CHIMERA

Manga Sushi-the story starts

2011-01-02T22:34:00.000-08:00

This is an ongoing project that I started with my first son. This is more his project than mine, I merely write what he tells me and he approves most of my work. It is one of the most challenging and rewarding projects I have done yet. For me I just try to listen and to not be so precious with the work that it doesn't get done. It is hard but I try really hard not to steer the story. I do find that if I get confused I tend to ask pointed questions, for which he always has several answers.
Our project came out of a story I found. I was slightly horrified to hear about the children of one of my creative heroes (N.C.Wyeth). He is definitely an amazing and inspiring painter, but he was an absentee father. His children would wait at the door to his studio to catch a glimpse of him when he opened the door to pick up the tray of food his wife would leave for him or when he would place the empty plates back at the door. I have been guilty of getting wrapped up in my job and neglecting myself and those close to me, but after I heard this story and hearing several stories similar to this, I became more mindful. It's helped but it is still difficult for me.
One way of combating this is to include my family,when I can, and share my love of this field. If you are a creative parent I hope that you spend time nurturing it in your children whether they follow your footsteps or not. If you have other ideas or have done similar projects I would love to hear about them in the comments.

Frank Frazetta

2010-05-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

We lost a great artist this past week. I cannot tell you how much this loss affects me, what Frazetta's work means to me, how he inspires me every time I see his work, how I strive to excel to his level in every piece I do, how much I still learn from his work. Sadly I know those of you that feel a little like I do are probably categorized in the "old guy" column. With the internet and the rise of concept art this new amazing generation of artists have no context for him and without context he just becomes one of those guys. I already overheard some of the younger guys I work with refer to him as such. To me growing up he was a lighthouse and utterly unique and revolutionary. I learned early on that if you find someone that you think is amazing, find out who there teachers were, who inspired them, and maybe you could get closer to that source. Our legacy as artists will be by who we inspire not what show we were on or how much we got paid for something. I think we tend to forget that in our "jobs". Some amazing artists that he inspired

-Dave Stevens
-Mike Mignola
-William Stout
-Frank Cho
-Justin Sweet
-Mark Schultz
-Mike Kaluta
-Mitch Byrd
-James Watkiss
-Ashley Wood
-Wally Wood
-Al Williamson

-this list could probably go on a lot longer than I know or have room for. But if you like any of the guys above take a second or a lifetime and check out Frank Frazetta's work. While your at it, take a second to thank the artists that inspire you that are still here. I know for a fact it would mean alot to them. My heart is heavy and I felt the need to post something. Sadly I couldn't even "settle" on any of the hundreds of images he created to put up as a post.

Thank you Frank for everything!

Remember Banner

2010-05-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

An incredible intellect living with regret and guilt of what his uncontrollable ID did. The Hulk was a a creature of pathos and rage. Then we had to put him in a bunch of super groups and play nice and still be the Hulk. Minor character flaw. Now they introduced us to RedHulk a creature of rage and, erm, evil.........who cares.
I worked on two versions for the SilverScreen ,one actually made it and was panned. Haven't thought of the grey/green guy since then until this guy started his March Madness run. Check it out if you have the time. Made me remember all the fun I had reading him as a kid.

HULK SMASH!!

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

2010-03-26T00:11:00.000-07:00

Was fun. Good job Dreamworks!! Your TD's did an amazing job on hair, fur, rock, wood and scales. Clouds and fire also superb! Lighting was beautiful! Character design by the amazingly talented Nico Martlet (seriously this guy is crazy good!) the animation was simply superb, both subtle and big, score was unobtrusive and rousing in the right place but what about the story? Fun, just fun. But don't take my word for it, go see it, I mean if you like this sort of thing, you know dragons and vikings. More like this please! What's next guys?

