the hour: Lou Romano!

2007-06-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

Above link to New Yorker Lou Romano cover--its available as a print!

Genius! I just love this! Pixar producer Jonas Rivera says that,"It's probably a record. A man starring in a major motion picture and having a cover to the New Yorker published all in the same month!" He's probably right. This is amazing not only for the unique confluence but it points to how good Lou is on many fronts. People who've worked with him know he's a very good actor which is now getting a major showcase as the voice of Linguini in Ratatouille; and this alongside the fact that his art and design work is of caliber right up there with the greats. All that wrapped in this humble, self-effacing genius. He'd demure heavily if you direct a compliment his way.

Congratulations, Lou, on Ratatouille and the New Yorker Cover!

Lou Romano
Lou Romano on Wikipedia
New Yorker
Ratatouille on Rotten Tomatoes

Sketchtravel

2007-06-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

Moveable Art Feast. Sketchtravel is a simple but awesome concept, really. Pick 50 artists and send the one book to each in turn wherever in the globe they are, have them do artwork however they please on one page and pass it along to the next one on the list. Created by Daisuke Tsutsumi and Gérald Guerlais, the book project has been coming along, traveling from Paris, New York, Japan and is now in San Francisco. I have it now.

The distinctiveness of this sketchbook is that artist will not have to send a sketch, a drawing or a painting to a publisher : instead, a real sketchbook will travel from one artist to another during one year.
So, step by step, invited Artists can be inspired by what previous artists have done before in the Sketchbook.

It's not only about skills and abilities it's also about creativity, ideas and friendship. The original sketchbook will be exhibited at the Arludik Gallery, Paris. It will finally be sold at auction for a Charity Association, selected by the artists.

I love the case lavishly constructed by Daniel Lopez Munoz, who is not only a master artist but is handy with tools, too. The book pages are already adorned with amazing art (I'd post some but that will ruin the surprise for all of you, right?). Quite daunting for me to now add my work in this same line. Check out the roster of artists involved here.

And lookee here! There's a short clip of a movie Gerald and his band of talented friends over in France made. Whoa! This is awesome! And ad for a book? A book not even completed. The French rocks! Check it out.

This is so amazing! I'm going to France for the first time this July and hope to see a lot of Paris. I hope to bump into many of youse guys whom I correspond with it over there. I don't know a lick of french but I hope sign language and grinning a lot will help. I will indeed by traveling and sketching over there, so there, that ought to bring it all home.

Oh, and I do have to finish my page before I leave. Heh.

_____

Sketchtravel Video Commercial
Sketchtravel.com
Sketchtravel Blog
Daisuke Tsutsumi
Gerald Guerlais

Old Manila

2007-06-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

Nostalgic for what could have been. The fuzzy video "Old Manila" has that hot summer afternoons of my childhood feel about it. Some of the scenes are familiar: an Intramuros gate in silent sentry from the old Spanish rulers, Roxas Boulevard has a continuous stand of trees that was gone by the time I was a child there, bridges going over Pasig river. And there is a scene of trams (trambia) ferrying people through the streets that I only heard about. A city on its way to gaining it's full identity in the world, given the promise from our custodians, the Americans, that we were being groomed for independence someday. All this before the war. Google video here.

I really love the video. I keep playing over and over. I just wish my dad was still around to watch it as he would love it just as much as I did. I remember my dad telling me how beautiful Manila was at that time and this video showed what my dad said was true.

--Comment on the video by Boly SM. Linsangan

The country today, as ever, is faced with many challenges too complex and enormous to even take in. Time and history has not been kind, but we muddle through. I was very happy to see many things have improved as well as see more things stay the same. Still, there is much to be hopeful for.

____

Trolling the net I found this flickr album by brownpau. I hope he doesn't mind that I link to them. The photos are amazing. You can find them here.

Another small gallery of old Manila here.
Austrian-Philippine website has a gallery of even older images here.
Wikipedia on Manila.

Trader Vic's art

2007-06-04T13:19:00.000-07:00

Tiki Art. The Trader Vic's in Emeryville is fun place to celebrate work milestones over a mai-tai--the stirs, mugs and glasses are worth the trip along with the decor. Let's not forget the drinks are neat,too. It's over by the marina so the view of boats and the ocean calling you to some south sea adventure of abandon can seem within your grasp. Surely you deserve to go.

There is a room there that is home to mementos from patrons past. Artists leaving artwork or notes in appreciation of the good times had. This one by Hank Ketcham referring to a time in 1982, when "Vic" was apparently an adherent to Pyramid Power and Mr. Ketchum loved to down gallons of "happy water." All translates to good times, I say.

I have to go back more to snap more pictures of other art there. I can't seem to find the images of previous visits showing, if I remember right, Disney artists drawings from way back.

"Mai Tai, Roa Ae!"

______

Some art found on the net of Trader Vic's.

Trader Vic's
Trader Vic's in Emeryville.

Lookout! It's Bill Presing!

2007-05-31T22:25:00.001-07:00

That Greta design sure is awesome. Look at that chiseled goddess face!

BAM! Loud sound effects seem fitting here. After all it's the arrival of our esteemed comrade-in-arms, Bill Presing to the world of artist blogs, . He of the bare knuckles, don't-tell-me-the-odds, head first style of visual storytelling; exemplified in his stellar book about smashing nazi's, compellingly titled, Rex Steele, Nazi Smasher.

It took him long enough. He saunters into my room one day just this week, with that cat-had-canary-snack smile and says,"I made a blog." This after years of my prodding for him to jump in, he blindsides me. Typical. And it's very aptly titled, Daily Peril. Genius. But just in time, I say. He's got one big doozy of an offering coming your way this summer at Comic-con. I'm not telling. Go visit his site and check out the intitial offerings.

This is a detail of one of the illustrations posted in Bill's site. Go there to see da whole girl. I dare ya.

He sure can draw them babes, that Presing. Not bad for a hard drinking, cigar chomping former Jersey truck driver. Go ask him to about his trucker travails at the con. Remember to duck right after. Bam!

Daily Peril

Sketchcrawl 14 and auction a grand success!

2007-05-30T22:11:00.002-07:00

I'm a little behind on my post but here it is. Coit Tower, Sketchcrawlers lazer sighted on their targets.

Hurrah! Congratulations to all who participated in Sketchcrawl 14 and auction benefiting Emergency. There was such an air of anticipation on the Saturday crawl, our Emergency reps were there to send us off and hand out information to all about the Emergency mission. The hike to and up the Filbert Steps is always invigorating, I love seeing the reaction of people who've not been before. It is so worth climb. The Coit Tower perch offers quite a view but as always the best targets are fellow crawlers--they stay so still as they draw.

We were over 80 strong! We looked like protest rally, all we needed were placards.

