Sketchy Thoughts

2006-11-20T07:14:00.000-08:00

More sketchbook pages.

Here are a couple more sketchbook images. I am waiting for the IT guys to hook up my new super Mac so I can start working with the 17" Cintiq monitor/tablet that's sitting under my desk. Can't wait to play with it.

2006-11-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

A sure cure for sketchbook-itis

JUST DO IT!!!

If you jump in the wayback machine and sroll to one of the first postings on this blog you will see my diatribe against sketchbooks. I hated them. I just couldn't get myself to use one. It was a complete mental block on my part.

But oh how times have changed. I bought myself a sketchbook to see if I could break my spirit and use one of the damn things. It was tough going at first. The initial drawings were obviously forced. I kept falling back to doodling on loose pieces of paper during computer renderis or while I was on the phone. But soon I found myself using the sketchbook, And lo and behold....LOOK MA!! I'M A SKETCHIN' IN A BOOK!!!!

So I filled that first book and I am onto a second one. A thicker one....and the drawings just keep on comin'!!

2006-11-17T08:34:00.000-08:00

Birthday card for my lovely wife.

Drew Mesmero with a Staedler Graphic 3000 penbrush, scanned it and whipped the rest up with Photshop and Illustrator

2006-11-17T08:29:00.000-08:00

IT'S ALIVE!! IT'S ALIVE!!!

Finally found my password/login info so I can update my vwery old blog.

The pic bove was done for t-shits worn by Cancer care Manitoba's dragon boat team.

2005-10-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

Grin and Bear It
Here are a few sketches I just did for a series of spots for Cancer Care Manitoba. The bear is being modeled and animated in 3D by our CGI wizards and comped into live action scenes that I directed a few weeks ago. As Fall was quickly changing the leaves, we had to shoot all the outdoor plates for 3 spots, 1 that airs this Fall and 2 that will air next Spring/Summer. There is nothing like the the rush of power that yelling "ACTION" and "CUT" can bring to you! NOTHING I TELL YOU!!!!!!

Once the first spot is done I will see if I can't post some stills out of it.

We spent part of last night in a local recording studio do some voice tests for the cowboy in my previous entry. The last voice that the talented Sean Rickner did was the best. How did we know, you as? Because though we had heard the same dialogue over and over in different vocal variations this last one still made us laugh outloud. Hopefully the client in L.A. agrees.

If so, we will be back in the studio tomorrow night recording the whole script. And then the animators will really be off to the races.

2005-10-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

HOKEY SMOKERS! I have been sooooo busy lately haven't had a chance to keep up the blog. Here are a couple of sketches from a job I am doing right now at work. Can't say too much about it but once it's got an airdate I will letcha know.

YAAAAAHAAAA!!!

2005-08-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple more pages from my paste up/sketchbook. I really gotta start drawing more than just heads. And guy's heads at that. Yeesh!

2005-07-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

I was invited to attend the wedding of a girl I babysat about a billion years ago. I wanted to do a special card to honor the occasion and this is the cartoon I came up with to accompany my approporiately witty text.

2005-07-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

A few more pages from my sketchbook.

2005-07-07T05:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a rather unconventional wedding invitation I created for a guy I work with. We shot separate images of him and his bride-to-be and them composited them together. I also wrote the text and a lot of people got a kick out of the words "virgin bride."

2005-07-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

This an image I created for my personal invoices. cough–peterhoeyripoff–cough

2005-07-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Logo-a-gogo
Both my sons are into the most vicious arena sport allowed by law that kids can participate in...box lacrosse. There is nothing like watching your kids get wailed on by other kids, basically, dressed in body armor and brandishing metal poles like maniacs. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeee! My oldest son asked me to create a logo for a ficticious professional lacrosse team. He is into dragons so he thought that this was an appropriate mascot. And think of the marketing possibilities.

2005-07-04T11:54:00.000-07:00

Ooey Gooey Good!
These are some concept sketches I did for the Tar Monster in Scooby Doo 2. Frantic Films created a fluid dynamics software package called Flood to handle drippy goodness of the creature. They originally asked me to do various "personality" sketches based on the original design. I took that concept as a starting point and went off in a number of directions...just to show what the monster could do. The director and VFX supervisor thought these were fun so I kept going. In the end I produced a couple of hundred sketches. It was nice to be putting pencil to paper again after a long spell doing nothing but pushing the mouse around.

2005-07-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

I hate sketchbooks.
That's probably too strong. I don't HATE them per se, I just can't use them. I don't know what it is about a bunch of bound paper that intimidates me. Maybe it's that gutter that marks the no-man's-land between the right and the left pages. I just can't draw in a sketchbook. I couldn't keep one when I went to art school and I still can't some 20+ years later. On the other hand I can doodle on a pad a of paper, on a pile of white bond, on punched animation paper, on a napkin, a newspaper or almost any other flat surface for that matter. But put a black covered, hard-bound volume of stark white wood pulp in front of me and I sweat like an Amish groom on his wedding night. To fill this tome with sketches that show sensitivity and range and dedication? IT"S TOO MUCH PRESSURE!!!!

So I came up with a better solution. I won a small Disney sketchbook of a Ebay awhile back and I am putting it to good use. I doodle as I am wont to do. I sit in front of my computer or in meetings and fill pages with random mindless scribbles. Some good, most not so good. I gather up a pile of these pages and take them home to share with my wife then I eviscerate them. I edit out what I consider best of the bunch and toss the rest. I then take my stubby gluestick in fist and glue these tiny examples of my brilliance in my sketchbook. Voila! Problem solved. Only the best go into the book. My wife doesn't like this since she likes to see the flow of ideas on the page. But I like to be able to see the gold instead of the dross.

2005-07-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

Blogging: The Virtual Crack?
I suppose once the novelty wears off I will let my blog go for days without any updates but for now I will cram it full of my stuff.
These are illustrations I have done for clients around town over the last couple of years.

2005-07-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

Technology is my friend.
Well the picture didn't attach so I will try it again.

2005-07-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

On this site in 1795...

Well here it is. Another detour on the information superhighway. I suppose it will be awhile before we will know if it's just another cheap souvenir stand or a worthwhile "point of interest" the intrepid electronic traveler will enjoy coming back to.

Actually, I want to use my blog to share the doodles and sketches I do all day long while sitting at my desk or in meetings. Oh I will post images that were done for real life jobs as well. But my favorite doodles are the ones that come unbidden. The ones that start with an unusual scribble for a nose and progress outwards. These images are like free association on the page. The mind spontaneously pushes the pen where it wants to go. Sometimes it seems that these are drawings that have to get out and find life on the page. They need to be pushed out of my brain to make room for the next cartoon.

I know that when I am doing character sketches for a particular assignment I will often draw something that is completely wrong for the job. I feel I need to get that concept onto the paper so I really see how wrong that direction is. Only once it's in black and white on the paper can I evaluate how stupid it is. Sometimes, much to my amazement, there is something...some small part of that scribble that leads me in the right direction, Or even down a path that I hadn't considered.

The image, I have hopefully attached correctly, included here was used in a TV commercial a couple of years back. It was a spot for a fundraising lottery for a local hospital. in the next little while I will dig around for more ddodles, scribbles, sketches, drawings, and assorted gak to clutter up my blog. Enjoy!