First of the Year

First post for this year of a few random bits. Enjoy

 I was playing around with some coloured ball point pens for this one.

A bit of Tick Rabbit development that I did over a few days during the times when my computer at work would time-out for a few minutes at a time. It's an old machine crunching heavy scenes over a busy network. 

Ho-Ho-Hum

I'm shaking my head in disappointment when I look at the meagre amount of drawing which I have been able to do since my last post. Not only was most of it chucked in the garbage because it was so frigging pathetic the even thinner pile I was left with made me wonder why I even bother trying to find time to draw. (small sigh) ... (small sip of scotch) ... (inhale) ... (exhale) ... (smile)

Last week I went to "Tenth Anniversary of the Thirtieth Anniversary of Nelvana". It was thrown by the old owners of Nelvana (Clive Smith, Patrick Loubert and Michael Hirsch) for the 'old' Nelvana employees who worked for the company before Corus Entertainment bought it in the early 2000's. I was lucky enough to work with Clive for more than seven years in Nelvana's Bears Spots before I went to Disney in 1996, and I was able to hook up with some of the old team which I hadn't seen since then. Some came from Los Angeles and other distant places to be there and though we all looked a bit older we were incredibly happy to be seeing each other again. It was a fantastic night and very much the type of event the former owners were famous for throwing during the time they ran the company. The parties were always a way for them to say 'thank-you' to all of us who worked with them to build the company. Good times.

The current work project I am on is winding down and I'll be moved to a new one in the new year. The old one was great and I was very privileged to work with a great crew, but I'm really looking forward to the change. Happy upcoming holidays. Enjoy.


I have no idea who he is. I just scribbled him down during a few ridiculously long computer time-outs while scenes were being saved at work.

 A bit of Christmas with coloured pens.

 A storyteller in mid-story.

 Another time-out scribble.

 Some Hobo's and a Station Porter for fun.

 Yawn. More Tick Rabbit stuff. A few poses for Plink and some design rethinking for the badger Ganamede .

Last week I went to a life drawing class; the first one in years. The rust showed and I didn't do very well. To recover from it I made up this girl during another time-out the next day.

Two Hours

A while back I was commenting to my workmates that if you factor in the time I have to sleep, my total daily commute time of 3-hours and all of the time I spend at work I have a maximum of two-hours each day of free time to do drawings on my on ideas, and that's only if I don't have any other life things which I have to take care of. On the time to and from work I can try to do some writing if I'm not elbow-to-elbow on a packed train, or if I'm not using the time to get a few extra minutes sleep. As for trying to draw on the train ... think of a rutted, potholed road and you are sitting in vehicle with bad suspension. I've been in earthquakes which shake less. I also don't like people looking over my shoulder when I draw.

I've been mentioning this issue of limited time in my past posts, so I was surprised today to get enough time to scan about 40 drawings from my surprisingly full sketchbook. The book has been cleaned out, the drawings filed away and I had some time left before cooking dinner for the family to post these. Enjoy.

Something old from last year for an idea which I had no time to give to.

Another idea which will be starved for time to do more on. It's called Lamplight and Persue. Toby Lamplight is the unofficial chronicler of the supernatural investigations of Professor Persue and his dog companion, Sagebush.

 I was hoping to do a couple of drawings of your friendly neighbourhood psycho killer for Halloween. I got as far as drawing the psycho. All that's left is him doing the killing.

The rest is a random bunch of stuff for Tick Rabbit. In part of the story Tick has to go into the Boss Man's house to rescue Lacie.

 The Boss Man (not the final design) and one of his dogs.

Boss Man's house and some random men which work in the quarry which he is boss over.

More Tick Stuff

I have a short window to post some more drawings from my Tick Rabbit project. I only had time to scan this little bit. Enjoy.

Time constraints makes working out the human characters a bit of a struggle, but these are starting to feel right. 

A few more location development drawings.

August Clean Up

I've been too busy to post because of the crazy hours being put in at work to meet the deadlines. I only have a small window to scan and post stuff, so here is a sampling of things being cleaned out of my drawing book and filed away. I can't see when I'll have time to do or post much in the near future, but I will try. Enjoy.

A bit more from Tick Rabbit.