XIAOLIN Dim Sum

After last week's crocodile tease, here's some assorted tasty XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN morsels for all:

Yeah, but what have you done for me lately?

I'm so dang busy these days, it's hard to find the time to spiff up my artwork to make it blog-worthy. Since most of that stuff is only half-polished, here's a giant prehistoric crocodile from XIOALIN SHOWDOWN to tide you over: It's hanging out in a deep-sea cavern next to Atlantis, so that's why it's got the glowing eyes 'n' stuff. .............................................

TOP SECRET!

People sometimes ask me "What are you working on now?" and "When can you post some stuff from EL SUPERBEASTO?" Well, it's like this: I recently finished up work on BEASTO, and it won't be coming out 'til 2007, so in the meantime, I can't post any of the artwork I did for the movie. (They even made us sign papers that specifically mentioned blogs!) Maybe if they put some of my art on the official website, it can be considered "declassified", but not until then, I guess. ....so as I search for that next cool project, I'm doing some work on Jorge Guiterrez & Sandra Equihua's wild new show at Nickelodeon, EL TIGRE. That won't be out until 2007 either, so you can't see any of my stuff for that, too. :( ...I'm also working with the cool cats over at GHOSTBOT on a sooper secret project that I can't even tell you about! What's next for this kid? As soon as I know, I'll let all of you know....

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HOW DID I ALMOST MISS THIS ONE?

Giant Robot's sister store GR2 has an awesome Post-It art show, POST DEUX, on display thru September 19. Their walls are covered in tons of the little yellow stickies (Nearly 2,000) featuring the doodles of 32 different artists. Super-cool; Check it out! ....and be sure to stop at Beard Papa for creampuffs before you leave.

I'm a simple man

Sometimes, it's the simple props that are the most fun:






Even a complex prop like a cop car can be made simple:

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THE TRUTH ABOUT ANIMATION

This is a quote by a good friend of mine in the biz, who is actually a totally happy, upbeat, successful guy. He is also an awesome cynic. I'm not bitter (for reals!), I just find this too funny, and 100% acurate. Remember, deep inside every cynic is a frustrated optimist. :)

NOTE: This post contains a bad word.

Doodle Dump

As usual, most of these are all done on 2x3 Post-Its.

I think aliens would enjoy the Japanese athetic.

I don't know what this is about; Maybe that we don't send letters or cards anymore 'cause of e-mail?

Okay, this was done on 4x6

O-yasumi nasai!

Sweat Shop!

This one's for everyone who went down to Comic-con and got hot 'n' sweaty amongst the nerd herd:


I didn't go myself, but I felt the hot 'n' sweaty out here in the San Fernando Valley as record temperatures blew out power to several lucky areas last Saturday, including our block. For 2 and a half days, 108 degree temperatures turned our home into a lovely mid-century oven. Perfect conditions for attempting to finish the freelance I had under-taken! Trying to work in a crowded, noisy coffee joint (not recommended) led to finally renting a hotel room the 2nd night so I could work and we could actually sleep.

Today, power was restored..... and we had a refridgerator to clean out. So thanks for putting up with the lack of a new post for the *big* weekend. I have a new batch of doodles to post once I clean 'em up a bit, so just be patient...

...and if you didn't go to Comic-con, this is all you missed.

Shady Business

Nothing too fancy here... just some stuff where I had to do some lighting effects:




Sometimes to draw the lighting effect, ya gotta rework the board drawing. In this case, the Powerpuff Girls are so specific in their posing (Due to their flat, UPA-inspired design) that only those of us who worked on the show since the beginning knew how to pose them correctly. There are often rules as to how a character can be posed in order to work with their unique designs. The PPGs probably gave freelance board artists more headaches than any other show at the time... (other than DEXTER'S LAB)

This is an example of what we would call "Models as layout":

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POWERPUFF Z EPISODES ON YOUTUBE



A weird experience for those of us that worked on the original, but it's pretty cool. You can check out full episodes and more here.

GOIN' APESHIT!

