light night rains

wigs and stairs and plugs

2009-11-23T16:48:00.005-05:00

This one will take a little explaining.

I love to do stupid things to people. Anything to turn the universe sideways just a little for them.

This story begins, like so many others, on Halloween night. See, there? Justin wore this wig.

Behold, your Portland Studios, Halloween 2009. Me, Justin, and Danny.

Now, for the last whenever, the blasted wig been laying by the scanner. I don't notice it for a minute or two than, ah! It surprises me every time. I mean, yes, it's horrible on a head but on a table with no head? It's worse. Maybe on a table and on head could be even more worse, but still.

So, I took it and stuck it on a stick. Then I cut out little white circles for eyes. Finally, I put it on the stairs to Zach's office. I've seen Zach walk literally dozens of times. And I knew how he'd take those stairs; shuffling, with head down.

I positioned the wig creature on the stairs at eye level, the white circles burning like little pagan bonfires. Then I left.

* * *

This is as good a time as any to point you to Zach's wonderful blog to see what became of him in this startling and wholly unnatural situation. It played exactly like I hoped : It made Zach jump.

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Also, I wanted to inform you that my little sister has, after much prodding, begun a blog!

If I have to stay after her to post there will be trouble but so far she's got a pretty cool piece up that is being considered for a toy creation. Swing by if you like and show her some kindness.

"the box"

2009-11-20T14:55:00.003-05:00

We've got two cats. One is sleek and gray and quick. The other is white and tan and dumb.

James, as the white and tan cat is called, likes to sit in any little box he can find. No matter where one is, he'll find it and sit in it. For hours.

I figure he must get something out of it. That, or he's just white and tan and dumb.

STAR HELMET 3000

2009-11-18T19:48:00.003-05:00

Here is my idea, my possible invention. I don't know of anything like this, but I ever found one I'd buy it. So please let me know if you run across anything at all similar.

Any other ideas for what it might do?

"space is the place"

2009-11-16T08:30:00.000-05:00

I had an idea for an invention, a real thing that could work, over the weekend. I'll bring you a little comic of the idea in action next post.

The above piece is representative of the idea.

It is also best enjoyed coupled with this piece, Symphony of Science :

Thistledown puppet : FINAL!

2009-11-13T13:12:00.006-05:00

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Philip Hatter of Thistledown Puppets has lit the sky on fire! I am truly speechless to see the finished puppet.

Philip took that simple painting of mine and turned it into a masterpiece.

Huge thanks to Philip for coming up with this idea and seeing it through to a brilliant conclusion!

* * *

Be sure and stop by Philip's blog and let him know how awesome he is!

* * *

To read more about this joint effort with me and Philip over at Thistledown Puppets, click here for a compilation of my posts explaining the project and to see the original painting which inspired the puppet.

SI 52

2009-11-11T20:21:00.006-05:00

A little late on my Wednesday post. I thought I'd use it show you what I've entered for The Society of Illustrators Annual 52.

The Fairy Queen

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Siegfried and Brünnhilde

Click here to read all about this piece.

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Daga and the Trolls

from Dag and Daga, and the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain

* * *

This piece is from my Grimm and Other Folk Tales show. You can see the other nine pieces for the show as well as the extensive development work here.

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It was incredibly difficult to choose just 4 images from Walters.

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So that's that! I'd love to be included again this year. Here's to SI 52!

wolfgang's beautiful pumpkin

2009-11-09T15:35:00.003-05:00

Here's an older one, one I made for Erin a couple years ago. I reorganized it and hand lettered the text.

Just in time for the cool weather.

rib - cracked

2009-11-06T10:38:00.002-05:00

My poor sister-in-law, the delightful, the lovely and talented Annie Koelle, has recently cracked a rib (and more recently cracked another) I made her this get well card.

And I certainly do hope she gets well soon. I know what it's like to have something screwed up inside your body and there's not much you can do about it.

Thistledown puppet : stage 5

2009-11-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

Philip Hatter of Thistledown Puppets returns to knock our collective socks off again with another update in the creation of the puppet I designed.

We're nearing completion on the final dragon.

I was especially impressed with the way Philip caught the sort of uneven, irregular belly scales.

This one gets me, I love the little hand; Philip nailed it.

In Philip's own words,

"This last image is my favorite. I took it as I was beginning to sew the neck onto the body. It definitely felt like a St. George and the Dragon moment."

It's like a reverse St. George -- if George had been a doctor.

I once again run the risk of hyperbolizing my thoughts about it, but still this is really something incredible.

I'm just thrilled to see this little project come together like it has. It's been a joy to watch every few days and see the progress.

Can't wait to see him move.

* * *

"It's dangerous to go alone."

