Rise of the LAIKANS

 Artists, Inspiration, Websites, Work
May 242009
 

Working at LAIKA Studios in Beautiful Portland has allowed me to meet some wonderful artists. None of whom I had met before, but some who’s work I was already familiar with.

VERA BROSGOL is incapable of doing an un-appealing drawing. Beautiful storyboard drawings simply SQUIRT from her fingertips (personally, I have to GRUNT mine out). Not only a bad-ass storyboarder, (one of the tiny story-team on CORALINE) Vera is also a comics artist extraordinaire (a founding member of FLIGHT). I saw a book she is working on now and it is just super; the writing, the drawing, the works. More about Vera on her site and not-very-often-updated blog.

GRAHAM ANNABLE‘s brilliant work was familiar to me long before I ever met him. He is one of the founders of the HICKEE comics anthology and his YOUTUBE animation has given me chuckles for ages now. Graham’s sense of animation timing is truly hilarious. He too is a super storyboard artist (another CORALINE alumnus) and this master of all things also finds time to keep a regularly updated Blog

CHRIS TURNHAM‘s lovely designs for CORALINE can be seen on his Blog. His beautiful artwork also graces the walls of one of the project development rooms at Laika (I sneak in there to check out his paintings for inspiration every so often). Chris is part of a book collaboration with his friend Kevin Dart, and more info about Chris’ very own art prints can be found at at his folio website.

Gordon Clark online

 Artists, Friends, Websites
Mar 262009
 

Gordon Clark is a long-time friend and co-worker; we were colleagues at both Colossal Pictures and at Wild Brain. Like me, Gordon is a bad-movie aficionado. He is no less than the founder of GOMER NIGHT (where like-minded nerds rent crappy movies and make fun of them whilst enjoying them). I am pleased to announce that Gordon finally has his own outpost on the web, which is stuffed full of great cartoon content; Storyboards, animation clips, his hilarious character designs and more. Check it all out!

StarDart

 Drawings, Websites
Mar 112009
 

Here is an old pen and marker drawing I found; a long-ago attempt to design a space ship, complete with the bogus engine specs. This was inspired by the airplane drawing battles that my pals Simon and Arthur used to do. (Those same battles are now enshrined in the DRAWN PATROL blog). I knew nothing of planes so I tried to come up with a spaceship instead; the StarDart AstroCat DELTA!

Pisstake Platoon

 Artists, Websites
Feb 252009
 


Earlier I mentioned Arthur Filloy‘s Airplane drawing blog, Drawn Patrol. He now has another blog called PISSTAKE PLATOON which likewise showcases old drawings done at work, though this time the focus is not on planes, but general silliness; Caricatures, in jokes and other drawings done to amuse each-other while we all worked on mind-numbingly terrible Saturday morning cartoons. If you worked in the Sydney animation community from the late 1970s through the 1980s then check out Arthur’s new blog. You may see some familiar faces, perhaps even your own. More and more people are digging through their old stashes of art and submitting pics to the blog; I am scanning mine at the moment, so there are likely to be updates each week for the foreseeable future

An Inspired Christmas

 Friends, Inspiration, Updates, Websites
Dec 252008
 

Rather than post my own Christmas card, here’s a link to a Christmas post by Rhode Montijo. Both he and his writer pal Jason Jaworski recently set up on Broadway in New York city to make hand-drawn crayon portraits and type-written short stories for the passer-by Christmas shoppers. In return, the recipients were encouraged to donate to a Salvation Army bell-ringer standing nearby. I am no longer surprised when Rhode surprises me; he has so often inspired me in the past. But this new idea of his is something EXTRA special.

A very MERRY and INSPIRING CHRISTMAS, everybody!

Totoro Forest Project

 Artists, Websites
Aug 152008
 

Recently, I posted a drawing I’d done for an art auction without giving any details, so here they are: On September 6th, PIXAR STUDIOS will host an auction of artwork done by 184 artists to raise money for the TOTOTO FOREST PROJECT; a foundation to protect urban forests in Japan. I wont attending because I will be in Australia, but my drawing will be representing me there. Others who can not attend (unfortunately tickets are required, and they sold out very quickly) can see the ART GALLERY on the official website. Additionally, ALL the art will be on display at the CARTOON ART MUSEUM between September 2008-March 2009, and a book of the artwork will be on sale. More info can be found at the OFFICIAL BLOG

Drawn Patrol

 Artists, Friends, Inspiration, Websites, Work
May 262008
 

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…

Pixar Blogs

 Artists, Websites
May 112008
 

One of the many things that amazes me about working freelance at PIXAR is seeing 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 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.

Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4