Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Self rant




I'm a lucky guy. You see, I'm fortunate enough to work at a place with some of the most creatively talented people in the world, and the mix of styles and ideas is so diverse and rich that just showing up to the shop is an enlightening learning expedition. The most amazing thing about it, is that in the face of such talent, eighty percent of our professional efforts end up lining the floor in a pool of rejection. For the most part, its all ok. That's just the gig. We're looking for the best idea and that takes time and thought and tons of drawings, words and gags before the it can solidify into something tangible and real. But there's no accounting for the human element in the process. If I let it, that humanity in me can spin into some pretty dark places and trying to protect it can sometimes leave it vulnerable (toss in some lack of sleep or an extra shot of Dayquil and you may find yourself like some pot strung teenager huddled in a corner waiting for the "you suck" police to come busting down your door). Its all part of the game. Self doubt and self confidence washes over me on a daily basis, one coming in while other retreats or vice versa, shaping the malleable coastline of my talent (or lack there of). Depending on the tide, its either a good day or a bad day, but its never static. Ok, so I'm a fucked up artist, but ALL story artists are fucked up. That's where the impetus to tell stories comes from. Without conflict there's no story. So in that vein, I started to play with the idea of characterizing those emotional tides and found some catharsis in the exercise. Why am I telling you all this. Well, first of all, the blogg is free and so why not let it roll. Secondly, I wanted to explain the cartoon so the underlying intention is clear. I was merely trying to find humor in the conflicted inner child my ego has been molesting since I went to college. Time for my shot of Dayquil.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Some old junk...


This is one for Bobopoly. We were chatting online and wondering about posting. I am throwing this oldie up just for shits and giggles. It's more of a British Naval officer thing than a pirate, but I figure he could be chasing pirates. That counts right?

Attack Of The Zombies!



Sunday, January 29, 2006

Cattle Calls


A little graphic drawing of my brother. Last week he celebrated a birthday and I forgot to send a card. I know, for shame. Dear cowboy, hope it was a great day and the cold valley of Colorado treats you well.

Farewell Ye Ladies...


This one was a blast. I can't believe how much this blog has me back in love with drawing. I mean I know we all love it, but for me, it's really making drawing feel new again.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Avast!


Here be another. This was actually on my drawing table as a sketch. I thought I would just throw on some tone and the cool parchment-y background. Ahoy!

Alliterate Pirates




Just wanted to riff on the Count's amazing pirate concept. Some stupid cartoons with the letter "P". Arrrr, the Count be the Captain on this thar ship...Arrrr.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

A few quickies




Did these today during work. I've been so damn busy and crawling out of my skin to put something up. Did these in one of those little 2"X3" sketchbooks during breaks. Just some blue pencil and Pentel sign pen.

A little oops. I also used a little tone from a Staedtler gray brush pen.

Karikature Korner


Meet Dana. She's our script coordinator. She's rad also. Dana is cool to hang out with and can keep up with they guys in the wacky voice department with her amazing voice talents. She's even done voices for Happy Tree Friends! Rock on Dana!

Sharpie with a little twist crayon tickle

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Trick Pajamas...




My 4 yr old recently got these new dinosaur pajamas. When you turn the light off, hundreds of tiny dinosaur bones glow in the dark.

I, of course, didn't see this coming at first. It took all I had to keep from cracking up.

He looked like an extra from Tron.

Caricature: Amy


Here's a quick one of Amy our story production assistant. She just colored her hair so I couldn't resist. She's the best because she puts up with all of our shizzle.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Guys & Dolls...


This is a recent study from the musical "Guys & Dolls". I love the stylized staging in musicals. This particular film is an encyclopedia of compositions.

Monday, January 23, 2006

First Mate




Dear Countfunkla:

Your pirates are so amazing I can only pretend to have such in"Arg" uable talent. You are all too generous to let me join in on the fun.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Sketches and such



Hey! I've been outed! Oh well.
It's been a while since I posted here,I've been off in Phlooland for so long with Chippy and Loopus. I decided that I needed to remind myself that I can do other things. The top are some designs for a graphic novel I'm doing based on a failed movie pitch. Ahh yes. Failed pitches make the best Graphic novels, don't you think?
The bottom are some characters from a comic strip I want to do based very loosely on my wife Sara when she was a little girl in Korea.
Anyway. I'll post more soon!
-Robo"John Sanford"Taekwon-Z

Linked Like Sausage!

