Old Pic, Changed a Bit

Did this one for Halloween and posted it on the Krew Blog, and it was pointed out (rightly) that the arm was messed up. Had some time today, so I fixed it. More or less.

Pep Rally Terror

Workin' a thought out. "Pep Rally Terror" ain't really such a great name, was thinking of "Howlin' High". "Teen Wolf", tragically, is already taken. I think "Teenwulf" would be good film; Michael J. Fox could fight the jock "Grind Al" for dominance of Heorot High. Angelina Jolie could be in it , as the "Stiffler's Mom" character. It wouldn't even matter that Fox is like, what, sixty or something, 'cause we could motion capture the whole thing. Good Lord, get Zemeckis on the phone.

That Goblin Again

Quick doodle, decided to make him a bit nuttier this time.

For Sale

I just watched a trailer for a documentary about abstract art, about a 4 year old kid who paints and makes big bucks. So, I'm officially done with animation. The above piece is called "the Garden Path", and was painted in Flash by my toaster. I'll sell you the original fla for 15 K, or best offer.

Hoo-yeh

Said Father Michael to the Fly,
"Yer outta order, mate,
Mass be o'er two hours past
How dare ye be so late?

Says the Fly to Father Mike,
"I could na' take to flight,
Me breakfast was so very large,
In fact, I'm full o' shite."

Ruff Keys

Bah. Not much to show for recent efforts, I'm afraid. Just a couple of ruff keys for a little fun playing-around-animation I'm trying out. I tried to be close to the style of the show we're currently working on; it's meant to be more comic-booky looking. Pretty gestural (is that a word?), It'll make more sense when its animated.



Ah, what the hell. Here's a couple of weird little doodles that are kicking around the pile as well.

Don't Worry, He'll Be OK.

This started out as me as a baby, and went a bit sideways.

Mystery at the Bottom of a Pile of Papers

So, what happened was, I was cleaning out one of my drawers, and I found this scrap of paper with some scribbled numbers and notations on it. It seems to have something to do with car insurance, which means it's probably about a year old, as I've only owned a car for just about a year and a half. On the back of the paper was something that was clearly in my hand writing, but which I don't remember ever writing, and which I don't really understand. It goes like this:

"Lady," said the Lad,
To the damsel in the square,
"You're not but worth a Derry-o,
Should you tarry there."

She narrowed her eyes and considered her next words carefully. "Fuck off", she announced after a moments pause.

"Oh- HO!", sang out the Lad,
And his eyes danced all a-gleam,
"Your word are but a tit-mouse song,
As he woos the summer stream!"

"Tit-mouse? What? Look, I'm gonna go now. You can 'tarry' if you want, but I'm done." She turned on her heel and strode away, dodging panhandlers and other pedestrians.

"W

And it just kinda stops there, at "W". Now I gotta ask ya, what the hell is all that about? I mean, if it was some weird paper with prophecies or lottery numbers or something, ok, cool. But this just seems plain stupid. So I'm putting it on my blog, which is where all my mind-junk goes.

Enjoy.

Caricature-ness

I don't usually do much caricature, as you can probably tell. But as today's been kinda slow, and as tomorrow's probably gonna be crazy trying to catch up with the slowness of today, I figured, what the hell. I've been re-watching my DVD's of the office lately, so I decided on Gareth. I also got the photo of him, 'cause what good is a caricature if ya don't know what the guy looks like?

Feel free to crit away; like I sez, I don't do too many of these, so suggestions are welcome.

Spear Attack, Bi-zatch!

Goblin character I've been messing with for a while. Soon I'll do a "development post" with all the different versions this guy has gone through.

Also, since my one year anniversary of blogging is coming up in December (Huzzah) I'm gonna maybe try to fix the ol' thing up a bit. So , when I get time over the next while, I'm gonna try to do things like make up a title banner and add some more links to friends and stuff like that. Don't be offended if I don't get ya up right away, this is something I'm going to have to pick at when I get time.