We ended up at in China town after a lunch break at Washington Square. The last hour of the crawl that afternoon is our traditional sharing of the sketchbooks. My favorite part because we see so many styles and modes of expression. It's all great. Thanks for sharing, everyone.

AUCTION TIME! Sunday. The crowd started arriving promptly at five and with the array of over 90 pieces of artwork to choose from it was tough--you can want a lot, you know. I personally bid on about ten pieces. It was fun and, as anticipated, competition was fierce.

One highlight of the night was a sketch of Carmen Ngai I did on the spot and taped next to the framed works. It immediately started getting bids! My thanks to Carmen for being such a good sport.

The frenzy kicks in as the clock is counted down to the end of bidding. Man, there was some stiff man-to-artwork guarding going on. Derek Thompson did a great job as M.C. and Mike Murnane carried it all home as auction master bringing the final bids on the most contested pieces to their final higher bids. I won master Tadahiro Uesugi's framed beauty as well as Manuel Arenas'. See my happy mug in Sho Murase's blog here.

Marshalling sketchrawlers through our whole day trek is fun, though I did do less drawings this time. I promise to get more done next time.

Our thanks to all who participated on both days as well as everyone who contributed to our fundraiser. We appreciate all your help and it sure was a fun way to help out for a good cause and we hope you had as grand a time as we had putting this all together. Special thanks to Maverix for being such a well-oiled and dedicated crew, it was so awesome to be working alongside you guys. Noelle Page and Carmen Ngai (Official Sketchcrawl Babes) for keeping us organized as well as always being there for us. Take a well deserved bow, everyone!

See you all at the next Sketchcrawl!

___________

For a full report visit Enrico's blog for more details on both days here, here, and here.

Emergency
Maverix Studios
Sketchcrawl 14 Forum

Fantastic photos by Bosco Ng here.

Sketchcrawl 14 countdown and warm up

2007-05-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

Staying limber. Drawing whenever I find myself with a span of time where I can sit still. Last February at Union Square, always a target rich environment. Right in front of Cafe Rulli. What more can you ask for? Espresso drink, table and chair. Perfect. I need to get back to it. The next Sketchcrawl is nearly here and I've not drawn on the sketchbook much because of the crunch in making story reels. We just passed a milestone and it's time for a little exhale.

I also draw plants more now. After a trip to the jungle last year where I drew many plants and trees I am now afflicted with a need to keep drawing them. Very relaxing.

Don't forget about our Sketchcrawl event coming up. May 19, 2007, Enrico and I will be meeting everyone in San Francisco, at the Ferry Building at The Embarcadero, 11:00a.m.

See you there.

Video Ping Pong for the masses!

2007-05-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

On my way to a meeting I dropped by Josh "Major" Minor's office. I played Pong! I was late for my meeting. But what fun, eh?

The Joshua Minor variety, that is. I work with incredibly talented folk here at ye olde Pixar house of ideas. Josh is a graphic software engineer and all around nice guy. Along with Michael Johnson, he is part of Tools MPG here at Pixar. They make "stuff" for us story folk to aid us in telling stories. But it's not all heavy brow knitting all the time, Josh here likes to make games. You remember Pong, right? Well, you can have the J. Minor version with a click of the mouse. And the fun part is that you're in the picture and use your hands to paddle!

Go to the website and pick up the game here.
Here's a video of how it works.

He's going to Hongkong to exhibit this here game at the Kapok Gallery. Have fun, Josh! And if you don't like pong maybe you'll like to play with monkeys instead: Monkey Patrol.

14th World Wide SketchCrawl and Emergency

2007-04-18T13:52:00.001-07:00

Please watch Gino Strada talk about his work for Emergency in this video

Drawing with a purpose. A two-part fundraiser from your friendly neighborhood Sketchcrawl community. First, on May 19, 2007 Sketchcrawl 14 lends a hand to help Emergency with its mission around the world.

Emergency Mission Statement. In today’s conflicts 90 percent of the victims are civilians. Every year war takes the lives of millions of people worldwide. Emergency provides free of charge, high standard medical and surgical care in war-torn areas.

Emergency promotes a culture of peace, solidarity and respect of human rights.

Emergency is an independent, neutral and nonpolitical humanitarian organization established to provide care to civilian victims of war and of land mines. All Emergency facilities are designed, built and managed by specialized international staff committed to training local medical personnel.

Gabriele, is a logistician from Venice on a mission for Afghanistan with the humanitarian aid organization Emergency. After 25 years in local construction, Gabriele Gorup de Besanez from Dorsoduro, a village near Venice, has put his professional expertise to the service of Gino Strada’s organization Emergency. His quote below:

"In Kurdistan there was an old man whose arm had been torn apart by a firearm. He wanted an estimate for medical treatment costs before coming to our hospital as he didn't want to burden his family with debt. It took quite a bit to assure him that Emergency's services were free of charge. He couldn't believe it."

The Sketchcrawl 14 Mission. We have an opportunity to make a difference on our day of celebrating drawing outdoors. For one thing we do this anyway and have a jolly ol' time. But add this layer to it: We can ask people to sponsor our day of drawing by making a contribution, much like your Aids Ride or other marathons in support of a good cause. Enrico's got a form for it and everything. You can hand that to your friends and neighbors and ask them to donate how ever much they can, your goal being that you want to raise $100 in total for that day. Kinda like wishing you a good day of drawing and giving aid to people who needs our help.

Sketchcrawlers the world over love to congregate outdoors and draw the heck out of that day. Doesn't matter if you don't draw and just want to walk with us. We end up drawing people from the crawl a lot anyway. Bring a hat, they're easy to draw. Heh.

But Wait! There's more! The very next day, Sun May 20th, we have an ART AUCTION! This second part of the fundraiser, done in partnership with the marvelous folks at Maverix Studios.

where: Maverix Studios (1717 17th Street, SF)
when: 5pm to 9pm
how: silent bidding, Final bids at 7:30pm.
We will also have a benefit raffle with special prices.

A few of the confirmed artists:

Steve Purcell (author of Sam and Max)
Rhode Montijo (author of Pablo’s inferno and Cloud Boy
Pierre Alary (author of Belladonne)
Dice Tsutsumi (contributor to Out of Picture)
Ronnie del Carmen (Paper Biscuit)
Bill Presing (author of Rex Steele Nazi smasher)
Derek Thompson (of Derek Monster fame)
Scott Morse (author of Noble Boy, Souldwind, The Barefoot Serpent and more)
and many more are joining in this effort, we’ll keep you updated on this growing list of great artists.

So, remember those dates May 19, 2007 Enrico and I will be meeting all you generous sketchcrawl artists in San Francisco, at the Ferry Building at The Embarcadero, 11:00am (in front of Peet’s coffee). Sketchbook, pencils and waterbrushes on hand. A good day of drawing for a good cause. Then on May 20th it's at Maverix Studios. Have a grand time!

________________________________

Emergency
Maverix Studios
Sketchcrawl 14 Forum

Care to donate to Emergency directly? Please do so here: Emergency Paypal

Help us spread the word. Enrico's has some press releases. Good for newspapers, magazines and radio folks. You know you're out there, we can use the publicity. Press Releases

Here's what the form looks like. Hand it to your prospective sponsors so they can lend us a hand. Click on the image to get to the pdf.

Sonoma Film Festival

2007-04-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

Process Talk. This last weekend we did a longer version of "Trust the Process" talk at the Sonoma Film Festival. Mark Andrews, Jim Capobianco, Jason Katz and myself had done a shorter version of this talk before at the Screenwriters Expo. We were guest speakers because our big boss, John Lasseter was being honored there.

For the past decade, the Sonoma Valley Film Festival has heard the refrains of "You've Got A Friend In Me" from John Lasseter, the creative force behind Pixar.

Now the festival is turning the tables and planning quite a bash April 11-15 in recognition not only of its 10th anniversary but in tribute to its friend and one of the region's most beloved filmmakers.

In addition to screening some 75 films from 12 different countries, the festival is hosting a day chock full of events honoring Lasseter, an animator, director, producer and the vice president of Pixar. When the Walt Disney Company purchased Pixar in 2006, Lasseter also became chief creative officer of Walt Disney Feature Animation and principal creative adviser for Walt Disney Imagineering, the division responsible for creating theme park attractions.

"It is our tremendous honor to pay tribute to John Lasseter, the world’s premier storyteller,” said Marc Lhormer, executive director of the film festival. “A longtime Sonoma Valley resident and a supporter and friend of the festival over our 10 years of incredible growth, John is a legendary creative force inspiring a whole generation of filmmakers."

Jim and I drove up together with Tess and Gerin. When we got there we were met with very familiar faces and wonderful energy of celebrating films. Mark Showed up wearing a kilt,"Why wouldn't I be wearing a kilt? It's national tartan day!" (it was that, but on April 6th. I guess that makes it tartan month). John introduced us to a very welcoming crowd and we launched into the joys and sorrows of being a story person making animated features. John himself was right in front and he joined in, expanding on the history of story at Disney, Joe Ranft, and general story work.

Thanks to the organizers of the Sonoma Film Festival for the honor and though my family and I couldn't stay for the rest of the day's festivities we had a grand time.

Sonoma Film Festival tribute to John Lasseter

Swallow 3

2007-04-08T21:42:00.000-07:00

What a collection! You know that award show nugget about having won already? Well, check out the roster in Swallow 3 and I can honestly say I'm feeling thoroughly golden just being in the list. Eternal thanks to the massively talented Ashley Wood for the invite and honor.

BARRON STOREY

ILANA KOHN

TED MCKEEVER

RIAN HUGHES

JEREMY GEDDES

ROBH RUPPEL

DAVID CHOE

FRANK STOCKTON

JOCK

JAMES JEAN

ANDREW ROBINSON

GREG STAPLES

UWE HEIDSCHOETTER

RONNIE DEL CARMEN

SEAN PHILLIPS

LOUIE DEL CARMEN

GLYN DILLON

DUNCAN FEGREDO

I know of most of the artists in the book, great artists all. My leetol bro, Louie is there too, which signals the very first time two of the three brothers del Carmen are in a book together. We'll have to get the three of us at the con next year. Whadya say, Rick?

Special mention: Baron Storey is here as well. I took several classes with Baron a long time ago at Pixar U and it was quite an edifying experience. I mean, the man was a illustration hero of mine and I got to sit in his class and got some pointers from him. Very grand. I've also paged through some of those journals he mentions in the book--every page, painted back and front, is a living explosion of what goes on in side that roiling visual storm that is Baron Storey's mind.

Swallow 3
Swallow 3 at Amazon.com
IDW Publishing: Swallow
Ashley Wood

The Brothers Bash at Fist-a-Cuffs

2007-04-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

They have names, that's for sure. You'll have to visit the Fist-a-cuffs site to find out.

What da heck is going on? Just some mindless mayhem, 'is all. Enrico and I are in a tournament and we are kicking royal heinie at Sam Hiti's arena of mayhem, the battle of the drawn: Fist-a-Cuffs!

Just some good clean line fun. Check it out. Maybe even vote for the champs of your choice.

Pile drive on over!

Samhiti.com
Sam's Infatuations
Fist-a-Cuffs

Back to Banff

2007-03-29T00:43:00.000-07:00

Going North! I'm going to give a talk at the world renowned Banff Centre, a conference precisely described, "Perfecting the Mix of Story, Character & Interactivity."

The Banff New Media Institute’s Accelerator program and the Digital Media Association of Alberta present Perfecting the Mix of Story, Character, & Interactivity. This two-day workshop targets gaming studios that aim to create successful interactive experiences that rival a movie’s level of depth and engagement. With key speakers Ronnie del Carmen from Pixar Animation Studios, Kris Pearn from Sony Pictures Animation, and Josh Staub from Cyan Worlds, Inc./Jubilee Studios.

I've gone to the Banff Centre before and I had such a wonderful experience and met so many great folks that I had to take them up on the invite this year. I'm bringing the presentation my fellow story leads at Pixar and I presented at the Screenwriter's Expo last year. Maybe get a hike in there somewhere as well (look at them surroundings, you just gotta). I'll report back on how things go this year.

The Banff Centre
The Banff New Media Institute
Digital Media Association of Alberta

Show night

2007-03-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

The Boys are alright. I was visiting my Brother for a family anniversary and I decided to fly in earlier. I sprung the idea on Louie and his wife Julie that we could catch the opening of exhibit for The Ancient Book of Myth and War. They said yes and we were off. After slogging through some accident on the 101 we got there with just about an hour till closing.

The place was packed still. Reminds me our Three Trees exhibit. So happy for the boys. The show was a great success. I wanted to get some prints but I'll do that online. Racquel (Don's lovely wife) mentioned how proud she was of her hubby. We came up with a future show that might be called, "The Hubby Show" where all the hubby's exhibit--with all the work centered around our wives. "Even better!"

Congratulations to Scott Morse, Lou Romano, Don Shank and Nate Wragg on a successful show. The gallery will be up till April 8 so you all can see the artwork at Nucleus, you know where it is.

Nucleus Gallery
Scott Morse
Lou Romano
Don Shank
Nate Wragg

The Ancient Book of Myth and War

2007-03-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

Oh, man! There's a new book on the horizon and it's awesome. Our pals from just around the next office have come up with quite a beauty. Scott Morse, Lou Romano, Don Shank and Nate Wragg, luminaries whose gorgeous artwork adorn the pages of The Ancient Book of Myth and War. I just saw it today and it's a lovely book.

Lucky for youse folks down in L.A. this weekend 'cause there's going to be a gallery show of these four gents. Real live artwork! I wish I could be there to get dibs on stuff myself. Check it out, it promises to be a blast.

