It seems that it has been awhile since I have posted some art here on the ol’ blog. I would apologize, except for the fact that I have been insanely busy working on a new children’s book! I can’t say anything about it for now, but it does involve a good 20 or so illustrations, and I am doing them all traditionally in watercolor and colored pencil. So there hasn’t been much time for anything else.
That being said, last night I experienced a little insomnia. Went to bed, then two hours later I was wide awake. Not good. So, I channeled my energy into doing a sketch in my sketchbook, which escalated into giving it a quickie coloring job on the computer.
With all the media talk of sharks and shark attacks this summer, I decided to doodle my own fierce shark with a baby seal to add a touch of desperation. Enjoy, and swim safely out there in the big oceans!
A couple of months ago I was hired to do a corporate illustration in a comic book style for the ServiceMax company. Specifically, I was asked to draw the piece in an old school Marvel/DC Comics style showing a business-suited hero pulling an office building with screaming workers away from the brink of destruction. The art director gave me a rough sketch of what he wanted, and after a little back and forth, the hero emerged.
You’d be screaming too if all your toilets were rupturing after being severed from the plumbing.
This style is a little out of my wheelhouse, but was fun to draw for the client nonetheless. It is nice when someone hires you to do something they haven’t seen you do before. We artists often like the challenge. It breaks up the monotony of doing the things you get pigeon-holed into doing all the time. Thanks, ServiceMax!
I recently did some traveling, and when I do, I always take my sketchbook with me. I pulled it out last week while waiting for my plane in Philadelphia and started to draw those around me in the waiting area. I chose to focus on some heads that were interesting to me at the time. What do you suppose all these people were doing that would cause them all to be posing in a similar fashion?
Airports always provide an interesting array of subjects to draw. Jury duty is a close second.
If you guessed “hair sniffing,” you would be wrong. They are all checking out their mobile phones, of course! If they happened to look up at all, they were probably perplexed as to why I had a book in my lap. Some of us still prefer to remain unplugged.
When you work in and around Hollywood, you are bound to bump into famous folks now and then. Doris Roberts, who became highly recognized for her role of Marie Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, is one such person that I have unexpectedly seen at various events around town. However, a couple of months ago I learned that she was making a public appearance at a convention, so I prepared myself for meeting her this time.
It is hard to believe, but Everybody Loves Raymond filmed their last episode ten years ago. I don’t often get caught up in television shows, but that was one I enjoyed immensely. During that final season, I was inspired to create a caricature rendering of the cast in a Norman Rockwell setting.
“Everybody Loves Raymond” in watercolor based on Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want” oil painting.
The first time I bumped into Doris out in public was the week after I had painted this illustration. I found myself walking next to her down the hill after a Tony Bennett concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I was so startled to see her there, that the first words out of my mouth were, “Oh, hello! I was just painting you last week!” Her reaction was appropriately more startled by my strange greeting, and managed to walk much faster than I at that moment.
So, ten years later, I came up to her at this latest public function and presented her with a print of my painting. This time she seemed genuinely pleased and delighted. Whew!
Doris Roberts and Chad Frye
Well, hopefully next time there will be a chance to meet Brad Garrett who played Ray’s older brother Robert (barely seen in the lower right corner of the painting). A couple of years ago Brad voiced a character I designed for an animated production that has yet to be released. So in a way, I “worked with him,” though we have never met. That’s Hollywood for you.
The other day I was doodling in my sketchbook with a blue pencil when this little creeper came out. I liked how he looked, and decided to put some ink on him. The rough inking raised his appeal a bit, and then it escalated into including some shading. Having just made a pot of coffee, I dipped my brush into the coffee and gave him some brown stains to complete the sketch. I know he doesn’t look it, but now he smells good – like a caramel macchiato latte.
Since he was painted with coffee, now it will hard to resist licking the paper. Sigh.
Just a little follow-up post to my last one. About six weeks ago, a few members of the NCS LA (the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society) gathered together at the home of Tom Gammill (writer for The Simpsons) to shoot a video not only for our chapter, but for a comedy bit for the national organization. It debuted at the annual Reuben Awards in Washington D.C. two Saturdays ago during Memorial Day weekend, and is now available for your viewing pleasure online.
