Voodoo Love

This spring I was one of 50 artists worldwide invited to contribute a piece for the Argentine art magazine GÖOO. The theme for the issue was "brujeŕia" (witchcraft), so I came up with this little cautionary tale. Basically, you should be careful how ya treat the ladies, 'cause one of these days you might cross the wrong one. Göoo #7 will be available at göoo's booth this weekend at the MAD 009 Design Festival, held at the Palacio de Congresos, Madrid.

Find out more @ the GÖOO blog!.......................
Here's some of my rough sketches and an almost-final version
before some last minute tweaks:
Originally I had planned on doing a vertical piece, but when I found out the magazine's format called for double-page spreads, I had to change things quickly...
You can probably see where the schoolgirl exploration I posted a few months back came from. Almost there, but not saucy enuff...
Pretty close to the final, but she looked too pleasant... not "wicked"
enough. The doll went through some various versions, too.
Here's a pic of the print version. Maybe next time
I'll do better planning for that double-page spread :P
(Thanks for putting up with the long delay in posting this one.
Had to wait for publication B4 sharing)

Doodle Dump II

Got super-inspired by my pals' pieces for the Jab Strong Fierce show @ Nucleus a few weeks ago and wound up doing this Cammy sketch.
Yeah, it's Sedusa... AGAIN. So I like drawing a villainess who
wears fishnets and thigh-highs. Sue me.
This one's from the "Running with the Rainbow Unicorn"
episode of THE MIGHTY B
Gnomey doncha know me?

Tease

Can't share this one with you just yet, but here's a small taste:




What is it? You'll find out next month ;)
.......................
Thought I'd take a moment to plug the upcoming GREEN LANTERN DVD. I only did about 2 seconds worth of work on this one, but I'm DAMN proud to have been a part of another kick-ass production from Bruce Timm & the gang @ WB. The crew includes heavy hitters like LeSean Thomas, Jose Lopez, and director Lauren Montgomery, so be sure to check it out this July!

Higher Education

When did the school girl look come back in such a big way?
Whatever the answer is, it's still workin'.

Mojo Jojo-a-Gogo

What was one of the best parts of returning to CN to work on the PPG Anniversary Special? Getting to draw lots of everyone's favorite evil monkey super villain MOJO JOJO!! ....................... MY FRIENDS ARE AWESOME! I am not bragging, I just think my friends do indeed RAWK and I want to share their work with you. I'm sure you'll agree once you see it. My partner in crime on Dexter's & PPG, Andy Bialk, has given in to peer pressure and finally started a BLOG! Check out his awesome designs from MADAGASCAR 2!

PUFF it up!!

Like I said in the last post, the Powerpuff 10th Anniversary Special was done completely at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, with nothing going overseas. This time the girls were animated in Flash by the FOSTER'S crew. This lead to some of the most accurate on-screen images of the series-- What we drew wound up 100% faithfully translated to screen.

Here's more comparisons between my original drawings
and the final product: (Clean-up by Erik Elizarrez)
Yes, the original was drawn on Post-Its. (Sharp-eyed viewers will recognize
the 3 cons on the left from the original ep. "Powerpuff Bluff")
It wouldn't be a "special" episode without a giant robot!!
Next post: MOJO JOJO!!!...................................

... and go see CORALINE this weekend, OK?

POWERPUFF GIRLS RULE!

Naw, that's not an idle boast-- That's the title of the ALL NEW PPG SPECIAL celebrating the girls' 10th anniversary airing Monday, Jan. 19, at 8 p.m. (ET, PT) on Cartoon Network!*


Last spring I returned to CN to work on the special, which was written and directed by creator Craig McCracken, and featured the Art Direction of my fellow OG PPG crew member Sue Mondt, as well as the fine work of SAM JACK/CLONE WARS colorist Leticia Lacy, FOSTER'S vets Ben Balistreri and Shannon Tindle, Shane Prigmore, C. Raggio and more!

This is the first Powerpuff Girls ever animated ENTIRELY at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank by the Foster's Flash crew, led by Pringle.


Stay tuned, 'cause in the next few weeks I'll be posting some of my designs from the special. Man, it's been tough sitting on these babies for almost a year!

*Yeah, I know it already aired in Europe and Asia, but just go with it, OK?