With complimenting graphic and narrative styles, 4 Pixar artists/friends have come together to compile a book of illustrations based on epic legends and mythologies of the past. This beautifully illustrated book is both humorous and educational. Each artists previous work has been used for the development of various animated films such as the Incredibles, Iron Giant, and Powder Puff Girls just to name a few. Nucleus will be having a release party for the http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifbook in conjunction to the gallery show with an opening reception/book signing and an artist workshop the day after. We will have brand new originals, prints, and of course fresh copies of the book available.

Nucleus Gallery. March 24 - April 8 , 2007. Opening Reception, March 24, 7pm - 11pm

Nucleus Gallery
Scott Morse
Lou Romano
Don Shank
Nate Wragg

Nina Sleep Pattern

2007-03-16T22:42:00.000-07:00

Drawn to sleep. I've been having better sleep of late and counting my blessings. I've been afflicted with a sleep disorder most of my life and when I was a child it used to terrorize me all morning. By sunrise I'd feel rescued. Then I would dread the sun setting knowing that night was coming and it starts over.

This explains why I follow the adventures of a character who shares my malady. I know it so well. But with a good regimen of exercise and focusing on modifying my old stress responses I seem to have gained an upper hand at it, after all these years.

Although I've lived long enough with it to know not to declare a victory outright. I've experienced many lapses in episodes over the years only to see them come back with a vengeance.

Drawing helps. So, here's our girl in a rare nap. She looks so tired and likely fell asleep during the day--messing up a job opportunity. I wonder what she's dreaming right now.

A Sketchbook page

2007-03-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

Fabriano Quadrato Artist's Journal. Pencil and pen plus some cutouts.

The laboratory. As in, the sketchbook as laboratory. I do my thinking on my sketchbooks. I jot it down as I muse on what happens to Nina. The problem is I have so many notes to myself that I forget which ones to follow. I guess the most recent ones are the ones I use.

The current kick I'm on is the fact that I love my sketchbook drawings. So why not use those drawings for the book? Hmmm?

The truth is I could be staring at the obvious and not see it. I have to "talk" to myself about stuff. The sketchbook is a way for the dialog to actually take place.

We are officially strange as of today.

Nina Chapter Breaks

2007-03-09T19:25:00.000-08:00

Grab what time there is. With schedules being what they are and no way to govern a world full of surprises I am left with little pockets of time. This is where I'm going to have to learn a more efficient (even better than the last ones) way to get the books out there. I've talked about a more relaxed approach for a while and it seems I'm closing in on the beginnings of one. I'll cross my fingers.

Thanks for the support out there. You all make it so worthwhile. I call the above illo a chapter break, but really, it's an exercise. Enrico and I try to nudge our personal projects along with little signs of progress here and there, we talk everyday about the challenges of keeping our books alive as well as progress our stories and drawings. All with just those little pockets of time.

Hope to keep myself honest. I'll post more as it comes.

Nina doodle

2007-03-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

Photoshop CS2 with a customized brush. Click image for a larger view.

Because it's been a while. Been heavy on the schedule and work side. No time to doodle. I've been working on the next Nina stories. There's much to do that I'm so excited about, but no time. Yet.

I'll post sketchbook scans next.

Wondercon 'O7

2007-03-01T23:57:00.000-08:00

Amy, Stuart and Steven hold up the freshly signed copies Enrico and I signed Thursday night as they were setting up.

My mistake, folks. When Stuart asked me about doing a live signing at his booth for Wondercon I was sure I had the date clear. I was wrong. I had a conflict! A wedding on Saturday and a trip to New York on Sunday. Man, I screwed up. And Stuart had announced our signing already! I was so mortified.

I will try to make it up to him. Along those lines, we signed copies of Three Trees Make a Forest Thursday night--the only signed copies of the book to be sold (signed by Enrico and I, that is. Tadahiro is back in Japan, natch). Stuart's offerings were already set up and ready for the throngs the next day. I had to shop.

Drop on by and check out them books!

Carlos Nine

2007-02-17T12:06:00.000-08:00

Finally a website! I've been hoarding all his books I can get my hands on for a while now. There's still one or two extant. Besides it feels too much like a christmas present you don't open till later--I'm still marinading in the pages of the ones I do have. But a gift arrives anyway. He has a website now.

This image and the one directly below is from his website. There's a lot more there. Copyrights obviously belong to Carlos Nine.

The work of Carlos Nine (pronounced, Nin-ye, as the ever helpful Geof Darrow informs me) is from an alternate world that appears to have been a duplicate of ours except that it's perpetually the late 1900's and it's been tossed into a blender, sloshed and left to recombine itself to continue the stage play of the ages. Human anatomy is of sideshow proportions or is outright fused to ornate household objects; animals talk and walk upright in cartoon convention as well as have anatomically correct human parts (I mean, even them bits o' question), and...well, it's downright unsettling and magnificently genius.

An unpredictable and perplexing storyteller, Nine defies classification. When I asked Joann Sfar how it was to work with Carlos Nine on a Donjon book he has glowing things to say of the opportunity, though he was very surprised with what he got back. "I mean, this is Carlos Nine! Of course, you don't tell Carlos Nine what to do." It was apparently already a coup to have him do a book for them at all.

His work lends itself well to animation, albeit the rather out there kind. Something we don't have enough of, I say. Les Troilets is just that. Apparently done as a collaboration between Carlos and son, Lucas, this frantic madhouse tale in the rubber hose style of character design and animation is a wild musical romp that reminds me of the Triplets de Beville newsreel sequence--only hopped up on speed.

His work just makes me feel so conventional and earthbound but at the same time I'm grateful for artists like Nine who thresh out the far and remote reaches of their mindscapes, allowing us the ease of being able to simply casually drop in.

Carlos Nine website
Station Delta featuring Les Troilets
Lambiek entry on Carlos Nine

Actually, Stuart Ng has a page devoted to Carlos Nine. Visit here.

Three Trees Make a Forest now available!

2007-02-03T15:36:00.000-08:00

A real marvel of a photograph by Alessandro Carloni. He got us three in there just right. I mean look at Tadahiro fitting in the negative space between Enrico and I. Awesome. Thanks again, Ale!

Buy Now!. THE BOOKS ARE SHIPPED! If you are in Socal you can check Nucleus, they took the pre-orders during last year's show with the 3 Flowers. They've been sending those out. If you are a regular at Stuart's you can ask them, too. Thank you to all who came to both shows. None of these things, including the book, would be possible without your support.

David Lopes of Ginko Press sent us our comp copies (thirty each! Thanks, David, for all the help and encouragement). Much conflagration and glee ensues. As is our tradition, we take photos of even the very box the books came in (Geeks!), then unwrap it in stages and then we display them lovelies. Ahhhh!