I've started by making a half-assed attempt at filling out the user profile. You can look at it if you like. Its insightful, moving, and utter nonsense.

A Short Verse

'Tis indeed a long day's dying
But not for a lack of trying
Ever louder I'll sing
With a busted wing
And feign that I am flying.

I saw a wounded seagull on my lunchtime walk, and was thinking about Milton (oooh yeah, I'm a wild man) and this kinda popped into my head.

What I wuz doin' for the last year.

For the last year or so I've been working on a show called "SuperNormal", which is a television series Fatkat was animating for World Leaders Entertainment. It was quite a year; I started the show as a lead in Assembly, and by the time all was said and done, I was Director of Animation for entire episodes. Madness. Anyway, the show is now airing in the UK on CITV. I'm not sure if it will ever make it over here, but someone (not me) posted an entire episode on YouTube, called "Mr Bad Waits For No Man." I was a supervising animator on this one and theres some of my animation in it at the beginning and scattered around the episode.

Watch it if ya got time, its about 10 minutes or so.

Sorry, quality is kinda cruddy, but like i sez, I didn't post it.

Elf Dame at Lunch

So yeah, drew a fantasy kinda pin - uppy thing at lunch a little while ago, this is the cleanup version. Who the heck is she? Is she a slave? Warrior? What's she sitting on? Who knows? I don't usually draw fantasy pinups, so could be anything. The drawing has it's flaws, but I like that she looks mildly pissed at being in such a ridiculous outfit.

BATMAN

Dunno what HIS problem is. I LIKED Batman Begins...

Warm ups

Couple warm-uppie-sketches, alien this morning, SG at lunch today.

WIP...

So, yeah, busy lately, so hard to find the time to post blah blah blah. All the usual excuses.

Started a new project here at work, having our "ramp up" time, trying to work the bugs out of the processes, get people up to speed on the nature of the the show, etc. After a year of working on a symbol based show I'm trying to learn how to draw again , which is fun and educational and maddening. Not complaining, mind you, it's wonderful to be doing it, and I'm very happy to be working on the project. Just making me a bit TENSE, which of course means the drawing suck, which makes me more tense.

But whatever, If you're here at all, it's to look at a picture, so thar she be. It's kind of a detail of a work in progress, with some hastily applied colour, done in Flash.

The Shadow Out of Time

There once was an ancient Great Race
Who'd send their minds through time and space
They swapped out my mind
For one of their kind
Now I wish he would find his own place.

Pic and limerick by me, inspired by "The Shadow Out of Time" by H.P. Lovecraft.

Evaluate! Evaluate!

Doin' a new project here at work soon, folk are pretty jazzed about it. Some people did some rough test animation for it, and this is mine, changed slightly into a standard ninja. YouTube seems to have messed up the framing somehow.



I was fairly pleased with it, although I'll probably become all huffy with it in about a month. In two months time I'll stop buying it flowers. Not long after that, I'll ignore it while I read the paper at the breakfast table. Eventually it will come out that I've been animating other scenes. Then it's only a matter of time before I realize that the joke where you apply relationship cliches to inappropriate subjects has become old hat.

Feeling Tauren

I don't play World of Warcraft. I will, in all likelihood, never play the game. I really don't play too many video games in general, and I've never managed to get into any of the RPG ones.
And yet, I find WOW strangely compelling. My ears perk up and I listen avidly when I hear my co-workers discussing it (and they discuss it often). I read "Looking for Group", a web comic I find delightful, especially the bits with Richard. I find myself cruising the community site, and occasionally, the Armory. I listen to the soundtrack when I'm working. I'm kinda jazzed about the new "Death Knight" Class.

And yet, I don't really wanna play the game. I'm content with knowing the difference between a Blood Elf and a Night Elf without wanting to play one. Or dress up as one, if those Blizzcon photos are any indication.

I honestly don't know what this says about my personality or psyche or whatever. It's probably a disorder of some sort. If so, I'll add it to the list.