TELLING STORIES

2010-02-27T22:39:00.001-08:00

Most of you that visit this often NOT updated blog are interested in story . If you are one of those people I would HIGHLY recommend this book written by my friend Brian McDonald-Invisible Ink. I was very lucky to run into him when I was very young in my career and it made a big difference in steering me. He started writing a blog that is chock full of practical advice for writers and artists who tell stories. There are alot of books out there about this medium but most of them are for analyzing stories after the fact or create confusion using highfalutin words which only make people feel stupid , some even have graphs and charts that start to look like football plays. But if you are actually creating stories I would say his book would benefit you more than most.
Brian clears away the useless and makes visible what was previously hidden , then tells you how to hide it again. But don't take my word for it listen to these yahoos

“Writing stories is hard. They are stubborn by nature. No matter how many times you master one, the next story is obligated to conceal its faults with an entirely new disguise. Your only recourse is to keep writing, while concurrently increasing your understanding of this deceivingly simple, yet highly complex, organism we call story. Brian McDonald’s insightful book does just that. Somehow, Brian has found yet another fresh and objective way to analyze how great stories function, and emboldens you to face the challenge of scaling whatever story mountain looms before you. If I manage to reach the summit of my next story it will be in no small part due to having read Invisible Ink.”

—Andrew Stanton (cowriter Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., and cowriter/director Finding Nemo and WALL-E)

“Invisible Ink is a powerful tool for anyone who wants to become a better screenwriter.With elegance and precision, Brian McDonald uses his deep understanding of story and character to pass on essential truths about dramatic writing. Ignore him at your peril.”

—Jim Taylor (Academy Award™- winning screenwriter of Sideways and Election)

“Brian McDonald knows that underneath a good story are the difficult mechanics of plot. He offers insights into both the construction needed and the art of hiding that construction.”

—Jim Uhls (screenwriter of Fight Club)

also here

Utnapishtim

2009-12-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

I've been incredibly busy with everything! This doodle is from a long term project that I can't seem to get to, so I thought "Why not post it?"Not the final design and just a hint of the amount of exploratory sketches done to try and find the look of a character.

More Cards

2009-11-10T00:11:00.000-08:00

Been awhile since the last post,......a looooooong while. Working on alot of stuff thatI can't make public, sorry. Did another round with Topps. Hope you all enjoy. Hopefully have more stuff soon(relatively).

Charity Auction

2009-02-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

Tonight at work, an impromptu auction for Breast Cancer and AIDS patients and research. This is from an idea my wife keeps kicking around about a brother and sister. The title is " My Brother is the Worst Pirate I know(thankfully his men are not!)" A.K.A. "The Key". I hope it finds a good home.

The Great Pumpkin!!

2008-10-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

As a lad growing up in Eastern Europe. As for me, well with our show released, I have found very little time to do any fun work for myself. I try to use at least one Holiday a year to do something, this year it's Holoween/Samhain/Day of the Dead. I've always like Linus' story about the Great Pumpkin and decided to add a little history to that familiar Autumnal gourd. I hope this finds you all well!!
This weekend I will be dropping by APE to see some of my friends work (Le Tang, Jackie Huang and Derek the Monster Thompson to name a few). If you have the time please come on by and support some Alternate Press!

ORDER 66

2008-08-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

Wow! So a few of us at work decided to do 66 sketchcards for Topps. With production being in full swing and several things on fire,San Diego Con looming, and just trying to live life, it was excruciatingly hard! But fun,..really, it was fun. What kept me going was thinking how cool it would be to open a package and find a card done by one of the crew. Some of these I feel proud of, some of them not so much, but in the end I'm honored and glad that I got the chance to do it. I am still trying to figure out what happened at the Con. I will be posting pics and musings next time.

COMICON!!

2008-07-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not posting, I hope you haven't all given up. It's been really busy at the studio(more later) and it's also been really busy at home,,,,getting ready for San Diego ComiCon!! I am sharing a booth with some fellow Coworkers at Booth#1329.
I will be selling 2 prints and an anthology I did a couple years back called Babes in Space. These are some of my booth mates work

BattleMilk

-you may not have heard of them but that shouldn't stop you from drinking it in! Do it!

Who is BattleMilk?? Who indeed....
Kilian Plunkett-lead designer on the television Clone Wars, Comic book artist extraordinaire and all around fun guy
Thang Le-fastest designer in the West, silent but deadly, so very deadly
Wayne Lo-Art Director for the video game Lair,man of mystery and brand new papa
and
Jackson Sze -bringing art and style to the devil box!

Who else??

The Fantastic Work of Kinman Chan

Bosco Ng

-watch out ladies, he has x-ray eyes!!!