Online? Check out the sidebar for the book cover icon, this links to the Amazon page featuring this here book. That Tadahiro cover sure does the trick, don't it? Barnes & Noble and Borders online stores have a listing as well. Sigh. I am just so happy to know that there is finally a book of Mr. Uesugi's work out there for all to own. Congratulations all around!

3 Trees at Amazon
Nucleus Gallery
Last Gasp
Super 7
Stuart Ng

Tadahiro Uesugi
Enrico Casarosa

UPDATE: Amazon international, too!
My apologies, but here's more geekery coming at ya. I found the books listed on Amazon international. Awesome! I mean, Amazon Austria! I wonder if we send books to China's Joyo.

Japan
Canada
UK
France
Germany
Austria

Illustration hibernation

2007-01-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

Pencil, watercolor and black japanese inking brush. Photoshop white background. She was drawn full, I just cropped for presentation.

Need to limber up. Been doing the work for making reels and crew building, the everyday job in story. Surprising how little time I can elbow to draw an extra-curricular project. This one was done last Sunday. Click on the image to go to the larger version. Or click here.

The Books are here!

2007-01-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

Three Trees Make a Forest At last! I know we've hollered, "The books are here!" before, but this one is special. This is the culmination of something that started as open musing about holding a gallery of our drawings someday and having a hardcover book that goes along with it a few years ago--and it may just have stayed just a daydream. But we ain't dreaming now. I'm holding the book in my hands right now.

All three of us are so happy with the result and quality of the book. David Lopes and Gingko press did a great job. Okay, it's just advance copies and the actual shipment is still in transit. But...THEY'RE HERE!

The proud Poppas. Tadahiro is likely beaming just like like this halfway across the globe. We'll post his happy mug soon as we get it.

Ahhh! This is a great way to start the new year, I say! A guy can get hooked on this. What a rush!

_____

Gingko Press New Release

Fireworks clip from the Philippines

2007-01-01T21:31:00.000-08:00

That's my father-in-law, Alex Sablay, officiating the household's fireworks front.

LOUD! The noise started way early. At around 8 p.m. those who had the bigger stash started with their celebration. By around five minutes to midnight it was already in full swing and it kept going for long time. Didn't handle any fireworks myself (read: chicken) but had a great time welcoming the new year, B.F. Homes P'gue style from the Philippines.

Picture above links to a quicktime. Or click this.

Happy New Year: Philippine Style

2006-12-31T01:33:00.000-08:00

A makeshift stand just two blocks from my in-laws' house in B.F. Homes, P'que. The vendor was a little wary that I wanted to take a photo since these are illegal (law enforcement response to this tradition has been to throw their hands up and hope for the best)

BOMBS! That's what they are. Little bombs. Sold on almost every major street corner around town it seems. Not much has changed from when I was a child in the Philippines on New Year's eve. Families have a stash of firecrackers in the house. I never gave actual danger much thought as I handled the simple paper bags they came in, dusty with gunpowder shaken from each triangle of paper bound explosive. Every kid (as young as five) walked with a bag, box of matches or candles to light these bombs and God help our eardrums.

The wood table (two-thirds the size of a ping pong table)was heavy with packages wrapped in colorful cellophane like they were gift baskets. I peer under the table and there were boxes stacked like bricks and packed solid of their supply. If a stray cigarette spark were to light that stash...And this was a tiny operation compared to the gaggle just around the commercial center of town.

"Triangulo," is what we called the small triangle the size of a regular guitar pic, but the larger variety are the "5 Star" kind, now those were serious. The small dynamite shaped ones (above photo) are of a higher order, likely able to blow chunks of asphalt as it goes off. There's more. Cinturon ni Judas (Judas Belt) is a long braid of explosives designed to explode in rapid continuous fire, machine gun like. It will, in a few short hours, sound a lot like an actual war zone here in Manila.

Just a few steps ahead on my walk to my morning coffee I found a lone 5-Star laying on its side, looking quite ready to be deployed. The city irrigation truck winded its way towards me as I took this photo and rather poetically drenched it into a benign pad of wet paper and powder.

When we were young we also made our own cannons. That's right, a real cannon made of bamboo. A fire slowly stoked under the lower chamber of the long bamboo cooks fuel to a boil, releasing it as vapor. When enough is in the chamber a stick lit with fire at the end is touched to the blow hole igniting the gas and...BOOOOM! Boys. It was a lot of fun. Really dangerous and toxic. Of course we didn't think of it that way back then. We even loaded the barrel with empty milk cans as projectiles, aimed at a competing bamboo cannons manned by other kids.

But that was years ago. Apparently a modern innovation came out of Cavite (where I was born and grew up).

Went to visit relatives in Cavite City. On the way back I made a point of stopping by this shop by the road where these very convincing weapons were hanging. That's my brother-in-law, Mano, asking about the price of these "Boga" guns. We weren't buying really but just a ruse so I can snap a pic. Those boys are just like what me and my brothers were with our bamboo cannon long ago. Ahhh, meh-moh-reeez!

LUCENA CITY--A retired band member in this city has fashioned a cannon out of a PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipe, turning it into a hot-selling noisemaker to welcome the New Year.

John Almario, 37, got the idea from the "boga" cannon invented by the Caviteños.

He bought a red PVC "bazooka" in Cavite last year, tinkered with its parts and mechanisms, added some innovations and came up with his own design.

He now has a booming business selling the cannons in a makeshift stall along the main road of the Market View Village here.

"I knew I could make money from it," Almario told the Inquirer.

Two years ago, the "boga" cannon was very popular because it was a safe, cheaper and more effective noisemaker.

Like the cannon invented by the Caviteños, Almario uses PVC pipes and fittings as the main materials.

Have a safe New Year's eve celebration. I'll try to save my hearing by stuffing cotton in me ears. I'll also try not to have any part of me blown up. If I get any good pictures tonight I'll post them right quick.

Happy New Year!

Link to Inquirer.net
Link to Reuters India
Link to Manila Times short history of fireworks in the Philippines.

Pinoy Eats

2006-12-21T13:37:00.000-08:00

While having adobo and rice breakfast at Las Paellas in B.F. Homes, we spotted the taho vendor walking past. I gave chase and promptly procured two of these.

Let the feasting begin! Oh, what's the point of going home if you're not going to on a pound or ten, huh? Part of my childhood was about waking up after an afternoon siesta (imposed by adults on us overactive kids) to the lone sound of the Taho vendor. "Ta-hoooooo!" Made of bean curd, tapioca and caramelled sugar syrup it was a great reward for being such a good boy for taking the afternoon nap. Then, after being properly dosed with sugar, my brothers and I are off like a shot to the outdoors and boyhood shenanigans. Here's another look for those of you who've had the pleasure.

