Thermopolium Pictures

Out of Gas

2012-03-11T16:22:00.000-04:00

I find that when I finish one project at work and start another that the one I'm leaving has taken so much out of me that I don't have anything left, creatively, when I get going on the other one. I feel that way now and the low energy has translated into very few new drawings for posting. I should have probably taken some time off to recharge, but I didn't. Most of what I've done recently has been uninspired and unimpressive, so my post will be thin on content. Of what there is, I hope it's okay. Enjoy.

Fun on the beach.

Puffy animals.

A couple of random drawings for a Hobo project.

First of the Year

2012-01-22T14:41:00.003-05:00

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

2011-12-11T17:27:00.000-05:00

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

2011-10-23T16:29:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-19T21:49:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-14T16:43:00.000-04:00

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.

New Tick and Something Else

2011-06-12T12:50:00.000-04:00

Here is a bit more Tick Rabbit stuff, and a few drawings from another potential project. Enjoy.

This is where Mama Zoo lives under a big acorn tree.

I have been toying with making Plink a bit older for the story; more in his early teens than pre-teen.

This is for somrthing new that I won't say too much about for now because it may get scrapped.

Old Disney and Old Portfolio

2011-06-12T12:49:00.000-04:00

I was cleaning out my over-stuffed flat file and I found a ton of old junk. Some of it is old keys from scenes I worked on at Disney and some is from old portfolio discards. I scanned a few for posting. Enjoy.

I got to work on a bunch of shorts and specials with the classic characters. Goofy and Mickey were my favorite to animate.

This was for the horrible Little Mermaid II Sequel. It was horrible because the animation was split up between too many studios without enough overall quality control, and because they were closing down our studio at the time and we were losing all of our senior animators. I was Animation Directing on a sinking ship and only had time to animate a handful of scenes. This is a drawing from one of the last I did.

This is stuff culled from really, really old portfolios. The first two are from an old feature idea I had called Quentin Kordd. He ends up saving the day engaging a hostile force using his Arrowhead Fighter. It sounds lame ... which is why I ditched it.

This was for some interstial animation for the old PBS series Kratt's Creatures.

This was for another of my ideas that ended up in the trash heap.

Sketchbook Dump

2011-05-15T16:49:00.000-04:00

Busy! Quick sketchbook clean out and posting of some Tick Rabbit stuff. I'll post more when I have time. Enjoy.
Playing with titles.

One of the many characters. This raccoon is missing an arm.

A mood study.

A study for a bigger drawing. Hopefully, I'll finish it and post it later.

A Bit More Stuff

2011-04-04T20:42:00.005-04:00

While digging through a pile of drawings looking for some old Tick Rabbit sketches I found some drawings I had done for a past idea, Little Me: Aztec. I figured I'd post those and a new one I recently did for Tick Rabbit. Enjoy.

Here is the old Little Me: Aztec stuff I found.

This is a new development drawing for Tick Rabbit.

I am working on some new characters and some more location sketches for Tick which I'll post soon.

More Rabbit

2011-03-27T17:24:00.006-04:00

I am bouncing around on a couple of things on my own and at work. Tick Rabbit is my own idea that I'm toying with when I have some spare time. I am working on some characters, but the biggest challenge is tring to find an overall style. It's hard with the limited time which I have. This is what I have for now. Enjoy.

Mama Zoo is a mole who is old and wise. She does not have a lot to do in the main action of the story, but she is provides good guidance when it is needed.

These are some style trials.

In With Some New

2011-02-27T20:33:00.007-05:00

Another month of not being at 100% because of illness, but I have been trying to do a bit more drawing none the less. Here is a sampling of some new things and some more drawings to keep developing some past ideas. Enjoy!

A bunch of guys.

A bunch of girls.

A real mutt.

And some goofing around with some old ideas. Below are a couple for Plympton McKabe and Eggs Benedict.

Here is some more development for Tick Rabbit. I have been playing a bit with this one because I am trying to decide whether to write a script or a book for this idea . As for the style, I am starting to toy around with some revised character designs. In future posts I hope to show a bit more development of the BG style because the one in the picture below is a bit too realistic; it needs to be more stylized.

Here are some new ideas for Plink because the old design was a bit too bland.

A final Tick till next post.

Out With the Old

2011-01-09T15:56:00.006-05:00

A final clean out of old junk to kiss adios to another year. It's a random sampling of stuff I haven't trashed yet. Enjoy.

A few more scribbles for Plympton McKabe.

A few bits for a small story called No Change.

This was a bit of development for Little Me: Aztec.

A Slow Year

2010-10-17T19:10:00.005-04:00

It has been a slow year for me. I haven't done a lot of drawing of my own stuff and the idea well seems a bit low. I have been plunking around with some things to keep busy in between long work days. I'm hoping something will grab me soon to get me focused because there is nothing like a project that you can sink your teeth into to get the juices flowing. Until then, I'll just keep scratching at things when I get the time. Enjoy.

Some new scribbles as I still try to develop my Tick Rabbit idea. A villain and some cohorts, as well as a new character called Fox Trot (he likes to dance).

A new idea for development called Plympton McKabe. I'll post more about this later.

