Tons ‘O Links!

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Here’s a neat site I stumbled upon recently. Illustrator Dani Jones has compiled a list of fifty nifty Illustration links. I’ve only briefly visited a few of the links so far, but it looks like a good list with lots of informative and/or inspiring stuff dealing with various aspects of illustration. I’m looking forward to browsing more of the links in the coming days. Sample links include:

100 ways to get over a creative block

Portfolio advice from an art director

An inking tutorial

An article about pricing your work

Gesture drawing

Self-promotion

An interview with animator Andreas Deja

…and there’s 43 other links in the list. There’s bound to be something to tickle your fancy.

Whir! Crackle! Hiss! Boiiiiiiing!

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On top of a busy week for deadlines I’m having some major issues with my computer. Among other things I’ve got to re-install my operating system and try to recover over 100GB of deleted files. It’s not pretty. I spent most of the afternoon under a desk in the corner of my studio curled up in the fetal position while tech support had me on hold.

Fortunately I still have my laptop so I can write this post. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to write a “real” blog post today. But please check out some of the great art blogs listed over to the left. Really terrific stuff!

Thanks for your patience, loyal blog reader! There will be more stuff coming soon, I promise.

“The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” Opens Today!

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After 28 episodes on DVD those crazy veggies from VeggieTales are starring in their second big-screen feature film, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything (official site).

“The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” started out as a Silly Song on VHS way back in 1997 (every VeggieTales episode has at least one Silly Song). The song became so popular that the Pirates eventually hosted a DVD countdown of Silly Song fan favorites in which they took second place. Later they were given large supporting roles in the first VeggieTales theatrical release, Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie. Now they’re starring in their very own big screen adventure.

Here’s the Silly Song that started it all. The 3D rendering looks a little rough by today’s standards, but remember it was made over ten years ago:

For the new Pirates movie some of the character designs and storyboards were provided by Tom Bancroft and Rob Corely, two of the terrific directors I worked under on 3-2-1 Penguins!. Both are Disney animation veterans who now co-run their own studio, FunnyPages Productions. Check out their blog over the next few days to see some of their work for the film.

Tom emailed me the following about Pirates:

This is Rob and my 9 or 10th feature film to be involved in and while it is the lowest budget of them all, it really turned out nice! We went to the premiere last night and were very impressed by the strong art direction (by our friend Chuck Vollmer at Big Idea), good modeling and animation (provided by Starz Animation in Canada) as well as entertaining story that kids will love.

Our company provided most all of the character designs (including the show stealers- The Rock Monsters, Cheese Curls, and the evil Pirate Robert!), as well as storyboarding the opening, ending, and sections in the middle, creating the opening title artwork (with Monika Brozda, thanks) and layouts for the cave section! Whew, it was a busy time last summer. If anyone wants to see how far under 10 million can go, this is it! So, go THIS WEEKEND and support our friends at Big Idea Productions (and Funnypages Productions indirectly), you’ll be happy you did!

Here’s the trailer:

Check out the offical site for more info about The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.

The Pro’s Of Freelancing

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Yesterday I listed some of the “Con’s” of freelancing. Please read that first if you haven’t already.

Now that that’s out of the way I want to focus on some of the “Pro’s”, the terrific and exciting aspects of freelancing which, in my opinion, far outweigh the negatives and make the whole adventure worthwhile. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t have stuck at it for ten years and counting:

Pro #1: You are your own boss. You decide when to work and when to take a break. You decide which projects you will work on. You negotiate the deadlines. There are no superiors to report to (just make sure your clients are happy). No boring meetings. No annoying co-workers. You enjoy a great deal of freedom compared to your cubicle-bound counterparts. You can buy groceries at 10 am when there is no traffic and no lines at the checkout. You run your own show! I can’t think of a career choice that offers you more personal freedom.

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Your Feedback Please

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Today is the last day of 2007. New Year’s is always an occasion for looking back to reflect and then looking forward to the coming year. So I thought this would be a good time for me to pause and evaluate my blog.

I saw a big jump in readership this year, and it’s been a fun challenge for me to keep the blog interesting enough for readers to keep coming back. I’ve tried to focus mostly on topics related to illustration, cartooning, and freelancing, but my goal of posting something new every weekday has forced me to zig and zag a bit as I try to figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’ve posted a mixture of personal sketches, freelance work, tips on the freelancing biz, reviews of products and books, interesting links, an occasional mindless distraction, and a few opinions and thoughts totally unrelated to art. This year I also took a character design class from Stephen Silver at Schoolism.com, and I received a lot of positive feedback from posting my assignments. I also gave the blog a new look, added a Tip Jar, and created a Recommended Resources page that links to Amazon.com.

I want to make the blog even better for 2008, so I’m asking you my readers to give me your thoughts. What have you especially liked? Did anything bug you, or worse, bore you? Is there anything you really liked and would like to see more of? I’m not fishing for compliments–I figure this must be a pretty decent blog, otherwise you wouldn’t keep coming back–but I am genuinely interested in getting some overall feedback, suggestions, and constructive criticism on how I can make it even better.

So please leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Every comment will get read, and I won’t delete anything unless it is obviously a “spam” comment. Feel free to post anonymously if you’d like. (Hint: For those of you who read but never comment, this would be a perfect opportunity to stick your toe in the water.)

A very happy new year to one and all!

“Citizen Kane” Sketches

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One of the gifts I received this Christmas was a two-disc special edition DVD of Citizen Kane. Many movie buffs consider it to be one of the greatest films, if not the greatest film, ever made, so about two years ago my wife and I decided to rent it and educate ourselves (actually, I really wanted to see the movie and she graciously went along). While the pacing is a little slow in spots, it’s a great film that has really grown on me. It’s probably one of my top-ten favorite movies.

In 1941 the gifted wonder-kid Orson Welles co-wrote, directed, produced, and starred in Citizen Kane at the tender young age of 26! The movie tells the fictional story of Charles Foster Kane, a powerful multi-millionaire, newspaper mogul, and would-be politician. The film is allegedly inspired by the real life of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst, and many key events in the film mirror Hearst’s own life. Much of it is less-than-flattering. Hearst tried everything he could to get the film destroyed before it could be released into theaters. He attempted to buy the original print so it could be burned, and attacked Orson Welles’ career and reputation. Hearst couldn’t stop the film from being released but he did strike fatal blows to the career of the brash but talented young filmmaker. Welles never again approached anything near the success of Citizen Kane. It has been said that Orson Welles started at the top and worked his way down.

The first disc of the DVD set includes two audio commentaries. One is by film critic Roger Ebert, and it is one of the most informative and fascinating audio commentaries I have ever heard. The second disc contains a two-hour documentary entitled “The Battle Over Citizen Kane”, which chronicles the dramatic behind-the-scenes battle that raged between Welles and Hearst.

From an artistic standpoint, what makes the film so impressive is not just the intriguing story but the dramatic visuals. Long before computers, green screens, or even color (the film is black-and-white), Hollywood directors had to rely heavily on simple tools like composition and lighting to keep their images interesting. Welles had a masterful eye, and Citizen Kane makes great use of powerful compositions, stark lighting, deep focus, and dramatic camera angles. Great stuff for sketching and study!

I’m busy working on a large client project and can’t post any current artwork. So here’s a few pen-and-ink studies from the film I did almost two years ago when I first rented it. It’s a mish-mash of main characters and background extras with interesting faces. I posted these on my blog way back when I first drew them, so some of my long-time blog readers might recognize them.

I promise to post more new artwork as soon as I can! In the mean time, if you want to watch a good flick and then do some fun sketching, I highly recommend renting Citizen Kane.