SIN-TIQUE

Drawing on a computer seems so wrong...but feels so good.




Hadn't had much experience on a cintique, been practicing for my next gig.

MILE HIGH PENCIL MILAGE

Been crossing the country by way of plane the last couple days, both ways, gaining hours only to lose them shortly after. This time traveling gave me an opportunity to draw quite a bit, and for whatever reason I fell in love with drawing again. Perhaps I truly did turn back the clocks, reverting to a point in time years ago when a younger me would draw for hours, until the hands would tell me it's time for bed.

I'm in between jobs, suspended in time and become somewhat complacent with doing nothing. I hadn't been drawing much prior to my plane rides. I try not to force it, but sometimes worry the spark has faded. That creative constipation seemed to subside as last few days I've enjoyed a renewed interest in the arts and below is a sampling of what flowed out of me.


Above; forgot how fun shapes can be.



Below; gearing up for my next gig.

It took 30,000 feet to get me high on drawing again. Or maybe I was just really happy to get the hell out of Florida...

SPONGE DOODLES

Some Spongebobs;

CAKE MONSTER

This is a piece I did for my lil cousin's 8th birthday.


There was originally gonna be this other character in the top right corner. He was gonna be a super hero; Birthday Balloon-Man, but the cake monster came out pretty cool I think, and a balloon super hero is really lame anyways... I mean how super can you be made of balloons?

WE'RE READY FOR OUR GROSS UP

Extreme gross-up;



Some random pages of random doodles I've done randomly over the last few days;



Peace

LIES!!!!!!!!

Taco Bell PSA


This "PSA"(Public Service AGENDA) really pisses me off. How can anybody else tell you how you're supposed to live your life?

First off, this PSA equates success with "playing in front of thousands", so by it's own insinuations only a handful of people on this planet could be considered 'successful'. Also, the implication "then I dropped out of high school" is left unresolved. Are we supposed to believe if she finished high school she would have gotten a record deal?
By it's own demeanor this PSA is implying that wanting to be a musician/artist isn't a "real job".

Secondly, I don't see anything wrong with this picture? Clearly she's doing ok for herself, i mean, look at those stylish threads. She gets to do what she loves, which is more than 95% of this country can say, and that is the definition of success.

Thirdly, if you listen closely to the lyrics of her song, she clearly states "lucky to be where I am"... quite a juxtaposition to the paradoxical message its unsuccessfully trying to convey.

Fourthly, dropping out of high school to pursue a career in music is incredibly courageous, and shows a level of ambition and character unmatched by any high schooler I've ever met. I would pay to hear what she has to say.

Taco Bell believes it's more respectable and appropriate for you to work the cash register at one of their restaurants for minimum wage than it is to pursue something you're passionate about.

Success is doing what you love, whether that means (in this case) playing for 2000 people, or playing for strangers on the street. Don't ever let anybody else tell you how you're supposed to live your life. Society wants you to fit into a cookie cutter mold of a mundane existence because it fears the 'different'. Make your own path.

MANNY & KHAN; WE LIKE BAD DRAWINGS!

Sum of the Manny and Khan artwork I've been workin' on. These 2 pieces I made for my mom, she's awesome.

I think our character designer Danbob Thompson ruined my life. I can't draw anything now without having all the lines overlap on top of each other... it's a really bad habit.

Below is a piece of artwork from Danbob's portfolio that both Joey and myself saw and instantly said "we need to steal that style for Manny and Khan!"

Property of Dan Thompson

The folks at Cartoon Network, specifically Craig McCracken and Rob Renzetti, really liked the youtful energy of the short and it's childish nature. So we tried to capture that "charm" in the art direction, and Danbob capitalized on the philosphy by implementing a "crude" stylistic approach to the character designs. The overlapping lines and jagged/uneven thick-and-thin linework really enhances the characters' personalites simply in design. Danbob did an incredible job capturing the energy of the short by making the characters appear they'd actually been drawn by kids. The short wouldn't have felt the same way without his masterfuly "poor" drawings. (Danbob is one of the most talented and diverse artists I've ever met, and this is in no way a stab at his abilities. In fact, it's actually harder to draw "poorly" than it is to draw "good" which is a testament to Danbob's skills!)

Everyone we brought on to help us out with the short, we always told them the same thing, that the feeling we were going for is "you should be making sound effects while you're drawings."

BEACH

Beach drawings.

MY BLOG-CENTENNIAL!!!

100th post!!! My Blog-Centennial.

In honor of this electronic occasion I thought I'd post a collection of some old artwork, a time-line of my artistic endeavors. (Also because I'm taking some time off, and traveling, so I don't really have a scanner... or anything new to post anyways).

1998; (11 years old) I remember drawing these on my Dad's laptop with Microsoft Paint and a mouse.

2001; Some early caricature type drawings I did for some family members.

2003; Spongebob came out when I was 12 (1999), and that show pretty much changed my life. I'd always liked cartoons, but seeing Spongebob was really the first time I said to myself "that's what I'm gonna do."