Office Purge

2010-06-13T13:14:00.007-04:00

We are moving into a new building for work next week and after a purge of junk from my desk at work I went and did the same for my home office. I got rid of about 30 or 40 pounds of drawings and notes, but while I was going though stuff I stumbled across a bunch of things I had forgotten about. I found 3 or 4 scripts for TV specials (trashed), 3 scripts for features, two partially completed novels (also trashed) and a bunch of short film ideas that I started to board and then abandoned because I lost interest or ran out of time or ... whatever. Some of them went into the bin, too. I found one that made me smile so I thought I'd post some of it.

It's called Greed. It's about some made up animals, Figs, grubbing around for food and they get chased away by a bigger Fig (Greed). Greed finds a 'sparkly' and tries to dig it out. One of the Figs comes to help and gets mauled for his efforts. The idea was that Greed would rather starve to death than leave his sparkly unnattended for a moment. The fear of losing the possession was greater than the fear of losing his life. In the end, he'd die. Not a new theme, but it was interesting for a few days. Here are a few pages of my board thumbnails and some design scribbles. Enjoy.

Hiatus End

2010-05-16T10:58:00.007-04:00

It's been a long time since my last post ... busy, busy, busy ... but with not a lot of time to draw or post. I've cobbled together a small bit of the stuff that I haven't thrown out, so I hope you enjoy.

Just a girl I passed on the street that I had to draw when I got back to my desk.

Playing with shapes.
I was revisiting an old idea and thinking about some new situations. It's now back in limbo.
I did these when I was toying with a Paul Bunyon idea.
The plot for my Tick Rabbit idea is still being figured out, but doing drawings helps me work things out.
I did a small class at work on drawing hands and these are some of the drawings I did for my hand outs.

Home Stretch

2009-12-13T09:54:00.006-05:00

This is one year that I will be glad to see the back of. For some reason I think this has been a year where I felt like getting up every morning was "work". I did the job, but I felt pretty empty at the end of it.

To pick things up, I started giving some old-school traditional paper animation training for some of the young talents at work that have never experienced the incredible effort, pleasure and creative satisfaction of putting pencil to paper. It has gotten me back to the animation table to knock off some of the rust. It feels good.

This is a last sketchbook cleanout before the end of the year. I am drawing just to keep loose, but things are all over the place because there isn't any one thing that is grabbing my attention just yet. I know that will change soon, so enjoy this smattering of randomness.

A few thumbnails for some of the animation exercises that I am giving out at work.

A few random guys.
Years ago I started a short called "Little Me" about my ideas and the life that thay start to take on. Short vignettes of "Me" as Dr. Frankenstain or Tarzan or as a Big Game Hunter were bookended with me at the drawing board. I pulled out that old idea to see if I could come up with an idea that I could animate a few seconds of. I pulled out Little Me: Bookworm about me hunting down bookworms that were eating through my prized books. I did a bit of drawing and then tried a few scribbles of Little Me Superhero. We'll see where this goes in the new year.
The last bit is more seasonal ... Happy Holidays.

Cleanout and New Stuff

2009-10-12T16:12:00.005-04:00

I haven't done a lot of personal drawing in the past month because I have been busy doing stuff for work, and I don't usually post much, if any, of that here. I cleaned out my sketchbook and trashed a pile of stuff. Of the bits that I kept I'm posting a few here.

The new stuff relates to some traditional paper animation training that I am giving for some Animators at work. They have only done animation digitally using Flash or ToonBoom HARMONY or AnimatePro and they are all dying to animate old school. We had talked about doing a short, but they wanted to learn the whole paper process before attempting something bigger. They chose a character from an old short film I did the leica for, but never got around to animating so I started reworking the model sheets. I have also blocked out some training and exercises, and after I do the chalk talk on how to draw the character we'll get started. Enjoy.

This is "Sam" from my old, never made "Yukon Sam" film that Animators will be using for exercises doing traditional paper animation. These are the pencil roughs for the rotation, and the chalk talk drawings will get posted later.

A Bit More Tick Rabbit

2009-08-23T14:36:00.006-04:00

In my last post I had a few drawings for a new idea. I've done a few more development drawings in between doing other stuff related to work. I am trying to work the he patois of the dialogue between characters to have a bit of a musical rhythm. Doing that also helps me figure out how I want the characters to look. Enjoy.

This is Plink. He is turning out to be the hardest character to nail down because of his role in the story.

A few random bits of Tick Rabbit posing.

A Smile to My Face

2009-06-28T18:19:00.003-04:00

I was plunking about on YouTube and found some animation I did a few years back for the Ruby Gloom TV series. It was the last bit of animation I did on the series before taking over as the Animation Supervisor and finishing up on the episodes for "Ruby Gloom: The Musical". The clip is dropping frames like crazy and the audio drifts out of sync, but it's mostly there. Everything was digital (no paper) and animated in Toonboom HARMONY. It was a hoot to work on. My bit starts from the point where Skullboy finishes running down the stairs and Misery floats off the bed to the scene where Skullboy says, "This isn't exactly helping!"

Catching Up

2009-06-19T20:49:00.005-04:00

In my last post I thought that the show I was on was done and in the can, but at the last minute we helped out our co-production studio in France by taking a couple of episodes back. Apart from a handful of scenes that were still rendering when I left work tonight, we're done. Really.

