Rodents

Tiki Table Top

Back to School (pt 2)

Just a few more doodles of monster students, in the vein of Monsters University.

Back to school

Several weeks ago, I saw Monsters University, and what really stood out to me was how they took the very simple appealing designs of Monsters Inc and just subtly "plussed" everything with interesting textures. It made me enjoy the sequel on a whole other level- visually it was very engrossing.

The next day I felt like doodling some Monster students. These aren't from the film, of course, though some did start to stray close to familiar characters and I had to make drastic changes as the drawing progressed. I hate when that happens!

Fun in the Snow

A bit out of season here in California, but still...

 

Wiseguy Rabbits

Happy Tree

Happy Monday!

Is everyone excited to start the new week?

Girl Friday

Been at the pool a lot lately. Hope everyone's summer is going well.

 

Sketch Dump

Just a few things I've doodled over the last few months.

 

Yellow Dragon

I haven't had much time for any of my own artwork lately- thankfully I'm very busy with freelance projects. However I saw Monsters University tonight and seeing all the fun characters made me want to doodle the night away on my Yiynova tablet monitor. I decided to take one of the many monster-ish drawings I've done previously and color it. In fact I modified it a bit before delving into color. You might remember this little guy:

 

Well I had labeled him "Yellow Dragon" when I first saved the image. I think that was because I wanted to remind myself if I ever colored him that he should NOT be red like Mushu from Mulan. Well here's how he turned out:

 

 

Definitely a different type of character from the initial sketch, but that's how it works out sometimes.

Recapping Chuck Jones Red Dot Auction 2013

Here's a short recap from the Red Dot Auction held by the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity in Costa Mesa, California.

 

 

Below is my submission, a painting of Michigan J. Frog. I tried to get him into a more lively pose but he just sat there, so that's what I had to paint.

 

 

I have mixed feelings about the way the Red Dot auction works. First of all, all paintings are anonymous until after the auction. The donors are listed but you don't know who did what, unless you are particularly familiar with someone's style. I guess this would encourage people to bid purely on which paintings they like rather than trying to guess which big name artists painted what, and hoping to score a valuable piece at a low price. Because it's a silent auction, you add your bid to the item you like and hope that when the auction ends, yours is the winning bid. If you don't want to leave it to chance, you can use a red dot sticker that you've been issued, to instantly buy anything, for the pre-established price that the Center has set. It might be significantly higher than if you had waited till auctions end, but then again it might not. I was happily surprised when shortly after I arrived, they called me up onto a central podium to congratulate me that my piece had been purchased with someone's Red Dot. I was told that they weren't present but I'm glad someone liked my little frog.

 Before they shipped him off, I wanted one last photo.

 I was also pleased to meet the Yetsko family, who recognized my name because they had purchased an Art Watch of mine at Disneyland many years ago. It's so cool to come across people familiar with your work when you don't expect it.

 You can see many more photos from the event that night at this link. Enjoy!

Red Dot Auction for the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity

Once again I'm submitting a painting to the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity's annual auction. Over 100 artists are anonymously donating paintings, with the proceeds going to benefit the Center. It's a great organization that not only spreads the word about Chuck Jones' lifetime of work but also spearheads creative activities throughout the community. Because it's anonymous I'm not going to reveal my image until after the auction but you can check out most of what's been donated at this link and see if you can guess mine. And if you're in the Southern California area, why not stop by the auction this Saturday?

Threadless Fraggle Rock Competition

I grew up watching Fraggle Rock when it originally aired on HBO (at 8pm, which as a young kid seemed strange to me at the time). So I was excited when I saw that Threadless was having a Fraggle Rock TShirt Design Competition. Here's my design. It's called "Chase in Outer Space" and is up and available for voting! If it gets ranked high enough, Threadless will print it as a shirt! You can find it here: http://www.threadless.com/fragglerock/chase-in-outer-space/ . Thanks for your vote!

Do you smell something?

I did this T-shirt design recently, for a company in Germany that trains bloodhounds to track people- how cool is that?!