Can you draw Chris Battle? If so, you could have an exciting career in commercial art!!

Forget about Tippy the Turtle or Patchy the Pirate-- apparently, the toughest thing an artist can attempt to draw is yours truly. Take a look at what happened when the gang at Cartoon Network set out to capture the uniqueness that is me:

Nobody tried harder to figure out the magic formula
for drawing me than Paul Rudish and Clay Morrow.
Paul's are above and Clay's are below.

Being office mates on Dexter's and PPG placed current Dreamworks hotshot Andy Bialk in a unique position to study me. Here's two takes from him:


Dan Krall has known me the longest of any of the CN gang,
so his is brilliantly savage (and probably the most accurate):

But wait, there's more:
Andy Suriano
Chris Reccardi
Aaron Springer
Mike Stern
(This is back when I had more facial hair.)
Then there's my guest turn on the Powerpuff Girls
thanks to Stef Choi.
I finally wound up taking a crack at it myself a few years ago.

Happy Tree Friends: KA-POW!

A new HAPPY TREE FRIENDS short from the gang at Ghostbot that I did character layout for is now online. Working from cool new re-designs of HTF's super-squirrel Splendid by Roque Ballesteros, I had the lucky assignment of drawing all the cool action poses that went into this super-powered beatdown. Here's a sampling:



Check out more behind the scenes goodness at the Ghostbot Blog!.......................
BERFDAY!

Can ya believe it's been 3 years since I started this blog?
That's a lot of Post-Its.

Procrastination

I finally finished this one after finding the original sketch
in an old folder from early last year........................
★★★ VOTE! ★★★

STARBUCKS will give you free coffee and KRISPY KREME will give you a free donut, so you have no excuses!!!

Still alive

... but a little too busy to post anything of my own, so instead I'll just promote some of my pals' stuff!

The always amazing CHRIS RECCARDI has an exclusive on-line interview with HI-FRUCTOSE Magazine that you must check out. Chris shoots the shit about his lengthy career in the biz working on all your favorite cartoons, and even shares his rough sketches before they become painted masterpieces. Be sure to check out the awesome catfight storyboard sequence from the long-delayed EL SUPERBEASTO!

Okay, so I'm a little late spreading the news, but I sure as hell hope you guys watched the Billy & Mandy spin-off special UNDERFIST over the weekend. Maxwell Atoms and the gang turned out a trick-or-treat bag full of of Halloween cartoon kick-assery featuring the work of rock stars like Andy Suriano, Phil Rynda, and more. Some guy named Carl even did some voicework. You can check out some kick-ass layout art from UNDERFIST by Andy HERE.

Speaking of Andy, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of his book ART OF ANDY, chock full of Andy's unbelievable cartoon masterworks. Do yourself a favor and go to his blog and order one, or if you're in LA, head over to House of Secrets in Burbank and pick one up. You'll be glad you did.

That Dan Krall guy found time between working on cool stuff like CHOWDER and CORALINE to illustrate a children's book. Way to make the rest of us look lazy. You can pre-order it HERE.

psst... The COMPLETE POWERPUFF GIRLS SERIES is coming to DVD in January 2009. With tons on extras. Pre-order it NOW, whydoncha?
In the meantime, I'm busy working on one of Cartoon Network's new "Cartoonstitute" shorts... involving one of the guys mentioned above. I won't say which, tho. That would be telling.

I am a dirty press whore

So if you check out the latest issue of Animation Magazine, you can read a multi artist-interview about breaking into the field of animation prop design, where guys like me, Lance Falk, and Darrel Bowen give you the low-down on what it takes to get a job in this biz. If you already have a job, feel free to ignore it; You know what you're doing. To save you $6, I've posted the article below:

"BEE" Bits: Cutting Room Floor

Here's a bunch of rough designs from the MIGHTY B! While some appear in the finished show, most wound up on the cutting room floor when scripts were rewritten or scenes got cut, so this is your only chance to see 'em...

Abandoned re-design for Portia that Erik Wiese
and I were noodling with at the beginning of the season.

Believe it or not, this isn't the first time I've had to
draw a rabid leprechaun for a show.

... and here's another "process" image. I have no idea what the finished one
looks like-- what episode is this from? I think the board was done by either
Lynne Naylor or Chris Reccardi.