Zoobadoo's Sketchblog

My Kind of Town ...

2007-09-27T20:15:00.001-07:00

Goodbye warm warm florida. Hello Chicago. The family and I are relocating! I'm taking a position as a senior product designer for the Bradford Group. I'll be near my two sisters and have a little stability again without having to deal with the ups and downs of the freelance/animation world. Not to mention have good health insurance again. I'm leaving Orlando next week! If anybody needs to buy a house, there's a mighty fine one just waiting to be bought!

battie

2007-09-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

sketchie baby

2007-08-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Secret Garden Poster - my process

2007-05-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

I submitted these 3 sketches for the Secret Garden to the client:

I was lukewarm about the first one as I'd seen several different versions of this same solution for Secret Garden book covers. However, the second two I loved b/c I was told that this particular play was going to stress the magic and the character of the book. They chose the second one which I was excited about. However, I realized that Mary was depicted far too young, so I made a new sketch in my sketchbook for the client that showed a girl of 10 instead of a 4-5 year old"

then, I localized my color choices in corel painter as a quick wash underneath the drawing:

I then approached the rest of the painting with Painter's Vine Charcoal brush, which to me emulates the actual feel of real pastels better than their pastel brush ... I work into just like I would with the real materials, but it gives me much more leeway to correct mistakes, and my hands aren't drying out and chapping like they do with the real materials.

Finally, I came to this image which I was pretty happy with. The detriment to working digitally is that I don't have an actual piece to keep and perhaps sell at a later date, but I did make some high scale prints on nice archival paper to give as a gift. I find that the clients are usually happier when I can make changes on the fly since they are digital images and I can deliver them the files instead of the actual artwork. Professionally, it always works out better, while it is more fun to get your hands dirty with real materials.

Opus

2007-03-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

This was an interesting play about a string quartet. One of its members has disappeared and is being replaced by a young woman. Its up for a Pulitzer Prize this year. Many other productions' posters had showcased a violin, but I wanted to showcase all the questions and sexual tensions that occur between the characters through a very subtle arrangement of the necks of 2 violins, a viola and a cello (which are the instruments in a string quartet - I didn't know that b/f this) ...
I think it turned out decent enough

Shylock

2007-03-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

I think after a year, I'm getting more and more comfortable in Painter. I haven't used Painter X yet, but I'm eager to try it. This poster was created for a one man play by Gareth Davies about the only Jewish character showcased in any shakespeare play. "Shylock" has become such a derogatory term for Jews. I was faced with the challenge of trying not to offend anyone, but still offer something that evoked the play. I enhanced a drawing from my sketchbook in Painter and I wrote out Shylock's famous monologue behind him ... "if you prick us, do we not bleed ..." I actually never knew that monologue came from Merchant of Venice, nor did I know it referred to the bigotry that Jews faced during Shakespeare's time. In all likelihood, William Shakespeare had never met a jew. They were banished from England, and almost all of Europe. The last place I think they were allowed was in Italy, where merchant of venice takes place.

a Tuna Christmas

2007-03-13T13:25:00.000-07:00

This one was fun to do. I've never seen the play, but after a quick read of the script, it's about a fictional town in Texas where some crazy texans prepare for Christmas. Its large cast is performed by two actors, and its pretty clever. check out more on their site:
A Tuna Christmas

Christmas Tuna

2007-02-27T12:24:00.000-08:00

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

2007-02-26T18:32:00.000-08:00

has it been that long?

2007-02-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

I'm starting a new series of posters. the first up is Oz, a three person play based on Frank L. Baum's books.

flapper

2006-11-28T14:16:00.000-08:00

not much time to write today. Just a quickie drawing I did with a brush pen. I love this era.

feelin' crabby today

2006-11-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

That's Not funny

2006-09-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

I've been spending a lot of time reading kids books to my 2 year old and i've been doodling characters from them to practice in Painter IX. This guy is from "that's not funny!" by Adrian Nelson. I love the design of the book . It evokes the graphic styles of old 50's commercials while teaching the concept of "Schadenfreude" - which is a malicious delight in the bad luck of others.

If you get a chance, also listen to the soundtrack to Avenue Q. There's a great song about Schaedenfreude sung by none other than Gary Coleman .... er rather, an actress playing gary coleman. I'm guilty of Schadenfreude. I bet you are too.