Meantime, here's a Tauren I did. Looks nothing like a WOW Tauren, more like something Popeye would fight, but Popeye's cool, so no problems there. I'll wanna add a BG at some point, I'm sure.

'Ee's learnin', and changin', an 'ee ain't got no love 'bout nuffin, see...

And though they once were sought as sage,their shapes are but as glass
Through which secret fire again will shine
Twisting them 'round through life's bent line
'Till the cold stars swim in the murky brine
And it has come to pass.

Scrappy Crappy Doodle Alla Daaaaay!!

Well what ya got here, now, doodles and scratchings dictated by sheer random chance, wherever the pencil thingie lands. Mainly bad hair design, what's with vampire chicks hair? Was she wearing a cereal bowl all day?

Hadda dream about a week ago I was Meatloaf, the singer, not the dish, singing a country song at a retirement home. I kept forgetting the words, but nobody was listening anyway. The damn song got stuck in my head for days, I don't even think it exists, it was called "Charlies Divorce". It sucks having a song stuck in your head you don't know the words to, and you can't even find the words to it, beacause your brain made it up when it was supposed to be dreaming about naked wood nymphs or something.
Anyway, I made up some words just to have something for my mind to cling to.

Well, Charlie's wife decided after Twenty Years,
She'd had about enough, and threw him out on his ear,
Then she got a fancy Lawyer, and she got a P.I.
She got his former secretary on the stand to testify.

She took the House, and the Dog and the Car, of course,
No there weren't much left after Charlie's Divorce.

Gotta go to sleep soon, gettin up early, gonna put the ol' back into it, haul off, give 'er what I got sha-pwinginging.

The Man. The Music. The Maggot.

"You Humans...how did you manage to take over the planet, with your loud music, mind altering substances, homoerotic bathing, and bizarre cannibalistic sexual practices...?"

Dragon with A Goblin in his Butt, and the Joker

Self explanatory, really. The Dragon's a quick gag idea I had which I got onto a postit note, and the Joker is a pretty old drawing I found while I was looking for something else, but I think it still kinda holds up. Even if he's missing a body.

Other Simpsons!

Here's the ones Cindy and Sorcha did themselves, and the one they did of me. I think the Teeth are a lot closer on my version....

My Simpsons Avatar ( not done by me, but by their website)

I saw Dave Dick did one, then Cindy and Sorcha. I'm a big copy cat, so heres mine. The thing is, Beans has been doing these for a while himself using his own artistic prowess. So in addition to being a copy cat, I'm a cheater. Bad-ass all around , really.

I notice that I look like one of the animators standing around when they go to the Itchy and Scratchy studio. Nice to know I'm fitting the stereotype nicely.

Cheerio

Late night Moon Madness...Thought for the Day

No picture for this one. Just workin' late, feelin' mighty groggy. Decided to take a break, and watch a couple downloaded movie trailers. Caught one for a new movie about the Moon landings, and I got to thinking about all those conspiracy theories, the one where they say the whole thing was faked. Now, I'm hardly what you'd call an expert in anything that doesn't involve getting struck with anvils, so I have no intelligent opinion on space travel. But I AM a human being living in the early 21st century, so I think I'm qualified to form an opinion about THAT.

Ahem.

I think the reason we're so ready to believe the moon landings were faked is that the current crop of human human beings isn't very comfortable with the idea that humanity is capable of amazing things. If we were to believe in ourselves and in our neighbors, it would throw all our towering failings into sharp relief, and we might feel motivated to get up off our collective asses and do something about them. It's much easier (not to mention fashionable) to believe that everyone is stupid and there's no way people could do anything in the least remarkable, and therefore anything that SEEMS remarkable must be a lie. Then we can sink back into our swamp of sitcoms and salty snacks.

I'll throw this concept atcha, a conspiracy theory to rebut a conspiracy theory:

What if the "evidence" supporting a faked moon landing was actually created and circulated by the government as part of a campaign to a) prevent us from actually expecting anything out of them, and b) to keep us thinking that humanity is useless and there's no hope for the future, so that we stay nice and quiet and we won't go around Accomplishing Things that may disrupt the almighty Status Quo?

