Mama Bear

Don’t EVER mess with a mama bear protecting her cub. Unless she is just a cartoon drawing like this one. Tease her all you want.

 

Drool included as a bonus.

 

Ink in a sketchbook, colored in Photoshop. No real drool was harmed in the creation of this image.

Tourists

It’s always fun to travel and see new places. It’s just not always nice to appear to be obviously unfamiliar with that new place, especially when the locals look — hungry.

 

The locals are restless.

Drawn & Quoted: Valentine’s Day

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”*

Paul of Tarsus (circa 5 AD – 64/67 AD)

 

Johnny & Suzie sittin’ in a tree…

 

Inked in my sketchbook, with color created in Photoshop.

* from I Corinthians 13:4-7 in the Bible

Existential Crisis

That moment when you realize….

 

Ew.

 

Ink, gouache, and watercolor in a toned tan sketchbook.

Gesundheit

A dragon with a cold is never going to be a very effective snowman builder. Gesundheit.

 

Fire and Ice

 

This was my first sketch of 2021. It’s literally ink on a page of my sketchbook, with some color blandishments perpetrated in Photoshop. Here’s hoping 2021 gets more positive than this.

Farm Friends

Since there’s nothing else all that important happening today, how about a sketch of two unlikely friends?

Their friendship is very mooving.

Happy New Year’s?

2020 is finally over. It has been the big, drooling dog that nobody wants around. Here’s hoping we can dry off in 2021.

 

Hope 2021 is the big fluffy towel we really need at this time.

New Groovin’ Into 20 Years!

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Disney’s comedy feast The Emperor’s New Groove directed by Mark Dindal! This film holds a special place in my heart, for it was the first big Hollywood production on which I received screen credit! To celebrate, I created a new drawing to mark the occasion!

 

Emperor Kuzco in his llama form created in ink and gouache. The character was animated so brilliantly by supervising animator Nik Ranieri and his team.

 

I actually started at Disney on Mulan, and also worked on Tarzan and Fantasia 2000 before this, but back in those days, the studio didn’t give screen credit to everyone like they do now. I wasn’t a production artist on the films, but rather was considered “support staff” with my computer job.

New Groove was such an interesting journey. It started as a musical drama called Kingdom of the Sun, later changed to Kingdom in the Sun (that’s what all those songs were written for that are on the soundtrack), before changing to the comedy that folks have come to love.

If you are ever curious to know the sordid details of the production journey, Trudie Styler (Sting’s wife) made a documentary about it called The Sweatbox that while never having been released to the public other than a short Oscar qualifying run in theaters 20 years ago, it does pop up every now and then on youTube.

Hard to believe all this was twenty years ago. I feel privileged to have been able to be a part of it. Of anything I have ever worked on, this is the project that lights up the most eyes when folks hear I was involved with it.

So, celebrate with me in this special birthday for a special Disney movie!