Author: Chad Frye

Gnomeo & Juliet 5

Well, here is the last of my 2002 audition pieces to work on Disney’s Gnomeo & Juliet (opening on February 11). Not having seen it myself, I can’t vouch for its content. With all the years it has been in development, one would hope that it is every bit as fun as they are leading you to believe with the advertising. After all, it MUST be good because it had 9 writers – 10 if you count William Shakespeare. (cough cough)

I am glad that it is completely animated though. Early on there was talk of having the gnomes be realistic and set in a live-action world. If they had gone that route, kids would likely run crying in fear of any actual garden gnomes they would encounter in the future. I might even have reacted that way.

At any rate, here is my final submission for your perusal. It’s a watercolored piece inspired by the first drawing I posted on Monday. I expanded that idea of the “bent over” lawn ornaments to epic proportions by making a Braveheart gag out of it.

Gnomeo & Juliet
Nothing puts a cold fear into the hearts of the opposition like teddy bear underwear.

Thanks for checking out my Gnomeo & Juliet inspired art this week. While these proposed pieces didn’t land me a job on the film back then, they were fun to come up with. And I’ve managed to work on a few fun things since then in the world of animation.

Categories
Art: Watercolor Character Designs Development Art Disney Illustrations

Gnomeo & Juliet 4

When I lived in Greenville, South Carolina back in the mid-1990s, this one house near downtown was just COVERED in lawn ornaments. In particular, they had soooo many whirly-gig type devices that made their whole property look as though it was in constant motion. You know what I mean, right? They had anything that had a moving part when the wind blew. That was in my mind when I drew this next piece for submission to the Gnomeo & Juliet team back in 2002.

I thought of a wooden duck that had propellers for wings like you see on those whirly-gigs. If the Montagues and Capulets were in full blown fighting mode, why not have an air force of gnomes riding on the backs of these devices? If the wind was low, they could attempt to keep themselves afloat by blowing on the propellers!

Gnomeo & Juliet

Come back again tomorrow for a final look at my 2002 Gnomeo & Juliet development art submissions!

Categories
Animals Art: Photoshop Character Designs Development Art Disney Illustrations

Gnomeo & Juliet 3

For those of you just joining the blog this week, I have been showing you some art each day that I submitted to Disney back in 2002 in an attempt to get on Gnomeo & Juliet as a development artist. I had been working for the Feature Animation division for five years at that point as an in-house instructor of creative computer programs. My background had been as a children’s book illustrator prior to working for them, so I was itchy to get involved once again in creating art.

Today I share with you TWO gag pieces that were more verbal in nature than the others. The first was a quickie just to get out a little Fantasia joke…

Gnomeo & Juliet
Sometimes lawns have ceramic mushrooms decorating them as well. Fantasia’s Hop-Low character makes a cameo in this “Made In China” joke.

….and the second piece plays on the fact that these gnomes are also breakable with Grandpa referencing some dog attack from his past…

Gnomeo & Juliet
Talk about a trick knee!

Just in case you can’t read it, the girl is saying, “Mommy! Mommy! We can hear the ocean in Grandpa’s knee!” Grandpa adds, “That there is from the Great Canine Calamity of ’39.”

Come back again tomorrow to see another Gnomeo piece!

Categories
Art: Photoshop Cartoons Character Designs Development Art Disney

Gnomeo & Juliet 2

I mentioned yesterday that the upcoming Disney release of Gnomeo & Juliet was ultimately created up in Canada and was NOT the product of Disney Feature Animation down here in Burbank, CA. I was never privy to the big business branches of the studio, nor was I really all that interested in those decisions. I was just the little guy trying to scratch my name in the tree trunk.

I would imagine that part of the reason Gnomeo moved out of house was due in part to the fact that it was being developed right at the time that the studio was laying off half of its workers that was documented so well in the film Dream On Silly Dreamer. That’s about the time I was laid off, too. Not long after, Disney’s corporate management was having its own disagreements with Pixar, and had started to develop a version of Toy Story 3 apart from Pixar in the building where they had been developing Gnomeo. Those were dark days indeed.

In honor of those dark days, here’s a bleak piece I submitted back then. Somehow the thought that the deep feelings a ceramic gnome would have in losing a dear friend (that just so happened to be a ceramic lawn deer) made me laugh. Twisted? Perhaps.

Gnomeo & Juliet
Whether you are on the side of the Montagues or Capulets, you can’t help but shed a tear at the agony of this scene.

Come back again tomorrow to see TWO more Gnomeo inspired gag drawings from my archives!

Categories
Animals Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Character Designs Development Art Disney Illustrations

Gnomeo & Juliet 1

Back in 2002, Disney Animation Studios began to develop a film about lawn ornaments based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet called Gnomeo & Juliet. It only had a few people doing some visual development and storyboards as they tried to explore this idea that I heard had been brought to Disney by Elton “Lion King” John.

Gnomeo seemed to be one of those pictures that was a little under the radar with not many in the studio showing interest in working on it yet. I saw it as a possibility for a lot of comedy which was right up my alley! Maybe it would be a way for a young eager Disney employee to get his foot in the door of actual production work. So, with the encouragement of the acting producer in those early days, I started submitting some gag drawings hoping to get on the film.

