Another Sketch

Last post of 2009. Just another ink study. (some white acrylic mixed in)

Happy New Year All

Let's hope that 2010 is better than 2009. That really shouldn't be too difficult.

INK STUDIES

Decided to do some exercises since I am beginning to work on my portfolio. None of these will make the cut, they are just good practice. Haven't worked with Pen and Ink in quite a long time. Good to be using a brush instead of a mouse.

Time for a New Beginning

I am not finished.

Rock out the Yard

Here in the witness protection program, you rarely lay down sod or plant grass. The Tucson alternative to soft green grass is rock, colored pea stone. I decided to take my rock to a slightly higher level. So here is a rock snake, a Mommy lizard and a baby lizard that reside just outside my house. It is better than raking the dirt, believe it or not some people do that out here.

Elvgren study

Completed a study of a Gil Elvgren painting for my daughter, Niki. I will probably do more. It has been a long time since I have copied someone's technique; very interesting exercise as always. Will be painting it up in the coming weeks, building my painting portfolio.

Design

I did a quick comp for a client who wanted an image that denoted "Better, Smarter". Here were some of the options.

Sketchbook

Contact Page

Wow, I even wrote actionscript for this page on my website and it actually worked. Now you can e-mail me, go to my Facebook page and become my friend, and even "Leave a Blurb". WOOO-frickidy-HOOO.

Oh Happy Day.

The Horrendous Fiasco website is finally up. Dec 9th to be exact. It is not yet finished and I am still trudging along trying to find the time to work on the other pages, but it is running. Many thanks to Mike Parker who helped get this site up and for his expertise in making this "flash" site run so well. Thanks to my very talented friend, Jim May who provided so many of the soundtracks for the site, several that will see the light of day soon. And thanks to Tom de Boor and Donna Grillo who proofread the text so I do not look like a moron. Updates to the site are in the works and will hopefully be a part of the experience soon. Oh and my friend Sue just got a role as a mosquito for Disney Playhouse. That's also good.

Progress on Rorshach

Rorshach Gav (in progress)

Movie page redo

So the embarrassment of not having my website up has not stopped me (at least) from putting up some of the redone pages. The web developer changed how we were going about things on my movie page. I like this better so now it's just a matter of time, right? I figure the website should be up sometime before I die.

Ink Blot Gav

Playing around with a new self portrait. Peter Max where are you? About 50 percent complete.

Gorilla

Here is a mock up of a design I am working on...It was a quickie, made in about 5 minutes without a drawing. It will get more attention if the client likes it.

Journal Sketch 11-23

Just a little sketch from my journal.

Some Knock Knock Art

Couple of samples from the Knock Knock Archive. Many thanks to the great Todd Myers, Ben Smallridge, and the amazing Dave Fedan. (and me too).

Carrotato (pretty finished)

Rat Fink+Gav+Monster+Wheels=I like it.

Here is an illustrator file of a recent Monster design...Onward and Up yours, I mean, upward.

Carrotato (unfinished)

A Monster of veggie proportions.

Sketches for a Monster Project

Here are a couple of sketches for a project I am working on...The old "Spec" designs to hopefully get the client all Lady Gaga over it. Obviously, various directions. I will be putting some finish to them in Illustrator the program of the day!

Gallery TEST

Gallery Page...I post this so that I can look at the overall color design on different computer screens, a handy thing if you like to control the design outside your little domain.

Illustration

Here is an illustration for the Humanistic Judaism.

In case you were wondering.

Here is the new movie page for the Horrendous Fiasco website. My web developer suggested a gallery approach and of course I agreed. It delayed the initial launch(so what else is new). I thought 2009 would be a good year. The site would be up and I could start selling my services. Oh well, 2010 wins by default.

Goodness

Long time no post...See you in November with some new work.

Another Caveman

This is going down the same road I have been following with this design and I think this is as far as I want to take it. I will probably revisit this with a heavier ink line and see if I can get closer to the effect I have in my pea brain.

Prelim Work

Doing a lot of prelim design work for various projects. Wish I had a clone.

The wait is nearly over

Yes, I think in the near future the Horrendous Fiasco website may be seeing the light of day. It has been a struggle doing such an involved site, finding the styles that work, and making the necessary changes to improve functionality. A learning experience in spades, clubs, and hearts. Should be running with some minor holes in a week or so. I will keep you all posted.

Simple Lesson

Warm and silly is always a good formula for a cartoon. I will take the ridiculous over the "cool" any damn day. It is why Bugs Bunny still works, why Homer is loved, and why Spongebob is adored. I vote for funny.

Caveman Design direction 4

Another installment of the design process of my next film. Little brighter, probably will pump up the contrast in the shadows if I go this direction. Definitely, want to go with texture and a cave painting feel.

Wifezillas animated

Here is a little movie of the flash animation for the website Wifezillas. The site itself will be up soon, I am sure. Enjoysky.