Happy Holidays 'O6

2006-12-19T11:29:00.001-08:00

Leaves from the trees in front of the house. Paper from my scraps to make artwork with. Nina and Peg appear courtesy of the world of our dreams. It snows there too it seems. Photoshop helped.

All the best to you all! We wish everyone a safe and wonderful holidays. Doesn't it make you wish we could always be in this glow of goodwill? There's a holiday wish for you. Another year older by the time I come back for the new year, I look forward to the year ahead with more hope.

Be well.

New Wendling at Stuart Ng's this weekend

2006-12-12T23:40:00.000-08:00

What? Is it convention time already? Nope, it's a new thing at Stuart's. He used to invite a few people to come over to Torrance if you were around town and check out his entire book selection (I've never had the pleasure, though my brother Louie has and he raves about it). Now, Stuart's upped the ante by holding the first open house for the holidays. For you folks in L.A., the weekends of December 9-10 and 16-17, he's opened a new 1000 sq ft showroom for everybody to visit. That's a picture of it above. More info here.

Claire Wendling. DESK. 64 pages of pencil drawings and sketches of animals and imaginary creatures and monsters. Exclusive to this edition are three new drawings, a Foreword by Mike Mignola, and a new biography of the artist (her first published biography in English)

There's a new Claire Wendling book out. Their getting delivery at the showroom today and will be available this coming weekend. Everyone who comes by can pick up a copy. So, make plans, give yourself an early Christmas gift (I mean, really. Who else can give you the books you really want other than yourself, eh?).

Last weekend was a huge success. The place must have been mobbed. They got so busy they couldn't even run back to the house to grab the camera to take a snap. So,here's a photo from a few conventions ago of Stuart (left) and brother Steven (at right sporting a vintage Paper Biscuit shirt featuring dream girl Nina). They are good people. Oh, and them books are nice to have too.

Stuart Ng Books

Sketchcrawl 12

2006-12-11T00:04:00.000-08:00

Driving the van and snapping a photo of the bay as I drove to the city. I'm late!

Weather Proof. That's what all the Sketchcrawls seem to be. Enrico and I don't have a crystal ball to check out the weather that far ahead. Come close to being rained out a couple of times. Come Saturday morning the low dark clouds weren't going away. But even with all the storm's hugger mugger the Sketchcrawler's luck held out, we didn't get rained on!

That is, not after all the Sketchcrawlers had done all the drawing to be had at the SF Zoo. Congratulations to all who made it! Everyone came bundled for the wind, rain and cold, clutching drawing books and drawing implements. I mean, a day like that is what sleeping in was invented for. But not us, really proud of everyone's drive to capture the day in drawing.

The highlight was the feeding of the big cats at 2 p.m. Man, those things are huge! The pictures don't communicate how massive these animals are. All that muscle and heft, scampering back and forth waiting for lunch and growling for seconds. This one was eyeing me as a snack as I drew him.

Look into my eyes. You are feeling very relaxed. So relaxed, in fact, that you want to climb into my cage after that drawing. Bring a friend or two while you're at it.

I didn't get much drawing done myself (I was an hour late. Heh, sheepish). But I was so ready for it. After all the pressures of the last few weeks I needed to get out there. This is my first time at the SF Zoo, and I must say it's a great place to visit (I made a note to come back and get sketches of those I missed). Nancy Lorenz sent us this collage she shot of these impressive specimens (the lion pic was hers, too. Thanks, Nancy!). Really good shots, the zoo should use this for a brochure or sumpin'.

Here's a few of my offerings. But do visit the Sketchcrawl forums for an update on how the whole world (seriously, I kid you not) did on the same day. Very good work, everyone!

Sketchcrawl Forum
Sketchcrawl Blog
My photo collage here.
San Francisco Zoo

Paragraphs

2006-12-03T20:21:00.000-08:00

"Order doesn't come by itself."I read a few things trolling the net over the weekend and I kept coming back to these items. Maybe they have something to do with each other, or maybe not, but I string them together anyway. Most of these were stumbled upon at Metafilter.

"I don't seek power and do not run around". Fractals visualized is more than a florid riot of repeating structures but opens up logic systems of behavior on a whole gamut of things that include weather and the stock market. My pedestrian brain can skim and find the odd human angle. Mandelbrot's talk has a fringe of bitterness, he was an outsider it seems.

My ambition was not to create a new field, but I would have welcomed a permanent group of people having interests close to mine and therefore breaking the disastrous tendency towards increasingly well-defined fields. Unfortunately, I failed on this essential point, very badly. Order doesn't come by itself. In my youth I was a student at Caltech while molecular biology was being created by Max Delbrück, so I saw what it means to create a new field. But my work did not give rise to anything like that. One reason is my personality — I don't seek power and do not run around. A second is circumstances — I was in an industrial laboratory because academia found me unsuitable. Besides, creating close organized links between activities which otherwise are very separate might have been beyond any single person's ability.

A THEORY OF ROUGHNESS
A Talk with Benoit Mandelbrot

1 2

Okay, to pursue fractals may really have to be a lonely vigil, but Mandelbrot's industry seems no different from others where the facile and those caught in the lucky flavor-of-the-moment spotlight will get the attention. Push what is popular. Below is a documentary that takes aim at the music industry.

Before the Music Dies' Diagnoses an Ailing Industry

The movie offers a roster of forces to blame for all this: The consolidation of power in a shrinking number of companies; the takeover of executive posts in those companies by bean counters who don't respect the artistic process; the rise of MTV and a visual orientation among young people; technology that makes it easy to cover up and correct lousy singing; the culture's growing emphasis on physical beauty; and a mysterious loss of humanity and heart, certainly in the music business and perhaps in the species.

1 2

No news to see that what succeeds needs to be replicated. The Economist article excerpted below highlights that in 2007 "Hollywood studios have scheduled no fewer than a dozen sequels within 16 weeks." A move to convert theaters to digital is great news to both audience and studios. Though one wonders if the technology is being mistaken for content yet again.

Coming (again) to a theatre near you

The move will revolutionize distribution. The studios stand to save $1 billion a year on the costs of duplicating and shipping celluloid prints. For the audience, digital will enable more technical innovations, including a revised 3D—if the technique lured audiences in 1952 with “Bwana Devil”, why wouldn’t it work now? James Cameron, who has not made a fictional film since “Titanic” in 1997, is aiming for a 2007 start on a trilogy that he will shoot in new 3D technology. Currently, 150 auditoriums in America are equipped for 3D; this will climb to 500 in 2007.

1

We're in for a sensory assault. I'll find this novelty worth checking out when it's installed in the local multiplex. Though if it goes the way of the digital special effects extravaganza movies (Van Helsing, Underworld, Doom...you fill in your list, I don't have the energy) we'll be in for another re-learning of the simple lesson that we go to the movies for the stories.

