Illustration Guy Blog – The Chad Frye

Creative musings about creative stuff by a creative cartoonist.

Muppet Babies

Last week I went to the ABC network headquarters in Burbank, CA, to see a special industry preview of Disney Junior’s new Muppet Babies television show, and really enjoyed it! The team from Oddbot Inc. headed up by Tom Warburton did a fun job on updating the property into a computer generated (CG) show for…
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From the Flat File: 2004 – Slots Landing

A number of years ago before I got into the world of animation, I was a very busy illustrator. I illustrated many books whether of my own design, or sometimes with a team of other illustrators. Much of my color work back then was created with gouache – an opaque water based paint I would…
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Character Actor Characters

Does that headline sound confusing? Well, it shouldn’t. Allow me to explain, and in the process you may learn something you didn’t know about character designing for animation. In movies and TV shows, you always have your lead actors around whom the story is usually based. However, to make those stories work, the lead actors…
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Voyage LA Magazine Article

It isn’t every day you wake up and see nice things written about you in the press, but this week I had such a day. Several weeks ago, online magazine Voyage LA interviewed me for an article about…me! And this week it became available for all to see. It’s always slightly uncomfortable talking…
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Respectable Reptile

After three caricature posts in a row, perhaps it is time to return to the animal world. How about this Respectable Reptile? A little over a week ago I saw the original 1960s Doctor Dolittle on the big screen (Rex Harrison was the star – not Eddie Murphy), and came away with animals on the brain. This…
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Chuck Norris – Birthday Boy

“On the sixth day, God created Chuck Norris in His own image. On the seventh day, God rested.” I don’t know, I may have memorized that passage from Genesis incorrectly. However, it IS Chuck Norris’ birthday today, so maybe just for today the quote is accurate.
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Happy Birthday Paul Dooley!!

Last week I had cause to look up my friend Paul Dooley on the internet, and was shocked to discover that he turned 90 on February 22! He has always seemed so much more youthful than that – well, he IS so much more youthful than that! So, I made him this card in celebration!…
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Dear Basketball

Yesterday was an exciting day. The short animated film Dear Basketball won an Oscar. That means the short’s two creators got to go home with the very limited edition gold statue that the Motion Picture Academy bestows upon those deemed the best in their category. That means Kobe Bryant and Glen Keane have something new…
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