The load has been pretty light considering I only had one team of Animators instead of the three in house and one satellite team nearby that I was looking after during the meat of the production. I've been able to do a bit of drawing, but it's stylistically all over the place. I guess I had a lot of stuff I had to get out. Here is a tiny bit of what I've been scribbling with my trusty ball points over the past little while. Enjoy.

Weird creature things.

A bit more Bedtime Boogie development.
Tick Rabbit Tales is something new that I have been playing with. It's sort of based off the Uncle Remus Tales, but without the racism. This is Tick Rabbit.

This is Ganamede. In mythology, Zeus thought tht Ganamede was the prettiest human so he kidnapped him to Mount Olympus and made him a god. This character only thinks he's god's gift by believing he's the best looking animal in the forest. Vanity thy name is Ganamede.

The turtle is Mitchell, but he's the fastest thing on the planet. Think Big Lebowski "Dude" with the speed of the Road Runner. Heck, he even has his own racing stripes and number on his shell.
Melbourne is a ship stow-away mouse that is far from home. He's named after the city he was born in and he'd go back, but he's fallen in love with Petal the Possum. She's a weird type of North American marsupial that looks like a big mouse, and she is psychotically happy .
Don't know why I drew this, but Tarzan popped into my head and ...

A Sigh of Relief

2009-04-28T20:21:00.006-04:00

The current production I am on is winding down. The last show from from my last team of Animators has been delivered to post and all that's left for me to do is clean out some production binders, take some Maya training offered by the studio and wait for the final retakes. I start in a new position next week that looks like a fun challenge. It should give me time in the next while to do a bit more drawing and finish the script that I've been writing. The drawing board clean out yeilded some of these. They are for a short idea that I mentioned some time ago on this blog and I have been doing a few random scribbles to wrap my head around some plotting points. Enjoy.

Little Willie is the main bad kid that gets caught by the Boogie Man, but he's not the only one. There are lots of bad kids that the Boogie Man catches, and they all suffer the same fate: they are a sweet dinner treat that the Boogies love to eat.

The boiling pot for the first musical number: The Boogie Pot Boil

This guy is for the last number: The Rockabilly Rumble

Pants on Fire

2009-03-15T14:11:00.007-04:00

I have been crazy busy at work as we near the end of production. Schedule wise, this has been a pants on fire run from the start to keep keep up with what has probably been the tightest schedule I have ever worked on. At times this production has been the play toy of Murphy's Law and at other times it's been worse, but I have a great crew of people that I work with and a good studio with the resources to help save the day. We are all able to see a light at the end of the tunnel and look back at a year that has been challenging.

I haven't had time to do or post very much, but what follows are few bits that didn't get tossed. Enjoy.

These drawings are some development for a story called "P.J.Pettigrew and the Treasure Bug". The boy is P.J. and the girl is Cath, his girlfriend.

These are P.J.'s Dad and Mom. They are basic prelim designs.

P.J.'s Grand-pa.

The Pettigrew's own a small antiques shop.
Some random strange kids.
The "Tall Tale of Albert Long"... it's a far fetched story that may see some more drawings posted later.

These eggs are here because I have started my Eggs Benedict feature script that I hope to pitch at work ... if I ever get around to finishing it this year.

Some of My OLD OLD Commercials

2009-01-07T20:44:00.004-05:00

I was on YouTube and I found some old commercials I did many years ago and thought I would try to see if I could post them.

The first one was the first commercial I ever did called "Making Breakfast Fun". It was all done about 19-years ago on film and optically composited like in Roger Rabbit. One short scene that was just over a second long ended having nearly 400 frames of mattes and elements created to composite the animation into the live action. It was tones of work, but it was so much fun. It was also the first time I was able to work with one of Nelvana Ltd's former owners, Clive Smith. He was in charge of Nelvana's Bear Spots that did commercials, specials and festival films. I started in Bear Spots in 1989 and had the great pleasure of working for Clive for the next 7-years.

The "Milk Mob" commercial was also great fun not only because of the live action/animation mix, but because we also did some stop motion car animation. It was a bit different because the animation had to be shot in matte sync because it was being transferred to video for compositing in an on-line suite.

I still have the cars that I built from metal kits. Their painting took forever because we couldn't get a nice candy apple red. I painted and stripped the cars at least seven times before I was able to get it right with an undercoat of a shiny silver paint covered with a nice red that I think was a Chrysler car colour. We had two scales for the cars to work within the differents sets. The sets themselves were basically flat pieces of painted artwork mounted on foamcore boards. Everything was taken to a studio that had a motion control camera and we had a professional live action lighting guy set up the lights and gels on the sets. We had space for two sets and as each shot was done we would go to the next set to do what was needed while the old one was being taken down and replaced. The only disappointment was the last minute voice change by the client. They thought that the Mobster saying "We got company" was too scary. The voice they substituted makes the animation look wrong because he sounds goofy instead of threatening. Oh, well ... that's water under the bridge from about 16-years ago. Enjoy.

Last of the Year

2008-12-24T14:29:00.003-05:00

The holidays are upon us and all I have are a few straggers from my sketch book to end off the year. I haven't been as productive as I would have liked, but work has taken up most of my time. Maybe next year I'll be able to do a bit more. Enjoy.

