Yesterday during my studio tour I posted a photo of an original sketch of Jafar given to me by master Disney animator Andreas Deja. I have mixed feelings whenever I look at this sketch. On the one hand, I feel deeply honored and inspired to have met Mr. Deja and to have walked away with an original sketch by him. On the other hand, the event is one of the most embarrasing moments of my career.
Since then I've met and married my lovely wife (Jennie) and had a baby girl (Anna). I now live in the incredible shrinking house. Bedroom #2 became Anna's room, so I had to toss out some of my junk and move the rest into my studio, which was a tight fit. Then Jennie started a part-time job working from home, so I bought her a desk and wedged it into the studio as well. The house is feeling awfully tight. The upside is that it has forced us to live "lean and mean" and get rid of a lot of junk we didn't really need.
The studio is L-shaped, which makes it difficult to stand back and get a good picture. These pics were all taken with my iPhone (which has no flash) so they aren't real crisp, but they should do:
I'm tinkering around with a new look for my blog. I liked the old look but the template was missing an important feature or two. You may see the look of the blog change from time to time over the next few days. Please bear with me. New content will still be posted every weekday, and you can still leave comments....
It's always fascinating for me to see the studios of other artists. It can give a lot of insight into how they work. Recently I found online studio "tours" (with photos) of some artists whose work I admire. Fun reading. So grab your ticket stubs, buckle yourself in, and no flash photography please: Scott Kurtz Creator of the online comic strip PVP. Funnypages...
I'm a huge collector of reference books. Among the dozens and dozens of books in my studio, there are a select few that I would highly recommend for any professional illustrator/character designer/animator to own. If you make your living drawing, this stuff can inspire you, boost your skills, maybe help advance your career or even increase your income. As part...
This is it. I've finished my nine-week character design course with Stephen Silver over at Schoolism.com. It's been an amazing experience. Stephen is not only a brilliant character designer but also an inspiring teacher.
Our very first assignment was to design a character based on Fat Joe from the play The Long Voyage Home. We were given this description:
