Clancy

This is a piece I did recently for Stephen Silver's new iPad app & upcoming book. Stephen has assembled some terrific models, and photographed them in various costumes and poses for artists' reference. A great idea, and sure to be a must-have book. I call this guy "Clancy", 'cause that's just what he looks like to me.

...and some of the sketches that were done before deciding on the final pose

Rockin' For The Arts 2011

Recently finished the poster for this year's Rockin' For The Arts concert (coming up, June 3rd, in case you're in the area)!
4 things I like about this gig:

1) Kids playing musical instruments- always a good thing.
2) All funds raised support arts in the school- very cool.
3) Making music with my friends- one of my all-time favorite activities.
4) It gives me an excuse to design a poster every year.

If you're around, come on out for food, fun, & rock & roll! It's a great event, and I'll be funkin' out in every way.
Hey- that dude in the post underneath will be playing guitar! Hows that for blog synergy?

One from the archives

This is a cover I did for Nickelodeon Magazine's special Fairly Oddparents issue several years ago. I roughed out half-a-dozen or so thumbnails until the publisher was happy with the design (if I find those thumbnails, I'll add them to this post), the image was then cleaned up by Ray Leong, and I did the painting. First cover I ever did, and I must say- seeing your artwork on the magazine racks at your Barnes & Noble is pretty cool!

Anthony Zierhut

This is an image I made for my friend Anthony Zierhut's birthday. He plays some mean blues & slide guitar... and he looks like that, kind of...He's also a terrific artist! You can check out his sketchblog here.

Extras, Miscellaneous, & Whatnot

In addition to designing the central characters involved in a particular storyboard, the character designer has several other responsibilities. Here are some examples of the work that goes into a given assignment: A sampling of incidental background characters, special character poses done to help guide the overseas animators, and a special mouthmchart, designed to accommodate a specific line reading (in this case, by Jerry Trainer- the voice of Dudley Puppy). All of these images were created for the same TUFF Puppy episode: "Doom Mates".

TUFF Puppy: Sally Mander

This is one of the earliest designs I did when I was assigned to develop TUFF Puppy. I thought the receptionist for an organization like T.U.F.F. would have to be a real multitasker, so I put her prehensile tongue & tail to use. At the time I was gunning for a 60's look for the show, which explains the pillbox hat. This character seems to have disappeared after delivering one line in the pilot episode (which is why the model sheet was never refined & cleaned up). Ah well- it was fun while she lasted!