Continue reading »]]>  Click here to see a bigger image at Flickr.com

I have been a big fan of the master French comic artist Mobius (aka Jean Giraud) since my college days where I was inspired by his style, technique and color use. With his recent passing I thought I would, like so many around the world, draw a tribute to the master.

My piece is based on Mobius 1985 “Starwatcher II” which many have been doing their version of in the last few years. To read more I would recommend the Tumbler Blog ‘Quenched Consciousness’ which has been my favorite place to follow the work of Mobius.

Visit the official Mobius website http://www.moebius.fr/ 

Continue reading »]]> So here is the second chunk of photos from the first day of the Cartoon Art Museum Sketch-a-Thon at the San Diego Comic-Con 2011. We were doing a fundraiser to help the museum by having artist rotate ever hour and create original art pieces for donation of $10 or more. As you can tell that most folks got their money’s worth.

To go back and see PART 1, FOLLOW THIS LINK.

Anthony Hon busy drawing.

Scott Shaw’s Captain Carrot.

A drawing I got of Fred Flintstone as Batman.

Another amazing drawing by Mike Dubisch.

Scott Shaw and Chari Pere busy drawing for their fans.

Anthony’s awesome Hulk drawing.

Dirk Tiede draws Batgirl.

Museum Curator, author and artist Andrew Farago draws his version of Daffy Duck.

Brad Rader’s drawing of Goliath from the TV show Gargoyles which he worked on.

Wow, someone got a drawing by Chari and Scott. Lucky lucky lucky.

My first ‘kick butt’ Disney Princess drawing.

The amazing Jamaica Dyer gives us the mysterious adversary of Batman, Poison Ivy.

And one more from Seamus Smith.

To go back and see PART 1, FOLLOW THIS LINK.

Continue reading »]]> I will be teaching again this Summer at Chabot College in Hayward CA for the Kids on Campus summer program.

Cartooning: Monsters & Critters
Whether it’s a graceful unicorn, a slithering dragon or a more modern beast, we have been telling stories of fanciful creatures of all sorts since the beginning of time. This class will feature lessons on drawing classic beasties, the structure and construction of four- legged animals, and designing original creatures as well as a technique for presenting a final drawing.

Kids on Campus – Summer Camp 2011
Weeks of June 20-24 and June 27-July 1

Sign-up at: www.chabotcollege.edu/comed/kidsoncampus/kidsoncampus2010/

Continue reading »]]> Last year on October 24, 2010 I helped organize a Halloween Comic/Art Jam at the Cartoon Art Museum 11-4. We like to call them CAM-JAM’s and they have been going on since 2009. We had called it the Ghoultide Gathering, but we were told at the last minuet that someone else clams the trade mark on that name. It was really fun.

Artist who participated were asked to draw on of the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot fortune telling card deck. It was a really fun challenge and everyone did a great job. Sadly life got in the way of preparing the work to be presented. But now the world can see the final results…

Click above for a bigger image at Flickr.com

Here are the artist and their websites (when available)…

Fool – Caryl Foote

Magician – David Mann

High Priestess – Brian Kolm – www.atomicbearpress.com

Empress- George Webber – www.nocashcomics.com

Emperor – Tommy Ong – kyo888.deviantart.com/

Hierophant – STORM – stormantic.wordpress.com

Lovers – Karen Luk – paperdragonpress.blogspot.com

Chariot – Amy Horton

Strength – Nick Paz – flusky-wolf.deviantart.com/

Hermit – M. Schorr

Wheel of Fortune – Brian Kolm – see above

Justice – Caryl Foote

Hanged Man – Audrey Soffa – thebunnysystem.com

Death – Reed Wu

Temperance – Rick Lucey – www.drawrick.com

Devil – Heather Plunkett

Tower – Rachel Kate Wall-Polin

Star – Audrey Soffa – see above

Moon – Destiny Stone – inuyashassexywife.deviantart.com/

Sun – Brian Kolm – see above

Judgement – Rick Lucey – see above

World – STORM – see above

Continue reading »]]> Well, what a week it’s been. I can’t believe how great Cartoon Boot Camp at the Cartoon Art Museum is this year. Lots of new things happening and lots of new faces too. I am amazed at the skill that these young folks have.

This week was drawings Mystical Mythical Magical Beasts and it was a big challenge since we were drawing more realistic style animals.

A big shout out has to go to my support: Chris Conroy, Benjy Wachter and Nomi Kane as well as the director of the museums educational program and the staff.