2009-11-02T08:57:00.007-05:00

Above all other games, I most love The Legend of Zelda series.

I think in many ways, Zelda, in all of it's various iterations, is the perfect game.

Maybe perfect isn't the right word but to me it exemplifies what gaming can create at it's best.

blue monster and the little red ghost :

2009-10-30T17:05:00.004-04:00

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Happy Halloween!

dedicated to Christopher Koelle, and the scariest face in the world.

Thistledown puppet : stage 4

2009-10-28T09:00:00.002-04:00

And now the completed head!

Philip from Thistledown Puppets has really knocked this out of the park, I mean it's just looking amazing. In his own words Philip explains the covering,

"I chose a crushed panne fabric for the skin because it’s thin, stretchy, and with the slight sheen it reminded me of dragon scales."

I love the hair on it; the little beard, especially. I'm just very pleased to see this project come together, literally piece by piece.

I'm a little envious of someone who can make puppets. I love sculpture and good puppetry seems to me like living sculpture.

To read more about this joint effort with me and Philip over at Thistledown Puppets, click here for a compilation of my posts explaining the project and to see the original painting which inspired the puppet.

Surprise off schedule post.

2009-10-27T11:37:00.006-04:00

Do you remember this piece I made for Terrible Yellow Eyes?

A couple months ago I was contacted by TYE fan (and talented quilt-tress) Heather Stahnke. She asked if she could turn my piece into a quilt.

Turned out pretty great! Thanks Heather!

and more character development

2009-10-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here's another peek at the character development for the massive project alluded to in this post.

I just like the way this fella turned out.

Thistledown puppet : stage 3

2009-10-23T11:30:00.000-04:00

Another dragon puppet update --We've got the completed body! Looking so, so awesome Philip!

To read more about this joint effort with me and Philip over at Thistledown Puppets, click here for a compilation of my posts explaining the project and to see the original painting which inspired the puppet.

Thistledown puppet : stage 2

2009-10-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

And now! We've got the body. Looking awesome, Philip!

I've loved puppets ever since, I mean who doesn't love Jim Henson's creations? I'm thrilled to see this creature come together bit by bit. Many thanks for Philip from Thistledown Puppets, again, for a wonderful project.

Can't wait to see it complete!

To read more about this joint effort with me and Philip over at Thistledown Puppets, click here for a compilation of my posts explaining the project and to see the original painting which inspired the puppet.

character development

2009-10-19T15:32:00.003-04:00

There's not much else going on right now, on the personal project front (Alice) at least. For the next several weeks I'm swamped with one massive project and a couple smaller ones.

For fun, here's one figure from several pages of character concept art that I've been working on for the massive project.

I look forward to being able to talk about the job here.

my dream last night

2009-10-16T11:23:00.003-04:00

My dreams are typically rather mundane and I don't usually remember them.

Last night was an exception. With every care to capture the exact nuance, I have transcribed it here for your enjoyment.

Thank you.

update/Alice

2009-10-14T11:09:00.004-04:00

Man, work had been crazy as of late. I've been doing close to 15 hour days the last week or so. It's an incredible project and one that I look forward to being able to talk about here. I've not enjoyed a client project like this since Le Cadeau du Temps.

I am sorry for missing my scheduled posts last Friday and Monday, though. I'm terrible.

Here's a little update with where I am with the Alice work :

I've got through chapter 9 thumbnailed and roughed. All that's left is the last 3 chapters. Once I get those put together I'll start posting the progress. It's been fun, I hope you will like the result.

I especially like the Cheshire cat, I modeled him after my one cat, James who is fat.

Thistledown puppet : stage 1

2009-10-07T09:30:00.001-04:00

Philip Hatter over at Thistledown Puppets sent me the first few pictures of the puppet I designed. Awesome!

Looking mighty fine! I'm very excited to see this come together.

Check out this link to the first post about the project for more info and to see the original painting.

Many thanks again to Philip for a great idea!

Alice in Wonderland

2009-10-05T20:30:00.003-04:00

Over the month of October (and likely in to November) in whatever free time I can gather, I'm going to be working through the Lewis Carroll classic, Alice in Wonderland.

12 chapter illustrations + prologue and epilogue illustrations.

I'm looking forward to it -- every project I work through I enjoy in a different way. With Walters I enjoyed the challenge of working in a graphic novel format but I found I missed putting everything into individual pieces rather than spreading the effort over panels and pages. Grimm and Other Folk Tales fulfilled that. And while never hectic, Grimm certainly was solid work, no breaks so next I wanted a slow burning project, one that would take it's time and grow. The result was Terrible Yellow Eyes. And now with Alice, I'm excited to be making individual pieces again. (And of course, after Alice it's on to Flight 7.)

