While most of what I draw and paint skews mostly to the cartoony side of life, now and then projects arise that just deal with type. I actually was trained in school as a graphic designer where dealing with type is VERY common, but I never worked as one. My focus was always illustration and cartooning, so it is interesting when illustration projects come up that deal with typography.
A few weeks ago I was approached with a project to help out my Sunday school class. The class name is called GraceLife, and they already had a logo designed years ago that they used for everything. For this piece, they wanted the logo given a handmade treatment. It was to be used on the cover of a keepsake book for one of our class’ pastors who was leaving us to pastor a church in Ohio.
So, it was drawn on a beige piece of Canson paper, given an ink wash, some red watercolor paint, and a dash of white highlights. It was then finished up with colored pencils and a spritz of ink from a toothbrush.
One week ago today I had the opportunity to attend a Q&A session at Warner Bros. Records with the one and only Danny Elfman. Noted film score historian Jeff Bond sat on a makeshift stage in the woodsy outdoor setting and conducted an interview with Danny for almost two hours including a generous amount of questions from the rapt audience. Danny’s latest film score, Dark Shadows, was released by Warner that day on CD and marks the 14th big screen collaboration Danny has had with film director Tim Burton that began twenty-seven years ago with Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.
As a genre, I am enamored with film music. It is music that tells a story – quite literally. As an illustrator and artist for animation, my drawings are also used to tell stories. There’s nothing more appropriate to draw to than a great film score. In fact, I created this little caricature illustration of Danny from the Q&A while listening to his hauntingly beautiful new score.
Danny Elfman at Warner Bros. Records on May 8, 2012
I first became aware of Danny when I was in high school. Tim Burton’s gothic Batman was unlike anything we had seen before of the Caped Crusader on screen, and that music with the swirling moody melodies and the creepy chorus was just exhilarating. Mr. Elfman has continued to carve out a most unique voice in the world of film music, a few of my favorites being Edward Scissorhands, the rapturous Black Beauty, Good Will Hunting, and Standard Operating Procedure. He is having a busy 2012 – still to come will be Men In Black III and his 15th Burton movie, the black and white stop-motion animated Frankenweenie.
Thank you, Danny, for all the auditory enjoyment you have summoned from the shadows thus far, and yet to come. Whether or not you agree when looking at this piece, my drawings truly ARE better for it.
For the past four months I have been working as the character designer for a pre-school animated children’s show that is being developed. It is very cute, and very feminine – enough so that after dinner tonight, I just had to get something a little more masculine out of my system. I had to draw something so vicious and hideous that I’d be afraid to look at it once it was finished. This is the result…
Well, instead of a snarling, heaving, terrifying creature, this fella came out looking like he’s about ready to hug someone!
Since about 1997, I have belonged to a professional cartoonist organization called CAPS. It was founded back in the 70s by MAD Magazine stalwart Sergio Aragonès, writer Mark Evanier, and cartoonist Don Rico. I have really loved being a part of this group that meets monthly in Burbank, CA. We get together, have special speakers, and talk shop.
At one point, I started getting involved in the group, even serving as its president for a spell. One duty that I took on was as co-editor of the monthly newsletter. The other editor was Disney Legend Floyd Norman (check out a new book about Floyd HERE). Floyd and I would take turns every other month as it was quite a job putting together what often was a 32 page beast. If you couldn’t get members to write articles, the editor wrote them. If the members couldn’t spell, the editor had to spell. If there were no pictures submitted, the editor had to find some. If no one came through in drawing the cover, yep, the editor did it.
This piece is one of those times I had to come up with a cover idea, likely at the last minute. It was a fun challenge when the need arose, because deadlines would be so tight that it sometimes ended up being like cartoonist improv – whatever came to mind at that moment is what blorted out of your brush.
Boy, in THIS economy, some of those publications are probably funnier than the comic book!
I think this image came to mind because I was always seeing grown men be so business minded to where there was no sight of the kid inside. While the titans of industry would be reading The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, they probably started off reading comic books. Even cartoonists sometimes get caught up in the work of being a cartoonist that they can forget what that feeling of pure joy and escapism a few minutes with a comic book would bring when we were kids. Comic books are likely what got us interested in being cartoonists in the first place!
I came from a world where both business AND comics were an influence, and both came from my own father. Dad was a mortgage banker, but he grew up on comic books. When I was too young to read, he would sit there and read me tales of adventure from his old childhood comic books. His favorite character was Disney’s Uncle Scrooge of course. Scrooge, in stories by the great Carl Barks, became my favorite, too. But Dad didn’t stop there. Every day we would spread out the comics from the newspaper and he would read those to me as well. Peanuts, Nancy, Dennis the Menace, The Family Circus, and Beetle Bailey were all favorites.
