I never know when I might have a few spare moments and be inspired to sketch, so I carry a small hardcover sketchbook in the pocket of my winter coat. For the next few months wherever I go I’ll be ready when the sketching bug bites.
Here’s a few of the newest faces from its pages:
Sad news. It appears that VeggieTales may soon be no more.
Big Idea, the studio that fifteen years ago gave us Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato, has recently laid off most of its staff and announced that the company’s owners are facing bankruptcy. Details are posted at Phil Vischer’s blog.
This isn’t the first time Bob and Larry have seen hard times. Phil Vischer founded the company in 1993 and VeggieTales became an overnight sensation in the Christian retail world. The company grew fast and furious but eventually overextended itself. Vischer was forced to lay off staff and in 2003 filed for bankruptcy. He’s written an excellent book about his rise and fall entitled Me, Myself, and Bob (Amazon.com link
After Vischer’s bankruptcy Big Idea was auctioned off to Classic media who eventually sold it to Entertainment Rights. Due to a number of factors (including a steady decline overall in the children’s video market) Entertainment Rights is now deeply in the red. Hence the massive layoffs. Like I said, Bob and Larry have been through tough times before but this appears to be the worst they’ve ever faced.
I know several Big Idea employees personally and worked with a few of them on the TV series 3-2-1 Penguins! (which was also a Big Idea property). They are all quality people, total professionals who were absolutely terrific to work with. My heart goes out to them and their families as they search for new employment in a less-than-stellar economy. If you think of it, remember them in your prayers.
And if you are looking to hire any animation artists/writers/directors let me know. I’ll be happy to give you some terrific referrals.
Here’s a few YouTube videos I’ve stumbled upon recently from some artists whose work I admire:
Dennis Jones is a phenominal illustrator. He draws very fun, entertaining cartoon characters and then paints them with a master’s eye for color and shading. Here’s a quick demo of him painting in Photoshop. View Dennis’ YouTube channel for more videos:
Here the very talented Denis Goulet posted a link he found to a quick tip about how to get more out of your Faber-Castell PITT brush pens:
Caricaturist Joe Bluhm discusses his process while painting Bill Murray:
Finally, Stephen Silver demonstrates a “memory sketch”. Memory sketching is a challenging exercise where the artist stares at a subject for a few moments (no drawing, just observing) and then later sketches the pereson from memory:
Stephen teaches a terrific class on character design over at schoolism.com. I took the class myself and I learned a great deal. Highly recommended!
Do you have any favorite YouTube artist videos that you’ve found educational or inspiring? If so, please post a link in the comments section.
Freelance work has slowed down this week due to the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend. With Wednesday and Friday being travel days it becomes essentially a five-day weekend for a lot of my clients. Deadlines get pushed back accordingly. I’ve been using the lull in my schedule to tackle a mountain of paperwork and emails that have piled up while I was working frantically to meet deadlines. The bad news is I’ve been so busy tunneling through papers that I’ve barely drawn anything in the last week. The good news is I can see the surface of my desk again.
Some misc. notes of interest:
I now take Visa. Time for an experiment: I’m in the process of setting up a system that will allow my clients to pay by credit card. It will cost me a bit in bank fees but it will make me look more professional and hopefully it means some clients will pay me faster. More importantly, it will make my life easier for my clients as many of them will be happy to use their corporate cards so they can get to their rewards faster (frequent flier miles, etc.)—or so I’m told. It will also help make things easier when receiving payments from clients in other countries (it’s rare but I do get work overseas). We’ll see how it all goes.
Check out this art blog – Albert Pardo is a terrific cartoonist and Flash animator. I just stumbled upon his blog and I love his stuff. Give it a looksee: http://bigalrock.blogspot.com
Time Life Photo Archives – Time Life, in conjuntion with Google, has posted a gigantic library of old photos from their archives. Some go all the way back to the late 19th century. Many have never before been published. Great info for history buffs or for artists looking for period characters and costumes to sketch.
New Joe Kubert Books – This looks pretty cool. Joe Kubert, the famed comic book artist and instructor, has a book coming out in January called How To Draw From Life (Amazon.com link
Happy Thanksgiving! Here in America we have a holiday where we pause to give thanks to God for all of our many blessings. Among other things I’m grateful for a terrific job, a loving family, and an incredible wife. Most importantly I’m thankful that Jesus gave himself to die innocently on the cross for my many, many sins so that I could be forgiven.
May your life be truly blessed, and may you find many things to be thankful for!
I recently ordered a copy of Kyle Baker’s new book How To Draw Stupid and Other Essentials of Cartooning (Amazon.com link
How To Draw Stupid is not your average how-to book on cartooning. Baker assumes you already knows how to draw. Instead of teaching a non-cartoonist how to become a cartoonist, his goal is to teach the cartoonist how to be a great cartoonist. He fills the pages with insights and examples that flesh out his personal approach to cartooning. Given Baker’s long and prolific career he has a great deal of valuable information to share. He offers pearls of artistic wisdom on such topics as character design, using reference material, expressive poses, acting, and communicating clearly, just to name a few.
The chapters are short, to-the-point, and richly illustrated with clear examples from Baker’s past work. The text is a bit skimpy in spots but not lacking in content. Baker has a style of writing that is low on fluff and gets straight to the point. Like many of his cartoons, Baker says a lot with a little. The entire 112-page book can be read in less than an afternoon, but there’s so much great information that you’ll want to pull it off your shelf to read again and again.
There are a few chapters where I wished Baker would have delved a bit deeper. There are times when he made a great point but left me wanting more specifics. But those were the exception, not the rule. Overall I was very happy with the book. I found myself underlining quite a few well-said statements, and by the time I finished reading I was anxious to to grab my sketchbook and start applying what I had just read. Even though I’ve been earning a living as an artist for eleven years I still learned a few things.
I’m happy to recommend Kyle Baker’s How To Draw Stupid. It’s a book that every serious cartoonist will find helpful and inspiring. Order a copy today.
Still crunching on deadlines. However, here’s a blog I recently stumbled on by a very talented artist. I don’t know his name but I like his work:
Check it out!
