Absinthe Anyone?

The talented Matt Jones has put together a fundraiser to bring the works of Ronald Searle here to the States, which would mark the West Coast's first ever exhibition of Searle's amazing artwork!  They were close friends before Searle's passing, and Matt now also runs a Tribute blog which you can find here.  Matt has also been posting the artwork donated by artists here!  I'm really excited, and feel very thankful, to have been able to contribute a piece to the fundraiser. 

Absinthe Anyone? 

Pen & Ink on Bristol Board, 8x10

Here's what it looks like in its frame.  (Big thanks to Vicki Saulls with her help in photographing this!)

Last but not least, below is the initial sketch & font practice.  I decided to make the setting Maison Premiere, an incredible absinthe and oyster bar in Brooklyn that looks like a 1920's speakeasy when you walk in.  First I roughed this up with the bar, seeing how I'd place the people around it, then did the entire sketch in the size I wanted.  I ended up needing to put an ink pass on it to see better on the lightbox, and then traced everything on to the Bristol Board.  From there, a whole lot of inking going on!

I had so much fun working on this!  I loved researching Searle's fantastic work and doing my best at paying tribute to his style and characters.  Thank you Matt, I can't wait to find out how everything goes!

(Make you) Jump jump

TVPaint, I enjoy thee quite a bit.  Does this .mov work?  I hope so.  Who knows.  Only the shadow knows...

And this guy.  He might know too.

(Originally he was a gif.  But his constant walking made him...  and my eyes... tired.)

Did those during the animation class I took last spring with Eric Eiser and Martin Abrahams.  Practice!  Here are also some rough planning sketches for the ballerina, and a shot of what it looks like with the lighbox turned on in TVPaint:

  

Bored on a horse.

Bored on a horse?

Bored on a horse!

(Sketch warmup for tonight.)

I'm currently listening to my 'DeVotchKa' station on Pandora and it's playing 'With or Without You' by 2Cellos.  Literally just two dudes, and their cellos.  You know what, here's a pic of them too.

It's July - hope you all had a happy and safe Independence Day!

WWZ

Today's theme: Zombies, to pay homage to World War Z coming out.

(Although I'm not really sure if I'll see it in theaters... I know it's nothing like the book so I should just expect it to be a new zombie flick.  But man that book was so great.  I also can't get over the fact how CGI the zombies look and how fast they run.  Who knows... maybe I'm mistaken?  Maybe the movie will be awesome!  Maybe Brad Pitt saves it all with his rugged good looks and flowing mane of hair.)

Anyway, this happened to me at work recently.  I was eating a grapefruit, digging at it with my teeth, and it was getting everywhere.  At one point I thought to myself, "I'll bet this is what it feels like if you were a zombie."

(Originally I had this laid out horizontally & blogger either made it tiny or huge... I'm not sure if this is any better though. Blast!  BLAST BLOGGER!)

I had started to tell Mr Daniel Seddon about this grapefruit zombie idea & how I wanted to draw it with no panels like Calvin & Hobbes dancing, and he thought at first I was talking about dancing zombies.  Which just sounded like fun, so I drew those too.  SWING DANCING ZOMBIES!

And finally, on a non-zombie related note, last week was officially the 20th Anniversary of Jurassic Park!!!  There will be more on my love for that movie later, but for now, here is Samuel L. to send you off on a happy Friday & great first day of summer!

Bike to Babycakes

I'd say about a month ago, I bought a used beach cruiser bike on Craigslist.  Red, Schwinn, working breaks and only minimal dents!  I love this thing.  Lately I've found that I'll pack up all my gear and head down...

TO THE BAKERY!!!  Babycakes is an amazing vegan bakery spot down on the Lower East Side.  

YUM.

Here is a map of my journey.

They don't seem to mind (or at least if they do, they don't show it) that I come in extremely sweaty and proceed to cool off/eat my freshly bought baked goods right there.

The last weekend I went it was gorgeous out, extremely sunny and hot - everyone was outside.  I brought my watercolors with me & attempted a painting along the East River...

Awesome thing about sketching outside when it's so nice is that you can hide behind your shades.  People don't know you're staring at them!  Sketching!  Watching.  STARING. 

But then it means you go home like this...

Sunburn city.

Also, I'm really looking forward to seeing 'Man of Steel' on Friday.  Michael Shannon as General Zod?!  GAH!!!  I can't wait to see how he handles the role.  I was watching 'Take Shelter' recently and did some roughs of him, Jessica Chastain, and a doc.  Ok basically roughs of mostly Michael Shannon.  That movie is such a fantastic one.  Is he crazy?  Nobody knows... 

 "There's a STORM COMING like NOTHING you've EVER SEEN"

Gestures + Random batch

Hey folks, here we go!  A whole lotta gestures!!  Working on getting the gesture down fast and getting the movement/feeling.  Most were drawn in coffee shops, Grand Central, and the train.

And some snippets of hands (a lot of Milt Kahl & co, really just getting the feeling of hands in there & practicing)...

And THENN some Octopi (playing with shapes)...

...And some random stream of thought + a few more gestures.

A big thank you to the greatest mustache growing guy I know, Aidan Sugano, for his critique and feedback on these!

Last but not least, a little more randomness.  I was playing with brushes & textures & this girl from The Sartorialist fit the bill:

And the Christmas postcard I sent out last year!  Take look... with these items combined, they represent one classic Christmas flick...

(front)

(back)

Can you tell which movie it is?  I'll give you a hint... 

Testing, 1... 2...

So 2013 kicked in and somehow, it's already March.  I hope you all have had a great new year so far!  It's still pretty cold in NYC, which luckily means I get a little more use out of my fireplace before it gets too warm!  I can't wait for nice weather to be back and the sun to shine longer.

I started an Animation class in late January and have been really enjoying it.  The first half is focused on traditional 2D animation and the second half we've been playing around with After Effects and TV Paint.  It's so much fun!!  I look forward to class each week.

Here's my first "bouncing ball" test:

As I was waiting for the professor to come around, I drew in those little tests below the ball.  Yes that is a guy shaking his butt, those are not wings.  You can tell by his whistling that he is a very happy little butt-shakin' man.

And then here's a test of a ballerina.  I hope this works!  This was rotoscope (drawing right on top of the frames), I loved adding in the color on top.

Next up: making walk cycles, more tests, and finally getting the groundwork going to create my own animated short.  The seed of an idea for a short came around 3 years ago, and I've been plotting and planning ever since. 

Happy Monday!