Tirade

My final Story Auction piece

2008-04-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

"Nina Light Reading" was done in Gouache on pastel board. My thanks to Ted Mathot for giving her a good home and that very generous contribution.

I love a nap. The auction was held last Friday and it was a roaring success. I've been very busy of late and yet it's a good busy--the only kind I welcome. Somehow with even less time than usual I managed to help out in the Story Auction and make pieces for it. Of course I drove Shannon Ryan mad (she's our Story manager on UP and shoots lazers from her red haired head). But that's part of the fun I was talking about. She's gonna kill me next week.

It was a blast. So much fun. It was like a fiesta and people attending were having such a great time, some even remarked that we should do this more often. If it wasn't so hard to organize alongside work we probably would. At the night of the auction this piece had the single highest bid during silent auction.

My thanks to all of Pixar Story for being the stars of the show. You guys and gals ROCK! All of the volunteers who traded in more extra hours of their free time to organize and run all the details of the show. You are all rock stars. To all who participated by buying art, appreciating it and making the event a grand success, thank you, thank you!

More details and pictures to come.

Goodbye, Ollie Johnston

2008-04-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

Unending Inspiration. Ollie has passed away leaving us with none of the nine. He's an inspiration to many animators today and will be forever to thousands more to come. "The Illusion of Life" was a book I could not believe even existed when I backed into a career in animation. All the secrets of the trade and the finest examples of it for all time were there--to top it off, it was written by Frank and Ollie. An authoritative source you could not find better, ever.

Goodbye and thank you, Ollie Johnston.

Ollie Johnston
Disney Legend
Ollie Johnston on Cartoon Brew 1 2 3 4

Nina Flying

2008-04-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

I'm musing on the graphic design of a card or a cover here. A last minute impulse to try. Watercolor and pen on Arches paper

A second auction piece. I've not been making artwork to show for a while and, just like anything I do, it takes some time for me to warm up. As a story artist my work is done in intense bursts yet I must also regard it as disposable. A conundrum about the job. You have to invest in it for it to be any good but detach from it soon as it's had it's day in the sunlight. Either half isn't easy to do (I don't even think about that, the job's a blast).

So, switching from "Nobody will see this" to "I'm putting this on the wall for all to see" can strip the gears some. It doesn't help that we draw digitally on a screen. No actual paint, graphite or ink. This auction keeps me in shape for a larger piece I have to work on. There's a project we're working on for this year that I have to have done in a month. More on that later.

Barefoot Medusa

2008-04-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

Watercolor, gouache and pencil on watercolor board. Image links to a larger view.

An Auction Piece. I tried many studies of what to do after Ted Mathot suggested I try a companion piece to the Crystal one I did for the Emergency auction at Maverix. I had two false starts and this one was a study I had come back to after the rather tepid first tries.

Medusa, she of the Inhumans (careful of the hair, can give Reed Richards a run for his money, prehensile wise),queen to Black Bolt. Hey, I just remembered that I did a black bolt a while back for something...Oh, yeah, it was someone's sketchbook. I colored it on Photoshop. I did post it on the Drawing Board.

Anyway, this is a piece for an internal art auction to benefit our about to be born Story Pod. We're generating funds to furnish a corner of the building we can call our own. We've a name suggested by Brenda Chapman: Joe's Place, after Joe Ranft.

We've got the whole membership of the Pixar Story department generating art. I'll ask permission to post some as we progress.

Medusa
Black Bolt
Crystal

Sketchcrawl 18

2008-03-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

Pencil and watercolor on Moleskine cahier. Both images link to full spread pics.

Ghirardelli Square. It started out a gloomy morning last Saturday, March 29. The night before it rained. Enrico and I always remark, tempting fate, that it's never rained on a Sketchcrawl. Well, a sketchcrawler's luck is hard to beat--no rain. It was cold, but no rain.

Parked at Fort Mason, a ways from the square but the parking was free. I wandered back to that side past noon and had a serene couple of hours of sketching these two pages shown here.

The afternoon got colder but then the sun came out to warm us. Don't move into the shade if you're getting too hot 'cause it's still cold in there.

My thanks to all who stuck it out for our favorite sketchbook sharing ritual at the end of the day. There were a good number of new faces who were uncertain about handing over their drawing books over to these well-meaning strangers to peruse. But they all broke through and had a grand time with it all. You just gotta jump in. We're there for ya, you'll survive.

Thanks for all the wonderful positive energy, folks. I'll see you in two months!