Hey Storyboredom gang! We have been found again! There is a short mention of us on www.cartoonbrew.com ! You can jump there from the title of this post. Also, it looks like they are trying to out someone...

Update! We have also been added to their list of recommended artists' blogs (USA) !

Saturday, January 21, 2006

parental neglect


I find myself obsessing over Deadwood these days...so much that I was supposed to be looking after my kids while drawing these. I mean, I do love my kids, but DAMN YOU HBO....How can I choose?

Friday, January 20, 2006

Workin' late drawings



So I was working late last night and watching the re-runs of Jay Leno and Conan (that should tell you how late I was working) and decided to take a quick break from boarding to dash out two quick semi-caricatures of the shows guests. They're semi-caricatures because they don't look like who they're supposed to be. And I'm not going to tell. What inspired me to draw them was their mouths.

runaway cow


Hey,
I'm really not that angry...I'm just a fragile emotional being in need of kindness in this cold oppressive world. This is an idea I'm working up for my kids.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

one more


still playing.

aye aye captain


another pirate

Here's another one


Playing around with this concept. Classic good vs. evil shit.

yar ye ready for more?


just gonna keep with the pirates for a while for fun. I'm hoping as I go to get farther away from my usual style of drawing. Hopefully I'll find some new design ideas in my head that way. Also find some new ways of playing with the usual pirate stereotypes.

A New Look!

We've changed looks because the last template didn't allow links. You probably can change it to add links but we're new to blogging so the easiest way was to change templates. So new look and look to the right for links to other blogs we like! Fresh!

time to pop my blogging cherry


Okay, I've never done this so I don't know if it hurts or not. I've been screwing around with this idea and they've spiraled into these doodles. Usually I bury my crap and keep it all hidden in some dark corner of my shitty house (lest I force the world to bare witness to another canned idea), but in this new age of flailed inhibitions I suppose it is liberating to pull our dicks out and wave them in the wind (those of you without dicks can use appropriate body parts or perhaps an aptly shaped vegetable). I just hope its not too cold out there...my pecker is tiny and not used to the elements. It has done irrevokable damage to my life from the day I first layed hands on it, but I am fond of our history, and thus owe it a moment or worry.
So here I go....weeee.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

what are ye....chicken?


Another meeting doodle. At one point someone said something about "chicken nipples"...

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

"Tribal Gals"

Strip #3 and a sorta farewell


Here is the last installment of my stream-of-conciousness strips on StoryBoredom. It's been fun but RoboTae-KwonZ and I noticed that since we are doing one post a day, it seems that the posts of the other awesome contributors of this blog are getting bumped off. So we've decided that we will be spinning off our strips on to our own sites and also continue to post goofy drawings here. Hope this helps! Here are the links:

For RoboTae-KwonZ's strip:

  • Phloo!


  • For skribbl's strip:

  • R0B0T0P!A



  • Rad!

    Monday, January 16, 2006

    Today's strip: Epilogue


    I promise to start posting more non Chippy and Loopus stuff soon. Perhaps some more Chris Sanders stuff ...?

    A short Rant on Character

    Countfunkula (yes, that is his real name) asked in the comments section whether Chippy and Loopus were new characters or if they were characters I'd been drawing for a while. The answer is that they are as old as that first strip. I wanted to try skribbl's 2x8 dialogue strip make-it-up-as-you-go experiment, and that was what came out. An easily irritated rabbit named "Chippy" and his dimwitted cigartette bumming freind the wolf, who later was named Loopus. When skribbl suggested I try to draw one a day, I decided that instead of sitting down and spending a few thousand hours figuring out who these characters are and what kind of world they live in the way we do at work, I'd develop them the way Charles Schulz said he developed the Peanuts characters. He started out with a group of kids, Charlie Brown, Lucy, etc. with no pre-concieved personalities in mind. Then, through gags and jokes, he let their personalities sort of develop organically. You can see this at work in the new Peanuts collections. The strip began in 1950, but the kid's personalties don't really emerge until about 1955. This is what I wanted to try with these guys.
    Now I understand that we could never do this sort of thing in feature animation. You have to know your characters and their world fully so that you fully exploit their personalities for gags and business. However, I think that we sometimes OVER develop these guys. We sit for hours in meetings with the writers and the directors and the executives hashing out these characters, writing their personality traits on little cards. I think that sometimes, through this process, we kill the opportunity for the characters to suprise us. It would be nice to leave somethings up in the air so that we could discover them on boards.
    Hey, it's just a thought.