A Dribble

2008-10-29T20:20:00.004-04:00

I have been helping out on the show that I am working on by cutting leica reels for new episodes. With the tight schedule there isn't much time to do much new stuff. Here are a few that I was able to find a few minutes for. Enjoy.

Boogie Old and New

2008-10-05T11:28:00.006-04:00

Sometimes when I run out of ideas of things to draw I go back and look at some past ideas and see if I could come up with something new. I went back to the "Bedtime Boogie" idea and found a few unposted drawings and I came up with another character for a new 'rockabilly' section of the idea. I found some roughs and some finished or nearly finished development drawings for this idea that I thought I'd post.

As I said in my last post, I almost always draw with a ballpoint pen. I love the permanence of it and the fact that once you put a line down there is virtually no going back; you are committed. It forces you to think about what you are doing and where you are going with a drawing. Sometimes the image in my head is so clear that I can see it on the blank page and it's just a matter of tracing the thought image with the pen so others can see what I see, and sometimes I have the seed of an idea and I just play with shapes to build a character drawing.

Over the years I have developed a few techniques that work for me. A lot of the time I will dust the page with the tip of the pen and do a very light rough of what I want to draw. It lets me explore a few creative options before I commit to builting the line and finishing the drawing. Occasionally, I will do a rough or two to play with the composition and perspective, and then I will work from that to make a new finished drawing. It's not my favorite way to work because I find that the reworked drawing looks a bit stale. Either way I find the ballpoint pen a mighty fine tool to draw with. Enjoy.

The top one was the rough and the bottom is an unfinished drawing from the rough.

This is how I usually work. The top drawing was the pass where I roughed the drawing by dusting the pen lightly over the page, and the bottom is the finished result after I have built up the lines and added all my cross-hatching.

An alternate lighting idea that came after I finished the above drawing.

This is a new character for a "Rockabilly Bop" sequence in this idea.

In A Funk

2008-09-17T19:56:00.005-04:00

Everyone goes through periods where they feel that the well of creative inspiration has run dry. I'm sort of in a blah period like that right now; nothing seems to inspire me. Another problem is the rediculous schedule I'm working under right now (you can read a few posts back for my mini rant on that subject) leaves me with no time to spend any meaninful time doing stuff that I like. Most of the drawing I'm doing right now is a bit all over the place in terms of style and nothing seems to grab my attention for very long. I usually never draw with anything other than a ball point pen, but lately I find that most of what I draw with the pen goes in the garbage because it's just crap. To get around my boredom I have been scribbling with pencils and markers to see if I can break through the barrier and find something that charges my battery. Here are some of the bits and pieces since my last post. Enjoy.

Ballpoint pen stuff:

Black Col-Erase pencil:

Felt-tip Marker:

Gathering Dust

2008-08-24T16:13:00.003-04:00

I found these as I was going through some dusty old drawings and ideas. This one was called "Spangle and Devon" and was about a young boy's mischievous shadow. Nothing new. Been done before, but fun to play with for a few scribbles. Enjoy.

This Week's Clean Out

2008-08-24T11:36:00.004-04:00

I have a couple of sketch boards that I have made for myself. They are basically binder rings that have been salvaged from old binders and fastened to a mdf board. One holds legal-sized paper and the other is half-sized legal. When they get a bit heavy with scribbles I do a bit of a clean out. A few get scanned for posts, some get tossed and the rest just gather dust after they get transfered to binders. Here are a few that I scanned. Enjoy.

Some drawing boards.

Drawing Bored

2008-08-03T10:34:00.010-04:00

Tight schedules are a common gripe, and it hasn't changed in the 25+ years that I've been working in the animation industry, but it seems when the talent pulls the rabbit out of the hat and makes the schedule work, the next schedule asks us to do it faster and with a few less people. It's hard to describe what it's like at production ground zero with the many extra hours it takes or the physical and emotional toll on the crew. It doesn't matter if you use paper, or some digital package, it still takes what it takes for each process, especially if you want to pretend to have some sort of quality. You always have to weigh the needs of the production against what you can realisically do, but it feels like compromise seems to be the new creative mantra. Often, it's the only way to make the schedules work. It may seem like an oversimplification of production reality, but the toll it takes on the people always worries me. Again we're being asked to pull another rabbit out of the very battered hat. To date I have been fortunate and worked with some very dedicated people who have done the what we thought was impossible and made these schedules work and with some level of acceptable quality, but this time ... sigh ... the schedule truly sucks.

To stay sane I always keep my ball point pen and drawing board handy, and I'll doodle while the machines and networks save and process the digital info that make up modern animated shows. These drawing time-outs are are my moments of repose in a endless series of hectic days. Enjoy.

A worm.

An Egg.

A bunch of guys.