Conspicuous Hippos

2006-09-27T14:06:00.000-07:00

my kid has developed her own language, and she calls hippos "yum" ... She does this because I took a plastic hippo and pretended to eat her feet with it once when she was a little over 18 months old. She has a bunch of words that developed from our random silliness. Including "ha-ho" for drink and "bwobble" for fish. I'm not sure if I'm getting the spelling right, but you can ask her when she learns to spell. At any rate, i was looking over Roger Duvoisin's "Veronica" and it inspired me to sketch out a quick hippo. Mine's not as wonderfully graphic as his:

Working Paperless

2006-09-24T17:04:00.000-07:00

here's another disney distribution poster. My little victory here is that I did the piece totally digitally from sketch to finish. I did the rough and clean-up in Painter IX. Then all the compositing in Photoshop, with a little Illustrator thrown in here and there. Doing stuff like this is an excellent excerise in learning what the creative suite can do. It is nice not having all the rough drawings cluttering up the studio in my home. As much as I want to keep doing things traditionally, its hard to deny the ease of working digitally. When it comes to commercial work like this, and I'm not REALLY married to the piece, I very much prefer to work paperless. I'm sure when Disney gets back into doing hand-drawn animation, they'll figure out a way to work paperless, but still allow the hand of the artist in there with programs like Painter and Photoshop.

Distribution Posters

2006-09-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last several weeks designing posters for Walt Disney Distribution. They - for the most part - involve Huey Dewey and Louie, who serve as the division's mascots. I'm surprised at the several different iterations of those characters that exist. Sometime in the late 90's they tried to make them into hip teenagers. The designs were pretty ugly.
I'm partial to the Ducktales versions, since that cartoon came out when I was just the right age. I'm glad the client preferred those too.

Bahama Cabs

2006-09-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Bahamas. Its interesting to note that hardly anyone travels there in the midst of hurricane season the week of 9-11. I practically had the place to myself. Regrettably not many restaurants were open and there was prescious little to do for my toddler that she couldn't do back home. The place is still ravaged from the effects of the hurricanes a couple years ago. I was talking to a cab driver there and she was lamenting about how she constantly has to jam people into her cab, so I drew this pic for her.

Metamorpho

2006-09-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

This guy is ridiculous. I'm warming up to some work right now and took a little diversion to participate in the drawing board's sketchjams. All I really know is he forms his hands into hammers and he uses half of aquaman's shirt. You have to wonder why the guys who can change their shape into anything always seem to have a questionable fashion sense. I mean really.

s'funny face

2006-08-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

2d 3d Opus

2006-08-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised these aren't getting more press in the animation community. Particularly funny b/c Berke breathed is doing a 3d Opus feature.

Bizarro

2006-08-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

Oldie, but a goodie. Quite different from my cuddly previous post. What can I say? I have mood swings. I love everything from cuddly Karen Katz kids books to the gritty Frank Miller Sin City. I'd like to do a short comic featuring this bizarro one of these days.

family Festival 06

2006-08-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

A poster for Orlando's Family Festival. Done all in Painter. Nice Program. Very Intuitive.

age ...

2006-08-10T05:37:00.000-07:00

I'm told its not that bad, but it certainly feels this way.

castro

2006-08-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

Have a cup a joe

2006-07-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Check out Today's New York Times (friday july 28, 2006) on page A19. A full page ad that I illustrated. Ironically, none of my favorite pics from my previous post made it into the ad, but cool nonetheless.

okay okay ...

