Open For Work

 Like so many in the animation industry I am out of work for the first time in more than 39-years. Sad, but I am waiting for a pick up for Season 3 of "Alma's Way" from PBS and Fred Rogers Productions which is tentative for August. So, I am nervously taking the summer off and chipping away at working on my "retirement project" which is a graphic novel series for my "Elliptical World of Snurd" idea. So far I have done thumbnail roughs for about 60 pages of the first story. I am about half way on the first story of eleven parts. Here are a few samples of my thumbnails so far. Enjoy.

Lasty, a few random guys and gals.

That's it for now. Ciao!

A Little of This and That

 Sometimes you just have to doodle when things are in limbo.Over the past while I have been focused on working on updating my notes on "Film Grammar for Storyboarding" and fleshing out story beats and details on a personal project so my drawing pen seems to flit around drawing different things. The randomness makes for a lot of bad drawings which will never see the light of day, and some which don't make me cringe so much when I see them again. Below are a few simplified, random selections from the doodles from the last few months. Enjoy.

A few guys.

 A few girls.

And a few bits of "Snurd".

That's it for now. Ciao!

Production Fatigue (aka: Burnout)

Tired. 

I am glad we are on the back end of the production I am currently co-directing because I am seriously tired and burnt out. This season has been long, challenging and exhausting. I guess I am showing my age. After all, I have been doing this for +40 years so I am no spring chicken.

Taking a deep breath. Letting it out.

Even though my mojo is low, I have been able to scratch out a few things since the last post. A very small sampling are posted below. Enjoy.

A few girls.

I am still chipping away at a personal project "The Elliptical World of Snurd". I have finished beat outlines for the ten parts of the story and started roughing out a few pages of what will eventually be a graphic novel, and in between I scribble a few drawings when I have a free moment and am not too tired.

I was working on a Christmas postcard to send out to people, but I got lazy and will just post it here. If I don't post before the new year, I hope you have a restful and safe holiday.

That's it until next time.

An Even Shorter Post

 I did this for something which was supposed to be a fun little drawing competition for work, but realized that a bunch of people who participated in this friendly event were kind of hosed when we found out that some of the artwork was used for something else. I am not a fan of doing work for free, especially when a company is a "for profit" entity, and it is disappointing that nobody was asked to see if they were okay with the art being used in a way other than how it was intended. Lesson learned. I won't be participating in any future drawing competitions at work, but I will share it here. Enjoy.

A Short Post

 Today is a day off for Canada Day. It's a nice summer long weekend to do ... nothing. I'm just posting a few, rare, colour drawings. Enjoy.

That's it. That's all ... until next time.

HIATUS

It has been a while since my last post, but sometimes work can be a really time vampire for any free time. I am a Director on an animated series (ALMA'S WAY) and since last October 2022 my weekends have been the only free time I have to do script notes for storyboard launches. Doing those notes takes a few days to do it right and with the overly ambitious schedules a lot of shows have to work under the only free time to do those notes has been my weekends. 

BUT, a week ago I was able to launch the last board with the Storyboard Artist ao my weekends are gloriously free until the next season starts (Yes, there are hints that there will be a season 3). I now have some free time to clear out some sanity drawings from by sketch binder. Not a lot were very good, and a lot got ripped up and tossed along the way, but they were my way to wind down after a long day. I sometimes had to force myself to sit down at my portable drawing table and do ... something because you still need to draw or the skills suffer, and boy have mine suffered since last October. 

I hope to remedy that with a bit more sleep and a bit more time to draw. For now, this is what didn't totally suck. Enjoy. 

A few guys ...

A few girls ...

Some doodles for a Christmas card I never got to make ...

I found an old story a college friend of mine, Rob Schmidt, wrote back in 1982 called "Death Da Child 'An Da Road" which was written in a Vaughn Bode style. I was going to try and do a few illustrations, but I quickly abandoned it after a few drawings.

I even worked on my "Elliptical World of Snurd" idea for a bit. On my last post I showed some ideas for Toss' Over-Under craft which can transform for flight, diving under water or traveling overland. The dune buggy version was something I missed posting so it's here now.

Okay. That's it for now. Hopefully, it won't be another 8-months before I post again. Until next time ...