A popular exercise for cartoonists and character designers is to randomly pick from a list of characteristics (occupations, personality types, animal types, emotions, etc.) and then sketch a cartoon character based on them. Some artists, such as Chris Ayers, actually keep a Ziploc bag full of little slips of paper with such traits written on them. They pull out a...
Last November I attended the CTN Animation Expo in Burbank, CA, where I gave a lecture on business tips for self-employed artists. Towards the end of the conference I attended a late-night gesture drawing workshop hosted by Dave Pimentel. For about an hour or so a costumed model (the terrific John Tucker dressed as a hobo) struck some wonderful one-to-five-minute...
For the past couple of years I've been doing little bits of animation and/or character design for the DVD series "What's In The Bible?" from VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer. Volume 11 has just been released. It covers the book of Acts, explaining what happened after Jesus ascended back into Heaven and how His followers travelled the known world telling others about...
More and more artists, especially in the animation community, seem to be flocking to Tumblr. I've decided to tag along. One the one hand I don't really need yet another social network to stay on top of (I'm already active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Behance, and every once in a while I still make an appearance Pinterest, DeviantArt,...
Last fall I was hired by Toys-R-Us to develop some rough concept sketches for a race track playset they were working on. The idea was to decorate the track with interactive elements including a grandstand, pit stop, oil spill, and orange cones. These are some of the rough sketches I worked up based on the ideas they described. Ultimately the...
Today is Good Friday. As a Christian this is one of the most important days of the year for me, the day we pause to commemorate the torture, crucifixion, and death of Jesus Christ. Some of you my wonder, why on earth would a day like that be called “good?” Because even though it was a terrible day for Jesus it was...