Le Tang

-genuinely one of the most talented and nicest story artists around, until he starts cussing

Steward Le

-Pulse pounding action Sifu and fellow Episodic Director on the Clone Wars TV series

Our sister booth over here at Table H09 . Sports such mighty talents such as

Captain Russel Chong

-You can salute if you want

Kelsey Mann

-careful, he's watching you!

Jackie Huang

-builderbot, creator and all around tinkerer

Want more? Well your in luck! The Jew Bros. are creating a talent vortex in artist alley
Benton-table EE02
Anson-table EE01
One time team member but now affiliated with another justice orginization will be defending Booth #1534

Derek Thompson

-the original Monster!

along with

Ted Mathot

-Amazon worshiper and yarn spinner

Justin Ridge-tall in stature and talent, deal with it
Sho Murase-modern day Nancy Drew modern day cool

Not full yet? You dare!? Then fill your talent void with the following....
See and hear some of the above mega talents speak about the sacred texts in

PANEL #2 10:50-11:35am Using 3D Story in The Clone Wars Series
Room 7AB

stay for all the talks and you may be deemed worthy of a reward!!!

To Recap
booth #1329 - BattleMilk,Prints,Sketchbooks,Comics
table # H09- books,gifts,portfolios,prints
booth #1534 - monster sketches,Comics
Artist Alley
table#EE02 - Raw Talent
table#EE01- Unbrideled Talent

We would love to see you, so come on by, and remember to support the little guys!

For Another Friend

2007-08-31T00:10:00.000-07:00

Henry Gilroy is an awesome writer. Hire him! I got to work with him on a project an WOW!! He knows his stuff. He carries around a sketchbook with the theme of "Your favorite Robert E Howard / HP Lovecraft character". I just happen to love both those authors ability to create some neat visceral visuals. I was happy to do a piece, or two. Of course having the book be over half filled with Bruce Timm's homages, tends to dampen ones ability. These were the best I could do.

WHEN IS A SKETCH NOT A SKETCH

2007-08-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

I was driving home about a week ago(the sun goes down around 8:00 right now) and I saw a hill with a window of golden light hitting it. There were hills higher around it but this one was the only one that was getting hit. I thought"Hey that would be a nice painting,...if that hill was a dinoasaur." I finally had a little time this weekend and I wanted to just do a little sketch so I wouldn't forget that hill top. About an hour in, I still thought I was doing a sketch

I had 2 versions before this, and it started flopped in the other direction. The gist of the piece is there. I have quite a few of these at this stage (and that's where they will stay). I usually stop at this point. For some reason I felt like I needed more from this image, to make it richer or more complete to me.

I added some atmosphere and foreground elements. This is where I got into trouble. Now I felt like I needed to clean up a mess that I made. I started trying to fix my mistakes in the "sketch". (the compy's looked like velociraptors and the diplodocus looked like a weird 3 legged beast) but I still thought I was doing a sketch(now 3 hours in).

Here's the semi final version.

So I think it must have been when I exported the image from Photoshop to Painter to use the Glow Brush. Yeah that was when I realized this was more than just a sketch. Still less than a "real" piece but much more than a sketch. It's important to go with the flow since you never know when the flow will come. Not my favorite piece but , there you go.
Based off of the response from this piece I am "finishing" it off and may present it in some final form later.

Far East Facetasm

2007-06-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

Artists fall into ruts, blocks and bad habits. We do everything to get out of them once we realize we have fallen. Changing the way we draw, using new materials, looking at new things and the best, looking at life, or uh,TV. Yep that's right TV. I often use TV to do cheap life drawing(I say cheap because the brain is doing a 2D to 2D translation which is alot easier than doing a 3D to 2D translation)I was watching a neat little movie with some amazing faces and couldn't resist. I love faces! Sometimes you can see a persons whole story as it is written on there face. And their is beauty in it all.There is a Japanese story I would like to tell someday but it's far too soon to actually tell it. So as a visual person I have to draw my way through it.

See Out Loud

2007-06-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

One of the more uncomfortable aspects of blogging is the seeming self importance and vanity that is inherit to it and art as well. So I always relish the opportunity to talk about a fellow artist and friend who's doing exceptionally well,......like my friend and fellow director Warren Fu. He just finished directing a music video for The Strokes. If you want to see more of his work check out his website over there on the side of the screen.