Time To Spare

2008-06-29T10:10:00.003-04:00

I had a few moments so I thought I'd post something. A couple of posts ago I had a picture of an idea for a character named Angus. Sometimes after doing a drawing I'll get a story idea, and after I played around with the character a bit I thought, "What if Angus played the bagpipes?" Cliche, but what if you threw in invading aliens from outer space? I thought that Angus could be so bad at the pipes that the clan banishes him to the wilderness. He's so bad that animals would rather be killed and eaten than listen to the chalkboard screech that he tortures out of his instrument. Enter the Aliens who want earth, or at least Scotland, for their new colony. The clan puts up a valiant fight for their land, but their clubs and blades are no match for lasers and particle weapons. Angus witnesses the rout of his people and sees the end is near. He is the last man standing defiant against the enemy and they bear down on him. He puts the chanter to his lips and plays. The sound wreaks havoc on the alien ships and they lose control, crashing into each other and the ground. The rest of the invaders turn tail and retreat. In the end, the clan takes him back, but not before they invent earplugs. A bit lame, but it'll be fun to play with before I toss it aside for something new. Enjoy.

A 'timeout' Eggs drawing I did at work. When the computer is slow at work I will do something like this in 30-second windows over a couple of days. This one I finished off the other dayon the train ride home from work.

The Five Minute Egg

2008-06-22T16:02:00.006-04:00

There hasn't been much time to relax and do some fun stuff. The only time I get comes in small windows of opportunity. Here are a few random scribbles from the sketchbook. Enjoy.

These are throw away development for something called "Bellwether Drey"

Random time out scribbles.

A few more Eggs Benedict drawings.

Randomness ... again

2008-04-28T21:30:00.004-04:00

Work has been so busy that I haven't had time to do much drawing. Mostly I just scribble to keep in practice. This is a sample of the latest junk. Enjoy.

Just a girl.

Some rotten eggs. I was frustrated at a story roadblock in plotting that I have no time to solve.

Angus. No last name. Just a couple of scribbles I did before I left work today.

Randomness

2008-02-18T11:22:00.013-05:00

I have been bouncing back and forth on a few ideas while I have been fighting with some plotting for an Egg Benedict story. Enjoy.

This was for some development on an project called Jet Packs.

This is some Eggs stuff.

The guy on the left is a corrupt District Attorney named Houseman Kingsfield. I named him after the actor, John Houseman, and character he played, Charles W. Kingsfield Jr., in the movie Paper Chase (1971), but in the movie he was a law professor. I loved the quality of his voice and thought it would be great for a character. The one on the left is a Mob Boss named Desmond Capricorn, but he won't be in an Eggs story until later.

These are thumbnail ideas for Bedtime Boogie.

At one point in the idea I thought that the kid, Willie, could get away from the Boogie Men, but end up running into some Hillbillies. The music would then change from boogie-woogie to bluegrass with lots of banjo's and fiddles. The Hillbilly Men like to do a stomp dance where they try to step on the kids that come their way.

A Few More Booker Drawings.

2007-12-30T16:28:00.000-05:00

I was cleaning out the 'scans' folder in my computer and found these for Booker's World. I thought I'd post some of them before backing them up and cleaning them away. Enjoy.

The diminutive Booker is just over four feet tall.

A Krall sentry at the Gaol Pier. It is the place where the Krall take captured slaves to Krall Island.

Takkas are carnivorous squirrel-like creatures that are as large as a medium sized dog.

A big Glop with some smaller ones.

Squee-mo is the High Word Elder of Booker's world.

The Sea of Ending is an ocean of molten lava that Dennison crosses with the giant, Kev. They encounter a whale-sized beast on the way.

Something New (Repost)

2007-12-30T16:02:00.000-05:00

(I am reposting this because the pictures didn't open properly when selected.)

Have you every been in a situation where you are busy doing one thing and an idea comes out of nowhere and hijacks your thoughts? That happened to me recently when I was walking to the train station at the end of the workday. I was thinking about the crazy things we parents say to our kids when they are young to make them behave or to go to bed. I was thinking about some truly outrageous things that would scar any impresionable young child and then seeing how far I could go before it became rediculous. Then the idea of the Boogie Man popped into my head along with the Andrew Sisters who used to sing in boogie-woogie harmony back in the 40's and 50's, and an idea for a short film came to full bloom in a matter of seconds.

I've done a few scribbles. Enjoy.

A Boogie Man and a victim.

A Boogie Man on a chase.

Little willful and spoiled little Willie.

Little Willie should have stayed in bed.

Boogie Men love to drink and party by making all the captured rotten kids entertain them by doing chores ... but they aren't just any chores.

Cooking Eggs

2007-11-08T21:03:00.000-05:00

A few scribbles that are helping me think through some plotting on the current Eggs Benedict idea that I'm working on. Enjoy.

Eggs on the Burner

2007-09-25T21:34:00.000-04:00

Booker's World is done and I am going to send it to some publishers to see if they're interested, or to see if it's any good. In the meantime, I am working on a story idea for Eggs Benedict: Hardboiled Detective. I have blocked out the rough plotting for his first case, and I've done a few drawings to get me in the right mindframe. More will come ... later.

"Cleaning up the town, one bad egg at a time."

This is an old character design for Carbunkle. He was once a bouncer at the 'Cluck-Cluck Club". He'll cross paths with Eggs in the first case and end up being one of his operatives in later stories.

Eggs was once a Detective in the police force of Sunnyside Beach until he had a falling out with his old boss, Inspector Dash Grange. The reasons for the falling out won't come until a later story that is tentatively titled "The Quick Red Fox".

Sideways is an intrepid reporter for the Gazette. He will be a source of information for Eggs on some of his cases.