Sketchcrawl 18 forum
My Flickr photos of SC18

Justin Wright 1981-2008

2008-03-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Justin with girlfriend, Ashlee

It was a shock. I read the mail late last night and it kept me up. This morning we gathered in a small screening room as a Story department for the formal announcement before the news goes out to the studio. Justing Wright passed away last night.

Justin was a very enthusiastic person and full of energy. You'd never guess that he had already gone through so much in life.

Justin’s journey to Pixar has another plot twist. He got introduced to the famous studio because of a heart transplant. When Justin was born, his heart had all sorts of complications: cardiomyopathy, a complete block, a hole between the upper two chambers, a hole in the mitral valve —the list goes on. Finally, when Justin was 12, his heart had been through too many surgeries and procedures to be of much use, not to mention that it was the size of a deflated soccer ball inside his slight 70-pound body. It was time for a transplant.

With a lot of time spent in hospital beds recovering, Justin drew pictures (a hobby he says he started as a kid when he got bored in church). His doctor at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children's Hospital noticed Justin’s interest, and one day, after Justin was fully recovered, took him on a tour at Pixar, where he had some connections. Justin was enthralled—this was what he wanted to do.

I didnt get to work alongside Justin and my memories with him are few. I do remember the day we, the Story Supes, met to decide on accepting Justin to the Pixar story crew as a full story person, no longer an intern. We put on long faces to fake him out and Mark Andrews said that it wasn't going to work out but we couldn't really continue with it and we just said, "Welcome to Story!"

He was so happy. He could hardly contain the energy in his lanky body and even promised that he would work hard and prove us right. He didn't really need to say all those things, we knew he had it in him and the months since then proved it all. I wish we had more time with him.

Our sincerest condolences to his family, our thoughts and prayers are with them.

I'll post more details on this post as I receive them.

Justin Wright's blog Charlie, a deck hand

Pacific Union College Alumni: Justin Wright

Remembrance Blog Roll

Think Radical

Ted Mathot

Yarn and Coffee: Justin

Jeff Pidgeon

John Sanford

James Robertson

Bill Cone

Enrico Casarosa

Alex Woo

Nick Sung

Scott Morse

Cartoon Brew

Austin Madison

Kyle Shockley

Kelly Matten

Rainbow Zookeeper

Phil Rynda

Lindsay

The Animation Blog

The Pixar Blog

Update March 24, 2008

A drawing I contributed to honor Justin last Friday when his family came to Pixar to visit with us. There were boards of his drawings, a sequence he did and caricatures of Justin. A Dave Matthews song (Justin was a huge fan) rendered by Plot Device, the Story band. Family, friends and co-workers spoke--Andrew Stanton spoke as well as John Lasseter himself--about the best of what Justin left us--his optimism, disposition to have fun and willingness to engage in all manner of debates (who will win, Superman or a Jedi?). We were his work family and we miss him.

Coffee boots drawing

2008-03-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

This scan's color is a bit off. It's warmer than this, I swear. Too lazy to color correct. Sigh

Happy Birthday. It was Don Shank's birthday (an old man. I'll let him disclose it hisself). Raquel, his beautiful wife (and expecting a little bundle soon), invited a bunch of us over at the Emeryvillle Trader Vic's for some Mai Tai's and good company.

I've been meaning to give the Shanks a gift and this is a good opportunity. I used a gray pastel board for its tooth and then leafed through a design mag for color.

I knew she had to be framed by the chair (value call) and then I got the blue (a Herbert Leupin poster) first. I remember a Van Gogh painting of his mother I saw at the Norton Simon years ago that still haunts me. It was a study in green.

I didn't look the image up, not wanting to get sidetracked but went with the green for her big skirt. All the rest was just feeling it through. It could all have fallen flat but somehow it kept together. I really like how this turned out and I had a good time making it.

You know, I came really close to that green, just from memory. I just looked that image, "Portrait of Mother," up for this post tonight and that green...man, I love how this mystical stuff works.

I handed it to an appreciative birthday celebrant knowing it's going to a good home. Some days a drawing just comes off nice and smooth. Wish I could have more of those.

Shank Pile
World of Kane on Herbert Leupin

Fio Giulietta Casarosa

2008-03-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Baby Fio! She has arrived! Enrico and Marit are proud parents of this bundle o' joy. The blessed event happened last Saturday and she came in at around seven pounds, ready for the world. Congratulations to my friends, Enrico and Marit (Marit, she sure is quite a champ). Hip hip, HOORAY!

