JaMiE BaKeR: fallout

Derek Thompson’s website is called DerekMonster because of his love of drawing monsters but the moniker also fits the man himself, because he is an ART MONSTER. Derek will share his hyperactive and hyper-talented style of magic in his forthcoming lecture in the Gnomon Workshop series of DVDs, where artists from the film, comics and illustration industries each show their working processes. (I wish something like these DVDs had been available when I was a teenager- all I had was mail-in, learn-to-draw classes). Derek’s instructional DVD will be ready in time for Comic Con but a fore-taste of the Derek flava can be had by reading DEREK’s GNOMON INTERVIEW.

Years ago, I worked at a studio where a lot of extra-curricular funny drawings were done by the crew. We drew caricatures of eachother, or of people seen on the streets at lunch hour, and we traded goofy doodles about funny things that happened around the studio, in-jokes and other silly stuff, and I joined in all these shenanigans as best as I was able.

One of the drawing battles I was happy to watch from the side lines was the ongoing airplane drawing contest between Simon O’Leary and Arthur Filloy. Both of them were, and still are, incredible cartoonists and mad-keen airplane enthusiasts. They would outdo eachother in drawing great caricatures of fantastic aircraft; both real and imagined.

Now, all these many years later, Arthur has a blog showing those great old drawings. Please visit DRAWN PATROL to see doodles of real planes (such as this cute little ME 262 drawn by Arthur) or drawings of made-up Soviet fighter planes, experimental aircraft of the Luftwaffe, or failed aircraft of the RAF and Japanese air force (complete with bogus engine specifications and made-up aircraft histories). With any luck Arthur will set up other blogs for his hilarious Star Wars sketches and very funny fake Japanese toy designs…

This picture shows the partnership between one of my all-time favourite human beings, Mr John Stevenson, and PO, a character designed by one of my all-time favourite artists, Nicolas Marlet. As I write this, John is currently wowing them in Cannes with his new movie, KUNG FU PANDA, which he directed (alongside John Osborne).

The look of the movie is based on the ever-elegant animal designs of Nicolas Marlet. Although he is very highly regarded by all who have ever worked with him and seen his drawings in person, it can be very hard to find samples of his work. The ART OF KUNG FU PANDA book will be a pretty good consolation prize for all of Nico’s many fans, who have been waiting in vain for him to start a blog or website, and it will certainly be on the must-have list of many artists in the animation community.

Kung Fu Panda is one of the movies that I am most looking forward to seeing this year, and that is really saying something, because 2008 is shaping up to be one of the best cinematic years to be a nerd. The last time I went to the movies (to see Ironman) there were an almost overwhelming number of trailers (or coming-soon posters in the lobby) for movies coming out this year, all of which built-in have nerd-appeal. Starting with Ironman, the nerd-friendly film roster continues with Speed Racer, Narnia, Indiana Jones, Kung Fu Panda, The Happening, The Incredible Hulk, Get Smart, Wall-E, Wanted, Hancock, Hellboy, The Dark Knight, The X-Files, The Mummy and Tropic Thunder. I am not interested in ALL of those films but I am certainly looking forward to quite a few of them.

And even if most of them suck then we movie-nerds will have even MORE stuff to complain about (which is almost more fun than actually liking stuff). Verily we live in the Golden Age of being a nerd.

This is an image from a story I have been thinking about, off and on again, for years. It is about a dog from outer-space that gets stranded here on Earth.

The idea of an animal from outer space isn’t new, but I think my version is fresh enough to be worth the effort it would take to tell this particular story. I had a pretty good head of steam on this project when I first thought of the idea many years ago. I generated a lot of sketches, artwork and writing. Most of that was lost in my first ever experience with a frozen hard drive, and with it was lost a lot of the momentum behind the project. Recently I have been thinking more about this old idea and writing some new versions of the story.

Backed up, this time.

One of the many things that amazes me about PIXAR is that the employees work at such a high level during the day, and yet somehow find time and energy to excel in their own projects and personal lives as well (I have never figured out how to do all three; If I work hard at one aspect of my life, the other two go all to hell). Many Pixar artists’ websites have already been listed in my LINKS and BLOGROLL, and the list grows daily. Check out a few MORE blogs by the over-achieving A-students at PIXAR:

SpudVision is Steve Purcell’s blog. Steve has been an inspiration to me since long before I had the good fortune to work with him. When I first came to America as a tourist in 1989, I stayed in an apartment where there was a big pile of indie and underground comics, including SAM & MAX, which is a hilarious book as anyone who has read it will surely agree.

Bill Cone was the production designer of Bug’s Life and Cars, who I first met when we both worked at Colossal Pictures many years ago. His new blog features his beautiful plein air pastel pictures and some of his observations of light and colour effects, which is a real treat for those of us who are chromatically challenged.

Shublog is the outpost of super-talent Jay Shuster, designer of cool machines in the STAR WARS prequel films. He is now at Pixar and designed many of the characters in CARS and WALL-E. His new blog displays his sketches (freehand drawn in ink) and photos of his furniture made from aircraft parts and other bits and pieces..

Caveat Productions is where Pixar story-artist Dan Scanlon posts about the live-action movie he has been making over the past few years. Anyone who not only works in animation during the day but makes a film in their spare time has my undivided admiration. Dan also posts lots of other funny gags and drawings, so please go visit his blog.

Cooley! is a place for funnyman Josh Cooley to ramble on about all manner of subjects. He posts essays on his Television obsessions, ideas for inappropriate Children’s books, and some funny sketches and paintings and other glimpses into the ID of a Pixar story-artist and pop-culture afficionado…

Leonardo is a blog where another Pixar storyman, Jim Capobianco, keeps us up to date on his personal film, an animated film this time. Jim also posts about other projects such as his work on the MY FRIEND THE RAT short. I don’t know how he finds the time to do all the stuff he manages to do.

A few years ago I posted my Pin-up of Charles and Edgar, two outrageous characters created by my pal nate Stanton and featured in his contribution to the Afterworks 2 Anthology. This composition here was one of the other ideas I had for that original pin-up and I tidied it up this week as a Birthday present, which I will give him in person, later today.

Happy Birthday, Nate!