I decided that the best way to show off the work of the students is a video slide show. The 11 kids did so much work and this was the best way to show it off.

I also got to create an animated intro for the slide show too, which was done with Chris Conroy. I did the 3D model, animation and compositing and Chris did a series of pencil drawings that I used as texture maps and 2D ‘cut-outs.’ The 3D work was done in Blender 3D, using the export plug-in to bring it into After Effects where the other elements were added. I am really pleased at how it came out.

The music is by Kevin MacLeod who licenses’ it for free through the Creative Commons. by http://incompetech.com/

The examples on the slide-show feature drawing exercises and challenges as well as the students final drawing of creature they invented themselves.

as a bonus here is a better version of the intro animation I produced for the slide show.

Mystical Mythical Magical Beasties opening animation from Brian Kolm on Vimeo.

Continue reading »]]> I will be at the Fremont Comic Arts and Anime Teen Expo (CAAT-X) this Saturday April 25, 2009 from 10-4pm. There is more info HERE.

I will be trying out something new (thanks to some electricity from the City of Fremont) to bring a small TV and playing a video loop of my animation and artwork. When I got my iPod Touch this December one of my hopes was to play slide shows and videos from it. But to make a video that will constantly loop over and over seemed impossible. But I figured it out and wanted to share it with you all in case someone else wanted to use the same technique. I am guessing it would work on the iPhone too.

YOU WILL NEED: Movie video loop in iTunes, Garage Band or other sound editor, Small TV or Monitor with RCA input, iPod Touch (I have version 2.0+), and the Apple Composite AV Cable (RCA imput)

NOTE: I will not cover making video in this post, but will cover it if folks want me too.

SOULTION: (as far as I know) the only way to loop a video is to have it be part of a PlayList in iTunes. But the problem I found is that Movies (i.e. videos) will not show up on the iPod Touch in a PlayList unless there is an audio track as part of the PlayList as well. Once you have an audio file the PlayList in iTunes can be set to loop.

Heres how I did it:

a) Open garage band or another audio editor and create a TINY audio clip that is about 1 second long and is silent. If your clip imported is longer then you want you can shorten it in iTunes’s INFO for that track. The file should be an MP3, WAVE or other compatible format.

b) Import the TINY audio track into iTunes as well as the video loop if you have not done it yet.

c) Create a PlayList with the TINY audio track as well as the video track(s) you want.  You can put as many copies of the movies into the play list as you want so you can have it play the TINY blank audio track very little.

d) Go to the iTunes settings for your iPod Touch and make sure that your play list is selected in both the MOVIES and MUSIC sections.

e) Sync and update your iPod Touch

f) Plug you iPod Touch into the TV with the RCA Video cables that you can purchase sepertly. (Apple Composite AV Cable)

g) Select PlayList under MUSIC and make sure it’s set to LOOP (the icon of arrows going in a circle under the title and to the left).

NOTE on playing video and slide-shows from an iPod Touch. Nothing will show up on the screen unless you have hit the play button. In the case of a ‘photo’ slide-show (another option for conventions) you can press play to have the images show up on screen and then pause if you are giving a presentation.

RESULT: The Movie(s) will now loop forever or as long as the batteries lasts all from your iPod Touch! Yay! There will be a black screen ‘pop’ when it plays the TINY audio clip, but you can make a PlayList of the same movie over and over again that playes for hours. If this is helpfull, please let me know. If there is a better way to do it too, then post a comment and let me know. To see some video work I have done for conventions, check out my samples:

Continue reading »]]> Hey all, as some of you may remember, I did some fan artwork (HERE) and (HERE) for a fan video podcast, well you will be able to see the final production on May first. The video is a fan history of the famous Disney theme park attraction the Haunted Mansion and will included the voices of Neil Patrick Harris, Corey Burton, Peter Renaday, and Brian Sommer. Patrick’s videos (SEE THEM HERE) are top notch and a lot of fun.

I can’t wait to see how it came out.

“On Friday May 1st, Patrick Hurd presents:

The Story of the Haunted Mansion.

You’ll learn how the wish of one man to provide a loving home for his family, became the nightmare that destroyed one generation after the next.

The 32 minute story is visualized through the art work of over 40 talented artists.

Nearly 300 original pieces of artwork were created exclusively for the story!

The short films voice cast includes actor Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser MD, How I Met Your Mother), Corey Burton (The Haunted Mansion Holiday’s Ghost Host), Peter Renaday (The Ghost Host from the classic 1969 Haunted Mansion LP), and voice guy extraordinaire Brian Sommer!