Daddy Enrico's Blog post

Ratatouille wins Oscar!

2008-02-25T23:42:00.000-08:00

Brad poses with a smattering of a proud story crew. From left: Pete "A rat too loveable for for words" Sohn, Ted "A round of tequila shots for my friends" Mathot, Josh "Gray Leader checking in" Cooley, Mark "Rock you like a hurricane" Andrews, Brad "The Magnificent" Bird, Jim "My friend the Rat" Capobianco, Enrico "I'm gonna be a daddy" Casarosa, Ronnie "That's Mr. Biscuit Maker to you" del Carmen, Alex "I'll direct the smashing around here" Woo, Bill "You don't wanna mess with me" Presing. Image links to a larger look at these mugs.

Brad Bird brings the gold man home. There's something about Brad that inspires hero worship, we're no exception at Pixar (or, especially here). We gathered to salute him at the atrium with glasses of champagne in hand (cider for me. Allergies) and the crowd started to cheer as he walked into the building and through the crowd.

He was hoarse and started to say so but raised the Oscar to us as we applauded. He didn't miss the opportunity to say that the Oscar win was "...about you. It's for you."

"I'm keeping it." he quickly added, to laughter and applause. "But it's for you."

Ed Catmull wanted to highlight that Brad did a great thing by taking on the reigns of this movie. Ratatouille took a lot to finish, and Brad didn't have to jump in but he did. Brad's response, "Because there's something special about this place."

We all gathered around after the toasts and he graciously posed for pictures. Congratulations all around to all who worked on the movie. I'm glad to have been a part of it.

ITH* Creature

2008-02-22T12:37:00.000-08:00

Made in Photoshop CS2. Custom brush, color halftone screen. I'm sure I'll find more of the ITH's friends throughout the year. He'll pop into Nina's story for sure.

*Inexplicable Talking Head. I've been seeing this thing in my head for a couple weeks now. I don't know why and ,more curious, don't know why I can't shake my fascination with it. So today I started my day with a short to-do list and put him on it.

I attempted to shape him as best as that nagging mind picture can get me. I don't know if any of you are like this but I can see this drawing, literally, in my head. I've learned over the years that I should shape the actual drawing by keeping my mind's eye on this image and not be distracted by my hand's inclinations.

I think I got it very close to how this fella looks. Feels good to get him out there. I was also musing on a few things overnight and this meandering phrase came around. Sounds like something he would say as he sips his red. Though I'm not sure how he could sip anything, really.

On a side note: Just been through a screening on reels of "UP" and I'm exhausted. I've been making animated feature reels for over thirteen years and it doesn't get easier. The movie's doing quite well and it's one I myself can't wait to see on the screen.

This is my decompression day. And, for those of you who know me, I'm here at work when I could have a day off. Busman's holiday. That and an espresso makes it.

UP (film 2009)

Sketchcrawl 17: Portsmouth Square S.F.

2008-01-21T13:40:00.001-08:00

One of my more relaxed sketches on the crawl--as in, I was calm. The drawing seems to reflect this as well somehow. A detail of the sketch is here.

Another good and relaxing Sketchcrawl. Three day weekend and a Sketchcrawl called for Saturday. I must've been a good boy. Took the Bart over and met up with everybody at Portsmouth square. There was a good sized contingent there already drawing away. Enrico took a count and we had around sixty, give or take. A good turn out for what was a cold sunny day in San Francisco.

Had a great time. Didn't draw as much but meeting all you lovely folks for a day of drawing outside sure does a mind/body good. Our subjects were the good people of Chinatown who were there going about their day of congregating with friends, family and maybe take in a rousing game of cards.

From that overpass crossing Kearny St. I drew two elder gentlemen sharing a newspaper article. Great vantage point to see all the Sketchcrawlers, too. Click image for a lager pic.

The men and ladies of the square tended to be seniors and they had such character in their faces and garb. We've been here before for a Sketchcrawl and we don't seem to tire of the place. At one point our subjects turned their curiosity on us and looked over our shoulders to see what or who we were drawing.

An army travels on its stomach. True of our corps as well. Enrico, Bolhem and I hoofed if over to the House of Nanking. The chef took care of us after we fumbled with our menus--and that he did. The food was excellent! The tea arrived and we marveled at how luscious it looks with all the leaves and colorful buds. And it tasted great. Happy and full we sauntered over to Zoetrope for an espresso drink and dessert. Now that's what I call a Sketchcrawl.

I love seeing everyone's sketches at the end of the day, always a treat. Thanks to all who participated. See you at the forums and at the next Sketchcrawl.

