Rat Revisited (or "The Monster Returns Part 2")

When I was doing that series of drawings inspired from the monster in the wallpaper, I sent one of the drawings to my friend Andrew Simmons, for whom I had done storyboards for his short film, The Flower.
Before seeing any of my work, Andrew took a different stab at my rat-dog creature and came up with this:
Nice job Andrew! He definitely saw more rat and used the gradient direction to suggest a light source. I'm not sure if he altered the BG color after he saw mine or not. If not, it's uncanny that it's so close to my choice.

Anyway, Enjoy this different take, and check out the links to Andrew's work.

P.S. Andrew also came up with the original storyline for "TOMO", the manga comic that Funny Pages Productions publishes through ZonderKidz.

A Couple of In-Jokes

I was going through some stacks of old drawings the other day and found these. One is mine, the other isn't. Both of them are humor from inside at Disney, mostly funny just to those of us who worked there at the time. But I think anyone can get a chuckle from them.

This is Bob Stanton, head background painter. I drew this after an (ahem) incident which earned him the nickname "Tuba Butt". I'll leave the rest to your imagination.
This went up on our wall of caricatures, and eventually a copy was taped to the tour window outside Bob's office for all the guests at Disney/MGM to see, but out of Bob's sight. Someone added, "for a musical selection, please knock on glass!"

Bob nearly went crazy trying to figure out why all the tour guests were knocking on his window, especially when he was on important phone calls with the directors.

This is a drawing I wish I could take credit for:
In case you don't recognize them, it is Michael Eisner & Jeffrey Katzenberg (when they were still speaking). I don't know who drew this genius piece of art. If you know, please enlighten me.
This is not only funny, but an incredible piece of graphic design, don't you think?

A copy of this was printed in a special Aladdin crew desk calendar that we were given for Christmas 1992. I didn't work on Aladdin, but I had just started at the studio and got the gifts just the same. (Ah, the perks of days gone by...)

The Monster Returns

I couldn't help myself. I am far too busy to take time to draw all of these today, but I was having fun.
I just tried a few different approaches to my monster friend from the wallpaper (see previous post). I not only was trying different views and expressions, I was slightly modifying the design each time. I never got he jowls quite the way I wanted. Anyway, here's what I played at today...

On this one, I tried to color them in with gray PITT brush pens. I normally love them, but hate them for this purpose. Very uneven application. Maybe I could eventually get the hang of them, but instead I will wait for my set of gray Prismacolor markers to arrive. And for the other two, I colored them in in Photoshop.
He can't be angry all the time...

I went for a little more detail here and got carried away. Oh... and the girl was something I had already doodled on the same piece of paper from a couple of weeks ago. I colored them both in Photoshop.


This one I liked more. He is less rat-like, with his head taking up half his body size. I'm still not sure of his scale, though. He might be three or four feet tall. Maybe seven.
Seeing how posture affects his underbite.
This was my first attempt at an action pose. I thought I could do better...
...So I cleaned it up a little. Fixed the anatomy, but lost a lot of the energy.

This is another attempt at Photoshop color.
Doing all of these sketches makes one really start to think about character. What is this thing like? What is his personality? At first glance, one might assume he is a villain. I know I did. But remember... villains never think of themselves as villains. From their own perspective, they have noble desires.
Consider Scar from "The Lion King". He thought he could do a better job running the Pridelands than his brother. He didn't set out to make a wasteland, he was trying to build an empire. It was his character flaw - his selfishness - that drove him to murder his brother and make a travesty of the throne. He didn't think of himself as evil, just smarter.
Javier in Les Miserables didn't consider himself a villain. He was searching for justice. It was the hero of the story, Jean Valjean, who thought of himself as a villain, for he knew he was a convict on the run.
That's what makes romantic comedies so enjoyable... (ahem)... I mean... for chicks, yeah... uh... anyway, as I was saying, In a romantic comedy, the two lovebirds hate each other for most of the film (or at least one hates the other). Each considers the other the enemy, but neither is.