That oughtta keep the nut jobs busy. Next post, when I've gotten a bit of rest, I'll go back to the goofy drawings.

Promise.

Wizardry of Wizardrousness!

Put some colour to something I posted on the Krew blog a while back. It may even be good colour. I have no way of knowing, as my brain has turned to a syrup of some sort. Likley that fake raspberry flavor that tastes like cough medicine.

Have some Fire! I got nothin' better to do with it!

One of the guys on my crew did some animation of some stuff being juggled. One of the juggled objects was on fire, but the fire wasn't working right, so I completely re-did it.



We got the revisions, the the juggling animation had to change, and my fire became useless. Ah, well. So, on to the blog it goes!

Exciting, no?

Pain, Progress Bars, and Prestidigitation

I'll often draw while waiting for renders, more fun than watching the progress bar, but I got stuck for a subject, so I drew myself waiting for a render. It's the kind of "real life" moment that makes for Great Art.

Same thing for the post-it note drawing, there. Had a bad headache that day. Al Jaffee's done it better, but did he have a headache at the time? Huh? Possibly. Never met the man.

Also, been on a bit of a Zatanna kick lately. Not sure why, barely know anything about the character. It's probably all the backwards talking, now that's sassy!

Because Sometimes, you HAVE to post SOMETHING

Feel that?
That's what's left
Bearing down
Crow shadow
Barking mad orders
from black marble eyes.
Feel that?
That your know
Slipping out a side door
The thief that stole you
Simple, stupid.
Feel that?
Feel that?
Feel that?




Yeah, I know. But there comes a time when you have to post something cryptic and pretentious. It's in the blogging rules.

Yarg.

More Story Art

Gordon is having his doubts about Mote...

Random Story Art

Been picking away at a short for a while now....which is quite painful, the doctor keeps telling me I should stop...anyway, here's a bit of story /development drawing here. Cute, vivacious, maniacally homicidal pixie, Mabel "May Day" Mote, vexes our two heroes.

Yeah, I said it. "Vexes"!

Kirby Crackle is fun, even if you don't do it right.

Monkey Can't Sleep

This is a small monkey in his pajamas. He can't sleep because his rabbit is sick, and he's concerned. Cindy feels he looks kinda like a little boy in monkey pajamas. I think she's crazy.

Beelzebarney

Getting sleepy...monitor at home is weird...we'll see what these colours REALLY look like at work tomorrow....

'nother Rat

Hoo, mama, just seem to be busier and busier lately, the stuff I do get to post seems rougher and rougher...gonna try slap some a dat ol' digital paint on this bad boy at some point, dunno when. Wsan't gonna post it 'til painted, but heck, gotta post SOMETHIN...

The Dark Mite Returns

Anybody remember Bat-Mite? He was this goofy little imp guy from the Batman comics in the '60's-ish era. I was thinking about it, and I thought it would be cool to bring him back, but make him like this shape-shifting shadow being...he could have the same motivation and everything, a creature from another dimension who idolizes Batman and shows his admiration by putting Batman through his paces. The little doodle above came out of my ponderings, a possible design thing...

Yes, this is what I do with my spare time. I think about Bat-Mite.

What waiting for renders will do to your brain.

Marlon Van Zan Der Moken lives in the freezer and uses telepathy to call you bad names. He avoids detection by crouching inside ancient empty ice cube trays. He feeds off the vague anxieites that arise from watching "documentaries" about Nostradamus.

He doesn't like you.

Discarded Colours

Here's the Colour version of Kate O'Shea....did I mention that the BW pic below is Kate O'Shea? I didn't, did I? The Devil hates her because of something that one of her ancestors did to him...long story, can't get into it right now....

something new later, promise.

Lunchtime Doodles

...a selection from the pile, in all their glory....

