new sketches!

Hot off the press, drawn tonight, just for ye.

(click image for larger version)

BIRDS - you can't make this stuff up. AMAZING and ridiculous looking creatures, I am fascinated with them. There are a few subjects that I can't draw enough of, with various looks, personalities, shapes... one of them is definitely birds.

So. Blog silence. Yeah, I'm sorry. It's been so busy here in MOONBOT land. I've been traveling all over the globe for presentations, festivals and research. We've been cultivating our next batch of stories to tell the world, and we're really excited, so forgive me for the intermittent absence.

One last note: the iPad App of which I was lead developer and designer, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, is up for an ADOBE MAX Award! You have until 5pm EASTERN time to vote for us, so click here, scroll down to DIGITAL PUBLISHING and click on Morris! We really appreciate it.

ALA, Film Festivals, Comic Con

This weekend is big for Moonbot Studios, William Joyce, Morris Lessmore, and thusly -- BOOKS.

The American Library Association (ALA) Conference is being held in New Orleans and the Keynote Speaker is my boss and buddy, writer/director/illustrator, William Joyce. Bill will be touting his new robust books series with Simon & Schuster, The Guardians of Childhood, as well as mentioning our short film and iPad App, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

We are quite proud of all this hard work, and it is not often that you get to look at a one-page of what a film is doing and how an independent, small project gets noticed... but in sending out our film poster for festivals, I had a moment of "wow":

I can't help but be proud to be a part of that.

In other news/update-landia, Danielle and I will be at San Diego Comic Con again this year! We will be in a slightly cooler section (closer to my buddies David Colman, Alberto Ruiz, Stephen Silver, Bobby Chiu...), and we will have new statues! We are in the sculpting phase of making casts and molds of some new resin toys. Hopefully Binkus will have a friend this year.

We will also be offering the usual:

...
Commissons
Caricatures
Original paintings
Statues
Exclusive sketchbooks (new!)
Hardbound books
...

I'm also going to be doing commissions BEFORE the show, by request only. You can contact me (email, twitter) and request a sketch. They will be $50 and you can easily pay via PayPal, then pick them up at the show. This is something I've been considering for a while... The time and demand of drawing caricatures at the show is big, and when fans want commissions or other sketches, I don't want to shortcut them (especially if they seek me out). So let me know if you'd like any specific request or drawing (other than live caricature) and I can put some good time into it before the show, then bring for you to pick up in San Diego.

(samples below - final 'look' and style can vary)

More sketching!

I've had some fresh influences lately. Just having fun and trying to get better.

Morris Lessmore unused art

Here are just a few doodles in search of some answers on our short film, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. These concepts (among many others) were NOT used, but helped us get to where we were going. Here's a little peek behind the scenes:

I'll show more of this type of stuff very soon.

SKETCHES!

Here are some more sketches from this week. Just warm-ups and having fun.

We also started a Sketch Tuesday a while back, over at the Moonbot Blog - check it out each week!

Sketching

Here are more recent sketching pages. Relaxing and brushing up on old man faces:

(click image for larger view)

and setting a goal with drawing ability for graphic novels, sequential art, illustration and storyboards...

Task 1= hands:

(click image for larger view)

These are all done with a light Copic marker then inked with a Pentel Pocket brush pen.

I'll post more Morris Lessmore design work and production art soon, as well as some other little things we're working on here at Moonbot.

Just on a random fun note, I watched Pixar's UP again last night... once again, brilliant.

Watercolor Sketching

Last week I had the fortune of helping start design on a new project, and I was using watercolor to create silhouettes. At the end of the day, I had the urge to sketch some animals, just for fun. These are just a couple of them. They were quick, but it really felt great to go at something with no agenda, no reserve, no client, no deadline... just sketching for an hour.

I'll have more sketches in the future, between projects, and I'll share what I can, when I can, what we are working on here at Moonbot. Talk soon!

A SketchSnack

I know I say it too often, but this past year-and-a-half, it's been true... I've been just too busy to remember to blog. I really need to make a habit of it, and it's my promise to you to I will soon get back to a podcast or two and some art updates.

The production of our first animated short film here at Moonbot Studios (yes, I'm still in Shreveport, LA) is going great and flying full-speed ahead. I can't wait for us to share this with the world, and share the art I created as my parts in this film production.