Stalin, Lenin, Hitler, Edi Amin, Kim Jong-il... each of these guys would consider themselves the savior of their country, not murderous meglomaniacs. Even Bruce the shark in Jaws wasn't out to destroy a vacation town. He was just looking for his next meal.

So when you are creating an antagonist, whether a drawing or writing a story, make sure that in his or her own mind, they have a noble goal.

My monster friend here? I'm not sure what his deal is yet. I think he's just hungry.

Monster in the Wallpaper

The other day, I was in the guest bathroom... minding my own business... and I happened to being staring at the wallpaper patterns. And this time instead of grumbling about when I could find the time and money to replace the dreary wall decor that adorns our potty, I got a little captivated by the dreadful pattern. When suddenly, an apparition jumped out at me.
After I washed my hands (one must consider hygiene when producing art), I quickly ran to get some paper and a pen to capture the creature living on the wall.

This is the section of the pattern that caught my attention. See it?

How about now?
I often see faces and creatures in patterns like wallpaper, woodgrain, carpet, etc. No Madonnas in tortillas or anything like that. Mostly strange beings and odd faces. I just wish I carried a sketchbook more often to capture what I see.

This fellow was very fun. I might do a few more of him in different poses and expressions.

In the News...

I was recently interviewed by The Tennessean, and here is a link to the article:
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008804220313

It's a little update on "Time & Chance" and getting into the Big Island Film Festival. It was kinda nice that the article came out during the week that the Nashville Film Festival is underway... especially since I didn't get into the NaFF.

I'm working on a trailer (actually, my friend Neil Gowen is working on it) for the film, so stay close. I'll be posting it as soon as possible.

P.S. My friends over at FirePit Friday are doing a lot of coverage of the festival, so tune in and hear what's going on!

The Last "Old Man" Falls

Today we lost one of the greats.

The last of Walt's "Nine Old Men", Ollie Johnston, passed away. He was 95. You likely know his resume and legacy as well as I.
Years ago, as a young animator, I wrote to him as a fan. I was working at a small animation studio and I had purchased the above drawing from "Robin Hood" from a gallery that I supposed might be his. So I sent him a xerox copy to verify it. Here is his reply:
As you can see he was a kind a gracious man. Robert and MaryLou Ferguson, whom he mentioned, were friends of mine whom Ollie had worked with at Disney. They were retirees living in rural Texas. Robert was an effect technician who had started just after the war working with Ub Iwerks. MaryLou was an inker who started on "Fantasia" and had worked through "101 Dalmatians" (cleaning up xerox lines on hundreds of puppy cels). Ollie & MaryLou carpooled. The Fergusons passed away a few years ago.

Years later, I got the honor and pleasure of meeting Mr. Johnston (and asked him to sign the drawing). We kept up an occasional correspondence, mostly consisting of Christmas Cards, which I cherish.

I didn't know Mr. Johnston as well as many others. I never visited his home, nor rode his miniature train like lots of other animators who populate the halls Disney and Pixar. But he still meant a lot to me.

Perhaps I'll share some excerpts from his other letters at a later date. Maybe a Christmas card, too.

I'm sure there will be many other tributes abounding on the web today. Look them up and read them, I'm sure they will be much more eloquent than mine.

Samurai

This is my submission for this week's Drawergeeks. The theme (as you have undoubtedly guessed) is Samurai.
I am very curious what is about to happen here; and what led to this point. I assume that Toshiro is the good guy. But maybe I am wrong. Maybe he owes a lot of child support.
Tell me what you think. See if you can find any symbolism that I subconsciously dropped in. (By the way, this was drawn with pencil, paper and a Faber Castell PITT pen, then colored in Photoshop. I tried to retain as much of the primitive nature of my ink lines as possible.)

For those of you who may not know, Drawergeeks is a club of artists and illustrators (mostly from the animation industry). It is hosted by Greg Hardin, who gives us all a theme every two weeks. Check it out: www.drawergeeks.com
By the way, it's by invitation only. Greg has to keep the group to a manageable size.