2006-07-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

Okay. I guess I should update this thing to keep the good Doctor Hong happy. He knows I miss him like a brutha. Anyway, I just finished a gig for Starbucks. They wanted me to do a bunch of cafe drawings of interesting heads and shoulders. Its nice being paid for something you'd probably do anyway. I'm not sure what the final comp will look like, but these were a few of my favorites.

finally ... personal effects reference

2006-04-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

Being an ex-effects hack at Disney, we learned a lot of special effects design principles that bleed into everything I do now. However, I very rarely was able to shoot good water reference for the seven years I was there. Good things come to those who wait ... My kid was in her backyard swimming pool splashing water out of a cup and I shot this one with my good ole canon powershot.

buffalo for sale

2006-04-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

random head

2006-04-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

catherine chalmers

2006-03-30T20:44:00.000-08:00

I love NPR. On NPR, I've been listening to all of the old This American Life's . You can download almost every episode from the past 11 years from www.thisamericanlife.org. The storytelling on that show is better than most stuff you see in theaters. One story from 1996 featured Catherine Chalmers who photodocuments the food chain. These images are disgusting and beautiful. I don't think I could stomach actually photographing these subjects, but it is interesting. You can view more of her work at http://www.catherinechalmers.com/home.cfm

CatherineChalmers

King Lear

2006-03-30T20:37:00.000-08:00

King Lear for you.

Every Christmas Story EVER told

2006-03-27T12:38:00.000-08:00

Here's the poster for Every Christmas Story EVER told. Its a clever little little play. I actually did a poster for this same play last year, and it was a major rush job. I wasn't too thrilled with the results. However, I think this works pretty well. Nothing like painting snow in sunny florida.

frankenstein

2006-03-25T20:30:00.000-08:00

here's the final Frankenstein.

Into the Woods

2006-03-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

here's a poster for Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim. This musical was Shrek before Shrek even existed, and it does it better. I like the idea of all the fairytales converging in the woods. I also like the fact that the characters make some pretty brutal mistakes. The play is surprisingly dark with some good funny moments. I think my favorite part of this piece is snow white's apple in the bottom left hand corner.

Really Rosie

2006-03-21T19:12:00.000-08:00

Here's a poster I just finished for a the production of Maurice Sendak's Really Rosie. I was going to take it farther with oils, but I liked the washes ... knowing when to stop is important. I tend to overwork things ...

King Lear

2006-03-15T19:41:00.000-08:00

here's my sketches for King lear. I hope they choose the second one. I would really like to do that one.

Into the Woods

2006-03-15T19:39:00.000-08:00

here's into the woods

crime and punishment

2006-03-15T19:38:00.000-08:00

here's some sketches for Crime and Punishment.

peter rabbit final poster

2006-03-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

The client liked a different sketch, and this is what we came up with. Here's the final.

Peter Rabbit

2006-03-08T19:31:00.000-08:00

I'm currently working out some sketches for a Peter Rabbit Poster. Here's a possum and peter.

2006-03-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

Next Poster up is Frankenstein. I started doing these by doodling on a little post-it, then I scanned and painted over them in grayscale in Photoshop. I'm partial to the big blobby Frankenstein with Viktor in the middle b/c the show is a one-man show and I like the somewhat abstract representation of the Monster. We'll see what the client says.

scribbles

2006-02-23T20:15:00.000-08:00

I've been drawing with my kid a lot lately. She scribbles. i scribble. The pure joy a kid has dragging a crayon across a page is something to watch. They don't care about design, perspective, anatomy ... There's something to be learned there. Well here's her scribbles and my scribbles. She's just 20 months old.

jungle book

2006-02-15T21:23:00.000-08:00

finish with Text

2006-02-13T06:58:00.000-08:00

Here's the image with Text attached. I punched up the colors in Photoshop, and did the layout in illustrator. The client usually sticks a bunch of other information on the poster, but I provide them a suggestion of what I would do with the type for the tile and author.

finish

2006-02-13T06:14:00.000-08:00

I hoped to show a little more of this process, but as my wife told me, "how do you have time to do a blog and that painting?" sorry Time got away from me. Here's the final painting. Its difficult to photograph wet oil paint. Even harder to throw a wet oil painting on a scanner. Any suggestions are welcome.

2006-02-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

The client liked the drawing depicting the "leader" caesar better, so we're going with that. Pity because it would've been fun to paint the plume on that helmet. I guess I could go back later and paint the other one when I find more of that mythical "time" thing.

Here's the drawing. I blew it up to 11x17 and refined it a bit before I add color.

2006-02-01T07:35:00.000-08:00

I'm working on posters for he Orlando Shakespeare Festival. Latest job is Julius Caesar. This particular version has a black Caesar in modern times. I'll eventually be painting these in oil, which I haven't done in awhile. You can monitor my progress here.