BUT FOR NOW - here's a little snack. I'll do this from time to time to keep this blog alive- sketches or paintings that I've done for fun, work, other projects, etc.

THIS first one is a pitch for a Bridgestone commercial earlier in the year. Quick warmup doodles of Fred Couples and Lee Trevino. The final was to be a caricature puppet commercial, but Bridgestone apparently got cold feet. That happens a lot. ;)

Talk soon!

Critters, UNITE!

We are playing around with sketches and ideas for a local mural that will be born this summer, and it (of course) has spawned into new ideas, new characters, and a fun sketch. This is a collaboration between the studio (moonbot), ideas of Brandon Oldenburg, Bill Joyce, sketched by myself and painted by Adam Volker. This is not the actual mural image, but a part of the brainstorming process that may end up in it somewhere...

I can't wait to see where this goes...

LIFE Drawing!

The first figure drawing session at ArtSpace, here in Shreveport, LA, went GREAT. Here are some of my sketches from last week (click to enlarge):

Doodlin'

I haven't been drawing much since we ended our shoot schedule for the short film (catching up on emails, etc) but I'll be drawing a bunch this weekend and also doing a painting for some dear friends. In the meantime, here are a few doodles/sketches that I grabbed from my sketchbook, from December (click to enlarge):

Still working away!

My Holiday break was great - saw lots of family, ate lots of food. But now is time to keep working hard on the first short film at MOONBOT Studios, so I'll be pecking away and blogging a little less in the next couple weeks. I'll post what I can, and say hi as much as possible... but for now, it's back to work!

Salvador Dali warmup sketch

This was about 45 minutes this morning in Photoshop.

I was contemplating his mustache and decided to omit it from this sketch. I like the mystery of it... the humanity, rather than a 'character' that he always put on. He was so eccentric and character-like, and a large part of that was his 'costume', props, poses, expressions and his trademark mustache. I liked the idea of showing the human. Not hiding the expression though. He's so pensive, surely, while painting, I didn't want it to be mistaken for an 'artist' pose. This is somewhere in between, and I enjoy the simplicity of taking away his mustache.

This could almost be a death mask.

detail:

Sketch hour

I've been working hard on an animated short film lately, handling character and prop design, so in between work and life I try to still give myself at least a couple hours a week to just sketch for fun and practice. This is my time to relax, watch television and just let my brain wander... sort of stretching my sketch-muscles.

Here a sketchbook page from one such session a couple weeks ago:

(these are Prismacolor markers and Prismacolor colored pencils on paper)

Sketchbooking

Here are some recent sketches from my sketchy von bookus. I am enjoying the errant line of the pen and how charming it can be on its own. Sometimes small areas are nice in their simplicity:

details:

Skinny Jeans

I've been a bit slacky on Illustration Friday's assignments. Great practice group, and very inspiring while being challenging. Even if I'm reviving a sketch or old illustration that is fitting, it makes me think about how I can better sell that concept.

This week's word is "skinny" - I pulled a recent sketch from my sketchbook and refined it. This is called "skinny jeans". Coming from New York City, you see a lot of this fashion, and most likely will for years. Hope you dig.

Draw Sam Sellers

That was the note in my "to do" list for quite some time, and finally it's done. Sam is a very talented artist, and I plan on drawing him again, just for good measure and practice, but here's what I came up with for now (11x14", Markette marker, Prismacolor Art Stixx):

This also got me quite excited for the ISCA caricature convention coming up next week. It will be a blast of art and fun, hope you will be there! It's not too late to buy tickets and show up!

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Another Moleskine scan

Here are some sketches from a popular reference book for fun clothing and outfits, called "FRUITS", containing photos of Japanese fashionistas in the streets. It's really fun to look at simple gestures and poses with interesting fabrics and try to capture some of it.

Details:

PS, Thanks to those who have tossed a few dollars my way to help me get to the ISCA convention. I can't express how grateful I am.

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More Sketchbook scans

If you dig these, feed the monkey and grab my cheap-yet-top-quality sketchbook collection, HERE.





UPDATE: I also hope my buddy Dan doesn't mind, but he is REALLY GOOD, so I had to share this:

New Sketchbook