Like any detective noir story, there are guns and a few spilt yokes.

To Be Continued ...

Timeout Scribbles

2007-08-28T20:50:00.000-04:00

A few more timeout drawings from the past few days.

Time Out Drawings

2007-08-22T21:00:00.000-04:00

I have had some monster scenes over the past few days that have made the computer chug-chug-chug, so I was able to do a few time-out drawings while I was waiting. The first two are from "Booker's World" when one of the characters (Juanto) "goes Krall", and the last one was a quick scribble I did while logging off at work. Enjoy.

First Draft

2007-08-12T20:42:00.000-04:00

Business trips to foreign lands and a couple of weeks vacation have kept me busy and unable to add much to my blog. Hopefully, I'll have time to post a bit more often and to draw a bit more than I have of late.

The First Draft of my story is done. There is an incredible sense of accomplishment and relief seeing the 360 pages of text come off my printer, but now comes the hard part of doing the polish. I've gotten about a fifth of the way through with mostly grammatical problems. I may have to re-write a bit of the story to flesh out some details that got missed, but I don't think that there will be huge edits. I did a lot of that when I transposed the longhand version that filled over 850 pages in six notebooks. I deleted entire chapters and hundreds of pages of false starts to end up with what I have.

The basic premise of the story is: A boy grieving at the loss of his mother and feeling guilty that he could not save her from her illness is trasported to an imaginary world where he must come to grips with the idea that he may ultimately be responsible for its destruction.

It seems a bit depressing, but it's really about coming to terms with loss. I have no idea if it's really any good, but it was a story that developed out of a single drawing and it stuck with me until I finally ended with what I've got.

I'm posting a few of extra drawings I did when I was coming near the end of the first draft and starting my final version. I don't know how many more Booker drawings I'll post in the future because I've started thinking about the next idea that I want to work on after this. I always use drawings to help me flesh out plot points, so I'll post anything new in the future.

The main character Dennison is attacked by carnivore insects called Tickers.

There are rhino characters called Rhones that are fearless defenders of the imaginary world.

The climax.

Booker chasing the Book of Krall, and it takes place in the first third of the story.

More, More Booker's World

2007-05-17T20:25:00.000-04:00

This will be it for a while for Booker's World posts. I'll show some other things that I've scribbled, and leave the BW posts until I've finished typing up the story. Enjoy.

More Booker's World

2007-04-23T21:10:00.000-04:00

Here are some random character and location drawings that I did to help me flesh out the story development while I was writing it.

These are early designs of the bad guys, the Krall. They went from being three-fingered/three-toed to two-fingered/two-toed. They are basically big and mean.

There are various types of Krall my the story. This is a design of a bull Krall. They are about eight feet high and they run about the way a gorilla might charge. They are the most dangerous.

This is another bad guy named Juanto.

This is an encounter with the Glops, but it doesn't exactly happen like this in the story. The Glops try to take away the main character, Dennison. The previous post has a drawing that's more like what happens in the story. This drawing was just a way for me to think through some story points.

I won't explain what happens, but this is a meeting between Dennison and a character named Absalom that takes place near the middle of my story..

I'll publish some more at a later date.

Booker's World

2007-03-25T21:14:00.000-04:00

It started with a drawing that became a seed for an idea. Over the past seven years the idea evolved and filled out until I thought I had everything worked out. In December 2005 I set myself a goal to write the story as a book by the end of 2006. I was a bit late, but in January of 2007 I had filled over 850 pages of longhand scribbles in six notebooks before I could write: THE END.

Right now, I am in another year long re-write to type it out so I can submit it to a publisher. Since the first drawing of one of the main characters, Booker, I have done hundreds of drawings to help me flesh out the ideas in my head. The following are sampling of what I did. Enjoy.

As I get farther on in my story re-write I'll post more images.

Bert the Bear

2007-01-23T21:03:00.000-05:00

I was looking through some old junk and found some comics I did a few years back when Nelvana was bought out by Corus Entertainment. There was a lot distrust and sadness at what happened after the take-over because there were massive layoffs. Some of it came out in cartoons like those that follow. Other people did versions of Bert the Bear and Lou Rabbit, but mine was based off an old logo design I did in the early 90's for Nelvana - Bear Spots. Later, I heard of Mike Kunkel's "Hero Bear" and saw what a fantastic job he did with his bear that was so similar in design to mine. (Or maybe mine was similar to his ... ??)

Enjoy.

The old "Bear Spots" logo. (FYI: Bear Spots was a Nelvana company that used to do TV Commercials, festival shorts and special projects that didn't fit into the normal TV production pipeline. I was lucky enough to work there for seven years under Clive Smith who was one of the former owners of Nelvana.)

The four "Bert the Bear" strips that I can find.

Time Out Drawings

2007-01-17T20:44:00.000-05:00

I spend most of my day in front of a computer animating using Harmony-Solo, and don't get to draw as much as I'd like. When my computer "times out" for any reason, I pick up a pen and do some drawings to get in a bit of practice. These are some of the scribbles from the past week.

Weekly Drawing, update.

2006-12-10T12:57:00.000-05:00

Weeks 3 and 4
The topics were: the Hulk and Superman. The first Hulk drawing was a bit too realistic, so on Superman I tried to go a bit more stylized. I then tried a new Hulk and a couple of new Spidermans.

