I recently discovered a blog by Austrian artist Florian Satzinger. His work is pretty nifty. Check it out.
(Image © copyright Florian Satzinger.)
More John K on Character Design
Recently I posted links to several blog articles on character design written by the talented, prolific, and opinionated John K. Here’s a few more good ones from his blog. Set aside some time to read these, his posts are always meaty:
Bill Tytla – Terrytoons – cute animation, is it such a bad thing to have appeal?
Appeal 1-starting with cuteness as the 1st element
Dan Gordon and what makes a cartoonist
Animation School. Lesson 9: Model sheets/Steve’s gift to young cartoonists who thirst for knowledge
Concept Sketches for “3-2-1 Penguins!”
As I mentioned in Friday’s post, I’ve spent the last few months designing characters and props for the TV series 3-2-1 Penguins! which airs Saturday mornings on NBC. Last weekend the first episode I actually worked on (”Green-Eyed Monster”) was broadcast. My name was in the credits, which means that for two seconds on Saturday I was ignored by millions of people. Still, it was kinda cool.
(EDIT: I owe an apology to several of my friends and relatives who tried to watch the show but missed it. Turns out NBC’s Saturday morning schedule varies from city to city, even within the same time zone. Penguins airs at 10:30am in Minneapolis, 11:00am in Chicago, and Noon in Dallas. To make things worse the TV listings in Chicago, where I spent the weekend, listed the wrong time so I missed my own premiere. Back home my DVR was set to record it, so assuming the TV guide was correct I can still see it when I get home tonight. Anyway, thanks to everyone who tried to watch. It means a lot that you made the effort.)
Penguins was created by Big Idea, the company behind VeggieTales. Big Idea owns all of the concept art I created for the show, but they have graciously allowed me to post sketches on my blog after each episode airs.
The Green-Eyed Monster (pictured above) and the Sheep were based on some rough sketches provided by the director, the very talented Tod Carter. The rest I came up with largely on my own.
I’ll post more sketches from future episodes I’ve worked on after they air.
(All artwork is copyright © Big Idea. All rights reserved.)
Shamelesss Plug
I spent most of the summer and fall doing character design work for 3-2-1 Penguins!, a new animated series on NBC from the creators of VeggieTales. It’s a fun adventure comedy with lots of goofball humor.
The first episode I worked on, “The Green-Eyed Monster”, airs tomorrow morning on the peacock network (10:30am central time, check your local listings). The episode was directed by the very talented Tod Carter, and it was a privilege of working under him. For some characters Tod gave me a few rough sketches to build off of, the rest I did on my own. I also designed a few props.
I can’t post any artwork until after the episode airs, so look for a few sketches on Monday.
How I Insulted A Master Animator
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.Read More
Stuff I Recommend
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 of my goal to make this blog a truly helpful resource for my readers, I’ve created a list on Amazon.com that organizes them under various headings. Categories include:
—Character Design
—Artist’s Reference
—Art Instruction
—Business/Freelancing
—Animation
—Color Guides (for artists like me who struggle with color)
—DVD
—Misc
A link to the list will be permanently displayed on the blog sidebar.
In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that if you buy something from my list, Amazon.com will toss a few coins my way. I’m certainly not going to get rich off of it, but maybe it will be enough to buy a few extra cans of Monster Low-Carb.
While we’re on the subject, you may also have noticed the Tip Monkey that showed up on my sidebar a few days ago. I post new content every weekday primarily because I enjoy it. But it does take work. I want my blog to be a fun place, so no pressure. But if you visit regularly and if you’ve truly benefited from it, I certainly wouldn’t mind a small tip now and then. Either way, I’m grateful to have you reading.
Here endeth the sales pitch. Look for new, fun content again on Monday!