Monthly Archive: April 2006

Apr
30
2006

Notes from the Teen Manga, Anime, and Graphic Novel Festival in Fremont – 4-28-06


The youthful crowd looks over the wares of local artist and publishers. George M. Dondero from Moronik Industries (Dirt Boy, etc), Alexis Fajardo from Lex Press (Kid Beowulf), and John Hageman Jr. (behind a patron). My friend Alexis invited me to come along.


On a slow period I did a drawing of some monsters and my neighbor, John Hageman Jr., added some excellent coloring by way of colored pencils.

Here is the final image….

John also did many excellent paintings like this one….

I also sold one of the “Guide to other worlds” books and did this drawing in it…

Apr
28
2006

4-27-06 – 826 Valencia St collaboration

Here is the cover from the book I illustrated for the field trip kids at the 826 Valencia writing center. Always lots of fun, but crazy doing drawings really, really fast.

This is our most popular field trip. Students are charged with the task of writing, as a group, a story, with the help of 826 volunteers. While the students decide on character and plot points, an 826 volunteer is typing the story into a computer, which is projected onto the wall. The students can track the story’s progress, and make corrections as needed. Meanwhile, the story is being illustrated by a professional artist. As the pages are finished, they’re being copied — one set for each student — and collated in our back production room. Thus, as soon as the class finishes creating the story, we’re ready to bind the books with our in-house tape bindery. The students illustrate their covers, add their photo to the back (for an About the Author page), and go home with personalized books created as a class. This field trip teaches students about collaboration, self-editing, the bookmaking process, and elements of successful storytelling. And it’s really a good time for all. Recommended for students 7–11 years old.

The kids seem to really enjoy these field trips, and I had a good time too.

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Apr
24
2006

Sketch 4-16-06 – Creatures

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Apr
24
2006

Jane’s World

When I was up in Santa Rosa last week I had the pleasure of meeting artist/writer Paige Braddock. She is very cool. Paige does the on-line/trade comic, Jane’s World.

Jane’s World is the adventures of Jane, a lesbian women going through life, looking for love. The drawings are loose and free, and the charcters are fun and believable. Check it out at http://www.janecomics.com/.

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Apr
23
2006

Sketch 4-22-06 – “Cut Out” animation test – Knight

updated video 10-2010
I was inspired by the animated ad for United airlines that featured cut out animation of Knight and Dragon. So yesterday afternoon I drew some rough parts, scanned them in and then cut them out in photoshop. I then used Adobe After Effects to animate and composite. Here is the walk cycle:

I love coming up with ways to bring life to sketch and drawings and this is one way that it could possibly be done. Adobe After Effects is very good at manipulating images in motion.

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Apr
22
2006

Photos of the Peanuts Licensing Department

Click on a photo to see it full size. Thanks to Paige who gave us a tour as well allowed me to take the pictures. It was very cool to see how the quality of items featuring the characters is monitored. To continue the legacy of Peanuts.


This room was the original studio of Charles M. Schulz, creator of Charley Brown and Snoopy.


This was a gift from the artist of Hallmark for Charles Shulz’s birthday. Each square is an original painting.


This rocketeer snoopy was very cool.


Here is the lovely grounds around the offices.

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Apr
22
2006

Local Cartoonist Fails at Smoking a Birthday Cigar!

My friend gave me a Cigar to smoke for my birthday. I have never smoked anything before (contray to my the cause of my sometime hyper personality), and was willing to try. Let’s just say that I gave up after coughing and swallowing the smoke. I still have the Cigar and I might try again. They photo below is the only proof of the event…

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Apr
22
2006

Sketch 4-21-06 The Copper Zombie

This is the drawing I did during my Superhero and villain class I taught at the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa on 4-21-06. The color was added in Adobe Photoshop.

The Copper Zombie is an un-dead warrior who is brought back to life and has to deal with living in the world of the living as well as using his talents to help those in need.

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