Digital ink

Quick digital ink portrait in Corel Painter IX, hope you like!  -h

McQuarrie & Moebius

A couple of artist have passed away in the last couple of weeks and I felt like I should say something about them because of their influence in both pop culture and myself. 

My favorite ship from Star Wars, the Millenium Falcon.

Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie passed away last week. Although I wasn't a huge fan of his art, it certainly left an impact in popular culture and me with the design of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, C3PO, Stormtroopers, R2D2, and the look of the Star Wars universe. McQuarrie also worked on a barrage of popular movies such as "Close Encounters", "Battlestar Galactica", "Star Trek", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and "E.T.".


http://www.ralphmcquarrie.com/
http://starwars.com/news/ralph_mcquarrie_remembered.html

My 1st Moebius book

French comic artist Jean Giraud, known as Moebius, has passed away this weekend. He created the famed comic western "Blueberry", was one of the founders of the alternative comic magazine "Metal Hurlant" ("Heavy Metal" in the US), and was a visionary concept artist for film. I was always amazed at his comic work, my introduction to it was Marvel's Epic 3rd Moebius collection ("The Airtight Garage") and the Silver Surfer book he did with Stan Lee. In film his presence was felt in SciFi classics like "Alien", "Tron", "The Abyss" and "The 5th Element". One of his stories became the inspiration for "Blade Runner". Giraud also influenced another hero of mine, Hayao Miyazaki, especially in his "Nausicaä of The Valley of the Wind" manga series and animated movie. I felt a kinship since we shared a last name, love of comics, and being an artist. Secretly, I wished we were related. Heidi MacDonald has a lot of Moebius material over at her blog "The Beat" here.


http://www.moebius.fr/
http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/giraud.htm


Rest In Peace both and thank you for your amazing contributions to popular culture and the art world.

Meanwhile at the other blog...

Posted some sketches over at Dos Illustros, check 'em out!


http://dosillustros.blogspot.com/2012/03/dog-ruffs.html

Figure Drawing (clothed) 3/4/12

Here are some figure drawings from last Sunday's Crealde morning class on March 4. I usually attend when one of my friends prods me to go since it's better to be in good company that early on a Sunday!

The model was my close friend Audrey Zindler and she posed with clothing. Audrey is also a great artist who is currently studying graphic design and you can see her work here: http://absoluteaudrey.deviantart.com/

Click on the drawings for bigger versions:

2 minute gestures:

5 min.:

10 min.:

20 minutes:

My favorite of the day:

Detail:

New Kleeman and Mike cartoon!

I'm really glad to be helping Randy Christopher (Kleeman and Mike, Bear and Fox) make another "Kleeman and Mike" cartoon! I worked on the first 2 (after he made his first Flash game with them). A bit of history, Randy and I have been friends since we used to work at the Disney theme parks in the Entertainment department and eventually left to follow our artistic education, funny we also ended up educators as well. He taught me Flash as I would help him out with animation. The 1st one got us to the Florida Film Festival! You can watch the 1st 2 cartoons here at the old site: http://kleemanandmike.com/


He's assembled an AMAZING team for this new cartoon (including Keith Milgaten of Jamuel Saxon, Spencer Rabin of Little Deadman, surfer/artist Andy Davis, and me!) but it needs your help! Please consider donating and spread the word/reblog the link below. Every little bit helps! Thank you in advance if you donate! Go to the Kickstarter page for a video from Randy and more details:


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/695736489/kleeman-and-mike-new-animated-short

Viva Kleeman and Mike!

Bugs Bunny for Redlight

Sorry for the lack of updates! I know it's been month and 1/2 but after X-mas break, I had to go back to work and am getting used to the routine of making art again. Here's a sneak peek at my painting for tomorrow's Redlight Redlight 60's & 70's Art Show. I tried to do it in the flavor of my favorite 60's illustrators such as Al Parker, Bernie Fuchs, & Bob Peak. It's in acrylic and way bigger than my usual pieces at 24"x36" (I tend to work small). I'll post the full painting from the show tomorrow.

ps. if you're looking for retro & vintage illustration art styles from the 20th century Golden Age of Illustration, visit Leif Peng's great blog Todays Inspiration or his excellent image collection on Flickr!

2012 Animation Books

I'm a big fan of books and history and the folks over at Cartoon Brew (my preferred animation blog) are naming next year's animation-themed books. Can't wait to get my hands on some of these like Tom Bancroft's new one, UPA, Amid's Ward Kimball biography, and the "Art of John Carter of Mars" and "Brave"! Click at the address to see their run down:
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/books/2012-animation-book-preview.html