(If you want to check out the video click image above)

What I've been up to

2007-05-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

The reason for infrequent and sporadic posts has been because I've been working with some amazing people on a new TV show, that takes an incredible amount of my personal time, but that I am very proud to be a part of. It won't be out any time soon but they officially announced it this past weekend. So now it's OK to let you guys know. Just doing my small part to feed the Nerds of the world(myself included).
(click on the image above if you want a sneak peak)

Todd is a Konig

2007-04-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

I was dumbfounded when I saw this as a teen. I thought "Wow! Konig must be some sort of new curse word and man Todd really is a Konig." A few years later, questions always stay below the surface for me, I found out that I misread a very nihillistic german T-shirt. Tod ist Konig-Death is King. Uggh! The shirt also had a snappy graphic. Onto a personal Konig of mine Killian Plunket. It's his birthday this weekend sometime and I made this little card for him.

MOVING CLOSER TO THE PRESENT

2007-04-13T00:08:00.000-07:00

Been incredibly busy of late, so I'm cheating, a little. A coworker of mine had a great idea to pass a book around to all of her friends she worked with to have a little piece of history to look back upon, before she left the company we were working for. I was so touched that she wanted me in the book, so I did this little piece. She told me I could take however long I needed, just as long as she got it back. She had about 3 other beautiful pieces before I did my scribble. I returned the book to her 3 months before she moved on to another job. Cut to 1 year later when the office was doing some Spring cleaning. I noticed a familiar sketchbook lying in the rubbish bin. Well I've been poor in my life and scrounged for any kind of paper to draw on, so I have the habit of collecting paper just in case I ever run out. Yep you guessed it. The sketchbook now had 4 drawings and the start of a 5th (another office mates who was still at the company). I was a little shocked, yeah maybe more than a little. I showed it to the office mate who had started the piece that was unfinished. "Oh, Yeah,Hmmm. Heh". He didn't even want it back to finish the piece or give it back to the original owner. OUCH!

For my 2 Friends

2007-02-16T22:20:00.000-08:00

Some of us are lucky enough to have amazing and talented friends. I was lucky enough to be taught alot about what I do by my good friend Brian McDonald (see his Blog Invisible Ink on the side over there). He has a sketchbook that gets passed along and the theme of the book is " Your Favorite KIRBY Character". He was silly enough to ask me to do one, well that was a little problem. I don't have ONE favorite Kirby character. So I went a little crazy, cause Jack Kirby was one of my first friends, granted I never knew him, but his drawings made my life easier, and by my definition that makes a friend of a sort. So even though these are a little old (egads!! Is that really TEN years ago?!) I thought I would share. Brian's book also sports some amazing talent
William Stout-Devil Dinosaur
Rick Geary-Hulk
Bob Fingerman-Silver Surfer
John Romita-Thing
Beto Hernandez-Hulk
Xaime Hernandez-Super Skrull
Art Adams-IronMan
Scott Williams-Captain America
And many many more. It's an awesome collection and I am humbled to be part of it.

retro love

2007-01-02T23:40:00.000-08:00

This was a throw away sketch that I can't throw away. This is from one of my favorite scenes in the original Frankenstein movie. If you haven't seen it (say it ain't so!) it's a brief moment of happiness for my friend the monster where he experiences some of the good things in life, eating, smoking, friendship and music. I went out and read the book after the movie and it fell flat for me. I realized it was Boris Karloff that made that monster so wonderful to me. The monster in the book looked nothing like the Universal version and vice versa. To this day he is one of my favorites. Not one of my best pieces but one I really like.

Keep an Eye Out

2006-12-28T21:55:00.000-08:00

For good compositions. That was a piece of advice I got from reading about Alex Toth. Specifically

-Study films, photographs, paintings, etc. for composition! For cutting, cropping out of nonessentials, pacing, punch, economy, forceful and direct impact. But also for beauty and subtlety-tension, suspense, action, humor, light and dark, balance, line vs, mass, ad infinitum! Use it all!

