The other day in a weird burst of thought, it occurred to me that Vikings must have had cats for pets. They were a seafaring people, and with all that fish around, surely there had to be cats. Maybe the cats enjoyed plundering and pillaging little mouse villages, too – who knows?
One thing is for sure – after a hard day’s work of marauding, a tired Viking would probably enjoy putting his soggy feet up by a fire and exercise his sensitive side by petting a purring kitty as he drifts off to a Norse dreamland.
The ferocious Viking and his trusty kitty in tune with the purr of the sea.
If you are just joining us, please know that this is one page of a 10 page series being posted here on the ol’ blog. Please CLICK HERE to start back on the first page to see a full explanation of what this art is all about. Thanks!
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The cow and the farmer’s happy smiles will soon turn to frowns once that orange exhaust hits them.
If you are just joining us, please know that this is one page of a 10 page series being posted here on the ol’ blog. Please CLICK HERE to start back on the first page to see a full explanation of what this art is all about. Thanks!
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This was my favorite image for the whole book. I just loved the flow of the poses, and who doesn’t love cows?!
Welcome back to work after the long holiday weekend! You know that’s where you are as you read this. You were too busy relaxing and having fun over the Memorial Day holiday to bother keeping up with Facebook and other such time wasters on the net. We all know that’s what the first hour or two back at work is for anyway!
While others may be dragging in grumpy about leaving behind their weekend experiences to sit under the lulling pulsating hum of fluorescent lights and in the warm gentle glow of a computer screen with the hint of weak coffee in the air, take this opportunity to be the optimistic happy cat in the bunch.
There’s always one.
As for me, I’m at the beach today. My smile is genuine.
This year the National Cartoonists Society is having their annual Reuben Awards convention weekend in good ol’ Memphis, Tennessee. As part of the festivities, members were asked to create some Memphis-themed art that could be used for several purposes:
Decorations on the tables during the awards dinner.
Art to be used by a Memphis travel bureau to help promote the attractions of the city.
The choice was obvious – since Memphis is the home of Elvis (which is all I really knew it for, having never been to the city in my life), I chose to illustrate the Memphis Zoo with a slight nod to Elvis, of course. I present to you The King of the Beasts.
King of the Beasts
While this is not quite a velvet Elvis painting, it is a real painting nonetheless. I procrastinated a little in creating it, but ultimately decided it’s now or never. To ease your suspicious mind, I broke out my long-unused gouache paints, some of which needed a little reconstitution with the aid of some Kentucky rain. Basically the paints needed a little less conversation, a little more action. The only part created digitally are the words, so there is a nice painting there for one lucky bidder TONIGHT! Sales are final in benefit of the sick kids – bidders can’t return to sender.
Yes, that last paragraph was a little corny, but please don’t be cruel with your comments.
Today I thought I would use my abilities to indulge my secondary interest in filmmaking, which is film music. I enjoy film music so much that there is a whole category for it here on the ol’ blog.
I saw Disney’s new version of The Jungle Book on its opening weekend three weeks ago and was completely mesmerized. It has to be a pretty tough gig to take a beloved Disney animated feature, and create a new version of it that is live action, er, animated as well. Director Jon Favreau did a fantastic job of making something old new again not only with the story, but with the eye-popping visuals.
Aiding the visuals in a huge way was the music by veteran composer John Debney. The original Jungle Book was charming in large part because of the music that aided the storytellers. John skillfully wrote a beautiful jungle score of his own that immediately captures your attention, and then audibly gives the audience a nostalgic thrill by weaving in some of the well-loved songs from the original movie. It was enchanting.
It struck me that this was the fourth feature film collaboration between director and composer. Jon Favreau and John Debney first worked together on 2003’s Elf (a personal favorite Christmas movie), 2005’s Zathura, Iron Man 2 in 2010, and now The Jungle Book. Each outing has proven that they make beautiful music together.
I was so enamored with their latest collaboration that I felt compelled to get it down on paper. Ironically, I celebrate their digital masterpiece by using the traditional art tools of watercolor, gouache, and colored pencils. May I present to you, The Two Jons/Johns:
Jon Favreau as King Louie dancing in the jungle with frequent musical collaborator John Debney as Baloo.
I for one can’t wait to see what their next project together will yield, but you can be sure it will be a swingin’ good time!
Oh, by the way, this is the second time I have illustrated John Debney. The first time was when he worked on one of Jon Favreau’s earlier films Iron Man 2. If you’d like to see that painting, CLICK HERE!
Today I wanted to sing the praises of my friend Eddie Pittman. He has a brand new graphic novel for kids (adults will enjoy it, too!) that comes out TODAY!! It is called Red’s Planet, and features a little girl who has an exciting alien adventure. I’ll let Eddie’s YouTube video fill you in…
Eddie and I both worked for Disney Feature Animation at the same time, but he was in the Florida studio while I was in California. Our paths kept crossing over the years, and he even came out to work for Disney TV Animation for awhile on the show Phineas & Ferb as a story guy. (He even did the voice of Darth Vader in their Star Wars episode!) Then, last year, Eddie and I were fortunate to be on the same team of cartoonists from the National Cartoonists Society to travel to the Middle East with the USO to draw for U.S. troops! (You can see pictures of our adventures by CLICKING HERE!)
So, please check out Eddie’s fun new book safe for the whole family. You can find it in bookstores all over the country, but if you prefer doing your shopping online, Amazon has the hardcover book for a GREAT price! CLICK HERE to go THERE!
Sometimes when I sketch, I just start with a nose and see where it goes from there with no preconceived notion of what I am about to draw. Other times the sketch is informed by a curiosity I may have. Such is the case with today’s doodle. I saw pictures of some male lions, and I wondered what they might look like if they started losing their hair and decided to do a combover.
Once the lack of hair was drawn, the glasses soon were added, then the bow tie. The lion became an ivy league professor!