Portsmouth Square
House of Nanking

Sketchcrawl Forums
Paperbiscuit Flickr albums

Nina starts the year

2008-01-07T17:42:00.000-08:00

Photoshop drawing and color. Low-rez with a customized brush then scaled up. Something Don Shank showed me.

Monthly drawing? Maybe not a bad idea to have a regular drawing post, eh? I can gather enough for a calendar? The storms over the weekend had forced us to hole up in the house. I need to get the hybernation cobwebs out. Heck, need to work out.

My thanks to Claudio Acciari for continuing to post on my humble Oekaki board. He's such a consumate draftsman, it's not even funny. While you're at it, check out my very own Oekaki board. We've been losing comments to the ether lately and I've no idea what triggers it. I hope it fixes itself in the long run. I also posted the simple password for comments on the top of the page (under the banner of my oekaki page). That's just so the spam bots don't thrash my board with mindless ads for vulgar items. Sheesh.

while you're at it, maybe you want to leave a drawing on that there drawing applet--it's really quite a versatile drawing program for something free online. Most of the controls and options you would have been used to in other drawing applications are there. I can even custom make a brush. Too bad you can't save it permanently.

Claudio Acciari

OekakiBBS tutorial. I really should go through this myself(though that scary image can hinder the faint of heart).Scroll down the page for a call-out of all the tools.

Paperbiscuit OekakiBBS--in case you can't see the banner in the sidebar linking to the site, heh.

Happy Holidays 2007

2007-12-23T22:15:00.000-08:00

Mostly done on my Oekaki board. I brought it in to Photoshop, hoping to jazz it up. Didn't really do much--just touch ups. But do check out the OK BBs link on the side bar.

Wishing you all the best. Have a happy and safe holiday. This is an Oekaki drawing, something I haven't done in a while. The java applet seemed to be working better in my Safari browser (though still not working in Firefox) since an update on my java came around. Good to be drawing.

It was a good year. I travelled to many wonderful places (I also have so much back log of posts--from the Italy, France and Philippine trips) and so glad to have met so many good people. I hope to see them all again soon.

Be well and here's to the new year, may it bring you all peace and happiness.

Paper Biscuit Oekaki Board

Drawing on feeling

2007-12-13T16:20:00.001-08:00

Just close enough. Sometimes ya just gotta draw it out. Waves of feelings can make you draw. I don't have time and yet it was there, might as well. Get it out. This isn't it. But this is what showed up. Just sharing.

Photo at the Met

2007-12-12T16:28:00.002-08:00

Image links to a larger view. Just click to view

Wait for it... The last Sketchcrawl we did was at the Met in New York. Hard to believe it was just a little over a month ago and so much has happened since. This is a favorite shot I took while at the European Sculpture Court. I couldn't have staged or planned this shot if I tried. Does it feel like a fashion editorial shot for magazine? The lady on the left had just taken a photo of the Perseus statue and was framed by it's base. You breathe and count micro seconds as you bring up your camera hoping she doesn't move and yet she does. Don't walk away... please...breathe...and she stops.

Click.

I've so much time travel to make up. The trip to the Philippines yielded more to write about than the mutiny I posted below (really, that happened at the tail end of my stay). So, watch this space.

sketchcrawl.com

Shooting the Manila Peninsula siege

2007-12-03T05:57:00.000-08:00

Caught up in the moment. On November 29 the news that a coup attempt was underway at the Manila Peninsula caught us off guard. My initial response was amusement: Of course a coup would happen during my visit. After dodging a super typhoon and a 6.0 earthquake a coup by a faction of the military couldn't be far away.

But this is serious. The Shangri-la, the hotel where we were staying, is directly across from the Peninsula (see map) and if this erupts into a full-on firefight on the streets we were right in the middle of it. Though you wouldn't know it to look at the pedestrians. Guess they've been through this sort of thing before.

Curious bystanders armed with cel phones (the country is purported to be the text capital of the world) were snapping away pics or just going about their day. Though most of them stay on the curb there were people taking pictures right on the road (traffic was blocked from entering Ayala Avenue and Makati Avenue).

The military trucks and armored vehicles were parked along the other side of the road where some journalist types were even closer to the soldiers, big cameras, note pads. Then I notice these folks on my side of the center divider were mostly press too. All I had was my world weary four-year-old Nikon Coolpix 5200, a point n' shoot that's hardly press rated.