I’m positive that my love for cartooning came from those reading sessions with Dad, and he taught me a lot about business, too. I’m glad, because the two go together. A cartoonist often finds himself working as a freelancer.
So, as life moves you forward, never forget the joy of the comics that you enjoyed as a kid. They’ll keep you young.
And to those of you who are cartoonists in the Los Angeles area, CLICK HERE to see what CAPS is all about. April’s monthly meeting just happens to be tonight where they will have a terrific panel (including Sergio Aragonès) talking about Will Eisner – the godfather of the graphic novel.
Earlier this week I had a little fun with the secular side to what many people call Easter, but to the Jews this is the Passover celebration, and to those who follow the New Testament of the Bible, this is the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Born of Jewish lineage (traceable to Israel’s second king, David, and earlier), Christ was celebrating Passover with His twelve apostles at the beginning of the events that this weekend celebrates. He had spent the past few years fulfilling Old Testament prophecy as the Messiah which many rejected in Israel. That night after the Passover supper, Christ was betrayed by one of His apostles, Judas Iscariot, into the hands of Roman soldiers and was ultimately slain on a wooden cross. As the Bible states in the books Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Jesus was buried, and then raised Himself back to life three days later. The purpose of these actions was that, following the Jewish tradition of killing an animal as a sacrifice for sin, Christ’s death was an act of the ultimate sacrifice to take upon Himself the sins of mankind past, present and future – something that could only truly be taken on by the Creator himself. Death wouldn’t have been enough. His resurrection proved His authority as God. That, in a nutshell, is what Easter is all about to true Christians.
A few years back I drew over 500 coloring book style pictures for a Sunday school curriculum called Generations of Grace. In 2009 I shared with you here on the blog many drawings from the Resurrection series of events, with a much more detailed biblical account of the meaning of Easter. If you would like to see those, feel free to CLICK HERE.
Today’s drawing is a part of that series not shared before. These are some stand alone figures from Christ’s death that Sunday school teachers could use with the kids to color and cut out to create their own Mt. Calvary (Golgotha) scene. These figures are a companion drawing to the bigger coloring page that you can see HERE.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
So why is Good Friday good? Because it represents Christ giving up His life for me. Sunday represents His power over death which shows his authority to die for me in the first place! It is humbling thought.
I know that not everyone will enjoy today’s post, but I didn’t make up the events of which I speak. While I may not be the most eloquent at explaining them, they are the foundation of my faith and can all be found in the Bible both in Old Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfillment. They are events for which I am literally eternally grateful.
From time to time, folks write for permission to use my Bible coloring sheet pictures, but please note that their use is currently limited to the Generations of Grace Bible curriculum for which they were drawn. There are three years worth of children’s Sunday lessons broken up into various categories such as the Resurrection, so feel free to CLICK HERE to learn more about that.
Every business needs a supplier of product, but it’s good to make sure that you get into business with the right people. Some can be pleasant and fair, while others can be a bit more demanding. When a supplier makes you an offer you can’t refuse, that guy probably isn’t all he’s cracked up to be. You know what I mean, right? You don’t want to wake up one morning with the head of a Peeps in your bed.
Easter bunnies aren’t really all that good at business.
The Easter Bunny had better step carefully around his new business partner. Where do you think all those “lucky” rabbit’s feet come from?
I was sitting staring blankly at my screen yesterday, and this happy little puppy simply spilled forth from my stylus. He was just going to be a little blue-lined dog, and then he started getting some monochromatic shading, which in turn led to a touch of pink here and there. Despite blue typically being a sad color, hopefully the little guy’s really big joy will make you feel that all is okay on this mid-March Hump Day.
Enjoy!
If your blood sugar is on the edge, look away. The sweetness of this little guy may induce diabetes.
I’m really starting to enjoy doodling on Canson paper. If you regularly follow my blog, you have occasionally seen drawings on this kind of paper during the Monster Month posts. I recently went out and bought a bunch more Canson paper with various shades of gray, brown and color. It’s fun because you can start with the mid tone, then put in your darks and lights. So, you may start seeing more and more drawings here on the blog that employ these kinds of techniques.
Today I thought I’d share with you a little friendly February monster drawn with ink, orange colored pencil, and white paint. Enjoy!
Don’t invite this guy over. He’ll leave orange hair all over your carpets.