The first attempt at the Hulk.

A few Supermans.

Another attempt at Hulk that's a bit simplified.

A few new Spidermans.

The Weekly Drawing

2006-11-21T15:55:00.000-05:00

Week 1
Some of the Animators at work have started a weekly drawing challenge. It was a bit disorganized because the first week had more that one theme. This week had a Conan barbarian-type, Spiderman and a Cat Woman. I missed the last one, but did something for the other two. I'll update this post each week with my drawing until everybody gets tired of doing it.

(Note: these are what I call "time-out drawings" because I do them when my computer at work has a time-out for saves or dropped network connections. As always, I only draw in ball-point pen.)

A couple of barbarian scribbles for warm up.

The barbarian drawing I put in.

My Spidey.

Week 2

This week the topic was Batman, so here's my version.

Some quick roughs.

This is what I stopped with.

More Gillies

2006-11-21T15:51:00.000-05:00

I think this is it. For now, this idea has run its course. I might come back to it in the future after things percolate a bit.

Gillies

2006-11-04T16:40:00.000-05:00

This is something new that I'm toying with. Like a lot of my ideas, they start out as drawings and then I try to figure out if there's a story in it.

Gillies are little mushroom characters that are discreetly covered with leaves.

A study of some tree fungus.

I'm not sure what to call this guy yet, but he's basically the 'wise elder'. I'm thinking that he's a bit grumpy because he's always being bothered to solve other people's problems.

Some facial studies for the wise elder.

The Mites are smaller than mosquitoes and are friendly to the Gillies. They can go most places that others can't.

Grumble and Waa

2006-11-04T16:08:00.000-05:00

One thing that I can't stand is a baby crying. It's like fingers on a chalk board for me and it can reduce me to a nutcase in a few minutes.

It gave me an idea for a short about a reclusive guy living alone in a cabin on a mountain. One night someone leaves a baby on his doorstep. He tries everything to keep this baby quiet, and at one point is about to toss the baby out the window ... but doesn't because of the gurgle of laughter. Anyway, the cries echo through the mountains and allerts the town busy-body in the valley. She marshalls the forces of "good" and the authorities take the baby away, but the baby (Waa) and the recluse (Grumble) seem to have fallen into a groove. When the Waa is taken away from Grumble, he cries like he's never cried before. Grumble is now desperate to get the baby back, but the busy-body stands in his way ... and the baby cries ... and cries ... and cries until the townspeople are walking around like zombies with dark rings under their eyes. Grumble takes his challenge to court. The busy-body and her lawyers against him, and the baby can be heard crying ... and crying ...and crying ... and only stops when he sees Grumble. The sleep deprived judge sees how happy Waa is to see Grumble. Well, it's a happy ending for everybody except the busy-body. Grumble adopts Waa, the people can get some sleep and the woman gets a parking ticket.

Grumble's home in the mountains.

Grumble.

Waa.

Crusades

2006-10-22T11:25:00.000-04:00

The idea for this came from looking at the Bayeux Tapestry. It was something I toyed with for a short time before abandoning it for other ideas.

Tongo's Monster

2006-09-20T20:27:00.000-04:00

Most people have their own take on Frankenstein's Monster. I had a few different ones, and this was one of them. Enjoy.

Dr. Tongo is the creator of the Monster.

The Monster getting a recharge while the Doctor works.

Even a monster has to play.

Eggs Benedict: Hardboiled Detective

2006-09-14T20:35:00.000-04:00

Film noire films that deal with detectives usually have the hero trying to do the right thing, but getting knocked around a lot while trying to do it. In the end they were no better off than they were at the beginning, and sometimes they were just a bit worse off; however, the good guy always won and some form of justice was meted out to the bad guy (or femme fatal gal).

I had this idea a few years ago that I pitched to Nelvana. The title just about says it all: Eggs Benedict: Hardboiled Detective. It was a film noire-type story about a Mike Hammer-type of detective trying to stay honest in a corrupt town full of rotten eggs. The tag line was: In a world full of eggs, everyone's fragile. Yeah, I know: corny. I said there would be bad guys, and shooting guns, and spilt egg yokes, and car chases, and vice, and action ... all the stuff that you wouldn't want your kids watching. Well, the people at Nelvana thought the idea was "too young", meaning it was aimed at kids in the 5 to 9 year old range, and they passed. I thought that was weird because I was aiming for it to be seen by a much older audience, but I kept the rights and walked away with an interesting experience.

Enjoy.

"In a world full of eggs, everyone's fragile."

Eggs has changed a bit since my pitch a few years ago. Today he has longer arm and legs, and his nose has a bit of a kink in it. I still go back to it from time to time to do a bit more development. Hopefully, something will come of it someday.

In The Beginning

2006-09-07T09:20:00.000-04:00

Like most of the story ideas I get, this one started out as a drawing of one of the main characters, Cedrick. It was about a chance meeting between a caveman, C.M., and a dinosaur, Cedrick, and the friendship that developed from there. The idea was that C.M. was a bit of a genius who lived for scientific discovery, but who was being forced into marriage with the Princess of the tribe who was the ultimate spoiled bitch. C.M. escapes, but is ordered hunted down by the Chief who is no match for his daughters lover-scorned anger. C.M. runs into Cedrick who has problems of his own. The dinosaurs want to wipe out humans because they apparently are a huge threat, but he wants no part of it because he's a peaceloving herbavore. The dinosaurs want to silence Cedrick, the humans want C.M. to force him to marry the Princess, and C.M. discovers that there is a meteor rushing towards earth and has figure out a way to save everything.