Wifezillas-Monsters

Playing with Textures

Always thought it might be a cool idea to color a character in textures. The only problem is that when the character is in motion the texture will either flicker or be stationary as if it were matted in. Have to visualize if that will work or be too visually chaotic. The coloring of the textures will help reduce either effect, but may have to do a motion test to be sure. (If I go down this road at all.)

Wifezillas

Another installment in the fastest sites ever built. This is day two in the design stage for Wifezillas banner. Plan to be finished with the banner by Friday. (Can only work a half a day tomorrow). So in three and a half days, I will build a decent looking banner, the web developer I work with will have it up and running in a couple days, if he has the time. So another one week website

Another Layer

Added a sun effect to my new design. Not sure I am going this direction and I will not finalize it for another month or so. Going to design slow and try several variations. This direction is not necessarily very innovative. I have seen it. The question remains if there is a way to enhance this type of design in order to make it original.

Doubledome

Doubledome (of Longhair & Doubledome) was one of the first ventures into digital ink and paint. It shows. This is really a very traditional handling of an animated image and although we experimented with both color and line at Knock Knock, we never really strayed too far from what we knew, mixing paint and slapping it on a cel. This is a good example of traditional ink and paint done digitally. Hopefully, "Man Story" will be a bit more sophisticated in its treatment of the animated image. hopefully I have learned something since 1998.

Blocking it out

I have decided to post a few steps in my character and film design process. I am presently boarding a new independent short entitled, "Man Story". I am taking a break from the boarding process to start a prelim design. The style of this film is very important to me. It has to be different, it has to be a new look. I have always found that innovation is best started from what you all ready know. So this is my initial block out. It is how I have produced digital design since 1998. Created in Photoshop, I have cleaned up the pencil images and started laying both shadow passes in and an overall tone. More later.

Caveman Design

Working on a new independent short. Here is a preliminary design for one of the caveman characters.

Back in the Saddle

Well the next 6 months in my little mundane life should be as creatively chaotic as anything I can remember. I have started so many projects, I do not know if I will be alive after their completion. It is kind of crazy and at the same time I look forward to it. The hardest part is not to get overwhelmed, just take it a day at a time, and plow away. Stay tuned. Oh, and BTW the Horrendous Fiasco Website is finally getting there. Under Construction page is up and is at least entertaining.

Fastest Site Ever-Teenzillas

Mike Parker and I have launched a site called Teenzillas where you can post stories about your teenage years, raising your own nightmare teenagers or anything Teen that might classify as Teenzilla. Mike called me in the beginning of the week and we have the site up and running right now. We put this bad boy together in less than a week. SCHWING!!! So go to Teenzillas and post away. We want traffic. www.teenzillas.com

Teenzillas

Working on a new website, Teenzillas. It will probably be up very soon. Here is the banner design done by yours truly.

Under Construction Page Finished

Well after an unusual problem with Flash, what a surprise. I was finally able to complete the "Under Construction" Page for the gargantuan Horrendous Fiasco website of no return project. Flash in it's infinite wisdom decided it should export at a different frame rate than the actual flash file. This does create problems when you are post-scoring a soundtrack. (The soundtrack was nearly twice as long as the original flash file...oops. I had to re-time the entire piece to the soundtrack and when I am faced with such a task, I always try to make it better than before. So I added a few things for grins. Thanks to Jimmy May by the way for another fantastic track. Hope I did good.

Couple of Cavemen Sketches

I will be doing more cavemen in the near future, due to the ever-loving fact that I am designing for a new short film. Stay tuned, I might just finalize designs in this decade.

The Great Tom Parker

Tom Parker-one of the best creative sales reps ever. Richard Williams, Jim Braddy, and many others, including me had Mr. Parker as a rep and friend. He was notable not just for his skill in selling but for his preferred and refined skill of orchestrating a great time. He had some great qualities but my all time favorite, was the ability to take control. He never asked anyone, "what do you want to do tonight?". He just told you what you were going to do. It was a gift. He made all the arrangements, you followed, had a blast and lived to tell about it (that was the hard part). I lost a lot of liver with that guy.

Words of Wisdom for August

Get back to work at the drawing board but not drawing bored.

New Posts are coming

Will be posting new stuff soon. Just had too many things to deal with and just haven't had too much time to myself and the real work. Check back this coming week.

Sketches from San Diego

Went to visit my son Alex in San Diego and while the family played "beached" whale on the Del Mar beach I sketched as usual. Some people, some cartoons, and one woman who I had to draw from memory, a 75 (at least) year old woman with perfect breasts (artificial of course) People are sometimes weirder than cartoons.

Start the Day

I always try to sit down and sketch each day before any actual work transpires. Just like to let my hand take over and mindlessly draw. Here is one of today's early morning pencil pushings. She is askew, not particularly well structured yet I found her appealing anyway.