That's no more obvious than in the business of books. We buy them because it takes no special effects or 3D delivery system to make the stories real. They just have to be told well. Since the emergence of the internet everyone's regarded as inevitable the end of the printed book, supplanted by its digital incarnation. Not so fast.

Books

But surprise--the conventional wisdom is wrong. Our special report on books and the future of publishing is brim-full of reasons to be optimistic. People are reading more, not less. The Internet is fueling literacy. Giving books away online increases off-line readership. New forms of expression--wikis, networked books--are blossoming in a digital hothouse.

1

That's comforting. Readers speak with their dollars. Personally, I like to see the author in the work, the human being in there--which goes without saying in the case of books (though not always). Maybe that's why I like the Mandelbrot story, nice-guy-finishing-last but eeking out a meager, personal victory of having done it himself away from what's fashionable for his industry. Music? Movies? I can only watch and listen to what I want. That's how my sentiments, I guess, are best vented.

Happy Turkey day

2006-11-21T22:46:00.000-08:00

Here we go. First time to be flying with the family over this harried holiday. Oh, heavens. We're off to visit my mom who's taken up residence in Las Vegas. I hope to get some airport drawings done or some sort of drawings done on the trip.

I leave you with images from Ernest H. Shepard. These images of Shepard's are not of Pooh or Willows folk. The focus of the narratives are about the holidays. I thought it appropriate for the week--fitful sleep, harried travel, and taxing festivities--all good fun--though nothing beats a quiet, intimate dinner, I always say.

1 2 3 4

I've admired his "decorations" on the Winnie the Pooh books for so long (I keep buying the same books over), so it came to pass that one day I gave myself the job of illustrating my own self-published little book, "Frogg's Lament." A Nina book, to be sure, an homage to Mr. Toad of Wind in the Willows fame by Kenneth Grahame (of course illustrated by EHS and famous for it, though Grahame didn't live to see those drawings adorn his stories).

Buford K. Frogg causes all sorts of trouble for Nina. Page 31, much has happened already.

Have a safe and happy holiday week.

Tirade post on Frogg's Lament. It' been a year and half already? Must get to work.

Jordi Bernet

2006-11-19T22:19:00.000-08:00

This was an excellent big print on natural color paper clipped to a board on his table. I wanted one but no copies to be had that day. There were, however, Torpedo original art. I lost my mind. Didn't but one that day. Regretting it since. May have to fix that.

Master Artist. Last May, Super-con had as a special guest: Jordi Bernet. I'm a big fan of his work on Torpedo 1936, so I had to go. He was mobbed, of course, and people were lining up for drawings and signing their books. I fell in line and waited (he took a break for lunch), some guys had arm loads of books. I was very zen about the whole thing. I just wanted to buy a book, have it signed and shake the man's hand. I'm afraid that I'd sound like a babbling idiot so I didn't plan on saying much.

He reminded me of one my uncles, dad's brother. My father's side of the family have genes reaching back to Spain. That makes me a fraction Spaniard.

After a pious wait it was my turn. He was gracious and drew on my book. I did talk to him (his son translated) and handed him a copy of Paper Biscuit (what was I thinking?). He was very nice and kept the books in his bag.

Months later I get email from the man. He says that he read the books and liked them. I've been snowed under at work and the pressure has been mounting, Joann Sfar's visit and this were just what I needed. Been away from drawing my stories for a while and I can feel the incipient crust of frustration forming. Reading that email made a big difference for that afternoon. My thanks to the master, Mr. Bernet.

_____

I pulled out the old digital camera and shot this leetol movie of Mr. Bernet drawing on my book. A few seconds only but what the heck, I got a kick out of it and maybe a few of you out there would too. Here

Bento Jew's blog post on his encounter with JB.

Wikipedia on Jordi Bernet.

Will Eisner introduction for Jordi Bernet.

Joann Sfar visits Pixar

2006-11-15T21:58:00.000-08:00

Joann drew the genesis of his characters, from the Rabbi's Cat to lovesick Ferdinand the Vampire. A friend tells him one day that he's been drawing his grandfather. He tried a drawing of his grandfather and, well, wouldn't you know it, he was right.

Near Sfar. I knew about the visit for months and was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, this is the worst week for it, we've reels to make ready for an imminent screening. That means late nights and running around trying to catch many spinning plates. I did manage to carve out one hour out of yesterday's schedule to be at his talk.

He was so entertaining and very gracious, self-effacing in spite of us knowing his place in the world of published author-artist. His philosophy was simple: he just goes straight ahead and writes/draws. Trusting that his characters will show him where they should go."It doesn't always work," he disclaims several times, though at his output strata these moments are likely negligible. He draws in cafes on a sketchbook and once he takes pen to paper, "That is what the character is doing." No going back. We ask if he has less inspired pages, he answers, "If I am unhappy with a page I just start the next one."

At the end of it I was lamenting that we won't be spending more time talking stories and drawing. He says that he will be at San Diego next year and maybe we can make that happen there. Likely, he'll be scheduled to the hilt.

It was inspiring to us who are budding writer/artists who wish to make books(maybe even spend more time working on them, as opposed to the stolen fragments of days here and there). We got our Sfar books signed along with a lithe brushpen drawing and the feeling that we know him now.

It was an hour very well spent and the next day we were going on about what he was able to share with us. Made us want dive back in and start again. The late nights at work don't leave much for drawing for yourself.

Maybe next month. Yeah.

Wikipedia on Joann Sfar
Le petit monde de Joann Sfar
First Second Guest Blogger with drawings
Signing at Comic Relief tonight

Three Flowers Show

2006-11-07T00:58:00.000-08:00

Amazing Grace. I heard as the week progressed to the day of the exhibit that the images Nucleus had received were...well, amazing. I walked into the gallery space in the morning all ready to set up the few pieces we had for our part of the show. The ladies and Tadahiro had stayed up late last night (well into the morning hours, really) just getting their images up on the walls. We were about to walk into this.

I couldn't pick where to look first, they filled the walls with so many beautiful framed work, so I just stood there with that indecision for a while. The work from Yoko Tanji, Wakako Takayama and Icco Sassai, all different and stand out on their own, was refreshing , inspiring and just plain beautiful. After I recovered I went upstairs to the upper gallery. I wasn't going to be spared because Tadahiro's work was up here. I was done for. Man, those images are so awesome.

Pause. Preparing for these things don't come easy. Even my few offerings for the show took me weeks of preparation and carving time out from work and family--and that includes just knitting your brow, wondering if the work is good enough to show. These ladies and Tadahiro must have done that--times a thousand. They had more images AND they had to schlep all the way from Japan to make this show happen.

So, not only am I really awe struck at the work but very grateful to them for taking the time and the massive effort to have these images here for us to view. There is every reason why an event like this can fail to happen, but this one did and I feel very privileged to see the work.

