MAD Magazine fold-ins

Me being a huge MAD magazine fan I had to include the following link to some of Al Jaffee's MAD fold-ins. Al Jaffee has been a regular with the magazine for what seems like forever. His draftsmanship is amazing as his humor. He's worked along side such giants as Harvey Kurtzman, WIll Elder (doing the backgrounds for Little Annie Fanny), Jack Davis, Dave Berg, Angelo Torres, Paul Coker, Jr., Antonio Prohias, Mort Drucker, Don Martin, Wallace Wood, John Severin, Sergio Aragones, George Woodbridge, Jack Rickard, Bob Clarke, and "the Unusual Gang of Idiots".

What's cool about this link is that it's actually interactive so you can actually do the folding too.

link

Linerider Transcendental

Remember that little game awhile back where you drew the slope, let the little dude on a sled go and let gravity take effect? Here's some utterly amazing artwork done to that game. I'm still in awe.

Weekend project

Last weekend (Easter weekend no less) I got the chance to work on some storyboards for Michael Phelps, the US Olympic swimming hopeful in the upcoming Beijing Olympics. It's a fun little spot being shot by Crossroads Films (LA) in Ann Arbor, MI for Rosetta Stone language learning software.

Wolfgang & Christoph Lauenstein

This wonderful animation entitled "The Balance" won the German Lauenstein brothers an Academy Award way back when in 1989. It's always been one of my favorite stop motion animated features. It's bit long but so poignant and the irony of it all is amazing.

3D type geeks unite!

For a guy such as myself that adores type and pop up books, I think Popup by Marion Bataille is genius!

We lost a giant

The creator of The Rocketeer and comic book illustrator extraordinaire, Dave Stevens passed away.

I got a book from him years ago and had a plate signed. I really didn't know much about Dave back then but I knew he had this gorgeously lush style of drawing. It was filled with amazingly rich detail and was much more pin-up like and organic than most other comic book illustrators I had seen. The colors he used looked like they were practically right out of the Dr. Martin's radiant dyes. His Rocketeer book was probably my first introduction to a graphic novel. The pages weren't flat; his pages were more of individual pieces of art that he had somehow magically stitched together to form a story.

He was also known for bring back Bettie Page to the masses and kept in personal contact with her. His reputation of being one of the nicest guys in the business was legendary as was his penchant for being one of the slowest.

This book that he had been working on during his long illness will come out soon and I hope to get it so I can possibly capture some of that greatness that he had with his work. He will be missed

Totem poles & me

Yep, that's me standing next to the what was once the world's tallest totem pole at Beacon Hill Park in Victoria, British Columbia. Carved by Mungo Martin, David Martin, and Henry Hunt and dedicated in 1954, it is one impressive piece of engineering and cool native American artwork and stands 127' 7" tall.

There still seems to be quite a bit of controversy with the record totem poles though. Currently there is a taller pole in Alert, Alaska but it was built in sections (controversy?) but the true big daddy of all totem poles built in 1992 in Victoria which reached 185 feet (it was taken down in 2000 & sectioned off). There are also taller poles than the one I'm standing next to in Kalama, Washington (140 ', but it wasn't built by native Americans- more controversy) and another pole in Kake, Alaska at 132'.

Me? I just dug being back home in Canada and hanging with my family over my Spring Break from CCS.

The Many Bellies of Trish Dewald

My dear friend and invaluable CCS colleague, Trish Dewald is due to have her first child sometime this summer.

I couldn't help but at least make fun of her current condition of being a slightly pleasantly plump mom-to-be. I'm also hoping to be able to take these images and maybe turn them into some poster or something for her and her husband, Chris.

It started out as just a fun piece of line work and then it slowly morphed into this color montage of goofy ideas. It snowballed and before you knew it, I had 24 quirky images. Who knows? With another little break in my schedule or a few moments of lucidity, I might even come up with 24 more! Or if you've got suggestions, I'm all ears.

For all graphic novel geeks

I know there are just a few of you graphic novel geeks out there but if there's one book that I would highly suggest all of you get, it's this one- Shaun Tan's Arrival. It's completely wordless and yet it tells such a wonderful story. The artwork inside is as lush as anything I've seen; Shaun Tan's work is absolutely stunning and technically beautiful. The amount of detail that goes into each frame is immense and the huge spreads are epic in proportion. The storytelling is brisk and has twists and unexpected turns throughout.

Funny thing was it was my wife that saw it at the local comic book shop. It was neatly stashed away on the top shelf and it is that- this book is most definitely top shelf. It's got my big time thumbs WAY up recommendation if you've got a few buck to spend on some quality eye candy.

My little slice of CCS

Where that little red arrow points to is my little slice of the alma mater. It's where I hang my hat on the days I teach.

My Paper Mind video

Being a huge fan of cut paper art and animation I really dig where this project went. Yes, that's cut paper being animated.

Bravo to the folks at Pratt.

The joy of inking

For the last few weeks in my Storyboard class when the students are sweating & drawing for me, I've re-discovered the joy of inking again. I remember in school having to learn how to load up my Kolinsky sable brush (to which I still have to this day) with gouache and learning how to brush rule with it. We'd drag out a line from thick to thin and then a thin to thick line. We were also encouraged to try different line qualities as well. While I was fair with using gouache (it took me awhile to get its thickness & consistency to flow easily), being a comic book geek, I've always enjoyed the inked line. Here's a fun example I did a few weeks back utilizing a brush line and technical pen.