    Today's strip: End,..kinda


    I have been tempted several times to start drawing these on bigger paper, but then I think they'll lose their charm.
    Nope. I'll keep doing them on cheap 2"x8" strips of paper. Besides, that's part of the challenge.
    I think that one of the reasons I like to do these so much is the freedom. I write what I want and draw what I want. No approvals, no re-dos. I draw whatever I think is funny and then post it. Another reason is that I grew up wanting to draw comic strips. I dreamed of creating the next Calvin and Hobbes, Pogo or Peanuts. That was my original goal. I decided to switch career tracks when I noticed that animation was having a renaissance. This was 1988, and Roger Rabbit was in the movie theaters and Ralph Bakshi and John K's Mighty Mouse was on TV. Comic strips, on the other hand, were dying. And still are, I might add.
    It's too bad. The comic strip is one of the few purely American artforms.

    Sunday, January 15, 2006

    Today's strip: Beat Down double feature!



    I was going to post these seperately, but they play better as a pair.
    Conclusion tommorow!

    Saturday, January 14, 2006

    Today's strip: I.D. Theft!


    ...to be continued!
    Due to an unforseen event at work, I had time to work on a couple more strips, so I will be posting strips on saturday, sunday and monday.

    Friday, January 13, 2006

    Part 2 but really strip #3


    Here's part #2. I'm working on a name so bear with the titles.

    So I realized that when I said one a day, I really meant one per work day. I really want to relax on the weekends so you'll just have to wait 'till Tuesday. I get Martin Luther King day off. So nyah!

    Thursday, January 12, 2006

    Today's strip: Strip Club


    Okay, maybe skribbl is right. Perhaps I have been listening to too much Stern on Sirius.

    Attack!


    Another "Surprise Strip" using the aforementioned technique. I like spaceships. I like robots. I like explosions.

    Oh and apparently I like ripping off Bill Watterson. heh heh.

    Me-O-Maya!


    I have developed a recent fascination with Maya art. Now this sketch is wildly inaccurate, but I feel the Maya culture was biased. You see kings. You see gods. But rarely, do you get to see the: Mother-In-Law.

    Meeting sketches



    Here are a few of my meeting doodles. Just free associating while I wait for my brain to re-boot.
    Done with a Pitt brush pen.
    By the way, the Faber Castell brush pen is perhaps the best pen I have ever used. I love them when they are new, I love them when they are worn out and I even love them when they are almost completly dried up.
    Whoever invented these deserves some kind of award.

    Today's strip: Boba!?



    I am going to try to do one of these a day. Let's see how I do.

    Wednesday, January 11, 2006

    Where is the alligator?



    This busy sketch is inspired from a film I quite like entitled, "The Happiest Millionaire". I've always fancied having my own conservatory with twelve pet alligators. That Fred MacMurray sure knew how to spend it!

    Don't Oggle the Goggles


    I walked into work today behind this guy. He was wearing full on ski goggles. Either that or he has some eye sensitivity OR he is in fact Cyclops from the X-men.

    And yes I was wearing a "WTF" balloon over my head.

    Tuesday, January 10, 2006

    Dialogue Strip comic, er strip


    Inspired by skribbl's tiny dialogue strip stream of consciousness comic. I drew panel one with absolutely no idea how it would end. It's scribbly, but it got a laugh from everyone I showed it to, so here it is. I used a black finepoint pen called a "Stylist" for the drawing and sanford prismacolors for the color.