Da Show. People arrived and kept on coming. There was a steady stream of familiar faces and new ones. It was so good to connect with L.A. friends. There were also people who drove down from quite a ways, some from the Bay area. There was at least one I met who flew in from New York (I gave a little doodle as a token of my gratitude for their trek over here). As you already know, the book we hoped that would be there wasn't but we had poster prints for the patrons who chose to pre-order it there. Gingko Press will ship it to you when it is released. There was a mock-up of the book you can page through at the show. I showed it off every chance I got. Man, I can't wait.

I always want to draw on white walls of galleries. This time I started on adhesive notes. I posted one over the shelf of Muji stuff, a Nina saying how much she loves them. An hour later I find a flurry of post-its done by others. May have started something there. I did draw on the walls eventually, I drew a Peg next to my favorite images from the ladies. I hope they don't mind.

My thanks to all who came to the show, you don't know what a joy it is to see so many people enjoying the work of our friends from Japan. Thank you for all the kind words for the work, theirs as well as for mine and Enrico's. This keeps us going, just so you know.

See you all for a book signing (sigh) in the next couple of months. Details, when that happens will be announced in this space.

If you didn't join us there last weekend you can visit the work at Nucleus, it'll be up for a spell. And if you're online you can check their website for prints!

If you want to see some excellent blurry images of the show, then go here.

Halloween

2006-10-31T14:27:00.000-08:00

Photoshop CS2 using a custom modified brush.

Sugar! Kids are older, no more trick or treating for a while. Have a safe and happy Halloween. Just got through some drawings. Maybe I'll unveil a few here in the coming days leading up to the gallery show, yea? This one above is a drawing study for a card I was hoping to have done for last summer. Creepy enough for the day's festivities, no?

Be well.

3 Trees poster and shirt!

2006-10-26T17:38:00.000-07:00

This will be a poster available at the show. Signed by all three blokes from last year. Neat, eh? Image above links to larger file.

Gallery date approaches. Still working on some offerings for that day at Nucleus. I will be driving down there on Friday evening ferrying artwork so we can hang it the morning after. Then on Saturday, November 4 at 7pm the gallery will open to all viewers till 11pm. Complimentary refreshments will be served throughout the show. Goody.

Oh, let's not forget that in attendance are the Three Flowers (as we've come to call them, following our wistful logic stemming from the 3 Trees exhibit)Wakako Katayama, Icco Sasai and Yoko Tanji. Tremendous illustrators and, as Ben Zhu (proprietor and dreammaker supreme of Nucleus) tells me, they are providing a prodigious amount of prints for all to marvel at. I'm getting my funds ready.

And if that wasn't enough, Tadahiro Uesugi himself will have a gaggle of all new prints and art for the show. Oh, lordy.

A t-shirt created just for the show as modeled by Enrico. Men's shirts are in the gray.

Me, on the other hand have a meager handful (I mean, really) for the day. My excuse is...I have none. Art block. My dog ate my gallery offerings. I'll be there though. I ain't missing this, framed personal work or not.

Women's shirts are available in the green. Found this lovely model and imposed on her to show off our design. Cute.

But wait!

Pre order a 3 trees book at the show and get a free poster signed by all 6 artists. (as shown above) Limited to 100 only! Can't be there? Check out the book at Amazon.com here.

Are you kidding me?! Then on Sunday, there will be a Q and A / Demo session with Tadahiro. Admission is $35

Kuro and Tadahiro hosted us for dinner at Chez Panisse, in Berkeley last year. As with any gathering of artists, drawing happens. Fun to see him doodle.

I've always wondered how he does his work, even after he did a demo for us that first visit we had with him. If he does divulge his secrets, I want to be there when you see this one step he does that made me do a double take, "What?! How do you get all that magnificent light and color starting from here?" Boggled the mind. I want to see a whole room get hit by this.

See you there. I got me some drawing to do.

Nucleus Gallery
Yoko Tanji
Wakako Katayama
Icco Sasai

Tadahiro Uesugi
Enrico Casarosa
Ronnie del Carmen

Expo view

2006-10-26T04:45:00.000-07:00

The corridors were full of attendees lining up for the talks. There was a dealer floor where all manner of how-to books on screenwriting could be sampled. And writing software, let's not forget. Didn't get to take as many photos as I wanted. Bumped into many L.A. friends, it was like a reunion.

Da Story. The Pixar day of panels were well attended and we had a blast doing the talks. My brother Louie made it, as well as friends Glen and Vyvan. I missed Andrew's talk but that's only because it was packed. Later that evening I had dinner with my son, Geo, who's already on his first year in UC Irvine.

The Pixar talks were not rehearsed and all resonated the same thing: The structure of leadership in the company revolves around the concept that Pixar's projects are director-driven. The movies are made by those storytellers. It starts there. Oh, by the way, its about story, story, story. Nobody knows everything and not everything is precise, being human after all. We all do the best we can. My view is that the company provides the conditions where making mistakes is not a career ending gaff but is viewed as par for the course in order for all to contribute openly.

Soap box off. Be well, all.

Animation Guild blog on Andrew Stanton's Keynote talk.
Random Anomalies post.

_________________

UPDATE. Jeremy Bernstein did caricatures of, well, almost anyone in sight. Check out his post on the day's activities. Below is his rendition of our Storyboard talk. Thanks, Jeremy. Romney Marino sent me a jpeg. Had to post here, hope you don't mind.

Cartoon Brew post about the drawings.
Captain Yolk blog

Screenwriting Expo 5

2006-10-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

Billed as The World's Largest Conference and Trade Show for Screenwriters, The Screenwriters Expo 5 started today and will go on for the rest of the weekend. I'm going. Actually, I'm part a panel on Saturday about Feature Animation Storyboarding.

4:00 PM TRUST THE PROCESS PANEL: A CONVERSATION WITH PIXAR STORY ARTISTS
Just how do they do it? Just how does Pixar come up with consistently touching, funny, endearing stories? Join four of Pixar’s top story artists as they ponder their navels and wonder the same exact thing. Mark Andrews, Jim Capobianco, Ronnie Del Carmen and Jason Katz will walk you through the story process at Pixar, reconfirm the painful truth that story is hell and settle once and for all what exactly is under a Scotsman’s kilt. (Event #1280)

Clockwise from upper left: Mark Andrews, Ronnie del Carmen, Jason Katz, Jim Capobianco. Story supes. As in, supervisors. In other words, whipping boys No.1.

These are the blokes who'll be going through the above mentioned items ( I hope we never get to the kilt subject). I couldn't be prouder to be serving with these guys. Stand up guys ready to clobber a story reel into shape.

Well, actually the big guns, Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird, Lee Unkrich will be there as well as a whole gaggle of other Pixar folk who'll be expounding on how this high wire act of writing animated features is done--Pixar style. See the roster here.

Screenwriters Expo 5
Marriott LAX and The Renaissance Montura LAX.
The travel page for locations.