Always be looking, they are out there. If you're an artist it's not about turning it on and off it's about always being aware. Over break I got to watch alot of movies, some oldies. One was a Jubal(1956). A story with Glenn Ford, Charles Bronson and Ernest Borgnine. Some really great cinematography. One shot jumped out at me, not a big story point but a great technical shot, which the film is filled with( a lot of night shots with lit barns, 1956 people!!) . It's shot at sunset where the sky is still lit but not the ground. I was really impressed that the shot actually worked. the film was shot by Charles Lawton Jr. and directed by Delmer Davies. So I decided to do a quick sketch. This is my impression of the shot more than anything else, just trying to keep loose before diving into a bunch of boards( yes working over break). Hope everyone had a great holiday and sorry about not having a Holiday card this year( see above parenthesis). We miss ya Alex! Into the New Year!!!

I Know what I'm Getting

2006-12-01T01:21:00.000-08:00

...for the Holidays. Sorry folks it's been really busy lately. This is just a little do dad that was sitting around. Did I mention I like gorillas? Cause I really do! I like movies about them( even ones about them sniffing their own poo) I like pictures of them, I like dolls and documentaries, I like other people who like them. I like sculptors that sculpt them, I like just about everything about them. They are amazing!!If the spirit moves you check out the

Gorilla Foundation

They do good work and have great plans. And for you phantom viewers you daily surfers drop me a line. It's nice to know who's actually looking at all this crap.

Oh for the Love of the Leader

2006-09-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

I apologize for my absence. I left the company I have been working at for the past 10 years and hit the ground running at a relatively new start up. To be honest after Alex Toth's passing I didn't feel like posting anymore of my chicken scratch, I've been dealing with alot of loss lately. But life goes on just as death and change. And as much as things can change they can be the same. For example, this new post is a going away card for one of the amazing new guys I got to work (albeit briefly) with. This card was done for one Rick Morales ( an amazing board artist). Rick and one Steward Lee started a "jam pin-up". Steward did the Hulk and Rick did the the Wolverine. Justin Ridge came in with a very round Spider Woman and Dave Bullock zinged it with a really nice Longshot. Well, now every one is picking on one of my favorite angry green behemoths. I couldn't add to this travesty so I had to remedy it. Enter the Leader!!! Now is he controlling the Hulk or the rest of the bunch, hmmm...

Alex Toth, 1928-2006

2006-05-30T20:38:00.000-07:00

So sad. Though we all aspire to his greatness we are less with his passing.

EGGSUCKAH

2006-05-06T23:21:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Derek Thompson and some of his new cronies over at Pixar are putting together the second AfterWorks volume (with Image this time). The first volume boasted some heavy talent from over there and Derek assures me the second will be even more amazing and in color to boot! Derek's contribution is a story called Eggsucker and it is cute and wonderful little piece. He got the likes of Scott Morse and Steve Purcell to do pin ups and I guess he felt like he needed some one to make those guys look even better then they are. So here's my humble little contribution. Look for AfterWorks Vol II at the San Diego Con this year!!

boards lots of boards

2006-05-05T23:32:00.000-07:00

There are alot of different kinds of boards, and I've had the priveledge to do most of them. The only thing that makes a difference is the story. I was going through some archives and found some of these lying around, thought I would share. I have some examples of commercial boards,bid boards for F/X, overly rendered story boards,F/X boards,toned story boards, a glorious key frame (the grand poobah of storyboards!That one shot that captures the essence of a scene) and key frames for an animated fiasco(color direction by the fantastic Steve Purcell the rest by little ol me). Storyboards are a lot of hard work and alot of drawing alot, alot of drawing and in reality NOT always fun to do or easy. But can be one of the most rewarding jobs in the industry. Sadly I work with alot of people who feel like storyboards are a thing of the past and choose to do 3-D previs instead. I think the best work I've seen, use previs as layout(workbook) as well as storyboards. I even did storyboards for a movie who's producer proudly stated that no boards were used ( OUCH!!). Needless to say storyboards will always be here and some of the best directors( Hitchcock,Spielberg) and studios(PIXAR) use them proudly!

key frames

2006-05-05T23:28:00.000-07:00

Son of John

2006-05-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

I love art, science, nature, fantasy and sci fi. All of it inspires me to get into my imagination. Sometimes work comes out of it some times play and sometimes it's just a big waste of time. Speaking of time, I got hooked on a internet personality who's name is John Titor. I spent probably a day and a half on him and what he made me think about. If your into time travel and have a few hours to "spend" look him up. This is his descendant Nicholas(Nick). This piece never went anywhere but I felt under pressure to post something new. Since this and a few other projects( not completed yet) have been keeping me busy I thought this should be good enough for now.