So I followed them and behaved as they did. I marched over to the soldiers and snapped away, I swarmed along with everybody as commanders moved with troops, I took movies up close of soldiers as they prepared for the assault. Nobody seemed to mind I was there.

At some point the assault started. "I see movement," a lady journalist talks into her phone, the gaggle of photographers pushed to get a good shot. I had my camera out with theirs...then shots rang out.

I can't remember how I covered the distance to a parked news van. There were a couple of us taking cover there. People pointed to a window at the Peninsula and said something about snipers. I see the smoke of gunfire high of on the hotel windows. I made it over to other side of Makati Avenue just in time for more soldiers to run past me.

I couldn't tell you why I stayed out there. The danger was real and I had no direct stake in what happened. I walked away after we heard that a tank crashed through the doors of the Peninsula and lobbed tear gas. It was going down.

With at least seven coups since the popular uprising in 1986 that ousted Pres. Marcos the country seems to have incorporated this option into their politics--and it may be losing it's potency to mobilize the masses. Or these causes are not as universally shared. Trillanes, Gen. Lim and all those holed up in the Peninsula eventually surrendered. It took all of six hours (in 2003 Trillanes was involved in the Oakwood mutiny, that lasted 18 hours. Which was, by the way, why he was in court that day). Most people I talked to were ambivalent about what this latest coup accomplishes.

And no one is under any illusion that this was going to end here.

_____

Links to movie clips above

1 2 3 4 5 6

Wikipedia entry on the Manila Peninsula siege here.
Link to news recap of events with a background on events leading to the siege here.

Off to the Philippines for a conference

2007-11-17T15:33:00.001-08:00

Nostalgia. I'm slated to participate in an animation conference in the Philippines the week of thanksgiving. As I write this I'm preparing to go on the long plane ride. I've returned twice last year after a twelve year absence. I grew up there and I have fond memories of a simpler time. The image above is of a historical home in Batangas (a prominent family's home during Rizal's younger years) common at around the turn of the last century and I remember my grandfather (father's side) had a home very similar to this.

The conference aims to develop the country's animation industry with the focus on creating original content. I did a series of talks in th summer of last year at several universities back there about this very same topic and I am very encouraged and applaud these goals.

I'll report back soon as I get back in two weeks. Meantime, I have halo-halo and bibinka in my immediate future.

Animahenasyon 2007

The Society of Illustrators

2007-11-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

Yours truly at the second floor dining area. That's Bernie Fuchs to my right and N.C. Wyeth to my left. I swear I couldn't have staged this better. Bernie Fuchs was illustrating sports magazines and Reader's Digest story collections when I was growing up and was truly inspirational. Made me want to draw. N.C. Wyeth, well, beside Howard Pyle himself, this man made Robin Hood live for all of us without the aid of movies.

My lord! Look at what's on these walls! We were invited by the esteemed Peter de Seve, Chairman of the Society's 50th Annual, to participate in the judging panel for their sequential art section. Imagine me marveling at being invited. Then flash forward to the day I walk into the the building on 128 East 63rd street and up to the second floor where I encountered the pantheon to classic illustration in America. I had to hold my jaw up.

The paintings, portraits, sketchbooks, memorabilia from artists decades here and gone...it was an amazing array of history and craft sure to amaze any illustration student or fan--myself being a rather exuberant, if not well schooled, example of one.

Top: Glass case holding memorabilia. Dean Cornwell letter, on his letterhead; a letter from Jack Davis, photos and sketchbooks. Ahh, if I could get get to handle those. Second row: Stairway lined with portraits of illustrators done by other illustrators. Our own Enrico Casarosa admiring the art. Third row: Hirschfeld tile (see below) and a bust of Charles Dana Gibson flanking a framed board of signatures by the illustration greats. Bottom: Framed poster for "The Girlie Show," a black tie affair that showcased a special revue held in 1963. Note it was stag only.

I've been aware of the grand works and storied names over the years: N.C. Wyeth, Meade Schaefer, Bernie Fuchs, Charles Dana Gibson, Brad Holland, Dean Cornwell...it goes on. But to stand in front of the originals (they made them big) in person was a tremendous treat.

Mead Schaeffer. This was quite eye-catching. I took a snap close up and you can see the masterful brush strokes. Click on the image.

The bar and library on the third floor has a hearth (right) in the center of a tiled wall. Those tiles were illustrated by the famed illustrators of the day and fired in a kiln.

The tiles were amazing to behold. A gallery unto itself of the wide range of styles and temperament of each of these greats. I could have stared at them all day. They continued this tradition on the second floor where they framed a wall-sized collection of drawn tiles, the Hirschfeld tile above being one of them, of the next wave of artists.