It was one of those idea that I kept going back to do more development, but it never went anywhere. I did a 20-second bit of test animation with John Lithgow's voice from "Third Rock From The Sun" and I thought that Brad Garratt from "Everybody Loves Raymond" would have been a great voice for C.M.. Enjoy.

The first drawing of Cedric and an early one for C.M..

An early location done in pencil. The yellow discolouration is the krylon spay fixative I used for the first (and last) time.

The Chief of the tribe and C.M. being chased by a hunting party.

Some ideas for locations.

Sewer Boy

2006-08-11T21:04:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine, Don Gautier, had a neat idea for a T.V. series called: Sewer Boy. It was about a boy living in the sewers under a city, and he longed to be worthy enough to some day live up on top in the light. He had a pet dog, Ringo, and was looked after by a crocodile (an unwanted pet flushed into the sewers) named Charlene. He asked me to help him do some development on it for a pitch he did at Nelvana Ltd., Toronto. With his permission, I am posting some of the artwork I did for him.

Sewer Boy always looks up to the light and hopes that someday he'd be worthy enough to live there.

Deep down past the sewers are tunnels are chambers full of mushrooms ...

... but they aren't ordinary mushrooms. The spores put you to sleep and before you can wake you're dinner.

There's lots of sewage and water, and, of course, there are rats.

(The idea and concepts for "Sewer Boy" are copyrighted by Don Gautier, and the art is copyrighted by me.)

Doctor Dolittle

2006-07-11T20:28:00.000-04:00

I always thought that Hugh Lofting's "Doctor Dolittle" books would make a wonderful animated series or special or feature film. When I returned to Nelvana Ltd. after leaving Disney, I was thrilled to find out that Nelvana had acquired the rights. The project was beaten around in development for a couple of years, and after seeing what the marketing execs in L.A. wanted turn it into I'm glad it was never made. Nelvana eventually let the rights lapse because some of the Doctor Dolittle books were falling into public domaine in some territories, but not in others, and the legal problems with getting all the rights were too numerous.

I did some development on the series at the beginning, but the stuff I did that I liked the most never made it into the marketing "focus group".

I even went as far as designing the layout of his house.

I guess the journey will continue at a later date.

Good Ideas Don't Die

2006-07-01T17:47:00.000-04:00

After Disney scuttled the "Mickey Mountie " short idea, the concept behind it never left me and I later developed into a new short idea called "Yukon Sam". It was a bit of a twist on the Canadian Sam Steele legend, and it takes place during the Yukon Gold Rush where the N.W.M.P. patrolled and enforced the laws of the Dominion of Canada.

What follows are a few bits of art I did for development. I actually completed a ten minute leica reel for the short, and it's still on the back-burner waiting for me to get some time to do it.

Mickey Part Two

2006-06-20T20:59:00.000-04:00

At the Toronto studio of Walt Disney Animation there was a corner lounge we called Cholesterol Corner that a group of Animators would meet in every morning and talk about nothing in particular: our families, the scenes we were going to work on next ... stuff. One morning we were discussing how Disney had acquired control of the merchandising for the Canadian Mounties. Some thought that it might be good to have a big company fighting to protect the "brand" from unlawful use, but others were critical of Disney's exploitation of our Canadian icon.

"You know how they're using it?!" said one Animator. "Thery are dressing up dolls of Goofy and Donald in Mountie uniforms."

You could almost see the thought bubble form over everybody's heads with the same idea: Mickey Mountie. We had the makings for an animated short where Mickey would be our intrepid hero with his trusty sled dog, Pluto, Minnie would be a saloon singer that he was in love with and Pegleg Pete would be our cigar chomping hero who had designs on her, too. Goofy and Donald would be sold a worthless mine, the Iron Pirate, by our villain who thought he had unloded a worthless hole in the mountain to our two prospectors, but they would find the boulder of all nuggets. Our villain would steal the gold and the girl, and Mickey would have to come to the rescue.

It was pitched to the studio as a charity project where we wanted the proceeds would go to Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital, but the head office, while not saying no, was more concerned with production numbers than in making a cool little short. There was a bit of artwork done for the project, like Mickey's Cabin on the previous post, and the few pictures below.

Enjoy.

First Post

2006-06-19T22:33:00.000-04:00

In ancient Rome people would take their baked goods to a communal oven, a thermopolium, and while they waited for their bread to bake they would have some wine and share conversation. To me, it's the perfect name for an animation studio where people would bring in their half-baked ideas, share in a lively creative discussion and, in the end, have a film that everybody could enjoy.

Over the next while, I'll dig up some of my artwork from filed away ideas that didn't go anywhere to some of the stuff I've done while working in the Animation industry and post it along with some new stuff.

This is from a Mickey Mouse short (Mickey Mountie) from my days at the Disney Studio in Toronto that some Animators and I tried to pitch. I'll post a few more next time.