The idea of lawn ornaments from rival yards in a feud with each other just rang a bell in my head for some reason. I knew yards that had been chock full of ridiculous sculptures and whirly-bobs. So much humor could be derived from the drama of warring “families” combined with the crazy decorative contraptions coming to life.

With Gnomeo & Juliet opening Friday, February 11, I thought I’d share a few of my 2002 gag proposals with you that still make me smile. I’ll post something new each day this week up to Friday. I never did get invited to work on the film, but then again, Disney didn’t actually end up making it in-house either. It was shelved for a few years, then resurrected up in a studio in Canada.

This is the first of many pieces I submitted (created with pencil and Photoshop). It was also the first piece of art I did that was hung on a development board in the hallways of Disney. That alone was unbelievably encouraging.

Gnomeo & Juliet art
Remember those lawn ornaments that looked like a girl bending over? Thought it was ripe for comedy with these nervous garden gnomes.

Come back again tomorrow to see another of my Gnomeo & Juliet submissions!

Categories
Art: Photoshop Character Designs Development Art Disney Illustrations

Penciling the Friendly Skies

This past Monday I concluded my holiday travels. As you well know from previous blog posts, I always carry my sketchbook with me to keep me entertained during all the waiting one has to do in airports. An airport provides a wonderful cross section of society to try to capture with the pencil. And seeing how people present themselves for travel always intrigues me. Some folks dress up, others wear nothing but their jammies, while yet others may wear layers of the strangest ensemble you’ll ever see in an attempt to avoid baggage fees by putting on whatever didn’t fit into the carry-on (cough – me – cough).

So, here are a few folks that I captured in the airport in Baltimore, Maryland…..

Large Man Walking
“….all the king’s airplanes and all the king’s pilots, couldn’t lift H….”
Waiting for a Jet Plane
“…and I’m waaaaaiting for a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll take off again…”
The Janitor
I’m not sure how he pulled it off, but this janitor looked like he was on a break while he was working! Wish I could work that relaxed!
Categories
Life Drawings Sketchbook

The Sunshine Boys

Just before the holidays, actor Daniel Roebuck called me up to ask if I’d be able to help with the poster art for a local theater production he was producing, directing and acting in, Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys. I have a vague recollection of the George Burns/Walter Matthau film version from some Saturday afternoon television airing in my youth, and thought the assignment might be a fun one.

The story focuses on two elderly actors who had hit their prime as young men in the days of vaudeville. Daniel wanted the image to show the two lead actors as they are now in their twilight years, and also show them from their bygone days of the stage all while expressing that the play is a comedy.

 

Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys poster
A very stylized version of actors Daniel Roebuck and Jim Roope as young vaudevillians on the left with their elder counterparts looking down.

 

In researching old posters to elicit a nostalgic feel, I stumbled across a great French poster for The Marx Brothers movie A Night At the Opera. It provided a style and layout that would fit the needs of the play perfectly!  I don’t often follow another artist’s vision so closely as I did this time, but I figured “why not?” After all, the French artist liberally “borrowed” his caricatures from the great American artist Al Hirschfeld.

 

A Night At the Opera
A 1936 French poster for the Marx Bros. famous film “A Night At the Opera” that is clearly based on the caricatures of Al Hirschfeld.

 

I believe the art will also serve as the cover of the program. If you’d like to get your own copy, Dan Roebuck’s play opens tonight in Burbank, CA and will be playing for two weekends (January 7, 8, 9, 14 and 15) as a fundraiser. If you are interested in seeing the production, tickets are available by calling (818) 504-4400.

Categories
Art: Colored Pencil Art: Watercolor Caricature Illustrations

Merry Christmas 2010

Well, another year has come and gone. Living here in Los Angeles, Christmas has a way of sneaking up on you. I blame the weather. Sure, we have had some frigid temperatures here of 40º, but usually that’s at night for a week here or there. As I write this, it is 2:30am and only 52º outside right now. So, not having cold winters gives Christmas a chance to tip-toe up through December without one being entirely aware.

That being said, I am a bit behind in getting my Christmas card art created. With having some recent freelance, then being sick for a week, it was looking like the card might not happen this year. That would have been a personal tragedy because if memory serves, I have prepared a fresh & tasty original Christmas card every year since 1995.

I know what you are thinking. “If you know Christmas comes every year, why don’t you do the art in August?” My answer to that is, “If you think warm LA winters hurt the mood of the holidays, try dreaming of a white Christmas in August!”

That being said, I finished the art on December 18 by the hair of my chinny chin chin. This year inspiration came by way of the great Christmas hymn O Come All Ye Faithful. It was originally written in Latin, but thankfully years later it was translated into English. (I spared you the Latin.) Set to a soul-stirring melody, the verses of this song celebrate the story of Christ’s birth and what it means to those who trust in Christ – the “faithful” to whom the song speaks.  Also included is the Bible passage found in Matthew 11:28-30 that seems to compliment the message of the song nicely.

So, presented to you here is my 2010 Christmas card celebrating the birth of Christ whose sole purpose was to die for the sins of man. Can you truly be counted among “the faithful”? It is my prayer that you and yours may experience the joy of Christ this Christmas by trusting in Him.

O Come All Ye Faithful

O Come All Ye Faithful lyrics

Categories
Art: Colored Pencil Art: Watercolor Bible Art Character Designs Illustrations Self Portrait