I sent Stephen Hillenburg (creator of Spongebob) a letter with this picture below and also a whole bunch of cartoons I drew. He was kind enough to write back and even gave me an autographed Spongebob drawing. I didn't care as much about the autographed pic as I did the letter he wrote, encouraging me to keep drawing and studying old animation. That letter is a great part of why I am where I am.


I like that on my desk I have a textbook right next to a 'how to draw cartoons' book. The textbook was just for show. PS; I was kind of obsessed with Spongebob.

Some cartoons I sent him;

2004; This was a pretty significant year in terms of my animation career. I got accepted to CSSSA (California State Summer School for the Arts) held at Calarts. This was my first formal education in animation as well as art. I never really took art classes in high school, I would just spend most of my time in other classes doodling in the back of my note books. Because I had no formal art training, I was pretty far behind the rest of the kids, and struggled with life drawing. These are some of my first few figure drawings ever (albeit from the drawing session a lot closer to the completion of the program). The first few sessions were pretty rough...



2005: I graduated high school and, if it were up to me wouldn't have gone to college, but my folks made me (which was ultimately the right deicision (although I only spent 2 years there and dropped-out, I think 2 years in general is enough for anybody)). I was putting my portfolio together to send to CalArts, and realized, with the exception of a few figure drawings, I had absolutely no 'artwork', just a whole bunch of cartoons. I remember doing these drawings all in one day basically, hoping I could trick them into thinking I could actually draw... it didn't work.


Deep down I pretty much knew I wasn't going to be accepted, and the funny thing is, based on the portfolio criteria, I still probably wouldn't be able to get in. So I ended up going to SCAD, the only other school I applied to, and the only school I got accepted to.

Here's a drawing I did based on a novel I wrote;

2006-2007; College. I was pretty miserable at school, all I wanted to do was make cartoons. The first year or so of any art school is going to consist of primarily 'foundation' classes, where you have to take all sorts of broad art classes. I definitely learned a lot, and wouldn't change those 2 years (and although I despise the school I had a couple really great Professors), I was just frustrated a lot.

Self pore-traits;
Some shitty piece I did for 'color theory' however, there's too much color and not enough theory.
Below is probably one of the most 'artistic' pieces I've ever done. It was a study of a Michelangelo sketch I had to do for one of my drawing classes.


2009; Now I get paid to draw on post-it notes



Hopefully this post also proves that you don't have to be able to draw to make it in the industry. At every phase of my career I've always felt as if my passion for animation greatly outweighed my talent, and continue to believe so to this day.

I'm gonna be starting a new gig at Dreamworks soon, doing storyboards for an upcoming feature. Other than that not much going on at the moment. I'll try to post some new stuff soon.

FORGOTTEN CARTOONS

I was cleaning my room and uncovered a dusty sketchbook I had forgotten about. I found these drawings of Manny and Khan that I totally forgot about, but they made me laugh, so I thought I'd post them.


Below; Manny & Khan 9 to 5


I wish I knew when (if ever...) Manny & Khan will air. I'm not sure anyone knows what's going on anymore... not even me, and I'm close enough to watch the action-live.

THE CLOSING CHRONICLE OF MANNY & KHAN

Well, me and Joey are officially done with "The Awesome Chronicles of Manny and Khan". I can't thank Cartoon Network enough for the opportunity to make a short for them. Everyone involved with the Cartoonstitute has been amazing, and it was a pleasure to work with all of them. We were very fortunate to have so many talented people come on board and contribute to the short, each adding their own personal flavor and leaving the project better than it was at it's previous stage.

I can't even begin to sum up the amount of knowledge I accumulated over the course of production. I learned so much from the guys on staff, McCracken, Renzetti, Dave Smith, Derek Dryman, Chris Reccardi, all of whom were eager to assist us with any questions we could concoct. Their most significant contriubutions came in not answering the questions for us, but adressing the problem, and leaving it up to Joey and myself to figure out what was best for the short. This truly allowed us to harness our artistic energies and excersize our creative muscles. However, the guys were always there to make sure we didn't vere too far off the path.

Below; A little something I made and gave to Craig McCracken for all his help and guidance with Manny & Khan.

I'm not sure what they're doing? Free meals maybe? Manny and Khan don't think that far ahead, all they knew was;
1. Disguises
2. Infiltrate the house...


A whole bunch of random Manny & Khan stuff;

Joey did this, it's awesome;

A couple pages from the original board we did before Dan-Bob redesigned our characters. This scene was eventually cut due to time.

Old-timey Manny and Khan;

Random Khan's;

I leave you with a post-it Joey drew, the BEST KHAN EVER!

Awesome & Out.

MANNY AND KHAN THE MUSICAL

We're pretty much done with Manny and Khan, all we have left to do is the music (score!). We were lucky enough to have Jim Venable come on board to play his heart strings for us. We previewed some of the music he came up with for us and its great. He's really added a whole other dimension to the short, with his music playing as it's own character.

No clue yet when you guys will be able to see it, but as soon as I know I'll post it here.

Below: Many Manny's



Below: A cacophony of Khan's