I knew about the Society--mostly from their annuals--but never thought to go there. Actually, I didn't even know you could. But if you take a look at their website you can waltz in and take a gander at these beauties yourself.

The great John Lagatta. Breathtaking, really. I did stare at this a bit.

Close up you can see how a master at his craft does it. Simple, fluid and direct.

My thanks to Peter and the all the folks we met in their magnificent building (did you know they own it outright? What a location) and for having us be part of their process for the next annual.

The Society of Illustrators
Peter de Seve

Alzheimer's Association Auction a grand success!

2007-09-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

The Maverix Studios gallery was packed and buzzing with art marketplace energy and noise. Can you spot a very happy Ted Mathot in this picture? A visiting Simon Dunsdon? Mike Murnane is in costume somewhere here as well.

Maverix Studios held the art auction last night in the city and although all these auctions are a blast we had an especially thrilling night. Cutting to the chase: Steve Purcell's piece, "Ditty" went for the highest bid of the evening. Brenda Chapman had won it on the paper bid but, as it is the fashion at Maverix, it went up for the grand audience bid along with eight other highest bid items. Brenda dueled fast and furious with another lady starting at $400, and quickly escalated to beyond a thousand...Two Thousand!...Three! It all culminated in Brenda winning the piece at $3, 500! Whew! That was amazing!

A very happy Brenda Chapman chatting with Brian and Lorien McKenna about a certain Inhuman.

This is the closest to high stakes gambling I'll ever get myself. Once you're in the room and have been battling with others to secure artwork on the silent bid you're already quite a bit pumped up. And the best part is that you're amongst colleagues, friends and family.

From the top: Mike Murnane as Auctioneer Supreme and MC Derek Thompson. Those guys know how to work a crowd out their hard-earned bucks for a good cause. Albert Lozano, world class DJ to the starz--also mild mannered artist/designer at Pixar. Anita Coulter eyes Crystal on the wall. Center and bottom is the Hall o' Art and lovely art-lovin' folks.

I had my eye on Rhode Montijo's two original pieces from the start. I took my time bidding on this one inked piece. I knew it was going up for the public bid because it was up to around $250 by the time silent bidding closed. Jamie Baker, who's already like blood brothers with Rhode bid on it right off, then Bosco Ng jumped in. I just watched as they battled and it reached to $425. I was standing right next to Bosco as Mike Murnane stoked the fires of battle with his inimitable autioneer stylings.

Anita Coulter holding up a magnificent print by the equally lovely Sho Murase. That baby went for five hundred bucks. Good job, everyone. The circled art were next. Mine at center (Crystal) and Steve Purcell's record-breaking art.

I raised my hand and flashed five fingers. Oh! That did it, blindsided my pals. There's a trick to this and you gotta wait till the players are losing their will and even maybe even needing to be saved from themselves--though clearly not the case here but I sure did end up winning my very first Rhode Montijo original art! After four years of waiting I finally got one! HA HA!

Rhode Montijo loveliness here. Already safe at home.

The other highlight for me was securing Jeff Pigeon's "Happy Beaver" toy he donated for the cause. Signed as Derek Thompson puts it, "Right on it's a**" I've been meaning to get one but this is the best time to do it.

Jeff Pidgeon did all of us a favor and made a toy. And I just love it ta pieces! Look at that orange molded goodness. Hmmmm--mmmh!

My contribution to the auction was original art: "Crystal of the Inhumans." This was also one of the highest bids of the evening. Brenda had bid on both Steve and mine's hoping to get both but Derek Thompson wanted it as well, even so far as to playfully intimidating the crowd, "If you don't know who the Inhumans are you shouldn't even be bidding but this is for a good cause so it's all good."

Brian is likely talking to Lorien about..."What?! Enough with the Inhumans already! Sheesh."

Derek and Brenda battled, Mike egged and taunted the players and eventually Brenda let Derek win the piece for the high bid of $700! Whoa! That is crazy. I wanted a Derek monster myself. But that will have to be for another auction day.

"Crystal of the Inhumans" is watercolor, pen and pencil. I scanned this before I signed and framed it for the auction.

Congratulations to all who attended and my thanks to Esther Pearl and Nate Stanton for putting this together, Maverix for having the boundless energy and giving soul to have us use their wonderful space yet again. We hope to have another one of these things before the year is done and this time we're going to be even more ambitious! So, watch this space.