The whole video starts with a running gag Tom has been doing where he is living in a pretend marriage with Jeannie Schulz, wife of the late Charles Schulz. The first part of the video features Tom with Sally & Mell Lazarus, Cathy Guisewite, Jeannie Schulz and members of her staff, and Caroline & Arnold Roth.
As you can see, we are a group that enjoys each other. It is fun hanging with these folks as well as with the many others who come to our monthly chapter get-togethers. It is nice when colleagues can have fun together in brother/sisterhood without ugly competitiveness getting in the way. If anything, supporting each other raises all of our games.
I enjoy taking pictures, and I was getting lots of behind-the-scenes photos from our 4 hour shoot. Thought I’d share a few highlights here:
Tony Carillo and Spencer Ramsey. Spencer was our audio playback guy, and he did the bouncing ball animation in the video.New NCS President Bill Morrison getting ready for his close-up.You can see we all pitched in where needed behind the camera, too. Here is David Silverman holding the light, and Christy Higgins who served as our cue card grip.Chad Frye flanked on either side by David Silverman (L) and Matt Diffee (R).Cornelius the Bear ate Tom Gammill!!!David Silverman and his tuba in a jam session with Cornelius.From a scene that landed on the cutting room floor, an angry mob of cartoonists chasing Cornelius the bear. Our cinematographer was Max Pross, a very funny comedy writer currently working on “The Simpsons.”Matt Diffee, Dave Kellett & Tony Carillo enjoying an orange juice interlude.A final shot of the gang at the end of shooting. Back row: David Silverman, Chad Frye, Tony Carillo, Spencer Ramsey. Front: Matt Diffee, Dan Piraro, Tom Gammill, Keith Robinson, Dave Kellett, and Bill Morrison.Keith Robinson after chugging a vat of India ink in the video. That, ladies & gentlemen, is dedication.
“Hey, ho, hey!” That’s the greeting of the NCS LA. To those not in the know, NCS LA means the National Cartoonists Society, Los Angeles Chapter!
Cornelius the Bear in all his plaid angelic glory.
The NCS LA reorganized this year to become a pretty busy group of professional cartoonists. We used to have one gathering a year in December, but since this past December, we have been doing monthly activities where professional cartoonists can socialize with colleagues, learn something, and hopefully soon will involve some volunteer drawing for worthy causes.
Part of what the NCS LA has discovered is some of the history of our group. Our mascot has become Cornelius the Bear because back in the day he saved the life of Los Angeles cartoonist George Herriman, creator of the comic strip Krazy Kat, from a runaway toboggan. Cornelius is no longer with us here in the City of Angels, of course, so he himself is depicted in angelic terms on our official crest. I recently drew my version of Cornelius as seen above wearing the NCS LA uniform of a plaid sports coat.
That image of Cornelius was used on a flyer I put together advertising to our membership a field trip we took a few weeks ago to Revolutions 2, a fantastic museum exhibit of original illustration art at the museum in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA (go see it before it closes in early August if you haven’t already – it’ll knock your socks off!). Illustrator William Stout showed us around the exhibit, and was able to tell tales of his own art that is in the display. Afterwards, we went to lunch at a place where Walt Disney and his animators used to hang out (yes, that’s my Walt on the flyer, too).
The flyer for the first NCS LA field trip. (RSVP info removed since the event is over!)
If you are a professional cartoonist creating comic books, comic strips, illustration, animation, editorial cartoons, or any other genre in cartooning here in Los Angeles, or will be visiting our fair city in the future, please get a hold of me to find out when and where our next gathering will be! We’d love to welcome you here!
Some cats sit all alone in the moonlight, and can smile at the old days; they were beautiful then and remember a time they knew what happiness was, and they let the memory live again.* Other cats just like making new memories such as climbing on birthday cakes.
This was a little birthday piece I did for a good friend who has three cats. I may have made up their color schemes, though. Unless these are what Jellicle cats really look like, then the colors were very specific and intentional.
I don’t know about songs, but for sure Jellicle cakes are for Jellicle cats.
*Yes, those are lyrics borrowed from the song Memory in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS.