Find out how your favorite characters came to live and die inside Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion…and the surprising way their stories intertwine.

Visit the Window to the Magic video feed on iTunes on May 1 to download the high quality video for free…

The WindowtotheMagic Videocast (Standard Definition)

Or visit Patrick’s YouTube channel on May 1…

http://www.youtube.com/user/Doombuggy

So you think you know all about the Haunted Mansion…

You don’t know half the story!”

Continue reading »]]> It seems that this week there have been a lot of really good posts on comics and art on-line and as always I love to share them with you. Of course I am a huge fan of all these artist and highly recommend checking out their sites and blogs.

Craig Thompson (Goodby Chunky Rice, Blankets) Has posted a page from his comic-in-progress Habibi and showed how he used some scanned sketches into PhotoShop to help figure out a page layout. His work is so amazingly beautiful. Check it out HERE: http://blog.dootdootgarden.com/2009/03/17/overexert/

Pierre Alary has posted another work-in-progress page from his Sindbad comic. http://pierrealary.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post.html

Tony DiTerlizzi has posted his progress of creating the third and final cover for his series Beyond the Spiderwick. I love his work. His creature looks like Ursula’s pet eels sort of. Check it out: http://diterlizzi.com/blog/2009/03/18/wyrm-king-cover/

Ruben Procopio posted some of his cover work of The Phantom. I love his rough sketches as well as the finished work. Here: http://maskedavengerstudios.blogspot.com/2009/03/latest-on-phantom.html

Here Steve Rude has posted a video of him inking a comic cover:
Inking Origin Cover #2

Continue reading »]]> So, instead of posting lots of separate posts with interesting links (and making my blog seem really cluttered), my goal for 2009 is to post them in groups. Sometimes they will have a common theme, but a lot of the time they will not.

Tips for making an animated film (via CartoonBrew.com) “Jim Capobianco, Pixar story artist and director of the short Your Friend the Rat, is nearing the end of production on Leonardo, a personal short of his own. He’s been documenting the production on a production blog at leoanimation.blogspot.com. Last week Jim started a series of blog posts called ” 10 things I’ve learned in making a short film.” The advice in these posts is wonderfully informative and in-depth. Jim openly shares his experiences and offers case-specific examples in every blog entry.” I have been reading Jim’s notes and he gives good advice for any sort of creative project. Really a fun read and his film looks really fun.

Komar & Melamid: The Most Wanted Paintings Artists Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid decided to use market research to find out what kind of paintings that people all over the world liked and the results showed that most people have a lot in common. Check out the results. The artist also did the same experiment with music. I heard about the experiment on the most recent episode of This American Life (88:Numbers – act two).

Mickey Mouse in Mousepotamia The Classic Cartoon blog has posted a rare Mickey Mouse comic strip from 1950 that features a tie in to the then current film release Cinderella and features the mice Jaq and Gus. In the comic they kidnap Mickey and take him to a kingdom of mice who need help dethroning “The Iron Mask.” The art is really great; clean and fresh and looks more like a comic book then a newspaper strip.

Cool web games Try the cool flash web adventure games from Amanita Design. Cleaver with high quality art. I really liked the Quest for the Rest game.

artist Alec Séverin I have seen the work of Belgian artist Alec Séverin before, but did not connect who he was till recently. The work is really really good. This is an artist I want to see more of, but I also found on lambiek.net that “In early 2008, Alex Séverin announced his departure from the comics profession.” So now I am feeling bummed that we might not see anything new from Mr. Séverin. I searched the internet when I saw Al’s drawings of horses on Comic Art Fans and fell in love with the incredible work. Check out HERE, HERE, and HERE. I also really like his tributes to Flash Gordon and Tin-Tin. There is also some art samples, via annoying java script animations, at exposalecseverin.free.fr.

Well, maybe I will be able to meet Mr. Séverin if I visit his home country of Brussels. And if I do I can visit the Belgian Comic Strip Center. I really hope I can make it to Europe in the next few years (and the economy gets better)

Continue reading »]]> Two artist I am very fond of are posting how they draw in their comic.

First off Craig Thompson posts some behind the images from his hit comic GOOD-BYE, CHUNKY RICE which is celebrating it’s tenth anniversary.

European artist Manuel Arenas has been working on a new comic with his character YAXÍN the FAUN. The book is painted in watercolor and looks amazing. Check out his behind the scene images. Manuel has a piece in the Totoro Forest Project show at the Cartoon Art Museum.