Alzheimer's Association
Maverix Studios
Maverix Studios Blog

UPDATE! The great Carlos Baena has posted his magnificent photos of the evening. Check them out here.

Jamie Baker's got an excellent report from his vantage point here.

Lost Sketchbook

2007-09-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

Had to happen sometime. At the last Sketchcrawl we went to the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, it was a real good choice. Good central location, target rich environment, free music (Jug Band that day), and the museum lunch counter was good.

The De Young Museum features a tower you can take an elevator to and enjoy a 360° view of the city. No museum fees, it's free! Wonderful! I broke out a new cahier moleskin for the occasion and started on a view towards the Golden Gate bridge. I was catching up to the group and my energies were flagging, but I managed to get one watercolor done. I took a snap of it and went down to get a bite to eat.

At the lunch area I had a thoroughly relaxed lunch and the view of the sculptures in the museum grounds was not bad either. Someone was waiting for a table and I offered mine as I was going anyway. I left and even glanced back as the bus staff swooped in to clear the table.

It would be a full hour or so before I find that the sketchbook is missing. I rush back inside and ask the staff if they noticed a little brown sketchbook. No luck. I ask lost and found and still zip. I retraced my steps all the rest of the afternoon and, needless to say, any remaining enthusiasm for drawing I may have had on reserve left me. I hung around till the end of the crawl to see everyone's work as this is my favorite part of a sketchcrawl day.

above image links to larger view. Sigh.

Everyone was shocked about my news and even offered me their spare sketchbooks. Thanks, people. Typical for me to be carrying four or five at any one time and apparently it goes for everyone at the crawl.

Let that be a lesson to you, kids. Always do a thorough check of your valuables before you leave a table. This one sketchbook had the one sketch in it, thankfully. Otherwise I would be an emotional wreck. I console myself that at least I got a picture of the work -- practicing that "half-full" point of view--and that it wasn't the book that held my Europe trip in it. That one was full...and safely inside my bag.

Sketchcrawl.com
De Young Museum
Golden Gate Park

Joann Sfar: Missionnaire

2007-07-31T22:17:00.001-07:00

Back from Vacation. Well, it's been a while and I must say that it was a grand tour. I'll spill all the details on the specifics as we go, there's just too much to tell and they're all battling for primacy in my brain. Let's just get started. Paris was our last stop and we stayed for five days. I got a map from Stuart Ng which shows all the bookstores along and around St. Germain. Of course I lost my mind at Album right away. I've got a post on that alone. This is just about a moment there.

The french Album store (I wandered into the American one first, whipped around to the other corner for the local stuff) is two floors of bande dessinée heaven. I pigged out. After my book binge (more on that later) I picked up several magazines for good measure. This cover above appealed to me.

I flip through it, there's enough stuff here. I should pick this up, and oh, hey! Joann Sfar is featured. Maybe it's about his movie. Hey, it's his journal on his site, isn't it? At about this fraction of a second I notice the drawing on the periphery of my vision. I let out a yelp, "Hah!?"

There we were! That day that Joann visited us at Pixar we all gathered for a group photo and darn if that isn't our Sfar sketch versions up there. We're famous! Well, in my mind we are. After all, how often do you go to another country to find you are part of an article in a magazine there. Of course I couldn't brag to anyone nearby, my french is still at zero.

Okay, I cash out. I walk out and it would take another hour before I would realize that I bought a Sfar journal at Album as well. There were at least two of them that came out at the same time. I root around my stash and find the book, "Missionnaire." And sure enough there it is, a drawing of the Pixar gate, him posing with the Parr Family mannequins of the Incredibles...and there we are! Man, that's awesome.

"Missionary gathers the notebooks of voyage held by Joann Sfar during his stays in Tokyo in 2005 and the United States in 2006, as well as an anthology of watercolours drawn in Edinburgh and in Morocco."

On the bottom of the page he scribbles about a project that he and I had been keeping under our hats for a couple of years. It became apparent to both of us that I would not have time to execute these lovely pages. I never let on with anyone about it. So, on the following pages he discloses what's been on my hard drive for a while now. I hope to really work with Joann someday, maybe even get our Princess story out there together. Hey, you never know. I'm on a lucky streak here.

Joan Sfar website
The Rabbi's Cat at Amazon
Missionnaire at Amazon France

The Terror of Olivia Neutron Chan III

2007-07-07T19:21:00.002-07:00

Olivia delivers a flurry of pain dealin'. That Roverbite sure was a charming pooch. Funny, too. He had to go. All images except for the compendium link to larger views, so zoom in.