In a way, I'm looking at this little Alice project as preliminary work. I'm going to be making 11" x 14" drawings, finished, complete drawings like this troll one. I hope to find the time in the spring to turn these drawings into large oil paintings. That's the idea, we'll see about it.

Of course, I'll be posting the development and progress over the coming weeks.

Thistledown puppet dragon

2009-09-30T09:30:00.006-04:00

A few weeks ago I got an interesting email from an artist named Phillip Hatter.

Phillip creates puppets professionally out of his shop, Thistledown Puppets and he had an idea to turn one of my drawings into a puppet.

I worked in a little free time this morning and put together a new piece for him.

What a great idea! I'm really looking forward to seeing this little project come together. I'll be sure and keep you updated.

update/show/Alice/posting

2009-09-28T09:44:00.004-04:00

We're still trying to recalibrate our time zone. That's stupid, you've been home for over a week, you may say. It probably is. But even so, we've been staying up far too late and getting up far too late. Today I broke the cycle and woke up at 8:30AM. I did what I could.

* * *

In other news, if you are not in the region of LA you can still view the Terrible Yellow Eyes exhibit online :

There are still a few pieces left available from the show (as well as a couple of mine) and if you are interested you ought to click over soon. They're not too many left.

* * *

And finally, my next personal project. I'm working towards putting together several pieces from Alice in Wonderland before I dive into my story for Flight 7. I'm about halfway through the planning/thumbnail stage so far for Alice. I'm giving myself the deadline of October. Basically I'm going to use whatever free time I have next month and devote it to these pieces. The only thing I'm torn over is medium. Should they all be drawings? I can handle those quickly and I'm most comfortable with them. Or should they be oils? A new medium for me, one with promise but unfamiliar. I just haven't decided yet.

* * *

Also for the foreseeable future, I'm going to move to a M/W/F posting format. It should help me be more consistent. Thanks for stopping by!

Terrible Yellow Eyes show / California

2009-09-23T11:39:00.010-04:00

Well, we are back from California and the Terrible Yellow Eyes show at Gallery Nucleus. We had many, many adventures and some misadventure along the way.

Here follows a faithful re-telling of these events (captured in ancient form of succinct poetry, no I don't mean haiku, either) with the hope that by reading them, you may experience them, and by experiencing them never, ever find yourself confronted in person by the horrors of the flight from Burbank to Dallas.

* * *

Ben at Gallery Nucleus was kind enough to extend me an invitation to turn TYE, the online collection into a gallery show. This pretty much exceeded any expectation I had for the project and really threw me for a happy loop. Here are some photos of the event.

(photography by Joel Fisher)

Me and Erin.

My wall.

Me and Kazu. He's pretty much the greatest. I mean have you even read Amulet yet? Do it now!

After a while it couldn't be stopped and people started drawing on the wall.

Me, Richard, Israel, and Seb.

* * *

The illustrious Chad Frye was our tour guide to the land of Walt and pixie sticks.

Me and Randy Haycock, supervising animator of the Prince/Frog from the upcoming release.

Yes, this is the hat Bill Murray wore in the movie.

At the Getty.

* * *

Everything was better than I hoped for with the show. We had one of the largest turn outs in Nucleus' history and I can't tell you how many people told me how much they enjoyed it.

We spent time with Chad Frye, Disney tour guide extraordinaire, and got to see some moments from The Princess and the Frog. Chad also took us to a pre-release screening of the Sony pictures animated film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was a really fun cartoon. It embraced being a cartoon. Of course it wasn't a Monsters, Inc. It's a different class of film entirely, but it was fun and that was the point. I never would have thought it could win me over but it was undeniably fun. Be advised to take or leave some parts and characters though.

On our last day we hung out with Richard, Jason, and Seb and toured the Getty. It was beyond impressive. I love sculpture.

And now,

As previously mentioned, here is a faithful recount of the dread Burbank to Dallas flight, told in ancient form of poetry known as "Twitter" :

You might guess the volume and details of their two and a half hour long conversation. It was unbelievably coarse. As the over served liquor flowed, so to the volume and the language forthwith. It was bad.

Baring that debacle and being trapped in Dallas over night, the trip was perfect.

new TYE! - stage 4 / final

2009-09-18T09:00:00.001-04:00

Here's the fourth and final stage of my new TYE piece for the rapidly approaching (tomorrow!) Gallery Nucleus/Terrible Yellow Eyes show for which I am guest curator, whatever that means exactly. It means I got a new shirt for the show, that's what it means. Awesome!

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Here's the scan. The photographs turn out too warm.

I hope to see you tomorrow, 7PM at Gallery Nucleus!

I just might be drawing on the floors with chalk. I'm not sure. You'll have to come by and see for yourself.