God Kong

2006-04-05T23:46:00.000-07:00

By this age I had seen King Kong ( the original) back to back with Mighty Joe Young ( the original) on TV, and had read about Koko in Natl. Geographic. I knew I loved gorillas. At this time the much hyped remake of King Kong had been out for about 2 years. I think this was my attempt to blow up the poster from one of the ads in back of comics. The original poster was done by the amazing John Berkey. I also fell in love with ball point pens at that time. This image was just an excuse to tell you guys that I have added to the inspiration section, a link to a Kirby monster blog( AWESOME) and to the site links I have added the illusive and awesomely hip and talented Ippei Gyoubu ( Monkey Business). Check them out as well as John Berkey if you haven't heard of him before ( he is better known for his spaceships I later found out, but that is another story).

A Time Of Robots

2006-03-24T22:12:00.000-08:00

It's important to be open to new things. In my job I am lucky enough to "have to learn new programs". It's always humbling and sometimes very hard and frustrating. These were done with Sketch Up and Vue 5 in two days( over 150 images in all). Two excellent programs that are incredibly easy for the technologically challenged such as myself. As I started doing them a story started to happen with the images, at least for me. I didn't finish the robot model till half way through so try to imagine all the torso's as whole robots. The computer is a tool and not the crutch, so I view these as "sketches". If I were to continue with any of these I would use them to draw from and not as a final render. Honestly it made me feel like a kid doing these, you know press a button or two and whammo a photo reality!!! Wow computers can be fun!

TROGS

2006-03-13T00:16:00.000-08:00

Just some sketches from the sketchbook. Just letting the pen go some times can yield some good things. The last one on the page turned into a little study that I liked and later into a few good pieces. Try to listen to your instincts, it's hard at first, but it gets easier the more you do it. When your creating it's imperative.

GORRILAZILLA ANGRY!!!

2006-02-20T18:45:00.000-08:00

This is for my friend Jamie Baker. One of the characters that jumped outta his wacky head was Rocket Rabbit, and I luv him!! If you have a sec or so go to his site( found on the right) and wade through the jungle of his fertile imagination! If you're at a convention try to get him to tell one of his stories and if you have cash to spend, buy one of his comics,...they're funny!!

Some Say in Fire

2006-02-13T22:27:00.000-08:00

...Some say in Ice. Life can really smack you in the face and it did. Sorry for being out of the loop so long but some crappy smacking in my face was happening. This is for another project I'm attempting, let's see where it all goes. This is a WIP.

Oh Yeah! New Blogs and sites and stuff. Check them out!! And more coming!!

ALIEN GIRLS

2006-01-09T22:28:00.000-08:00

Aliens and girls I should say. From the sketchbook. If you've ever seen my sketchbook it's all about visual regurgitation, and exploring and practicing. Being an artist I know that sometimes our ego gets in the way and keeps us from sharing our mistakes. I know alot of great artists who's sketchbooks are a bunch of beautiful finished drawings. I want to see the exploration and mistakes. Sometimes the journey is more exciting than the finish. I remember an illustrator in LA showed me his sketchbook, when I was a student, and it floored me. In it were a million ideas, all wonderful, he had an amazing mind as well as being an amazing artist! I also know a bunch of people who live in there sketches and are afraid to do finished pieces. All things are OK to do, as long as you are drawing. I want to walk the line between them and keep pushing ideas as well as finished pieces.

LOOK INTO the MONKEY'S EYES

2006-01-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

I figure I needed another image here. This was done as a concept for a crew gift. It wasn't chosen. I think we got a pair of shorts( since the project was a short). I like the monkey.

INTRO to those BLOGS

2005-12-30T12:00:00.000-08:00

First off let me say, I wish I knew all the people I have links to, sadly I do not. But all of them have influenced me and we are all lucky that they have a web presence at all, many of my influences don't. I'll be adding to this list as well as doing an intro to the site links .

Brian McDonald-One of the few amazing story artists out there. If you tell stories in any medium, you should check out his blog, take his class or find a way to contact him. I've never met a someone so passionate about story! I was lucky enough to have met Brian many years ago and that meeting changed my art in such a positive way. I feel for anyone who chooses writing as an art. Unlike most art forms so much is up for interpretation. Where as drawing has more tangible rules( an arm needs to look like an arm etc,) and even music and photography, unless you get into abstract forms. Sadly writers of both good and bad calibers get lumped together because so much is up to the reader and what they bring to the work.