Here's some more stuff from the BILLY & MANDY episode that featured the "Anime" Billy & Mandy. The little Chim-Chim-esque monkey winds up coming into the "real" world, and eventually goes mano-a-mano with Grim to see who gets to be the kids' new best pal. Oh yeah, they fight John Woo style with household cleaning products. (Don't ask)







...and just in case you're curious to see how those anime-style Billy & Mandy turned out, here ya go:

PEACE OUT, G.

Damn, I'm tired

I'd like to put up a nice, big post full of pictures, but my nights have been too busy as of late. Next time I'll post more stuff for ya'll to enjoy. In the meantime, please enjoy this quickie drawing.

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I GOT PRESS!

Check it out: Lat week's Darth Vader post was linked in the Minneapolis CITY PAGES "Morning Blotter" under "Time Wasters". Click on the logo to see for yourself:


That's right, I get listed BEFORE the Brittany Spears quote! Fuck yeah.

Darth Vader: Intergalactic Sad Sack

Let's face it: Darth Vader sucks. He used to be cool. Ultimate movie bad guy. Icon of evil. Now the new STAR WARS movies show us that he WAS going to be pretty cool, but blew it all & wound up wearing an iron lung for the next 3 movies.


Remember that scene from the 1st STAR WARS where Vader chokes that guy from across the room? We all thought it showed how cool he was, but as adults, we know the real subtext: Vader is the low man on the totem in this boardroom. Face it: If you're the only guy without a chair at the big meeting, you definitely made bad career choices.


Now that we know the root of Vader's problems are mommy issues, and that he killed all his old friends 'cause he was afraid of losing his girl, he DEFINITELY sucks.

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TOBY BLUTH ART SHOW!

Didn't get enough of Westside art shows at the John K. retrospective? Well head on out to Great American Ink Gallery in Brentwood this Saturday, June 10 from 12-5 to see the work of my friend Toby Bluth, in a special showing of his tribute to Fleischer-era POPEYE and BETTY BOOP. An animation artist & illustrator of the highest caliber, Toby has done work for almost every studio in town (Most recently at Disney as Art Director for THE TIGGER MOVIE and THE THREE MUSKETEERS), and is currently Artistic Director for C.A.A.T. Studios. His amazing watercolor art captures the classic beauty of animation's golden age. Click on Betty to go to the site!

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EL SUPERBEASTO UPDATE!

The official site just added a bunch of new fun: You can now check out a full image gallery, dowload wallpapers and AIM icons, post to the official EL SUPERBEASTO message boards, plus get the scoop on some major Oscar-nominated voice casting. Check it out at www.elsuperbeasto.com

I am FAKE SHANE

I wound up drawing this after spending too much time looking at Shane Glines' stuff at his CARTOON RETRO site. Shamelss, yes, and I could never draw like Shane, but when you get inspired, ya just gotta go with whatever vibe got ya there.

By the way, you can now buy Shane's new self-published magnum opus, S CURVES: The Art of Shane Glines at Lulu.com; 400 pages of color hard-cover goodness! Also available from Lulu is Shane's LILLY & FLINCH Sketchbook. Two batches of Shane's amazing illustrations? You know ya gotta have 'em.

(There; Maybe that plug'll make up for me biting Shane's style)

Cat's out of the bag...

People have been asking what I'm working on these days: Since last fall, I've been doing character designs for Rob Zombie's crazy lil' cartoon movie THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO. Written by Mr. Zombie & Tom Papa and directed by Mr. Lawrence (of SPONGEBOB fame), this R-rated flick features the work of a bunch of your favorite cartoon pals from REN & STIMPY, DEXTER'S LAB, POWERPUFF GIRLS, SPONGEBOB, CLONE HIGH, and SAMURAI JACK. When will it be out? Your guess is as good as mine, but for now, you can check out character profiles and sign up for future updates at the official site.

There will be monsters. There will be sexy girls. There will be masked mexican wrestlers. There will also be a sexually frustrated transforming robot. ...and that's just for starters.

Doodles Galore!

What I do when I'm supposed to be working:

These are mainly all done on 2x3 or 1.5x2 inch Post-Its.

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MINOR UPDATE: Uploaded a higher-res scan so's you can see all the details!