Mucking About

Ryan Keizer, a fella I work with and possible crazy-man, has some cool techniques for inking in Flash that he told me and that I plan on writing down here as soon as I make sure I got 'em straight. I tried 'em out on this drawing. Beans gave me some color advice which I then heartlessly discarded. Sorry, man :)

I used Photoshop for odds and ends.

Old Drawing + New Poem + Old Meter = New Post

The grimmest gargoyles guard those gates of gold,
And, watched by ancient wind-worn walls, await
Their Lord, who long has left the Lightless Lands
On errands evil. Eons exiled, He
For crimes was cursed, from God’s Creation cast,
Returning not again to ruined realm.
Yet still those sentries stand in shackling spells,
Forever fettered; feared by few, forgot
By most, their Master’s malice merely myth.
Indeed, a dismal Doom, in darkness drown’d
Are grinning gargoyles guarding gates of gold.

So, I was kinda sitting there, and I thought to myself, why not some Alliterative Iambic Pentameter? Who WOULDN'T be up for that? And well, this is what came out. It's kind of over-the-top-fantasy, but I happen to LIKE over-the-top-fantasy. So sue me.

The drawing I did, oh...two? Three years ago now? It was a tattoo design for a guy I worked with in a warehouse. He wanted a gargoyle skeleton, which I figured was a kind of cliche idea for a tattoo, but what the hell, customer's always right and all those kinds of things. This is the drawing I gave him. He still hadn't gotten the tattoo by the time I left the job, and he paid me with a DVD I still haven't watched, which I'm sure proves something about symmetry to the universe or whatever.

Keeley, if you ever read this, you still owe me for Ross's tattoo design, for convoluted reasons which still aren't entirely clear to me.

And I'm sorry if I spelled your name wrong.

Rats....

Studio's game project....got rats on the brain lately.....

More Doodles

So, Beans, you'd like some more doodles? See how you like.....ATHOUSAND AT ONCE! BWAHAHHAHAHAHA!

...well, actually, only 8. I thought I would see how it would look if I just piled a buch of random doodles from around my desk onto the scanner, instead of taking the time to combine them nicely in Photoshop.
Turns out, it looks like I just piled a buch of random doodles from around my desk onto the scanner, instead of taking the time to combine them nicely in Photoshop.

Go figure.

Hold on to this, please....

I threw this off at work today for kicks. It's obstensibly for a project, but it won't get used, so I've got nothing better to do with it but toss it up on the old blog. I's pretty simple, and the 'shopping coulda been done better, but I still thought it was kinda cool.

Inque

You ever try to forget all the anatomy they tried to drill into you in school? I mean, intentionally? It's kinda funny how often I had to "correct" this drawing as I was making it, and she's still not as gooey and flowy as she was on Batman....

Carlos the Turtle

Sometimes Sorcha will run up to me with pencil and paper and say "Daddy, draw something!" The drawings I produce on these occasions are rarely what you'd call Great Art, and usually inspire comments like, "gee, Daddy, it doesn't LOOK like a gorilla." (if you ever think you're a great draughtsman, try drawing in front of a five year old)

This time, though, she said she liked this turtle, so I wrote him a little verse, and here he is.

(the robot I drew five minutes later got a lukewarm reception, and will not be posted) :)

Carlos the Turtle

Was happy as clams

He didn't have email

So he never got spams

He didn't need gas

'Cause he didn't have cars

He had beaches and oceans

And the sun and the stars.

F'dyu's Tale

I am F'Dyu.
I hunt the Wyrm.
The Wyrm carries the Casket.
The Casket contains the Scroll.
The Scroll leads to the Orb.
The Orb reveals the Citadel.
The Citadel houses the Vault.
The Vault protects the Weapon.
The Weapon holds sway over the very Foundation of the Universe itself.
I am F'Dyu, and I hunt the Wyrm.
For the sake of The Realm, and all that dwell therein,
I hunt the Wyrm.

High Art

This is NOT a goofy picture of a weird little dude in an empty room! It's a highly sophisticated experiment of shape, colour, and composition! Dammit! Done while I was taking a break! Okay??!!