Denis Bodart-I am a recent convert to Denis' work, only because I was not aware of it for so long. My friend Jamie Baker made me aware of him and I haven't looked back since. Unfortunately his work is hard to get here in the "states", but if you can get your hands on any of his works do so! Classic comic storytelling at it's best. He has such a beautiful line quality that reminds me of Moebius at his best on "Blueberry". Truly a master at clarity and economy. Lucky for us all he has a blog with updates on his current piece "Indeh". I can't wait!!

Sparth-Such beautiful style! Once you look at is work you will be hooked! I would love to meet this guy!

Oscar Grillo-HA! Oscar came to work at ILM during "Men in Black" as an inspirational concept animator or some such thing. I believe he was sent here to drink our beer and make our most talented artists and animators feel inadequate. Many people still hang his doodles up in there cubes as if blessed by Bacchus himself. His artwork is effortless and a joy to look at.

James Jean-It is always humbling to be around someone so young and so talented. If he only rendered well or was able to put pretty colors together, we might pass him up, but James has a voice of a fine artist yet uses our common language of illustration so that we might all enjoy his conversation. Truly inspiring work.

Ashley Wood- What can I say, I'm addicted to his stuff. His strong sense of design grabs you, that and his particular subject matter, I just can't get enough of (Robots and Girls). Just when I think I've had enough he comes out with yet another book, or cover, or statue (man is this guy prolific! I feel lazy just looking at his work) and out comes the wallet.

Neil Campbell Ross-Another one of the guys I've never known and would like to meet. Apparently from animation, but his work is transcendent. His art looks flat but their is a depth and maturity to it that is amazing.

Gabriele Pennacchioli-Man oh man! Simplicity and energy! I always smile when looking at his work. His character sheets or so much fun!

Chris Minos-I was lucky enough to work with Chris a few times. He was always fun to work with and amazingly talented! I learned early on that not all computer animators are drawers so I was surprised one day when Chris showed me his stuff! Wow! Not only can he draw but he has a FERTILE imagination!!

Giant Monster-Ummmm, I have a friend who is a giant monster, this is his site.

Like I said earlier I will be adding to this list but wanted to let you all know about these strangers over in the right column. Please visit their sites!

Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays

2005-12-21T01:34:00.000-08:00

Now to get sappy. However you spend this Holiday Season I hope you are surrounded by good people and good cheer. May the new year find us all rejuvenated and ready to take on a new one. Share your good fortune and be able to see your own prosperity. Alright that's plenty of that crap. This card took way too long but I always feel compelled to do one no matter my schedule. Until next time,....er year?

Yet Another,....

2005-12-11T23:06:00.000-08:00

Yet another card. I'd prefer to do a card and not a caricature( which I think at the heart are a bit mean spirited) but I don't always get to art direct these things. My version would have had the girl and a bunch of spaghetti armed mice, wearing pants, dancing around!! That's it for finished pieces for awhile. I'm gonna keep posting but it's gonna be outta my sketchbook, hope that's ok with you all?!

ATTACK!!

2005-12-08T23:56:00.000-08:00

The ancient battle between the Tiki Atlanteans and the subversive Lemurians, who used the beatnicks to break down and appropriate cultures, rages on.-OR- I did this piece for a friend of mine who left work to become succesful. I hate doing cards because it means that I'm saying goodbye to a friend, but on the other hand it is an opportunity to try something fun and/or new and push your skill set.

Violent Ends

2005-12-07T22:32:00.000-08:00

I don't "like" any kind of gangster glorification movies as a rule. Partly because the violence is so seductive. But even I find some inspiration from the genre. Here are a few frames I did after I heard that they where making Sin City into a movie. I tried to do these from the memory of Frank Miller's comics. I think it is just as important to draw from memory and feeling as it is from life.

Trying Something New

2005-12-07T22:04:00.000-08:00

I'm trying this blog as an experiment of sorts. As soon as it becomes work and not fun it will stop. I hope to share my inspiration and to be inspired by any who care to share. I'll try to post at least once a month if not more. Please be patient.Thanks!!!