You can pick up Craig Thompson’s book at Amazon:

Continue reading »]]> The Cartoon Art Museum has a multi-faceted art exhibit coming up starting on September 20th. The show will actually appear in segments with the fist one opening in a week. So by December the show will encompass 1/3 to 1/2 of the museum. The art work was created as part of a fund raiser for the Totoro Forest Project.

Now you might be asking yourself, what’s a Totoro?

Totoro is a mystical forest creature that appeared in the delightful Japanese animated movie by Hayao Miyazaki, my neighbor Totoro. Here is a clip from the movie:

The Totoro Forest Project is an a group who have set out to protect the forest that inspired the movies setting and story. To help raise money many of the artist who have been inspired by the movie and it’s talented director donated original art for an auction that was held at PIXAR animation studios a week ago.

Sayama Forest is one of the most remarkable urban forests in Japan, located just outside of Tokyo. This forest is said to be the inspiration for legendary animated film My Neighbor Totoro. With Japan’s rapid urban development in the 1970s and 1980s, the forest has been diminished to a small fraction of its former self. In 1990, Miyazaki helped set up a national trust, Totoro no Furusato National Fund, to preserve the park and promote awareness of environmental issues.

It is estimated the PIXAR art auction raised about $201,236.00 to protect the forest. Much of the artwork will be on display for the museums show. You can see all of it at the official website, Totoro Forest Project.

I will be teaching the drop-in cartooning class at the Cartoon Art Museum on the same day the show officially opens, Sept 20, 2008 and I am trying to create an art project to tie into the exhibit. My idea is to take a painted blog and turn it into our own version of the Totoro. Here are some experiments I did below, inspired by a kids art lesson where they turned fingerprints into people.

What do you guys think?

As a bonus, here are some short animations made from the art that was part of the fund-raiser…

Continue reading »]]> Spiderwick artist Tony DiTerlizzi has posted a cool retooling of a monster from the original D&D Fiend Folio. Tony is an amazing artist and his blog is worth reading, so check them out.

Mr. Door Tree has posted some classic art from books of Tarzan HERE and HERE and John Carter of Mars HERE and HERE.

Continue reading »]]> I recently did the logo design for the Cartoon Art Museums retrospective of Creig Flessel. I translated his distinctive signature into a vector file and then modified it. I really like how cool this one turned out.

[singlepic=397,320,240,,]

This month, February 2008, Creig Flessel turned 96. To celebrate his life and art, there is a showcases of his work from early superhero comics, comic strips, Playboy Magazine, and beyond. He is the creator of The Sandman from Detective Comics as well as the Shinning Knight, both reside as part of the DC comics universe now. The show does have some ‘adult’ content, but is worth a see. Just be warned if you bring along some young kids.

I find it inspiring that Creig is still drawing, and drawing well this late in his life. If only I can be so lucky.

As a bonus, below is the card Creig created for Phil Frank last year when he was in the hospital. Great drawings and wonderful painting skills too.

Continue reading »]]> Watercolor paintings of Warner Bros. Cartoon Characters by Scott Seeto for the Warner Bros. Store. Great stuff. LINK

Blue Sky Disney has reported the loss of movie poster artist John Alvin who is best know, to me, for the beautiful moody preview poster for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. LINK

He also worked on: Aladdin, Pocahontas, Atlantis, Quest for Camelot, Hunchback, Lion King, Harry Potter, Hercules,  Tarzan, StarWars, etc. He did all the serious Disney movie posters vs. the happy kids posters.

Felix Lorioux’s Puss In Boots at the ASIFA Archive. Great illustrations. LINK

Charles Vess shows progress photos of a painting commission. Some amazing stuff. LINK

Dinotopia artist James Gurney has posts on doing a painting with a limited pallet. Great idea for illustration as well maybe the color of comics. LINK

A lucky lady has won to be immortalized (for a year) as a pirate in the line for Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean. Check out the beautiful watercolor here. LINK

Continue reading »]]> Amazing painter and illustrator James Gurney, artist/author of Dinotopia, has been posting to a blog about his recent book tour as well as lots of excllent notes on art and classic painting techniques. Really a treat for art traditionalist as well as the digital devotees.

His recent posts on COLOR and INSIGHT/DELIGHT were both fun to read and very educational.

Here is one of his images that was on the cover of Prehistoric Times magazine. Check out there website too since I am borrowing the image with out permission.