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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

This article is primarliy aimed at two groups of freelancers: Californians who have been experiencing massive power outages, and Minnesotans who live in my blackout-proned neighborhood. In recent months I’ve had three major power outages lasting several hours each, plus a few minor ones. Twice, in order to meet deadlines, I’ve had to pack up […]

Yesterday I covered part 1 of my latest schoolism.com assignment (my instructor is Stephen Silver). Part 2 was to do a memory sketch. “Memory sketching” is an exercise designed to strengthen your observation muscles. It works like this: Go to a place where there are a lot of people (i.e. a mall, airport, coffee shop, […]

For eight weeks now I’ve been posting my assignments from a character design class I’m taking at schoolism.com (taught by Stephen Silver). Only one more week to go! This week’s assignement was another two-parter. For Part 1 we had to go to a busy public place and fill a page with observational sketches. The Mall […]