Pray you are not in the blast radius. Sam Hiti's tournament of drawn fighters, Fist-a-cuffs, is a great idea because it is simple. If you were ever a kid and you had this escalating argument about who would win in a fight between King Kong and Godzilla then you know how this game works. I love the tag line.

"Fist-a-cuffs. Where drawings are voted to the death and the streets run black with ink."

Sam had called for this to be the first full-color Fist-a-cuffs. Invited artists were enjoined to "bring your 'A' game." And the new catch this time would be that no one can know who drew the fighter. No popularity vote based on the creator's rep, no brand-name recognition (in the previous FACA's this was exactly the case). This time the drawing will have to stand on its own merits.

This is Olivia's full figure glossy. She's unused to cameras as you can see.

Olivia Neutron Chan III. She has molten plasma for blood, a nuclear furnace for a heart which in turn powers her destruction-geared limbs. She fires lasers, missiles, and blares through her Mach3 Valkyrie speakers the chilling songs of her namesake, Olivia Newton John--annotating a path of ironic carnage to burbling, vein-rupturing effect.

Olivia was done by migrating between Photoshop and Painter--I'm not familiar enough with Painter to just do it all there. This is also a side of my work no one sees a lot. "Dad, that is so scary. I don't think anyone could tell this is you," my daughter Gerin says as she cringes. That's the idea.

A compendium of Smak Talk visuals from ONCIII's battles. An Assault arabesque, if you will.

Well, she fought hard and well until it was down to her and Red Raja. I must admit, if I wasn't in this myself I would have voted for that tentacled lobsterman from the east myself. There sure was a groundswell of support for the old mullusk head. Olivia was going to have to rely on her ferocity and toughness to win the crowd and hope for the best. In the end it was a valiant close to a short, head-stomping career. My thanks to all who voted for her and phooey to all of you who didn't. All hail The Chan!

Here's one more visual of The Olivia on the warpath.

Olivia likes to sing while she works. This lyric is from "Physical." Pandemic got the groove eventually. Oooh, that had to hurt.

Links:

ONCIII vs Baby Killer
ONCIII vs Roverbite
ONCIII vs Pandemic
ONCIII vs Red Raja

I'm off for a trip!

2007-07-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

Guess where? If you check with a certain italian friend of mine's blog you'll find that he's off somewheres too. Hmmmm...Anyway, it's my first time to go to Italy and France. Tess and I are now in the frenzy of prep. You know, packing, annoying the big kids with lists of things to do and the an even longer one of what not to do. I hear that crossing one's fingers help. Sigh.

I caught a bug this week, food poisoning. Of course. The peppy nurse practitioner chimes, "I usually treat folks AFTER a trip. And you're not leaving me much room to use my magic here!" That was yesterday and the quick blood test (man, blood is such a deep red) revealed I'm not battling an infection. Great. Now, I just gotta not feel crappy. But honestly, today I feel much better. Bring on the fantastic food already!

See you all in two weeks!

______

Oh, by the way, if you've been checking Sam Hit's Fist-a-cuffs blog you know that the North Division Championships are winding down. Interesting two fighters left to duke it out.

'Just sayin'.

Ratatouille in Paris

2007-07-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

Service with a smile. Brad Lewis, Brad Bird,Guy Savoy, Ed Catmull, John Lasseter. Food always brings wide open smiles from everyone. Kinda like animation does.

Bon Appetit! Ratatouille ruled this weekend (and a surprising Monday after as well). Congratulations to Brad Bird and crew! This is such a beautiful movie and I must say this is the very first animated feature I've ever seen that actually made me very hungry while watching it. I did story duties early in its production life and I love the way it turned out. If you haven't seen it you should go and check it out. Make sure you have dinner plans after.

And if you're wondering how the French premiere is going, well wonder no longer. Check it out here.

Disney and More blog

Babe Magnate

2007-07-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

It's about hubba-hubba time. Bill has amassed a veritable warehouse of sexy girl drawings in this lovely tome that, in my opinion, gives him a corner on the good girl art market. If you are anywhere inside this summer's Comic-con then hunt him down. You won't regret it. It's very well put together, hard cover, cloth bound and gold stamped on the spine--spared no expense.

Check out his entry on the arrival of the boxes and his continuing our tradition of documenting the reveal of the actual books inside (we're a silly bunch, self-publishers). I got my copy already so write him or see him in person in San Diego this July for your very own copy!

Daily Peril